> The Other Mane Six: Adventures in Ponyville
>  by DayDrifter75
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Episode 1-Part 1: Mare on the Move
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The rapid clopping of hooves rattled through the streets of Canterlot as Lyra Heartstrings ran down the hill, her light cyan and white mane blowing into her face. "Hey Amethyst!-" she began to call when her hoof caught a stone causing her to begin tumbling down the gentle incline. Lyra bounced and rolled, finally landing on the ground just behind Amethyst Star. "Ouch..."

"You really need to be more careful, Lyra. You're always so overly-enthusiastic it's almost dangerous," chuckled the magenta unicorn. Of course, Lyra did not pick up on her sarcasm.

"Pfft. I'm just naturally energetic. Anyway, that's not important. I need you to do a favor for me. You see, I'm not going to Moondancer's party bec-"

"Wait, you're not going to the party?" replied Amethyst, "But we do everything together!" It was true. The two were the best of friends that could not be separated.

"I'm sorry, it's not my fault! I'm moving to Ponyville today-" Lyra was quickly cut off again.

"You're moving and you never told me? I thought we were best friends! Why didn't you tell me?" Guilt began to seep into Lyra, even though it really wasn't her fault. She had been sick at home with the flu for the past week and she hadn't been able to leave the house, not to mention contact any of her friends.

"I know and I'm sorry, but you know I wouldn't do anything to hurt you. You are my best friend, and you have been since we first met." 

Amethyst sighed. "Lyra, just stop."

This was the first fight that the two friends had since they first met each other as fillies. It was their similar manecuts that had got them to even notice each other in the first place. Otherwise they were nothing alike, but their opposing interests had never gotten in the way of their friendship before. 
"But Amethyst, I was stuck at home and you should know that!" Lyra complained, putting her hooves on Amethyst's shoulders. Again, her friend sighed, brushed off Lyra's hooves and turned around.

"At least tell me when you decided you were moving," she whispered. Lyra knew that her answer wouldn't make any of this better. She lowered her head.

"Last week. But I would have told you if I could! I promise. I'm so sorry. And I'm sorry about the party too," the mint unicorn begged.

Amethyst was beginning to tear up at this point, and struggled to say, "Fine. I believe you. It's just that I'm going to miss you. A lot. Not just at the party, but whenever I just want to hangout, or when I'm sad. Like right now." Lyra empathized with her, the emotions beginning to take their toll on her.

"I know," Lyra replied, "I feel the same way." The two hugged for only a few seconds, but for Lyra it felt like forever. "I'll miss you." She then sniffled, holding back her tears. 

"You too," was what Amethyst wanted to say, but it ended up coming out as only a few squeaks. When they broke their embrace she finally gathered her emotions enough for her to actually speak properly.  "Now, why don't we stop this nonsense. Everypony is starting to stare." Her voice cracked as she spoke.

A galloping was heard not too far behind Lyra, who then turned around to see another pony she knew, Twilight Sparkle, galloping towards them. She began to raise a hoof to wave but Twilight did not stop. Instead she continued to dash past them in the direction of her study. Amethyst had simply dismissed it as Twilight being overexcited about her studying again, but Lyra knew that didn't seem to be the case this time. The look on Twilight's face showed that she was worried about something. "Huh, that was a bit strange..." muttered the lyrist.”I should go. You know, so I don't- um... miss the train" Lyra lied. She gave Amethyst one last hug before departing. What she didn’t say was that the train wasn’t going to leave for another hour and that she was actually going after Twilight to finding out what she was up to.

After a short run through Canterlot Fields, she had arrived at an ivory-colored spire that most knew to be Twilight Sparkle's study. Trotting up the staircase, she began to hear bits of a conversation that Twilight was having with somepony. As she peeked through the window, she could see Twilight dictating to her assistant, Spike. Spike was a baby dragon that seemed to always be with Twilight wherever she went.
"...for you see, the mythical Mare in the Moon is in fact Nightmare Moon, and she's about to return to Equestria, and bring with her eternal night!"

I knew I was onto something, thought Lyra, and people called me crazy for thinking things like Humans and Zomponies were real. She had been searching for something like this for years. Lyra always believed in myths and legends, some of which she was still looking to prove, but the Mare in the Moon was the first one that anypony else believed other than her. Upon hearing that somepony as smart and serious as Twilight believed it, she became giddy with excitement and started bouncing up and down outside the window. To her dismay the excitement began to dwindle as Twilight continued.

"Something must be done to make sure this terrible prophecy does not come true. I await your quick response. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.''

"Twilight... Spaaar-kle. Got it!" exclaimed Spike.

"Great! Send it."

"Now?"

"Of course!"

"Uh, I dunno, Twilight, Princess Celestia's a little busy getting ready for the Summer Sun Celebration. And it's like, the day after tomorrow," replied Spike, still skeptical of Twilight's claim.

Then Lyra remembered. Oh that's right, the Summer Sun Celebration is coming up! I completely forgot that it was being held in Ponyville this year! I better hurry up then or the train will be packed. But Twilight wasn't finished. As the sneaky unicorn turned to leave, she heard the most important piece of information of all.

"That's just it, Spike," said Twilight worriedly, "the day after tomorrow is the thousandth year of the Summer Sun Celebration! It's imperative that the Princess is told right away!"

Spike struggled to understand, along with pronounce the word. "Impera... impera..."

"Important!"

Wait, the thousandth year? So the prophecy is set to happen the day after tomorrow? I'd better get to the train. If she's right, then something really bad is about to happen! Lyra quickly sped down the twisting staircase and towards her home to gather her belongings. She was off to Ponyville, not just because she was moving, but for the Summer Sun Celebration, and Nightmare Moon.

_______________________________

"All aboard the Friendship Express to Ponyville!"

A whistle blew, signaling the doors to be opened. All of the ponies congregated on the platform began to push and shove past each other to get onto the train. The station was hustling and bustling with ponies, all on their way to Ponyville for the Summer Sun Celebration. Usually it wouldn't be this busy, what with Ponyville being such a small and insignificant village, but every year ponies from across Equestria would all pile into trains to get to the newest host city for the Celebration.

Lyra had finally managed to squeeze herself into the train, which was now filled to the brim with ponies of all shapes and sizes. She hurriedly moved towards the back of the train carriage while levitating her packed bags behind her. "Excuse me, coming through... Oof!" she grunted. She fell into the train compartment, landing flat on her face. Her horn stopped glowing and her bags ceased to float, and just as she was beginning to stand up, she was crushed under the weight of her bags. Lyra grunted again, and began levitating her bags off of her and into the compartment above. After all this trouble to find somewhere to sit, it was finally time for her to relax. She got up and took a seat nearest to the window and reclined, resting her hind hooves on the leather seat opposite of her.

"Ahem" 

A voice from somewhere in front of her made Lyra opened her eyes in surprise to see that before her sat a grey earth pony wearing a collar with a purple bow tie. Her purple eyes showed that she was not very pleased. 
"Excuse me miss, but why in Equestria are you sitting like that" she grumbled in annoyance. Obviously Lyra's landslide of an entrance did not put her at a good start.

But Lyra found neither the question nor the pony's impression of her quite as important as what was on her mind. 
"Woah, that's a cool accent! Are you from Hoofington or Trottingham or something?" she asked with excitement. The other pony gave her a strange look before answering.

"No, my parents are from Birminghoof. I simply picked up my accent from them. But what really matters right now is that you haven't answered my question. Why are you sitting so oddly?" She stood up from her own normal (at least, normal for ponies) sitting position and pointed her left hoof to Lyra.

"What's wrong with the way I sit? I feel comfortable this way. Nobody else has ever bothered me about it before." replied Lyra.

The other pony blinked. "Erm, don't you mean 'nopony'?" she asked inquisitively.

"That's what I said," replied Lyra, a large grin on her face. Now the other mare was confused. About a second or two of silence passed, Lyra was still grinning when the door to the compartment slid open.

"Your luggage, miss Octavia" stated an older colt in a monotone voice. The blue unicorn's horn glowed an even deeper shade of blue as he levitated a small bag into the room, placing it next to Lyra's in the overhead luggage. Why does she need another pony to carry such a small bag? Lyra wondered, but her thoughts were answered when he proceeded to levitate in an even larger case in the shape of what Lyra thought was a stringed instrument  of some sort. Oh. The dark maned, grey earth pony whose name was apparently Octavia thanked the colt for his service, and payed him a few bits.

"Wait," said Lyra, "don't I know you from somewhere?" Octavia straightened her bow tie and smiled, enjoying the recognition.

"Of course you should. I am Octavia, and as you can see from my cello, I am the cellist in a four-pony ensemble for the royal orchestra in Canterlot."

"Hey, what a coincidence! I'm just moving from Canterlot! I can't believe we've never met before! My name's Lyra Heartstrings, but I prefer Lyra." Lyra replied, now very much excited. Octavia's jaw dropped. She had thought that Lyra was just some foal of a tourist visiting Canterlot for vacation or something.

"Wait, you mean to say you lived in Canterlot!"

This time it was Lyra's turn to be confused. "Ya, until recently I was studying music in 'Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns'. It's not that big of a deal, I thought you said you lived in Canterlot too."

Octavia felt like she just had the wind knocked out of her. She found it very difficult to regain her composure after news like that. But she was able to calm herself, or at least, make herself appear calm and said "I never said that I lived there, I said I played there. And that's only occasionally. And what do you mean 'it's not that big of a deal'! You lived in Canterlot AND studied in 'Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns'! That's one of the biggest 'deals' I've ever heard! Do not say it's not a big deal!" She ended her response in a shout. She then realized how unladylike she was acting and again regained her composure. "Ahem... I mean... You studied music? What do you play?" she said in a very soft, very quiet tone while nervously smiling from ear to ear.

Lyra's mouth was left agape while her brain tried to register what had just happened. She thought it best to ignore the previous outburst by the musical mare and just answer the question. "Um, well," she began, "As you can see by my cutie mark, I play the lyre." She pointed toward her flank. An imaginary light bulb appeared above her head before she popped up in excitement. "Hey, I have an idea! Maybe I can play for you! I've always wanted the opinion of a professional." Lyra's horn began to glow as she levitated her lyre case out from her saddlebag and opened it. From it she pulled out her golden lyre, similar in shape and design to the very lyre visible on her flank. Octavia was fairly surprised. She always knew she was an amazing cellist and a professional, but she didn't think that she would be asked to critique a graduate from Celestias’ School.

Now, normally a pony playing an instrument such as the lyre would play it with their hooves while changing the tune with magic. But this method is also normally used on a lyre with only two strings. Lyra owned a special lyre, hoof-crafted by one of the greatest instrument production ponies of the era. Her horn glowed, producing four magical appendages. These plucked and strummed the seven strings of the lyre. The unorthodox method of playing proved super effective and pleasant to the ears, the soft tones of the vibrating strings floating through the air. After about a few short measures she stopped. Her final notes hung softly in the air a few seconds after, still adding to the melodic spell.

Octavia could almost not believe her ears. There was no way for her to describe the beauty that she had heard. Even her own music could not match up. But Octavia's ego would not allow it. "Well. Then... It-it was fine. I would suggest that you continue to practice, as I do not believe that it would entirely measure up to more refined tastes." she stated flatly while flipping her ash grey hair. Her eyes shifted and she bit her lip. She hoped that Lyra hadn't seen through her lie.

"Okay, thank you so much! Maybe someday, I'll be good enough to play alongside you!"

Luckily for her, Lyra was pretty gullible.

_______________________________

Arriving in the town of Ponyville, the train finally came to a stop. Ponies poured out of the train, though most ponies were arriving for the Summer Sun Festival, some were returning from their own personal trips to Canterlot. Lyra and Octavia, who she had befriended on the train, were just some of those people. "Goodbye darling, I hope you have an easy time adjusting to Ponyville! We must get back together sometime to talk about your life in Canterlot. I just know we're going to be the best of friends you and I." Octavia waved her hoof while saying her farewell.

"Bye! Hope to see you again soon!" replied Lyra. "Now, where too..." she said to herself. The unicorn used her magic to telekinetically open her saddlebag and produced a sheet of paper from it. On it was a map of the town that she was now in, Ponyville. She quickly scanned the map until she found what she was looking for. A large red 'X' marked the house that she needed to find. Rolling up the map and replacing it in her bag, she began trotting into town. It had a nice quaint feel about it. The streets, usually almost empty, was now filled with ponies from Canterlot and other places in Equestria. Being here in the countryside was a nice change from the big city that Lyra used to live in. The unicorn was filled to the brim with glee as she took in all of the sights of her soon to be home. The loud flapping of wings was heard above, causing the ponies of Ponyville to look up and see a golden chariot in the sky pulled by two of Celestia's royal guards. Lyra knew that they were probably sent by Princess Celestia to deal with the Summer Sun Celebration. The brightness of the sun glaring down at her made it hard for her to see who was riding the chariot. As the flying vessel touched down on the opposite side of town a shimmer caught Lyra's eye. Hmm... That's strange. It's too bright out for the stars to be coming out.... she though.

Finally, Lyra had arrived at a small two story house. Much like all of the other houses, it had a thatched roof with timber frames. In fact, now thinking about it, Lyra saw that nearly all the houses in Ponyville shared the same design. It was a little bit eerie.

Lyra raised her hoof to the door, about to knock when suddenly a loud noise erupted from another house on the opposite side of the street. She was blasted back into the door by the very soundwaves of some sort of strange like music, her saddlebags opening up and spilling her belongings all over the ground. A unicorn that had deep cobalt hair with bright cyan stripes burst out of the window and landed in a mud puddle nearby, splattering her with mud. The new pony looked up at her from behind a pair of purple tinted glasses. "OH! HEY! YOU NEED SOME HELP THERE!?" the unicorn exclaimed. Lyra, still trapped against the door by the loud and heavy music nodded slowly. The blue maned pony turned around and remembered the music she had been playing, and began to cast a spell. Her horn glowed a blue that matched her hair colour and the music stopped. The mare cantered over to Lyra, who was still plastered to the door and looked at her. "Pfft... Hahahaha! Sorry 'bout that. I was just working on new a song. Most people don't like my music, it's just too awesome for them. The name's Vinyl Scratch." Lyra did not reply. "Oh, ya, let me help you with that." she continued, snickering. Vinyl Scratch's horn glowed as she picked up Lyra's dropped belongings, and proceeded to peel Lyra off of the door.

"Th-thanks... Um... Vinyl Scratch was it?" she muttered. It was hard to concentrate on anything while her head was spinning.

"The one and only!" Vinyl replied, "Wait, you're new around here aren't you? One of the ponies here, Pinkie Pie, is throwing a party for another new pony tonight, Midnight Sparkle was it?-"

"Wait, do you mean Twilight Sparkle by any chance?" Lyra interrupted. The Princess probably sent Twilight to come and deal with the return of Nightmare Moon. But why didn't the Princess just come herself?

"Oh ya, Twilight Sparkle, that's it. Anyway, I'm supposed to be producing the music. Maybe you should join in, that would make the party even bigger!"

Lyra hesitated. But then she thought for a moment. Maybe this could be her chance to talk to Twilight and see what she knew about the Mare in the Moon. She decided to accept Vinyl's invitation. "Sure, I'd be glad to come!"

"Awesome! You're pretty cool... um, what was your name?"

"Lyra Heartstrings."

"You're pretty cool Lyra. I can't wait to hang out some more!" exclaimed Vinyl Scratch as she quickly dashed back into her house to continue her work on the new party mix.

"Wow, she's amazing!" uttered the aqua unicorn. Remembering why she was originally there,  she turned around to the door. It was finally time for Lyra to meet the other pony that she was going to be roommates with. The interruption that had been brought about by Vinyl Scratch had stopped her from knocking the door and actually meeting the owner of the house. The sea colored filly raised her hoof to the door and began rapping against the wood surface, after which she waited for a response from inside.

Nothing.

She knocked once again, but she was answered once again with nothing. She must not be home. Maybe if I come back later. That seemed to be the best course of action for now. Lyra turned around to leave while thinking of what she could do while she was waiting. I could go look for Twilight. But where could she be? I wonder if this place has a library... As she turned to leave, she viewed another mare walking in her direction. The tan colored filly with a blue and pink mane was just leaving a conversation with another pony. Lyra stared at the earth pony mare as she walked past her and directly to the previously empty house. It was the owner of the house, the one that Lyra now identified as a pony named Bon Bon. They had been sending letters back and fourth arrange for Lyra's move. They had never actually seen each other before. Lyra had thought that Bon Bon would have looked a little different, and finally seeing her in person was both strange and exciting.

"Hello?" she queried. Bon Bon jumped upon hearing this.

"What? Who are you? You really startled me." she responded.

"Sorry, but, you live here don't you? I'm Lyra, and I'm gonna be your roommate!" 
> Episode 1-Part 2: Fundamentals of Friendship
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

An awkward silence hung in the air as the earth pony took a moment to try and absorb what Lyra had just said. After a few moments of contemplation Bon Bon finally spoke. "Er... oh yes, Lyra. I've been expecting you. Please, come in." The two cantered into the house quietly. Lyra took a good look around and observed the inside of her soon-to-be home. It was a quaint two floor home with a calm countryside feel. It wasn't too small, but it was definitely smaller than her old home; a nice change for once. Being from Canterlot, she had come from a fairly wealthy family. A family that could afford a more pricey abode. This house is exactly what she wanted. An average pony house. This would do nicely.

"...And here's your room" a voice ended off. Lyra shook her head, a slightly confused look plastered onto her face. She then noticed that the two of them had actually arrived upstairs, and that she had been absentmindedly following Bon Bon through the house and to the upper floor without any notice of what her fellow filly was saying. She had been so absorbed in seeing everything that she had paid absolutely no attention to anything that Bon Bon had said.

"What?" Lyra questioned. The other mare simply gestured to the door in front of them.

"Your room. It's this one here," Bon Bon said in reply, "Mine's right across the hall. I shall give you time to settle in. I will be downstairs in the living room. Come down when you're ready." The candy-maned mare trotted down the steps, leaving Lyra to her thoughts. Just as Lyra began to open the door, when Bon Bon reappeared at the peak of the stairs. "BUT!" she exclaimed, which made Lyra jump on the spot, hitting her head against the ceiling. "Don't you even think of unpacking your belongings. You have yet to make it past the barrier to roommate-hood." As she backed down the staircase while making a gesture as if to say 'I'm watching you'. The sea-foam filly hesitated for half a second before continuing to open the door and hoped that there wouldn't be any more unpleasant surprises waiting for her. Fortunately for her, the room was completely empty, save for a small bottle with a small, red bow on it. Upon further inspection Lyra found that it was a bottle of hoof sanitizer. A bit of an odd welcome gift, she thought to herself, but it's a nice thought. Lyra let her bags drop to the floor and let out a huff. This was one of the longest days Lyra had ever had in her life, and there was still more for her to do. It was especially imperative for her to speak to Twilight Sparkle as soon as possible. The mint coloured pony thought about going downstairs to talk to her brand new roommate, but fell to her stomach after realizing how sore her legs were. Her eyes slowly drooped shut until she eventually fell asleep on the cold wooden floor.

_______________________________


A white light flashed, blinding Lyra. After a few seconds of being unable to see, shapes began forming before her. She could just barely make out a strange creature that she didn't recognise. It look a lot like a large monkey, but this odd monkey wore a clothes as if it were a pony. The creature knocked on the air. There seemed to be some sort of barrier in front of it. Then something happened to send Lyra's brain into a whirl. It spoke. "Hello? Can you hear me?"

Lyra wanted to respond, but something kept her from speaking, and even moving. It seemed that she could only watch and listen to the monkey before her. "Okay then," it started again, "sorry 'bout this, but I'm having a slight problem-" the beast was interrupted when sparks shot out of the pillar standing behind it. "Gah, don't worry about that. Anyway, if you can hear me, which you should, I need your help. I need you to bee at these coordinates at exactly..." the monkey, which apparently seemed to be male, looked at a watch on it's left wrist before it continued speaking. "Four thirty six in the morning." Explosions and flashes of light continued as he reached beyond her range of vision and hit something. Numbers and letters flashed in front of Lyra. "Good luck, whoever you are. Oh and one more thing-"

_______________________________


"Lyra. Lyra! Miss Heartstrings!"

Lyra opened her eyes. It had all been a dream. But it felt so real to her, and what she saw in the dream was beyond anything she could even imagine. "Miss Heartstrings, I told you to meet me in the living room, not to go to sleep." Bon Bon lifted a notebook and stuck a pencil in her mouth. She scribbled something down disappointedly before continuing to lecture Lyra. "You've been up here for nearly two hours. If this becomes regular you can say goodbye to becoming my roommate. Now, please follow me so that we can organise your signing of my recently drafted contract."

Wait, two hours? Lyra thought. That was impossible, her dream had lasted less than a minute. She looked up to Bon Bon and questioned "Contract? You mean like a roommate agreement?"

"Yes, now, follow me."

When the two arrived in the living room Bon Bon sat down on the couch, while Lyra sat upright in a single chair opposite of her. Bon Bon gave her a strange look. In fact, it was the exact same look that The other mare, Octavia, had given her on the train ride to Ponyville. "Er, Miss Heartstrings, what are you doing?" Bon Bon inquired.

Raising her hind hooves up on the table between them, Lyra replied "I'm sitting. You sound just like somepony else I know. Am I really the only pony that sits like this?"

"Yes. And I don't like it."

"Look, there's nothing wrong-"

"You are not going to sit like that in this house. It's... Un-pony." Bon Bon scribbled down on a piece of paper. "This is the posture-rider. It states that you are not going to sit like that as long as you are in this house."

Lyra was taken by this. "But I always-"

"There are no 'but's"

"I-"

"Sign it."

Lowering her head and drooping her ears, Lyra gave a sigh of defeat. She levitated the quill from the table, dipped it in the inkwell and signed the agreement. "Good, now we can continue with the rest of the agreement." Bon Bon gave a smile and pointed a hoof at a large stack of papers, presumed to be her contract.

The two went through pages upon pages for about another hour, taking turns writing down their signatures. It went pretty smoothly, though, there were a few discrepancies that troubled Lyra. There were some parts that she was forced to sign even though she did not agree with them, such as one clause that stated that she "must go grocery shopping on any given Wednesday along with every other Monday when Bon Bon had to work overtime at Sugar Cube Corner". Other parts were just plain weird or pointless, such as "The Mane Dye Clause", "The Trimmed Hedge Shape Clause", and the "Pets Clause". She wasn't absolutely desperate for a home, she had plenty of money to spare. But she wanted to live a normal pony life, one that didn't necessarily include her parent's money. She didn't think Bon Bon would be absolutely serious about any of this, it was probably just a way to warm up to each other, nothing more. And even if she was, if this is how average ponies lived together, she may as well get used to it.

The sea-foam unicorn looked up behind her new roommate to the area where a hoof carved wooden clock was hung. She blinked in surprise before her eyes widened. "It's already six o'clock?" she questioned. Bon Bon looked up to her.

"Yes, is there a problem? Is there something you usually do at six? That's going to be a problem, six is usually reserved for watching a play." Bon Bon rambled on about her little schedule and that there would be no way for them to change it, but Lyra didn't really care. It was already getting late, and she completely forgot about Twilight's party. It was her only chance she would get to talk to Twilight before the Summer Sun Celebration.

Lyra quickly stood up and said, "Um sorry, but I just remembered that I have something to do. Can we, um, finish this up later?" She cantered over to the door as fast as she could. As she carefully pushed the wooden door open, her soon-to-be roommate rose from her seat as well.

"We haven't finished. Surely there can't be anything more important than this?" she asked inquisitively while making her way towards the unicorn.

There was not much Lyra could do at the time, so she simply up and ran. When Bon Bon began to follow behind her, she yelled, "Sorry, but this is too important. It involves the fate of Equestria!"

"Don't be silly, you're over exaggerating!" Bon Bon retorted. Lyra was actually quite surprised by the cream coloured mare's speed. She just didn't seem like the running type, but obviously Lyra had been wrong. If Bon Bon caught up, Lyra would end up with either no home, or she would lose her chance to talk to the lavender mare, Twilight Sparkle. She zipped through the city, weaving in between the thatch-roofed buildings in a poorly executed attempt to lose the earth pony mare. A wooden structure in the shape of a tree began to loom over the horizon. It was, in fact, not only a tree, but it was the hollowed out tree that served as the town's public library. She was just able to see around the corner of the building to be able to recognise the silhouette of another unicorn. She then noticed the colour of the pony, and the small figure on its back. Wait is that- she started in her head, but her thoughts were soon interrupted by the upcoming bark wall of the Ponyville Public Library. Just in time, she halted her gallop, skidding to a stop. As she slowed the ground was torn beneath her hooves, shooting up into her face. Soon the unicorn ceased to move, her face covered in dirt and mud. As she began to stand from her sitting position on the ground, the sound of hooves clopping against the ground grew louder behind her, making her turn her head to see her pursuer not too far away. Bon Bon too tried to slow down, but failed to do so. She tumbled across the ground, following in Lyra's path and finally into Lyra herself. The two were sent flying backwards and through an open window on the side of the giant tree.

Lyra stood up and put her hoof to her head in order to stop the room from spinning around her. As she looked around, she noticed a strangely large amount of ponies for a library. She blamed it on her lack of coherence at the moment, but as she regained herself she found that there really were quite a lot of ponies. What was more was that they were all staring at Bon Bon and her. Seconds passed by before a recognisable pony stepped out from the crowd and toward the pair. "Hey, Lyra glad you could make it! The party's going to be so awesome!" greeted the white unicorn.

"Vinyl Scratch!" replied Lyra, "So this is the party? Where's Twili-"

"Miss Heartstrings, I believe you've forgotten about the business we have." It was Bon Bon who had interrupted her, and who was now attempting to pull Lyra toward the front entrance. As the candy-maned earth pony reached her hoof steadily towards the doorknob, a window above burst open, a grey pegasus pony toppling through it. The blonde maned filly slammed flat against the floor, her uneven eyes spinning wildly. A bubbly pink pony, who was today's party manager, bounced towards her, followed by the white unicorn known as Vinyl Scratch.

"Hiya Derpy Hooves, did ya see anything? Huh? Huh?" the pink party pony proclaimed pretty playfully.

Derpy, who was still laying on the wooden floor focused her eyes, or at least, her left eye, on Pinkie Pie and shouted words that sent everypony into a frenzy. "She's coming!" At that moment all of the ponies scrambled to get into place, looking for the best hiding place to keep from being seen. As everypony got into place, the lights were shut off fast as possible. The door creaked open and Lyra began to speak, but was silenced by Vinyl Scratch's hoof. Bon Bon also opened her mouth, but was also stopped by the techno musician.

The door opened. Two dark figures entered the library; one about average pony size, and the other too small to be a pony. After both stepped through the doorframe, a loud crack was heard as the door slammed shut. Lyra, whose mouth was still covered by a certain unicorn's hoof realised who this must be. "Huh. Rude much?" came a young sounding boyish voice.

"Sorry, Spike," another, womanly, voice retorted, "but I have to convince the Princess that Night Mare Moon is coming, and we're running out of time! I just need to be alone so I can study without a bunch of crazy ponies trying to make friends all the time. Now, where's the light?"

