//------------------------------// // Episode 2: Space-Time Turbulence // Story: Friendship is Multiversal // by Spark Plug //------------------------------// The Doctor motioned around the cluttered workshop. “I’d offer you a seat, but...” Celestia dismissed the idea with a wave of her hoof and sat down in what looked like an open area. She shuffled her wings slightly, knocking a small object onto the floor. “Oh, sorry!” she said with a blush. “Oh, that’s where I put that satsuma!” the Doctor said, picking up the small orange. “Now,” he said, placing it onto his workbench, “what brings the sun princess here?” Celestia smiled gently. “I have a small favor to ask, Doctor.” The Doctor’s face fell slightly. “Oh, Princess,” he said with a hint of a whine, “if you have to call it ‘small,’ it usually isn’t.” Celestia winced. “I hope that it truly is small, Doctor,” she said. “Are you familiar with Ponyville’s new arrivals?” “Can’t say I am.” The Doctor picked up a doohickey on his workbench and fiddled with it. “Been down here for the past few days, mostly.” Celestia looked around the workshop. “I’d tell you it shows, Doctor,” she said with a smile, “but we both know you know.” She took a breath. “A pair of ponies from another world made themselves known to Twilight Sparkle a few days ago.” “Did they now?” Celestia nodded. “They seem to be friendly, and they’ve taken to life in Ponyville pretty well so far. I hear one of them has an ongoing challenge with Rainbow Dash, in fact.” The Doctor paused. “That might explain the multiple explosions.” “Undoubtedly.” She sighed. “They’re lost, Doctor.” The Doctor closed his eyes and sighed. “I’m not asking you to—“ “Yes, you are,” the Doctor snapped. “I suppose you thought I could just scan them, find out where they’re from. And from there it turns into ‘oh, it’s just one universe over, just give them a lift in the TARDIS!’ And then I get caught up in whatever thing is happening with them, and then...” Celestia glared at the Doctor. “I promised you sanctuary, Doctor,” she said evenly, “and I do not take that lightly. Our arrangement has not changed.” She stood up. “I am simply calling your attention to some ponies you can help. The decision is yours.” The Doctor focused intently on the device in his hooves as Celestia made her way back to the stairs. “Do you know why you are always welcome here, Doctor?” Celestia said, her front hoof on the bottom step. “You never fail to help those that need it. No matter how much you may want to do otherwise.” She continued up the stairs and out of sight. “And that attitude,” the Doctor muttered to himself, “is going to kill me.” Friendship is Multiversal: Discovery Episode 2: Space-Time Turbulence Back in Canterlot High, Twilight sat down in Ms Gentleheart’s office. “Thanks for talking with me,” Twilight said. “Of course,” Gentleheart said with a smile. “I’m always happy to help students further their education.” She pulled out a notebook and wrote Twilight’s name at the top. “What schools were you thinking of applying to?” Twilight pulled a think binder out of her bag. “I’ve categorized them by type and sorted them by strength of curriculum. I’ve been getting literature on them for a few years now.” She blushed slightly. “Comes from a high PSAT score.” Gentleheart looked at the binder. “You hardly need me in all this.” Twilight paled. “But what if I make the wrong choice?” “About univ—sorry, college?” Twilight nodded. “Eighty-three percent of someone’s success in life is determined by the college they attend. What if I choose the wrong school? What if I should have gone to Manehatten instead of Canterlot? What—“ Gentleheart held up her hand. “It’s okay, Twilight,” she reassured. “First off, that statistic is ignoring a lot of things, especially the kind of home life and support system that a person has. Yes, this is going to determine a lot of the opportunities that you’ll have, but everycollege is going to have opportunities.” She leaned in and held Twilight’s hand. “This is not going to determine the rest of your life. We’re just setting up the next part, is all.” Twilight took a deep breath. “Right,” she said to herself as much as the counselor. “So,” Gentleheart continued, “what are your top schools, and have you had any contact with their admissions departments since the school year started?” Twilight’s face fell a bit, “I actually haven’t heard from them yet,” she said. “No matter,” Gentleheart said quickly. “We can work on getting in touch with them. Why don’t we start with building out your resumé?” A scream outside followed by a building-shaking crash put any conversation on hold. “What’s going on?” Twilight