Worlds Away

Chapter 6

Eric had kept his distance from the others ever since they had entered the castle, which, much to his amazement, was a grand labyrinth of a building, it's halls seeming to branch into smaller halls like the entire building was some sort of enormous crystal tree. Other guards patrolled the halls in threes, and seldom did their eyes not fall and remain on him as the group walked through halls and ascended several sets of stairs. He fell behind the group proper, hoping to stay outside of anyone's range of sight.

The human was unnerved, to say the least, he assumed that most human beings would be after experiencing what he had, still, he was patting himself on the back for the way he managed to pull himself together in front of the diarchs. He had gotten a "benevolent ruler" kind of feel from both of them, and that had set some of his anxiety at ease, though by no means did that mean his anxiety had disappeared. He was on a different planet, populated by creatures capable of magic and building massive crystal castles, and met one of the most powerful fictional characters he had ever known of only to make the discovery that he was now a horse-person.

He had no way of telling what the future held for him, and that worm of discontent and paranoia was making its way deeper into his mind, whispering worst-case scenarios to him as his eyes explored the castle's interior.

The guards leading the group had said little, likely maintaining the discipline pounded into them by whatever training they underwent, but Eric knew when he was being watched, the guards' ears swiveled his way every so often, and he would just barely catch the movement of their eyes flicking away from him as he turned his head their way. He might have been welcome here, but he was far from comfortable.

The Doctor, his companion, and the other two mares spoke in a lively manner, with the doctor even trading a few words with the corporal leading them. Both would cast looks his way from time to time, he avoided meeting their eyes.

His thoughts wandered to Princess Celestia's words, his 'plans for the future,' the gravity of the words hadn't dawned on him until then. As far as he knew, some random cosmic coin-toss had ended up throwing him into some kind of tear in reality, one where the doctor existed, horse people used magic to teleport, and castles could be built out of crystal. It stood to reason that no one on this planet knew how to put him back on Earth, and he could very well be stuck here for the rest of his life.

The human clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, a noise that caused the ears of all the ponies to swivel towards the noise, the Doctor turned his head to look at the human, giving him a reassuring nod and a small smile, as he continued to trade words with the unicorn who walked next to him. Soon her gaze had fallen on him as well, Eric returned the Doctor's nod, but his expression remained the same, his mouth formed a grim line as his eyes returned to the floor, he retreated into his own mind, and pondered the struggles of finding some sort of normal life here, this place, this world was clearly operating under a different set of rules than Earth was, not an entirely different set, but different enough to seem extraordinary to someone like him. He vaguely noticed one member of the group fall behind the others to walk beside him as the group ascended a long, winding staircase that brought them several stories up. He tried not to pay the pony any mind, hoping that whoever it was didn't try to speak with him.

His mind raced to think about how he could go about making a life for himself here, this place seemed to be on a medieval level of technology, supplemented by magic, he could likely make a good deal of money selling human concepts of technology, but that was a steep slope, one that he might not want to go down. Manual labor was always an option, he wasn't a stranger to it, but he wondered if any of the ponies would even want to hire an alien, probably not. Then there was the problem of xenophobia, he was likely to be seen as a bit of a freak to the Denizens of the planet.

"Or maybe not...." he thought, remembering that the princess had said something about seeing his kind before, and the mint-colored one had known he was a human. Maybe humans existed somewhere on the planet?

His thoughts were interrupted by a tapping on his shoulder, he jumped, suddenly looking to his left to see the mint-colored unicorn looking at him sheepishly.

"Um, sorry, but we're here."

The group had arrived at a set of doors more eloquently designed than the others, which was saying something considering the ornate patterns on most of the doors. The three other ponies entered, talking amongst themselves as the corporal led the way. The two guards flanking them strode forward and opened the doors for them to enter. Little was needed to be said, he looked to the unicorn, trying to think of a way to separate himself from the pony as quickly as possible.

He stepped back and politely gestured for the pony to enter.

"Ladies first." He muttered.

The unicorn stood unmoving for a moment, staring at him blankly just long enough to make it awkward before she snapped out of her stupor and she turned somewhat red in embarrassment.

"Oh, thanks!" She finally replied, scratching the back of her head for a moment before nodding a thank you and entering ahead of him.

