After another long while of trotting, the TARDIS crew, the foreman, and six of his other cronies arrive at the large foreman's office which has two layers to it. The lower part at the entrance and a raised platform further off to the right side from the entrance. Light ignites in the room with flashing, fluorescent lights. Doing so reveals the clutter in the room that those entering will need to carefully circumvent. There are also dozens of windows along the far side of the wall away from the entrance that stretches up and curves back partially along the roof. Beyond displays an ocean so black that the lit interior mostly make these windows better for reflection of those standing inside the room. There is a cross-network of steel I beams visible along the roof too which provides a very steampunk atmosphere.
“It's here, isn't it?” the Doctor asks Vision beside him, but this time he asks that openly. Upon seeing Vision wince in heavy distress, he takes it as a strong sign that they are very close to the source of the psychic disturbance.
“Yes,” Vision answers with a pained strain on her face. “It's somewhere close by. I can feel it.”
“What exactly are you looking for?” foreman Chovix asks. “Perhaps I can help you seek it out.”
The moment Chovix asks this, his local cronies look at him with concern because they are still not certain they should trust these new strangers. After all, their whole race on this planet is at stake. This is a very big gamble for them.
Chovix notices their glance of concern and he returns it with as confident of a nod as he can muster, but in truth, he is very concerned as well and very much aware of the degree of responsibility that lies on his shoulders with this decision.
“Something that will soon annihilate you all if I don't defuse it,” the Doctor answers as he lifts his sonic screwdriver. The device emits a high-pitched but overall not too painfully light buzzing noise. A light ignites at the tip of the tool as well. Using this, he waves it about the room in various directions. As he does so, the pitch of noise from the device changes when he aims it in various directions. Using that strategy, he homes in on something towards the back of the room on the raised platform off to the right side of the entrance.
“Annihilate us?!” the foreman gasps. “What exactly do you mean, Doctor? Are you saying our benefactors also gave us some kind of bomb or something?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes,” the Doctor says as he roams towards the raised platform. From there, he continues to wave the metal stick about which seems to home in towards what appears to be a globe of this planet in the far back corner. The Doctor approaches it while spinning his sonic screwdriver with unnecessary style then puts it away on the right pocket of his flank.
As the Doctor approaches the globe, he notices some of the foreman's cronies gasp in shock and then almost jerk into motion to stop the Doctor from approaching something sensitive, but the foreman makes a sharp whistling sound to signal for their attention. Once he has it, he shakes his head in disapproval, thus silently informing them that they should allow the Doctor to examine this.
“Are you sure?” one of the cronies asks in distress and uncertainty.
Instead of answering that question, Chovix looks back at the Doctor and swallows hard while he obviously tries to muster his own confidence.
All of this basically confirms to the Doctor that he has, indeed, found something important in this adventure. That, in turn, reaffirms his own course of action. He examines the globe carefully and then soon realizes that the upper half of the globe can be unscrewed and removed. The Doctor proceeds to do so. When he does, it reveals a curious-looking alien device hidden beneath which looks like a series of violet crystals clustered in the center of the device and complicated tech surrounding it, especially compared to the standards of technology he has observed from these ponies thus far.
“I knew it,” the Doctor declares triumphantly as he continues to examine this device. Shortly later, he pulls out his sonic screwdriver again and proceeds to aim noise at the device. No pony else can easily tell what the Doctor is doing now, but he is scanning it to help him verify certain theories of his as well as figure out exactly how to manipulate it later. The information the Doctor later discovers because of his scan causes him to look down, sigh, shake his head, then twist his head to his left side to regard the foreman. Once he locks eyes with the stallion, he asks, “Do you have any idea what kind of dangerous tech you've been meddling with here?”
“I only know enough to use it,” the foreman answers. “Which is basically too-”
Foreman Chovix cuts himself off when he hears somepony else approach his office. He looks back at the entrance and notices that it is Ashwin Cobberfield. Two of the foreman's cronies stop Ashwin from entering the office.
“That's okay, Chovix,” says the Doctor. “Let him in. He brought something with him that we're going to need to solve our current crisis.”
Those that stopped Ashwin at the door look back at Chovix to see if the foreman agrees with the Doctor's recommendation, to which Chovix nods his confirmation. Upon doing so, those that blocked Ashwin initially by lifting their forehooves now lower the appendages back to the floor and thus remove themselves as an obstacle to Ashwin's entrance. Ashwin then proceeds to enter while giving this group a strange look because they are behaving quite differently than he remembers. He regards the Doctor especially long with a questioning look as if to silently ask, “Are you sure we can trust them?”
