"I used to hate apples. So my mother put smiles on them."
The Doctor snapped awake, a gasp in his throat and tears on his face. The vestiges of a memory long past played tricks in his mind, echoing the voice of a little girl from days past. A little girl, who called for a doctor. The girl who waited.
"Bollocks, its too damned early for this," The Doctor groused, letting out a yawn and wiping the tears from his eyes.
He looked around the room, taking in the early morning glow that played among the surfaces of the furniture. Derpy was nowhere to be seen, as she was an early riser this was nothing new to be had. Tromping downstairs -and refusing to look at any of the clocks, he knew it was 7:15 and thirty two seconds thank you very much, he didn't need a blasted piece of machinery telling him it was a minute past or earlier due to it's innefficient inner workings- he found the rest of the house just as empty.
Derpy must have left for work early, and taken Dinky with her. A shame he hadn't gotten to say goodbye to either of them, but that was the breaks.
Deciding against staying cooped up inside the house alone all day, he clipclopped his way to the town square. Clipclopped. Clopclipped. Clippity clipper dee dipper clop dee dop.
The Doctor stopped, one hoof freezing in midair slightly above the ground. He had always been prone to his mind wandering off without him at times, especially for the last two regenerations. Well, the two before his current one. Quasi-current one? He had gained an entirely new set of regenerations on the planet of Trensalor, on the tallest tower within the town of Christmas.
That regeneration had been... different from his previous two. So much so that the memories he had of when he was them were so wholey jarring, he was hard pressed to call them his own. Rather as if he'd simply been watching through their eyes, waiting until the time when he could move his legs for himself.
Another big change had come when he came to this world, this tiny little pocket dimension with it's own weightless sun, and stars that were as pinpricks among the heavens. It was little wonder the alicorn leaders had such an easy time rearranging the skies to their whims, the entire subset of physics and laws therin were so detached from what the Doctor was used to.
And as any pocket dimension that came with it's own set of rules, so to did he have to abide by them. Within reason, of course. If the Doctor had been a vindictive creature, he could completely twist and destroy this universes fragile rules with but a snap of his fingers. Quite fortuitous that this temptation was denied him, along with his fingers.
Crossing over to this reality had once more changed the Doctor, something he henceforth reffered to as a 'side-regeneration'. He hadn't died, and been forced to regenerate from his new pool of regenerations, but he had been changed to closer fit within the place he was traveling.
Four legs, a snout, bushy tail and mane, and STILL not even a speck of ginger. Shame, that. One would think that if they had an entire body covered with hair at least ONE of the blooming strands would be ginger.
Along with his outward form, the Doctor found his temperment ebbing back towards his eleventh regeneration, veering away from his newest mindset. Once more, he found himself looking back and wondering what his past self had been thinking.
"Morning miss Buttercup," he greeted the green coated mare, stopping her momentarily. "A lovely day we're having, is it not?"
Three, two, one, a blur flew by on it's way to school. An orange coated pegasus puttering her wings to cause the scooter she was perched to zoom off at dissproportionate speeds, the little red wagon tethered behind it containing two scared looking fillys, one a unicorn the other an earth pony.
They were alright for today, he'd have to replace the front left wheel on the wagon before sunday though, otherwise Applebloom would get thrown from it and break both her forelegs. An agonizing situation for any child, even more so for one so energetic.
"Those girls," Buttercup muttered, a smile on her face, "If I hadn't stopped to talk to you, they might have rammed right into me! Somepony should get them to slow down once in a while."
They would have actually missed her. She would have been startled by the close encounter though, causing her to stumble and chip a hoof. She would have then been in a foul mood the entire rest of the day, and an irritated Buttercup is NOT a Buttercup you want assisting in dental procedure. If Colgate knew the headache she'd just been saved, she would have glomped the Doctor and never let go. As it was, the only ponies who could truly reign in Buttercups temper tantrums were her sisters Blossom and Bubbles. And they had their own lives to live.
"Quite," the Doctor agreed, giving her a wide smile, "Well, no harm no foul, wouldn't you say? I hope the rest of your day is so lucky, do give Colgate my best, won't you?"
"I will, and don't you forget you have an appointment coming up, the twenty third of Neigh."
Neigh, May, this world had so many delightfuly bad pony puns. The Doctor was barely able to restrain a smile.
"When have you ever known me to forget a date?" he asked.
"Not even once!" she joked. With that she went on her merry little way, leaving the Doctor to remember what came next.
White Whisper was supposed to be coming down the road now. If she wasn't stalled by thirteen seconds, she'd end up hearing one of her friends making a joke, and become offended to the point where she'd say some choice words herself she'd end up regretting.
The Doctor looked down the road, waiting.
Waiting.
Waiting some more.
Waiting eeeeeeeven more.
Oh come on, where the heck was she?
After several more minutes, the Doctor was officially freaked. None of the ponies were doing what he remembered them doing.
What was going on?