He hesitated as he glanced at the two guards by the door, who blankly stared back at him, he became vaguely aware of the guardspony standing behind him, waiting for him to enter to ensure the guard would be the last to enter, he strode forward with a silent sigh. Hearing the clopping of the guard as he entered the room behind the human. The remaining two guards closed the door behind him, and the sound of the doors closing reverberated around the somewhat large room, making him feel somewhat small, as the guard took a position by the entrance.

The library was a big one, with the first floor lined with close to twelve large shelves of assorted books, ending in a large sitting area to his left. Directly ahead of him a staircase that led up to a balcony, which overlooked the room and held a few dozen more rows of bookshelves, light poured in from six windows evenly spaced across the north wall of the room, evenly split between the first and second floors. The light from the windows was supplemented by a large chandelier that held several glowing crystals instead of candles and seemed to be more than capable of adequately lighting the room by itself.

The room stoked Eric's sense of wonder, he had enjoyed reading, though during his time in college, he mostly listened to audiobooks in order to multitask. The library was big enough to distance himself from the rest of the group and maybe gain some general knowledge of his new environment. He hazarded a look over to the others, the doctor and the other four females seemed to be in a conversation with the corporal, drawing the full attention of the three mares as he spoke. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the human quietly ascended the stairs, hoping and praying that the books were in some kind of English so he could perhaps gain some useful knowledge while he waited for his audience with the rulers of the nation. He knew it was a long shot, but if the ponies spoke English, hopefully they would write in it as well

Once he reached the top of the stairs Eric got a good look at the second floor, noticing several tables where one could sit down as they read. He approached the shelves and selected a random book, grabbing it, he moved to the nearest table, one that sat near a window overlooking the countryside.

Opening his chosen book, his eyes scanned over the first sentence, and his eyes went wide.

English lettering, plain as day.

While it was obvious that the ponies could understand him and he could understand them, the fact that the ponies shared a written language with humans seemed to be too unlikely to be possible. Continuing to read, he didn't make it two more pages before he made another discovery that boggled his mind.

The books actually weren't written in English.

If he concentrated on the familiar script hard enough, certain letters would shift into a completely alien script, likely incomprehensible to any native to Earth. Suddenly the question as to how there was no language barrier was answered, the ponies words were being translated to English for him, and most likely his words were being translated into their native language. The answer, however, only led to more questions for him, such as exactly why and how this was happening, he brushed them away and decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth for now.

He looked over at the staircase, none of his 'entourage' seemed to have noticed that he was gone yet. Or maybe they were keeping their distance, either way, it worked to his benefit, he replaced the book and decided to put studying up on his surroundings on hold until he knew for sure there was no way home.

With an exaggerated sigh, he fell back into his chair and shook his head, as much as he wished he could distract himself with reading, his mind was going a mile a minute.

" Home? " His mind seemed to say; "All that's back there for you is an empty house and an inheritance."

The conversation at the table had quickly died out, considering the elephant in the room, nopony seemed to want to talk about anything except the thing nopony knew how to start talking about.

Bon-Bon drummed her fingers against the table she was sitting at in an agitated manner

"The human is gone," Bon-Bon said finally, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.

Corporal Obsidia shot up from the table they had all been sitting at, looking around her in a frantic search for the missing alien.

"Buck, Sundance!" The Corporal called, causing the orange pegasus to come jogging over.

"Ma'am?" The private stood at attention.

"Did the human enter the library?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Where is he now?"

"He took one look at you all and disappeared upstairs." The private gestured with his spear to the balcony; "You want me to bring him down, ma'am?"

The doctor waved a hand, "if it's all the same to you, corporal, I say we should leave him be for a moment, let him come to terms with his current reality."

The corporal looked over to the doctor, "Sir, with all due respect..."

The Doctor winced, "'Doctor,' or 'Time-Turner' is fine, corporal, save the 'sirs' for your actual superiors."

"Doctor, with all due respect, the 'human' needs to be kept under constant supervision."

Bon-Bon nodded, "This is Twilights' castle, Doctor... he needs to be kept on a leash."

The doctor rolled his eyes, "He's a person, not a bloody dog, he's not going to take a wee on the carpet if that's what you are worried about."

Obsidia gave a short bark of a laugh, "Oh, he's house-trained?"

The Doctor arched an eyebrow at the corporal. "Hilarious."

"The Doctor is right," added Lyra, "Humans are just as civilized as any of the sapient peoples of Equss."

" How do you know so much about that thing anyway?" Obsidia asked the two, who frowned back at the corporal.

