//------------------------------//
// Bonus Story: Going the Distance. 
// Story: Bros in Equestria 
// by Mandroid 
//------------------------------//

	He had said one week. One week until he and Starswirl finished the spell that would let you go save her.
That had been ten days ago.
Ten days of trying to occupy yourself while the wizards did their work with the knowledge that she might be in danger.
You had learned a bit about the Equestria you were staying in. It was apparently about a hundred years after Discord was put down and the world was in harmony. Canterlot was the capitol, but was still under construction. You gave them a few pointers that you used back home.
The rest of this place was...topsy turvy.
Apparently Luna and Celestia switched rolls here. Celestia was the dutiful monarch who always put country and citizen before herself, and Luna was fucking anything with a hole or a pole.
One of those being Starswirl. Very loudly. In the room down the hall from yours and Anon's.
You and Anon sang Nightfall to them. Loudly and out of key. At least some things were universally constant.
When you weren't snooping around the castle, you were out in the courtyard with the guards. You had set up several practice dummies so that you could practice with Mick and Joe. That was where you were now, standing in the middle of a circle of spinning dummies as you danced from one attack into another.
The key with dual weapons was movement...to better utilize your extra knife. You speed up your strikes and eventually stick the dummy right where it's neck would be.
The sharpness of the blades becomes apparent when the "head" of the dummy lists to one side and falls off, revealing Anon standing behind it.
"You push yourself too hard and you'll be exhausted before we go save her." he says.
You yank Mick out of the dummy and leave the circle. "I'll be fine."
Anon stops you. "I know you didn't sleep last night, man..."
It's true, you hadn't.
"Too riled up."
You slip Mick and Joe back into their sheaths as Anon shakes his head.
"What's up?"
"We got it." he says.
You felt your heartbeat kick into high gear. Finally...an end to this waiting around.
"And you're sure it'll get us to her?"
"It's as close as we can get it."
...It'll do.
"Lead the way."

Anon leads you through the smaller Canterlot castle up to the Magisters tower. Starswirl and the Princesses stand around a table with the modified crystal on it with seven ponies in red robes. The First Magisters: Paragons of Equestrian magical study.
They and Anon had been pouring over the crystal magics for the past week and a half. Anon said he had to teach Starswirl all about how the spell worked, probably jumped magical study in Equestria forward by two hundred years doing it.
"Are you sure there is no way we can convince you to stay Anon...? Think of all we could accomplish!" Starswirl says.
Starswirl hadn't let up after Anon had told him he was leaving with you. It hadn't helped your mood.
"I'm sorry Starswirl but we have to go, she needs us." Anon says.
Starswirl sighs. "All this for a young girl..."
"We promised." You stare into Starswirl's eyes. "I promised."
Starswirl sighs again and turns away.
Anon elbows you in the ribs and gives you a stern look. You were being rude...
"Thank you. All of you. For your help." you say.
"We really appreciate it." Anon adds.
Anon walks up to the table and scoops up the crystal.  "You ready?" He asks.
You flex your hands and get ready to fight whatever that green light was once you step out.
"Do it."
Anon nods and tosses the crystal onto the ground. A rippling portal opens up a few feet in front of you both, filling the room with a low hum. It doesn't look any different from the way it normally did...
This better work.
Only one way to find out, you guess.
"Let's go."
Anon wordlessly follows you as you step through the portal.

You were in Gouxia Shin in Ib'xian, about ten years after the Equestria shook the world by annexing the Griffin Kingdoms due to their recent troubles. The warehouse complex you were currently in at the edge of the city was famous for being one of the most quiet places around.
Except for right now.
"Run!" the Doctor yells as the blast of energy impacted the wall behind you.
He didn't have to tell you twice!





Your name was Dinky Hooves and you have been traveling with your family for a while now. It had all started when Dad had said he wanted to take you on a trip after you graduated. That trip had ended with a bunch of robot ponies trying to kill you. Which lead to saving a star. Which lead to going back to the founding of Equestria. You don't know at what point you started enjoying it...but you eventually told him that you didn't want to go back.
The four of you arrived at this warehouse a few hours ago, looking for the reason the TARDIS had sent you here.
You found it when you discovered that some psycho Ibex named Hard Light had found a way to make an infinite army for himself thanks to an alien computer and some magic.
He had found a way to make the digital constructs inside the computer "real" in the form of holograms.
Holograms that were now chasing you.

