Friendship is Multiversal

by Spark Plug

Episode 5: Aftermath

The party was winding down. Most of the Doctors had left, and the Gallifreyans left behind were breaking apart to find places to stay. The kitchen staff was toasting with whatever was left, and the other organizers were setting down their clipboards with the satisfaction of a completed checklist.

All except Twilight Sparkle, along with Sonic, Tails, and Ronyo, who were standing in an open area of the town square.

"She's going to make it," Twilight said.

Sonic and Tails glanced at each other, neither wanting to point out that she had been saying that for the last half hour.

"There she is!" Ronyo yelled, pointing at a star that had appeared.

"Sure it's not just a star?" Tails said.

"There's no stars here," Ronyo answered.

Twilight visibly brightened. "It is, it's her!"

The star grew brighter and larger.

Sonic shifted positions. "Do we need to catch her?"

Twilight shook her head. "She'll be all right."

"Ooo," Ronyo said, feeling more giddy by the second, "think she'll do a superhero landing?"

The star—now identified as a pink glow—was falling fast.

Tails did some quick math in his head and panicked. "Everybody clear space, she's coming in hot!"

The few stragglers around the town square quickly moved toward the edges. Twilight refused to move at first, but when it was obvious her entrance was bound to be explosive, she quickly cast a bubble shield over her friends.

The pink star slammed into the ground, dirt and dust flying everywhere and piling up against Twilight's shield. As the dust settled, Pinkie Pie could be seen in the small crater, both back hooves and one front hoof on the ground...

And her new wings spread triumphantly.

"Yeah!" Ronyo yelled. "Superhero landing!"

Twilight didn't wait for anyone's antics. She dropped the shield and tackled Pinkie to the ground. "Pinkie Pie!" she shrieked in between sobs and halfhearted punches combined with holding Pinkie as close as possible. "Don't ever scare me like that again you... you... you motherbucker!"

As soon as the word was out of her mouth Twilight shrank back, sitting on her hind legs and using her fore hooves to cover her mouth.

Pinkie got up slowly, no worse for the wear. "What did you call me?" she said with a giggle.

Twilight just shook her head, not moving her hooves from her mouth.

Pinkie barked a couple of laughs before jumping forward and wrapping Twilight in her own hug.

"I'm sorry," Pinkie said in between laughs and sobs. "I'm not going anywhere."

Twilight released her fore hooves and returned the hug with equal gusto. "I didn't—I'm sorry, I—"

"It's okay! I didn't want to scare you."

"I'm so glad you're okay—and you're an alicorn!"

"And I'm an alicor—" Pinkie paused, her eyes wide. "Oh, no!"

Twilight pulled back. "What? What is it?"

Pinkie looked Twilight in the eye. "Does this mean I'm a princess now? And if so does that mean I can't be a baker at Sugarcube Corner anymore? Am I going to have to move out? Can I move in with you? At least until I get my own castle—Wait! Am I going to get my own castle? And did you have any idea that yours was going to be made out of crystal because I don't think that'd be very good when it could be made out of—Wait! Can it be made out of sugar crystal? Do I have to leave a bunch of cupcakes by the Tree of Harmony to get it to build..."

---

Friendship is Multiversal: Discovery

Episode 5: Aftermath

---

"...if the palace bakers don't like me? I mean, I know they like making cake because duh, but what if I don't like their cakes? Or what if I have to become the Princess of Cakes and Celestia challenges me for my throne? I'm good, but she can use the sun to bake her cakes. I've never done anything like that and I don't know if it would even work but if she could do it then it would probably make the cakes taste delicio—"

"Pinkie," Twilight admonished, gently.

"Right, sorry," Pinkie said, her eyes darting around the map room. "Still got a lot of energy."

"Pinkie Pie as an alicorn," the eleventh Doctor muttered. "It's a wonder the universe is still standing."

"Right, then!" the Caretaker called from his end of the room. "We've got two worlds to find, here."

"Don't need to find them," the Doctor shot back. "Equestria and Mobius are both known; I've been to both of them."

"And how's that working out for you, Doctor," the Caretaker answered. "Because last time you tried to go to Mobius—"

"A brief hiccup, some time-space turbulence; the chances of it happening again—"

"Are guaranteed." The Caretaker tapped a button and the center table showed a map with several waypoints on it. The space between the waypoints was filled with red pixelated static. "The turbulence you ran into, that sent Sonic and Tails to Equestria, that sent you back into the Time War? It completely surrounds Mobius. And it's spreading."