The Doctor nods at Ashwin as he says, “Go ahead, Ashwin. Pull 'it' out.”
Ashwin does not cooperate immediately. Instead, he gives a final suspicious glance at the rest of the ponies in the room, particularly those who work here down in Allon. This ends with Ashwin giving the Doctor another nervous but also hopeful glance as if to say, “I hope you know what you're doing.” After that, Ashwin turns his head into the saddlebag off to his right side and fishes for something with his mouth before pulling out a crystal orb that has what appears to be a tiny stormy cloud trapped within it. The storm cloud flashes silently to those who observe it.
Those that work in Allon gasp at the sight of this device. One of them even asks, “Is that the . . .?” He trails off with uncertainty as if afraid to finish asking that question.
To answer the question, Ashwin lowers his head to the floor and carefully spits out what he's been holding in his mouth. To keep it from rolling away, he then applies a hoof directly on top of it. After that, he lifts his head to gaze at his fellow workers with a bit of tight fury as he answers, “Yes. This is The Orb of Storms.”
“You had it?!” Chovix asks Ashwin with shock and fury. “You had it this whole time, and you used it against your fellow ponies?!”
“Yes!” Ashwin growls in anger. “Because I can't be proud of being a race that is willing to capture and sell another race so indiscriminately.”
“Indiscriminate!?” Chovix asks with rising fury. “You knew what we were up against! How we were backed into a corner and we had to do what we did.”
“That doesn't make it right,” Ashwin argues back. “How is it justice to be willing to impose misfortune upon others but conveniently be willing to deflect it from ourselves?”
“CONVENIENT?!” Chovix shouts back. “THERE HAS BEEN NOTHING CONVENIENT ABOUT WHAT I HAD TO GO THROUGH. WHAT WE HAD TO GO THROUGH.”
“Enough of the blame game!” the Doctor demands. “Don't you see? None of that is going to solve our problem now. Everyone here had their own personal reasons for believing that what they've done was for the best, but right now we need to move past all that and get what needs to be done, done. To that end,” the Doctor regards Ashwin directly and nods to him. “Use The Orb of Storms and cancel the weather up on the surface.”
Ashwin flashes the Doctor a cautious look as he reminds him, “If I do that, you are aware that another problem will come and replace the storm, right?”
“That's why you did it?” Chovix asks Ashwin incredulously.
Now it's the Doctor's turn to whistle to signal for attention to the foreman. Once he has it, the Doctor simply shakes his head before turning his attention back to Ashwin and says, “I'm well aware of that and I plan on dealing with that problem next. For now, one step at a time, please. You ponies can't sustain yourselves as you are right now so we might as well get this over with.”
“If necessary, you can use that to summon the storm back,” Feather Wind reminds Ashwin. “So go ahead and drop it now. We're not out of options later if you do.”
“We're going to have a long discussion about this later,” Chovix assures Ashwin tightly.
“I plan on confessing what I've done to everypony once this gets settled,” Ashwin returns. “While I am at it, you should do the same. We all deserve to surrender to our communities' judgment once this is done.”
Finally, the foreman's expression towards Ashwin softens a bit as he admits, “That's the plan.” Saying that evokes immediate and sharp concern from the rest of the foreman's underlings around him to which he quickly assures, “Don't worry. I'll take full responsibility for all this. You were all acting under my command so I won't surrender any names beyond my own.”
“That's admirable of you,” Stern Wing tells the foreman with approval. “That is the way a proper leader should behave.”
“I don't need you to tell me that!” Chovix barks in sudden and sharp anger at Stern Wing. “Whether you approve or not of my past or future actions are irrelevant to me. I know my duties and I shall follow them.”
“And on that note,” begins the Doctor to the whole room before he nods at Ashwin specifically. “Ashwin,” he says with encouragement.
Ashwin takes a deep breath to summon his confidence before sitting down, lifting The Orb of Storms between his hooves, then for all intents and purposes, appears to meditate after that.
“Did you disable the psychic bomb, Doctor?” Derpy asks the Doctor in concern.
“As I said, one problem at a time, my faithful companion,” the Doctor tells the gray pegasus in a reassuring voice. “I know what I'm doing.”
“Okay, Doctor,” Derpy tells him back while raising a thin smile. “I trust you. I just want everypony to stop being in pain or in danger is all.”
“I share that goal as well,” the Doctor returns to her. “Now, everyone, a moment of silence please while Ashwin completes his task.”
That's exactly what happens next. Everyone remains on quiet standby while Ashwin finishes using The Orb of Storms. Four silent minutes later, Ashwin opens his eyes and he is the first to break the silence.
