//------------------------------// // Part 2 // Story: Doctor Whooves and the Terror of Tartaurus // by Fhaolan //------------------------------// The guards shoved the Doctor and Derpy into the office of Iron Helm at spear point. Plus-Four’s eyes widened, and a broad grin spread across his face. “My dear fellow, what a surprise to see you here.” He rushed forward to shake the Doctor’s hoof, forgetful of the guards still in the doorway behind. “Or should I be concerned? You do have a tendency to bring trouble with you, don’t you Doctor?” The Doctor covered his confusion by taking in the increasingly cramped office as the guards forced themselves into the room. “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage, Mister...?” “Commissioner, now. High Commissioner Tweedy Plus-Four. Oh, I’m not surprised you don’t recognize me. When we last met, I was teaching mathematics at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.” Plus-Four’s eyes clouded in remembrance. “Almost ten years ago now. Never thought a simple star chart would cause such chaos.” He pumped the Doctor’s hoof yet again. “Must say, though, you haven’t aged a day.” The elderly unicorn took notice of Derpy. “And you still have an eye, I see. What ever happened to the adorable... Miss Sprinkle, I think it was? Purple unicorn with endless questions? Ah, well, it was some time ago.” The Doctor muttered to himself, “Or some time yet to come, I think. I hate spoilers.” Shining Armour and Derpy Hooves shyly exchanged hoofshakes as well. “Call me Derpy.” “Shining. Pleased to meet you.” Still, the Doctor was puzzled by the feeling that he had met this pony before. “Teaching mathematics? I’m sorry, were you ever in the military? Colonel or Brigadier, perhaps?” “Brigadier?” Plus-Four struggled to turn in the enclosed space to face Shining Armour. “I think that’s a Gryphon militia rank, isn’t it, Armour?” With a grin he looks back at the Doctor. “No, no. Always an Equestrian, myself.” “Enough! I demand an explanation!” screeched Iron Helm, incensed that she was being ignored in her own office. The forgotten guards snapped to attention. “We found them over the body of Poll Axe. He was drained, just like the others.” “Others?” questioned the Doctor. Plus-Four spun around, knocking a dagger off the wall with his tail to stick straight up in the credenza top beneath it. “What is this about bodies? Warden Helm, if this prison is compromised, Celestia herself will...” “We are not compromised, not yet, no thanks to you and your princess!” sneered Iron Helm, shoving her desk aside in an attempt to get closer to Plus-Four. “We know who’s responsible, and if we were allowed to confine the snow properly as we have repeatedly requested of your government, we would not be having this problem!” Derpy looked from face to face, hoping to find someone who understood. “Snow? Why lock up snow?” Shining shrugged, staying as still as possible. “I have no idea. I’ve been lost all day.” “They call themselves the Sdukʷalbixʷ,” explained Plus-Four. “If you’ll remember, Armour, I mentioned Snowshades earlier? I believe it’s from a similar ancient language. Not sure what it means, and we seem to be mangling the pronunciation somewhat. There’s some debate among the few ponies-in-the-know about who or what they are.” He waved his hoof in the air, outlining an imaginary pony. “They’re shaped like ponies of all three tribes, but they all have draconic eyes. The unicorns with sharp curved horns, the pegasi with bat-like wings, so on and so forth.” At his companion’s intake of breath, the Doctor nodded to her. “Ah, that explains the janitor.” He slipped between the occupants of the office in an attempt to wander around the room, examining the weapons on the walls. He paused to look more speculatively at the massive gothic mace mounted behind Iron Helm’s desk. Obviously a badge of office, and equally obviously an actual tool of combat for someone the size of Iron Helm. “So these Sdu live here, do they, and only here?” “They stole into our lands, infiltrating Tartaurus like vermin.” Iron Helm shoved the other guards out of the room in a vain attempt to create enough space to move. “We try to trust them with menial tasks, to integrate them into our society, but they abuse that trust at every turn. They are outcast ponies, yet Equestria won’t authorize us to deal with them appropriately. And now they are revealing their true colours, their carnivorous appetites turning to blood.” She slammed the door shut behind the guards and turned to face the small crowd still in the room. “Likely they are trying to compromise this prison.” “There are prisoners here that they believe they could use, to turn to their needs, in a vain attempt to conquer Tartaurus, or simply to increase their own numbers.” Iron Helm stalked forward, stopping in front of Plus-Four to lean down and looked him directly in the eyes. “As the official representative of the Equestrian government, you must give us permission to imprison these ponies once and for