Friendship is Multiversal

by Spark Plug

Episode 3: Enter the Multiverse

A bright light blinded the occupants of the TARDIS as the turbulence shook the room further. Sonic held tighter to Tails, instinct driving him to protect his younger friend. He was vaguely aware as he felt his hooves give way to hands, felt the weight of his quills on his head and the bracelet on his wrist, and felt Tails' namesake appendages brush against him.

With one final jolt, the TARDIS went completely still. The motor had stopped, and even most of the lights in the control room were out.

Sonic opened his eyes and slowly sat up, Tails not far behind. They were both back in their original bodies: Sonic, an anthropomorphic hedgehog with electric blue spines, and Tails, an orange anthropomorphic fox with two tails. "What's the word, Doc?" Sonic said.

The Doctor, now a human-looking creature just shy of six feet tall, ran a hair through his mildly greasy brown hair and sighed. "Well, we've just been flung through the far reaches of the time vortex. And I didn't have a chance to bring up the transformation shielding in the TARDIS, so..." He gestured at himself. "Ta-da, not pony!"

"Yeah, how does that work?" Tails said.

The Doctor brightened up slightly. "Oh, that? Just a normal everyday side effect of multiversal travel. You go to a world, you take a form from that world. Usually. Some worlds are weird and don't. And sometimes the TARDIS can shield us from that, but you've got to be careful with that. Don't want to end up in a world where oxygen doesn't exist, now do we! Or a world saturated with radiation that the locals have all adapted to and call 'magic.'" He came back down. "So, yeah, we've definitely left pony world."

"So we're back home?"

"Nope," the Doctor said, popping the 'p.' "We're someplace impossible."

Sonic and Tails looked at each other, then back to the Doctor. "Define 'impossible,'" Tails deadpanned.

Without another word, the Doctor swung the monitor over to point at Sonic and Tails.

---

This is Gallifrey.

The home of the Time Lords. An ancient civilization that harnassed the power of time and space. With great cities enclosed in massive domes, fields of coral growing into full-sized TARDISes, and the beautiful red sunsets.

That was, of course, before the war.

---

Friendship is Multiversal: Discovery

Episode 3: Into the Multiverse

---

"So we're at your home?" Sonic said with a smile. "That's great!"

The Doctor shook his head. "No." He took a deep breath. "There was a war. The Great Time War. Two mighty civilizations doing everything they can to make sure the other ends. Sure, it started out innocently enough. One civilization—the Daleks—generally tries to kill anything that isn't a Dalek. And the other civilization, the Time Lords—hello—generally tries to stop them. Things are give-and-take for a while until someone on some side says, 'Wait a minute, we've got time travel!' And decides that the best thing for everyone involved is to make sure the other civilization never existed in the first place."

Tails furrowed his brow and looked off to the side, still trying to process how that would work.

Sonic had a much simpler understanding. "I take it that was a bad idea."

"Oh, ho ho ho!" the Doctor yelled, "No, it was brilliant! Because what better way to ensure the stability of the universe—of universes!—is to repeatedly cause so many paradoxes that the time vortex itself nearly collapses! Meanwhile the war is actually being fought in normal time; both civilizations pulling out their absolute worst weapons, and then making worse ones."

He pointed a finger at Sonic. "I've read about some of your adventures, you know. Chaos? The Black Arms? Dark Gaia?" He shook his head. "Nothing. Not in the face of the Nightmare Child. The Could-have-been King with his army of Never-weres. Not when every weapon in the vault was pulled out to try to end the threat."

"How did it end?" Tails asked.

The Doctor shut his eyes.

"You ended it, didn't you," Sonic said quietly.

The Doctor nodded. "The last weapon in the vault was the only thing powerful enough to separate the war. Take the two warring civilizations and throw them out of the time stream. Permanently."

He turned to the center console. "Which is why I DON'T UNDERSTAND! WHY YOU BROUGHT US HERE!" He kicked the console for good measure. "We shouldn't be here. We can't be here! So WHY! ARE! WE! HERE!" the Doctor yelled.

The door to the TARDIS opened, and an older man with very impressive eyebrows leaned in. "Sandshoes," he said with a not-so-subtle accent, "we're all waiting on you."

