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// 7: The Doctor's Assistant 
// Story: Words of Advice from the many worlds of Twilight 
// by Joe Toon 
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"So young one, how has the world been treating you so far?"

"It has been good actually. I got the chance to see the versions of ourselves you told me to meet. However, I regret to tell you that the Empress from Equis 40 passed away shortly after my visit."

A clattering sound of a tea cup dropped. 

It has been several days since meeting the Knight and Twilight decided to revisit the Sparkle of Wisdom to inform her of the happenings recently. Twilight managed to set up a private tea party for two underneath the shade of the tree. The news of the Lady of Progress' passing shook the old mare as her eyes widened before she hung her head low with sorrow.

"That is unfortunate. She and I got along very well in Prosperity. We met on several occasions after the Convention of worlds; she came to me weeping after the death of her Rainbow Dash and the last I saw her was after her Applejack's death. She was the most brilliant of us I've had the pleasure of meeting. How did you know of her passing?"

"I've met an anthropomorphic version of our selves who calls herself "The Infinite"." Twilight grimaced at the memory of her encounter, "She told me that another version of us murdered her with a Bewitching Bell."

The old Unicorn's face paled hearing this, "Such troubling times we live in. And here I thought I'd finally spend my remaining days without worrying about such troubles."

Twilight placed a hoof on her counterpart with an apologetic gesture, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have bothered you with such disturbing news."

The old mare smiled reassuringly, "There is no need to apologise. If anything, I thank you for telling me. I often wondered when would be the next time I could converse with her."

The conversation was soon interrupted by a loud crashing noise as a large object crashed next to the tree where they were sitting. 

"Wh-what was that?" Twilight's mane frazzled out of fear and confusion as she and her counterpart ducked underneath the table, "Did something just crash in this dimension?"

"I'm not quite sure. I've never thought it was possible to break in a pocket universe that suppose to have several protective wards and defences."

"Then... Could it mean they are powerful enough to break through?"

"Or perhaps they were allowed? Stay close, young one. I may be old and without magic but I still have a few tricks on me." The old unicorn gave Twilight a reassuring smile before turning into a sheepish smirk, "Just remind me to thank Trixie before I return back home, I never thought her parlour tricks would finally become useful."

Twilight did a double take at that, "She taught you stage magic?"

"It was her way of thanks for turning her into the most powerful wizard in all of Equestria. Still not a successor to the Element of Magic though. Now come along and stay close." 

The two slowly approached the crashed object with caution. What they thought would be a smoldering remains of a meteor turns out to be... a blue wooden box with windows no larger than an outhouse intact in one piece. Visible are words labeling POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX with a plaque of instructions on the door. 

The old mare gave a wide smile at the object, "Well this takes me back. I believe we have guests."

Clearly dumbfounded, Twilight barely managed to put together her thoughts until she blurted out, "How is it in one piece? How do you know they aren't hostile? Do you know who's in there?"

"Oh I know several versions of our guest, along with several of his incarnations and faces. It all depends on which universe he's from..."

The conversation was quickly interrupted as the doors swung open. Smoke and a peculiar light obscured the inside as a brown earth pony popped out of the box coughing. His mane was a darker shade of brown, his Cutie mark was an hourglass and he wore a green bow tie on his neck.

"Twilight, (cough) I believe we might have lost her..." the earth pony took one good at the two mares in front of him and dropped his jaw in shock. 

What followed him was a familiar purple alicorn coughing from the smoke, "Doctor, w-what's going on? Did we lose her..." This Twilight shared the same expression as her companion after taking one good look at the two in front of them.

"Hello again, Doctor," the old mare spoke, "It's good to see you again, unless of course you are another version of yourself that haven't met me yet."

The earth pony, still shocked gave a curious smirk, "You know me? Who are you? How did we get here?"

The old mare gave a chuckle, "Oh how you asked that question so many times. It's funny knowing that usually you'd be the one at the receiving end of that question."

"So, we've met before. Different order in time I take it?"

"I'm afraid not. I believe that you are the first version of yourself to meet me. However, I have met several versions of yourself from other worlds before. I even gave advice to three versions of you."

Twilight clearly confused interjected, "Could somepony tell me what is going on? Who is he and why does he have another version of us with him?"

"Believe me, I'm just as confused as you are!" their counterpart replied.

The old mare turned to the stallion, "Should I tell them or will you?"

"Well, you seem to know more of the situation than I do," the earth pony replied, "sooo, knock yourself out."

The old unicorn turned to Twilight, "Princess Twilight Sparkle, this is the Doctor; other known as Time Turner. In one version, he's a time-travelling alien from the same universe as Sunset Shimmer. In my world, he's Ponyville's resident scientist, happily married to Derpy Do. And another version, he's an alien travelling the planet of Equis across time and space. From what I've been told, there are countless versions of yourself travelling cross two versions of reality; of Earth and Equis."

