Dr Whooves and the Classical Moon

by Paganbrony

Part Seven: A Flaming Melody.

Part Seven: A Flaming Melody.

Two things happened as the Timberwolf closed the distance on the pair of ponies stood in plain sight, first the guards who’d remained unnoticed hastily yanked the rope next to them followed by Octavia and the Doctor leaping out of the way as the trap along with the Timberwolf’s jaws snapped shut.

Expecting the pair to scatter the Timberwolf moved accordingly and as it opened its jaws to strike the mare whose scent it remembered from their first encounter, it registered the danger too late and as it craned its neck upwards the giant ball of scrap landed squarely forcing it flat to the ground with a surprised and frightened howl.

As it failed to pull itself free burdened by the oppressive weight, the ponies had surrounded it, the Doctor gave the Guards a reluctant nod as his morals raged inside.

The taller of the two guards produced a match which he struck and with a side glance to his comrade threw it on the pile, a pile previously doused with lamp oil…

Echoing with terrified howls and screams of rage the walls of the room danced with shadows as the fire took hold, it was now that Octavia broke her terrified silence and voiced her main concern…

“Doctor? Can I ask you something?”

“Of course… Ask away…”

“That’s starting to burn quite fiercely…”

“Uh Huh, that’s what happens with wood and fire, I didn’t realize I’d gone that far back in time...”

Ignoring his cave pony reference Octavia sniffed and in an annoyed tone her nose in the air she continued.

“Of course Doctor, fire burn wood, I’m glad you pointed that out since we’re in a building made out of tons of the stuff and that fire is starting to spread.”

The Doctor followed the direction Octavia began pointing with her hoof and noted that the varnish around the fire was peeling and the floorboards underneath were indeed starting to catch alight.

“Guess we’d better get moving then, well… Shall we?”

The Doctor motioned to the door as the four of them hastily exited the room. Closing the door behind them it barely muted the howls coming from inside as three pairs of eyes turned to the Doctor as he dusted his suit jacket and smugly sat basking in the brilliance of his plan.
Octavia also sat and crossed her foreleg’s as she gave the Doctor a withering glance and motioned to the corridor around her.

“How do we get back to the stage and out of here? Aren’t we in some kind of magical spell?”

“Yep and I imagine it should all be returning to normal any moment…”

Quite a few minutes later the Doctor was pacing up and down as he frowned deeply, his thoughts were interrupted however when an all too familiar scraping sound reached their ears.

In terror the three ponies and Doctor peered down the corridor that led towards the noise and from another corridor about halfway down emerged an even more grotesque formation of wood and metal dragging a mutilated hind leg that was the source of the horrifying sound…

“!!!OF COURSE!!! That’s why we didn’t hear it approach…”

The Doctor turned to the trio of terrified ponies and at top speed explained.

“Don’t you see? When we first saw the one we just set fire to, we saw it! (Motioning to the aghast Octavia) But when we encountered it the second and third times we didn’t see it…”

The three nodded as they looked past at the rapidly approaching beast which despite its disability was gaining a lot of ground.

“Like I said it would take a powerful alpha to create this trap … After all can’t have an Alpha without a Beta… I was kind of hoping I was wrong though.”

Octavia screamed as she raged at the Doctor.

“You never said anything about the possibility of there being another one! So what now? Do we run?”

The Doctor merely sat back and straightened up as he flashed the mare his most winning smile.

Past the grin Octavia watched as the Timberwolf bunched up and ignoring its leg pounced, its claws almost reached the Doctor as the screams in the room next to them ceased.

As the world around them began to spin and distort it began collapsing inwards at a point behind the Timberwolf which was suspended in mid air behind the doctor as if time had slowed down.

As with the rest of the surrounding corridors it was sucked backwards into the void before the assembled ponies blacked out due to the effects of the collapse.

Octavia felt as if she was as light as air as she passed out, her last sight was the triumph written across the face of the Doctor his eye’s alight with a fire she had never witnessed in a pony before, a burning door through which she could hear the thunder of a giant bell in what she could only describe as the sound of time itself bearing down on her as she slipped away.