"And you are?" Sonic cut in.

The newcomer glared at him. "I'm the Doctor." He turned back to the Doctor. "Come on, now."

The Doctor sighed. "Stay here," he muttered to Sonic and Tails as he walked out. "Here's still safer than..." He gestured lazily. "Whatever's out there."

The door shut, and Sonic turned to Tails who just shrugged.

---

"Twilight?"

Twilight lay still, eyes shut, willing the ringing in her ears to go down.

"Twilight?"

Her withers ached, her wings ached, her neck ached, her hooves ached, and her horn...

"Twilight?"

"Ugh," Twilight groaned. "My horn."

"Twilight? You can let down the shield now."

Twilight blinked and looked up. Pinkie was standing at the edge of the shield and tapping on it with her hoof, making a 'plink' sound.

"Right," Twilight muttered. With a wince, she forced herself to relax and cancel the spell.

The bubble disappeared. Pinkie jumped around with her newfound freedom. "Wow," she said. "That's the bestest, strongest magic shield thingie I've ever seen!"

"Learned it from Shiny," Twilight murmured. A small part of her brain congratulated itself on moving from muttering to murmuring.

"Oohhhh," Pinkie said. She looked around at the scrub brush and dry ground, then up at the oddly pink sky. "Sooooooo," she continued, "How'd you get the shield to stay up even though you were almost-completely-but-not-quite passed out?"

"Reflex," Twilight groaned, again pleased that she was gradually approaching normal conversation. "It's part of how Shiny drilled me. If you can make the spell reflexive, then you can keep it going even if you're about to black out."

"Woah!" Pinkie said, and Twilight even believed that she was interested. She looked around one more time, then turned back to Twilight and grinned. "I think it's time for a song."

Twilight came up short. "No," she said. "I think it's time to figure out where we are. If I can find the sun..."

"But Twilight!" Pinkie whined. "I have something extra super-duper important to tell you!"

Twilight ground her teeth. "Yes, Pinkie?"

Pinkie took a deep breath. "Weeeeeeeeeeellllllll," And with a grin, she broke out into song. "When I was a little filly, and the sun was going down..."

---

Sonic lasted about three minutes before finally opening the TARDIS door. To his credit, it would have been about thirty seconds had Tails not been there.

They were parked in a barn-like structure, complete with something resembling straw covering the ground. There was a crowd of several—maybe a dozen—men in the middle arguing over something. Sonic looked to the left to see an entire line of blue Police Boxes like the one he was in, though with varying shades of paint. To the right were two more boxes, though the one to his immediate right had a young woman leaning against it.

She made eye contact and gasped. "Oh my god," she breathed, "are you Sonic the Hedgehog?"

Sonic immediately pulled himself the rest of the way out of the TARDIS and leaned against it. "The one and only," he said with a smooth grin. "So, what's your name?"

The woman blinked. "Uh, Clara. Clara Oswald."

"Nice to meet you, Clara," he said, holding out a fist. She promptly bumped it with her own.

"So," Sonic said, "any idea what's going on?"

Clara's face fell a bit and she turned back to the argument in the middle. "How much do you know about the Doctor?"

"Not much," Sonic said as Tails tentatively made his way out of the TARDIS. "He told us about the war... a little."

"Right," Clara said, balling her fists. "Well, the first thing is that the Doctor can regenerate. Sort of an instant-reincarnation thing; instead of dying he just kind of turns into a new Doctor."

"Wait," Tails said, connecting the dots, "those are all the Doctor?"

"That's right," she said. "All twelve of them. Which one're you here with?"

Sonic looked over the group. His first quip was "tall one with the hair," but after seeing at least two that that could apply to, he settled on "the one in the pinstripe suit and the coat."

Clara nodded. "That's number ten, then. I'm here with the hair and the chin in the tweed jacket: eleven."

"And what are they arguing about?"

The crowd shifted enough that the three of them could catch a glimpse of a box on a table, a large red button blooming out of the top.

"That," Clara said with dread. "The Moment. The last weapon in the vault."

---

“Just giggle at the ghostly,” Pinkie sang, “Guffaw at the grossly—Twilight, sing along!—Crack up at the creepy—“

“Pinkie.”