“It's done,” Ashwin assures. “The storm should be dissipating right now.”
“Excellent!” the Doctor cheers.
“Can you verify that?” Stern Wing asks Feather Wind beside her.
“It's not as easy to do so down here in these depths, but I can try,” Feather Wind offers.
“How would you be able to tell?” one of the workers asks the light blue unicorn.
“Oh trust me, he has his ways,” Stern Wing assures confidently.
“So do we,” Chovix returns evenly then looks at one of his underlings who has the whitest hide. “Chalman,” he says which gathers that stallion's attention, “I want you to tell Shtoliz to radio our contacts up on the surface. Ask if the storm is indeed dissipating.”
“If it is, Shtoliz might get the memo before I even get there,” Chalman guesses.
“Either way, report back to me whatever the result is,” Chovix orders.
Chalman nods and says, “Yes Sir,” before taking off to do as ordered.
“In the meantime,” Chovix begins as he eyes Ashwin narrowly.
“You're not getting this orb from me,” Ashwin growls as he stands up and backs off a bit with the orb in one of his hooves.
“I wasn't planning on taking it,” Chovix quickly assures. “After all, you're probably the only one in this room who is somehow trained to use it anyway.”
“That's what happens when we engage the Alphalmians more peacefully,” Ashwin partially explains.
“No doubt,” Chovix agrees. “Because they are the only ones who could have given it to you and trained you in its usage. As a result, you are an indispensable resource at the moment and therefore I'm not letting you out of my sight. On the contrary, you're going to stay here and help me confront what is coming next. I want you to see the Iron Suits for yourself just so that you know exactly what I've been dealing with all this time.”
Ashwin suddenly looks partially confused as he asks, “Iron Suits? Is that the name of the slavers you contacted?”
“Sort of,” Chovix answers Ashwin before shaking his head as he says, “They never declared what their name is, so that is what we've been calling them in the meantime. The reason for that shall be obvious to you soon.
“More to the point, I want you here in case whatever happens next goes south. If it turns out the Doctor can't hoofle them then perhaps you can use that orb.” Chovix then looks questioning as he asks, “Is it possible you could summon a storm to attack a specific target? Something like a spaceship, perhaps?”
Ashwin's expression softens from guarded and accusatory to uncertain as he answers, “Probably not, especially if I can't see it. This orb can only help me affect the weather in a general location.”
Ashwin's answer causes Chovix to be very thoughtful.
“Sir,” Chalman gasps as he returns to the office. Once there, he tries to speak, but he keeps wheezing instead.
“Take your time,” Chovix commands his underling. “Catch your breath. Just breathe.”
Chalman nods at Chovix in understanding then closes his eyes as he forces himself to breathe. At first he is doing it quickly, but he deliberately tries to slow his breath.
Observing this, an idea suddenly pops into Feather Wind's mind. An experiment that he never really tried before. Knowing how well he is connected to the wind and sky, Feather Wind attempts what he considers a slightly risky move by intensifying the air pressure around Chalman in such a way that it might squeeze oxygen closer to Chalman. Thus, while the other stallion attempts to catch his breath, Feather Wind tries to see if he can enrich the quality of the oxygen itself directly around Chalman.
Air is hard to see, though, so it is difficult to tell if Feather's experiment is working. The only result he can tell is feeling stronger air pressure on his own skull. It's probably worse for Chalman so Feather releases the air pressure some. In the end, Feather gains no idea if his experiment helped to enrich the oxygen itself, but he definitely succeeded to intensify the air pressure at least.
“Better?” Chovix asks after a few minutes' pause.
“Yes Sir,” Chalman verifies.
“Then report,” Chovix orders.
“Yes Sir,” Chalman repeats and then says, “Good news. The weather has indeed relaxed up on the surface.”
“Told you,” Ashwin lightly taunts.
“There's more, Sir,” Chalman adds after he casts a brief glance back at Ashwin when that stallion spoke. He then focuses back on his boss as he adds, “They are now here too, Sir.”
“The Suits?” Chovix double-checks.
Before Chalman can answer, he pauses when they all hear an usual sound pick up around the office. It sounds like something large is approaching them from outside in the dark ocean which makes a rhythmically repeating "wow-wow" that no ordinary tech of these pony's age could possibly make. Moments later, something even more spectacular happens when a giant metallic spaceship gradually becomes visible outside the foreman's office windows. As this ship appears, there is a wavy quality to it as it gradually gains visible solidity. When it fully becomes visible, some can notice there is a vague egg shape to this giant vessel. It is particularly rounded and fat on what appears to be the bottom decks. Smaller bubble shape bloats lie on top of the fattest part of the ship and it narrows out into an oval curve at the top. Many lights are visible through the other vessel's porthole windows. In addition to that, unusual-looking lights are beaming out from the ship that seems to shift across a rainbow spectrum of light. Those lights also appear a bit wavy because of the giant ship stirring up motion in the ocean water.
