"Well, I can honestly say with confidence that this was the worst first-contact I have attended that didn't end with one party getting disintegrated, maimed, burned, sent backward through time, smashed, assimilated, or generally un-alived."

Lyra sat next to the Doctor as he made idle chat with her in front of Bonnie's house while they watched as pair of guards hesitantly assisted Bon-Bon in carrying the human into a cage that sat on a nearby cart. From there they exchanged a few words before nodding the guards nodded and began securing the human's cage. Lyra watched them sullenly as her prize was prepared to be carted off to be studied by the princess. Exactly the opposite of what she was hoping would happen when she finally met a human, even worse, Bonnie had not only made first contact before she did, she attacked the human!

Just like she had.

The mare made a noise somewhere in between a groan, a sigh, and a wail of self-pity. The memory of what she had done was something that would stay with her for the rest of her life, she just knew it. She had woken up and saw the human swinging around a table leg, and in a moment of panic, she let her worst fears about humans get the better of her, and she had just, reacted.

Time turner had scolded her, Bonnie had praised her, and now? Derpy was comforting her.

The pegasus crouched down to put a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to reassure the dejected unicorn as the earth-pony approached them.

"Come on Lyra, it was one little mistake!" She reassured the unicorn. "I can't even count the number of times I've made a slip-up like that."

"Trust me," Muttered the doctor as he leaned against the stone wall of the house. " I know better than anypony that she's telling the truth."

"I could have started an interspecies war!" Lyra groaned, "I could have given him brain damage!"

"True." The Doctor tilted his head from side to side, earning him a smack on the back of the head from Derpy.

"OW!" The stallion growled. "Don't hit me! She's the one who hit the human!"

Lyra groaned again.

"There's no need to worry Ms. Heartstrings," Said the Doctor somewhat begrudgingly. "I examined him personally, and other than a bump on the head he'll be perfectly fine."

That did make her feel a little better.

"Though, he will have quite the headache when he wakes up." The stallion added.

And now the guilt had instantly returned.

Bon-Bon elbowed the Doctor in the ribs as she passed by.

"What the doctor was trying to say was that your actions today defused a tense situation, Lyra. You should be proud and I'll make sure you receive a proper commendation when I arrive in Canterlot with the human."

Time turner grumbled and moved away from the two, muttering to himself about "Mares."

Lyra glared at her friend wordlessly and crossed her arms, Bon returned the stare cooly, making a point of looking unashamed of her actions. Which only served to irritate her further, Bon-Bon now knew Lyra was right, and immediately after Lyra had become the luckiest mare in Equestria, she made it her mission to put as much distance as possible between her and the human.

"Fine," Lyra thought. You want to do this the hard way? Let's do it the hard way."

Lyra held her friend's eyes for a few moments longer before she sighed angrily and got to her hooves, brushing past her friend and grabbing the doctor by the coat as she dragged him over to the cart.

"Wh- excuse me!" The stallion stammered.

"Shut up, you're coming with me." The unicorn growled, not even looking in his direction.

"What do you think you're doing?" Bon-Bon watched her as she dragged the stallion away.

"Something I really will be proud of," Lyra replied over her shoulder.

"You're not coming with us!"

"Kinda funny how you think you can stop me." Lyra replied nonchalantly.

"This is a matter of national security!" Bon-Bon fumed, "I can't have you messing anything up!"

"And how, exactly do I fit into this?" Time turner grunted.

Lyra cocked an eyebrow, "don't act like you weren't already planning on going with them."

Both Derpy and Bon-Bon turned their eyes to the stallion as he laughed nervously, tugging at the collar of his undershirt.

"Well, he did seem to know me, it's only natural I find out why."

Derpy sighed, crossing her arms and following behind Lyra.

"Well, I guess that means I'm coming too."

"Don't you have mail to deliver?" Bon-Bon eyed the pegasus.

"Don't you have a candy store to run?" The cross-eyed mare smiled smugly back at her.

BonBon briefly narrowed her eyes at Derpy before massaging her temples briefly with her hands. "None of you have the clearance for this!" She shook her head, wondering how an almost normal morning devolved into this so quickly.

