//------------------------------//
// Home Invasion 
// Story: Closer to the Void 
// by Sixes_And_Sevens 
//------------------------------//

The room fell silent once more as everypony’s eyes were drawn to the swirling darkness on the screen. Suddenly, the Doctor’s eyes sharpened and his mouth set into a grim line. “Right. RIGHT. Okay,” he muttered. “Crew of three, possibly seven. No power to the engines. Falling through a rift in reality without any sort of steering or shields worth speaking of…”
“I’m guessing that’s bad,” Dash said, deadpan.
“Not altogether brilliant, no,” the Doctor agreed. “Fortunately, however, I have got a cunning plan!”
Applejack raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“You two need to go jump start the engines. The main reactor room should be at the other end of the room, three hallways to your… left. Yes, left.”
“And once we get there, we do what exactly?” Dash asked, crossing her forehooves.
Fiddling with his screwdriver, the Doctor muttered, “Point this at the core reactor-- big, glowy ball, too bright to miss, don't look directly at it, it channels power directly from a collapsing star-- on setting 492.57. That ought to get us going again.  I’ll leave it on a sonic blast setting for now, just in case you run into… difficulties, again.”
“An’ while we’re runnin’ all over this here ship, what exactly are y’all going to be doing in th’ meantime?” Applejack asked, her gaze challenging.
“I’ll be in here, preparing to get us away from that,” he gestured to the void in the vortex, “as quickly as possible.”
“...Fair enough. Come on, Rainbow.”
Once they had gone, the Doctor let out a long breath. His eyes never left the void. “Here it is, then,” he whispered. “Death catching up with me at last.”
He chuckled, but there was no humor in it.


***


“So… what was all that about?” Rainbow asked. “I mean, it was nice, the way you helped the Doc with his little meltdown, but… why? And how did you know all that stuff about this ‘not being the first time you’ve lost somepony’?”
Applejack looked away. “I don’t rightly reckon it’s my place to tell y’all…”
“AJ. Come on. This is me we’re talking about, Miss Councillor of Loyalty or whatever.”
“Chancellor,” Applejack corrected.
“Yeah, that. I can keep a secret!”
Applejack puffed out her cheeks. Slowly, she nodded. “This way,” she said, trotting off to the left. In the shadows, something watched them go. A very large, hairy something.


***


Ditzy sighed. “Okay, we’re officially lost.”
“What? No, that’s not possible,” Twilight objected. “We’ve been keeping one hoof on the left wall the entire time, and-”
“It’s true,” Dinky interrupted. “Look.”
At her feet was a pile of muffin crumbs, left over from the impromptu picnic they had held earlier. Twilight’s face fell. 	“But that’s impossible!” she cried.
“The TARDIS doesn’t work like that,” Dinky said. “It’s dimensionally transcendental and more or less sentient. Directions have no real meaning here.”
Ditzy stared at her daughter. “How— how did you know that?” she asked, perplexed.
“I—” Dinky began, then frowned. “Huh. I don’t know. Probably heard the Doctor talking about it once.”
Twilight shuddered, mirroring the semiconscious and continually vibrating pink pony suspended in her magic. “So the TARDIS is alive?” she asked. “Does that mean that when the engines are off…” she didn’t finish the thought. Death was not a pleasant concept to apply to anything, even a blue box.
“No… I don’t think so…” Dinky replied frowning, before wincing in pain.
“Muffin? Are you alright?” Ditzy asked, fussing over her little filly.
“Yyyeah… Yep, I’m fine, mom. Just a little headache, or something like—”
She was cut off by a dull roar echoing from back the way they had come. After a brief glance was shared between the three of them, they galloped straight ahead. They cut off suddenly, however, when another roar came from the hallway ahead of them. The lights flickered between shades of red and gold. Dinky turned around. “Here! In here!”
Ditzy yanked the door aside, and they rushed in, letting it close behind them. They were sealed in now. Everything was falling into place.