“Yes Sir,” Chalman finally confirms after it has become abundantly obvious that the Iron Suits have indeed arrived.
To Chovix's credit, he gives a completely serious and non-sarcastic nod of understanding and acceptance to his underling as if saying, “I have received and understood your report, and I'm glad to have received it.”
“I hope you understand that it is my every intention to be sure that these guys walk away empty-handed,” the Doctor warns Chovix.
“Duly noted,” Chovix confirms as he looks back at the Doctor. “And it's up to you to give them an incentive to leave empty . . . um . . .” Chovix suddenly looks confused. “You did say empty hoofed, right?”
The Doctor snickers for a moment then waves Chovix off as he says, “Basically, yes. Same difference.”
“I think he actually said something about empty han-ded?” another one of Chovix's underlings says with a confused squint to his face.
“That's just the Doctor's quirky nature,” Derpy assures with a playful giggle. “You get used to it . . . sort of. Eventually.”
Outside, the Iron Suits vessel continues to get closer and closer. Pretty soon it becomes impossible to see the upper or lower end of the other ship because it is too close. Moments later, Allon shakes a bit as the other vessel collides with the underwater station. More giant metallic sounds soon follow as the other ship docks and secures its position.
“They are coming here?” the Doctor checks with Chovix as the Time Lord points down to their current position.
“Yes,” Chovix confirms. “More specifically, through the secret passage behind you.” As the Doctor checks over his shoulder, Chovix adds, “It's behind the bookshelf.”
Curious, the Doctor spins about and approaches the said bookshelf. He aims his sonic screwdriver at it and it emits a small buzzing noise as he waves it about the bookshelf for a few seconds. Five seconds later, the device extends, revealing a new compartment in the center of the device. The Doctor glances at it for a second before looking back at the bookshelf with a nod as he says, “Yes. I see. Very interesting.”
“That was their idea,” Chovix goes on to mention. “They didn't feel comfortable marching through our station in public, but nevertheless, most of my staff knows something about them because their vessel is quite noticeable, as you can see. Well, at least as you can see now.”
“A cloaking device,” the Doctor realizes as he looks out the foreman's windows at the other vessel that is now too close to see anything other than a giant wall and a few porthole windows. “That somewhat explains how these guys can pass right through the unicorn's blockade around this planet.”
No pony else in the room entirely followed along with the Doctor's terminology, particularly around the word “cloaking device”, but they somewhat got the idea based on context clues.
Several minutes later, they all hear the sound of marching from those who must be traveling with thick metallic boots. Shortly later, the bookshelf slides off to the side along with another thick steel door behind it. From beyond that, the TARDIS crew, as well as Ashwin, got their first look at this visiting alien race. This race stood upright on two pretty thick legs. They only stand about five feet tall. Based on what they can see of this race's suits, they are very broad and rounded in the shoulders. Their faces jut forward from the rest of their head to something that kind of resembles an ant-eater, but the resemblance stops there. They also have thick arms and thick hands. There is the sound of steam occasionally hissing as it escapes their suits at various points. To those who observe this, it quickly becomes apparent that this race is wearing an environmental suit so they can preserve whatever condition they need to live down here. In addition to that, the suits look pretty durable from a physical standpoint as if they are meant to endure punishment from possible combat. There are large boxes placed in their chest area which have many dials, switches, and gauges. Flexible tubes extend from the box on their chest that each arc back to their helmets from the left and right side. For their eyes, they all have what appears to be a pair of reddish-tinted tiny windows in their helmets that is too opaque to see anything beyond from the outside looking in.
“Klaxians,” sighs the Doctor as his shoulders lower wearily. “I should have known.”
Those in the room barely hear some quiet, wheezing sound from within one of the suits. Moments later, a robotic-sounding voice box booms in a slightly echo-y tone as if it is speaking through a metal tube. The question that the Klaxian in the lead asks is what one might assume to be a translation of what the one within the suit asked a moment ago, and that is, "Cho-vix, why are there ex-tra in-tru-ders in your of-fice right now? We thought we had made our feel-ings quite clear on this ma-tter a long time ago.”
“You might be able to tell that there have been some complications since our last visit together,” Chovix says back to the lead Klaxian. “For instance, you might have noticed the unusual storm that has only recently dissipated?”
