EERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHh

After another moment of pulsing light the room fell silent again and The Doctor opened the door. “Ahh, that's better...I think.” He walked out and moved aside to allow me to follow. The base...what the hell...The base was in full swing...Ponies bustling about with crates or paperwork or pushing pallet jacks, some just looking like they were heading home. There was no sign of burn marks on the walls, the place looked new in fact.

“Wait, this can't be right...” The Doctor said, looking around again. At the end of the hall CB came around the corner, a book floating in front of her, Twilight's Arcane Assistant Spells Volume II, it was the second of the books she had written about all the spells she'd used in her studies in Ponyville.

“CB! What is going on around here?” I asked when she got close.

“Huh?” She stopped and looked up at me curiously.

“The base looks brand new, when did this...how could this have happened?”

“I...I dunno?” She shrugged, “it's always been like this, you want a history lesson talk to somepony who gives a fuck.”

“Hey, don't take that tone with me young filly.” I said angrily.

“Excuse me?” I jumped when I heard the voice behind me, the angry, unexpected voice.

“E...Explosive Blast?” I stammered, watching the mare walk around and stand beside her daughter.

“Yes, and who the fuck do you think you are to talk to my daughter like that?” She asked, putting herself between me and CB.

“I...I...Doctor what the fuck?” I asked, looking at the brown stallion.

“I'm not entirely sure...” He said, looking around the halls, clearly just as concerned about this turn of events as I was.

“Who are you two? What are you doing in the personal living area?” EB demanded. “This is off limits to anypony that doesn't live on the base.”

“Right, sorry, bit of a hiccup.” The Doctor said, “All apologies, we'll go right away.”

“See that you do.” EB said, pushing CB back down the hall the way she had originally come. “I'll be sending security this way.” They walked off quickly, the two talking quietly to each other.

“We really must go, this, this is all wrong.”

“You're telling me.” I sighed, rubbing my forehead.

He pushed me backwards and I looked up, realizing for the first time that we had come out of what appeared to be an old phone box. It was blue and shaped like a barn, but the door opened when we came back up to it and I could see the massive control room inside.

“What is this thing?” I asked, moving inside, looking around again, amazed by the sight now.

“I am not a thing!” TT yelled indignantly from the center console.

“Excuse me?”

“Ahh yes, long story...” The Doctor said, closing the door and pushing me along up the stairs. “You see...This is my space ship.” He grinned.

“Your what?”

“I know, you don't believe me, and that's fair! Truth be told it's actually more of a time machine and less of a spaceship. She doesn't like it out in space, you know.”

“Well it's cold,” TT said sharply.

“Oh well that's so much more believable...” I mumbled.

“What's so hard to believe about it Cane? You've used time travel. You used it when you came home from the American Wasteland.”

“How do you know about that?”

“Books.” He answered with a smirk.

“What?”

“History book my good buck,” he said and laughed, “this is only one more phase of Equestrian history, the world will recover and historians will keep the most detailed books about this period of time to ensure it never happens again.”

“So what makes me so special? Do I save the Wasteland or prevent some huge catastrophe?”

“What? Oh! No! No.” He said. “You're not really a big player in the history of the Wasteland, just like any other stallion really.”

“You do have the good fortune of meeting us!” TT said, beaming.

“Ah yes! Right, right. You do get to meet us, which if I so say so myself, is definitely a bonus... Your major contribution is raising Concussive Blast!”

“CB? What part does she play?”

“She has an amazing future ahead of her. She's going to grow up to be the new Element of Magic, you know! Her, along with five others, are going to bring the Wasteland back from the brink and restore Equestria to something of it's former glory. You have a bit of a flair for writing later in life, not exactly moving, groundbreaking works, but they are a pretty good series of accounts of life in the Wasteland. Now you do tend to ramble a little, and the middle gets a bit messy. I'm sure you had your reasons for that, but what do I know. I haven't been there yet, have I? My goodness you ask a lot of questions for someone who is screwed up in time!” he rambled. I stared at him, slack jawed. “Anyway,” he continued, his voice perking up again. “Concussive Blast is really your big success, without you I don't think she'd ever work herself up to the point that she unlocked her potential as one of the saviours of the Wasteland.”

