//------------------------------// // Chapter Two - We Didn't Know When We Were Well Off // Story: A Mad Pony in a Box // by EchoWing //------------------------------// On the fringes of Equestria there are stretches of land that, for one reason or another, remain uninhabited by ponies. Some areas were the homes of vicious creatures, while others were close to the borders of neighboring nations. Yet more were areas that ponies didn’t venture to because, even with the aid of earth pony magic, crops couldn’t grow in the harsh soil. One such area was right at the edge of Equestria’s borders with Abyssinia, a region of caves and caverns known appropriately enough as the Caves of Conundrum. Getting to this area was difficult, and involved a great deal of work on the part of anyone heading this way. And that was before one entered the caves themselves, as time had turned them into a labyrinth within which one could easily lose themselves. As his cloak trailed behind him, he was glad that he was no mere pony, and that he knew the caverns so perfectly. He was also relieved that all of the work and effort that he and his associate had put in was about to come to fruition. At long last, they would be free of this wretched world, and restored to their proper glory. And none would stand in their way. - “The Order of Gallopfrey?” Moondancer gave the clockmaker an incredulous scoff. “It’s a myth! A story! I’d call it a conspiracy theory, but even those have more stuff holding them together!” “Ponies treated Nightmare Moon and changelings as boogeymares and old mare’s tales despite historical evidence pointing to their existence right up until the last couple years proved them real.” Time Turner gestured towards Quiver and Lyra, awestruck expressions clear on their faces as comprehension dawned on them. “And I think our two resident lore and conspiracy buffs might be seeing the truth behind the story for themselves.” “Less that, and more confirming the stories.” Quiver turned to Clara and elaborated, “You remember us talking about cutie marks, and how it’s rare that anypony will have an identical mark to somepony else?” At the transformed human’s nod, he elaborated, “Well, the Order of Gallopfrey, according to the old stories, is an example. Dozens, maybe hundred of ponies, all carrying the exact same cutie mark.” He gestured back to Time Turner and Minuette as the pair showed off their flanks. “An hourglass.” Dawning recognition appeared on the faces of the rest of the Equestrians in the room, and Twilight herself shook her head as she wondered aloud, “How could I have missed something like that?” “Well, in your defense, it would be like looking for a gold needle in a stack of gold-painted regular needles.” Quiver shrugged. “It’s rare that a pony past a certain age doesn’t have a cutie mark after all.” Minuette grinned and admitted, “Plus you can obscure a mark under the right circumstances, and ponies like us tend to have a sort of natural version of the Not-My-Problem Spell going on.” She turned to the Doctor and explained, “Biological perception filter. It gets strained when two or more of us are in close quarters though, especially if somepony’s actively looking for us. You being here must’ve been the last straw, not that I’m surprised.” Moondancer shook her head and relented. “Okay, fine. Let’s get this over with.” She turned to Lyra and asked, “Anything else you want to exposit on about them?” “Not much else to exposit about.” Lyra looked to Minuette and noted, “According to the stories, ponies in the Order of Gallopfrey were long-lived, seemingly unaging. There’s accounts of them showing up over the last thousand years, dating back all the way to before Equestria lost Princess Luna to Nightmare Moon, and after Equestria lost the Crystal Empire.” She gestured to Quiver and noted, “Heck, that timeframe was something that got mine and Quiver’s attention, and we looked into it.” “But how…?” Twilight’s eyes lit up as she realized, “Census records!” “And a little help from some crazy math that I couldn’t begin to comprehend.” Quiver turned to their visitors and explained, “The Crystal Empire vanished over a thousand years ago due to a curse placed upon it. It and its entire population vanished for all that time, but as far as the census records went, it was like they’d never gone away.” “Plus the population difference between the census before the Empire’s disappearance and the one after was suspicious.” Lyra projected some numbers into the air to illustrate her point with her magic. “The Crystal Empire’s population according to the census before it vanished was less than fifty-four thousand ponies. You take them out, and even accounting for average population growth at the time due to birth rates and