“Whoop it up with the weepy—Can’t hear you!—Chortle at the spooky—“

“Pinkie!”

“Snortle at the spooky, and tell that big—“

“PINKAMENA DIANE PIE!”

Pinkie froze mid-pronk. In mid-air. “Yeah, Twilight?” She said with a smile, looking down at the alicorn.

Said alicorn had several hairs out of place. Steam was already rising from her head, her wings were disheveled and twitching, and her front hoof was pawing the ground dangerously.

“Why,” she ground out, “in the name of Celestia, Luna, and all that is good and right in the world, are you so insistent on singing? Right? Now?”

Pinkie landed gently in front of Twilight. “I’m so glad you asked!” she said. “You see...”

She began pronking again and started singing. “When I was a little filly, and the sun was going dow—“

Twilight screamed as a full half of her mane twitched out of place.

“What’s wrong, Twilight?” Pinkie said.

Twilight glared. “What did I do to deserve you as a friend,” she muttered.

Pinkie blinked, and for an instant Twilight thought she saw real hurt on her face. But she must have been seeing things, because Pinkie immediately answered as cheerfully as ever, “Nothing, silly! Don’t you know that’s what makes people friends?”

Twilight groaned and followed the pronking, singing pony, too frustrated to care about anything else.

It wasn’t until Pinkie finished that full rendition of “Giggle At the Ghostly” followed by two rounds of “You Got To Share, You Got To Care” that she stopped at a vista, swept out her hoof, and said, “Here we are!”

“And just where are we supp...” Twilight trailed off as she looked out. Below them was an amalgamation of buildings surrounded by a patchy wooden fence that went off into the distance, surrounding what looked like a lighthouse. It looked like the outskirts of a ramshackle town, cobbled together from whatever building materials happened to be around.

“How did you know this was here?” Twilight said quietly.

Pinkie shrugged. “Just a hunch.”

“Just a—“ Twilight paused, then fixed Pinkie with a calculated look.

“Pinkie?” she said.

“Yeah, Twilight?”

“Why were you singing so much?”

Pinkie answered with a horseapple-eating grin of her own. “Because we had just been thrown by a malfunctioning portal off into some unknown corner of time and space and the first thing we had to do was find shelter and I had a hunch that if we followed the light we’d find it but we’d never be able to do that if you were too scared and I knew that if you started thinking too much you’d start asking questions like ‘Where are we?’ and ‘How did we get here?’ and ‘How can we get home?’ and ‘Are we ever going to get home?’ and ‘Will I ever know true happiness?’ and ‘But what does a kumquat really taste like?’ and you’re really good at asking questions but when you’re scared you’re not very good at answering them and so I had to keep you from getting scared long enough for things not to be so scary and I know that singing helps me not be scared but usually singing just annoys you especially when you’re trying to think about other things like all the questions you don’t need to be asking right now but I thought that if you were really really annoyed with me you’d be so busy being annoyed that you wouldn’t be scared.”

Twilight gave herself a few minutes to catch up.

“Pinkie?” she said.

“Yeah, Twilight?”

“What did I do to deserve you as a friend?” Twilight said with a smile.

“Nothing, silly!” Pinkie answered with her own smile and a gentle shove. “Don’t you know that’s what makes people friends?”

---

Sonic sat with his back to the TARDIS and sighed dramatically. "I'm bored," he groaned.

Tails made a noncommittal grunt.

"Heard you the first fifty times," Clara muttered.

Sonic gave her a side-eye. "I thought you said there was a lot of running with the Doctor?"

"Oh, there is, normally," Clara said with an eyeroll. "But sometimes there's a lot of talking first."

"Of course," Sonic muttered. He turned to face Clara fully. "So how long have you been traveling with him?"

Clara counted on her fingers for a bit. "About eight months, now."

Sonic nodded. "And you know which Doctor is which?"

"Oh, that," Clara said with a blush. "I... might have fractured myself across his entire timeline in order to save him from someone else who fractured themselves across his timeline to kill him." She blinked. "It's all very strange."

Sonic looked at her and blinked slowly. "Time travel's involved," he muttered. "It's going to be strange." He looked out at the group of Doctors, finally having gone from all talking at once to apparently talking in a more orderly fashion. "So how long until they're done talking, do you think?"

