//------------------------------// // Chapter 21- Half the Answer // Story: The Lost Pegasus // by J8ck78 //------------------------------// Whooves and Jack stared off at each other. Despite the Doctor's demands to know everything, his question of knowing “Everything” was a bit too vague for Jack to answer. He tried to answer, but nothing seemed to come out. Thus, for the longest moment, they had stared silent and unmoving. Finally, the Doctor worked out where he wanted to begin. “That excuse you used for saying you came back to life, what was it?” “A giant Ogre King said I had to come back?” Jack told him sheepishly. “That's a lie and you know it.” “I know, but I needed something to explain me coming back.” The Doctor fumed over it and walked around, all the while keeping his distance from Jack. Jack just eyed him, somewhat wishing he hadn't put down ALL of his weapons. Finally, the Doctor stopped and began to speak again. “The moment you rushed past me in the city I knew something was wrong. When just looking at you was a effort I knew what it was. My question is how and why?” “We both know to the answer to that one Doctor. The great man from the 51'st Century!” “Yes, with my Universe a show you would know about Harkness. Though I suspect the names were a coincidence?” “Purely. Kinda cool though,” answered Jack. “And the immortality?” “Uh... A bonus I guess.” He just shrugged. While the Doctor was still suspicious, Jack was right. It was a coincidence that the two had the same name. Besides, there were more pressing matters to deal with first. “Then how? Harkness was a anomaly created by accident. A by-product of the Time Vortex regenerated a human body! You didn't have it when we met at the Mall, so you got it after you died; am I correct!?” “Bingo-Bango,” replied Jack. “Who? Who did it!? Why!? It couldn't have been Rose! She's nowhere near this Universe!” “I wanna point out, it was not my idea! I had full intentions to die that night and never come back. It wasn't her's either.” “Her's? Which one? We're on a ship full of Her's!” Jack didn't want to answer and kept his mouth sealed. “Damn it, man, tell me!” “Derpy.” The Doctor nearly fell over at the mention of the name. No, it couldn't be, she became a Bad Wolf? Why would she? How could she? The last time that happened, his companion nearly died and he had to regenerate just to save her! He was nearly ready to strangle Jack where he stood, but his own nature kept him back. “Who's bloody hell idea was it then?” “Exactly.” Jack answered with a sly smile. Whooves didn't know what he meant at first, until he caught on to it. A pit formed in his stomach and he begged for Jack to not be right. Jack rested back up aside the wall, reluctant to go on. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small hand device and tossed it to the Doctor. Whooves caught it and looked it over. Looked like a common video phone to him, but when he pressed the play button, he was alarmed with what he got. “Hello there Doctor,” The Doctor greeted on the screen. “Me!? What? What am I doing?” “Yes, I'm having this message recorded using this message I got from the other Jack that was recorded by me in the future with my memories of my watch of this recording to answer your questions and sent back with him so you could see this recording and then record it as me in the future to be sent back with the other Jack.” “Makes sense. Now what am I doing?” “Saving the world of course!” Screen Doctor replied. “By turning one of my most trusted companions into a Bad Wolf!? Have I gone mad!? How did this happen!?” Screen Doctor looked down and away from himself and shook his head. “I can't tell you, it wasn't on the recording. I'm sorry,” “Damn me! Tell me right now! I wont have her become it! I'm not losing anyone this time! I've already lost other Jack once, and I don't even know him well enough! You know damn well who caused this! Tell me!” “I can't!” The Doctor looked up to see Jack standing there, somewhat intimidated and amazed by the Doctor's fury. Just as it was about to be unleashed upon him, screen Doctor came to his rescue. “He doesn't know either. He's as clueless as you at this point.” “No, I'm going to stop this come Paradox or Black Hole!” “You can't stop it, you can't prevent it. The paradox created would rip a hole right through the heart of the TARDIS. That in turn will cause a rip through the Universe, a Black Hole, you'll not only getting a Paradox and a Black Hole, you'll be getting both! You'll lose everyone and destroy everything in creation Doctor!” The Doctor gave out a cry of frustration, as his screen self was right. “I'm sorry.” apologized the screen Whooves. “There has to be another way! I will not allow it!” snapped the Doctor. “You are arguing with yourself here,” screen Whooves pointed out. “I've done it before, I'll do it again! I will not risk Derpy, Twilight, or anyone! This plan is absolute insanity!” “No, no, you see, it will all make sense in the long run!” “Long run!? Last time I died! I regenerated! I don't want to go again!” Whooves shouted at his screen self. “You won't be regenerating. You won't be dieing. Not this time,” Screen Doctor said. “How!? How not this time!?” “Because you got someone who is willing to not die,” smirked the screen Doctor. Whooves looked at himself and the screen suddenly flickered black. He looked all over the video phone and tried to find something to press something when he looked up at Jack. “Someone who is willing to not die.” “What?” asked Jack. “Oh, I am bloody brilliant!” As he finished the screen came alive again: “Right you are Doctor! Here's the plan for once it all goes down!” “I'm going to die, aren't I?” Jack asked the Doctor. “Well, just for a little while,” the Screen Doctor told him. “Twenty minutes, tops,” the real Doctor finished. ---- “So... you have any idea where we are?” Fiona