He added another layer to the map, with several bright lines connecting the lighthouse in the middle to many of the waypoints. "We have stable portals set up to several of the surrounding worlds, including Equestria."

"But not ours?" Sonic said, arms folded and foot tapping.

"I'm sorry," the Caretaker said with a shake of his head. "We've only mapped out a dozen so far."

"What do you mean, 'mapped out'?" Tails said.

Ronyo spoke up. "Theoretically, based on how the world we're in is set up, we can make a stable portal to any world in the area. It's finding the right spot based on the quantum geometry and..." He threw up his hands. "It's not like a TARDIS where you can just rip through the fabric of space and time. It's like the difference between building a bridge across a river or firing yourself with a cannon." He turned to the Doctor. "Not necessarily a bad thing; if I knew I'd survive I'd take the cannon every time."

The Doctor made a face but relaxed it after a gentle slap from his companion Clara.

"There's magic interference, so we can't teleport," Twilight said. "We have to walk."

Ronyo pointed at her. "That's a better metaphor, yeah."

"So me and Tails aren't getting home anytime soon," Sonic grumbled.

"I'm afraid not," the Caretaker said. "We do have a way of creating a stable portal to Mobius, but because of the interference, we need to do some extra triangulation."

"Here we go," Pinkie snarked. "Plot Coupons with Walking the Earth?"

Ronyo shrugged. "More like Catch them All, but who's counting."

Pinkie stared straight at him. "Well," she said, "it only took five chapters to get to the Adventure Hook. So I guess I'm counting."

Ronyo stared straight back.

The rest of the room looked awkwardly at each other.

Finally, Ronyo muttered, "Do you want to go back to my place?"

Pinkie muttered back, "I thought you'd never ask."

The two of them left the room to the utter bafflement of everyone else.

---

Sunset knelt on the ground in the post-sunset twilight, her hands pressed into the dust that was left of the Wondercolt statue. Her breathing had stabilized, and her sobbing had stopped. For the most part, at least.

“The circuit must have already been overloaded,” Twilight muttered to herself, standing awkwardly off to the side.

“It’s not your fault, Twilight,” Sunset said flatly.

“Did we aim for the right part?” Twilight continued. “Should we have just let it sit and burn itself out? Or tried to counteract it with some other kind of—“

“IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT!” Sunset yelled, turning to face Twilight and looking as furious as she ever had.

Twilight shrank back and stared at the ground. “Who are you trying to convince,” she said quietly, “me or you?”

Sunset immediately looked stricken. “I’m sorry, I—“ Her breath caught.

Twilight nodded but didn’t look up.

Ms. Gentleheart walked up. “If we’re ascribing blame,” she said, “don’t ignore that it was my arrow.”

The two girls didn’t move, both looking overly weary.

Gentleheart nodded. “Sunset,” she said, “do you have another way of contacting your home?”

Sunset nodded. “The journal. It’s in my bag in the lab.”

“I can get it,” Twilight said, already moving toward the school.

Sunset opened her mouth to protest but didn’t say anything. Gentleheart knelt down next to Sunset.

“I’m sorry,” Sunset said. “I shouldn’t have yelled at her.”

“You’re upset,” Gentleheart said without malice. “You’ve lost a link to your home, to the people you care about.”

“Doesn’t excuse me yelling at someone else I care about.”

“No, but it’s room for both of you to have grace for each other.”

Sunset nodded.

"Sunset," Gentleheart said. "Look at me."

Sunset looked up at her, her eyes bloodshot.

"You are not stranded here," Gentleheart said, looking Sunset in the eye.

"How can you know that?" Sunset said.

Gentleheart sighed. She smiled slightly, as if thinking of a fond memory. "Second chances happen more often than we expect," she said finally. "And magic like this... I am sure it will find a way."

Sunset spotted Twilight walking back up with Sunset's bag. "I hope so," she said.

Twilight silently handed Sunset the bag. Sunset took it but didn't open it. "Twilight I'm sorry," she said.

Twilight shrugged. "Not like we could have known what would happen," she said.

Sunset and Gentleheart shared a look: Twilight didn't believe what she was saying.

"Really, Twilight," Sunset continued, "it wasn't yo—"

"I think I heard the book vibrate," Twilight interrupted.

