Through The Crack

by grimchi3f

EPILOGUE: Man In the Mirror

Epilogue - Man In the Mirror

Celestia stood beside her throne and surveyed the party that was currently taking place. As soon as they had gotten back up from the World Gate room, Pinkie had begun setting up the party. Since it had only been a day since the wedding, many of the ponies who had attended that were still in town. Pinkie had rounded them up and brought them here to party for the second time in two days. Even Spike was there since Twilight had teleported to Ponyville to fetch him.

Powerful dance beats blasted out of the speakers that Vinyl Scratch, or as she liked to call herself, DJ Pon-3, had set up. All across Celestia's grand throne room, ponies danced, laughed, and had a good time. Pinkie Pie was hopping around seeing if everypony was enjoying themselves, Rarity was criticizing Rainbow Dash for not trying to pretty herself up for the party, Fluttershy was out in the gardens trying to make friends with the animals once again, Applejack was trying to decide what food to start eating first, and Spike was complained to Twilight about how he hadn't seen Sonic defeat Discord. Celestia smiled. All was well.

"Sister?"

Celestia looked over to her right and saw Luna walking up to her, stopping once she was directly beside her bigger sister.

"What is it, Luna?" Celestia asked.

"After we got back from the room with the gateways to the other universes, you pulled me aside and told me you had a secret to tell me," Luna replied, looking up at the alabaster alicorn. "What is that secret?"

Celestia glanced around to make sure none of the partying ponies were listening and leaned a little closer to Luna. "I'm in love with somepony," she whispered into her sister's ear.

Luna gasped. "Who is it? Who are you in love with?"

"Shhhh!" Celestia shushed, glancing around again. "This is supposed to be a secret!"

"Oh, sorry," said Luna sheepishly. Lowering her voice down to a whisper, she asked again, "Who is it?"

"Twilight Sparkle."

Luna's jaw dropped. "R-really?"

Celestia nodded. "Since a couple of years ago actually. I fell in love with her once I finally understood how smart and powerful she truly was."

Luna looked over at Twilight. "But why her?"

"Why does anyone fall in love?" whispered Celestia, also glancing at Twilight who was still talking with Spike. Seeing both Princesses looking her way, the purple unicorn smiled and waved. "She's beautiful, smart, but it's a lot more than just those things. It's hard to explain."

"I think I understand," Luna said quietly, turning back to Celestia. "But, if you lover her, why don't you tell her?"

"Though Discord was wrong a lot, there was one thing he was right about," Celestia admitted, looking at Luna. "The real reason is because I'm afraid of her rejection. I don't know what I'd do if she said no."

Luna rolled her eyes. "But you're the ruler of Equestria, the one who brings the sun up every morning, of course she'd say yes. You need to have more faith in yourself, sister."

Celestia looked her younger sister in the eyes. "You don't know she'll say yes for sure, Lulu. She might think being with me is as weird as everypony else would." The Princess shook her head and looked away. "I'll tell her someday, but that day isn't today."

Silence settled between the two sisters as each of the two alicorns turned their attention to the party going on around them. After a few moments, a question popped into Celestia's head that she just had to have answered.

"So," the alabaster alicorn began in a nonchalant voice, "how did you meet the Doctor?"

-------

The Doctor stood on the large balcony that was just outside the throne room and observed the city before him. Canterlot at night was usually exciting, but after the events of today, it was the exact opposite. Ponies stayed inside their decadent homes just in case the chaos returned. The only trace of excitement came from the party that was currently going on behind him, sounds of which drifted through the open windows and doors leading out onto the balcony.

Thinking over the events of the previous day, the Doctor couldn't decide whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that he found Eggman in the void. On the one hand, Discord was permanently gone and Equestria didn't ever have to worry about his antics again; on the other hand, the entire country had been devastated and someone had died. Though the Doctor was used to death, he had never seen anyone die in this universe so it was still a bit of a shock. Still, he had found a friend in Eggman, even if the scientist had backstabbed him. In the end, Eggman had turned good and that was very nice. It was sad that all that change was for nothing though.

Suddenly, the air on the balcony turned colder, much colder and something appeared in the corner of the Doctor's right eye. Turning, the Doctor froze at what he saw. Standing in front of him, a couple of feet away was an Ood. The tall, bipedal alien wore plain black clothes with the Greek symbol 'Sigma' emblazoned upon the chest. Coming out of the creature's mouth were a multitude of tentacles and a thin white tube connected to a softball sized white orb that attached to the creature's shirt. The Ood looked at the Doctor with what could be described as an expression of sadness laced with disappointment.

"No, you can't be here!" the Doctor exclaimed, jumping back a bit. "It's impossible!"