The black mare looked confused at the two's reaction.

"What?"

"'It' is a 'he,' Corporal," the doctor said neutrally, before turning to Lyra " Miss Heartstrings, care to explain the source of your knowledge?"

The unicorn winced, "I, uh, heard about them once in a storybook when I was a foal, they interested me, so I tried to find more about them. It took years to find out what I know today, and most of it is just myths and rumors. That storybook is one of the only books I have that even mentions humans directly. But there's a lot of evidence that supports their existence even without them being mentioned."

Bon-Bon rolled her eyes.

"Ok," Obsidia looked to the stallion.

"And you, Doctor?"

"Yeah," Lyra looked to the clockmaker, "How do you know so much about humans?"

The Doctor smiled back, "Simple, I've been to their planet."

All of the mares with the exception of Derpy stared at the doctor.

Lyra was slack-jawed, "to their planet?" she whispered.

"Yes, or at least, one version of it."

Lyra rested her head in her hands, looking down at the table with a troubled expression.

"One version?" Bon-Bon looked puzzled.

"Yes, though from what my scan of Mr. Carter told me, he appears to hail from a different version of Terra Firma than I am used to."

"So, you're saying there are different versions of his planet?"

"There are different versions of every planet, Corporal, even this one."

"What do you mean by different versions?"

The doctor held a hand to his chin in thought.

"Well, take the concept of our world, Equss, we all know a fair amount of its history, correct?"

A series of nods was his answer.

"Well, imagine if something was different about it, something small, or perhaps something big, maybe only one thing is different, or perhaps everything about it."

"I thought something like that couldn't happen?" Derpy added, "That's what you told me, that altering history like that can cause serious damage to the universe or something."

"Indeed it can Miss Doo, I've seen the consequences for actions such as that firsthand, fortunately for us, alternate universes such as those are the very reason that history cannot be seriously altered. There are a potentially unlimited amount of these alternate universes, and that simply pertains to our reality. There are infinite alternate universes involving planet Earth as well, ones where our planet exists and ones where it does not. I came from a universe where it did not."

"Wait, wait, wait." Sundance suddenly cut in. "Did you say 'the one you came from?'"

"Yes."

"So that would mean..."

"Yep." Derpy answered for her companion.

Obsidia, Bon-Bon , and Sundance all stared at the Doctor, the only ones who didn't were Derpy, who had already known this information, and Lyra, who didn't seem to be paying attention, and was still staring at the table, muttering to herself.

"But... you.." Obsidia looked the Doctor up and down,

"Look like one of you?" The Doctor smirked, "At one point I looked like a human, but I am in fact neither a pony nor a human, I..."

The doctor paused for dramatic effect.

"Am a time-lord."

"A...time lord?" Bon-Bon repeated.

"Or Gallifreyan, if that is easier for you."

"So, aliens exist, the stallion that saved Equss several times is an alien, and there are infinite parallel universes." Bon-Bon said, staring off into space.

The two soldiers remained quiet, coming to terms with the sudden truths in stunned silence.

"You seem to be taking this quite well." The Doctor commented.

"You have a time-machine, aliens aren't that far-fetched when you take that into consideration." "Bon-Bon replied.

Doctor shrugged, "fair point."

"Why are you telling us this?" Obsidia asked the Doctor.

"Because I have a feeling that all of us will be working rather closely together in the near future."

"Why?"Sundance asked, then pointed at the second floor, "because of him?"

"Him, and... other reasons." The Doctor replied, glancing at Bon-Bon. "The human will need individuals he can feel safe around, as he is the first human to set foot on Equss in potentially a very long time. If I know the princesses, they will take the human with them to canterlot, they will assign guards to protect him in the event that this information carries beyond Equss' border. I am going to recommend you and your squad, corporal, as that guard detail.

The corporal visibly paled, which was impressive, considering the black coat.

"Why?"

"Because the sergeant chose you, maybe he had a reason, maybe it came down to random chance, but I need individuals I can trust. So, can I trust you and your squad Corporal?"

Sundance shifted from hoof to hoof nervously, "Ma'am?"

Obsidia put her hands behind her head, letting out a deep breath, before resting her hands on the table.

"Yeah, yeah, we can do it, I'll need to brief Tango and Winter, but we can protect the human."

