The World-Jumper

by NightmareDash

Lord and Master

"Lesson one of being human, Twilight, opposable thumbs are your friends."

As if to demonstrate, Jack West balanced his laser pen in his fingertips, aiming precisely into a rather ordinary metal door-lock. The tip produced a powerful cutting beam which shot into the lock and began to melt its insides, bathing his section of the sparsely-lit hallway in a red glow. Hiding in his shadow, Twilight stepped forward hesitantly.

"I could really prove it to you if I had brought an old-school lockpicking set, but those things are painful to use, even for me."

"Umm, Jack, if this is a school, wouldn't breaking into Princess I mean Principal Celestia's office be the equivalent of invading the Royal Palace?"

"...mmm, never thought of it that way. Yes, I suppose it could get you expelled, that is if you were actually a student. Me, well, I guess they'd call the police on me, but if the police here are like the ones in my world, they shouldn't be a problem. But what's the alternative?"

"Principal Celestia said the crown would be presented to the Princess of the Fall Formal tomorrow night. If I win that, I get the crown."

"Too risky- your odds of winning a popularity contest here are slim to none. And before you say anything, it's high school; everything's a popularity contest. Besides, done."

Jack stood up and pushed the door open. Trading out his laser pen for his phone, he turned on the flashlight and began to scan the office. "Now then, where did Celestia say that crown was?" Close behind, Twilight watched the beam of light and tried to follow along with what Jack was examining. "All she said was that Vice-Principal Luna had put it away for safe keeping."

"That narrows it down a bit."

Jack's eyes turned to the other doors in the room- two of the three had nameplates next to them, definitely sub-offices. As he approached, he noticed one labeled "Luna" in large, block-capital letters. Well, that makes it easy. Shifting his phone-light to his left hand, he pulled out his laser pen again, but then put it back, reached out and tried the handle. The door opened without resistance.

"Why isn't it locked?"

"My guess is since it's an interior office, it's already behind one locked door, so they figure why lock it too? And of all the places in the world to break into, who would target a Vice-Principal's office?"

"Umm, us?"

"Fair point," Jack noted with a bit of chagrin. He began scanning around again, finding only a filled desk, a nightstand and more filing cabinets. As he tried each one, he discovered little more than papers and ordinary office supplies, and took a moment to reflect on the irony. Jack West, master criminal, the peak of human ability, the Moriarty of the 21st Century, and here he was breaking into a high school office. But remembering his encounter with Trixie, he decided to appreciate the easy victories as they were handed to him. Woken from his thoughts by a filing cabinet drawer that would not budge, he deduced something important must be inside.

"Let's see, what are you hiding in here, Vice-Principal Luna?"

Overcoming the relatively weak cabinet lock with simple brute force, he yanked the drawer open, and from inside pulled a very familiar piece of ceremonial headgear.

"Safe keeping is a locked filing cabinet? How very high school."

He handed it to Twilight, who took a moment to examine it, then clutched it close to her chest. As Jack slid the drawer back shut, they heard the pitter-patter of small feet (or rather paws) from the hallway.

"Twilight, Jack, she's here! I mean, bark bark! Ruff, bow-wow and all that!"

The two raced out of the office to find their lookout dragon/dog scampering toward them. He jumped into Twilight's arms, and Jack looked down his path to see a figure following, with a truly fire-like head of hair and a distinctively contrasting leather jacket. "That's Sunset Shimmer, I presume?" She came to a stop, staring the three of them down across the hall, lit only by a single line of fluorescents.

"Breaking into the principal's office in the middle of the night? Didn't think a Princess had it in her."

"Sorry to disappoint, but the breaking-in was my idea. And my handiwork, for that matter." Jack couldn't resist a chance to banter. But Sunset noticed Twilight's cargo, and immediately took off running toward them again. "The crown!"

"My crown!" Twilight replied defiantly. Already formulating a battle plan, Jack brought his sunglasses up from his pocket and put them on, then sent his right hand into his jacket as his left moved toward his ear.

"Twilight, remember the hospitality I showed you when we first met?"

In simultaneous motion, he pressed a button on his sunglasses and drew his Taser-dart pistol. The lenses of the glasses momentarily glowed green, illuminating a fine network of circuitry before returning to black. He brought the gun up, level with Sunset Shimmer, enough to stop her in her tracks.

"I think it's time I showed Sunset Shimmer here the same!"

Jack suddenly lifted the gun up, then fired, sending a Taser-dart punching through glass into a fluorescent light. As electricity coursed into the wires, the spike in voltage overloaded each bulb down the line, causing them to explode brilliantly with light before going dark entirely. The wave of darkness rolled over Sunset Shimmer, plunging the entire hallway into night in hardly a second. Her eyes struggled to adapt to the sudden change, and by the time she had recovered, she barely had time to see the incoming heel of a black combat boot before it threw her by the face sideways and to the floor, utterly unconscious.

"How about those pumped up kicks?"

Jack doubled back and grabbed Twilight's hand, dragging her through the darkness toward the other end of the hallway. His night vision guided them until they reached another section of the school where the lights were unaffected, at which point he flipped his sunglasses up onto his forehead. Retracing the path they cleared on the way inside, the dynamic trio raced for the front door. Though Twilight's discomfort with her new anatomy did them no favors, she did appear to be learning as quickly as she could. As though her life depended on it, in fact. Soon they reached the lobby, where a line of glass doors waited for them. Finding the one he picked (well, melted, but no sense in nitpicking), Jack shoved it open, then hurried Twilight and Spike through. From there, it was a straight shot to the statue containing the portal, so they could afford to slow down.

"See? Told you this was the easiest way to get your crown back."

"But what about Sunset Shimmer?"

"Oh, she's out cold; I learned to roundhouse kick from a Texas Ranger. But between her lying there in the hall, the opened doors and the missing crown, I think when Principal Celestia arrives tomorrow morning, things will not look very good for miss Sunset Shimmer. It's convenient, really."

"How so?"

"If she hadn't shown up, there's no one to pin this on, so they'd investigate. That's bad. But now she's pretty much framed herself for us, so case closed."

"And if not?"

"Being here for a day doesn't give them enough information to identify us, much less pursue us. But anyway, I doubt we'll be returning anytime soon. As for Sunset Shimmer and the rest of the school, I'd guess things will just return to business as usual for them. We'll be forgotten, and pretty soon it'll be a question if we were even here at all."

"Jack, my friends are miserable here! They all hate each other, and I think it's because of Sunset Shimmer! We have to do something to help them!"

"No, we have to get your crown back to Equestria and secure that portal. When that's done, we can make a return trip and clear up all the friendship problems you can find. But let's not overcomplicate things, Twilight, not until the job is done."

They approached the statue containing the portal, and Spike was the first to make the jump. "Goodbye, floppy ears, hello, fire breath! See you on the other side!" He lept on through, and Twilight followed, crown in hand. Before going in, Jack turned away, pondering. Like a halfway point between Equestria and Earth. Very curious indeed. He came down to a knee and dove in. As he finished the instantaneous journey, he landed on his stomach, sprawled out clumsily. Somehow, along the way he acquired a very grating headache. Though he knew it wouldn't actually help, he brought his hoof up to rub his temple...

Wait, his hoof?

"This is not happening, this is not happening!"

Jack was panicking. For the first time in a very long time, Jack was honestly, completely panicking. He flailed about on his stomach for a few seconds before trying to stand, which was quite a spectacle of trial and failure. Each attempt at getting up on four hooves was met with a slip or off-balance fall and an appropriately minor swear word. After a few goes at it, he gave up, held his hooves up to his face and let the reality sink in, then returned to panicking. "Ohgodohgodohgod crapcrapcrapcrapcrap I am so screwed, dear God..."

The Mane 6, shocked and slightly embarrassed at the sight of Jack as a pony, were trying to give him his space, but at this point Twilight decided action needed to be taken. She picked him up magically, letting his legs hang beneath him, hooves a few inches above the floor. "Jack, calm down! You are OK! You may be a pony, but you are OK!" The two stimuli proved enough to snap him out of it, and he took a deep breath or two to steady his nerves.

"You're right, I am fine," Jack repeated, almost like he needed to convince himself. "I am alive, healthy, just with a new body. Upstairs, I'm the same me I was just a minute ago."

Not quite, I'm afraid.

What?

For barely a second, he experienced a thought he could not claim ownership of. Combined with that headache, it made him flinch momentarily, but he dismissed it as his anxiety talking and carried on.

"Jack, I'm going to lower you down. Lock your legs and find your balance once you're on the ground. Then you can loosen up and we'll try to get you walking. It should feel natural"

"Alright, legs locked, one, two, three, four of them. Let's give this another try."

Twilight slowly brought him to the floor, and by the time his hooves hit and she let go, he was rigid as a table. "Alright, now start loosening up, bend your knees and try to stand comfortably." Jack slowly let his knees unlock, one by one, to what felt like a natural standing position. He wobbled a bit, of course, but soon he managed to get a feel for it. "There, I'm standing. Good for me."

"Now let's see if you can learn to walk just as fast. The key here is to use opposite legs between your front and back, so when you move your left front leg, you move your right back leg at the same time..."

"...and vice-versa. Alright, let's give it a try. Should come natural."

Slowly but steadily, Jack began taking steps. It truly was coming naturally; soon he was comfortably walking around the room, actually rather pleased. With mobility established, he turned to the mirror and examined himself. His khaki cargo pants had become his coat, which fit as everything he was carrying in those cargo pants appeared to be scattered around his landing point. Meanwhile, his black windbreaker was still there, albeit shrunken down to fit his new body, and its color appeared to have been copied onto his mane. But there seemed to be something pushing the jacket up on his back, so he began to shed it. Manipulating synthetics without fingers was a bit of a challenge, but eventually he managed to get it off.

pomf

"Hello!"

There they were: a beautiful, strong pair of wings, begging to be broken in. Jack flexed these new muscles with unrestrained enthusiasm, which Rainbow Dash definitely shared.

"Jack, you're a pegasus! And look at those bad boys! You can get some serious airspeed with those!"

"I'm not gonna lie, this is freaking awesome! But flying, with wings? I'm gonna have a busy week ahead of me, learning to be a pegasus."

But with a sudden, photo-negative gleam in his eye, Jack reversed course. "Maybe not... Twilight, you've shared memories with other ponies before, right?"

"Yes, but how would that help?"

"Could you take another ponies' memories, then copy and share them?"

"I suppose so, but..."

"And if muscle memory is just another kind of memory, couldn't you copy Rainbow Dash's flying-related muscle memories and give them to me?"

Twilight thought for a second. "Theoretically yes, with difficulty, but muscle memories are more ingrained in the mind and harder to reach than ordinary memories. You would need..."

"...an acute neural stimulator array?"

"Exactly! But nothing like that exists in Equestria."

"No problem, here's how you build one."

As Jack proceeded to gather the small weapons and gadgets previously held in his cargo pants, then rearrange them in his jacket pockets, he launched into a thick stream of technobabble unlike anything the others had heard from him before; even Twilight had a hard time keeping up. By the time he was done, everything was cleaned up and Jack was walking for the exit. "I can 3-D print the parts we'll need back home. Twilight, can you teleport us back to Ponyville? I need to get working while the idea is fresh!"

"Yeah, just give me a second to charge my magic up."

But suddenly, Jack stopped, recoiling like he had just tasted something unpleasant. "Wait, what are we doing?"

"You wanted Twilight to teleport us back to Ponyville, dear, don't you remember?" Rarity asked, surprised by his sudden amnesia.

"Oh, yes, we need to get to my lab fast. That's our best chance to figure out how this happened to me, and maybe how we can change me back."

Now it was Applejack's turn to be confused. "I thought you said you wanted to get back to start workin' on that neural whoseewhatsit?"

"Oh yeah, that was it... I guess I have two important reasons to get back to Ponyville in a hurry."

Long-range teleportation spell ready, Twilight took notice of Jack's odd behavior. But then again, she supposed, if she had suddenly changed species, she would be behaving oddly too. Oh wait, she had suddenly changed species, and she did behave oddly; no supposition necessary.

One teleportation later, the eight of them approached Jack's home, near the edge of the Everfree Forest. From the outside, it appeared to be an unassuming though modern log cabin, but it wouldn't take much prodding to reveal the fortress' true nature. Underground were three levels of hangars, workshops and laboratories, and hard-light holographic trees in the back concealed an airstrip and elevating helipad. Jack climbed cautiously up the steps to the front porch and tried to open the door, surprised when it would not budge for him. Even with hooves he shouldn't have a problem just opening a door, unless... Then he remembered the very first level of security he built into the house, and groaned.

"What's the problem?" Spike asked.

"Genetic scanner built into the door handle. It reads my DNA when I grab the handle, and if it matches with the DNA it has on file for me, it opens the lock. Problem is, changing into a pony must have altered my DNA well beyond the computer's ability to recognize me. In short, I'm locked out."

