Epilogue: The Doctor
“No!” said the Doctor, firmly.
Twilight turned her head slightly to the side, her eyes wide.
The Doctor shook his head. “That's not going to change my mind,” he said. “Do you know what happens if you meet an older version of yourself?”
Twilight blinked. “Um... I did once... wait, actually twice...”
“Well, then I guess we can consider ourselves lucky there's still a future and a past!” snapped the Doctor. He sighed. “I'm sorry,” he added. “That was uncalled for.”
The Doctor took a deep breath. “In effect,” he said, “there are ways to meet your future self safely, without causing trouble. But there are no ways to guarantee that such a meeting would be safe, especially if your future self has reason not to cooperate. And if it goes wrong, it can go very wrong. Now, normally, when I have a companion accompanying me, I avoid the whole problem by simply going far enough in the future that they would have long died of natural causes. In your case, that's impossible – you're an alicorn, you likely won't die unless you're deliberately killed. And with your power and social position, there's not a corner of Equestria where you couldn't go if you wanted. If I were to travel with you, then, for safety reasons, we'd be limited to the past. And going back to – or through – the time in which Discord ruled Equestria would be dangerous for other reasons. So we'd be limited to wandering up and down a single millennium. I just... want to explore further than that. I want to see what happens to Equestria in the far future. Besides, you were gone for two weeks, here; next time, it could easily be a year.”
Twilight sighed.
The Doctor smiled. “Hey, don't worry,” he said. “You'll probably be seeing quite a lot of me, over the years. In fact... do you think you would be willing to invite me to your thousandth birthday party?”
Twilight blinked. “Ummmm... sure.”
The Doctor winked at her. “See you there, then!” he said, stepping into the TARDIS and closing the door.
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