all!” “I’m afraid I cannot agree to that without proof, Madam Warden.” Plus-Four turned away from Iron Helm, toward his companions. “But I do believe that we cannot allow your people to suffer due to our inaction.” Plus-Four smiled kindly at Derpy. “My dear, would you be so kind as to stay with an aging bureaucrat and help him organize the proof Iron Helm has for us?” He looked sidelong at his escort. “Shining, as a pony of action, I expect you would wish to go with the Doctor as he tracks down the murderer directly?” The incredulous look on Derpy’s face spoke volumes. “You what? Really?” The twinkle in Plus-Four’s narrowed eyes gave her pause, however. The oddly charming unicorn was up to something, and it wasn’t exercising his chauvinism. Plus-Four walked forward, separating Shining Armour from the others as much as he could, and lowered his voice to whisper in Shining’s ear, “My experience with the fellow tells me to trust the Doctor to be the Doctor, no more, no less. I need someone keeping tabs on him who has our best interests at heart, and I won’t be able to keep up with him. That leaves you, I’m afraid.” “But, sir?” whispered Shinning. “Yes, it’s a risk. A calculated one, you see.” Shining dropped his head. “Yes, sir.” “Right! First order of business, find us a blood-drinking creature that has already killed several minotaurs without leaving a trace!” The Doctor clapped his hooves together as he and Shining were escorted back to the parapets by guards. “Easy-peasy!” Shining thought for a moment. “Bait.” The Doctor stopped. “Bait?” He motioned to the guards to go on ahead through the door. “Careful,” he whispered conspiratorially to them, “the creature may have returned.” “If we can’t go to it,” said Shining, slowly working through the logic, “because we don’t know where it is, we need to bring it to us, right?” The guards went through the door slowly, spears at the ready. Once through, the Doctor slammed the door shut. “For that to work, we need to know more about it. Otherwise, we don’t know what bait to use.” “Wait, what are you doing?” With a grin, the Doctor dropped the bar across the door. “Oh, I need some time to think. It’s distracting with them looming around so much.” Shining wondered if it was as distracting as the pounding that started up as soon the minotaurs realize they had been tricked. The Doctor ignored the noise, looking beyond Shining and into a shadowed archway. “And it lets the young fellow who has been tailing us since we left the office come out and meet us.” “Uhm... “ Vilhelm stepped out of the shadows. “I...” “Now, now, don’t be shy. We won’t bite.” The Doctor looked askance at Shining. “Well, I won’t. Can’t promise he won’t. You know military types.” Shining recognized the young minotaur. “This is Iron Helm’s son, Vilhelm. We were introduced when we first arrived.” The white unicorn turned to the Doctor. “And, hey!” Vilhelm glanced from side to side, making sure no one else is near. “We saw the Thing. We saw it take the guard. I didn’t know him, but he was talking to us when it attacked. Mom won’t believe me, but we did see it.” “Ah! Excellent!” The Doctor sidled up to Vilhelm to increase the feeling of conspiracy. “You said ‘we,’ Vilhelm. Who else was there?” “A little filly, Lethe.” Vilhelm mimed picking up a small bundle. “I carried her when I ran.” “Filly, not calf?” The Doctor’s eyes narrowed as he contemplated the options. “Is she one of the Sdu? You talk to the Sdu a lot, do you?” Shining looked to the door, now shaking as the guards had found something to ram against it. “Doctor... maybe we should just go and ask them?” “Maybe we should just go and ask them?” “The minotaurs? Could we trust the answers though, my dear?” Plus-Four poked around looking at the effects of one of the three corpses laid out in state before them. “Something about this situation is raising my hackles, and it’s not being in the morgue. So what we’re looking for is information that Iron Helm is reluctant to tell us.” Derpy peeked outside the door, seeing two guards stationed there. “I guess so.” She closes the door and with a sigh looked back at Plus-Four. “Okay, here are my questions: Why here? It sounds like nobody in the village has been attacked, just the prison.” “Indeed.” Plus-Four examined the wounds on the bodies, little to no bruising, but that would be expected when the blood is drained from them. “The village is less protected, and prey should be easier to find there.” The blonde pegasus softly closed the door. “Why now? It looks like this all happened in the last few days.” Plus-Four gave up on the corpses, and started to examine the room itself. “With no attacks prior, I would have to assume something recent has triggered this.” “Why them?” Derpy motioned to the cadavers with her hoof. “They’re not guards. I’m not sure about the other two, but this one is, like, a baker or a cook.” “A... pardon? How do you know that?” Plus-Four was stymied, turning and studying Derpy’s face more intently. Her odd eyes and clumsy manner