Chapter 2: The Panel
Meadowlands Exposition Center, Secaucus, New Jersey, America, Earth, Summer, 2012 A.D.
Alex and Quinn found two seats by the aisle towards the middle of the room; Alex took the aisle seat and Quinn took the seat to the right of it. Alex looked towards a corner of the room and, for a few seconds, thought he saw the Doctor, Twilight Sparkle, and Derpy Hooves standing against the wall and examining the room. His attention was quickly pulled to Quinn's stuffed Luna, which was being shoved into his face.
"Hey! What's that for?!" Alex snapped.
"Nothing. I just wanted to see what you'd do if a stuffed Luna suddenly attacked you," Quinn replied with a laugh. Alex wanted to return with a snarky comment but his attention was quickly drawn back to the spot where he saw the ponified Doctor and his pony companions. His ears began ringing again and he turned back to Quinn. "Do you think Edgar's in here somewhere?"
"Maybe. Either that or he's strolling around the booths and meeting other Bronies."
"And Pegasisters!"
"Yeah. Them too." Alex's attention began to trail off again and Quinn snapped her fingers. "What?!"
"What's with you? You keep trailing off as if something's got your attention."
"I think something does...and yet I'm not entirely sure."
"What are you talking about?"
"You'd think I'm crazy."
"Alex, I'm your girlfriend. If something's bothering you then you can tell me! I promise I won't think you're crazy."
"Okay. I swear that...I keep seeing the Doctor, Twilight and Derpy." Quinn looked around the room and shrugged her shoulders.
"Well, there's obviously a bunch of cosplayers here and-"
"No, it's not them. I swear that I'm actually seeing the Doctor Whooves, the Twilight Sparkle, and the Derpy Hooves."
"Alex, that's impossible. The Doctor, Twilight, and Derpy are fictional characters from television shows. How can they be real?"
"I know that, Quinn. But I keep seeing them. I know what I see isn't a cosplayer nor is it a painting or a statue or what have you. It's the real deal: flesh and blood ponies. I know it's impossible...but they look so real." Alex looked at the corner again. For a few seconds, he saw them again. "Quick! Look at that corner over there!"
Quinn did what she was told. After a few seconds of staring, she shook her head and rubbed her forehead. She looked at Alex and said, "I...I didn't see anything."
"Liar. You did see something," Alex snapped.
"But I really didn't see anything. Although, I did get the feeling that something was standing in that corner." Alex was about to say something else with a familiar figure caught his eye.
"Oh crap." Alex and Quinn looked to see the man in the green trench coat taking residence in a seat in the far back of the room.
"Oh, it's him again."
"I've got a bad feeling about that dude, Quinn."
"Why? So what if he's dressed as a character that nobody can recognize? What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing, but there's more to my uneasy feeling than that. It's almost as if...never mind. That guy just rubs me in all the wrong ways."
"Then ignore him." Alex turned away from the man and back to Quinn. He nodded and turned towards the front of the room, making sure to avoid making eye contact with the corner in which he thought held the Doctor, Twilight, and Derpy. Though he was confused, he was also excited. The panel was about to start.
Meanwhile, Derpy sat down against the wall and looked at the room filled with the fans of her universe, which she had learned identified themselves as Bronies and Pegasisters. Derpy looked at the Doctor, who was still explaining to Twilight the concept of a cartoon and television shows in general, before turning back to the audience. Then she noticed something. A man in the back was giving her a bad feeling.
"You've noticed him too?" asked the Doctor. Derpy stood up and nodded. The Doctor, Twilight, and Derpy looked at the man.
"I don't know why but that man is making me feel really uncomfortable," said Twilight.
"You're not alone," Derpy admitted.
"I suggest that we keep an eye on him," said the Doctor. "We must be-"
"It's starting!" said a fan sitting in a chair near to where they were standing. The fan and her friend smiled in delight as the panel started.
