//------------------------------//
// The Time-Bubble 
// Story: The Lost Kingdom 
// by Piece Bot 
//------------------------------//

“Well of course it’s real! I was there when it was being built.”
“But, that would mean you would be at least three thousand years old.”
“But I’m not!”
“Yeah, Ah can see that. How?”
“Because I’m not three thousand years old. I’m actually, around twelve hundred years. Give or take a few hundred.”
“How can you be twelve hundred years old when you don’t look over twenty?”
“I’m a Time Lord and before you ask, yes I am an alien and I am able to regenerate. Now, let’s go save your friends. Allons-y!” Applejack just stared after him and headed for the train station.
“Uh, the TARDIS is this way.” He pointed with his hoof to an alley behind the shop.
“But the train station is this way!” Applejack pointed her hoof in the other direction, towards the train station.
“I can see that this is going to be a problem. I’ll have to explain a few things. First off, the TARDIS can move through time and space. Second, it’s much quicker than sitting on a train for three hours.” While he was explaining what the TARDIS did, he subtly led Applejack to a big blue telephone box in the middle of the alleyway.
“Uh, what’s that?” Applejack pointed to the box. The Doctor had an offended look on his face.
“It’s the TARDIS.” He said simply. He stepped aside and offered Applejack to walk in first.
“But won’t we be a bit squished?”
“Not in the slightest.” Applejack stepped in then back out again. She repeated this a few more times because she just couldn’t wrap her head around the concept of the TARDIS being bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside. The Doctor just chuckled and pushed Applejack the rest of the way in.  He closed the door and started to fumble with the switches and levers to get them going.
“How is this possible?”
“Time Lord science. It’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.” He flipped a final lever and the whole machine rumbled. When it stopped, he said,
“Ah, we’re here.”

While all that was going on, Twilight was struggling to maintain the barrier around the city, to stop it from closing in on everything encased inside. Nightmare was trying her best to keep the bubble from collapsing as well. It wasn’t working. It seemed that the more strength they put behind the spell, the quicker the bubble closed. ‘This is not good’ Twilight thought.
“NIGHTMARE! THIS DOESN’T LOOK LIKE IT IS WORKING!”
“DON’T YOU THINK I ALREADY KNOW THAT!?”

Applejack and the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and looked upon the rapidly enclosing bubble.
“NO!” Applejack ran up to the disappearing mist and tried to get through. She couldn’t even put her hoof through.
“Ha ha! This is beautiful! Oh, right. Big giant bubble of death.” He looked over at Applejack and stopped gazing at the wondrous time-sphere. He sprinted to Applejack and hurled her back from the bubble.
“That’s not going to work. The bubble is far too powerful to be stopped.”
“But, can’t we just go back in time? To before all this began?” Applejack desperately asked.
“You can’t go into your own personal timestream. If you do that, then you’ve doomed all of reality and time itself.”
“That bad?”
“Yes. I’m sorry.”

Rainbow Dash groggily looked up from her position on the ground and tried to keep her mane from flowing into her eyes. She looked around and spotted Pinkie Pie lying haphazardly on the ground. She carefully picked her way over to the fallen mare, due to the ever-increasing wind.
“Pinkie?”Dash gently nudged Pinkie on the side. Her head rolled towards Dash but her eyes didn’t open. She bent her ear towards Pinkie’s mouth and a faint breath could be felt. She was alive. Just. Rainbow proceeded to carry the mare on top of her back, even though she knew it would be difficult with the increasing speed of the wind.

Twilight tried to pour more of her vast internal power towards the barrier. Even with Nightmare Moon helping she knew it was a lost cause. The onyx mare struggled to give more of her power to the barrier, to keep it strong but it was closing fast. Nightmare reckons that every amount of power they give out, the faster the barrier closes.
“TWILIGHT SPARKLE! STOP GIVING IT MAGIC TO FEED ON!” She yelled out to Twilight. She saw Twilight nod and trot toward her.
“I couldn’t stop, at least not until a few seconds ago. It was like the barrier just wanted more power, but I wasn’t enough for it.” They both raced to the centre of the city, where they found Rainbow Dash carrying Pinkie Pie on her back. When Rainbow saw Nightmare come towards her, she gently put Pinkie down and struggled towards Nightmare. If she could just get one good punch, then it would be good. Before she made it though, she collapsed. She heard Twilight dimly call out her name before she succumbed to the blackness.