“Really? One of the Elements of Harmony? I mean she's good with magic but I can't imagine she's THAT good... No offense to her.”

“She is the most magically talented pony since Twilight Sparkle, I'll have you know! But the problem is that she has something of a darkness in her. It's something she is very good at hiding, at keeping under control. You love her, you protect her, when Explosive Blast died you were her port in the storm. You helped her, got her through it, did everything you could to help her back on the straight and narrow. Nopony else could do that...”

“I have rerun the time line changes.” TT said, walking around then console.

“Is it bad?”

“Explosive Blast gets killed in a slaver attack about eight months from now. Concussive Blast doesn't handle it well. First she takes up drinking...”

“We got her off that the first time she tried it, I can't imagine Crackshot, Ruby or Brutus putting up with that...”

“Ruby and Brute Force are captured by the slavers, they are never heard from again. Crackshot soldiers on for a few months, becoming a strict disciplinarian, which probably just aggravated the situation, but with the loss of her grandson and friends she slips and goes feral, forcing Concussive Blast to kill her in self defence...Oh...Oh my.”

“What? What 'Oh My'?” I demanded.

The center console kicked to life.

EERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHh

“TT, where are we going?” The Doctor asked.

“About 12 years from now...” She said, horn glowing in time to the console.

“I gotta know...she's connected to this ship right?”

“Well yeah...She's the Ponsonification of the TARDIS...”

“Oh of course.”

“Exactly.” He nodded, heading back up the stairs. “WHY are we going 12 years in the future?”

The light went out and with a soft 'thunk' we fell silent again.

She moved down to the doors and threw them open, moving outside.

The Doctor and I followed, both of us stopping as we emerged into the sunshine.

“Is...Is this Equestria?” I asked, looking around in amazement. We were in a field, lush green grass grew all around, beautiful full trees spotting the landscape, flowers grew all over the place, it was beautiful. The sky was a bright blue and the sun shone down on us, not a cloud to be seen. “This is amazing...what happened?”

“The Gardens of Equestria.” The Doctor said, smiling and holding his face up to the sun, “a megaspell created by Twilight Sparkle in case the apocalypse happened, and powered by the Elements of Harmony themselves. Seven years ago, Concussive Blast, along with your friend Homage, her friends Calamity and Velvet Remedy, my dear sweet Derpy and...ahh what was the last ones name? It always escapes me...Anyway, they all met in the cave of Spike the Dragon, I believe you've met him as well?”

“What? A dragon? No...”

“Oh, no no, of course...You'd know him as Watcher right now.”

“Watcher...” I had to think for a minute, “the voice on the sprite bots?”

“Exactly,” he nodded, “Spike the Dragon. He, the new Element Bearers and two dozen other ponies all gathered and watched as the cloud barrier was permanently dispelled, the grass regrew, trees sprouted, animals seemed to spring back from nowhere, birds, bunnies, snakes, turtles, fish, all these normal creatures...Taint and radiation all but vanished, the truly monstrous things in the wasteland seemed to fade away soon after...Things like bandits and slavers were still a problem, but even many of them dispersed over time.”

“So this is going to happen in just a few years?”

“Amazing isn't it? You'll live to see the rebirth of Equestria, the rise of new governments, your grandchildren will be born into a world where they don't live in fear for their lives every day, you'll get to retire, write some books...”

“How many books?”

“Ahh ahh, spoilers.” He said.

“Really? You tell me my whole future but you won't tell me how many books I write?”

“Where's the fun in life with NO mystery?”

“HALT!” A voice bellowed behind us, making the three of us jump.

Three ponies in power armour had come up behind us, they had battle saddles outfitted with very nasty looking weapons. Probably plasma weapons judging by the green glow

“What are you doing in the royal memorial garden?” The lead one demanded, battle saddle starting to whine as it powered up. He looked at us with what looked to be shock, but it faded and his face hardened.

“Oh terribly sorry.” The Doctor said quickly, “we just got a little turned around, we'll be going.”