said, running to the window. The door to Ms. Gentleheart’s office slammed open, Rainbow Dash in the doorway. “Sorry, Ms. G; monster attack, we gotta go!” She grabbed Twilight by the arm and sped out in a rainbow-colored blur. Gentleheart stared at her open office door. “Principal Celestia?” she called after a moment. Celestia walked up to the office. “Does this happen often?” Celestia just met her stare and sighed. Twilight led Fast Hooves and Miles Per Hour through the lower levels of her castle. “And down here are the laboratories,” she said. “The Doctor said he’d be set up in Lab Three.” “Doctor... who, exactly?” Miles said. “Princess Celestia didn’t say,” Twilight said with a frown. “Just that he is one of her foremost experts in inter-world travel. If anyone knows how to get you and Fast home, it’s him.” “That’s great news, Twi,” Fast said with a smile. “No offense, of course.” “Yeah,” Miles added. “Thanks for letting us stay here for the past week.” “It’s nothing,” Twilight blushed. “Makes it easier to justify how many rooms we have here.” “And how many do you have?” Fast said with a glance above them. “Honestly?” Twilight said as they arrived at Lab Three, “I’ve lost count.” Inside the lab, several stands had been set up around a clearly marked “X” on the ground. The stands were covered in everything from exposed wires, light bulbs, cotton candy, an old horseshoe, and a bell. “Hi there!” The Doctor said, adjusting one more antenna into place. “Just step here, one at a time. Little one first.” Miles hovered over and landed on top of the “X”. “What’s all this do?” he asked. “Oh, this?” The Doctor said, rushing around. “Nothing really, built it from parts. Mostly just for show. Might pick up some huon particles, possibly some void stuff, and then...” A beat of silence. The Doctor cleared his throat. “Sorry, thought it would have finished by now. It’s supposed to go—“ The machine finished with a loud ding of the bell. “Ha! There we are!” the Doctor shouted. “Next up, please.” Miles and Fast traded places. “Shouldn’t take as lon—“ The machine dinged again. “Right! That. Now, let’s just see what...” the Doctor trailed off staring at a computer monitor. He looked at Fast and Miles, then back at his monitor. Without a word, he quickly pulled a pair of reading glasses out of one of his pockets and a small tool with a blue light out of the other. He flipped the glasses on and pointed the tool at Fast. “Hold still,” he said, missing his earlier enthusiasm. The tool made a high pitched whine as he waved it toward Fast for a couple of seconds before stopping and looking at it. Another beat of silence. The Doctor just stared at his tool, though his flattened ears betrayed some sort of harsh emotion. “Doctor?” Twilight said. With a blink, the Doctor’s smile was back. “Sorry,” he said, “got some strange readings. Couldn’t seem to find anything solid.” He picked up a few items from the stands around the room and shoved them into his pockets. “I’ll need to take this back to my workshop, see,” he said. “Run some numbers, crunch some analysis.” “When do you think you’ll know?” “Eh...” the Doctor said, his voice somehow climbing in pitch. “Give me like... two, three days?” Twilight nodded and smiled. “Thank you,” she said. “We’ll await your results.” “Right!” the Doctor said, making his way (rather quickly) towards the door. “I’ll just... go back to my... workshop.” And without waiting for another response, he flung open the door and was gone. Miles and Twilight stared after him. “Is he usually that... weird?” Miles said. “Maybe?” Twilight answered. “Though, if he’s an academic, he wouldn’t be the weirdest.” “Tell me about it!” Miles said with a laugh. “Fast and I know this professor that...” He looked around at the empty lab. “Wait, where’s Fast?” “What did you say this thing was?” Rarity screeched as she re-formed her magic crystal wall. “A manticore!” Sunset yelled back as she guided more students to safety. Applejack grunted as she hefted some steel cable. “And how do y’all normally deal with them?” “Stay out of the Everfree Forest?” Sunset said with a shrug. She turned to Fluttershy. “Can you understand anything he’s saying?” Fluttershy shook her head. “No. I think he might be upset or scared, but—“ An explosive cupcake from Pinkie drowned out all sound in the area. “...but he’s too angry to talk right now,” Fluttershy said with a halfhearted glare at Pinkie. Just then Rainbow arrived with Twilight in tow. “Any luck?” Rainbow said. The manticore flung itself against Rarity’s crystal wall. “Define ‘luck’” she snarked. Twilight lifted her hands, palms forward, and grabbed the manticore’s