The princesses and Dr. Mario teleported out of the reservoir with Melon Seed and regrouped with all of their guards, who reported that the entire city had been thoroughly searched and every single infected citizen was administered megavitamins. With that, they rounded up all the guards stationed at the castle and got everypony to work bringing infected citizens to the hospital wing of the castle. Dr. Mario supervised the roundup, carefully examining each pony to make sure the megavitamins were doing their job. He also promised to stock up on extra bottles for them after he got back home in case they needed it.
“Hold still,” he told a unicorn mare who had a small amount of multicolored snot smeared across her cheek. He used a q-tip to wipe it off and placed it in an empty bottle. The q-tip twitched ever so slightly under the viruses’ influence. Once he was done, Luna erected a dome with air holes over her.
“What might that be for?” she asked him.
“I’m-a gonna take it to some scientists for study,” he explained, screwing the cap on the bottle. “It’s a good idea to learn more about-a these things in case this happens again.”
Celestia walked into the hospital wing levitating a sick earth pony stallion. She placed him on an unoccupied bed in a row of several dozen containing sleeping and exhausted ponies and erected a similar dome with air holes over him. She then made her way to Luna and Dr. Mario as three guards entered the room behind her, carrying another couple of ponies.
“We should be done just after dusk,” she said to them.
“That’s good to hear,” Luna said.
Celestia turned to Dr. Mario with a sincere smile. “Words cannot express how grateful I am for your aid in combating this alien threat, Dr. Mario. How could we ever repay you?”
Dr. Mario blushed, rubbing the back of his head. “Ah, it was-a nothing, Princess. Really, just being able to help the sick and suffering is reward enough for me.”
He held up the bottle for them all to see. The movements of the q-tip were even more visible now, lightly bashing against the inside of the bottle as the snot coating it shifted up and down accordingly; the viruses were undoubtedly furious about being trapped again.
“What do you suppose is the reason for these viruses’ sapience?” Luna asked.
Dr. Mario shook his head. “I couldn’t begin to guess. But I’ll find out soon enough once I return home.”
“Well, now that this crisis is over and done with, you have the opportunity to enjoy Equestria and all its beauty more casually,” Celestia said, smiling again. “But I suppose you’ll want to set aside some time to do so first? Even here, doctors have hectic schedules.”
Dr. Mario flashed her a thumbs up. “I’m-a gonna come back soon, don’t worry! Everything here is so different and interesting, and I could use a vacation!”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Celestia said. “There are many wonderful things to behold in Equestria, many more than can be seen in a single visit.”
“Even better!”
“Well, Luna, I do believe the time has come to bring forth the night,” Celestia said, casting a glance out the nearest window.
“What does that mean?” Dr. Mario asked, genuinely curious.
“We’ll show you,” Luna said.
In a flash, the three of them were teleported away from the hospital wing onto a balcony near the top of the castle that overlooked the Equestrian landscape all around. Dr. Mario was used to the teleportation by now and so didn’t feel disoriented coming out of it. The sun was hovering just over the horizon in front of them.
“Watch closely,” Luna instructed.
Dr. Mario nodded.
Celestia’s and Luna’s horns lit up and they closed their eyes. Dr. Mario had his eyes trained on them until he noticed the sun’s light was perceptibly dimming. Looking towards it, he was amazed to see it was lowering beneath the horizon at a speed discernible to the naked eye. A movement to its right caught his attention and he looked to see a white light rising above the horizon. The moon! More specifically, a crescent moon. Perfectly in sync with each other, the sun disappeared beneath the horizon while the moon rose high into the sky, stopping after a minute where it hung, casting its illuminating rays upon the land in the sun’s place.
The display was enough to take Dr. Mario’s breath away.
“That’s… amazing.” He turned to the princesses. “You did that with your magic?”
They both nodded.
“Even the kinds of magic back in my world couldn’t do something as amazing as that.” He placed a hand to his forehead, feeling overwhelmed. “Caspita…”
Celestia giggled at his reaction while Luna remained straight-faced but with a ghost of a smile.
“I believe now we have the time to sit down and chat,” Celestia said. “Your world must be interesting if it contains creatures such as the viruses.”
“Okie Dokie!” Dr. Mario said cheerfully.
Celestia’s horn lit and the three of them were teleported to a room within the castle. Looking around, Dr. Mario saw that it was a sitting room, lavishly furnished. A low table sat in the center of the room, surrounded by a number of plush, comfortable-looking colorful cushions. Set against one side of the room was a small, old-fashioned stove. On the table sat an empty tray with cups, plates and a teapot. In every universe, it seemed, princesses loved tea.
Luna levitated the tray off the table and brought it over to the stove and began brewing while Celestia and Dr. Mario took seats around the table. As he thought, Dr. Mario practically melted into his cushion when he sat down, letting out a deep, relaxing sigh at the comfort it afforded him; he was half tempted to ask the princesses how much he could buy it off of them, if possible. The brewing only took a couple of minutes, surprisingly, and soon enough everyone was being served tea. One whiff told Dr. Mario it was green tea; not his favorite, but he’d still drink it to be polite. He took a sip and found it to be much better than the kind he’d experienced back home and drank a bigger gulp.
They talked for about an hour or so while drinking, exchanging stories about each others’ worlds and a few about their personal lives. Apparently, the princesses really were centuries old and they had quite the breadth of stories as a result. Lots of world-threatening catastrophes occurred throughout their rule over this land, threatening the happiness and well-being of their subjects and forcing them to take up arms as heroes which usually involved utilizing a set of magical artifacts known as the ‘Elements of Harmony’. And that was in addition to the grueling task of both establishing and maintaining good relationships with foreign lands.
