A Storm of Chaos: A Doctor Whooves Adventure

by Shotoman

The Other Bit Drops

Part 20

The Other Bit Drops

The really quite ancient Time Charger glared at his disrespectful old student, the contrast in expression between his flesh eye and stone eye lending him an air that the Doctor calmly noted made him actually quite terrifying. By most ponies' standards at least. "I know I taught you better manners than that, Doctor. You will address me as Lord President Borusa, if you don't mind."

Floating to the Doctor's right, the Master gave a short, but loud and derisive, laugh. "Lord President? Of what, exactly? I mean, I know you've spent the last several centuries as a rock, but even you must be aware of the fact that Gallopfrey no longer exists."

"He has a point," replied the Doctor, even as Borusa's scowl deepened. "And even had that not been the case, you lost your title long ago."

"Yes," Borsusa responded dryly, "and it was given to you. What did you do with it, hm? As I recall, you just shunted off your responsibilities to someone else and went running in the opposite direction. For all the things you've done and all your supposed fearlessness, actual responsibility always seems to make you a coward."

The Doctor scoffed. "You're hardly one to talk to me about responsibility, Borusa." He chuckled as a memory came to him. "And, well, honestly the Time Chargers really should have known better than to even try after the first time I was appointed. Now that was quite a weekend."

"Hmm," the older Charger responded, less than impressed. "All those centuries and five regenerations and you haven't changed at all, have you?" He turned his attention to the Master. "And young Koschei, as always, falling short of your true potential."

"My name is the Master," was the affronted reply. "And I for one call foul. You can't just show up and... and Deux Ex Machina my plans away. For one thing, that's his job." He pointed a hoof at the Doctor.

"I see you've developed something of a sense of humor in this regeneration. A poor sense of humor, but humor nonetheless."

The Master grinned. It was a grin without much levity. "What, you think I was joking? I'm dead serious." A menacing scowl formed on his face and the next words were like ice. "The only being in the entire universe from whom I would ever accept defeat is the Doctor."

Derpy, who has hanging upside down above the Doctor and a bit to his left whispered in his ear. "Is it me or is this thing between the two of you getting kinda weird?" The Doctor shushed her, though a smirk formed on his face.

"So. Borusa," he interjected, chuckling inwardly at the subtle twitch in his old teacher's hackles at the lack of title. "Is it safe to assume that your being here means that you're the cause of, well, all of this?" At the Master's curious look he added, "Well I was looking for something when I found you, wasn't I?"

Borusa smirked. It was a small smirk, subtle. Not like the Master's grandiose displays of superiority, but born of the same thought process. "As you would say, Doctor, 'Oh, yes.' In all honesty, I was hoping the two of you would keep each other busy until I was well and truly prepared to play my hoof, but when you came within seconds of destroying all of reality...!" He took a calming breath here. "Obviously I had to intervene."

The Doctor nodded. It all made sense, pieces falling together he hadn't even noticed were there. He was one of the very few Time Chargers who actually had a love of his planet's own history--and that of its technology, as his choice of a Type 40 TARDIS proved. Yet the telepad used at the beginning of this whole mess was outdated--he had mentioned it himself, though his own preferences kept him from even dwelling on it. Type 7's hadn't been in general use since, well, the Doctor's fifth incarnation. Then there was the surprisingly in depth yet outdated knowledge of the Master's M.O. And, really, when the Doctor thought about it, the game itself was just a cruder version of the last one, just with fewer pieces and simpler rules. Borusa had even supplied the same enemy to fight.

"Still trying for immortality, then?" the Doctor asked, then added, pointing at the stone deformity on his old teacher's face, "Even with that lovely little reminder on how the search for it is and always will be folly? And really, even if you were successful, I've only ever met two beings in all of creation who've been able to handle the pressure, and both of them have had some fairly impressive freak outs, actually. Wait, how did you get free, anyhow?"

