A Mad Dash Through Time and Space
Epilogue – From God to Mortal in the Blink of an Eye
A commission for an anonymous brony
As written by Joseph Raszagal

~ ~ ~

“Will you wait for me even though
I know you've already waited so long?
Will you hold out for me even though
You already had to stay so strong?
I never meant to do this to you
I never meant to lengthen the days
But if you can wait just a bit more
I promise it'll be worth the teary haze
Just a little while longer
Stay just a little stronger
And trust me when I tell you
The time spent waiting will hurt me too
Please understand
Because I know you can
I tried so hard and did so much
Only to be sent back to the starting gate
But I promise you with all my heart
It'll be worth the decade wait
Watch the clock and watch me grow
It'll pass quickly, I just know
I'll be in your arms, just like I should
Just like you always hoped I would
I'll be everything you want me to be
So long as you can wait for me“

- “Will You Wait for Me?” by Joseph Raszagal

~ ~ ~

Mere moments after fully awakening, Pinkie Pie's eyes watered over as fresh memories of the nightmares she had endured surged to the forefront of her mind. Hiding her face behind her hooves, she sobbed hysterically, wailing and weeping in ways that nopony had ever seen the party planner do before.

It was only when another pair of hooves wrapped themselves around her that she began to calm back down.

Removing her forelegs from her face, Pinkie looked up to take in the sight of a beautiful spectrum of colors, each vibrant hue accented further by a brilliant golden glow.

“Shhh,” cooed Rainbow Dash, cradling the mare that she had spat in the face of death in order to rescue. “I'm here, Pinkie, and I'm not going anywhere. Everything's gonna be alright, I promise.”

“D-Dashie?” she blubbered uncertainly, the stuntpony's mysterious aura and multiple echoing voices throwing her off. “I-is that really y-you?”

Nuzzling the pink pony tenderly, Rainbow assured her, “I might be shining like the sun and it might sound like there's five of me, but yeah, it's still me. I'm here and I've got you.”

“Raszagal?” Dash finished, her eyes glassing over and drifting off to focus on nothing in particular. “I banished him.”

“No,” the pegaus spat, clenching her teeth. “That would have been too good for him. Imprisonment with his face immortalized up there for everypony to see every single night? Not a chance.”

Looking skyward, Rainbow's tail flicked as she replied, “He's the 'Stallion in the Sun' now, trapped someplace where it's too bright to ever see his stupid face again... Well, you know, if being there doesn't just kill him outright. Honestly, I'm not really sure what'll happen to him up there. In that same vein, I'm not really sure I care either.”

A brief silence settled over the ruins, broken only by Pinkie as she lifted a hoof to stroke the weathermare's cheek and whispered, “You were always so pretty before, Dashie. But now... you look just like I always dreamed you would. I'd fall asleep and some meanie in my dream would kidnap me. Just as I thought all hope was lost, you'd come crashing through my prison walls, sparkling and shining like a million fireworks all going off at once.”

“Heh, I wish I could show you what this fells like, Pinkie,” Dash said, the golden glow in her eyes still just as bright and blinding. “It's like there's a star burning inside me and when I look into the fire I can see everything. I've gotta admit, it's... it's pretty cool.”

Rushing over to the two mares as fast as possible on only three legs, the Doctor gripped Rainbow by the shoulders and span her around to face him.

“Rainbow Dash, listen to me, you've got to stop this now!” urged the Time Stallion, his tone frantic. “When you absorbed the Time Vortex, you absorbed pure time energy and no one is supposed to do that! If you don't release it soon, that star burning inside of you is going to rage out of control and consume you!”

With a tired, solemn smile, Rainbow Dash shook her head and said, “No, it won't.”

“How could you possibly know that?” he questioned urgently, desperation in his voice.

“Because right now, I know everything,” answered Dash, sighing. “I'm sue it would kill me, if only it could. But I didn't absorb this power while I was alive. I was already dead. Barely even made it into the TARDIS.”