"Good Mare!" The doctor slapped the table with his palms. "Don't worry, we'll be going as well, Mr. Carter will need friends and ponies he can trust, especially since he's the only one from his universe."

"Doctor," Derpy spoke up, "something's been bothering me."

The Doctor looked to his companion, "what is it?"

" If the universe you came from wasn't the one Eric did, how did he recognize you? He even called you Doctor."

The doctor reached into his coat and withdrew his sonic screwdriver, holding it with his thumb and index finger.

"He recognized this." He pointed to his own muzzle, "not this"

"But still..." the mare continued, "He associated it with you, so he has to of at least heard of you before, but how could he know you if you've never been to 'his version' of the human world."

"An excellent question, Ms. Doo." The Doctor's smile faded somewhat, "One I intend on discovering the answer to relatively soon."

"I thought you said to leave him alone, for now" Obsidia replied, looking suspiciously at the doctor.

"I told you to leave him alone." The Doctor replied, " while you are going to be protecting him, Mr. Carter is alone, frightened, unlearned in the ways of this world, and in dire need of not only a guide, but some friends as well."

"And you should be his first one?" Asked Sundance.

"I believe that all of us should begin taking steps to get to know Mr. Carter, as something tells me he will be sticking around." The Doctored gestured at the group around him. "Miss Pie will inevitably try to make Mr. Carter feel welcome, or die trying, but for someone in his situation, her approach may end up doing more harm than good if that is his first impression of ponykind. Out of all of us, I believe I am the most experienced at dealing with individuals outside of their element in addition to being the only one who has any actual experience with humans, and I've built a somewhat sparse foundation of trust with him. I would be the best candidate to start talking to Mr. Carter, and should I fail, Ms. Heartstings would be my next choice."

All heads swiveled to look at the Unicorn, but she seemed to be deep in thought, her eyes moving across the table as if reading over a notepad.

"She looks like princess Twilight," Derpy whispered to the Doctor, the Stallion responded with a silent chuckle.

"No, that can't be right." The mare finally said.

"What?" Derpy's eyes suddenly aligned on Lyra.

"Humans aren't aliens."

"What do you mean?" Obsidia raised an eyebrow, "The Doctor just said..."

"I know what he said! But it doesn't make sense, there are ruins, ancient documents, even cave paintings that suggest that humans existed on Equss for as long as any other known race! They can't be aliens!"

"I'm not exactly certain that they are, Ms. Heartstrings."The doctor held up his hands. "I've taken a look at what many of Equss' countries have on Humans, you'd be surprised on how little there is across the board, and yet, almost every race seems to have an idea of what a human is. "

"Exactly!" Lyra nodded. "If they have existed for so long, why is there so little information on them?"

"Perhaps, because someone wanted to discourage the study of humans." The Doctor said.

Lyra looked up at the Doctor, "do you know something?"

The Doctor waved his hand. "We can talk conspiracy theories later, Ms. Heartstrings, we need to focus on getting you and Mr. Carter to become friends.

"Wh-why me?" Lyra's eyes opened wide.

"You know more about them than most ponies." The doctor shrugged, "And you also happened to be the only pony beside myself and Derpy to not refer to our new friend as 'it.'"

Lyra froze as all eyes present looked to her, the mare shifted uncomfortably in her seat, but nodded, as her want to speak with the human overcame her apprehension. The Doctor had suggested she try to talk to 'Eric' in the hallway, she had managed to get close enough to start a conversation but couldn't find any words. How do you talk to something you 'wasted' half your life looking for? She had tried to come up with an apology, a joke, something to break the ice and get the human into a conversation with her, there was so much she wanted to ask him, so much she wanted to do. She dreamed of befriending a human for years, so why couldn't she say anything? The human had looked nervous, afraid, and she wanted to tell him that there wasn't any reason to be afraid, that he was among friends, but after the events of the morning, she couldn't help but wonder, was he?

Her eyes fell on Bon-Bon, and as Lyra looked at her, she found that she couldn't forgive the mare for what had happened, she had called her life's work worthless, attacked the human, and then tried her best to make sure she didn't come anywhere near the human.

What was her problem?

It was like she didn't want this to be real, Bon-Bon should have been happy for her! Should have patted her on the back and congratulated her for all of her hard work finally bearing fruit. Though it had just been luck that literally dropped the human in her lap, it still proved that she had been right! That they not only existed, but from what she had overheard from the princess, they had been on Equss before! Instead, her roommate tried to sabotage her! If that was the her best friend, treated her then perhaps it was time to start looking for a new one.

