On the upper deck of whatever this rig is, the Doctor, Feather, and Stern struggle to not slip and slide all over the place as they behold the violent force of nature playing out all around them. Off to their left side and over the rig, they behold endless waves that are the size of small to large hills, although that is very hard to see in the dark storm except for the occasional flashing of lightning briefly illuminating the area. The landscape shifts and crawls all the way to the horizon in every direction they can see. The sound of the crashing waves and thunderstorms drowns out almost any hope of speaking to each other if it weren't for one factor. It is at this moment that the Doctor's legendary and suspiciously useful sonic screwdriver once again helps out by somewhat muting the sound of the storm outside and creating an audible safe zone within the spherical force field that Feather Wind is creating around them. Thanks to the force bubble, they are not affected by hurricane-strength winds, stinging rain, and crashing waves. That force bubble cancels all of that inertia, leaving them completely immune within it other than the tilt of the entire ship and the slipperiness of the wet floor beneath. Thanks to the sonic screwdriver, they can even whisper to each other if they wanted to and still be heard.
In fact, if it weren't for the tilt of the entire ship or the wet floor, they could almost feel disconnected from the raging storm all about them.
Things being as they are, they are forced to hold onto something as they struggle their way across the upper deck while following sonic blipping noise from the Doctor's device that indicates the distance and direction of lifeforms on this deck. This eventually leads them to a small crew of earth ponies who are wearing what looks like bright life preserver vests, and from those vests, they are also tethered to something on the ship to help secure them. It is difficult to tell what they are trying to do on the upper deck but they are either shouting at each other or some device nearby them. They clearly seem stressed but it's not hard to guess why in general.
Feather, Stern, and even the Doctor to some extent feel surprised to find native lifeforms on this planet that look almost exactly like earth ponies back in Equestria. Here they are on some distant planet and they unexpectedly encounter something familiar.
Eventually, the new visitors get noticed themselves. At that moment it isn't just the TARDIS crew who are surprised anymore. When the two earth pony crew members spot them, they glance at each other in surprise as if to silently ask themselves, "Are you seeing this too?" Upon noticing each other's looks of equal surprise, they basically get their answer. After that, the one in a yellow vest, as opposed to the orange vest, waves for the TARDIS crew to approach them. They do so.
The surprise of the crew triples when the safe bubble catches up to them. They look around each other in utter shock at the near-perfect but a severely unexpected bubble of safety that now surrounds them before the one in the yellow vest glares at the TARDIS crew and shouts, "WHAT ARE . . .” he starts to shout but then everyone in the bubble painfully winces as the volume of his voice intensifies. Not only because of external factors being quieter, but the sonic screwdriver is also enhancing the voices within the bubble as if to compensate. It essentially sounded like he just shouted in a metallic acoustic tube which echoes a bit.
“You do not have to speak so loudly, Sir,” the Doctor informs them. “As long as we are within this bubble, we can speak normally.”
Once again, the two crew members glance at each other in intense surprise before the one in the yellow jacket, who seems to have more authority between the two, looks back at the three new visitors as he begins again, "What are you three doing on the upper deck during this storm? And who are you three anyway?”
“Clyde, look!” the one in the orange jacket says with wide eyes in amazement as he gazes in awe at Feather Wind on Stern Wing's back for some reason. “That one is a unicorn!” he says in a tone of awe.
Feather Wind and Stern Wing glance at each other in confusion, each wondering why that news would be regarded as so unusual.
"Holy shucks," Clyde says in near-equal levels of amazement.
The Doctor observes their reaction to Feather Wind carefully, transfers his glance between his companions for a moment, then looks back at the two bridge crew as he asks, “Is there somewhere safer we can discuss the matters at hoof?" he says with intense emphasis on the last word then gives a narrow-eyed and playful smirk back at Feather and Stern. "Yeah, I finally said it."
The Doctor doesn't get through to the two earth pony crew at first. They are still staring at Feather Wind like they are beholding a living miracle.
“Gentleman, if we may?” the Doctor coaxes again.
“Huh?” the one called Clyde asks as he shakes his head as if to clear it then blinks at the Doctor as if rising from a daze. “Oh, ah . . . sure. The bridge is just right over here. Follow me.”
“Ya know, you three shouldn't be up here without your safety harness,” the one in the orange vest lightly scolds but also with a tone of surprise. “It's very dangerous up here right now.”
“Oh really?” the Doctor reflects as he passes a droll look over to his left at the entire horizon full of endless ocean waves. “Thanks for the tip. We wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't pointed that out.”
“You don't have to be snippy about it,” the one in the orange vest mopes. “I'm just doing ma job.”
“Come with us, and be careful,” Clyde instructs. “Hold on to anything ya can while you three follow us. It's just up on yon way a bit.”