As the light flicked and the room filled with colour, shouts and screams erupted throughout the tree. Lyra fell to the floor as Vinyl raised her hooves and jumped up to cheer to the newly arrived mare. The mint unicorn shoved to the front of the crowd and called the name of their new guest. "Twilight!" she exclaimed, but was drowned out by the rest of the ponies as they shouted at the same time.

"Surprise!"

Twilight Sparkle's reaction was not pleasant. She groaned at the sounds of kazoos and noisemakers.

"Surprise! Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie, and I threw this party just for you! Were you surprised? Were ya? Were ya? Huh huh huh?" the bubbly earth pony announced.

Lyra could see that Twilight wasn't enjoying her surprise party that this, Pinkie Pie had thrown. But she knew that the lavender unicorn would cheer up when she saw a familiar face. If only Lyra could actually get through the crowd of partying ponies. She finally found an opening that she could get through. She could see Twilight taking a red bottle between her teeth and pouring its contents into a waiting glass while Pinkie Pie bounced around her, popping in and out of view.

But just as she began to run towards her target, something fell from the ceiling. But it wasn't just something. It was somepony. "Did I miss the surprise? Aww..." they said before standing up. Oh hey, I've never seen you before. What's your name, I'm Derpy Hooves." She raised her hoof towards Lyra, who shook her hoof in return.

"I'm Lyra Heartstrings, now, I'm sorry, but I have to talk to someone." she returned, as she casually twisted around to the other side of Derpy. Unluckily for her, the grey pegasus had flown over and shown up in front of her face, once again stopping Lyra from getting to her objective.

"Hey, you should tell Pinkie that you're new! Then we can have another party!"

Lyra tried to duck past her, saying "Maybe later, but I-" she turned to see that her roommate Bon Bon had found her.

"There you are, perfect. It's time to leave this chaos and finish off the agreement" she said. Lyra groaned in response before trying to escape the surprisingly strong grasp of the cream earth pony. Bon Bon dragged her up to the front door when she finally escaped her hold, but soon yet another obstacle stood in her path to victory, a white mare staggering up to her.

"Hey, Lyra, why aren't you dancing? This is a party, so party!" Vinyl grabbed hold of Lyra and spun her around, forcing her into a crowd of dancing ponies. Their dancing caused her to get tossed about, bumping into other ponies that pushed her away and into another. Lyra had enough. She burst from the crowd and onto the floor. She looked up to see that Twilight was finally within her grasp. The unicorn stood up, but before she could take even one step, something happened.

"And now you have lots and lots of friends!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie as four other ponies that Lyra didn't know gathered together around her.

Twilight’s eyes widened until they as wide as dinner plates as she turned to face the group, her face suddenly red with bulging cheeks and watered eyes.

One of the ponies next to Pinkie stepped forward and asked, "Are you all right, sugar cube?" before Twilight jumped up. Her mane and tail turned into flames for a brief moment, and zipped off at top speed.

Lyra took a step forward, but heard a door slam at the top of the stairs, which was a sign that her chase was a failure. Her ears drooped and she lowered her head in dismay as she slowly trotted toward the door. Bon Bon caught up to her and gave a small smile. "I'm glad you've finally gained some common sense." she said, but soon noticed the downtrodden look on Lyra's face. "Hey there, don't be sad. This night didn't turn out so sad. It's the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration. You like to glare directly at the sun, don't you?"

Lyra sighed in return. "I know, it's just that I thought I would have more time to learn about the Mare in the Moon, but it looks like I'm never going to get a chance to speak with Twilight."

Bon Bon had a chuckle at this. "Mare in the Moon? You mean that old ponies' tale? Why would you need to know more about that?"

"It's nothing," Lyra replied, "I just hope you're right." She looked up to the sky, directly at the moon. "I hope it really is just an old ponies' tale."

_______________________________


The rest of the night was a bust. After the pair of mares returned to their shared home, Lyra fell asleep for the next hour or two before Bon Bon woke her up to leave for the Summer Sun Celebration festival. The Princess was to travel to the festival's host town and raise the sun for all of Equestria to see. As the two cantered over to the town square pavilion, Lyra couldn't help but notice how much her head hurt. Unlike at the party, her head was pounding like a drum. Probably just because I'm not getting enough rest she thought.

The windows of the building glowed in the night as several other ponies made their way to the door, the music fading as Lyra and Bon Bon entered. The inside was extravagantly decorated with many colourful banners, pegasi admiring them above the packed room.

"Lyra? Lyra, darling, it's marvelous to see you again!" came a voice behind her. Lyra turned to see the posh earth pony she had met on the train to Ponyville. "Isn't all this magnificent?" Octavia continued. Lyra had to agree, it was very beautiful. Whoever designed the decorations must have been a real expert. "And who is this?" She pointed a hoof to Bon Bon, who answered for Lyra. "I am Bon Bon, confectionist, and Lyra's roommate here in Ponyville."

Suddenly whisteling was heard, and she noticed that what she was hearing was a group of birds being conducted by a yellow pegasus that was at the party. A short fanfare played, and a spotlight gleamed upon the vacant balcony above them and descended to the dais below. Standing there was a tan earth pony. Upon her nose sat a pair of gold-framed half-moon glasses. The grey maned pony was in fact the Mayor of Ponyville.

When the bird song concluded Octavia whispered to Lyra, "I still can't believe they didn't get me to do the music."

"Fillies and gentle-colts!" the Mayor announced, her voice containing dignity that came with age and experience. She continued with her speach. As Mayor of Ponyville, it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration!" A fit of cheering erupted from the crowd, except from Lyra, whose headache had now worsened. The Mayor waited for the crowd to die down before she continued. "In just a few moments, our town will witness the magic of the sunrise and celebrate this, the longest day of the year! And now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of our land… the very pony who gives us the sun and the moon each and every day…the good, the wise…the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria…"

The pegasus conducting the bird choir whispered something to her birds before the Mayor concluded.

"…Princess Celestia!"

Curtains that sat behind the balcony began part, the spotlight hiting the balcony as another fanfare plays, and everypony in the building looked up toward the pool of light. However, there was no one and nothing in it. Confused murmurs filled the room.

"What?" Octavia and Bon Bon gasped in unison before looking at each other.

"Remain calm, everypony." the Mayor announced with an ounce of worry in her voice. "There must be a reasonable explanation." A panicked cry emminated from the front of the audience before the ponies began glancing up toward the balcony. Sparkling clouds of deep violet mist began to envelope the balcony as another pony gasped.

The thickening clouds split apart, revealing an armored, winged unicorn. Her mane and tail consisted of a strange blue-purple vapour that twinkled with starlight, and her coat was pitch black. The figure spread her large wings, accentuating her size.

"Nightmare Moon!"

Lyra perked up when she heard the name. The legend was true. Nightmare Moon had returned to-

_______________________________


A light flashed, blinding her as a familiar scene came into view. It was the strange room from her dream. The only difference was that the room was now showered by a red light, and the center pillar was now on fire. The same suit wearing ape was standing before her reaching past the unseen forcefield. Again, she couldn't do or say anything.

"Okay, real problem now, I'm going to be crashing soon, so, same warning as before, I NEED YOUR HELP!!! Please get here as fast as possible." Suddenly an explosion sounded off behind him. "Oh yes, what I was going to say before I cut out was please do bring some rope. This should help in finding the coordinates." The ape reached into it's pocket and pulled out a device that Lyra had never seen before. He pointed it at her and triggered it. WEEOOEEOOEEOOEEOOEEOO!!!

_______________________________


Slowly blinking her eyes open, Lyra regained her conciousness. Surrounding her were four ponies, two being earth ponies, one a unicorn, and the last a pegasus. the mint unicorn quickly stood up and inhaled deeply. "Wha, who?" she stuttered. Other than them, the rest of the hall was empty.

"You passed out dear, right after-" Octavia began before being cut off by the cobalt maned unicorn.

"Nightmare Moon!" Vinyl Scratch exclaimed. "She was like, 'Remember me?' and Rainbow Dash was like, 'Where's Celestia?' and she was like 'You don't know me?' and she was being all evil, and the new pony was like 'I know you' and Nightmare was like 'Buahahahaha' and then there was lightning and she turned into smoke and..." She stopped her little story when she noticed everypony was giving her strange looks. "Well... You get the picture."

Now Bon Bon spoke up, "What happened there? You just fainted."

From what Vinyl Scrath said to her, it sounded like Twilight recognised Nightmare. She had no idea who Rainbow Dash was, but that didn't seem as important. "It was nothing. I was just a little tired. Tell me, what happened after Nightmare Moon left?" she asked.

The last pony, who Lyra believed to be named Derpy Hooves, answered her question. "Oh, she went towards," she shivered before saying the next few words, "the Everfree Forest."

"Figures, an evil witch would go into such a creepy, evil place." grumbled Vinyl Scratch.

"Wait, what do you mean 'creepy, evil place'. What could possibly be so evil about a forest?" Lyra questioned.

"It's not natural. They say it doesn’t work the same as Equestria. Nopony knows what kinds of monsters live there, because everypony who’s ever gone in has never…come…out!"

Bon Bon rolled her eyes. "Oh stop it, you're scaring... Um, what was your name?" she asked the grey pegasus cowering behind her.

"Umm... Derpy Hooves..." she responded, quivering.

Lyra raised her hoof to her throbbing forehead and rubbed her temple. There were too many things going on at once. She was in a new town that she knew nothing about, there was a talking monkey in her head, and on top of that an ancient evil had returned to bring eternal night. It was all too overwhelming for a pony like her. But she knew what had to be done. "If she's gone into the Everfree Forest, then we have to find and stop her."

Octavia gave a confused glance and said "But how can we possibly stop her? She made the princess disappear."

"Pfft," Vinyl Scratch responded, "Princess Schmincess, we can take her. There's five of us, we can easily overwhelm her."

"If I may interject," said Bon Bon, "we still have no idea where in the forest she could be. Even if we could beat her on our own we would never get the chance."

The group continued to quarrel with each other for a minute or two whilst Lyra sat back. She needed time to think. Technically, they had all the time in the world, but on the other hand if they waited too long they might never be able to do anything. Thinking of a plan would be so much easier without that buzzing sound invading Lyra's ears.

Wait, that sound! it was the same sound he heard in her dream. Lyra looked around the room trying to see where it was coming from. The hall was still empty, the source of the buzzing nowhere to be found. It couldn't be coming from nowhere. The mint unicorn's horn began glowing lightly, slowly fading in and out. The rest of the pony group stopped their argument and stared at her. She had to find the source of the noise, it was going to drive her mad. The unicorn mare made a mad dash to the door.

_______________________________


It wasn't like she wanted to go into the Everfree Forest. She didn't feel like they would ever find Nightmare Moon not to mention defeat her. They were a band of ponies that she had only just met. There was nothing they could do. But there was something in her head, something that caused the constant buzzing that she could now hear. As she got deeper into the forest the buzzing grew louder, drowning out all other sounds and setting her focus only on following her horn.

"I must be close. It's getting calmer" she mumbled, slowing to a mere canter. Lyra needed a break, and now that the sound wasn't as intense she could rest without getting such a bad migraine.

"She's over here!"

Lyra whipped her head around and saw a pegasus pony, Derpy Hooves, hovering just behind her. From the thick canopy of the forest burst the other three of the group; Octavia, Vinyl, and Bon Bon. She couldn't believe it, they had followed her into the forest. It was either that or they were foolishly going after Nightmare Moon. "Girls, what are you doing here?" he questioned the four.

"Dear, we couldn't stand the thought of you running in here by yourself." Octavia responded.

"No matter how disgustingly dirty it is." Bon Bon said flatly, to which Octavia absolutely agreed.

Then Lyra turned to Derpy. "I thought you were afraid of the Everfree Forest."

"I was, but you're the first friend I ever had."

Lyra cringed at this. She was her first friend?

"Okay, okay, enough of the mushy stuff! We've got an evil pega...corn... pony... To beat!" Scratch interrupted.

Bon Bon felt obliged to correct her. "The term is 'Alicorn'."

"Whatever." returned the white unicorn.

The group continued walking along the cliff side, following Lyra in her quest to find the source of the buzzing, except that they all thought they were all going after Nightmare Moon. How disappointed they would be were they to find out that wasn't Lyra's intention.

Wait, what was that? Lyra thought to herself before looking up to the sky. There was a shimmer, but not the kind a star makes. This was red, and blinking, and... moving?

But the real surprise came from the mint pony herself as she gasped, stopping herself, along with the rest of the group in there tracks. "What, what is it?" asked Octavia.

"Sshhh. Do you hear that?"

The rest of the ponies listened carefully, but heard nothing out of the ordinary. "No... What did you hear?"

"Absolutely nothing!"

The buzzing in her head had stopped and so had the pulsing of her horn. It was a sign. A sign that whatever it was that she was looking for she had found. But what was it? There was nothing around them, and she could no longer hear anything. The only place it could be was-

A loud crack echoed across the sky as a blue object hurdled through the field of stars from the distance. It was hard to see what it was at first, but after squinting and straining her eyes, Lyra could just make out the shape of a box-like object. As it came closer it could be seen spinning out of control, and was actually beginning to catch fire.

"It's coming toward us!" yelled Derpy, who then dived away from the area. The ponies scattered, leaving Lyra standing on the spot staring at the burning blue box. It began to move in a sideways arc, like it was trying not to hit them. Suddenly, the flaming projectile made a sharp turn right, but it was too late, it wouldn't be able to move enough to miss them. Lyra was well aware of this and had already started running. As she reached the far side of the cliff she leapt to a large pine tree and looked back. What she saw was a blue phone booth hurtling towards the cliffside that they had just been. The box slammed against the cliffs face, still moving across, and tore up the reddened stone. It continued its path  through the sky and towards a far off castle. Wait, why is there a castle in the middle of the forest? Lyra pondered. What's more is that ponies say that the forest is dangerous and that nopony should enter it. Is there something being hidden in the castle? Soon her friends had gathered together at the edge of the cliff, near the tree that she now held on to. Luckily for her, she happened to have some long rope in her saddlebag.

"Derpy, can you grab the end of this rope for me?" she asked. The blonde maned pegasus swiftly flew over to the tree and grabbed hold of the rope with her mouth. She floated over to a large rock and tied her end of the rope to it. On the other side Lyra was beginning to tie it to a branch of the tree.

"What the buck was that!?" Vinyl Scratch's voice exploded from the silence.

"Vinyl!" Octavia snapped at the unicorn, "Language!"

Derpy was the one to answer Vinyl's question. "I don't know. It was so wierd, but I think it looked like-"

"A phone booth." Lyra concluded. "It was a flying, blue phone booth. I think there was somepony or something inside of it." But where did it go? It certainly wasn't in there when it hit the cliff...

Her question was answered by a scream coming from up above, coming from the mouth of not a pony, but a ape-like creature. The very same creature from Lyra's dreams. The ape grabbed Lyra as it fell, noticing the rope. The unicorn mare still had not finished tying the knot, so when the two fell off the tree, the ape was able to grab onto it with his 'monkey hands' and swing. They continued to swing back and forth on the cliff face until their momentum finally ran out. As they hung on the rope the ape looked down, at the same time Lyra looked up.

Then it spoke to her. "Oh!" it said, "What are you? I don't think I've ever seen anything like you before."

"Likewise." Lyra replied nervously. What was he?

It continued to speak. "Oh, you speak! And English, even better! You must be who I contacted! I can tell by the rope, it's a nice rope. A thick, sturdy rope. What's it made out of, I need a rope like this." Lyra was confused by its ramble about rope. "Anyway, hello horse-being! I'm The Doctor!"
> Episode 1-Part 3: Final Finale of Finality
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rope held rigid due to the weight of both a unicorn mare and a talking ape, at least, that was what Lyra thought it was. Now she was unsure. The other four ponies that had entered the Everfree forest with Lyra peered over the edge of the cliff to assure themselves as to wether or not she was safe. "Are you okay!?" Octavia called down. Lyra tried to call back, but she was interrupted by the Doctor.

"We're doing fine! We have a very good rope to hold on to!"

"Is that really all you care about at a time like this?" Lyra asked anxiously. What was this thing? "I could have died, you could have killed us!"

"It's fine, I knew what I was doing when I 'dialled you up', which by the way is a surprise to me. I didn't think you would be any sort of equine, not to mention a talking horse-"

"I'm a pony!"

"Ponies! Even better! I've never met nor even heard of a race of English-speaking ponies. Tell me, what planet is this?"

"Earth."

The Doctor's eyes widened in disbelief. Lyra simply gave him a confused look before hearing another voice from just beside them.

"Umm, Lyra? Are you done bickering? I'm going to help you down now..." Derpy Hooves grabbed hold of Lyra with both of her forehoooves. Slowly the two descended towards their friends, who had taken the time that Lyra spent conversing with the Doctor to find and climb down a safe path. When Lyra's hooves finally touched solid ground she looked up at the Doctor before turning to Derpy.

"You can't carry him down, can you?"

Derpy shook her head. All the ponies were only about half his size, so it would take a miracle for any of them to even lift him. Being able to break his fall would be like magic...

"Of course! How am I so blind? Vinyl, get ready to catch him."

"Are you kidding, I can't lift that... That... Whatever he is. I'll be crushed!"

"Use your magic." The white unicorn put on a face of realisation, then saluted Lyra and got into a ready stance. "Vinyl Scratch and I will catch him with our magic. Everypony else, get ready to catch, just in case." The three earth ponies and one pegasus scrambled into position.

"We're ready Lyra" Octavia announced.

Lyra nodded, then turned to Vinyl Scratch who then reassuringly nodded to her. She cleared her throat and yelled up to the Doctor, who was now humming. While doing this, there were three things going through his mind.

The first being 'what are those pony-aliens talking about?'

The second was his thoughts on trying to get down without having to die and waste a regeneration.

Finally, the third thought in his mind was about how strong yet soft the rope was. It really was a nice rope, and it would be a shame to waste it.

But these thoughts were all eradicated (except his admiration for the rope) when Lyra's voice reached his ears.

"Mister, you need to jump!"

"Eh, sorry, I don't think I heard you right!" he responded. What did they have planned?

"Don't worry, we'll levitate you down!"

That's brilliant! They probably have some sort of focused gravitational redirectional flotation device. I love finding more about new races! He would have to trust them. In fact, he loved the excitement of wether or not they would catch him. Except the dying part. He always hated the dying part. It was getting to be a pet peeve of his with how many times it had happened in his life. "Okay, I'm coming down on three!" he yelled back to them, "Ready!? Three!"

The Doctor dropped down instantly and without warning, causing Lyra to be distracted. Who in their right mind skips one and two and goes straight to three? The unicorn mare regained her composure and concentrated on the falling biped in question. Hers along with her friends horn lit up in unison, Lyra's being green and Vinyl Scratches being blue. Soon enough, the falling Doctor began to slow down, surrounded in an aura that glowed a mix of the same colours as the two unicorns horns. He descended at a leisurely pace, at least, until about four feet above the ground, when Vinyl Scratch released her hold on him. He hit the ground, causing a cloud of dust to rise.

"Vinyl!" Octavia scolded.

"Oh lighten up, he's fine." she replied, cantering over to him. She prodded him once. Then again. One more time.

"Umm, Vinyl, I think he's-"

"He's not! It was, like, five feet, that's nothing! He's probably just-"

The Doctor's facial expression suddenly changed from 'unconscious' to wide eyed and excited. He quickly stood up, startling a curious Bon Bon in the process.

"Whoo!" he grunted, "That was a real doozy, but I have one question."

"And what's that!?" responded Vinyl Scratch.

"Weelll, funny thing, that was my question exactly." He pointed at her horn, but not with his finger, with a strange, metal device. With a slip of his thumb and a quick flick it was activated, giving a blue glow and wavering buzz that was all too familiar to Lyra. He slid some sort of panel and stared into the device. "That... is so strange. One hundered percent organic, made out of... Something. What is it? It's part of you that's for sure. But. It doesn't... exist!" The ponies looked at the talking ape curiously as he rambled on about Vinyl's horn. "You." He pointed at Lyra, "How did you carry me down, what did you use?"

She paused for a moment before her brain caught up with her. "It... It was just magic. All unicorns have it. But what is that thing?"

"This, this is science."

_______________________________


"So, you're trying to say that you're from space? And that wand is like portable magic?"

Bon Bon was very pessimistic about the Doctor's claims, even if everypony else believed what seemed impossible.

The Doctor was more than happy to share these details about himself with these new people. Horses. PONIES. Whatever "Well, it's more sonic than magic. Which I still can't believe is possible. I mean, unicorns and pegasi! The humans were actually on to something."

What are humans? thought Lyra. She would have to ask him about it later. At the moment they needed to find out where Nightmare Moon was and stop her. "Look, mister, um..." she began,but trailed off due to completely losing track of his name.

"Doctor, my name's the Doctor, nice to meet you!"

"Look, Doctor, we need to find Nightmare Moon. If we don't, she'll shroud the world in night time eternal!"

"Listen, Miss Pony-"

"It's Lyra, Lyra Heartstrings."

The Doctor kneeled as to level his eyes with hers. He put his hands on her shoulders and said "Okay then, Miss Heartstrings, everything's going to be fine. Right now we need to get to the TARDIS, and once that happens we'll be able to track this Nightmare down. I promise you."

She stared into his eyes, his ancient, timeless eyes. Eyes that told a thousand tales, eyes that showed only honesty. They were eyes that she couldn't help but trust. "Okay, I believe you. But once we- Wait. What's a TARDIS?"

The Doctor smiled. "I'm glad you asked!" As the group continued their trek towards the landing point of the Doctor's blue box, he tried to explain to them that it was in fact both his spaceship and time machine. As they entered a clearing, the Doctor finished. "-which means the TARDIS is bigger on the inside!"

The ponies marvelled in awe, except for Bon Bon, who still did not like anything about this Doctor. He appears out of nowhere, drops in and almost gets Lyra killed, and then expects everypony to be friends with him. It would be the top this on Bon Bon's mind had a loud rumble not struck her ears. It was not just her, but everypony else had heard it too. Again, it came, seemingly shaking the ground beneath them. 

"It's an earthquake!" screamed out Octavia. Lyra Heartstrings looked toward the source of the noise to see that it was nothing of the sort. What it was happened to be a large, sleeping beast. It was a hulking creature lying on the ground some distance away. The mismatched creature had the body of a lion and the wings of a bat with a scorpion tail attached to its rear. It was sleeping, blocking the only visible pathway to their destination.

"That's no earthquake. That's a Manticore!" Lyra corrected her. "But wait, it... looks like it's asleep."

Indeed, the beast was asleep, its snores continuing to rattle the earth. The group of ponies, along with the Doctor crept past the sleeping giant in hopes that it would not suddenly wake up and devour them whole. The stomach of the manticore grumbled loudy when Lyra misplaced her hoof on a dry twig, which snapped loudly in the silent night. Each of her companions turned their immediate attention to the monster before looking at her. She gave a blush as the Doctor raised his finger to his lips, which she assumed was a signal for being quiet, like when a pony raises a hoof to theirs. After that nearly deadly mistake, they were able to succesfully get past the manticore with ease. The ponies took a short break once they left the earshot of the beast. Lyra did a quick headcount. There was Octavia and Vinyl Scratch, Bon Bon was there, Derpy Hooves was hovering beside her, and the Doctor was...

"This thing is fascinating..."

Lyra turned back to the manticore they had just past to see that their missing member had stayed back to inspect it. He was pointing his metal stick at it. That means he's about to... No, he'll wake it up! Lyra dashed towards him, knowing that when the Doctor activated his stick, the noise would wake the beast. Once she was close enough she was able to levitate the futuristic device from his hands just in time. The brown haired man whipped around in the direction that his screwdriver had flown.

"Oi!" he said, "That's my sonic! What'd you go and take that f-"

Lyra stuffed the sonic screwdriver into his mouth in order to shut him up. "Shhh..." she told him, and then looked past his body to see that the manticore was still fast asleep behind him. He took the screwdriver out of his mouth and looked behind him. A look of realization and a smile came upon his face when he understood what Lyra was trying to tell him. The two began to walk back to the worried group of ponies in silence when something happened. It was the. Worst. POSSIBLE. THING.

ROOOAAAAAARRRRRR!!!!!

_______________________________


Lyra and her bipedal companion froze in place. Behind them stood the now woken manticore on its hind legs, roaring and ear shattering roar. The Doctor turned only his eyes towards the small pony beside him, smiling, and whispered, "Run."

The beast swiped at the two with its lion paw, missing by only an inch. They were already on a mad dash away from it and towards the group. Another roar thundered behind them. The beast was now airborn, flapping its bat-like wing and speeding toward them. The Doctor stopped in his tracks. The seafoam unicorn continued to gallop away, not noticing that her aquaintance had stayed behind. Octavia was the first to notice and called out, "Doctor! What are you doing!"

After hearing this, Lyra turned her head. Worriedly, she too stopped and exclaimed "Doctor!"

Continuing to face the oncoming manticore he responded to Octavia's question. "Run! Don't stay here, I can handle this, just run!" As the beast once again lunged towards the Doctor who ducked under its attack and ran behind it. It turned to face him, ignoring the candy coloured ponies that were trying to escape. It growled at him before roaring again and pouncing at him with both of its paws outstretched. It opened its mouth wide, and snapped shut as it reached him.

"No!" Lyra screamed, reaching her forehoof towards her fallen comrade. The rest of her friends also rushed to her side. But as she looked more closely, she could see that something was off. The manticore seemed like it was stuck in half pounce and looked like it was almost leaning on something. Could he have-?

"Lyra, we have to get out of here!" pleaded Octavia who was grabbing on to her leg.

"Wait, look."

The ash grey earth pony did as she was told and looked to the beast. The Doctor was alive. Octavia saw that the Doctor had stopped the manticore with some sort of pole. It was an odd looking object, and was about long as he was tall.

Derpy Hooves floated closer in order to see what the pole-like object was and found that it was not what anypony expected it to be. "Is that a... Rope?" she hazarded a guess. A buzzing noise was heard and the Doctor was able to step away from the manticore before it fell forward, allowing him to climb over it and lunge toward his pony pals. The hairy beast stood up on its hind legs and turned around to show that its paws were tied with the very same rope that its escaped prey used as a pole.

Lyra almost could not believe it. She had never even heard of a unicorn spell that could change the solidity of a rope. It was impossible!

"Doctor, how did you do that?" she questioned.

"Oh, it's nothing special, just heightened and lowered the structural integrity of the rope on a molecular scale using my trusty friend here." he explained quickly while flipping the sonic screwdriver in his hand. "I told you the rope would come in handy. Now, on to business. Lyra, while I was holding of the manticore, I remembered, you're still connected to the TARDIS."

"What?"

"You see, when I first contacted you, I had the TARDIS select the nearest intelligent life-form at random and establish a psychic link with it. If I'm correct, you should be able to call the TARDIS and bring it here."

"How can I do that?" She, along with the rest of her pony friends, was skeptical about this.

"With your mind."

"So like a spell?"

He hesitated for a moment, still not understanding how magic worked. "Er, yes, exactly. Like a lost and found spell." The manticore began to tear its confines as the Doctor spoke. "Hurry up, you have to do it now, otherwise we're done for. Call it here. Only you can do it."