Borusa chuckled humorlessly. "My escape is a repercussion of the Time War." The Doctor rolled his eyes. Of course it was. It seemed that these days everything could be traced back to that bloody conflict. "When Rasstallion decided to 'resurrect' himself and join in the fray, he didn't put terribly much focus on his tomb. Not that it mattered overly much, most of those I was trapped with had long gone mad. But I, I still had strength of mind and will enough to--with the help of the constantly shifting temporal landscape--escape my fate." Resignedly tapping a hoof to his half petrified face he amended, "Mostly."

The Doctor nodded subtly, his expression unimpressed. "So, now that you've gotten our disaster fixed and have us at your mercy, what d'you plan to do?"

"If you were half as smart as you think you are," the Master said, "you'd just kill us now."

"Kill you?" Borusa asked. "Why would I want to kill you? We're the last. I would really prefer to keep as much of our culture alive as possible. Even the two of you." He began pacing, like a professor narrating for a class. "But I can't just let you free to roam either, as this near miss has demonstrated. So, I'm just going to have to make sure you go where I want you to. Fortunately, I know exactly how."

His horn lit up with a pale white light, almost sickly, and Derpy was pulled from the anti gravity field with a yelp. "Derpy!" the Doctor called out.

Borusa grinned, but Derpy simply glared at him. "You're making a mistake," she said. "Same one a lotta bad guys make. They all think I'm some weakness for the Doctor. They think kidnapping me is gonna somehow stop him. They're wrong. You're wrong. All messing with me is gonna do is make him mad."

"She's absolutely right," the Doctor replied. "You take Derpy, you do anything to her, and nothing in the entire universe will stop me from finding you."

"I am counting on it," Borusa replied.

The Master smirked as he casually rested his forehooves behind his head. "Good. Great. Wonderful. But what about me, eh? You may have the Doctor completely pegged, but you've no carrot to tempt me with."

"Haven't I?" Borusa asked. "Not even the promise of immortality?"

"You mean like the immortality you won before?" the Master asked mockingly. "I'll pass. Besides, once you've experienced death a time or two, the fear of it tends to diminish. What else do you have?"

"More than you may suppose," was the reply. Borusa tapped out a quick four beat cadence, multiple times with a brief pause between repetitions. The Master's eyes widened. "I was Lord President for a good many years. That makes me privy to quite a lot of sensitive information. Perhaps I may know something of interest even to you."

"Oooooh. Low blow," the Master muttered under his breath.

"Now then, I think it's time I took my leave. I trust the two of you to follow shortly."

Derpy waved a foreleg at the Doctor, one of her almost absurdly bubbly smiles in place. "Don't be late Doctor. I wanna see you kick this jerk's flank real quick." To most ponies, she seemed her usual, happy, hyper, slightly dim on first glance self. But the Doctor could see it. There was fear there. And, well, that made things so very, very simple.

Borusa, who seemingly didn't notice the sudden tight line the Doctor's mouth was currently making, pulled up the sleeve on his robes, revealing a bracelet with several controls on it, and with a few button presses he and Derpy vanished and the Doctor and Master were unceremoniously dropped to the ground.

The Doctor immediately threw on his teleport stuff specs and whistled. "Ooh, that's good. That's very good. There's almost more stuff here than I know what to do with. Which makes sense when I think on it, he wants us to follow." He quickly withdrew one of his many homemade devices from an inner pocket of his coat and began taking readings. It wasn't as accurate or speedy as the sonic, but with a trail this bright, this obvious, it really didn't matter.

"You do realize you're gearing up to head directly into a trap, right?" the Master asked conversationally.

"Well, yes. Of course. It's obvious, isn't it?" the Doctor replied as he turned a dial made from a soda bottle top. "But Bourusa's got Derpy, so I'm going to get her back. You know how it works."

The Master shrugged. "Of course. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of what we were getting ourselves into."

The Doctor stopped short, then began to laugh. "Oh hohoho no. There is no us here, Master. You aren't setting hoof in my TARDIS."

