The Reality War

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, but quickly gasped it back in. She was ecstatic that they were leaving her library, and Ponyville. But then she feared what Celestia would think. Humans? Time Lords? Alternate Universes? The questions and various scenarios of what she might do buzzed around in her head. Then she thought of something else: how the hay was she supposed to get them out of the library and all the way to the castle without being seen by anypony? She had to sneak them by, lest they cause mass hysteria. So she had to devise a way to get them by. She couldn’t use an invisibility spell, there were too many people. She sighed; she had no idea what to do. She looked to the three waiting patiently. “I don’t suppose any of you have a way we can get by without being seen do you?” As soon as she said that Dr. Freeman stood up and pulled out by far the weirdest thing Twilight had ever seen in her life. It was a rather large, and heavy looking device that he held with both hands. It seemed to contain an orange energy and was humming oh so subtly. Freemen looked around and saw something that just might work. Pointing the device at a large bookshelf he pulled some sort of triggering device and the shelf was suddenly ripped from the wall. Held by some sort of invisible field, the bookshelf floated in front of Freeman and with the push of another button it was propelled through one of the many windows Twilight had drawn the blinds to so as to prevent curious onlookers. With a thunderous CRACK and the unmistakable sound of breaking glass, the bookshelf launched itself halfway across Ponyville right into the Carrot’s cart in the marketplace. The sound could be heard all the way to Manehattan, and as a distraction it worked perfectly, as everypony gathered around the cart. Twilight stood there, mouth agape as the other three bolted out the door, before they had no idea where they were going and came back.

“Uh, Twilight, where are we going? Twilight? Please, we need your help right now. It’s just a bookcase, I’ll get you another. Twilight…? woooo…” The Doctor waved his hand in front of Twilight’s eyes. Snapping out of her stupor, Twilight regained the use of her legs and motioned them out the door.

“C’mon, this way to the train station.” She ushered them past the conductor as his back was turned and motioned for them to hide in the box car. Thank Celestia that the train station in Canterlot was right next to the castle’s side gate.

When the train stopped in Canterlot Station, Twilight released a breath she didn’t know she was holding. She saw the gate and past that, the gardens where she could hide the three until she saw Celestia and knew the coast was clear. “Come on, we don’t have much time before the train leaves and we just need to go a few hundred yards. Unfortunately we need another distraction…” She really hoped that Freeman wasn’t going to do that… thing that he did in Ponyville again. This time though, Shepard got up and lifted up her arm as if she was going to check her watch. Instead some sort of orange device gathered around her arm and she inputted a few commands before a multicolored orb of light appeared right in front of her. With that, the orb burst forth from the car and sped down the street in the opposite direction to where they wanted to go, turning all the heads it passed by. Now all they had to do was-

“Twilight Sparkle, my star pupil.”

Busted. Standing before Twilight and the others stood the majestic form of Princess Celestia.

“Princess!” The unicorn blurted out. “What are you doing here?”

The princess raised an eyebrow. “No ‘hello Princess I’ve missed you’? What’s going on Twilight? And as to what I’m doing here, I could ask you the very same question. I decided to wait for you at the train station since I knew you would come as soon as you got my letter. Although I expected you to be in the coach class, I assume you have a good reason for being with the cargo?”

“Uhh… yes, actually I do. You see, I had to sneak on board so as to not be noticed.” The Princess gave her a troubled look. “Not because I didn’t want to pay for the ticket but because of who I had to bring with me. Um… Doctor, Shepard, Freeman, you want to step out here?”

If the Princess had any surprise, she didn’t visibly show it. As the three stepped out of the shadows, she regarded all of them and then did the most peculiar thing: she turned around. But before anyone could ask any questions, a light erupted from her horn and engulfed everyone there. The next thing anyone knew, they were in a large, high ceilinged area; the dining hall. But the peculiar thing was that there wasn’t anyone there. Not a guard, not a noble, not even a maid making their rounds. But right as Twilight was going to ask what they were all doing there, the large door at the end opened and flanked by guards entered a line of humans and other bizarre looking creatures. They were Shepard’s men.

“My crew! How did you find them?” Shepard asked as she ran forward to embrace them. However, before she could get two steps, guards swooped down and surrounded her. Drawing their swords they closed in on her. She pulled out her shotgun and prepared to face them down.

“STOP!” The hall froze as all eyes turned to Celestia. It was weird hearing Celestia raise her voice as she never does. “Please, we do not intend any harm to any of you. Don’t we guards?”

“But Princess,” one of the guards started, but even he began to back away with the others, “this… whatever it is has another one of those devices that one of the others used on the private.”

“But that was a misunderstanding. One quickly rectified. They even used their medicine to fix him up. Private Snafu will be fine. Now please back away and go inform the kitchen that we’re going to need some sustenance up here as soon it is convenient for them. And the rest of you, leave us and bring these guests here the things we confiscated from them. I don’t believe they’ll be a problem anymore. Right?”

“Right, Princess.” Shepard responded.

“Good, now, everyone find a seat. We’re going to learn just exactly what’s going on here.”

“I believe I can help with that your majesty.” The Doctor said.

“And you are…?”

“The Doctor.”

“The Doctor? Doctor who?”

“Exactly…”

After the Doctor had finished telling them of his theory on their situation, Shepard stood up and introduced everyone to everyone else. Their confiscated weapons and other things were returned and they were brought up to speed on everything.

“Well,” Celestia said, clearly interested in everything she heard, “ it’s a good thing we didn’t force you to remove your suit, uh… Tali? And good thing we didn’t rough you up Joker. But that still begs the question: how do we get you back home?”