"Come on dude, you can do it Lyra!" Vinyl cheered.

Lyra knew what she had to do. It was highly unlikely that she could do anything, but it was worth a shot. She began to focus all of her power into her horn, which began to glow as it did whenever she cast a spell. She thought of bringing this mysterious blue box to her. The strain it put on her mind was beginning to take its toll on her. The mare's head ached as she continued to focus. The manticore was nearly free from the bonds that the Doctor had trapped it with, and the box was nowhere to be seen. But soon enough, a strange, mystical wheezing noise was heard and the wind began to pick up. Knowing that the unicorn's spell had worked, the Doctor smiled. A box began to fade in and out before their eyes with the noise it made getting louder and louder each second. The ponies watched in awe, Bon Bon being the most flabbergasted, her jaw nearly hitting the ground.

But not all was as expected. Lyra fell to her knee and the TARDIS began to dematerialise. Finally the manticore had broken free, and was prepared to pounce on the helpless creatures. Just before it leaped Lyra made one last push, magic now bursting from her horn. The blue box finally appeared between them and the hungry looking beast and blocked its attack. A loud bang was heard on the other side. Lyra fell to the ground in exhaustion. The last thing she heard was the Doctor, a man they had known for less than an hour, getting them all to pile inside the small, cramped box he called the TARDIS.

She fell unconscious.

_______________________________


When Lyra finally awoke she was in a strange new place that was somehow oddly familiar. It was, in fact, the room that she had seen in her dream. Except now it wasn't on fire or exploding. It looked brand new, or at least, what she thought was brand new. She sat up.

"Hey Lyra, you're awake! Have you seen this place! It's bigger on the inside! Oh, the Doc says he found Nightmare Moon! That means we did it!"

It was the white unicorn she knew as Vinyl Scratch. She helped Lyra to her feet as the rest of her friends trotted up to her.

"We were really worried about you." mentioned Derpy.

"Yes, we couldn't bear to see you 'go', darling." said Octavia.

"Oh relax, she wasn't going to die, she had a psychic link." Everypony turned their heads to the Doctor. "Hello there Miss Heartstrings! I have some news for you!" He twisted a crank and pulled a lever. The pillar in the centre of the room ceased all activity when he smacked a large red button. "We're here"

An image appeared on  a box attached to the centrepiece. It was a a room with nothing in it. Pillars edged the room which was old and ruined. Vines covered the walls and dirt and stone were scattered all over the stone floor. At the far end was a pony standing on a platform. Her coat was a pitch black, and she wore a midnight blue shade of armour. The mark on her flank was an ink splattered pattern with the image of a moon. Her horn was longer and sharper than any normal unicorns, but in addition to a horn, a pair of wings adorned her. Each of the five ponies gasped in unison as they recognised this to be the dreaded Nightmare Moon.

"Okay now blast her with your lasers!" exclaimed Vinyl in excitement.

"Really Vinyl, lasers?" Bon Bon was appalled.

"No Miss Bon Bon, it's quite all right. Miss, Scratch, was it? The TARDIS isn't equipped with weapons, I disabled them when I first acquired it. Weapons are too much of a hassle. Second, I've cloaked us. She can't see us as long as we don't do anything. For now."

"Then how do we stop her?" asked Lyra. It was disappointing to say the least, but at least being there was a start.

"I have a plan, but does anyone here know how to work a turntable? Do you ponies have turntables here? I don't suspect so..."

Vinyl's head popped up when she heard these words. "That would be me," she boasted, "in fact, it's my special talent!" She cantered over to the Doctor as he rummaged through a mishmash of junk under the centrepiece of the TARDIS. He finally took out what Vinyl would say is her favourite 'instrument' and plugged it into the column. A microphone extended out.

The Doctor stepped toward the door and straightened his tie. "Be ready for my signal" he said. He reached for the handle and opened the door.

_______________________________


"What, who are you? What are you, where did you come from?"

Nightmare Moon had been taken by surprise. She still didn't know the TARDIS was there, so she would be focused fully on the Doctor.

"Oh, you haven't heard of me?" he responded, "I thought everybody had heard."

"What are you saying? Do you mean to say everypony?"

All of a sudden the Doctor burst out laughing. "Hahahahaha! Everypony! Is that really what you say around here? That's hilarious! Everypony..."

"Stop it, cease your laughing at once! I am in power now, I am the ruler of the night!"

"Oh then, allow me." He gave a mocking smile. "Why don't I introduce myself. I'm the Doctor."

"Hahaha! Ah, so we meet again Sir Doctor! How great it is to see you in your true form!"

"Wait, you know me? I don't believe we've met."

"Ah, so you are not yet at that point in your timeline. This shall be fun. Prepare for your doom Sir Doctor. This night shall be your last. Now kneel before me, your queen!"


He kneeled. "Why don't we play some music fit for the successful victory of a ruler like you then?" He raised his screwdriver and flicked it on.

_______________________________


"That's it, that's the signal! Play, Vinyl!" said Lyra.

Vinyl Scratch levitated a disk out of its case and placed it on the turntable. She moved the mic closer and moved the needle into place. "You all ready for some noise!" she cried into the mic. A switch was flicked and music started playing.

_______________________________


Melodious instrumentals began to emit from seemingly nowhere, and techy, distorted numbers echoed through the air. Screeches, loud booms and wubs played from the unseen speekers of the TARDIS and traveled throughout the room.

"What is this? Music? It sounds horrible, what are you trying to do?"

"WHAT?! CAN'T HEAR YOU, I JUST PUT EARPLUGS IN!"

Soon enough, a voice overlayed the music. The Doctor then aimed his screwdriver at Nightmare and activated it. Instead of the noise it would normally make, it served as an amplifier for the music, beaming it directly at Nightmare.

Hey hey, DJ P0N3 in the house! I got a sick song for y'all today, it's gonna drive you up the walls!

Yo Nightmare Moon we gonna take you down,
Gonna beat you with the power of sound,
You think you made us shed a tear,
The last thing we're feeling now is fear!

Why you gotta be so vile?
You ain't even in the least hostile,
You're plan is goin' down the drain,
Cause you'll be seein' stars, like the ones in your mane!

Nightmare Moon has been made a fool,
To beat you we don't need weapon or tool,
You try to bring eternal night,
We gonna' return the fi-

"ENOUGH!" screamed Nightmare Moon. She struggled to aim her horn, but succeeded in blasting  the screwdriver out of the Doctor's hand and completely destroyed it. "You are no threat to me! I shall destroy you, then I shall destroy the ponies that think they can stop me! Now Sir Doctor, breathe your last breath!"

She aimed her unicorn horn at him and fired off a beam void of all light. He was hit square in the chest and was sent flying back. His limp body burst through the TARDIS door, which then quickly shut.

"No!" screamed Lyra. Maniacal laughter entered the room via the speakers as the dark tyrant celebrated her victory over the suited man. The five ponies gathered around him, tears beginning to well up in their eyes. Even Vinyl Scratch could not hold in her sadness.

But a noise was heard from the speakers that cut off the laughter. A ball of brilliant light appeared on the floor and exploded in a blast of smoke; when it cleared, Twilight Sparkle could be seen huddled and coughing in the middle of this chamber.

Twilight! Lyra thought when she looked at the screen.

Twilight was soon able to get her head and lungs clear. She then looked up and uttered one wide-eyed gasp; across the room, Nightmare’s armored form stood on a crumbling dais, chuckling nastily as five stone spheres were held in the grip of her mane and tail.

A bolt of lightning cracked out violently. Another gasp, and Twilight lowered her head and hooves to the ground and prepared for a charge. Nightmare set the balls on the ground.

"You’re kidding," said Nightmare, "You’re kidding, right?"

Twilight barreled straight toward the dais, her horn firing up as she went. Nightmare Moon began to charge, hoping to eliminate another enemy, but an instant before the two could collide, Twilight disappeared with a flash. 

"What's she doing? What are those stones?" asked Derpy. Lyra's eyes widened in anticipation of what would happen next.

The five stones began to glow, surprising Nightmare no end. She herself used a spell to become a tornado and whip herself onto the dais as well. The magic kicked back hard on Twilight, throwing her across the floor.

Nightmare Moon was laughing full throttle on the end of this. One mighty rear and stomp of the metal-shod forelegs caused the stones to shatter into gravel as Twilight stared helplessly.

Behind Lyra came a call from Bon Bon. "Lyra, you need to see this! It's the Doctor, he's glowing!"

The unicorn tore her eyes from the monitor and turned her attention to the ape-like corpse of the Doctor. It was almost normal for a dead body. Almost. His hands, along with his face eminated a golden glow, an aura different from that of pony magic. It began to build up, and the air around him began to heat. Lyra backed away, and the other ponies followed suit. Soon his whole body was covered in the energy, when suddenly.

It disappeared.

Not a moment later the same golden energy burst from his suit, shooting in all directions.

"What's happening!" exclaimed Octavia.

Lyra responded. "I don't know, it's almost like some kind of spell, except it's not!"

Finally, the energy burst stopped. What resulted was a rather large lump, though smaller than the Doctor, that was hidden within the suit he wore. Derpy was the first to inspect it. She flapped her grey-feathered wings and floated to the lump-in-a-suit. She nudged it. It didn't move. Then again. Nothing. Then one more time.

The last nudge caused a reaction from the lump in question.

"Oi, watch it, that one sort of hurt!"

Out of the pile of clothing came a brown earth pony colt. His coat was a light shade of brown, and his mane a darker one. Upon his flank one could see an hourglass shaped cutie mark. He stood up.

"Why are you lot staring at me? Have you never seen a time lord regenerate before? Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and finish what I started with Nightmare Moon. Dying is always such a setback..."

As soon as he took his first step, he fell. He fell flat on his face. He stood up and looked down prepared to brush himself off, but froze when he saw what was waiting for him. Pony legs. He had pony legs. And a tail, and hooves.

"I've turned into a pony!" he exclaimed. "I've never been a pony, all my regenerations have always been at least human in appearance. Blast, I'm not even a ginger pony! And why are you all still staring at me?"

Lyra was completely dazed and confused. It was impossible! One moment this space alien was killed by Nightmare Moon and the next he was up and walking. But as a pony.

She grabbed him and looked into his eyes and asked the one question that was in everyponies mind. "What is going on?"

The now pony-shaped Doctor opened his mouth to answer her question when something appeared on the monitor.

A bright light encompassed six other ponies, and stone bits around all but Twilight formed into gold necklaces, each set with a jewel in the shape of their cutie marks. As for the violet unicorn, an unbroken stone became a gold tiara on her head, studded with small blue jewels and topped by a large one shaped and colored like the six-pointed pink star in her own mark. Two rainbow-striped shafts of light, one red, orange and yellow, and the other green, blue and violet, emerged from the group as a double helix formed and shot toward the ceiling before joining together into a single broad ribbon that swooped down on Nightmare Moon

"NOOOOO!! NOOOOO!!" screamed Nightmare.

The last thing seen was a small twister that formed around her before the monitor was filled with light.

_______________________________


After the whole ordeal with Nightmare Moon, all Lyra wanted to do was settle into her new home and relax. The Doctor easily organised this with the help of his spaceship, and took the five ponies back to their hometown of Ponyville. It was tough with the hooves instead of hands, but eventually, he was able to do it.

"So, you can come back to life when you die, but you have to transform?"

"That's the gist of it, Miss Heartstrings. Though, I've never been a pony. It's an odd occurrence. I hypothesise that it was magical interference from Nightmare Moon's burst of pony magic mixing with my regeneration energy to create some sort of pony-time lord biological meta crisis. It's all simple, really, once you get the hang of having both science and magic existing." He smiled.

That day ended up being a fantastic day for Lyra. She made five new friends, she met a space alien, Nightmare Moon had been defeated and returned to normal. It was perfect.

The celebrations for Nightmares defeat and Princess Luna's return had already begun when Lyra and the Doctor walked into the town square. Bon Bon had chosen to stay at home because parties apparently 'weren't her thing'. Octavia and Vinyl Scratch were both selected to play music for the party, and were both trying to one-up each other with their different styles. Derpy Hooves was just floating near the muffins that the pony by the name of Pinkie Pie had baked.

"So Doctor, I guess you'll be leaving now."

"Naaw, there's no need to leave! The party's just started. Plus,I want to find a way to become my own self again. I can't be stuck as a pony forever. Besides, I have a special feeling about this place. And that's always a reason for me not to leave."

Another voice chimed in. "Doctor!"

He turned to see that it was the newly transformed Princess Luna. Why did she want to talk to him? He'd never even met her, aside from when she was Nightmare Moon. And even then she seemed to know who he was.

"Doctor, am I ever glad to see you! I am very sorry, for everything. Especially killing you."

"It's... It's quite alright, now, how do you know me? We've never even met before today."

"Oh trust me, you'll meet me. In fact, you know me more than I know you." She turned to Lyra. "You, Lyra Heartstrings."

Lyra gasped and asked "How do you know my name?"

"The same way I know the Doctor. I now decree that henceforth, you must write to me about any and all events and adventures that you take part in. Time. It's always been a confusing thing."

Luna stepped up to the Doctor and kissed him on the cheek before leaving the two ponies to bask in their confusion.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Lyra was the first to speak up. "What just happened?"

The Doctor had no response except "I have no idea."

_______________________________


and that, Princess Luna, recounts the tale of our very first adventure in Ponyville.

-Lyra Heartstrings
> Episode 2-Part 1: The Music Meister
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The suns rays shone brightly through the windows of Octavia's thatch-roofed house, the birds outside twittering in delight. It was the melodic tune of these very birds that signalled her to wake each morning. Upon hearing the familiar chirps, the grey earth pony lifted her sleep-mask from her eyes. She pushed off the high quality fabric bed sheets before lazily rocking herself out of bed.

_______________________________


Elsewhere, another musical mare landed face first on her bedroom floor, still wrapped in a thin, blue blanket. She groaned, obviously grumpy, and then pushed herself up. The cobalt-maned unicorn trotted slowly through the scattered trash that littered the room. The blanket slid off of her back as she exited. 

_______________________________


Octavia happily cantered down a winding staircase and into her kitchen. It was small and quaint, with every surface in the room having been cleaned to perfection. She proceeded to open cupboards and pull out the cooking supplies needed for her scrumptious breakfast.

_______________________________


Meanwhile, Vinyl Scratch magically opened up a silver packet of pop tarts and placed the two snacks into the toaster. She waited, leaning on the refrigerator and nearly falling over. After several minutes passed, her food finally finished cooking.

Ding!

_______________________________


Ding!

Using a seemingly expensive spatula, Octavia placed each flapjack precisely on the plate. The syrup was slowly drizzled on in a perfect crisscross pattern. Her breakfast was complete.

_______________________________


It did not take very long for either ponies to finish eating, and soon each of them opened the doors to their respective houses. Octavia pranced up the gravel paths and to a steel mailbox and opened it up. Reaching in, she grabbed a small stack of letters.

At the same time, at Vinyls house, the white unicorn was levitating her own mail off of a tattered welcome mat. She sifted through bills, fan letters, anti-fan letters and more, until she found one piece that caught her eye. On the front was a wax seal. This was none other than the royal seal, from Canterlot castle. It was red wax with an imprint that match the cutie mark of Celestia herself.

Octavia's eyes widened as she looked at a letter that she had also received from Canterlot. Carefully, she tore open the top of the envelope and pulled out a beautifully written note from its paper confines. A smile grew on her face, becoming wider and wider with each passing moment.

Vinyl Scratch too read her letter. Both musicians were excited by what they were reading. So much that they each grew louder with every line they read.

"You, Vinyl Scratch have been cordially invited..." the unicorn began.

Octavia continued reading her own letter, "to audition for the honour of 'Head Musician'..."

"On the thirteenth of blah, blah, blah..."

"For the Grand Galloping Gala in Canterlot."

"Grand Galloping Gala!" both mares shouted out at the exact same time before looking up from their letters to see each other on the opposite side of the street. Again, they yelled at the same time, but this time they were well aware of what was going on.

"What!!?"

_______________________________


Octavia, Vinyl Scratch and their three friends had soon enough gathered in the living room of Lyra and Bon Bon's house. Most of them were seated, except for Lyra, who chose to stand.

"So the both of you get to audition for head musician at the Grand Galloping Gala?" she queried. "That's so great for you. Both of you!"

"I know, it's gonna be awesome!" replied Vinyl, waving her hands in the air.

Octavia hesitated before replying herself. "Er, yes, it is quite the honour. 'Awesome'. But Lyra, what about you? You play your lyre beautifully, darling. Aren't you disappointed you didn't get an audition letter too?"

"Oh no, I don't play professionally, so it would make sense that I wouldn't get one."

"Lyra, dear, you are just too humble." Octavia sipped her tea. "The audition is one week before the Gala, in Canterlot castle. I absolutely cannot wait for them to pick me."

Vinyl Scratch snorted, prompting a glare from Octavia. "What? Don't look at me like that. How do you know they won't pick me? After all, you're about as cool as a hot chocolate in the middle of summer."

"Like your unsophisticated walls of noise that you call music will hope to impress the high society ponies living in Canterlot."

"Girls..." Derpy said quietly in a failed attempt to de-escalate the conversation.

This was beginning to push Vinyl over the edge. "At least MY music won't put them to sleep!" she exclaimed as she stepped closer to her rival.

"Um, girls." Derpy tried again.

"Why you-! Maybe SOMEpony should keep their big mouth shut before she says something she'll regret!"

Lyra too tried to calm the two mares. "You know, we really should be talking about something else-"

"Quiet Lyra, this prissy pony needs to know who's regretting what here!"

"Well then, why don't I just be the bigger mare and be the one to end this argument." Octavia retorted.

"Ya, everypony can tell you're the bigger mare by looking at your huge plot!"

The whole group gaped before Octavia argued back, "How dare you, resorting to petty insults! Well, maybe I'll-"

But she could not finish before she was interrupted by Derpy Hooves, who had been trying to get their attention the whole time. "GIIIIIRLS!!!"

"WHAT!" the two debating ponies yelled at the same time.

"What's that noise?" she asked. The room went silent as everypony perked their ears to listen to the strange wheezing and humming that Derpy was referring to. It ended with a dull boom. They waited to see what would happen next.

A knock came from the front door. Lyra was a bit hesitant to open the door considering the strange noise they heard, but Bon Bon was more than happy to answer. As she opened the door, her four friends were both curious and afraid of what might be behind the door.

"Hello!"

"Oh, hello Pinkie Pie."

The group let out a sigh.

"Hello Bon Bon! Hello everypony else!" she greeted them, peeking through the door. "I've got some super fantastical awesomemazing fabulicious news! Twilight has tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala in Canterlot, and I'm going to convince her to share by throwing her a party! Be outside the library in ten minutes. Bye!"

She zipped away from the house, bouncing back and forth through the block. The faces of three out of the five friends lit up with delight.

"Tickets to the Gala!" said Derpy, "I've alway wants to go to the Gala! We have to go!"

"I agree," agreed Bon Bon in agreement, "Lyra?" She turned her head to the unicorn that she was referring to.

"Yes, this is a great chance to get tickets. Octavia and Vinyl have both been invited as head musician, that means win or lose, they both get to go." Lyra turned to the Vinyl Scratch and Octavia. "Us three are going to go to the library, make sure you girls close the door when you leave."

The door closed behind the three fillies as they left for Twilight's place. She had been getting a surprising amount of parties lately, which wasn't a bad thing. As soon as the room had been emptied of everypony else the two went back to growling and glaring at each other. But the thick tension did not last long, as it was soon snapped by the feeling of hooves being rested on their shoulders. The both of them jumped straight up in the air while screaming at the top of their lungs.

"Haha, sorry 'bout that girls, didn't mean to scare you."

It was the brown stallion from the Nightmare Moon incident. Except in reality, he was not a pony. He was actually an alien that was turned into a pony by Nightmare Moon herself.

"I- I wasn't scared! I was just surprised! What the hay was that even about, sca- I mean, surprising us like that!" replied Vinyl Scratch.

"Waitwaitwaitwaitwait! There's no need to be so touchy! It's not like I disappeared for an unreasonable amount of time before I randomly appeared inside your kitchen! At least, I don't think I have."

Octavia trotted towards him and asked, "Doctor, it's been about a week since we've last seen you. Don't you think such an entry is a bit rude?"

"Rude? Well I never. I was going to take you girls on a trip, but if I'm so rude, then that's just no good." He turned around and marched into the kitchen, smiling all the way, hoping that he had piqued their interest.

And that it did. The two mares were wondering what trip he was talking about, and began to follow him. Vinyl Scratch felt compelled to ask him what he was doing. "Hey Doc, how did you even get in here? And why are you going into the kitchen?"

"Well, the answer to both those questions would have to be... TARDIS."

"You mean the spaceship that looks like a police box?" came Octavia from the very back. She knew that the oddity could fly, but how could he possibly get it into Lyra and Bon Bon's house? Her question was answered as soon as she saw the behemoth sitting in the centre of the room, in all its blue and boxy glory.

Inside was a large chamber that contained the control panel, but the room looked entirely different than it had the first time they were in there. This time the room seemed to look like it was made entirely out of wood. The walls were smooth and the floor looked like the top of a very large tree trunk. It the centre where the pillar previously was floated a large link crystal that was surrounded in a pink glow that also held up six trapezoidal panels made entirely out of glass. Roots that hung from the ceiling emitted a glow similar to that of the crystal.

"Whoah."

That was the only word Vinyl Scratch could think of to describe what she saw before her.

"Oddly enough, that's exactly what I said the first time I saw the change."

"But Doctor, how did this happen? In fact, WHAT happened?" Octavia queried.

"Well, soon after I left you all, the TARDIS sensed my biological change. Immediately, it it decided to land mid-flight. Coincidentally, i landed in Canterlot and almost instantly the residual 'magic' of your world was absorbed into the heart. Considering the unusual amount of unicorns in the city, that's a lot of magic. Soon enough," he gestures to the whole room in general, "this!"

Again, Vinyl only whispered, "Whoah."

The Doctor turned around. "So, where do you want to go?"

Octavia was surprised. "Wait, you're just going to foalnap us in your box and take us to... Somewhere? What about our friends and jobs, nothing has been planned."

"I'm in!" was all the cobalt maned unicorn had to say, not needing much convincing.

The Doctor grinned widely. "'Atta girl! Miss Octavia, I'm not..." He snickered. "'Foal'-napping you. I can get you wherever you want and back before dinner! Time machine, remember."

The earth pony cellist could do nothing more but give in. Besides, she could go anywhere and anywhen she wanted. Manehattan, Paris, Trottingham just to name a few of the places on the top of the list. But there was somewhere that she always wanted to go...

"So, like I said before, where to?"

This was Octavia's chance to fulfil one of her greatest dreams. "Doctor, I have an idea of where to go." She whispered into the Doctor's long ear. The colt smiled and nodded.

He prepared the TARDIS for launch by reaching towards one of the panels. Sensing his hoof, the panel began to separate into smaller shapes and panels which he rearranged and twisted to his liking. He ran back and forth from one panel to another, moving panel bits, causing the great machine to lurch and begin its launch. The floor shook and its signature wheezing noise started up. 

They were off.
> Episode 2-Part 2: Crescendo and Mouse
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So, where are we?"

Vinyl Scratch had no idea what her friend Octavia had suggested to the Doctor, but considering how boring she was, things didn't look good for Vinyl's sanity. A glass square cut itself out from one of the panels. On it appeared a series of symbols that she could not make out.

The stallion known as the Doctor inspected the visual, scanning it carefully before turning around and announcing the news. "Well, Miss Scratch, we have arrived in Canterlot, year 835 of Celestia's reign, the classical era of music in Equestria."

"Gee Doc, I had no idea you knew this much about our history with you being an alien and all."

"Oh, well I've learned a lot in the past six months. I've travelled all over and done my research."

Octavia piped up. "So you've been gone for half a year but returned to Ponyville after only a week?"

"Precisely!"

The concept of time travel was beginning to confuse both her and Vinyl Scratch.

"Now, some even better news, we are sitting outside of one of the many concert halls in which a pony named Crescendo Pianissimo played. In fact, I've set us to arrive at the beginning of one of his concerts."

Octavia's eyes lit up. It was always her biggest dream to meet a famous composer. Now she would get to listen to a live performance from her idol, Crescendo Pianissimo. The unicorn standing next to her, on the other hoof, was disappointed. She did not want to go and watch some boring piano concert played by some pony she did not care enough to know.

"Well, what are we waiting for," asked Octavia who was already happily prancing towards the doors, "we need to go now! I'm going to miss the concert! How's my mane? Is my bow-tie straight?"

"'Atta girl!"

Both the Doctor and Vinyl Scratch followed, the former grinning widely and the latter sulking with her head down. But something very puzzling happened. When the door was opened Octavia stopped moving, and said absolutely nothing. What was more was the silence. They were just outside of a concert hall. There should have been the sound of a busy street, and at the very least the vague sound of music emanating from the building. When the brown stallion went to investigate, he saw exactly what was going on.

Outside of his little blue box was a group of five ponies, each wearing a navy blue hat with a star on the front. Spears pointed at the three travellers from all directions. Upon further inspection, the scene outside was not in the open streets. They were inside a building with a high ceiling, filled seats and...

"Oh."

"Eep!"

"Horseapples."

_______________________________


"Let us outta here! You're gonna regret putting us in jail!" She slammed her fore-hooves hard against the bars.

"Vinyl, you're not helping, now stop that incessant racket and sit down quietly in that corner." She pointed towards a far corner of the cage, which was dirty and wet, and had what looked like an ugly rusted toilet. Vinyl Scratch looked to Octavia's corner. It sat under a single ray of light coming through the barred window, and seemed to have been swept clean of all the dust and grime. Next to a neat little pile of hay was a pillow on  which she sat.

"What the hay, why do I get the dumpy corner?"

"Well, evidently it fits your dumpy attitude" retorted Octavia.

The Doctor felt the need to cut in at this point, otherwise he would never hear the end of it. "Girls, I think some peace and quiet is in order. I'm going to need to think of a plan to get us out of here."

"Yes, Vinyl, the Doctor here needs silence. You're always so noisy."

Vinyl raised her hoof, and was about to respond when she caught herself, and left it at a growl. She sat in the corner Octavia pointed out. At least it was on the opposite side of the cell.

Unfortunately, silence only lasted for a few seconds before the screeching of iron bars attacked their ears.

When the three of them looked to see who or what opened the door for them, they saw one of the security ponies (this one had a pretty cool looking moustache) standing behind a blue stallion. His orange mane was well groomed, and he wore a black tailcoat with a purple bow-tie matching Octavia's own. On his flank was his cutie mark, a music note with a small 'P'.

"So it was you who disrupted my performance this evening."

Octavia swooned. Their visitor was none other than her idol, Crescendo Pianissimo. The security pony behind him entered the cell and took Octavia's front leg, causing a reaction from her.

"Get your grubby hooves off of me!" She shook her leg.

Crescendo spoke up. "Come on Chief Safeguard, you heard the lady, no touching." Safeguard let go of Octavia, but continued to prompt her out of the cell.

"Where are you taking us?" Octavia asked. The cell door slammed shut, leaving the Doctor and Vinyl still locked up.

"Oh," began Crescendo, "not 'us'. Just you. I'm simply taking you out for a bit of questioning... over dinner."

