In the pages of a gray book, written words form a cry of paranoia.
The date was written, but scratched out beyond recognition.
"I was visited by a man in a dark suit today. I didn't get his name and I still don't know who he works for. He said he came to me because I had a right to know what had occurred.
Allegedly, my father was involved with a small-time crime family. A second rate mafia outfit. And apparently, dear old dad got greedy. His disrespect and thievery were more than enough to get a hit put on him. We weren't in an accident. My father was (this word was scratched to be unrecognizable) and my mother was collateral damage.
This must've been what she was warning me about."
The next section is also scratched out, leaving nothing but a sea of black ink covering the inner thoughts of an addled mind.
Twilight Sparkle was beginning to regret continually flipping through Matt's forgotten journal. Every entry after that one seemed more and more like somepony was losing his mind. And to top it off, she could surmise the fate of his parents.
She had kept and concealed the small grey book since the very night Matt had arrived. Originally she had wanted to learn more about him and figured that his personal journal would help. Now it was more like curiosity for the morbid story unfolding in each entry.
Just then, the library's door was flung open and a familiar blue Pegasus flew in with some type of clothing on her back.
"Hey, Matt!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. After not seeing him, she noticed Twilight. "Oh. Hey Twilight. You seen Matt around?"
She had nearly forgotten about the young man himself and their little spat yesterday.
"… No, I haven't." Twilight replied, almost as if to herself.
"What? Doesn't he live here? I just wanted to thank him for earlier and give him this back…" Rainbow said, placing the item of clothing on the floor.
Twilight rolled her eyes. "I should've known he'd go see you."
There was an awkward moment of silence as Spike emerged from the bedroom upstairs and sat on the steps, prepping for the inevitable argument. He wasn't sure why, but after Twilight became a princess, things seemed more hostile then before. Even though at the end of the day, everypony was still friends.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Rainbow retorted.
The two mares stared each other down, jealousy raging like fire in their hearts.
"We had… a disagreement yesterday, about… how late he was staying out and I asked him to leave." said Twilight.
"How late he was staying out? You mean 'cause he crashed at my place for one night?" asked Rainbow. "… You can't just have him all to yourself, y'know."
Twilight's cheeks turned a light pink. "I-I never said I wanted him all to myself! I… I just-"
"I get it." said Dash, cutting her off. "You just couldn't accept that somepony else had a shot with him."
Twilight's blush intensified. "T-that's not what this is about…!"
"Whatever." Dash rebutted, opening the door. "I need to go look for him."
And with that, she was gone.
"Look for him? I thought she saw him earlier…" muttered Twilight, coming to the realization that Matt was apparently nowhere to be found.
Spike had since descended the stairs and shrugged. "I don't get what all the fuss is about. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like Matt, too. But you guys must really like him to argue about him like that." He said.
Twilight hung her head in shame. "I just hope he's okay…"
Her shame faded quickly before being replaced by how adamantly she believed that she had every right to be mad at him.
"Spike, could you fetch me that folder about the Disappearance of '87? Princess Celestia asked me to research it to see if I can find some clue other ponies missed."
"You got it, boss!" he responded eagerly.
…..
"Well, that was delightful." Matthew Nabal declared emerging from a doorway in the Doctor's TARDIS.
The Doctor was trotting around the central console. "Ah, you enjoyed the room, then?"
"Certainly." Matt surveyed the abnormally massive room. It looked radically different when all the lights and systems were operating. There was no way to see the outside from within, but Matt assumed it had to be morning. After the incident yesterday, the Doctor had offered Matt a custom made temporary room, to which Matt accepted and slept off the exhaustion from dealing with Caladrius.
"Do you have any food on board, Doctor?" Matt asked.
The Doctor stopped his trot and glanced towards him, confused.
"Hm, no, I don't. Not much of a reason too these days."
"What do you mean by that?" Matt inquired.
"Never mind that, take this." said the Doctor as he tossed a small, leather-like wallet at Matt.
He opened it and saw nothing but a blank piece of paper inside.
"And… what do I do with this?"
The Doctor smirked. "Just think impressive thoughts and show it to someone."
Putting the wallet in his pocket and releasing an annoyed sigh, Matt headed out the TARDIS' double doors and into the light of day. Ponyville looked like it always had, just with an extra layer of snow atop it.
Matt made his way to a nearby food stall.
"Hey, uh… buddy. What can I get you?" said the food merchant.
Matt whipped out the wallet and flipped it open. The merchant stared at it for a moment, then to Matt. "You're the new health inspector? Didn't think you'd be around so quick. Lemme get you a free sample while you look around."
Matt smirked and put the paper away. "Great. Make it hot."
…..
On his way back from a delectable meal of baked potatoes, Matt spotted a group of ponies standing outside the blue box. He saw The Doctor, Lyra, Bon-bon, and two ponies he didn't recognize. They were discussing something, with the Doctor opening the TARDIS in frustration.
As he drew near, he overheard a little of the conversation.
"Fine, fine! Just keep your hands- hooves off the glowing things." said the Doctor. He then spotted Matt approaching. "Matt! Come along, we're off." He headed inside the box, before turning around and adding; "Oh and this is… Max and Chloe. They're coming along."
'Max' rolled her eyes before turning around to face Matt. While being slightly surprised at what she saw, she introduced herself. "My name isn't 'Max'. I'm Octavia, a pleasure." She said giving a slight bow, which Matt reciprocated. He couldn't help but notice her English accent, clearly not from around these parts.
"And I'm Vinyl, Vinyl Scratch!" said the 'Chloe' enthusiastically.
Octavia was grey with a black mane and tail, while Vinyl sharply contrasted her with a bright white coat and neon blue mane. Vinyl also wore black framed, purple-lensed sunglasses which hid her eyes.
