The six Elements, Bon Bon, and I remained huddled around Lyra, who for now was still unconscious. The Doctor and Ditzy slowly came over from whatever they'd been doing and took up their own vigil. Suddenly the others and I noticed that red points of light began to flow out of her closed eyelids, much like tears would. Her eyes abruptly shot open and she lurched upward, much to our alarm.
"Woah," Rainbow Dash exclaimed as Lyra's horn almost grazed her chin, "Careful!"
Wordlessly Lyra hyperventilated for a few moments before her eyes turned upward from the floor to look at Bon Bon and I.
"Easy, Lyra," the earth pony said in a comforting tone, "You're okay now."
"We are safe and sound, far away from Canterlot," I declared reassuringly, but then I had to backtrack, "Uh, I think anyways. Doctor, where are we?"
"The Everfree interior," he replied, "A couple kilometers in, definitely far from any civilized areas; the distance will give us time to think and plan while not being immediately discovered. Plus, there's also something intriguing not far away that I plan on investigating."
Lyra looked up in bewilderment as she righted herself to all four hooves, "Who's he? Where'd he come from?"
"Call me the Doctor," he said with a smile, and then he looked up to all of us in turn, "I know there's a lot of questions that still have to be answered, and I will once I've got some visual aids." He then turned and ran down into a hallway adjoining the control room, yelling over his shoulder, "Back in a tick!"
We all settled into smaller groups, each talking about their own concerns or interests. Twilight settled in with Applejack and Rainbow Dash, while Rarity and Fluttershy began conversing softly. Pinkie instantly hit it off with Vinyl as the two discussed their party sensibilities and tastes. Ditzy, meanwhile returned to the console to look at the screen, now writing on a notepad as she glanced up with one eye while the other remained on her work. This left Lyra, Bon Bon, and I together to catch up.
"We missed you a lot, Lyra," Bon Bon said as she glanced over at me momentarily, "We were worried sick when you didn't come back after your performance."
I nodded my agreement, "Yeah, but you wouldn't believe how Bon Bon went all super-secret agent on me when we had to leave town! It was kinda out there seeing her all 'nerves of steel' handling and planning our escape on the fly!"
Lyra's ears perked up and she gave a single chuckle before looking over at her, "No way?"
Bon Bon waved her hoof, but did smile a little at my compliment, "Oh, he's over-exaggerating. A lot. Still, what has me intrigued is how they got to you finally. They tracked us down in Ponyville and they arrested me, but the big oaf here had to run all the way across town to get snatched up."
"And they had to brainwash me too after Twilight promised to protect me."
Both of the mares gave me a confused look at that statement.
I nodded, "They've got a mind control device or something, I swear."
"Anyway," Bon Bon said before she gestured for Lyra to tell her story.
"Well, they got me on my way out of the charity event," she started after nodding slowly, "I'm guessing they wanted everything to seem normal and not cause an incident by snagging me sooner." She leaned in close to us so that only we could hear, and she said softly, "Don't tell Rarity, but my dress got ripped when they took me in."
"All things considered I don't think she'd blame you," I said with a smirk, "but we'll keep the secret."
"Besides," Bon Bon murmured, "I doubt we'll ever see it again." She then gave Lyra a sad smile, "It's a shame though; it looked really good on you."
Lyra smiled and gave her friend a hug, "Thanks Bon Bon."
"Lyra," I blurted out, which got her attention very quickly. As she turned to look at me I suddenly struggled to get the words to come out coherently. "I-uh," I stuttered, "Well, I just wanted to-Um-"
"Alright, I'm back," the Doctor yelled up the hall as he rushed back into the room carrying something that looked like a very old, beat up projector box of some kind.
The others began to slowly gather around it, including Lyra.
Bon Bon held me back with a foreleg across my knees and a look, "I know you're happy to see her, but hold on to what you want to say." She glanced to the others and then back up to me, "Make sure it's not just some fleeting feeling first so nopony gets hurt. Alright?" I saw the wisdom in her point and understood that she wanted to protect Lyra, so I nodded wordlessly. She then nodded in return before she walked up close to the others and she muttered and shook her head, "Heavens know where any of THIS recent turn of events came from!"