"Well, you most certainly haven't met me yet then." the Doctor took a bow, "Yes, I am the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord from Gallifrey from an entirely different universe. This face your seeing here, not meant to be a pony."

His companion took a step forward, "I take it both of you are from other versions of my world then? I'm Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and Bearer of the Element of Magic. I'm also keeping an eye on him."

"Another Princess," the old mare smiled, "I am Twilight Sparkle, The Sparkle of Wisdom they called me." She pointed at Twilight, "This here is..."

"... also Twilight Sparkle," Twilight continued from where the old mare left off, 'Princess of Friendship, Bearer of the Element of Magic and Celestia and Luna's successor as ruler of Equestria."

The Doctor's companion's eyes lit up with amazement, "Wait, Ruler? Successor? That's... That's..."

"A lot to take in, I know." Twilight interjected with a knowing look. She then did a double take to her counterpart, "Also, Time Travel?!"

The companion smirked, "And a lot more. Other planets, other worlds. We saw the beginning of Equestria and then end of time itself. We saw the birth of our friends in Ponyville, witnessed the Reign of Celestia after Nightmare Moon, saved the Pachi from monsters, liberated the Empire of Equis from a Tyrant, and so much more."

"That sounds exciting and all," the old mare interrupted, "but how did you end up in this pocket universe? It was suppose to be a simple meeting between myself and Princess Twilight here."

"Ah, yes. Funny story that!" The Doctor explained, "You see, while we were on our way to pick up Derpy we were suddenly attacked by an angry alicorn. So, we had to leave Derpy behind..." A moment of realisation came to the two time travelers, "We left Derpy behind!"

"W-w-w-w-what do we do?" Twilight's time travelling counterpart began to panic, "We left her behind, surrounded by those statues!"



Somewhere in Equestria, a grey pegasus mare with peculiar eyes that stare into different directions is looking directly at a group of angel statues that appear to chase after her.

"Wow, you guys are really good at this staring game."



"Don't worry Twilight. As soon as we know we aren't followed by that crazy alicorn we should be able to rescue Derpy from the angels."

"You do realise that this is a separate universe from our own, right? Maybe we lost her when we crashed here?"

"I'm not so sure about that," Twilight interjected, "Does this alicorn look like us?"

The travelers turned to Twilight and thought for a moment. Then it clicked in, "Now that you mentioned it, she does resemble a mix between me and Nightmare Moon."

Twilight and the old mare's eyes widened with horror. The unicorn took a step forward and placed a hoof on the Doctor, "It isn't safe here, you must leave!"

"Wh-what do you mean?" asked the young alicorn.

"I've met several versions of our selves before and most of them had an encounter with a crazed alicorn version of us who can somehow leap from one universe to another. Both of you have to leave immediately!" Twilight ordered.

"You must leave as well," the old unicorn ordered Twilight.

"B-but why?"

"Haven't you noticed that this being is targeting alicorns specifically? Dusk Shine, The Lady of Progress, you even mentioned about Nyx's mother saying she wasn't ready yet!"

The numbers began to run across Twilight's mind as it began to click with only two words, "Oh Ponyfeathers!"

In that moment, a large cracking noise was heard above them. All stared above in horror as a large crack was seen across the roof of the pocket dimension.

"WARNING! HOSTILE BREACH DETECTED! WARNING! HOSTILE BREACH DETECTED!" The entire world began to shift as a mechanical voice called out the warning. Gone was the serene landscape of the lone tree across the field of emerald grass, taking it's place was a metallic room with cannon like turrets protruding the walls; all pointing at the breach.

"I believe that is our cue to leave!" the Doctor called out as he grabbed his companion and made their way to the blue box. "Sorry we had to leave this way, but I don't think we should stay to find out about our new guest."

"Understandable!" Twilight agreed, still looking at the breach before turning to look at the Doctor and her counterparts, "Will we be able to meet again?"

"Well, that all depends if we live to survive her!" the Doctor pointed at the breach. He then reached into his mane and pulled out an empty paper in a passport-like item, "If you want, here's my TARDIS number!"

Twilight took a moment to look into the paper and quickly wrote the number into a scroll. Another loud noise akin to a battering ram smashing into a mirror was heard from above.

"Princess, there isn't anymore time! Return us back!" the old unicorn ordered.

"Alright! Stay safe everypony! You especially," Twilight turned to the wise unicorn before hugging her.

"I'll be fine, she won't come after me anyway."

Twilight broke the embrace, took one last look at all of them and pressed the seal.



The metallic room was devastated; turrets all around the walls were torn apart, the walls were dented and scorched and above stood a gaping hole leading into nothingness. In the middle of the room stood a purple alicorn with a dark aura surrounding her. She surveyed the area and began to scan for the presence of the alicorn that eluded her; what she found instead took her by surprise. There were two.

"Hmm, interesting."