Fluttershy briefly looked about. "Is there another way in?"

"The back door would have the same scanner, and windows can only be opened from the inside. But I built in other layers of security to this door, in case one ever went out. The trick is figuring out which one will still work for Jack the pony."

"Ooh, ooh, Jack, that reminds me, you need a pony name!"

"What, Pinkie?"

"Yeah, a pony name! You're a pony now, no more boring old proper-nouns human name! It can be anything: descriptive, or cool, or best of all, punny! But make it fast; I need a name to announce you by at our big "Jack's a Pony Now" party!"

"Umm, how about Jack of All Trades?"

"Wow, that was fast!"

"Yeah, thought it up a while ago, in case I ever needed a false name to use on documents or things like that."

"Oooh, crafty! But I like it, it definitely sounds like you!"

"Sounds like you... Pinkie, you're a genius!"

"No matter how many times ponies tell me that, I still don't feel any smarter."

"What do you mean, Jack?" Twilight interjected.

"Of everything about me, I thought only my mind hadn't changed, but I was wrong. Listen: my voice is still the same! I can use a voice-print override code to open the door. Hang on, it's a doozy... Computer, activate vocal print-recognition override, code Bravo Alpha Delta Dash Whiskey Zero One Foxtrot, engage!"

With the subdued hum of circuitry, locks were retracted and the door swung open. They all entered the front room, and Jack walked toward the elevator in the hallway. "Make yourselves at home; I'll go downstairs and get the lab cleaned up." He stepped inside as the doors opened, leaving the girls and Spike to their own devices.

"Alright, was it just me, or was Jack acting really weird back there?" Rainbow Dash asked. Twilight was the first to come to his defense.

"Yes, but think about what he's going through, and what we know about him. He's used to having power, being in control. If you had your body changed like that and you had no idea why, would you feel in control?"

"Well, no... I guess I'd be kinda scared."

"Exactly. Do you think Jack's used to being scared? The point of this is that he's out of his element, and that's going to put him under a lot of stress. He may be acting weird, but he needs us more than ever to help him through this."

There was a moment of silent agreement, which Rarity was the first to break. "Twilight, you seem very... familiar with this situation. Did something happen on the other side of that portal that we should know about?"

"It's a long story..."

Twilight proceeded to recount her experience at Canterlot High School, all the way through turning into a human, meeting her friends' parallel selves, and encountering Sunset Shimmer. She had just finished the part about breaking into Principal Celestia's office when the elevator car arrived, and a much less pleasant Jack stepped out.

"Alright, so voice-print ID will get us inside, but I can't get much further downstairs without genetic confirmation. That means no labs, no armory, and no hangar access. Automated assistance programs are down, manual controls are locked out, the whole nine yards. I tried every override I know, remote reprogramming, even rewiring the hardware, and all it's done is annoy the computer; if I go down there again, the defense turrets will probably tear me to bits. And apart from a few hidden weapons and gadgets on this floor, there's nothing for us here but living space. Oh, I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?"

"Not at all, I was just getting the girls caught up on our little adventure at Canterlot High School."

"Well, unless anypony's fallen in love with my decor, I'd suggest we go back into Ponyville. The scientific equipment at the library will be our next best bet for studying my DNA and building an acute neural stimulator array."

Leaving the building the way they came, the group began walking toward the not-quite-paved pathway that would take them back to Ponyville. But as Jack pulled the door shut, its locks spinning back into place instantaneously, he caught out of the corner of his eye a mobile bit of yellow color. He turned his attention to it, recognizing it through the trees as some kind of old-fashioned automobile. With an impulse he couldn't quite completely explain, he leapt off the front porch into as much of a gallop as he could manage, making it to the path ahead of the old car. Jack stood brazenly in the roadway, waving a hoof in the air and obstructing the vehicle's path. The rest of the group, surprised yet again, followed frantically; Rainbow Dash was the first to catch up.

"Jack, what the hay are you doing?"

"Getting us a ride! Excuse me! Hello there!"

The automobile squealed to an impressively sudden halt. Driving was a unicorn with a dark red coat, curly white mane and very displeased look on his face.

"Young stallion, what exactly do you think you're doing, apart from irritating me?

His voice betrayed both his age and a very high opinion of himself, although it was tempered with a kind of stateliness that, in better circumstances, could make him seem quite charming. This was, of course, not such a moment where he was so particularly inclined. Not that that mattered to Jack, though.

"Ah, hello! My friends and I, we're trying to get to the Ponyville Library, and we're in a bit of a hurry. I do hate to be a bother, but is there any way you could give us a lift?"

The driver surveyed him, along with the Mane 6, who had managed to group up behind him as he made his way to the right side of the vehicle, close to where the old stallion was sitting. After looking them over for a second or so, he had a sudden change of heart.

"Well, you do look like rather friendly company, and who am I to refuse service to a Princess? Please, come aboard."

They swarmed around his car, climbing into whatever open seat they could find (although Rainbow Dash elected to fly overhead). Jack managed to find his way into the passenger seat, and noted the unusually large amount of switches and odd devices wired in on the driver's side. As soon as they were all situated, the old girl shot off along the road once more.

"Thank you, sir, we really do appreciate the ride. I'm Jack of All Trades, by the way. This is Princess..."

"Yes, yes, Princess Twilight Sparkle and the Elements of Harmony; Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie." He rattled off their names like he was reading down a list. "And faithful assistant, Spike!" the young dragon enthusiastically added.

"Of course, Spike, how could I have forgotten?" the old stallion replied, more than a hint of pandering in his words. "I'm the Doctor, and it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, all of you."

Despite its age, the Doctor's car was incredibly fast, and he maneuvered it with expert precision as the slowly-improving road turned into Ponyville proper. After navigating through several pedestrians and the occasional traffic light, they reached the library and disembarked.

"You've actually reminded me, I have some business at the library as well. Your Majesty, if you would be so kind as to do the honors?"

Twilight was befuddled. In the swirl of official business that kept her in Canterlot or the Crystal Empire so often, had she forgotten something important in Ponyville? "The honors?" The Doctor realized what the situation had become and chuckled to himself. "I meant opening the library."

Smiling with relief and embarrassment, Twilight magically caused a key to appear, then placed it delicately inside its lock, turned and opened. As the lights came on inside, the group streamed in, each one going their own way once inside. Jack and Twilight immediately made for the downward staircase, the rest of the Mane 6 and Spike in tow. When they reached the lab, Twilight pulled a microscope from a cabinet and began setting it up.

"So what do we work on first, your DNA or the neural stimulator?"

"DNA. I'd rather work to see if I can be changed back than to make myself more comfortable as a pony. You have a blank slide for me?"

Twilight tossed him one, and he set it down on the counter and pulled a small knife from his jacket. He rolled up his sleeve, then clenched his teeth and made a small cut on his foreleg. Red welled up around the wound, and soon there was enough of it to drip. Jack held his leg straight out over the counter, let one drop hit the counter, then moved the slide immediately over where it hit. Surely enough, the next drop hit the slide dead on. Passing it back to Twilight, he pressed against his self-inflicted cut with his other hoof, stopping the flow of blood and allowing it to clot and seal. She covered the slide with film, then loaded it into the microscope and began to examine it.

"What do you see, Twilight?" Rarity asked hesitantly.

"It's strange. His cells are very much like a normal pony's, but there are differences... I'm noticing a faster metabolism, and almost twice as many red blood cells. And these aren't just benefits of physical fitness carried over from Jack's human body, these are actual biological differences. I don't know what to make of it."

"I assume a cure's out of the question," Jack chimed in rather despondently.

"For the moment, yes. What would help is if I had access to DNA samples from your human body, for comparison. But I may need to consult one of my cellular biology textbooks for more information."

"Yes, Princess Twilight, actually I was wondering if I could talk to you about that as well."

The Doctor had appeared from upstairs, surprising the deep-in-focus librarian. With magic he had brought with him two rather thin books, each with a strip of black-and-yellow striped tape holding it shut.

"What I can do for you, Doctor?"

"It's these two books. I think the information inside may be of use to me, but as you can see they're taped shut."

"Yes, normally that's what I do when a book is so old or worn that even opening it may damage it, or if the book can't be checked out to just anypony. But I don't recognize either of them, and they don't look old or worn. So why would I tape them shut?... Where did you find these?"

"Cellular biology, on a high shelf, wedged between the larger textbooks."

"I see. Give me a moment and I'll run them through the computer, see what I can dig up."

"In the mean time," Jack added, "I'm going to start working on that neural stimulator." The term caught the Doctor's attention instantly. "A neural stimulator?"

"Yes, specifically an acute neural stimulator array." Jack moved over to another work table, flipping open a new piece of paper on a legal pad full of scientific notes, with the Doctor close behind.

"That kind of technology is far too... oh, never mind. I expect I can help you."

"I'd certainly appreciate it."

The two got down to sketchwork and listmaking, while the rest of the group returned to chatting about what Twilight had just told them, and just about a minute later she returned from upstairs, looking concerned. "Doctor?"

The old unicorn looked up and turned to her. "Ah, Princess Twilight, what can you tell us about those books?"

"Nothing. I searched both of them by title, shelving numbers, and ISBN. Nothing came up, so I tried searching them through the Canterlot Royal Library catalogue, in case they were loaners that we somehow ended up with. But the Royal Library hasn't heard of them either; these two books are complete mysteries."

"So what do we do with them, Twilight?" Jack asked. "Well, since I can't remember sealing them, and we can't figure out why they would be sealed in the first place, I say we investigate."

"Spectacular idea, my dear," the Doctor commented, as she magically peeled back the striped tape. Opening up the first book, she found it filled not with pages, but several trays attached to the spine, like multi-disc DVD case. Each tray held a pair of discs, no bigger than small Frisbees, metallic silver and uniform, except for several buttons clustered on the lateral edge. Twilight pulled one loose with magic, holding it up for all three of them to examine.

"A holocorder, designed to record then project information while the recorder provides narration. Consistently voted "Galaxy's Best Notetaking System", though a bit out of place here. Well, I say 'a bit out of place', I mean 'this technology shouldn't be developed for at least another half a century'."

They spun around to face the Estuary-English voice, only to find an earth pony very similar to Jack had suddenly appeared. His coat was a lighter shade and his mane was dark brown, not black, but the similarity was there.

"Oh, I'm sorry, forgot to knock. Hello, I'm the Doctor!"

He extended a hoof in animatedly friendly greeting. Jack reached out to receive it, but the Doctor already with him held his hoof back. The girls seemed to be very confused about the entire thing.

"My dear fellow, you simply cannot be the Doctor."

"Oh yeah? And why is that, curly?"

"Because I am the Doctor."

The new Doctor opened his mouth to retort, but no words came out, and he just as quickly shut it and began examining his compatriot. As he studied him, Jack realized the situation: the Doctor he had stopped and rode into Ponyville with was the Third Doctor, and this one he had just encountered was the Tenth Doctor (the 'well I say...' line sealed it). Three wouldn't have a reason to recognize Ten, them being so many regenerations apart, but Ten would remember being Three. And that's what he's doing right now.

A smile of realization hit Ten's face. "Yes, yes you are, Doctor! You most certainly are the Doctor, Doctor." His face suddenly turned rather unimpressed. "Eh, you were alright. Not much fun, but you got the job done, I'll give you that."

"Oh, now you're just talking gibberish. Now who the devil are you?"

Jack decided intervention between the two incarnations was necessary. "Hold on, hold on. Now then, Doctor, Doctor, there's a good chance you're both right. I'm sure you could find out for sure if you were to examine each other with your sonic screwdrivers..."

"How do you know about the sonic screwdriver?" They demanded of him in unison. They then realized that and turned to each other, Three looking at Ten in surprised confusion, Ten looking at Three with a subdued but victorious smile. Both proceeded to draw their sonic screwdrivers and point them at each other. Scanning, then examining, both put them away and shook hooves.

"Well, I have worked with my own previous incarnations before, I suppose it isn't so difficult to conceive that I would one day work with a future incarnation of myself as well," Three conceded. "Pleasure to meet me."

"Me too," Ten replied wryly. "Now then, shall we see what's on these holocorders?"

"Indeed. Twilight, if you please."

Three held his hoof up expectantly, and Twilight complied, passing the device over to him. He looked around its rim for a moment, then pressed one of the buttons. A holographic image of a human female with very long hair and unhealthily tight leather pants appeared above the disc, small but in very high definition. "The Rani..." Ten murmured. "Who?" Three asked in response.

"The Rani, Time Lady, immoral scientist, would kill millions just to study how they die. We were mates back at the Academy, remember?"

"...Oh yes, I do remember her. Last I heard of her she had gotten in a bit of a tiff with the President, something about his cat."

