“Home!” Twilight shouted, jumping out of the TARDIS and spinning around before falling on her back near her own Library’s doorstep. “I’m back home.”
Looking out the doors of the TARDIS, I watched as she started to roll back in forth in front of the door with a huge grin on her face. She looked elated to be free of that terrible world we had just visited, and I couldn’t help but smile as she laughed and closed her eyes, lying there in the sun.
“I didn’t think I was ever going to say this again, Doctor,” I started, turning towards the Doctor, who was pushing buttons and flipping switches on the console of the TARDIS while giving a few places a good hard buck, “but thank you so much. I would have never been able to convince Twilight to stay. I’m also sorry for all the yelling I did when you came to my room. I was just jealous that Twilight chose you over me…”
“Well,” he stopped messing with his controls and trotted over to me, watching Twilight hug spike as he came out to see what was going on, “I can’t say that that hasn’t happened to me before. I’ve been told I have that effect on some ponies and other creatures of the universe. It did get pretty ugly back on Earth all those years ago… Nevertheless, I’ll accept your apology, and tell you I’m sorry too, Luna. I’m really sorry, terribly sorry in fact, for leaving you in the Everfree Forest all those months ago. I knew I had made a mistake all too late, but know that I didn’t forget about you. I just misjudged the trajectory of the TARDIS’s time fluctuations and—”
“You know I never understood all that technical jargon, Doctor,” I stopped him before he could start listing a bunch of terms I didn’t know. I noticed that while he was talking, spike retreated back into Twilight’s house, and she had now spotted Rarity and Fluttershy walking and chatting. I finished my sentence while she ran off to give them a round of small hugs, “I guess we’re even then, Doctor. But before you ask, I think I’d rather stay in Equestria than go on another series of adventures through time and space. I got something better here: Twilight.”
“Alright’y then, Princess, but who said I was going just yet?” the doctor asked, waving to Twilight, who was pointing us out to Rarity and Fluttershy, who both had looks of surprise on their faces. “That last trip was really hard on the TARDIS, and I need to give her a couple of hours to fix herself up and refresh before I take her for another spin. That’s the most stress I think I’ve put on the old girl for a good while now.”
“I guess you don’t have to leave just now,” I smiled and saw that Twilight was waving goodbye to Rarity and Fluttershy who both still looked a little confused. “I have a feeling you’re going to want to tag along with us. Am I right?”
“Would I want to 'tag along' with two of my former assistants, one of which, until recently, wanted to personally rip my head off while the other took almost infinite joy in learning new things?” He asked me before answering it himself. “I think it’d be fantastic to ‘tag along’ with two brilliant ponies! But of course, if you were to ask me to leave, I would have no trouble parting ways with you.”
The look on his face told me that he wasn’t about to leave us alone, though. “Oh, come on, let’s go then,” I told him, walking out to where Twilight was still smiling and staring at the sky. I snuck a glance backward to see if he had followed me out, which indeed, he had done. Turning back to Twilight I opened my mouth to ask her how she was doing, but before I could say anything she interrupted me.
“Even the sky looks brighter than it did in that future world,” she said, looking up into the few clouds that lingered from yesterday’s rain shower. “I have to ask though, Doctor,” she started, noticing that he had joined my side looking at the clouds too, “was that really the future of an Equestria without me?”
“One of them,” he simply said, before adding randomly after seeing Rainbow Dash fly by, “I wonder how that Pegasus wing structure holds up. I wonder if I can rig the TARDIS to give me some of those. Then I could…”
“Doctor,” Twilight broke him out of his train of thought before asking, “What do you mean by one of them? Were there other possibilities that I could have seen?”
“Of course!” he responded, finally looking directly at her instead of the clouds above. “Haven’t you ever heard of how stepping on a bug in the past could change the future forever? Of course, at this point, going into the past and changing something wouldn’t be much of a problem because it would already have happened even though it hasn’t occurred in your timeline yet. Am I making any sense?”
“I think so,” she replied, closing her eyes and scrunching her face while mouthing a few words. “So what your implying is that was only one of thousands of possibilities I could have seen. What caused the TARDIS to pick that particular one then?”
“I programmed her to!” the Doctor triumphantly responded, “I just set the scenario to the most normal circumstances that she could produce. In other words, I told her to go and take the average, most likely future and send us there. Out of the couple quadrillion choices she could have made, the TARDIS calculated what you saw to be the most likely outcome, were you to disappear off the face of Equestria one day. Pretty brilliant if I do say so myself, but I can’t be one to judge.”
