A Mad Dash Through Time and Space

by Joseph Raszagal

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Crossover, Zecora, Doctor Whooves, Spitfire, Main 6, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Other, Romance
Length: 35399

The arrival of a mysterious blue box makes an otherwise ordinary day in Ponyville extraordinary.

A normal day in Ponyville unfolds as Pinkie Pie works up the courage to deliver a letter that's been weighing heavily on her mind for quite some time. However, the arrival of a mysterious blue box, a manic brown stallion, and a new alicorn quickly take the day's sense of normalcy and throw it right out the window!

How will the recipient of Pinkie's letter react to the words contained within? How will Equestria react to this strange stallion, his easily irritated assistant, and his magic wand?

Only time will tell...

~ ~ ~

Chronologically the 3rd installment in the Equestria B Ficverse.

(The "Dark" and "Gore" tags apply to later chapters... or do they? Who knows?!)

Rated Teen for violence and crude language.

Published 2012-02-16 17:14:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-02-06 20:10:45 UTC

Chapter Two - Of Gods and Equestrians

A Mad Dash Through Time and Space
Chapter Two – Of Gods and Equestrians
A commission for an anonymous brony
As written by Joseph Raszagal

~ ~ ~

“The moment of truth is haunting you
Don't forget your family
Regardless of what you choose to do
You can't decide
And they're all screaming, “Why won't you?”
I'll start the engine
But I can't take this ride for you
I'll start your bath and I'll load your gun
But I hope so bad
That you're bathing on...”

“A Better Place, A Better Time” by Streetlight Manifesto

~ ~ ~

“She's been up in that thundercloud all day,” whispered Fluttershy as Zecora wrapped yet another bandage around her leg.

As soon as the zebra had caught word of the incident, she came running to assist her pony friends. Holed up in Fluttershy's cottage, the best she could do was help to mend their wounds.

“Well, try ta see it from her point 'a view, Fluttershy,” said Applejack, prompting a stern look from the zebra who had told her several times to get some sleep. “The town's taken the biggest hit it's seen in... probably ever... Most 'a her best friends are in just about the same roughed-up shape. An' then, as if all 'a that wasn't enough, another friend 'a hers has been kidnapped by some kind 'a evil god.”

“But... it's Rainbow Dash,” replied Fluttershy, wincing as Zecora began bandaging her left wing after supporting it with a splint. “She... she never lets anything beat her.”

Nodding, the blonde farm pony closed her eyes and sighed, “An' that's what makes it worse, Sugarcube. She never lets anythin' beat her, she never gives up, an' she never gives in. So, knowin' that, what do ya think it's like fer her right now, gettin' told by everypony 'round her that she just can't win this fight? Judgin' by how that Doctor put it, goin' after this guy all on her lonesome would be surefire suicide.” Taking a moment to grit her teeth over a sharp jolt of pain, Applejack concluded raggedly, “An' that's just it. Ah know Dash, she's like me when it comes ta situations like this, Ah know how stubborn an' determined she can be. Not bein' able ta go blastin' off across the sky after that guy... well, that's gotta feel like suicide too.”

A few seconds of silence set in as the pink and yellow pegasus struggled to respond to that. Zecora shook her head sullenly and continued about her bandaging.

“I just hope Twilight gets back soon,” said Fluttershy softly. “Do you think she was able to contact Princess Celestia?”

“Ah don't know,” answered Applejack morosely, steadying herself and wiping at her eyes. “Last Ah heard, the Princess was on the far side 'a the kingdom, takin' a trip ta help out some 'a the smaller towns an' non-pony villages. Ah can't really imagine goin' inta this fight without the Princess' help, so Ah hope an' pray that Twilight managed ta reach her.”

“Agreed,” whispered the pastel pegasus in return.

“Oh, Zecora, a moment 'a yer time?” asked Applejack after a few moments.

Rolling her eyes, the zebra cocked one eyebrow and said, “Your questions, of course, I will answer to my best, but only if you promise to get some rest.”

“Ah'm sorry, Zecora, Ah promise,” responded the farm pony, feeling a bit guilty for giving her caretaker a hard time, “Ah just want ta know how Rarity's doin'. Ah know she can be a bit of a pain sometimes, what with her bein' Rarity an' all, but Ah guess Ah'm still sort 'a worried.”

Her expression softening, Zecora gently pulled Applejack's blanket up and over her, then rhymed, “The dainty unicorn was hurt, that much is true, but you have my word that she will pull through.”

“Thank ya, Zecora.”

“No thanks needed, my pony friend, to you my aid I'll always lend.”

After blowing out the hanging oil lamps, Zecora quietly left the room and shut the door behind her. Shaking her head, the zebra brushed a tear from her eye and sat down at Fluttershy's tiny table to a hot cup of tea.

“No tears right now, they need you strong, it's your job to right what's been done to them wrong,” she muttered softly to herself, taking in a deep breath to fight back against the growing moisture in the corners of her eyes.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“What am I looking at, Spike?” questioned Twilight as they came upon the town square.

Scratching his head in search of an answer, the baby dragon replied honestly, “I have no idea.”

“It's a time machine!” called out a seemingly disembodied voice.

Looking at each other with the same dubious expression, both pony and dragon replied back, “Say what?”

It was then that the Doctor popped his head out through the TARDIS' open doors.

“What do you mean by 'what'?” asked the Time Pony, his sonic screwdriver protruding from one side of his mouth like a shiny, metal cigar. “I just told you. It's a time machine.”

Curious, Twilight sarcastically inquired, “If I were to tell you that such a thing was impossible, would you just tell me the words 'time machine' again, but slower and in a more condescending tone?”

“Probably,” admitted the Doctor, having considered her question for somewhere close to a quarter of a second.

“Oi, Doctor, who's that?” laughed another unseen voice, Amy, from the depths of the stricken celestial vehicle. “Sounds like your kind of argument!”

“My name is Twilight Sparkle,” answered Twilight immediately, “I came as soon as I heard about the attack. I can't say that I wholly believe the things that I was told, that a being of some sort from another universe caused all of this, but the simple fact that something did was reason enough for me to return posthaste. I don't like it when I hear that anypony has been hurt, particularly my friends.”

At that statement, the pony-fied Time Lord smiled.

“Doctor, does this go here?” called-out Amy as a huge tower of sparks sprayed out through the open doors. “Okay... I guess not. Get back down here, I don't know what the Hell I'm doing, I'm just a kissogram!”

Rolling his eyes, the Doctor yelled back, “Then kiss it! Do I have to tell you bloody everything?”

After a few seconds of silence, Amy confusedly replied, “Um, the blinky light just came back on.”

“Is it blue?”

“Yeah, it's blue. Why, is blue good?”

“Not as good as green, I suppose, but still good.”

“So, what now, should I kiss it again?”

“Not unless you want it to turn yellow!”

“Oh... so yellow's bad then?”

“Let me guess, it's yellow now, isn't it?”

“Oi, so I guess I was supposed to just already know the repercussions to kissing a blinky light?!”

“Just listen to the two of you!” shouted Twilight, narrowing her eyes and gritting her teeth. “While I don't know exactly what happened here, it's clear to me that it was something grave! How can you two just babble nonsense, laugh, and make light of things at a time like this?!”

In an instant, the Doctor's merry expression fled his face. His old, sad eyes met with Twilight's, but only for a moment.

In that brief moment, she knew she'd wrongly accused the brown stallion and his companion.

“I've seen more catastrophes than I care to recall,” recounted the Doctor, his voice uncharacteristically low and mournful. “Somewhere along the line I started laughing in the face of danger, grinning as I stood at Death's doorstep, as opposed to cowering before it. I've never done it out of fearlessness. After all, no one's fearless, myself included. In a way, I do it because I have to. I laugh because otherwise I suppose I'd just... cry.”

Looking up at the clouds, he added with a somber sigh, “Come to think of it, I haven't cried in a long, long time. I may have forgotten how to by now.”

Twilight turned away from the stallion and his blue box, feeling guilty for her outburst and accusation. Searching hard for a subject change, she remembered their initial argument over the strange stallion's so-called “time machine”.

“I still don't believe that this wooden device of yours is a time machine,” the unicorn repeated firmly. “That is now and will forever be utterly impossible. And I should know, after all, I used a spell not long ago to travel back in time and deliver myself a warning. The spell, while successful, only lasted for a few seconds before returning me back to my proper place in time. I can't even begin to imagine the amount of power that would be necessary for a vehicle to carry several passengers between the past and the present like you're implying; moreover, the potential for these passengers to permanently stay wherever it is in time that they end up could cause any number of apocalyptic paradoxes!”

After taking a moment to catch her breath, Twilight realized just how long that little rant of hers had gone on. Her cheeks and ears burned a rosy red as she blushed and awkwardly turned to face the other direction. She had intended to revive their previous argument in an effort to lift the Doctor's spirits, but being the egghead that she is, ended up a tad too invested in the topic itself.

Still, the Time Stallion understood what she was trying to do, and really, it's the thought that counts. Slowly but surely, his smile returned.

With a shrug, the Doctor dropped back inside of the TARDIS and said, “The universe is a vast, complicated, mysterious, and rather mad place at times, Twilight Sparkle. All sorts of things happen for all sorts of reasons, so you'd do well to learn that absolutely nothing is impossible. Some things are improbable, confoundingly so at times, but never impossible.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“I couldn't save her,” muttered a dejected voice from the back of Dash's mind. The tear-stained pillow that her face was buried in seemed to concur. “I couldn't save my best friend. I thought I was the fastest pony in all of Equestria... but it turns out I'm the most useless. Dammit.”

Tucked away into the cloudy confines of her home, Rainbow Dash sulked away the hours whilst waiting for Twilight to call everypony together for the meeting that would ultimately decide Pinkie Pie's fate. Seemingly in tune with the prismatic pegasus' emotional state, her normally white and puffy home threatened to become a roaring thunderstorm with each passing second. It took everything that Dash had to drag herself out of bed long enough to calm the clouds down.

Sometime around the fifth or sixth weather check, she noticed that the flag on her mailbox was raised.

Flipping the box's metal lid open, the pegasus gathered the assortment of mail contained inside and took it with her back into her gray and gloomy lair. However, before Dash even knew it, she had already tossed aside the junk mail, two buyer's catalogs, a credit card request, and a chain letter hitting the floor without a second thought. What was left in her hooves was a single white envelope, its back folds held shut by a familiar pink sticker that she'd seen a thousand times before from a thousand different party invitations. Already misty-eyed, she hesitated for a brief moment before opening the envelope, fearing that the floodgates wouldn't close a second time if breached again. Slowly, she peeled the sticker back and looked inside. Immediately, an assortment of unmistakable scents emerged and tickled at her nostrils; cotton-candy, bubblegum, popcorn, chocolate, and vanilla. Along with the sweet smells of Sugarcube Corner came a generous supply of glitter and confetti as well. The letter that slipped out unfolded from the origami heart it had been arranged into, the writing scrawled across it born of a strange mixture of reckless abandon and limitless energy.

Seeing Pinkie Pie's chaotic chickenscratch was oddly comforting. Looking at it, holding the letter in her hooves, Rainbow Dash felt almost as though the whole ordeal she'd witnessed had been a figment of her imagination, as though Pinkie Pie might jump out from behind the nearest piece of furniture and throw one of her signature surprise parties.

But she didn't.

As Dash opened her eyes, the friendly fantasy dissolved and the truth sank back in. Forcing down the knot in her throat, she started from the top and began to read.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dear Rainbow Dash,

I know I'm terrible at expressing myself sometimes, I'm always getting carried away and making a super-extra-giant hyperbole out of everything, but I've gotta give it a shot. I've gotta get this off of my chest. If I don't, I feel like I'm gonna explode or something. And not the good kind of explosion when I get both a sugar high and caffeine rush at the same time, the bad kind where everything starts to hurt inside and there's nothing to make the pain go away. Did you know I used to feel like that all the time? Bet you didn't, I was really good at hiding it. Think about it, no pony'll ever think you're in pain if you go around throwing huge parties all the time. To me it seemed obvious. It was just another kind of compensation. I was so chock-full of saddie-sadness that I surrounded myself with balloons and cake and ribbons and streamers all the time. I thought that if I buried myself under a mountain of happy things that I would be happy too. I tried and tried and tried to throw a party big enough, one so great that it would make me smile even after it was over, but I could never get it right.

At some point I came to the conclusion that I could only be happy if a party were going on. Remember back when I threw one almost every night? Back then those parties were all that I had. Sure, Applejack and Rarity and Fluttershy were always great friends to me, but I guess what was missing in my heart was something more than a friend.

And that's when you came along, Dashie.

One night, while I was cleaning up, you decided to stick around and help me with some of the soda stains on the floor. Maybe you were bored, maybe they were from your sodas and you felt guilty; all I know is that it was one of the most magical nights of my life. Never ever before did I click so well with another pony like the way I did with you. It wasn't long after that night that we started hanging out for real. You loved playing pranks on the townsponies with me, you loved the parties that I threw, you loved hanging out for no reason whenever I was bored, and you even loved the sweets that I made. I'll admit, I was always a bit nervous because of your wings and my lack thereof. Hehe, I said “thereof”. Twilight's not the only smarty-smartpants around here! Er, I mean, I was always scared that you might stop hanging out with me because I couldn't fly. Remember when Gilda came to town? Wowie-zowie, I was super scared. I thought I'd lost your friendship for good, and to such a bignormous jerk too! I'm glad that you saw through her fake coolness and figured out what a big bully she really was. To think, she went and made Fluttershy cry! I was so mad at that bird for that!

Whoops, there I go, bramble-rambling like usual. Heh, I suppose I can't really help it. Beating around the bush is a lot less frightening than facing your fears, even if it doesn't get anything done. Still, I set out to do this and I'm gonna do it! If there's anything that I've learned from you, Dashie, it's that you've always gotta give it your all. So, having said that, here's my all. I hope you're ready for it, because I know I'm not.

I love you, Rainbow Dash. I've loved you ever since you stayed behind to help me clean that night. Maybe I'm a silly-filly most of the time, but I'm serious about this. If there's ever been anything in the whole wide world for me to be serious about, it's this. I love you and... and... even if saying that causes a rift to form between us, I won't take it back. I can't take it back. I hope you understand, Dashie.

Oh, and in closing, I figured I'd end this letter with something that not even I could mess up. It's a little short, I know, but it really did take me forever to finish it. Forever plus some! I think it summarizes everything that I've said pretty nicely, and hey, it even rhymes!

The first day you dashed by me
I knew right from the start
That you'd be the one
To steal my candy heart

Yours truly,
Pinkamena Diane Pie

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

With wide eyes, Dash's trembling hooves dropped the letter as she staggered back and slumped down against the side of her bed. Pinkamena? Rainbow Dash could count the times she'd heard Pinkie Pie refer to herself by that name on one hoof. This really was serious, this really was real. The little pegasus pony couldn't find the words to express the roaring hurricane of emotions rushing and crashing about inside of her. All she found herself capable of was curling up into a ball on the floor, as tight as she could, and blocking out the rest of the world. For the following hour, all she did was sob.

It was all she could do.

By the time Twilight's message arrived, a summons clutched safely in the talons of her faithful nighttime assistant, Owlowiscious, Rainbow Dash had cried herself right to sleep. However, as soon as the tawny owl opened his beak and let loose a single, enigmatic “who”, the prismatic pegasus bolted up off of her spot on the floor, her eyes wide open and her mind racing. Seeing the owl there beside her, Dash instinctively knew that she didn't need to read the scroll that he'd brought with him. Instead, she spread her wings wide and took off like a rocket, her destination Twilight's library. Even though she felt as though she'd cried every last drop of water from her body, broken inside in a way that she'd never before experienced, just the fact that the hunt for Raszagal was about to begin sent a mighty surge of energy blasting throughout her entire body. Like a raging wildfire, every muscle, bone, and tendon burned white-hot with the same aching desire.

Revenge.

“Hang on, Pinkie, I'm coming for ya,” she growled. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye, I'm gonna kick that chump of an alicorn's ass across the sky.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As the sun steadily set over the distant horizon, Rainbow Dash arrived at Twilight's humble home, a library nestled in the hollowed-out form of a massive tree. Aside from the Doctor, Amy, Twilight, Spike, and Rainbow Dash, several others answered the lavender unicorn's call as well. Among them were Ponyville's esteemed mayor, Big Macintosh, and Spitfire, the captain of the Wonderbolts. After a short round of greetings, all ponies and baby dragons present then convened in the resident unicorn's dinning room, which due to the circumstances of the day's events had been transformed into a war room of sorts. Seated down the sides of a long banquet table, everypony nodded and turned expectantly towards Twilight Sparkle.

“I'm sure you all know by now,” began Twilight, her tone deadly serious, “why I asked to see you here. Not since Nightmare Moon's attempt at another eternal night or Discord's release has such a threat been posed. Our town has been attacked, one of our own has been stolen, and if the information that I've been given is to be trusted, much worse may well loom over the horizon.”

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth and stamped a hoof, shaking the entire table.

“And it is with a heavy heart that I must inform you all,” continued the unicorn, clearing her throat, “that I have yet to receive word back from either Princess Celestia or Princess Luna. Because they were last seen traveling through the Stormwall to New Shetland City, I can only assume that the tornadoes and massive thunderstorms that are common in that area are the cause of the loss of communication. I've only ever encountered two or three things capable of blocking the fire that Spike uses to send his messages, but counted among them are indeed extreme wind conditions. Because of this, I must also inform you that the royal guard and a majority of the Wonderbolts are also beyond contact, both groups having insisted upon protecting Princess Celestia and Princess Luna during their journey.”

Nervously, the Mayor piped in and asked, “So, where does that leave us then? Are there any other reinforcements coming at all?”

From his place at Twilight's side, Spike gulped nervously.

“I sent for Fyre Flower as well but have yet to hear from her either,” answered Twilight. “Given that she's an explorer and more than likely at one of the furthest ends of the kingdom right now, I highly doubt that we'll hear from her in time. So, with the exception of Spitfire, who prior to this was enjoying an extended vacation, it looks as though we're doing this... on our own.”

“I'm sorry that I was the only one you were able to reach,” said Spitfire with a frown. “Because he was technically around, Soarin' wanted to tag along too, but the nurses at the hospital were pretty adamant about not letting him try to save the world. The wing he broke a couple months back is still on the mend, so he'd probably just slow us down in the end. Heh, that's my team.”

Shaking her head, Twilight forced a smile and replied, “That's quite alright, Spitfire. We're lucky enough to have gotten you. Another Wonderbolt would have been great, but even just one is a massive improvement. I doubt that there's a pony in this room who would disagree with me on that.”

