A Wacky Read

Rex sat in the library again, in the dark end behind the books nopony ever read. He sat in his rune ring and tested his spell, felt the power of the cosmos and weakened his body with a final effort. Near him, Elisa sat on the table and watched his doing. It was a few days ago again when Rex opened his eyes. Yet, he remembered all that had happened, the battles, the Doctor, the Tardis, everything about it.

"Are you okay?", Elisa asked.

Rex stood up and the runes around him vanished. "Yes. Let's go to the others, come."

They headed back to the Mirror where the crowd waited for them.

Near the Mirror stood the blue boxy Tardis, Ponies, Lizards and the team of the Humans gathered around it. In the middle of them all, the Doctor smiled and shared a word or two with the crowd. Next to him stood another Rex.

"I'm taking the Doctor explained our situation to everyone?", Rex asked.

"More or less", Hati smiled, "Probably."

While the Humans went into the Tardis, and some of the aliens too, Twilight stepped up to Rex. "He didn't tell us everything about what happened, but from what I’ve heard, it must have been very hard for you. And for me too. I do hope you will find your way home now, and that you will never return here."

"No offense?"

"I didn't say that."

Rex smiled, "Is it so hard to consider me a friend? To forgive me?"

"You're a killer. You've murdered people."

"So did you, dear. Of what I've heard, not everyone gets to be lucky. Some of your villains get imprisoned forever, some may be", Rex looked up to pick a thought, "Let's call it: Resocialized. While others end up as shards at the bottom of marble steps under a balcony. How do you dare to judge, how do you dare to make such a decision?"

"I'm not. It's not up to me. And it shouldn't be up to you either."

"You have been quite the opponent. I will remember you, Princess Twilight Sparkle. And may it be merely for that ridiculous name." He went up to the Tardis and joined the crew within.

When the door had closed, the journey started, accompanied by the characteristic sound of the Tardis.

"So", Hati laid his left arm around Rex's shoulders and smiled down at him, "I've heard some things. You made quite the mess of things this time around."

"I tried to do what I thought was the right thing. I was saving not only you, us and Xerexarea, but also the cosmos. Now that nothing will be done, the future of the Pony-World is bound to be doomed. A few thousand years further and their sun will die out, leaving their land in eternal night. I was able to do something about it. I had to try."

Cameron spoke up to him, "Only because you're able to do it, doesn't give you the right to do it."

"Why, no? Is that not so? No one was able to stop me, I had free reign. Even killed most of you Humans the one of other time around. I might as well have been their leader and ruler of this world."

"That's not how leadership works", Vala commented, "Not the most powerful is bound to lead, not by fear anyway. We take the most suited, the wisest, the one with the biggest hearts."

Rex laughed and looked at the Humans, "Is that so? What about your leaders? How do you pick them?"

"What she said!", Mitchell yelled.

"Then tell me, how much money does a leader have to offer for the chance of election? You're telling me, that every poor man, child or woman can be chosen a leader out of their pure heart and ideas?"

"Are you breaking the Fourth Wall?!", Rook yelled and Rex yelled back ferociously, "I'm making a point!"

"As interesting as this is", the Doctor interrupted them while pulling a lever, "We're here. First stop, Delta Base." He looked down at his console, "That was the year two thousand and?"

"Twenty one", Cameron answered.

The Doctor adjusted another wheel, "Twenty one", and the noise returned just for a second. "As I thought."

The Humans said their goodbye to the Doctor, ignored the Lizards and went out the door. They returned to their kind and arrived a bit early even. Just in time for their Gala to start.

The Tardis took off once more, heading for the time and place of Xerexarea, home of the Lizards and other Human-like aliens.

"A bit of a shame, isn't it?", Rex sighed. "All the time at my hands but I never managed to handle the situation with grace and care. It always ended up in bloodshed. Sometimes mine, mostly theirs." He looked at Hati who sat on the console beside him, "Sometimes yours."

"You know", Hati smiled while he crossed his arms, "Not everyone can be your friend. Out there are enemies too. Some that only want to use you, people that want your money, sweat, ideas, life, heart and dick. These Ponies just don't understand friendship. It's really not your fault."

"But, dear, doesn't everyone deserve a second chance?"