immigration and stuff, there was a small population boom.” “Approximately one hundred thousand or so?” “Yeah, exactly!” Lyra turned to the Doctor and asked, “How did you know?” Clara grinned. “’Cuz he’s clever like that, the show-off.” Minuette shared the grin as she added, “And we have him to thank for our ancestors making it here.” “And I think it’s time I got to explaining things.” The Doctor looked about the room and asked, “I was a bit worried that this might be met with disbelief, but given how Quiver and Lyra reacted, and Time Turner and Minuette’s origins, this might actually go smoothly. Who here knows of the Many Worlds Interpretation?” “The theory that the world we live in is just one of a potentially infinite number of parallel dimensions coexisting alongside of one another. Alternate realities, parallel universes, divergent timelines, different worlds, whatever you want to call them, it’s pretty much the same thing.” At the Doctor’s nod, Moondancer explained, “There was a pony mage who lived over a thousand years ago, Star Swirl the Bearded. A few months ago, Twilight asked me to review his research and studies within his personal library underneath the castle at Canterlot. He developed spells that let him travel to those other worlds, and later made artifacts that let him do the same.” “I’ve used two of those artifacts to travel to other worlds, and met ponies who came from two others.” Anticipating Lyra’s question, Twilight added, “And yes, that was part of what I wanted to talk with you about later, but I want to wait until Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine are here before we go any further, alright?” The minty green unicorn accepted that with a nod, then turned to Quiver. “Part of the Pinkie Promise?” “Bingo.” He turned to the Doctor and added, “Anyway, I guess Twilight can add a fifth world to that list.” “Yes, exactly, but forget the Many Worlds Interpretation. The way the multiverse works, it’s a lot more complicated than that.” Quiver shrugged. “Fair enough, but that doesn’t explain your connection to the Order of Gallopfrey, unless…” “Unless they all came from the same corner of the greater multiverse.” Time Turner smiled. “In a far different reality from this one, there existed a race of ancient and powerful beings. When most civilizations were figuring out the wheel or fire, they had already mastered scientific principles far beyond Equestrian science, from the manipulation of stellar bodies to dimensional transcendentalism to time travel. Upon the perfection of that last bit, they came to be known as the Time Lords, high rulers of the planet Gallifrey.” Spike held his arms up as if comparing two things. “Okay, yeah, I can see where the name came from.” He turned to the Doctor and reasoned, “So you’re one of them?” At the Doctor’s nod, he turned to Clara. “But you’re not.” “Really human, from Earth. Different Earth, one where the horses and ponies don’t talk.” “More like one where the humans don’t listen.” At Clara’s eye-roll, the Doctor explained, “Anyway, yes, I’m a Time Lord. Born on the planet Gallifrey, well over a thousand years old. Maybe one thousand five hundred, I lost track a while ago.” Pinkie let out a low whistle. “That’s a lotta candles for the birthday cake.” “My word.” Rarity gave the stallion a once-over and noted, “I must say, you don’t look it. Granny Smith is past two centuries, and you’d have a hard time thinking otherwise looking at her, but you look rather young for someone past a millennium.” “Well, we Time Lords are naturally long-lived. Between that and regeneration, we’re practically immortal, barring accidents.” “Speaking of, how many has it…?” At the shocked expression from her relative, Minuette asked, “What? I’m not allowed to be curious?” “Curious yes, rude no.” Minuette pouted as Time Turner continued. “Anyway, as time progressed, the Time Lords took on a policy of non-interference, and were officially content to keep to themselves and monitor the rest of their universe rather than directly interact with it. Some exceptions were made, but in very rare cases, and usually involving the odd agent coerced into their service, like the odd rogue Time Lord.” He gestured to the Doctor and explained, “And the Doctor happens to be one of the most famous of them. He stole an ancient Type-40 travel capsule and ran off to see all of time and space with naught but his granddaughter for company. But in his travels, he had a bad habit of breaking the non-interference law.” “Given the choice was to either sit back and watch people get hurt or act to save lives and stop evil, I think my actions were justified.” The spiky-haired stallion smiled. “Never said they weren’t. I wouldn’t be here if you didn’t intervene from time to time, same