Ten considered his enemy's... humble beginnings with bemusement. "Yes, well, the Rani wasn't exactly content with being unkind to animals. I can't tell you a lot, that would be spoiling, but she's managed to earn her place on the Time Lord Naughty List. Real question is: what is she doing here in Equestria?"

"Let's find out," Jack interrupted, pointing at the holocorder. Three pressed another button, animating the hologram as video playback began.

"Experiment Notes File Gamma 214. Personal log and technical notes. I have successfully integrated Dalek Void Ship technology into my TARDIS, allowing me to enter and leave the Void at will. Hopefully this will allow me to carry out my research without interference from the rest of my race and their accursed Time War. Included here are technical schematics of the technology, my own modifications to both it and my TARDIS, and my analysis of it from a scientific standpoint."

"A Void Ship? Impossible!"

"No, the Daleks came up with one eventually," Ten countered. "And the Rani having her hands on its technology is bad news. But this is going to be a lot of techno-nonsense, it won't help us."

"Indeed, go to the next holocorder."

Three hit another button, shutting off the hologram, and Twilight replaced it in its tray. She then flipped the tray over and took out another, passing it back to Three, who started to activate it.

"Hold that thought, Doc. BEEBOOBEEBOO Awesome alarm! Awesome alarm! Check out those Cutie Marks!"

Pinkie pointed at the Doctors and Jack, and Twilight took a step back to observe them. Indeed, all three of them had an identical hourglass Cutie Mark.

"A pair of matching Cutie Marks is cool enough, but a trio? Absolutely awesome!"

"Pinkie's right, it's uncommon to find two ponies with the same Cutie Mark," Twilight noted, "but three of you at once is very rare."

"An intriguing curiosity," Three agreed. "But may we get back to more important matters?"

"Sure! Alarm canceled," Pinkie replied with obvious ignorance to Three's irritation.

"Experiment Notes File Gamma 215. Study of Temporal Displacement and Self-Interaction. Traveling through the Void has enabled me to explore many other worlds, some radically different from my own. I have found one where the laws of space and time appear to be much more... malleable than on most worlds. Thus, this world will be the site of a long-term experiment to study the effects of an individual interacting with other versions of themself from various points across their timeline."

The academics in the room were shocked at such an audacious proposal, while the rest of the Mane 6 looked on in various states of interest, like they were watching a movie. Pinkie, however, was sitting on the ceiling, watching the show with 3-D glasses and popcorn.

"Malleable? I don't know what she's talking about."

"The unusual physics of this world, which is apparently called Equestria, will hopefully stave off the Blinovitch Limitation Effect, an unreliable phenomenon occurring when an individual comes into contact with their time-displaced self. Its usually negative results have up to now discouraged such an experiment in my native dimension. For the subject, I have chosen a fellow Time Lord who has already come into contact with himself on numerous occasions; the Doctor. Traveling up and down his timeline, I have taken a thorough mental scan of each incarnation of the Doctor, then imprinted those scans on the minds of biogenerations resembling the natives of this new world. Although I could not access his ninth incarnation due to a powerful time-lock around that portion of the Doctor's timeline, I was able to collect a total of twelve samples, more than enough for my purposes."

Both Three and Ten were visibly disgusted at what was panning out to be their origin story.

"Of course, some alterations were required. Biologically, I spliced each biogeneration with a sample of the Doctor's genetic material, giving them most of the advantages of Time Lord physiology, with the notable exception of regeneration. Psychologically, I adapted their mental prints to a baseline established by study of the indigenous population of Equestria. When they wake up, they will be familiar with and comfortable in their new bodies, and will not believe they ever had any other form. I was even able to create artificial muscle memory, through use of an acute neural stimulator array."

Jack's eyes lit up with subdued delight. Why build a stimulator myself when the Rani might have left one for me?

"In short, my goal was to, as accurately as possible, replicate the conditions of the Doctor's life on Earth in Equestria. I even forced several pieces of TARDIS coral through accelerated growth, so that each of them has their own TARDIS, although they are limited to this world's spatiotemporal range. The environment will provide them with companions to travel with and dangers to face, and they will eventually cross paths with each other. As for myself, I will use my TARDIS' chameleon arch to conceal my personality in a micromatrix. Because of the obvious physiological differences, I will not be able to disguise myself as a native, but I will capture and imprint my psychic anchor on one of them. For this purpose, I have selected the..."

"That's enough of that!" Ten practically pounced on the holocorder, covering up the display and jabbing at it until it shut off. Incensed, Three pulled him up and away from the others.

"You fool, what are you doing? If there is another Time Lord in Equestria, masquerading as a pony using a chameleon arch, I would like to know who it is!"

"Think of them! How would you feel if you found out one of your best friends was just a disguise for a psychopathic alien scientist?"

The prospect flustered Three. "You have a point. But we still need to find the micromatrix the Rani is concealing herself in."

"Agreed. Hmmm... ooh, idea! One moment please!"

Ten suddenly ran back up the stairs, leaving the entire group confused. "What's going on, Doctor?" Jack asked Three.

"The Rani is disguising herself as a pony, but my other self most likely has come up with a way to detect her. If only I knew what it was..." he replied, irritation obvious in his tone. Seconds later, Ten came blundering back down the stairs, holding an odd red box with a number of other devices attached to it, such as a small clock, tape reel, and telephone handset. "Oh, dear," Three commented.

"Oi! Don't diss the timey-wimey detector!"

"Timey-wimey? Have you gone mad, old chap?"

"It sounds cool! It's easy to say and it sounds cool. Dudn'tit sound cool, girls?"

Twilight and Rarity gave a polite nod, Pinkie gave a more excited nod, Applejack and Fluttershy hadn't quite caught up yet, and Rainbow Dash gave a slightly-smiling shrug that said 'I guess so'.

"I rest my case. It's a timey-wimey detector, it goes ding when there's stuff!" Ten pronounced, exasperated. For both the Doctors arguing and Ten pulling out the timey-wimey detector, Jack could barely contain his grin. For his part, Three was done arguing, especially now that he had a few moment to think about what a 'timey-wimey detector' would be."

"Ahh, I understand. It's a temporal anom..."

Ten quickly shushed him. "No, don't ruin my moment. It's a timey-wimey detector, it goes ding when there's stuff, and you were about to ruin my moment with your grown-up-sounding joy-killing technobabble."

"I would not... well, if I'm completely honest with myself I suppose I would. But a micromatrix and a temporal anomaly are two very different things! Your detector would have to be fine-tuned to scan for that kind of technology."

A smile crept over Ten's face.

"Would you care to do the thing?"

"If by 'the thing', you mean reverse the polarity of the neutron flow," Three answered with mild annoyance, which then changed to warmly match Ten's grin, "then yes, I would." He pulled out his wrench-like sonic screwdriver, extended the head, and went to work on the timey-wimey detector like only a Doctor can. By the time he was done, the device was clicking steadily, and Ten picked it up and waved it around.

"Alright, there we go! Ooh, it's close!"

Giddily, he waved it about, arousing everypony's confusion (except Three's, of course).

"It being what, Doctor?" Twilight asked as he swept the detector up and down her expectantly.

"The Rani's micromatrix," Three answered. "She's hidden herself here in Equestria, and when we find it, we can flush her out of hiding, stop her meddling with ponykind."

The ticking stayed constant, like the beat of a fine watch, as Ten went about the lab with the timey-wimey detector. Checking every shelf, cabinet and table, he then moved on to the other ponies, wanding them up and down in the old TSA style. But when he reached Jack, the tick sped up to a chattering, and then to a solid hum when Ten scanned his windbreaker.

"Oh, my," Ten said worriedly. Not that Jack could hear him, though. He was more inwardly focused, on a kind of mental background noise that he had just now become truly aware of. Before it had been so insignificant and unintelligible that he had been able to ignore it, but the tone was rising. The noise was becoming chatter, no, not just chatter, voices. A hundred voices talking to him, almost impossible to tell apart.

drumsdrumsneverendingdrumsmasterofallmattersaymynamesaysomethingniceonlyhatekeepsmealiveopenmeyoufoolandrevealmyglory

Locked out to the world around him, Jack slowly, almost unconsciously reached for a pocket in his jacket, pulling from it a silver fob watch.

"Must've picked it up when I came through the portal..." he murmured to himself. But Ten quickly grabbed hold of Jack's hoof, trying to hold it steady. "I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry, but you cannot open that watch. The Rani has anchored herself in your mind, and if you open that watch she will take over your body and wipe you away."

"Didn't even know I had it... not my style," Jack kept murmuring, as the Mane 6 circled in around him, now more frightened than curious. Ten moved his hoof toward the watch to take it, but suddenly Jack flung him away, squeezed his hoof and the watch cover sprung open. From inside erupted a violent stream of color, tendrils snaking toward Jack's face and enveloping it. He screamed as energy surged through his mind, drowning his senses with overwhelming pain. Everypony around recoiled, but as suddenly as the phenomenon had come it vanished, leaving Jack silent, head bobbing down with eyes closed.

Elsewhere in Ponyville, an old chap stepped out onto a balcony, leaning on his walking cane, and looked next door to the library with grave concern.

A younger stallion walking down the street almost tripped on a dangling end of his scarf. As he stood back up and adjusted his hat, he became very troubled, in a way he had not felt in a long time.

In Canterlot, another stallion took a pause in his verbose berating of a Royal Guard, tightened his patchwork jacket and ran off.

And back in the markets of Ponyville, a Northern pegasus was loudly arguing with a curly-white-haired Scot, but both suddenly fell silent, took an aside glance, nodded to each other and took off for the center of town.

"The Rani?"

Jack's eyes snapped open, cut with deadly intensity. His voice had the same cold edge.

"You thought I was the Rani?"

Ten was back on his hooves, but backed away slowly, filled with fear. "No, no, no, it can't be..."

"Oh, but it is, Doctor!" Jack hissed the word acidically. "You of all people should know I never stay dead for long!"

"Who are you?" Three demanded.

"Doctor?" Jack seemed to suddenly realize his existence, delightfully surprised. "Your best enemy, isn't that what you called me? And you've forgotten me too?"

"No..."

"Is there an echo in the room?!" he raved.

Now the Mane 6 were starting to close in, very, very worried. "Jack, what are you talking about?" Twilight asked.

"I am not Jack! No, my dear, I am..." Not-Jack took a moment to realize the fact that he was talking to a lavender unicorn and her pastel-colored friends. "...a pony?" He raised a hoof and studied it, almost trying to affirm its reality. Were it not for the overpowering menace of the moment, there would've been a kind of deja vu about it.

"Hello, I'm a pony! And a cartoon pony no less, oh, this is brilliant! Hooves, all four of 'em, big old neck, everything. And..." He flexed, until his jacket tore and his wings emerged on full display. "Oh yeah! I could get used to this body! But who did I steal it from?" Not-Jack suddenly tempered his excitement and began to think, or more accurately, to remember. When he woke back up, he was almost ecstatic.

"You called me Jack, Miss Twilight Sparkle, but Jack who? Jack of All Trades? Nope, Jack West, that's who! Of all the bodies to take over, I land on the body of the most powerful man on Earth! Hahaha!"

"What are you talking about?" Rainbow Dash was on the asking end of this question, furious about what appeared to be some kind of demonic possession. Not-Jack ignored her.

"Why's he a pony, oh, who cares? I have his skills, his brains, and most importantly, his toys! With an arsenal like his at my beck and call, I will truly be... the Master!"

Now the girls were backing away, forming a tight group with the Doctors on one side of the lab. "M-m-m Master?" Fluttershy whimpered.

Three replied, "Yes, an evil Time Lord and my arch-enemy. Charming, clever, and utterly ruthless."

Ten cut him off. "No, this is my Master. Much younger body, less Professor Moriarty, more giggling sociopath. Done more than a few body-swaps since you knew him."

"Yeah, well hate to break it to you, Master," Rainbow Dash sneered, "but there's a lock on your toybox!"

The Master closed his eyes for a moment, accessing Jack's/his memories. "Mmm, West put a genetic lock on all the good stuff. Good one, too, for a human. Nothing I can't deal with, though."

But the Mane 6 and the Doctors had already formed a barricade in front of the stairwell, blocking his exit.

"Oh no, not this time. I don't know how you came back from the dead, frankly I don't care, but this ends here and now," Ten declared.

"You're not getting your hooves on Jack's technology!" Twilight shouted.

"But I already have my hooves on Jack's technology!" the Master retorted. He pulled from a jacket pocket a small metal orb, no bigger than a marble, and held it up for all to see.

"For example, I wonder what this does? Oh wait, I know! It does this!"