I couldn't help but smile and laugh a little at that, because I thought she was right: when and where did these feelings suddenly come from? I mean sure, I was innately comfortable being around her, and I enjoyed her: her music, her smile, her sly but innocent charm. She was the best woman I had been around. That's when my mind came to a screeching halt as I went back over what I had just thought. She wasn't a woman. She never would be. The fact that there would be certain things that we could never share even if she felt the same way about me brought another layer of cold reality down on me. Maybe Bon Bon was even smarter than I first thought. Were Lyra and I big enough to overcome the massive gulf between us as human and pony? Could how we think on a base level even match up at all? Does she even share my feelings; would she even accept them if she didn't?
The enormity of it all made me draw back into myself emotionally. For the first time since I had landed in Equestria I felt more alone than ever. So self-absorbed was I that I almost missed what the Doctor was currently talking about, "So then, with introductions done for the eighteenth time, let's actually address what's going on."
He pressed a button on the large projector box, and a blue holograph shimmered into existence above us. A 3-Dimensional image of a galaxy appeared in front of all of us, its spiraling arms long and its center bright. "I hail from the same universe as Adam," he said, giving me a shock for certain, "Mostly I just try to stay out of things and see the universe and all its wonders, but as with most things I always get drawn into something complicated." The map zoomed out until the galaxy was a mere pinpoint, surrounded by other features like what I assumed to be other galaxies separated by enormous expanses of space, and then it refocused on the other side of the projection, where we saw a strange collection of dark purple swirling objects. "I was in the Regian Cluster when this all started. It's a collection of black holes that have somehow drawn together to form what amounts to a solar graveyard." A bright smile came to his face, "You would not believe what it looks like when their accretion disks play off each other: there is no greater beauty!"
"Oh, that does sound absolutely magnificent," Twilight said as an imaginative wonder filled her eyes at his description. There was a great big grin on Ditzy's face as well.
Rainbow Dash tsked as she leaned over and whispered in Applejack's ear, "Of course Twilight gets it."
"Eeyup," she replied with a slight nod, "Most'a that went over muh head."
Seeing he was rapidly losing his audience the Doctor refocused on his explanation, "Ahem, anyway, it turns out that during my sightseeing I didn't appropriately calculate when and how the Cluster's gravity would affect the Tardis and so I was-" he coughed awkwardly, averted his eyes and muttered, "-consequently sucked in."
The hologram changed so that a miniature blue box now fell down a deep expanse like it was circling a shower drain.
"Hold up," I said as I waved a hand to stop him, "I may not understand a lot of what you're talking about, but I remember what I was taught in grade school: black holes can catch and crush everything, even light. You're telling me this ship can survive a black hole?"
The Doctor rolled his eyes and smirked, "Please. Time Lords mastered black holes ages ago: the Tardis' core is a sun perpetually stuck between supernova and black hole. The worst it did was suck me out of the universe into the Void. The issue was my guidance system was on the fritz, and by the time I righted it she'd made up her own mind of how to keep us safe."
"Which was," I asked.
"Locking onto the nearest universal timestream and plonking us down in it."
"Which is how you came to be here," Lyra finished the thought, "in Equestria?"
"Exactly," he said with a nod, "But-" The blue box was suddenly joined in the hologram by what looked like a long snaking tube. The two objects met, with the little box slipping into the larger one. "-she landed in the universe a little harder than she meant to." Suddenly, what looked like static appeared around a rectangular shaped hole in the snaky tube, and it began to spread. "Once I realized what had happened I immediately devoted as much power to plugging the hole as possible." The static was stopped in its tracks by a visible ping pattern created by the blue box in the image, to which the Doctor pointed, "That's why I didn't initially use the Tardis' higher functions like instantaneous space-time travel; those resources were devoted to plugging the hole."
