Twilight looked on in fear at the sight of the operational Dalek. She had only ever dealt with them once before, but she had long since decided that once was enough.
"Come, Iron Plate," the wrinkled stallion said to the other pony. "We have a lot more work ahead of us."
The two ponies left the ruins, with the Dalek following close behind.
Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't have to worry about that Dalek.
However, as she turned around, she saw a group of shambling, sickly pony-like creatures in cloaks.
That, she needed to worry about.
Meanwhile in the Bunker...
An armed pegasus guard by the name of Lock n' Key waited in the security area. His was an important job, but it didn't tend to see much action. As such, seeing Right Hoof arrive with two strange-looking ponies in tow was a sight for bored eyes.
"Lock," Right Hoof proclaimed, "I want these two screened an passed on to Inquiring Mind for proper interrogation."
"Yes, sir."
Right Hoof held up a box that contained the sonic screwdriver, the etheric beam locator, and other paraphenalia of The Doctor's. "These are the prisoners' belongings."
Lock n' Key nodded, and had another guard take hold of the box. Right Hoof saluted and left.
"Now that he's gone, could we have some tea?" The Doctor asked.
"Excuse me?" Lock countered.
"Well, I'm not one for coffee, but my friend and I are quite parched," The Doctor explained. "Aren't we parched, Dr. Stable?"
"Very parched, Doctor," Stable reassured.
Lock gestured to a nearby arch. "Step into this security scanner."
"That's a no on the tea, then?"
"Allow me to remind you that you have no rights here," Lock said, "It is completely within my authority to torture and kill you if you do not comply with my orders. This will be your first and only warning!"
"No tea. Got it." The Doctor sighed.
Stable followed his instructions and stepped through the arch. It hummed to life with energy in response.
"Next," Lock shouted.
The Doctor also made his way through the arch, but as he walked through, an alarm rang out.
"Scanner indicates a power source wrapped around your foreleg," Lock pointed out.
The Doctor looked to the Time Ring he was still wearing. "The bracelet? It has no use as a weapon."
"Don't make a fuss, Doctor," Stable said as Lock confiscated the ring.
The Doctor whispered to Stable, "That ring is our only hope of getting back to the TARDIS. Getting it back is our number one priority."
"Yes, but we can't let them know that," Stable countered.
"Take them to Inquiring Mind."
Meanwhile in the Ruins...
The hideous-looking creatures loomed toward her as Twilight found herself in an anxious sweat. "What are you going to do to me?" she asked in horror.
"You are beautiful," one of them observed, "you have no deformity or imperfection."
Twilight blushed. She never really thought of herself that way.
Another one spoke up. "She is a norm. All norms are the enemy! We must kill her now for what she has done to our kind."
Twilight traded her blush for that anxious sweat she had going earlier.
"No," the first one said. "Why must we destroy beauty? Why kill other creatures solely because they are not in our own image?"
"It is our law! The norms must die! They are our enemies!"
Before he could continue his rant, a shot rang out. As this creature fell over dead, Twilight could see its deformed face. However, he focus turned to the soldiers approaching towards the makeshift group. These ponies could be easily identified by the fact that their eyelids were naturally blue. These were the other natives of Skaro, the Thals.
"A muto?" their leader said. "Feh, what a waste of ammunition."
"Look at these other ones, sir," a soldier pointed out. "They don't seem too badly mutated. The purple one is almost normal."
The Thal leader pondered this. "Very well. Take them back to the base. We could use the extra labor."
Much to her's and the mutos' chagrin, Twilight complied. It was better than dying alone in the wastelands.
Meanwhile in the Laboratory...
Amongst the various technicians operating on mysterious items likely meant for war, the one that held The Doctor's attention was the one sitting directly in front of him.
The Doctor and Stable had been brought before Inquiring Mind, a science-minded unicorn stallion. His coat was pale and his mane was gray, with a cutie mark of a brain with an orange question mark over it.
Mind looked to the box of The Doctor's items with a confused look on his face. "Where did you get these things?" he asked.
"Oh, here and there," The Doctor replied evasively.
"I've never seen anything like them. If I didn't know better I'd say these were made on another planet," Mind explained. "Of course that would be impossible."
"Impossible?" The Doctor scoffed.
"Davros long sinced proved that Skaro is the only planet in seven systems capable of supporting intelligent life," Mind said.
The Doctor kept up his smug smile. "Yes, but it is also been long-since proven that there are more than seven systems."
Mind chuckled. "Very true." He levitated a file folder with his telekinesis. "However, these are the results of both of your bioscans." He opened the folder, unable to see The Doctor and Stable turn to each other, stifling laughter. "And they will plainly prove that you two are perfectly norm..."
Inquiring Mind trailed off at that last bit as he saw the bioscans. Neither of these two stallions' internal organ structure even remotely resembled that of a being from Skaro. Even more baffling was that one of them had two hearts.
Stable smiled. "It's funny when it's not me."