two front paws in her magic. Applejack ran forward and tied them together with her cable. They moved on to the hind paws, but it twisted around and brought its stinger right towards Applejack– Only to be blocked by Rainbow Dash who grabbed the stinger from behind and held it in place as she hovered. “Hurry up!” she yelled, “don’t think I can hold on forever.” “Just a second!” Twilight answered as she and Applejack tied its back paws together, then brought all four paws and the stinger together in one final bind. “Whoo-eee,” Applejack drawled. “That’s the roughest hogtie I’ve ever done.” “Is everyone okay?” Sunset said, looking around the track field. “I think so,” Twilight said. “Do we know how it got here?” A chorus of “no”s and shaken heads responded. “You destroyed your magic thingie, right?” Rainbow said. “What?” Sunset said. Rainbow motioned to Twilight. “Your magic thing that you made that ate magic and went all Midnight Sparkle; you destroyed it, right?” “Of course I did,” Twilight said, shrinking into herself. Applejack lightly swatted Rainbow. “And you’re bringing this up now because...?” Rainbow’s face fell as she suddenly saw how her question was interpreted. “Oh, no! No, I don’t think you did this, Twilight! Sorry!” Twilight took a steadying breath and nodded. “No, sheesh, sorry...” Rainbow fumbled for a moment. “But the last time we had random Equestrian monsters show up was when that thing was on the fritz. You destroyed yours...” “But someone else might have built one,” Sunset finished. “Good thinking, Rainbow Dash.” “Thank you, I know.” “You’re still a jerk, though.” Sunset motioned towards Twilight. Rainbow nodded. “Hey, Twilight, I’m sorry.” Twilight nodded, a little more sure of herself this time. “It’s okay, Rainbow. This is a lot like last time.” As if in response, a deep pulsing sound filled the air as the manticore slowly disappeared in a blur of color, leaving behind the steel cable. “Well, that’s convenient,” Rainbow muttered. Sunset turned to Applejack. “Where did you even get the cable?” Applejack shrugged. “It was right over there with the shop class supplies.” Sunset blinked. “I still don’t understand this school. The Doctor stormed into the basement and threw the lab items in the workbench’s general direction. “It can’t be,” he muttered to himself, pacing through the room. “It’s a mis-reading. Just some echos of other travelers.” He blanched. “That happen to look exactly how I’d expect them to look if they ended up here.” He glanced toward a nondescript corner of the basement. “No!” he shouted. “They got here somehow, they can leave the same way.” “Yeah,” a voice replied from the bottom of the stairs, “that ain’t gonna happen.” The Doctor spun to see Fast Hooves casually leaning against the wall. “You!” the Doctor yelled. “Me!” Fast answered with a manic grin that quickly morphed into a frown. “You looked like you were running.” “You would know.” “I would.” They stared each other down for a moment. “Considering we came here by accident,” Fast said, “I don’t see how we can leave the same way we came.” The Doctor sighed and rubbed his forehead with a hoof. “How do you normally travel between worlds?” Fast shrugged. “Portal powered by chaos energy. But this time it just kinda went sideways.” “Never happened before?” “Never.” “Could you build another portal?” “With what?” He looked around the basement sarcastically. “And even if Miles could, the last one took him years. And you know I don’t have that kind of time.” The Doctor paced towards Fast Hooves. “What did you just say?” “You know who I am.” “And why should I care?” the Doctor spat. “Let me tell you who I am. I’m the Doctor. I’m from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I’m The Oncoming Storm. The Bringer of Darkness. Defender of the earth.” Fast blinked. “So you’re a hero.” “What’s your point?” Fast swallowed and glanced away. “All my friends are back home. Miles and I only meant to be gone for a couple of days; a week at most. Any longer than that, and...” The Doctor’s face softened. “Your friends aren’t the only ones you left at home.” He sat down. “Why did you decide to hop worlds?” Fast sighed. “Egghead’s been laying pretty low. More so than usual. Things felt a little too quiet, so Miles and I thought we’d check out some of his bases in the human world, see if we can find any clues for his next moves.” The Doctor nodded. “So while you’re here, your friends are all on your home world with your greatest enemy.” Fast nodded. “So, Doctor,” he said. “You know who I am; can you get me and Miles home?” The Doctor grinned back. “Sonic the Hedgehog, I will get you and Tails home.” Sunset was