Meanwhile, the most interesting thing that had happened to him in recent memory was the flat tire he’d gotten yesterday on his way to work. Compared to his rather mundane life in comparison which he sometimes struggled to keep a handle on, he was impressed by how well they seemed to manage running a country for a long time while all kinds of crazy stuff happened.
“Ya know,” he said once they were done exchanging stories, “a part of me is kinda glad the viruses escaped here so I could meet you and see this world. Sorry if that makes me sound selfish.”
“That is perfectly understandable,” Luna said with a nod. “Every event, every choice, has a light and a dark side. It is good to acknowledge both.”
“What matters is that the viruses have been stopped,” Celestia said. “Now that they are, we should make the best of our meeting.”
“I agree,” Dr. Mario said.
A few moments of silence passed before Luna cleared her throat and said, “I suppose you’ll be needing to leave for the time being.”
“Yep!” he replied. “I gotta get a good night’s sleep before-a I deal with all the patients whose appointments I rescheduled.”
“Then let’s not waste any time,” Celestia said.
She lit her horn and teleported the three of them from the balcony to the supply closet containing the Window. The door was open and the bright Window stood out prominently against the nighttime darkness. As before, guards were stationed on either side.
“You are dismissed,” Celestia told them.
The guards saluted and quickly and quietly left, disappearing around the corner down the hall.
“You never did-a say why this thing exists,” Dr. Mario said, pointing to the Window. “And what’s-a one doing in my supply closet?”
“There’s a story behind that if you’d like to hear it,” Celestia replied. “It would take too long to describe it in detail, however, so a cliff notes version would be preferable.”
Dr. Mario nodded and listened as she told her story.
“A little over a year ago, myself, my prized pupil, and several people hailing from multiple universes were abducted by an omnipotent entity named Aza - 090, or ‘Aza’, for short, as part of a sadistic game wherein they placed us in many kinds of peril, forcing us to work together to survive. By the end of it all, we learned that, in reality, Aza was a mere tool used by an even higher entity named Razalon to bring us all together as a form of entertainment for the people of his universe. There are a few solicitous details I’d rather not go into, but suffice to say the Singularity was created by a higher power that seeks to use the struggles of peoples from all universes as a form of amusement.
“As for why there’s a Window in your supply closet; there were more Windows than abductees when we first found ourselves in the Singularity, and I wouldn’t be surprised if several more have appeared in there from when I was last inside.”
Dr. Mario took some time to digest everything she’d said. It was hard at first to grasp the scope of what she’d said, but the fact that she’d truncated her recounting certainly helped. The gist of everything was clear, but it was still a heavy weight on his brain. It was quite a revelation, to say the least, but he believed it fully. Now he was interested in seeing every world connected to the Singularity in addition to Equestria.
“Well, this is goodbye for now, I suppose,” Celestia said, smiling wistfully.
“Consider yourself welcome to visit Equestria whenever you desire,” Luna said proudly.
Dr. Mario nodded and stepped toward the Window. “I’m-a looking forward to it!” The princesses waved goodbye as he put a foot through the Window and he waved back. “Ciao!”
He put his whole body through the other side into the Singularity. He quickly located a Guide and asked for the Window leading to New Donk City. The guide summoned the appropriate Window and he stepped through back into his supply closet and out into his workspace. Nighttime had fallen here as well with his own world’s moon’s light shining through the window.
He sat down on the examination table to collect his thoughts, the bottle containing the viruses clutched firmly in hand. It had been a very long, very unexpected day. The Window in his supply closet was bound to be discovered at some point by the building’s contractor or his boss or someone; he wasn’t sure what he was going to do at that point, but he decided to ruminate over it at a later date. He also decided to ask for some vacation time as soon as the Primary Virus had been dealt with here so he could go back to Equestria. Truthfully, he foresaw himself having a hard time wanting to leave that magical world.
He hopped off the table once he was done thinking and looked at the bottle in his hand. Legally, he wasn’t allowed to take samples like this home, but given how easily the viruses were able to escape earlier, he had to take some precautionary measures to ensure that didn’t happen again. He strode over and opened the sink cabinet, pulling out an empty plastic bin. He set the bottle inside and carried it over to the windowsill, placing it very carefully so as to make sure it didn’t fall over.
“Safe and sound,” he said, satisfied.
He turned around, took all of two steps, and suddenly the room was filled with blinding yellow light. He stumbled forward, surprised, and wheeled around to see what was happening. The light was coming from outside. A myriad of explanations flitted through his mind; the only one that seemed at all likely was a pair of high beams on a car. Then the light blinked rapidly a few times, in quicker succession than what a car could achieve, and seemed to focus on the plastic bin on the windowsill, forming a cone-like shape.
Then, to his bewilderment, the bottle actually started levitating out of the bin into the air as if pulled up by the light. Instinctively, he rushed forward and grabbed it, only to stop and for his jaw to drop at the sight outside the clinic.
A flying saucer, about ten feet or so in length and emitting strange humming noises, hovered outside his window, the light spilling from beneath while several more lights littered the metallic hull. There were no visible windows on the hull, leaving it completely a mystery as to what the occupants looked like if there were any in the first place. The light pulled the bottle up towards the saucer, only to halt when it hit the window. It banged forcefully against the glass a few times before reeling back like a baseball pitcher and smashing through the window, shattering it and sending glass shards flying into the bushes underneath.
Dr. Mario watched as the bottle was pulled through an opening in the underside of the flying saucer. Once it was inside, the opening promptly sealed shut and, as fast as a shooting comet, the saucer zipped into the sky, quickly becoming a speck of yellow light among the stars.
Dr. Mario blinked. He stood there for a short while, his mind a scrambled mess of thoughts and emotions.
“Mamma mia.”