They weren't kidding. The bridge was only a few minutes away. All they had to do is crawl back a few feet, climb a short ladder, then enter a small cabin that has tall, slanted windows on three of the four sides. The upper end of the windows extends about a foot further forward compared to the bottom end of the window. Here, there are also a few swivel chairs permanently attached to the floor. In addition, a lot of console controls and dials here that Feather and Stern hardly recognize the function of but it kind of resembles the center console of the TARDIS a bit insofar as it looks highly technical to them.
Once they are all in and the thick metal door is swung shut, the roar of the outside storm is considerably reduced in decibels even without the help of the Doctor's device. When he notices that, the Doctor puts the device away in his built-in pocket just above his cutie mark.
“Perhaps introductions are in order,” the Doctor suggests, the first to speak ever since they all climbed into this room. “I am the Doctor and these are my two companions Feather Wind,” he gestures to the unusually small blue unicorn, “and Stern Wing,” he then gestures to the unusually large brown pegasus.
The two crew earth ponies both glance in surprise at each other again for some reason then pass a curious look to Feather Wind as Clyde asks him, "Does this one speak for you?" he asks while looking at Feather Wind but tilts his head at the Doctor.
This situation has caught Feather Wind off guard and he also feels uncomfortable about it, but not in an entirely unfamiliar way. The way these two look at him reminds Feather of how low-born society used to view him and his fellow aristocratic peers, but unlike his peers, Feather was never comfortable with the treatment. By growing up in high society, he at least knows how to act around his fellow peers and fit in enough not to be teased about it too much, but he's always been shy at heart and far more comfortable in the wilds of nature rather than the rigid structure of high society.
But the way these two are regarding Feather goes way beyond that. They are acting like they are beholding a downright god or some similar overwhelming supernatural entity. More like a figure of legend that they didn't really believe in until now.
"Yes, I do," the Doctor confirms before Feather has a chance to speak. Not that Feather knows what to say anyway. The Doctor gestures to himself as he says, "It is my role and assignment on this mission to speak for the unicorn. You may address me with any questions, comments, or concerns about these two."
"Kleetus, check it out!" Clyde points at Stern Wing's wings. "That one is a pegasus! He's got wings!"
“You mean 'she' has got wings,” Stern Wing corrects with a bit of an offended squint to her face. “I'm a mare, thank-you-very-much.”
Now they look very embarrassed, especially the one who spoke. Clyde visibly flushes as he stutters, "Ma-ma-my ah-pah-pah-pologies, Ma'am. I was mistaken."
“About the gender thing. Not the wings, he means,” the one called Kleetus quickly adds.
“Yeah.” Clyde tilts his head at his companion but keeps his eyes locked on Stern Wing. “What he said.”
All of the sudden, Kleetus narrows his eyes as he asks accusingly, “Speaking of which, it is said that pegasi have the power to control the weather. Is that true? And, if so, did you cause this storm?”
“Kleetus!” Clyde snaps at his companion.
"What?!" Kleetus asks back. "I'm just asking. If we did something to offend them, mayhap we can discuss compensation and whatnot."
“Gentleman,” says the Doctor as he raises a hoof, “before anything else gets more out of hoof,” he says with another emphatic glance to his companions then resumes with a serious expression at the two worker earth ponies, “let me just assure you right now that we are not the ones responsible for causing this weather. As a matter of fact, the reason why we're here is to investigate what precisely has caused it. Perhaps you two can shed some light on this matter? Any information you can share would make our job here much easier.”
Because the Doctor said that, Kleetus and Clyde both look at each other for a moment as they both seem to realize something. They nod at each other confidently before they both look back at the Doctor and Clyde says, “If what you say is true and the unicorns nor pegasi are responsible for this, then it is probably the Alphalmians.”
Feather Wind and Stern Wing both wince in misunderstanding, but the Doctor didn't miss a beat by asking, “That's your aquatic neighbors, right? The ones you trade with?”
Kleetus and Clyde both nod as Clyde says, “The very same.”
The Doctor winces in confusion as he asks, “In that case, I'm confused. Why would the Alphalmians attack you all? If you get killed, the benefits of the trade they have with you all end as well and you provide services they cannot replicate. Plus, exactly how could they cause this weather storm?”
"The Orb of Storms, or so the legends say," Clyde answers. "That's an answer to the 'how', by the way. The King of the alphalmians, Afaminious, is said to be the one who wields such a powerful artifact that can have such influence over the weather."
“Assuming that is the cause, what motive would he have to use it against this facility?” the Doctor checks.
Clyde shrugs as he admits, “I honestly have no idea. It doesn't make sense to me either, because you're right. We provide a service for them that they cannot replicate and as far as I know, they've always found that useful.” He sighs for a moment as he says, “Now there are rumors of possible reasons, but I ain't fer believing a word of it. No siree.”
