Part Seven: Caught in the Moonlight.
The two mares were encumbered by their heavy satchels and contents but the fear driving them made sure they stayed just ahead of the snapping jaws that narrowly missed latching onto their tails as they made it to the dining room door.
Vinyl kicked back with her hooves catching the Timberwolf on the nose causing it to recoil giving her and Octavia enough time to get through the door and praising the sun goddess that it was still intact as they slammed it shut.
In the excitement however Octavia had dropped her candle at the bottom of the stairs and now as they held the door shut with the force of their own bodies only the moonlight lit the scene.
“WHAT THE HAY IS THAT!!!”
Vinyl shouted as the Timberwolf began throwing itself against the door oblivious to tactics it’s brutal instincts enjoying the chance to let loose after so long hiding in the shadows.
“I think it’s one of the beasts the Doctor and I faced at the Opera house!”
“YOU TOLD ME YOU KILLED THEM!!!”
“We thought we did…? I don’t understand what’s going on… Its smaller this time too…”
“NOT MUCH CONSOLATION WHEN IT’S CHEWING ON OUR CORPSES!!!”
“Please don’t shout…”
Despite the situation and her own feelings as the pair braced for the next frame rattling impact Vinyl softly apologized and lowered her tone as she realized Octavia was shaking and crying.
Vinyl realized what she must be going through and tried a different approach.
“Octavia please we need to do something…”
It was as the grey mare tried to compose herself that the Timberwolf gave it everything and after a coyote like run up smashed the door to splinters with the impact!
The mares were tossed aside among the pieces of exploding door and both landed awkwardly as the floor rushed up to meet them!
The Timberwolf strode into the room taking a moment to really enjoy what about to be the best meal he’d had in long time!
Struggling to their hooves and covered in splinters the mares tried to dodge the swinging paws and snapping jaws as the beast played with them reveling in it’s superiority over such prey.
Vinyl in desperation tried to summon her magic her horn lighting up as she prepared to blast the creature…
Unfortunately Vinyl was no spell-caster and despite having an excellent understanding of the basics was ignorant of battle magic’s and although she was way more powerful than she gave herself credit her inexperience meant she was struck across the head by a paw as she failed to cast anything before the wolf reacted.
Flying sideways she hit the nearest wall and slid down it awkwardly before landing in a crumpled mess, her glasses flying off into the trash on the floor as she did.
Octavia used momentum and the weight of the stuffed satchel on her back to swing and hit the wolf across the back of the head stunning it as she ran for her fallen friend…
Vinyl was sluggish as Octavia tried to pull her to her hooves but as she slipped on a discarded pizza box on the floor the two of them failed to move fast enough.
As if to emphasize the drama of the situation a sudden wind whipped around the room as if there was a storm forming within the room itself!
The wooden beast regained its bearing and stood before the trembling mares jaws widening! Vinyl going by instinct made to buy her friend time to escape and with a scream went to launch her body at the nightmare!
“GO!!!”
Octavia tried to form words but they were stolen by the wind and drowned out by an extremely familiar wheezing as she reacted too slowly to stop her friend’s suicidal solution…
Vinyl judging the distance in her mind flew through the air fore hooves outstretched rebel yell on her lips as she prepared to sell her life dearly, this would have made for an amazingly epic end worthy of her own expectations!!!
Had it not been for the Tardis materializing right above where the Timberwolf was standing! The Tardis shook the foundations of the house as it hit the floor…
Vinyl was sliding comically down the front of the Tardis as Octavia regained speech and cried out her friends name as she staggered to her side.
“…V-VINYL??? ARE YOU OK?”
The white mare was bundled up in Octavia’s hooves as she was checked over by her now hyperventilating companion who breathlessly tried to articulate her fears.
“It’s OK… I’m OK just let me sit up…”
Vinyl made it back on her hooves but immediately sat back as her whole body complained viciously at the treatment but as she went to look around she visibly panicked as she realized her glasses were missing!!!
“What the heck was that??? What happened to the wolf…? Octavia what’s going on? …Where are my glasses…?”
It took a moment of confusion looking from the giant blue box with a solitary wooden paw sticking out from underneath (Which seemed strikingly similar to her first encounter with this box) to Vinyl for Octavia to realize Vinyl was beginning to cry!
As she began to sob she was gingerly sweeping her fore hooves on the floor as if looking for something the same way a…
The loud gasp from Octavia made Vinyl flinch as Octavia realized… The same way a blind pony would…
“V-Vinyl… I didn’t you never said… Said you were…”
“Didn’t want to get into it…”
Octavia busied herself trying to locate the missing glasses as she most definitely got into it.
“Of course you were planning to tell me?”