She cast a look to the second floor, a small smile forming on her face, the human wasn't the ideal choice, but he was a start, and it had always been a foal hood dream of hers to be friends with a human.

"Yeah, yeah, its a foalhood dream of mine to be friends with a human." Lyra straightened in her seat, newfound confidence entering her voice as she met the doctors' eyes.

"I think it would be better if both of us tried to." The Doctor smiled back, "I would prefer to lead, and then introduce you a bit later, sound like a plan?"

Lyra nodded, excitement causing her to tap her hooves on the ground in anticipation, she would be friends with Eric, no matter what.

"Alright then," The Doctor stood, brushing the arms of his coat off and adjusting both it and his bowtie, "Ms. Doo, Ms. Heartstrings... Let's go befriend a human."

Eric looked up from the table as the sound of hooves on the stairs reached his ears.

Someone was coming to find him, his first instinct was to hide, if he put his back to the nearest bookshelf he wouldn't have been seen from the staircase, though that may end up with them thinking he had escaped and might end up searching the castle for him.

Still...he dreaded social interaction, it was... draining, social interaction with an alien species and a supposedly fictional alien supergenius would likely be worse.

"Well, there's always the window," he thought "throwing myself to my death may be preferable."

He looked out the window, halfheartedly smiling at the macabre bit of humor, the landscape was beautiful, he judged that it was likely around ten A.M and the rolling plains that surrounded the town reminded him of the overworld of the many fantasy games he played. He had taken the time to calm himself in the twenty minutes since he had entered the library, he had figured at the very least the Doctor would come to speak with him, probably to ask how the human knew who the doctor even was, and why he knew as much as he did.

"Tell him the truth." He said to himself, "the Doctor is one of the good guys, just explain yourself, and everything will be fine."

He picked the book back up, glossing over it for another five minutes before the sound of hooves on the stairs drew his attention.

The Doctor, followed by the gray Pegasus and mint unicorn reached the top of the stairs, and immediately they saw and began approaching him. The human watched them grow closer in his peripheral vision, pretending to be engrossed in the book in his hands and rhythmic tapping of his fingers on the tabletop. Finally they stood less than three feet from his table, the Doctor, with his hands behind his back, cleared his throat.

Knowing that was his cue to acknowledge them, he lowered the book and looked at the three.

"Nothing good to read?" The Doctor asked him.

"Not really." Eric replied neutrally, "Kinda hard to identify with most of the characters."

"I'd imagine."

Lyra shifted on her hooves, obviously wanting to say something, but remaining silent like she was told to.

"Can I help you?" Eric asked politely.

"You were alone up here, Mr. Carter, on a different world, and you were attacked less than three hours ago, I assumed you would appreciate some company."

Eric smiled politely, "I'm fine, really, but if you want to stay I won't stop you."

"Wonderful." The Doctor smiled.

In less than thirty seconds the three had pulled up chairs and were sitting down, like it or not, social interaction was inevitable now.

With a mental sigh, he sat the book down, what the hell, he needed the practice anyway.

"Introductions are in order." The Doctor said, smiling. "Mr. Carter, this is my companion Ms. Doo."

The stallion gestured to the diplopic pegasus, who offered him a smile and a hand to shake.

"It's nice to meet you Eric."

Eric took the hand and returned the smile.

"Likewise, Ms. Doo."

"Call me Derpy."

That statement was so unexpected it caused the human to flinch as he tried to stammer out a reply.

"Oh, I-uh, ok."

The mare gave a slight giggle, and pointed to her eyes. "Don't worry, if I wasted time getting offended at something like that I wouldn't have any hours left in the day, if you can't laugh at yourself you can't laugh at anything, right?"

Eric, somewhat stunned at the aloof and easygoing nature of the mare, simply nodded.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"So good to have you two acquainted, " the Doctor cut in, "Mr. Carter, this is Lyra Heartstrings, she the closest thing this town has to an expert on humans, she is fascinated by your race and has wanted to meet one of you for most of her life."

Slightly taken aback by the statement, "Lyra" looked as if she was going to faint again, she shifted in her seat anxiously and avoided meeting his eyes. Slowly, he reached his hand out for her to shake.