Sunset looked at Twilight for another moment before opening her bag and fishing out the journal. She quickly turned to the most recent page.

Hey Sunset! It's Spike! Are you okay? Are Twilight and Pinkie with you? Our Twilight and Pinkie, that is. The mirror portal exploded over here. Good thing we were using the old journal to power it, right?

Sunset saw Gentleheart and Twilight's confusion. "The portal's only supposed to open once every thirty moons, but Princess Twilight rigged together something to use these journals to open the portal whenever we need it. When we ran out of space in the old journals, we just left it in the portal to keep it open." She looked down at Spike's message. "Looks like theirs was caught in the same explosion."

Spike, it's Sunset. We don't have any Equestrians over here. Except me, of course. There was a magic ruby over here that was draining magic from the portal. When we disconnected it, it exploded. We’re ok, but the portal’s completely gone. Twilight and Pinkie are missing?

---

Spike looked up from the journal. "They're not in Sunset's world," he said glumly.

"Okay, so what now?" Rainbow Dash asked as she hovered just below the ceiling, her wings flapping from agitation as much as for lift.

"Now," Rarity said, "we consider our assets. Spike, how were Fast and Miles—sorry, Sonic and Tails?—how were they getting home before the Doctor took them?"

"They were trying to build something," Spike said, "but the Doctor said it wouldn't work."

Rarity snorted to herself. "He said that when there were other options," she said. "Rainbow, I have something for you to do that is tedious, physically intensive, and could get ponies mad at you."

Rainbow landed. "I'm your mare. What's up?"

"Get Starlight Glimmer. Then, if you can, get Starswirl."

"On it!" Rainbow was out of the room in a flash.

"You want to rebuild the portal?" Applejack said.

Rarity nodded. "I know we've established that Twilight and Pinkie are not there, but Sunset is. It would not do for us to leave her there with no way back, especially after what Twilight told us she'd just been through." She sighed. "Then, if we can travel to one world, we can travel to another."

"An astute observation, Rarity," Princess Celestia said as she entered the room. As the ponies (and dragon) in the room began to bow, she quickly waved them off with her wing. "I'm here as a friend, not a princess. What do we know?"

"Sunset Shimmer said they're not with her," Spike said.

Celestia perked up. "Sunset? Is she okay?"

Spike looked back at the journal. "She's alive," he muttered. "I'll ask."

---

Yeah, the portal was acting really weird before, and now they're missing. Princess Celestia is here, and Rainbow Dash left to go get Starlight Glimmer and Starswirl the Bearded. I think they're going to use Tails' notes to rebuild the portal. Princess Celestia wants to know if you're okay.

Sunset teared up again. After so long separated from her homeland carrying her bitterness with her, it still shocked her—in the best way—to know her mentor still cared for her.

Tell her I'm okay, Spike. I have friends here.

Sunset looked up at Twilight and smiled. Twilight returned it with a weak smile of her own.

"Is there anything we can do?" Twilight said. "We might have some magic of our own..."

Sunset nodded and added to her previous message.

Twilight—our Twilight—says to let us know if we can help over here. We've been researching our magic, so we'll see what we can do.

"Is everything all right?" Principal Celestia said as she and Vice-Principal Luna walked up to the group.

"The danger is passed," Gentleheart said, "but, as you can see..." She motioned to the remains of the statue.

Celestia noted it with a stoic nod. "Another gas explosion?" she said with a wry smile. "Or should I blame this on the shop class this time? More to the point, are both of you young women good to get home?"

Sunset nodded, but Twilight shrunk back. "I... don't really know."

"We can give you a ride," Luna said, but Twilight shook her head.

"It's not that; my parents are out of town and..." She held herself a little tighter.

"I've got a futon," Sunset said, reaching out.

"No, Sunset, I couldn't—"

"We're friends, Twilight," Sunset said.

Twilight blinked. With a deep breath, she nodded. "Will Spike be okay too?"

Sunset laughed. "Of course!"

The journal glowed with another message. Sunset read over it, then passed the journal to Twilight.

Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle, this is Celestia. Sunset, I am glad to hear you are well and with friends. Twilight, I am glad to hear of you as well.

Twilight, though we have not met, I have a feeling you share a drive and determination to help, especially when friends are involved. This is a trait I admire greatly in the Twilight Sparkle I know. Which is why I must now ask you and Sunset for the greatest of favors:

Do nothing and rest.

