Chapter 2: Early Morning
“Good morning, Doctor!” Derpy shouted in her usual cheery voice.
The Doctor jerked awake. “Ahh!" he shouted. "Oh, it’s just you. Good morning, Derpy.” He yawned. “Hold on, morning? It’s only been ten minutes.”
Derpy nodded her head. “Yeah, but the sun has risen and that means it’s morning.”
The Doctor rolled over onto his hooves then tried to force the hair sticking up on the back of his head back down with his hoof. It worked slightly, but a few stubborn strands remained standing. He stretched out his limbs and walked over to the TARDIS’s monitors.
A grin formed on his face. “Well! This certainly was unexpected.”
“What is it?” Derpy asked.
“The TARDIS is going to be up and running again in an hour or two.” The Doctor circled the control panel of the TARDIS, flipping several switches on his way around it. “And now, we wait.” He sat down in a wide chair.
Derpy’s ears drooped down with disappointment as she closed the door she was peeking out of, and took a seat next to the Doctor. They stared at the green progress bar on the monitor. Three large words above it read: Three Hours Remaining.
Derpy exhaled loudly in boredom. There was little interaction between Derpy and the Doctor for the next ten minutes except for the occasional small talk.
The Doctor shifted into a more comfortable position. Five more minutes passed and Derpy’s misaligned eyes began to droop. The Doctor resorted to playing with his tail for his own amusement.
Derpy stepped off the chair and roamed the TARDIS, examining the different buttons and levers of the control panel, but quickly got bored of it and laid onto her back to stare at the ceiling.
Suddenly, the Doctor jumped off his chair. “That’s it! I can’t do this. Derpy, we’re going back out there.”
Derpy rolled over and sat up like a dog about to get a treat. “Really?!”
“Yep, and I just discovered that I can’t be occupied with nothing for more than twenty minutes.” The Doctor opened the TARDIS doors.
The awkward cow was still standing outside. It seemed to have been staring at the blue box for the past half hour which is about three days relative to the universe they were in, and now, it was looking straight into the Doctor’s eyes. He was slightly unnerved at the deep stare.
“You're really creepy. Did you know that?” he said to the cow before nudging it lightly to the side.
The Doctor observed his surroundings. The silhouette of mountains were in the distance, and before that were small rolling hills. The field he stood was shaded by trees that were spaced evenly apart. The grass under it was generally short but there were occasional patches of tall grass. Flowers of different colors speckled the field.
The brown stallion took a deep breath. “For such a- ” He paused for a moment to find the right word, “For such a blocky world, it really doesn’t look that bad.”
He turned his head to the right. “Right Derpy?” The Doctor scanned the area around him, looking for his companion. “Derpy?”
“She must still be in the TARDIS,” he muttered to himself.
He poked his head back into the TARDIS’s doorway, “Derpy? Oh.” Inside the TARDIS was the awkward cow and Derpy.
"Come on! Get out, now!” screamed Derpy. She was flying around frantically. The cow ran around the TARDIS and Derpy tried to anticipate where it was going to run next so that she could scare it into heading the other direction. It was not going well. Her mane was disheveled and a few of her feathers were scattered on the floor. A few bruises were also covering her body.
The Doctor whistled and got the cow’s attention. “Come on girl. Come on.” He signaled the cow to come over with his hoof. Soon enough, the cow headed towards the Doctor. He stepped out of the way and allowed the cow to leave the TARDIS.
Derpy’s jaw dropped. “How did you. I don’t. What?!”
“Fluttershy taught me a thing or two,” he said smugly.
The defeated Derpy landed softly back on the ground. “Of course she did. You gotta teach me how you did that someday.”
“Noted. Come on, there’s so much to see outside! Oh, and make sure you close the door on your way out. We don’t want that cow wandering back in here.” The pair of them left the TARDIS and Derpy closed the door, as instructed. She took the key from around her neck and locked the door.
They froze because they never considered how large the area was before, but now that they were finally going to start exploring it, they became suddenly overwhelmed. They turned their heads in various directions, trying to figure out which way they should head. South of them was the vast ocean, north of them was the mountains, to the east was desert, and to the west was a snowy landscape.
