"Derpy get back for a second." Nexus told her, pushing her back.
"No!" She shouted struggling. "Bring him back! Teleport or something Nexus please!"
"My magic's blocked Derpy, now let me see the maze." He said finally pushing her back.
Looking out over the maze, they were in a very loose section of the maze. The actual twists and turns in the maze were few and far between, meaning it'd be easier to figure out so long as the maze didn't change again. He couldn't fully remember the layout but he could do what he could to make it back to the Doctor's general location. At the very least he could go to the section they were in before. They rotated around ninety degrees counter clockwise, Nexus could see they were well into the maze with no way back in any reasonable amount of time.
Derpy stammered as the maze stated to lower itself back down. Nexus didn't have to have magic to know her heart was racing in fear. Whatever she'd seen in that room it was effecting her now. When the maze settled and the barrier fell, he turned his attention to Derpy.
"He… He left us behind… Didn't he?" Derpy asked.
"You heard him, he wouldn't leave us behind." Nexus said starting off.
Derpy quietly followed Nexus' powerful stride down the corridors. He could tell she didn't believe what he'd said. There wasn't any time to console her however, Nexus had to keep leading her. They moved quickly but Derpy only just. He'd have to stop every so often to make sure behind him. After a few more minutes of uneventful, walking Derpy stopped cold in her tracks. Nexus noticed and spun around.
"Come on then, we've gotta find the Doctor." Nexus said motioning her to follow.
She didn't budge. She only looked to the ground, like she'd just come to a stark realization. "He's not going to find us is he?" she asked.
"What?"
"The Doctor… We're lost in a maze and we won't find the Doctor will we?"
"Derpy, he'd never leave us behind. You especially."
"What'd you mean?"
"I see the way he looks at you. The way he treats you. Honestly you're lucky to have caught him when you did. I bet he wouldn't be on his own for long."
"Oh…" She said blushing. "It's not like that!"
"So… You travel with him across all of time and space, risking your life to help him and vice versa and you're not with him?"
"Just because I travel with him doesn't mean we're together!"
"So… is there somepony else then? You didn't have anything else at your house to suggest you had another pony. I saw a few shots of you and some other ponies but nothing that indicated a special somepony in your life other than him. Especially considering the way the Doctor greeted you."
"We do travel with another pony. But he's-"
"Oh so it's him."
"No! It's neither of them!"
"Sure. I never could've pegged you as a two stallion kind of mare." Nexus said playfully, praying she'd pick up on it.
"Shut up!" she said shoving him. She couldn't quite hold back a giggle. "And… what about you?"
"What'd ya mean?"
"A two mare kind of stallion?"
"Nah, I'm married. If I wanna live I wouldn't dare even think like that."
"So… what about… ya know…"
"Hm?" Nexus titled his head and his eyes suddenly looked skyward trying to find what the answer was before she could tell him.
"That kiss… After we found you. The… You you."
"That wh- Oh.. Ooooh. That. It's uh… Complicated. Magic stuff."
"A kiss is magical? Isn't that a really bad cliché?"
"It's not what you think. It wasn't meant to be… what a kiss is suppose to be."
"Then what was it cause… I'm kind of not… into your kind." Nexus raised an eyebrow at that statement. "Not that you're not nice and all! It's just… you know, you're married and you're not… my type?"
"No, I know what you mean. He doesn't like soldiers I've noticed."
"What makes you say that?"
"The way he yelled at me might set off a few bells." Nexus said hoping to distract her from asking about the kiss. "I'm pretty good at reading between the lines of what somebody's saying. And he's not fond of ponies like me. Soldiers I mean."
"It has nothing to do with that. I'm sure he doesn't hate you. But… Why did you kiss me Nexus? And don't try and talk your way around it."
"Ugh… It's uh… Got to do with the Angel."
"What about it?"
"Well… I couldn't escape. So I uh… Teleported."
"You said you couldn't use your magic because of the maze?"
"I can't… Through my horn. There is a much harder form of magic that uses the body as an outlet rather than the horn. And though I can't teleport normally, I can… do other things."
"Like?"
"Well… Space as it is is kind of a um… Sheet of paper. Well several sheets side by side, connecting several places together."
"Okay…" Derpy said very near lost.
"Teleportation is a spell that requires a concentration of magic to break down a pony and reassemble them on another sheet of paper. The way a normal pony that can use their magic to…. temporarily rip a hole in the sheet they're on and uh… land on the next. At the cost of… most of their finite magic if not all. It's called jumping."