He nodded her way in greeting before they all headed into the TARDIS' interior. Matt had surmised that Vinyl and Octavia must've been invited by Lyra or Bon-bon, seeing as the Doctor didn't even know their names.
"So, this thing's a time machine?" asked Vinyl.
"It's… so much bigger on the inside." stated Octavia.
"I said the same thing!" said Bon-bon, giggling.
"Yes, it is a time machine. Yes, it's bigger on the inside." replied the Doctor. "She can take us anywhere in the universe, and at any time we choose. Got anything in mind?" he asked.
"This is preposterous." declared Octavia. "I don't know how you made this box so big, but you cannot make it travel through time. "
The Doctor didn't react to her denial. "No requests? Fine, then. I'll just let her pick." He said as a lever on the console moved by itself and he began the piloting procedures.
The room began to shake and an otherworldly noise echoed throughout the room.
"Is it always like this?!" asked Vinyl.
"I don't know. This is my first time, too." Matt responded.
It continued for several seconds before calming down again.
"Right then, here we are. Somewhere on earth. Probably." said the Doctor.
"Oh, come now. Since when did shaking a room equate to time travel?" said Octavia as she headed for the doors.
"Sorry about her, guys. Octy's a skeptic when it comes to fun stuff." said Vinyl in a joking tone.
"Was I like that when we started doing this, Lyra?" inquired Bon-bon to her mint-colored companion, who responded with a smiling nod.
The other three headed after Octavia and Matt began to follow.
"Hold on, Nabal. Put this on." said the Doctor who passed him a small black device with blue lights on it.
"Alright." he said, clipping the device onto one of his belt loops. "What does it do?"
"It's called a perception filter. It analyzes surroundings and projects an image of what would disguise you best into people's minds. Just don't go near any mirrors." the Doctor explained.
"Mirrors?"
Lyra poked her head back into the TARDIS. "Uh, guys? We need you out here." she said.
After leaving the ship, they discovered that they were in some sort of luggage compartment. They followed Lyra out a doorway to discover where they were; in the luggage car of a moving train. Octavia and the others were talking to an engineer.
"Please stop the charade, sir. Let us off this train." Octavia said.
"Madam, I am trying to explain to you why I cannot do that." he replied.
"What's going on here? What year is this?" The Doctor asked.
"What's going on here is that while on my break I've discovered four- no, six stowaways who are demanding I stop this train to let them off."
"Yes, yes, yes, but the year?"
"It's 1987, why?" the engineer replied.
"Ha, see? Told you." The Doctor gloated as Octavia rolled her eyes again.
"And we aren't stowaways." added Matt. He pulled the Doctor's psychic paper out of his pocket and showed it to the engineer. "I'm special agent Morgan and this is Dr. Reid." he declared, motioning to the Doctor. "We're with the C.B.I."
"C.B.I.? What in Equestria is that?" the engineer replied.
"That's classified." Lyra interjected.
Their conversation was cut short when a scream rang out through the car ahead. The engineer ran to the next car to inspect what had happened.
"Well played, Matthew, well played." said the Doctor.
"Thank you, I thought so too." Matt responded, passing the paper back to its owner.
The engineer came back with a somber look on his face. "I'm glad you're here, agent. We'll need your help to keep everypony safe."
Everyone in attendance looked at him as if asking him to continue.
"… There has been a murder."
…..
Lyra, Bon-bon, Vinyl and Octavia had been moved to another passenger car while the Doctor and Matt had gone to investigate to keep up their 'special agent' status. There were other ponies in the car as well, including Pegasi and Earth Ponies of all shapes and sizes.
"Hey, Lyra? You notice that we're the only Unicorns on this train?" Vinyl asked.
"Hm?" Lyra took a moment to survey the car. "Oh, yeah. You're right. Unicorns of this time probably just stay up in Canterlot."
Silence continued to dominate most of the car while the four mares sat in contemplation.
"… Does stuff like this always happen to you guys?" Vinyl inquired.
"It doesn't usually get this bad so quickly." replied Bon-bon.
"Usually, we get there before the bad stuff goes down. Guess we were a little late this time, hehe." added Lyra.
"This is no time to laugh!" snapped Octavia. "Somepony…!" she quieted her tone of voice. "Somepony… died…" she said with a melancholy tone.
"Hey, hey… Relax, Octy." said Vinyl, placing a hoof on her grey companion's shoulder. "Everything will be alright."
"We couldn't change it if we wanted to, anyway." Lyra stated bluntly.
"Lyra!" Bon-bon scolded. "Quit being so insensitive!"
"What? It's true. Think about it; if we went back in time again who're the first ponies we'd bump into?" Lyra questioned.
"… Ourselves?" guessed Octavia.
"Bingo. And you do not want that to happen."
Another silence paralyzed the mares in its awkward grip.
"So, uh… H-how did you girls meet each other?" asked Bon-bon sheepishly, desperate to break the silence.
…
."You just had to say 'special agent', didn't you?" asked the Doctor as he and Matt were led to the scene of the crime.
"Don't act like you wouldn't have helped them if I said we were tourists." Matt shot in reply.
"Here it is agent, doctor." said the guard who escorted them.
The train car was older than the others, and mostly unused. Towards the center of the room there was a figure lying motionless on the floor, covered in a sheet. A window was broken and glass shards were spread all over the place. Matt and the Doctor approached with caution.
"You're right, I would've helped regardless. But you would've stayed behind with the others. We aren't fighting a weather controlling bird this time, we're fighting something far more monstrous." the Doctor said, grabbing a corner of the sheet with his hoof. "Are you ready?"
"I've seen worse."