With the exception of the Doctor and Amy, who had never heard of the ace flying squad, everypony in the room concurred with an affirmative nod.

“So tell us, Twilight, what should we do?” asked the Mayor as she put a quick end to the pleasantries, her steady gaze careful and calculating. “Do you have a plan?”

“Actually, I~

Rising from his seat, the Doctor cut in, “If you wouldn't mind?”

“Not at all, Doctor,” answered the purple unicorn as she sat down and yielded the floor.

“Right then,” stated the brown pony evenly, his tail swinging from side to side as he spoke. “What we're dealing with is a transcendental being known as an Eternal. They're smart, they're powerful, and worst of all, they have absolutely no manners or morals whatsoever. In the universe from which both Amy and I hail, an Eternal's powers are nearly limitless and they often do as they please to whomever or whatever they please, the aftermath of course being completely inconsequential to them.”

“So then they really are like rogue gods!” exclaimed the Mayor, aghast.

“Hedonistic parasites, if you ask me,” continued the Doctor, grunting disdainfully. “They live solely to amuse themselves. In so doing, they often utilize what they refer to as 'Ephemerals' to their own ends.”

“Ephemerals?” interjected Spitfire, her tone quizzical.

“Fancying themselves the highest echelon of sentience, Eternals refer to any and every other 'mortal' form of sentient life as an Ephemeral,” clarified the Time Stallion.

“Wait a minute, you're saying these Eternal guys just go around and yoinking everyday folks out of their daily lives so they can... I don't know... 'play' with them?” questioned Spitfire again, her eyes wide in disbelief. “That's awful!”

Imagining Pinkie Pie being forced to dance around for Raszagal's amusement, Rainbow Dash murmured, “Sick.”

“Truly awful, truly sick,” agreed the Doctor, frowning. “It's why I've never been very partial of them. I've dealt with some in the past that weren't so egotistical and controlling, but they were far and few in between. For the most part, they're all like that.”

Cocking an eyebrow, Spike measured into the conversation again, questioning with a shrug, “Finding these 'Ephemerals' or whatever, kidnapping them, then making them dance around like puppets for their own amusement; these Eternal guys sure do go through a ton of trouble just to entertain themselves. Maybe it's just me or maybe they do more than just play around with their victims, but it just sounds like too much of a hassle, ya know?”

Both Twilight and the Doctor turned to face the baby dragon at the same time. Usually more of a joker than a thinker, there were still those moments where Spike's intelligence truly shined through.

“He makes an excellent point, Doctor,” stated the lilac unicorn, proud of her assistant. “Do Eternals actually need their Ephemerals for more than just entertainment?”

Nodding, the brown stallion replied, “Indeed they do. As I've already stated, I think twice today, Eternals are incapable of creative thought; they literally cannot conceptualize their own ideas. Instead, they utilize the thoughts of the Ephemerals that they've kidnapped, stealing their ideas for themselves.”

A silence fell over the room for a few seconds while the ponies (and dragon) present tried to imagine just what it would be like to be unable to imagine. The sheer irony of that mental question brought several of them headaches.

“Do they have any inherent weaknesses, Doctor?” inquired Amy as she jumped into the conversation, reigniting it. ”I never really thought to ask before, what with you always taking the initiative and all that.”

For the briefest moment, the Doctor's expression sharpened, but as quick as it had changed, a mere millisecond later and it reverted back to his usual, unreadable mask. Whatever had crossed his mind, it seemed that all the other ponies in the room were unaware.

All, that is, except for Amy. She knew that look all too well.

“Well, aside from their aforementioned lack of creative and imaginative thought, normally I would have to say no, but becaus~

Suddenly, the doors to the small dinning hall were thrown open.

“From what I've heard within this room, it sounds as though we are all quite doomed,” spoke Zecora, her expression exacerbated. “Now somepony help me get this one seated before my legs buckle and are defeated!”

With a majority of her weight leaning on the striped zebra, a battered and bruised Applejack limped into the room.

“Sorry Ah'm a tad late, everypony,” said Applejack, doing her best to grin through the pain, “but y'all just wouldn't believe the day Ah've had.”

“Applejack, what in Equestria are you doing here?” gasped Twilight as she, Rainbow Dash, and Big Macintosh jumped to their hooves to help her get safely seated.

Wincing in pain as her friends slowly lowered her into a seat, the blonde work-pony replied, “Heh, y'all know me, Ah just don't know when ta leave well enough alone.”

“No kidding, AJ, you look like you fell down a mountain,” gasped Spike.

Leaning back in her seat, she retorted with a snort, “Yeah, an' Ah feel like it too.”

Visibly irritated, Zecora simply rolled her eyes and sat down.

Flattening her ears in a mixture of guilt and embarrassment, Applejack turned to face her annoyed caretaker and added, “An' Ah really am sorry, Zecora, really, but ya know Ah just couldn't stand ta be left outta these proceedin's. My friend's life is at stake an' as mad as Ah'm sure hearin' me say this is gonna make ya, Ah'd more than gladly take twice as much punishment as Ah already have just ta know whether or not she'll be alright.”

“Mad, oh yes, I most certainly am, but let it be known that I do understand,” stated the sagely zebra with a nod.

Before returning to his seat, Big Macintosh gave his signature sprig of wheat a couple thoughtful chews and said, “Apple Bloom's been askin' 'bout ya.”

“Ya lie an' tell her Ah'm doin' just fine? Some lies are... more forgivable than others.” asked Applejack, her voice strained but steady.

“'Course.”

“Good. Ah don't want her frettin' over me, she's just a filly, she's got better things ta do than that. Thank ya, big brother.”

“Just promise ta make good use 'a my lie an' get better right quick.”

“Ah promise.”

Content, the red stallion smiled and returned to his spot at the table. Then, with a casual glance and a signal to rise, he motioned for the Doctor to resume where he had left off.

Normally, getting interrupted midway into a lengthy explanation left the centuries-old time traveler rather annoyed, but he had to admit to himself that the scene he'd just watched was a difficult one to not smile at. These ponies were a tough bunch, even in the eye of such a storm.

“As I was saying,” continued the Doctor, grinning, “aside from their lack of imagination, a trait that can make them rather predictable at times, their plans and machinations repeating themselves until they're forced to fetch another Ephemeral to steal ideas from, normally I would have to say no; ordinarily, an Eternal would boast no real weaknesses to speak of. Or, at the very least, no weaknesses that we could very easily exploit. Another Eternal more than likely could, perhaps, but that option isn't exactly available to us right now.”

“Ordinarily?” chimed-in Amy, her smile cunning and sly. “Not that these guys are ordinary at all, but I'm guessing that this situation is even less ordinary for our boy, Raszagal, right?”

“Precisely!” laughed the Doctor, his voice full of glee. “Upon entering this universe, Raszagal underwent a metamorphosis and became a pony, just as Amy and I did. While he appears to be quite powerful, the powers that we all witnessed him use weren't unheard of, were they?”

After mulling over it for a second, Spitfire was the first to concur, “No, all unicorns can do magic and all pegasus ponies can fly.”

“He was just really good at both,” said Dash, her eyes lighting up as she caught on.

“Exactly,” stated the Time Stallion with a wink. “An Eternal's powers are nearly limitless, the very fabric of reality twisting at their command, but not Raszagal's. He was forced to take a hostage in order to escape. What that tells me is that his powers have been restricted to those granted by this universe. Perhaps they're still godly, but they're a level of godly that we can still safely deal with.”

“Seen worse gods in yer travels, eh?” smirked Applejack tiredly.

With a nod, the Doctor answered, “Much worse.”

“Well, knowing that he can be dealt with is reassuring, but how do we actually go about dealing with him?” questioned the Mayor.

If they hadn't been already, everypony in the room turned to face the Doctor.

Adjusting his bow tie, he tilted his head and said, “What? I can't put the entire plan together, now can I? I don't know much about this universe. All that I do know are the things that I've seen and experienced, which might I remind you aren't much.”

“Actually, I think I have an idea,” announced Twilight, prompting everypony in the room to turn and face her. “I'm going to need your help with this, Zecora, but I think that in order to win, all we really have to do is make Raszagal the butt of a big joke.”

Immediately, the zebra burst out into laughter.

“Am I missing something?” questioned the Doctor.

“Listen closer, Doctor, for it is just as she spoke,” answered Zecora, still laughing, “she means to use the poison joke.”

After chewing on that for a few seconds, the Time Stallion frowned and said, “Nope, still not getting it.”

“Poison joke,” explained Twilight, fully aware of how difficult communicating with the mysterious zebra could sometimes be, “is a plant indigenous to the Everfree Forest. Like poison ivy and poison oak, it's toxic. The difference is that its toxin doesn't leave the victim with a rash or an itching sensation. Instead, it plays a sort of a 'joke' on them, usually in the form of role reversal.”

“Yeah, 'member when we went an' wandered through a whole field 'a it?” laughed Applejack, instantly regretting it as a sharp pain shot through her ribs.

Recalling that day quite well, Spike grinned and suppressed a fit of laughter.

Nodding, the unicorn replied, “My horn went limp, you shrunk down to a size of a hummingbird, Rainbow Dash couldn't control her flight patterns, soft-spoken Fluttershy's voice was replaced with a deep baritone one; ugh, it was a hectic day. But hectic, in this case, should be the exact opposite of what will happen. Judging by how you described Raszagal, and for that matter just about every other Eternal, their egos and their powers are their defining characteristics. If that's the case, then it only makes sense that the greatest joke to play on them would to be to completely strip them of their powers altogether!”

Utterly speechless for a few moments, the Doctor eventually slapped himself across the face and managed to muster, “That's... that's brilliant. Absolutely, completely, bloody brilliant! That just might work!”

“Zecora, among your potions do you happen to have a vial of concentrated poison joke?” asked Twilight.

Happily, the sage-like zebra beamed and nodded.

“Good, good, then all we have to do now is figure out how to find him, confront him, and work out a safe way of applying the poison joke potion to him,” the purple unicorn pondered aloud. “And I may have another part of that problem already partially solved. Using something of Pinkie Pie's, something close to her heart that she's strongly attached to, I can cast a tracking spell that should lead us directly to her.”

“I can fly over to Sugarcube Corner right now and ask Mr. and Mrs. Cake if they have anything there that might work,” offered Spitfire, hopping to her hooves and ready to take action.

But she didn't have to. Every pair of eyes in the room locked onto Rainbow Dash as she very carefully placed an envelope down onto the table and slid it towards Twilight.

“No need,” said the blue pegasus, her tone level and her expression guarded. “Use that.”

After a few seconds of silence, Twilight Sparkle looked very studiously at the envelope and asked, “What is it?”

“A love letter,” Dash responded, “a love letter that she wrote.”

Considering that, the Mayor then tapped a hoof against the table and inquired, “If it's a love letter that she wrote, what were you doing with it, Rainbow Dash?”

Feeling as though she were suffocating, Dash swallowed once and then answered hoarsely, “Celestia damn you, do I really have to spell this out? It's... it's addressed to me.”

The tension in the awkward silence that followed was practically palpable.

“Did you just~

“Yes, I did,” confirmed the pegasus.

“Well, care to~

“No, I don't!” she snapped, her voice now ripe with emotion. It took a few seconds for her to calm herself and soften her tone. “I've already cried twice today and I'd rather not test the whole 'third time's the charm' theory. There's... there's a time and a place for this kind of conversation. Now's not the time.”

With her eyes tightly closed in an attempt to force them to stay dry, Dash couldn't see Twilight as she got up from her seat and placed a comforting hoof on her sky-blue shoulder. Nor could she see the piercing, petrifying glare that the unicorn gave to the Mayor.

“It's okay, Rainbow, you don't have to say anything more,” whispered Twilight as she hugged her hurting friend.

As Twilight backed away, Rainbow Dash bit her lip and collected herself. With her composure regained, she took in a deep breath and opened her eyes.

Somehow, she had been successful in keeping them from flooding again.

Returning to her place at the end of the table, Twilight slammed one hoof down and announced, “Alright, everypony, I'm calling for a 15 minute recess while Zecora, the Doctor, Spike, and I work on the tracking spell! Be back here in exactly 15 minutes, not a second later!”

Then, turning to face Dash again, the lavender unicorn lowered her voice and promised, “I'll be more careful with this letter than I have ever been with any other spell ever before. You have my word.”

“And you have mine as well,” added the Doctor.

Smiling weakly, the blue pegasus nodded thankfully to the both of them.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Well, that certainly was somethin', huh?” said Applejack, breaking the ice.

About five minutes had passed since Twilight had adjourned the meeting for a brief recess. Now only two ponies remained in the room.

Rubbing her head with one hoof, Dash shrugged and replied, “I was sort of hoping we'd all move out as soon as we got here. I had no idea how long the meeting was going to last. Heck, I had no idea how much stuff I had no idea about. Other worlds, other universes, space travel, time travel, Eternals, and Celestia knows what else!”

“Calm down, Sugarcube, don't go gettin' yerself all riled up,” said the farm mare in a motherly tone. “We need ya calm an' collected fer this.”

“Pinkie needs me calm and collected for this,” muttered Rainbow Dash, dejected.

Licking her lips as she searched for something to say, Applejack eventually stated, “You'll get her back, Dash. Ah know ya will.”

“But how can you know that?” snapped the pegasus, jumping up and out of her chair. “How can you know that I won't mess things up? How can you know that I'll be strong enough and fast enough to beat this guy? How can you know any of that?!”

After a few seconds passed, Rainbow Dash groaned in aggravation and sat back down.

“I'm sorry, Applejack, I didn't mean to yell at you,” apologized Dash with a grimace. “It's just... stuff. Stuff going on. Lot's of stuff, ya know?”

Smiling warmly, Applejack replied, “Ah know, Sugarcube, ah know. If'n ya think it'll help, ya can yell at me as much as ya want.”

“Pfft, where'll that get me?” complained the emotionally exhausted pegasus. “I've already done nothing but cry for the first half of the day and yelling for the rest of the second half sounds just as bad. Besides, I gave the whole 'stay angry' thing a shot during the meeting, couldn't you tell? All it did was make me look like and idiot and give me a gigantic headache. Ugh, and I don't know about you, but I seriously doubt that an idiot with a headache could punch a god in the face and free his hostage without messing something up.”

After letting out a heavy, held-in breath, Dash concluded, “So, yeah, to summarize all of that up, no, I don't want to yell at you. Of course I don't.”

Having finally gotten that out of her system, the blue pegasus rubbed at her head with one hoof and smiled weakly. While the situation was still quite dire, she couldn't deny that relaxing and just letting go of her stress felt good. Besides, she thought to herself, she'd need a clear head if she planned on shoving her hoof down that Eternal's smug throat.

Just the possibility of that made her smile widen a bit more.

“Well,” chuckled Applejack, her aching body immediately reminding her that thing's such as laughter were still against the rules, “we could just talk, if'n that's what ya'd like. Whenever Ah get madder than a wet hen, sure, Ah'll huff an' puff about it fer a while, but once all's said an' done Ah'll always end up doin' the same thing. Ah'll storm across the farm ta wherever Big Macintosh is, drag him away, find the nearest stool, sit him down on it, an' tell him what's got my edges frayed.”

Studying her friend for a moment, Rainbow Dash casually retorted, “But you already know why I'm frazzled. I mean, jeez, it's... it's pretty obvious.”

“That's true, but Ah also know that Ah'm more than willin' ta hear the same story twice if'n it might help ta shine some sun through yer cloudy skies,” stated the apple farmer affectionately.

Blushing, Dash leaned back in her chair, her eyes on the ceiling, and asked, “What if we skip the story and try something else? I suck at telling stories anyway. I'm more about going out there and living it, not talking about it.”

“Heh, shoot first an' ask questions later,” chuckled Applejack, making sure not to laugh too hard. “Definitely a bold way ta go 'bout life. An' sure, Sugarcube, ya don't have ta talk 'bout everythin' that went on today; we can do somethin' else if'n ya'd like.”

With the ghost of a smile beginning to touch her face, Rainbow Dash said, “You know you're one of my best friends, right?”

“Huh?” piqued the farm pony. That wasn't among the topics she'd been expecting. “Well, 'a course. Ah've always considered y'all one 'a my best friends too.”

“No, I mean,” Dash sputtered, fumbling for a way to say what she was thinking, “you're cool, one of the coolest ponies I know. Even though you don't have wings and you can't fly, you always manage to keep me sharp and on the tips of my hooves.”

With a smirk, Applejack replied, “Well, somepony's gotta keep ya in check, right? Ah might just be an earth pony, no wings or magic, but Ah'd like ta think that Ah hold my own pretty dern well.”

Applejack then took a moment to look down at her bandage-covered body.

Rolling her eyes, she amended, “Current circumstances notwithstandin'.”

“Of course,” said Rainbow Dash, her smile widening. ”That's why you're the only pony I've ever really gone to whenever I needed any advice.”

Quirking one eyebrow, the farm pony smirked, “Oh really? My advice? When was the last time ya actually listened ta what Ah said an' took it ta heart?”

Gulping, Dash looked away and answered, “This morning.”

Applejack winced hard at the mention of that. Of all the things to forget and then bring up by mistake!

“Dash, Ah'm sorry, Ah just plum forgot an' I didn't mean ta~

“It's alright,” said the pegasus with a sigh, cutting her friend off before she had a chance to apologize her way into next year. “Not only do I not blame you for stopping me, but that's not even what I want to talk about.”

“Oh?” questioned Applejack, relieved. “Then what do ya have on yer mind?”

“Well, it's like I said before,” explained Rainbow Dash as she nervously tapped her hooves against the floor, “you're the only one I've ever really gone to for advice and right now I could really use some.”

“Ah thought y'all were kiddin' before,” stated Applejack with an honest smile, “but if'n ya really do need some advice, then Ah'd be more than happy ta give some. What do ya need ta know, Sugarcube?”

Once again, what Rainbow Dash wanted to say sounded simple and easy in her head, but actually saying it was proving difficult. For what felt to the little pegasus like forever, the question simply sat there in her mind, screaming at the top of its lungs.

“I want to know,” she began, fidgeting in her seat, “what I should tell Pinkie Pie once we've rescued her. What should I say? What should I do? I keep trying to think of an answer on my own, but I'm just no good at this sort of thing. Emotions like love are... weird. I've never really felt that way about anypony before, the way she feels about me I mean. Or at least I thought I didn't. After reading her letter... I'm not so sure anymore.”

“Love's funny like that,” said Applejack with a nod. “Ya never know when or where it'll strike an' ya can never be fully prepared fer the consequences that'll come nippin' at yer heels 'cuz of it.”