Derpy headed for the ocean and the Doctor headed towards the mountains. Luckily, they managed to catch their mistake before heading off too far. “This is going to be a bit complicated,” said the Doctor.
“Oh! Oh! I have an idea, let’s flip a rock.”
The Doctor scrutinized Derpy's idea. “A rock?”
Derpy nodded her head. “Yeah, a rock. If it lands on one side, then we go your way. Then if it lands on the other side, we’ll go my way.”
“Sooo. It’s like flipping a coin.”
“Precisely,” replied Derpy.
“Then, why don’t we just flip a coin?”
“Well, do you have a coin? I know I don’t.”
“There aren't any rocks around here also. Just grass and trees.” The Doctor brushed his hoof against the ground.
Derpy inspected the area. The Doctor was right, there weren't any rocks within sight. Derpy exhaled sharply.
“We gotta make up our minds somehow, and it’s gotta be fair.”
“We can just go my way. That’d make things easier.”
Derpy glared at him. "I said fair," she emphasized.
“Fine, I’ll just find something in the TARDIS to flip. Wait here, I’ll be back in a jiffy.”
The Doctor ran back to his ship, unlocked the door, and walked in. He started searching in a storage bin of his.
“What do we have here.” He picked up the first object he saw in the bin. “Sphere... That's not going to work.” He threw the ball to the side. There was a metallic bang when it hit the floor. He pulled the next object out. “Cube... Why do I even have a cube?” He threw that to the side, making the same metallic bang.
He took several more objects out of the bin. “Sphere.” Toss. “Sphere.” Toss. “Cube.” Toss. “Sphere Why do I have so many spheres?!” He threw it with force at the wall. A high pitched screech was heard followed by what sounded like footsteps.
“What?” He pulled his sonic screwdriver and scanned the area for life. No readings showed up. He passed the noise off as the TARDIS regaining it’s energy back and went back to searching for a flippable object. Three more spheres and cubes later, he pulled the entire drawer out in frustration, dumped all the contents out which consisted only of spheres and cubes, and headed back out to Derpy.
“I found something we can flip.” He dropped the drawer at Derpy’s hooves.
Derpy shrugged her shoulders, “Okay.”
“If it lands bottom side up, we go my way. If it lands on the other side, we go your way. Let’s see what we get.” The Doctor threw the drawer high into the air. It made several rotations before crashing back down onto the floor, breaking into two. The bottom side was on top though.
“Aww,” said Derpy disappointingly.
The Doctor gave a small cheer. “To the mountains!” He noticed Derpy’s subtle frown and instantly felt bad. “If you really want to Derpy, we can go to the ocean instead.”
“It’s alright. You win, fair and square.” Derpy stuck her tongue out at the drawer, then noticed a bit of writing. “Hold on, what’s this label on the drawer?” Derpy got closer to the writing and read it out loud. “Sphere and cube storage. Huh?” She looked at the Doctor.
“That explains a lot.”
They began their little adventure when it was late afternoon. They hadn't actually wasted much time flipping objects, but the day passed faster than they were used to. Sunlight was diminishing and the TARDIS still had about an hour and a half before it was ready. It would be night soon, and the Doctor knew it. He glanced at Derpy who was hopping up and down excitedly.
"Doctor, are you ready yet?"
"Umm." The Doctor weighed the odds. He disregarded his paranoia of the night, and decided not to postpone the trip. "Yeah, let's get going."
Finally, the duo embarked on their journey. They cracked the tree blocks as they passed by them to mark their path. They made sure not to completely break the block, in fear of absorbing the tree like Derpy did the day before, but they cracked it enough to be easily visible in the night.
They were making good progress. The TARDIS was already out of sight when the sun set and The Doctor and Derpy were at the treeline. The moon, which was slowly rising above the horizon, illuminated the mountainside.
When they were maybe a hundred yards from the base of the mountain, something whizzed between the travelers’ heads, making them duck instinctively. The object that almost hit them was now stuck in the ground in front of them. It vibrated for a moment then settled down.
The Doctor and Derpy examined the object.
“That’s...” The Doctor started.
“An arrow!” Derpy shouted.
They both turned around in an instant. A bony figure armed with a bow was standing over them, and it was nocking another arrow.
“Derpy,” the Doctor said.
“I know,” replied his companion uneasily.
