//------------------------------// // 54: Banana Daiquiri // Story: One Way // by jroddie //------------------------------// Chapter 54 I looked up at the Doctor. There he was. We were separated by so much. Entire parsecs of space. Complete dimensions. The rise and fall of a million empires, seeing the death of a thousand stars. Yet, so very very little. The flip of a switch. A few steps down the ramp and out the door. A short moment of crippling fear and then the cool, cool kiss of death. There he was. “Oi, git, up off my floor.” He ordered. I got up to my feet and brushed off my pants. There he was, the famous Doctor. I was so giddy I couldn’t keep the smile off of my face. The Doctor covered his face with a hand and gestured for me to sit down. I looked around and took one of the worn white leather chairs. The Doctor stood and watched me, staying silent for what seemed to be ages. Finally he started to speak. “Just one thing first. How did you get in?” He said. I smiled even wider than before. I placed my hands down on the control surfaces of the chair. “Tardis, disable isomorphic controls.” I enunciated clearly. There was a confirmation bleep from the console. The smooth glass panels near the front of the arm rest lit up. My hands flew at the controls as the Tardis bent to my will. The entire console room shrunk down to the size of a marble, expanded to the size of a football stadium and twisted like a corkscrew before finally settling into a shape that I needed. Column and console tucked away in an unseen dimension, leaving a wide empty space in the middle. I clicked a few more buttons on the arm rests, making a bright picture of my pony self appear in thin air. I looked over to the Doctor with his jaw hanging open and blinking. I hopped off of my chair and walked near the middle of the room. “Doctor… Have you ever been to a dimension called… Well, I’m not sure it has a name, but there is a place there called Equestria. You would recognize this creature if you have. Have you ever been? Doctor?” I asked, turning away from the picture of me to the Doctor, who was sputtering and pointing at me. “I- I- You- Y- You-“ He stammered, shaking a finger at me. He looked rather wobbly. I flourished my hand and made a chair appear behind him, just in time for it to catch him in its plush recesses. He looked so shocked it was almost funny. I turned back from him and looked at the picture of me. It was from my bath with Luna, or soon after. My mane was plastered to my neck, with the front of it hanging over my eyes. There was a blistering grin on my face. I sighed and turned back to the Doctor. “This dimension is where I am from. It’s the most beautiful and crazy place that you could ever possibly imagine in a thousand years. That’s actually me,” I pointed back to the floating hologram “In that picture. I’m in here because I need to get back. I’ll do anything to get back home. And you’re going to help me.” I finished, jabbing the Doctor’s chest with my finger. He gulped. “I-I-“ The Doctor kept on not making words properly. I sighed, going back to the command chair. I set the room back to normal size and shape with a swipe and turned back to the middle of the room. I placed my hands flat on the console that was there now, relishing in the unadulterated power that was at my command. I could feel it thrum in my bones, like the beat of music or the vibrations of a running car. It put my teeth on edge and made me shiver. I opened my eyes and looked down at the controls. I pulled on a few levers and switches, running around the pillar to find the next sequence I needed. When I was done, the nostalgic woosh of the time drive greeted me as I was arriving when my destination was. I stared up at the glowing pillar for a moment before turning back to the Doctor. His skin was deathly pale and he was shaking in his chair. “Are you afraid of me, Doctor?” I inquired. He nodded, which drew a smile. I looked up at the pillar as it stopped moving. “We’re here.” “You-You didn’t take me to Equ-Equ- “No. You look a little too tense for dimension hopping. We’re on a favorite planet of mine. I’ve always wanted to come here for the past few weeks. “Wh-Wh- “Midnight.” The Doctor was an eccentric drunk. I nearly had to take him away from the resort when he told the bartender about banana daiquiris and got offended when she didn’t believe him. We were now sitting in a hot tub, looking up at the deadly light refracting off a diamond waterfall. The Doctor was wearing Hawaiian trunks and a frilly yellow lei to match his banana daiquiri. He was looking up at the sky. “They never make them right.” The Doctor slurred. I smiled, taking my eyes off the diamondfall to watch a group of tourists walk by. I turned back to the Doctor and smiled. “The sandwich dilemma.” I explained. The Doctor took his eyes off of the barren Midnight sky to look at me quizzically. “Once you make a really good sandwich, nobody can ever make one for you again. It’s