He drew his hoof back and flung the orb at them, then ducked away. "Look out!" Rarity shrieked, but she was cut off by the massive explosion of light and sound. The seconds of dark silence that followed were all the Master needed to shoot through a gap in the barricade and make good his escape. By the time the group had recovered, it was fairly obvious what had happened, and they all hurried up the stairwell in pursuit. But as they reached the door, Three reached for something close to his chest, only to find it no longer there.

"My TARDIS key! He stole my TARDIS key!"

"Tar-what?" asked Applejack.

"Where did you park it?" Ten replied.

"Just outside the library."

"Well, good thing you're used to being TARDIS-less, 'cause he's definitely got it now."

Indeed, as they emerged from the library, Three saw the door slam shut on his TARDIS. "Oh no, you don't!" He drew his sonic screwdriver, quickly extended the wrench-like head and activated it. But all the same, the TARDIS dematerialized, with a pained vworp vworp vworp as it vanished.

"TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension in Space," Three explained with frustration. "Allows you to go wherever you like in all of time and space. And now it belongs to the Master."

Ten approached Three. "Don't worry, he pulled the same trick on me, with the micromatrix and the TARDIS-jacking. What did the sonic do for us?"

"I disconnected the primary fluid links from the time rotor. He can travel anywhere in space, but not in time."

"Clever. But that still leaves anywhere in Equestria."

"Umm, would that include across the street?" asked Twilight. Indeed, the vworping had returned, as a police box materialized in front of the group. Rainbow Dash charged it headlong, pounding on the door to get to her enemy. "Open up, Master!"

"Master?" came an indignant shout from inside. Not recognizing the voice, Dash cut her assault short, allowing the curly-haired unicorn inside to exit. "Master?!" he repeated to her with much greater gusto. "My dear, I don't know how you came upon the foolish notion that I am the Master, but I can assure you that you will find me infinitely preferable to that scoundrel." Rainbow Dash couldn't decide which to focus on, his imposingly pompous voice or his garish technicolor dreamcoat.

"And exactly who are you?"

"Why, I'm the Doctor, of course! Haven't you heard of me?"

Rainbow facehoofed. "Yes, twice now. Twilight, we got a third one!"

"A third one? Ludicrous! I am the Doctor, the one and..." The new Doctor suddenly noticed Three and Ten, glaring at him. "...only?"

"Well, yes and no, I'm afraid. You see, I am the Doctor, and so is he..." Three responded, pointing to Ten.

"...and so is he, I remember him. He comes a few incarnations after you," finished Ten. The Three Doctors smiled in mutual realization, but the Mane 6 had been left in the proverbial dust. "Alright, would somepony mind tellin' me what in tarnation is happenin' here?" demanded Applejack.

"Yes, without Jack here to explain things, it's all become rather mind-boggling," Rarity chimed in.

"Well, it's all very simple," responded Ten, gesturing to the other Doctors in turn. "I am he, and he is me."

"Ooh, ooh, I know this one!" Pinkie interjected. "And we are all togeth..." But the new Doctor interrupted her.

"Please don't finish that, dear."

"It wasn't terribly funny the first time," agreed Three. "But suffice to say, we are all the Doctor."

"I'm sorry, my dear fellow, but that simply isn't so. You may be a doctor, but I am the Doctor. The definite article, you might say."

A new voice had appeared, belonging to a gangly earth pony in a floppy brown hat and scarf that, though wound twice and very loosely at that, still managed to drag the ground on both ends. But before anypony, Doctor or otherwise, could correct the new new Doctor, back came the vworping sound, and another TARDIS materialized down the street. Out of it came running a rather small stallion, with a coat of grey and an overcoat of fur and size much too large.

"I say, have I missed anything, gentlestallions?"

But the alien noise had not stopped. As yet another TARDIS appeared, even more stallions were appearing from across Ponyville, all approaching the library in great haste. "What in Celestia's name is happening?" asked Twilight. Sensing the group's confusion, Ten pulled the Mane 6 back from what was becoming a crowd.

"Girls, this is a lot to explain in a very short time, so I need you to open your mind a bit. I, and by extension all these nutters, am a Time Lord. I look like a pony, I'm a lot like a pony, but I'm not a pony. See, Time Lords live a lot longer than ponies, and when we get too old, or get hurt bad enough that it should kill us, we do this thing called regenerating. It's like a fresh start; new body, new face, new personality, but it's still the same Time Lord. That's what everypony here is: a different body of mine. I can remember being almost all of them. And I've always had a TARDIS, so each of them has a TARDIS, so they can time-travel and that's how they got here."

The other Doctors were beginning to squabble. "You lost me somewhere in there, Doc," Rainbow Dash admitted.

"Alright, think of it like this. Say I have a time machine, yeah? And on three different days, I decide to come to one specific time. So it's like yesterday, today, and tomorrow I time-travel to today. But to you, who's not time-traveling, what does it look like today? It looks like there are three of me, one from yesterday, one from today and one from tomorrow. But they're all me, just from different times. That's what this is; everypony here is me, from sometime in my past or future, all time-traveled to the same day. They're just easier to tell apart, what with the different bodies and all."

The lack of questioning made it apparent that the hypothetical had helped. "But Doctor," asked Twilight, "if all of these ponies are different versions of you, how did they all know to come to this exact place at this exact time?"

"That's another thing about Time Lords: our minds are a lot more powerful. We can tell when there's another Time Lord in the same time zone as us. When Jack opened the watch and let the Master out, every Doctor in that moment sensed that there was another Time Lord in Equestria. So, they all came here to see who it was."

"Perfect!" shouted Rainbow Dash. "If there's an army of Doctors on our side, the Master doesn't stand a chance!"

"Not so easy, I'm afraid. Before we can worry about the Master, I have to get control of myselves..."

Breaking the silence only momentarily, a TARDIS touched down in an empty hallway, just in time to meet a Royal Guard on patrol. Startled, he drew his spear just because he could and approached with a bit more caution than was due. He poked probed the police box with his weapon, then tried the door only to find it locked.

"Alright, open up! This is the Royal Guard!"

Nothing. He backed away, spear at the ready. Hearing motion inside, the guard tensed up, ready for the action he had always expected but never seen. After a few seconds, out stepped a friendly-looking pegasus in a black windbreaker.

"Alright, soldier boy, put the big stick down. Someone could get hurt."

"Get on the ground, hooves behind your head!"

"Ooh, wrong answer."

From seemingly out of nowhere, the pegasus pulled a black metal tube and pressed on one end. The other, tipped with a sphere, popped forward, opening up the sphere to produce a beam of energy. A beam which struck the lone guard, contorting his every feature as it began to compress him down to scale. By the time the very painful process was done, there was nothing left of him but a miniature figurine, very much dead.

"Oh Doctor, you are a sentimental old fool."

The scene outside the library had devolved into chaos. Doctors who had met before were reacquainting themselves, some more amicably than others. Between them all, the only commonality was an eccentric sense of style. What this resulted in was an oddly-dressed mob that couldn't decide whether it wanted to share a group hug or become a big ball of violence.

"Oi, will you lot just SHUT UP!!!

And indeed, that lot did shut up. They had been called to attention by a great curly-haired unicorn, with a thick Scottish accent and eyebrows thick enough you could take off bottlecaps with them. By his side was a short-haired black pegasus, wings protruding from his leather jacket.

"Will you look at yourselves! Just once, can we Doctors get together and fight evil wiffout having to bicker like a bunch of stupid apes?!" he bellowed, in an accent very clearly from oop north.

"I say, aren't you being a little high-hooved, young stallion?"

Everypony looked up, to a balcony where an old stallion with slicked-back white mane and a cane stood.

"Yes, I seem to be stuck up here." He looked down upon the gathering of Doctors. "So you're my replacements? A dandy and a clown, several times over." Most of them took silent offense at the remark. "Now then, we are all the Doctor, are we not? I know I have not regenerated yet, so I must be our first incarnation. Now, for the sake of our guests, let's try and get into some kind of order, yes, hmmmmm?"

The Master snuck down the hallway at rapid pace, tight to the wall. As he reached a doorway leading to another passage, he hugged the corner, then burst out of concealment, sweeping the hallway with the deadly device as he scanned for other guards. Finding none, he put it back in his jacket pocket, drew close to the wall and kept moving.

"Thank you for the training, Mr. West. I know it's kinda like cheating, what with you spending so many years to learn these skills and for me to just pop up one day and take it all, but, hey, that's life!"

"Freeze! Hooves where I can see 'em!"

Reacting in a split-second, the Master spun around, drew and leveled his weapon at the two-guard patrol that had caught him from behind. He was not, however, as fast as a thought, which was all the unicorn in the lead needed to magically grab the device and yank it out of his hooves.

"You're coming with us!"

"Yes, well, good luck with that..."

The Master's hoof shot toward his shoulder, drawing his handgun from inside his jacket and firing as soon as he had a shot lined up. Well, trying to fire. The trigger guard, which a human finger could easily slip behind, was not so easy for a hoof to get around. Suddenly, he staggered, wincing in pain, and threw the gun away. Still on weak hoofing, he called out to the guard.

"My name is Jack West, you've got to help me! Send for Princess Twilight and the Elements of Harmony, they're the only ones who can stop Oh no you don't!" He staggered again, but this time stood up firmly, much to the guards' surprise.

"Sorry about that, I just can't shut him up! Back to business, gents?"

Using his wings for extra thrust, the Master flung himself at the lead guard, rattling him with a powerful uppercut to the jaw. He then snatched the guard's spear, flipped it about, and jabbed it into his exposed chest. With a sharp pull he broke the shaft off the tip, then ran down the second guard, who had turned tail when he attacked. The Master swung his staff wide and low, knocking the guard's back legs out from under him. As he hit the ground, the Master pounced on him, using his staff to press both his hooves and (more importantly) his throat to the floor.

"Please, please don't kill me! I'm just a grunt, and my tour's up in a week!"

"Shhh, shhh. Listen to your Master." His voice had suddenly become very calm, quiet, soothing even. His eyes penetrated into the guard's mind, overpowering his free will effortlessly. "Now then, there's something I'm looking for. You're going to help me find it."

The mob outside the library had now formed itself into an orderly line, with some 'help' from the more forceful of the group. The elder Doctor on the balcony had been helped down by two pegasi Doctors, though he still seemed to be overseeing the entire affair. He approached the Mane 6, who had stood by patiently as they organized themselves.

"Now, my dears, I would like to introduce you properly to the Doctor. Since there appear to be twelve of us, we will be identifying ourselves by our position in our own personal timeline."

The girls gave him a confused look. "He means which one of us came first, second, and so on," explained the scarf-wearing Doctor. "Indeed. As I mentioned earlier, I am the First Doctor."

The Mane 6 began making mental notes about each Doctor, matching each number with their individual distinctions. The First Doctor, oddly enough, appeared to be the oldest of the group, a unicorn with curled-back white mane, a walking stick, and a small sapphire ring around his horn.

"I'm the Second Doctor, howd'you do?" On the far left of the lineup, this one was quite a bit shorter than the others, and almost enveloped by his large fur coat. In his hoof was a recorder, and he wore his black mane in a mop-top style.

"We've already been introduced, but I'm the Third Doctor, for formality's sake. If it helps, I'm the one with a car and without a TARDIS."

"The Fourth Doctor, delighted to meet you. Would you like a jelly baby?" Pinkie, of course, accepted the offer, bounding up to take a few of the sweets from the paper lunch-sack he had produced. As he chuckled and she chewed, the others noted him to be the earth pony with the overly-long scarf and floppy hat. His coat was just a shade of brown lighter than that of the other Doctor they had met before, and his mane approximately the same tone as his, but curly instead of straight.

"Fifth Doctor. It's a pleasure." This one was the first pegasus in the line-up, with a very light tan coat and blonde mane. He looked like a charming young stallion, albeit one with a piece of celery inexplicably pinned to his hat.

And now they had come to the new Doctor, the unicorn with the very loud voice and very loud-colored jacket. "I would be the Sixth Doctor, and quite possibly the best if I do say so myself. Ow!"

He received a good whacking on the back of the head, courtesy of the next Doctor in line, via the question-mark-shaped handle of his umbrella. "Good afternoon, mares! I'm the Seventh Doctor." The pegasus tipped his Panama hat to them.

"...which would make me the Eighth Doctor." This one was another curly-haired earth pony, though unlike his predecessors he let his curls hang down. His accessory of choice was a dark brown cravat tied around his neck.

"Hullo! I'm the Ninth Doctor!" This was the pegasus who had yelled at the group earlier, with a very short-cut mane and wings threaded through openings in the leather jacket he wore.

"The Tenth Doctor, we've already met."

"But we haven't! Hi, I'm the Eleventh Doctor!" He was also a pegasus, with a coat about the same tone as the Fourth Doctor's, a mop-top mane, and a very pronounced jawline. More conspicuous, though, were his red bowtie and fez. "What? I like fezzes now, fezzes are cool," he said defensively.

