“Parallel dimension. Different time-line. Body swapping...” the Doctor trotted across town, pondering all possibilities out loud. He wasn´t even looking where he was going and two moving ponies had to lift a couch to let him pass, his bird friend leaving his head before he got hit.

“Doctor, where are you going?” Lyra asked.

“Maybe it´s an illusion. I´m being mind-controlled by some sort of parasite that it´s feeding in my emotions. No, that can´t be...”

“Doctor!”

“What? I´m trying to think here!”

“Where are we going?”

“We´re going to the BonBon´s shop so I can prove you once and for all that you work there and that you´re not my assistant! Now, why are all the streets so different? Can´t recognize half of the stores. Then again if this is a parallel dimension...”

“The stores changed because you have been missing for two weeks. Yes, he is an old grump,” Lyra said, nuzzling the blue bird.

“Even if I was gone for two weeks the Snowball Store should still be in the corner, can´t believe it went out of business. And I´m not grump and why are you talking to the bird?”

“What? He´s lovely. Aren´t you, cute Jay-Jay?” The phoenix chirped, happy to be nuzzled some more.

“I call him more picky than cute and Jay-Jay?”

“He reminds me of a bluejay but it´s not a bluejay so Jay-Jay!”

The Doctor considered arguing her logic but he ultimately gave up. After turning right in yet another store he didn´t recognize, they finally reached their destination, Candy Bucket.

“There we go. Finally we´ll get some answers. Excuse me BonBo-”

“Wazzzzzzzup?! Welcome to Candy Bucket, the sweetest and friendly store this side of Fillydelphia!”

“...DJ-PON3?”

The unicorn behind the counter tilted her head, confused.

“Hey Vinyl,” Lyra said, walking into the store.

“Hey Lyra, good to see you girl! Aww, look at that cute little thing? How´s it called?”

“This is Jay-Jay!” The bird chirped once more as Vinyl scratched him.

“So what bring ya to the store? Ran out of those licorice ones?” she asked.

“No, the Docto-umh, I mean Mr. Time Turner brought me here. You remember him, right?” Lyra said, waving at the Doctor that was just staring into space.

“Yeah remember him. Remember you two hanging around during Hearts and Hooves Day. What´sup with that?” Vinyl teased her.

“Hey, cut it out! We´re just friends, right Doc euh Time Turner?”

The Doctor was still in shock.

“Umh Doc?”

“DJ-PON3. DJ-PON3 is in the candy store. She runs the candy store and she has BonBon´s Cutie Mark. I can see her Cutie Mark through the counter, she has three candies. She is the candy-maker.” Vinyl looked at Lyra, silently asking if he was all right. Lyra just shrugged. “Of course she is. Obviously, it makes perfect sense. Why wouldn't she be here? Could somepony please slap me? Just, one slap. Right here in the muzzle.”

Both mares looked at each other. Since the Doctor never specified who should do it, they both did it. Simultaneously.

“...thank you. Now DJ-PO-”

“Look pal, name is Vinyl. DJ...that, sounds cool and all but it ain´t my name.” she replied.

“Yeah, figures. I´m just gonna pretend like any of this is normal in any form, I´m just going to do this.” The Doctor then grabbed Vinyl by her cheeks and looked straight into her red eyes.

Lyra watched him hold still of Vinyl that tried to get free from his grisp. Her initial frustration at the the Doctor was over, now she was getting worried. He was looking at the unicorn with a stern, intensive stare,a  stare that seemed to go straight into Vinyl´s soul. Usually Lyra just thought of the Doctor as a weird, eccentric pony but occasionally he would do or say something that remind her that he wasn´t a normal, that he wasn´t a pony at all if his stories were half true. He was something else and that scared her.

The Doctor then let go of Vinyl. “Nothing. Nothing at all. No traces of mind control or personality transference. Nothing. You´re perfectly normal.”

“Yeah, thanks dude. I think...” Vinyl said, rubbing her sore cheeks.

“Doctor, are you all right?” Lyra asked, Jay-Jay leaving her shoulder to gently poke at the stallion.

“You´re a doctor?” Vinyl asked.

“Oh Celestia, not that joke again. Vinyl, I know that I said I laugh at everything but I wasn´t that literall,” a voice said from the backstore. BonBon came out, carrying a trail with several candies on her back.

“It wasn´t a joke, I was just asking...”

“Oh hi Lyra and Mr. Time Turner, right?” BonBon kept her usual smile but once she took a good look, she realized how tense the ambient was. “Is everything okay?”

“Umh yes, hey BonBon quick question. How long have you been working in this store?” Lyra asked.

“About a year, maybe? I used to do just simple chores for the town but when VInyl moved here we became friends, I helped her raise the store and kind of decided to work here since,” she answered.

“And you came from Canterlot, Vinyl?” Lyra asked again. She took a quick look at the Doctor, who seemed surprise she was acting like she was believing him, even if only a little.

“Yeah, born and raised there,” Vinyl said.

“And why did you leave Canterlot?”

“No reason really. All of my friends got jobs and I wasn´t sure what to do. I came here for the last Summer SUn Celebration and I guess never feel going back home,” she admitted,s catching her back.

