Symbiosis

by Fedora

The Doctor's Spaceship

“Who are you?” Derpy stuttered.

“I’m the Doctor, I already told you.”

Derpy shook her head, stepping around the huge interior of the ship carefully. It was bigger on the inside than it appeared, MUCH bigger.

“That’s not a proper name, that’s a job,” she said, frowning at the Doctor with a cross-eyed gaze.

“That is my name, it’s just ‘The Doctor’,” he said, turning around and looking up at a small screen that was over the console. The machine was still making a loud noise, the same one Derpy had heard earlier on the edge of the woods.

“The Doctor?”

“Hello!” he said cheerfully. The ship jolted for a moment, and a shower of sparks flew up from a particular spot on the console. The Doctor picked up a small mallet, and whacked at a button before he wheeled about the other side and spun a dial.

“The carriage has locked onto the TARDIS,” he muttered aloud to himself, “It can shoot as well! Oh, this is fantastic!”

“What’s the TARDIS?!” Derpy yelled over the rumbling of the ship, taking flight and hovering over the Doctor’s head to look at the screen he could see. Sure enough, there was the carriage. Though the driver was clearly not a pegasus, some kind of engine had sprouted from the underside of the taxi and it flew about like a fighter, spraying them with occasional blasts of energy.

“The ship,” The Doctor answered simply. It was obvious he had a million other things on his mind, and couldn’t be bothered to have a proper conversation with Derpy.

“You travel in outer space in a ship called the TARDIS?” Derpy said, landing beside The Doctor.

“Yep.”

“So that makes you an alien?”

“Yeah, is that alright with you?”

Derpy shrugged. She didn’t really know what to make of an alien. She had thought they might exist, but hadn’t paid it much thought unlike her friend Lyra. This particular alien had saved her life two times in a row now.

“Why does your ship look like a blue box?” Derpy asked, just as the TARDIS lurched once more.

“Look, save the question and answer session until I’ve got us out of this bind,” the Doctor said, cranking a lever. The sounds started again, coupled with a few bleeps. The sounds of the flying taxi carriage lessened, and altogether ceased.

“There, that should do it,” the Doctor said with a wave of his front legs, “now, you were saying?”

“I asked why your ship.... why it looks like a blue box on the outside,” Derpy repeated.

“It’s a disguise. It’s a police box from decades ago, I landed here once and the TARDIS has been stuck on that shape ever since. Anything else?”

Derpy raised her eyebrows.

“What was that thing, and who are you?”

“That,” the Doctor said, “was a remote. It’s remotely controlled from somewhere else, and it’s targeted you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, whoever they are that control the taxi carriage are following your signal. Tiny chip they injected, remember that shock? It’s biodegradable. It’ll tell them about you until it disintegrates in about a day or so.”

“And you?” Derpy asked, sitting on her haunches.

The Doctor paused, looking forward into the distance. He craned his neck, making eye contact with Derpy.

“I’m trying to stop them.”

****

The TARDIS groaned, and re-materialized elsewhere. Before Derpy could approach the door, The Doctor blocked her.

“Stay in here, touch nothing,” he ordered.

“Just who do you think you are,” Derpy said angrily, “Telling me what to do?!”

“I’m the Doctor, we’ve met already.”

“I want to know what’s going on,” Derpy said, trying to reach the door, “and if whatever’s out there is going to tell me, I’m going to find out.”

The Doctor shook his head, walking over to the console and flipping a lever. The TARDIS was off once again, dematerializing and then reappearing once again somewhere completely different.

“Derpy, those creatures are bad news. They’ve been scooping ponies up off the street, and none of them have been seen since. I’m going to stop them, but I can’t have you coming along and asking questions the whole way, you’ll put yourself in danger.”

With that, the Doctor opened the doors of the TARDIS, which led to the streets of Ponyville. Derpy stepped outside, looking about her. Nothing had changed since she had stepped into the alien ship.

“Doctor,” she said, “That thing was chasing me.... suppose it comes back?”

“It took them six hours to send a second carriage,” The Doctor said, leaning his front legs up against the doors of the box so that his leather coat draped down freely.

“But that one’s still out there! You never disabled it.”

“‘Course I did, I triggered an electromagnetic pulse. They’ll have crashed and burned. Besides, in the next six hours I’m hoping to have found their hideaway.”

He closed the doors of the TARDIS, and was about to depart before he swung the doors open once again, poking his head back to talk to Derpy one last time.

“I’m serious about this. If we’re not careful, ponies could die. Lay low for now, I’ll let you know if I pulled it off in six hours.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” she said, turning to leave.

“Derpy,” he called back, causing her to turn.

“You forgot your bag.”

****

Derpy paced within Golden Oaks library, which was inside of a hollowed out tree. The downstairs served as a large spiral library, while the upper levels were actually a functional house for the aging librarian and her husband, and were considered off-limits.

“Is there something I can help you find?” The librarian asked. She was an old mare, with a faded green coat and an cutie mark of a book and a pair of spectacles.

“Yes,” Derpy responded, “I’m looking for books about conspiracy theories. Anything concerning this “Doctor” figure.”

“A book about Doctors?” the librarian asked, pushing her glasses up, “That’d be under medicine. Did you have a particular title in mind?”

“No no no,” Derpy corrected, “Not a Doctor, The Doctor. It’s some weird alien conspiracy theory thing.”

“398.2,” said the librarian, “Though Miss Heartstrings probably has half the shelf cleaned out.”

“I do not!” protested a voice from the other side of a great wood carving of a horse’s head. Lyra emerged, having been sitting on a large beanbag and reading a science fiction magazine.

“You two take care, I’ve got some cataloging to do,” the librarian said, taking out a thick records book and getting to work at her desk.

Derpy gave her friend a grin. For once, she actually wanted to hear Lyra’s crazy rantings, as long as she knew something of use about this Doctor.

“Lyra,” Derpy began, but before she could finish her sentence her eyes suddenly drifted apart, giving her a crooked gaze. She groaned, smacking the side of her head to set her eyes straight again.

“Yeah? Overheard you were looking for something about The Doctor,” Lyra finished for her. Derpy nodded.

“Well, I don’t think you’re going to find any serious publication about him,” continued the aquamarine unicorn, “But I’ve got a collection of articles about him, if you’re interested.”

“I am interested,” Derpy responded.

“Alright,” Lyra said, “We’ll head over to my house then, I’m sure my parents won’t mind.”