the last of the Rainbooms to arrive to the lab. She dropped her backpack onto the ground and looked at the case wall Twilight had set up. “What do we know?” Twilight connected one last piece of thread between a picture of the manticore and a crude drawing of her old pendant. “Well,” she said, turning to the other girls. “we’ve had three confirmed sightings. The manticore on the soccer fields that we took care of, Fluttershy says some of the animals saw a jackelope over by the faculty lot, and Wallflower said the giant plant thing took over the garden club for about two minutes.” “Is she all right?” Rainbow asked. Twilight nodded. “Flash Sentry and Ditzy Do are helping her clean up right now.” “And I’m headed there after this,” Applejack continued. “So what does it mean?” Rarity said. Twilight sighed and looked back to the board. “The monsters, the breaks in reality...” She sighed and hugged herself. “Rainbow was right; it’s my amulet.” “But you destroyed it!” Rainbow nearly shouted. “So it’s not yours.” “Gasp!” Pinkie gasped. “What if it’s an old professor of Twilight’s who found the old plans for her amulet and built their own because they’re secretly the leader of a cult that wants to finish what Midnight Sparkle started a—“ “That’s quite enough, darling,” Rarity said, encasing Pinkie in crystals. The door to the lab opened and Ms Gentleheart stepped quietly in. “Mind if I join you?” “Oh, you can,” Rainbow said, glancing around and generally being very awkward. “I mean, it’s just stupid teenager stuff, so you probably wouldn’t care that mu—“ “She knows,” Twilight and Sunset said together. Rainbow closed her mouth and blushed. “Pinkie has a point, though,” Sunset said. “What if someone built another amulet? Or some rogue magic is having the same effect?” “How would we stop it, then?” Rainbow Dash said. “Magic Rainbow Laser?” “That depends,” Twilight said, twisting a finger nervously. “If it’s rogue magic, then our Friendship Magic should balance it out. But if it’s an amulet, it could end up absorbing the magic instead.” “So what, we break it?” “No!” Twilight yelled. “That could cause an explosion, the magic could run wild, who knows? No, we would need to disconnect the gem from the power source.” “Like disarming a bomb,” Fluttershy said. Everyone turned to look at her. She blushed and shrank in on herself. “I read things...” she muttered. “So,” Gentleheart said. “If it’s a device, we disable it. If it’s...” She cocked her head. “What does rogue magic look like?” The girls all looked among each other. With a shrug, Sunset said, “Something that’s not a device?” The previous lab in Twilight’s castle was once again the Doctor’s domain. Wires were strewn everywhere. Several half-salvaged components were in various positions of prominence. Sparks flew on more than one occasion. And in the middle of it all sat a young pegasus, an enigmatic earth pony, and a particular purple princess. "Okay," Miles--now Tails--said, "we need to connect the blue wire to the fifth contact on this one." "Blue to five, got it," Twilight said, soldering the pieces into position with her magic. "Doctor," Tails continued, "we need a capacitor rated for one- to two-thousand hertz." "Hold on," the Doctor said, poking both forehooves and his head--significantly more than should be physically possible--into the saddlebag on the floor. Across the room, Fast Hooves--now Sonic--sat with Spike and Ditzy Do. "That bag thing still freaks me out," Sonic said. "I know, I know: magic and friendship and three of the biggest eggheads in multiple universes, and that'swhat I choose to get freaked out about." Spike shrugged. "You learn to live with it. At least you weren't here when she was trying to understand Pinkie." He turned to Ditzy. "Did the Doctor ever...? Ditzy nodded. "Oh yeah. Even had a few machines explode on him." She frowned. "Ones that weren't even that explosive, come to think of it..." A timer next to Spike rang. "Okay," he yelled to the room. "That's break time." "Just a second," Twilight answered, putting two more pieces into place. "And... there." "I'll be done in a minute," Tails muttered, not shifting focus from the parts in front of him. "Nope!" Sonic yelled, running over to him. He quickly checked to make sure his hooves and wings weren't holding anything delicate and, seeing it was clear, picked up Tails and carried him out of the room. "You too, Doctor," Ditzy said, making her way over to the stallion. "A break'll be good for you, even with your 'superior biology.’” “Naw, you go on ahead,” the Doctor said, examining a few more parts he pulled out of the bag. “My lab, my rules!” Spike yelled from outside