“You're not going anywhere.” He snapped, firing a shot into the side of the TARDIS. TT whimpered softly but stood firm with us, “you're coming with us to the castle.”

“You just told us we're not going anywhere, how can we go to the castle and go nowhere?” I asked flippantly.

“Shut up smart ass.” The front guard growled, “I have no problem turning you into a pile of goo.”

“Wait, the castle?” The Doctor asked.

“Yes, we'll see how the Queen feels about you trespassing in her private garden.”

“Queen...There aren't any monarchies left...Democracies, Socialist Republics, even a few countries run by councils of elders, but no monarchies.” The Doctor started a ramble as we were pushed on towards a hill behind the TARDIS. He fell into line with us but he walked backwards, facing the guards, “is this a Changeling hive? I'm pretty sure even they move on to a more open structure after Equestria was restored.”

“Shut up and keep moving.” The guard said, shoving him on.

“Oh come now, surely you can at least tell me a little of what's what.”

“Uhh Doctor...look...” I said as we came up the hill. We were looking down into a valley. It was beautiful, more flowing grass, farmland off on the far side of the area, stretching up over the opposite hillside and vanishing. A whole city sat just a short distance from us, a palace sitting in the middle, reaching up to the sky, a very familiar castle.

“Is that Canterlot?” I asked.

“Of course it's New Canterlot.” The guard snapped, shoving me now, sending me tumbling end over end down the hill.

I might have rolled right to the edge of the city but I bounced off a magic barrier and came to a stop.

The rest of the group came down behind me, it's not like I could run, the barrier prevented me from going into the city and if I tried to run around I was wide open to the humming plasma casters pointed at me. The guards pulled out amulets from under their armour, the barrier rippling as they got close and they pushed us on into town.

We were marched through town slowly, paraded in front of ponies like children caught shoplifting, made to take a walk of shame. Ponies came from homes, from shops, stopped in their travel to stare as the group of prisoners were marched towards the palace. As we passed our dozenth group of gawkers I realized something...

“There's no unicorns.” The Doctor said, looking around quietly. Okay, so maybe I didn't notice it...

I glanced at the ponies and realized he was right. Earth ponies, pegasi, young and old, but not a unicorn in sight. I looked at our guards, two Earth ponies and a pegasus.

“Where are all the unicorns?” TT asked the guard closest to her.

“What are you talking about? Have you been living in a vault?” The guard laughed, pushing his mane back to reveal the ground down stump of a horn, a zebra glyph carved into the otherwise smooth bone.

“It prevents growth?” The Doctor asked, looking at the glyph curiously.

“Yeah it prevents growth.” The guard said, pushing his hair back into place and shoving us on.

We reached the palace a few minutes later. It was just as huge and regal as I remembered. I had only been to Canterlot Castle a mouthful of times in my life, mostly for the Grand Galloping Gala, which took place in only one section of the castle, or for meetings with this or that department head or ministry liaison.

Guards lined the main hall leading up to the massive red doors outside the throne room. We entered as the doors swung open to allow us in. The room was big, and majestic. It was beautifully, ornately decorated. A set of grandiose stairs raised up the back third of the room. A black carpet ran up the middle of the room, up the stairs and coming to a stop in front of the big throne.

Sitting on the throne was one of the most terrifying sights I had ever seen. An alicorn sat on the throne, glaring at us silently. She had a dark green coat and a majestic sweeping ethereal golden mane, shimmering in the light of the sun that shone through a window set into the roof.

[img][url=http://th00.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2013/246/6/6/comm__nightmare_form_by_pridark-d6kx9x6.jpg][/img]

She was clad in golden armour, a helmet on her head, her long green horn sticking through it. Each hoof was capped with a golden boot. She wore what appeared to be a gold plated 10mm pistol in a leather holster that rested against her side, the dark tanned pouch bearing a distinct mark of two playing cards and I realized, with only a bit of nausea, that it was the cutie mark of some poor pony that had been skinned to make her that holster. A golden shotgun rested in a similar holster on her back, but because of the angle I couldn't see the cutie mark on it, even a gold pipbuck adorned her right foreleg. Each piece of armour was also adorned with what appeared to be a cutie mark...The body armour had a speaker on it, right where a cutie mark would normally sit, the helmet seemed to have bubbles running along it, up the centre. The boots each had what looked like a bird, but they were very small. I couldn't make out the symbols on the Pipbuck or guns. If not for the fact that she looked like Nightmare Moon and that I was sure I was about to die, I might have cracked a joke about how gaudy she looked. I mean, she was covered almost horn to tail in gold stuff, it was almost tacky.