"Hello BronyCon!" said a man as he walked onto the stage. The audience erupted into applause. "It is my great pleasure to welcome you all here! Now, let's bring in the people that you've all come to see!" The audience erupted into more applause. Derpy couldn't help but notice that the only person in the room not applauding was the man in the green trench coat. "Here they are! Nicole Oliver, otherwise known as Princess Celestia and Cheerilee, Andrea Libman, otherwise known as Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, Tara Strong, otherwise known as Twilight Sparkle, Peter New, otherwise known as Big Macintosh, and, last but not least, Cathy Weseluck, otherwise known as Spike the Dragon and Mayor Mare!"
The audience erupted into their loudest applause yet as the voice actors walked onto the stage. Twilight couldn't help but look for Tara Strong, the human who shared her voice. Her eyes soon fell upon her: a beautiful, fair-skinned, blonde-haired woman in her late thirties. Twilight also couldn't help feeling a connection with her, most likely due to the fact that they shared the same voice.
The Doctor, meanwhile, examined all of the voice actors with heightened curiosity.
"Hmm...the woman who voices Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy certainly resembles the latter more than the former," he said as he looked at the voice actors. "Spike is voiced by a woman?! I can't wait to tell him that."
The voice actresses took their spots as the panel began. While Twilight and Derpy listened with their full attention, the Doctor's attention kept trailing back to the man in green. Something was different about him. It was almost as if the man didn't even belong here. He certainly stuck out of the crowd of pony-based cosplayers. Twilight and Derpy laughed as Andrea talked a bit in her Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie voices. The fans erupted in applause. The Doctor chuckled too but quickly turned his attention back to the man. He was surprised to find that the man was staring straight at him.
"No," the Doctor said under his breath. "That's not possible." The man smiled before pointing at the Doctor and then towards the center of the room. The Doctor followed the man's pointing direction towards a particular seat. The Doctor's eyes widened. The man was pointing at the teenage boy that the Doctor had bumped into earlier. The Doctor turned back to the man. They locked eyes. "Who are you?"
A deep and cold voice suddenly appeared in the Doctor's mind and said, "So, it's true. I'm not the only one here who's crossed through the void. I knew there was something a little bit too real about that TARDIS in the plaza. So here you are: Doctor Whooves and his assistants. First a new playground and now a worthy opponent to do battle with. Excellent. Let the games begin, Doctor Whooves."
The man's smile widened as he pointed back at the boy. The tip of the man's finger began to glow green but nobody seemed to notice. The Doctor broke into a run towards the man. Twilight and Derpy were too surprised to run after the Doctor immediately.
"STOP!" the Doctor ordered as a ray of green energy shot out of the man's finger.
Quinn gasped as her stuffed Luna fell out of her lap. Alex could swear that he saw it glow green for a second but the light quickly disappeared.
"Who are you?!" yelled a voice from nowhere. It was apparent that nobody else in the room aside from Alex could hear the voice. Alex recognized it immediately. It was the voice he heard after bumping into his Doctor hallucination. He was here. The Doctor was here, and Alex knew it. He turned his head in the direction of the voice. He saw a blurry image of the Doctor running along the edge of the room and towards a seat in the back. Alex's eyes widened. He was heading straight for the man in green. What did he have to do with any of this?
"You better not fall again," Quinn said to her stuffed Luna in a teasingly scolding manner. Alex looked at Quinn for a second and when he turned back he had lost sight of the Doctor again. He looked for the man but he had disappeared as well. Alex turned back to Quinn, who was combing her stuffed Luna's mane back into shape. Alex suddenly felt a new presence appear close to him. He turned around to see the man in green standing right next to him. Nobody appeared to notice the tall man standing in the aisle aside from Alex. The man looked down at Alex with his cold glare. His eyes flashed green for a second.
"Hold it right there!" echoed the voice of the Doctor.
"Doctor?!" asked the out of reach voice of Twilight Sparkle. The man leaned down towards Alex. Alex felt his stomach flip.
