//------------------------------// // And You Will Obey Me // Story: A Storm of Chaos: A Doctor Whooves Adventure // by Shotoman //------------------------------// Part 8 You Will Obey Me         Derpy stopped her charge in surprise as the Doctor wriggled his way back into the cavern from the crack that formed the entrance. He growled out another curse in some alien language. “Too many Cyberponies. Damn it all.”         “Doctor?” Derpy asked, a waver in her voice that caused the Time Charger to stop his rant before it could get a proper start. “What is it? What's wrong?”         The Doctor turned and looked Derpy in her right eye. “It could be nothing,” he said, his tone of voice the exact opposite of convincing. “It could be just a watch. But if it is something, it's something big.” He peered out the entrance, sighing as a group of metal ponies passed by. “There's a particular piece of Time Charger technology. It allows us to perfectly disguise ourselves as any other—no offense—lesser equine species. It rewrites our DNA, our memories, everything. It's not used often because it hurts. A lot. And rewriting memory is always a tricky prospect. You following me so far?”         Derpy nodded. “Yeah. You can disguise yourselves by not being yourselves, but you don't like doing it because it makes you not yourselves.”         Despite his fears and urgency, the Doctor found himself smiling at Derpy's near tongue-twisting answer. “Exactly. Now, this is not meant to be a permanent situation. We need to return to ourselves eventually. So we record our memories and everything else that makes us what we are in some innocuous item we can carry around. Usually a watch—gotta keep with the theme, you know. Open the watch, and poof! You return to yourself, physically and mentally. To keep the watch from being opened early, there's usually a perception filter placed on it, so you'd basically keep it on you all the time, but never think about it. At least until someone brings your attention to it.”         “Wait a second,” Derpy interrupted. “Are you saying Old Hoof is a Time Charger?”         “That's precisely what I'm saying. Well, I don't have any proof, that much is true. But what you described does match up with the general process.” The Doctor narrowed his eyes. “The question is... which Time Charger is he? I've got this sinking suspicion that we were lured here specifically to wake him up, and if that's true he's not one of the good ones.” ~DrW~         Sole Survivor was in a rare good mood. Four different raids, and they were all successful. And even better, all the ponies came back alive. He had just gone through the various reports and was on his way to report in to Old Hoof, but stopped momentarily at the golden light that seeped through the cracks to the old stallion's lab. It only took a second for his brain to kick into gear. “Old Hoof!” Wings flared in agitation, Survivor charged into the lab, fully ready to take on a whole platoon of Cybers if he needed to. He blinked in surprise when he found Old Hoof calmly sitting in the middle of the room, looking at the time on an old watch. “Are you okay?” the young pegasus asked.         Old Hoof cast a smile his way, a smile that caused a chill to run down Survivor's spine. “I am perfectly fine, boy. Why wouldn't I be?”         “It's just... I saw a light and... where's the Doc?” Survivor, for some reason, was well and truly flustered around Old Hoof just now. He couldn't quite explain it, but he was feeling a definite fight or flight response.         “He's off checking up on that signal of his,” Old Hoof said as he sat at his computer console. “We can hardly blame him now, can we? Whatever his reasons are, he's been looking for the source for a week now.”         “Right,” Survivor agreed warily. As Old Hoof typed, his left hind leg began tapping a beat—four quick taps, pause, four quick taps, pause, and so on. Survivor slowly crept around the room to the weapons table, not sure why he was doing so, but his instincts were roaring at him, and he'd learned over the years to trust them.         “So I take it the supplies are stored away, waiting to be installed?” Old Hoof asked over his shoulder, seemingly oblivious to the younger stallion's discomfort.         “Y-yeah. Ready and waiting for you.”         The old stallion nodded. “Hmm. Too bad there's no real use for them anymore.”         Survivor cocked his head. “What do you mean by...?” His question was cut short as the ground beneath him shook. “What was that?”         Old Hoof didn't turn around from his work as he answered. “Oh, that's just the escape rocket. I activated the emergency destruct. Nopony's going anywhere now.” Before Survivor could even think to respond, the emergency sirens sounded, very briefly, before being suddenly cut of. “And that,” Old hoof continued, “was all our defenses being shut off. We're completely visible to the Cyberponies now, and there's no defense systems to keep them from just marching right on in. It'll take, what? Ten minutes to get here? Twenty?”         Survivor couldn't believe his ears. This was... it was some sort of nightmare! Old Hoof just betrayed them all! And the sheer callousness behind his actions... it was all too much for the pegasus's brain. All he was capable of as a response was a strangled, “Why...?”         Old Hoof laughed. “Why? Because I can! Because you idiots trusted me not to. But mostly...” Here, the old stallion spun to face Survivor and a deafening bang shook the room. Survivor looked down at his chest in shock. His brain somehow didn't register the pain, but the red stain that was spreading throughout his coat was confirmation enough. Old Hoof smirked as he placed his revolver back on the console. “Because I am the Master, and an old friend is coming to call.”         