A Mad Dash Through Time and Space

by Joseph Raszagal

Chapter One - The Supersonic God

A Mad Dash Through Time and Space
Chapter One – The Supersonic God
A commission for an anonymous brony
As written by Joseph Raszagal

~ ~ ~

“But push
Always comes
To shove itself inside your life
And force you back out in
Someone else's world”

- “The Greatest Love Story Ever Told” by Shinobu

~ ~ ~

A bright and cheery sun smiled down upon the residents of Ponyville as they slowly stirred from their slumber. As per her usual, Pinkie Pie bounced out of bed as soon as the dawn's earliest light peeked through her window, eager to enjoy as much of the new day as possible. Humming a happy tune, she brushed down her trademark cotton-candy mane, cleaning out any of the knots and snags and random items that might have been caught up in the fluffy pink tangle during the previous day's spontaneous shenanigans. As always, it instantaneously poofed back to life as soon as she set the brush down.

“Big, big day, time to get whisked away!” she sang as she bounced down the spiraling stairwell from her loft. “It's gonna be a big, big day in such a great, big way!”

After speedily chowing down on a balanced breakfast consisting of a slice of vanilla cake, two toffee apples, and a heaping bowl of chocolate cherries, she hopscotched her way to the door and then out into the town proper. Smiling wide from ear to ear, the happy mare charted a course for the Ponyville Post Office. While the day had started out like any other ordinary day, the letter poking out of Pinkie Pie's saddlebag reminded her that it most certainly was not. No siree, today was going to be a day to remember, a day for the history books, because while it had taken all of her courage to do, Pinkie had finally managed to dust off her quill and write the love poem that'd been bouncing around in her head for months.

A love poem addressed to her lifelong crush.

A love poem addressed to Rainbow Dash.

With each hoofstep, her wide smile steadily diminished, replaced with a growing look of anxious worry.

“Can I really do this?” squeaked a voice from somewhere in the back of her mind. “I'm sooooooo close this time, I can't just give up... right?”

Caught up in yet another moment of indecision, Pinkie Pie took in a deep breath and did what she always had to do in order to overcome it.

She closed her eyes.

With the rest of the world shut out, pushed just far enough away for her to focus, Pinkie could see the prismatic pegasus standing there before her. A gust of wind swept through Rainbow Dash's mane, sending it dancing about in a spectacular display of kaleidoscopic color. She looked just as brash and bold and beautiful as ever. Pinkie drifted further and further into the self-induced mirage, gazing deeply into the pair of rose-tinted eyes that weren't really there. Rebellious, defiant, and oh so brave, she saw glimmering within them complete perfection.

She saw courage.

“If Dash loved somepony, she wouldn't be such a scaredy-cat about it,” thought Pinkie, biting her lip. “She'd be brave, brave like she always is.”

Shaking her head vigorously, the brightly-colored earth pony snapped herself out of her reverie.

“C'mon, Pinkie Pie, this is no time for daydreaming, you can do this!” she assured herself with a nervous gulp, her pace slowing as Derpy Hooves' post office towered before her. “Wowie, I could have sworn that it was only two stories tall last time and covered in a lot less gargoyles. And is it my imagination or is there a creepy, ambient piano playing from somewhere?”

“Sorry about that!” shouted a random stallion from someplace off in the distance. “I've been trying to get this player-piano fixed for the tavern, but it only seems to play ominous background music!”

“No worries!” Pinkie shouted over her shoulder in reply, her voice softening to a Fluttershy-like whisper as she turned away and meeped, “It's not like I'm trying to deliver a love letter to the coolest, awesomest, most super-duper-amazing pony ever or anything.”

Bracing herself for what she feared would be the end of the world and a thousand years of darkness, the candy-colored mare marched her way into the post office and dropped her envelope down onto the counter. A gray pegasus with a yellow mane and googly eyes took it with a smile and stuffed it into her mailbag.

“Heya, Pinkie Pie,” greeted Derpy, “you're here bright and early. Do you have some errands to get out of the way or something?”