Clara frowned. "A while, probably," she said quietly. "This is the biggest decision of his life. All his lives."

"So do it and don't look back," Sonic spat.

Clara gave him a sharp look. "You'd die to save the universe, right?"

"In a heartbeat."

Clara ignored the brief flash of pain on Tails' face and pressed on. "How about kill?"

Sonic opened his mouth, said nothing, then finally slumped back and crossed his arms, fuming.

"Thing is," Clara said, looking back at the Doctors, "I don't think he can do it, either."

Suddenly, the Doctor with a shaved head and leather jacket ran over to the door of the barn and opened it just enough to stick his head out. Whatever he saw must have been good because he turned back to the rest of the group, smiling broadly, and yelled, "Well, what are we waiting for?"

There was a beat of silence, then all twelve Doctors ran for their TARDISes.

---

Twilight and Pinkie gently trotted down the meandering path between the different buildings. The only common theme to the architecture was the lack of a theme. One building could be a collection of scaffolding with heavy iron plates leaning against it, while the next could be an immaculate craftsman home with an adorable little veranda. And the next would be a tribute to gothic architecture in structure as well as a tribute to gothic art in color scheme.

Twilight kept her eyes peeled for any signs of life. While many of the houses seemed to be occupied, they hadn't actually made contact with anyone as of yet. And now that she thought about it, this didn't look like anywhere around Equestria that she knew of. There was a good chance that–

"Hey, Twilight," Pinkie said suddenly, "when we meet someone here, do you think they'll be ponies? Or maybe it'll be like Kludgetown? Or–" She gasped. "What if it's like the other side of the mirror and they're humans?"

Twilight smiled in spite of herself. "Then at least we'll know how to talk to them, right?"

"You got that right!" Pinkie reared up on her hind legs, held a forehoof out invitingly, and cocked a wry grin. "How do you do, little lady," she said in a voice like someone with an accent trying very hard not to have an accent. "I have a savings account. Want to take a ride in my automobile?"

Twilight laughed out loud this time; Pinkie fell back on all fours and smiled broadly as they continued to walk.

"Wait," Twilight said after a moment. "Pinkie, how many times have you been to the human world?"

"Ehheh," she said sheepishly, "just a few..."

"A few?"

"...dozen."

Twilight sighed. "Just as long as I don't have to deal with an interdimensional diplomatic incident," she said with a smile.

They turned a corner and saw a small house with two humans–a man and a woman–fencing in the front yard. A third human, easily twice as big as either of the others, sat on the front steps. He made eye contact with Twilight and Pinkie and raised his hand in greeting. "Hello!" he called in his deep voice.

The swordfighting man turned to see, and as he did the woman tapped his arm with her sword. "Hit," she called.

The man rolled his eyes. "That cannot count," he said with a Spanish accent.

"Really? Because I recall you saying 'Always be aware of your surroundings,'" the woman retorted with an upper-class accent.

The man turned to the large one.

He shrugged. "She has you there, Inigo."

Inigo rolled his eyes and turned to the ponies. "And how are you on this fine day." He glanced back at the woman. "It is day, no?"

She nodded. "Lighthouse is blue, so it's day."

Inigo leaned forward against the fence. "I do not believe we have been acquainted yet."

Twilight held out a hoof. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and this–"

Pinkie bounced into the yard. "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie! That swordfighting was cool, can you teach me? But I'd have to have a special sword because I have hooves and not hands and..." She trailed off and came to a slow stop in front of the sitting human.

"Woah," she breathed, "you're big."

The giant furrowed his brow and looked down, seeming to mutter the word "big" to himself.

Twilight opened her mouth to apologize, afraid that Pinkie had accidentally insulted him somehow, but Inigo held his finger to his lip and smiled.

"It makes it hard," the giant finally said, grinning at Pinkie, "to dance a... jig."

Pinkie gasped. "But do you at least get to eat cake?"

"If not, I'll go swim," he said, "in the lake!"

Pinkie cheered. "What's your name, mister?"

"My name is Fezzik, and I'm no sister."

Inigo sighed. "Great, now he will never stop."