“Well, Princess, first I’ll need my ship back.” Shepard said.

“And I as well.” The Doctor added. “It’s a big blue box in the center of Ponyville, you can’t miss it.”

Celestia nodded. “I’ll send a team to pick it up and bring it here. And Commander, as for your ship, well, there’s been a slight problem.”

“How slight?” Shepard said, tension in her voice.

“Well…” Celestia led them out into the labyrinth… or what was left of it. Sitting there right in the middle of it was a half-buried SR2 Normandy billowing smoke out of the end not in the ground. The left thrusters had completely fallen off and all the windows had been blown out. The airlock was dented beyond opening and the outer plating was completely stripped off.

“It’s a miracle no one was hurt, really. By the looks of all of this I’d say that had they not landed where they did, the might not have made it out. Luckily though I was nearby and managed to rip a hole in the side with my magic to help them out. But, I’m afraid we don’t even know where to begin to excavate this thing. And even then we don’t know how to repair it. This technology is so far superior to ours I’m afraid unless you can wait a couple thousand years for us to catch up, we can’t help anymore.”

Shepard just stood there, looking at what was left of her ship. “My ship…” She uttered. But then, determination took over and she started blurting out orders to her crew. “Okay, I am not going to lose another Normandy. Grunt, you start picking up all the scattered metal. Your majesty,” She said, turning to Celestia, “may I borrow something to help pick all this stuff up? I’m afraid not even Grunt will be able to cover all of this.”

“Of course,” Celestia responded. Then she turned to her unicorn guards. “Get everypony available who can lift or levitate these things. You’re going to be taking orders from the commander here or anyone she designates, understood?” The guards nodded in confirmation and split up to gather ‘reinforcements’, as it were.

“Tali,” Shepard continued, not missing a beat, “I need you to get the Normandy up and running. Take everyone you think will be of some use…” Shepard continued like this until everyone had a job. Content with the headway they were making she turned back to Celestia. “Thank you, your majesty. We are in your debt.” She said, ever the diplomat.

“Please, call me Celestia, or Princess. Now, it seems that that takes care of your needs. I will see to it that your crew has rooms, supplies, and anything else they may need.”

“Thank you Princess.”

“Now then,” she continued, turning to the Doctor. “Is there anything you might need?”

“No thank you, Princess. Once my ship gets back here, I can work on a way of getting all of us home.”

“Very well, that just leaves…” Celestia turned to where Freeman was when she last saw him, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Meanwhile deep in the wreckage of the Normandy, Dr. Freeman stumbled upon the armory. He had no idea what some of these guns did, but he wanted them. So he set to work determining how they worked and what each one did. Then he turned around to see a rather large weapon, about the size of the Gravity Gun, with a weathered look to it. Inspecting it closer he saw a radiation trefoil on the side. Never one to let that get in the way, he picked it up and inspected in closer. Next to it was a holographic interface that had the instructions. What could be the harm in a test shot…?

Back outside the Normandy the Doctor and commander were looking for the missing doctor. All of a sudden, a large flash of light could be seen, followed by a massive sound as if something were ripping through the earth itself. Whipping around, the commander could see the remnants of a miniature mushroom cloud.

“Dammit, he found the Cain,” she breathed.

“The what?” the Doctor asked.

“That.” She pointed to one of the many shattered windows where Freeman could be seen standing with a massive gun in his hands.

“Put that down. You are not authorized to use that!” Shepard commanded. The Doctor turned around to apologize to Celestia on behalf of his new friends, but he stopped when he saw the complete look of awe on her face.

“That was amazing!” she exclaimed. “Do it again!”

“I would not suggest that Princess, that looked very dangerous,” the Doctor suggested.

“Oh, very well,” Celestia conceded. She turned to Twilight, “Twilight, why don’t you show these three to our guest wing? I’m sure they’re very tired.”

“Of course Princess. Come with me, would you kindly?”

“Actually, I would like to stay up and wait for my ship,” the Doctor said.

“I too would like to stay here,” Shepard said, having wanted to stay close to her crew, lest she fear she loses them again.

“Oh, okay, then I guess it’s just you and me Dr. Freeman.” Freeman nodded and followed her to his room. It was a luxurious room with a four poster bed with silk sheets and gold trim. The room was furnished with matching furniture. Freeman turned and nodded his thanks. “Of course, you’re probably very tired. I’ll leave now. I’ll make sure nopony bothers you unless it’s important.” She walked out and as the door closed Freeman turned to the room. More specifically, the bed. He felt like he hadn’t slept in years and as a result promptly crashed into the mattress.

When the Doctor saw his TARDIS again, he almost jumped in joy. However, he only hopped. Turning to Celestia and Twilight he said, “Wanna see something cool?”

The two were incredibly skeptical to why he would be so interesting in this box but thought better of asking him. Instead they simply shrugged. “Why not?”

The Doctor opened the door and you could practically hear their jaws hit the ground. Celestia stared at the large room inside, “It’s bigger…” She started,

“…on the inside,” Twilight finished.

Just then a voice came on over the intercom. “Repairs at 100 percent. TARDIS fully operational.”

“Ah, excellent!” the Doctor stated. “Um, make yourselves at home, there’s plenty of room.”

“Actually,” Celestia started, “I’m kind of tired, I think I’m going to lower the sun to make way for Luna, and then I’m going to go to bed and think about today’s events.”

“Yeah, me too,” Twilight agreed.

“Oh, very well, see you tomorrow.” The Doctor waved them goodbye and then turned to the room to find out exactly what went wrong and how to fix it. As he did, he started humming a familiar tune.