Reeling back after hearing that, Dash blinked her eyes a few times and stated, “Way to encourage me there, Jack.”

“Sorry, hun, but that's the honest truth,” replied the blonde pony. “Ah wish it weren't the case, but wishin' on a star won't go gettin' us anywhere.”

“Too bad, because it's almost nighttime right now.”

“Heh, if ya'd like, Ah'll wish on a few with ya.”

“Nah, like you said, that won't get us anywhere.”

“Yeah... sorry.”

“That's alright,” sighed Rainbow Dash as 'the question' crept back into her head. “I'd just like an answer, preferably sooner than later. You have any ideas?”

Shaking her head, Applejack answered, “Plenty of 'em, but none Ah really fancy tellin' ya.”

Scowling, Dash quickly questioned, “What? Why not?”

“'Cuz, Sugarcube, they're all my answers,” stated the farmer sadly, “an' none 'a my answers are right fer you. This is a problem that ya gotta solve on yer own. Ah can help a bit, maybe be there fer ya if'n ya need a shoulder to cry on, but Ah can't do it fer ya. That's just not how it works. This riddle is yers an' yers alone. It'll be a tough one ta crack, Ah'm sure, but Ah'm also sure that whatever answer ya come up with, it'll be the right one.”

A few seconds of silence passed as Rainbow Dash thought hard about what her friend had said.

“Confusin', ain't it?” said Applejack as she stood up.

Rainbow Dash looked at the earth pony worryingly, not sure if it was alright for her to stand on her own.

“Okay, Dash, okay... Ah think Ah can help,” stated Applejack as she slowly made her way over to the nearest window. The blonde mare looked at the distant sunset with a knowing look in her eyes. “The thing is, ya gotta answer me somethin' first.”

Not sure where Applejack was going with this, the blue pegasus hesitated for a moment before replying, “Alright, I'm game. Ask away.”

“It's about Pinkie Pie,” said Applejack, her eyes still focused on the dwindling light as it disappeared over the hills. “Even if ya don't return Pinkie's feelins, will ya still stay by her side as her friend? Will ya fight off the awkwardness an' make damn sure that a rift won't go growin' between ya?”

Rainbow Dash watched from her seat as a steady trickle of tears streamed down her friend's face and collected in a small pool on the floor.

“Will ya forgive her,” persisted Applejack, her voice thready and shaken, “fer hatin' ya if'n she can't handle it, if'n she can't handle not bein' able ta spend the rest 'a her life with ya?”

That question left the pegasus pony speechless, completely and utterly speechless. Minutes ticked away as she floundered for a reply. All the while, still staring out the window at the vanishing light, Applejack continued to silently cry.

Finally, after shaking her head clear of the shock, Dash stood up from her seat and trumpeted, “Of course! Of course I will! I refuse to lose her as a friend! Even if that's what she wants, to lose me in the end, I'll find a way to stay friends!”

One last tear fell to the floor before Applejack turned around.

On her face was the widest, brightest smile that Rainbow Dash had ever seen.

“Then ya can't go wrong, darlin',” said the earth pony as raised a hoof to wipe at her eyes. “Stars above, Ah wish Ah had the courage ta do what yer doin'.”

“What do you mean?” asked Dash, perhaps more confused at that moment than she had ever been before. “You mean you wish you could go and fight Raszagal with us?”

“'Course Ah wish that,” laughed Applejack, “but no, that's not what Ah meant. Ah wish Ah had the courage ta face the one that Ah've had my eyes on and tell 'em how Ah feel.”

Rainbow Dash's eyes widened as everything suddenly clicked into place.

Shocked, the blue pegasus pried, “You're... in love with somepony too, Applejack?”

Sighing, the apple farmer paced back over to her seat and replied, “Fer the longest time now. It's done been so long that Ah can't fer the life 'a me think of a time that Ah didn't love her.”

“And it's a 'her' too?!” exclaimed Dash, her mouth agape in surprise.

With a sad and hollow laugh, Applejack said, “Yeah, it's a her. It's been a her ever since the two 'a us first met.”

“Well, why haven't you ever tried to tell her how you feel?” asked Dash, tilting her head. “You just gave me some pretty awesome advice. Why don't you follow it yourself? Practice what you preach and all that stuff, ya know?”

“'Cuz Ah'm afraid,” answered the farm pony. “Celestia knows Ah've tried, Sugarcube, it just always ends the same. There Ah am, standin' inches away from her door, an' all I gotta do is knock an' recite the same old speech Ah've had rattlin' around in my head fer years. But, like always, Ah turn tail an' run.”

“But you don't run from anything!” replied the prismatic pegasus, throwing her hooves in the air melodramatically. “You're Applejack, you don't even run from stampedes or landslides!”

“Some things are scarier than that sorta stuff, Dash. A landslide or an avalanche, sure, Ah could face those down 'til Ah was neck-deep in dirt an' snow. But this... this is just... different. It's the only thing that Ah just can't do.”

“And I refuse to believe that!”

“Ya can refuse ta believe it all ya want, it don't change a thing!”

“Why? Why doesn't it?”

Slamming her eyes shut, Applejack exclaimed, “'Cuz it just don't! Ya don't know her like Ah know her, Dash! We're so... so different! Everythin' 'bout us is just a long list 'a opposites! Buckin' apples has me rollin' in the mud every dang day, but she's scared ta death 'a just the thought 'a gettin' dirty!”

Immediately, Applejack knew that she had said too much. When she opened her eyes and saw Rainbow Dash staring back at her with a pitiful look, she wished that Raszagal's attack had done more than just banged her up.

As Dash stepped forward, a protest on the tip of her tongue, a loud clatter arose from just outside the library. The recess' 15 minutes had elapsed and the meeting was about to resume. It was then that the doors to the dinning hall burst open and everypony began returning to their seats. The two ponies locked eyes one more time before Rainbow Dash ran back over to her place at the other side of the table. Hiding her eyes beneath the wide brim of her hat, Applejack took in a deep breath and frowned. She certainly hadn't expected to reveal as much as she did, but she resigned herself to the fact that what was said was said and that there was no way she could take any of it back. The farm pony was glad to have helped her friend, mortified that she'd let such a large cat out of the bag, and felt terribly guilty for refusing the same kind of help that she had only moments before given.

“Am Ah ever gonna do anythin' right?” growled the emotionally armored earth pony beneath her breath. “Ah just hope Ah didn't go an' ruin all 'a that cheerin' up Ah did by bein' such a stupid hypocrite. She needs support right now, not me pushin' her away with my dumb fears.”

But Applejack wasn't given much time to think about her misstep as a muffled explosion shook the whole building.

“Everyone!” announced the distant voice of the Doctor.

From the depths of the basement, Twilight Sparkle, Zecora, Spike, Amy, and the Doctor emerged, a trail of thick blue smoke quick at their heels.

The Time Stallion coughed once, then grinned and said, “The hunt is on.”

Chapter Three - Hunting Down a Rogue God

A Mad Dash Through Time and Space
Chapter Three – Hunting Down a Rogue God
A commission for an anonymous brony
As written by Joseph Raszagal

~ ~ ~

“Ghost, ghost, I know you live within me
Feel as you fly
In thunderclouds above the city
Into one that I
Loved with all that was left within me
Until we tore in two
Now wings and rings and there's so many
Waiting here for you”

“Ghost” by Neutral Milk Hotel

~ ~ ~

“Alright, does everypony understand?” asked Twilight, the meeting now over and everypony ready to depart and attend to their assigned tasks.

“Ah'd really like ta go with ya,” sighed Applejack, shaking her head, “but Ah'm not that dense. Y'all got yer job an' Ah've got mine. Heh, restin' up and healin'. Ah understand.”

“I don't!” shouted Amy indignantly. “You need me with you, Doctor! Why do I have to stick behind and watch the TARDIS?!”

“Because, Pond,” replied the Time Stallion, smiling, “she's alone in a strange place and hurt. She needs someone that she knows right now. She needs you.”

“She'd prefer Rory,” spat the Scottish mare.

“She would, but he's not here right now.”

“Stupid university. Isn't being a nurse enough?”

“Amy.”

Pouting up a storm, the ginger pony relented and said, “Okay, okay, I'll stay with the TARDIS. But I'm not calling her 'Sexy'!”

“Good,” smirked the Doctor with a wink, “she'd prefer for Rory to say that too.”

“I'll walk her to your box, Doctor,” said the Mayor, inclining her head. “I don't know if I'm willing to accept what you've told me, that it's a time machine, but I'll walk her there all the same.”

“Thank you,” replied the Pony Lord gratefully. Then, turning, he knelt and repeated himself, “and thank you too.”

Shrugging nonchalantly, Spike retorted, “Yeah, I already threw in my two bits and asked Twi if I could come, but she shot me down pretty quick. Maybe if I were a little older and scarier, I'd be more help, but whatever. I might just be a baby dragon, but I'm smart enough to accept that, yeah, I'd probably just be a burden if I tagged along. I'll be sure to keep a good eye on your friend while you're gone, all I need to do is lock up the library first once everything's done here.” Pausing hesitantly and chewing his lip, the baby dragon added, “Just make sure she's safe in return, alright? She's... she's all I've got.”

Off to the side, Big Macintosh shook his head as he looked to Twilight and sighed, “Ya sure ya don't need me? Ah'd be a liar if Ah said Ah didn't want a shot at this guy fer roughin' up my sister the way he did.”

“To be frank, I'm not sure that they need me,” answered the unicorn. “I helped come up with our battle strategy, true, but I'm not sure I'll be all that useful on the battlefield itself. My magic isn't what you would call 'locked and loaded'. Another pegasus pony or two would help a lot more than I would.”

Nodding, the red work pony chewed on his wheat and replied, “Ah understand, Ah do. Ah just want a crack at him is all.”

“Don't worry about it,” said Spitfire, her voice full of enthusiasm. “We'll be sure to give him a couple of smacks for you too. And as for you, your magic is the whole reason we can even locate our boy, Razzy, so don't even think of beating yourself up over your lack of wings.”

Off to another side, adjusting the new pair of aviation goggles that the Wonderbolt captain had given her, Rainbow Dash pondered aloud, “This is closer to being a Wonderbolt than I've ever been. Pinkie, if you could see me now, would you be proud?”

Trotting up to her prismatic friend, the lavender unicorn leading the charge consoled her, “Rainbow Dash? I, um, don't know if this is enough to ease your mind, but the fact that the tracking spell is even working means that Pinkie Pie is still alive.”

“It does?” questioned the blue pegasus as she turned around.

“Yes,” confirmed Twilight.

Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, Rainbow murmured, mostly to herself, “Alive is better than nothing, right? Hold on Pinks, I'm coming.”

As the Mayor and Amy departed for the town square, Zecora approached Applejack and motioned for the farm pony to put her foreleg over her striped shoulders so that they could head back to the cottage together.

“Could ya wait a sec, Zecora?” asked Applejack urgently. “There's still somethin' Ah gotta do.”

Unaware of the blonde pony's intentions, Zecora nonetheless nodded her head and paced back over towards the tree-library.

“Doctor?” called Applejack, grabbing the Time Pony's attention from afar. “A moment 'a yer time?”

“Yes?” inquired the Doctor, trotting over to stand at her side.

In a tone softer and quieter than the sound of a single leaf falling from its branch, the apple farmer stated, “Ah just want ta make one thing crystal clear, alright? Ah've already had one friend stolen from me today, Ah don't want ta lose three more. Now Ah'm a simple pony, but Ah'm not an idiot. Judgin' by the things ya say an' the way ya say 'em, danger is a close friend 'a yers. If'n ya put my friends in any danger that ya can't outsmart, Ah won't forgive ya.”

The two ponies locked eyes and shared a moment of silence.

“There are two things in this world that Ah'm afraid 'a,” said Applejack, licking her lips nervously, “an' one 'a them is losin' the ones Ah love.”

Pulling away, the Doctor closed his eyes and concurred, “That makes two of us then.”

Before he had a chance to return to Twilight and the others, Applejack questioned, “Doctor? What's the other thing that yer afraid 'a?”

Shrugging, he turned to leave and replied, “Myself.”

With that said, the Time Pony rejoined the others.

“Can't say Ah'd jump at the chance ta walk in the hoofsteps 'a the sorta fella what says somethin' like that,” stated the farm mare as Zecora trotted back over to her.

“He worded it best,” agreed Zecora. “That makes two of us.”

Raising one eyebrow, Applejack smirked, “Now Ah know Ah got a concussion. That didn't rhyme at all.”

Laughing, the zebra shook her head and said, “I do not rhyme because it is law-enforced. I simply enjoy it.”

“Of course,” chuckled Applejack, finishing that last rhyme for her. “Alright, let's get outta here. Fluttershy may have been in better shape than Rarity an' insisted she could handle things while we were gone, but I doubt that unicorn had a mind ta make things easy on her once she woke up. Heh, Ah just hope she hasn't tuckered herself out tryin' ta decorate the place or somethin'.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“It would point us into there, wouldn't it?” sighed Twilight as she and the other three approached the edge of the Everfree Forest.

A glowing compass surrounded by the purple aura of her unicorn's horn levitated in front of the frowning pony. Just as she said, the directional device's needle pointed straight ahead, right down a darkened trail.

“I suppose it was inevitable,” she muttered.

Taking a moment to experiment with his wings, the Doctor performed several loop-de-loops and jetted past her. Predictably, the flight trail that the Time Stallion left behind him looked as though space and time were fluctuating in his wake.

“Hmmm, if it comes down to it, I suppose I might not be too shabby in an aerial fight,” he mused, observing the reality ripples that followed him whenever moving at top speed.

“Ahem!” alerted an annoyed Twilight, drawing attention to the matter at hoof by clearing her throat.

“Oh, right, sorry about that,” stated the Doctor as he landed. “So, judging by your enthusiasm, I take it that this forest isn't exactly a pleasant place to be?”

“Not in the slightest,” answered Twilight, shaking her head. “Over the past few centuries all sorts of nasty creatures and animals have made these woods their home. Manticores, hydras, will-o-wisps, ursa majors and minors, snatching shadows, cockatrices, and snare spiders, just to name a few.”

“And the plant life ain't much to write home about either,” added Rainbow Dash impatiently. “Now can we go already?”

In an effort to look annoyed at Dash's haste, the purple unicorn rolled her eyes. In actuality, she was relieved that the pegasus had reigned in her emotions and reemerged as the Rainbow Dash that they all knew and loved.

Or, at times, knew and tolerated.

“Not just yet,” said the Doctor, an inquisitive look stenciled across his face. “Snatching shadows?”

Raising an eyebrow, Spitfire retorts, “Yeah, heard of 'em? Some call them 'shadow hands' or 'returners'. They're not really dangerous, just sort of annoying. Anypony caught by one suddenly finds themselves back at the edge of the forest. They got me once when I was a little foal. I was trying to show off to a few friends, made my way into the woods, then BAM, all of a sudden my head was spinning and I was back to square one right where I'd started.”

“Oh, well if that's all,” sighed the Time Stallion, visibly relieved. “I hear the word shadow and instantly think of the vashta nerada. Nasty bunch, those buggers. Infinitely glad that they're not what you were talking about. Wouldn't want to end up a stripped drumstick on my first adventure out and about here.”

Shooting uncertain stares back and forth, Twilight, Spitfire, and Rainbow Dash simply nodded in agreement.

“Yeah... so are we...?” said Twilight, unsure as to how she should reply.

“Well, I should say so!” exclaimed the Doctor as he approached the forest all on his own. “Now, to parrot Rainbow Dash, can we go already?”

Looking a tad confused, a feeling that the unicorn felt she was getting far too familiar with while in the Time Stallion's company, she shrugged and started towards the dark woods right behind him. Trading cautious glances, Rainbow Dash and Spitfire swiftly flew up beside them to take guarding positions. The flame-colored pegasus took the rear while Dash herself took point. Perhaps it was perfectly natural for the strange and magical forest or perhaps it was because of its newest nearly-omnipotent resident, but a mere ten minutes of walking later and the four ponies found themselves immersed in almost complete darkness. Calmly, Twilight stopped in her tracks and signaled for the rest of the group to do the same. Before the Doctor could reach for his trusty sonic screwdriver, she closed her eyes and focused on the tip of her horn. Moments later, a spark of magic erupted from it and coalesced into a soft and steady glow. With a bit more effort, that soft glow grew brighter, soon enveloping a whole 20 square yards around them in a radiant veil of fuchsia light.

“Neat trick,” mused the Doctor with a grin.

Blushing, Twilight looked the other way and said, “Heh, it's just your basic lighting spell, nothing that complicated really.”

Dash and Spitfire looked at Twilight for a second and then back at each other. The two pegasi rolled their eyes and continued along ahead of the group, stopping where Twilight's magical light ended and the shadows once more began.

“C'mon, you two can get a room later, let's go!” shouted Spitfire as the prismatic pegasus next to her suppressed a chuckle.

Eyebrows lifting, the Stallion Lord objected, “What, hey, don't I get a say in that?”

“Nope, not in that or this, now get your hooves in gear!” answered Rainbow Dash with a smirk.

They continued on like that for a while, a soundtrack of lighthearted conversation carefully camouflaging their growing tension. The darkness surrounding them seemed itself very alive, as though the creatures hidden within it weren't as great a threat as the shadows themselves. Mysterious noises echoed from every direction, ranging from the mightiest of bestial roars to the quiet crunching of the fallen leaves beneath their hooves. Too many times did the woodlands' sentient, monstrous obstacles ward the adventurous group of ponies off into the middle of nowhere. Thickets of living trees made some paths utterly unreachable. Swarms of blade bats made some paths simply undesirable. Despite Twilight's best efforts, the compass needle guiding them seemed dedicated to only one task, taking them to their destination via the longest and most maze-like route possible. Even when their way wasn't completely blocked off, twists and turns plagued their course as they forged ever onward, deeper and deeper, into the most dangerous reaches of all of Equestria.

Twilight, the only pony present without a set of wings, was nearly crushed by an avalanche of boulders at the bottom of a deep ravine; saved from the fate of a rocky tomb at the last minute by Dash. However, the three pegasi all found themselves stuck in a massive spiderweb when they'd all inadvertently flown into it at the same time. It was only because of Twilight's magic that they had managed to escape and evade the enormous fangs of the snare spider prowling nearby. As they retreated, a mountain of bones encased in a blanket of sticky silk told them that more than a fair share of others hadn't been quite so lucky. Not that the forest's large spiders were even remotely the worst of their troubles. After coming upon a small clearing and catching their breath, the four ponies found themselves ambushed by a pack of a dozen manticores. The beasts circled them slowly for more than a minute, gradually closing the gap between them and their pray whilst also remaining alert in case the ponies tried to mount their own offensive. Had it not been for Spitfire blasting off and creating a huge cloud of rolling fog on the ground, it's possible that instead of quietly sneaking away, they would have each ended up in several pieces in several different stomachs.