"Hey, now," Fezzik called. "What are you, a cop?"

Twilight cocked her head. "Do you always talk in rhyme?"

"If I do, is that a crime?"

Twilight facehooved.

"So what brings you out here?" the woman asked. "I'm Buttercup, by the way."

"Nice to meet you all," Twilight said with a smile, which quickly fell. "We... got lost."

“Lost exploring?” Inigo said. “Or did you simply find yourself here?”

Twilight’s ears fell back, her earlier panic attempting to reassert itself. Forcing herself to be calm, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “There was a magical explosion. It involved a portal to another world." She looked around. "This doesn't look like Equestria. Or the other world." Another deep breath, holding her hoof to her chest, then a slow exhale. "Do you know where we are?"

Inigo smiled sadly. "Where we are is the place between all places. You are from 'Equestria'?" Twilight nodded. "Do not fear," he continued. "If there is a road to your home, it will pass through here."

"You're not the first traveller to end up here by mistake," Buttercup continued. "And I'm sure you won't be the last." She sheathed her sword and walked out into the street. "C'mon," she motioned gently. "The Caretaker lives at the lighthouse; he'll know where your world is and how to get you home."

---

"What's going on?" Tails said as they joined their Doctor back in the TARDIS they arrived in.

The Doctor grinned like a madman. "We're going to evacuate the planet." He started the TARDIS engines and frantically manned the controls. "Two-point-four-seven billion children. And who knows how many others."

"And they'll all fit in here?" Sonic said.

"Oi," the Doctor snapped. "There's more rooms in here than just this one. Plus there's the other me's with their TARDISes."

"So what can we do?"

"You two? Nothing." The Doctor grabbed his coat that was draped over one of the railings and inspected his pockets.

"Yeah, pull the other one," Sonic said with a glare. "There's people in trouble out there; we can help."

The Doctor just looked at Sonic. "I don't think so," he said, with a quiet menace. "War is hell, and outside that door is the tenth circle of hell. I told you I would get you home safely, and that means you stay here."

The Doctor and Sonic stared each other down until Sonic nodded slightly.

"Right," the Doctor said, pulling his coat on. "There's going to be a lot of scared children coming in here," he said, turning to grab one last piece of equipment. "You can really do a lot by–and he's gone."

Sure enough, in the time the Doctor took to turn around, Sonic had run out the door. Tails was visibly torn between heeding the Doctor's warnings and wanting to stay with his friend.

"Can you catch up to him?" the Doctor asked?

Before Tails could answer, Sonic ran back into the TARDIS. "What was that? Stay here? Sounds great," he said in a single breath, his eyes darting around and his hands shaking.

"I don't have time for this," the Doctor said, striding towards the door. "Tails, keep him here. And don't fly off!" He stopped in front of the doors. "Well then," he said to himself, "allons-y." And he pushed the doors open and strode onto the battlefield.

Tails flicked Sonic's ear. "What the heck was that?" he yelled.

Sonic shuffled. "You know me," he said, trying to crack a grin. "Gotta be where the action is!"

Tails kept his glare up for a moment before softening. "So what did you see that scared you back here?"

Sonic shook his head. "Nothing bad," he said. "Just... a sign."

Tails raised an eyebrow. "A sign."

The door opened and the first wave of Gallifreyans began to rush in.

"I'll tell you later," Sonic muttered.

---

The lighthouse stood alone in what passed for a town square. Buttercup led Pinkie and Twilight through the jumble of people–not a dense crowd, but comparable, Twilight thought, to the Ponyville market mid-morning. The lighthouse itself was a rich navy blue with white stripes and a bright white light that pulsed gently. And not much bigger than a normal lighthouse.

"Usually there's a house attached," Twilight said. "You said the caretaker lives here?"

"Well," Buttercup said with a smile, "here's your first lesson about this place." She opened the door and gestured them inside. Pinkie pronked in, and Twilight followed at a steady, though skeptical, pace.

The inside of the lighthouse was an open atrium complete with atmospheric lighting, various tables and desks and counters, what looked like a fully-stocked bar at one end, and all very much bigger than anything that would normally fit inside a lighthouse. It wasn't crowded, but it was definitely busy: an assortment of humans, creatures, and everything in between congregating and shuffling through.