“Sure…”
Unconvinced Octavia stopped giving her a reproachful stare when she face hoofed realizing it couldn’t be seen.
“Vinyl…”
“Look it just freaks ponies out OK…”
“The concept is going to take a little getting used to… I do not have experience in such matters… But I promise I won’t carry on about it… Agreed?”
“OK…”
Vinyl shrugged and looking up smiled at Octavia who didn’t have the heart to tell her that her direction was slightly off…
After a moment or more of searching the glasses were found and Octavia breathed a sigh of relief as found them untarnished despite their rough treatment.
Turning them over in her hooves in the moonlight Octavia couldn’t make out any distinguishing features that would enable a blind pony to see…
Vinyl back in the dark without her glasses but still retaining her very sharp hearing rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue.
“You’re wearing them aren’t you…?”
Octavia hastened to remove them as she returned them to their rightful owner.
“I don’t understand… Is that how you see the world… All green and shading?”
Vinyl shrugged as Octavia tried and failed to find the words to describe the imagery that seemed like a projection directly into her mind…
“I don’t know I was a filly when a friend of mom’s offered to make something to help since I’d been blind since birth, he worked at someplace called Torchwood and said there were all kinds of gadgets for all sorts of things…”
“I haven’t thought about it for years… I just kinda got used to them… And I would have told you soon I promise, it’s just a hard thing…”
With her sight returned Vinyl trailed off as she registered the blue box a few hooves away.
“Um…”
Octavia who had until now been more concerned with Vinyl’s well-being approached the Tardis and after a quick explanation that made Vinyl’s jaw drop she knocked on the door.
“Doctor…? Are you not going to come out?”
“…Doctor?”
As quickly as it had appeared the Tardis fired up and promptly disappeared again taking with it the crushed remains of the Timberwolf…
The two mares sat in silence as they watched it go.
“Wow not exactly the friendly type is he…”
“I… I don’t understand…”
For a while they sat waiting to see what would happen next but when nothing did their attention was drawn to the smoke curling through the ruined door leading to the hall.
Octavia remembered her discarded candle and as the pair collected their satchels and awkwardly climbed out of the rooms windows they trotted home in silence the now merrily burning Melody mansion receding into the distance…
The local papers barely featured anything about the fire in the coming days and as the pair considered events the conversations eventually turned to what Octavia would do since the Tardis hadn’t returned.
Added to that she was now in possession of what remained of her families’ fortune which was more than enough for her to regain her place in society.
However she had other ideas, remembering where the Doctor had said he was headed when she’d first met him and her wanting to remain close to her new friend she made an offer to Vinyl.
Since they were in need of somewhere to stay other than Vinyl’s parents and she could afford to buy the whole town anyway Octavia asked Vinyl to help find and buy a place for them both to live in while she found her place in the world and maybe once again encounter the Doctor…
Vinyl fond of her Friend’s company and liking the idea due to a couple of her friends already living there, she jumped at the chance and together they started planning right away.
Somewhere very lonely…
The Doctor sat on a rock kicking his hoof in boredom…
It had been hours since his older yet younger looking self had left to return the teacher and her students to their world, and still there was no sign of his Tardis.
The Doctor had at this point calculated the number of grains of sand within a hundred hoof steps around him and accurately plotted the solar system in the now night sky above him.
When the wheezing sound of his Tardis returning eventually reached his ears he was more than a little surprised to find a wooden paw sticking out from underneath it.
Chastising the Tardis furiously for running away at the sight of its future self he entered and without hesitation started plotting the course to take him back to the injured grey mare he had so unwittingly left stranded in the snow…
The Tardis Disappeared but not before making sure it left the flattened Timberwolf underneath behind…
It took a long time but the energy contained within broke free of the crushed mess and took stock of its new surroundings, realizing its predicament the energy raged among the nothing it found itself in…
Landing in the precise spot where he’d left the Doctor ran out of the Tardis to find that he was standing amidst a most beautiful sunny day…
Confused he ran back inside only to find the computer showed it was in fact two whole months later than his original departure?
He then tried again but the Tardis refused to dematerialize causing him to curse it profusely.
After a while he gave up and stomping outside again he found himself sat looking into the same bookshop window as he had previously but as his eyes settled on the one thing different he burst into ecstatic laughter as he trotted back to the Tardis his destination set.
As the blue box once again left the street corner unnoticed by any passer by’s the sunlight it had blocked shone once more on the window of the bookshop, contained within a large sheet of paper with a crude crayon picture of a Tardis next to a more carefully drawn picture of a grey mare with black mane and tail a white collar and pink bow-tie, underneath which was a single word.
‘PONYVILLE’
THE END
DR WHOOVES WILL RETURN IN…
DR WHOOVES AND THE DEVILS OF SPACE STATION PONY ONE