“In-deed. The weh-ther ah-nom-ah-ly proved to be quite the in-con-venience for us,” the lead Klaxian agrees. “As a re-sult, and as you can well ee-mag-ine, this has put us quite be-hind sched-u-le. So, if you don't mind, we would de-spense with the pleas-an-tries and swift-ly move on with our trade ah-gree-ment.”
“Well . . . you see . . . there is a problem with that too,” Chovix replies a little nervously but he clearly tries to muster up his confidence mid-sentence.
“We are not in-teres-ted in fur-ther de-lays or ex-cu-ses,” the Klaxian says back in annoyance. “Do you have our new sam-ple or not?”
“He does, but you will not be receiving it this time or any other from this point forward,” insists the Doctor as he boldly steps up and makes his presence more known.
“Who is this? Who dares to speak to us so bol-dly?” asks the flat, echo-y, and robotic sound of the Klaxian's voice translator.
“I'm glad you asked. I am the Doctor!” the Doctor announces boldly.
After a short, probably confused pause, the Klaxian then asks, “Doc-tor who?”
“Thee Doctor, actually,” the Doctor announces. “If you haven't heard of me then, I promise you, you soon will, for there is unlikely any greater force that you have reckoned with. I am the last of the Time Lords that I'm aware of. There are some who have called me Time Lord Victorious, and to my enemies . . . I have also been known as The Oncoming Storm!”
The Doctor's recent declaration stirs greater interest, and perhaps even alarm, among the gathered Klaxians. This time they discuss something amongst themselves and, when they do, their voice translator does not pick it up. They are barely audible to anyone outside of their artificial suits, but one can guess that they can easily be understood by each other, possibly because of some built-in intercom system within their helmets. After a quick and possibly also heated debate, the lead Klaxian asks, “You said you are Thee Doc-tor? Time Lord Doc-tor? He who pi-lots the Tar-dis?”
“So you have heard of me. Good!” the Doctor cheers rather aggressively. “Then you know I am not an individual to be crossed lightly and that I am an individual that always keeps my word. With that in mind, gentleman, I hereby make unto you this pledge.” He nods back to the rest of the ponies behind him. “These ponies here, and in any other world as well, are under my protection and I shall not allow you to harm or corrupt these innocent ponies any further. Furthermore, I hereby also demand the immediate return of every Alphalmians you ever stole to be returned to their rightful planet here, or there shall be consequences.”
“You do not scare us, Doc-tor,” says the lead klaxian. “For we have heard of you. No weh-pons or arm-a-ments of any kind, nor in your ves-sel. You tra-vel the stars uh-ter-ly de-void of any re-spect-ful ah-ffen-sive or de-fen-sive qual-lit-ies. Mean-while, we have sub-stan-tial might in our tech. You can-not beat us.”
The Doctor pauses a moment as he just stares at the klaxians. Eventually he slowly looks among each of his own companions one by one then scans among all the rest of the ponies standing in the room. Without exception, everyone in the room seems to wait with bated breath to see what the Doctor says next. During that time, tension clings to the air within that deafening silence.
“Well . . . that's certainly true,” the Doctor concedes as he looks back at the Klaxians. “At least about the part about weapons and armor and such. I do not have those things, but it's also true I don't have them by choice. It's further true that I don't require them either, for I will tell you what I do have. I have a time and relative dimension in space machine. I have a nifty tool that can do anything my clever mind can fathom. I have well over nine-hundred years of experience trouncing bullies like you into submission. I also share the company of some of the most marvelous companions these universes have ever seen, and each of them is formidable in their own right. They are brilliantly shining stars who stand by me loyally because they are my friends and . . . as some of them like to say and clearly demonstrated, there is such magic in that friendship. All of that stands loyally beside me.
“And do you want to know why some call me Time Lord Victorious and/or The Oncoming Storm? Those titles have largely been awarded to me by others who were foolish enough to cross me or my friends. They lie strewn across many worlds broken and shattered, and in the wake of my passing, they could only utter either one or both of those titles.
“Heed my warning, oh dangerously ambivalent one; you are about to join a legacy of the vanquished who wear that title with overwhelming shame. 'If only I did not cross the Doctor,' they cry out in misery.”
The Doctor closes his eyes and looks straight down as he pads up next to the lead klaxian who, meanwhile, has done or said nothing else as if possibly stricken with terror, but their faceless masks make that hard to tell. Meanwhile, the Doctor does not say another word until he stands directly in front of the lead klaxian.
“Among all of my vanquished foes, there is another pattern that is common among them,” announces the Doctor as he stands directly in front of the lead klaxian but he still has his eyes closed and his face aimed downward. “A piece of advice they would give to all others who are unfortunate enough to earn my angry eyes upon them, and that is one word in particular.”