"Woah!" Pinkie said. "It's smaller on the outside!"

"Not everything is as it seems," Buttercup finished. "Space fits together in weird ways here."

With a shout of "Holy crap, ponies!" a human in his early twenties with brown hair and a fairly pale complexion came rushing up to the group. He stopped short and held out his hand to Buttercup. "Princess, good to see you," he said.

"Ronyo," she said, shaking his hand. "Enthusiastic as always, I see."

"You know it." He stood back and motioned at the group. "What brings all of you here today?"

Buttercup motioned to the ponies. "This is Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie." She looked Ronyo in the eyes. "They're lost."

Ronyo nodded. "Do you want me to take them down to the database?"

"If you can tell me where Wesley is."

Ronyo jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "Saw him trading stories with some other pirates."

Buttercup rolled her eyes. "Thank you." She said goodbye to the ponies and strode off.

Ronyo turned to Twilight and Pinkie. "So!" He clapped his hands together. "We've got a solid database of universes out there along with where the stable portals are. And I'm like... eighty percent sure Equestria's on that list." He turned and motioned for them to follow.

Pinkie immediately pronked after him. Twilight followed a second later, eyes narrowed.

Ronyo led them off to the side and up a few flights of steps. "The map room is up here," he said. "Extra-dimensional physics don't always map well to three dimensions, but the Caretaker makes it work." He turned over his shoulder and grinned. "Not dissimmilar to a magic map of the world, now that I think about it."

They exited the stairwell and entered a room dominated by a large table showing a holographic display of the lighthouse and the surrounding buildings. A set of other screens around the room each displayed their own sets of data or video feeds. Above them, a skylight pulsed in time with the lighthouse.

"Caretaker!" Ronyo yelled.

An older gentleman in a plain grey suit looked up from a computer console at the other end of the room. "Ronyo!" he called with a smile. He walked to the opposite side of the map table. "What brings you up here?"

Ronyo motioned at Twilight and Pinkie. "Got a couple of lost travelers. Please tell me we have Equestria on the map."

“Obviously, you’ve been there before,” Twilight said.

Ronyo froze. The Caretaker faced down and tried to hide his grin.

“What do you mean?” Ronyo said, convincing absolutely no one.

Pinkie backed away slowly.

Twilight glared at Ronyo. “Besides the fact you mentioned the map? We never actually told you we were from Equestria.”

Ronyo winced. The Caretaker schooled his features and motioned at Ronyo who trudged around the table to him.

The Caretaker slapped Ronyo on the back of the head. “They’re real people,” he said.

“Right,” Ronyo said, much more subdued. He walked back to Twilight and Pinkie. He opened his mouth—

And was immediately interrupted by a chime from one of the screens. The Caretaker tapped a button on the table, and the main screen switched to show an old man with slicked-back hair in a stark white room. “Calling master control in The Reef, this is the Doctor.”

The Caretaker nodded. “Well met, Doctor. How goes the day?”

The Doctor smiled thinly. “A day I expect I shall not remember for some time, unfortunately. A few of my... selves have gathered together, and we have some people that will need a place.”

“We have a place. How many TARDIS-fulls can we expect?”

“Twelve.”

The Caretaker blinked. “That’s a relief,” he said. “I was afraid you were going to bring all thirteen of you.”

The Doctor scowled. “Twelve is all I get, it seems,” he clipped. “If you can take the evacuees?”

“Well, we do our best not to turn anyone away that needs a place” the Caretaker said, smiling as broadly as he could. “We’ll be happy to take them.”

“Thank you, Caretaker,” the Doctor said, smiling as genuinely as he could. “We’ll be materializing shortly.” The call ended.

The Caretaker swore. “That’s a lot of people,” he muttered.

Twilight glanced at Pinkie. Pinkie nodded back.

“How can we help?” Twilight said.

The Caretaker opened his mouth to deny, but the words never came out. “Any way you can,” he said finally.

Twilight nodded. “Right.” She snapped to attention, her head held high and her wings folded smartly to her sides. “Do we have others we can mobilize?”