“And your Cutie Mark, what´s the story?”

“This thing? Oh nothing, it´s not that great of a story. It just pop in the day I realized I liked to make candies and stuff. Funny story actually, I originally didn´t want to make candies.”

“You didn´t?” BonBon asked, curious since she had never heard the story of how her friend got her Mark.

“Well, I actually studied music when I was filly. Wanted to be a big musician but I guess it wasn´t my call. I had a friend back then, my best friend. Uh my best friend from there, you´re my PBFF now BonBon!” Vinyl said, blushing. BonBon smiled and put a hoof on her shoulder.

“What happened to her?” Lyra asked.

“Well, she got her musical mark. Fun thing is that she didn´t looked to happy with it. Maybe ´cause she was more into classical but after getting her mark she got a gig as a party musician.”

“Like a disc-jockey?” Lyra asked.

“Yeah, pretty much. haven´t talked to her in a while, wonder how she´s doing?” BonBon patted her friend, comforting her.

“Sound likes a great friend. Hope I get to meet her one day,” Lyra said, Jay-Jay back on her shoulder.

“She´ll be hard to find. Octi never really stood up in a crowd.”

“Octi?” BonBon asked.

“Short for Octavia.”

“Shouldn´t that be something like Tavi?”

“Hay no, Octi sounds more cute!”

The three mares laughed. Behind them, the gears in the ancient mind of the Doctor finally began to move. “I know her.”

“Sorry Doc, what was that?” Lyra asked him.

“I know her. And I know you too, BonBon. And you and you! All of you have been in the TARDIS before!”

“Tar-what?” Vinyl asked while Lyra gestured the Doctor to keep quiet, his identity was supposed to be a secret after all.

“Yes, all of you, at some point, have been aboard the TARDIS. That´s the connection! I couldn´t figure out what was the common link between the five of you but now I know it! I know it!” He lifted Lyra and hugged her, scaring the blue phoenix away. “Oh this is wonderful!”

“Good...to...hear,” Lyra said, as best as she could considering her ribs were cracking.

“Now all we need is gather all of you back into the TARDIS, conduct some little tests...”

“Test? As in medical test?” Vinyl asked, somehow turning whiter. Knowing her friend hated getting shot, BonBon patted her again.

“Not to worry, they won´t be painful, I think, I don´t know, maybe, in fact I don´t evne know what kind of test to make, this has never happened before. But first, we need to get Octavia and Derpy back. To Canterlot!” the Doctor announced.

“To Canterlot? Why are we going there?” Lyra asked him.

“Simply process of elimination. If you have Derpy´s mark and BonBon got yours and VInly here got hers; that obviously means Derpy got Octavia´s mark and she must performing for an audience in Canterlot. Oh that´s one performance I´m not anxious to hear. Now, let´s not waste any more time. Into the TARDIS! Wait! Wait wait wait, we can´t. We can´t use the TARDIS, I can´t risk making this situation worse.”

“So...train?” Lyra suggested.

“Train it is,” and he left the store, followed by the mint unicorn and the phoenix.

“Wait, we´re supposed to go too?” BonBon asked.

*****

One quick journey, the group was in the capital city of Equestria.

“What´s up with all these ponies?” Vinyl asked, trying to make her way across a crowd of hundreds of ponies.

“I think I heard they were announcing the new princess,” BonBon said, pushing some unicorns aside.

“That explains all the flags!” Vinyl replied.

“Doctor, is that´s the case, Derpy and Octavia could probably be performing at palace!” Lyra screamed, kicking some ponies away.

“Excellent idea, Lyra! You could actually work as an assistant!”

“Thanks, I think...”

“Now, let´s move on! Palace is this way! Come along Lyra! That doesn´t sound right...” the Doctor mumbled, getting lost into the sea of ponies.

“Wait, Doctor!” Lyra got squished between two rows of onlookers. Jay-Jay flew off her and scanned the crowd, searchign for the Doctor. Once he spotted, he chirped outloud. “Girls, follow Jay-Jay!” Lyra ordered.

“Jay-Jay?” BonBon asked.

“Lyra´s little blue bird of love,” VInyl said.

“It´s the bluebird of happiness and I´m not in love with him!”

“And yet we´re chasing him across Canterlot in the middle of a coronation,” BonBon replied. Lyra growled at this while Vinyl laughed.

After five more minutes of pushing and kicking they finally catch up with the Doctor. He was standing in the middle of the crowd, a few meters in front of the Royal Balcony.

“Doctor, there you are. Look, we´re not going to get into palace today. What do we said we wiat in a restaurant for the crowd to get smaller?” Lyra asked him.

“I know a place!” Vinyl added.

The Doctor wasn´t paying attention to them though. He was staring at the Royal Balcony, mumbling to himself “This is wrong...this is all wrong.”

“Doc?”

“Look, the Princesses!” BonBon said, pointing up.

They all looked up to see Princess Celestia walkinf front.

“Citizens of Canterlot, mares and colts, I present to you Equestria latest princess...Princess Trixie Lulamoon!”