With this portal, we are dealing with magic that, I am not ashamed to admit, I know very little of. But we are contacting the most brilliant unicorns in Equestria to assist us. When they get here, then we will approach the problem with fresh minds. But it will do none of us any good to burn ourselves out.

Princess Twilight is extraordinarily capable, and I have learned many times not to underestimate Pinkie Pie. I fear for them, yes; but we do them no favors by panicking.

Think of this as an order if you must, but I say this as a friend who has seen many a crisis: go home. Get some rest. Rest and know you are loved, my little pony. And my little human as well.

---

Celestia closed the journal gently and levitated it to a nearby shelf. She turned back to look at the remains of the portal.

“Stay safe, Twilight,” she said.

A purple flash filled the room as Starlight Glimmer teleported in. “What’s the latest?” Starlight Glimmer said.

Celestia turned back to face her. “Nothing as of yet,” she said gently. “We’ve made contact with Sunset and the Twilight Sparkle in her worl—“

“Yeah, they’re not there,” Starlight said, her left eye twitching and her breathing erratic. “What do we have here?”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Starlight,” she said, “are you—“

“I’m fine!” she snapped.

Celestia’s stare did not change.

Starlight wilted a little bit. “I thought it would be an all-nighter, so I drank some coffee.”

“How much?”

Starlight wilted some more. “Five…”

Celestia hummed. “Five cups is a lo—“

“Pots. Five pots.”

Celestia blinked. “Art thou mad?” she said quietly.

Spike snorted from his side of the room.

Celestia glanced at him. “Not one word, Young Spike,” she said.

Spike met her stare and mimed zipping his lips.

Celestia closed her eyes and nodded. “Tails’ plans for their world gateway are down in the laboratory,” she said. “I believe Rarity is taking a look.”

“Smart,” Startlight muttered. “Those things always involve gems of some kind. Rarity’s good at that.”

“Indeed. I was going to suggest getting a good night’s rest,” she said with a knowing smile, “but if you want to get started on that…”

Starlight nodded and headed out, Spike dashing out behind her.

“Seriously,” he said when he caught up with her in the hallway, “how are you even alive right now?”

“I’ll have you know,” Starlight said, “that this isn’t even the most coffee I’ve drunk in one sitting.”

“Maybe not,” he said with a grin, “but this was enough to make Princess Celestia revert back to Old Ponish!”

“The sun is down, Spike,” Celestia’s voice echoed into the hallway, “not my ears!”

---

Twilight was jolted awake by the doorbell. She frantically reached over to her bedside table for her glasses—

“Ow!” Sunset said.

—and punched Sunset Shimmer in the shoulder?

“I said don’t ring the doorbell, asshat,” Sunset muttered. Twilight could feel the weight shift as she got up from the futon-turned-bed.

Slowly, it came back to Twilight. The exploding portal, the self-doubt, Sunset offering her place. She looked around for her glasses, finding them on the table next to the futon. She put them on as Sunset sat back on the bed, a brown bag from a chain coffee-and-doughnuts shop in her hand.

"Sorry about that," she said with an eyeroll. "I wanted them to just leave it on the doorstep and text me, but..." She passed the bag to Twilight along with a not-small coffee cup. "I hate to say it," she said, "but we should at least pretend to go to school today."

"You can," Twilight snarked, testing the coffee temperature. "I can go into a coma and still get my diploma in May."

"And I've got a G.E.D. in a drawer upstairs, genius." She took a sip of her own coffee, blinked, and started laughing slightly.

"Look at us," she said. "Couple of eggheads pretending to go to high school."

Twilight smiled. "Despite studies showing that high school is rated some of the worst times of people's lives."

Sunset shook her head and took another sip. "Friendship's a hell of a drug."

Twilight took a bite out of her doughnut. "Seriously, though, can we just make it an 'independent study' day?"

Sunset sighed. "Maybe. Gentleheart would probably let us if we asked, and I can't see Principal Celestia objecting. I just don't want to be flippant about it."

Twilight fixed Sunset with a deadpan stare. "Do I need to list all the reasons you deserve a day off?" She glanced at her watch. "Because if I do, we'll definitely be late."

Sunset cracked a smile. She was saved from having to respond by a buzzing from her side of the bed. She reached down and put the magic journal between them, opened to its latest page.