"Th-th-this is impossible," Mind stuttered out. "Other than your external appearances, you're nothing like a Kaled or a Thal."
"Never judge a book by its cover," The Doctor reminded him.
Inquiring Mind looked to the two aliens in front of him in awe. "What are you?"
"Kind of a long story," Stable replied.
"I have time," Mind reasurred.
The Doctor leaned forward. "Do you have even the most remote understanding of the theory of space dimension correlated to relative time?"
Before the science officer could answer (it would have been 'no') an alarm went off.
"We'll have to wait," Mind explained. "Davros wishes to speak with us all."
"The chief scientist?" The Doctor clarified.
"Our supreme commander. When he calls a full meeting, he clearly has something important to tell us."
Stable turned to The Doctor. "Maybe we can finally get some answers."
The various ponies in the room turned to the door, and in walked Davros.
Well, not 'walked', per se. Davros rolled into the room with his bionic chair. This was the same wrinkled stallion that Twilight had seen in the ruins. Right Hoof stood at his side.
"If I may have your attention," Davros said, "As you are aware, I have spent much time experimenting with the Mark III Travel Machines. I arrive before you today to show you that I have gained some remarkable results."
The Kaleds in the room stomped their hooves in applause for their commander.
"As such," he continued, "I have arranged a small demonstration."
In rolled another figure. This one was a bit more familiar to The Doctor.
"A Dalek," he whispered.
"A what?" Mind whispered back.
"Very primitive, mind you, but a Dalek all the same."
Davros resumed his speech. "The new device is equipped with a weapon for self defense, and a probe to manipulate its environment. The shell is impervious to damage, and runs on a self-generating energy source. I shall now activate the self-control function. The creature will now be able to act independently."
The lights on either side of the Dalek's head flared to life. It moved closer to Stable and The Doctor.
"YOU ARE A-LI-EN LIFE-FORMS! YOU MUST BE EX-TER-MI-NA-TED!" it announced.
"Again, if I had a bit..." The Doctor muttered.
"Aren't you all amazed?" Davros asked. "It was able to detect the non-conformity."
"Davros, shut it off!" Inquiring Mind shouted.
"Why? My creature has shown its prowess. Let it continue in the process. Let it show its ultimate supremacy!" Davros countered.
"Maybe so, but these two could offer new information. At least the scarved one is intelligent-"
"Hey!" Stable interjected.
"And could offer new advances in scientific research," Mind offered.
Davros pondered this. He used his one good hoof to flick a switch, shutting the Dalek off. "Very well," he surrendered. "But you will later be punished for your insubordination."
Davros and Right Hoof left the room. While the majority of the scientists began to examine the Dalek, Inquiring Mind was dragged into another conversation with The Doctor.
"Thank you. I owe you one," The Doctor said.
"I merely did my duty as a scientist," Mind retorted. "You two are to be taken to the cells, and know this. When I am done, I will be more than happy to let Davros sic his new plaything on you."
The Doctor smirked. He had won an ally.
Meanwhile in the Thal Dome...
The room that Twilight and the mutos had been led to was surrounded by guards on all sides. The Thals looked at their prisoners with disgust. The sort of look you might give to a group of slobs playing in a sewage plant.
Twilight turned to the muto who had spoken in her defense. "So what do you think they're going to do to us?"
The muto responded, "Usually Thals kill on sight. They probably need some sort of labor force."
"He's right." Twilight and the muto turned to the voice. It was another young colt in a Kaled uniform. "The Thals have developed a new superweapon to achieve victory in one swift blow. If it works, my entire civilization crumbles in an instant. Doesn't matter though. I'm dead just from working on the damn thing."
"Why?" Twilight asked.
"The weapon is made from distronic explosives," the Kaled explained, "And we have to put it together. Due to the supply shortage, they're not wasting metal on protective shielding so we're all gonna get distronic toxemia."
Twilight gulped. "Alright then. We just need to figure a way out of here."
An alarm went off.
"Back to work!" a guard barked.
Meanwhile in a Detention Cell...
The Doctor was shoved into the cell as the door shut behind him. The only reprise from the gunmetal gray room was Stable, sitting on one of the bunks. "You alright?" he asked.
"I might be. I fed them as much nonsensical scientific gobbledygook I could think of," The Doctor said, "By the end of it, even I didn't know what I was saying."
Stable smirked. "Should keep their science division distracted."
"And I got to learn a thing or two," The Doctor asserted. "Years ago the Kaled government formed a sort of think tank and hid them in this underground bunker. Within that time they've grown in power to the point where they've completely overshadowed the actual governing bodies."
"And Davros?" Stable wondered.
"From what I can tell, as supreme scientist, he's essentially a dictator."
There was a knock at the door. "Maybe that's our tea," Stable joked.
While Inquiring Mind was a reassuring sight, he sadly did not bring tea to this visit. He entered the room.
"I'm sorry if the guards were rough with you," he said, "I sadly have no place to interfere."
"I'm still thankful I didn't have to be the first victim of a Dalek," The Doctor replied.