"Yes, yes, I'm the Twelfth Doctor, now can we actually get to work?" This was the Scot from before, a unicorn with white curls similar to the Third Doctor's, albeit shorter than his.

"Indeed, my boy. I presume we all came here because we sensed the presence of another Time Lord in Equestria?" asked One. The line was curling into a circle so they could discuss the situation properly.

"Yes, you would've," answered Three. "It was the Master." Looks of shock and dismay all around for those who were not already aware of this. "He used a micromatrix to take over the body of another pony."

"More specifically, it was my Master. He's changed a lot since most of you knew him," Ten chimed in. "He's younger, he's cleverer, and he's sociopathic...er. In short, more dangerous than ever before. And he has a TARDIS."

"So he could be anywhere in time and space?" asked Five.

"Not quite," Three replied. "I was able to disconnect the primary fluid links from the time rotor, so he's limited to space travel."

"So how do we find him?" interjected Rainbow Dash. Seven stepped up to answer her. "Miss Dash, the Master is nothing if not predictable. And if he just emerged from a micromatrix, he can't have any grand machinations in place or traps for us to walk into. So what's his game? Revenge?"

Three stepped into the center of the ring. "No, if that was the case he wouldn't have run away. My running theory is that it has something to do with the pony whose body he took over. Jack of All Trades, wasn't that his name, Princess Twilight?"

"No, well yes, umm... kind of. It's a false name; his real name is Jack West."

"The human?" asked Nine, incredulously.

"Yes, but he's not a human any more."

"And how is that, my dear?" Two asked, more than a hint of skepticism in his voice.

"It's a long story..." She recounted to the assembly a very abbreviated version of their adventure at Canterlot High, ending with Jack arriving in Equestria as a pony.

"Yes, well that puzzle has as many pieces missing as a... very not-worked-on puzzle," commented Eleven, "but it's enough. If the Master took over Jack's body, he would have access to Jack's memories, so what would Jack know that the Master could use?"

"It's gotta be the weapons!" Rainbow Dash interjected. "Remember, he talked about having Jack's toys? What else would that mean?"

"Yes!" answered Twilight, "Jack has a huge arsenal of weapons under his cabin! I saw it once, when he was helping us fight Trixie."

"Mmmm, yes, I remember the V-22 Osprey roaring over Ponyville," recounted Seven. "A wonderful display of subtlety."

"Hey, it got the job done!" argued Rainbow Dash.

"The issue's irrelevant," Twilight interrupted. "The point is, Jack has a hundred things just as dangerous in his hangar underground, and since he built them, the Master would know about them."

"He'd be a fool to pass up that kind of opportunity. So has he gone to Jack's cabin to collect his prize?" asked Eight.

"No, he couldn't get to it even if he was there. There's a genetic lock protecting the arsenal, and unless Jack unlocks it, anypony who gets inside would still be attacked by the defense system. Jack said turning into a pony must have changed his DNA so much that his computer doesn't recognize it as his, so he's locked out too unless he can turn back into a human."

"And the Master knows that," observed Six. "So we can assume his goal is to turn from a pony back into a human, so he can get past the lock on the arsenal and take control of the weapons inside. So how would he do this? The most obvious solution would be reversing the process that turned him into a pony."

"Going back through the portal," Twilight concluded.

"Exactly," replied Three. "So the Master's destination is the Palace of the Crystal Empire!"

"Then what are we waiting for?" Twelve begged of them. "Indeed, see you all in the Mirror Room, shall we say, ten minutes ago?" Four answered wryly, followed by a chuckle as he ran off. The other Doctors in turn raced away to their own respective TARDISes, with a common set of time-space coordinates to aim for. Except for Three, of course, who gathered up the Mane 6 and led them back to his yellow roadster. "Doctor, wouldn't it be faster for me to just teleport us to the Crystal Empire?" asked Twilight as she climbed into the passenger seat.

"Save your magic, my dear, you might need it later. Bessie might not be instantaneous, but she'll get us there in good time. Now then, everypony secure?"

Looking back to see for himself, he then floored the accelerator, nimbly maneuvering "Bessie" through traffic to get out of central Ponyville until they reached less-traveled roads. A recently-constructed sign confirmed that they were on their way to the Crystal Empire.

"Hold tight!"

The Third Doctor barely gave them a moment to do so before pressing a button labeled "Turbo Drive", which shot Bessie down the road at a speed that even Rainbow Dash had to admit was adrenaline-raising.

With his prize dangling from one jacket pocket and his Tissue Compression Eliminator poking out of the other, the Master strutted out into the hall, closing the door and leaving a shrunken guard behind him. Poor fellow, even worse excuse for a soldier, hadn't even tried to resist. But he did give excellent directions. But as the Master approached the Artifact Hall, he found an all-too familiar sight ahead, and multiplied, no less. A wall of TARDISes blocked off all but the very top of the Crystal Mirror, and in front of them stood a small army of Doctors.

"Punctual as ever, Master," welcomed Five, mockingly.

"Hahaha, Doctors, I'm flattered! All of you for just one little old me? It's the Death Zone all over again! No, wait, don't tell me; there was a draft! 'All able-bodied Time Lords, report...' Well, most able-bodied Time Lords, it looks like."

"Yes, I'm afraid my second incarnation never was that good a navigator," replied Eight. "And my fourth incarnation may have forgotten to turn off his TARDIS randomiser, but there's more than enough of us here to stop you."

"If you say so, Doctor. But don't forget: I've always been full of surprises."

Suddenly, the Master turned tail and ran back down the corridor, to the surprise and amusement of the gathered Doctors. "Ha! The Master, running away with little more than a bluff to hide his cowardice behind!" chortled Six.

"The Master does not run," Seven corrected, contemplatively. "Nor does he bluff." Eleven shared his past self's unease, and leapt into the hall, abandoning the barricade to pursue the Master. "On it!"

Barely following the whiff of the Master's tail as it rounded corners, Eleven struggled to keep up. Corner after corner, through a maze of hallways, until he came upon the stolen TARDIS, door about to shut. "Wait!" The door paused, part-way between open and closed.

"I saw you go back into the Time War with the High Council, how did you escape?"

The door quivered a bit, unsure what it was going to do, before eventually holding still. From inside came a voice, devoid of its usual sadistic glee, the voice of a survivor still harrowed by what he had survived. "I got away from Rassilon and disappeared into what was left of Gallifrey. You were right; the War had become hell, and I was trapped in the middle of it. Of course, I knew what you were about to do, and my body was still decaying, so I sought out our old friend, the Rani, for help. But before I found her, I found her TARDIS, and when I realized how she had modified it into a Void ship, I did the logical thing and stowed away."

"You and her never did quite get along, did you?"

"She took us both out of the Time War, and I managed to stay hidden as she did her precious research. But my body could not last, and on the last throes of life, I was able to commandeer her chameleon arch and force my mind back into that watch. She discovered me, just as my body completely disintegrated, and threw the watch out into the Void. But without a body to be anchored to, my sentience was fully attached to the micromatrix, and in that place of absolute nothing, my force of will alone was enough to guide me towards this dimension."

"But how did you get a hold of Jack West?"

"Very good luck, Doctor. I found a weakness in the dimensional barrier, a kind of passageway between this world and a pocket universe. It drew me in, but I still needed a body to anchor to. When Mr. West came through the portal, I saw him as a human body in a state of biological flux, the perfect target for me to imprint myself on. That he emerged in this form was... regrettable, but I'll deal with that issue shortly."

"No, no, no, you listen to me, Master. We don't have to do this anymore, the Time War is over, the drums are gone! I can find the Rani, she can make a new body for you, and we can live here in Equestria, together. No more fighting, no more running, just you and me, like when we were kids."

The door creaked a little, then slowly began to shut.

"Sorry, Doctor, but you tried that trick before, and it didn't work on me the first time. Now, where was I? Oh, yeah, I'm putting this baby down in the Artifact Hall. Your past selves might wanna get out of the way."

It took a second to click, but the Doctor realized what he meant, and bolted for the TARDIS. "No, you wouldn't!" The door flung open, and the Master poked his head out, the fire of a maniac back in his eyes.

"Really? Try me!" The door slammed shut, the lock clicked, and Eleven wheeled around to sprint back toward the Artifact Hall as the vehicle dematerialized. The other Doctors could easily hear his approach, but mainly because as he ran he was screaming at the top of his lungs, "Time ram! Time ram!"

As evening began to fall, Bessie roared down the crystalline pathways of the Empire, startling the crystal ponies as she weaved around them on her way to the Palace. With the nearest leg of the tower-like structure fast approaching, the Doctor engaged the inertial brakes and brought them to an incredibly sudden stop at its base.

"Can you do the rest, Twilight?" he asked, to which she gave him a confident nod. A second later, the seven of them were in the Artifact Hall, expecting to join in the barricade. But what they found looked more like a disaster area. TARDISes were scattered about the room, one even tipped on its side, and Three was sure there were less than the eleven there should've been. What he did see was his own machine, parked in front of the Crystal Mirror like the epicenter of an earthquake. The Doctors that were there mulled about and chattered with each other in confusion, until Three called them back to attention with a resounding "Be quiet!".

"Now then, can somepony tell me what the devil has happened here?"

"Two words: time ram," offered Nine.

"The Master tried to time ram you?"

"Yes, we had to scatter our TARDISes to avoid annihilation. Of course some of us are just arriving now..." Six glared pointedly at Two and Four, who just returned their usual sheepish grins.

"Um, I don't mean to interrupt, but what's a time ram?" asked Fluttershy with concern. Ten quickly volunteered to answer.

"Think of it like this; you've got a unicorn, and they want to teleport somewhere. That's fine, nothing wrong with teleporting, right? But, uh-oh..." His voice for a moment became very hushed. "...what if there's something already there? What happens?"

"Umm... something bad?"

"Now there's an understatement of the year for you. But yeah, something bad would be the general idea. One of the two would be destroyed. But imagine if, instead of a unicorn and a something, you had a TARDIS, which has an engine powerful enough to drive it through all of time and space, and another TARDIS? One of them would have to be destroyed, which means a very, very big boom. That would destroy the other, and make a second very, very big boom." Ten gestured to the other vehicles in the room. "And if all of these were hit by those two very, very big booms..."

Fluttershy was already frightened well out of her wits. "I think I get the picture!"

"Yes, that colt is an utterly reckless fool!" commented One.

"Maybe, but he's also utterly clever," Seven replied. "We all know he's too vain to risk self-destruction, but he knows we're too good-natured to risk the consequences of being time-rammed. He probably just waited in the vortex for us to scatter, than landed and waltzed right through the mirror."

"The Master is at Canterlot High?" asked Twilight panickedly.

"I'm afraid so," replied Five. "And before he tried to time-ram us, I saw that he had your crown as well.

Two legs now, only two, arms, hands, fingers, ooh fingers, love those... "Good to be back!" The Master looked upon his new human body with excitement. Already he could feel its greater strength and athleticism, its speed and agility. A thousand images flicked past his mind's eye, of Jack's catalog of blocks, grapples, strikes, counters and the like. But he had work to do...

Now then, where am I? Digging into Jack's memories, the Master welcomed himself to Canterlot High School, where every pony in Equestria had a human counterpart. He ran through recollections of on-the-fly cover stories, great escapes and a new but not quite threatening enemy. Who was approaching him now...

"Stupid formal, doesn't even matter if I win if I don't get the..." She noticed him back. "You! You are..."

Sunset Shimmer, the school's queen bitch. Former student of Princess Celestia, strong in magic but ambitious and egotistical. Stole Twilight's Element of Magic crown for her own nefarious purposes, until Jack and Twilight recovered it. Probably still wants it. That covered the basics; the smaller details would fill themselves in as the Master needed them. Literally a second after seeing her, he knew everything he needed to about her.

She would do.

He reached into his jacket pocket and grabbed hold of the crown, then tossed it to her. She snatched it out of the air, surprised but thrilled.

"...my new best friend!"

"Have some fun, kid."

After Twilight had finished panicking about losing her crown (again), the group calmed down and paused to take a collective breath. Two was the first to break this rest. "Well then, what are we waiting for, everypony? There's the portal..."

"Yeah, 'cause it makes a lot of sense for all of us to just go charging in like an Ogron raiding party, doesn't it?" bellowed Twelve in his incurably thick Scottish accent. Following him was the other Scot in the room, Seven.

"I agree, we need a plan. There's no point in all of us going through the portal, especially if it closes tonight at midnight. There's too much of a risk somepony would get left behind. Even the TARDIS couldn't get through to you then..." he noted with melancholy. "What we need to do is split up into teams, each working on a specific task. Only one team would go through the portal..."

"Oh no, no, not this time," Ten growled, vindictively. "I'm not gonna let you send them to their deaths just so we can keep our hooves clean! They are more than pawns on your chessboard!"