Hey, Sunset! Starlight here! I'm running on WAY too much caffeine right now, and I think I panicked Princess Celestia with it. HEY! So I'm sorry if this is a little loopy. But here's what I've been able to get from Tails' notes. Starswirl's going to take a look at this later once he gets here wakes up I forgot I've been up all night please help ANYWAY we've got some designs for a portal generator and I think we might be able to make it work but I need you to look at it because between the no sleep and the coffee and the existential dread I kinda don't know if I know what I'm looking a

Hi, Sunset. Spike again. Princess Luna just came in and hit Starlight with a sleeping spell. I'll start copying her notes in here, or at least the ones that look coherent.

The rest of the page was covered in diagrams and equations. It continued onto the next three pages, with Spike's transcription getting noticeably more hesitant as it continued.

"These are out of order," Twilight muttered, flipping the pages back and forth. "Do you have a—"

Sunset handed her a spiral-bound notebook of graph paper and a pencil. "Best thing for spell diagrams."

Twilight started transcribing the transcription, leaving copious room for the unknown variables and equations she could pick out. As the journal kept buzzing, Sunset flipped to the next pages, took a picture, then flipped it back before grabbing her own paper and pencil.

The transcribing continued in silence before Sunset muttered, "what's the power source?"

"Us," Twilight said without thinking, her pencil still furiously scribbling.

Sunset dropped her pencil. "In a different universe?"

"Yeah," Twilight muttered, "harmonic resonance carr..." Slowly her pencil stopped, still pressed against the page.

She dropped her pencil and stared at the journal. "Holy mother-forking shirtballs," she said in a daze.

"What," Sunset said. "You lost me. Harmonic resonance? How is that going to carry ov..." She followed Twilight's gaze to the journal.

"Piggyback on the connection," she said.

"That we're already using to build the portal," Twilight finished.

"Holy mother-forking shirtballs," Sunset caught up. She picked up her phone. "I'll call Gentleheart, see if we can get a study day."

---

The Eleventh Doctor's TARDIS was parked just outside the lighthouse. Inside, said Doctor was making a repair to one of the wiring panels beneath the center console. “Remind me again why you aren’t just walking back to Equestria?” he said.

“Because I’m the Party Princess!” Pinkie said with a hop. “The Party Princess poised to premiere in her partymobile!”

“What?” The Doctor pocketed his screwdriver and pulled his head out to face Pinkie directly. “This is the most advanced piece of machinery in the known multiverse! Bigger on the inside, moves through time; it’s not a—a partymobile?”

"A partymobile!" Pinkie yelled. "With lights and sounds that take you anywhere with nothing in the middle!" She gasped. "It's like a doughnut," she whispered.

The Doctor pulled himself to his feet and started adjusting one of the consoles. "Right then," he said, "anywhere you want. How about the middle of Ponyville?"

Pinkie froze.

"No?" the Doctor said. "How about Canterlot? Equestria's newest princess should make her debut in style after all."

"Oh, oh, I know!" Pinkie said, her face slightly more manic than usual. "How about Twilight's castle?"

The Doctor scoffed. "Now why would you want to go there?"

"Because because because our friends are there! And—and Spike! Spike's got to be so worried about Twilight and we've been gone for a day and a half now and I have a hunch that everyone will be there that needs to be there and—"

The Doctor turned suddenly and stared Pinkie straight in the eyes.

Pinkie stared back, blinking away a couple of tears.

The Doctor sighed. "Only for you, Pinkie," he said, resigned. "Go get Twilight; we'll leave when you're ready."

Pinkie exhaled in relief. "Thank you, Doctor," she whispered.

---

Starlight woke up slowly, like a diver gently coming back to the surface of the water. It started with a general awareness of the amount of light in the room. It was followed shortly by a nagging feeling that there was something she needed to do. Followed by about five minutes of her half-awake brain sorting out the remnants of her (rather bizarre) dreams and the remaining to-do list from when she had fallen asleep.

Wait, someone forced her to fall asleep. Why was—

Through sheer force of will she blinked her eyes back into focus and glared at her bedside clock until it made sense.

10:45 AM? That... wasn't as bad as she was afraid it would be. With a yawn, she rolled off her bed and stumbled her way to the door of her bedroom. She checked herself in the mirror and straightened out her hair enough that she was presentable, then walked out of her room to get back to work on the portal and give Princess Luna a piece of her mind, preferably in that order.

