Cleaning up

by Less_than_good

The Doctor and the DJ

Vinyl Scratch bought an edition of the Ditzy Daily.

Ponyville Beset by Bugs read the headline

The headline was the only reason the alabaster unicorn had bought the paper; if it involved her hometown, it must have been major to even make it's way to Canterlot in any form, let alone a respected newspaper.

In it she read that the changelings were superior in every way except positioning. They outnumbered the ponies two to one, they had siege engines, superior physiology etc. etc.

Her friends, Lyra, Bonbon, Octavia, and Whinnyam were trapped in the town. The fact that they were almost certain to die, almost certain to never see her again, these emotions, it made her want to...

"No, No, NO, NO!"

She galloped back to the flat, not caring what anypony thought as they looked on; other ponies were irrelevant, only her own sorrow.

---

"What was that about?"

This was the question being asked by many in the street of Canterlot, where a white unicorn had run off crying.

However, the stuffy nobles in the city had never thought to give the newspaper she had dropped any second thought. It was on the ground, and nopony touched the ground unless absolutely necessary.

However, there was a stallion who thought it was necessary. This stallion was essential for keeping everything together in time, space, the multiverse and the void between, and yet nopony noticed him doing this near-impossible but thankless task, as he faded in and out of existence whenever he needed to.

This stallion called himself the Doctor, and he found himself very interested in the current situation. He didn't know what but something told him this unicorn was going to be important in events to come.

If he could find her first.

---

Vinyl had cried herself to sleep - not bothering to remove her shades - when the box appeared. It was blue and very flashy; she couldn't make out much more than that as it kept fading in and out very brightly. There was a blue light up on the top.

Vinyl just stared in... whatever the word was, she couldn't think of it due to whatever she was feeling. None of the words available - such as disbelief or confusion - quite described whatever had happened before her.

A door opened, and then partially shut again, leaving a hole in the wall. The door had collided with it, leaving a gap of about a half a foreleg between the plasterboard and the box's doorframe.

"Oh dear, I was always terrible at parking. Let's try this again, shall we?" a British accent sounded out from the cubicle.

"Uh-huh" the unicorn said, dumbly, still not comprehending anything that had happened.

The blue box faded out of existence in the same way it had faded into her flat.

Vinyl just collapsed on her bed.

---

Vinyl had just awoken from a strange dream when the box appeared. It was blue and very flashy; she couldn't make out much more than that as it kept fading in and out very brightly. There was a blue light up on the top.

Vinyl just stared in... whatever the word was, she couldn't think of it due to whatever she was feeling. None of the words available - such as disbelief or confusion - quite described whatever had happened before her. This feeling was familiar.

A door opened, and then a brown stallion leapt out, taking in the apartment.

"Nice flat you've got here."

Oh, Celestia Vinyl thought. This is real! And it's worse than Pinkie's special brownies.

"Anyway, I need you to come with me. Don't worry, it's completely safe, I'm not going to abduct you permanently; you can tell I'm not dangerous because I'm not offering you sweets!" He seemed like a colt possessed. "Speaking of which, do you have sweets?" He then thought for a second. "Oh yeah, you were created by Americans, you'd call it candy. Do you have any candy?"

"Created by what?" Vinyl, if she had been confused before, she felt like she was resitting her high school exams now.

"Nevermind. Forget candy and Americans; there's something I need you for."

With that he grabbed her foreleg, dragged her into the box and faded out of existence, to reappear somewhere else.

Vinyl found herself in a room bigger than it had any right to be. At least twice the size of her entire apartment. The stallion ran around, adjusting various switches, saying random things that Vinyl would never get.

"No, I don't want to do a trans-dimensional warp, I just want a spatial adjustment."

"The Hive, not Highway Five!"

"I don't care how, just correct the chronological overlap!"

After a few seconds, a loud CRASH shook the room, knocking both the mysterious stallion and DJ P0N3 to the floor.