Seven's tone was rising as well. "You listen to me, I am not proud of many of the things I've had to do in my lifetime, but I had to do them anyway!"

"SHUT UP!"

Both fell silent, shocked, as Twilight recovered the air previously occupying her lungs. The inner control freak had been let loose.

"This portal closes at midnight, we do not have time for any more bickering!"

Applejack stepped up next to her, laying a hoof on her back and trying to calm her down. "Sugarcube's right, if y'all want to make a plan, it needs to happen quick, 'cause we now have two problems to deal with over there before this puppy closes up."

"She's absolutely right," answered One. "Gentlestallions, it may be time for a meeting of the minds, hmmmm?"

"Definitely," Nine replied. "It would be prudent at a time like this," Four observed, somewhat unnecessarily.

The Doctors closed their eyes, and the room suddenly became very peaceful. A telepathic link was forming between the Time Lords, like a massive psychic conference call. Ideas circled from Doctor to Doctor to Doctor, arguments and agreements flying by at the speed of thought. Seconds later, the unicorn Doctors lit up their horns, using their collective magic to draw the Mane 6 in on the call. A plan had indeed been formed, and instantly, each pony knew their part to play.

Twilight would be going back through the portal, given her existing knowledge of the other universe, accompanied by Doctors Three, Four, Nine and Ten. Three and Four would help her recover the Element of Magic, while Nine and Ten subdued the Master.

The rest of the Mane 6 would accompany Seven back to Ponyville, to acquire the remaining Elements of Harmony should they be needed. From there, they would use Seven's TARDIS as a control station, monitoring each group's progress and keeping them in contact with each other via radio earpiece.

The First, Eighth and Eleventh Doctors were to follow Seven and recover the Master's micromatrix watch from the Ponyville Library, then begin work on making the Chameleon Arch in Eleven's TARDIS portable. From there Eleven would deliver both pieces of equipment through the portal, where they could be used to remove the Master's personality from Jack's body.

Two and Five would contact the other Princesses and inform them of the situation as best they could. They would coordinate with Princess Cadence and the Royal Guard to keep the Equestrian side of the portal secure, and if necessary begin the evacuation of the Crystal Empire. If anything got past the team at Canterlot High School, they were Equestria's first line of defense.

Conversely, Twelve and Six were sent to Jack's cabin near the Everfree Forest, to act as the last line of defense. If the Master got back to Equestria and escaped the Crystal Empire, that would be the first place he'd go, and their job was keep him from getting to Jack's arsenal while the others tried to catch up. But if events reached that point, it was an acknowledged possibility that the situation would be too far gone for them to reverse.

The not-quite-steady beat of boots on gym floor as high school students launched themselves up and down en masse and called it dancing. Flashing lights of every color and pattern imaginable, with even the odd laser or two thrown in for effect, trying to prove to the world that their era of origin (disco) wasn't quite dead yet. A student band playing a mismatched mix of original songs and radio-friendly pop hits, filler between covers of the obligatory school-dance classics. Yes, it was another very typical Fall Formal in full swing.

Until someone pulled the plug.

Lights, sound, everything went dead, causing a moment of panic until the emergency lights came on. Those who weren't already making their way to the nearest exit were surprised as Sunset Shimmer came back on-stage, shoving Flash Sentry out of the way. Her voice was loud enough to fill the gym, even without a microphone.

"Attention, students of Canterlot High! As four-time Princess of the Fall Formal, I have each year been proud to receive a crown almost as regal as I am. That's why it was so heartbreaking when I discovered that this year's crown had been stolen last night."

The group froze in collective confusion, as rumors were confirmed, suspicions risen, and the spectacle on stage continued.

"But it is my pleasure to inform you that the crown is now exactly where it belongs: in the hands of your rightful Princess!"

She held the Element of Magic in the air like the prize it was to her. This received in response scattered clapping and a few half-hearted cheers.

"It's alright, I don't need your applause. What I need, my subjects, is for you to tell me something..."

She donned the crown triumphantly, eyes flashing black.

"Don't I look just magical?"

"Trainers! Oh, that's brilliant!"

Now humanoid, Ten looked upon his newfound sand-shoes with delight.

"Indeed," echoed Three, examining his burgundy smoking jacket and frilled shirt. "The portal may be just a weak point in the walls between dimensions, but obviously there's a tailor somewhere inside, and I must remember to thank him."

"Yes, how the portal handles clothing is quite a mystery, but for now can we get on to more important issues?" Twilight replied with very obvious irritation.

"Yeah, like that." Nine pointed down the walkway to the school gymnasium, where the upper windows were venting bursts of bright orange light.

"Sunset Shimmer..." Twilight suddenly bolted toward the gym, fearing the worst. "We may be too late already. Hurry!"

"No time to lose?" remarked Four with a grin before taking off in pursuit. Three barely even took a moment to roll his eyes before following. Left behind were Nine and Ten.

"Unfortunately, the Master won't be quite as obvious about his location," Ten thought aloud.

"No, but he's still the only other Time Lord here." Ten smiled at his past self, then both closed their eyes and concentrated. After a few seconds, Nine got something definitive. "He's in the school!" Both took off for the front entrance. "Second floor, science wing." As they approached, Ten drew his sonic screwdriver and used it to open the locks on the entire row of glass doors, allowing the two of them to burst through at full running speed.

"Allon-sy!"

Working by the light of a desk lamp, The Master hunched over a small circuit board, modifying it with a soldering iron. His movements were quick but precise, with the touch of an experienced engineer. Around his work space were the cannibalized remains of a desktop computer, a graphing calculator, several other odds-and-ends-type implements, and a Tissue Compression Eliminator. Moonlight streaming through the lab's wall-to-wall windows glinted off his synthetic grey undershirt, exposed after he had shucked the windbreaker to unencumber his arms. Between the single lamp's light and the darkness of everything else, it was more than enough to play tricks on the eyes. In fact, Cheerilee wasn't even sure there was someone in the lab as she passed by, on her way to her car.

"Excuse me?"

The shadowy man's head flicked to the side; there was indeed someone in the lab. She opened the door all the way and stepped in, expecting a student working late or a custodian or something.

"The building's closed, this lab needs to be locked up. You can't be in here!"

What she was not expecting was for the shadowy man to stand up and whirl around to face her literally too fast for her to follow, to say nothing of the gun he held and was aiming right at her.

"Yes, actually, yes I can. I have my all-access pass right here. Now be quiet, and shut the door."

Terrified but comprehending the situation, she did so.

"Good. Now come here."

An innocent enough request. She approached cautiously, until he lowered his gun and stared quietly at her. The gun was down, she could escape! But Cheerilee's legs would not turn and run. It was his eyes; they were just so calm, so charming and persuasive, like he had given her the perfect sales pitch in nothing but a look. Those eyes were staring at her, and somewhere inside she knew she had no choice but to stare back.

"I am the Master, and you will obey me."

What? Obey him? No, get away! Why would she obey him? Why? Why, why... just because, that was why. There wasn't a reason for it, she just needed to obey him. No, don't obey, run! No, don't run, obey. It was all so simple, really. All she had to do was obey and everything would be fine.

"...I will obey you."

No! Don't fight it, just obey. Just obey. Obey the Master.

"Now then, I have a bit of a science project going on here, and you're going to help me. Be a good girl and fetch me some duct tape."

Duct tape, now where would that be?

The Master chuckled to himself as his new "assistant" started combing through drawers and cabinets to complete her errand, while he sat back down at his work station and returned to his soldering. Barely a minute later, as he put the finishing touches on his creation she returned, having found the required duct tape.

"Very good, now I've got another job for you. You see these gas nozzles here?" He pointed to one on the table he was working at, and twisted the handle on top. The nozzle began to hiss with escaping gas. "I need you to turn every nozzle in this lab to on. Can you do that for me?"

With a curt nod, Cheerilee happily walked about the lab, turning on every nozzle she found.

"Everypony, this is Seven, we have arrived in Ponyville and communications are online. Field team, check in and give me a status update. How are things over there?... Field team, come in. Field team, I repeat, come in, do you read me?... Nothing. Field team is incommunicado, noted. Technology team, report!"

"Technology team checking in, this is the Eleventh Doctor speaking. All three of us rode on your coattails just fine, Umbrella Man. How are things on your end?"

"The girls are still trying to wrap their heads around the "bigger on the inside" concept."

"Oh, I've been there. But who else is out there in Radioland?"

"Hello, young friends, this is Doctor Number Two! Do you read me?"

"Loud and clear, Two."

"Yes, well, things are moving along on our side of the picture. Princess Cadence has mobilized the Crystal Empire's Royal Guard detachment, and we have sent summons to Princesses Celestia and Luna. More soldiers arrive to guard the Mirror by the minute."

"Oh yah, soldiers make everythin' better, don't they? That's exactly what we need right now, more soldiers! This is Twelve, and Jack's hut is as safe as it's ever gonna be."

"Fair question, when I regenerate into you, do I forget how to do everything except complain?"

"Oh you shut up, Fezzy, I don't think you..."

"Wait for further instructions, I'm closing this communications channel----"

Seven slumped down, leaning back against his TARDIS console in exhaustion. Rainbow Dash was flying laps overhead giddily, Fluttershy had no doubt already gotten lost in the corridors, and Pinkie Pie was on her 47th repetition of the "inside take, outside take, gasp" routine. He mashed his Panama hat down over his eyes.

"Foals. I am surrounded by complete and utter foals."

Twilight charged through the gymnasium door, Doctors close behind. What they saw inside was downright frightening. A fire-breathing she-demon wearing the Element of Magic hovered over the dance floor, zapping the panic-stricken students below with mind-control rays like bugs in a jar. She looked familiar enough that Twilight was able to make an educated guess of what had happened.

"Sunset Shimmer, give me back my crown!"

The beast took notice, and ceased her attacks.

"Twilight Sparkle! I'm so glad you're back, to witness my final victory! When I lead this army back through the portal, even Princess Celestia will have to bow before the new Queen of Equestria! Mwahahaha! Oh, and what's this? You've brought some new friends for me to play with? Well, I'm sure we can accommodate them! Boys!"

Similarly demonic Snips and Snails swooped down toward the group, but Three stepped forward, pushing Twilight to the side.

"Let me handle these two."

Snips and Snails landed, then approached slowly, bearing their claws and fangs in an E-for-effort attempt at intimidation.

"You are so done for, old man," challenged Snips, although his very not-menacing voice kind of deflated the threat. "Yeah, it is on like Donkey Kong!" echoed Snails, who suffered from the same issue. Three merely extended his hand to them, flat with palm up, and invited them non-verbally to bring it on. Snips charged him, claws in the air like a Scooby-Doo monster. At just the right time, though, Three side-stepped and jabbed him in the chest with his palm, causing him to double over.

"Hai!"

Three then brought the same palm out, up and down, chopping Snips in the back of the neck. The little blue demon fell to the floor, out of the fight. Snails charged immediately after, but Three was more than ready for him, throwing him over his shoulder with his own momentum. As his body hit the wood with an audible crack, the Doctor flipped him on his stomach, then bent his arm at an angle most definitely outside its range of motion. Neither was getting up any time soon.

"Venusian aikido, I do hope I didn't injure you. At least not permanently."

With a furious scream, Sunset shot a blast of fire at the group, forcing them to scatter to avoid it. "Split up!" advised Four, and while he and Three exited the gym promptly, Twilight ran for the hallway on the other side of the room. Her enemy's indecision about who to pursue gave her time to get away, but as she rounded the corner, a previously-unseen third party grabbed her and yanked her into a custodian's closet. Although her first instinct was to scream, Twilight managed to avoid it when she saw that the third party was Applejack. In fact, all five of her friends were hiding together in the closet.

"Girls! I'm so glad to see you!"

"And you too, sugarcube. Have to admit, when you didn't come back this morning, I was afraid Sunset Shimmer had done gone off the deep end. Which it kinda looks like she has anyway."

Pinkie was flailing her arms about in a bid for attention. "Ooh, ooh, Twilight! Guess what we've been doing for the past half-hour!"

"Hiding from Sunset Shimmer?"

"Well yeah, duh, but we've also been having a big, friendship-salvaging heart-to-heart that I feel like could actually be really important to defeating Sunset Shimmer!" The others wrote this off as Pinkie Weirdness.

"You have no idea," Twilight deadpanned.

Following a psychic signature that was stronger than ever, the Ninth and Tenth Doctors burst into the science lab, sonic screwdrivers extended and leveled at the ready. Although they were scientific instruments, not water pistols, this weapon-like grip proved to be entirely justified, as when Ten flipped on the lights with his free hand, they found the Master. In his right hand was a Walther P99, and in his left was Cheerilee, who was oddly content for someone being held at gunpoint.