"Actually, Ms Drops," the Doctor piped up, still being pulled along by Lyra. "You'll find that Ms. Doo and I will have the clearance, the only pony present who does not, happens to be our resident anthropologist."

"Of course." Lyra said, "Why would I? It's not like I've kept Special agent Drops' secret safe for two years. Not like I've earned even a hair's worth of trust, I'm just a civilian, an incompetent, untrained, and foolhardy civilian."

"Glad we're on the same page." Bon-bon said icily, earning another scowl from her friend.

"Yes, well." The doctor said hesitantly. "I may or may not be able to pull some strings to help you in the clearance departtment, Ms. Heartstrings."

"You can?!" The Unicorn spun around, releasing the doctor as she did so with an excited glint in her eye.

"Nope! No, he can't!" Bon-Bon interrupted, "not if I have anything to say about it!"

Lyra glared in her roommate's direction once again and was about to say something when the Doctor suddenly spoke up once again.

"Unfortunately, Miss Drops, I'm going to have to insist that Lyra tags along, her expertise may be of some use to us."

Bon-Bon's eyes widened, she hadn't expected this from Time Turner, she had heard of his involvement with several lesser known threats to Equestria, and she knew all about his time-travel adventuring thing, but to think he was trying to strongarm his way past her, who did he think he was? Her hooves ground into the dirt as her face grew as red as the cinnamon candies she sold.

"I, said, NO!"

The last word was shouted much louder than the mare had intended it to be, and a look in Lyra's direction confirmed that their friendship would suffer from it. Still, she remained resolute in her conviction, Lyra couldn't be drawn into the agency, there was too much at stake, and she knew she would never forgive herself if Lyra ended up like so many other civilians drawn into S.M.I.L.E affairs.

The Doctor's face fell into an expression that the agent placed somewhere between boredom and frustration, with a gentle but firm hand, he pried Lyra's grip off his coat, and approached the candymare, speaking softly as he did so.

"Ms. Drops, I must ask you to set aside your personal feelings in this endeavor."

"For me to set aside my-?!" She stammered, at a loss as to why she was being considered the emotional one.

The Doctor looked back to his partner-in-crime and waved a hand. "Ms. Doo, if you would please assist Lyra in convincing the guards, Ms. Drops and I need to speak for a moment."

"Right." Derpy smiled at Lyra. "Come on, just follow my lead Lyres."

"Oh! Uh, ok..." Lyra looked between Derpy and the two earth ponies before lightly jogging after the pegasus, who had already begun speaking with the guards.

The Doctor then turned to face Bon once again, the same look on his face as he spoke to her.

"Yes, Ms. Doo, your personal feelings." The Doctor said to her in a hushed tone. "I don't know if you have realized, but anthropology is not a commonly studied subject in Equestria, I have only ever known four other ponies in all of known history to be as well-versed in it as Ms. Heartstrings, do you know who those four were?"

"No."

"Starswirl the Bearded, Princess Luna, myself, and King Sombra."

Bon-Bon was silent, quietly processing the information as the Doctor stared her directly in the eyes.

"So, if three of Equestria's most important historical figures were as knowledgeable on the topic of humans as Ms. Heartstrings, what does that tell you?"

Starswirl and the Princess were a surprise to Bon-Bon, the Doctor, not so much, but King Sombra of all ponies? The concept of the former dark king of the Crystal Empire taking an interest in humans made her stomach twist in knots.

"I'm not one for working with S.M.I.L.E, Ms. Drops, you're all too a little clandestine and ruthless for my liking, makes the acronym seem a bit too ironic, but even I can't ignore the indisputable nature of the signs that surround us. Nor can I ignore your roles in history, I know what's coming, I've known ever since my first and only trip into Equestria's distant future."

"Didn't the princesses ban you from doing that?"

The Doctor looked to the side, "No."

Bon-Bon smirked despite her frustration, "Under threat of having the TARDIS confiscated, if I remember correctly."

"How do you even know about that?" The Doctor eyed her suspiciously, "aren't you just a field agent?"