The stallion got up very quickly, being used to this kind of thing happening.

Vinyl was still sprawling on the floor for a good few seconds.

The Doctor took a small rod out of the console in the centre of the room, before walking over to Vinyl and pointing it at her head.

"Sorry, just needed to do something first, implant something in somepony's head, as you do."

"What are you...?"

And then it hit her. She had never felt something so weird in her life; a thought was forcing itself into her head, a memory. It was painful, yet didn't hurt at all. It was confusing, yet she understood it completely.

She threw up.

"Yeah, that tends to be a side effect when I force it in there. Perhaps I should've asked first."

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF LUNA DID YOU JUST DO!?" Vinyl was bordering on the insane. She had no idea what was going on, and this lunatic wasn't explaining anything.

"I put a spell in your head that makes ponies look like changelings. Isn't it great? We can play their game!"

"Why?"

"Because we're in the Hive now. We need to go save the Elements of Harmony!"

"Great..." That explanation didn't exactly help, but she figured it was best to go with this madcolt in a box. He seemed to know what he was doing.

---

Two changelings were walking towards the holding cells, lightly armed. One of them sported purple shades and the other was wearing a cheap bowtie.

"I told you already, take those shades off, they look ridiculous, not to mention suspicious!"

Vinyl turned back and gave him a stare that penetrated through the dark glasses and burned him. "No matter what happens, I do not remove these. Anyway, what about your bowtie?"

"Hey, bowties are cool." He looked offended, although he was overdoing it a bit.

"And your ridiculous screwdriver."

"Hey, it's useful for all sorts of things; doors, keypads, brains, woodscrews..."

"I thought you said it didn't work on wood."

"Yes, but it does work on the woodscrew, which is usually made of metal."

Vinyl gave him another look. This pony was annoying.

"Anyway, we're here."

They came upon a row of cells, filled mostly with changelings. Except one. This one held seven mares, a stallion (probably from the guard), and a baby dragon.

"This is it. Thank goodness this was such a short search. I get the feeling someone or something wanted me to find them..."

"Who goes there?"

The Doctor paused ...then again, perhaps not. "I'm just a guard, I was asked to bring these ponies to Chrysalis" he said, showing the changeling a piece of blank paper.

"Fine, go ahead" the guard replied, hoofing him the keys.

And then they just walked out of there. Vinyl turned around to ask the Doctor how the paper managed to get them some very valuable hostages, then thought better of it.

Unfortunately he noticed. "It's psychic paper. They see what I want them to see."

"Huh." That explanation was actually surprisingly simple. Much simpler than the one he tried to give about his oh-so magnificent tool.

The prisoners, in changeling form due to Vinyl's new spell, just stayed silent. They'd been through a lot and they were still in shock.

So they just walked on.

---

Later, they came upon the TARDIS that the Doctor and the DJ had came in. Unfortunately, it had been cordoned off and they were stopped by guards.

"Sir, we need to take a look at this thing; if it's got important information..."

"Sorry, I can't let anyone near it. My job is at stake here!"

The Doctor had already tried using the psychic paper but the guard had been told not to let anychangeling through, no matter what ID they produced.

Thankfully, Twilight had a very simple solution. Unfortunately, that solution involved the Elements of Harmony, which they didn't currently have.

Apparently they were going to be stuck here until the changelings thought it was safe.

This would not do.

Oh, Celestia, we're stuck here Vinyl lamented, holding her head in her forehooves. She looked over at the brown stallion.

With that madcolt. She let out a groan that everypony else should've heard, but somehow didn't.

AN: Doctor Whooves = Worst plot device ever. He deserves more, so he might be appearing later ;) This chapter was very fun to write, as it was quite relaxed and it was funny (to me).
Anyway, I'm off for a week (Olympics YAY! Go GBR!) so I'm going to give you the opportunity to say what you want to see in this fic, and I might put it in. See ya!