Ah, Doctor Whooves. The equine who would be the Doctor. Through some alignment of the cosmos, an inconsequential pony living in a magic fairy tale word from a little girls' cartoon became associated with an extraterrestrial who travels the spacetime continuum like a hobo in a long-running British sci-fi series. God bless the Internet.

 

With mere weeks until the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who and the coinciding season 4 premiere of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, I would like to take this concept to another level with a unique spin on our beloved Derpy.

 

A quick recap of Doctor Who series 7: In the season premiere Asylum of the Daleks, the Doctor was out to save one Oswin Oswald stranded on the Dalek's asylum planet. Long story short, she died saving him. Later in the Christmas special The Snowmen, he meets her again in 19th century London as Clara. It wasn't until she died a second time that the Doctor realized that Clara and Oswin where the same person. Thus, he made it his mission to track her down a third time and uncover the mystery of this Impossible Girl.

 

Flash forward to the season finale The Name of the Doctor. We learn that 2013 Clara - original Clara - had jumped into the Doctor's time stream to ultimately restore his corrupted timeline. In doing so, thousands of copies of herself were scattered across his life.

 

 

Now, let's go with the premise that Dr. Whooves is the Doctor. It would stand to reason that there would have been a copy of Clara present during the, ahem, equestrian period of his life. Perhaps in pony form? Most definitely in pony form!

 

I submit the hypothesis through a series of subtle hints that Derpy Hooves fits the role. The pony who always resides in the background for us is one-in-this-same as the girl who was always there for the Doctor.

 

[special thanks to KiritoHooves for inspiration. While I've put the most thought into this theory, it seems I wasn't the first to stumble upon on.]

 

Source episodes

Winter Wrap Up

Season 1, episode 11 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. While not a Christmas episode, it did air Christmas Eve 2010. This episode featured the first noticeable appearance of Doctor Whooves. It's also notable for having the first direct reference to Derpy, when a pegasus mentions a directional flying blunder made by Ditzy Doo.

 

Episode 4 of the fan-made Doctor Whooves and Assistant serial. Taking place during the events of Winter Wrap Up, it features a behind the scenes story for the Doctor and his companion Ditzy. It was uploaded on YouTube December 8, 2011. It will be animated this Christmas, so keep an eye out for that.

 

The Snowmen

The 2012 Christmas Day special of Doctor Who. This was the episode the Doctor first met Clara in person. Almost the entirety of my evidence will be lifted from the scene where the Doctor takes Clara into the TARDIS.

 

Derpy Who?

When the Doctor sees Clara's tombstone reading Clara Oswin Oswald, it is then he realizes that she was Oswin Oswald from the Dalek asylum.

 

Similarly, Derpy is also known by two names. There's the most common one "Derpy Hooves", and then there's her beta name "Ditzy Doo". Originally, Lauren Faust had conceived of her being 'ditzy', or clumsy, rather than 'derpy'. In Doctor Whooves and Assistant, her real name is stated as Ditzy Doo. It isn't until Frostbite that the Doctor finds out her nickname is "Derpy", and decides he likes it.

 

While not a particularly substantial parallel, what's intriguing is the fact that Clara in the form of Oswin was a supergenius, even more intelligent than the Doctor. Harkoning back to the debate over Derpy's intelligence, one can argue that if Derpy/Ditzy were Clara/Oswin, she could actually be an absent-minded genius. Twist!

 

Eyes Not Always Front

While the Doctor and Clara are about the climb up the stairs to the TARDIS, this exchange occurs:

 

 

While this was a gag about her staring at the Doctor's butt, if one were actively trying to make a subtle allusion to Derpy, you couldn't use a better turn of phrase.

 

Livin' on a Cloud

Once the reach the top of the stairs, the Doctor and Clara walk to the TARDIS, which is stationed on a cloud manufactured out of thick water vapor. Later, we learn the Doctor had the ability to move the cloud and TARDIS to his desired location.

 

 

Cloud-walking and weather control are a defining traits of pegasi. The pegasi population resides in a cloud city with a factor that produces rain, rainbows, and clouds, as winged ponies are superior to Time Lords in this instance.

 

Let Them Eat Cake

Here we come to the tastiest parallel between Derpy and Clara: The mutual love of a specific cake. From the beginning, Clara was known as soufflé girl. Baking soufflés is her passion, and was even a clue to the Doctor that she was the same person as Oswin.

 

And of course, our Derpy is crazy about muffins. The last Derpy saw of the Doctor in episode three was when she gave him a bag of muffins she baked. When he returned several months later in Frostbite, the still fresh muffins where his proof that he was a time-traveller.

 

Inside the TARDIS

At last, THE SMOKING GUN!!

 

Here the

for the first time, and, as it usually goes, she's astounded by its dimensionally-transcendent nature.

 

Over a millennium of time-travel and Clara was the first visitor to describe it as "smaller on the outside", a complete inverse of the usual "bigger on the inside". I see what you did there, Who writers!

 

Too bad it was already "done there" by someone else.

 

In Frostbite, the

for the first time, and she's, of course, astounded by its dimensionally-transcendent nature.

 

 

How about that. A silly fanfic beat the actual show to the joke by a year. They even did it funnier.

 

 

Takes One the Snow One

Note that both The Snowmen and Frostbite have the commone theme of winter and snow, and through Frostbite's connection to Winter Wrap Up, it has loose ties to the Christmas holiday as well.

 

In The Snowmen, Clara and the Doctor defeat an army of evil snowmen made out of organic crystallized beings, or alien snow, bent on turning the planet into a snowy hell for a new species of icemen. They all melt when salty rain pours from above, as does the cloud that the TARDIS is stationed upon.

 

In Frostbite, the Doctor and Derpy defeat a fralorn bent on freezing the planet for the reproduction of its species. While not made ouf snow, it actually melts when Derpy moves the clouds in order to raise the temperature.

 

This is almost eerie. Or perhaps I'm reaching. But c'mon, is there such a thing as a stretch when deriving the personalities of background ponies?

 

Muuufiiiiins!

 

Conclusions and consequences

Head canon: If Derpy is Clara Oswald, that would give an entire new angle to Doctor Whooves fan fiction. With Derpy being the mascot of the MLP fandom, this theory strengthens the relationship to Doctor Who like nothing else, giving reason for all Whovians bronies to rejoice. The entire character of Doctor Whooves is grounded on a coincidence - the unintentional resemblence to the Tenth Doctor. What better way to complement is than with the idea that bronies set up seeds of allusion to Clara Oswald within Derpy before Clara even existed? It plays into both Clara's story and MLP's overarching theme of destiny.

 

On the other hand, many fans would find this interpretation unsavory, as it takes away Derpy's originality by merely making her a shadow of a character from another show. And let's not forget this means she's fated to die in the near future in order to save the Doctor.

 

As if Derpy's fan fiction wasn't sad enough.

 

Conspiracy theory: Steven Moffat enjoys My Little Pony fan fiction. You heard it here first!