The Ood plucked the white orb from his chest. "How I got here is not important, Doctor. What is important is that you must come to us; we have some important news we must share with you," came the alien's soothing voice, the orb in his hand lighting up as he spoke.

The Doctor shook his head. "I can't. If I go to you then that means my death and I'm not having that."

The Ood cocked it's head. "But Doctor, you don't truly die, you regenerate."

"But it feels like dying!" the Doctor shouted. "Why can't anyone understand that!? It won't be me anymore, it'll be someone else walking away! I like me the way I am!"

"Your song is ending, Doctor. Not even you can change that," said the Ood. "Your final battle is almost upon you. You must come to us so we can give you the information you need to prepare yourself. Running only causes grief to those around you. Look at this world and then remember Adelaide Brook. You caused these things and it will only get worse the longer you run from your fate."

Those last few sentences hit the Doctor like a sack of bricks. The Ood was right. Everything that had happened over the previous days was his fault. There was no denying it. If he hadn't been running from his death, he would've never found Eggman in the void and no one would've died.

"You're right," the Doctor whispered his eyes widening. "This was all my fault."

The Ood nodded. "Come home, Doctor, so that your final battle may begin." A second later, the Ood vanished, leaving a speechless Doctor in its wake.

The Doctor stared at the place where the Ood had just been and mulled over their conversation. After thinking for a few moments, the Doctor sighed and came to a conclusion: it was time to go home. He'd been in this universe for far too long and staying would only make things worse.

"Doctor? Are you all right?" said a familiar female voice from the direction of the party.

Startled, the Doctor turned quickly to face the purple unicorn approaching him from the throne room. "Oh, yes, of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Well, you did just have a distressed look on your face."

"Yes, I did," the Doctor said. He sighed heavily. "Okay, you caught me. I'm actually not okay. The sad truth is that I must go home as I've spent too much time in this universe."

"You don't have to leave," Twilight replied, shaking her head. "You're perfectly welcome here. Besides, now you have friends here. You don't have to be in Equestria alone anymore."

"I know, I know, it's just that I have to leave or else there would be disastrous consequences," explained the Doctor.

"Like what?" Twilight asked curiously.

"Like,uh..." the Doctor began, pausing for a moment. Deciding to lie about the true reason he was leaving, the spiky-haired stallion said, "Like more cracks appearing."

"But... I thought you said that those were only caused because of Sonic, Tails, and Ivo," the purple unicorn said, puzzled.

"Yes, well, I lied," the Doctor lied. "It was because of all four of us."

"Well, how come--"

"Twilight," the Doctor interrupted, looking her in the eyes, "please don't ask anymore questions."

Staring into the Doctor's eyes, Twilight saw a deep sadness and hopelessness. While she herself wasn't very young, she knew she had to live through a lot more, experience a lot more, to know such despair. Those were the eyes of someone who'd given up hope, and it broke her heart.

"Okay," she whispered, tears forming in her eyes.

"Before I leave, I just want to say it's been amazing," the Doctor said, smiling wide. "Meeting you and all the others, I mean. This universe and the way you ponies live is brilliant! I thank you and all your friends for everything." He began walking towards the stairway leading down from the balcony to the castle's exit.

"W-will we every see you again?"

Just before reaching the stairs, the Doctor stopped and looked back. "Not like this." With that, the spiky-haired stallion started down the steps and continued out of Twilight's sight.

Savoring his final moments in this universe, the Doctor walked slowly. Exiting the castle grounds, he trekked through Canterlot, trying to get back to the TARDIS which was parked in the same courtyard that it had been parked in when he and Eggman had arrived early that morning. The Doctor stored every sight, smell, and sound in his brain so that he'd remember it vividly, even after he had regenerated.

Upon entering the courtyard, the Doctor walked up to his TARDIS. Resting his head on it, he rubbed the blue box with his hoof affectionately. "It's time to go back home, old girl."

"Doctor?"

The Doctor brought his head up and turned around. Standing a couple of feet away was a red pegasus mare with a messy green mane. This mare's cutie mark appeared be some sort of laser beam.

"Who are you?" asked the Doctor, wondering how this pegasus knew his name.

"Someone from your future," the pegasus answered, "and I know what you're about to do."

"You know that I'm going to--"

"Die, yes," she said, finishing his sentence. "Well, to be more accurate, regenerate. I'm not here to try and stop it, as it must happen, but I am here to tell you something you need to hear."

"And what would that be?" the Doctor questioned, raising an eyebrow.

The pegasus smiled brilliantly. "I'm here to tell you that you are loved. Deep down you think you aren't, but you are, and not just by your companions. You are loved by millions of people, millions of people you don't know and who'd do anything to be where I'm standing right now." She closed her eyes. The next moment, she opened them again and they were glazed in a film of tears. "Especially you, the Tenth Doctor. You made Doctor Who a global phenomenon and one of the most popular sci-fi shows ever made. You're run as the Doctor has been fantastic and will be remembered for years to come. Goodbye, Tenth Doctor, you will always be my favorite." With her message said, the mysterious pegasus galloped out of the courtyard.