And that was all within the first 50 minutes.

After hours upon hours of hiking and narrowly avoiding certain death, Twilight's certainty was starting to wear thin. She was beginning to think that her perfect tracking spell hadn't been so perfect after all.

Hovering just a few feet ahead of her, Rainbow Dash was thinking the exact same thing.

And it's for that precise reason that the party of four stopped dead in their tracks as soon as they exited the pitch-black tangle. Dash and Twilight beheld what stood before them with what appeared to be awe.

Pure, simple awe.

A long rope bridge stretched onward ahead of them, its length spanning a massive chasm. The opposite end of it disappeared into a cloud of thick fog like a halfway eaten spaghetti noodle.

Confused, the Doctor and Spitfire both tilted their heads and raised their eyebrows.

“What, are we missing something?” asked the Wonderbolt, her tone brusque but inquisitive.

“Apparently,” stated the Doctor, “Raszagal's disguised himself as a bridge. I should have given him more credit, that's quite clever.”

Taking a moment to glare daggers at the sarcastic pair of pegasi, Rainbow Dash turned to face Twilight. Her expression was an apprehensive one, but behind that was something else, something... hopeful. The purple unicorn nodded affirmatively, licked her lips, and then stepped forward, hesitating for a moment before setting one hoof down on the first set of worm-eaten boards. They creaked as she applied the rest of her weight, but stayed strong and held her as she trotted to the suspended structure's center.

It really was. It was the same bridge, the very same bridge that they had crossed that fateful night when the moon was fuller than it would ever be again.

Twilight turned to face the others, particularly Dash. The sky-blue pegasus didn't bother to hide the grin that was slowly spreading from cheek to cheek across her face.

Twilight didn't bother to hide hers either.

They were both thinking the same thing. Apparently all evil gods thought alike.

Placing the magically imbued tracking compass back in her saddlebag, the lavender unicorn narrowed her gaze and announced to the group, “We've wandered around in circles for long enough, it's high time we ramped up our pace. I've got our destination pinpointed now, so is everypony ready?”

“Thought you'd never ask,” replied Rainbow Dash immediately as she zoomed forward and stopped in midair just above her purple friend. “Now get on and buckle up.”

“Fast time?” mused the Doctor, eying Spitfire for an answer.

By way of reply, the fiery pony shot up into the sky and said, “Super fast time!”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In no time at all, the four ponies were rocketing through the clouds. Sporting Rainbow Dash's spare pair of goggles, Twilight Sparkle held on for dear life as the prismatic pegasus carrying her zoomed above the ocean of lush foliage like a rainbow bullet. In the distance, the dilapidated ruins of an old castle could be seen, its hazy image coming further and further into focus as they encroached upon it. Weathered and worn, the stone structure looked as though it hadn't been home to anypony in centuries.

But looks oft deceive.

“There!” shouted Dash, pointing with one hoof at the familiar set of stone arches that had greeted her once before. “We land there!”

With a collective, nonvocal nod, they all came down from their high altitude, slowing their swift pace until they were but a foot or two off of the ground.

Hopping down from her perch atop Rainbow's back, Twilight surveyed the surroundings before shuddering a bit and saying, “We should have known from the beginning.”

“Yeah,” Dash concurred, “it just sort of makes sense. Still, never thought we'd be back here again.”

“It's as though we just can't escape this place,” said the unicorn, suppressing a shiver, “at least not permanently.”

Stepping forward, the Doctor placed a hoof on both girls' shoulders and inquired, “Been here before?”

“Once, yes,” confirmed Twilight, closing her eyes as the memories came surging forth. “There were six of us, the Elements of Harmony, and our task was to rescue the sun and prevent the fall of an everlasting night.”

With a whistle, the Time Stallion stated, “You certainly don't start off small with your quests, do you?”

“It wasn't easy, but it had to be done,” said Twilight, her smile weary but steadfast.

Smiling back, the Doctor nodded his head and insisted, “The things in life that are worth doing are rarely ever easy.”

Though she said nothing in response, Dash thought to herself, “Trust me, I know... or at least now I do.”

In the same defensive formation that they'd maintained while marching through the forest, the four ponies made their way into the castle ruins that stood before them. The structure, having once been a home to the princesses over a thousand years ago, certainly looked old. The stone arches that once stood tall and erect many eons ago could be found strewn across the overgrown courtyard. The weather-worn bits and pieces only partially blocked off the path that they'd once been vital components to, their jagged edges where they'd broken off eroded by the relentless dirge of time.

After 15 minutes spent navigating the labyrinthine maze of rubble, what stretched onward before the pegasi and unicorn was the castle's main hall. Beyond that, the rest of the ruins could be accessed with comparative ease.

“Okay, is everypony ready?” questioned Twilight, her tone strong and authoritative.

Ready to take off like a rocket down the stone corridor, Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes and replied, “Oh yeah, more than ready. Give us the go-ahead, Twi.”

However, before the purple unicorn could, something unexpected happened. Of all of the monsters, creatures, beasts, and baddies to pose a possible threat to them, the adventurous ponies hadn't been expecting the pack of feral wolves that were suddenly surrounding them. From behind fallen stones and through holes in the walls and floor, snarling wolves appeared as though through teleportation; fangs bared threateningly and eyes narrowed. Stranger still was just how many of the beasts were involved. Sure, a small pack wouldn't have ranked very highly among the forest's many threats. Furthermore, even a fairly large pack of wolves would've preferable to, say, the manticores that they'd been forced to flee from hours earlier.

But this wasn't a large pack of wolves.

It was an enormous pack of wolves.

To make matters worse, the wolves had cornered them at the entrance to the castle's main hall, which made an aerial escape all the more unlikely. In fact, the more Twilight scanned their location and their many canine foes, the more she realized that the forest wasn't what was directing the assault.

It was Raszagal. It was a trap.

Turning to face the others, a simple nod from the Doctor confirmed her assumption. Like a rocket, the lavender unicorn's mind then zoomed into action. Her first order of business was to figure out exactly why Raszagal needed to employ a bunch of wolves to do his bidding when he himself would be much better-suited to the task, especially when considering his pure, unrivaled power. It was then that she remembered the Doctor explaining the very nature of the Eternals, how they lived to amuse themselves and nothing more. While fangs and claws were far more inefficient than his bulldozing might, they were likely infinitely easier for the evil alicorn to enjoy from afar, free from dirtying his own hooves in the murderous process. With that theory well-supported and in place, her analytical gaze swiftly switched to cataloging and scrutinizing everything within sight. There were more than four dozen wolves in the hall with them, two packs at their rear and another two directly in front of them. Running down both sides of the hall were two sets of massive granite windowsills, each one populated by a growling wolf of its own.

Twilight gulped audibly after crunching those numbers for a second. Her advanced level of intellect wasn't really necessary to deduce the direness of their situation, she'd simply held out hope that there was some kind of advantage to be gained in their surrounding environment.

Not only was there no such advantage, but even if there had been the wolves would have already abused it.

“Don't worry, they won't even get within 20 feet of you,” assured Rainbow Dash as she stepped forward and spread her wings, puffing herself up to look bigger. “The moment they move is the moment I start kicking butt.”

Several tense seconds passed.

The interesting thing is that Dash's little display... seemed to have worked.

Raising an eyebrow, the Doctor commented, “I would really, sincerely like to believe that it's going to be that easy.”

“Well... maybe it is,” offered Dash, her wavering grin thoroughly uncertain. “Maybe they've heard of me and don't wanna risk stepping up to the plate.”

“One can only hope th~

Cut off before his thought had a chance to run its course, the Doctor watched as the wolves standing before them parted like a furry sea to reveal their pack leader. An elderly wolf, covered in as many scars as there were stars in a clear night's sky, padded forward. His pace was slow, hampered even more by the fact that he appeared to be blind.

“You,” spoke the old canine, his voice coming out in a rasp of gravel, rock salt, and ruined vocal chords. “You... with the aurora mane.”

Immediately, Dash's eyes widened.

“Me?” she asked, confused. Having been ready to fight them a second ago, stopping to chat first had thrown a wrench into her mental works. She was at a loss.

“Come closer... so I might see you,” spoke the ancient wolf. His eyes, unfocused and layered in a sickly milky film, narrowed.

“But you can't see. I can tell that much from here.”

“You speak... nonsense. I do not need... my eyes... to see.”

“Pfft, I'm not making sense? Did you even hear what you just said?”

“I repeat... I do not need my eyes... to see.”

Turning to face the others, Rainbow's eyes pleaded for an answer. She wasn't necessarily afraid to approach the raggedy, old beast, but she still wanted to be certain that it was the correct course of action. When they all nodded to her in unison, that was all she needed.

Dash strode forward.

“Yes,” said the aging wolf after several impossibly long minutes elapsed, “I can... I can feel it there. Just barely. But... it is there nonetheless. It cannot be... refuted.”

Perplexed, the blue pegasus tilted her head and questioned, “What? What's there?”

“No... no... am I wrong?” continued the battle-scarred canine as though he hadn't been interrupted. “It... it isn't there yet... but it will be. It will be there... very soon. Something of the wolf.”

If her eyes hadn't been wide already, they certainly grew wider after hearing that.

And not only Dash's eyes. The Doctor, too, reacted as though he had just seen a ghost.

“Where have I heard this before?” pondered the Stallion Lord. “It... it feels so important, I couldn't have forgotten. Did I make myself forget?”

“Wait, what does that mean?” called Dash as the old wolf staggered away. “I'm not a wolf, I'm a pegasus!”

Signaling for the rest of his massive pack to leave, the battered and bruised beast shook his head and said, “You are right... Aurora Mane... you are not a wolf. Not... just yet. You are not ready. The world... is not ready.”

"W-why? What happens if I become a wolf?" asked Rainbow, now both thoroughly confused and intrigued at the same time.

“Something beautiful. Something... terrible. An amalgamation of the two. You are destined... to do that which cannot be done.”

With that said, the wolves departed. Just as quietly and sneakily as they'd arrived, they disappeared, seemingly vanishing into the mist itself. The guttural growls and snarls that had echoed back and forth down the stone hallway only moments ago faded like the details of a bad dream. The silence that rolled in was unnatural and carried with it an air of stress and fear. Twilight, Dash, Spitfire, and the Doctor were left alone in the dilapidating ruins of Celestia and Luna's past to ponder over that mysterious message's meaning.

Only they weren't really alone.

Chapter Four - Challenging a God

A Mad Dash Through Time and Space
Chapter Four – Challenging a God
A commission for an anonymous brony
As written by Joseph Raszagal

~ ~ ~

“I've got this burning
Like my veins
Are filled with nothing
But gasoline
And with a spark
It's gonna be the biggest fire
They've ever seen”

“Light Up the Night” by The Protomen

~ ~ ~

“Well, well, well, you came,” mused Raszagal as the four questing ponies entered the throne room. “You heroic types are all so predictable.”

“That's a lot coming from the villain in the dark and creepy castle in the middle of the dark and creepy forest,” spat Spitfire.

The Doctor grinned.

“Well played, child,” growled the Eternal as he stood from his seat.

“Child?” sneered the stuntpony in return. “Watch it, God-Complex, I'm a grown mare.”

With a jagged smile, Raszagal laughed, “You're all children to me.”

“Really?” questioned the Doctor, tempting the Eternal alicorn. “Could a child do the things that I've done? By the day's end, this child will have banished you to the Deep Darkness along with the Hervoken and Carrionites of old. Do be a good sport and say hello to them for me.”

“You think you can defeat me?” smirked Raszagal. “You think you can outsmart me? If you would be so kind as to remember, dear Doctor, it was the Eternals who exiled those fools from time and space, not your meddlesome ilk!”

Straightening his bow tie, the Time Pony replied, “Please, I've outsmarted far worse than you. The Celestial Toymaker, revered as a god among your people, once tried to outwit me. What do you think happened to him? Or better yet, what do you know happened to him?”

Raszagal's jagged smile withered and died.

“I don't know about everypony else, but I didn't come here to talk,” said Rainbow Dash, her sharp and seething tone capturing the Eternal's attention. “I'm impatient on a good day and today is definitely not a good day. Now where's Pinkie Pie?”

“Where else do you keep a prisoner?” answered Raszagal, rolling his eyes. “In the dungeon.”

“I swear, if you've done anything to her, I'll~

The Eternal's smile returned.

“Ever so irritating, that pink one,” chuckled Raszagal with a shrug. “Even in my clutches, even in her cell, silence seemed a completely alien concept to her. I was forced to quiet her on my own. I could have killed her, and indeed, that would have brought me peace and quiet far easier. However, I ask you, where is the fun in that? Instead, I tried my hand at magic again.”

Rainbow rushed forward, but the Doctor stepped between her and their enemy. She looked into the Stallion Lord's eyes and saw that something was very wrong. With gritted teeth, she backed down.

“But wouldn't that require,” asked the Doctor, wary and careful, “imagination?”

“The one thing we Eternals lack.”

“Precisely, you do lack imagination. Wouldn't working magic that you've never seen or heard of before require that?”

“Yes.”

“Then how?”

With a deep, throaty laugh, Raszagal replied, “Oh, Doctor, your infinite curiosity never ceases to amuse me. Is it not obvious? This is a different world, a different realm. The universal laws binding us have changed along with our forms.”

“I already know that!” shouted the Time Pony angrily.

“Then why is it that you cannot see what is directly in front of you?” mused the Eternal, his tone already victorious. “I may have lost my powers as an Eternal, yes, but what I've gained more than makes up for that paltry loss. My people once sought the gift of Enlightenment, clarity of mind and the ability to... imagine. In coming here, I have reached that Enlightenment.”

Wide-eyed, the Doctor muttered, “The ultimate weapon.”

Laughing, Raszagal continued to explain, “While the powers I now possess pale in comparison to those that I once had, this insight... this imagination... trillions of possibilities exploding in the forefront of my mind! Before, I had the strength to do anything. Now, I have the creativity and the ingenuity to do anything,” with a sickening gleam in his eyes, he concluded, “and doesn't that just terrify you?”

Before the Doctor could respond, the stamping of a blue hoof sent cracks running through the ancient stone floor and immediately demanded the attention of everypony in the room.

“What have you done to her?” interrogated Rainbow, the words coming out slow and steady and icily furious.

Raszagal's sinister grin stretched crookedly from ear to ear.

“I put her to sleep,” he stated, dark humor in his tone, “a very, very deep sleep. I suspect her dreams are tearing her apart even as we speak. She seemed like such a happy girl, I simply thought that crushing that happiness like an insect beneath the heel of my boot might make for an entertaining evening.”

It happened in an instant, as soon as Raszagal had concluded his cruel spiel. Dash reached into her saddlebag and launched from it one of the many poison joke potions that Zecora had prepared for them. The throw happened in one fluid motion; the reach in, the grasp, and the toss all happening in a span of less than a second. A thick cloud of blue smoke erupted where the Eternal stood, but like a fleeting ray of light, Raszagal had already moved to the other side of the room before ever even coming into contact with it.

“Some kind of tincture?” mused the alicorn, raising an eyebrow. “A poison, perhaps?”

Dash's only reply was yet another potion, the blue explosion of enchanted vapors obscuring her target for several long seconds before they began to thin and disperse.

But again, Raszagal wasn't there.

“So it seems the time for words has come to an end,” said the Eternal, hovering close to the ceiling with his massive wings spread wide. “Very well.”

Narrowing her eyes, Twilight stamped at the ground as her horn began to glow and shouted, “Volley fire!”

The four ponies then began their attack, each of them launching a poison joke potion of their own. Bursts of blue gas filled every corner of the room as they not only focused their assault on wherever Raszagal appeared before them at the moment, but wherever they felt he might dodge or retreat to. Predicting the movements of something so blindingly fast was difficult, perhaps even impossible, but they did their best with what they had. Forming a ring in the center of the room, each pony facing a different direction outward, they orchestrated their assault both defensively and offensively at the same time.

“The throne!” yelled Spitfire, hurling a potion.

“No, the window!” shouted the Doctor, throwing another.

Launching two potions at a time with her magic, attempting to flank the Eternal from two separate sides, Twilight growled, “He's so fast.”

“Then we'll just have to throw faster!” replied Rainbow Dash, her eyes aflame with fury and determination.

And throw them faster they did.

Dozens of glass vials were sent sailing through the air, shattering against the throne room's ancient stone surfaces and exploding into magical mist. With so many potions being thrown, the amount of blue smoke in the room began to overflow, the many enchanted clouds merging and combining and threatening to engulf the four ponies that were creating them.

This was, however, something that Twilight Sparkle had been anticipating.

“Tighten the defensive perimeter!” commanded the unicorn as her horn again began to glow.

The four ponies then backed up against each other as a sphere of lavender light quickly encircled them. The magical bubble, a barrier, held the blue smoke at bay while the stallion and three mares protected within it caught their breath.

“Supply check!” called Twilight, making sure to keep her sights set on her section of the room.

“I'm down to one saddlebag!”

“Half a saddlebag over here!”

“A little more than half a bag!”

Twilight then used her magic to check the contents of her bags as well.

The unicorn winced.

Having been using her magic to throw multiple potions at a time, hopefully making it more difficult for the Eternal alicorn to dodge, she'd burned through a majority of her supplies. She was down to less than a quarter of one saddlebag.

With a grimace, Twilight then announced, “Alright, everypony, resupply me! We're going to retreat to the room's entrance and switch to Plan B!”

In perfectly timed unison, all four ponies began slowly pacing back towards the open doorway, each maintaining their watchful gaze on their designated corner of the room. All the while, Twilight held her barrier in place, very carefully keeping the mystical mist from touching them. Their greatest weapon was at the same time a very real threat to them. Having been condensed down to a far more potent form, the very essence of the flower's magic purified and concentrated ten times over, any victim unlucky enough to be touched by the blue smoke would be placed under its spell instantaneously. Where Twilight and her friends had found themselves enchanted by the poison joke's strange magic an entire day after encountering it, the smoke spewed by the thrown potions would take effect immediately. It was for that precise reason that the purple unicorn refused to take any chances, erring on the side of extreme caution. While the results of coming into contact with the joke mist wouldn't be fatal, they would still be disastrous; Spitfire and Rainbow Dash losing their ability to fly, Twilight losing her magic, and the Doctor losing... well, whatever it was that the odd stallion couldn't afford to lose. The last thing that the four ponies needed was to be made even more vulnerable whilst facing off against what was already an absurdly powerful opponent.