"I operate in the same town as you Time Turner, it would have been stupid of the agency not to warn me about you, they used to draw up all sorts of plans to get the T.A.R.D.I.S from you."

The doctor snorted, "They've certainly tried to, can you believe they tried sending royal guards to just cart it off at first? It took me leaving a 200-year-old pickled herring in Celestia's pillow seconds before she went to sleep for the night to get her to stop trying."

"Sounds like something Discord would do." The mare remarked with a small laugh.

"He's the one who suggested I do it."

"You went to Discord for help with that?"

"No... he sort of... invited himself into the TARDIS and mentioned it in passing."

Discord in the TARDIS?

The mare felt a shiver crawl down her spine.

"And that's a can of worms I will not be trying to open, but anyway, what did you mean by 'what's coming?' "

"When I first tried entering your future, I was unable to materialize anywhere within Equss's atmosphere, it was magical interference, the same thing happened when I tried traveling more than 200 years into the past."

"What does that mean?"

"It means, either Celestia is still kicking 2000 years into the future and predicted that I was going to be, well... me, and try breaking the rules, or there was someone actively preventing me from entering the distant future and past. Though my trip into the past was fruitless, during my breif visit to the future the TARDIS received a file with several extremely vague details about the events of the next few years."

"And yet you didn't think to tell us about this...why?"

"Because if I did, I risked changing history, the events of this morning were a fixed point in time, Bon-Bon, trust me when I say that you do not want to alter those."

The agent shook her head, "Time-travel mumbo-jumbo."

The stallion smiled wryly, almost as if reminiscing over something "Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey," he muttered, looking over to his companion.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing." The Doctor waved a hand, his smile disappearing. "Anyways, I couldn't afford to change history so drastically, and without knowing any exact dates, I had no way to prepare for our simian friend's arrival, and could do nothing but wait.

"So, what? Is the human special?"

"Everyone is special Ms. Drops," the doctor smirked mischievously, "but if you're asking if he is any kind of 'chosen one' or 'messiah, ' then, no, I don't believe he is. He is essentially just as normal as Ms. Heartstrings, minus the ability to use magic."

"So, then why is he so important?"

"I can't necessarily say for sure, between what I can't say and what I don't know there isn't very much information that details his role in the future."

The Mare threw her hands up, "so, the monkey's important, but you can't say why or how, then what can you tell me?"

"There are a lot of important people he's connected to, and a good few of them die."

The mare flinched.

"That's... morbid."

"Glimpses into the future usually are, you get used to it."

"I don't think I want to."

"You don't. But as I was saying, there wasn't much to go on, but it would have taken a blind pony to not recognize what I was reading, and given what's happening around us, I think you already know what's about to happen."

Bon-Bon wasn't a fool, and she had been paying close attention to the events of the past few weeks. A sudden meeting of the elements of harmony, her being called in with barely any explanation, the Saddle Arabian embargoes, the silence of the Griffons and the near-manic eagerness of Diamond-dog slaving parties to encroach on Equestrian soil.

"So," She said with a slightly wavering voice, "it's war?"

The Doctor chuckled grimly, "The first in a millennium, every society faces it at least once in its lifespan, and unfortunately, the time is approaching quickly."

"But, what does Lyra have to do with this? What does the human?"

The Doctor wiped a hand over his snout, as he looked over to his companion and the unicorn, the pegasus was talking in a rather threatening manner, one of the guards could barely hold her cross-eyed gaze, instead, he stared vacantly forward, the other guard seemed to be... crying.

"He could be the key to our survival, could be the key to a lot of things, as I said before, the information I have on him is, inconclusive, but I do know that both he and Lyra survive at the very least a few more years, but If they hadn't met today, I couldn't have guaranteed her survival. "

The Doctor bit his lip, sighing.

"All you need to know is that Lyra and the Human are fated to meet, the roles the two of them play are ones whose importance cannot be overstated. I understand that you worry for your friend but when it comes to the survival of a people, I cannot take a risk when it comes to something as inconsequential as sentimentality."

"You're starting to sound like the Director of S.M.I.L.E." Bon tilted her head.

"One, never say that again, two, she has to go, and we need to convince the princesses to let the human go free, which means you have to drop charges."