For dramatic tension, the Doctor pauses again before suddenly lifting his face and opening his eyes to give a focused and narrow angry stare at the lead klaxian.
“Run!” the Doctor announces with focused anger.
Right after the Doctor said that, a red alert emergency beeping noise emanates from their suits. When the lead klaxian answers it, he demands, “Re-port.”
“Sir, men-ny ah-qua-tic life-forms are now ah-tack-ing our ship!” announces the crackled and static-sounding klaxian (presumably) at the other end of the line.
“What?!” the lead klaxian asks in horrified shock.
“We suh-fered some hull dam-age and they are con-tin-u-ing their ah-sault,” the one on the other end further reports. “Your or-ders, Sir?”
From the sounds of the outside, this appears to be no bluff. Everyone standing in the room can now hear numerous banging sounds out there and they are growing louder and more frequent as time goes on. Since the other vessel is so close, however, it visually conceals everything else out there.
“Your or-ders, Sir?” the one on the other end of the line repeats after a five-second pause.
“Pre-pare for de-par-ture,” the lead klaxian finally answers.
“Aye Sir,” confirms the other one on the line.
The lead klaxian turns about then gestures for his five escorts to fall back. In unison, they do an about-face, although somewhat clumsily, then proceed to more waddle away since they lean so heavily from side to side as they venture away. The lead klaxian starts after them a few dozen steps in the same manner, but once he's beyond the thick steel door of the hidden passageway, he pauses a moment to turn back to the Doctor and announce to him, “I will re-mem-ber this, Doc-tor!” the lead klaxian promises in a somewhat threatening tone for a flat, robotic voice box.
“Oh yeah?” the Doctor reflects. “Well, unfortunately for you, I will remember you as well. Take heed from this moment forward. Wherever you go and whatever you do, even if you venture to the farthest corners of the universe in time and space, you'll find that I have already arrived there, more or less, ten days ago and I've been using all that time to arrange the local circumstances to be as unfortunate for you as possible. So, whenever you find that the local authorities are unusually well prepared to engage you, whenever you find that your cargo hold full of ill-gotten gains is suddenly empty, and whenever you find what you thought were ironclad deals with potential customers and clients suddenly, and mysteriously, back off from you . . . take a moment to fearfully peek over your shoulder because all of these are a sign of The Oncoming Storm! For as long as you keep the stolen Alphalmians from returning to their native planet in an uninjured state, then you are only keeping a target forever plastered on your foreheads. Remember that, too!” the Doctor barks sharply and very harshly. It is rather close to a hardcore growl.
The lead klaxian's gaze lingers on the Doctor for two seconds longer than wheels about to waddle away in a hurry. Each of his steps makes a loud clang-clang noise. Soon after that the giant steel door slides to a close. Following that, the bookshelf then slides back to hide the steel door again.
Long after the klaxians have departed, the rest of the room remains in spooked silence. Even Stern Wing and Feather Wind have never seen the Doctor angry to this degree.
It honestly is the Doctor himself to break this tense ice. He does so by releasing a long breath then suddenly snaps back into the semblance of his old cheerful self as he says with a roll of his head, “Weeeell . . . now that that unpleasantness is taken care of for the time being, it's time to address some other urgent concerns. Namely this thing.” The Doctor nods to the psychic crystal device that was hidden in the globe in the room. “This bomb is now unleashed. I have tweaked its energy to target the klaxian ship for the time being, but even after they take off, the hostile psychic energy of this thing is projecting will still be there and the now berserk sea life will need a new target for their rage unless we can disable this bomb.”
“Uh . . . yes! Disable the bomb!” Derpy encourages. “I'm strongly in favor of the 'disable bomb' option. I absolutely do indeed concur with that option. Wholeheartedly!”
“Well said, my lovely and faithful companion,” the Doctor says as he flashes her a fond smile which soon sinks into a serious frown. “But, unfortunately, I cannot do this on my own. Now, with my sonic device, I can at least tweak this device, but to disable the hostile energy itself while it is in the middle of explosive projection, the pain and anger it is producing must be quelled.”
Derpy tilts her head cutely at the Doctor as she asks with a bewildered blink and a mismatched gaze of her walleyes, “What do you mean, Doctor? How can we quell the hostile energy?”