I realized a moment later that sitting along the wall behind the throne were at least half a dozen zebra bucks, all chained to each other, in shackles. They were all thin and miserable looking.

“My Queen, we found these trespassers in the Memorial Garden.” The lead guard said, bowing to her, “and as you can see, these two still bear horns.”

“So they do.” The Queen said quietly, studying us, “who are you? What were you doing in my private gardens?”

“Uhh, forgive us Your Majesty,” The Doctor said, bowing to her quickly, “we simply became lost attempting to travel home. We are from very far away. We are not looking to cause any trouble. We simply wish to get home again, we swear to stay out of your kingdom.”

She laughed darkly, her voice echoing around the sweeping chamber. Many of the guards laughed too. “Where do you hope to go then? My kingdom is Equestria, and all things beyond. This planet is my kingdom, I own and rule everything. From the Sea Pony cities at the bottom of the ocean, to the former prison of Princess Luna up on the moon. Nothing is outside of my control. Now I'll ask again. Who. Are. You?”

“Uhh, well I'm The Doctor. This is Sugar Cane, and the lovely mare on the end is TT.”

“Why do you two still have horns? Everypony knows that horns are allowed only to royalty.”

“We were in a Stable.” The Doctor replied.

“A Stable?!” She laughed, “I had all the Stables opened and shut down years ago.”

“Well you obviously missed one.” He shrugged.

“I did no such thing.”

“Don't you dare contradict the Queen.” One of the guards said, kicking The Doctor in the side, knocking him to the ground.

“Take them to the dungeons. We will remove their horns and see if the farmers couldn't make use of a few new slaves.”

“Yes Queen Blast.” The lead guard said, bowing again, the others doing the same before turning to move us out of the room.

“Wait, you're CB?!” I demanded. A collective gasp seemed to go through the room and everything got very quiet.

“How dare you speak so casually to the Queen!” The guard roared, rearing up and punching me across the muzzle, sending me tumbling back into the guard behind me who caught me before shoving me back up with another kick.

“Take them away!” Queen Blast snapped, turning back to her throne.

“Wait! Stop!” I cried as the guards forced us on towards the doors. “CB please! I'm a friend!”

“The Queen has no friends!” She replied without looking back at us.

“Your favourite colour is beige! You never tell anypony because you think they'll make fun of you, instead you tell them your favourite colour is yellow!”

This made her turn around and look at us again.

“You had a plushie puppy named Hambo you kept under your pillow until you were 13, when it was lost in a fire.” Now she looked almost terrified.

“You lost your mother in a slaver raid on your home and you were raised by a ghoul until...”

“ENOUGH!” She roared, putting on a very good approximation of the royal Canterlot voice. “Bring them to my chambers! I will deal with them myself.” She turned and started out of the room stepping past the Zebra slaves and vanishing through a doorway.

The guards turned and took us up the stairs, past the slaves and through the door. Beyond was a huge hallway. CB stood just a few feet away, waiting for us, her face again totally unreadable. “Leave us.”

“But ma'am...” One of the guards started, but magic arched out of CB's horn and the guard howled in pain as it struck him. He dropped to the floor and thrashed about, screaming for mercy, slowly being choked off as he started to cough up blood.

The guards watched in horror but said nothing as he squirmed and struggled. “Stop! Stop!” I yelled at her, even trying to put a magic bubble around him, but she shattered it without even breaking her focus. “Dammit Concussive Blast stop it now!” I screamed at her but she just glared silently, twisting her head gently to the side, the guard's head spun like a top, cracking loudly as his spine was shattered along his neck and he finally fell silent.