Bon-Bon sighed, "yeah, I saw that one coming." She rubbed her jaw where the human had hit her, as much as she hated to say it, the human packed one heck of a punch. "You realize you're going to have to literally pry Princess Twilight off of the human to prevent her from trying to study it."

"Him, Miss Drops, him, he is a sentient, and deserves at the very least to be referred to as one."

She sighed, "fine, him."

The Doctor allowed himself to smile once again.

"Wonderful! I'm so glad we could come to an agreement on the matter, now, shall we relieve the poor stallions on that wagon before Derpy causes any lasting mental trauma?"

The cage was covered with a brown tarp that Bon-Bon had pulled from a shed near their home, once they were sure the wagon would attract as little attention as it could possibly attract. The propulsion spell was started once again and the wagon began to wheel itself through the streets of ponyville.

With the cage taking up a substantial portion of the wagon's bed, two of the wagon's four passengers were forced to sit on the floor of the bed, with the two that remained allowed to take the two remaining seats on either side of the wagon. Lyra had opted to sit on the floor, with her back pressed up against the bars of the cage, the Doctor had joined her sitting parallel to her as Derpy and Bonnie took their own seats. Bonnie had offered her the seat, Lyra guessed it was a sort of apology, she didn't take it, and refused to make eye contact with her as she made small talk with the doctor.

It wasn't long before the wagon drew the eyes of the town's ponies. Conversations were stopped and then continued with new topics in hushed tones as everyone in the town strained to get a look at the wagon and who was riding in it. Lyra instinctively flinched back from the attention, unused to so many eyes on her, she suddenly flicked her gaze to the wooden boards of the wagon's bed as her name was whispered and the very same rumors that she had heard whispered in the halls of every orphanage and boarding school she had ever attended returned to plague her. There were the ones about her, how she had cheated at the entrance exams at the home for the magically gifted, or how she was obsessed with make-believe monsters. She had heard it all before and had grown numb to the judgment of strangers, after all, she knew herself, and that was enough for her.

But the worst rumors were about the people she hadn't known, the rumors about how they had abandoned her at the foot of an orphanage in Fillydelphia at the first chance they had. She had never known her parents, her last name was made by one of the caretakers at the orphanage when she had discovered her special talent. She had left Fillydelphia as soon as she had scraped together enough bits to get a train ticket to Canterlot, but those rumors seemed to chase after her, no matter how far she ran.

The rumors were not limited to her, however, Time Turner's, Derpy's, and even Bon-Bon's name were whispered in the crowd, and soon Lyra found that the Doctor's and Derpy's name soon overshadowed her own, a fact that she took comfort in as they passed through the town proper and rolled slowly up to the large ramp that led to Princess Twilight's castle.

Right in front of the entire company of royal guards that stood watch, three guards broke ranks and began to approach the wagon.

"Oh, when did they get there?" The Doctor asked nonchalantly.

"This morning," Bon-Bon replied, "they were sent from Canterlot for the protection of the elements of harmony during their-"

Without warning, the great wooden doors of the crystal castle slammed open with a massive, resounding "BANG! " and from within the castle, a pink-colored rocket hurtled down the ramp faster than anypony could or should be able to run.

If the ponies at the bottom of the ramp were not denizens of Ponyville, perhaps they would have been shocked, maybe even a little scared. However, they were, and every pony on the wagon, including the guards, who had been stationed in the town for two years, knew what was coming.

The guards at the ramp, however, did not.

"Halt!"

"Oh dear," The Doctor muttered in slight amusement, "here we go again."

A sergeant stepped out of the ranks of soldiers and placed himself in the path of the pink blur, holding out a hand in an attempt to stop the blur. He might as well been attempting to stop the blowing of the wind.

"Halt!" The sergeant commanded once again, his voice beginning to waver as the pink blur took shape. It was less than fifty yards from the bottom of the ramp when the guardspony began stumbling backward, his voice cracking as the earth pony lost no speed whatsoever and showed no intention of changing direction. As the pink blur finally reached him, the stallion caught of brief view of blue eyes, a huge pink mane, and a smile so big it could have been mistaken for the moon if wasn't for the mare it was attached to.