-Music-
"Keep going! Back to the TARDIS!" Dad shouts.
You, Mom and Dad run through the warehouse, bounding over obstacles and evading as many of the hologram creatures as you could. You glance behind you and saw the horde of magic holograms chasing you, with new ones forming along the way.
One of them, a pony made of green light, tried to tackle you as Hard Light talks over the loudspeaker. "You should not have come to disrupt my work, Doctor."
Dad rolls his eyes as he runs. "It's not like I WANTED to come here..."
The light monsters behind you continue to give chase.
An emerald Diamond Dog shouts orders to the rest in his double flanged voice. "Get them! Make sure they not get back to the Box!"
Another dog tries to materialize directly in the path of the three of you.
You pray your magic will work as you reach out with your telekinesis and tried to yank his foot out from under him. You congratulate yourself as the Dog slams into the ground, but five others seem to take its place.
"Gogogogogogogo!" Dad yells as you round a corner, green blasts of energy flooding through the doorway a second later.
At the end of the hall you saw it, that shade of blue you had come to call home lately.
"Keep going!" Mom shouts.
There were tradeoffs to being a unicorn, such as not being able to move as fast as earth ponies or pegusi.
That became apparent when Dad and Mom start pulling ahead of you.
The blasts of energy behind you become more rapid, one of them striking near your foot. You lose your balance and tumble to the ground as the emerald monsters close in.
"Muffin!" Mom cries.
Dad didn't say anything, just pulled a green glowing stick out of his lapel and points it at the monsters.
The various hologram creatures held their hands to their imaginary heads at the sound before winking out like lightbulbs.
But still they came.
They rush passed you, charging Mom and Dad. "Dinky!" Dad shouts.
The same Emerald Dog from before who was shouting the orders looms over you as you tried to get to your feet. "Stupid ponies try to ruin Master's plan?"
You back away from the dog, noticing a bang and a low hum come from behind you.
The dog stares right at you and raises his claws. "We not let that happen."
You close your eyes and brace yourself for the end...





-Music-
The end that...doesn't come?
You open your eyes and see someone you NEVER expected to see way out here.
He stands hands locked with the Dog, a manic grin on his face and eyes that seemed to be giving the dog pause.
What...?
"Stupid dog tries to kill my friend?" he grunts out. "That isn't happening..." He glances down at you with a smile. "Pay attention now Poozer."
Your mind is catapulted back years at the mention of your old nickname and the only one who used it.
Mous stomps on the Dog's knee and sends a snapping sound through the hallway before he flipped it over his shoulder and began stomping on its neck. 
The emerald creatures behind him began bursting into flame and being tossed back dozens of feet. Mister Anon walked into view from behind you, tossing tiny rocks that sent the dogs flying.
The emerald monsters start to back away until they were eventually in full retreat.
Mous stops Mister Anon after he finished with the Dog. "Split up, keep the Dogs off 'em."
He looks back at Dad. "You. Is there something sending these things out?"
Dad nods. "A transmitter back in the main room."
Mous nods. "We'll take care of all the mooks, get rid of that thing."
You finally find your voice. "J-just the two of you?"
Mous gets that grin that brings you back to when you were a filly.
"C'mon Poozer, you know this is what I do." he says before he turns and runs down the hallway, Anon following behind him.


-Mous PoV-

Okay.  The portal worked, Dinky was safe, and there was an endless supply of weird holo-deck monsters in your way.
And Hearthswarming wasn't for months.
You bring your new knives to bear and dive into the fray. The addition of an extra blade makes this so much faster. You become a little tiny whirlwind of death as you sliced, stabbed and chopped your way through the cramped hallway.
Ha! Listen to you so happy on the job!
This must be Dinky's doing, it was GREAT seeing her again! It had been absolute AGES since you saw her at graduation, all beaming as you and her family cheered her on.
Even seeing her little figurines at the museum back home ha-WHOA!
You duck down just in time to dodge a magic blast. Oh yeah, you were fighting.
You tended to go on autopilot when you fought...
The lights dim and a faintly accented voice scream "NOO!" over the loudspeaker as you stabbed a green zebra in the neck. That was either Doc or Anon and considering that you hadn't been sucked into a black hole, you'll guess Anon just hit a power generator.
You cut through another group of light monsters before the voice came back.  "That will not work Doctor!" it shouts.
You follow the voice to a stairwell, at the top of which was a door with flashing lights coming from underneath it. 
Well that was promising.
You stomp up the stairs as that nut-job kept ranting.  "You cannot stop the future Doctor! Even the Time-Ponies will be in awe of my crea-"
You interrupt him as you kick open the door "I HATE THIS STATION!"
Before you was a very frightened Ibex dressed in a lab coat, a glowing metal cylinder behind him.
"No! Stay back!" he shouts as you closed the distance between the two of you.
You grab the microphone and wrestle it out of his magical grip "Give me that!" 
The mic echoes through the warehouse as you toss it over your shoulder. You kick the Ibex against the wall when he starts trying to hit you with magic, scooping up a chair while he's dazed. 
You throw the chair through the opaque window overlooking the warehouse floor. You hoist the protesting Ibex over your shoulders shortly thereafter and toss him out next. Anon, Hooves, and Derpy all stare up at you in silent shock. Dinky had a smile.
"I found the bad guy!" you shout.
You hop out of the window and roll into the fall.
The Ibex next to you groans as you stood.
"Oh relax you pansy, it was only fifteen feet." you say.
He moans again before he wisely decides to stay quiet.
Dinky has been staring at you since you got here. You knelt down to her eye level as you had done so many years ago.
"Hey Poozer."
She takes a few steps towards you, her eyes still wide. "How...how are you here?" she asks.
"Anon and a..."friend" of ours rigged up a portal to take us here."
You look around the room.
"Where are we, anyway?"
"Gouxia Shin in Ib'xian. Around 1912." the Doctor says.
You look to Anon "Was that before or after we shot Spacebear?"
"After. Way after." he says.
"I miss Spacebear."
"You shouldn't have had me blow him up then."
"Have you two changed at all?" Dinky asks.
You look back to her and return the smile she's giving you. "Not in the least, Poozer."
"Why are you here Mous?" she asks with a grin. "I'm not complaining, but it's still pretty weird."
"Saw a vision of you getting hurt, came to get you."
"All the way from Canterlot?"
"Further. And I said I'd protect you Dinks." you reach out and ruffle her mane "You know that."	
Dinky's smile persists as she wordlessly wraps her hooves around you. "My life has been way too boring without you Mous."
"Likewise Dinks." you say returning the hug.
A beeping noise coming from the Doctor interrupts your reunion.
"Oh dear. We have to leave now." he says.
Huh?
"Why?" Anon asks.
"Because we fried the generators here and they were set to explode. Alright, grab him and take him to the TARDIS!" he says, pointing at the Ibex.
You release Dinky and move to the unconscious Ibex.	
"Never a dull moment, huh Poozer?"
She giggles and helps you pick up the dead weight with her magic.
"Not in the least."