"That's where I come in I suppose," Ditzy said as she took a few steps forward, all eyes on her now, "I discovered him on a delivery near the Everfree. After I got over the initial shock of talking to an alien, he began to explain the situation, and I promised to help him build a device to seal the Void hole forever. To do it we came up with a plan. No one ever took my inventions seriously, so he offered to be the face who would make the sales. After I helped him with the psychic rectifier Dr. John Whooves was able to move into town, and he needed an assistant to help him mind the shop."
"So you mean to say that as long as you've been here the universe has been in danger," Rarity asked, her confusion growing, "You've been here for over a year! Why did you never go to the Princesses and ask for help? Why didn't you ask us? The Elements of Harmony would surely be able to-"
"While our universes are similar enough, what with near identical constants of gravity, electromagnetism and the rest, I still am trying to grasp how any of this world's 'magic' as you understand it works. It's a natural force for sure, potentially even a fundamental one, but it's not one I'm comfortable with using on a whim when the stakes are this dire, and since neither of their Majesties seemed even aware of the problem I wanted to fix it myself and be on my way, no fuss, no muss. There was no reason for a panic or to cause an alarm because of an alien species appearing."
"Until now it seems," Bon Bon said with a completely blank expression.
The Doctor took in a breath and pointed at her, looking at her for a solid two seconds in silence before he put up his hands in surrender, "You've got me, but things are worse than they've ever been: the Tardis hasn't been able to keep up with the Void leak for a while now."
Twilight looked up at the image to watch the static begin to spread again, and then looked back through the hologram at the Doctor, "How long has the leak been growing?"
The Doctor looked me straight in the eyes with a neutral expression, "About two months or so."
When he said that I realized what he meant, and in turn so did the others.
"So-" I said as my right hand came up to my mouth, "When I came here...I made the hole bigger?"
"Yes," the Doctor said quietly, "I'm afraid you did."
The silence was deathly as we all looked back up at the hologram; the projector had begun to fill with static.
"How long've we got," Lyra asked with dread.
"Around thirty-six hours," the Doctor declared, "relatively speaking."
"There has to be something we can do," I said as we watched the simulation turn to complete static, "You said you had a plan to seal this hole?" I pointed to the box full of parts that Ditzy and Vinyl had been in charge of, "Are those bits of junk there part of it?"
"Now hold on," the Doctor said as he walked towards it and picked it up to bring it towards the pilot's seat near the console, "These are...the highest quality bits of junk that the Equestrian government could provide! I've got the tools to fix this up. Probably."
" 'Probably,'" Rainbow Dash asked in an alarmed tone, "You tell us the entire universe is about to end and that you think you can save it, 'probably?'"
"There is still one thing I need to check on though; there's something here in the forest that's transmitting a weak perception field. It's a small area, but it is definitely technological in origin, which puts it miles ahead of any species on this planet. There might be something useful there that we don't have at the Emporium."
A look of worry suddenly came on Lyra's face, but I didn't initially notice it.
Rainbow and I looked at each other. "Hang on a sec," she started, but I interrupted, "You said we're in the Everfree? How deep in are we? Are we north of Ponyville?"
The Doctor looked at the two us with no small confusion, "Wait, you know the place I'm talking about?"
"Do you have a map," I asked as I walked closer to the console. The Doctor swung the monitor around so I could see the area he was referencing.
Bon Bon took a few steps forward as she started to understand, "Wait a minute, Adam, are you thinking it's-"
"It has to be," I blurted as the map zoomed out of the forest to reveal the nearby cities and terrain.
"Ah'm so lost," Vinyl said as she looked at anyone and everyone, "Cin somepony please explain ta me what in the blazes is goin' on? Ah'm drownin' in ignorance 'ere!"
"It is," I exclaimed as a red box appeared around the exact area I'd been expect, "The signal's coming out of Spectre Howe."
"Spectre Howe," Applejack exclaimed before adjusting her hat, a frown on her face, "The place is only good fer ponies lookin' for a cheap scare."