The mint green unicorn stared at Eric's offered hand, he hesitated as she showed no sign of acknowledging it, she seemed starstruck, her eyes filled with awe. The Doctor gave an apologetic laugh and kicked Lyra's hoof, which served to snap the unicorn out of her stupor.

"Right, right!" The mare stammered, taking Erics hand and shaking it enthusiastically. "I'm Lyra, it's really, really great to meet you Mr. Eric."

"Uh, just Eric is fine."

"Ok, you can just call me Lyra."

"Alrighty then."

"And of course, we seem to have already been introduced." The doctor nodded, "so if you don't mind, we'd like to ask you a few questio-"

"I know you from a T.V. show." Eric blurted.

The Doctor paused, obviously just as surprised as Lyra and Derpy at the human's claim.

"Well, I suppose that answers that, what exactly is-"

"Its about you, your adventures,"

"Back from when I Iooked like a human?"

"Yeah."

The Doctor looked disturbed, "how much..."

"Rose Tyler, Donna Noble, Martha Jones,Amy and Rory Pond, and Clara Oswald, that's where my knowledge stops."

The Doctors smile had disappeared when Eric spoke the first name, now, the smile had returned, and the guilt behind it made Eric feel like the biggest ass ever.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly, "I should have known better."

"No, it's quite alright." The Doctor said quietly, "just a bit jarring, though it makes sense there would be a universe where my life is little more than entertainment."

"Universe?"

The Doctor nodded, " as far I know, you have crossed over to a universe where Earth does not exist, and whether it be through either fortune or misfortune, you have ended up on this planet, we call it Equss."

Eric bit the inside of his cheek, taking a moment to process that fact, "ok, ok cool."

"Are you alright?" Derpy asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"That's uh, pretty crazy news, " Lyra added.

"Tell me about it." Eric gave a short laugh Lyra, not knowing what else to say, simply smiled and gave a small laugh as well.

"Indeed," The doctor said, looking sympathetic, "I'm going to be forward with you Eric, there is very little chance of you returning home, when I initially arrived on this planet I attempted to use the TARDIS to return to Earth, or anywhere in the universe that I recognize, while I did find some rather interesting things, I recognized none of it. We both seem to have crossed a barrier between dimensions, and unless you came here intentionally, which I doubt very much, neither of us seem to possess a means to reopen another hole in between dimensions. Which leaves us effectively stranded."

Eric clicked his tongue, "Well, that sucks."

The Doctor's eyebrows raised, "That....sucks? That's all you have to say on the matter?"

The human shrugged, "not much left for me back there."

Derpy and Lyra's expressions turned sympathetic.

"That's.... so sad." Derpy reached out to put a hand on Eric's shoulder.

Eric shrugged again and leaned back in his chair and out of the mare's reach.

Derpy withdrew her hand, but the look of sympathy remained, reminding him of a time not too long ago when people back home looked at him in very much the same way.

"Eh, you get used to it." He replied, his eyes turning downcast. The three ponies looked at the human with muted concern, but didn't seem to push the subject, much to Eric's relief.

"Ok, so...." Eric shuffled uncomfortably "Thank you, for that information Doctor, is there anything else?"

"Yes," the Doctor said, "It could be said that the two of us are in a rather similar situation, could it not?"

Eric cocked his head, unsure of what the Time-Lord was playing at, "I...suppose?"

"We both are aliens in this world," the stallion explained, "though only one of us truly look the part, no offense."

"None taken," deadpanned the human.

"We are both from another dimension, with no way to get back, so...us aliens should stick together, right?"

Was the Doctor seriously asking what he was thinking he was asking?

"Yeah, uh, sure." Eric replied, doing his best to maintain a netural disposition despite the Doctor of all people actually suggesting they keep in contact.

"I'm glad you agree." The Doctor smiled, "Now, my friend, you have a choice ahead of you, as when you meet with the princesses they will likely wish for you to return to Canterlot with them."

"Canterlot?"

"It's the capital of Equestria." Lyra finally spoke up, "Its on that big mountain, Mount Canterbury, and its where the princesses live."

Eric nodded, it made sense, bring the alien to your finest city, show him what wonders you've created, impress him, so when he goes back to his friends, all he has to say are nice things.

"I need you to stay here."

Eric cocked his head at the strange request, wondering what exactly the Doctor had planned, but the Doctor was the Doctor, he usually knew what he was doing in most cases, hopefully, he knew what he was doing now.

"Alright, but one question."

