//------------------------------//
// Escape From Exile 
// Story: Through The Crack 
// by grimchi3f 
//------------------------------//


Part2: Dark Side - Chapter 1: Escape From Exile


The only thing on Eggman's mind was how the heck he was going to get out of here. This endless white void, outside of time itself, was starting to gnaw at his sanity. He had to get out of here soon or else he'd go insane. Eggman knew he and his younger self did get out of here because he hadn't faded out of existence. If they'd never get out of the void, Eggman would've disappeared. Even so, he didn't know how or when he'd get out. On that note, how come he didn't remember doing this with his own future self? Even though his younger self had said he'd dedicate his life to forgetting it, surely doing all this would've dredged up some memories?

Both Eggmen were laying on what they had guessed was the ground. They couldn't be sure, though, since everything was the same shade of white. Their only clue that it was indeed the ground was because, for one, it was solid and, two, their shadow appeared on it. As it was, Eggman looked over at his younger, 'classic' self who was laying to his left. A barely audible snore let Eggman know that his classic self was asleep. Eggman sighed. He'd thought that, with Classic Eggman's help, he could've won this time. But, alas, it wasn't to be.

Of course, maybe it was time to change and maybe give up on the evil stuff. His younger self had said something about a teaching degree. Maybe he could be a teacher? Eggman also had a strange fascination with amusement parks, so maybe he'd--

His thoughts were interrupted by a strange grinding noise that was slowly growing in volume. Eggman sat up and looked towards where the noise was coming from. Ten feet to his right was a blue... police box? How in the world did that get there? Eggman smiled and got to his feet, shrugging off the question. This must be his way out of here.

Suddenly, the door to the blue box swung open and out stepped a brown horse with spiky hair and an hour glass on his flank. No, no, not a horse... a pony. Eggman knew the difference and this creature was indeed a pony. The pony had been mumbling when it had first come out of the box, with a slightly annoyed look on his face, but stopped once he saw Eggman. This confused Eggman. To his knowledge, ponies didn't talk... or mumble for that matter. He was used to anthropomorphic animals but, even then, he'd never encountered an anthropomorphic pony before.

"Hello there, I am Dr. Eggman... and you are?" he asked the pony. He figured that if it could talk then it could understand what Eggman was saying.

The pony blinked and said in an English accent, "You're a human!"

"Yes," said Eggman, crossing his arms, "and you're a pony."

The pony shook his head. "I didn't think there were humans in Eques-- wait a tick." He looked around as if he were finally noticing his surroundings. "This isn't Equestria! Where exactly are we?"

"I have no idea what Equestria is but, currently, we're in a place entirely devoid of time," Eggman answered.

"That explains why the TARDIS went bonkers," the pony said, glancing back at the blue box.

"The what?"

The pony smiled sheepishly. "I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm the Doctor and this blue box here is the TARDIS. That stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. It's my time and space machine."

This caught Eggman's interest. This pony must be pretty smart if he created something like this. Eggman reached up and pressed a minuscule button on the side of his glasses which turned on his x-ray vision. He could now see through the TARDIS's door. He saw that it was bigger on the inside than on the outside. That was odd. Something else that Eggman noticed was that, upon looking at the spiky-haired pony, the Doctor had two hearts. Again, to Eggman's knowledge, ponies did not have two hearts. He switched off the x-ray vision.

"Why exactly do you have two hearts?" asked Eggman.

The Doctor's eyes widened in surprise. "How did you know that?"

Eggman pointed to his glasses. "I installed an x-ray function into these glasses. Once you said you had a time machine, I decided to use it. Something else I noticed was your TARDIS there is much bigger on the inside."

"That's pretty impressive," the Doctor said, "and yes, it is bigger on the inside. Time Lord technology at its finest."

"Time Lord?" Eggman questioned.

"Yes, Time Lord," the Doctor replied, "You see, I am an alien. More specifically, a... hold on, I think we should take this conversation into the TARDIS. This place makes me quite uncomfortable." He gestured at the blue box.

Eggman began walking toward it. "Yes, yes, let us depart."

"What about him?" the Doctor asked, pointing his hoof at Classic Eggman.

"Oh, him..." Eggman began. He actually didn't know what to do with his younger self. Should they take him with? No, he'd probably get annoying and spill the beans on the fact that they were, in fact, evil scientists. "Let's just leave him."

The Doctor looked up at Eggman. "Really? Hmmmm... hey, he looks just like you!"

Eggman gulped. "Oh, um... uh, he's my... cousin. Yeah, cousin!" he said, his voice becoming nervous. He really hoped the Doctor didn't inquire any further.

The spiky-haired pony looked from Eggman to Classic Eggman before finally settling his suspicious gaze on Eggman. After a few moments, the Doctor smiled and turned back towards the TARDIS. "Alright, off we go then!" he said brightly, walking into the blue box.

Eggman sighed in relief, following close behind the Doctor. Just before closing the door, he looked back at his younger self. "Good luck," Eggman whispered, closing the door to the TARDIS and leaving Classic Eggman stranded in the void between worlds.