"And what of my friends?"

"Oh, we'll be returning later on. Just follow me to the upper floor. I know this fantastic restaurant just down the street from here..."

His voice trailed off the farther up the stairs they got. When the only sounds left to be heard was the dripping of water, Vinyl Scratch faced the wall and harrumphed. "Great. Just fantastic. Now Octavia is out prancing about with some piano-er, and we get stuck here in the cell. This is the worst trip ever."

"C'mon Vinyl don't be sad. This day didn't turn out so sad. Now, I have a plan. Listen up..."

_______________________________


Not too long after leaving the cell under the concert hall, Octavia, Crescendo, and the security pony had arrived at the restaurant that the pianist  spoke of earlier. A large wooden plank adorned the front of the establishment, the name of the place being written on it in fancy lettering.

Deluxe

After entering, Octavia could see why Crescendo wanted to go here. It was beautiful. The extravagant decorations and high class food and fine dining. They really had to be in Canterlot for anything to be this perfect.

"Table for two, please."

"Right away Monsieur."

Chief Safeguard ruffled his moustache. "Table for two? What about me? This woman is a prisoner and should be treated as such."

"Do not fret Safeguard, I simply want to make her comfortable, and less reluctant to answer questions. Now, if you would be so kind, please stand guard outside the building."

The security pony grumbled before sauntering off outside the building. Octavia and her handsome escort were brought to a balcony seat, where they could see the entire room near them was a string quartet playing, with, what Octavia considered a horrible cellist by her standards.

A white unicorn with a clean blue mane and a cutie mark in the shape of a menu trotted up to the pair of ponies, levitating two flat booklets that matched the image on his flank. Without saying a word he set them on the table in front of each pony and left.

Crescendo began what should have been a series of interrogation questions. "So, what is such a beautiful mare like yourself doing disrupting shows and living in boxes?"

That was a bit unexpected.

Octavia gaped in a fit of stupor before attempting to string enough words together to form a sentence.

"I... Well..."

She stumbled over her own tongue for a moment, still unable to get over the fact that THE Crescendo Pianissimo might be coming on to her. She regained her composure.

"Ahem. I'm sure a musical genius such as yourself is able to recognise another musician when you see one. I simply wanted to watch you and listen to your work. There was simply... A slight directional misinterpretation" she explained. She did not think it would be taken very well if she said she was a time traveller from the future with an alien who wasn't really a pony and a musician that played using electronic sounds. Ya, it would not help at all.

Crescendo raised a golden eyebrow now that his interest was piqued. "Oh, you play? What instrument?"

"Cello."

"Then why don't you play a little something for me and we'll see wether or not I can't get you and your friends a bit of slack." He smirked.

It was going to be a fun night.

_______________________________


"...And that's the plan!"

"But Doc, where are we supposed to find a tattoo parlour at this time of night?"

"You're right Vinyl, what was I thinking! Maybe if we had a rubber hose and some slacks... Anyway, plan B. We break out."

Out of seemingly nowhere he pulled out his fancy device from the night he first appeared. Holding the metallic stick in his mouth, he bit down on a button and it started off. The insides of the cage lock twisted and clicked.

"Perfect! Now we just need to find Octavia. I heard the name if the restaurant they were supposed to go to so I'll go find her. You look for the TARDIS, she's in here somewhere. When you find her just wait. When you hear a loud buzzer, just activate the homing signal and she should come right to me. Ready?"

"Of course, this is gonna be awesome! Just one question. Why did you call it a she?"

"Because she's a girl, why else?"

Scratch looked at him flatly before shaking her thoughts out of her head. "Okay... Let's just... Go then."

Vinyl stepped out of the cell, wondering where on earth she was supposed to go while the Doctor galloped up the stairs and then out of the building, leaving her alone in the dark wet hall.

"Okay, so if I were a big time machine where would I hide..."

As if the writer was too lazy to describe Vinyls search for the TARDIS, two guards were heard walking down the hall. She hid.

"Did you her about the big box they pulled in?"

"Ya, I think I heard them say it was down in third floor storage, which is down the stairs at the end of the hall and to the left. Wish I could go see it, but they don't have guards stationed down there."

She let the two stallions pass before coming out of hiding. It was quite lucky that those security guards had walked by at that exact moment while spouting off that oddly specific, yet coincidentally helpful information for anypony to hear.

Like a speeding pie, she sped down the hallway before sliding down the stairs and continuing her sprint. Okay, so it was down the stairs and to the... Left! the thought raced through her mind as she slammed her hooves on the staircase landing. She burst through the doors. Inside was the old hunk of wood that she was looking for. Unfortunately, so were three unicorn stallions. Each wore the same black waistcoat and tie, and each was staring directly at her.

"Horseapples"

_______________________________


"...To get to the other side!"

The pair chuckled in delight of her seemingly new and innovative joke.

Pianissimo lifted a hoof to his eye and wiped a year. "Miss Octavia, you truly are an impressive pony. I've never met anypony quite like you." The grey mare blushed. "Now, tell me more about your friends, Vinyl Scratch and the Doctor."

Their waiter returned to retrieve their now empty dishes.

"Oh, you don't really want to hear about them, do you?"

"You forget, this is supposed to be an interrogation," he pointed out with a smirk, "and you wouldn't want to disappoint your interrogator."

She smiled and sighed before clearing her throat. "Well, I don't know much about the Doctor, as I have only met him recently. He's definitely... An odd one."

"And what of the mare?"

"Vinyl Scratch."

Her flat tone was not a subtle one, easily recognised to have a hint of disdain. "She is my neighbour. We don't usually talk, but when we do... Let's just say she has a different taste in music."

Crescendo's ears perked up at Another mention of music. "Does she too play an instrument?"

Just before opening her mouth, Octavia froze. Explaining anything about Vinyl would be tricky and dangerous. The modernised unicorn would seem almost alien to anypony in the past. Even the mere mention of 'Dubstep' would probably make Octavia seem crazy just mentioning it. She needed to think of something quick. Her head whipped to the instrumentalists playing in the background. There was one instrument that could be vaguely related to Scratches profession, but it was a longshot.

"Erm, she... Um, works with the... Keyboard."

"Ah, another pianist!"

"Yesss?" She nodded slowly.

Well, it wasn't a lie. She did happen to own an electronic piano, though, she did not really use it to generate REAL piano sounds.

"Well Octavia, I've had a fantastic time speaking to you. I just have one more thing to tell you. I am in lo-"

"Hello there!"

A brown earth pony with an hourglass cutie mark popped up next to the table. The Doctor had interrupted one of the most important moments in Octavia's life, and she was both furious and shocked. She knew exactly what Crescendo was going to say. His unfinished sentence hung in the air as silence fell on the group.

Still shocked, she was unable to say anything, leaving Crescendo to ask the question that the both of them were thinking.

"You! The Doctor! Wha... What are you doing here? I thought you were imprisoned. Were you released?"

He smiled and said "Nope, I escaped!" as if nothing was wrong with escaping from a prison cell. He grabbed Octavia's leg, getting her to stand up. "Sorry Crescendo, sir, but it's actually time for us to leave."

"Wait, I had something to say!"

"Yes Doctor, let him finish."

He pulled Octavia down the curving staircase without her consent saying, "Sorry, we've got a very important meeting. Goodbye!" The two tumbled out the entrance, stealing glares from ponies in the street. The brown stallion stood up and wiped dust off of his coat before helping his friend up.

Octavia, now furious, refused his help. She jumped up on her own and began to yell at him. "Do you know what you've just done!? Do you know what he was about to tell me!!? Do you even think before you act!!!?"

Everypony was now staring at her, including one Chief Safeguard who tapped her on the shoulder. Not bothering to see who it was that was trying to interrupt her rampage, Octavia shrugged it off told him to wait.

The Doctor thought before a moment before answering. "Hmmm. Yes, yes, aaand no, not usually."

"Dear sweet Celestia, you're nearly as bad as Vinyl Scratch," she muttered under her breath. She felt another hoof-tap on her shoulder. She turned to tell whoever it was to just wait, but she froze at the sight of the security pony that was her escort.

"Oy, what are you two doing? You're supposed to be locked up and you're supposed to be with Sir Crescendo."

The timing could not have been better. At that moment the blue stallion burst out the doors to the establishment in a fit of anger. He looked down at the three, then stared directly at Safeguard. "What are you doing you imbecile, arrest them!" he exclaimed.

Luckily for the two time travellers, the command howled from the musician was enough to distract Safeguard long enough for the Doctor to grab Octavia and make a mad dash away from the restaurant. The Chief bumbled about for a moment before galloping after the escapees.

The two rounded a corner and dived into the nearest shop. Once inside, the Doctor shoved his companion to the ground before diving down himself. He peeked through the small window that displayed the inside of the shop. Outside was Chief Safeguard shoving his way through a thick crowd of ponies in order to find the two jailbirds he was pursuing. After a few minutes of watching, he finally disappeared. The Doctor exhaled.

"Doctor, can't you just let me go back to Crescendo? I can probably talk him into letting us leave." Octavia needed a reason to go back. He was the love of her life along with her idol.

"No can do. We can't meddle too much with the timeline. Any change in already established points in history can have tragic effects on the future."

"Then why did you even take us here?" asked Octavia, raising her voice ever so slightly.

"Because we were only supposed to see a show."

"Well maybe we would if you drove your time machine correctly. How are we even meant to leave if we don't know where it is anyways?"

"Don't worry," responded the Doctor, easing up, "I got Miss Scratch to go find it. Once I give her the signal via my sonic, she should be on her way."

He grasped the screwdriver firmly between his teeth before pointing it straight up in the air and flicking the activation switch. Blue ripples emitted from the top along with the usual sound and glow.

_______________________________


BWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

The eardrum shattering buzzer sounded through the room that the TARDIS was in. Nothing at all could be heard but that irritating noise that hammered at the brains of all four ponies in the room. The three stallions that held Vinyl captive began trying to converse with eachother, but were unable to, even while yelling. From Vinyl's point of view, the following conversation seemed to take place.

"Where's the hat?"

"On the fish."

"The fish?"

"Yes, the fish with a monocle."

"Oh, you mean Desmond?"

"Yes, Desmond the fish, he has the hat."

She stared, confused. She had the right to be confused. A buzzer was blaring and ponies were talking about a Desmond the fish with a hat and a monocle. Maybe she would be less confused if she knew what they were really saying.

"Where's that noise coming from!?"

"What!?"

"What!?"

"We need to find a way to shut off that noise!"

"What's that noise!?"

"I can't hear you, we need to shut off that noise!"

But alas, Vinyl Scratch was not a lip reader. Either way, she had an idea as to what the noise was. It was an alert from the Doctor, and it meant she had to get to the TARDIS. While the three ponies that were believed to be scientists bumbled about, Vinyl began rocking the chair that she was tied to. No good. On a shelf to her left was a plethora of tools. One of them being a large knife that could easily cut through her bonds.

Her horn began to glow a warm shade of blue as she levitated the knife towards her and against the rope.

In mere seconds she was able to free herself. Now she just had to get into the TARDIS. When she first started in her line of work, she soon learned that there would always be sound issues and technical difficulties. So in response Vinyl learned a muffle spell that she would cast quite often to spare her ears. Now was the perfect time to use it.

Magic emitted from her horn and proceeded to cover her whole head. All of a sudden the buzzing stopped. Well, not per say, but it was dramatically reduced to a mere ringing. The three colts were still searching for some sort of shut off switch, but with no luck they eventually collapsed. The infinitely loud noise pretty much racked their brains until they could not take it and fell unconscious.

Vinyl trotted past the pile of pony and towards the doors of the awe inspiring big blue box. Reaching forward she put one hoof on the wood door and pushed.

It didn't move.

She pushed harder.

Nothing.

It's not like there was any sort of trick to it, she always saw the Doctor just push it open. She put her whole body against it and put all her body weight into opening the door.

Still it sat there, mocking her.

"DOCTOOOOOOOORRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!"

_______________________________


"Now that's peculiar."

Octavia became worried. "What? What's peculiar? Is something wrong?"

"It's... Just that the TARDIS should be here by now. Unless Vinyl didn't activate the- Oooooohhh. I think I know what went wrong. Oh well, come along Miss Octavia, I'm afraid we'll have to go find the TARDIS ourselves."

The pair stepped out of the shop. Had they stepped out a mere second later, a certain security pony might not have seen them when he coincidentally happened to look in that general direction. Had they stepped out a second earlier, they would have bumped into a passerby and still would have managed to evade the guard's glance. But no, the stallion stared at the two before cupping his hooves around his mouth and yelling, "THERE THEY ARE!"

This caused every single pony on that street to turn to him. He pointed his hoof. Everypony stared at the brown stallion and grey mare. Octavia looked around at all of the ponies. She picked a few out of the crowd that wore the same blue hats as the alerted guard.

Eight. Eight guards. One on the stairs, two at the bakery, one at the fountain, three I'm the crowd and-

"GET THEEEEEM!!!"

And there's Safeguard.

The Doctor slowly stepped closer to Octavia, just enough to whisper to her. He whispered only one word, and it was the only word she needed to be convinced.

"Run."

On that note, he leapt out of the crowd, with his companion clinging to his short scruffy tail. As the law enforcers moved in for the kill, the two raced past the fountain, the centre of which held a stone impression of Princess Celestia. A purple guard pony dived at the two. The Doctor ducked, sliding directly under him while Octavia jumped over top. The now collected mass of security ponies ranging in colour charged by, whereupon the Doctor and Octavia peeked their heads out from two jars owned by a group of travelling zebra performers. All was clear until a security pony lifted up the lids of the jars, spooking the Doctor and Octavia into another escape.

As the stampede barrelled across old Canterlot, the chief, Safeguard dropped behind to inspect a very suspicious looking pair of mannequins. The others passed by, paying no attention to the two figures; one in a tailcoat and top hat, and the other in a rather large and poofy dress. Safeguard inspected them carefully. Something looked oddly familiar about these two mannequins, but he just could not put his hoof on it. He turned to leave and found himself looking at the escapees sneaking out from an alley. He looked back at the mannequins that so closely resembled them and back at the two ponies. He called for his party to return and continue the chase.

The two were able to escape and take cover by clinging to the underside of a bridge over a small stream that lead from one pond to another. As the mare wiped her brow in relief, she lost her hold on the bridge supports an fell into the water.

The chase continued down a new alleyway, Octavia now soaking wet. But once they turned a corner, they found themselves trapped at last. The unicorn stallions began to slowly move in with Safeguard in the lead.

"Oh Doctor, whatever shall we do? They're going to capture us, then imprison us, and then... Make us do our own laundry!" shrieked Octavia. The Doctor stared at her confusedly.

"That's what you're concerned about? You only wear a bow tie, what do you care?"

Safeguards men shifted aside to allow another stallion through, Crescendo. He trotted up beside the chief.

"Why must you run? I was going to eventually release you, but by causing trouble you've made it worse for yourselves."

Octavia stepped forward. "Stop! Before you do anything, wasn't there something you wanted to tell me? Something of grave importance?" She fluttered her eyelashes, staring at him with her head tilted upwards with a wide grin on her face.

"Well if you must know, it's that I'm in love," he confessed. Octavia's eyes were now glittering and her smile nearly tearing her cheeks apart, "with your friend, Vinyl Scratch."

Silence filled Octavia's wars. In fact, to her it was so quiet that he could almost hear the shattering of her innocent little heart. Her eyes watered and her legs weakened, becoming jelly under her. The musician's only true love had confessed that he loved another mare, her friend no less!

The guards were ready to pounce on the two earth ponies when suddenly...





Oh, sorry, did I leave you at a cliffhanger? Oh well that's your problem.
> Episode 2-Part 3: Flank to the Future
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hurm..."

Vinyl was getting nowhere, and she was getting there fast. She turned around, facing away from the police box that was the Doctor's spaceship and time machine and gave it a heavy buck with her hind hooves. The ship rocked, but did not open.

"Oh come on!"

She once more smacked the door before leaning against it.

"Please, just please open..."

As if in accordance to her pleas, it opened, causing her to tumble backwards into the bigger-on-the-inside console room.

"Really? You open to 'please'?"

There was of course, no response.

"Whatever."

It did not matter that she was probably going crazy and talking to a machine. She had to search for the homing signal and activate it. Easy as Pinkie Pie! Except it wasn't. She lowered her glasses and looked to the centre jewel. She had forgotten that the inside had changed. There was no difference in the glass panels that surrounded the floating rock, and she had completely forgotten to ask how she was even meant to use it. Curse her laziness.

Before going through and trying a whole bunch of useless attempts at starting up the machine, Scratch tried something.

"Please take me to the Doctor?"

Nothing.

"Ah well, it was worth a shot."

She cantered over to the first panel hoping to see something that would maybe come in handy. It was the same as all the others, and after searching through all of them Vinyl found nothing to separate the homing signal from anything else. How did he even expect her to accomplish her goal if she didn't know what her goal even looked like.

After a few moments of searching not a single hint a to where the homing signal could possibly be.

Okay, I need a list of what I've tried.

1. Say 'please'
2. Look for something that looks important.
That just leaves three and four....

The third step on her list was to mash random buttons. Looking at the panels she sighed. Who has a machine with no buttons to randomly mash? That just left number four. Magic. She never was the best at magic, or the most powerful spellcaster, but she was at least proficient in hijacking radio stations and picking locks. How much harder could hot wiring an alien ship be?

The one problem with her plan, which she would know if she did her research, was that mixing spells, and even creating a new spell usually comes with disastrous results, even for the most experienced unicorns.

Her recklessness overtook her common sense as she remembered a book she had read once. "Creating Spells for Foals". What possessed her to read such a book without consulting the librarian or a professional (or in Ponyville's case, both) before even thinking of attempting what was described in the book is a mystery.

Her white horn began to spark to life as she focused in on the spell. Her idea of a TARDIS-jacking spell was somewhere between between the lock picking and radio hijacking spells she knew, and used both as a template. The horn became encased in the cobalt glow as the spell began sputtering into existence, but soon ceased. Jeeze, this is waaaay harder than it looks.

She shifted into a stance that left her unicorn appendage aimed directly at the centre crystal. Again her horn glowed, but this time a small, purple orb appeared, focused in front of the very tip. Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead as she racked her brain and searched her whole body for any magical energy.

The centrepiece began to rotate in place, the glass plates around it still hovering in place. When all of Vinyls energy had been sapped from her body and stored in her horn, a beam shot out at the crystal. Her legs weakened and her glasses fell to the floor and shattered, revealing Scratch's magenta eyes before she closed them.

She collapsed.

_______________________________


The pitch blackness of Vinyl's subconscious was lit up by an unknown brightness. Everything around her became white, leaving her floating in the strange white world. Her magenta eyes slowly blinked open as if this was reality and she was in a dream. Her pupils shifted, searching for any signs of, well, anything. Nothing else came into her sight. Floating. Simply floating.

"Hello, Vinyl Scratch."

The calm flowing voice startled her. The voice itself was peaceful, but the fact that it came from seemingly nowhere is what got her.

She shifted her body weight and turned around. Hovering there was not just a pony, but a pony that seemed to be made out of a deep blue energy. It was a mare with flowing hair that rivalled even Celestia's in sheer beauty. Only her shining white eyes deviated from the natural blue of the rest of her body.

"Who are you?" asked Vinyl Scratch. "What are you?"

The mare of light responded with her smooth as silk voice. "I've been called quite a few things. Blue box, time machine, sexy."

"Sexy?"

The mare gave a hearty chuckle before continuing. "It's a long story. Anyway, I am most commonly referred to as 'TARDIS'."

Vinyl gaped upon hearing that this strange pony was the Doctor's TARDIS. But how was that even possible? There was absolutely no way that a machine could possibly become a pony. She couldn't have screwed up the spell THAT badly.

"Am... Am I dreaming this?" she asked.

"Yes... And no. This is your subconscious but the conversation we are having is in every way real."

"So you're a pony?" asked Vinyl.

"No, but that's how you perceive me." TARDIS swiftly glided through open space around Vinyl. "Wow, your subconscious has a lot of space. Much roomier than my place."

It took a minute for the comment to sink in, but when it did Vinyl didn't know wether to take it as a compliment or an insult. TARDIS giggled, raising her hoof to her mouth.

"Don't, worry, it was more of a compliment than anything."

Vinyl was getting a bit confused. "How did you-"

"Know what you were thinking?" she interrupted. "Hehehe, we're in your subconscious, remember? I know everything you're thinking. I know how much you're craving pie, and I know that you want to know what's going on."

Vinyl blinked in wonderment. The machine-made-pony responded with a smile and another giggle.

"So, um... TARDIS-"

"You don't have to call me that, you can call me whatever you want."

"Okay, um..." Vinyl put a hoof to her chin and thought for a moment. "Okay, how about... Minuette?"

The energetic faux-pony thought about it for a moment before responding, "I love it!"

Vinyl smiled. "So, Minuette, how are we here, in my subconscious?"

The blue energy pony floated around in an upwards spiral, then came back down and faced Vinyl. But she was now upside down. "Well, you failed your little spell, of course! Residual magic along with my life energy fed back into your horn and caused you to see me in you subconscious. In reality, you're still standing there  blasting away."

This was even worse news for the dubstep artist. She frowned.

"What's wrong?" Minuette asked.

"Well," Vinyl began, "how am I supposed to get out of here then? How am I supposed to get to the Doctor and Octavia?" She never was a big fan of Octavia's company, but there were still times that they had fun together from time to time, and they were friends. It was mostly the boring music Octavia played that earned her dislike.

It was easy for Minuette to see that she truly cared for her friends. It would not be too hard for her to help, but there were definite consequences for meddling with such events.

"Vinyl," she began, "I can help you, we can save them. But..."

Vinyl shook a fist (hoof) above her head before saying, "Ya, alright, let's go save 'em then!" she was getting excited, not letting Minuette get the rest of her sentence out.

_______________________________


A soft wheezing noise filled the alleyway as the wind picked up around the many stallions (and one mare). The noise grew louder and louder, the faint outline of a blue box appearing all the while. The Doctor, and then Octavia smiled while the security colts began to back away. Around the two escaped ponies formed the brown stallion's source of travel. Soon the box was completely materialised and the mare and stallion were nowhere to be seen. On the much larger inside of the blue box, the Doctor and Octavia were celebrating their escape.

" 'Atta girl! I knew you could do it!" the Doctor exclaimed while standing up on his hind legs and hugging her in a tight embrace. He then scrambled to the centre console and began the launch process.

Outside, the TARDIS was once again making its noise while rising into the air. Vinyl, with her cocky attitude decided it would be fun to mock Crescendo and his men while they disappeared into their own time. She opened the door.

"So long, boys!" the magenta-eyed unicorn yelled down. The dematerialisation process began and the machine began to fade.

Safeguard was now pretty angry. The whole day was one of the worst days of his career. "I won't let you get away," he grumbled under his breath. "Men, open fire!"

The multiple stallions charged their horns with all different colours of magic before firing off several of their magic missiles. Some hit the side, doing no damage, others missed, and some simply bounced off, but one stray blast of magic was able to make it way through the TARDIS doors and rock the whole machine from the inside. Sparks flew from the ceiling. Vinyl fell. Oh no. Sad face.

"Vinyl!" both Octavia and the Doctor yelled at the same time. The colt dashed to the entrance and looked down. She was still hanging from the door frame.

"Vinyl, you need to grab my hand- I mean hoof!" he exclaimed.

Vinyl was able to reach up and take hold. But before he was able to pull her up another blast of magic rocked the TARDIS, and the two lost their grip on each other. She fell, and the time machine disappeared without her.

_______________________________


The smell of roses began to fill her nostrils as she awakened, accompanied by the soothing sounds of a piano and violin. The grace with which they were played was silk to Vinyl's ears. Even though she was not a fan of the genre, a grin graced her face as she inhaled deeply. The mare was in an eternal state of bliss, entranced by the smells, the sounds, the feeling of the soft blanket that she was just now starting to realise was not her own.

In fact, the sounds and smells were not the kind that she smelled and heard at home. A more accurate way to describe her normal wake up was the annoying squeaking of birds and the smell of fish and custard. Her eyes shot open.

The magenta pupils observed all the details in the room. Everything was pink, purple, soft and beautiful. The entire room itself was nearly as large as her whole house. She sat up.

There were banners and tapestries, a few large bookshelves, paintings were hung on the walls, and there was a large area reserved for many musical instruments, two of which were being played, explaining what she was hearing.

Crescendo Pianissimo's hooves dances across the keys of the piano while his accomplice, an unknown purple earth pony mare stood on her hind hooves and played her violin.

The music stopped, and Crescendo looked up from his instrument to see that Scratch had awoken.

"Why good morning, Vinyl Scratch. Might I say, you look positively dashing, like a rainbow, darling," he greeted her. "Fine Tune, you may go now."

The violinist he had just identified packed her instrument away and trotted out the door. Vinyl stepped down a small set of stairs and towards Crescendo who outstretched his foreleg in hopes that she would hold it. Instead she walked right up to him, her horn glowing. She pointed the spell at his throat in anger.

"Alright bucko, you're going to tell me where my friends are." Her face was filled with rage, amplified by her eyes, which are usually hidden behind her purple sunglasses.

"Oh, you're a feisty one aren't you. I'm sorry, your friends are gone, they've left. But you are most welcome to stay here."

Vinyl discharged her horn. "So... What am I doing here? Aren't I supposed to be in prison or something?"

He put a hoof on her shoulder, still smiling.

"And why would I need to imprison one of the most beautiful mares I have ever laid eyes on?"

Vinyl gawked at this. She couldn't believe that somepony like Crescendo Pianissimo, a fancy pants piano player from Canterlot would even be somewhat interested in little old her.

"Woah, okay. That was... Um... Ya."

When she first met him (and by 'met' I mean saw him while she was locked up in his evil-underground-prison -of-doom, or, E.U.P.o.D for short), she was too busy paying attention to his cliche evil villain-ness to notice him. But now that she had time to absorb his features, Vinyl could see that this stallion was actually quite... Attractive. She never would have admitted it to her friends, but Crescendo wasn't a bad looking pony.

It was blatantly obvious that he had a thing going on for her. Not so much the other way around, but the whole situation was much better than before.

Crescendo continued his smug-looking smile as he spoke. "Are you parched? I can get my assistant Eva Faithful to bring us some drinks. Faithful, one bottle of our finest grape juice and two glasses!"

Not a moment later a young lavender unicorn returned with the items specified by Crescendo. The drinks were poured and levitated to him and his guest before Eva left.

Vinyl had no reason to take the drink, or to even stay there, but she had to mean of returning to her time until the Doctor and Octavia returned (if they even did return), and if Crescendo was offering she might as well mooch off his generosity as much as possible. She took the glass and sipped.

_______________________________


Why? Why had they they broken out of prison and evaded capture only to lose Vinyl Scratch? Was it karma coming back to bite Octavia in the flank, or was it some uncontrollable force that controlled every aspect of their lives and felt that it would be fun to torture them? Either way, Octavia felt that it was all to be blamed on her. It was her that suggested the destination. She didn't even care about the fight they had that morning.

Wait, what's going on?

All lights had gone out and everything in the TARDIS ceased to move or make any sound. Something had gone wrong.