For the second time that night, the Doctor was speechless. Where had she come from? What did she mean by sci-fi TV show? Despite all the questions buzzing around his head, what the pegasus had said made him feel good. It had been exactly what he needed.

Cheered up, the Doctor rushed into the TARDIS and began putting in the coordinates for his home universe. Once the coordinates were in, he pulled the final T-shaped lever.

And so the Doctor went home to die... after a couple detours, that is.

-------

Eggman leaned over a messy work desk, his head in his hands. noise from the robot factory that resided in his Mystic Ruins jungle base could be heard, even through the thick steel walls. Autonomous beings stood in lines, creating other, newer autonomous beings. Guard bots patrolled the corridors looking for signs of any sort of intruder. Cargo craft flew in and out distributing supplies throughout the base. Outside the perimeter of the base lurked dangerous beasts ready to devour anything they could find, living or mechanical.

The fat scientist growled in frustration. There was something he needed to remember, but every time he tried to remember exactly what it was he was supposed to remember, the memories slipped through his mental grasp. He absolutely hated this feeling. Funnily enough, this feeling felt familiar, as if he'd felt it before. Weird.

Suddenly, while trying to get a hold of the slippery memories again, he finally caught something. Something having to do with his pocket. This in mind, Eggman reached into his pocket and pulled out an ordinary looking key. What was so important about this? Examining it more closely, Eggman saw that there was a word stamped into the metal on each side: TARDIS.

Upon reading this one simple word, Ivo remembered everything.

-------

" 'Evil scientist donates one million dollars to charity and plans on building a children's amusement park on the ruins of his old factory, Metropolis,' " read Tails, staring incredulously at the newspaper currently in his hands. Looking over the top of the paper at his best friend, the two-tailed fox said, "Wow, that seems really out of character for Eggman. I wonder what his evil scheme is this time."

Sonic shrugged. "I don't know. It might not even be an evil scheme."

The tow friends were both in Tails' workshop in the Mystic Ruins. Tails was sitting in a chair by his workbench that was turned to face Sonic. Sonic, on the other hand, was laying on the couch that Tails usually brought up form the basement whenever the blue hedgehog stayed over, his eyes closed. It had been a couple of days since Sonic's disastrous birthday party, which all of their friends were pretty ticked off about, especially Knuckles who got hit in the head by a palm tree he swore was knocked over by a blue police box. Good old delusional Knuckles; always good for a laugh.

"How can you say that!?" Tails exclaimed, folding up the newspaper and placing it on the workbench. "Especially after the Interstellar Amusement Park! He was supposedly reforming that time too!"

Sonic shrugged again. "I just have this feeling that he's finally changed is all."

Tails rolled his eyes. " A feeling, yeah, whatever."

Sonic opened his eyes and sat up. Grinning at Tails, the hedgehog replied, "When have my gut feeling ever been wrong? The Interstellar Amusement Park being bad was my gut feeling, was it not? Not to mention that my hunch that we had been to Soleana before turned out to be correct too."

"I still don't believe that last one," Tails retorted, crossing his arms.

"We saw it during the whole Time Eater debacle, dude. Eggman even said it had been the place of one of his many defeats," Sonic pointed out.

Tails scowled. "Yeah, well... we should get ready just in case this is another evil plan."

"No, we shouldn't," Sonic said, getting up and walking over to Tails. Putting a hand on the fox's shoulder, he added, "Trust me buddy, he's really changed this time."

Tails looked into Sonic's eyes for a couple seconds before glancing away and sighing. "Okay, fine... but you'll be sorry when it does turn out to be evil."

Sonic glanced at the photo on the front page of the newspaper that was laying on the workbench. In the picture, Eggman was shaking the President's hand and looking at the camera. His face looked happy, happier than Sonic had ever seen it. However, it wasn't the happy expression the hedgehog usually associated with Eggman; the one of victory and triumph.

It was an expression of pure joy.

THE END

Closing Theme: Man In The Mirror by Michael Jackson

Comments

[Firefinder]

Sequal?

[BronyGamer]

1190538There's going to be a sequel. How do I know? I aske-

He asked the same thing and it was told to him by the author.

D*mn it Lunian! You cut me off!

[Menoshe]

Can I suggest "Sonic Heroes" by Crush 40 for a credits theme?

[boomrainbownuke]

your story is well writen im happy that dr.robotnik has changed

[SonicDash2056]

is there gonna be a sequal? i played open your heart generations mix when it was super sonic vs discord

[Shadpie207]

Awwww~ such a sweet ending.