a curse.” I reasoned. The Doctor harrumphed, raising his frilly drink to his mouth. “What I don’t get,” He paused, sucking some banana slush out of his glass “Is why you need to get back. From what I understand, you have a pretty good life back on Earth. You’re set. Loads of money, go wherever you want, great house. Why would you want to go back to a complete… load of bollocks?” “Excuse me?” “From what you said, it was a complete bloodbath. You’re lucky to have gotten out when you did. In a way, you cut your losses and saved yourself a whole lot of heartache. It could have been much, much worse.” The Doctor explained. My face set into a scowl as the Doctor spoke. I didn’t even try to speak when he was done, because I knew I would shout at him. I calmed down before trying to talk. “How dare you. You’ve never died before. You’ve never felt the cold grip of undeniable certainty. You’ve never felt the numbness of fatal blood loss. You’ve never really disappointed someone. Not completely. So don’t tell me I cut my losses. I left behind my only chance at happiness when I died. You were a good guy when I knew you as a pony. I guess that happens in time.” I thrashed the Doctor with my words. He was slightly too drunk to care, which made me even more mad. I got up out of the hot tub about as dignified as anyone could, storming off into the resort. I ended up at the bar, sipping a drink that I didn’t know the name of. It probably wasn’t even from the same planet that I was. Whatever it was, it worked. The drink itself was so completely strange that I couldn’t fathom it. It looked like it wasn’t liquid as much as it was ethereal. Suspended in the ether were little blue wisps, twisting and turning around like vapor. It produced a deep chill in the glass, but when I drank it it was like eating soup. When I was done, the bartender would smile and hold out his hand. I would place a little plastic stick in his hand, he would fiddle with it, and he would hand it back to me with another drink. From the smile on his face the drink they must have been expensive.I dissolved into a stupor that made me forget where I was, let alone my troubles in other dimensions. I muddled my mind for a while. There was a slight commotion on the other side of the bar. My foggy senses managed to notice it. I looked to my left and saw some funny shape yelling at another funny shape. I blinked a few times and the scene resolved itself. There was a man arguing with a pony. I blinked again, shaking my head while wondering what I was drinking There was a man arguing with a pony. There was a man arguing with a pony. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My eyes opened so wide they nearly popped out. The pony didn’t dissolve into nothingness or do anything to make me think it was a dream. It just argued with another bar patron. All I could do was stare. The pony was a light lilac, almost white. He had a magnifying glass for a cutie mark. It had bright green eyes and a grey mane. “What do you mean, I stole it?” The pony demanded of the other guy. The other guy sniffed and wiped his nose with his hand. “You stole me crisps.” He slurred. I couldn’t really say whether he was too drunk or not because it wasn’t hard to look completely sober next to me right then. The pony made a show of scoffing at the man “You’re off your rocker, mate, if you think I stole those crisps! You’re so bleedin’ drunk you can’t even see them on the floor where you dropped them!” He shouted at the man. The man snorted and picked his potato chips up off of the floor, leaving the pony alone. The bar was pretty empty at the time, so there wasn’t many people to notice the pony, and those that did see it probably thought it was an alien. I knew what it was, which was why I stared at it. He turned back to his tumbler filled with greenish liquid. He picked it up with magic and took a sip, grimacing when he set down the glass. The purple pony looked around for a little bit, like he was waiting for something to happen. I made eye contact with him. I gasped, shocked. His sharp green eyes seemingly probed me, making me feel naked. What made it worse was his eyes widened in surprise. A smile spread across his face and he hopped off of his stool and walked over to me. I stiffened and looked away from him, trying to read all of the labels on the bottles behind the bar. He wasn’t fooled and nudged me with his hoof. “You’re the Composer.” He said in awe. His strange comment shook me out of trying not to be noticed. I moved my arm so I could get a good look at him. “Excuse me? “You’re the Composer. You sent me.” “Excuse me?” I said incredulously. The pony shook his head. “Of course you wouldn’t know,” He muttered. Turning back to me, he said “But we need to talk. Can you come with me?” He spoke to me, suddenly very intense. I felt wary. “No.” I simply stated, turning back to my drink. I was about to pick up the ethereal beverage by the stem when the pony nudged me again. I took