"Theeeere we go. Et viola!" the Doctor said with a flourish as he set the final completed tracker on the ground in front of him. Quite brilliant little devices if he said so himself. Looking up from his seat on the pitch, he could tell the girls didn't quite share his enthusiasm.
"Er, y'mind tellin' me what we're lookin' at?" Applejack asked.
"What?" the Doctor responded, gesturing to his devices. "They're Nnn'tok trackers. They..."
"Lemme guess!" Derpy with a smile. "They ding when there's Nnn'toks?" Other Derpy chuckled at that.
The Doctor gave an exaggerated sigh before deadpanning, "Yes, Derpy. They ding when there's Nnn'toks." Here he grabbed the tracker that looked vaguely like the controller for a fishing arcade game. "Derpy and Other Derpy." Derpy grabbed the device and the two of them fist-bumped (an action which somehow knocked them both over, to the Doctor's amusement) Then he grabbed one that started life as a supermarket price gun. "Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack." AJ took this one. The final one looked much like a fishing rod turned metal detector. "Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie." Dash took this one before Pinkie could. The Doctor spun his sonic around his fingers. "That just leaves the Doctor and Sunset Shimmer."
"So, once we've located this particular... creature," Rarity asked, "what exactly are we to do with it?"
"Yes, well, Nnn'toks don't much care for high frequency sonics," the Doctor explained. "So each of your trackers have a button on them to activate just that. You can use it to lure the Nnn'tok to... oh wait a tic." Here he produced from his pockets four cages, about the proper size for a large sized rat. "There. You can lure them into these."
There was a brief silence, then Rainbow Dash asked what they were all thinking. "Uh, Doc? Even forgetting that you pockets are..."
"Bigger on the inside!" Pinkie interrupted.
"Why do you have cages in them?"
"Oh, those're from the Great Parasprite Infestation of 3012, aren't they?" Derpy asked.
The Doctor nodded. "Exactly. It's a long story, and you're probably right, Miss Dash. It's probably time I cleaned my pockets out. But let's not ask about whys and wherefores and just use our available tools to catch the little guy before he can cause any trouble."
"Fair 'nuff," Dash agreed. "Me 'n Pinks'll start out on the fields. She's scarily familiar with the bushes around here."
"Gotta hide the eyepatches somewhere!" Pinkie added with a smile.
"Ah s'pose we'll check out the other side of the grounds," Applejack said. "There're some critters that Flutters'll be able to get some help from." Fluttershy herself didn't say anything--something that neither surprised nor offended the Doctor--but she did nod with a little smile that exuded a quiet confidence.
"Excellent," the Doctor agreed. "Two teams outside, two teams inside. I assume the actual administrative offices are on the ground floor?"
"By and large," Rarity said. "There is a small break room with some vending machines for the teachers upstairs to use between classes, but that is about it. I take it you and Sunset will be taking the ground floor?"
"Well I am a 'teacher' after all. It's a bit easier for me to get to those places than you can. Unless one of you plans on catching detention for the sake of our search?"
"Only if absotootly necessary," Pinkie piped up as she dragged Rainbow Dash away. "C'mon, Dashie. Those bushes aren't gonna search themselves!"
"We should be off ourselves," Rarity huffed. "The sooner we find the little..." she cast a glance at Fluttershy, who was looking at her with the slightest bit of annoyance. "...darling, the better."
The Doctor stood up and brushed himself off with a grin aimed at Sunset. "Good. Excellent. The girls are searching outside, the Derpy's have the upper floors, and that leaves us with the ground floor. A nice, simple, easy plan."
"Which means it's somehow bound to fall apart horribly," Derpy said with a grin of her own.
"Oh, absolutely," the Doctor agreed.
"Why are the two of you so happy about that?" Other Derpy asked.
Derpy chuckled. "That's when the fun starts. You'll see." and with that the two blonde girls went running for the school.
Sunset gave the Doctor a rather severe look, complete with the crossed arms and everything. "And you paired yourself off with me because..."
"Would you believe 'professional curiosity?"
Sunset shook her head with a grin. "I might, if you were the least bit professional."
"Oh, you cut me to the quick, miss Shimmer," the Doctor said dramatically, a hand over one of his hearts. "Though, admittedly, the last time I tried to use the Psychic Paper to convince someone I was professional, the darn thing fritzed out for a week."
Sunset chuckled as the group started back for the school building. "Something's bothering you, isn't it? You've got questions."
No point in denying it. The Doctor shrugged. "That I do."