"Doctor, what is going on?" she called out. She stood up carefully, hoping she would not trip over or run into anything.

"I... Actually have no idea. Get to the wall and try to find the door, we're going outside," returned the voice of the Doctor.

She did as he told her and found the wall and slid herself across until she found herself grabbing hold of the metal handle. The Doctor, of course, found his way to her.

She pushed open the door and found a rush of white light pouring through the door frame.

Outside, two ponies surrounded the entry, pointing at them spears seemingly made from light. Each stallion was completely encased in a white armour from head to hoof.

"Oh dear!"

"Again!?"

_______________________________


Once more the two ponies were trapped in a cell; without Vinyl, of course. This time they were in a pure white cubic room. There was no dirt, no imperfections, just a pure white, perfect little room.

Octavia slumped in a corner. "So Doctor, when are we going to be escaping?"

He was scouring the whole room for some sort of clue for their escape. There was absolutely nothing that would lead him to believe there was any sort of exit.

"Sorry Miss Octavia, but I can't find anything. It's as if there is no exit. There aren't even any sort of seams to show that it's a sealed off cage," he replied.

Octavia sighed. The universe had a weird way of expressing itself.

A dinging noise was heard, echoing throughout the white room. The two accomplices looked to one side of the room to find the entire wall opening up and sliding I either side. The two armoured ponies from before entered the room followed by a white unicorn.

This was where Octavia got so confused she nearly lost balance.

"Vinyl Scratch?"

Before them stood a unicorn with the same cobalt mane as their lost friend. The only difference now was that she did not wear her signature purple shades and her hair was now worn in a ponytail. But then Octavia noticed the cutie mark. It was not the backwards double quaver that adorned her friend's flank, but what she saw was a record disc imprinted with a backwards treble clef.

The mare chuckled at her remark before responding. "No, I'm pretty sure I'm not my mother, but I know exactly who you are."

It was clear now that this was not Vinyl. Her voice was higher and much smoother than- Wait, Vinyl Scratch is her... mother? It seemed impossible. Vinyl Scratch had no children, and she was stuck in the past anyways. What was going on?

The Scratch-impostor turned around and said, "Please, follow me."

She trotted out of the room, signaling for the guards, the Doctor and Octavia to follow.

"As you've probably figured out, this is the future. Or at least your future. I am  Sonata Spin, and I am the daughter of Vinyl Scratch."

"Wait," Octavia interrupted, "how do you know who we are? In fact, how do you know where we are from?"

It would be easy for Sonata to explain. She continued through a metal door and into a book-filled room. To her left was a large shelf from which she levitated a large, old, blue book. He flipped through the pages until she found exactly what she was looking for before she gave it to Octavia to see. She gasped. She recognised this hoof writing. It was her own, with small notes written by Vinyl.

Dear Princess Luna,

Today Vinyl Scratch, the Doctor and I (Octavia) went on a small trip that ended up being quite the doozy...

_______________________________


...and so Princess, Vinyl Scratch and I ended up learning to appreciate other kinds of music, and that just because something conflicts with your interests it does not mean you cannot accept and tolerate it.

-Octavia, and Vinyl Scratch

She closed the book. This was most definitely a letter she would inevitably write to Princess Luna once they got home. It was even signed with her exact signature. There was no doubt about it.

"I trust you." She was obviously telling the truth, and if she really was Vinyl's daughter then they had a chance of getting her back. "Sonata Spin, if you're here now and we end up writing this note, how did we get back to get Vinyl? In the letter it says 'We were eventually able to get the Doctor's machine working.' How did we do it?"

Spin thought for a moment, trying to remember if her mother had ever told her anything about what happened. "No," she said, "sorry, can't help you there. Octavia frowned. "But," continued Sonata, "I recall mom saying something about you two staying here for about three days before rocketing off. Maybe if you stay here you'll figure out how to fix this."

It was disheartening to hear that they would need to wait so long, but the fact that they had a time machine meant it would not matter how long they stayed in the future.

But still, Octavia was disheartened over this disheartening news. How disheartening. The Doctor, silently observing until this point then stepped up to her.

"Don't worry Miss Octavia. I promise you we'll figure this out and go back for Miss Scratch."

"Are you sure?"

"I promise," he whispered.

_______________________________


For the next few days the two of them stayed with Sonata Spin and her family. The Doctor spent most of his time trying to find out what was wrong with the TARDIS while Octavia got to know more about Vinyl's future family.

Sonata was married with one child. Her husband, away on a business trip to Cloudsdale, was a black pegasus whose name Octavia could not seem to remember but found it to be familiar. He was the current chief weather consultant at the Cloudsdale Raincloud Factory.

Her daughter, a mere earth pony foal was named Spring Sprinkles. Octavia never could have imagined Vinyl having a granddaughter if she didn't see it herself.

Sonata herself worked as a music composer, resembling elements of both electronic music and orchestral music. It was the strangest thing Octavia had heard, yet it was beautiful.

It was the end of the third day and still no progress was made on fixing the TARDIS. Octavia and the Doctor sat down at Sonata's family's dinner table. The Doctor was still writing all over a dirty old napkin while muttering something to himself about ducks and bicycles. Octavia absentmindedly poked at the pile of hay sitting on her plate.

Sonata sat down and began eating. She chewed an swallowed a mouthful of hay and said, "I'm sorry you weren't able to figure something out today. Maybe tomorrow you'll think of something. Now eat. After dinner we're going to-"

"THAT'S IT!!!" the Doctor exclaimed, smashing the table. Plates were sent flying before crashing down and shattering. Octavia and Sonata stared in confusion, Sonata being a bit more agitated since he had broken her plates. Spring Sprinkles continued what she was doing, that is to say, she continued to basically eat her hooves.

"When I scanned the TARDIS with my sonic I found a residual leftover magic that wasn't previously in there. Since I'm positive no one else got in, it must have been Vinyl. That explains how she got it to come to us, since I... Um, forgot to tell her what to actually do. Now, since she was left in the past, the fact that we travelled to the far future, that puts us in a different sort of a 'time zone' than her. Her connection, however big or small it is, was cut off. The leftover energy left somewhat of a magical pass code lock. All we need is for her to cast another spell in the TARDIS and the lock will be dispelled!"

Octavia stared at him flatly for a moment before actually responding. "Have you already forgotten that she isn't here. That's hat we're trying to fix."

"Exactly," he quipped, "but we've already saved her. At least, we will. We need Vinyls already saved future self to help. Now Sonata, where is she now?"

She gloomily looked down at the table. It took a few seconds for her to answer.

"She... She isn't... 'With us'..." she stuttered. Octavia gasped. Silence.

"Sonata, I'm so, so sorry," the Doctor apologised.

Sonata quickly recovered and said, "Oh, no no, it's fine really. I'm fine."

The silence continued for a few moments while each of them contemplated. Sprinkles was playing with her mane.

"You know Sonata, there is one way we might be able to fix this," muttered the Doctor.

"Doctor, now's not the time!" Octavia quipped.

Sonata thought otherwise. "It's fine, Octavia," she said. "Continue."

"Well, a friend of mine I met a few weeks ago named Starswirl once told me that each unicorn has their own spell signature, but more often than not that signature is passed down the family tree. It is possible that you have the same spell signature as your mother."

She contemplated for a minute. "I see... I'll do it. Anything to help you two."

"Perfect."

_______________________________


It had been a week since that incident where she fell out of the TARDIS and into the hooves of Crescendo Pianissimo. To her surprise, she had a great time with him. Each day he brought her along to one of his concerts and each night he took her out to dinner. Soon enough she had gained an appreciation for not only classical music, but also for him. At first she complied only to mooch off of the rich stallion, but now she genuinely liked him.

It's an odd line to cross from thinking of somepony as an evil villain to thinking of them as acquaintance of sorts. And maybe even, *le gasp* a friend!

It was another night after one of their dinners and Vinyl was tuckered out. It was time for another night in her new fancy bed. She always exhaled in delight every time she entered the super soft bed in her silk pyjamas. She slowly closed her eyes to the sweet tune of violins. She finally drifted off into dream land when the soft wheezing of the violins-

Wait... Violins don't wheeze.

Scratch jumped from her bed to find out the source of the strange, familiar noise. Of course, though she was still in her bed she was no longer in her room. Now flooding her vision was the soft glow of the TARDIS' centre crystal.

"Welcome back Vinyl Scratch!"

She turned around to look at the source of the voice. Behind her were the Doctor and her good friend Octavia.

All of a sudden; hugs. Hugs everywhere.

Octavia wrapped her forehoooves around Vinyl in a tight embrace. Even the Doctor joined in on the hugsplosion. Vinyl, taken back by the sudden show of affection sat on the bed with a blank look on her face. For a few moments she continued to be confused until her brain caught up with what was going on and she hugged them both back.

"We missed you Vinyl Scratch, we truly did," said Octavia. Her eyes ran with tears of joy.

"I... I missed you guys too," Scratch replied.

The embrace was broken and Vinyl jumped out of her bed and on to the wood floor of the TARDIS. She smiled.

"Octavia, I was back there for a week, and during that time I realised I was wrong about your kind of music. I'm sorry for getting so mad at you. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?"

"Of course dear, but I'm afraid that I too was wrong. It has been three days for me. Not as long as your time, but I found that your music isn't as vulgar and unsophisticated as I previously believed. And I'm also sorry about the whole business with the Gala. Can you forgive me?" The grey cellist smiled back at her.

"Absolutely," she responded. They hugged once more before Vinyl turned to their time travelling friend and announced, "Alright Doc, I'm ready to get back to Ponyville!"

A grin graced his face. "I thought you'd never ask."

_______________________________


The three arrived back in the kitchen of Lyra and Bon Bon's home, exactly where they left from. The clock on the wall showed that they had been gone nearly the whole day, as opposed to a week or three days. As they stepped out of the kitchen their other three friends came through the front door. They all looked pretty exhausted, as if they had been chasing somepony for some reason.

Lyra popped her head up, ceasing her panting. "Oh, hello Doctor. I haven't seen you in a while. Have you been here all day with Vinyl and Octavia? I hope they didn't cause you too much trouble."

He smirked. "You could say that."

After about an hour of the three ponies explaining what had happened that day (or three days, or week), the group decided that they should write their second official letter to Princess Luna.

Dear Princess Luna,

Today Vinyl Scratch, the Doctor and I (Octavia) went on a small trip that ended up being quite the doozy...
> Episode 3-Part 1: The Derpy Conundrum
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The sun hung high in the sky, displaying the time of day to be noon. It had been nearly half a week since a stampede of cows had nearly trampled Ponyville.

A few days before, Lyra had awoken to a loud rumbling accompanied by the shaking of her bed.

_______________________________


After getting up and leaving the house, she could make out the faint outline of something in the distance. A thick cloud of dust kept the unicorn mare from seeing what it really was, but it was definitely a large group.

She stood staring in bewilderment for a few moments before a cyan pegasus named Rainbow Dash flew up and identified it as a stampede. Lyra got to know Rainbow as one of Twilight Sparkle’s friends and the local pony in charge of the weather. She was an interesting one to say the least, but she got the job done. Not even a second after her announcing the mob of cows, ponies were running about like there was no tomorrow (There did end up being a tomorrow). Lyra herself was one of these ponies. Though Ponyville was not exactly the largest of cities, she still had not memorised the locations of all of her friends’ houses, so during the panic she resorted to running back and forth in order to locate her comrades and reassure their safety.

She had passed by Bon Bon in the street a few times, but she seemed to be otherwise occupied, muttering something about 'being late due to the mindless yammering of a certain unicorn keeping her from getting any sleep'. Lyra wondered what that meant. Bon Bon could be so silly sometimes.

Then came a marvelous stroke of luck. "Look there!" called Rainbow Dash, pointing off to one side. As the stampede came ever closer a pony could be seen in the distance. It was hard to see, but it looked to be none other than Ponyville's local apple farmer and current proprietor of Sweet Apple Acres. She was an honest and hardworking pony that nearly everypony in town knew. In fact it was from her apple stand that Bon Bon would buy apples for their breakfast each week.

The stetson wearing pony charged up next to the stampeding cattle. Next to her was a small brown and white dog. Together Lyra could see them successfully herd the cattle, turning them just short of a bridge that lead over a stream and into Ponyville. They steered to the side parallel to the stream before stopping. Ponies slowly stopped their useless panicking. Two of Lyra's friends soon trotted up next to her.  Derpy Hooves and Octavia each smiled and began stomping their hooves to cheer for the heroic cowpony.

"That was amazing." Derpy lept in the air and did a quick flip. "I can't believe she saved Ponyville all by herself."

"Yes, it certainly was interesting," Octavia said.

"It really was. Everypony in Ponyville must know her." Lyra said, "Which reminds me, I barely know anypony or anything about Ponyville. I know I've been living here for just over a week, but I have yet to get an official tour of Ponyville."

Derpy’s face lit with glee. “Oh, oh, I can tour you! I know this place like the back of my hoof!” She lept up, hovering in the air for about half a second before falling flat on her face. She looked up at her two acquaintances with her wall-eyes swirling about. They looked down at the grey pegasus in confusion.

“I... Find that a bit of an overstatement,” Octavia remarked. Lyra was inclined to agree, though she did not express it.

“Why? I’ve lived here as far as I can remember. Trust me, I know every square inch of Ponyville.”

“It’s just that... You don’t seem like one to be the best with directions,” she responded.

“Of course I am! I’m a delivery mare! How else would I get things to the right recipients? I mean, I got Applejack her jewel-encrusted slippers and Rarity her new plow just this morning. I should be able to give somepony a measly little tour, right?”

Wrong.

Octavia stared awkwardly at Derpy, who slowly began to realize her error. The smile she wore turned into a frown. “Oh..." She quickly recovered and said "Well, that's just a minor mix-up, I'll fix it lickety-split!"

She turned around to fix her delivery problem and ran face first into a pole that held up a pink banner. She wobbled slightly to the left and took off, speeding away.

Lyra and Octavia stood there smiling until Derpy got out of sight.

"I should probably tell her that she never gets her deliveries right, shouldn't I?" Lyra asked.

"Absolutely not."

_______________________________


Today, the day Ponyville would hold an award ceremony in honour of Applejack, was also the day that Derpy Hooves was supposedly going to give Lyra her official tour of Ponyville. The unicorn slept soundly in her bed, Bon Bon doing the same in the room opposite of hers. A smile on her face showed that she was having a delightful dream that she never wanted to wake up from.

Tap tap tap.

She groaned and turned over. She sighed. The paradise that was her dream land had been penetrated by reality. Facing her clock she saw that the time did not comply with the time Bon Bon normally forcibly woke her up, and Bon Bon kept to a strict schedule. That meant something was up.

The mare pulled the sheets off of herself and stood up to see what was wrong. The door was closed. She opened it, but Bon Bon was nowhere to be seen. Strange, she thought. Tap tap tap.

The tapping had not come from the bedroom door, but from the other side of the room. She turned around to see Derpy hovering just outside of her window. She tapped and smiled.

Lyra trotted over and opened up the window. "Derpy, what are you doing? It's six in the morning," she asked.

"Well Lyra, if we're going to get through the whole town and have time to go to Applejack's award ceremony, we're going to have to leave right now."

The bags under Lyra's eyes pulled heavily, screaming for her to go back to sleep. "Can't this wait a little longer Derpy?"

"Nnope," she responded. "You need to be up and out that door right now."

The door opened. Though she normally went to get Lyra a bit later on, Bon Bon woke early each morning, and was wide awake. "What is happening he- Oh, Derpy Hooves. What are you doing here? Though I appreciate you waking Lyra for me, I am slightly confused as to why."

Derpy flew inside. "I'm giving Lyra an official tour of Ponyville today, and we need to leave as soon as possible to fit in everything, so I woke her up bright and early." They looked to Lyra, who was fast asleep on the wood floor. Funny thing about floors (especially wooden ones) is that while they are normally uncomfortable to sleep on, the more tired you are the more comfortable they become. It is almost a scientific principle. The wooden floor comfortability factor.

They looked back to each other. "That's a fantastic idea," Bon Bon remarked. "In fact, I think I should come with you two." Derpy agreed with her. The pegasus and earth pony left the room, but returned soon after to retrieve their slumbering friend.

CRASH! BANG! BOOM!

"Sorry, my bad!" came the voice of Derpy Hooves.

"Ouch..." Lyra grumbled.

_______________________________


"...And that was Ponyville General Hospital!" Derpy exclaimed. Instead of thinking of Lyra's small injury as a waste of time, they used it to their advantage by incorperating it into the tour. Lyra now had a black eye and a bandage wrapped around her head. It was a nice hospital, and Doctor Needles seemed like a nice stallion, but her current lack of enthusiasm stemmed from the little incident that morning.

Bon Bon and Derpy happily trotted on either side of her, smiling in delight. The unicorn held her head low to the ground as the walked along the sand path to their next destination. "Bon Bon, the map and list please?" Derpy asked.

"Certainly," she responded. She passed both pieces of paper to Derpy.

"Now let's see..." mumbled the grey pegasus. "We were originally supposed to go from your house to the library and from the library to the quill and sofa store, but we got sidetracked to the hospital, which doesn't leave much time before we go to town hall..." Deep in thought, she failed to notice that she was about to walk straight into a deeply dug ditch. Lyra's eyes widened in alarm. She quickly fired up her magic and levitated a wooden board across. Derpy trotted over it. The bandaged unicorn sighed in relief.

Derpy reached the end of the plank, stepping on it with her hind hoof. The leverage raised the back end and hit a tree. From a part of the tree hanging over Lyra fell a nut. She looked up. "Oh no." A plethora of nuts rained down on her, burying her in a large pile. One last nut dropped down on the mound.

"Aha, I have it!" Derpy exclaimed. "Next stop is the market." Lyra dug herself out only to be snatched up by her pegasus friend. "Come on Lyra," she said, "Stop messing around!"

Ugh, thought Lyra. This is going to be a long day.
> Episode 3-Part 2: Bright Eyes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Derpy Hooves dragged her unicorn companion along with her other friend, Bon Bon trailing behind.The three of them strolled through the market as Derpy pointed out everything there was to see.

"And this is where Carrot Top sells her carrots, and here's where Berry Punch sells her berries and punch, and here's Grassy Greens' stall!" The bubble-wrap-flanked mare was bursting with excitement. Back when they first met she had been quite hesitant and shy, but she had since long opened up to Lyra and the rest. "And that's the whole market!" she announced.

"Well, that was very... Extensive. I think I'll know where to go if I want to buy carrots or 'wibbly wobbly things'," said Lyra, though, as enjoyable as this was, her injuries nearly outweighed the 'fun'. And that was only the market. Just fifty three and a half establishments to go. One would need to ask Derpy where the other half of the final establishment went. Luckily, their next stop was the town hall, which Lyra knew well. It was time for everypony to award Applejack for her spectacular efforts in saving the town.

The three friends trotted into the centre of town, Lyra having lost her bandages long ago, much to her dismay. There a crowd of ponies were gathered, ready for a speech from Twilight Sparkle. Lyra smiled. Soon after the Nightmare Moon incident she was able to speak with her. While she said nothing about the Doctor or their little adventure, she did talk about the new friends she made since she came to Ponyville. Their stories seemed almost similar with Lyra meeting Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Derpy Hooves, Bon Bon and the Doctor, and Twilight meeting Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy. Such an odd occurrence could only be explained as a coincidence.

On the stage the lavender unicorn could be seen preparing a large stack of cards, presumably with a speech written on them. 'Large' being an understatement. A severe understatement.

"Pssst," came the voice of a stallion. Behind her was the Doctor. Derpy was standing a mere few feet away and Bon Bon was nowhere to be seen. Lyra turned to the Doctor.

"Oh, hello Doctor. Have you come to see the award ceremony?" asked Lyra. She shifted her eyes to keep tabs on Derpy and see if she could find her roommate in the crowd, but they had both gotten lost amidst the mass of ponies.

"Actually," he started, "I just saw a big crowd of ponies and thought that it would be good to investigate. You never know when a crowd can turn into an angry mob or become Blood Beasts of Big Bismuth. Not to be confused with Lactose Leaches of Little Lismuth."

What? thought Lyra.

As interesting and fun as the Doctor was, being able to understand even a quarter of the things he said would be a miracle. Hesitating for a moment, she asked, "Erm... So Doctor, what have you been up to since we last saw you?"

"Oh you know, running away, barging around, the usual. And you, Miss Heartstrings?" he replied.

"I've been getting used to Ponyville lately. In fact, Derpy Hooves is giving me a proper tour right now."

"Ooo, sounds interesting. I'll have to ask for a tour some time."

"Actually," Lyra said, "It's not as fun as it-"

"Did somepony say my name?" came a voice from above. Derpy herself was hovering just above them. A "gak!" came from both ponies on the ground and the pegasus floated downwards. "Hi Doctor! How are you doing?"

He smiled. "Oh, I'm fantastic. I heard you were giving Miss Heartstrings here a-"

"IT'S FINE!" the nervous unicorn interrupted. "You don't need to talk about that. It's um... So, nice weather we've been having. The pegasi have really outdone themselves today, haven't they?" Derpy and the Doctor both blinked. She was getting nervous now. She really did not want the Doctor to go on a tour with Derpy. It was for his own well being that they changed the subject.

But the two went right back to their conversation. "Anyways, I heard you were her a tour. Would it be alright if I tagged along with you?"

Say no, Lyra thought.

"Oh that would be absolutely wonderful!" Derpy responded.

Darn! Now the Doctor will have to suffer too.

"This is going to be fun, isn't it Lyra?" the Doctor asked her.

NO! she  wanted to scream, but "Yes," she replied.

Derpy looked at her with her out of place eyes and so did the Doctor. "Is something wrong? Why do you look so nervous, Lyra?" she asked.

"Because it's painful to be around you!" she screamed. Other than her two friends, nopony else heard her because her outburst was covered by that of another pony. On stage a timid yellow pegasus was cringing away as Twilight Sparkle yelled, looking at the audience.

"Anyone else?!...Anyone?!"

A cough came from the Doctor. Not because of the awkward silence that was a response to the pony on stage, but because of the awkward silence that now hung in the air between Lyra and Derpy. Paying no attention to the lavender unicorn, but to the mint coloured one facing her, Derpy Hooves' wall-eyes began to water. "W-what did you say?" she asked, her voice lowering to a mere whimper. Lyra's emotions fell from excited-nervousness to apologetic in ten seconds flat.

"Derpy, I'm-" she tried to say, but it was too late. Derpy was shoving her way through the crowd of ponies, tears now pouring out. Lyra tried to go after her, but the path was blocked off. She lowered her head. The Doctor trotted up beside her.

"What was that?" he asked.

"It's- I..." She sighed. There was nothing to say about it. She pretty much just flat out insulted one of her friends. Her words echoed in her mind. It's painful to be around you! Painful. Pain. That's all she felt. Her heart felt like it was just torn in two and thrown to the dogs. She imagined how Derpy must be feeling. Probably even worse; and angry too, she thought. The weight of her guilt dragged her down like tar as she tried to lift herself up. It seemed as if the world was darkening around her as she strode away from the crowd.





The yellow-maned pegasus’ stride began to slow, though her tears continued to flow like the rivers that flowed past Ponyville. With her head held low as an insect to the earth, she cantered in the direction of her home on the edge of town. The streets were empty, which made sense since everypony was back at the celebration for Applejack. But none of that really mattered to the grey filly. She thought back to what Lyra had said. it's painful to be around you!

It was not the meanest of insults; and it was not meant to be, but this particular line hit home with Derpy Hooves. It was a phrase that had followed her wherever she went, repeated by a lot of ponies she had met in her life. It was the one phrase that could shatter the wide smile she normally and pierce the centre of her heart.

Her downtrodden expression became even more apparent as she reached her home near the edge of Ponyville; a giant, light storm cloud. The thing was a leftover from the biggest storm of the season they had a few years back. Derpy had just moved to Ponyville at the time and was in dire need of a home. After making her first friend with whom she took shelter, she was able to make use of a defective storm cloud. It was not as dark a grey as regular storm clouds and did not spew rain or throw bolts of lightning. It simply sat in one place and just... was.

But the inside- The inside of her home did not match the outside. On the inside it seemed like a regular old house. Wooden walls and floor, a few furnishings, some lovely decorations here and there. It was as if someone had taken someone’s home and wrapped it in a grey fluffy coating. Even more perplexing was the two stories that somehow managed to get themselves stuck inside the cloud. It truly was an odd feat.

SLAM. The pegasus shut the cloud door with such force that a framed photo hanging just next to the door nearly fell off its hook. If it wasn't obvious the storm cloud was inactive, a pony might have thought they heard thunder coming from the floating cloud home. Speeding up the stairs and into her bedroom, memories of a life lost to ridicule and loneliness flooding back to her. The injuries returned to her at the thought of the insults ponies had pelted her with. What Lyra had said was not even relevant to her troubles anymore, but the memories it carried with it were what caused Derpy her pain.





"What's wrong with your eyes?" a small pink filly asked her.

"Are you diseased?" said an older mare.

"Hahahaha!" Two bullies laughed at her expense.

"What's wrong with you? You could have killed me!"

"No wonder she can't fly straight!"

"Good going, bright eyes!"

"Bright Eyes!"

DING!






DING!

She gasped, her head lifting up off her small bed. The pillow upon which she set her face had been stained with tears from the previous day. It was a stain she knew quite well. One that showed her treacherous past, a past that she needed to leave behind but could not. Every once in awhile she would wake up and be greeted by her pillow, drenched in the tears of her past.

DING!

The sound came from downstairs. Evidently, the ringing of the doorbell would not cease until she answered the door. Her head still throbbing for a night of despair, she trotted out of the bedroom and down the staircase to answer the strange ringing. It was strange because not only was Derpy's house floating, but she did not have a doorbell. In fact, there was a lack of bells on her house of any kind, making the sound of one quite impossible.

The door creaked open. Now ringing in her face was a small bell surrounded by a greenish aura. As soon as Derpy jumped back in surprise, the bell floated to the ground; towards a unicorn. Lyra stood below the cloud home, her room mate Bon Bon standing next to her.

“Derpy!” she called, “I need to talk to you!”

The pegasus was curious, though still quite broken up over yesterdays situation. She stayed in the frame of her clouds door, obviously still quite broken up over the previous days situation. “Why?” she answered back. Her voice cracked and wavered slightly.

“It’s about yesterday! I... I need to apologize!”

“O- okay. I’m coming down.”
> Episode 3-Part 3: An Eye For an Eye
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The day before, Lyra left the ceremony to head for Sugarcube Corner. Surely a milkshake and a few cupcakes would make her feel better, right? She could even pick something up to give to Derpy when they meet for her inevitable apology. The unicorn's head drooped and her ears flopped downwards while she walked toward the gingerbread building. The door gave off a shrill squeak when she pushed it open, alerting those inside. There weren't very many ponies in the establishment, but a few had already returned and were already either working, or eating sweets.

She trotted past a blue colt and up to the counter where she proceeded to plant her face  before letting her hind legs give out, leaving her with the appearance of a ragdoll falling off a little filly's shelf.

"Hey Lyra!" came a voice from in front of her. She did not bother to loook up, but from the oh-so-happy tone, it could be none other than resident party pony, Pinkie Pie. "What's got you so glum, chum?"