The Doctor taps the psychic device in question with his sonic screwdriver four times to indicate it as he explains, “This device was given to the native ponies here to serve as a trap for the Alphalmians. In particular, it sent out a, more or less, false psychic distress call, or rather to say it is sort of a recording of other Alphalmians who went through real pain. Once this device captured that psychic 'recording', it projected it upon command within the waters of this planet. That kind of energy can be detected at an impressive distance. Once another Alphalmian heard that distress call, they came in, one by one, to rescue their wayward companion, little realizing that the one that the psychic imprint is gained from had already left the planet a while ago. Once the others are lured by this trap, this device then sends out an intense dissonance psychic frequency to stun the minds of these would-be rescuers and they end up captured as well.
“However,” the Doctor turns to the group, “crystals like these are natural harmonic resonators and receivers of psychic, and perhaps even magical, energy. In short, the distress call recording imprinted upon this device is not the only psionic energy it captured. With each Alphalmian it lured here, it captured their resonance frequency of pain as well. Over time, this device has been capturing more and more waves of hostile psychic energy and it just can't contain it anymore. It's sort of like an overflowing cup or more like a dam that is about to shatter.”
“Okay,” Derpy says with a mist of tears in her eyes because of the pain the Doctor describes. Wrestling internally to control her emotions, the gray pegasus asks, “So now that we have established what it is and why it is causing all these problems, how do we solve it?”
“Be that as it may, this device is little different from a crying and wounded child,” explains the Doctor. “If a real child was hurt and wounded in front of you, how would you go about soothing such a being? What is the most effective way you can think of? Case in point . . .” He trails off as he nods toward Vision. When Derpy looks, she grows startled to notice how distressed and haggard Vision looks.
All this time, Vision has been enduring the intense waves of hostile psychic energy of a device radiating from nearby. Until now, her mental fortitude held out for the most part with the intense inner strength and mental discipline she gained from the monks she grew up with. Her feats are especially impressive considering her youth, but now the source of the hostile psychic energy has burst and is sending out even more intensive waves of hostile psychic energy everywhere. For the moment most of that energy is concentrated upon the desperately retreating klaxian ship, but eventually, that vessel will escape and the energy will still be there. That hostile energy will need a new target unless the pain can be healed at the source.
“VISION!” Derpy cries out, startled, as she wraps her wings protectively around the young foal who is now shivering with exhaustion and pain. “I'm so sorry, Honey, for not noticing your distress!” Derpy weeps over the foal.
Vision wants to reply that was the point. She tried her best to endure this mental torture quietly so that she would not be a more obvious liability to the others than she already was, but now the pain had grown too strong for her to entirely conceal. It is taking all of her remaining mental fortitude to avoid screaming in raw agony.
“Oh Doctor, what are we going to do?” Derpy wails over Vision.
“What did your mother do whenever you were in pain?” the Doctor reflects.
The question momentarily takes Derpy aback. She pops her eyes open since she is so surprised he asked at this moment, but then gives his question some serious thought a second later. After a short pause, she answers, “She sang to me soothingly.”
The Doctor flashes her a knowing grin as he says in a cocky way, “Singing, huh? Now that can produce some pretty darn soothing psychic energy. It's too bad we don't have a sonic amplification device so that we can . . . Oh wait! We do!” The Doctor proudly, almost to the point of being smug, lifts his sonic screwdriver and ignites it. The tip visibly lights up. A moment later, his expression dramatically shifts to tenderness as he encourages her, “So sing, my faithful companion. Sing your lovely heart out. Pour all your love and tenderness into each note of the song. Sing to express the fullness of your wish for all to be well.”
“Um,” Derpy blushes in embarrassment but there is resolve that hardens in her eyes, too. If doing this can help others in any way, especially those that she loves, then she can't contain herself for much longer anyway. “Okay, Doctor,” she says in a small and meek voice, but there is hidden steel in there as well. “If you think that is best.”
“I do, my lovely companion,” the Doctor reassures soothingly. “Now pour your heart out. Let the magic within you flow through us all. Meanwhile, on my end, I'll do my best to carry your voice high enough to soothe what needs to be healed. What needs to be heard.”
Derpy takes a moment to gather her composure and sort of sink into a trance as she remembers the song that was once sung to her by her own mother as well as the tender feelings those memories evoked. She captures that feeling and brings it to the forefront then adds her own love in her heart to this moment.
When all that happens, magic projects from lips in the form of the following lullaby.
“Stars and moons
and air balloons
Fluh-ffy clouds to the horiiiiiii-zon
Iiiiiiiiiii'll wrap you in raaaaaaaain-boooooows
and rock you to sleep agaaaaaaaaaain.”
The others in the room, really without exception, sink into a trance themselves as they hear not only Derpy's soothing voice but enhanced to a near ethereal quality along with a slight echo to it thanks to the Doctor's sonic device amplifying her angelic voice. It's hard to describe to most who are hearing it, but regardless, the song, along with the genuine love and affection behind it, melts their stress away.