Then the blur was past him, heading straight for the wagon as the sound of a party horn sounded through the air, finally the blur came to an immediate stop in front of the wagon. Allowing the occupants to see the pink mare garbed in a short skirt and light blue T-shirt as the sound of a part blower split the air.

"WELCOME TO-!"

The mare cut her cry short as she realized that she recognized everyone within the wagon, and while her comically large smile remained, the confusion in her eyes was evident.

"Hi, Pinkie," Lyra said, giving her friend a small wave, one that the pink mare briefly and enthusiastically returned.

"Hiya Lyres!"

The doctor gave the party mare a polite nod, "Good morning, Ms. Pie, forgive my abruptness, but aren't you supposed to be in a meeting?"

"Uh-huh!" Pinkie nodded fervently. "Princess Celestia called us all together for something, I don't remember what it was about because when she was talking I got the feeling somepony new came to Ponyville!" The mare bounced in place excitedly for a moment as her eyes scanned her surroundings for the somepony in question. "I didn't know anypony was coming, but I always have my emergency welcome-to-ponyville-party-supplies on hand!"

The mare gestured back to the entrance of the castle, where a large banner reading "welcome to ponyville!" in big yellow letters.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows in slight surprise, but gave no other indication of shock at the display, no one would have been surprised even if Pinkie had pulled an entire cake out of her mane for this exact occasion.

"I really, really REALLY wanted to go and plan a bigger party, but Twilight wouldn't let me go, but then I felt the new pony coming closer and closer and I just couldn't sit still and it felt like I was gonna explode!"

Pinkie threw her arms out and mimicked the sound of an explosion.

"Pinkie!" A distant and incredibly irate voice called from within the castle.

A small, purple-tinged flash appeared at the entrance of the castle, and a very upset alicorn appeared, looked up to see the banner strung up in the entrance to her castle, pinched the bridge of her muzzle, and then disappeared in another purple flash before appearing closer. Despite the tiara on her head, the princess wore little else to signify her presence as royalty, she wore a set of simple yet formal clothes that likely had been made by Rarity.

"Pinkie! You can't just run off during a meeting concerning the security of the entire country just to, oh, who am I kidding, of course you were going to do that."

At the sight of the youngest princess, the entirety of those present with the exception of the Doctor and Pinkie either kneeled or bowed their heads in respect. Twilight blushed slightly in embarrassment before hastily gesturing everyone present to their hooves before she took notice of the wagon and blinked in surprise.

"Doctor?"

"Good morning your highness!" The Doctor waved. "Quite a nice day for a meeting, isn't it?"

Twilight approached the wagon and saw the other three ponies.

"Lyra? Bon-Bon? I expected Derpy to be with Time Turner, but what are you doing here?" Twilight looked at the covered cage, "and what is that?"

"Good morning, your highness." Bon-Bon said curtly, "we have something we need to show you and the other princesses," she nodded to the cage. "This is it."

Pinkie also took notice of the massive object and within a second was behind the wagon.

"What is it?" She asked reaching for the tarp.

"Ap! Ap! Ap!" The Doctor swatted her hand away. "This is an important.... um...."

"Object?" Bon-Bon offered.

"Object! Yes, yes, an important and very, very secret object that must be brought to the princesses at once!"

Pinkie squinted at the doctor, and looked back at the covered cage, she stared at it for a moment in silence before her pupils shrunk comically and she gasped so deeply it felt as if she was trying to inhale the cage.

"The new pony's in there!" Pinkie shouted.

"What?!" Twilight leaned over to see, eyes wide.

The pink pony lunged for the tarp as the Doctor and Bon-Bon attempted to block her from getting it off, meanwhile Twilight demanded an explanation from Lyra, who tried to stammer out a reply as the two guards who were driving the wagon quickly made themselves scarce, not wanting to get in the way of the scuffle.

"Hey! What the hay is going on?!"

Everypony present looked up to see two pegasi flying over to the scene, neither needed introduction.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy landed and took in the scene for a moment before Pinkie opened her mouth again.