wasn’t matching up with this line of questioning. “Calluses on their hands aren’t right for weapon training. Their armour doesn’t fit properly. Oh, and he has flour and rosemary under his chin.” Derpy seemed unaware of the scrutiny. “Oh, and the final question: Why me? You deliberately swapped us around.” “I do apologize for doing you an enormous disservice, Miss Hooves, but it was not to gain your most enjoyable and perceptive company.” Plus-Four turned to examine what appears to be a back door, tapping the lock with his horn. “Unfortunately, our dear lieutenant is a very nice, honest young colt who good at his job, and he believes his job is to guard me from harm.” Magical manipulation of the lock directly had no effect. “Which means he would prevent me from doing this.” Plus-Four extracted a set of tools from his cuffs, and set to the lock. A satisfied smile, a click of the mechanism, and Plus-Four pushed open the back door. “Now, let’s go find the answers to your other excellent questions.” Iron Helm sat at her desk, when she suddenly looked up and stared into space. At what point did she simply accept the two strange ponies being there? They were brought in at spear point... then Plus-Four... Blast it! She stormed to her hooves, wrenched the mace off of the wall, and strode out of her office. “Where are they?” The other minotaurs gathered around in confusion. “Well the brown one and the white one just left with Vilhelm.” “Left? Left? You let them leave the prison? With my son? ” Iron Helm snarled. “Sorry, ma’am. They’re not prisoners... Are they?” The one minotaur grinned vacantly, his eyes unfocused. “Of course they.... What?” Two more guards sauntered up, swaying slightly. “Ma’am, the inspector and the mare he was with... they’re gone.” “Gone where?” “Don’t know, ma’am.” There was a slight flicker in the guard’s eyes, as if something was trying to assert itself, but then was gone. “Fine! Fine!” Iron Helm pointed at the first set of guards. “You! Go find the commissioner. Tear the entire castle apart if you need to.” Her finger stabbed out at the second set of guards. “You! If the wanderers find their way back here, take them to central processing and keep them there. ” Iron Helm turned and stalked away, her eyes glowing red. “So they want to do this the hard way? Let’s see if they’re hard enough!” Down in the village, Vilhelm led the Doctor and Shining Armour through the cobblestone streets, while trying to listen to the Doctor’s continual rambling. “Now you see, it’s all about presentation. If you need respect from your peers, you have to show them you mean business. And you know what means business? Ties!” The Doctor whipped off his own tie, and wrapped it around Vilhelm’s neck. “There!” “You look silly!” squeaked a little voice. Seemingly offended, the Doctor frowned. “He does not. He looks distinguished.” Sighing, Shining pointed down. “Doctor...” The Doctor finally looked down. “Oh. Hello.” He smiled and crouched down to be eye-to-eye with Lethe. “So you’re Vilhelm’s friend. The vicious Sdu that has all these minotaurs quaking in their hooves.” “Yep, that’s me.” The filly beamed as she stood up on her hind legs and threw her hooves wide. “I’m awesome!” She pointed at Vilhelm with her wing. “Red’s wrong. It should be black.” The Doctor looked speculatively at Vilhelm, who was shrinking under the attention. “Maybe polka-dots? Blue ones?” Shining facehooved. “Okay, fine. Monster can wait, right? This is a fashion crisis!” Stalking up to Vilhelm, he stares up at the minotaur. “You know you don’t have to put up with this, right?” “It’s not that bad...” started Vilhelm. “I don’t mean them, they’re just teasing.” Shining tapped Vilhelm in the chest with his hoof. “The way you’re reacting to it, though. You’re not used to teasing, are you?” Vilhelm shook his head, as Lethe trotted up and hugged his leg. She grimaced a little. “Minotaurs don’t make jokes, except about horrible things.” He looked down as his hand fell to stroking Lethe’s mane. “We’re not a nice people.” “Minotaurs are a strong and stubborn people.” The Doctor waved a hoof to encompass everyone present. “You’ve made friends outside your own kind, which is very hard to do at the best of times.” He shrugged, and straightened Vilhelm’s tie just a little bit more. “Nobody tells a minotaur what to do. So I’m not going to try. But I’m going to suggest that you worry less about what you are, and be proud of who you are.” “Now,” said Shining, “let’s get back to monster hunting.” A heavy crunch caused all four to look up to the roofline above them. Tiles slid free as a large shadow crouched there. “Snap,” whispered Shining. With a screech the shadow leapt down, its claws leaving sizable gouges in the cobblestone road, wings outstretched. Its twin horns glowed red, dark mist streaming from its eyes. The Doctor, Shining and Vilhelm staggered when they met its gaze. Lethe cried out in fear as she cowered beneath the bigger ponies. “No...” whispered the Doctor as he felt his will draining away.