a moment before turning to him, slightly annoyed. I didn’t say anything to him, so he spoke first. “Look behind you.” He grinned. When I did, I nearly had to scoop my jaw up off of the floor. “That’s- That’s-“ I stammered. The pony laughed. “That’s the Composer.” He bragged, like it was a personal achievement to know the guy. I turned back to the bartender. “What the hell did you put in my drink?” I demanded, but the portly fellow just laughed. “Nothin, I see ‘im too. They’re my best customers, Eqquans. Good, honest folk. Ain’t never start fights, never argue the tab. Good, good folk.” The man trailed off, polishing a stein made out of a whole, seamless diamond. I turned back behind me. “He’s- He’s- “Of course he is. Who else would he be? “He’s me.” I whispered to myself, completely in awe. The Composer was exactly that. Me. He was standing outside of the door to the bar, about thirty feet away. He was leaning on a gigantic translucent column and staring straight at me. Other than a tiny silver cross he was wearing on a thin chain around his neck, he wasn’t wearing anything. His white coat was nearly glowing in the filtered X-tonic sunlight, which contrasted with his glossy black mane. He was lean, with the wiry muscles of a rock climber. Nobody walking pass seemed to pay any attention to him, but I couldn’t look at anything else. He smiled, remembering his past in me. I struggled to turn back to the pony next to me. “How?” I whispered. “I’m not allowed to tell you about your future” He said, repeating a variation of a rule I’d heard countless times before. I sighed. “Why doesn’t he come over here and talk to me? “He’s not allowed to touch you, or even speak to you. You aren’t allowed to talk to him either. He was very strict about that.” He explained. I nodded. “What now?” “I’m taking you to his suite. We need to talk alone. Can you wait here for a moment?” He ventured. I nodded, and the pony walked away from me to walk to me. He met the Composer by the big crystalline pillar to talk to him. I couldn’t hear anything, but that didn’t keep me from looking. The Composer said something, and the lilac pony laughed. The purple one nodded, walking away from my pony self. It walked up to the doorway of the bar, motioning for me to get up. I followed him out of the bar to the lobby of the resort. I watched the Composer knock on the crystal floor of the lobby twice with his hoof. The pillar behind him glowed slightly, revealing a seamless door built into the surface. It let out a bright, blinding light as it opened. I had to squint as I watched the silhouette climb through the door, which closed behind him. It sealed shut completely, leaving it looking exactly like it did before. There was a moment of complete silence, and then it happened. The disembodied woosh of a moving tardis reverberated through the lobby. I looked all around to see where it was, but then it dawned on me. I turned back to the crystal column just in time to see it fade into complete nothingness. I stopped right there in the middle of the floor and stared at the spot where the column was. The pony had to tug me out of the lobby to get me moving again. “This is it? I thought it would be the deluxe penthouse suite or something like that.” I wondered aloud as we walked to the room. It was in a hallway made out of a vein of cloudy emerald, deep in the crust of Midnight. The lilac pony laughed. “You actually have to pay more for rooms deeper down. The cheapest rooms have the best views of the outside, but you wake up every morning with sunburn.” “Do you have a name?” I asked the pony. “Finder.” “Do you have a last name?” “Back when I lived there wasn’t much importance placed in last names.” He said, but I wasn’t paying attention. There was a food cart next to one of the doors further down the hall. The Composer was right next to it, smiling. I looked away from him because he wasn’t going to change anytime soon. The room was luxurious, with nearly every available fixture carved meticulously out of the surrounding emerald. I sat down on a couch, one of the only non-emerald pieces in the room and stared at Finder. He wasn’t as well built as the Composer was, but he wasn’t gangly, either. He sat down on the floor in front of me, with a serious look on his face. “You’re different. You’re not quite human, not quite Eqquan. You’re in between. The Composer sees something in you that he likes, and he’s willing to help you out. The thing is, Edwin,” The pony shifted on his haunches. “He’s willing to do just about anything to get you there, short of sending you himself. Mister Shell, we’re desperate. I’ve seen the Angelic scourge. It’s never pretty. Some of my own relatives have died at the hooves of Angelics. The Composer thinks that you’re Equestria’s last hope. The Composer thinks that you can stop them. And he’s never wrong.” “And you want me to do… What, exactly?” I asked. Finder burst into a grin “What are your opinions on Grand Theft Tempus?”