“This is it!” Twilight loudly informed her fellow quest-goers as they hurtled through the twisting tunnel of pink and purple time energy. With all the crackling and humming of the energy around them, a raised voice was the only kind of voice that could be heard.

“This is the part we saw on the mountain!” Twilight continued. “We’ve almost reached the point where we saw our future selves!”

Dr. McNinja saw no reason to disagree with Twilight. All the conditions had been fulfilled. Rainbow Dash still had her wing in a cast. Spike was clinging tightly to Twilight’s back. Each of the Bearers of Harmony wore their respective element. Dr. McNinja possessed a white motorcycle in the form of R.J. The dark red saddlebags filled with tools were located on the back end of the motorcycle, along with the magical rocket engine.

“Will the Elements work on the force-field around Canterlot Castle?” Rarity wondered. “We’ve never used them on a non-living thing before.”

“The magic of friendship completely obliterated Discord’s chaos when we used it to turn him to stone,” Twilight recalled. “I don’t see why it wouldn’t work on a force-field he indirectly created.”

“Maybe when we get there you should fire your Elements at the moon, since it was right about to flatten everything when we left,” Gordito suggested.

“It’s worth a shot. But the timing’s going to be the hardest part of it,” Twilight figured. “We’ve never really tested how far away we can be to use the Elements of Harmony on someone, and it takes about half a minute to charge up.”

“So basically, you’re all vulnerable to attack for thirty seconds before you can save the day,” Gordito interpreted. “That complicates things somewhat.”

“R.J. and I can take care of the moon,” Dr. McNinja offered. “My future self was riding up the mountain, so it must be a good idea.”

“Well, that makes planning easy. I saw myself behind the rest of you going down the mountain, so that’s what I’ll do,” Gordito decided.

“Good old divide and conquer it is then,” Dr. McNinja grinned beneath his ninja mask. “Go team!”

“Go team!” everyone else except Yoshi cheered.

Dr. McNinja gripped R.J.’s handlebars tightly, expecting to arrive in Equestria any second. But after about five adrenaline-laced minutes of time travel, his fingers were a little looser.

“Okay, seriously, how long is this going to take?” Spike wondered.

“Ah reckon there’s no real way to tell how long time travel will take,” Applejack said uneasily. “Ya know, ‘cause it’s time travel.”

“Taking time to time travel,” Twilight mused. “There’s an interesting thought.”

For a while no one said anything.

“We should all go out for ice cream after we save Equestria,” Pinkie Pie suggested.

“Yes,” Dr. McNinja agreed with conviction. “We should.”

“Applejack’s treating,” Rainbow Dash announced with a smirk.

Just as Applejack opened her mouth to respond, the group at last arrived in the same cave where Dr. McNinja had first showed up from his world. R.J’s wheels landed against stone and shot out the entrance right away. Without taking the time for any more banter, the others charged out the entrance too. Once he was out in the open, Dr. McNinja spotted his past self. The past versions of the others were there as well, running up the mountain as the moon’s gravity tore up the ground. The past version of Rainbow Dash was the only one not present. Distantly Dr. McNinja recalled how she had entered the portal before his future self, now current self, had emerged. All was the same as before.

The only difference was the perspective. From his position, Dr. McNinja could see the confusion etched into their faces. In his opinion, Past Gordito’s reaction was the most amusing. The young gunslinger’s eyes were jumping back and forth between the two ninja doctors present. But in the eyes of his own past self, Dr. McNinja saw the hardness of a man who had just about given up hope.

Dr. McNinja recalled how he had felt back then, convinced that Equestria was doomed and that he couldn’t do anything about it. Now, the feeling was almost laughable. All the same, Dr. McNinja figured that it wouldn’t hurt to give his past self some encouragement.

"It's not over yet! Go through the portal!" he yelled as he jerked R.J.’s handlebars sharply to the right.