“Y-yeah,” stammered Pinkie, her shivers getting the best of her, “y-you could say that. Heh, errands errands errands, tons of 'em.”

Tilting her head, the wall-eyed pegasus observed the nervous pony for a moment and asked, “You look a bit nervous, Pinkie, is something wrong?”

Despite her loopy appearance, Derpy was well known for her deductive prowess and intuitive nature. Lying to her and fooling her were never easy tasks.

“Sorrygottagothanksfortakingtheletterformegoodbye!” she shouted hectically in response, darting out through the door like a bolt of pink lightning.

Fishing the letter back out of her bag, Derpy shook her head and sighed, “Should I really deliver this after that little scene? I guess I'd better test it for explosives first. When Pinkie Pie's involved there's no such thing as being too careful.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Several blocks away, Pinkie Pie was leaning against a shop window and catching her breath when she saw the gray deliverymare hit the skies and begin her daily route.

“Well, that's that,” said the pink pony, nodding her head, “now I just have to wait for my world to end. I wonder if they'll have Twilight give the last words at my funeral. She'd say something good, for sure. Maybe I'll leave my estate to Gummy. Hmm, guess I'll need to get an estate first then.”

“Your funeral?” gasped a familiar voice from around the street corner. “Why, I would expect to hear such a thing from Applejack, but from you? You must have had a rough morning, dear.”

Pinkie Pie winced and turned her head in time to see Rarity trotting up to her. The elegant unicorn had gone out to the town's textile shop for some supplies for her newest set of dresses, the very same textile shop that Pinkie was leaning against.

“Oh noes, talk about timing,” thought the frazzled filly.

“I've had better,” admitted Pinkie, her smile steadily returning now that she was out of the post office and in the company of a friend not related to the delivery of her doom-poem. “I woke up extra early, even earlier than I usually do, so I could get a letter to Derpy before her morning route. It's a letter that I've been working on for a really, really, really, really, super-really long time and I'm just a teeny bit nervous about how everything's gonna end up once it's delivered.”

With a firm and comforting hug, Rarity flicked her flowing tail and said, “Goodness me, you're getting this worked-up over a simple letter? That's not like you at all, Pinkie Pie. Come now, whatever it is that you wrote, I'm sure it isn't worth all of these gray storm clouds that you're surrounding yourself with. I have quite a bit of work ahead of me today, but if you'd like to come with me to my boutique I would be more than glad to sit down and sort this out with you, perhaps over a nice cup of tea?”

“Awww, you don't have to go out of your way, Rarity,” giggled Pinkie, blushing. “Just your offer alone has got me feeling oodles better.”

“Are you sure?” asked the unicorn again. “Because it really isn't a problem at all.”

“Yepyep, I'm sure,” answered Pinkie, her wide smile back in place. “I've still got lots and lots to do too and puttering around like a mopey party-pooper isn't going to get me anywhere. Still, thanks for the offer.”

“Not a problem, dear, not a problem at al~

But Rarity's reply was cut short as a thunderous crash boomed throughout the town! Panicked ponies dashed about, left and right, as a massive shock wave tore through the busy streets and shattered every window in sight. Almost immediately, Pinkie Pie and Rarity were thrown to the ground by the sheer force of the blast and the tremors that followed it. As they shakily stood back up, the two girls watched as an enormous plume of smoke rose from the town square. Locking eyes with each other, they came to the same mental conclusion and nodded in unison. Like equine bullets, they galloped at full speed towards the source of the smoke.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Did you see that? It came out of nowhere!”

“I was just minding my own business when this blue box fell from the sky and nearly crushed me!”

“Quick, somepony get their camera!”

“Does anypony know what happened?”

“I think I sprained my leg after that fall, can somepony lend a helping hoof?”

“Eeyup.”

“That's better, thanks for the assist.”

“Eeyup.”