Pinkie Pie's eyes went impossibly wide at those words, misting over as her mane began to go limp.

“Hey now, don't you worry,” the prismatic pegasus chuckled. “Remember me just saying a second ago that I know just about everything now? Well, time energy has this funny little trait about it. It's completely unpredictable, kind of like me. When it flew into me, it did bring me back... but I'm afraid that things aren't going to be quite the same now. My biological clock's gone kind of wonky. I... oh, Pinkie, I don't know how to say this. It's really hard. Really, really hard. I won't die when I release this power, but I will be different.”

For a moment, Rainbow Dash's words hitched in her throat, the unfairness of what she was about to say hurting her own heart far more than the maelstrom of energy roaring around within her head.

Eventually, she managed to say, “Pinkie, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but... I can't be with you. Not yet.”

“That's just the thing,” the stuntpony replied, her head hung low. “I love you too. So much more than I ever even knew. But this body, it won't last like this. I was brought back from death, but not like Twilight was. The Time Vortex joined me after I had died, but not in the same way. I'm going to... change. But that's okay, please believe me, it'll be okay. If you love me as much as I love you, if you love me as much as I know you do, you'll wait for me. We'll be together, just like I wish we could be right now.”

“I can wait forever!” the baker cried, tears flowing freely down her face. “Forever and ever and ever! I don't understand, not really, but I could wait two whole forevers and an eternity for you!”

Embracing Pinkie Pie softly, wrapping her wings around her, Rainbow bit back her own tears as she said, “You know, I was never really good with words like this. It always seemed... I don't know, so uncool. But now, right now, right here with you, this is the coolest thing in the entire universe. In any and every universe. Please... just... just wait for me, Pinkie Pie.”

Releasing the pink mare, the glowing pegasus let out a heavy sigh and turned to face the blue box that had given her the power to do anything and everything. Outstretching a single hoof, she closed her eyes and released the Time Vortex from her body. Explosively, a wave of golden energy fled from her form and spiraled back into the blue box from which it had come. Left behind, a suddenly much younger Rainbow Dash collapsed to the ground. Breathing heavily, she turned her head to catch one last glimpse of the party planner's blue eyes before blacking out.

In a rush, Pinkie was at the fallen filly's side instantaneously. An ear placed against the sky blue chest revealed a steady heartbeat.

Thanking Celestia that the weathermare had kept her word and survived the ordeal, Pinkie Pie forced a serene smile as she quietly uttered, “I don't know if you'll still want me once you grow back up, Dashie, once you're a grown mare again and I'm an old Granny Pie, but I meant it. Every word of it. I'll wait for you until the end of time.”

Far off in the distance, many miles away, a great and powerful storm subsided, followed immediately by two mighty monarchs soaring high into the sky, their instinctual destination a forest that neither had visited for a very long time. Ponies all across the land looked up to see both sun and moon as they sped with a determined and desperate haste to what they felt was the location where a great tragedy had taken place.

Sprawled across the ground, held fast in Pinkie Pie's forelegs, an adolescent filly opened her eyes and yawned. After blinking several times, she mumbled, “Singing... They were... singing...”

Seemingly on the verge of passing back out, Rainbow Dash mustered, “So many voices... Doctor? Who... who's Donna?”

Standing several feat away, the Time Pony went rigid as he answered, “A friend. A friend and a hero.”

A second later and a soft snoozing indicated that Rainbow Dash had indeed passed back out. As Pinkie Pie continued to cradle her, Twilight approached the Time Pony and questioned, “With all that we've been through, you're actually smiling?”

“No worries, I'm sure it'll fade soon,” he chuckled humorlessly. “You know, Elton was right. When you're a kid, they tell you it's all grow up, get a job, get married, get a house, have a kid, and that's it. But no, the truth is the world so much stranger than that. So much darker. So much madder... And so much better. Sometimes, every once in a great while, no matter what sort of beast crawls out of its cave, everybody lives.”