“Alright, is everypony ready?” questioned Twilight as the others began stuffing her saddlebags with their remaining potion vials. “Take your positions!”

With a stamp of her hoof, Twilight dropped her spherical shield and levitated five poison joke potions from her bags. Narrowing her eyes, she launched all five forward in a shotgun-spray cluster. 30 feet ahead of them, the projectiles shattered as they smashed into the floor, ceiling, and walls. A huge plume of blue vapors exploded from each, adding to the massive cloud that still remained on the other side of the room.

Twilight then repeated the attack again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Stationed just behind her, Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, and the Doctor flapped their wings fiercely. Despite Twilight's continuous cannonade adding to the magical cloud's size, the wind generated by the three pegasi forced the growing fog bank of blue smoke to stay at the opposite end of the throne room. Vial after vial flew through the air as the unicorn hastily chewed through her ammunition, each detonating upon impact and increasing the azure cloud's foggy mass.

As Twilight magically fired off her final potion, she turned to the others and commanded, “That's the last one, now let's get outside and regroup!”

In a rush of hooves, Twilight set the pace and beat a hasty retreat. Quick to escape the fog-filled throne room as well, the three pegasi ceased their wind-making and zoomed right after her. Like bottle rockets, the four ponies shot down the castle's main hall and out into the rubble-littered courtyard. An enormous blue plume trailed after them, uninhibited as there was no longer a unicorn shield or barrier in place to block its progress, but fortunately the ponies were faster. Some 20 to 30 yards away from the eons-old structure and they were safely clear of the enchanted smoke.

“What now?” asked Spitfire as she turned back to look at the old castle. Huge banks of blue vapors billowed from every doorway and window, truly a sight to behold.

“Now?” echoed Twilight, gulping nervously. “Now... we hope.”

“Hope?” thought Rainbow Dash fervently. “Pfft, hope's got nothing to do with it. Crazy god powers or not, as soon as he shows his ugly face I'm gonna shove my hoof right down his throa~

Dash's mind trailed off as her eyes widened with fear. Hovering high above the castle, with a magical shield of his own encircling him, was Raszagal.

The haughty smirk stretched across his muzzle practically oozed triumph.

“A valiant attempt, I must say, even if the execution itself was a tad sloppy,” laughed the Eternal, still hovering high in the sky. “After all, did you really think that after witnessing your admittedly impressive defensive strategy that I wouldn't adopt a part of it as my own?”

“Why can't it ever be simple?” growled the Doctor.

Stepping forward, Rainbow Dash spread her wings and replied, “Because that'd just be too convenient.”

Dash's three compatriots all locked eyes nervously.

“So, Plan C then?” asked Twilight, gulping for what felt like the bazillionth time that day.

“Plan C,” confirmed her prismatic friend, stamping at the dirt.

“This isn't going to go well,” thought the Doctor, his expression growing grim. ”If we take this fight to the air, on his terms, someone's going to die... but who?”

Flicking his tail nervously, the Time Stallion had a terrible hunch what the answer to that question was.

“No.”

The Doctor shook his head, cleared his mind, and narrowed his focus keenly on the present. Yes, his galactic chase had been what brought Raszagal to this land, but it would be a pleasant day on the surface of Midnight if another world would fall to ashes because of his mistakes. Many, many terrible things could indeed happen in this world's future, but by the red forests of Gallifrey, that future would have to go through both of his hearts and the rest of his regenerations if it wanted to happen.

Reassured, if only by his brazen readiness to throw himself under the wheels of the proverbial bus, the Doctor then spread his wings as well.

“Take off!” shouted Twilight, her horn glowing bright.

At that command, the three pegasi shoot up into the air as if jet engines had secretly been attached to their backs at some point in the past few seconds. With his sonic screwdriver clenched tightly between his teeth, the Doctor bit down on the device's button and accelerated faster, his all-purpose wand increasing his speed to levels that most pegasi could only ever dream of. Down on the ground, Twilight's horn sparked violently, her magic granting Spitfire a whole new range of gears to use and abuse as well. With her allies zooming off ahead of her, Rainbow Dash was left behind, the slowest of the three.

Momentarily the slowest.

Narrowing her eyes, Dash flapped her wings like a madpony.

“I've needed you before so I could win a race!” thought Dash as she steadily approached her old friend, the sound barrier. As always, it fought hard to hold her back. “I've needed you so I could save Rarity!” A narrow cone began to appear in front of her, her velocity making the air itself visible as it pressed against her. “Now I need you so I can save all of my friends and maybe even all of Equestria!” The laws of physics struggled to keep her at bay. “This isn't like all of the other times, this is different! I don't have a choice! I don't just want to go faster, I need to go faster; I need to go faster than anypony's ever gone before! I need speed and YOU'RE IN MY WAY!”

The following Sonic Rainboom felt as natural to her as a lazy midday glide, it was as if she simply shifted from one gear to the next. The prismatic explosion rattled each and every stone in the old castle, one of its many leaning towers finally giving up the ghost and toppling down to the ground as a result. A bright and vibrant ring of color spread out in every direction, across every horizon, as Rainbow Dash surged up into the sky from its center. Catching up to her two pegasus partners as though they'd been hovering in place the entire time and hadn't even moved an inch, she then proceeded to blast past them without a single word, leaving them in her kaleidoscopic dust. With gritted teeth, she squared her sights on Raszagal and flipped herself around in mid-flight, prepared to buck him with her rear legs at something far-exceeding the speed of sound.

Unlike back in Ponyville or during the potion assault in the ruined castle's throne room, Rainbow could actually see him dodge her attack this time. He was fast, way too fast, but with her Sonic Rainboom now empowering her, so was she.

Altering her trajectory by a mere fraction of a fraction of an inch, the azure pegasus streamlined her body at the last moment for that tiny, additional burst of speed; ready and willing and more than happy to break every bone in her legs so long as it meant putting her hooves straight through the front of the alicorn's skull. However, almost as if to mock her, Raszagal slipped to the side of the attack at the last moment, narrowly avoiding her rear hooves as she cannonballed past him like a feathered, furious, multi-colored bullet. As Rainbow flipped herself around, preparing to try again and make another pass, she glimpsed the Eternal's right cheek and the long gash she'd left across it. A small stream of crimson flowed from the wound, dripping off like a tiny waterfall at his chin.

The prismatic pegasus grinned from one ear to the other.

“Well, he can bleed, that's good,” cheered a brazen voice inside Rainbow's head. “That means all I gotta do is make him bleed some more!”

Reaching up to his cheek with one hoof, Raszagal winced in pain as the fresh wound stung to the touch. When he pulled his hoof away, he noted the wet smear staining his fetlocks a bright and vibrant red. In a flash, his eyes darted to the rainbow pegasus responsible, a hurricane of rage and anger swirling behind the inky darkness of his pupils.

He, an Eternal, had just been wounded by a lowly Ephemeral.

But before he could act upon that surging storm of rage bellowing within him, a premonition of pain-yet-to-come hit him like a prophesy and he banked hard to the right, fast enough to seemingly vanish into the thin of the air. Upon reappearing, the alicorn Eternal watched from out of the corner of his eye as Spitfire and the Doctor intersected in a deadly-looking “x” formation, cleaving in twain the empty patch of air that he had only milliseconds ago been occupying.

“Oh, how very clever,” he growled inwardly, although a smile still managed to creep across his face, “using the prismatic one to spark my temper, distracting me, and then attempting a quick and quiet assassination while my back is turned. You're more deceiving than I have ever given you credit for.”

“I will say this, little ponies,” Raszagal laughed. “You play this game surprisingly well. Sadly, it will not last. Very soon now, the games will come to an end and you shall all see for yourselves the consequences that befall those who attempt to stand against a god.”

With deeply pondering, unreadable eyes, the Doctor glowered back at the alicorn and said, “Oh, a god's wrath will indeed be invoked today, but only after the game has been played to completion.”

For an eerily everlasting moment, the Stallion Lord's cryptic words hung ominously in the air. The silence was palpable to everypony involved and its taste was more bitter than words could ever hope to describe.

Five sets of eyes narrowed. Four sets of wings flared.

And then the silence was broken.

Two loud explosions then thundered throughout the castle ruins, sending massive flocks of birds fleeing in all directions from the surrounding trees. Rainbow Dash and Raszagal had both broken the sound barrier again and within seconds were already in the middle of a heated dogfight, their complex twists and turns barely visible to the others watching. Down on the ground, Twilight shut her eyes tight and focused all of her strength onto the tip of her horn, reaching up into the sky with her magic and enchanting both Spitfire and the Doctor this time. With a gleam in his eyes, the Doctor then proceeded to do the same with his all-purpose sonic screwdriver, the metal wand seemingly capable of performing any and all tasks asked of it.

ZAP!

Almost immediately, Spitfire felt the effects of both the magic and the unexplainable technology empowering her, a cold chill momentarily shooting down her spine as this newfound strength flooded her every muscle. Dazed by the shocking sensation, it took a second or two for the Wonderbolt to acclimate herself to this rush of power. The Doctor, however, having over the years become fairly accustomed to strange, odd, and otherwise random energies empowering him, simply smiled knowingly. A wink from the Time Stallion snapped Spitfire out of her reverie and the two grinned in unison before blasting off into the heavens to join the fight anew.

Two more explosions roared as the sound barrier found itself at the mercy of yet another pair of ponies. Truly, the laws of physics had become a total mockery over the course of the past 24 hours. In mid-flight, as Rainbow Dash barrel-rolled away from a bolt of Raszagal's magical lightning, she stole a quick glance back behind her and watched as two vibrant rings spread out across the sky. One flickered with an array of reds, yellows, and oranges, much like a dancing flame, while the other ring shimmered colorlessly, distorting time and space in the open air behind it as it expanded. Rainbow only had the span of a single heartbeat to take in the spectacular sight, but within that tiny window of time, those short, sweet microseconds, she did.

“We can do this!” trumpeted her inner self, the echoing imaginary words brimming with hope and determination. “We can really do this!”

The Doctor and Spitfire were at her side in what seemed like an instant and, just as quickly as they had regrouped, all three ponies shot off into different directions. With his focus now split between not one, not two, but three blindingly fast pegasi, beads of sweat began manifesting themselves upon Raszagal's brow for the first time since the aerial battle had begun. Banking to his left with the grace and speed of a wisp of wind, he dodged another of Dash's flying kicks. Moments later, after taking off in pursuit of the multicolored mare, the Eternal was forced to make a sudden 90 degree climb while still flying at top speed. He hit the angle flawlessly, going from horizontal to vertical in one fluid motion, and avoided another tag-team maneuver from the Doctor and Spitfire. They intersected like two flying knives where their target had just been, slicing an errant cloud in two, then u-turned and followed close behind the alicorn as he rapidly gained altitude. As the Stallion Lord and the Wonderbolt trailed Raszagal into the upper atmosphere, a bright metallic glow erupted from his horn and sent yet another volley of silvery lightning bolts lancing back towards his pursuers. However, this attack hadn't taken them by surprise at all; they had long-since been expecting it. By synchronizing their flight pattern into a crisscrossing helix, similar in appearance to a strand of DNA, the two pegasi easily managed to dodge the magical assault whilst still maintaining their course.

“Is that the best you've got?” mocked Spitfire, her thundercloud trail crackling louder than ever now that it had a Sonic Rainboom fueling it.

With a wary expression, the Doctor scolded her, “I would greatly appreciate it if you would save the ridicules for when he's incapacitated and no longer capable of killing us!”

“Lighten up, Doc, we've got him on the run!” laughed the Captain of the Wonderbolts. “There's three of us and only one of hi~

A blinding flash of light interrupted the fiery mare's train of thought as the target of their chase vanished from sight in a brilliant explosion of gold and silver sparks.

With wide eyes, the Doctor muttered, “Actually, Spitfire, you had better make that none of him.”

“And why does that sound somehow worse?” he cringed to himself.

Far up ahead of them, Rainbow Dash came to a sudden stop and turned around, her athletic and competitive nature making her instinctively aware of the fact that she was no longer being pursued. Spotting her airborne comrades, she saw the confusion etched across their faces as they scanned the skies in search of the foe that had only moments ago been flying directly in front of them.

Chancing a quick look down at the ground, at Twilight, to see if the lilac unicorn's expression would reveal any clues, a different and yet still-related thought popped into Dash's mind that sent an icy shiver down her spine.

Meanwhile, with worry gradually returning to her facial features, a baffled Spitfire questioned, “What? No, that's not right, I thought we were fast enough to keep up with him now! Even with him pulling off Rainbooms left and right, we've still been able to keep track of his movements! What's the deal, did he pull off something even faster that a Sonic Rainboom or something?”

“HE TELEPORTED!” came Rainbow Dash's voice, her scream somehow louder than the shock wave that echoed behind her as she propelled herself towards her friends like a ballistic missile.

Sadly, with the great, seemingly-endless distance set between them, Dash may as well have been over a decade too late. Horrified, she was forced to watch as the scene unfolded, the two hovering ponies still hundreds of yards away despite the reckless kaleidoscopic trail that Rainbow was blazing. Raszagal materialized behind them in a flourish of sparks and wasted no time in bombarding both pegasi with a deadly shower of silver lightning. Without hesitation, Spitfire threw herself, shoulder first, hard into the Doctor's side and knocked him clear of the arcane attack. As the Time Stallion struggled to right himself and pull out of the spinning dive that Spitfire's rough rescue had sent him tumbling into, he caught an upside-down glimpse of the Wonderbolt's fate. Several cruel streaks of lightning crashed into her, leaving behind blackened, burnt feathers and fur everywhere that they struck. Spitfire's face bore an expression of twisted agony as she fell from the sky, her descent highlighted by a thin trail of smoke emanating from her charred wing and its exposed flesh. Aghast with wide, terrified eyes, Twilight immediately dropped her speed-enhancing spell and took off at a galloping sprint to the spot that the injured mare was plummeting towards. However, with the exhaustion of several minutes of continuous magic usage catching up with her all at once, it quickly became apparent to the lavender unicorn that she wouldn't be able to make it in time.

Spitfire would hit the ground first.

“Over my dead body she will!” exclaimed a mighty and determined voice in Twilight's head. “I'll banish myself to the moon before I let one of my friends down!”

With those words crystal-clear in her mind, as well as a sheet of sweat pouring down her face, Twilight gritted her teeth, spat in her exhaustion's eyes, and ran faster anyway.

The lilac unicorn's muscles, unaccustomed to this kind of abuse, screamed in protest as she pushed her body to the limit and reached the thin boarder of brush overgrowth nestled between the castle ruins and the forest proper. Like a stone, Spitfire broke through the dense treetops and caught dozens of nasty hits and scrapes from the canopy's surrounding sea of branches, the mare now less than a hundred feet from the ground. With the very last of her strength, Twilight reached out with her magic and dove forward, landing in a ragged heap upon the Everfree's rough forest floor.

Before the unicorn could even open her eyes, the presence of something heavy weighing down against her magic caught her attention.

Immediately, Twilight's eyes then snapped open. Suspended mere inches above her in the air, engulfed in the soft lavender glow of her trusty levitation spell, was Spitfire's battered and broken body. The Wonderbolt's chest, while a mess of thorn scrapes and scars, still managed to rise and fall with the telltale signs of life.

“She's breathing,” said Twilight in a rush of relief as she very carefully lowered the pegasus to the ground. “Oh, thank Celestia, she's still breathing!”

A low, pained groan escaped Spitfire's throat upon touching down, the hard and rocky surface hardly a comforting mattress for the multitude of injuries she'd sustained. Breathing hoarsely from her impromptu marathon run, Twilight knelt down beside the fiery stuntpony, partially out of concern and partially because her knees had simply given out on her. Miraculously, only seconds after having been set down, Spitfire was already writhing and struggling, attempting to force herself up onto her knees to join her purple savior. With a steadying hoof, Twilight gingerly held the Wonderbolt down amongst the leaves and grass she laid in, carefully holding her there by a spot between her shoulders that luckily wasn't too wounded to be handled.

“You just fell out of the sky, Spitfire! You can't seriously thi~

“TWILIGHT, RUN!” trumpeted Rainbow Dash's faraway scream, promptly cutting the unicorn off. “TELEPORT, ANYTHING, JUST GET OUT OF THERE!”

From high up in the clouds, another supersonic dogfight came to an abrupt end in an all-too-familiar flash of light and sparks. Short-lived though it may have been, it had resulted from Raszagal's magical attack against Spitfire. While Rainbow hadn't managed to make it in time to stop the assault from happening, she was fortunate enough to see Twilight rushing to Spitfire's aid down on the ground below. With Twilight galloping to the Wonderbolt's rescue, Dash seized the opportunity to try and confront the Eternal before he could teleport again and ambush another member of her team. Sadly, even with Rainbow compensating by flying faster than she had ever done before, the fight only lasted a short smattering of seconds. The Doctor had not only lost the additional speed granted to him via Twilight's spell, but his aerial partner as well, effectively making him more of a mild distraction than an actual combatant. As a result, Rainbow Dash had only herself to rely on and was left with but one real, viable option; attempt to stage a relentless assault of such ferocious magnitude that her enemy could not run the risk of focusing on anypony other than her and her alone.

Doomed though her plan may have been, that blood-chilling truth did little to stop her from trying as she wracked her body for yet more speed.

Every joint and tendon in the cyan-coated mare's wings howled a cacophony of angry protests as she dashed, ducked, twisted, and darted about at speeds never before reached by any other pegasus in all of recorded Equestrian history. Suddenly, Raszagal found himself surrounded from all sides by the same pony. Rainbow's ridiculously fast pace and hairpin-turn agility made her nearly impossible for the Eternal to evade. Every sharp turn and every complex maneuver that he attempted was met with the same prismatic blur crossing his field of vision, seemingly bound to him by a chain and never more than a hair's breadth behind him. This was, however, not a pace that Rainbow could maintain indefinitely. She'd gone into this stage of the fight knowing that. Cramps shot throughout her body like cracks across a ruined window pane as the weight of an entire week's worth of stunt flying crammed into a single half hour hit her like a freight train.

She had reached “the wall”.

Raszagal laughed victoriously as his pursuer finally fell behind. Wasting no time, he teleported down to Twilight just as Rainbow's bellowed warning reached her ears.

With one last surge of adrenaline, Twilight pushed herself up off of the ground and turned in time to see Raszagal materialize before her.

“The bell tolls for thee, my dear,” chuckled the Eternal, the low rumble of his voice akin to the rolling of a distant thunderhead.