Mind nodded. "Yes. That word, 'Dalek'. At first I assumed it was gibberish, but just moments ago, Davros announced that from this point forward we are to refer to those within the Mark III Travel Machines as 'Daleks'. But you couldn't have know that ahead of time."
"I have a bit of a timing advantage," The Doctor explained. "My friends and I have arrived here out of concern of the future development of these Daleks. And I'm under the assumption that you're a mite concerned as well."
Inquiring Mind looked outside to make sure nopony was listening. Once his fears were assuaged, he began to whisper. "I'm not the only one. Davros has mutated the Dalek creatures to create something completely amoral. All they know is prejudice and xenophobia. Now, we knew mutation was going to occur, once we started our experimentation with nuclear and chemical warfare."
"And you already held prejudice and hatred for the so-called 'mutos'," Stable said with disdain.
Mind looked away in shame. "Yes." He turned back with a pleading look in his eye. "But Davros saw a different solution. He decided to use the mutations to our advantage, create a being that was even beyond the superiority of the Kaleds. He took living cells, and he has produced what he calls 'the ultimate life-form'." He checked the hallway again. "Come with me."
Mind led The Doctor and Stable down the corridor to a strange door with steam coming out from the bottom of the door. Mind opened it to reveal a nauseating sight. Inside were strange sorts of cephalopod-like creatures. They were as if the average brain had sprouted a series of tentacles and a single eye directly were the crown of the head would be located.
"That is the future of the Kaleds," Mind explained.
The Doctor kept up a stony visage.
Meanwhile in the Thal Dome...
Twilight and the other workers staggered back into the detention room. They had been granted a 10-minute break before they had to work another hour on the missile. As you might expect, this was designed to leave the prisoners too exhausted to fight back, but strong enough to keep up the good work.
Twilight had caught on to this scheme. "We need to do soemthing now. If we work another shift, we'll never have the strength to escape."
"Escape is impossible," her muto friend replied. "The only exit in the rocket room leads straight through a security checkpoint packed with troopers."
"Not quite," Twilight said. "There's one other option."
"What?" the muto asked.
"The rocket they're building has a tall scaffolding next to it so they can work on the warhead," she reminded him, "and there's an opening in the dome so the rocket will be able to be launched."
"Go up?" the Kaled prisoner asked. "Are you insane?!"
"I've seen the dome from the outside," Twilight replied. "If we get to the roof, it's a gentle angle back down."
"We don't have any other choice," the muto pointed out.
The Kaled pondered this for a moment, and begrudgingly agreed. "Beats dying of distronic toxemia."
"Let's spread the word," Twilight said.
Meanwhile in the Detention Cell...
Mind had brought Stable and The Doctor back to the cell, in the hopes of concealing their brief release.
"Upon discovering our supposed ultimate form," Mind continued, "Davros developed a travel machine so that it could move. The combination of the two being this 'Dalek' of his."
"And he's making it into his newest weapon," The Doctor surmised.
"He already has," Mind corrected. "The Dalek has no empathy whatsoever."
"And you want to stop this?" Stable asked.
"Somepony has to," Mind replied. "A few members of Kaled government still hold some semblance of power over Davros. And if they knew the truth, they would near-instantly shut him down."
"Then go to them," The Doctor said.
"I can't. I'm not allowed to enter the city. But you two can get there for me," Mind offered. "There's a series of ventilation ducts that lead to a cave at the edge of the wastelands. It's a treacherous journey, and a few of Davros' earlier experiments are there. They are utter abominations."
"I've dealt with worse," The Doctor boasted.
Meanwhile in the Thal Dome...
After nine minutes had passed, it was just about time for the group to begin their escape attempt.
Twilight carefully lit her horn, and the Thal guards noticed that their weapons began to melt right before their eyes. As the guard by the door opened it in the hopes of retrieving more, Twilight telekinetically slammed him against the wall as the prisoners made their getaway.
Meanwhile in a Kaled Corridor...
Using his own telekinesis, Dr. Stable removed the grill from the ventilation duct, and made his way up.
Inquiring Mind gave The Doctor a slip of paper. "These are the ponies you should get in touch with."
"Thank you," he replied. The two extraterrestrials made their way into the vents, and Mind politely decided to turn a blind eye to their escape.
Meanwhile in the Rocket Silo...
Twilight and the slave workers made their way to the scaffolding next to the rocket. The room was at least twenty stories high, and the scaffolding was a bright orange. The interlocking support frames of the scaffolding were their only chance for escape.
Twilight and her newfound allies began to climb the web-like tower. Their teeth grinded painfully against the metal and their hooves could barely grip it. How they could grip it at all is a good question, but I'm running with it.
An alarm went off to alert the other guards of the jailbreak. As the guards rushed in, a single shot rang out, and one of the prisoners dropped to their death.
"Come on, we're almost there!" a muto shouted.
Twilight lifted her hoof up to the next beam.
She slipped.