The only thing that could be heard as a response was a muffled complaint and a whimper.

"Aw, don't be such a saddy-waddy! Why don't I get you something on the house? How does that sound?"

As long as the mares face remained on the countertop, more mumbles would be the only thing that anypony would hear from her. As Pinkie danced her way into the back room, the door squeaked open to make way for somepony. Not just anypony walked in, but a pony that was searching specifically for Lyra.

"There you are Lyra, I've been looking all over for you. Why did you leave?"

Bon Bon

The candy-maned earth pony trotted up next to her downtrodden roommate and placed a comforting hoof on her back. "Are you sad? I can't quite tell, but I think you're sad."

You don't say? Lyra tried to respond, but the counter blocked her attempt to communicate and replaced the sarcastic message with; "Mphm mmh hm."

"So... Is that a no?" Bon Bon asked.

Her roommate groaned while lifting her now pretty flat face off of the glass counter. Her brows furrowed in the middle, showcasing her grumpiness to the oblivious Bon Bon. Pinkie Pie jumped through the kitchen doors, a green tray following suit, bouncing on her fluffy pink mane. On top of the tray swayed a pink-frosted cake with a tall strawberry milkshake frothing over and onto the tray.

“Here ya go! Now cheer up, Applejack is helping me bake tomorrow, and we’re going to be giving out free samples to everypony!” said Pinkie before turning her head to face Bon Bon. “Oh, hey Bon, you’re not coming in tomorrow, are you?”

Bon Bon shook her head. “No, Pinkie, It seems that Lyra is sad, and as her friend it is my job to cheer her up in some way.” She forced a smiled while putting a hoof on Lyra’s back. Her face once again slammed against the countertop. The two co workers stared. “This may take longer than a week.” The pink pony grinned in understanding while returning to the back room. Bon Bon looked down at Lyra.

“Why are you sad, Lyra?” she asked. A more direct approach than normal, but it was effective in getting an answer.

“I mistakenly insulted Derpy and she ran away,” Lyra quickly explained in a monotone voice.

Bon Bon, having lived in Ponyville all her life, knew Derpy fairly well, as did most of the town and knew about most things ponies insulted the wall-eyed mare for, and knew exactly where all her problems stemmed from. She frowned, though Lyra who was solemnly slurping on her milkshake did not see. “Lyra, I’d like to tell you a story, and I’d like you to listen carefully to what I say. It should shine some light on the situation,” she said. Lyra did and said nothing.





Now, where should I begin? Well, when Derpy Hooves came to Ponyville, she was actually liked greatly. In fact, she was one of the most fun ponies that anypony had ever met. Everypony in Ponyville knew her as one of the fastest delivery mares ever seen. But one day, that all ended. Derpy was on another delivery, same as always, on an unusual route that led her from Ponyville to Cloudsdale to Canterlot and back. Not too soon after leaving Cloudsdale did the accident happen. She was speeding between clouds and past birds, easily dodging each obstacle in her delivery path. It came as a blur. Almost like a rainbow zooming straight through the air. She was able to narrowly dodge it but was unable to keep herself from a headon collision with an apple tree. When she returned to Ponyville she was unable to fly in a straight line, though, nothing else seemed to be wrong. It was the eyes that were the problem. Everypony in town made fun of her from then on.





“And how is this supposed to make me feel better again?” Lyra asked. Now lining the counter were three new milkshake glasses in addition to her first one, all empty. Three plates were stacked up on one another with nothing on them. Lyra tossed one more small bit of cake into her muzzle which was covered in nearly three layers of cake frosting.

“Oh, um...” Bon Bon began, “It was just a small history lesson. For the record, did it help?”

Lyra groaned in response and angrily trotted off, stomping her way out the bakery doors and into the ow filled streets. Bon Bon quickly left the establishment to find and follow Lyra, but found it a harder task than was expected due to the now numerous ponies. The unicorn mumbled something to herself that was too quiet for anypony other than herself to hear while pushing and shoving her way through the crowd. She wanted to just get back home and lock herself in her room until everything smoothed itself out in about one hundred and fifty three days.

She kicked a small pebble that lay on the street out of her path, sending in flying to the side of the street. As was normal with insignificant pebbles, it simply had to be important. Had the pebble been a sentient being, its actions, though remaining the same, would be controlled by its own will. But no, it did exactly what it did without any choice in the matter.

The pebble found its way into the axle of an apple sales cart, a red stallion with a bandage wrapped around his chest currently stationed at it. Being ready to go home for the night, he tried to push the cart towards his family’s farm. It was the pebble’s time to shine. The axle it had jammed itself into stopped. He pushed harder. The wheel chose not to budge. Mustering all the strength he could with his current injury, he shoved the cart, causing the wheel to come flying off. The wheel glided through the air and into a sign for the local Wagon & Wheels Emporium, which itself fell onto a wooden plank that was precariously balanced atop yet another wheel. A barrel on the other end of the plank was sent barreling through the air.

CRASH!

Lyra did not know this, but by kicking the pebble out of her way, she caused a chain reaction of untrustable wheels that ended in her being hit by a barrel that sent her barreling through the streets of Ponyville and into the wall of her own house.





The next morning, Lyra found herself in immense pain. She slowly opened her eyes to a bright light. The window was open and Celestia’s sun was shining through it. She was in her room. Next to her stood Bon Bon. She smiled.

“Good morning Lyra. I trust you had a delightful rest.”

“Ugh... My head. What happened yesterday?” she asked her happy roommate.

“I don’t know. After you left Sugarcube Corner I couldn’t find you. I returned home to find you surrounded by wood bits lying in my rose garden.”

That explained the scratches. Then her memory of the day previous returned to her. She kicked a rock and was assaulted by a barrel. Dumb barrel, she thought. Dumb rock. Just my luck to have this happen-

That was it. It was just her luck. Nothing that happened yesterday was Derpy’s fault. She felt bad before because she felt she was just adding flames to the already burning fire, but her revelation this morning showed otherwise. Lyra was wrong, and she had to fix it. She had to fix everything.





A light breeze that danced between the leaves of the trees in the surrounding area the sounds of birds chirping added to the delicate atmosphere of the situation.  Lyra's amber eyes beamed directly at Derpy's, a frown gracing her face. Her roommate nervously looked up and eagerly awaited the pegasus.

She fluttered down with downtrodden eyes that chose not to meet Lyra's own. When she touched down there was an intense silence that lingered for a slight moment. Derpy scratched at the ground with her hoof.

Lyra sighed. "Derpy... Look, I'm very sorry for what happened. I really didn't mean what I said. It was just getting to be a bad day for me. Whenever something bad happened to me, I- I blamed it on you. That was wrong of me. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?"

Another moment of silence. It seemed as if her apology would never be accepted and she would soon be losing one of her best friends since she came to Ponyville. As she began turning to leave for home, two hooves wrapped around her. Derpy leaned sullenly over her shoulder with tears dripping from her mismatched eyes. "Lyra... Thank you."

The mint unicorn returned the tight embrace with teary eyes. The moment held for nearly half a minute before they broke apart; both mares eyes shone to be filled with tears. Bon Bon, who had merely been watching finally cracked under the raw emotion.

"BWAAAAAAAAAH!" She bawled. "It's jus-just so touchiiiiing!" The tears streamed out like surging waterfalls while her friends stared at her. "I don't usually get this emotional, but that was b-beautifuuuuuuuullllll!"

Lyra and Derpy both smiled, their smiles leading to chuckles, and soon enough became full blown laughter. Derpy put her right hoof around Lyra to keep herself from falling to the ground.

"Hey, Derpy, would you like to go to Sugarcube Corner? I hear Pinkie Pie and Applejack are giving away free samples. Muffins, I think."

"Muuuufiiiins! I'm in, let's go!"





Dear Princess Luna,

Today Derpy and I went on a grand adventure. Not an adventure to far off lands or scary forests. No, this was an adventure of the heart, an adventure of the soul...
> Episode 4-Part 1: It's That Time (Turner) Again
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Doctor was not exactly sure what had occurred those few weeks ago between Lyra Heartstrings and Derpy Hooves, but whatever the problem was, the two filly friends were able to solve it within two days. The Doctor had always been fond of humans, and now these ponies were beginning to grow on him as well. Though the two races had their obvious physical and psychological differences, their ability to love --though substantially greater in ponies-- remained their greatest ability. It was apparent to him why this was, and the thought almost always made him smile.
 
As these thoughts wove their way into his complicated alien mind, a new thought began to arise. The thought wrestled its way past thoughts of ponies, magic, and that one really good rope, and made its way to the front of his mind. What was normally a small thought had found itself gradually growing until finally-
 
GROOOOWWLLLLL
 
“Oh?” He looked down. Brown waves rippled along his pony stomach accompanied by another loud growl. He almost doubled over in pain when he felt an emptiness fill his entire body. It appeared he was hungry.
 
It had been a while since the stallion had eaten his last meal, and a small --or big--  altercation with the Royal Guards had caused him to nearly forget about his basic need for food. In fact, his experience with Equestrian food was quite interesting. Not too long after the Nightmare Moon incident, he found himself interrupting a celebration for a holiday called Hearths Warming. He ended up learning more about the food rather than anything about the holiday itself. He knew that equines such as ponies were herbivorous in nature, but he thought there would be at least some form of nourishment other than vegetables. Much to his delight, he was right. Not only did they eat vegetables, but also baked goods and sweets which he enjoyed very, very much. Not so much the stomach ache afterwards or the “being-chased-for-stealing-and-eating-all-of-our-food”, but he at least found a decent meal.
 
His next meal about half a day later consisted of him thinking he was going to starve to death. He was collapsed on the ground just outside Lyra and Bon Bon’s house when he spied a group of roses huddled together in front of him. Desperate, he decided that the only possible way for him to ‘survive’ was to eat the plants. Making sure not to eat any thorns, he bit the rose red petals off of their slender stems. Apparently his new pony form caused his appetite to change accordingly, even if that meant finding plants such as these delicious. What a shame it was to find out that those roses belonged to Bon Bon. He was scolded severely not too long afterward.
 
By now he was used to Equestrian cuisine and was familiar with all of the local eateries in Ponyville. Stomach continuing to growl, he made his way to his favourite place of all to eat: Sugarcube Corner.
 
As he happily trotted away from his current location --the meadowy fields on the edge of town-- he began wondering what food he should have today. There were so many delicious things that he could eat, but he could not possibly have them all. Maybe lemon meringue pie, or maybe a delicious three layered chocolate cake, or cupcakes, or muffins, or-
 
His stomach growled again. Maybe thinking about food while hungry was not such a good idea. He continued to make his way through town, the trip being quite short since he was able to memorise every knook and cranny with ease. The eidetic memory he now had was so perfect that he could probably take a stroll through Ponyville with his eyes closed, maybe even
 backwards too. Finally, he arrived at his destination. The infamous sweet shop that was soon to fill his stomach with the most delectable of treats.
 
The gingerbread building seemed to loom over him, inviting him to enter and gobble up all of its contents. His eyes scanned the bakery. The Doctor had always pondered on its architecture. Was it merely a design choice, or was the building made out of actual edible food? If it was, then how was it able to survive extreme weather conditions? Maybe he would ask one of the owners, or Bon Bon, since she also worked there sometimes. Every day that he was there he would think these things, and each time he would forget everything due to the pure bliss of eating the food. Some people (ponies) thought he enjoyed the sweets more than he should, but he really did not care. He felt like he had two stomachs instead of two hearts.

As the stallion pushed open the wooden door his nostrils were filled with the tantalizing aroma of red velvet cupcakes that were currently being cooked in the back. It was as if his whooves were lifted off the ground, his nose leading him through the room that he knew all too well, following the luscious scent until  he reached the front counter of the store, where he lightly dropped.
 
Nopony stood at the counter, but a small golden bell revealed itself at the corner of his vision. Looking around to see where the employees were and called out, "Hello? Is anyone here?" No response came. In fact, the entire building was eerily empty. Not a pony in sight, at least, for the moment. He decided that now was the proper time to ring the bell, having already done all he could for the moment. If nopony answered the bell, then something had to be wrong. He tapped the bell four times, letting it ring for a moment. He rang it again. No answer. The Doctor looked around. He stepped towards the open end of the countertop to check the back. Maybe-
 



 
Not too far outside of the building, a few ponies were already setting up shops for the market, their goods being levitated or rolled in giant wheeled crates to be bought at a high price. Derpy Hooves, the wall-eyed pegasus was already trotting up to one of these stands, not to sell goods, but to buy them. Behind a cart another pegasus fluttered down. The pale persian blue mare put up a smile when she saw Derpy.
 
“Welcome, Derpy Hooves, what are you buying?” queried the mare, expecting her to reply that she would be getting celery, as per usual.
 
"Oh, good morning Cloud Kicker," said Derpy, "I just need a few eggs. I'm baking pies tonight!"
 
"I see, what's the occasion?" Cloud was already beginning to place a few brown coloured eggs into a paper bag.
 
Grabbing the bag that was handed (hoofed?) to her by the produce vendor, she opened her saddlebags and placed it inside. "I just feel like baking pies today. Maybe I'll invite my friends over to eat them. Anyway, thanks for the eggs."
 
"You're welcome Derpy, and don't worry about paying, it's on the house."
 
"Thanks Cloud K-"
 
"Yo, Derpy!" came a familiar voice from behind her. Turning around, she saw her cobalt maned DJ friend cantering over to her with her signature glasses on and a wide smile gracing her white face. A ray of light that reflected off her cool shades shone into Derpy's eyes, causing her to raise a hoof to blot out the beam.

"Hey," began Vinyl Scratch, "how's it hanging? I haven't seen you in a while."

"Hello Vinyl, I'm just picking up some ingredients for pies," Derpy replied.

Her unicorn filly friend trotted up beside her, leaning on the wooden produce stand. "That's cool," she said. "Do you mind if I hang out with you today? I could go for some pies." She raised her sunglasses for a moment and magicked an apple from the stand, replacing it with two bits as proper payment, much to Cloud's pleasure. She took a generous bite from the apple and began to chew.

Then Derpy leapt up, a metaphorical lightbulb appearing above her head. "Oh! I have an idea! Why don't I invite all of you to my house for pies! Oooo, it'll be so much fun!"

But while Derpy was explaining her idea, Vinyl was busy spitting out her small red snack. She quickly turned to Cloud Kicker and whispered, "This stuff ain't fresh dude." The salesmare shrugged. Derpy took no notice of the altercation behind her as she continued to ramble on about her plan for dinner that night.

A girly shriek sounded off from not too far away, the source being Sugarcube Corner; that meant the shriek could have come from Mrs. Cake, Pinkie Pie, or maybe even Bon Bon. A disaster could be occurring within the little sweet shop, and it somepony needed to help.

Vinyl Scratch and Derpy Hooves (who had suddenly ceased her babbling to take notice of what sounded like a small filly) both turned their heads it immediate shock.

"Come on Derpy," Vinyl beckoned, lowering her glasses over her face, "we've gotta check this out!" The radical DJ raced to whatever awaited them inside, her pegasus friend zig-zagging closely behind.




 
"HELLO!"
 
"Eeeeeeeeek!"
 
The brown colt toppled over as a springy pink earth pony suddenly appeared out from inside the golden bell that he rang. The mare stepped out of the impossibly small space that she was hiding in and onto the floor.
 
“Whoops, sorry,” she apologized quickly, “I didn’t mean to scare you, Mr. Stallion-that-won't-tell-me-his-name.”

The Doctor found it a bit annoying that Pinkie continued insisting in calling him that, even though he had told her time and again that his name was the Doctor. This happened on a constant basis, and she never cared to listen when he told her. Maybe the name wasn't pony enough. Considering the way these ponies were named something like the Doctor did not seem all that out of place.

"I keep telling you Miss Pie, I'm-" He thought about his words for a moment, looking upwards. "You know what, I'll tell you my name. I'm Time Turner! Nice to meet you!" He yelled that last part in a fit of anger.

The bubbly pink pony blinked a bit before bursting out with excitement. "Yipeeee! You told me your name! Now we can be very best friends and I can throw you a party and I can call you by your name and-"

SLAM! The door at the front of Sugarcube Corner burst open, a white unicorn tumbled in and a grey pegasus sped in, flying just over Pinkie and the Doctor's heads before crashing into a wall, precisely in between two overly expensive paintings of various baked goods. Unfortunately, the crash also caused the wall to shake vigorously, causing both paintings to fall off and shatter cartoonishly upon impact with the floor. Which was odd, because the frames were shatter proof and the paintings themselves were on paper.

Before either the Doctor or Pinkie Pie could move to lend a hoof, the two intruders (though more like visitors since the store was open anyway) lept up on either side demanding to know what was going on.

"Alright, who was it that was attacking some little filly, because I'm ready to drop some bass on your flank!" Vinyl yelled. She was balanced on one of her hind hooves, the other three raised in some sort of weird karate stance.

"Yeah, and where's that little girl that was screaming too?" Derpy on the other hand was staggering about trying to regain her balance after her little accident, her golden eyes spinning around inside her head.  The dent in the wall only served as further evidence that it simply had to hurt. A lot.

Shock overtook the Doctor as he pondered on what they meant by little girl. The only scream he heard was his own deep and manly-

"That wasn't a filly, that was Time Turner here!" a certain pink mare that certainly wasn't helping stated.

A moment of silence passed. Everypony in the room was utterly confused.

Vinyl, still mid-karate pose, spoke. "Who?" Derpy had decided to take a seat and scratch her head, wondering the exact same thing.

Pinkie wrapped a foreleg around the Doctor's neck and pointed at him with a smile. "You know, Time Turner. The brown colt you girls always hang around with that always comes in here. The one standing right here."

There was silence once again, though this round do not last as long as its predecessor. It quickly died when laughter exploded from both of the confused friends.

It was not because of the name the Doctor was given, oh no. Time Turner was a perfectly fine pony name for him. A perfect pseudonym to give to passers by should he choose to. The hilarious thing about the situation was that the girly shriek the pair had heard outside permeated from the Doctor himself.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHA! AHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! THAT WAS YOU!? Hahahahaha! Wow Doc, that sure is some scream you got there! Hehehe!" Vinyl could not contain herself, dropping down and rolling on the floor and laughing her brains out. Or DDAROTFALHBO for short. It was almost surprising she could stay focused enough to levitate her glasses off and wipe the joyous tears out of her eyes with a nearby napkin.

"Hush you," said an annoyed and blushing Doctor. "It was just a voice crack, I was just a little horse." He giggled I himself at the joke he had made, but put back his serious face in order to beam at Vinyl, still laughing on the floor. Derpy was giggling herself, trying to restrain going into a full blown laugh by raising a hoof to her mouth hen she realised something.

"Oh no, I forgot the eggs outside. Can you two go and tell our friends to come to my place for dinner? Please and thank you!"

The pegasus dashed out the door and back to Cloud Kicker's produce stand. Luckily for her Cloud was more than happy to keep the pie ingredients safe for her while she sorted out whatever needed to be sorted out. Derpy quickly thanked her before beginning to canter home.

"Wait, Derpy!" It was Pinkie Pie. "Have you seen Rainbow Dash? I can't find her anywhere."

"No, I haven't, why?"

"Oh, no reason, I just have a little something in mind for her."
> Episode 4-Part 2: Flu Season
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

		"How exciting!" remarked the brown hourglass-flanked stallion, "I've yet to actually stay for dinner at someone's actual house in Equestria. Homes are normally so boring, but this! A house inside of a thunder cloud! Are you all excited? Because I'm excited! I've never been so excited before, except that one time with the rope..."

He continued to ramble on about how he'd never been in a cloud home before, though, admittedly, none of the others had either, since Derpy was the only pegasus in their small group of friends. Octavia herself was interested in the visit, being an earth pony and all; her cloud-walking skills were non-existent. Since Derpy's home was (somehow) lined with wood and stone, everypony could enter without falling out underneath.

With Lyra and Bon Bon trailing behind, and Vinyl Scratch already inside, Octavia simply walked in silence, listening to the insane ramblings of a certain brown somepony that was currently bouncing up and down in delight as he went on about a time he went to a city with a name that sounded like he mispronounced Mexicolt. There was something about the colt's ecstatic personallity that intrigued Octavia. There was just something to his craziness that just made him so likable. He was so daring, and trustworthy, and-

A blush came across her face. He is a magnificent friend, indeed, Octavia thought, ducking her head to hide her rose stained face. Her strange actions came unseen to the group. Good.

The four ponies finally arrived under a large shapeless shadow. The rumbling of thunder emanated from above, though no thunderstruck. Above them calmly floated a rather small looking storm cloud, though it was not exactly as active as it should be.

"Derpy Hooves' house," read Bon Bon. A small wooden sign hung below a singed mailbox. The earth pony looked up. The cloud home was supposedly inactive, but she had other thoughts. Below swung a small silver bell, one that Lyra had left during their last visit to the wall-eyed mare's home. Ponies normally did not visit Derpy on a regular basis, but recent events had changed that. Derpy and Lyra agreed to leave the silver bell as a way to alert her of visitors, along with other reasons...

Bon Bon picked the object up between her teeth, and did her best to swing her head back and forth, ringing the bell as hard as she could before setting it back down.

A moment passed, the Doctor continuing his chatter to nopony in particular, and a ladder consisting of wood and rope dropped down from above. It was a good thing it had, because by hitting the Doctor on the head, his rambling was ceased. He looked up. A grey blur zipped out from the door above and came down to apologize.

"Oooo, I'm so sorry. Please don't be mad!"

He smiled. "Ah, don't worry Ms. Hooves. Not a problem at all." The Doctor happily patted her on the back before reaching up and beginning to climb the ladder. He seemed like such a gentleman.

Before falling back to the ground. Funny thing; he had never actually climbed a ladder as a pony yet. It was surprising at how little ladders were needed in an everyday basis. That was probably the advantage of being a unicorn or pegasus. Derpy looked down at him and frowned. Shaking her head, she quickly snatched him up and brought him to the entrance, the rest of the group laughing themselves silly while climbing up the rope ladder. Without falling.





The rest of the night proceeded as planned. The group explored the remarkable interior of Derpy's cloud home while she baked some deliciously fantabulous pies. The Doctor, of course, could not get over the fact that there was, in fact, an actual house inside a cloud. It was very possible that Derpy had become his new favourite pony.

Vinyl Scratch levitated a plate away from her face, finally managing to rid its surface of every last crumb from her meal. She fell onto her back, stomach bulging and slid her signature purple sunglasses onto her face. She sighed.

"That was awesome Derpy, one of the best pies I ever had," she said.

Octavia raised a napkin-covered hoof to her mouth, and said, "Yes, it was a truly delicious meal."

The host, Derpy, returned with a smile of her own. She quickly zipped to each pony and nabbed their plates and utensils for cleaning. "Thank you so much everypony, it's made with my great great great great great-"

"We get the point, dear," Octavia interrupted.

Derpy giggled. "Sorry. Anyways, my great grandmother's special recipe."

The Doctor could tell just how special the recipe was. That was because he had eaten about four or five entire pies, most of which layered his face while he chewed the last of his meal. "Well that recipe must have some fantastic ingredients, because those pies were  amazing!" he said. Finally, his hunger had been satisfied. But for some reason, his stomach still ached terribly. It was probably from eating so many pies, but something was... Odd.

A gurgling noise was heard, and his stomach shook.

"Oh?"

Everypony turned their heads, quizzical looks appearing on their faces.

He fell to the ground.

THUD

CRASH

"Doctor!"

His eyes shut, the world fading to black around him.





The five filly friends gasped as the sixth member of their group toppled to the floor.

"Doctor!" screamed Derpy. She leapt into the air and gave her wings a single flap to get her to the other side of the room. A single bead of sweat rolled down her forehead, a worried frown quickly growing on her face. The rest of the group quickly made their way to the Doctor, who was being cradled in the arms of their pegasus friend. As strange as he was, it was not likely that he'd simply fall asleep without waking up of his own free will. Something was most definitely wrong.

Bon Bon shoved Derpy away. "Stand back," she instructed, blowing a stray strand of hair out of her face. "Lyra, levitate him onto the table." Lyra did so, also opting to move a few leftover pie tins. Bon Bon herself went around the house and gathered a few items that she had noticed here and there. A cup, a flashlight, a glass bowl, and a clock that she got Lyra to levitate from the wall.

"What are you going to do, Bon?" she asked.

No response.

Hurriedly, she placed the cup over his chest. She put her ear against the closed end and listened closely.

Thump thump thump thump.

Strange, how was his heart beating so irregularly? Wait...

She moved the cup over to the other side. Impossible... Her friends were well aware of her shocked expression, though said nothing as she placed both hooves on either side of his chest.

Impossible!

His heart beat... He had two hearts! Bon Bon thought it to be impossible, regardless of the fact that he was an alien. Alien or not, he'd turned into a pony. Surely his inner physiology should be the same, right?

It didn't matter yet, as long as she knew he was alive. She continued with her diagnosis, checking his breathing and his eye movement.

In the end, everything other than his heart beat, which she did not reveal to her friends. It was something she'd have to figure out herself. "I have good news and bad news." Octavia, Lyra, and Derpy all crowded around the table.

"Give it to us straight, doc. Is he gonna make it?" Vinyl grasped at her hooves, to which Bon Bon recoiled.

"He's fine, he's just in a coma. Now get off me." She shook Vinyl Scratch off of herself and stepped back. "But he's in a coma. There's no telling when he could wake up." The ponies all let out a sigh of relief, Lyra trotting towards her.

"So, we should take him to a doctor, right?" she asked.

"No."

"What?" Lyra asked. She stumbled back a bit and raised an eyebrow. "He needs medical attention, and none of us have a special talent in that area."

Bon Bon shook her head. "Think about it Lyra. What happens when he wakes up, he'll be spouting off nonsense of him being a time travelling alien in a little blue box that's bigger on the inside that turned into a pony when he died.

"Upon hearing a story like that, any self-respecting pony would have him locked up in the loony bin for good. Would you want that to happen? No, we have to go somewhere else. In my opinion... I think we should go to the Princess."

Everypony in the room gasped. "Princess Celestia!?" Vinyl asked loudly, to which Bon Bon shook her head.

"No, Princess Celestia doesn't know who we are. I'm proposing we go to Princess Luna." Luna had to know something about the Doctor. As Nightmare Moon she acted as though the two had fought before, and when she was changed back to Luna she indicated that the two had been allies at some point. Bringing the Doctor straight to her would be in everypony's best interest.

"But how will we do that?" Octavia asked. "One does not simply waltz into the Canterlot Castle, and we have no idea what would happen should we take the time to try getting permission."

"We could try using Doctor's Tardy-thingy," Derpy suggested, hovering above.

Vinyl immediately interjected, and everypony turned to face her. "Can't do that. I tried using it with magic: didn't work out too well." She lifted her glasses and looked towards Octavia, who glanced back before turning her eyes towards the unconscious Doctor.

There was no possible way they'd be able to get into the castle to talk to Luna; the guards certainly wouldn't allow it. There had to be some other way.

"I have an idea."

Derpy Hooves touched down and folded in her wings. Her eyes rolled around as everypony turned to listen to what she had planned. "Well," she began with a hint of hesitation, while lowering her head a bit, "it's not so much of a complicated plan sort of idea, but it's still an idea. You girls all know the special mail pony the Princess sent just for us to deliver the letters?"