“Run!” they duo said in unison.
They bolted in different directions just as an arrow pierced the ground they once stood on.
"This way!” shouted the Doctor to Derpy. He pointed his hoof towards the woods that they emerged from.
She changed directions quickly and started running to the Doctor. She heard the distinct twang from the skeleton’s bow behind her and less than a second later she felt the arrow pass by her left ear.
The Doctor saw that the skeleton had diverted its attention to himself. He ducked just before the skeleton released it's grip on the arrow. He grimaced in pain when the arrow grazed his side. Derpy sprinted over to the Doctor and regrouped with him.
She saw the blood on his coat. “You alright?”
“Yeah, keep running!”
They did just that, more running. The Doctor and Derpy found one of their cracked trees and frantically searched for the next one.
“Come on! Where is it?!” he shouted with frustration in his voice.
“Over here Doct— Ahh!” An arrow lodged itself in the dirt right under her. Derpy took cover behind a tree. She could hear the skeleton getting closer. She took a deep breath and sprinted for cover at the next cracked tree.
She spotted the next one, then sprinted to it. The Doctor followed closely behind. As the chase went on, the skeleton became hard to spot but the arrows were less accurate and not as frequent. Soon afterwards, the arrows stopped firing altogether. They had gotten away.
“Phew, that was a close one.” The Doctor propped himself up on a tree and regained his breath.
Derpy laid down on her side. “Heh, yeah.” She stood back up after catching her breath. “Let me see your side.”
The Doctor presented the wound to his assistant. “Don’t worry about it. It’s just a scratch.”
“If you say so.” Derpy’s stomach growled and she groaned. “I could really use a muffin right now.”
The Doctor looked down at his own empty stomach. “I know how you feel.”
“I really feel like a blueberry muffin. Oh! Oh! Or a banana muffin. Mmmm. That’d be sooo tasty right now.” Derpy's eyes drooped and drool was beginning to dribble out of the side of her mouth. “So tasty...” she said quietly.
"Derpy, are you alright?" The Doctor nudged Derpy on the shoulder.
She snapped out of her trance. "Huh? I, but, but. It was so close! I almost took a bite out of it!"
The Doctor diverted his attention elsewhere. “Hold on Derpy, quiet.”
“What is—" Derpy's mouth was shut by the Doctor's hoof.
“Listen...”
Derpy cocked her head to hear the noise better. A few moments of silence later, Derpy began to speak again. “I think I hear it.” She listened to the noise more carefully. “It sounds familiar."
“Yeah...” The Doctor nodded in agreement. “It almost sounds like.”
Their eyes widened at the same time. “The TARDIS’s engine,” they said in unison.
“Oh no. No, no, no, no, no, no. It can’t be. I thought I locked it! You saw me Derpy! I locked it! Unless somepony was in the TARDIS when I left, this can't be possible!" Something in the Doctor's mind clicked. "That noise, the shriek and the footsteps. Agh! How could I have been so careless? We gotta go. More running, come on!”
The Doctor sprinted faster than ever in the morning light. The noise was becoming more distinct, it was definitely the TARDIS’s engine.
They were nearing their landing site. “Oh Celestia, please don’t let it be.”
The TARDIS was fading in and out. “NO! No. No. No...” The TARDIS de-materialized completely and it's engines were no longer heard. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and scanned around hoping the TARDIS was still in the area but nothing could be detected. He grunted loudly in frustration and bucked a tree.
Derpy caught up to the disgruntled Doctor. “This isn't good.”
“How could it just fly off like that?! It wasn't even ready yet.”
The duo stared at the empty space where the TARDIS once was. The Doctor sighed.
“Don’t you have some kind of genius plan? You always do!” said Derpy with hope. In the back of her mind though, she knew that nothing could be done but wait for a miracle. The Doctor said nothing. “Come on! You can’t just give up like that!”
“I haven’t! I’m just thinking of a plan, that’s all.” The Doctor continued to stare at the space, deep in thought.
"It's obvious when you lie, Doctor," Derpy said before walking away disappointed.
All of a sudden, something started to ring. The pair stood up and dashed towards the source.
An old fashioned telephone was attached to a tree, a certain high pitched and squeaky voice was coming from the speaker. “Helllllllllooooo? Anypony there?”