"Not another step, Doctors!"

"Let her go, Master!" bellowed Ten. "This is between you and me!"

"And him," the Master noted matter-of-factly, nodding at the other Doctor. "In fact, it's been a lifetime since I've run into you, Doctor number Nine! Number Nine. Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine!" he repeated, in an increasingly irritating tone. "...It is number nine, right?"

"Yeah, and not long enough," he replied with disgust. The Master returned fire with an overly-affected frown, almost a pout.

"Oh, come now, Doctor, no one likes a poor sport. Besides, have you seen my latest handiwork?"

Suddenly excited again, he pushed Cheerilee to the side, switched the gun to his left hand, and bore his right arm to the Doctors with pride. Just below the shoulder, secure behind a band of duct tape, was a circuit-board sandwich, no bigger than an index card. An indescribable mess of electronics was nestled safely inside, separating the two silicon boards. Its purpose was easy to guess.

"A genetic stabilizer," Ten observed, "to preserve your human form when you return to Equestria through the portal. Crude, yes, but I'll give you bonus points for building it out of a high school science lab."

"You forgot the part about unlocking the cookie jar of superior firepower on the other side. But we're getting ahead of ourselves; you have a bit of a hostage crisis to resolve, Doctors!"

The Master switched his gun back to his right hand, took a firm hold of Cheerilee again, and slowly walked them both to the other side of the room, putting several work tables between the two pairs. Given this was his Master, Ten took up the challenge.

"Listen to me, killing her gains you nothing! We've played this game across time and space, with companions and henchmen and robots and everything, but in the end it just comes down to you and me."

"And..."

"And him! But look at her! She is so small compared to us. Don't waste the effort to ruin a life that doesn't mean anything to you!"

The Master paused for a moment, shrugged, and lowered his gun.

"All I needed was a 'please', but that works as well. Go to them," he whispered in Cheerilee's ear. She stepped towards the Doctors, still in a daze. Nine took an aside glance, as if realizing something, then suddenly began to sniff the air.

"Do you smell that?"

"Yeah," Ten replied, as if it was just an unpleasant odor he was acknowledging, but then the realization hit him too and he became much more panicked. "Gas!" But both of them had their attention returned to the Master when he staggered unexpectedly, holding himself up by leaning into a table.

"Cheerilee, hit the emergency stop button!"

His words were pained, like he had just recovered from having the wind knocked out of him. It wasn't the Master talking anymore, but Cheerilee didn't know that. She just heard her Master's voice, and hit a big, friendly red button on the wall near the door. The background-noise hiss of the nozzles stopped abruptly.

"Doctor, it's me, Jack! I think I can punch through for a few secThat's enough!"

The Master suddenly contorted his body backward, off the table, then stood up as if nothing had happened.

"I really need to get rid of him, don't I? But anyway, room's about to explode, have fun. Bye bye!"

"Run!"

Though the Doctors were too busy getting away to notice, the Master broke into a sprint for the windows, jumping up on a table on the other side of the room. As he ran, he aimed ahead and fired, punching a small hole in the glass and causing the rest of the window to spiderweb. He then dropped his right arm back, looked over his shoulder and, aiming for the largest target he could find, fired again. The bullet hit a metal storage cabinet, shooting off sparks on impact, and as the Master's left elbow began to break through the window, the sparks erupted into a fireball that swept across the room and out into the hallway.

The Doctors just managed to drag Cheerilee around the corner and part-way down the stairwell before the blast of heat reached them. They kept helping her downstairs, then moved her off to the side, to be dehypnotized later. Ten pointed to the emergency exit at the bottom of the stairwell.

"Outside. The Master has the body of an action hero; knowing him, he probably tried to go..."

"...out-tru-da-window?" Nine finished wryly.

"Exactly," replied Ten, as he twirled in place, his longcoat billowing with flourish behind him, and set off.

Indeed, the Master had done just that, but he had overestimated his own (stolen) ability. Even Jack West couldn't outrun an explosion that close, especially with a window to go through in the process. The fireball caught him as he was half-way through, throwing him out of the room, tumbling down a slanted metal overhang, and hitting the sidewalk below with an audible thud.

"...And now you need to both get your crown back and keep the Master from getting back through the portal to conquer Equestria with a bunker full of superweapons!"

Pinkie had just finished repeating back to Twilight the entirety of the past day-and-a-half's events at breakneck verbal pace. She was understandably floored.

"How did you know that?"

"Meh, lucky guess."

"Wait, you mean all of that is really true, Twilight? Ponies, time-travelling aliens and all?" asked Rainbow Dash with great confusion.

"Yes, I'm afraid it is. If we can't stop both Sunset Shimmer and the Master, either one could easily take over Equestria."

"And this Master fella stole the body of that older gentleman we saw you with yesterday, uh, Jack of all Trades, wudntit?"

"Well, Applejack, his real name is Jack West, and he's from another universe entirely. He's a human just like you, but yes, the Master does have control of his body."

"But if the crown was yours," Fluttershy offered, "why didn't you just tell Principal Celestia that and ask for it back?"

"Breaking in was actually Jack's idea; he kind of has an affinity for living dangerously. But he seems to be pretty good at it. Besides, would you believe the story I, or rather Pinkie, just told you?"

"After that minor miracle Sunset Shimmer pulled off in the gymnasium, I could believe a lot of things," Rarity replied half-consciously, still watching through the crack in the door for trouble. She caught herself quickly enough; "But I do see your point, darling."

"But after what that crown did to Sunset Shimmer, why would you ever want it?" asked Rainbow Dash frankly.

"The crown only turned her into a monster because of the evil in her heart." Rainbow Dash, who was the first in her grade to publicly denounce the existence of the Tooth Fairy, responded with a cynic's eyebrow-cock. "Yes, I know, it sounds hokey, but this is magic we're talking about. Magic can give ideas power, ideas like good and evil, love, kindness, honesty, loyalty..."

"Twilight, I hate to interrupt," Rarity interrupted in a very nervous tone, "but I think we might have company!" She backpedaled away from the doors, just in time before they were magically ripped off their hinges. Light streamed into the closet, less from the emergency lamps in the hallway, more from the flame-like energy radiating from Sunset Shimmer's demonic form.

"Running and hiding, Princess Twilight? Such a shame; I hoped you'd be more of a challenge."

She held up a claw, and inside began forming a ball of dark magical energy. But before she could attack, yet another third party managed to sneak behind her, then throw his very long and almost as colorful scarf around her face.

"Here's wool in your eye!"

Yes, the cavalry had arrived, in the form of the Third and Fourth Doctors (whether they were qualified to be considered a new third party instead of part of the original second party is neither here nor there). As Four looped fabric around Sunset Shimmer's head, completely bundling her in the garment, Three swooped to the doorway.

"Come along, girls," he beckoned, before being interrupted by the entire building rumbling for no immediately noticeable reason. "It's not safe here."

They streamed out obediently, with Three close behind. Four continued to rodeo the she-demon about the hall, until she suddenly came to a stop, and the scarf fell limp on her shoulders. The loops fluttered to the ground in burnt tatters, seared clean across on each end. Sunset Shimmer spun around, scowling and bearing her fangs, to which Four could only grin sheepishly.

"You know, the scarf looks so good on you, I'll let you have the hat as well."

He lifted his floppy fedora off his head, then mashed it down on hers, swallowing her face up. By the time she had burnt through it, he had already beat a hasty retreat.

"So what happened to 'split up'?" Twilight asked Three as they approached the front entrance at full sprint.

"Well, my dear, when we found that the creature was not pursuing us, we deduced it must have been pursuing you. Naturally, we came back inside and tried to help."

Three darted ahead, pulled open a glass door and waved the rest of the group through. They all came to a stop at the portal entrance, catching their breath as the last bit of sunlight sank over the western horizon.

"Okay, Sunset Shimmer has an army of hypnotized students in the gym. We can't let them get through this portal," Twilight told them.

"So this is like our rally point, our final stand!" noted Rainbow Dash, playing up the heroic bravado.

"Yes," confirmed a much less-dressed Four, "and if we don't stop Sunset Shimmer here, Equestria is doomed." His melodramatic emphasis on that last phrase gave the less brave-hearted of the group chills. "Not to mention the Master..."

Twilight panicked, having forgotten that detail. "The Master! What if he's already gotten through?"

"He hasn't." This familiar voice came from the other side of the building, belonging to Ten as he rounded the corner. He and Nine were dragging the Master along, supported between their shoulders. The villain was clearly unconscious. They brought him to the group and laid him down in the grass. Three bent down to examine him.

"What happened to him?"

"Oh, nothing too unusual. He tried to blow up a science lab on us, but couldn't get himself out in time. Had a bit of a nasty fall," Ten explained. "Typical Master: got so wrapped up in destroying us he forgot the small details, like an escape plan."

Three pointed to the device on his right arm. "And this is?"

"Genetic stabilizer," answered Nine. "Would let him go back to Equestria and stay a human. Lucky bastard, looks like the thing's still intact."

"It would also keep the chameleon arch from working on him. We need to remove it."

Three drew his screwdriver, and with highly focused sound waves, cut through the duct tape on the Master's arm. He peeled it away and bundled it up on itself, then tried to lightly brush the assembly off. It would not budge. Leaning almost horizontally, Three inspected the gap between the device and the Master's arm, but then recoiled with a somewhat disgusted look. He looked up to find the rest of the party had surrounded him.

"Girls, you might want to turn away, I'm afraid this isn't going to be pretty."

They did so, except for Rainbow Dash, who (of course) thought she could handle it. She very nearly couldn't. With a firm, controlled pull, Three removed the genetic stabilizer from the Master, revealing two blood-soaked, almost nail-like needles on the underside. He set it carefully down on top of the statue, as blood began to seep from the wounds left where the nails used to be. But the grim mood was broken clean through by the echoing shout of "Geronimo!" Indeed, out of the portal tumbled Eleven face-first, in his hand a very odd metal helmet. He stood up, dusted off his tweed jacket, and straightened his bowtie.

"Someone order a portable chameleon arch?"

Though the rest of the group was looking at him, he turned his attention to the school behind them, and his voice became much more hesitant.

"I could come back later, if now's a bad time for you."

Out of every door of the school, zombie-students were marching toward the portal. They filled up every sidewalk, every doorway, and began to surround it. Flying through an upper window of the gym, Sunset Shimmer floated nearer, ready to command her army from on high.

"Don't just stand there! Get them!"

The growing hordes around the group advanced, with no weak point in sight. But Nine had an idea, and whipped out his sonic screwdriver.

"Use your sonics! Girls, cover your ears!" As they ducked away and cupped their ears tight, the other Doctors drew their screwdrivers and brought them together in the air. As the heads extended and some lit up, a shrill screech tore through the night air. It caused the approaching high-schoolers to stagger in pain, and after a few seconds most of them were good and stunned. When the Time Lords discontinued their attack, Sunset Shimmer found her army unresponsive, and screamed in frustrated rage.

"No more tricks, Princess! Now I end you!" She charged at them, eyes aglow with dark magic.

"Quick," urged Three, "the chameleon arch!" But Sunset Shimmer slowed down as he took it from Eleven, then saw him move for the Master's body. A simple deduction later, an energy tendril snatched him away from the group, well out of Three's reach. With a bit of a jolt, the Master woke up, only to realize he was somewhere completely different, suspended in the air by a beam of magic. At the other end of it was a monstrous demon-lady, who looked too much like Sunset Shimmer not to be her.

"Phew, note to self: don't try that again. Um, Sunset? Yes, haha, what are we doing?"

"Oh, new best friend... I need a favor."

Denying the Master time to draw a weapon, escape or make a witty retort, she sent a surge of dark magic into his body. With a scream of pain he began to contort, as the energy built until nothing but a silhouette of his body could be seen. A silhouette which was growing taller, lankier, with sharper and more pronounced fingers. Well, they weren't fingers anymore, they were claws. And, much to the Doctors' horror, the silhouette grew wings. When the energy bubble around him exploded, it revealed an entirely new Master - demonic in every sense of the word.

Hovering by bat-like wings, the Master flexed his claws with glee. His silver undershirt had now become his skin-tone, blending seamlessly at the waist into the dark khaki that had once been his cargo pants, which in turn became jet-black boots at his feet. With wounds healed instantly and invigorated by Sunset Shimmer's magical power, he cackled wildly.

"Ohhhhh, what is this feeling of power and drive?..."

"Stoooop!" The Master scowled down at Pinkie, who had just very rudely ruined his moment.

"What?!"

Suddenly, she was alongside him, bouncing up to eye-level and back again. "There's no villain song in this one, silly! You have to wait for the sequel for that. Don't worry, you get some good ones!" she somehow managed to whisper in his elongated ear. He flung his claw out to snatch her from the air, but she was already back with the others, like the entire conversation had never even happened. He and Sunset Shimmer exchanged puzzled shrugs.