The mares all stood still, blinking and shuffling in place.

Derpy half closed her eyes and frowned, staring intently at the four of them. "You know, Forthwith?"

Nothing.

"Who do you think delivers the letters."

They all blinked, saying nothing. Vinyl raised her hoof. "I always thought they delivered themselves. You know, with magic."

Derpy sighed. "I'm just going to continue then. I bring the letters to Forthwith, who brings them to Canterlot. I'm sort of his friend now, so maybe I can get him to help us get into the castle." She smiled.

It was the perfect plan.





"Derpy, dear, as well as this plan is going, I'm not a very big fan of it."

Octavia's speach was severely muffled by an elbow being shoved into her face. Lyra shifted slightly, causing said elbow to make Octavia's situation even worse. Derpy herself had a leg outstretched, perpetually kicking Vinyl Scratch in the flank every five seconds.

"Trust me, it's a good plan. Right, Forthwith!?" Derpy yelled out. Two taps came to the side of the wood crate that contained the six ponies. "Besides, what could possibly go wrong?"





Two pure white pegasus stallions clad in gold plated armour outstretched their wings, keeping a blue mail-pegasus from entering a side door.

"Halt, who goes there?"

Forthwith rolled his eyes and sighed, leaning on a curiously large box that he needed to deliver. "We go through this every time I come here."

"Name and purpose."

"Really?"

"Name and purpose."

He sighed again. "My name is Forthwith and I'm delivering mail. As always," he droned.

"What's in the box?" the deep-voiced guard on the left asked.

"It's a cake."

The large pegasus raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, you haven't heard? It's Princess Luna's birthday." He smirked. "It would be a shame if the Princess were to not receive her cake because the guards stopped it from entering the castle." Each of the sentries began to lower their wings, frowning slightly and sweating. "So, are you two going to let me in, or not?"

They folded their appendages and allowed the mail-pony entry. After he pulled his crate in through the door, when he was for certain unable to see or hear them, the two nervous guards left their station to quickly retrieve some sort of gift for Princess Luna's faux-birthday.

Forthwith himself smiled, and tapped the box three times to signify that he had entered the castle. He would not open the box until the package was delivered directly to Luna. With a single step forward he was off. Or at least, the box was, for his first and only step was one that started a flight of stairs. His misstep caused him to fall forward, sending the 'cake crate' flying over his head and down the staircase. It bounced with every dozen steps, also slamming against a stone wall that lined the outside of the winding marble stairs. Voices sounded off inside, expressing their pain and concern.

Finally, the box reached a landing, signifying that this would be the box's final stop. A flat side of the box impacted the delicate rose carpet and slid across. Its momentum eventually slowed, and it skidded to a complete stop, just barely touching a large oaken door. The door itself opened inwards. A pony standing behind it, a relatively small alicorn, stared at the box, her eyes groggy.

"Happy... Birthday?" she read.

Creak...

The edges of the box began to expand slightly outwards. Cracks formed all around the edges, and soon enough there was an explosion of candy coloured ponies and wood splinters. Derpy Hooves, Lyra Heartstrings, Vinyl Scratch, the Doctor, Bon Bon, and Octavia lay scattered all around the wide hall in front of the alleged quarters of the princess of the night, all of them moaning in near extreme pain.

The Princess tilted her head downwards. "You... All of you? What art thou all doing here?" she asked.

"Well obviously, we're here for your birthday. Surprise," Vinyl Scratch answered flatly while levitating her eyewear back onto her face.

Luna stared at her questioningly. "'Tis not our day of birth. We do not understand."

Lyra stood up. Something was different about Luna since last they met. Before she was about the same height as a regular pony, if not a few inches shorter, and her coat and mane were lighter. Now, though not a strange feature for an average mare, she stood about an inch or two taller than everypony else. The shade of her coat had deepened to a darker navy blue, and both her mane and tail, though retaining the same shape, had seemed to have morphed into the night sky itself, full of bright and shifting stars. A few hairs were frayed and out of place, but that seemed to be due to her having just woken up, which was just the slightest bit strange considering it was late in the day.

"Princess, why do you look so different, and why are you talking like that?" Lyra asked. She stood next to Luna, having to tilt her head up a bit.

"We have grown in power since the defeat of- er, 'Nightmare Moon'." She hesitated upon mentioning the subject, but continued, "and thus also have grown in appearance. Our previous appearance was due to the Elements of Harmony draining our energy as a result of reverting us to normal. Soon enough you shall see us in our true form." She smiled.

That made enough sense, but Lyra was still confused. "But why are you talking to strangely? And saying 'we' instead of ‘I’?”

“This is how we normally speak to our subjects, using the ‘royal we’. We were simply discombobulated when we last spoke.”

It was an odd thing of course, but it seemed like something they would simply have to get used to. There did not seem to be a point in pointing such trivial things out to a princes. Besides, she was gone for a thousand years; her linguistics were, for the time being, an unimportant detail. Lyra shook her head from side to side and attempted to stammer out what needed to be said. When she could not find the words, Vinyl Scratch and Derpy Hooves took over for her.

“We need your help, Princess!” yelled Derpy, jumping in front of Lyra’s face.

“There’s something wrong with Doc!” came Vinyl, herself jumping in front of Derpy.

“We were just having dinner-”

“When he just fell over unconscious, WHAM!”

Bon Bon pushed away the two ridiculous mares from behind, tossing them to the side. She cleared her throat. "To put it simply, we are in dire need of your help. The Doctor here is unconscious and you are the only pony that we can think to turn to. We'd rather not go to an ordinary doctor to help." She stopped for a moment before leaning in and giving the princess a suspicious and angry look. "And I have a feeling you know exactly why," she whispered. Luna blushed.

"We shall help. We cannot let anything happen to the Doctor; especially at this time." It took a moment, but Luna realized what she had said when  she saw the eyes of a certain cream-coated pony glaring at her. "But first, Bon Bon, may we speak to you for a moment?"

"Gladly."

Luna escorted Bon Bon into her bedroom, though Bon definitely  needed no excuse to talk to the princess. A quick burst of magic slammed the door shut, and another spell placed a sound barrier over it. The room was surprisingly small for that of a princess. It was created after Luna had reverted from Nightmare Moon, and the room itself was an improvised addition to Canterlot Castle. Each of her walls along with the ceiling and floor were painted a deep shade of blue, similar to that of her mane, and of the night sky, sans stars. Extravagant decor lined the walls and fancy pieces of furniture lay scattered around the room. Her bed itself was twice the size of that of the average pony’s, wooden columns reaching up towards the high ceiling of the bedroom. Sapphire curtains were draped between them and matching silk sheets covered Luna’s plush bed.

Bon Bon stomped a hoof and furrowed her brow. "Princess Luna, I believe that you know far more than you let on. What do you know about the Doctor?"

Luna calmly sat on her bed and looked towards Bon Bon. She sighed. "We see. Fine. We shall tell you everything. But there is one condition. Everything that is to be said in this room shall not reach the ears of thy friends. You are to keep silent. Dost thou understand these rules?"

"Yes," she said.

"Excellent. Now, where shall we begin?"





Soon enough, the strange conversation between the Princess and Bon Bon, and the other friends had congregated in Luna's room with the body of the Doctor situated in the center on the bed. Luna strode across the room in front of the five ponies. They all stared at her patiently, waiting for her to speak, though Bon Bon had a slightly different look on her face.

"We have diagnosed the ailment, and have concluded that the Doctor is terribly ill," Luna stated.

Vinyl Scratch leaned over to Derpy and said, "Thanks for stating the obvious, princess..."

Pretending to ignore that statement, Luna continued, "He is currently in a coma from which he cannot awake until he is cured. If left unchecked, the illness can cause his- erm, heart to stop beating."

A gasp.

"But, there is a cure. A certain flower, known as the Minuteblossom is the main ingredient used for the cure. Without this, there is no hope. We have other ingredients that can be used in the royal infirmary that we can obtain, but there are two other ingredients needed other than the Minuteblossom. Nectar that comes from the Ameliora tree, and a single feather from a phoenix. Once we have these three ingredients, we will be able to mix a cure."

Smiles appeared on all the ponies' faces that a cure could be manufactured for their fallen friend. But it would not be as easy as the mares thought it would be.

"But these ingredients cannot be found in Equestria." She stepped into the center semi-circle that the girls formed. "Which means that you will need to be sent out of the country in order to collect them. Thou shall be sent to another land, one that has a culture vastly different from our own, one that will be strange and alien to all of you."

She cleared her throat.

"You will all be going to Zebrica."
> Episode 4-Part 3: Zebrica and Back Again
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Princess Luna entered the silver light of the moon, the blackness surrounding the circle of light that came from an overhead window. The eyes of five friends lay upon her, beaming out of the blackness. A deep blue aura surrounded her horn and her eyes slowly closed. One by one, candles lining the circular room began to lite. Soon enough, the entire rotunda was lit, revealing the stone brick walls and broken pillars. Small plants grew from cracks in the floor while vines and moss hung from the walls and ceiling. In the center of the room, under the moons soft glow was an intricately carved circle, and within that, another circle. Small jewelled replicas of different constellations sat in between circles. In the very center was a perfectly carved spherical diamond with Luna's cutie mark etched into it.

"Step forward, our little ponies," Luna called out without turning around. In a line, Lyra, Bon Bon, Derpy, Octavia and Vinyl Scratch walked towards her. Continuing to move out of the circle, she slid open a panel in the wall. From it, she produced a small tome, which she levitated towards the group of five. Bon Bon squinted, trying to see what it said on the cover.

"Supernaturals: Natural remedies and cure-alls that are simply super"

Luna nodded. "This book shall assist thou in locating and identifying the ingredients. Each page has been labelled. Now, in terms of travel, We have prepared a way for thou to reach Zebrica and return before days end." She removed her regalia from around her neck and levitated it towards Lyra, clasping it onto her neck. It hung awkwardly, too big for such a little pony. Luna fixed that. She began casting a spell that caused the necklace to quiver and shake. Slowly, it began to shrink down until finally, it fit perfectly.

Lyra raised an eyebrow, unsure of what to say. "Princess, I don't understand. What is this for?"

"We have embedded our necklace with a powerful teleportation spell. It is usable only once, and will bring thou back to this spot. Once thou hath secured all three ingredients, use it."

"But," Lyra began, "if it can only be used once, then how do we get there?"

"We shall send you there. Simply stand in the center of the circle, and when the moon is highest, we shall cast a spell." Luna gestured to the circle etched into the ground. It seemed that the time to leave was soon, for the light of the moon was almost perfectly aligned with the edges of the circle.

The five friends gathered in the middle, bracing themselves for departure. Lyra wore a determined look on her face. She looked down at the necklace she wore and back to Luna. She smiled and nodded. Luna nodded back. Derpy shuffled nervously, but Vinyl Scratch laid a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. Magic began to build up around Princess Luna's horn, and soon was flowing between the cracks in the floor the pattern glowed brightly, getting stronger and stronger until the moonlight was in line with the outside circle. A burst of silver and blue energy shot up around them, and as the ponies' vision blurred, their images started to fade. There was a bright flash of light and all five of them were gone, leaving Luna alone in the empty room.

"We wish thee good luck," she whispered.





The feeling of being teleported leaves nothing to be desired. One would think that something so seemingly instantanious would be somewhat fun, but Bon Bon found out that was not the case. After the moon princess' magic engulfed her and her friends, she began to feel an intense searing heat, as if she had been thrown into the heart of a burning sun. Such was the feeling of having each and every atom in her body torn apart from each other and being shot straight up into the sky at near light speeds.

Derpy, on the other hand, was having a completely different experience. She felt as though she was soaring through the skies of Equestria, free from the physical restraints put on her by her body. She was a wandering spirit that danced through the air.

Needless to say, each of the ponies was having their own special experience with the teleportation. It took both an eternity and no time at all, but when the process was over, the group stood exactly the same as they did when they had left, but on a field of red dirt, a few stringy bushes dotting the landscape.

"That was awesome!" Vinyl Scratch exclaimed.

She leapt about a foot into the air, waving her front hooves wildly. Bon Bon wasn't quite somas excited. She fell to her knees, eyes wide open. She mumbled something, but it was too inaudible to decipher.

The moon hung high in the sky, shining its gentle light over the land. It was certainly much cooler than they had expected, but that was probably due to the cool midnight air.

Lyra pulled out a book from her saddlebag along with a folded paper, which she levitated in front of her. Unfolding the paper, she revealed it to be a map of the country. On it was a large horseshoe-shaped island with a smaller circular island in the middle of the crescent. Lyra then flipped through the book, finding the pages that Luna had so generously marked for them. After a moment of searching, she found what she was looking for, and stared for a moment to read both the book and the map.

"Okay girls, it's time to get to work. According to this, the Minuteblossom grows only on the island of Madagastripe, which lies at the heart of Zebrica. We need two ponies to go there while the rest of us go into a small town not too far from here. From there, we'll split up after getting more information on phoenixes."

Bon Bon raised a hoof and stepped forward. "I'll volunteer to go. I am not entirely sure that I am entirely content with meeting anypony from a country I've only just stepped hoof in."

"Okay." Lyra nodded. "Vinyl Scratch, go with Bon Bon, just in case, since you're the strongest of the group."

Immediately Vinyl's face went sour. "You mean I have to go pick flowers? I was looking forward to fighting a phoenix; that would have been so cool!"

Octavia glared. "There will be no fighting of phoenixes," she said, "we'll be questioning the locals on where we can purchase a feather, not on where the nearest phoenix is so we can fight it."

"Octavia's right," Lyra said, "we need to do this as fast as possible. The Doctor's life depends on it."

Vinyl grumbled and walked over to Bon Bon, who smiled awkwardly at her. The two waved, and departed from the rest of the group, trotting in the direction that Lyra had indicated to them. Turning around, Lyra led the rest of the group towards the village, in the opposite direction that she had sent the other two. The three ponies trekked across the near barren landscape, trudging along at a fairly slow pace. The late hour was already doing a deal on them, and the strange surroundings of the unfamiliar country did nothing to ease their nerves.

Suddenly, an outburst came from the back of the group. "Eeek!" screamed Octavia. Lyra and Derpy Hooves both turned to face the frightened earth pony, rest to help at a moments notice. Octavia was stood on one of her hind legs on top of a rock, shielding her face with her two front hooves. "Get it away, get that horrid creature away!" Sitting on the red soil was a small, docile creature, its head cocked to one side and its wide, shimmering eyes staring in wonderment at the grey pony that seemed so reluctant to meet it.

Lyra looked down at it. "It's a hedgehog," she said. The brown rodent happily sniffed about, quickly scurrying about. It looked up at Derpy with its beady little eyes and rubbed its head against her, being careful not to accidentally poke her with its razor sharp spines.

"Awwwww, it's so cuuuute!" Derpy squealed. She lifted the creature in between her forelegs and hovered a few inches into the air before dropping back down. She nuzzled against it, enticing a soft purr.

"Derpy!" Octavia screeched. "Get away from that terrifyingly filthy, dangerous animal!"

Derpy Hooves drifted over to her and extended both her hooves, lifting the hedgehog in front of Octavia's face. "But look how cute it is! He's so innocent and small and huggable."  It stared adorably at Octavia, it's eyes seemingly becoming larger and shinier. Octavia glared back at it.

"Hisssssss!"

The musician leapt back, shaking, and hiding behind a rock. "Did you see that! He tried to attack me! His giant gnashing teeth and those horrible, threatening eyes."

"No, you just scared him," Derpy replied. She pulled the animal away and landed on the ground. The hedgehog crawled up her left left, around her body, and finally rested on her back. "He can be our mascot! Let's see... What's a good hedgehog name? Spike? Sonic? Georgia?" At each name suggestion, the hedgehog shook his head in disapproval. Finally, Derpy came up with the perfect name. "I know, I'll call him Roger! Roger the hedgehog. Do you like that Roger?"

She looked at him eagerly, awaiting a response. Happily, he nodded his head very quickly and gave a very big grin. Derpy squealed and leapt into the air, doing a small flip before landing back on the ground.

Lyra smiled. "I'm glad you found a new little friend, Derpy, but we've got to get going," she said.

"Lyra is right," Octavia stated, "we must move, though I revile the thought of having to travel with that creature."

The trio, along with their new animal friend, continued back on their trek to the Zebrican village. Every few moments, Octavia would begin grumbling and quietly complaining at the less than stellar atmosphere. Lyra would notice and ask what was wrong, to which Octavia would respond in an irritated manner, soliciting a response from Derpy in a poor attempt to cheer her up. The group would fall into an awkward silence and the cycle would repeat. After through the process more or less three times, Octavia's attitude became bothersome.

"Sigh..."

Without breaking her stride or turning around, Lyra asked, "What is it now Octavia?"

"Ohhh, it's nothing you need to concern yourself with, I'm sure I'll be fiiine."

"Good. Then let's keep going!" Lyra exclaimed in an overly cheerful overtone. Octavia pursed her lips, but immediately gave up in her pleas for help. She sighed once more before lowering her head to the ground. She stared hard at the crusty earth, crawling with insects and the like. Patches of dry grass could be seen dotting areas of the ground, the discoloured flora becoming more and more common as the three of them continued forth. Octavia raised her eyes and looked up at the night sky. She really did not want to complain, in fact, she herself didn't believe in half of them (though it would be a great relief if everything was to her liking).

No, she simply needed some attention, any attention. She was not an attention hog or a very needy pony. Octavia was simply lonely. This was a problem she had recently begun to ponder, but not something recent. She had plenty of friends, Lyra and the others filled that spot. But other than that, she had nopony. Sure,  a few acquaintances that she knew and met on occasion, and her coworkers, but what she really needed was somepony to care for her and to comfort her. Somepony to love.





The navy blue wooden door slowly shut, a blue glow fading as it did. A small click was heard through the silence that filled the near empty room. Only the soft sound of the hoofsteps of a certain starry-maned princess dared to break the quietness of the peaceful night. Within her etheral grip was a small piece of white cloth monogrammed with a crescent moon and sun. She came up close to her bed, but did not enter it, instead kneeling down staring intently at the bed's current resident. The brown stallion, the Doctor, was wrapped in a bundle of blankets. His shallow breathing was ever-so-slowly speeding up; his head was continually producing diamond-like beads of sweat that was then wiped away by the towel that Princess Luna brought with her.

Her expression was a stern one of diligence, she stood straight and calm beside the dying Doctor. She knew that everything would turn out fine. She knew exactly how all would turn out. The Doctor would get better, and his five friends will have grown closer. Only one thing continued to nag her. It was the one thing that kept her unsure.

"The future is always changing."

One can never be certain of what is to come, even if they know what is to come. But surely everything would play out as it should, right? Everything was happening exactly the way it was meant to, but there was no way to be absolutely certain. Even a princess has limits. She was not a god, or a spirit. A pony that followed the rules of the universe as all did. And that scared her. She knew everything about tomorrow, and yet, nothing at all. All of her faith was put into those five ponies and their task. It was in their capable hooves.





SLICE!

SHING!

SNICKER-SNACK!

Tufts of grass flew through the air to either side of Vinyl as she swung a sharpened rock side to side in front of her, chopping grass as she moved forward.

"I am fairly certain that there is a more efficient way to do this."

Bon Bon trailed behind Vinyl Scratch, occasionally dodging the dry plants that flew by her.

"Don't worry Bon," Vinyl replied, grunting, "I got this."

Bon Bon furrowed her brow. "I would appreciate it if you called me by my full name. Also, I can tell you're becoming fatigued. I would advise that you listen to me, 'Viny'."

Vinyl wiped away the sweat that blanketed her forehead, still slashing away. "Look, I appreciate it, but I like this better than whatever else you think I could do."

"Yes, but don't you think this may be a little bit dangerous?" asked Bon Bon.

"Dangerous how?"

And at that moment, Vinyl, who was paying more attention to her companion than to what she was razing, bumped into something. It was large, tough, and covered in a short layer of hair. A low grumbling started up. Vinyl Scratch slowly turned around and looked up at the wall of fur. Her jaw instantly dropped, and her purple glasses slowly slipped off the end of her nose and fell to the ground with a clatter. Rising above her was the threatening form of an enormous lion whose mane was sliced horizontally in half. The light of the moon reflected off of its now bald head.

"Is that a bald lion?" Vinyl whispered, unmoving.

"Well, it was not bald before, but yes, it is at the moment a bald lion."

"So, we have to run, right?"

"Yes, that would seem like the best option at the moment."

ROOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!

Vinyl magically tossed the rock that she was using at the lion, instantly turning to run and grabbing Bon Bon.

"Aaaaahhhhhhhh!" they both screamed. Luckily, the stone struck the lion in the face, causing it to take a moment to try to hit away whatever small creature hit its face with its paws. The two mares dashed wildly away, the wind blowing their manes back and torn bits of grass being flinged up behind them.

ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

"Run faster!"

"Aaaahhh!"





The sun rose over the savanna, the warm and forgiving rays brought firth by Princess Celestia were amplified tenfold. The world around Lyra, Derpy and Octavia woke, the sounds of different animals slowly building up to a great buzz. Derpy was slowly flapping her wings, barely hovering a few inches above the ground. "So... Tired..." Derpy mumbled. Octavia, whose eyes were baggy, silently agreed. They had been up all night, and still had not found what they were looking for.

"Cheer up girls, we're almost there!" Lyra said cheerfully. Her eyes were wide and staring at the map in front of her. Then she half-closed one eye while raising the other. "I think. Wait, does that say East, or... Weast?"

Octavia instantly stopped in her tracks. Her eyes open as wide as small dinner plates, smoke seemed to rise above her head. "Do you mean to say... That we've been going the wrong way the whole time?"

Lyra stood still to examine the map, rotating it and leaning her head to one side. "Umm... Maybe? Was I holding it upside down?"

Octavia was grinding her teeth at this point. How could one be so oblivious? "Upside down!?"

"Yeah, maybe..." Lyra squinted. "Ah, I see, the village is right over there." She pointed a hoof towards a tall vision-obscurring patch of grass. Lyra used her magic to grab the grass and split it down the middle. Behind it, in the distance, was a village. "There it is. The Zebrican village of..." she trailed off, trying to read the small tagline on the map. "Takeza- maka- I mean, Tamoko- No, that's not it... I'm sorry, I can't read Zebrican." Roger the hedgehog brought a tiny paw to his face and shook his head.

Derpy cheered up almost right away. "Oh boy! Maybe we can get some breakfast there."

"Yes, I would enjoy a muffin and eggs," Octavia commented.

Derpy's face changed from one of excitement to one of disgust. "Ugh, no thanks. After what happened last time, I don't think I'll ever eat muffins again."

"Well, whatever we eat, we'll have to get to the village first." Lyra chuckled. She wondered what kind of ponies they would find there. Luna had never explicitly told her anything about Zebrican ponies, so she was curious as to who they would meet there.

It only took a few minutes to get down the hill and to the village. No villagers were currently roaming the streets for it was still very early in the morn, but it was well enough into the day that the civillians would soon be waking up. Lyra looked around, absorbing the quiet atmosphere, observing the little plantlife in the area as well as admiring the simple architecture of the villagers' single story wooden pueblos. A few small birds could be seen pecking at the ground here and there, and rodents and small wildcats wandered in the tall grass.

"Who are these three ponies I see, who are, for now, strangers to me?"

Lyra, excited to meet a native to the area, quickly turned around to greet the new pony. But the colt was not as she expected. He was not a solid colour like most ponies, but had a coat that was white with black stripes that formed strange patterns on his body that extended to his mane, which was tied into one long braided ponytail on the right side of his head. In his nose and around his right leg were a series of golden rings with small patterns etched around it.

"W-who are you?" Lyra stuttered, struggling to form words after the surprise of seeing such a strange and different pony.

He shifted his slightly squinted eyes back and forth between the group before speaking. "I will give you the answers for which you thirst, but you must tell me who you are because..." He paused, smirking, and leaned his head in. "I asked you first."

"Well," she began, "I am Lyra Heartstrings, and this is Derpy Hooves and Octavia." She motioned to each of her friends as she mentioned them. "We're from Equestria."

He nodded. "Lyra, Octavia, and Derpy, I welcome you all. As for myself, my name is Zamal. You... Look a little confused, that I can see; is there something wrong, or is it just me?" He raised an eyebrow as he asked this and scratched lightly at the ground.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I've just never met a Zebrican pony before. None of us have."

Derpy flew in close, and did a full orbit around him. "Why are you all stripey? I've never seen anypony with stripes before," she asked.

Zamal chuckled heartily at the ponies' comments. "Your curiosity amuses me. Zebras are the native inhabitants of this great land, spreading over the rocks and the trees and the dirt and the sand. Have a nice stay, I wish you well. If you need anything you need only yell."

Zamal turned to leave the three mares to their business, but was stopped by Derpy Hooves, who quickly zipped in front of him and fluttered her wings for a moment before landing. "Wait!" she said. "We actually have something to ask you."

"To need my help is very rare, but if I am needed, I have plenty of time to spare."

Lyra began explaining their situation. "As you can see by this necklace, we are representatives of Princess Luna." She tilted her head down, indicating the black regalia.

"I apologize, but you see, I am not familiar with Equestria's royalty."

"That's not the important part." She brought out the Supernaturals book. "We have a friend who is very sick, and we need to find these things." She flipped to the pages indicating the ingredients to the cure, allowing Zamal ample time to study each page carefully.

"I know of these ingredients which you seek, but your chances of obtaining them are rather bleak." Lyra frowned. "But there is a shop in town, and if you hurry quick, the phoenix feather you can nick. I also help you find the tree! I can lead you there, just follow me."

The three friends looked at eachother, smiles growing on each of their faces. Roger climbed up onto Derpy's head and squeaked about, startling Octavia.

Zamal opened his mouth in surprise. "Is that a hedgehog that I see? You know, in my culture those are very lucky."

Derpy giggled and smiled, both her eyes trying to focus on the rodent on her head. "Really? I knew you'd be a great pet, Roger!"

"I guess that means we'll be splitting up then," said Lyra. "Octavia, you go with Derpy. I'll follow Zamal to the tree, and you two try to find a shop that's willing to sell a phoenix feather."

"Actually, I'd rather not stay anywhere near that creature, even with Derpy carrying it. I'm sorry Derpy, but that thing... Ugh..." Octavia interjected.

"Okay, then you'll go with me, and Derpy will follow Zamal to the tree for the nectar."

"Got it," both Derpy and Octavia said at the same time while Zamal simply nodded.

"Let's hope that hedgehog really is lucky."





The steady thumping of Vinyl's heart filled her ears, blocking out any other sounds, including Bon Bon's and her own breathing. Their chests rose and lowered separately as they lay on the ground.

Bon Bon turned her head toward Vinyl. "So... Have you... Learned your lesson?" she heaved.

Vinyl returned her gaze. Vinyl's glasses had fallen half-way off her nose. "Yeah... I'm stupid and you were right... Can we just get a move on?"

"Certainly," She replied.

Vinyl hopped back onto her hooves and righted her glasses before helping Bon Bon stand by levitating her the right way up with her magic. Bon Bon wildly waved her hooves in all directions until they finally returned to the ground. "Don't do that again," she said.

"I make no promises."