As Pinkie Pie and Rarity arrived at the scene of the disaster, Ponyville's “Ground Zero”, they set about to the task of helping their fellow ponies and tending to the injured. Luckily, while quite a few injuries had been sustained, no pony seemed to be worse off than a few sprains and a couple of bruises. Exhaling a sigh of relief, both ponies turned in time to see Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash darting towards them. Gulping nervously at the sight of her letter's soon-to-be recipient, Pinkie shook her head and drove those embarrassing, heart-fluttering thoughts from her mind.

While she could have barely imagined anything surpassing her personal worries of earlier that morning, Pinkie Pie had to steel herself and admit that there were indeed greater problems to worry about at the moment.

“What the heck happened here?” questioned Dash as she surveyed the damages from up in the air. “Holy crap, everything's in pieces, even the pieces!”

After lassoing a fractured and dangerously teetering pillar, then tying it down on its other side, Applejack shook her head and stated, “Ah haven't a clue. Looks like either a bomb went off or a meteor came down, an' Ah'll be honest, Ah'm havin' trouble tryin' ta decide which 'a the two'd be worse.”

“Regardless as to what caused it, I hope everypony's okay,” said Fluttershy softly, her head ducked down fearfully.

Landing down beside Pinkie and Rarity, Rainbow Dash shrugged her shoulders and asked, “What about you guys? You must have been really close by if you two managed to get here before us. Did you see what happened?”

Shaking her head, Rarity answered, “I'm sorry, but no, we only made it in time to help the hurt and injured.”

“We did ask around a bit though,” added Pinkie energetically, quick to respond to Dash, “and somepony did say something about a blue box falling out of the sky or something.”

“A blue box?” inquired several of the ponies simultaneously.

“What the hay is that s'posed ta mean?” questioned Applejack, stamping at the ground. “What kind 'a box just falls from the sky an' causes a mess like this?”

“Maybe... that kind of box?” replied Fluttershy, pointing at the smoking crater as the dust began to settle.

In an instant, all eyes were on the vague silhouette as it steadily coalesced into a definite shape from within the dispersing haze of dust and debris. Then, suddenly, a loud clatter arose from inside the mysterious box. As several seconds passed and the smoke continued to clear, the unmistakable sound of something banging against a pair of wooden doors thump-thump-thumped from the bottom of the crater. Just as a crowd had begun to gather around the crater's rim, the odd box came into full view, no longer obscured from sight by the black cloud that had come billowing up from it. Similar in appearance to an old phone booth, the blue box sent the surrounding ponies staggering back in surprise as its doors flew open with one final thump. Then, one after the other, two light-brown hooves came into view and pulled their owner up and out of the crashed box.

Adjusting his red bow tie, the disorientated stallion shook his head and addressed the crowd with a hesitant laugh, “Geronimo?”

“Oh, I'll geronimo you if you don't get me out of this swimming pool this instant!” yelled an accented and extremely irate voice from seemingly far away.

His face lighting up, the mysterious brown pony disappeared back into the box while smirking, “You just had to land in the pool.”

“Oi, you just had to put the pool in the library!” barked the box's other occupant, still sounding quite annoyed.

After a few minutes of strange sound effects that seemed completely unrelated to either a swimming pool or a library, two ponies eventually emerged relatively unharmed and trotted their way up the side of the crater.

“So, we're horses now?” inquired the owner of the irritated voice, a yellow-coated mare with an orange mane and a sparkling drop of water for her Cutie Mark.

“Speak for yourself, I'm a Time Lorse,” said the brown stallion, his mane a darker shade of brown and his Cutie Mark an hourglass surrounded by what appeared to be rings of orbiting stars and planets. “No, no, that's rubbish. Hmmm, how about Horse Lord? Time Mustang? Stallion Lord? No, those are all rubbish too.”

Pressing a hoof to her head, the mare rolled her eyes and sighed, “Doctor, I think we have more pressing matters at hand... er, hoof... than naming our species.”

“Our 'species'?” questioned Applejack, the first among the surrounding crowd to speak up. “What, ya can't even tell what y'all are, what we all are? Heh, y'all ain't exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer, are ya?”