Scowling, Twilight spat at the ground in front of Raszagal's hooves and said, “I'm out of strength. I'm out of magic. I know what comes next. Don't mock me by being dramatic, just get it over with.”

The Eternal heaved a sigh, rolling his eyes.

“First the yellow one martyrs herself for the sake of that insufferable Doctor, now this. Are you ponies trying to spoil all of my fun with your ironclad resolve?”

“I wasn't before, but now that you've given me the idea I am.”

“Oh? A pity you didn't notice, but the key word there was trying. Killing the courageous can hardly compare to killing the cowardly, but so long as you still bleed red in the end I doubt I'll encounter much difficulty in enjoying myself.”

“Again with the drama.”

“Very well, my brave little pony,” said Raszagal with a shrug, his horn alighting with a silver shimmer, “any last words before the rainbow one arrives too late to intervene yet again?”

“I did my duty for Sun, Moon, and Kingdom,” replied Twilight as she closed her eyes and stood her ground. “I did my duty for my friends.”

“And I am certain that their corpses will appreciate the gesture,” hissed Raszagal giddily.

Solemnly, she repeated, “I did my duty.”

A severe pain and a sudden, strange feeling of weightlessness snapped Twilight's eyes back open instantly. In a state of speechless terror, she looked down through wide eyes to see the alicorn's horn impaling her chest and suspending her in midair. What began as a thin trail of blood soon became a cascading river as it poured out through the hole in her coat and down-and-around the twisted smile plastered across Raszagal's face. Twilight tried with all of her might to scream for help, but in her current state of shock the complex array of muscle movements required to vocalize her horrible pain seemed as impossible to orchestrate as raising the sun and the moon in the Princesses' stead. All that managed to escape her lips was a pitiful moan.

With a flick of his neck, the Eternal dislodged the small mare from his horn and chuckled, “And then there were two.”

Twilight's body landed with a dull thump in a pile of fallen twigs and leaves.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hundreds of miles away, still trapped behind the howling curtain of the Stormwall, Princess Celestia felt an icy chill race from her hooves to the tip of her horn. With her heart weighing heavily in her chest, the goddess turned to face the distant hamlet of Ponyville.

“Luna?” called Celestia softly.

The Princess of the Moon trotted softly over to her sister's side and replied, “Yes, Sister?”

“Something terrible has happened,” stated Celestia, a single tear sliding down her cheek. “I feel it, somehow, something that I could have prevented.”

With a wing draped over her grieving sister's back, Luna inquired, “Are you certain, Sister? Could you perhaps be mistaken?”

“No,” answered Celestia, her voice hollow as yet more tears came, “and what is worse is that I feel Twilight might somehow be involved.”

Luna's eyes opened wide as her gaze too was stolen towards the direction of Ponyville. The raging winds of the Stormwall, dark and black, obscured any view that might have otherwise been offered as the two sisters sat in strained silence. Celestia feared for her student. Luna feared for her savior.

And little did they know that their fears were all too justified.

Chapter Five - The God Gambit

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

~ ~ ~

“Did you ever want to take bad advice?
Did you ever want to go and take it twice?
Do you remember when the world began,
To put up its thorny fence?
Right you are my friend,
So what's wrong with them?
There go the wrong way kids”

“Wrong Way Kids” by Bad Religion

~ ~ ~

A swarm of stars circled Rainbow Dash's vision, quickly joined by a pounding pain in her head. It felt as though there was a team of pegasi creating a miniature thunderstorm inside of her skull. What had happened, why did her head hurt so much? She remembered... something, but the memory was vague and incomplete, as if a thick mental fog had surrounded it and blurred it beyond the point of recognition.

A word rested on the tip of Rainbow's tongue, but precisely what that word was and its exact significance continued to elude her. Oddly, there was something a bit less metaphorical on her tongue as well. Even through the haze of dizziness and confusion, the pegasus easily recognized the luridly metallic flavor that tainted her taste buds.

“Blood,” muttered her inner voice.

Immediately, Rainbow Dash felt the cogs and gears within her head begin to turn. Along with the identification of the offending pollutant saturating her mouth, a great deal of which had left a crimson streak running through her coat as it dribbled down her chin and chest, yet more information surfaced. The word that she had been struggling and searching for came back to her in a blast of enlightenment.

“Twilight!”

Twilight had been badly injured!

No, no, it was decidedly worse than that... wasn't it? Things were still too fuzzy for Rainbow to really piece them together properly, but the word “injury” just felt wrong somehow. Breathing heavily, the blue weathermare gritted her teeth and focused. In spite of the pain, the jigsaw puzzle of images in her head continued to come together, its many scattered fragments gradually reforming into a single, solid whole.

Rainbow Dash's eyes widened as the large, shadowy silhouette of an alicorn fell over her.

“Oh, Celestia, no,” she cried aloud, “Twilight, you can't be dead!”

She remembered.

Raszagal had fled from their fight up in the sky and instead appeared before Twilight in a flash of magic. Even from high altitude, with claws of wind raking at her eyes as she rapidly descended, Rainbow blinked through the tears and bore witness to the awful event taking place amongst the trees down below. In much the same fashion as the purple mare had done once before, with certain death staring her in the face in the form of Nightmare Moon, Twilight bravely stood her ground. The courageous act only made what came next that much harder for Rainbow Dash to bare. In a blur of movement, the Eternal lunged forward, skewering her lavender friend on his horn.

And it was then that the pegasus lost control.

Every color turned red. Every thought turned to hate. Like a falling meteorite, burning white-hot with rage, she plummeted down towards the ground, prepared to use her entire body as a projectile and embed both herself and Raszagal at the bottom of a molten crater.

The scant smattering of seconds that followed this, however, was still a complete blur to her. Anything that happened between then and the moment that she reopened her eyes, sprawled in pain across the Everfree dirt, was a mystery.

“Twilight,” muttered Dash again.

“Worry not, child,” mused Raszagal, his ever-present grin somehow even more menacing, “for very soon now you shall join her.”

Battered and beaten, Rainbow Dash bit down on her tongue and forced herself up off of the ground. Her legs were shaky, her wings were aflame and ripe with pain, but her determination was greater than the sum of all of her aches combined.

She looked up and locked eyes with her executioner.

Fighting back her tears, Dash silently vowed, “If this has to happen, if there's nothing else that I can do, then I'm gonna go out the way she did. Fearlessly.”

Shivers shot up and down her spine as she gulped, steeling herself for what was to come.

“The least I can do for her...”

Dash's lower lip begged her for permission to quiver, but each request fell upon deaf ears.

“...is pay my respects by following her example and dying with a bit of dignity.”

Her stomach's contents attempted to rise into her throat. She denied them permission.

“That's... that's loyalty... isn't it?”

Raszagal's horn began to glow, almost as if in response to Rainbow's unspoken question. But what followed this unnerving glimmer of magic, however, was not what the pegasus had been anticipating.

“Was it worth it?” he inquired.

Confused, the blue mare hesitantly asked, “W-what?”

“Was it worth it, all of this? The yellow one's fall from the sky, the hole punched through the purple one's chest, and now your imminent demise. Was. It. All. Worth. It?”

“Of... of course!”

“Oh? You do not sound so certain.”

“I...”

He was toying with her.

Rainbow Dash wasn't exactly the cleverest pony in the kingdom, however, she didn't need to be a brain surgeon in order to glean that much from the situation. Pinkie had been kidnapped, three of her friends had been hospitalized, and a portion of her town had been destroyed. Even a pacifist would have retaliated with a call-to-arms after all of that! Still, for a moment no longer than the span of a single heartbeat, time seemed to stop as the prismatic pegasus surveyed her surroundings to see the full extent of the damage that had been done following their retaliation.

Off to the side, Spitfire was somehow standing again and had a wing wrapped around Twilight's shivering, bleeding form, sheltering the unicorn as best she could. The flame-colored mare's other wing hung limply at her side, no longer simply barren of most of its feathers but also mangled and twisted in a variety of stomach-churning angles. Squinting through a sheet of blood that oozed from a long gash across her forehead, Spitfire periodically nuzzled into Twilight's violet mane, struggling to keep the unicorn conscious. A sizable stream of desperate tears added to the blood as it poured down her face.

Directly across from them, sporting what must have been the fiercest expression Rainbow had ever seen, was the Doctor. Like Dash and Spitfire, the Time Stallion had forced himself up into a standing position, though one of his front legs was clearly injured as it seemed to refuse to carry his weight. His wings, while peppered with cuts and nicks, looked to be largely unharmed and still usable, though the idea of taking off into the sky for another round of aerial combat was preposterous. Rainbow Dash couldn't remember when during their battle the Doctor had sustained these injuries, but after taking notice of the painfully long skid mark in the dirt that lead from where she currently stood all the way over to him, she could guess.

“He tried to protect me.”

The answer to Raszagal's question, while obvious before, suddenly became even more so.

“Of course it was worth it,” stated Dash firmly, her head held high. “Fighting for the sake of your family, friends, and home is always worth it, no matter how stacked the odds are against you. I'd rather die here, with them, than live knowing that they'd died alone and without me.”

Once again, Raszagal's smile was replaced by a frown.

Lowering his head to aim his glowing horn at the defiant mare, he growled, “The sentimentality of a fool. Your bravery will do little to help your kin and townsmen as I flay them alive.”

The alicorn's horn grew brighter and brighter, but still, Rainbow refused to back down or even shield her eyes. Instead, she puffed out her chest and stamped at the ground with one hoof, prepared to be smote where she stood.

“Raszagal!” shouted the Doctor.

The Eternal's smile immediately returned, sickly enough to warrant a medical study in an effort to find a cure all its own.

“Yes?” inquired Raszagal, turning his head.

He had been expecting the Doctor to intervene. Or, to be more accurate, he had been looking forward to it.

“Leave her be, Raszagal,” stated the Time Stallion, doing his best to look intimidating despite his injuries, “Your fight is with me.”

“My fight has always been with you, dear Doctor,” retorted the Eternal, rolling his eyes. “You simply brought an entourage this time. Considering the battle that we were only moments ago engaged in, would killing your little soldiers really be so out of the question? The fault is yours for bringing them, after all.”

“I won't deny that. I can't deny that,“ muttered the brown pegasus, shaking his head. “Just... please... let her go.”

Please.

Few things brought the power-hungry Eternal more pleasure than pleading, especially when those pleas came from someone that he deemed intelligent or a legitimate threat.

Flicking his tail and flashing a malevolent grin, Raszagal mused, “Do tell, Doctor, what do I stand to gain by allowing her to escape?”

The Doctor opened his mouth to reply, but a sudden sense of suffocation stopped his answer dead.

“Come now, the midnight oil is burning dry,” chuckled Raszagal darkly. “What was that old Earth saying? Ah, yes... I'm all ears.”

“Nothing,” sneered the Stallion Lord at last, the word seemingly caustic to his tongue.

“Precisely!” exclaimed the Eternal, “I would gain nothing, nothing at all!”

A few seconds of silence reigned supreme as Raszagal staged a debate in his head. Should he simply slay his defeated foes outright and be done with them, or should he indulge himself in one final game?

The Doctor bit his lip and hoped against hope that he had hedged his bet well.

“That massive ego, all of that pride,” whispered a voice in the back of the Time Pony's mind, “surely they can't let you resist this one last chance to prove to us just how bloody superior you think you are. C'mon, you arrogant bastard, you don't have a choice!”

As a wise woman once said, perhaps more than once actually, “the Doctor lies”.

During the big meeting back at Twilight's library, he had been asked if Raszagal possessed any weaknesses that could be easily exploited. He had told them that aside from the Eternal's transformation into a pony and his lack of creative and imaginative thought, no, he did not.

But the Doctor had lied.

While not a weakness inherent to all Eternals, a vast majority of those that the Stallion Lord had encountered and crossed swords with during his travels did indeed seem to suffer from a certain fault. Or perhaps it was simply the megalomaniacs in them? Regardless, given that they were immortal, quasi-deities, this fault was not a physical one. It was, instead, mental. If presented with a challenge, be it big or small, great or insignificant, an Eternal would accept it. Sometimes hesitantly, sometimes without question, but regardless, the outcome would always be the same. They would always take the challenge. To the best of the Doctor's knowledge, the root of this mental imperfection was a strange psychological need to be seen and viewed by the party challenging them as superior. They needed to be better than their challenger. They needed to be victorious. It was as vital to them as oxygen was to a flame.

And Raszagal was no different. In fact, if anything, he was the very definition of this weakness.

Pride incarnate.

“However,” began the alicorn Eternal.

The Doctor suppressed his own urge to grin as Raszagal spoke up. Instinctively, the Time Stallion already knew that Raszagal had taken the bait and unwittingly allowed his train of thought to be steered in the direction that the Doctor had very carefully, very subtly nudged it towards.

“I would be remiss if I let a challenge, no matter how ridiculous, go by unanswered,” continued Raszagal, his tone haughty and smug. “So, if you will excuse the pun, enlighten me. What do you propose?”

With a gulp, the Doctor pressed forward with his plan and answered, “A battle of wits. We take turns asking each other riddles. The first to fail to answer correctly or take too long while answering loses.”

“Interesting,” mused the Eternal alicorn, thoughtfully rubbing at his chin with one hoof. “And the maximum amount of time allotted for answering each riddle?”

“15 seconds.”

“Very well, though that still leaves the small matter of the victor's winnings. While I have much to offer, you have nothing to offer me. What motivation should I have to play a game in which there is no prize?”

Again, silence befell the castle ruins.

His grin widening, Raszagal chortled, continuing, “Which is why I propose we make the winnings a separate game altogether. To the victor... go no spoils! Instead, seeing as how I cannot technically lose, your only real victory in this game shall be in prolonging it. The longer we play, the more time the rainbow one will have to run. Every riddle answered correctly, every minute we spend matching wits, will translate out to that many more seconds her little heart has left to beat. The moment you lose, the very moment your mind muddles over and fails to grant you an answer, I will take flight in pursuit. Upon finding her, I will kill her and I will take my time in doing so, dragging her death out for as many excruciating minutes as our little game has been.”

Almost immediately, the Doctor felt his plan falling apart as he reeled and shouted, “No, I can't agree to that!”

“Really?” smirked Raszagal. “Because this is the only option that I'm giving you. If you would like to play this game, then that is how we are going to play it, otherwise I'll simply kill the whole lot of you right now and call it a day.”

Before the Doctor could muster up another protest, a small voice several yards to the right of them answered, “Alright.”

Both the Time Stallion and the alicorn turned to see Rainbow Dash standing there, her battle-scarred wings flared and ready to vault her skyward.

“Rainbow, no!” yelled the Doctor, glaring daggers at Raszagal. “He knows that we need to stall for time, whether it be to prolong the inevitable or for reinforcements of some kind to arrive! Don't play into his game, that's exactly what he wants; there has to be a better way than this!”

“There isn't,” stated both the Eternal and Rainbow Dash simultaneously.

The blue pegasus shuddered as she realized that she had just thought the same thing as Raszagal. The mere idea of having anything in common with the evil alicorn, no matter how miniscule, sent a nauseating chill rippling throughout her body.

“There isn't,” repeated Rainbow Dash, her tone louder this time so as to better distinguish herself from her enemy. “The way I see things, I'm pretty much bucked either way. I can either die right now... or die in a last-ditch effort to save our skins. It might not end up panning out, but hey, at least that's something.”

“Rainbo~

Dash ignored the Time Pony's protests and continued, “I don't know who exactly I'll look for or where I'm gonna look for 'em, but I'll try. Maybe... just maybe... I'll get lucky?”

The Doctor shook his head in defeat. Fueled by a potent mixture of determination, stubbornness, and loyalty, Rainbow Dash could not be dissuaded.

“I was... I was ready to die a few seconds ago, totally ready,” said the blue pegasus, her words as hard as tempered steel. “But not anymore. Any chance at turning these tides around is more than enough to put the fight back in me. Besides, I can break the promise that I just made in favor of a better one. I mean, hey, why vow to die as honorably as somepony you love when you've still got a one-in-a-million shot at saving 'em?”

One-in-a-million.

Twilight coughed, a spout of blood spraying across the ground in front of her.

One-in-a-million.

Were such astronomically impossible odds ever supposed to sound so uplifting?

Licking her likewise bloody lips, Rainbow glanced over at her fellow Element Barer and continued, “I could either honor Twi's memory or I could take a wild stab in the dark at ensuring that she'll be alive tomorrow to make plenty more memories. I'm only going on a hunch here, but I can guess which of the two she'd appreciate more.”

Raszagal smiled sinisterly. Hope was always such a fun fuel to throw onto the flames.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” spat Rainbow Dash as she turned to face the Eternal again. “Yeah, I'll take part in your challenge. If we lose, you can go ahead and do whatever the buck you want to me; carve out all my insides and turn me into a sock puppet or whatever, I don't care. Just don't cheat. You can play games like 'Drain the Blood' and 'Scream Louder' with me all you want, but only if Doc over here loses. No sooner, alright?”

“If he loses?”

“Yeah, if he loses.”

“Bold words, girl, bold words.”

“If I were a bike, bold would be my only gear. Now, what do you say?”

Bemused by Dash's brashness, the alicorn stated evenly, “I am not widely known as a man of my word, but the rules of engagement and the rules of sportsmanship are two entirely different matters altogether. Worry not, I shan't cheat.”

Rainbow Dash's expression was that of a pony whom wholeheartedly believed she was being lied to.

“Aside from the obvious 'try not to bring back anypony less capable than ourselves', got any suggestions for me?” asked Rainbow, still glaring at Raszagal even as she addressed the Doctor. “I really meant it when I said that I didn't have any idea where I should start looking or who I should be looking for.”

Seeing his last chance to offer the blue mare a clue as to what their one and only secret weapon was, the Doctor cryptically replied, “Anything.”

The Stallion Lord hoped against hope that he had stressed the second part of the word just enough that Rainbow Dash had been able to glean what she needed from it while at the same time Raszagal somehow wasn't.

Apparently oblivious, the blue mare nonetheless nodded her head and said, “I'll try.”

Left with no words that she felt were worth voicing, Rainbow Dash sucked in a burning lungful of air, flapped her tattered wings, launched herself skyward, and set the game into motion.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“I can't say I envy your current position, Doctor,” mused Raszagal as Rainbow's fleeing form steadily faded from view into the blending oranges and reds of the distant sunset. “The ice that you're standing on is as razor-thin as ever and I have only just begun to turn up the heat. It will melt, you will fall, and I will watch as you drown in the freezing depths. In short, it will be... spectacular.”

Calmly, the Doctor shook his head and said, “She'll succeed.”