“Try to interfere with me again and you'll suffer the same.” She said, turning and walking down the hallway, “now come. Guards, clean that mess up.”

The Doctor looked sadly at the fallen guard but moved to follow the Alicorn.

We walked through a door at the end of the hallway and came into what had to be her study. The walls were lined with books and a big desk sat in the middle, as well as a pair of couches in the corner.

“Welcome back my sweet.” A soft voice said, “your tasks for the day are already complete?”

I turned and saw a zebra coming in from a side room. He was better fed than the zebras in the main hall, he wore no chains or any signs of enslavement. Seeing the odd spiral glyph on his flank I had to do a double take.

“I'm not finished quite yet Xemnas.” CB said, nuzzling the zebra when he got close. She looked content with him. Once a soul mate always a soul mate I suppose.

“I thought you had no friends.” The Doctor said simply.

“We are mates, not friends.” Xem replied, “I will serve her loyally until our time together ends.”

“Because you're immortal.” I said, looking at CB.

“Well aren't you a clever buck.” She replied. She walked out of the room for only a moment, returning without all the armour or weapons. Her cutie mark was still a grenade with rainbow waves, I wondered idly how she had gotten it in this time line.

“How did you know about Hambo?” She asked, lifting the stuffed animal up in her magic. Of course she still had him here, CB lost him in the pyro attack. I hadn't even known about Hambo at the time. I'd learned about him later when she'd talked about him in her sleep.

“I...Well...” I looked at the Doctor and he shrugged.

“Damned if you do, damned if you don't.” He said.

“You won't believe me.” I said, sitting down and taking a moment to collect my thoughts, “in another time, another place, I'm your father.”

This made her burst out laughing, “my father died when I was just a foal, you aren't even old enough to be my father.”

“That's not what I meant.” I sighed, shaking my head, “I was frozen in cryogenic suspension for 200 years. I worked and lived through most of the Equestrian war. When I woke up I met Brute Force and Ruby Star and Crackshot. They took me in, helped me, protected me, taught me, even loved me...My first full day in the Collective I met a young unicorn filly with a taste for bacon and a cocky attitude the likes I had never seen in children from my time, at least none that weren't being chased by soldiers or guards...”

TT and the Doctor sat down on either side of me, Xem sat as well. CB though still stood, towering over all of us.

“I was accepted into the group, spent months working on their computer systems, decrypting my own hard drives because the encryption codes had been lost to time. A few months in we met the Pyro army. A group of Xenophobic monsters who cut a swath through the Wasteland, killing anypony that didn't agree with their way of life, kidnapping and brainwashing children and adults into being their soldiers. They destroyed the base, killed and kidnapped dozens of ponies. They really wanted you because of your magical prowess. Your mother died protecting you from them. After you lost her I stepped up to care for you. Helped you grieve, recover, become stronger...You went some very dark places after your mom died, and I was there to help you every step of the way...You lost Hambo in that attack. One night, after we'd moved into a new base of operations I asked you what your favourite colour was because we were taking over a small wing and we were going to paint all our rooms. It took me an hour to get an answer out of you. You said yellow, but I didn't believe you. I teased you because it was so plain a colour, and when you finally told me? We painted it beige, and you loved it.”

“If my mother died in this Pyro attack where you are from, how do you know what happened to my mother here?” She asked, clearly still not believing us.

“We can study divergences in the time line.” TT said.

“Oh really, and just how do you do that?” She asked, looking at the mare.

“With this!” She yelled. There was a loud smash behind us and the TARDIS flew through the huge doorway CB had come through earlier, trailing glass from the window it had gone through. The TARDIS crashed into CB's side and threw her across the room. It stopped dead in front of us and the door flew open.

“EVERYPONY IN!” TT yelled, jumping into the ship. The Doctor and I quickly followed and the doors slammed shut as the ship whizzed off again.

“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?! I THOUGHT WE WERE GETTING THROUGH TO HER!” I cried.

“Hardly! She was getting ready to kill us.” TT replied.

EERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHh