Torchwood: Equestria- Parallel Loose Ends

Jack slept peacefully, enjoying one of his more interesting dreams. He was sharing a romantic dinner with two beautiful women, and a man thrown in there too. They conversed, joked, and ate delicious food, planning how to spend the rest of their evening.

As is true with everyone's dreams most of the time, Jack was unaware he was dreaming. It didn't matter that every other table at the restaurant was empty, or that the waiters were all green, or that he sat in a restaurant that didn't exist. It took a certain stimulant for someone to realize that their dream wasn't real.

That stimulant arrived, and stood in the corner of the restaurant, watching, waiting. For a while, Jack didn't notice, continuing his lovely date. It was actually one of his companions that noticed, happening to look over their shoulder and gawk in confusion.

“Jack, what's that thing over there?” the lady asked, pointing across the restaurant.

Jack looked over, and his smile faded away. Across the room was a large, dark blue horse. No, not a horse, a unicorn, with wings. Her mane and tail glowed like a night sky, and flowed beautifully against her body. At first, Jack was just as confused as his companion, and was about to send a waiter after the strange creature staring at him, then a load of memories smashed into his head like a train crashing through a brick wall.

Luna's eyes glowed white, and her horn started glowing shortly after. The three people Jack had been on a date with disappeared, the approaching waiter vanished, and the food on the table was no more.

“Luna...” Jack said, staring at her with new realization. “What happened... why couldn't I remember...”

“This is a dream, Captain Harkness,” Luna explained. “The laws of the universes are less applicable here.”

Jack sat back in his chair, now seeing the restaurant around him with new eyes. “That explains why this place is so weird,” he said. He motioned to the other side of the table. “Well, you may as well sit down with me, seeing that my dates disappeared.”

Luna walked over to the table, and climbed up into a chair, sitting across from Jack. Eager to learn about what was happening, Jack started asking questions right away.

“What happened? Why am I back in my universe and why can't I remember anything?”

“Ayumu succeeded,” Luna replied. “He acquired everything he needed to bring forth the dark magic, and create a reset in time.” Her horn glowed again, and images of Equestria started appearing. Events of the past, those of which the Doctor originally stopped. This time, however, no Doctor stood in the way of the threats, and though Equestria survived, the outcomes were more gruesome.

“These are key events from the reign of terror that Chaos brought on our world,” Luna explained. “Originally, the Doctor was present at the events you see, and you yourself were present at some of them. But Ayumu also figured out the other piece of the puzzle he needed. To find a way to stop the Doctor, so that the reset in time wouldn't immediately repair itself.”

Jack didn't know how even someone as powerful as Ayumu could possibly stop the Doctor. “How?”

“As residual damage to Chaos's attacks, he created temporal storms that made tears in the fabric of the universes. These tears made gateways from your universe to mine. That is how you crash landed in our universe, as well as Minnuette, as well as the Doctor.”

Just a few days ago, of course. The readings River got, she wanted him to get in the shuttle and investigate. Then, just like that, they disappeared.

“These tears were not necessary for Chaos to finish his rise to power, and eventually start pulling all of existence into the void,” Luna continued. “Ayumu found a way to close them.”

Jack knew that if the Doctor was going to stop Chaos, he needed to crash land in the other universe just like he did before. It took all his experience in that universe to understand how to defeat the powerful creature. “Is there any way to stop this?”

“There is,” Luna replied. “I cannot explain to you the intricacies of how dream magic works. There is a reason that only myself and a powerful unicorn corrupted by the void can manipulate such magic. But the spell he has cast takes time to complete. Think of it as his new, desired reality pushing against the original reality, which is fighting back. If the spell was stopped, the reality where Chaos was defeated would snap back into place. But I can't stop him alone.”

Jack stood up from his chair. “What do you need?”

“I need to get you here, for a start,” she said. “Then I need you to help get the other members of Torchwood back into one location.”

“Can you get me to your world?”

“I have just enough power to create one temporal storm of my own,” Luna said. “Ayumu knows who I am. I have started to feel him in dreams when I search. He underestimates me. He knows that I gave up use of dark magic, such as the magic to create a storm. He does not realize, however, that I never forgot that magic.”

Jack nodded to Luna. He knew her past, knew the torment she put herself and others through, and how she was finally able to return to her formal self after so much time. He held a new level of respect for her, seeing that she planned to open up her horrid past, bring back her haunted memories in order to stop this catastrophic event from happening.

He knew by her presence, however, that she planned to use that one temporal storm to bring him into her universe. And as much as he wanted to fight, he knew he wasn't the best choice.

“Get the Doctor,” Jack told her. “I want to help, truly, but if anyone can find a way to stop Ayumu, it's him. Use your storm on him.”

Luna bowed her head, a frown appearing on her face. “Do not take offense, but the Doctor was my first thought.”

“I'd only take offense if you said he was more handsome than me.”

“But the removal of the temporal storm proved... tragic...”

Luna explained how she could reach out through dreams to find people, as she had with Jack. When she searched for the Doctor, she couldn't find him. That brought back a memory for Jack, when the Doctor explained how he ended up in a universe of ponies. When he sent his ship into the temporal storm, it wasn't out of curiosity. It was to run, to get his damaged ship away from pursuing aliens before they blew him to bits. If the storm hadn't been there...