“A friend of mine. Or maybe a fan. Either way, definitely a victim. No matter how many I try to help, I still tend to leave a lot of those behind. Today's been no such exception. You're the biggest victim of all, Twilight, you just don't know it yet.”

“She didn't heal you in time before you died, Twilight, she brought you back to life. Or, more accurately, she forced you back to life.”

Entering the conversation, a heavily injured Spitfire remarked, “I'll admit, wording it that way does make it sound a bit ominous.”

“I've,” the Doctor began, searching for the right words, “I've seen it happen before. I've seen the signs before. I should have known and I should have stopped it. I should have protected you, I don't know, better somehow. I should have protected her from herself. But I couldn't. Once defeat was clear, we only had one option remaining. The Bad Wolf. And I let her do it, I let it happen. Twilight, your life will never be the same. No matter how it might come about, now matter how many times you may eventually... try. You won't be able to. You cannot die.”

An unnatural wind blew aside a blast of dust and leaves as a blue box steadily vanished from sight. Appearing in the center of Ponyville at almost the exact same time as it had faded from the battlefield back in the Everfree, the Doctor and his lively companion bid several brief farewells, their sights now set on closing the hole in space and time that had allowed everything to go so very wrong in the first place. By the time the Princesses finally arrived, the damage had already been done.

And the prospect of threats from beyond the heavens now burned into the minds of everypony who had witnessed the events themselves unfold.

Nighttime came, the sun stretching across the sky to set and rest for its next day's journey, and the heavy weight of a pair of grand doors echoed across the palace's throne room as a purple unicorn approached her mentor with plans to prevent such future catastrophes.

The alabaster alicorn regarded her pupil as she strode towards her. Wings ruffling nervously, she felt a chill run down her spine. She had never seen a look quite as deadly gleaming in the unicorn's eyes as the one she saw now.

In an odd turn of events, the goddess very nearly cowered before her apprentice.

Taking a moment to steel herself, Celestia stood with poise to her fullest height, prepared to endure the damnation that she felt she truly did deserve for failing to protect her subjects when they needed her most. Bitterly, the whole scene reminded her of those past times when she was forced to scold her student for many a mistake and mishap, but with the roles painfully reversed.

The Princess let out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding on to, and met those fierce eyes, determined to do her duty and take responsibility for her absence.

“Celestia,” Twilight spoke, her voice even, “I'll start this off by saying... I'm not blaming you for not being here. Yes, your and Luna's presence could very well have ended everything before it even began, but unfortunate circumstance and pure happenstance combined to create the perfect storm. However, with that said, I want you to understand. This can't happen again. I won't let this happen again, ever.”

After turning her head off to the side to collect her thoughts, reminding herself just who she was speaking to, Twilight closed her eyes to keep herself in check and said, “The Doctor, he was a traveler from another universe. That alone means that there are other universes out there, or more to the current point, other universes that could pose significant danger to the safety of Equestria, and quite possibly in a scope equal to or even greater than the one that we only just barely survived. We need a plan of action, Princess.”

Trotting several feet away, the lavender mare thought back on a few of the Doctor's parting words to her.

“No matter how it might come about, now matter how many times you may eventually... try. You won't be able to. You cannot die.”

Tensing where she stood, she said, “I propose a strike force, an elite team of trained professions to stand at the ready should such threats from beyond the edges of our realm again present themselves.”

Turning to face her battle-hardened protege, the goddess inquired, “What would you call this team.”

Perhaps it was sheer coincidence, perhaps it was simply a name that she felt of her own design, but regardless, Twilight locked eyes with the Regent of the Sun and answered, “Torchwood.”

Trotting away, out through the doors she'd entered though, Twilight Sparkle turned her head and said, “Me.”

A Mad Dash Through Time and Space

by Joseph Raszagal

Epilogue - From God to Mortal in the Blink of an Eye