"Now then, love, you were saying something about a favor?"

"Yes." She cast a damning finger in the direction of the Humane 6. "Destroy them!"

Fortunately for the Master, the Five Doctors were standing in the same group. Interpreting the order as broadly as he liked, he swooped down and split the group in two. While the girls ran one way, he pursued the Doctors the other. Noticing this, Sunset Shimmer faceclawed at yet another minion failing her. Oh well, at least he was keeping those five distracted. But if you want something done right...

As the Doctors took off through the grass, Three was the first to turn around and face his enemy, who came down from the sky in a diving kick. Three quickly crossed his arms in front of him and braced himself, blocking the attack. The Master bounced backward, then slashed with his right claw, but Three was able to drop back and grab the Master's arm. Though normally this was the ideal position to flip his foe, he never got the chance; The Master grabbed his arm as well and, with newfound strength, flung him over his head.

"Have a jelly baby, old friend!"

Though Four had been relieved of his iconic scarf and hat, he still had a few tricks left in his coat, one of which was that bag of jelly babies he always kept handy. Said bag was now flying through the air, toward the Master. He dismissed it as a feeble attempt at a projectile attack, and firing a beam of dark magic from his left claw, vaporized it in midair. What he did not consider in his dismissal was the possibility that the Fourth Doctor had added a lit Draconian candle to the bag of sweets. The chemicals produced by this flame would've reacted with the sugars in the candy, resulting in a very unstable compound. Add to that an intense burst of energy?

Boom.

The explosion threw the Master back and into the ground, shell-shocking him. Though the proximity of the blast caused Four to stumble back a little, he quickly regained balance, chuckling at his success like a schoolboy. Unfortunately for him, the Master could still throw energy bolts from a downed position, and one such bolt caught him off-guard and floored him. The three remaining Doctors were holding their ground behind him, waiting for the Master's next move as he got back on his feet. And boy, did he give them one.

Throwing both claws up, the Master shot off two more beams of dark magic, striking down Nine and Eleven before they even had the chance to react. Then, carried through the air at incredible speed by his wings, he launched himself at Ten, pouncing on him barely a second later. Pinning him, he brought his right index finger claw up to Ten's cheek.

"Like you said, Doctor." He raked his claw down Ten's face, digging just deep enough to draw a trickle of blood. "Just me and you."

Rainbow Dash led her friends in a dead sprint away from the school, in a path diagonal from the Doctors'. They panickedly serpentined across the front lawn as blast after earth-scorching blast of magic rained down on them. Although the portal was left completely unguarded, Sunset Shimmer was too consumed with revenge to care. In a spark of creativity, she decided to change up tactics. She raised her finger again, and this time it produced a jet of flames, carving a half-circle wildfire in the grass and penning the girls in. Realizing they were trapped, they turned around to face her, and she, in kind, descended to meet them.

"End of the line, Princess Twilight! I told Celestia she would never have a better student than me, and you're not going to live long enough to prove me wrong!"

Unfazed, Twilight stepped to the front of the group, but then, surprisingly, stepped even further forward, well away from the others.

"If you want me, Sunset Shimmer, here I am. You can have me. But leave my friends alone!"

This elicited several shocked gasps; some were genuinely touched by her devotion to protecting them, while others (you can guess who) wanted to run up and protect her from what appeared to be a pointless act of self-sacrifice. But something held them back. This needed to happen.

"Oh, how sweet! Friendship really is magic!" Sunset mocked. "But you have given me a lovely little idea."

Suddenly, Twilight was lifted off her feet by the power of telekinesis, and flung sideways.

"Just killing you here and now would be too quick and painless, too easy. How much better if I make the Princess of Friendship watch as her precious little friends are burned alive!"

Bringing her claws together, she began to charge up a fireball. Her threat made the Humane 5 tremble, but as they quickly realized they had flames on all sides, all they could do was hold each other tight and wait for the inevitable.

"So long, and goodnight!" bid Sunset as she launched her blazing orb. But as it left her hands, she could see a purple blur, obscured by the light of the flames, racing across the field in her peripheral vision. Indeed, Twilight Sparkle had recovered, and was sprinting back toward her friends. With every step she fought off fatigue and weariness, just hoping she would make it in time. And in one last bound, she launched herself forward, right into the course of the fireball.

"Why can't I kill you, Doctor?" the Master mused quietly as he played with the blood about to roll down Ten's cheek. "I've had chances, chances upon chances; there was a whole year when I could've struck you dead whenever I felt like it."

His right claw suddenly clamped around the Doctor's throat. But his voice didn't change, still soft, almost sad. "And even now, when you've been served up to me on a bloody platter... I still can't do it. I mean, you sent me back into the Time War, I should hate you worse than ever, it should be easy!" He was almost sobbing by now.

"We used to be best friends," Ten replied, in calm, controlled breaths. "I think somewhere, behind all the charm and bravado and megalomania, my best friend is still in there."

"Master!"

Suddenly, a familiar voice rang out from behind them. It was the Third Doctor, who had managed to make his way back to the statue. In one of his hands was the genetic stabilizer, in the other was his sonic screwdriver. "Let him go, or I scramble this like Sunday breakfast!"

"Do you mind?!" the Master bellowed back. "We are having a moment!" He returned his attention to Ten only briefly, and let his voice slip back to normal.

"Now I remember! I can't kill you because you're just too much fun to do without!"

He leapt up, hovering once more, and approached Three at a steady but nonthreatening pace. Meanwhile, Ten got back to his feet, wiped the blood off his face, and made his way to check on Eleven and Nine.

"Do you really think I care about that anymore? My old body was great, but this is a real upgrade!"

"You mean being the minion of a flaming harpy?" Three pointed to Sunset Shimmer, spewing fire at the Humane 6.

"I am no one's minion, Doctor. You should know that better than most."

"Your power comes from her," the Doctor noted casually. "It was hers to give, and hers to take away if you displease her."

"So what? If we go our separate ways I'll still turn back into a human, which will get me back to Plan A and into that vault in the Everfree."

"Actually I doubt that. If you go through the portal without this, you'll turn back into a pony. A demon pony, perhaps, but still a pony."

The Master was forced to pause, realizing he had been caught without a backup plan.

"You made the same mistake you made with the Nestenes," Three noted. "You form an alliance to get at me, but you don't think of what will happen if your new ally's plan plays out."

At the end of his rope, the Master lashed out. "Then what's the bloody point of this?"

"Oh, nothing, dear fellow. I was just keeping you occupied until something like that happened."

Twilight winced and clenched her teeth as she felt her shoulder take the brunt of the landing. That was definitely going to bruise. Wait a second... shouldn't she be burnt to a crisp right now? Yes, she should, except for the glow of purple magic surrounding her and her friends. That was when it truly clicked for her. Standing back up, she faced the she-demon with confidence.

"The magic of my Element united with those that helped create it!"

A beam of lavender light formed between Twilight and the crown. Realizing what was going on, the rest of the girls stood up and came to her side. Suddenly, magic coursed through the group, lifting them into the air. As Twilight recited each Element, the girl who represented it was charged with colorful energy, and transformed. They gained pony-like ears, incredible hair extensions, miscellaneous enhancements to their wardrobe, and in Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Twilight's case, angelic wings. But wings or not, they all floated above Sunset Shimmer as a group, aglow with magical energy.

"Together, they create a power beyond anything you could imagine! But it is a power you don't have the ability to control. The crown may be upon your head, Sunset Shimmer, but you cannot wield it, because you do not possess the most powerful magic of all: the magic of friendship!"

The Humane 6 came together in a heart-like formation, then channeled the magical energy running through them into a single, polychromatic beam. It corkscrewed above their head, then came down on Sunset Shimmer with full power. As she panicked in disbelief, the beam swirled about her, forming a rainbow vortex that enveloped her whole.

"Here and in Equestria, it is the only magic that can truly unite us all!"

With a glance, Twilight shot a similar, smaller beam toward Sunset's hypnotized army. It impacted a single student, then forked out like lightning to dart between everyone she had influenced. Awaking, they were brought back to themselves again. Another glance, this one closer to the portal, caught the Master right as he followed Three's gesture toward the girls. Magic wrapped around him as well, forming a smaller rainbow tornado as he screamed in agony.

Twin whirlwinds shot sparks of colorful energy. The recovered Doctors looked up to see the incredible show being put on above them. The Humane 6, back at each other's sides, released a corona of pure light. And it was all over.

Back in a human body, the Master recovered surprisingly fast, jumping to his feet before the Third Doctor could restrain him.

"Not this time, Doctors! It takes more than the magic of friendship to stopGive me the chameleon arch, Doctor."

Taken aback, Three placed it in the now-calm Master's waiting hands. He proceeded to slam it down on his head, press the two plungers on the front into his forehead, and leaned toward the Doctor. "Be with you momentarily." By the light of a streetlamp, Three punched in a code on the headpiece, the processor packs on the back began to hum, and the Master let out one final scream. But after a second or two, an anticlimactic "ding" sounded, and everything fell silent.

"Oh, it's good to be back!"

Doctors Four, Nine, Ten and Eleven approached as Jack stood up and removed the chameleon arch. He handed it to Three, then went around the group, giving each a very firm handshake and his thanks.

"How much do you remember?" asked Nine.

"Everything. He may have been working the body, but I saw, heard and felt every bit of it. Sorry about the whole blowing you up thing."

"No problem."

Three removed a silver fob watch from the arch and held it up. "Here lies the Master."

"And here stays the Master," Ten finished as he plucked it from his grip. "We'll need to have another conference call when we get back to decide what to do with it."

Three reached over to the statue and plucked something off its pedestal, then handed it to Jack. "Glad I remembered. Jack, I suppose you know what this is and what it does. With this, you can come and go through this portal as you please, without worrying about changing bodies. Unfortunately, it is a bit unpleasant to wear."

"I noticed. If you'll give me a second..."

He walked around the base of the statue, there was a stifled grunt, and he came back around with the genetic stabilizer back in its original position.

"There we go. I can reverse-engineer the technology back in Equestria and come up with a more user-friendly design."

"Excellent," replied Eleven. "Now, can we go ahead and pop off before this baby closes and we're stuck in high school for a month?"

"What about Miss Twilight?" asked Four. Jack popped his head around the statue to see her and the Humane 5 standing on the edge of a crater, helping a normal, teary-eyed Sunset Shimmer out of it.

"She has her own business to take care of. But yes, let's get out of here; happy endings give me spectrox poisoning."

And on that note, six bipeds stepped through the portal, but only one biped came out the other side. And that was perfectly fine.

Unknown to Jack, the Doctors, and those at Canterlot High, they were not the only ones who enjoyed the light show put on by the Elements of Harmony that night. More than a few blocks away, three teenage girls with hair-styles much larger than the hoodies they hid them in witnessed the spectacle. With a smile, they began walking toward the school, humming in harmony with each other.

Upon the safe return of Jack, Twilight, the Doctors and the Element of Magic, there was much rejoicing. Royal Guards were sent back to bed happily, and the Princesses retired to quarters after all necessary congratulations had been given. But for the Doctors, Jack and the Mane 6 (largely at Pinkie Pie's urging), an immediate victory party was to be held. Eight opened up his TARDIS to the group, and with its infinite resources and space, Pinkie really outdid herself. Stories were shared, drinks had, and a rare quality of company enjoyed. In the midst of the celebration, a not-quite-tipsy-just-yet Twelve grabbed Jack.

"Oi, War Machine!"

"Is that my nickname now, 'war machine'?"

"Yeah, war seems to be what you're best at! Listen, while me and Sixy were guarding your cabin in the woods, something showed up at your doorstep." He pulled from his cloak what seemed to be a glass cube, filled with fluorescent light.

"What is it?"

"It's a hypercube!" answered an eavesdropping Eleven. "It's how Time Lords send messages to each other. Why would you be getting one?"

"Let's find out." Jack raised his voice appropriately. "Excuse me, can I have a moment?" The party froze obediently. With both quiet and the curiosity of everypony else in the TARDIS, Jack twirled the hypercube in his hands, looking for some kind of interface. But when he had just given up on finding one, the box started talking.

"Aughh!...Princesses defeated... Elements captured, no hope, no hope... Tirek's won."

Jack could only stare at the cube in shock and disbelief. It was his own voice talking to him.

"We're still not exactly sure how the explosion happened, but we'll keep you informed as the police investigate."

Early the next morning, Vice-Principal Luna led a representative from Canterlot High's insurance company toward the building. "This stairwell is the closest to the blast zone." With a key, she opened an emergency exit door from the outside, then reached in and flicked on the lights. But both she and the inspector were startled to see Cheerilee standing inside, staring at them with a dopey grin.

"Where's the Master? I want my Master, please."