With one raised eyebrow, Rainbow Dash piped in, “Yeah, c'mon, we're ponies. Duh.”

Locking eyes with his compatriot, the brown pony shrugged and said, “Ponies, eh? Too bad, Stallion Lord was actually starting to grow on me.”

“Well, hang on a second, Doctor, because you might get your chance yet,” chimed the yellow pony, pointing with one hoof at the pair of brown wings adorning his back. “If I remember correctly, ponies don't have those.”

Extending them and flapping them a few times, the mysterious stallion laughed, “Well, would you look at that. Can't say I've ever had wings before. This should be interesting.”

“What, interesting in a 'running for our lives' sort of way?”

“Well, given that they're wings, I'd say more of a 'flying for our lives' sort of way.”

“Oh, good, because that's definitely a better sort of way.”

“Your sarcasm aside, maybe even the best sort of way!”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,” spouted a confused Rarity, “you're telling me that you didn't even know you had wings? I don't know if I should be confused or jealous!”

“Yeah, don't be a dweeb, having wings doesn't make you any less of a pony,” explained Dash as she approached the pair of ponderous ponies. “All that means is that you're a pegasus pony. Did'ya get a bad case of amnesia or something while inside of that shed-thing?”

“Yeah!” added Pinkie Pie as she buzzed in energetic circles around the duo. “You can't seriously expect us to believe that you really-truly-honestly-sincerely didn't know that!”

“Indeed!” agreed Rarity, putting forth her best and most menacing glare. “First you come and destroy a great portion of our beautiful town with your... your... whatever that is, then you insult our intelligence? Who are you? Who do you think you are?”

After adjusting his bow tie one more time, the brown pony stepped forward and replied with a grin, “Oh, well that's simple. I'm the Doctor.”

“You're trying to act cool again, aren't you?” chuckled the yellow mare, rolling her eyes again. “That's not going to be easy for you to pull off with your sonic screwdriver stuck behind your ear like a student's pencil.”

“So that's where I put it!” exclaimed the Doctor, smiling up at the odd metallic rod resting on his head. “Well, how about that, it managed to stay in place despite the crash. I can't say I know much about ponies, but I'll say one thing, their ears certainly do have a strong grip!”

After moment or two spent admiring his hooves, which to the surrounding crowd of ponies seemed somewhat weird, the first half of his mare companion's statement finally caught up with him.

“What do you mean, I am cool!” argued the Doctor, puffing out his chest. “Just because I'm a pony doesn't mean I'm not cool! For all we know, ponies are even cooler than humans, which could potentially make me exponentially cooler. Given how very likely that is, I might even be dangerous to be around simply because of how exceedingly cool I am! You might freeze.”

Smacking her face with one hoof, yet again, the yellow mare ignored her friend's statement and instead addressed Rarity, saying, “Right, right, well anyway, my name is Amy Pond.”

“Well then, now that we've all been properly introduced I think it's high time that you explain to us why you crashed your phone booth into our formerly beautiful town square!” exclaimed Rarity, her words coming out with a sharp, serrated edge.

“First of all, it's not a phone booth, it's a police box,” stated the Doctor. “Wait, no, it's not really that either, it's a time machine! Still, that isn't important right now. What's important is the reason behind our crash landing. We were chasing a powerful being known as an Eternal through a region of 5-D space when we hit a literal 'wrinkle in time'. That wrinkle, sort of a rip in the fabric of reality, sent us hurtling through the Time Vortex until we were thrown out through another weak point located somewhere just above your town.”

Several long seconds of silence followed.

Dash looked from the Doctor to Amy, then from Amy back to the Doctor, several times. Eventually, she asked, “Uh, he did just say 'time machine', right? Like, you know, a machine that travels through... time?”

“Just nod your head whenever he starts talking, it makes everything a lot easier,” giggled Amy, nudging the Stallion Lord jokingly.