“We migh—“

“Yes,” Ronyo interjected. To the Caretaker, he added, “Anyone that can help will, all you gotta do is ask.”

The Caretaker smiled. “Yes,” he said to Twilight, “we have people.”

“Great. Ronyo, can you bring that map back? And Caretaker, start getting a list of places people can go.” She turned to Pinkie. “Got any party cannons?”

Pinkie stuck a hoof in her mane and rummaged around. “Two cannons fully loaded, Sarge!”

“Fire at will. These are evacuees, so read the room.”

“They’ll be coming out of a war,” the Caretaker added. “If today is what I think it is, at least.”

Pinkie saluted, then in a puff of pink dust she was gone.”

Twilight turned back to Ronyo. "We're not done here, by the way."

Ronyo shook his head. "Princess Twilight Sparkle, I swear I am a friend, not a foe; and I will explain everything I can once things calm down." He thought for a second, then motioned to himself. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake–"

Pinkie materialized, shoved a cupcake into his hand, and gave an "I'm watching you" gesture before disappearing.

Ronyo looked at the cupcake and its healthy dollop of blue frosting. "...stick a cupcake in my eye." Before he could question himself he smashed the cupcake into his face.

Twilight stared for a moment before nodded. "Understood." She turned back to the map. "Do we know where they'll be coming in?"

---

The TARDIS landed with a thud and a shake. "I thought the number of passengers didn't matter?" Tails said as he picked himself up.

"Oh, all the time," the Doctor answered.

"Except?"

The Doctor sighed. "Except when it's funny."

Sonic snorted. Several of the younger passengers giggled.

The Doctor winked at Tails. "Alright," he called. "Line up, orderly fashion. We've got a couple thousand people to cram through a small door." He turned to Sonic and Tails. "Mind checking outside to see what's up?"

Sonic opened up the door and stopped short, causing Tails to bump into him. "Twilight Sparkle?" he said.

Twilight held up a hoof and stared at her clipboard. "Just a second. Is that everyone from TARDIS nine?"

The exceptionally large human next to her nodded. "All out and in line."

"Great." She turned back to Sonic. "Is this TARDIS ten?"

"It sure is," Sonic said with a grin. "Didn't expect to see you here."

"Yeah," she said with a grimace, "today's just full of–wait, Sonic?"

Tails pushed his way out. "Hey, Twilight! Long time no see!"

Twilight visibly relaxed. "Tell your Doctor to unload in five minutes; give the last group some time to get through."

Tails ducked back inside while Sonic walked over to Twilight. "So, what're you doing here?"

"Mirror portal exploded and sent Pinkie and I here. You?"

"TARDIS got blown off course and we got caught up in whatever this is."

Twilight frowned. "Coincidence?"

They looked at each other for a moment before shaking their heads in unison.

Tails hopped out of the TARDIS and shut the door behind him. "Okay, Sonic," he said. "What did you see?"

Sonic glanced around. "Me."

Tails' face brightened. "You from the future?" Sonic nodded. "So you'll be out there later?"

"Much later," Sonic muttered. He looked Tails in the eyes. "It was Super Sonic." He shook his head. "It'd have to be time travel shenanigans. Apart from the mess with the Time Eater, I haven't been Super Sonic since..." He fidgeted with his green-jewled bracelet.

Tails leaned over to Twilight. "He uses these artifacts to achieve a super-powered state, but the last time it happened he left them with their guardian who went to sleep for a thousand years."

"So yeah," Sonic said, pulling himself out of his funk. "I'm pretty sure it's the future, because I made eye contact with myself and told me to stay back. Maybe I find some other way to go Super Sonic?"

"Well," Twilight said with a slight stomp of her hoof, "I can tell you, from personal experience, that the future will happen, and there's no point in driving yourself crazy."

Tails and Sonic both looked at her.

She blushed. "I might have gone back in time to tell myself to stop worrying, which of course made me worry."

Sonic chuckled.

Tails suddenly perked up. "Hey, did you see me?"

Sonic grinned. "Would you feel better if I said I did?"

"Of course I would!"

Sonic put a hand on Tails' shoulder. "Then I'll say I did."

Tails smiled, then processed what exactly Sonic had said. With a glare, he whispered, "You sick son of a bitch."