R.J. offered no resistance as Dr. McNinja guided him into a sharp U-turn. With an unspoken coordination, R.J. magically activated the rocket engine to propel them both up the mountain.

Dr. McNinja’s white lab coat flapped in the wind as R.J’s wheels picked up pebbles and spat them out behind. A quick flick of the wrist activated R.J.’s headlights, illuminating Dr. McNinja’s destination. The moon loomed up ahead in the dark sky, still bearing the completely out of place smiley face. As they rapidly zoomed up the incline, the oncoming approach of the heavenly body at last blotted out the last bit of daylight. Now the only light that Dr. McNinja had to see by came from R.J’s headlights and the rainbow colored flames shooting out from the magic rocket engine. Stone and dirt gave way to snow as Dr. McNinja and R.J closed in on the mountain peak. In their wake they left water, snow melted by the flames. Finally, bike and rider ramped off the very tip of the mountain.

Dr. McNinja felt it all in slow motion. The roar of the rocket. The howling wind. The rattling of R.J.’s metal parts. The pull of gravity from both the world below and the moon above. It was an exhilarating state of existence, the joyous feeling of freedom that can only come from being airborne.

“What are you doing?!” R.J screamed, ruining the moment. “We’re going to crash into the moon!”

Too late, Dr. McNinja realized that there was a hole in his otherwise brilliant plan. He thought he had figured out what to do when once he was on the moon, but what about safely landing on it? With a wince, Dr. McNinja realized that he hadn’t even considered the possibility that he wouldn’t be able to breathe on the moon. Unless the moon was close enough to share the planet’s atmosphere, he would die from lack of air if the crash didn’t kill him.

Dr. McNinja closed his eyes and braced himself for a lethal impact, but it never came. Instead, he only felt a jarring thump negated only slightly by shock absorbers. Once Dr. McNinja opened his eyes again he saw why he had not died. He and R.J had landed on a very steep slope, part of a trench that was wider than his eyes could see.

“We landed in the mouth of the smiley face!” Dr. McNinja realized with glee. “Haha! Saved by the very face of evil we sought to destroy!”

Dr. McNinja applied the brakes and sprang off of R.J. Once he was standing on the moon rock, he quickly pulled some tools out of the dark red saddlebags and began to detach the rocket engine from R.J. After that was accomplished, he took the drill and drilled holes into the moon rock. Then he took the rocket engine and set in on the ground so that its exhaust was pointed towards Equestria.

“What are you doing?” R.J. asked incredulously while Dr. McNinja attached the rocket to the ground with brackets. “Are you trying to push the moon away from Equestria with the rocket?”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing,” Dr. McNinja confirmed. “Do me and the entire world a favor and activate it with your magic?”

“What? That’s not going to work!” R.J. sputtered. “You can’t push the entire moon with just one rocket!”

“Not even if it’s a magic rocket?” Dr. McNinja tried.

“No! Those things are designed to push maglevs, not planets!”

“Scientifically speaking, the moon is not a planet,” Dr. McNinja corrected. “Your dad is doing just fine with magically moving the moon, why can’t you do it?”

“I’m not the freaking element of magic!” R.J. yelled.

“So you’re telling me that there is absolutely no way you could use magic to somehow at least make the moon stop moving?” Dr. McNinja prompted.

“I…” R.J. began to say before faltering. “Actually… there is something I can do.”

Dr. McNinja got an uncomfortable feeling in his gut as the rocket engine ignited, blasting its colorful flames up towards Equestria.

“What exactly are you doing?” Dr. McNinja questioned warily.

“Putting all the magic I’ve got into it,” R.J. explained. “If I can make the rocket explode, the magical energy should collide with the magic my dad is using to move the moon and cause a chain reaction.”

“You’re going to blow up the moon,” Dr. McNinja summarized.

“Er, yes,” R.J. replied hesitantly.

Dr. McNinja felt the moon rock under his black leather shoes start to heat up while the outside of the magic rocket engine started to glow red.

“But if you put all your magic into that rocket and the moon explodes, wouldn’t that kill you twice over?” Dr. McNinja inquired.

“I was under the impression that we would both die,” R.J. muttered.

“No, I could survive that,” Dr. McNinja said dismissively. “But there has to be a way to do this without you dying.”

“Well, I can’t think of any other way,” R.J. said softly. “Besides, there’s nothing left for me anyway. You told me that Sparklelord destroyed all of Radical Land by fire. Which means that my mom is dead, my dad is essentially gone, Flora is dead, and everyone else I’ve ever known and loved is dead.”

“That doesn’t mean you can just give up on living,” Dr. McNinja argued. “There’s always something worth living for.”

“You’re probably right,” R.J. admitted as the moon began to tremble. “But that doesn’t do me any good now. Unless you want to die too, you need to do whatever you need to survive right now.”

Reality was an absolute mess as the Bearers of Harmony, Spike, and Gordito atop Yoshi half-ran, half fell down the mountainside as the gravity of the moon continued to rip chunks up into the sky. Even without the sun to see by, the pink and purple light of fragmented time energy was more than enough for all to witness the chaos around them. Like hundreds of bats flying out of caves, wolf-raptors and other monstrosities poured out of the holes in the fabric of reality.

Gordito and company were forced to stop their frantic descent to deal with the unexpected threat. Even as he started killing the closest monsters with bullets, Gordito could tell that he and the Equestrians were vastly outnumbered. Twilight managed to turn a few into apples, but it was a fruitless effort against the sea of death-sowing creatures. Forget having a half a minute. Between Discord’s abominations and the rapidly degenerating mountain, the Bearers of Harmony didn’t even have seconds.

It was truly in the nick of time when the moon exploded, a colossal eruption of rock and rainbow colored fire that washed across the sky. Compared to how dark the land had been before, the light show from the explosion and the now exposed sun was blinding. Now free of the quantum mechanical intrusion by the moon, the holes in the fabric of reality sealed themselves up as the army of abominations began to fade away like the enemies in a T-rated video game. Chunks of mountain began to rain back down, mercifully not landing atop of anyone. Besides the impact of rock against rock, the entire mountain was silent.

Gordito stiffened as he suddenly realized that Dr. McNinja and R.J. must have somehow induced the moon to explode while they were on it. With dread, Gordito desperately searched the sky for any signs of their survival. The young gun-slinger’s efforts were rewarded when he spotted a small figure falling from the sky.

“Is that… Dr. McNinja?” Rarity said in disbelief.

As the quest-goers watched, the small figure grabbed one of the falling rocks. Soon Gordito was able to make out a white lab coat fluttering about the falling man. It was indeed Dr. McNinja. Right before the rock hit the ground Dr. McNinja kicked off of it, flipped through the air, and landed in a crouch in the midst of the others. Ever so slowly, he rose back up to a standing position and looked up at the sky. Everyone followed his gaze. The unspoken fact was apparent to all: R.J. had not survived the explosion.

“My idea to stop the moon wasn’t enough,” Dr. McNinja explained softly. “But R.J. sacrificed himself to make it explode.”

“Then let’s not waste his effort,” Twilight said with determination. “Time to finish this.”

Each of the Bearers of Harmony closed their eyes in concentration as pulses of magic began to emit from their Elements. Strands of multicolored light wove around them and connected the Bearers by their Elements before at last uniting at Twilights crown. Six pairs of eyes glowed white at the peak of friendship’s power before unleashing a giant blast of magic into the sky. The energy soared up towards the heavens, made an arc, and shot back down the world below to incase the force-field guarding Canterlot Castle in a whirlwind of color. With one last burst of magic, both the whirlwind and the force-field flashed out of existence. A silence hung in the air as the Elements of Harmony powered back down.

“Did we get the force-field and Sparklelord or just the force-field?” Fluttershy wondered.

“Guess there’s only one way to find out,” Twilight figured. “C’mon everyone, let’s get back to the castle.”

The trek back to the castle did not take much time, but to the weary quest-goers it felt like forever. In Gordito’s mind, the entire thing seemed rather pointless. Before the trip to Equestria, he had overheard King Radical talk about the death of Radical Land. Back then, the knowledge hadn’t meant much to Gordito. But after actually going there and meeting its inhabitants, it was now a much greater burden to the young gunslinger. The death of an entire land was a terrible thing.

Gordito was distracted from his gloomy thoughts by the sight of a destroyed tower, the very same one that Sparklelord had knocked down during his invasion. The armored pegasi were still there, gingerly getting up from the rubble they had been lying upon. All of them were glancing around, mostly at the sky. One of them happened to glance at Gordito’s approaching group and grinned when he saw them.

“Oh, I get it now!” he said happily. “Those guys from before and the Bearers of Harmony saved the day!”

“My wings are working again!” another whooped as he flew up and did a loop-de-loop. “Yay!”

The guards hugged each other and cheered for the quest-completers as they half-heartedly walked into the castle. So caught up were they in celebrating, neither the guards nor any of the other ponies the group passed noticed that not all was well with Gordito and company. At last they reached the throne room and walked inside. They first thing Gordito noticed was the presence of a statue, a serpent like being that seemed to be made up of many creatures mashed together.

“Discord, I presume?” Dr. McNinja inquired.

“That’s him alright,” Rainbow Dash confirmed.

“Why was he moved to the throne room?” Fluttershy wondered with a moderate amount of panic. “He didn’t move himself did he?!”

“Given his reverence for Discord, I’m willing to bet that Sparklelord moved him in here,” Twilight figured. “But where’s Sparklelord?”

Twilight, you may want to look over to the right,” Rarity mumbled.

Gordito glanced to the right and stiffened in surprise. Lying on the floor was an all too familiar golden armor and a tattered red cape. Nothing was inside of Sparklelord’s signature attire, save for the presence of large piles of dust.

“He turned to dust?!” Twilight said incredulously. “How is that possible? The Elements of Harmony don’t kill!”

Dr. McNinja walked over to the cape and armor and looked down at it.

“Maybe not directly they do,” he said thoughtfully. “But didn’t you say that the Elements of Harmony could undo Discord’s magic?”

“Yes, but it should have turned him back into Rainbow Sparkle senior,” replied a befuddled Twilight. “That’s how it worked with Nightmare moon. Or, at the very least, it should have turned him to stone like Discord.”

“Well, I do know that Sparklelord spent centuries in my world before I met him,” Dr. McNinja revealed. I don’t know how long usually unicorns live, but if Discord’s magic granted him immortality in the first place, wouldn’t it kill him if you undid that?”

“I guess so,” Twilight sighed. “This is… a lot to take in.”

“That it is,” Dr. McNinja agreed. “But I think that in the end, Sparklelord, or rather, Rainbow Sparkle senior, was grateful.”

For a moment Gordito wondered how Dr. McNinja had reached that conclusion until something on the left wall of the throne room caught his attention. Carved into the wall were two simple words.

Thank you

Gordito’s attention to the writing on the wall was stolen by a sudden flash of magic in the center of the throne room. Right away his hands went for his guns, ready to defend against some last second attack from Sparklelord. But the flash of magic did not herald the return of Sparklelord. Rather, it was Princess Celestia and Princess Luna who teleported onto the scene. The latter of the two seemed to be just barely holding back a great deal of fury. Gordito idly wondered if it had something to do with Dr. McNinja and R.J. blowing up the moon.

“I was about to thank all of you for saving Equestria, but I sense there is more going on here than I had expected,” Princess Celestia noted.

“Blew up my moon,” Princess Luna muttered under her breath.

“We’ll get you a new one, one without anything carved into it,” Princess Celestia promised. “But I think there are more important matters to discuss right now. Twilight, I’m curious as to where you acquired a second set of Elements of Harmony.”