“Okay, okay, so let's say Ah do just play along an' nod my head ta whatever all 'a them crazy words meant,” questioned Applejack as she struggled to make sense of the Doctor's story. “Y'all said ya were chasin' somepony before ya crashed here, right? Who were they? What's an Eternal? Why were ya even chasin' 'em ta begin with?”

Smiling, the Doctor clapped his two front hooves together and said with glee, “An inquisitive bunch, eh? I like that. Seeking knowledge to clear the thick smoke of confusion and breathe freely~

“Oh, stop waxing poetic and just answer her questions,” sighed Amy.

“You're no fun,” he said, shrugging and stepping forward. “Alright, alright, the Eternals. Well, let's see, the Eternals are... well... eternal. They're similar in many aspects to gods, or at least what people... er, ponies... perceive to be gods. Nearly limitless in power, ways with which to abuse that power, and completely immune to the aging process; there's just very little that an Eternal can't do. In fact, just about the one and only thing that they can't do is think up ways with which to utilize their powers. It sounds like a fairly arbitrary flaw, I'm sure, a lack of imagination and all that jazz, but really, all the might in the cosmos wouldn't amount to a hill of beans if you couldn't actually use it.”

“I like this guy!” chirped Pinkie, bouncing in place. “He talks just as fast as I do!”

Uncertain as to whether or not that was a compliment, the Doctor shrugged and endeavored to conclude his educational ramble, “This Eternal in particular has been a rather stubborn thorn in our side for quite some time now.”

“Oi, a stubborn thorn?” griped the yellow pony in a heated tone. “That's certainly a gentle way of saying 'he's an enormous threat to anyone and everyone around him!' He turned us into chickens! Doctor, do you know how hard it is to operate a sonic screwdriver with a beak and no thumbs?! And yes, that's a hypothetical question! The answer is really, really hard!”

Biting his lip for a second, the Doctor looked back and forth in the awkward silence before continuing, “Right, so he's a very, very stubborn thorn. A stubborn thorn that can transform you into a chicken. The point is, even while we were tumbling through the Time Vortex, we were still hot on his trail. I have every reason to believe that he arrived here shortly before we did, and trust me when I say this, that is not a good thing. I have no idea how the fundamental laws of time and space work here so it's entirely possible that he's just as powerful here as he was before. It's also possible that he's been reduced to the same state as Amy and I, a sort of pony-fied version of our normal selves.”

“Ever the clever one, aren't we, Doctor?” trumpeted an impossibly powerful and commanding voice. “Tell me, when will I be rid of you?”

All at once, the crowd of ponies surrounding the crash site turned to face Ponyville's looming clock tower. Standing atop it, his pose daunting and smug, was a pegasus unicorn that was unfamiliar to all but two of the ponies watching from down below. With his jet-black coat and wings, and flowing mane of gunmetal gray, his regal appearance immediately brought many of the onlooking ponies unwillingly to their knees. The Doctor merely frowned and stared up at him indignantly.

Staring up at this menacing alicorn, Pinkie Pie felt a shiver shoot down her spine and straight through her heart. It was icy and sharp, unlike any twitch she'd ever felt before.

Something terrible was about to happen, a doozie among doozies!

“Perhaps I should ask you the same question?” proposed the brown stallion, flicking his tail and stamping at the ground. “Well, Rasputin Rosario Raszagal, what do you think? When will I be rid of you?”

“Simple, Doctor,” boomed the alicorn Eternal, “when you're dead. Perhaps when everyone here is dead. I know how protective you can be of... innocent lives. Time and time again, their pleading cries have made you emotional and weak, even during the roaring heat of battle.”

“Especially during the heat of battle,” clarified the Doctor, his eyes narrowed and angry. "I still haven't figured just out how you came to the misguided conclusion that might makes right without the ability to come to conclusions on your own."

With a wide, menacing grin, Raszagal laughed, "How does anyone come to such a conclusion, Doctor? I witnessed it firsthand and immediately knew that it was indeed right. The wizard was wrong."