with the rest of my family.” “Okay, let’s not get off on a tangent, shall we?” Sour gave Time Turner a pained expression and asked, “If Gallifrey was so wonderful, then why’d your ancestors leave?” “The War.” Everyone paused as the Doctor answered, “The Last Great Time War. That’s why they left.” He turned to take in the room and explained, “Over the course of Time Lord history, my people have occasionally come into conflict with races and beings that sought to do terrible things, or presented a clear danger to all of existence, including their own. The most recent time it happened involved a race called the Daleks.” “Genocidal mutant blobs without mercy or conscience, dedicated to wiping out all non-Dalek life and stripped of all emotions beyond hate. Friendship is beyond them, and their idea of harmony probably speaks for itself.” Minuette shuddered. “Not a day goes by where I hope they don’t exist in this reality.” “Unfortunately, their attempt to stop the Daleks from becoming a danger ended up being the start of open hostilities between the two races, and it eventually led to the Time War. Attempts were made to stop it, of course, but…” The Doctor shook his head. “At any rate, as it became clearer that war was inevitable, there was a secret attempt made to evacuate a select number of Gallifreyans and secret them away, on the off chance that the war ended badly. Another rogue Time Lord, an old classmate of mine named Drax, spearheaded the effort. He even provided the ship. But things didn’t go nearly as well as planned…” - :“EX-TER-MI-NATE! EX-TER-MI-NATE! EX-TER-MI-NATE! EX-!”: “Shut it off!” The audio from the attacking Dalek ships was muted as Drax resumed his work in the ship’s engine room. It was a daunting task, as he was surrounded by a number of readouts and strewn bits of equipment jury-rigged together into a terrible mess of technology, and the fewer distractions he had, the better. :“Whether or not you can hear them, Drax, those Dalek ships are closing. Can we escape before they reach us?”: “Still working on that!” The balding Time Lord took some relief from the fact that he was usually cool under pressure, otherwise sweat would be trickling down his brow as he continued to work. :“Do you need any help down there?”: “No offense to you or anyone else on this ship, Guv, but I’m better off on my own down here!” This was true not only because of the mess strewn around him, but also because it was unlikely that any of the people onboard would be able to make sense of said mess. As advanced as Time Lord society was, very few had any practical experience or much in the way of creativity. It was part of why he’d left the first chance he’d gotten. “Just make sure we don’t get blown up!” The craft itself was a hardy one, but Drax knew full well that this ship would only last so long against the Daleks, particularly if they followed their usual modus operandi. One Dalek was deadly, several moreso, and it was even worse when you were dealing with their ships, and even with all the modifications that he’d made to its shields and its strengthened hull, he knew it wouldn’t last long. Drax had managed a pretty good run himself, given he was on his final incarnation. No family, but the life he’d lived had kept him from settling down anywhere. Still, there were a hundred thousand other souls who couldn’t say the same, and he didn’t want to let them down, particularly if it involved him dying with them. There was one man he knew could help them in this case, but what were the chances… :“Attention Romana’s Hope! You look as if you’re in a spot of trouble! Drax, old friend, you hearing me?!”: The voice was different, but could it really be? :“Romana said you might need some help! Looks like she was right – this is a bit more exciting than that mess you made on Altrazar!”: Drax cackled with glee. “Thete! Damn good timing, mate!” - “I still don’t know how the Daleks found the ship. Never had the means. All I knew was that Drax was desperate enough to try something that was at best theoretical, at worst suicide.” The Doctor raised a hoof and explained, “He converted the ship in such a way that it’s drive system would allow it to traverse the Void and go from one parallel universe to another in order to escape the Daleks. He figured with a modified hull, improved shields and its built-in quantum engines, it might be able to pull it off.” Clara gave her friend a curious look. “Sorry, the Void?” She glanced around and asked, “And why am I the only one not getting the context? Time Turner and Minuette I understand, but the rest of you seem to be following this no problem.” “Well, this is just a guess, but…” Quiver picked up an empty plate and held it between his hooves. “Imagine one of my hooves is one reality, and the other is a second one. The plate is what separates them, the boundary line between one dimension and another, a sort of gap.” “It’s a no-place, where time stands still.” The princess looked to the Time Lord and reasoned, “We call it ‘Limbo’, but I guess your people called it the Void.” The Doctor nodded at Twilight’s summation. “Either name works.” “Hold on, that’s what happened to us, isn’t it?” Clara gestured at herself and reasoned, “I mean, aside from being turned into ponies and everything.” “Yes, but in our case it was an accident. Might’ve been the remnant of a CVE or a lingering crack in the universe or sheer bad luck, but regardless, us coming here wasn’t planned. And don’t get me wrong, there had been purposeful attempts to cross the Void in the past, but very few had been successful enough to complete the crossing. And I tried to warn him about that.” - “What you’re trying is exactly the sort of thing I’d expect from you Drax, it’s brilliant! Mad, but brilliant!” The Doctor dashed around the console for his TARDIS as his ship zipped about in space in the hope of keeping the Daleks’ attention on him and off the larger vessel. “There’s no guarantee that it’ll work!” :“Better to try and fail than do nothing and let all these people die, eh?”: It was easy to imagine that even as he continued his conversation with his old friend and schoolmate, Drax feverishly kept up at his work. :“Thete, you and I both know what’s on the horizon. Romana did what she could to slow it down, but…”: “But war with the Daleks was inevitable.” For all the youthful figure this current regeneration had given him, the old wanderer knew that his weariness was clear on his voice. “I’m starting to think I should never have stuck around in Munich and had Romana meet Neville at that conference. She took all the wrong lessons from it.” :“Well mate, you know politics.”: “And I’m glad that I still know you as well as I thought.” Switches were flipped and buttons pressed, and the TARDIS renewed its dive into the fray. “You do what you need to do, Drax – I’ll buy you some time!” Drax laughed over the comm-link, and the Doctor laughed with him, both relieved that neither had disappointed the other and that they might actually make it through. There’d been a lot of renegades among their class, and the two of them had been of decidedly higher moral caliber than the rest, though morality was a little flexible between the two of them. Meanwhile, as much as the Daleks wanted to exterminate everything in their path, he had a way of commanding their attention. Considering how often he’d foiled their plans, it was no shocker the two items were related. His ship was briefly rocked to one side, the consequence of one Dalek ship hitting another with weapons fire as the Doctor navigated between them. He couldn’t keep this up forever, but he could keep it up long enough for Drax and his charges to get to safety. As far as plans went, this was one of his better ones, but only if he could keep up this momentum and… Warning sirens flashed, and the Doctor’s attention went to his monitors as more Dalek saucers materialized. “Drax, if you can do it, do it now!” “On it, Thete!” The Romana’s Hope seemed to ripple in space as its engines came online, but that only seemed to attract more attention to them as more Dalek saucers appeared. “You give the tin dog a good cleaning from me no matter what, eh?” The Dalek saucers opened fire, and multiple bursts of weapons fire hit the ship’s hull as it erupted in a flash of light. “Drax! DRAX!” - “As far as I could tell, the ship had been destroyed, everyone onboard lost to history. One hundred thousand lives, and they were just a speck of what was to come.” The Doctor turned to Time Turner and smiled. “Or so I thought at the time. They made it through.” “Not unscathed, but yes.” The clockmaker smiled as he explained, “According to the stories my great grandfather told me as a foal, the ship materialized in orbit of this Earth. All the shielding meant to protect it on its passage through the dimensional barrier was enough for that task, but that didn’t stop other things from happening.” “Like getting trashed on the way through. What the Daleks did didn’t help, but between that and the strong thaumic field surrounding this version of Earth, things kinda went crazy. Everyone onboard turning into ponies just made things worse.” Minuette shrugged as she lifted up a bit of food with her magic. “Closest we can figure for what happened is that the thaumic field had a crazy reaction with all the chameleon arches installed on the ship.” As if he anticipated the next question, the Doctor quickly explained, “It’s Time Lord technology that allows us to transform ourselves into another creature or race for whatever reason, usually to hide. The change is so thorough that the one transformed is effectively a different person. New memories, new DNA, everything. Reversable under the right conditions, however.” He turned to the two Time Ponies and noted, “That being said, it sounds like they didn’t forget their pasts.” Time Turner shook his head. “Physical changes happened, yes, but no memory alterations or shifts of that sort. They used the ship’s sensors to find the area with the largest population resembling their current forms and made landfall in escape pods. The ship itself was then sent hurtling into the nearby sun, and after they got the attention of the crown, our ancestors formally asked for asylum. Princess Celestia granted it almost immediately after consulting Star Swirl the Bearded, and didn’t even wait to discuss the matter with Princess Luna.” Quiver raised an eyebrow as he snarked, “Gee, I wonder how that turned out.” “Okay, gonna ask about that later, but, ‘thaumic field’?” Moondancer gave the transformed human a dumbfounded expression. “You don’t know what a thaumic field is?” “Her Earth must not have as strong of one as ours does.” The bespectacled unicorn shrugged at the princess’ suggestion. “I guess, but so weak that it can’t even be detected? That’s stretching things.” “And it’s not really answering her question, dears.” Both mares had the decency to look embarrassed at Rarity’s gentle chiding before the elegant unicorn turned to Clara and remarked, “I do apologize Miss Clara, but I fear you know how the scientifically-inclined get when confronted with such things.” Twilight gave a sheepish grin, then turned to the transformed human. “I’ll try to keep it in simple terms. Every sapient lifeform in our world is born with some degree of innate magic inside them. Not everyone has the same amount of magic, and it grows at different rates between individuals based on a number of factors, but we all have it. And the magic inside of us interacts with the magic in the environment around us, a field that encompasses our entire world.” “This ‘thaumic’ field your talking about?” “Exactly. That’s the scientific name for it, at any rate. Every sapient creature in our world is able to interact with it, though for some strange reason, we ponies seem to have the strongest connection to it. That’s the theory behind why ponies are the only race to get cutie marks, in any case.” “And it’s thanks to us being able to manipulate it that we can do so much with it.” Quiver smirked. “How else do you think that pegasi can stay in the air with such small wings?” “And those auras that we see around a unicorn’s horn, and the one around Twilight’s hands when she was transformed, were due to her innate magic interacting with the wider thaumic field.” The unicorns and alicorn in the room nodded at the Doctor’s summation. “Sort of like the Higgs field and how everything has mass. Not a fundamental force like gravity and electromagnetism, but still, very much a part of how the universe works.” “Alright, but how could their Earth have a stronger field than ours does?” Clara gave him a curious look and asked, “I mean, how do we know that our Earth doesn’t have a thaumic field?” “Oh, it does. I’ve encountered races and beings with the ability to manipulate and interact with thaumic fields several times, like the Dæmons and the Carrionites. I’ve even met humans who could manipulate it, even if they didn’t have complete knowledge of what they were doing.” He turned to the two Time Ponies and remarked, “Your ancestors must’ve had a field day figuring everything out.” “With what they had available, but they soon discovered a problem. It might’ve been too much magic or it might’ve been so radical a change in our anatomies, but either way, coming here took away the one thing that made the Time Lords what they are.” Time Turner frowned and admitted, “They couldn’t regenerate anymore.” At the curious expressions on the various ponies’ faces, the Doctor explained, “Like I said, Time Lords are practically immortal, barring accidents. When an accident happens, assuming everything goes right, our bodies undergo a rapid physical metamorphosis, cells rearranging themselves and chemicals mixing about, DNA shifting in such a way that we emerge as entirely new people. There’s limits, of course, and clearly there’s ways to block it.” He gave a reassuring though sad smile. “Still, don’t worry about me. One way or another, it won’t be a problem. But clearly, everyone from that first generation is long dead by now.” Minuette nodded. “The last one passed away about a hundred years ago, but every generation born since their arrival has worked to preserve the knowledge they left behind and try to carry on Gallifrey’s legacy. Monitor