"There's only room for one creator in this universe now," he said. He quickly looked around the room before looking down at Alex again. "I'm so glad we met, Alexander Stevens. You're the key to the downfall of my greatest enemy."
"What?!" asked a confused Alex.
"What'd you say, Alex?" asked Quinn. The man snapped his fingers before disappearing. A second afterwards, Alex could see the Doctor running down the aisle but Alex quickly lost sight of him. Quinn returned to brushing her Luna's mane. Just then, the stuffed Luna's eyes glowed green. Alex and Quinn looked in horror as the stuffed pony princess came to life in Quinn's hands. It opened its mouth, which was filled with sharp teeth, and smiled.
"I'm going to love and tolerate the blood out of you!" said the stuffed Luna as it lunged for Quinn's face. Quinn screamed as she threw the stuffed Luna into the aisle. The voice actors fell silent as Quinn ran out into the aisle, trying to run past the stuffed monster. It quickly got up and lunged for Quinn's legs. Alex jumped up and kicked the stuffed Luna straight in the jaw. Metal teeth landed on the ground around Alex. A black liquid began oozing from the monster's broken jaw.
"Is there a problem?" asked Andrea Libman. Alex turned back towards the voice actors.
"As a matter of fact, there is. My girlfriend's stuffed Luna has just come to life and now it's trying to kill us!" he replied. Alex didn't realize how stupid that sounded until he spoke it. Great. The first thing he said to Andrea Libman and it was a claim that Quinn's stuffed Luna was now a killing machine. A medical prescription now seemed to be in Alex's near future. Just at people began to laugh and whisper comments about Alex, the creature jumped onto Alex's back and began trying to bite his neck. Quinn screamed and several people stood up as they realized that what Alex had said wasn't exactly a load of BS.
The Doctor ran down the aisle towards Alex Stevens, who was starting to fight against the killer toy. He pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver and aimed it at the creature. The creature let out a cry of pain before leaping off Alex's back and running towards the Doctor. The toy seemed to grow in size as it ran. By the time the Doctor reached it, it was the size of Derpy. The creature lunged at the Doctor as the Doctor activated the Screwdriver again. The Doctor gasped in pain as a metal tooth scraped his shoulder.
"I could really use some help!" the Doctor cried as the living toy launched towards him. The audience and the voice actors had no idea what was happening. To them, it looked like the toy was fighting something that they couldn't focus in on for some reason. Twilight ran past Alex, who caught a quick glimpse of her, and aimed her horn at the toy. The toy shrieked as a fireball smashed into its rump. The creatures eyes glowed green as it began charging not at Twilight but at Alex.
"Not again!" groaned Alex as he ran up the aisle.
"Somebody stop that thing!" cried Quinn Thompson. Derpy flew into the air and tried to take down the toy with an aerial assault but the living toy proved to be too quick for her. The voice actors stood up as they realized that both Alex and the monster were running straight for them. The Doctor and Twilight ran side-by-side after the creature. They turned to each other and nodded. They both had the same attack strategy in mind. Twilight aimed her horn at the monster while the Doctor aimed his Screwdriver. They fired at the same time. The monster screamed as it was hit with a blast of magical energy. The creature then exploded into a shower of stuffing. A shockwave spread out from where the creature had been. The room shook like an earthquake had just passed through. Twilight, who couldn't stop in time, ran straight into the shockwave and found herself flying through the air. Alex looked up as a blurry, out of focus Twilight Sparkle flew over him. Twilight hit the surface of something with a loud thud. The room was suddenly filled with gasps. Twilight's heart skipped a beat. She realized that her perception filter had fallen off her neck while she had been flying through the air.
"Twilight!" she heard Derpy call. Twilight's eyes widened and her breathing quickened when she realized that she hadn't fallen on the ground but instead had fallen on top of the voice actors' interview table. Twilight gulped before looking up and finding herself staring straight into the eyes of Tara Strong.