Princess Celestia didn’t interrupt Twilight once as she told her the entire story. The thought that her faithful student had spent days in another reality during Celestia’s hours at Twilight’s home seemed surreal, but the weariness Twilight and her friends wore and the presence of another set of Elements of Harmony was more than enough proof. Twilight herself looked as if she hadn’t combed or washed her mane for days. She had scratches all over her body, a scorch mark beneath her neck, and specks of blood on one of her hooves.

“And that’s pretty much it,” Twilight concluded, her face downcast. “I don’t think he survived.”

“If Dr. McNinja escaped the explosion unscathed, how does thy know R.J. did not do the same?” Princess Luna wondered.

“It was the combination of two techniques I knew that allowed me to survive,” Dr. McNinja clarified. “A man named Bruce Lee once taught me how to jump out of orbit. Once I was far away enough from the moon, I turned my back to it and rode out the explosion from there.”

“You protected yourself from an explosion by turning your back to it?” Rainbow Dash asked dubiously.

Dr. McNinja nodded. “It also works when you’re walking away from an explosion too.”

“Rest assured, R.J.’s sacrifice will not be forgotten by history,” Princess Celestia promised. “Nor will it forget any of you. R.J. and the Radical Land may have been lost, but thanks to you all Equestria was spared.”

“That reminds me. Princess Celestia, do you know what exactly the relationship between Equestria and Radical land is?” Twilight asked. “Back in Radical Land, I saw a map of the continent. It was a mirror image of Equestria.”

“That is curious,” Princess Celestia mused. “I’ll be honest Twilight, I haven’t any idea. But I do know this. The Elements you and your friends are now wearing are identical to the ones I used when my sister and I were among the six Bearers of Harmony. In fact, I just remembered how I came into possession of them. If you would be so kind as to give them to me, there is something I must do.”

Without hesitation Twilight gave her crown over to Princess Celestia, as did her friends with their Elements. Princess Celestia couldn’t help but think that if she had been Sparklelord in disguise, Twilight had been far too trusting with the act. Given recent events though, such a lack of clear thinking was understandable.

Princess Celestia’s horn flashed as she activated a time travel spell. A flurry of wind and light enclosed her and then fell away, revealing her intended time and location. She was in the dining room in a simple cottage, more than two thousand years into the past. Sitting at the table were two unicorns playing a game of chess. One of the two unicorns was Princess Celestia’s younger self, the other her sister Luna. Princess Celestia scowled slightly when she saw that her younger self had a pink mane. Past Celestia and past Luna, in turn, stared at the newcomer in surprise.

“Time is short, listen carefully,” Princess Celestia cautioned as she set the Elements onto the table. “This time travel spell only lasts so long. These are the Elements of Harmony, powerful artifacts that manifest the magic of friendship. You two and your four best friends, you know who I’m talking about, need them to defeat an evil being who will show up soon. Any questions?”

“Art… art thou my sister from the future?” Luna wondered in amazement.

“Yes I am,” Princess Celestia confirmed.

“You’re me from the future?” Past Celestia said in disbelief. “This is… wow. I never thought that I would... look so attractive.”

“Yes, that reminds me. The sooner you snap out of that, ‘I hate everything about my looks’ phase, the better,” Princess Celestia said sternly. “And stop dying your mane pink. It looks much better in its natural colors.”

“Oh, um, okay if you say so,” Past Celestia replied with wide eyes. “But wait, if you’re from the future, can you tell me who my true love is? You’ve met him by now, right?”

“Oh would you look at the time!” Princess Celestia responded uncomfortably as glanced at a nearby wall. “I um, think the time travel spell is about to wear off.”

“Why are you the looking at the wall for the time? Walls do not tell time,” Past Celestia said in confusion.

“They will eventually. After clocks are invented,” Princess Celestia explained.

Much to Princess Celestia’s relief, the spell at last wore off, causing her to vanish with a flash and return to the present. Everyone else in the room watched her, waiting for an explanation. Princess Celestia took a moment to make sure she was back to her usual level of composure.