"What, don't you trust me?"

"About as far as I can buck you."

The Master sighed, a smile on his face. "Ah, the imagery you put in my head, Doctor. But really, you can't expect to leave me here?"

"And why not?" the Doctor asked, as he tapped out a few more adjustments on his gizmo.

"Well, first of all, would any of the prisons here be able to hold you?"

The Doctor snorted. "No, obviously not. Not in a million..." He stopped, one eyebrow raised. "Touche."

Any further arguing was forestalled by a groan. The Doctor facehooved. In all the excitement he forgot about Dawn Riser. "Here, finish up," he instructed as he tossed the instrument into the Master's hooves.

The Doctor was at her side instantly, checking on the injury to her head. It was one of those head wounds that liked to bleed a lot, but didn't seem overly serious. Though she was knocked unconscious by the blow. That had to count for something. "What... what hit me?" the dazed unicorn asked.

"Well, I'm not one hundred percent sure on the what," the Doctor responded, "as we were temporally displaced for a moment, but I can say for a fact that I know who."

Dawn Riser blearily looked around, noticing that everything seemed remarkably... normal. "Discord?" she asked.

"Safely taken care of. Which is the good news. I think we're safe to take you back to Little Tia, where you can get that head wound looked at properly and you can give her my regards. Also good news."

Dawn Riser noticed something missing. "Miss Derpy?"

"Ah, well, that's the bad news. It's why you're going to give Little Tia my regards rather than me doing so myself. I still have one final trip to make."

Comments

[Cades]

well an truly

Should be and, yes?

[Shotoman]

2430185
Yes it is, and it's been fixed.

[darkcloud64]

love this story

[JollyRogue]

Sir you deserve all the jelly babies for how good this story is 24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lu0m5387nj1r5k0vqo1_500.jpg

[Nopony of note]

You, Sir, are a master of witty banter. The back-and-forth jabs dealt between these Time Chargers is extremely entertaining, and somehow, you manage to insert someone who may be assumed to be dim-witted such as Derpy Hooves and portray her as a genuine heroine who rarely needs rescuing, barring this chapter of course.

It's really the way you write Derpy that I just can't get over. You've made her out a simple mare, but still a brilliant one, and truly worthy of being a companion to the Doctor. I eagerly await seeing what kind of hell that this Borusa numbskull is going to have to endure while the Doctor is on his way.

[The Brony Writer]

The Doctor working together with... HIM?!

LOVE IT!!

[Derpington89]

Absolutely brilliant! Seriously, I got chills reading this.
Its serious, and witty, cleaver, all over the place, its so...Doctor Who.
And Derpy, oh sweet Celestia, Derpy. I love how yo portrayed her. Goofy, absent minded, yet very intelligent. Just how I like seeing her.
And, Master! OMG! Just...all the yes!
Seriously, I want more. I demand more!
(When you have time of course! )
On a rating scale, I'll give a 10 out of 5, cause you blew me away with this.
Keep it up!

[Tipsy Tumbles]

Another fantastic chapter! I eagerly await the next. I can't see there being that many chapters left, but at the same time I hope that it's not close to being over. Keep up the amazing work!

[Snowstreak]

iambrony.jsmart.web.id/mlp/gif/WHATATWIST.gif

[BlueNinja]

is this thing between the two of you getting kinda weird?"

It's getting squicky, is what it is.

the imagery you put in my head, Doctor.

*gags* Brain bleach, stat!

[Dragonis999]

3252211 i feel the pain oh god WHERE IS THAT BRAIN BLEACH I ORDERED, I WANTED IT YESTERDAY!!!!

[TranscendenCelestia]

"About as far as I can buck you."
The Master sighed, a smile on his face. "Ah, the imagery you put in my head, Doctor.

But...But Why? WHY?!? WHY DID YOU DO THIS?

[IllusionedDrawer64]

Working with him actually still continues to this day...