"As do I," another voice said, as the door to the school opened, revealing a dark blue woman, dressed professionally. "Vice Principal Luna," she introduced herself. "I take it you are Mr. Time Turner, the substitute teacher?"
The Doctor was actually quite surprised, but slid right to "all charm and smiles" without missing a beat. "That is correct, Miss Luna. To what do I have the honor?"
Luna leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, a smirk on her lips. "For one, I don't believe for a minute you're actually a teacher."
"Your sister did," the Doctor replied, almost keeping the petulant pout out of his voice.
"My sister is a very intelligent woman, but even in light of recent... events, her imagination at times leaves something to be desired." Luna held a hand out, palm up. "May I?"
Here the Doctor produced his open wallet and handed it to the Vice Principal. She looked it over and her smile widened. "'The Doctor,' Real name: 'question, question, question,' birthplace..." Her expression changed, one eyebrow raised. "'Gallopfrey.' You're from the other side of the portal, aren't you?"
"Whuaaat? Portal? No. N-No! I couldn't, what are you evennnnyes. Yes. Yes I am." The Doctor turned to Sunset and groused, "Does everyone here know about the portal?"
"Pretty much," Sunset said with a grin. "My demonic freak out was kind of... nuclear."
"My sister is aware as well, but, as I said, she can lack imagination. She needed a substitute, a man was there with a magic paper that confirms him as a substitute, she's going to think he's a substitute." The Doctor could hear just a little bit of smugness in Luna's voice. Friendly but constant competition, much like at home. Suddenly Luna got very serious. "Is the event that brought you here something I should know about? The school's been rebuilt twice in the last year, and I'd hope to avoid that now."
The Doctor sighed as he took his Psychic Paper back. "With luck you and your students won't even notice anything amiss." Luna continued to glare. "If thing do go bad, we'll be sure to come to you first. Fair enough?" Luna cast a look at Sunset Shimmer, who shrugged.
"Fine. I'll trust you, Doctor," Luna said with a sigh. "But if things start getting out of hand, I expect to be informed straight away."
The Doctor hmm'ed distractedly. He was looking at the Psychic Paper, calling up its last illusion. Sure enough, it was a very convincing looking identification card, with a photo of his current transformed appearance, but the information was actually true. That was something that could only be accomplished by someone very intelligent (Okay, fine. Check), and if they were aware of Psychic Paper and what it did.
"How did...?" he started, looking up. Luna was gone. "I hate it when she does that."
Sunset had to laugh. "She likes to to that when patrolling the halls, too. Absolutely terrifying."
The Doctor pocketed his wallet with one hand as he produced his sonic screwdriver with the other. "That little encounter just added more questions to my list as I'm sure you've already figured. But first thing first, let's get rid of our little pest."
~DrW~
The poster distracted him. He couldn't help it, it was a distinctly more colorful poster than anything else on the poster board. It was only about an upcoming sports festival, so he was going to ignore it. Then he saw the opposing school was "Crystal Prep," and easily recognized the picture of this universe's Princess Cadance and found himself really interested. Alternate universes. Always surprising. Then a yellow hand appeared right before his eyes and snapped, drawing his attention back to its owner. "Sorry about that, Sunset. My attention span's a little short these days."
"Yeah, right. These days," Sunset said with a knowing smirk. "Your sonic is blinking."
"Ah, so it is," he said, pointing the tool across the currently abandoned cafeteria to the source of the signal. The kitchens, of course. "Looks like I'm going solo for now. Unless they let students into the kitchens in this universe."
Sunset sat at one of the tables. "Not likely. Go on. I'll wait for you here."
And he was off, already pulling out his Psychic Paper wallet. Then her phone chimed and she pulled up her texts.
FOUND IT!!! in pink text and hearts.
chasin the varmit now. Yellow text.
gOt ti. Gray, this time.
"Wait, wha...?" Before she could even piece the thought together the Doctor was returning, pleased as punch and with something in his cage. He was completely ignoring the shocked, angry, and scandalized looks the kitchen staff were shooting him.
"What do you know?" he said. "The plan actually worked. And without a hitch for once." Here he showed her his catch. It actually did look much like a rat, but without ears, and it was a deep purple with green polkadots.
"Yeah, about that. You said there was only one of these things, right?"
"Yes I did. Why?"
"Do they, I dunno, explosively breed?"
"They can, but if that was the case I'd find this one with her litter. Again, why?" The Doctor didn't like where this was going.
Sunset showed him the texts. "Then I think we've got a problem."