With those fearful words said, Pinkie Pie's knees gave out on her and she toppled down to the ground. Everything was happening too fast for her to take in. Sure, she normally enjoyed the chaos that tended to unfold around her. Heck, she was often the cause of said unfolding chaos. But not today. Just this morning she thought that delivering a letter would be the most impossible obstacle to overcome in her entire life! How is a pony supposed to go from that to all of this? Travelers from another world come and crash-land in the center of her home town, bringing with them some kind of evil god, and she was supposed to just go with the flow?

“Pinkie Pie?” asked a voice, urgent and concerned. “Hey, Pinkie Pie!”

Snapping out of her stupor, the frightened filly looked up to see a worried Rainbow Dash staring down at her. The prismatic pegasus nosed at her, urging her to get up.

“Are you alright, Pinks?” asked Dash, still nosing at her.

With so many conflicting thoughts rushing through her head, all Pinkie Pie could manage in return was, “I... I don't know.”

“C'mon, Pinkie, don't fall apart on me now, that's Fluttershy's job!” huffed and puffed the rainbow pegasus as she pulled her friend up off of the ground and onto her hooves. “We're always the first to stare doom in the face and laugh, right? Whenever something scary rears its ugly head, don't you always just sing some crazy song and make the fear go away? C'mon, get up, you're messing up our group dynamic!”

Taking in a deep breath, the pink pony steadied herself and regained her composure. Exhaling an exacerbated sigh, she looked to Rainbow Dash and smiled. The prismatic pegasus who's future reply scared her the most turned out to be her greatest source of bravery.

“Heh, if only they made a candy as sweet as that irony, it'd be the best around,” thought Pinkie Pie with a smile.

And so, still feeling brave, the pink pony leaned forward and nuzzled into Rainbow Dash's colorful mane.

Blushing a deep shade of crimson, Dash turned to face the opposite direction before asking, “W-whoa, what was that for?”

“Nothing, really,” answered Pinkie, forcing herself not to stammer, though blushing just as deeply as the pegasus. “I just wanted to thank you.”

“Uh, r-right, then thanks for thanking m~

Sadly, Rainbow Dash's words were deafened beneath the thunder of the Doctor's as he took to the air with his new set of wings and challenged his Eternal foe, “What you did to the people of Felentina 3 is inexcusable! I've dealt with the Eternals before, faced and defeated them, and I have no qualms with doing it again! You're only near-invincible, Raszagal, and that's not nearly invincible enough! Not only that, but this is an entirely different plane of existence! We're bound, the both of us, by an entirely different set of universal laws!”

“I may not have any proof to back this theory,” smirked the Doctor, flicking his ears, “but we both know that that's never stopped me before. You might be a god among ponies here, but I severely doubt that you're still a god among gods.”

“Making light of my powers?” spat the black pegasus unicorn.

“Absolutely!” trumpeted the Doctor in return. “All I need to do is get you into my TARDIS! You've seen what direct exposure to the Time Vortex can do to your kind!”

“So, you mean to make me like Prospero?” growled the Eternal under his breath. “If it's a battle you want, then it's a battle you'll have. But not here, not near that infernal box.”

Almost instantaneously, the pegasus unicorn shot from the clock tower like a streak of dark light and blasted into the ground where a cluster of ponies stood, impacting with the force of a meteorite. Rainbow Dash took to the air before the flying debris had a chance to knock her around, but Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity weren't so lucky. Big bits of stone and soil exploded around them, sending all three mares tumbling about like rag-dolls in random directions. A cloud of dust and dirt flew into the air, but it didn't need a chance to settle in order to make the goal of the attack clear. Standing atop the clock tower once more, almost as though he'd never even moved from it to begin with, was Raszagal. Suspended in the air alongside him, surrounded by the magical aura cast from his unicorn's horn, was Pinkie Pie. The unconscious pony simply dangled helplessly as he held her there with his telekinesis.

The Doctor narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth.

The game had changed. Raszagal had a hostage.