"Shoot."

"Why?"

The Doctor smiled, "I intend to follow you to Canterlot, Mr. Carter, but before I can make the trip I need to make some preparations.

Eric smirked. "The T.A.R.D.I.S?"

The Doctor returned the smile and nodded, "The T.A.R.D.I.S."

"Alright, I'll see what I can do." Eric leaned back in his chair.

"Thank you, Mr. Carter," The Doctor nodded, before standing and pushing his chair back in. "Well, that's about all I needed to speak with you about, thank you for your time, Mr. Carter, it was a pleasure meeting you."

Derpy stood as well, stretching her wings as she did so before giving Eric a polite nod and a smile.

"It was great to meet you Eric, I hope we can get to know each other a lot more soon."

Lyra however, remained sitting, absently picking at her cuticles.

"Ms. Heartstrings? " The Doctor looked over his shoulder at the mare.

The unicorn suddenly looked up and around her, "Oh, uh, go ahead Doctor, I just wanna talk with Eric for a sec."

The stallion offered a nod in response and proceeded back towards the stairs with Derpy in tow.

Eric looked over to the nervous unicorn, "Need something, Ms Lyra?"

"Uh, I said to just call me Lyra."

"Right."

The unicorn shut her eyes and shook her head.

"No! Wait, wait, that sounded really rude, you can call me whatever you want, I just prefer Lyra, or Lyres, or you can stick with-"
"Lyra."

Lyra cut her rant short, at the sound of her name.

"I'll call you Lyra." The human said, his hands raised plantifly. "Sound good?"

She offered only a nod in response and an awkward thirty seconds of silence passed by.

The Unicorn opened her mouth, but no words came out, she continued to pick at her cuticles and her eyes wandered about the room. It reminded Eric a little bit of himself when he couldn't find the right words for a situation.

"I'm... sorry?" She finally said, looking at him with a mixture of guilt and hope in her eyes.

"For?" Eric raised an eyebrow, until he remembered what had happened back at the Mare's home, she had hit him in the back of the head with something. As if the thought had conjured it, a dull ache returned to the spot where he had been hit, causing Eric to wince.

"You know, the...." Lyra pointed to the back of her own head.

"Oh!" Eric said, pretending to only just remember. "That?" Eric waved his hand dismissively, "don't worry about it, not the worst bump on the head I've had."

"You've had worst than someone hitting you in the head with a table leg?" Lyra said, surpised.

Eric flinched, "Uh, yeah... bit of a long story."

"Well, still, I'm really, really sorry, I was really groggy saw you holding the table leg and I thought you were trying to..."

"Yeah,I guess I can see how that would look."

"I swear I'll make it up to you." Lyra said, looking at him apologetically.

Eric held his hands up, "No, really, its fine, Lyra...."

"Please?" Lyra insisted, "Between me and you, I've been studying humans my entire life and the first one I see I smacked over the head with a piece of wood! You've gotta let me do something to make it up to you!"

"Tell you what." Eric said, eager to end the conversation. "Let me talk with the princesses and get everything settled, and we'll talk about it later, alright?"

Lyra looked a bit dour, but nodded all the same, she stood and turned to leave, but before she did she suddenly spun around and offered her hand to the human.

"Hey, uh, I know that something like this can be kind of... hard to wrap your head around, being on a different planet, the whole, 'meeting a new species' thing, I just want to let you know if you need some one to talk to... I guess."

Eric blinked, in surprise, but shook the offered hand once again.

"I'll... think about it, thank you, Lyra."

The mare gave an embarrassed smile and turned, walking briskly back towards the stairs, nearly tripping over own hooves on the way there.

Eric watched her as she went, while that encounter hadn't done much to reassure him, he couldn't shake the feeling of calm that had settled over him, maybe it was because he knew the Doctor now, maybe it was because the conversation was finally over. He shrugged and took a look out of the window, watching the clouds go by. There wasn't any way back, but maybe that was a good thing, there wasn't much of anyone there to miss him but a few acquaintances, maybe a fresh start could do him some good.

Eric shook his head and sighed, questions till blasting through his mind at warp speed, if he was going to find some sort of normality in this crazy fantasy land, he was going have to accept the fact that some things were going to be unexplainable. As much as he hated no knowing, he'd have to let the why's and how's of how he got here go for now.

"Well, he thought at least I don't have to deal with that friggin' project anymore.