The two peaked over the rock they hid behind in order to escape the lion. It did not seem to be anywhere near, and after a quick sweep of the area, Bon Bon stepped out into the open. Luckily for her, nothing pounced on her and tried to eat her, and Vinyl ended up following suit.

"Ya know, I was expecting flower picking to be way more boring. So far it's been pretty cool," Vinyl said.

"Mmm, yes, the near wasteland of a country full of exotic and dangerous creatures could not possibly have any form of adrenaline-pumping action."

Vinyl smiled and said, "Wait, was that sarcasm?" in mock-bewilderment and then giggled. The two began walking side by side, continuing toward their destination.

"I can be 'funny' when I want to," she stated, "I just choose not to because it is a waste of time. Now, hurry up. The island is supposedly just over this hill." And as the two reached the top, they could see a large, circular mass of land covered in trees and flowers began to reveal itself, sitting within the centre of the horseshoe-shaped country, surrounded by oceanic waters. The entire island seemed to glow before them, and as they got closer to the shoreline, they began to see that there was a glow, a blue one at that, radiating from the flowers that resided near the edge of the island. Bon Bon pulled a page out of her brown saddlebag. It was a page that Lyra had torn out for her so she could identify the plant. Though she was still far away, the glow of the plants was easily recogniseable. Near the water was a number of small wooden rafts that would allow locals to travel to and from the island, though nopony could be seen in the immediate area. Vinyl Scratch thought it would be a fantastic idea to 'borrow' one without anypony's permission, though she could not exactly be blamed. They were likely abandoned. Bon Bon stood herself on the raft whilst Vinyl pushed it into the water before jumping on herself. With her magic, she levitated the branch off of a nearby tree, the leaves making for a good paddle.

"Lovely weather we've been having," said Bon Bon. Vinyl merely looked at her, straight-faced.

"Sure."

Slowly but surely, the waters began to churn, speeding in multiple directions, sending waves in whatever direction it pleased. It crashed against the raft sending water splashing up against the two ponies. The flotation device bobbed up and down in the storm-like waves.

From under the water rose a green, scaly beast, sharpened hacksaw-teeth and gleaming claws. Vinyl Scratch looked up.

...

"Giant crocodile!"

"Waaaaghhhh!"





Celestia's sun raged high in the sky, sending down beams of heat that singed the backs of Lyra Heartstrings and Octavia. By now, the town was relatively filled with many different zebras, who were, of course immune to the intense rage of the sun, their stripes providing a natural heat sink.

The pair of pastel ponies had been searching the town for a shop that sold what they needed for hours on end with no luck. There was one shop left in the zebra market that would sell them the feather; if they had one. The two entered a building that had draped a magenta carpet over the front of it. Instantly, darkness engulfed them, blocking anything and everything from their vision.

"Hello?" Lyra called out.

And all of a sudden the inside of the building came to life. Lights shouted out at them, revealing a plethora of different colours that swirled about them, valuables and knick-knacks lined the shelves, which took up nearly all the space in the shop, many items even spilling out onto the floor and piling up in large pillars of junk. Left and right, everything one could imagine, simply left wherever.

One by one, coloured lights flashed on, curtains shifting to reveal more curtains, which danced away like the ones before them. Suddenly, a young looming zebra appeared in bewteen Lyra and Octavia, hugging both of them with a large goofy smile on his striped face.



"Welcome strangers, one and all; to Zyrones Wonderful Knick-knack Stall!
If you take a liking to something you see, just tell (please tell) what you need of me!
I have treasures from everywhere, North to South, things that you can't go without."

Octavia was admiring a small golden bejewelled ornament. Lyra raised a hoof, with a slightly confused look on her face.
"But sir, we just need-"

"A manatee!? A globe? Turnip? A bass? A ski? I can supply you with all these things, just grab this bell and give it a ring!"

The wild shopkeep brought Lyra to the counter. Upon it sat a golden bell engraved with the word 'service' surrounded in a bright light.

"Would you like a crown, or just a hat? I could also give you this wildcat!"

Octavia admired the crown that Zyrone had forcibly put on her head, but frowned when it turned into a fez, and then screamed when it became a cougar.

"Sir," Lyra said, "we need-"

"A jacket?"

"A feather!"

"A jacket won't do you good in this weather. What you need, I can see it now..." He rubbed his temples as he closed his eyes. Lyra opened her mouth and smiled, thinking he heard her ask for the feather. "Aha! I know! A diamond cow!"

He hadn't.

"I have many tings that I can sell, I can get it to you, no need to yell! There are necklaces and magazines, everything from your wildest dreams; a bowl, a mole, a sole, a hole, a cat, a rat, a fruit, a boot, a net, a mini jet, but don't fret, there's quilts and stilts, and clocks and blocks, a lemon tree, potpourri, bourgeoisie, and a chickadee! I have these things, and many more, from the roof down to the floor! Just tell me what you need from me, I'll have here just wait! And! Seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"



"We need a phoenix feather!" Lyra screamed.

Zyrone blinked a few times, though it was unnoticeable by the ponies from under his large beanie cap. "I apologize, then, my friends. I hope that I can make amends, because I do not have any feathers left; of that I am sadly bereft."

Lyra sighed. Of course, after all the trouble, they were unable to obtain what they needed to save a friend. Octavia reached a leg around Lyra. "Don't worry, we'll find another way...." The two turned a full 180 degrees and walked away.





"Here it is, young filly, this is the great Ameliora tree. To obtain the sap, we must get to the top. We must hurry quick, or the sap's flow will stop." Zamal walked closer to the tree and placed his hooves upon the side of the titanic tree. "I can feel the flow's amount of time, the seconds are six, and the minutes are nine."

Derpy smiled. "That doesn't sound like a lot of time for us to climb," she said.

"Right you are my filly friend, by the time we get up, the flow will end." He sighed. "If only there was a faster way to get up; climbing the tree is not enough."

"You do realize that I'm a pegasus, right?"

Zamal did not respond for a moment, and blushed, his cheeks becoming bright red."I- I knew that. That you could fly... I just- zebras cannot... Sigh..."

Derpy, still chuckling to herself over the matter, readied her wings, and lifted off with one great flap. It took only a few moments to get to the top and to gather a large amount of sap in a jar given to her by Jamal. Another second and she was back to the ground. "Got it!" She smiled.





Derpy returned to their origin point, which was surprisingly easy to find, because when they teleported, a large circular imprint was left on the ground that was only visible from the air. It was a circle with the shape of a crescent moon inside of it. Just before she descended, she bumped into something flying in the opposite direction as her. After a quick shake of her head, she looked up to see what it was. A creature that seemed to be half lion and half eagle. It's feathers were white with purple tips, and a scowl was plastered onto its face.

"Move it, dweeb," the apparently female griffin spat. She proceeded to shove Derpy out of the way and flew off.

"Jeez, wonder what that was about." It was better to wave the incident off, so she shook her head once more and dove straight down to the ground, where her friends Lyra, Octavia, Vinyl and Bon Bon were gathered. Her hooves touched down softly, producing a small puff of dust from the ground. Something was strange. Lyra was seemed to be very downtrodden, with Octavia comforting her. Vinyl looked to have a black eye, and seemed to have had most of her hair cut off, leaving it a medium length, and Bon Bon was covered from head to hoof with scratches and lacerations.

"Whoa, what happened to everypony? I didn't think buying ingredients would be that hard," she questioned. The pegasus opened her saddlebag and pulled out the jar of tree sap with her wing. She placed it on the ground and smiled. "Oh yeah, nice manecut Vinyl. It looks really good."

Vinyl scratch scowled. "Did you just? I-grrr... We were chased by a bald lion and had to fight not just one, but TWO giant alligators to get this one stupid flower! And I didn't get my mane cut."

"Oh... Lyra? why do you look so sad?"

She heaved and stood up. "Let's just go. It's been nearly twenty four hours anyways. The moon's going to be up soon."

Lyra began to cast the spell to activate the charmed necklace. The moon shape glowed, growing brighter until it was nearly the same intensity of the real moon, and the finally, the five friends vanished.

A sigh. Roger the hedgehog, Derpy's new companion had been left behind. Unfortunately, Princess Luna did not enchant it to carry more than five ponies, leaving anypony—or, any hedgehog—in Zebrica, without means of following.





A flash. The group had returned, but not to the underground; to Luna's own bedroom. She was lying down on the bed awake. The princess quickly stood up, flaring her wings. "Girls! You're back!"

Derpy hopped up and down a few times and flew in front of Luna, their noses touching. She gave an extra large smile and said, "We got the ingredients! We-"

"No, we didn't..."

Lyra stepped forward. She stepped in front of Derpy and lowered her head to the ground. "We failed, princess. Derpy got the tree sap, and Vinyl and Bon Bon got the flower, but I was unable to get the feather. I'm sorry."

Luna looked down on her and frowned.

"I failed too."

This time, it was Octavia's turn. "I too was meant to get the phoenix feather, so it is my fault also."

Instead of becoming angry, or sorrowful, Luna smiled. "It is alright. Though thou hast failed, thou admitted it, and to a princess nonetheless. Thou should be proud of thyselves. All of thee." They all cheered up, especially Lyra, who had put all of the burden of failure on herself.

"Besides," the monarch continued, "the Doctor is already cured. We apologize for sending thou on a wild —how thou sayeth— goose-chase."

"Hello, everyone!"

The Doctor happily trotted into the crowded room, smiling and humming like his normal jovial self.

"Doctor!" everyone yelled at the same time. All of a sudden, he was covered in mares and was blushing something terrible.

"But how did you get better?" Lyra asked, gripping him tightly.

He coughed, still beet-red. "Well, I'm not exactly sure, but I'd say that the princess here had something to do with it."

Everypony looked to Luna, who was, herself, blushing. "Well, we found out soon after thou had left that our sister has a secret hidden garden containing all of the ingredients, along with a pet phoenix that we had not yet been informed of." The alicorn smiled, looking down at and scratching the floor while doing so.

And everypony fell. The entire group was exhausted, and needed a rest. They'd been awake for nearly two days, and a good night's sleep was definitely in order. Everypony other than Derpy Hooves had fallen unconscious.

"Wow. I wonder what they're all pooped about."

"I guess we'll never know," said the Doctor.
> Episode 5-Part 1: Given the Show-Off
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Where is it, where is it, where is it?"

Lyra Heartstrings heard the voice of her friend and roommate, Bon Bon coming from downstairs accompanied by worrying racket. Lyra decided that it would be best to investigate the goings on seeing as the tone that Bon Bon was using was not one that she used very often.

When Lyra arrived at the bottom of the stairs, she turned the corner and found a boot flying towards her face. She quickly ducked, the hoofwear missing her narrowly. The boot was soon followed by a couch cushion which Lyra sidestepped, putting her in the direct path of a flying kitchen knife.

Not a moment too soon, Lyra caught it with her amber-coloured magic and placed it down where it couldn't be flung at sompony's face. The source of the multitude of flying objects was none other than the frantic Bon Bon, who was currently searching under one of the green sofas that resided in the girls' living room. She'd held up one end with a stack of horseshoes and slid the upper half of her body under the piece of furniture where she was rapidly pulling out random objects and tossing them about. Lyra took it as Bon Bon doing some proper house cleaning after finding the mound of objects that Lyra had unintentionally stuffed, dropped, or hid under the couch. In fact, Lyra was surprised that Bon Bon found it; under normal circumstances she would be much too obsessive or compulsive to move the couch from its perfect place in the room or to put her face anywhere near the dirty floor. But today, she was searching specifically for-

"My necklace is missing!" Bon Bon slid out from under the elevated couch and jumped to her hooves. "Lyra!" she yelled before noticing that Lyra was standing right in front of her face. "Sorry."

Lyra rubbed her ear with her hoof and giggled. "It's okay, Bon Bon," she said, smiling. "But I've never seen you where a necklace." 

Bon Bon knocked the stack of horseshoes out from under the couch, causing it to crash down onto the wooden floor with a bang, though there was no obvious physical damage. "And that is exactly why it is so important," she replied. The sweet-maker stood up straight, stepping into the kitchen and looked into the fridge. Whilst searching for something to eat, she explained her conundrum to Lyra. "You see, the necklace was given to me from my mother when I moved into Ponyville from Manehattan. It was previously given to her by her own mother, who obtained it from her's, and so on and so on." Bon Bon lifted her head out of the refrigerator, a glass bottle of milk in her mouth.

"That's terrible!" Lyra responded. "Don't worry, I'll try my hardest to find it." Bon Bon brought a glass out from a cabinet to the left of the kitchen sink and placed it on the table, and poured her milk. Lyra decided to levitate a straw from a box in the pantry and dropped it into Bon Bon's drink. "You know, I think we'll make much more progress if I told everypony else. You know, six heads are better than one?"

Bon Bon nodded. "Thank you, Lyra. But don't forget that more than one head is not always beneficial. The Hydra, for example is a creature that often confuses itself, unable to coordinate its many heads to work toward a single goal." Bon Bon sipped her milk gleefully.

Lyra blinked for a few seconds with her mouth hung open before she started talking again. "Oookaaayy... I'll just... Go get everypony else and tell them what's up. Thanks for the, um, lesson."

"Don't mention it."

Lyra left, shutting the front door behind her. It slowly opened soon after, Lyra revealing only her head. "Before I forget, I should probably ask what it actually looks like," she said sheepishly.





After an explanation as to what the necklace looked like and a very long reitteration of Bon Bon's entire day, Lyra departed from their shared abode in search of the rest of her friends to inform them of Bon Bon's lost treasure. It was not long before Lyra ran into Derpy Hooves who was delivering her last few parcels to Carousel Boutique, her delivery satchel almost empty. "Hey Derpy Hooves!" Lyra greeted her feathered friend. Derpy looked down to see Lyra jumping up and down, waving a hoof in the air with a wide grin on her face.

"Hi, Lyra," she responded. Derpy glided towards Lyra and landed firmly on the ground. "Watch'ya up to?" she asked.

"Bon Bon lost a necklace. It's really important to her, so I'm helping her find it. You haven't seen it, have you?"

Derpy thought about it for a moment, but wildly shook her head. "Sorry, Lyra, I haven't seen anything. But don't worry!" She jumped up and flapped her wings, soaring through the air and landing back down. "I can be your eye in the sky!"

"Thanks, Derpy," Lyra said. "Bon Bon told me that the last time she saw it was just before she bumped into a blue unicorn at the market, so try to see if you can find it there. It's a thick gold one with a huge jewel in the middle that looks sort of like a candy."

Derpy raised a hoof to her forehead in salute and launched herself into the sky to begin her search over Ponyville. Lyra stared up for a minute until her friend disappeared in the distance before continuing on her very minor quest to inform the rest of her friends about the missing necklace.

Suddenly, Lyra heard the rapid clopping of hooves closing in behind her. She turned her head to see two young unicorn colts in full gallop. The shorter and chubbier of the two was a light blue-green with a messy yellow-brown mane and tail and a pair of scissors as his cutie mark. The other, taller and thinner, had a yellow coat with an equally unkempt light green mane and tail. His cutie mark was a snail.

The two blew past her with enough force to send her spinning at ridiculous speeds, after which loses her balance and falls over, hitting her jaw on the ground and her eyes rolling around in her head. When she regained her vision, she quickly cast a spell to grab the two unicorn's tails and dragged them back. "Hold on you two, what's going on," she asked.

Snips gasped and gave her a wide-eyed look. "What, haven’t you heard?"

She shook her head. She really had no idea what was going on. Snails pushed his partner to the side and exclaimed, "There is a new unicorn in town!"

Snips then chimed in, bouncing on his hooves and sounding as if he had too much sugar for breakfast. "Yeah! They say that she’s got more magical powers than any other unicorn ever!" Lyra released her magical grip on the two boys and let them go running into town square. A new unicorn? she thought. I might as well take a quick look. Besides, with those two running around, everypony else is sure to be there.

She raced after the two only moment later. When she arrived at town square, she saw that a very large crowd of ponies stood gathered around a small travelling wagon trailer that had been set up in front of the  pavilion. She bounced up and down a few times in order to see above the sizable crowd to try and spot any of her friends that may have been there. She did not see anypony she knew, and began to leave and maybe go try Octavia's house.

"Why Lyra, it's lovely to see you here."

Octavia and Vinyl Scratch appeared behind Lyra.

"Oh, hey girls, I've been looking for you," she told them.

"We know," Vinyl responded, "We passed by Bon Bon on the way here and told us what was what." Vinyl leaned in close and brought her voice down to a whisper, putting a hoof to the side of her muzzle as if to make sure nopony was listening. "But between you and me, I think whoever she bumped into is super suspicious. I mean, a blue unicorn wearing some sort of coat and a hat? How can you be more suspicious that that?"

Octavia nodded. "I agree, it does seem suspicious that the necklace disappeared after the appearance of a unicorn whose features she could not make out."

"Lyra scratched her head. "I don't think so. It's probably just a coincidence. We shouldn't go accusing ponies we haven't even met."

Derpy hopped down from seemingly nowhere, grinning widely. Hey Lyra! Hey girls!" she greeted.

"Hi Derpy," the trio said at precisely the same time.

"I brought the Doctor, I told him about the necklace." As she spoke, the Doctor could be seen squeezing his way through the crowd, being bumped and knocked about by other ponies until he made his way to the group of friends.

Vinyl stepped forward, pushing Octavia aside. "Hey Doc! Derps here told you about the unicorn Bon Bon bumped into right? We were all just talking about how suspicious it is."

"Yes, I do think that there may be trouble afoot with whoever that is," he stated, scratching his chin.

"Um, I don't think it's that suspicious," Lyra pointed out while raising her left hoof in the air.

Before anypony could respond, a female voice suddenly rang out over the gathered ponies, sounding ridiculously dramatic and over the top; Lyra, Octavia, Vinyl and the Doctor looked up.

"Come one, come all! Come and witness the amazing magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

While this happened, the trailer reconfigured itself, flipping out and unfolding, transforming to reveal its secondary purpose as a stage with several bits of overhead scenery such as rockets, planets and stars, a spiral, and a magic wand. A blast of glittering blue smoke went off; when it cleared, a blue unicorn mare stood smiling at the crowd. Her mane and tail were a lighter shade of blue, and she wore a purple wizard’s hat and cape covered with stars. It was hard to see at first but her cape flowed with the wind, revealing her cutie mark. It was a star-tipped wand spreading stardust. The mare had made her grand arrival, prompting awed murmurs from the crowd.

The eyes of Vinyl, Octavia, Derpy, Lyra, and the Doctor went wide, and at the same time, four of the five of them —excluding Lyra— said, "It's her!" realizing that this pony was most definitely probably the cloaked unicorn that Bon Bon had bumped into in the market.

Fireworks erupted from the stage as they yelled, covering up their exclamations.

"Oh dear," Lyra whispered.
> Episode 5-Part 2: Enter, the "Great" Magician Trixie
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Watch in awe as the Great and Powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes!" the showmare exclaimed as fireworks erupted on stage, yet a particular group of ponies were far from impressed.

"My, my, my. What boasting," Octavia said. She stared coldly up on stage, eyeing Trixie as the unicorn conjured up flowers.

"It was obviously her, no doubt about it," Vinyl Scratch expressed. "Nopony can be that arrogant and not be evil."

"Now hold on," Lyra interjected, "don't go judging a book by its cover. I mean, she's obviously an entertainer, so why can't she put a little flair and overexaggeration into her show?"

Vinyl put a leg around Lyra's shoulder, smiling calmly. "Oh, don't worry. We understand that," she said.

"You... You do?" Admittedly, that did make Lyra feel much better.

"Yeah. But she matches the description perfectly, so it must be her!" During this time, Lyra hunched down and let her ears droop sheepishly. "Plus, she's so arrogant. She would deserve it if somepony put her in her place. Booo!"

A voice coming from the stage to the front of them interrupted the conversation taking place. "Well, well, well," proclaimed Trixie, "It seems we have some neeeeeigh-sayers in the audience." Vinyl Scratch's eyes went wide behind her purple-tinted sunglasses. She didn't actually want to attract the attention of both the performer and her crowd; luckily Trixie had not actually heard her, as Trixie looked to be scanning across the entire crowd, showing assorted reactions of confusion and awe—the latter coming from Snips and Snails. "Who is so ignorant as to challenge the magical ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie?"

Derpy, nervous about being picked out of the crowd by Trixie's wandering eye landed from eher position in the air and hid behind Lyra, who frowned.

"Just who does she think she is?" Octavia whispered over to the group.

"I'm beginning to agree with the lot of you. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone named Trixie, and I've been doing quite a bit of travelling," the Doctor whispered back.

"Sshhhh! I told you before, she's just an entertainer. This is just all part of the act. You'll see, she's probably not a bad pony," murmured Lyra.

Sounds from the stage instantly drew their attention; the performer’s fireworks were going off again, more energetically than before. A Lyra spied a pony with a rainbow mane fly onto the stage. It was none other than the current captain of Ponyville's weather department, Rainbow Dash. It seemed to Lyra that Rainbow was fed up with Trixie, much like most of her friends were. And they weren't even very far into the show!

The five filly friends (and one colt) quieted down temporarily as the pegasus spoke.

"So, Great and Powerful Trixie, what makes you think you’re so awesome, anyway?" she began. Trixie put a hoof to her face, her venomous laugh filled with disdain.

"Why, only the Great and Powerful Trixie has magic strong enough to vanquish… the dreaded Ursa Major!"

The Doctor, previously choosing to be mostly quiet until now, suddenly burst out with a loud but short chortle. He nearly choked on his own tongue trying to hold in his giggles while everypony around him gasped in awe and wonderment. Fireworks blasted from the horns at one end of the stage, decorating the sky with the outline of a huge bear whose forehead had the mark of a starburst. Its head and tail moved as if this were a neon sign.

"A... What now?" he asked to nopony in particular. The four stared at him. "An Ursa Major!? Well, now I know she's no idea what she's talking about. She's pretending she fought a constellation of all things."

Lyra, Octavia and Vinyl Scratch al stared at him. "Dude, Ursa Majors are real things," said Vinyl.

"... Shutting up now," the Doctor said.

The Great and Powerful Trixie began her tale. "When all hope was lost, the ponies of Hoofington had no one to turn to."

As she spoke, the Ursa Major pyrotechnic began to change. A Trixie figure then approached, wand at the ready. As she continued, it stood before the beast’s swipes and cast a spell, causing it to fizzle out and disappear in a shower of sparks.

"But the Great and Powerful Trixie stepped in, and with her awesome magic, vanquished the Ursa Major and sent it back to its cave deep within the Everfree Forest!" She stood proudly, basking in the audiences wonder. "It’s true, my enthusiastic little admirers. Trixie is most certainly the best in Ponyville!"

The crowd stayed dead silent.

"Don't believe the Great and Powerful Trixie? Well, then, I hereby challenge you Ponyvillians. Anything you can do, I can do better," she proposed. "Any takers? Anyone, hmm? Or is Trixie destined to be the greatest equine who has ever lived?"

Vinyl Scratch took a step forward, hoping to show Trixie what she had, but Lyra stopped her. "Wait. Let's just watch. Don't want to miss anything, right? Besides, this is probably part of the show." At least, that's what she hoped. Lyra wanted very hard not to jump to conclusions and judge a book by its cover.

"Hmmm…how about…" Trixie pointed to somepony in the front row. " …you?"

Trixie, striding confidently toward the edge of the stage asked, "Well, how about it, hmmm? Is there anything you can do that the Great and Powerful Trixie can't? Well, little hayseed?"

"That’s it! I can’t stand for no more of this!"

It was the voice of Applejack, a friend of Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash. She clanbered up onto the stage with Trixie, accepting the challenge issued to her.

"Yeah, you show her!" called Vinyl with her hooves cupped around her mouth.

Lyra certainly thought it to be a coincidence that the two friends sitting in the front row were the only ponies interacting with Trixie herself. It could only be all a part of the act.

The orange mare brought out a lasso from under her hat. "Can your magical powers do this?" Now on the stage, she was twirling a lasso around herself at floor level with her tail. She hoisted the loop clear of the boards, then moved it forward and backward.

"Ooooh!"

An expert flick of the tail sent the lasso flying to a tree, allowing her to snag an apple from its branches; the rope loosened, and the fruit landed squarely in her mouth. After a quick chew and swallow, the crowd cheered, encouraging Applejack further. "Top that, missy!" she said. 

Trixie’s hat began to glow due to the magic of her horn underneath. "Oh, ye of little talent." The hat lifts clear of her head, fully exposing her lush and flowing mane. "Watch and be amazed at the magic of Trixie!" she proclaimed. A gleam from her horn brought the untied rope under her control; one end rose off the stage as if it had become a lively snake being charmed. It swayed back and forth before Applejack’s face, hypnotizing her into mimicking its movements, and the other end pulled another apple from the tree. The first end lashed toward Applejack’s hooves and hogtied her, briefly lifting her upside down off the stage before dropping her on her back.

"What—oof!"

Once she landed, the apple was stuffed whole into her mouth; everypony in the crowd laughed and cheered, convinced like Lyra that this was all simply part of the show.

"Once again, the Great and Powerful Trixie prevails," gloated Trixie. Lyra could not see any of this as being anything more than an act.

It did not take long for her to find out she was wrong.





"I can't believe that pony!" Vinyl Scratch exclaimed. "There’s no need to go strutting around and showing off like that!" She stomped her hooves on the ground multiple times, almost causing cracks in the wooden floor of Lyra's shared home. Jumping like she did a moment later was not something that Lyra particularly liked, and she knew that when Bon Bon returned she wouldn't be too impressed either.

Octavia spoke up, laying down upon the green couch. "I must agree. How could that ruffian commit such terrible acts. There is nothing worse than green hair. Turning such a prestigious pony's hair into a literal rats nest is a crime against fabulousness." She raised her ash grey hoof to her forehead and sighed deeply.

Derpy, sitting on the floor, drooped her head down. The Doctor stood behind her, holding a hoof to the top of her head. "I wanted to agree with Lyra, but that Trixie is such a big meanie face," Derpy said. "The way she treated those ponies was just terrible."

Lyra felt terrible. The entire time she was obsessed with trying to defend Trixie, convincing herself and her friends not to judge a book by its cover, that just because Trixie was gloating, didn't mean she was a bad pony. But alas, she was just a big jerk with a superiority complex. That was all there was to it. And what was worse was they'd entirely forgotten about their search for Bon Bon's necklace, distracted by the show mare, the five of them gathered back at Lyra and Bon Bon's house to discuss what had just happened.

"I'm sorry girls," Lyra explained, " I just didn't want to accuse an innocent pony, you know, jump to conclusions."

"It's alright Lyra, if she wasn't such a meanie stupid head, you would have been right," said Derpy.

Vinyl rubbed her hooves together menacingly. Shadows were cast upon her face from the few lights that were on, and she lowered her glasses to reveal her red eyes, seeming to glow with her smile. "Now we just need to plot our revenge. For Bon Bon, for those ponies on stage, FOR PONYVILLE! MUAHAHA-" Octavia smacked Vinyl upside the head to cease her malicious cackling.

"Stop that. We simply need to concoct a plan of sorts to drive this Trixie away from Ponyville while also getting Bon Bon's necklace back. Seeing as the mare would probably never admit to such a crime, I propose the following..."