“P-Pinkie Pie!” yelled Dash as she blinked back and forth between where her friend had just been and where she was now. “How... how did you do that? Th-that... that was a Sonic Rainboom! How in Equestria did you do that?!”

“A Sonic Rainboom?” mused Raszagal, raising one eyebrow mockingly. “I merely flew there and back again. I had no idea whilst doing it that it was some kind of impossible feat. Tell me, should I have gone even faster, if only to prove that I could?”

“Raszagal, do you really intend to stoop so low?!” shouted the Doctor, steadily growing more and more emotional. “Your quarrel is with me, not them! Let the girl go and take me instead!”

“Doctor, no!” exclaimed Amy in shock.

With a devilish grin, the Eternal laughed triumphantly, “Near or far, you're a threat to me so long as your TARDIS is within range. After all, Doctor, what makes you dangerous isn't the power that you possess, but rather your cleverness. No, I think I'll keep the pink one for a while longer. If you want to trade places with her, then you must abandon your time vessel and seek me out across the horizon. Until then, do well to remember that her life is in your hands.”

Utilizing the same impossible speed that he had used to attack Applejack and the others, Raszagal exploded from his high perch in a flash of dazzling light and disappeared into the distance in the space of a single heartbeat. Everypony left behind simply stared up at the sky with their mouths hanging open, unable to even comprehend what had just happened.

Well, almost everypony.

“I'll... I'll catch up to him with my own Sonic Rainboom,” stammered Rainbow Dash, her wings twitching and a steady stream of tears streaking her face. “I won't let him... we can't let him... he can't get away with this!”

Prepared to take off in pursuit, into the sunset and every sunset beyond it, Dash leaped into the air and spread her wings wide.

“Stop!” commanded the Doctor.

Turning to face the Time Pony, an unstable Rainbow Dash screamed, “That guy just kidnapped one of my best friends and you want me to stop?! Why, why should I?! Why shouldn't I hunt him down?! He's not the only one who can do a Sonic Rainboom! I can still catch up with him, I can still save her!”

“No you can't,” replied the Doctor, his voice cold and steely. “That man is more than just a pony, more than just a pegasus, and more than just a unicorn. He is an Eternal, one of the most feared entities throughout the entire universe, perhaps throughout every universe. Because he cannot be killed, the only weapon that I have at my disposal is a weapon that I wouldn't dare to use under normal circumstances. The Time Vortex contained within my TARDIS is capable of tearing the fabric of reality to shreds. It can shatter stars, plug black holes, and give even the Great Old Ones a run for their money. And I have to somehow use it to stop him without dying or worse-than-dying.”

“B-but~

“No.”

“But~

“No.”

“C-c'mon, Sugarcube, listen... ta the man,” coughed a battered Applejack from down on the ground. “S-sounds ta me like he knows... what he's talkin' 'bout.”

“Applejack!” shouted Dash, remembering the force of the blast that had sent her friends flying.

The prismatic pony immediately landed and went to the farm girl's side.

“Ah know it sounds scary, l-leavin' Pinkie Pie... ta her fate, b-but we don't have much of a choice right now,” hacked Applejack as Dash gently laid her on her side. “B-besides, from the way Ah heard it, the only one... that that Raszagal guy wants is the Doctor. If'n w-we go stampedin' after him, he might just... choose ta get rid 'a poor Pinkie Pie as a w-way of gettin' rid 'a us an'... eliminatin' a nuisance. S-seems like that's all we'd be against a fella like that... just a n-nuisance. If'n we're gonna try ta t-take him on, we're gonna have ta... increase our ranks. S-send fer Twilight. S-send fer Princess Celestia. Maybe with a bit 'a magic on our side... we'll have the upper hoof.”

Having said her piece, Applejack fell unconscious in Rainbow Dash's arms. All the pegasus pony could do was hold her injured friend and cry over the loss of her stolen one. Off to the side, inspecting his TARDIS, an introspective Doctor gritted his teeth and blamed himself.

“Had I not chased him here in the first place, this wouldn't have even happened,” thought the Time Stallion shamefully.