"So you… tore a hole in space and just went through it?"
"Essentially yes."
"So… The kiss?"
"Oh, right. Um…" Nexus began simplifying the whole thing in his head. It didn't really make a lot of sense to him when Luna taught him about it but he'd do his best. "When a pony uses that much energy they connect to the pool of the magic in the universe and recharge. Here… we can't connect to it. So I couldn't recharge."
"And you kissed me to recharge?"
"Sort of. There is a sort of ritual to gain more magic from living things… There are two methods of getting it. Uh… First being intimate contact. Put the right charm on and the contact can painlessly transfer magic between them."
"And the other?" she asked fearful.
"Blood sacrifice." Nexus said sitting down hesitantly. "That method takes all the magic from the body and not only adds to the one performing the sacrifice but also amplifies their own power. What I did was just Dark Magic. That method is Blood Magic. Much stronger but much more…. unfavorable. It corrupts the user after the first usage."
"So you… took some magic from me?"
"Everypony has magic. It's how pegasi walk on clouds and control the weather, how earth ponies and zebras are so in tune with nature. I had to… take some of yours to keep myself alive."
"How much?"
"Not a lot. Enough to keep me from keeling over. Enough to keep me going for the time being."
"What does that mean for me?"
"Nothing bad. You've fully recovered by now, a mare like you. A little lightheadedness and a dizzy spell. Right?"
"Y-Yeah. That's it."
"So you uh… You know that it didn't mean anything now right?"
"Yeah… but… I saw… Things… Horrible, horrible things."
"Oh… I guess I didn't do it right."
"What were they?"
"Memories. The transfer through contact is a give and take method. It uses magic of the user to open a channel. I hopped there wasn't enough or I blocked off the right passages to keep you from seeing them. I… I really… I'm sorry you-"
"All those things… The blood… carnage… all of it. Was that all real?"
"All of it."
"Even… The saw…. the pain a-a-and the-"
"Yeah…. It's how…" He motioned to his legs. "This happened. I don't like ponies knowing. It's… Not really something people need to know about me. I'm not my past and I never will be. I'm who I am now with or without those parts of me."
"You want to forget it all?"
"Impossible. Even with time travel. Best not dwell. Let’s keep going." Nexus said getting up.
"Why not?"
Nexus sighed. "Best not to dwell. Now, if you'll trust me in thinking this," he held a hoof out. "You wanna find the Doctor or not? Cause there's no way in hell you're leaving him behind."
Derpy smiled lightly and took his hoof. They started down their path again with most of their baggage left behind. Most anyways. Derpy kept a distance as they walked. They walked for what might have been hours or maybe minutes, they couldn't know. They just kept going until they reached another four way intersection. The Doctor's mark lay on the wall but something was different. There were two. The one closest to the corner was much simpler than it's brother.
Glancing down, Nexus noticed a silver pocket watch with similar markings on the top as the Doctor left on the wall. Nexus blinked once and the mark on the wall shifted. They didn't move but some parts became letters Nexus could recognize. He shifted his gaze to them and tilted his head. Where two of the circle patterns on the top the main circle on the right were replaced by numbers. 1421. He took off his glasses as Derpy picked up the watch. He rubbed his eyes and put his glasses back on and some of the letters in the circles started making words. What he could see on the left was, "Follow the w_ _ _h." and the right said, "14-21. Time o_ W_ _ti_ _."
"Derpy." Nexus said tapping her on the shoulder. "You see that?"
"See what? It's what the Doctor's been writing on the wall." She said still holding the watch.
"Look away and look back."
She did what he said and knit her brow when he assumed she could see what he was seeing. "What the?"
"Now look away again." Nexus looked away with her and this time all the letters were filled.
"Follow the watch?" Derpy read aloud. She glanced down at the fob watch in her hoof.
"Fourteen Twenty-one. Time of Writing. What's he on about?"
"THE WATCH!" Derpy shouted happily holding it up to her ear.
"What about it?"
"It's still ticking!"
The gears in Nexus' head started to turn. He ran through his own head what he'd do in the Doctor's position and almost came up with nothing. Almost. "Does he have another one?"
"He's the Doctor, he's got two of almost everything!"
"Oh he's a genius!"
"He's marking down the time!"
"Open the watch, what's it say?"
Derpy clicked open the watch and read the hands. "Three fifty seven!"
"We missed him by half an hour."
"We can make that up easily if we run!" She quickly grabbed his foreleg and started sprinting as fast as she could, rejuvenated by the prospect of being reunited with her boy friend.