"Chances, yes. But friends? I don't think so. If I get to know a person up to a certain point, then I can tell if we're gonna be best buds or not."

"You still manage to surprise me. Sometimes."

The noise of the machinery silenced and the clunk of the landing echoed through the metal dome.

"Xerexarea!", the Doctor yelled, "Did I say that right?"

Krator and Elisa opened the door and laid their eyes upon the wide desert of Karinthor in the south of Xerexarea. In the far horizon, houses pierced the blue of the sky. White towers behind a high city wall, in the middle of a green spot of fertile land, reflected the sunny day. Behind them, one could easily spot the great white pyramid, the temple of the Brass'Ka.

The Doctor came to the door and looked outside. He was impressed, "What a lovely place. I should visit sometime." He slapped Krator onto his muscular shoulder, "You show me around the place then?"

Krator skrank his eyes at the Doctor, "How is your drinking condition?"

"Ehm, fine, I think. Masses, I guess. I'm not really sure, actually."

"Excellent!", Krator cheered. "We shall test your condition on your next visit."

"Me too?", Elisa asked.

"No, never you. Drinking doesn't suit you, sweetheart."

While everyone was leaving the Tardis but Pinkie, Hati looked behind at Rex, who also stayed by the console. "Are you not coming?"

"Not me, dear. I'm taking another spin. Go with him instead, this is your Rex." He nodded in the door's direction and there was Rex as well waiting for Hati. "I'll be him in a few hours. So there's no need for goodbye or farewell."

Hati smiled and threw him a last look before he turned around, "Alright then. Have fun!"

Once the Tardis was emptied and only the Doctor, the Rex and the Pinkie were left, Rex sighed of relief.

"What's wrong?", Pinkie asked.

"It's a heavy burden to know the things I do."

Pinkie and the Doctor looked at each other and started laughing.

"It's funny to you?"

"You're still so young. Nothing to be ashamed of."

"I'm over six hundred years old."

"Exactly", the Doctor said, "I'm in my nine hundreds and boy, that's still nothing." He turned to Pinkie. "How old were you again?"

"Only a few eons older than the universe. It was so cute when it was but a single atom. We called it Tiny Spark, or just Tiny for short."

"Can we get this over with already?", Rex applied.

"Yes, of course!" The Tardis stopped and Pinkie went for the door. "That's my stop."

"See you later, Crazy Pink Pony ... thing."

"Just Pinkie will do. Or Sheo if you wanna be formal."

Rex said his farewell, "You always meet twice, Pinkie." And with a last twinkle of her eye, Pinkie cheerfully trotted outside.

A few moments later, Rex appeared in the doorway of the Tardis, as he did before. The events that had happened before, happened yet again. Rex would take the Inaji from himself, calm him down and force him to surrender. The Doctor brings everyone home and no harm comes to anyone.

And yet, Rex noticed something. He walked through the sands of Karinthor with Hati and his friends by his side. For a while he held the Inaji in his hand and stared at it.

"Time is a curious thing", he mumbled.

"Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings."

"Not now, Rook", Hati insisted. "What are you thinking?"

"This crystal grows in the bones of the Unicorns. They collect particles of the crystal that literally drops down from the sun within the sunlight. And it adds up to worrisome amounts that simply infect the body. It even tries to break down the alien element and radiate it off into the environment, what leaves a colourful mark on the Pony's hips.
I took this Inaji from a Unicorn we met today. Since we departed, it survived and I didn't get to harvest its body. This crystal shouldn't exist. I gave it to myself."

"But didn't you say once, that time already happened? You didn't do it now, but you did do it earlier. Since you have memory of it, it was a part of time at some point, right?"

"Very, my dear", Rex smiled. "Like I said, time is curious."

"Y'know what’s buggin' me?!", Rook yelled, "This Doctor dude will have a Rex in his ship forever. As soon as brings the one home, he goes to pick up another. Then he has two and only one goes home again. That job is never ending."

Rex stopped walking and laughed hard. So hard in fact that it scared Hati, who never saw him laugh like that before.

Once he calmed down again, he wiped a tear of his eye. "I'm glad I don't have to do it."

"There's only one way to free him of this task."

Hati looked at Rook and asked him, "Yeah, and what would that be?"

Rook stopped in front of his friends and struck a pose, "By making the story end."

THE END

"See?"