“The Elements have been taken care of,” she informed them.

“So what happens now?” Twilight questioned.

“Well, right now, something downright odd is happening,” Dr. McNinja observed as he held up an arm. With a start, Princess Celestia realized that the ninja doctor was beginning to turn translucent, along with Gordito and Yoshi.

“Whoa, what’s going on?” Gordito said frantically as he took notice of himself starting to fade. “What is this?!”

Oh my gosh, they’re turning into ghosts!” Pinkie Pie squealed in terror.

“Calm down, there has to be a rational explanation for this!” Twilight insisted. “Maybe its a post-death trap from Sparklelord?”

“No, if it was that, it would be affecting everyone,” Dr. McNinja deduced. “I’m willing to bet it has to do with the time space portals linking our worlds together. I think this might be goodbye.”

“Wait, are we dying or being sucked back into our reality?” Gordito questioned.

“The second one. I think,” Dr. McNinja guessed. “Remember how the moon was screwing up the connection? I think blowing it up may have severed the link, but with a delayed reaction.”

“See, its times like this I wish I understood quantum physics,” Gordito sighed. “That doesn’t make any sense to me at all.”

“I’ll miss you guys!” Pinkie Pie suddenly cried as she flew forward and embraced both Dr. McNinja and Gordito.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash exchanged a glance.

“Oh what the hay, we’re probably never going to see them again,” Applejack shrugged right before joining the group hug.

Sensing that time was short, the rest of the Bearers of Harmony and Spike joined in as Dr. McNinja, Gordito, and Yoshi continued to grow fainter. Princess Celestia smiled sadly at the sight. While it had only been hours for her, it was clear that the group had forged quite the bond over the days long adventure. Not one eye was dry when Dr. McNinja and Gordito at last disappeared completely. Yoshi attempted to take a bite out of Fluttershy at the last second, but luckily failed in his endeavor as he vanished as well.

“We weren’t with them that long, but it feels like I’ve known them for ages,” Twilight sighed. “Them and R.J. Now we won’t see any of them ever again.”

“Such is the nature is friendship,” Princess Celestia said wisely. “But know this, Twilight. True friendships will never disappear completely, even when separated by death or distance. They’ll be a part of you forever.”

Gordito felt a thousand emotions pulling at him as he, Yoshi, and Dr. McNinja appeared back in George Washington’s secret tunnels beneath Cumberland, Maryland. The time space portal was still there, exactly the same as when they had first entered it. Gordito missed everyone from Equestria already, but another gloomy thought loomed in his mind as well.

“We failed,” Gordito muttered.

“Failed?” Dr. McNinja asked incredulously. “Whatever do you mean, Gordito?”

“We didn’t change anything in Radical Land. Sparkelord was still born. That means that Radical Land still met the same fate,” Gordito explained. “I know we saved Equestria and all, but what's the point if people still die?”

Dr. McNinja stuck his hands in his pockets and glanced up at the ceiling of the cave.

“That’s a good question,” he admitted. “But look at it this way. As a doctor, there’s a lot of things I can cure. Paul Bunyan's disease, the Mummy’s curse, and so on. When someone comes into my office with one of those, I can save them, and that’s good. But other times people come in with issues I can’t cure, like leukemia. Should I stop trying to cure people just because I can’t cure all of them?”

“No, you should try to do all that you can,” Gordito admitted.

“Exactly. Don’t get me wrong, Gordito, I know exactly how you feel. I wish I could save everyone all the time too. But what we can never allow to happen is that we get so down about all that we can’t do that we fail to do what we can, understand?”

“Yeah, I get it,” Gordito said with a faint smile. “I am glad that we saved Equestria. And that we met everyone that we did. I’ll never forget any of them.”

“Nor I,” Dr. McNinja agreed as he set a hand on Gordito’s shoulder. “Ready to head on home?”