Sole Survivor fell over, knocking the table over as he went. He still barely felt anything, though his vision was going blurry. He had seconds, maybe, left of his life and he knew it, but he was nothing if not a fighter. Willing himself to stay conscious, he reached for a rifle that had fallen next to him. His movements seemed agonizingly slow to his mind, and he pushed himself ever harder to bring the weapon to bear on the stallion who had once been his mentor. The edges of his vision had gone black, and the blackness was closing in. Like those stupid cartoons from my foalhood, he thought wryly as he focused on his target and pulled the trigger. He saw with grim satisfaction that the shot tore into one side of Old Hoof's body and out the other, shattering one of the monitors. The blackness took him before the other even hit the floor.         The Master wanted to cry out in rage, but all he got was a muted gurgle and a mouthful of blood for his trouble. It was embarrassing, really, being brought low because of such a rudimentary error. He knew better than to turn his back on an opponent before he was really and truly dead, but he was giddy over his awakening. And it wasn't like this was going to stop him anyway. The Master smiled a bit as his eyes began to glow with a golden light. I almost wish you were still alive to see this, boy, he thought an instant before his entire body erupted with golden energy, which spewed in every direction, yet harmed nothing. The old stallion closed his eyes. Oh, well. I was getting tired of this old body anyway. ~DrW~         The Doctor ran as fast as his hooves could carry him—so fast that Derpy had to take to the air to keep up. The Cyberponies had all left the area as one, and that was never a good sign. “Faster, Derpy! We have to reach the TARDIS before things spiral out of control!”         Derpy scrunched her face up in determination. “You want fast? Then let's go fast!” The flying pegasus took the surprised Doctor in her forelegs and before he could protest, she shot beyond the horizon in a gray streak that dissipated like popping bubbles.         Minutes later, she rather roughly deposited the Doctor on the ground before taking a rather nasty looking tumble herself. The Doctor's eyes were wide, the pupils tiny little pinpricks. “Wow... That was just... WOW! You could give Miss Rainbow Dash a run for her bits with speed like that.”         Derpy got to her hooves and brushed herself off. “Nah. That's barely her cruising speed. C'mon Doctor, we gotta get to the base.”         The Time Charger shook his head and galloped into the small cave entrance. “Right you are. Come along. We've got a universe to save.”         The two companions entered the TARDIS moments later, and the Doctor didn't waste any time in pounding away on the controls. “Okay, Old Girl. Listen to me. We need your cooperation on this one. Fate of the universe stuff. Yes, I know it's always fate of the universe stuff.” The screeching of the TARDIS's engines came without the usual bone rattling shaking that often accompanied it, and they were off. The Doctor smiled. "Thanks, dear." ~DrW~         The blue barn barely finished materializing in the center of Old Hoof's lab before the Doctor burst from it, followed immediately by Derpy. They stopped short at what they saw. Derpy gasped and ran to kneel next to Sole Survivor, lying in a pool of his own blood. The Doctor, however, was more interested in the other stain by the computer equipment. He sniffed the air, and his expression hardened. “There was a regeneration here,” he muttered, all his suspicions now verified.         The Doctor's attention turned to the security monitors. The Cyberponies had arrived in force, and were barreling through the base like a hot knife through butter. One monitor in particular caught his attention; the demolition expert Bang was kneeling over the unmoving form of her brother as the Cyberponies surrounded her. When she raised her head, she had tears in her eyes, and a pin in her mouth. A brief flash of flame was the last thing the monitor showed before giving way to static.         “Derpy, come...” The Doctor paused as he saw the tears streaming down his companion's face. “...along? Derpy?”         “It's my fault!” Derpy blurted, causing the Doctor to start. “I did this. I bumped into Old Hoof, and made him aware of his watch. None of this would have happened without me here! I messed everything up. Again!”         The Doctor paused for a moment before a determined look crossed his face. “You listen to me, Derpina Meringue Hooves.” Derpy looked up and focused both eyes on his. “You did not do this. Okay? Listen to me—listen! None of this was your fault. It was a watch. There's no way you could have known, alright? The disguise is a temporary solution anyway. He would have awakened eventually with or without us. You did none of this. It was all him. Understand?”         Derpy sniffed and wiped her nose with a foreleg before enveloping the Doctor in a hug. The Doctor was stunned into silence as his cheeks flushed bright scarlet. Hesitantly he brought his own forelegs around her shaking form. “Come now,” he soothed as best he could. “We'll have none of that, eh? This isn't the Derpy Hooves I know, now is it? Where's that foal-like exuberance, hmm?”         Derpy disengaged her hug and smiled, though her eyes were still shining. “You're right. This isn't me. Sorry, Doctor.”         The Doctor smiled and patted her head, mentally kicking himself for forgetting that Derpy was still a sensitive mare from Equestria, no matter what else they may have encountered. She just wasn't desensitized to tragedy the way he was, and he hoped she never would be. “Trust me. You have nothing to apologize for.”         A sudden voice interrupted the two companions. “How touching. Where's the popcorn when I need it? Or at least a bag of Jelly Fillies.” The two ponies spun to see all the monitors showing the smug face of a young orange pony with short cropped golden hair. He wore a wide, manic smile as one of his brown eyes twitched slightly. “Hello, Doctor.”         Though the face was new, the Doctor recognized the pony instantly—all Time Chargers developed a mild mental link with each other so they could recognize each other after a regeneration. Mentally the Doctor kicked himself. Honestly, he should have known. The name alone was an obvious giveaway. Old Hoof: noun. A somewhat archaic term to denote many years of experience in a particular skill or field. In other words...         “Hello, Master.”