She continues.
“Teh-ddy bears of Pink.
“Ducks . . . and lambs of whiiiiiiiiii-ite
Don't you cryyyyy dear, I'm here now
Iiiiiiiiii'll be your niiiiiiiight-liiiight.”
A short pause, then she continues.
“Stars and moons
and air balloons
Fluh-ffy clouds to the horiiiiiii-zon
Iiiiiiiiiii'll wrap you in raaaaaaaain-boooooows
and rock you to sleep agaaaaaaaaaain.
“Smiiiiiles to cure the frowwwwns.
Twirling and tumbling in laugh-ter.
Some-day life will alwaaaaays be . . .
happily ever ahhh-ahh-af-ter.
“Ne-ver more will the stor-ums come,
to destroy your lit-tle worllllld.
Ne-ver more will the wah-ters rise,
til the mountains no longer touch the skiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiies.”
Another short pause and this time a little longer, but she eventually resumes again.
“Stars and moons
and air balloons
Fluh-ffy clouds to the horiiiiiii-zon
Iiiiiiiiiii'll wrap you in raaaaaaaain-boooooows
and rock you to sleep agaaaaaaaaaain.”
She repeats the last stanza, but much slower and tenderly this time.
“Iiiiiiiiiii'll wrap you in raaaaaaaain-booooooooooooooows
. . .
and rock you to sleeeeeep agaaaaaaaaaaaaain.”
From this point on, her song fades off and she hugs Vision more tightly but also gently. She nuzzles her muzzle tenderly on top of Vision's head as tears drop down her closed eyes.
Vision is now peacefully asleep.
The other occupants within the room remain quiet as they gradually recover their wits. That even includes the Doctor who has to sniff and wipe away his own tears before he looks over his shoulder at the psychic device that is now emitting a much slower and soothing frequency. He waves his sonic device as he raises its pitch to double-check the results. Sure enough, he discovers, to his relief, that the hostile energy that was built up within this bomb has successfully been defused with love. It sounds corny to him, but it also makes sense to him in a way and he won't argue with positive results.
And that is not all. Not only did the hostile psionic resonance of this crystal gets successfully defused, but it also freed the mind of the one who was originally feeding negative energy into this crystal. A mind that, until now, could not escape that trap, but now that it is gone, freedom awaits.
Outside, light begins to pick up which soon draws the attention of anyone within the room who isn't blind or downright asleep. When those that can look, they behold a wondrous sight, especially for those who are not accustomed to this.
Outside, a luminous jellyfish-like creature elegantly drifts into their sight. A creature that looks like a cross between a jellyfish and a squid. As told to them earlier or observed before, black eyes are at the butt of this creature which actually makes it a head. Down below, long beautiful tentacles swish and sway gently as the angelic-like creature more floats than swims into view.
Aside from that, soothing waves of warmth and gratitude drift into the minds of all within the foreman's office. This is doubly true for Derpy, to which this angelic creature was freed because of her soothing song, and Ashwin gets some special messages as well. Love is communicated within that message, but other important messages are too. Messages which bring him to tears but he also nods in confirmation and understanding of that silent but warm communication.
As for Vision, she's communing with the creature in her dreams on levels nobody else in the room, not even the Doctor, can fathom.
Chovix actually bows to the noble creature. His heart is filled with regret but also some resolve. Certain promises are made to the creature to make amends for what he has done. As for his cronies, they bow too shortly after their leader does, but no particular special communication is passed between them other than general love and warmth.
Special attention is also devoted to the Doctor. Between them, whole memories are being passed back and forth as if to catch up between old friends. This is actually the first time the Doctor is encountering this being in this particular universe and this linear timeline, but that isn't the case in the reverse. She's met the Doctor before and secretly tells him what he needs to know to prepare for certain aspects of his future journey. Camaraderie is also shared between them in a way that transcends all time. A timeless and special moment shared between them that will have a lasting impact on them both.
When it ends and the Doctor returns from his timeless trance, tears are shed in his eyes. He almost mindlessly drifts towards one of the office windows and reaches a hoof to touch the glass. On the other side, the Alphalmian princess reaches the tip of one of her gentle and glowing tentacles right back to touch the other side of the glass. Because they are both telepathic to some extent, another moment of warm energy passes between them. In doing so, they both feel energized almost as if they arose from the grips of one of the Doctor's regeneration cycles.
“I will,” the Doctor promises the noble creature to some unspoken request. He does this so quietly that it's almost a whisper. “I promise.”