“In her condition it will be a miracle if she manages to make it as far as the tiny town that we arrived in, much less any further.”

“I've said it before. The universe is big. It's vast and complicated and ridiculous and sometimes, very rarely, improbable things just happen… and we call them miracles.”

“Then you freely admit that you are depending entirely on a miracle?” laughed Raszagal uncontrollably.

“Proudly,” growled the Doctor, his jaw set stubbornly, “Now, we've put this off for long enough. Who goes first?”

“Considering what you stand to not only gain, but also lose, I suppose that it would only be fair to concede that right to you, Time Lord,” chuckled the alicorn darkly.

“Very well,” replied the Doctor, narrowing his eyes as he sorted through his thoughts to find a good question to start things off with. “Consider counting upwards from one to ten~

“Standard Earth Roman?” interrupted Raszagal.

Looking somewhat annoyed, the Time Stallion rolled his eyes and retorted, “I was getting to that, yes. Now, with that in mind, what number should come next in the following sequence: One, two, three, two, one, two, three, four, two?”

“One,” answered the Eternal instantaneously, a serpentine smile stretched across his muzzle. “I was under the impression that you wanted to stall for time, but if all you've brought to the table are the archaic mathematics of a fallen civilization, perhaps I was mistaken.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Pain lanced from muscle to muscle as Rainbow's wings struggled to hold her aloft.

“Keep going.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Four brothers are born,” began Raszagal, still smiling. “The first runs but never wearies. The second eats but can never be sated. The third drinks but is forever parched. The fourth sings a song that shall never end. Who are they?”

Displaying the same problem-solving speed shown by his opponent, the Doctor took a step forward and replied, “Water, fire, earth, and wind.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The weathermare bit her tongue to hold back a series of curses, her wings' normally spry and flexible joints stiffening with every additional movement. If they locked up on her while still in mid-flight, she would drop out of the sky like a stone.

“Keep going.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“What is it that breaks the moment that you name it?” questioned the Time Pony.

“Silence,” answered Raszagal, “but for once it seems that they are neither here nor there.”

Both stallions scoffed, aggravating encounters with equally aggravating foes flashing briefly through their minds.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Dammit, dammit, dammit!” yelled Rainbow Dash, her held curses set free as stress cramps tore through her overexerted muscles.

Attempting even the most pedestrian of flight maneuvers taxed her as fiercely as though she were slogging chest-deep through a muddy swamp.

“Keep going!”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“What,” asked the alicorn, “is placed on a table, cut, but never eaten?”

Having gambled with much more than mere chips in the past, the Doctor confidently retorted, “A deck of cards.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The effort required to remain airborne was becoming too great. Gravity was beginning to reclaim the prismatic pegasus.

“Keep going! Keep going!”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“So long as it remains unknown, it is something, but once it is known it becomes nothing.”

“A riddle.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ragged breaths escaped burning lungs as Rainbow gradually dropped in altitude, her impressive aerial endurance finally spent.

“NO, KEEP GOING!”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Place your fingers in my eye sockets and I will open my jaws. Linen cloth, quills, or paper, my greedy lust devours them all.”

“Scissors.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

With a wince of pain the blue-coated pegasus hit the ground, tumbling end over end like a thrown rag doll skidding across a child's bedroom floor.

“DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT! I! WILL! KEEP! GOING!”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Those who possess it do not speak of it, those who take it do not know of it, and those who know of it do not want it.”

“Counterfeited currency.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Struggling back up to her hooves, Dash gritted her teeth until her gums bled and took off in a limping gallop down the overgrowth-infested forest trail she had crash-landed into.

“CELESTIA DAMN ME TO THE CENTER OF THE SUN, I WILL KEEP GOING! WINGS OR NO WINGS, I AM NOT FINISHED YET!”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“You are of course aware that there exists no riddle that I am incapable of answering,” smirked Raszagal, the glee in his expression almost childlike in nature.

Angrily, the Time Stallion huffed, “You're interrupting my turn again.”

“Honestly, I could care less,” Raszagal replied. “The entire purpose of this game is to stall for time, remember? I see no reason why I cannot assist you in stalling so long as it serves the double purpose of keeping me entertained.”

“How courteous of you.”

“How sarcastic of you.”

A moment of tense silence settled in between the two foes.

But only for a moment.

“What is my name?” questioned the Doctor.

Another moment of silence settled in.

His eyes widening, Raszagal replied, “What?”

“My name,” repeated the Doctor, a smile curving upwards around his bloodied muzzle, “what is it?”

Chapter Six - She Who Surpassed the Gods

A Mad Dash Through Time and Space
Chapter Six – She Who Surpassed the Gods
A commission for an anonymous brony
As written by Joseph Raszagal

~ ~ ~

“See, I have a funny feeling
Such a funny little feeling
But it might be hard for you to understand
Yeah, I have a funny little feeling
Such a, ha ha, a funny little feeling
That I'd be better off a happy man
But you're telling me that's bullshit
That misery is better for us both“

“Funny Little Feeling” by Matt Wixson

~ ~ ~

A dim light at the end of the green tunnel told Rainbow Dash that, against all odds, her battered frame had somehow carried her to the edge of the Everfree Forest intact. Feeling as though the Pale Pony would soon arrive to guide her across the mortal horizon (though in her addled and wearied state, the thought hadn't come to her in quite those terms), she bit her lip and kept her pace, hobbled towards Fluttershy's cottage with a determination that went beyond her body's already spent limitations.

“Even if this kills me,” her mind raced, “I have to bucking make it! I just have to! Can't stop! Can't stop! CAN'T STOP!”

She was a mare on a mission and nothing short of her limbs fully detaching in a gory display of separating bone and tissue was going to keep her from completing it.

Worse yet, as that exact thought streaked briefly through her brain, the pegasus convinced herself that she would still somehow soldier on, dragging herself the rest of the way with her chin if necessary.

“I won't fail them!” Rainbow's thoughts screamed wildly. “I'm the bucking Element of Loyalty, dammit!”

“Zecora!” she shouted as she at last approached the quaint home, slamming her forehooves against the front door with all the remaining strength she could muster. “Zecora, h-help!”

A scrabbling of hooves answered her calls and a moment later the top half of the door flew open to reveal a very distressed looking zebra.

“Stars and stones, if it isn't Rainbow Dash!” gasped Zecora, her eyes wide. “Did you not take off with the others to join in the clash?”

“N-no time... to explain,” Rainbow choked as she fell to the ground. “P-please... take me t-to the... the blue box. I don't know... why... b-but I have to go there. Th-they need help, we lost... I need s-something inside that box. They need it... n-now.”

Having heard all she needed to hear, Zecora scooped up the beaten pegasus and draped her over her shoulders. Looking back into the cottage, she shouted, “Applejack, look after the others and tend to them your best! It seems I must assist Rainbow Dash in taking care of the rest!”

With that, she took off in a powerful galloping sprint for Ponyville's town square, the place where all of this madness had begun.

As the zebra and her pegasus charge dashed down the dusty trail, Applejack hobbled to the door in time to see them disappear around a bend.

“Applejack?” came Rarity's strained voice from a few rooms over. “Was that Rainbow Dash? Is she alright, dear?”

Biting her lip, the apple farmer replied, “It's fine, Sugarcube. Zecora just had... some business down in town. Everythin's fine.”

As always, the lie weighed heavily upon her conscious, festering there and eating at her. All Applejack could do as she closed the door and returned to tend to the others was hope and pray that her lie would prove true in the end... that everything would be fine.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Uncharacteristically serious, Raszagal narrowed his eyes and growled, “That is not my question to answer.”

“And yet you must answer it,” smirked the Doctor, letting loose a bloodied grin. “You don't want to break your own rules, do you? That wouldn't be very sporting of a great game-player like you.”

“That is not a fair!” howled the Eternal angrily.

“Fair?” retorted the Doctor, his expression grim and, for the first time in quite a long while, utterly loathing. “Fair?! Ha, so we're bringing fairness into the equation, are we? That's a laugh, really it is! You kidnapped a young girl, wounded several others, threatened to destroy their homes, not to mention their entire world, and now you want to bring up fairness?! This isn't a friendly game of chess, Raszagal! No, I think we've gone well beyond fairness at this point. Well beyond.”

“But... but it is too soon.”

“Oh yes, I know.”

“You still have Demon's Run and the Asylum to face! You of all people, Time Lord, should know that you must either die or face the events in their proper order! Would you really risk creating a paradox centered around one of the most wildly fluctuating time-lines in creation, your own?”

“Interesting, isn't it, how little I can care about the future when I'm constantly rewriting it? Some were even frightened enough of me to lock me in an inescapable cage and very nearly doomed the entire universe thinking that I was going to be the one to doom it.”

“The Pandorica,” Raszagal uttered.

“Indeed, though that's neither here nor there right now,” the Doctor continued, grinning maniacally, “so tell me, even at the cost of what could possibly be both of our futures... Play the game and answer my question. What. Is. My. Name?”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As Zecora ground to a sliding halt in front of the Doctor's Type-40 TARDIS, Rainbow Dash threw herself from the zebra's back and onto her hooves.

Well, that was what she had intended to do anyway.

The stuntpony toppled, hitting the ground with a loud and very nasty “crunch”, yet still forced herself to her hooves regardless. With teeth clenched hard enough to crack them, she trudged forward and began banging desperately on the door with her forehead, screaming for the familiar mare inside to open it and allow her entry. Zecora watched with a hoof to her muzzle, aghast at what she was seeing.

Rainbow Dash, as physically devastated and drained as she was, simply would not stop.

“Amy!” the prismatic pegasus pleaded, smacking her head against the wooden wall with enough force to draw blood. “Amy, p-please, let me in! I need t-to get in! Th-they're dying, they need help! For the l-love of Celestia, l-let me in!”

When the door finally did open, stained several times by Rainbow's reckless persistence, the mare standing there to greet them took in the sight before her with a look of complete horror.

“Th-the Doctor,” mumbled Dash, verging on incoherence as her eyesight began to fade, “A-all of them... they're gonna die. Th-they're all gonna die. I... I need help. I th-think the Doctor w-wanted me to c-come here... to the box. Some kind of plan. Please, c-can you help me? I can't let them die, I j-just can't. I'd rather d-die a hundred times myself. P-please...”

Still shocked beyond all words or reason, Amy nodded silently and, with Zecora's help, lifted the rainbow pony up off of the ground and carefully brought her inside, placing her down as gently as possible in front of the control panel.

Pacing back and forth in a panicked frenzy, the Doctor's companion rapid-fired, “So he wanted you to come to the TARDIS for help? That makes some sense, I guess. She's... oh, how would he word it? The TARDIS, she's alive. This 'box', the thing we're standing inside of right now; it's a living thing.”

“A-alive?” questioned the pegasus as she struggled to remain conscious.

“Alive and intelligent,” Amy replied, rushing through her thoughts as fast as possible. “A while ago, the Doctor told me that it helped a couple of his old friends out when they really needed it. The girl, I think her name was Rose, she looked into the heart of the TARDIS, into the vortex inside of its core. It gave her the power to travel back through time and rewrite history, but... they had to use a tractor or something to rip the controls open to find it. And we don't have enough time to find a tractor, do we? Dammit, dammit, think think think... Wait! The other one though, the other person he told me about; she wasn't really a friend, was she? I think she was an enemy of some kind in his custody.”

“Are you g-going somewhere with this?” choked Rainbow, her breathing reduced to ragged gasps for air and lucidity escaping her with every added second.

”I'm getting to it!” shouted the red-maned mare. “I'm not the Doctor, I don't have all of bloody time and space memorized! I need time to remember everything properly!”

Cradling Rainbow Dash in her forelegs, Zecora could sense that the darkness was rapidly encroaching upon the weathermare. Urgently, she screamed, “Young one, to dally any more would be a crime! She's dying, please, we haven't much time!”

“P-please...” Dash whimpered, closing her eyes.

“I know, I know! This other person... she, uh, she said she'd learned her lesson and just wanted to be set free, but the Doctor didn't believe her and was ready to take her back to her home planet, where she was going to be executed for being an intergalactic criminal or something. Oh, what did he say she did? Something easy; no heavy machines or ripping things open at all!”

The wounded pegasus began retching chaotically in her friend's black and white grip, her spasms followed by another series of gut-wrenching, crunching and cracking sounds.

“Easy,” Amy pondered in a frenzy, beads of sweat streaming down her brow like rainfall. “It was something so easy.”

In a flash of insight, the Doctor's companion remembered, and all of a sudden everything seemed so very simple.

“I... think... all she did in the end was just ask the TARDIS to help her,” she concluded quietly, the concept of just asking for help strangely obvious to her in hindsight.

Not a second later, Rainbow Dash took in one last aching breath, her eyes rolling back, and roared~

“PLEASE, HELP ME SAVE MY FRIENDS!”

And with a thud, the pegasus collapsed to the floor, devolving into a long series of wracking coughs that gradually became bloodier and bloodier. Staring at the new red stains coating the mesh paneling beneath her, Rainbow Dash groaned out in pain as her vision blurred one last time before she blacked out completely.

Amy rushed over.

Zecora shouted.

And an ear placed down to the weathermare's chest revealed... no breathing.

No heartbeat.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“I... do not know,” sneered Raszagal, his muzzle curling to display his teeth.

Clapping his forehooves together and ignoring the spike of pain that lanced through his broken leg, the Doctor triumphantly declared, “And there it is! Right there! The real reason you object! It's true, it isn't your place to answer that question. You see, I've been thinking. Thinking hard. And I don't think Silence will fall when The Question is asked. I think it's going to fall once The Question is answered. And you can't answer it. You're not afraid of the Silence. You're embarrassed that you don't have the answer to begin with, that there's something you truly do not know!” Laughing, the Time Pony shook his head and asked, “How does it feel, Raszagal? Oh, it must burn you up inside; you're just standing there, dumbfounded, letting me stall. It's brilliant.”

Under his breath, Raszagal scoffed, “So clever, so infuriatingly clever... yet still such a fool.”

“What now?” questioned the Time Stallion, tilting his head.

“It's true, I do not know your name,” the Eternal admitted. “But you mistake me, Doctor, for I do fear the Silence. Everyone does. Everything does. And it is not my place to bring it upon the universe... upon every universe. I wish to undo you, Time Lord, not all of time itself.”

As the Doctor took a moment to register those words, a sound unlike any other pierced the quiet.

A very, very familiar sound.

An unnatural wind followed, tossing the manes and tails of everypony present; swirling around a small patch of grass just a scant few inches behind Spitfire and the wounded Twilight Sparkle.

Smiling, the Doctor locked eyes with his enemy and said, “Well, I can't say I expected to hear that. The most fearless beings in all of creation... afraid. Of me. Or something involving me at the very least. Dunno if I like that. Well, regardless, that part at the end about undoing me instead of time itself... I'm sorry, Raszagal, very sorry, but I have a sneaking suspicion that time itself is about to undo you.”

“No,” breathed Raszagal, his voice a shocked and terrified whisper.

As if on cue, Spitfire clutched the motionless unicorn tight against her chest and took a look back behind her, turning just in time to see a box more blue than the clear sky up above them manifest itself.

The Wonderbolt was then forced to raise a hoof to shield her already halved vision as the doors parted open and a blinding golden light brighter than Celestia's sun emerged from inside.

Standing amidst the light show, dressed in a shimmering silver version of her Grand Galloping Gala gown, was Rainbow Dash. Her eyes, no longer magenta, glowed fiercely with the same golden aura radiating off of her.

Stepping out into the ruins, time literally stood still wherever her hooves were planted.

“No!” Raszagal repeated, unbridled fear filling his eyes brim.

“D-Dash...?” questioned Spitfire, her jaw hanging open in disbelief. “You came back... You really came back...”

Turning her head to face her fillyhood idol, the weathermare nodded and said in a full spectrum of echoing voices all at once, “I'd never leave my friends hangin'.”

Wiping tears from her good, unbloodied eye, Spitfire looked from Dash down to the purple pony still held fast in her forelegs. Swallowing a suffocating lump in her throat, she quietly cried, “But you're too late, Dash. She's... she's gone. I couldn't keep her with me. I tried, but she... she just~

Wordlessly, Rainbow Dash trotted forward and knelt down to nuzzle her lifeless friend.

“Don't worry,” spoke the prismatic pegasus as a single, sparkling tear slid down her cheek and onto Twilight's brow. “There's no such thing as too late anymore.”

Stepping forward, the Doctor held out a hoof and warned, “Rainbow Dash, no, you don't want to do that.”

“Then you know that I can do it.”

“The list of differences between something that you can do and something that you should do is so long that if I started reading it now, all of creation would come to an end before I finished. I've seen what you're about to do, seen it happen before, and it didn't end well for him. He wishes he could die.”

Closing her glimmering eyes, the pegasus muttered, “And I wish she didn't.”

With those words said, Rainbow Dash stomped a single hoof and watched as Twilight's eyes flew open. Breathing heavily as though she'd just breached the surface of the ocean after nearly drowning, the unicorn looked up at the ponies surrounding her, her face dominated by a look of total confusion.

“Wh-what... where am I?” she asked, dazed and dizzy. “Didn't I just... a-and then... Raszagal... He stabb~ He impaled me, didn't he?”

Smiling, Dash nuzzled her again and shushed, “You got better.”

No less confused, Twilight simply nodded her head in perplexed acceptance. Spitfire pulled her into another airtight embrace and the two of them sat silently as Rainbow Dash turned her attention to Raszagal.

“Thanks for waiting so patiently,” commented the shining stuntpony as she addressed her enemy. “Though I guess 'waiting' and 'scared stiff' aren't really the same thing, huh?”

Taking a step back, the still-shocked Raszagal replied, “You can't be. You're... you're impossible.”

“You haven't been paying attention at all, have you? Just ask the Doctor. I'm not impossible, I'm improbable. There's a difference.”

“No, you're the difference!”

“Hmm, alright then, you know what? You're right. I suppose I am. But you know what else? There's more to it than that. So much more. We never got to properly introduce ourselves, did we? Not really, anyway, so allow me to fill you in on all the little details you might have glossed over while you were trying to kill us all. I'm Rainbow Dash, a proud pegasus of Cloudsdale and servant to Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and the kingdom of Equestria. I'm the Element of Loyalty, betrayer to none. I'm all of time and space rolled into one neat package; everything that has ever happened and will ever happen. I'm pure, unfiltered power. I'm the Time Vortex. I'm the decider of your fate. Oh, and one more thing. Just one more~

Narrowing her blindingly bright eyes into dangerous slits, she reared back onto two hooves and roared, “I am bucking pissed!”