“What kind of rumors?” the Doctor checks again.
Clyde casts a much longer sigh this time as he thinks about it. There is a squint on his face as if merely attempting to recall the rumors leaves a bad taste in his mouth, but eventually he goes on to list, “Rumors that we stole some of his people, rumors that we tainted some of the stock we've given to him.” When he said that, he sounded especially offended at the mere prospect. “Rumors that they've always hated us for some reason so they always planned to kill us when they had gotten enough of what they wanted, rumors that a new king has taken them over and it is actually he, or she, that is the one using The Orb of Storms. Rumors that the Orb of Storms is malfunctioning and all of this is being caused accidentally.” He shakes his head. “The list goes on and on and, quite frankly, I'm sick and tired of hearing about it.
“Still, our situation has been desperate for quite some time and it's only growing worse. When ponies have reason to panic and that reason has been ongoing for quite some time, they just can't help but speculate why all of this is happening without basing their fears on any substantial evidence.” He shrugs. “When ponies are afraid, we see demons in every shadow. I'm tempted to call it an inherently racial flaw.”
“But you don't believe in any of these rumors?” the Doctor probes.
Clyde shrugs as he says, “I can neither confirm nor deny anything, and frankly, that's my problem. Until I see hard evidence leading towards any conclusion, I can't rule anything out and I prefer not to waste my time on any useless speculation when I got a crisis to deal with on my hooves at this very moment. For instance, I got a man stranded up on that radio tower up there and I can't do a thing about it right now,” he says as he gestures to a tower behind them that is made of an X pattern of many metal bars surrounded by metal squares. The tower is widest at the base and narrows at the upper tip.
“What did you say?!” Stern Wing asks as she pounces on that information immediately with intense seriousness. “There's somepony stranded up there?”
“Yes Ma'am,” Clyde replies to Stern Wing then looks at the Doctor. “He tried to repair that radio tower since, apparently, a large wave damaged it earlier. The thing is, if that radio tower isn't repaired, we'll never be able to radio for help and get resupplied after the storm passes. We did warn them about the storm earlier so they are holding their distance, but we'll need those supplies too eventually.”
“Why didn't you try to repair the tower after the storm passes?” Stern Wing asks a bit tightly.
"Because we were trying to brace it," Clyde answers her then shakes his head. "Storms this intense have happened before, but never for this long. We were trying to secure it with extra chains, cables, and wires to avoid the damage from escalating further, but the cables broke. That also ripped out the pulley system we used to get our man up there."
“Is there any other way up or down the tower?” Stern Wing checks sharply.
Clyde nods as he says, “Yes Ma'am, but it's suicide to try. We do have a ladder we normally use to go up and down from there, but with this storm . . .” He trails off as he nods to indicate it. There is a moment of silence before he turns back to Stern Wing and adds, “Besides, he's now injured, so even without this storm, he may not be able to hobble down from there anyway.”
Stern Wing looks down as she contemplates what has been said very carefully.
“Just how long has the storm been going on, Sir?” asks the Doctor.
“Several weeks,” Kleetus answers as he slumps his shoulders in despair. “Several very long, very grueling weeks.” He shakes his head. “It has never gone this long and still be this intense.” He then grows angry. “It simply must be those evil Alphalmians! They need to pay for what they have done to us! I promise that they will!”
“Easy there, tiger,” the Doctor coaxes. “We still don't know what is going on, which is what we're here to find out.”
"And once you do?" Clyde checks with the Doctor and then can't help but sneak a desperate glance at Feather Wind in particular.
“After that, we'll do what we do best in these kinds of situations,” the Doctor answers as he puffs his chest out in pride but also with a look of confidence and determination on his face. “We're going to save everyone!” He then widens his eyes as he realizes something before saying, “Oh! Excuse me.” He turns to and bows to Feather and Stern as he corrects with a cocky smirk, “Everypony.”
“I'm going to go out there and save that pony!” Stern Wing declares with sudden determination as she lifts her head. “Feather,” she turns her head to gaze back at her foalhood friend still on her back. “would you mind helping me?”
“Of course I will,” Feather answers right away. “I'm surprised you have to ask.”
Stern Wing flashes a warm and grateful smile at her unicorn companion before shifting a narrow stare at the Doctor as if daring him to object, and if he does, he'll have a fight on his hooves.
The Doctor looks back and forth between the two of them real quick as he seems to do some quick mental calculations in his head before he nods in agreement and says, “Go. You two can handle this, I'm sure.”
Stern's firm warning look shifts to a grateful one as she nods at the Doctor in approval and then looks at the exit. "Alright then. Let's move."