time and protect our new home, all without trying to interfere too much in everypony’s daily lives.” “It helps that we aren’t the only ones out there doing that.” Time Turner raised a hoof to his muzzle and pondered aloud, “Which raises the question of why we haven’t seen an Observer yet. Usually they’re rather on top of things when it comes to pan-dimensional incursions.” Lyra’s eyes went wide at that remark. “The Observers are real too?!” Twilight gave her old schoolmate a gleeful look. “I know! The only reason I can think of that I haven’t seen Seventh Moon yet is because it isn’t important enough for him to bother with!” Twilight turned to Minuette with further glee as she continued. “Anyway, this is incredible! Minuette, you and I went to school with one another, and you never said anything about this?” The blue unicorn shrugged. “Well what’s the point of being part of a secret group if you blab about it to everypony you meet?” “Still, this is a little surprising.” Moondancer gave the mare an incredulous look. “I mean, you’re a dentist. How does that relate to being part of a group that monitors time?” Pinkie immediately perked up as she realized the implications. “Can you do magic that lets you reverse time so that you can get rid of cavities and gingivitis and stuff like that?!” Minuette rolled her eyes. “I wish. Doing stuff like that would be awesome, but it’s way too dangerous. That being said…” Her horn glowed, and a projection formed over the table. “I can do stuff like this really easy.” Moondancer’s eyes lit up in recognition. “I remember that! That’s the party Twilight threw for me back in Canterlot a few months ago, right after she ascended and became a princess!” She turned back to her old classmate and asked, “But I’m seeing you in there. This can’t be you projecting a memory, not unless your sense of spatial awareness is that good.” “Got it in one, Moonie.” The projection shifted to show a different event, this time one that Minuette hadn’t been present for. “Ooh, this is a good one.” “SILENCE!” The projection showed Pinkie Pie at the heart of an explosion of comedy props and fake foliage, her attention fixed upon a startled Twilight and Princess Luna. “LUNA OF EQUESTRIA, YOU COME TO ME WISHING TO LEARN THE ART OF COMEDY! WHY DO YOU SEEK THIS KNOWLEDGE?!” “Oh yeah! I remember that!” Pinkie smiled as the projection faded and she recalled the details. “That was a few months back! Princess Luna came to me wanting to know how to be funny because she wanted ponies to feel more relaxed with her! I taught her so much about helping others have fun!” “After screaming at her, calling her Nightmare Moon and hiding in that bush.” Spike crossed his arms and noted, “Just like she did last Nightmare Night. Really hurt Princess Luna’s feelings.” “Which I didn’t really figure out until after everything was said and done with that little adventure.” The pink mare let out a nervous chuckle. “I thought she knew I was joking around. Oopsy.” “Just about every pony in the Order of Gallopfrey has their magic geared towards time in some manner or form.” Time Turner gestured towards Minuette and explained, “Unicorns can project images from time, pegasi can manipulate it such that they can accelerate their relative time compared to others and essentially fly faster, and earth ponies such as myself have even longer lifespans than we normally would. And we hardly look our age either.” “Okay, gonna come back to that.” Quiver turned to Minuette and asked, “You can’t see the future, can you?” The mare shook her head. “Just the past, and only glimpses of it involving individuals who are in my immediate vicinity. Projecting an image of the present just comes out blurry, and showing the future’s outright impossible for me or any other unicorn in the Order. You want something like that, you’d need an actuary, and even then, that’s just making an educated guess.” The stallion frowned. “Well, that takes care of my questions. I guessing your ancestors didn’t have any means of seeing what happened to lead up to Nightmare Moon, or showing it to Princess Celestia.” “I imagine she figured things out for herself one way or another, regardless of how much they did to review everything that happened.” Time Turner turned regretful as he noted, “And regardless, something tells me they were content to stick to the convenient half-truth rather than try to reveal what really happened to the wider world. Noninterference and all that.” “And even if we did try to say something later, just how many of those stubborn old academics would believe us?” Minuette scoffed. The Doctor raised an intrigued eyebrow while Clara asked in confusion, “I’m guessing there’s something we’re missing.” “Quite a bit. We’ll explain later.” Twilight