spoke. “No, no, no, no, no, no!” Reine repeated, ignoring her friends question. The two had traveled at least a mile by now. Reine went from door to door opening it, and upon seeing that there was nothing of use inside,went to the next one. When that one failed, she went to the next one. So on and so on it went to the point Fiona didn't even know where they were anymore, thus prompting her to answer her question. “No, no, no, no, no, n-wait a minute!” Reine changed. Fiona looked back as Reine walked over to a door and opened it once again. Fiona poked her head around the door frame only to see a library full of books, and two others as well. Diane stood in the center of the library on one foot, all the while balancing five books on her nose, and seven more on her hands each. When she noticed them, she tossed the books into the air, and they landed in neat piles behind her. She was instantly next to them with a big smile on her face. “What's up?” “We're looking for Discord,” Fiona replied quietly. “As should you!” snapped Reine. “Oh we were, until Tara found some old spell Books Twilight keeps in here and started reading them.” “What?” Reine said no more and marched into the library. The shelves went almost two stories into the air, and she could see it was bigger than the cities own public library. For a 900 year old Doctor, this was quite the collection. Looking around, she heard a gasp of amazement and followed it. Walking through the various bookcases, she found her friend Tara sitting at a study with several books floating around her head, reading each one. “What are you doing!?” she hissed. “Huh? Oh, Hi Reine! You wont believe some of the spells in here!” “We are supposed to be looking for that drab fashion wreck of a monster! Not reading books!” “Oh, it will only take a second.” Tara told her before returning to her new found books. Reine looked back at the other two who had followed her, and they just shrugged. Tara kept on reading, starting to hum a little to herself as well. Reine's anger grew by the second. “One, one-thousand,” she said. Elsewhere, the real Twilight and Derpy walked and glided respectively through the halls. After a short trip through the TARDIS gardens, they appeared in the halls of the TARDIS. If Discord was anywhere, he was in one of these doors. As Derpy picked a branch from her hair, they both heard a door opening. Looking and ready for a fight, Tara came sliding out on her butt and skidded into the wall. She looked at them blankly as if she couldn't believe what had just happened to her. Next Diane came cartwheeling out of the door, followed by Fiona. Reine was the last out, slamming the door shut behind her. “Do I want to even know?” Twilight asked. “There is a time for reading, and a time for working!” Reine snapped. “I said, I would only be a second,” Tara replied standing up. “You don't want to know,” Derpy answered Twilight. Tara stood up and brushed her clothes off, when they heard a sinister cackle from afar. “Discord!” Fiona and Diane trembled a little bit while the rest looked on angrily. “He can't be far,” Tara spoke. “Or he's trying to trick us!” Reine added. Twilight looked to the numerous doors of the TARDIS. It was just like the hedge maze. One way or another, he would split them all up and take them out one by one. Even with teams of two, he could easily separate them. The question was why was he laughing right now? Could he have already gotten some of the others? “We need to find the everypony else! Right now! They're in danger!” she warned. “How? These doors lead to nowhere!” said Derpy. “The Console room! We can track their life signs from there and direct them to it!” Twilight answered. “How? This thing have a intercom?” Reine asked. “No, but with a little work we can make doors open up to rooms anywhere inside of it!” Twilight smiled, confidant in her plan. “Couldn't we have done that with Discord?” asked Diane. Twilight froze and in a instant, her palm met her face. In the frenzy of Discord in the TARDIS they were too quick to move out to catch him when the key was right there! As much as she hated to admit it, Discord had tricked her once again! “Don't be too hard on yourself Twilight Sparkle. No one is perfect.” came a voice from behind. “Discord,” cursed Twilight. ---- “So, Doc, are you sure you want to go along with this? I mean, It's-” “So long as you're around to absorb the Time Matrix, all should end well!” the Doctor told him. “Okay. So, can we get out of here? If I am going to die, I want to get it over with.” “Yes, this room is a bit drab.” “You're telling me,” commented Jack. “Now then our first objective is to find the others and bait Discord. Shouldn't be hard, I know a few tricks. Just need the Console that's all!” “Yeah, I was wondering, couldn't we have just teleported him to the Console room?” “He's the Spirit of Disharmony! Do you know what kind of chaos he would cause in there?” “Good point.” “Yes! Now stupid questions aside, let's go!” Whooves used his Screwdriver to open the door and turned to the Officer. “Coming along?” Jack looked on with a dumbfounded blank stare. His eyes were fixated on something right behind the Doctor, and Whooves feared the worst. He expected to see a sneering Discord standing over him ready to pounce, but his eyes were met with a much different sight. Dripping wet and in nothing but their underwear, Dash and April stood at the door with their clothes in their hands. “Uhh...” stammered April. “Hi,” Dash greeted nervously. The other two looked on with blank stares before the Doctor shut the door. He turned back to Jack, who couldn't make heads or tails of what he just saw. “I think those two found the TARDIS pool,” Whooves commented. “I hope that's all they found.” The Doctor shrugged and opened the door again. This time they found the Console room. “Alright, Officer, watch the doors! I need time to set this up!”