"The Doctor kidnapped the new pony!"

"What?!"

"Oh my!" Fluttershy clamped her hands over her mouth. "Why?"

"I did not- ah!" The Doctor shouted as he was shoved out of the way and off the wagon by Rainbow Dash as she grabbed the tarp and prepared to pull it off, but was stopped by Bon-Bon and Derpy as they now struggled with two opponents.

Bon-bon quickly and respectfully placed herself between the cage and the cyan pegasi, who looked at Bon-Bon in shock and confusion before glaring at her.

"Move!" The pegasi attempted to shove her way past the earth pony, who returned the shove with equal force.

"Ms. Dash, I know this looks bad, but you need to-"

"Buck that! I'm saving that pony, kidnapper!"

The two began to struggle, and soon they toppled over the end of the wagon and on top of the Doctor, who wheezed in pain. Derpy struggled to hold Pinkie back from jumping onto the wagon as Twilight continued to demand answers from Lyra, who could barely compose a sentence through her panic and confusion.

Finally, a voice cut through the chaos.

"STOP!"

Everybody froze before instinctively gaining their hoot and looking around for a moment, that volume and commanding tone could have only belonged to Princess Luna, and as everyone turned, two alicorns and an earth-pony stood behind them.

The Diarchs stood at least a foot over everyone present, garbed in robes befitting royalty. Princess Celestia strode forward, her face calm and the small, mischievous, and benevolent smirk on her face as present as ever on her face.

"Doctor, up to some manner of trouble as ever I see."

"Yes, well, your highness, it has been an...'interesting' morning." The Doctor replied, picking himself off the ground.

"So it would seem, am I to believe Pinkie in that you have kidnapped a pony, and then brought them here to show to us?"

"We did not kidnap anypony, your highness!" Derpy spoke up.

"Then you wouldn't have any problem removing that there tarp, now would ya?"

Applejack strode forward, pointing at the cage with suspicion in her green eyes.

"A.J! Where's Rarity?" Dash called from beside the Wagon.

The mare rolled her eyes "You know her, so set on making sure she didn't ruin that fancy dress of hers, she thought this was a Pinkie problem and wanted 't wait it out in the castle.

Princess Luna, her face one of slight annoyance, spoke up, "I agree with the element of Honesty's proposal, if there is nothing to hide, then there is no reason to hide whatever it is you have behind the covering."

Twilight gave a relieved sigh before her horn lit up purple and the tarp around the cage glowed the same color.

"Princess!" The Doctor cautioned, "I would not do that!"

"Why not, Doctor?" Twilight stared at the stallion accusatorily.

"What is under that tarp should not be revealed until we are in a more secure environment, I am dearly sorry for interrupting your meeting, but unfortunately what is under that tarp is a matter of national security and should not be unveiled in a public setting such as this!"

"So," Princess Luna, "there is not a pony in a cage under that veil." She said with narrowed eyes.

"No, your Highness," the Doctor said relieved to be in control of the situation again. "There is not."

Celestia stared at the doctor for a few moments before addressing Applejack.

"Is he lying, Applejack?"

The mare brushed the front of her stetson away from her eyes and set her hands on her hips, staring at the stallion intently before giving a short sigh.

"Not as far as I can tell, princess."

Celestia, satisfied with the element of Honesty's answer, nodded.

"Very well, Doctor, you may bring the cart into the-"

"Ah, Christ, my friggin' head."

All eyes turned to look at the back of the wagon where the voice had come from, and everypony knew it had come from within the cage. Both Diarchs stared at the Doctor, who laughed nervously.

"Twilight." Celestia said, "Please remove the tarp."

"Bollocks." The Doctor sighed.

Twilight gripped the tarp in her magic once more and lifted the tarp up so that anyone present could get a good look at it, Pinkie, now unhindered by Derpy, hopped onto the wagon, the party blower still in her mouth as she locked eyes with the creature in the cage, the party blower sagged in her mouth before falling out entirely as her jaw dropped and Dash appeared behind her.

"What, is, that?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

Author's Note

12/7/20: Minor Plot and Gramatical tweaks.