“I have to assume that the Doctor has perished in this reality...” Luna said. “You are the only hope to fix this. Your team, Torchwood, is the only hope to fix this.”

Jack sat back down, staring at the table in front of him. The Doctor. Dead. Jack never thought he'd see the day, even though he didn't look to be dying anytime soon. Of course, if Jack could stop Ayumu and his plan, the Doctor would come back. If not, all of reality would disappear, and it wouldn't matter anyway. Still, the thought of it shook him.

“I'll help you,” Jack told Luna. “Of course I will. But I've got one question. Won't I forget all this when I wake up?”

“You will,” Luna answered. She had to carry out her plan, even though she didn't know whether it could be done. First, she needed Jack to get here on his own accord. Luna couldn't create a storm and travel through to get him, she'd lose her magic in Jack's universe. She didn't have the magical power to both sustain an intrusion into Ayumu's dream and defeat him, he'd grown too powerful from whatever happened in the void. That's where Jack and his team came in. If her idea proved impossible, then the chance of the universes surviving was slim. “I have to rely on the chance that you will agree to inspect the temporal storm again, as you would have.” She hid her fear from Jack, nearly out of time before the dream would end. “Then, I have to get you to trust me, even though you'll have no idea who I am. If I can get all of Torchwood in one location, and place their trust in me, I can send you after Ayumu, and in the realm of dreams, you'll remember all that has happened.”

Luna stood up from the table. Both knew the grave consequences of failure here. Slowly, starting from her hooves, Luna began fading out of Jack's dream. He watched as her body disappeared, inch by inch, until he stood alone in his fake, fancy restaurant. A few moments later, he opened his eyes and stretched, remembering nothing but the fact that his dream was certainly strange.

**

“Jack, get up here, now!”

Jack didn't get the chance to slowly come out of his sleep. The moment his eyes opened, River's voice came shouting over the intercom, and he jumped into a trained rush, throwing on clothes and dashing out of his living quarters. He took the fastest route through the ships metal hallways, and burst on to the bridge, panting.

“What is it?” Jack asked.

“The temporal storm is back, and stronger,” River replied. She frantically worked the ship's controls, raising shields and trying to pull back. “It reappeared out of nowhere, and it's stronger now. I can't seem to pull away.”

Jack looked out of the ship's window. The storm was definitely close. No camera needed to enhance the image of the raging cloud of dimensions clashing at each other. This felt oddly familiar.

“Temporal storms don't pull things towards them,” Jack said.

“Well this one does, apparently,” River replied. She tried everything she could to get some distance between her ship and the storm, with no result. “We're not going anywhere unless we figure something else out.” She looked out at the storm, searching her brain for something, anything new to try.

Her thoughts drifted to a strange day she spent with the Doctor. Not to say that any other day with the Doctor wasn't strange, but on this day, the Doctor taught her something for seemingly no reason. They enjoyed a pleasant picnic on a beach, until the sand started swallowing people up. After getting through that fiasco, before she departed his company to go back to prison, he taught her how to detect and track down temporal storms. He never said why that might be important, and now River started to think that he'd have spoiled something by telling her.

“I need to call on the man who can't die,” she said, turning back to Jack. “I can't say why, but I think there's something important about this. Can you scout ahead in a shuttle?”

Jack nodded, not taking time to question River during a clearly dangerous situation. “I was going to yesterday, may as well do it today,” he said. “I'll head down.”

Rushing down the corridors of the ship, Jack found his way to the shuttle bay, while River alerted the rest of the crew about the situation. He entered the spacious bay and approached the ship's single shuttle, with enough room for one or two people to pilot and walk around in, even sleep if necessary. With a loud clank, the shuttle door sealed behind him as he stepped inside and sat at the controls. While the shuttle hummed and beeped, warming up for launch, River depressurized the bay, then opened it up to the empty space outside.

“This is Jack, ready to launch,” Jack chimed in to the ship-to-shuttle comm.

“Good luck, Jack,” River's voice returned. With that, the shuttle lifted off from the floor, getting into motion and gently gliding out of the doors before picking up speed. Exiting from the side of the ship, Jack swung right, flying past the ship altogether, until there was nothing but blackness between him and the temporal storm.

The ship's hull started to rattle and tremor, and several of the shuttle's systems blinked in and out of operating condition. Jack kept a steady hand, monitoring as much as he could.

“River, you plan on telling me how to get us out of this mess?” Jack asked her.

“I don't even know if we're supposed to,” River told him. “A very important man taught me how to track down temporal storms. I didn't know why I'd need to, but there's something strange about this one. I've come across them by chance before, but not one like this. I can't explain what's going on.”

Jack let out a sigh, and shrugged. “Guess I'll just fly closer, then. Keep going until something else happens.”

“You just have to trust me,” River said. “If you knew the man who told me about this, you'd understand. I'd say he's the best Doctor in the universe.”

That comment struck a cord with Jack. Very few people would word a sentence in that sort of way. As he drew nearer to the storm, the shuttle went more haywire, and he fought to stay in his seat. Curious about her comment, however, he managed to punch in a communication. “Doctor who?”

Before River responded, Jack's shuttle disappeared.