"It's a bit more complicated than that," Rainbow said as she flew closer to the earth pony, "We went there before Adam got captured, and believe it or not we saw a human ghost!"
Lyra took in a ragged breath, which made me look at her, and for the first time I finally saw she was shaking in fear. "Humans lived here in Equestria," she hoarsely asked.
"Lyra, are you alright," I asked as I stepped closer, but suddenly I felt a pressure against my chest forcing me back. I looked down just in time to see a golden field disappear from my shirt.
"Stay back," she yelled. Everyone froze to their spot and turned to look at her. Her eyes shifted erratically from one of us to another. "Is it true," she asked Twilight, a desperate edge in her voice.
Twilight looked to the closest of the other Elements near her, "They're just legends, nothing concrete," she said with concern on her face rapidly rising, "Lyra, tell us what's wrong."
Her eyes then turned to me, pleading with me, "Adam, what are humans like?"
I wasn't prepared for such a deep question, and i stammered, "Wha-What?"
"What are humans like," she repeated, "Tell me the truth! Tell us the truth. Do they hurt others? Do they...kill?"
Every single person in the room was alarmed, Twilight, the Doctor, and myself the most.
"I'm the wrong person to ask that kind of question," I said, going quiet.
"Adam, I have seen things; things I don't want to believe, and they felt so real. I need you to be one hundred percent honest with me. You promised Fluttershy you'd never lie to her, just do the same for me: tell me what humans are like."
"Adam," the Doctor murmured to me softly.
Every negative part of my life was rushing right back into me, and I didn't know what to do. How was I supposed to explain myself, explain humanity, when I didn't believe in any kind of defense for us; when I didn't feel like there was anything positive to say?
"Adam," the Doctor was in the act of saying again, when Rainbow Dash asked in a hesitant voice, "Adam, what's a WMD?"
With all the negativity inside me and the pressure from outside I snapped, "It's a weapon! Weapon of Mass Destruction: designed to kill lots of people at a time, all at once!" I turned to Lyra and knew everything was over. Words started flowing out of my mouth, "I can't tell you how much I hate what we do, but yes, we kill! We hurt. We destroy ourselves and everything around us, all for stupid things and stupid reasons. I don't think it's any different from one universe to another, but all we do, all we ever do, is screw everything up!"
The room was deadly silent as all the ponies beside us went back and forth looking at me, and then looking at Lyra. She started to nervously gasp for air as she continued to stare at me. Oh God, why did I say that? What I have I done? I tried to reach out with my hand, but the gesture wilted rapidly as I continued to look at her, heartbroken with the whole scenario, the whole damn, stupid thing, "Lyra-"
She turned away from me, a hoof now on her chest. Finally she muttered, "I need air," and then she ran for the doors and slammed right through them.
"Lyra," I called out again. Another voice joined mine, and with a shock I saw Bon Bon run out after her friend into the dark forest beyond, "Lyra, wait!"
I turned to look to the others, but now I saw their demeanor had completely changed. The entirety of the ponies, minus Ditzy Doo, were looking at me with a guarded, alarmed demeanor. They were afraid of me, i realized. And why shouldn’t they be after what I had just done? Now I truly was alone in all the universe, because I had driven all my friends away. I turned from them slowly, and grasped ahold of the safety railing around the console, clenching and unclenching my grip rhythmically. I moved them to my head slowly, and then it was my arms that came to rest on the railing. I was looking at the grated floor, a mess of cables underneath, trying to push out the world I had created, giving my all to now ignore it and have it ignore me, so that for one brief moment I could convince myself that I hadn't just ruined everything.
"Help the others stay on task," I heard someone murmur indistinctly, but I wasn't focusing on who it was. I then felt a hand on my left shoulder, gentle but firm. I tried to shake it off, but the hand stayed. "Adam," the voice of the Doctor said, an equal mixture of frustration and sadness in his voice, "We need to talk now; now."