***


Rainbow gazed at the room full of photographs. “So he’s traveled with all of these guys?” she asked in wonderment.
“An’ eventually lost ‘em all, too, ah reckon,” said Applejack solemnly.
“Dang.”
“Yep. Pretty tragic.”
“What? Oh. Yeah. But I was actually talking about this dude over here,” Dash said, gesturing to a photo of a dark blue pegasus stallion grinning roguishly. “He’s pretty hot.”
Applejack’s heart sank. So, her friend preferred stallions after all? Her tongue felt heavy and dry in her mouth, and she felt vaguely ill. So miserable was she that she almost missed what Dash said next.
“She’s pretty cute too,” the pegasus murmured, nodding to the next picture over, featuring a blonde-maned pink earth pony mare.
Applejack froze. “Beg pardon?” she asked, eyes flicking over to her friend.
Rainbow stopped. “Uh, heh, I, um. I mean, she’s cute. Y’know. Good-looking. For a mare,” she stammered. “Yeah. Not like—” she glanced around desperately “—that guy! Yeah, he’s really hot,” she concluded, grabbing a photo of a stallion with a cropped orange mane and a necktie.
Applejack studied the picture. “No, he ain’t.” He was scowling, seemed terribly uncomfortable, and looked vaguely like Mr. Cake’s evil, less handsome twin.
Dash looked at the picture again. “...No, you’re right, bad example. Let’s see.” She frowned. “Why are there so many girls?”
Applejack merely raised an eyebrow and Dash sunk in defeat.
“Aw, jeez, Applejack, don’t make this weird,” she pleaded.
“Make… what weird?” Applejack asked, cocking her head in honest confusion.
“I— I like mares. And stallions. Both of them,” Dash admitted, settling in for a landing.
Applejack frowned. “Ah know what bisexuality is,” she said. “Ya’ll don’t have t’ spell it out for me.”
“Huh?” the pegasus replied, staring at her. “What's bi— y’know what, nevermind.”
Applejack’s frown deepened. Why was Dash so concerned about all this? She had to know it wouldn’t make any difference to their friendship, didn’t she? Apparently not.
Dash hung her head. “I’m sorry, I guess I shoulda said something earlier, but it never really came up.” She sighed heavily. “Go ‘head. Hate me if you want to. I can take it.”
“Darn right you shoulda said something earlier,” Applejack said, her face splitting into a grin. “Have you got ANY idea how long I’ve spent tryin’ to work out if you were into mares or not? Honestly, the sheer amount of stress over this…”
Dash looked puzzled. “You were… trying to figure out if I liked mares? Uh, why?”
Applejack stared at her flatly. “Ya know, fer someone who claims to be as fast as you do, you can be awful slow on th’ uptake.”
This got her nothing but another blank look. Applejack sighed and rolled her eyes. “Awright, let’s put this in terms that y’all can understand.” She cleared her throat theatrically. “Miz Dash, will you do me th’ honor of comin' round fer dinner this Friday evening?”
Dash blinked. “Wait. What?”
“Ah. Like. You. There, that simple enough?”
“But— wait, you don’t hate me?
“Sakes alive, no!” Applejack took a step back in shock. “Why would ya— Do y’all think that little of me? This is yer friend Applejack, th’ very definition of dependability yer talkin’ to!”
“I— um— well,” Dash stuttered.
“Ah mean, it ain’t like I’m straight m’self!”
“Well, you never told me that, did you?”
“...Fair. But ah sure as sugar ain’t gonna stop bein’ yer friend jest because of who y’all like. What gave y’all that idea?”
Dash gave her a sideways glance.“That… is a really long, seriously uncomfortable story from when I was a kid, and might be better suited for when we aren’t about to fall into a hole in time.”
“Might have somethin’ there. Come on then, sugarcube, let’s get—”
She suddenly leapt back as a massive, fur-covered thing came stumbling out of the shelves. Its eyes glowed a menacing red. Glaring at them, it gave a roar of pure fury. Applejack gasped, frozen to the spot. It raised a claw, ready to strike, but a blue blur knocked it away. “Hey, tall, dark, and hairy!” Dash shouted. “No one gets to hurt my friends without goin’ through me!”
As the monster started to swing at Dash, Applejack recovered herself enough to pull the Doctor’s screwdriver out of the brim of her Stetson. Clenching it between her teeth, she brandished it at the beast. There was a loud whirring, and both mares yelped as screwdriver and monster alike shot sparks.
The creature landed heavily on its side. Dash hovered above it, eyeing it warily. “You think it’s dead?”
Applejack spat out the screwdriver, which had broken and turned black all along the casing. “Ah sure hope so, ‘cause the Doc’s li’l doohicky looks like it’s fer the scrapheap too!”
Rainbow landed beside the beast, nervously shuffling her hooves. She glanced at her friend. “So, uh, about what you were saying, AJ…”
Applejack sighed. “Much as ah appreciate you thinkin’ about it, ah reckon we’d best get back to th’ Doc first. Without that,” she nodded to the screwdriver, “ah ain’t too sure that any of us are gonna get out of this alive.”