"Well, look who's back from the dead," Spike snarked as Starlight entered the lab.

"Funny," she snarked back. "I don't know whether to curse or thank Princess Luna. It was a good nap—"

Spike disguised a laugh. Poorly.

Starlight glared at him. "But that was three hours we're not going to get ba—"

"Twenty-seven."

Starlight blinked, a sinking suspicion collecting in her stomach. "What," she said flatly.

"It's almost eleven on Saturday."

Starlight felt the blood drain from her face. "Ehe... That's hilarious, Spike," she said weakly, a few hairs in her mane popping out of place.

Spike lost his smirk. "Uh, Starlight?"

"WHY DID YOU LET ME SLEEP THAT LONG!" she shrieked. "WE'VE GOT SO MUCH TO CATCH UP ON!" She started grabbing different pieces of equipment around the lab with her magic—

Before Spike cut her off with a backhanded slap to the tip of her horn. "Easy there, Glim-glam," he said, not quite as sarcastic as he could have. "We're done."

Starlight deflated. "What?" she whispered.

Spike smiled at her. "Yeah, I copied your notes into the journal, and Sunset and Other Twilight sorted them out and figured out how we can power it with the geodes the girls there have."

Starlight smiled weakly. "That's gre—"

"And then Starswirl and Rarity have been working on building another anchor like the mirror used to be, except more portable so we can build it on the other side before the portal collapses. Twilight had some old designs on that they're using."

Starlight's smile fell a little more. "So... we're done?"

Spike nodded. "We're firing it up at noon; Sunset's getting the girls together on her side now."

Starlight sat down in place.

Spike frowned at that, but sat down across from her. "What's wrong?"

"Heh," Starlight coughed out, "you all hardly needed me for this."

Spike sighed dramatically. "Right," he said, his sarcasm fully returned. "Because we totally would have figured out Tails' and the Doctor's notes in the space of fourteen hours without your caffeine-induced mad-science session." He booped Starlight's nose. "We're a team, Starlight. All of us. From Princess Celestia on down to..." He trailed off. "...us," he finished weakly.

Starlight smirked at him. "Didn't want to say someone?"

"Hey, I legit couldn't think of a way to say someone without making it sound bad. Painted myself into a corner; I'll do better next time."

Starlight chuckled. "Well then," she said, "is there any food left here?"

---

"Alright, everybody, it's time!" Twilight yelled.

"Where should I stand?" Wallflower asked quickly.

Sunset grimaced. "Probably behind us," she said. "Just in case it's explosive."

The seven girls arranged themselves in a half-circle with the magic journal at the center. The air in the garden started to feel more charged. A faint aura surrounded each girl, getting slowly brighter until with a flash all seven were Ponied Up and floating a few inches off the ground.

Sunset felt the magic from her six friends. Felt it surround her, permeate her...

With the gentlest touch she could, she felt the magical connection in the journal and pushed.

Nothing happened for a moment. And another.

And then she felt something tremendous pull on the other end.

And then reality above the journal cracked. And got a little wider.

And a purple-skinned girl in a beanie fell out. "You can stop now!" Starlight Glimmer yelled, pulling herself to her feet and her backpack off.

Sunset did her best to let everyone down gently. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, Starlight," Sunset said, walking up to her, "but did we just strand you here?"

"Nope," Starlight said with a laugh. "Though, come to think of it, would it get me out of property taxes this year?"

"They'd find some way to find you," Sunset said. "What're we doing with the tinker toys?"

Starlight finished dumping the contents of her backpack on the ground. There were several wooden poles and several more gems along with some conjured objects clearly meant to hold them together. "We're building the new portal!"

As they assembled the portal she explained more. "Since you have magic of your own now," she said, "we can have a portal that can open from either end. Just needs a little bit of power—not nearly as much as the one we just used—and it'll open for about ten seconds. And it's connected through this gem at the top, so we don't have to burn a journal."

She looked around them. "Nice garden, by the way."

"Thanks," Wallflower said, still standing a good ways away.

Starlight turned and walked over to her. "Wallflower Blush?"

Wallflower nodded and shrunk back a bit.

Starlight gave her an easy smile and held out a fist. "Welcome to the club," she said quietly.

Wallflower returned the fist bump but gave her a questioning look.