the room. The Doctor turned to look at Ditzy. “Isn’t it...?” Ditzy shook her head. “It’s Spike’s lab. Ever since Twilight locked herself down here for 48 hours straight on a studying spree, Spike claimed all the labs.” The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Well, I’m hardly going to argue with a dragon,” he muttered with a smile. Spike had prepared a small snack for the workers: a pitcher of lemonade and a to-go box from Sugarcube Corner with two dozen chocolate chip cookies were spread out on the Cutie Map. “I think we’ve got all the parts we need,” Tails said, spreading out a set of blueprints in front of him. “Should take me about a day to build, even with breaks,” he added, glancing at Spike. The Doctor and Twilight walked over to look over Tails’ shoulders. “That looks...” the Doctor began before trailing off. “That’s all there is to it?” Twilight said, tracing a hoof along the diagram. She paused at a couple of points and gasped. “Of course! If you’re not powering it by local lunar magic, you don’t need the massive bootstrapping that I had to build!” She traced some more. “But what kind of power source would you use?” Tails shrugged. “We usually use a Chaos Emerald or two, but from what I’ve seen of what your magic can do, there should be something.” “Just one problem,” the Doctor said, uncharacteristically dim. “This is a great mechanism for getting to an adjacent universe.” He turned to look at Sonic. “But you were thrown a lot farther than that.” Tails slumped back in his chair, ears flat. Twilight looked back at the blueprints. “We can still try—“ “Princess,” the Doctor interrupted, “you can build that machine here and you already know exactly where it will take you.” “But if we had more power—“ “The power that defeated Tirek couldn’t do it, not with this equipment. The math involved is completely different, like trying to calculate quantum mechanics with addition and subtraction.” “So we’re still stuck,” Tails muttered. The Doctor looked at Tails, his face pained. He turned to Ditzy Do and opened his mouth, but no words came out. Ditzy closed her eyes and nodded. “We knew this would happen, Doctor,” she said quietly. The Doctor nodded back. “Ditzy Do,” he said with a smile, “best of mares and best of mothers.” With a laugh, Ditzy flew over the map and tackled the Doctor. “Come back and visit?” “As soon as I can,” the Doctor said. “Wha—“ Sonic stammered. “What’s going on?” The Doctor pulled himself up. “Sonic, Tails, how long until you’re ready to leave?” “Right now” “An hour” Sonic and Tails looked at each other. Tails shrugged. “If you want to leave without telling Pinkie Pie goodbye, be my guest.” Sonic blanched. “Y’know, I should probably challenge Rainbow Dash to one last race.” He turned to the Doctor. “But how are we getting home?” The Doctor smiled. “I have a ship.” Sunset and Twilight strolled out of the building. The sun was low in the sky, and most of the students had already gone home, even the ones with after-school activities. "Hey," Sunset said, bumping into Twilight, "you okay?" "Yeah," Twilight said. She adjusted her glasses. "Just thinking." "About?" She sighed. "I know this is a lot like when my amulet was... malfunctioning. The creatures appearing and disappearing." "It's not your fault—" "I know it's not my fault; I just don't know why the amulet did that." "What do you mean?" "I mean, it was just supposed to catalog anomalies. The capturing was just kind of a side effect. But why portals?" Sunset bit her lip. "Well, it did absorb the magic of the Equestria portal." Twilight stopped walking. "Wait, it did!" She looked over to the statue. "It would've been the first thing it absorbed, too!" Sunset looked over to the statue. "How much you want to bet we've got another device at the statue now?" Twilight hefted her backpack and started running. "That's a fool's bet; come on!" The two ran up to the Wondercolt statue—or at least the base of it. There was nothing on the top, but there was a small flash of metal hidden in the weeds next to it. Sunset knelt down and brushed off the leafs, revealing a small metal plate with a few metal coils hooked up to a red gem. A glowing red gem. A glowing red gem with a visible aura around it and a slight humming noise. "That can't be good," Sunset muttered. Sonic and Tails made their way down the steps to Ditzy Do's basement. "What kind of ship do you keep in the basement?" Sonic muttered. "If it travels between worlds, it's definitely got multi-dimensional movement," Tails answered. Sonic side-eyed him. "Meaning?" Tails rolled his eyes. "It doesn't need to fly; it just... disappears." "Not what I was