That was all the Eternal had needed to hear. In less than a nanosecond, his wings unfurled and he vaulted himself skyward, another explosive Sonic Rainboom raging across the already crumbling ruins and shaking the old castle close to complete collapse. Everypony present, aside from the pony in the glimmering gown, found themselves knocked violently to the ground.

Rainbow just stood there, unphased, her expression that of a barely suppressed rage.

“Doctor?” asked the glowing pegasus, her many echoing tones all deadly serious.

Gulping, the Time Stallion stood upon quaking hooves and replied, “Yes?”

“Go get Pinkie Pie. I've got some unfinished business to take care of with our buddy, Razzy.”

The second sentence had come out with a laugh and a grin.

A jagged, murderous grin...

Closing his eyes, the Doctor sighed and said, “He deserves the worst, Rainbow Dash. A punishment more severe than that which can be comprehended or conceived. But be careful. Be careful not to enjoy administering that punishment. Don't stoop to that level. Don't be like him. Please, don't be like... me.”

Taken aback, the shimmering stuntpony turned her gaze in the direction of her rapidly fleeing foe. So many rebuttals came to her mind, but before she spread her own pair of wings wide, all she could think to say was, “I'll try not to, but I can't make any promises.”

And in an instant, she was gone. Simply... gone.

The ponies left behind blinked and searched their surroundings for any sign of the sky blue mare, not certain if Rainbow had flown off faster than they could see or if she'd just vanished into the thin of the air.

All but the Doctor.

He turned his head in the direction that Raszagal had taken off in as well, certain that the pegasus was already there confronting him, already administering her own brand of vengeful justice. He didn't need to question it. He just knew.

“Alright,” he said as he swiveled and faced the precariously crumbling castle, “time to make a daring rescue. Well, I hope anyway.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Already miles away, hundreds of miles away, a rogue deity screeched through the atmosphere with an expression of wild, animalistic terror; the sort of look a mouse gets once backed into a corner by a hungry feline. He banked and swerved with a deftness that nopony in Equestria had ever seen before, but still, every single turn found him staring into a pair of inescapable golden eyes.

Something about this chase felt dreadfully familiar to him, or would have had his mind not been muddled over by pure survival instincts.

“No!” he screamed again, unable to voice anything more than his fear in the form of a broken record.

Uncaring if her enemy even heard her, Rainbow quietly answered, “Yes.”

Several times, upon seeing his pursuer suddenly appear before him without the slightest warning, Raszagal lit his horn seemingly by reflex alone and lashed out with silvery lightning. The bolts crashed into the weathermare with an unparalleled magical force, power formerly only seen a millennium ago during a battle between two regal sisters, but then those bolts would simply... fizzle out, disappearing as though they'd been absorbed by something even greater.

Again, those golden eyes appeared before him, their piercing glare containing his every worst nightmare.

“Trying to tickle me?” asked Dash, her many voices all laughing with a unanimous venom. “I could let you keep trying, but what's the point?”

In a flash, both suddenly found themselves amongst the sands of a distant desert that had only moments ago been far below them. Raszagal turned and twisted about every which way in wailing shock, his own eyes wider than they had ever been.

Rainbow Dash just sat there observing him with an ominously silent patience that she never thought she would have been capable of.

“Well, before I wanted to watch him squirm like a salted slug, anyway,” she thought to herself, smiling in a way that both thrilled and disgusted herself.

Raszagal's spinning hysterics continued for a short while, only ending once Rainbow cleared her throat to grab his attention.

“You ready yet?” she eventually questioned.

By way of reply, the Eternal alicorn took off into the sky once more...

...only to appear again where he had just stood.

This process repeated itself several times, Raszagal's dread rising and rising with each repeat performance. Every attempt to flee sent out yet another shockwave, sending gusting winds of sand whooshing across the desolate wasteland. The blasts of long-eroded stone struck against the prismatic pegasus as though an invisible shield surrounded her, her pristine appearance and glowing aura unmarred.

Bitterly, Rainbow Dash watched the Eternal's feeble struggle and commented, “You can't even face me. It's pathetic.”

Shaking her head, she allowed him a final attempt, then returned him once more to the dunes, but much to the dark alicorn's horror, she had somehow done so without including his horn or wings.

“W-what?!” Raszagal screamed, thrashing about in the dust as he looked to his back in desperation, the feathered limbs he'd hoped to see there absent as though they had never even existed in the first place.

“Princess Celestia once banished her sister to the moon for attempting to plunge our world into an everlasting night,” Rainbow spoke, her words carrying across the desert like the tolling of a great bell, “but I'm not Celestia. I'm not that kind.”

“No, please, no!” the Eternal pleaded, backpedaling in the sand until his back came upon a large boulder.

Terrified, he continued to push back at the sand, doing nothing but digging a small trench beneath him.

Again, the word “pathetic” sprang to Dash's mind.

“I never thought I knew what hate really was,” the pegasus continued, a strong wind carrying the train of her gown in much the same fashion as her rulers' ethereal manes. “I never thought I'd be capable of it. But now? Now I see it, now I see how much hate my heart can really produce if it's forced to. I'm not proud of the pleasure that I'm gonna get out of this, but then again, at least I didn't make that promise back there. Then I'd be a liar on top of things.”

Looking up, Raszagal's begging eyes met those of the mare soon to vanquish him. All he saw reflected in them was the righteous fury of an angry god.

“I'm sorry! I'm sor~

Cutting off the now-powerless pony, Rainbow Dash glared golden daggers at him and spat, “And I'm not. See ya later, Raszagal.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Far, far away, standing just outside the now completely fallen ruins of what was once a beautiful palace and pivotal piece of Equestrian history, the Doctor waved his magic wand. Looming only millimeters away, he watched with bated breath as his flickering green light brought Pinkie Pie's eyes fluttering sleepily open. The pink mare blinked several times, consciousness coming to her slowly.

Epilogue - From God to Mortal in the Blink of an Eye

A Mad Dash Through Time and Space
Epilogue – From God to Mortal in the Blink of an Eye
A commission for an anonymous brony
As written by Joseph Raszagal

~ ~ ~

“Will you wait for me even though
I know you've already waited so long?
Will you hold out for me even though
You already had to stay so strong?
I never meant to do this to you
I never meant to lengthen the days
But if you can wait just a bit more
I promise it'll be worth the teary haze
Just a little while longer
Stay just a little stronger
And trust me when I tell you
The time spent waiting will hurt me too
Please understand
Because I know you can
I tried so hard and did so much
Only to be sent back to the starting gate
But I promise you with all my heart
It'll be worth the decade wait
Watch the clock and watch me grow
It'll pass quickly, I just know
I'll be in your arms, just like I should
Just like you always hoped I would
I'll be everything you want me to be
So long as you can wait for me“

“Will You Wait for Me?” by Joseph Raszagal

~ ~ ~

Mere moments after fully awakening, Pinkie Pie's eyes watered over as fresh memories of the nightmares she had endured surged to the forefront of her mind. Hiding her face behind her hooves, she sobbed hysterically, wailing and weeping in ways that nopony had ever seen the party planner do before.

It was only when another pair of hooves wrapped themselves around her that she began to calm back down.

Removing her forelegs from her face, Pinkie looked up to take in the sight of a beautiful spectrum of colors, each vibrant hue accented further by a brilliant golden glow.

“Shhh,” cooed Rainbow Dash, cradling the mare that she had spat in the face of death in order to rescue. “I'm here, Pinkie, and I'm not going anywhere. Everything's gonna be alright, I promise.”

“D-Dashie?” she blubbered uncertainly, the stuntpony's mysterious aura and multiple echoing voices throwing her off. “I-is that really y-you?”

Nuzzling the pink pony tenderly, Rainbow assured her, “I might be shining like the sun and it might sound like there's five of me, but yeah, it's still me. I'm here and I've got you.”

“W-what happened to~

“Raszagal?” Dash finished, her eyes glassing over and drifting off to focus on nothing in particular. “I banished him.”

“To the moon?” came Twilight's apprehensive inquiry.

“No,” the pegaus spat, clenching her teeth. “That would have been too good for him. Imprisonment with his face immortalized up there for everypony to see every single night? Not a chance.”

“Then... where?” the unicorn pressed further.

Looking skyward, Rainbow's tail flicked as she replied, “He's the 'Stallion in the Sun' now, trapped someplace where it's too bright to ever see his stupid face again... Well, you know, if being there doesn't just kill him outright. Honestly, I'm not really sure what'll happen to him up there. In that same vein, I'm not really sure I care either.”

A brief silence settled over the ruins, broken only by Pinkie as she lifted a hoof to stroke the weathermare's cheek and whispered, “You were always so pretty before, Dashie. But now... you look just like I always dreamed you would. I'd fall asleep and some meanie in my dream would kidnap me. Just as I thought all hope was lost, you'd come crashing through my prison walls, sparkling and shining like a million fireworks all going off at once.”

“Heh, I wish I could show you what this fells like, Pinkie,” Dash said, the golden glow in her eyes still just as bright and blinding. “It's like there's a star burning inside me and when I look into the fire I can see everything. I've gotta admit, it's... it's pretty cool.”

Rushing over to the two mares as fast as possible on only three legs, the Doctor gripped Rainbow by the shoulders and span her around to face him.

“Rainbow Dash, listen to me, you've got to stop this now!” urged the Time Stallion, his tone frantic. “When you absorbed the Time Vortex, you absorbed pure time energy and no one is supposed to do that! If you don't release it soon, that star burning inside of you is going to rage out of control and consume you!”

With a tired, solemn smile, Rainbow Dash shook her head and said, “No, it won't.”

“How could you possibly know that?” he questioned urgently, desperation in his voice.

“Because right now, I know everything,” answered Dash, sighing. “I'm sue it would kill me, if only it could. But I didn't absorb this power while I was alive. I was already dead. Barely even made it into the TARDIS.”

Pinkie Pie's eyes went impossibly wide at those words, misting over as her mane began to go limp.

“Hey now, don't you worry,” the prismatic pegasus chuckled. “Remember me just saying a second ago that I know just about everything now? Well, time energy has this funny little trait about it. It's completely unpredictable, kind of like me. When it flew into me, it did bring me back... but I'm afraid that things aren't going to be quite the same now. My biological clock's gone kind of wonky. I... oh, Pinkie, I don't know how to say this. It's really hard. Really, really hard. I won't die when I release this power, but I will be different.”

For a moment, Rainbow Dash's words hitched in her throat, the unfairness of what she was about to say hurting her own heart far more than the maelstrom of energy roaring around within her head.

Eventually, she managed to say, “Pinkie, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but... I can't be with you. Not yet.”

“B-but... I love you, Rainbow Dash...” Pinkie choked out.

“That's just the thing,” the stuntpony replied, her head hung low. “I love you too. So much more than I ever even knew. But this body, it won't last like this. I was brought back from death, but not like Twilight was. The Time Vortex joined me after I had died, but not in the same way. I'm going to... change. But that's okay, please believe me, it'll be okay. If you love me as much as I love you, if you love me as much as I know you do, you'll wait for me. We'll be together, just like I wish we could be right now.”

“I can wait forever!” the baker cried, tears flowing freely down her face. “Forever and ever and ever! I don't understand, not really, but I could wait two whole forevers and an eternity for you!”

Embracing Pinkie Pie softly, wrapping her wings around her, Rainbow bit back her own tears as she said, “You know, I was never really good with words like this. It always seemed... I don't know, so uncool. But now, right now, right here with you, this is the coolest thing in the entire universe. In any and every universe. Please... just... just wait for me, Pinkie Pie.”

Releasing the pink mare, the glowing pegasus let out a heavy sigh and turned to face the blue box that had given her the power to do anything and everything. Outstretching a single hoof, she closed her eyes and released the Time Vortex from her body. Explosively, a wave of golden energy fled from her form and spiraled back into the blue box from which it had come. Left behind, a suddenly much younger Rainbow Dash collapsed to the ground. Breathing heavily, she turned her head to catch one last glimpse of the party planner's blue eyes before blacking out.

In a rush, Pinkie was at the fallen filly's side instantaneously. An ear placed against the sky blue chest revealed a steady heartbeat.

Thanking Celestia that the weathermare had kept her word and survived the ordeal, Pinkie Pie forced a serene smile as she quietly uttered, “I don't know if you'll still want me once you grow back up, Dashie, once you're a grown mare again and I'm an old Granny Pie, but I meant it. Every word of it. I'll wait for you until the end of time.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Far off in the distance, many miles away, a great and powerful storm subsided, followed immediately by two mighty monarchs soaring high into the sky, their instinctual destination a forest that neither had visited for a very long time. Ponies all across the land looked up to see both sun and moon as they sped with a determined and desperate haste to what they felt was the location where a great tragedy had taken place.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sprawled across the ground, held fast in Pinkie Pie's forelegs, an adolescent filly opened her eyes and yawned. After blinking several times, she mumbled, “Singing... They were... singing...”

“Who was singing?” the pink mare asked softly.

Seemingly on the verge of passing back out, Rainbow Dash mustered, “So many voices... Doctor? Who... who's Donna?”

Standing several feat away, the Time Pony went rigid as he answered, “A friend. A friend and a hero.”

“The Doctor Donna... That's what they sang...”

Smiling, the Doctor gave a wistful smile and said, “Her song goes on.”

A second later and a soft snoozing indicated that Rainbow Dash had indeed passed back out. As Pinkie Pie continued to cradle her, Twilight approached the Time Pony and questioned, “With all that we've been through, you're actually smiling?”

“No worries, I'm sure it'll fade soon,” he chuckled humorlessly. “You know, Elton was right. When you're a kid, they tell you it's all grow up, get a job, get married, get a house, have a kid, and that's it. But no, the truth is the world so much stranger than that. So much darker. So much madder... And so much better. Sometimes, every once in a great while, no matter what sort of beast crawls out of its cave, everybody lives.”

“Elton?”

“A friend of mine. Or maybe a fan. Either way, definitely a victim. No matter how many I try to help, I still tend to leave a lot of those behind. Today's been no such exception. You're the biggest victim of all, Twilight, you just don't know it yet.”

“What? How? Rainbow saved me, didn't she?”

“She didn't heal you in time before you died, Twilight, she brought you back to life. Or, more accurately, she forced you back to life.”

Entering the conversation, a heavily injured Spitfire remarked, “I'll admit, wording it that way does make it sound a bit ominous.”

“I've,” the Doctor began, searching for the right words, “I've seen it happen before. I've seen the signs before. I should have known and I should have stopped it. I should have protected you, I don't know, better somehow. I should have protected her from herself. But I couldn't. Once defeat was clear, we only had one option remaining. The Bad Wolf. And I let her do it, I let it happen. Twilight, your life will never be the same. No matter how it might come about, now matter how many times you may eventually... try. You won't be able to. You cannot die.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

An unnatural wind blew aside a blast of dust and leaves as a blue box steadily vanished from sight. Appearing in the center of Ponyville at almost the exact same time as it had faded from the battlefield back in the Everfree, the Doctor and his lively companion bid several brief farewells, their sights now set on closing the hole in space and time that had allowed everything to go so very wrong in the first place. By the time the Princesses finally arrived, the damage had already been done.

Ponyville Town Square in shambles.

The embodiment of laughter emotionally traumatized.

Citizens in fear.

The embodiment of loyalty reverted to her youth.

A captain of one of Equestria's top military regiments in critical condition.

The embodiment of magic... transformed.

And the prospect of threats from beyond the heavens now burned into the minds of everypony who had witnessed the events themselves unfold.

Nighttime came, the sun stretching across the sky to set and rest for its next day's journey, and the heavy weight of a pair of grand doors echoed across the palace's throne room as a purple unicorn approached her mentor with plans to prevent such future catastrophes.

The alabaster alicorn regarded her pupil as she strode towards her. Wings ruffling nervously, she felt a chill run down her spine. She had never seen a look quite as deadly gleaming in the unicorn's eyes as the one she saw now.

In an odd turn of events, the goddess very nearly cowered before her apprentice.

Taking a moment to steel herself, Celestia stood with poise to her fullest height, prepared to endure the damnation that she felt she truly did deserve for failing to protect her subjects when they needed her most. Bitterly, the whole scene reminded her of those past times when she was forced to scold her student for many a mistake and mishap, but with the roles painfully reversed.

The Princess let out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding on to, and met those fierce eyes, determined to do her duty and take responsibility for her absence.

However...

“Celestia,” Twilight spoke, her voice even, “I'll start this off by saying... I'm not blaming you for not being here. Yes, your and Luna's presence could very well have ended everything before it even began, but unfortunate circumstance and pure happenstance combined to create the perfect storm. However, with that said, I want you to understand. This can't happen again. I won't let this happen again, ever.”

After turning her head off to the side to collect her thoughts, reminding herself just who she was speaking to, Twilight closed her eyes to keep herself in check and said, “The Doctor, he was a traveler from another universe. That alone means that there are other universes out there, or more to the current point, other universes that could pose significant danger to the safety of Equestria, and quite possibly in a scope equal to or even greater than the one that we only just barely survived. We need a plan of action, Princess.”

Trotting several feet away, the lavender mare thought back on a few of the Doctor's parting words to her.

“No matter how it might come about, now matter how many times you may eventually... try. You won't be able to. You cannot die.”

Tensing where she stood, she said, “I propose a strike force, an elite team of trained professions to stand at the ready should such threats from beyond the edges of our realm again present themselves.”

Turning to face her battle-hardened protege, the goddess inquired, “What would you call this team.”

The lavender mare stood silent for a moment, her brow knitted in concentration.

Perhaps it was sheer coincidence, perhaps it was simply a name that she felt of her own design, but regardless, Twilight locked eyes with the Regent of the Sun and answered, “Torchwood.”

“And who would lead them?”

Trotting away, out through the doors she'd entered though, Twilight Sparkle turned her head and said, “Me.”

Chapter One - The Supersonic God

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

~ ~ ~

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

“The Greatest Love Story Ever Told” by Shinobu

~ ~ ~

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

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

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

A love poem addressed to her lifelong crush.

A love poem addressed to Rainbow Dash.

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

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

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

She closed her eyes.

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

She saw courage.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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

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

“Quick, somepony get their camera!”

“Does anypony know what happened?”

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

“Eeyup.”

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

“Eeyup.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Several long seconds of silence followed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Doctor narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth.

The game had changed. Raszagal had a hostage.

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

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

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

“Doctor, no!” exclaimed Amy in shock.

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

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

Well, almost everypony.

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

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

“Stop!” commanded the Doctor.

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

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

“B-but~

“No.”

“But~

“No.”

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

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

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

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

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

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