-Music-
The warehouse erupted into gouts of flame that shot up hundreds of feet into the air. The generators below were offworld technology, they could hold enough energy to turn this side of the planet into glass, Hard Light had only used a hundredth of their storage capacity. You stood with Anon, Dinky and her family on a nearby hill as you watched the warehouse go up, the TARDIS behind you with the unconscious Ibex inside it.
"Is the fire always blue, Doctor?" Derpy asks.
He nods. "It is when it's Atraxi technology."
"At least it looks nice." you say.
The building below explodes as another generator went.
You could relax now that Dinky was safe, relax and take in your surroundings. The first of which is this stallion standing next to you.
"New bow tie?" you ask.
He grows a smug grin. "Bow ties are cool."
"Bow ties are lamer than parachute pants."
"Are not."
"Are so."
"Are not!"
"They kinda are dad." Dinky interjects.
Hooves reacts in shock and turns to Derpy. 
"They're a bit silly sweetheart." She says.
Hooves looks to the two mares. "Twenty minutes you're back and you're already turning my family against me..."
You chuckle "Have a rough time of it, huh?"
He cringes. "Yes. Bit of a situation on Sontar a couple hundred years back...Got a little hairy."
"You should have called, we could have done your job for you."
He scoofs. "Oh I couldn't do that. You were busy! Something about a "Spacebear" I believe?"
You roll your eyes. Even dead that thing was annoying.
The final generator explodes in the factory and sends a great blue fireball into the sky. The distant wail of sirens told you that the authorities were on their way to investigate this fireball.
"That sounds like our cue to vanish." Hooves says.
Dinky hopped up and wrapped her hooves around your waist again, squeezing you tight. "It was great to see you again Mous..."
You stroke her mane. "Heh...you too Poozer."
Derpy flies up and wraps her hooves around both your necks. "Thanks for helping us you guys."
"Heh...No problem Derpy." Anon says.
"It's what we do."
"I won't hug you." a voice says from inside the now open TARDIS.
Hooves steps out holding a small wallet looking thing that he throws to you. "But I do have a gift."
You open it up, seeing the blank pages inside.
"Psychic Paper. Just think if you're in a jam." he says.
You hand the important paper to Anon, he gets in less scrapes than you.
"And I suppose that works both ways? Will I be getting messages from you when YOU get in a jam?" you ask.
Hooves chuckles. "Spoilers..."
Heh...
The two of you stare at each other as Dinky and Derpy walk inside the TARDIS.
"I guess I was right to trust you." you say.
Hooves walks inside his box. "I do my best...So long boys."
"Later Spacemane."
"Goodbye Doctor."
The blue door shuts before the blue box begins to fade. In a moment it's gone, leaving the two of you on the hill alone.
"Is he allowed to call us "boys"? We're probably older than him." you say.
"Eh...he's weird."
The police sirens grow ever closer to the burning building.
"Shall we?" Anon asks.
"Someplace sunny, if you can."
Anon chuckles and opens the portal. And the two of you are gone before the cops get on the scene.
It was great to see them again...