asking, but okay." "What were you asking?" Sonic motioned with a hoof to the cramped basement. "How does it fit down here?" A door creaked open. Sonic and Tails turned to see the Doctor walk out of a blue box in one corner of the basement with "POLICE BOX" written above the door. "Well, come on then!" he said, motioning into the box. Sonic and Tails looked past him into the box. Into the spacious control room inside the box. The control room that was much bigger than the outside of the box would allow. "Sonic?" "Yeah, Tails?" "I think that answers your question." "No kidding." "Oi, come on!" the Doctor snapped. "Yeah, bigger on the inside, now let's go." Sonic trotted across the gangplank and immediately flopped onto one of the seats. "Are we there yet?" "Ignore him," Tails said with a smile. "He has to say it; it's bad luck if he doesn't." "Oh, and what happened the last time he didn't say it." Tails fixed the Doctor with a stare. "You're looking at it." The Doctor paused. "Right then," he muttered. "Give me a moment to punch your coordinates into the TARDIS." "Is that what this is called?" Tails said. "The 'tar-diss'?" "TARDIS," the Doctor said, a little frustrated. "Time and relative dimension in space. Anywhere and any when you want to go to." "So we can go to exactly when we left? As if we'd never gone?" "Of course! Well..." The Doctor's voice trailed off. "Let's not introduce any more variables." "Is the ship part-organic?" "All organic. Got a mind of her own, really, and—wait." The Doctor looked up to see Tails flying around the coral struts of the control room. "Get down from there!" Tails floated down, his forehooves folded in front of him in a pout. "I was just looking." "Your reputation preceeds you, Miles Prower," the Doctor said, turning back to the console. "Can't have you dismantling the TARDIS." Tails landed on the floor next to the seat Sonic was still laying on. "I'm not that bad," he muttered. "Not anymore," Sonic countered with a grin. "Alright!" the Doctor yelled. "Coordinates set, passengers aboard..." He reared up, placed a hoof on a lever, and with a cry of "Allons-y!" pulled the lever. With a groan, the central pillar started its slow oscillation. A creaking, grinding sound filled the cabin as the room shook gently. Back in the basement, the blue box slowly faded out of existence. Sunset and Twilight scampered into the lab. "Find a broom handle or something!" Twilight yelled as they each scoured the room. "Got one!" Sunset answered. "Wait, is metal okay?" Twilight thought for a second. "No, too much of a conductive risk. See if we can find a wooden one." Ms. Gentleheart walked briskly in. "Everything all right, girls? I heard shouting." Sunset and Twilight looked at each other. "You explain, I'll keep looking," Sunset said. Twilight nodded and turned back to Gentleheart. "We found the device that's causing the rifts, but it's already overloaded. We need to find a way to unseat the gem without getting too close." Gentleheart nodded. "I assume you tried magic." "Absorbed it." "And you don't want to be close?" "In case there's an adverse reaction." "Would hitting it with a blunt object work?" "From a safe distance, yes." Gentleheart nodded. "I'll be right back." Twilight turned back to Sunset who was closing a closet door. "All metal," Sunset said. Twilight sighed. "Did any of them at least have the plastic bit on the end?" Sunset counted the broom handles in her head. "A couple, yeah." "It's not ideal, but it'll work if we need." "Do you know what—" Sunset was interrupted by Ms. Gentleheart returning with a quiver of arrows and a long, intricately carved wooden bow. She handed Twilight a pair of binoculars and strode briskly to the lab window and opened it. "What am I aiming for?" Twilight came alongside her and looked. "You see the glowing at the base of the Wondercolt statue?" "I see the gem and the coils." "We want to break the circut between them. That has the best chance of letting the stored magic bleed out safely." Gentleheart notched an arrow and pulled the string back. "It looks quite angry. You're sure we're safe here?" Twilight looked back at the glow, now pulsing eerily. "We should be." Back at the Castle of Friendship, Twilight had gathered her five friends together to discuss the week's events. "Well, I'll be," Applejack muttered. "Ol' Doc was a visitor from another world?" "I'm hardly surprised," Rarity said with a toss of her mane. "It certainly explains his fashion sense." "I do hope Fast and Miles get home safely," Fluttershy said. "Wait, what were their names again?" "Fast Hooves is Sonic," Twilight explained. "He said something about a hedgehog, but