turned to Time Turner and noted, “All that aside, I’m guessing not every member of the order was eager to follow that noninterference line.” “No, Drax in particular helped Star Swirl to develop a number of time-related spells.” The Time Pony smiled. “Including that time travel spell of his that you used.” “Hey, I remember that!” Lyra gave the spikey-maned stallion a raised eyebrow and asked, “Didn’t you laugh at Twilight when she said she’d been visited by her future self?” As her relative managed a sheepish grin, Minuette giggled. “And you’d better believe I teased him over not believing Twilight after I confirmed her story.” “Oh yeah, I remember that too!” Pinkie giggled. “Twilight got visited by herself from about a week in the future, and Future Twilight tried to warn her about something! She spent all that time worrying over what her future self was gonna warn her about, and when the time came, nothing happened! So she used the spell to go back in time to tell herself not to worry, and…!” “And she caused the events of the last week to happen without even realizing it.” At Pinkie’s nod, the Doctor explained, “Destiny trap. Predestination paradox. Still, something like that’s dangerous.” “That’s probably why Star Swirl designed the spell to only as for a minute or so before sending the caster back, only work once, and to only take a pony forward or back in time by about a week or so.” The princess turned nervous as she admitted, “And I was barely able to pull it off, so that limits the number of ponies who can use it even more. Still, something like that should…” At the two Time Ponies’ expressions, she gave them a curious look. “You two want to share something with the rest of us?” Time Turner turned anxious. “Twilight, there’s something you need to know about time travel. Now, don’t take this the wrong way and think that free will doesn’t exist…” “Because it totally does,” Minuette noted. “But Star Swirl was a firm believer in fate, and in its inflexibility. Couple that with Time Lord adherence to the laws of time, and it led to him constructing the time spell in the manner that he did. Consequently, when we get word of a potential predestination paradox, then we absolutely have to make certain that it takes place, or there could be disastrous consequences for the timestream. Fixed points in history are ridiculously important, and if they aren’t preserved, then bad things happen.” “Butterfly effect and all that. It’s never pretty.” “Thus as soon as we confirmed what happened, we informed Princess Celestia, and she told the guards to expect you and let you have access to the spell you needed in order to go back in time and complete the loop.” Twilight blinked. “What.” Minuette turned regretful as she noted, “We’re sorry, Twi, really, but…” “No, no, it’s alright, you did nothing wrong.” She frowned as she made a mental note to bring this up with her mentor at a later time. “Still, that spell isn’t just left lying out all the time, is it?” Minuette laughed. “Of course not! We don’t want some insane pony getting their hooves on it! Even if they didn’t know what they were doing with it, they could really mess things up!” Twilight sighed in relief, then turned towards her guests. “Well, I’m glad that you’re taking things so well. Then again, I’d be happy too if I found out that I was successful in saving a hundred thousand lives.” Clara grinned. “Not the first time this has happened to him.” “Certainly better than finding out that I made things worse.” The Time Lord then remarked, “In any case, all of that’s still leaving me and Clara with a number of questions, and something tells me all of you probably have some of your own. Maybe we can start with what caused this Earth to have such a strong thaumic field compared to the one we know?” Twilight nodded. “Just as long as we get a final word on what happened with the Time War, you can ask whatever you like.” - Far from Ponyville and beyond the awareness of Equestria’s wider population, deep beneath the Caves of Conundrum, lights flickered on and ancient sounds echoed through far more ancient surroundings. A dark-maned stallion surveyed the area around himself as technological components came online and lights flashed to life all around him. “It seems that last component was installed at a most fortuitous time.” “And one far too long in coming.” He turned to face a dark-haired curly-maned unicorn mare with a cold, rigid-looking face as she turned her attention away from the machinery around them, all far too advanced to be of Equestrian origin. “There’s still work to be done, so be quick about it. That bit of gold you claimed from Ahuizotl has only allowed us to get this far, and I’d rather we not squander our brief lead.” The stallion