“Ugh,” Twilight grunted, trying to process all that information, “I think right now, I’d rather just forget about all of this with a treat at Sugarcube Corner. Anypony willing to join me?”
“Only if you promise to get me another one of those lemon cupcakes again,” I jokingly said. “What about you, Doctor? I’ll get you something to make up for my behavior last time we were there. What do you say?”
“Do you think they’d have any custard tarts?” he asked me, putting a hoof to his chin. “I’ve been hooked on those things since King Henry IV served those things at his banquet, and I didn’t get much time to see what they offered there.”
“I’m not sure who King Henry is, but I’m sure Pinkie’s made quite a few custards in her time at Sugarcube,” Twilight told him, starting to head towards Sugarcube Corner, which was only a block away from here. “We could probably find something for you to enjoy.”
I followed closely behind Twilight with the Doctor beside me. She was happily waving at nearly everypony who happened to pass by. I could tell she was still so glad to be out of that other world. I have to admit that even though I knew an Equestria without the Element of Magic wouldn’t be a bright one, I never would have foreseen that much despair from one missing pony. I think I was as glad as she was when we left that horrible place.
“How long was Twilight with you before you guys landed in my room anyway, Doctor?” I asked while Twilight kept waving to every passerby, regardless whether she knew them or not. She even was saying “hello” and “good evening” to nearly everypony within earshot. It made me smile to see her so happy once again.
“You know, she was with me quite a while,” he started, looking up into the sky where I could only guess he was recalling all their adventures. “It had to have been a couple of weeks, because I took her to Great Britain first, and she kept insisting we stay so she could study everything about the humans there.”
“Oh, Earth,” I reminisced my time there with the Doctor. It was so similar and yet so different from Equestria. “How did she deal with being a human?” I remembered the first time he took me there, he said he needed to disguise me so that I wouldn’t cause any alarm, because on Earth, at least according to him, there were no colorful ponies. It took me nearly a day to adapt to having no magical ability and standing on two legs.
“She took a bit longer to get used to being a bipedal creature than you did,” he said chuckling. “I guess it’s just as awkward as my first time too, though.”
We had finally arrived at Sugarcube Corner, and I was glad to be back at the place. Taking a quick glance up, I saw that I still had a few more hours until I needed to worry about raising the moon for another night. “Look out!” I heard Twilight shout very suddenly, and I instinctively jumped to the side to avoid whatever was coming.
The Doctor was not as lucky though, because the object headed toward him was a pony I knew very well. Her grey fur passed right by me as the blonde pegasus barreled into the Doctor, knocking both of them to the ground in a heap. “Oh dear,” I mumbled. “Derpy? Doctor? Are you two alright?”
"I’m ok,” the grey pegasus called out. “I’m really sorry mister!” She got up and lent him a hoof, pulling him back to a standing position.
Brushing himself off, he turned to the wall-eyed pegasus saying, “Not a problem, my dear. Accidents happen…” He trailed off at the last few words, staring intensely into Derpy’s eyes.
“Is something wrong Mr. Doctor?” Derpy asked, looking uncomfortable in the Doctor’s gaze.
“You are the first pony I know to have Strabismus,” he told Derpy, with a serious look on his face. A few seconds later, that face turned into a wide grin as he continued on, “That’s brilliant that is! Would you like to come inside with me and have a pastry or two?”
“I don’t have any bits…”
“I’ll cover for you,” he grinned, “Let’s go get some scrumptious home-crafted pastries! Allons-y!”
Derpy giggled as the Doctor led her into the pastry shop. “You say some funny words Doctor,” She said as they passed through the door. “I like you.”
“I think the Doctor may have just found his new companion,” Twilight said, now levitating a pound cake and a lemon cupcake in front of her using her magic. “Come on in, and we can enjoy these. Here’s your lemon cupcake that you always loved, Luna.”
She levitated the delectable treat in front of me and I grabbed it with my own magic. I took a bite out of it and let the sweet and tart taste of lemon fill my mouth before proceeding into the door. When I sat down at a table with Twilight, she started, “Now about that kiss,” I almost spat out the cupcake in my mouth when she said that, and I instantly froze, waiting for some unbearable news to come out from her mouth.
“I think that needs to happen more often…”