I'm not quite sure I understood that. And Miles' name is actually Miles Prower, but everyone calls him Tails." "Weird name," Rainbow Dash muttered. "Well, hopefully the Doctor can send us a picture of how they look normally," Twilight said with a bit of a sigh. "Might make more things make sen—" A deep rumble–almost musical–shook the castle. The girls all glanced at each other. "Well," Rainbow began, "that was–" The sound pulsed again. At the same time, Pinkie shot up and shrieked, "Twitchy-tail!" Twilight felt the color drain from her face. "The portal!" In a blink, she teleported away. The rest of them paused for a half-second before they all scrambled towards the portal room. Pinkie was the first through the door, the others just outside. She skidded to a stop in the center of the room just short of the dais. The sound was much louder and more consistent, like Vinyl Scratch had turned up an experimental dubstep mix a little too loud. Twilight stopped her inspection of the portal and looked at Pinkie who was standing in place save for a few errant twitches all over her body. "What is it?" she said, straining to be heard over the sound. "Twitchy tail, flicky ear, shoulder shake!" Pinkie yelled back. Twilight blinked. "I'm going in!" "No!" Pinkie yelled, diving to pin Twilight down before she could jump through the portal. "Shoulder shake!" "What does that mean?" Twilight yelled back. Gentleheart released the arrow. In the blink of an eye the glow stopped, and Twilight could see through the binoculars that the circut was cut cleanly in half, the gem now resting on the ground. Twilight looked back at Ms. Gentleheart. "You're a really good shot." She smirked. "I trust the bow." The sound abruptly stopped. Pinkie cringed. "This is gonna suck," she said into the silence. Twilight immediately cast the strongest shield she knew. With a deep bass note that would make high-end cinema sound systems jealous, the gem released its stored energy. The base of the statue collapsed in on itself and crumbled to dust, and the shockwave shook the entire school. Several windows cracked, more than one book fell off the shelves in the library, and Principal Celestia spilled her tea. The portal exploded. The room was bathed in an eerie purple light that threw all the colors off-balance. The deafening sound pulsed louder than ever along with a strange gurgling that reverberated through the castle. And five seconds later, it was still. Sonic, Tails, and the Doctor were thrown to the floor of the control room as the TARDIS was sent careening. "What just happened?" Sonic yelled, grabbing Tails and hugging him to himself. The Doctor pulled himself onto the console. "Something blew us off course!" He galloped over to another set of controls and frantically pumped a set of levers. "If we can regulate the huon flow we might be able to—" He was cut off by a deep bell tolling though the TARDIS. The room continued to shake. "Doctor?" Sonic yelled. The Doctor glanced at one of the monitors and stopped. Without taking his eyes off of it, he lowered himself where all four hooves were back on the ground. "Doc?" Sonic asked. "Did it hurt when you transformed into ponies?" the Doctor said quietly. "Like nobody's business." The Doctor nodded. "Well, this won't be as bad. The first time's always the worst." Sonic hugged Tails a little tighter. Spike bolted into the portal room. "Twilight!" Rainbow was close behind him and started picking through the rubble of the portal and dais. Rarity started levitating the larger pieces, and she and Applejack did their best to lift them away from the ponies trapped beneath. Except when all the debris was turned over... "They ain't here," Applejack said. "Darling," Rarity said, a little more desperately than she intended, "I'm sure that–" "They. Ain't. Here," Applejack reiterated with a stomp. In desperation, Rainbow Dash landed on the floor. “Pinkie Pie!” she yelled. “If you’re hiding from me and don’t come out right now, I swear by Celestia’s luscious round—“ “Rainbow!” Rarity shrieked. Rainbow glared at Rarity with a blush. “...sun, I will prank you every single day for the rest of eternity. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” They waited. After five seconds, Spike collapsed on the floor in shock. After seven, Fluttershy sat down. After ten, Rarity joined her. After fifteen, Applejack quietly said, “Spike, take a letter.” Rainbow continued glaring defiantly at the rubble, but her ears and wings drooped. “Ready,” Spike said, his voice dull. Applejack nodded and cleared her throat. “Dear Princess Celestia, “The mirror portal exploded. Twilight and Pinkie are missing.”