scowled, but did as he was bidden. “Nor I. Though I would take care were I in your position.” Even as he set about his work and made final adjustments, he continued, “After all, you would not have accomplished any of this without my help.” “And you would not still be alive were it not for mine.” “A fair point, I’ll admit.” He paused briefly in his work, turned to his associate and grinned. “Though do you think someone will notice?” The mare harshly scoffed. “They’d be blind fools not to, equines or not. The better question is whether or not they will be able to do anything about it.” - Between three avid students of magic and one eager amateur, the gathered ponies at Golden Oak Library scrounged up a number of books and tomes for the Doctor to review, even as the curious Time Lord fielded questions. “Quiver and Lyra gave us a brief run-down as we were making our way here. I assume that complete power isn’t held by the four princesses, given that you’re not the one governing Ponyville?” Twilight shook her head as she laid out the last of the books. “Oh no. Equestria’s a constitutional monarchy, and has been for over nine hundred years. Cadance is still working on instituting reforms in the Crystal Empire to establish some civilian posts in their local government, however. Given they came from a time before the constitution was implemented…” “Wait, sorry, what?” Clara approached the princess and asked, “What do you mean by that, exactly?” “The Crystal Empire got shunted forward in time by about a thousand years by Sombra when Celestia and Luna defeated him.” Spike grinned as the transformed woman turned to face him. “And then we finished him off with the Crystal Heart after he and the Empire returned.” “Okay, that’s good, but…question. The Celestia and Luna you mentioned, they’re not the same…” “They are the same.” Quiver approached and explained, “Celestia and Luna began ruling Equestria together shortly after the nation was founded about eleven hundred years ago. Celestia had to go it alone for a thousand years, but that’s a whole other story.” Clara processed that for a moment, then turned to Twilight and asked, “Alright, I have to ask, how old can a pony get in this world? I mean, if Celestia and Luna are over a thousand years old each…” “Trust me, the two of them are a special case. They believe that their longevity is due to their magical bonds with the sun and moon.” She sat down and explained, “Your world has a heliocentric solar system, correct? One where the sun is the center of gravity, with assorted planets and moons revolving around it?” “Yours doesn’t work that way?” Moondancer approached and explained, “Ours is more like a geocentric model. Before Equestria was founded, the ancient unicorns used their magic to raise and lower the sun and moon. Celestia and Luna took over the job after they were crowned, and for the most part, they’ve been doing it ever since.” “And that bond with the sun and moon is part of the reason they’ve been around so long, at least, according to Celestia. From what she’s told me, the very act of raising and lowering the sun and moon rejuvenates them. Once they reached full adulthood, they effectively stopped aging.” The Doctor scoffed at Twilight’s summation. “Sorry, that seems a bit rubbish to me. You can’t have an actual physical bond with a stellar object, at least, not one that allows you to control it, even in a world where magic is as abundant as it is here.” He turned to Moondancer and said, “I’m a little surprised that you’re so accepting of a heliocentric model, however.” The bespectacled unicorn shrugged. “I just found out that alternate realities exist, that my friend has visited them, and that the Order of Gallopfrey’s real. I think I can give the idea of a heliocentric solar system at least a little credibility.” The Time Lord smiled. “Good for you. An open mind is always…” He paused as, all at once, the horns of every unicorn and alicorn present flashed. Everyone present cried out in surprise and did their best to cover their eyes, and all of them collapsed to the ground, with Twilight and the Doctor giving out pained screams as their bodies each let out a brilliant flash of light. Clara reared back in shock and fell on her side, and rubbed her eyes with her hoof by instinct. Her hooves felt numb, as if they’d fallen asleep. She blinked her eyes several times and asked, “What just happened? Please tell me that’s normal around here.” “Unfortunately Clara, something tells me that’s decidedly not normal around here. Now come on, on your feet.” “Who said that?” Rarity shook her head and blinked her eyes as she looked towards the unfamiliar voice. “Forgive me, but I…” Her eyes went wide as she made sight of the apparent newcomer, and she screamed.