"Stole ponies' special talents and brainwashed them into a cult," she said with an eye roll. "Not my finest hour."

Wallflower laughed—a high-pitched release of tension. "Erased everyone's memories to get revenge on Sunset Shimmer?"

Starlight nodded in response. "I'm serious about the garden, you know."

Wallflower smiled. "Thanks. Uh... feel free to stop by?"

"You know, I think I might," Starlight said with a wink.

"Hey Starlight?" Rainbow Dash yelled, "How do we know if it's working?"

Just then the fully-assembled portal activated, the space between the arc filling with the familiar colorful miasma.

"I think it's working," Applejack drawled. Rainbow slapped Applejack's stetson down over her eyes.

"So yeah," Starlight said, gesturing to the portal. "Just channel a little magic into the crystal at the top, and hop through before it closes."

Right on cue, the portal shut itself off.

"Um," Fluttershy piped up, "what happens if we're halfway though when it shuts off?"

Starlight blanched. "Maybe... don't do that? Anyway!" She walked up to the portal. "I better head back. Want to come say hi to everypony, Sunset?"

Sunset started to step forward before catching herself and stepping back. "Naw, I'm good," she said with a half-smile.

"Naw, you should go," Applejack said, arms folded. The other girls nodded their assents.

Twilight walked up to her side. "I saw when you thought you were trapped here," she whispered. "Go, even if it's only to prove that you can. We'll be here when you get back."

Sunset looked around the garden, seeing only caring faces on her friends from both worlds.

She turned to Starlight. "I mean, I'm sure you have to start looking for Twilight and Pinkie," she said.

Starlight shook her head. "We already knew they weren't here," she said. "This was about you." She put a hand on the portal's top crystal and activated it then looked at Sunset expectantly.

"Maybe for a few minutes," Sunset said finally, walking forward.

---

The new portal had been set up in an antechamber off the throne room. Starlight had wanted it in a more securable area of the castle, and Spike had wanted it away from the books in case it exploded. Again.

"So what now?" Sunset said to the group now gathered around the map.

"I'm afraid this 'doctor' was correct," Starswirl said, a hoof on the now-completed blueprints for Tails' portal generator. "We could get the power to travel to an adjacent universe, but the requirements increase exponentially if we were to travel any farther."

"But there are other adjacent universes we could check?" Rainbow said. She hovered over the map, still too much nervous energy to sit still for long.

"Do you have a spare set of the Elements of Harmony lying around?" Starswirl responded. "Because it took a set of seven to travel to a universe where we had a known anchor."

"There's the sun," Celestia said quietly.

The room instantly fell silent.

"My dear," Starswirl said, "surely you cannot mean to—"

"We have known each other for a lifetime," Celestia interrupted, "yet you still underestimate what I will do for my little ponies."

"But how would—"

"If you had that power at your disposal, could you get to another world?"

"And do what? If they are in another world without magic we would have no way to find them!"

"Yeah, 'cause talking to ponies isn't something we can do now," Applejack said.

Starswirl turned to her. "You assume there are ponies to talk to."

“We’re losing focus,” Rarity piped in. “What next moves do we have?”

“We can use the hopper,” Starlight said before Starswirl could bring things back down. “We can do exactly what we just did, just in a different—what is that sound?”

Everyone stopped long enough to hear a creaking, like a motor slowly grinding over the same rough gears. At one end of the room a royal blue phone box slowly faded into existence.

Celestia jumped up and stood in front of the TARDIS as it materialized. “Bring me some good news, Doctor,” she whispered. With an echoing thud, the TARDIS fully anchored itself and solidified.

The room waited on a hair trigger for something to happen.

One of the doors opened inwardly and Twilight stepped out, closing it behind her. Spike yelled and rushed to her, but she held up a hoof, silently asking him to wait.

She looked Celestia in the eye and cleared her throat in a very specific way.

Celestia flicked her ears back but held her ground.

“PRESENTING,” Twilight said in the Royal Canterlot Speaking Voice, “PRINCESS PINKAMENA DIANE PIE!”

The TARDIS doors were flung open as Pinkie burst out, wings spread. The pandemonium that ensued just about did her justice.

Author's Note:

Pinkie and Ronyo's conversation can be found in The Self-Indulgent Side Story Where the Author's Self-Insert Talks To Pinkie Pie and Maybe Other Characters.