The Doctor, Luna, and Derpy Hooves all entered through the sliding door of Ironclad Industries, a robot manufacturing plant combined with a functional storefront. It was located on the very edge of New Canterlot, though the closest to the mountain itself and by extension ‘old’ Canterlot.
Almost immediately, a pair of identical twins came to meet them, shaking their heads. The pair were both purplish stallions, with short-cut silver manes.
“We’re sorry, but our storefront is getting ready to close for the night,” one of them said with the slightest hint of agitation.
“Oh, we’re not customers,” the Doctor replied, flipping open a wallet containing only a single piece of paper. The first twin looked at the paper carefully, and then the second took a glance.
“Surely...... an inspection can wait until the morning?” the second stallion asked with a nervous grin. Luna spoke from underneath her hooded cloak this time in response.
“We will be in Los Pegasus tomorrow. Besides, this was scheduled months ago.”
“I don’t remember-” one of the stallions started, but Derpy was quick to interrupt him this time, taking to the air and landing herself right in front of his face.
“That’s your fault for not writing it down then. Let us through, or we may have to declare this factory unfit for service until we can reschedule,” she said. The Doctor shot her a grin, mouthing the words ’Well put’.
****
The Doctor lay on his back underneath a conveyor belt, his sonic screwdriver humming away as he waved it around the underside of the production machinery. Luna was up on the second level of the factory complex, tapping her hoof against the walls and listening for a certain type of reverberation that could reveal a hidden room. Derpy was with the Doctor, standing and waiting for him.
“Doctor,” she asked, “What was that thing you showed the two stallions at the front?”
The Doctor scooted himself out from under the conveyor, standing back up on all fours and tossing Derpy the wallet.
“The paper inside is slightly psychic. Show’s ‘em whatever I want. Isn’t it great?”
Derpy opened the wallet, and inside were coupons for free banana muffins at the place they had eaten earlier. Her eyes lit up, and she showed it to the Doctor gleefully.
“Banana muffins?” he remarked with a whistle, “I could go for some banana muffins. I like bananas. Lemme see that for a sec.”
Derpy tossed the wallet back to the Doctor, and he caught it with his front hooves. He looked at it for a second and then showed it back to Derpy. Instead of showing the free muffin coupons it had shown earlier, it had one word written in bold text: FOCUS.
“How’d you do that?” Derpy asked, cocking her head to the side.
“I told you, it’s slightly psychic. Whatever the holder wants you to see, you see. Now, less talk about muffins and bananas and let’s get back down to business.”
“Alright,” Derpy said with a frown, “find anything under there?”
“Nope.”
Luna landed next to them, bowing her head down to whisper. Both Derpy and the Doctor leaned in carefully.
“I went on all floors of the factory level. Nothing. Not even testy robots,” she whispered. The Doctor nodded.
“I’ve taken a peek at the machinery myself,” he said, “Looks like the internal stuff- all the wires and cables and little chips- have little to no wear.”
“What does that mean?” Derpy asked, “Maybe they just replaced them?”
“No,” said the Doctor in a low voice, “I doubt they really make the robots in this building, aside from showcasing. It’s odd.... I don’t see any equipment for making or installing the quadtronic processor. Its the most important bit, too.”
“What do you think, then?”
“Those stallions,” the Doctor said, “They had a real dodgy look about them. They’re hiding something all right.”
Raising his gaze, the Doctor caught sight of one of the two stallions. Each pony stood by the door to the factory, leaning and rocking about on their hooves. One of the two reared back and leaned himself against the wall, running one of his hooves through his mane while stealing the occasional glance at the supposed “inspectors”.
Derpy listened quietly as nopony spoke. The Doctor was staring down the two stallions from across the factory, and Luna did not speak a word either. In this silence, she heard a muffled noise beneath her. The sound was distant and rumbly, but it was present. The Doctor seemed to have noticed it as well, as he glanced down to the cement floor for a moment.
They were above the entrance to the mines, alright. That was all the confirmation the Doctor needed.
“Right,” he said, moving quickly across the factory and leaving the Princess and Derpy to fly in his wake.
“F-find everything to be satisfactory, sir?” one of the two twins stuttered.
“Oh, absolutely fantastic!” said the Doctor, “Really superb. You said your turnaround rate is...”
“Four hours,” stated one of the brothers, “We put in the command and four hours later you get a robot, ready to go and perform whatever tasks you give it. Any questions that any of you three want to ask before leaving?”
“Don’t be so hot to shove us out the door, I have plenty of questions. I have to say, for a full-scale industrial complex, I expected more employees,” started the Doctor, “You two brothers, here running the place by yourselves? That’s a lot of automation. Not to mention the pristine shape of your machines.”
“We take very g-good care of our equipment!” stated the second brother, moving against the wall like a cornered animal when the Doctor eyed him.
“Almost too pristine,” continued the Doctor, “In fact, it makes one wonder whether or not they see continuous use... Where are the Quadtronic Processors?”
“The what?”
The Doctor snorted, and pulled his leather jacket down a bit on his shoulders. Derpy couldn’t help but sit back and watch as the Doctor forced the two stallions into a metaphorical hot seat, bombarding them with direct questions.
“Don’t be thick,” he said, “There are no Quadtronic Processors produced in this place. You haven’t the machines to do it. Where do you install the processors for your robots?”
“W..we have a separate plant out on Vanhoover that does that.”
The Doctor smiled. He had caught the twins in the middle of a lie.
“Princess Luna,” he called out, as the night princess dropped her hood to the amazement of the stallions standing before her, “Do you have any teleportation technology in this era?”
“No,” Luna replied, “Only gifted unicorns are able to teleport, and only short distances.”
“How long would a trip take to transport a shipment of industrial freight from New Canterlot to Vanhoover?”
“Just more than two hours,” she replied, “so a round trip would take about four hours, and that would be if the processors were installed instantaneously and the transport returned immediately afterwards.”
“So, four, five hours on top of the initial production time of the robotic shell itself?” the Doctor continued, “Doesn’t sound like your initial figure, does it? Do you want to try to answer me again?”
The two licked their lips, and exchanged glances. It was clear to see the wheels turning as the cornered ponies raced to come up with an excuse to cover their tails, and their facade crumbled to bits around them to reveal a poorly planned falsification.
“They ship the processors down here, we install them here. We have stockpiles ready to go, it’s not like ...”
The Doctor raised a hoof, signaling the pony to remain quiet. The rumbling that Derpy had heard beneath their hooves returned, this time shaking the ground beneath them a bit not dissimilar to the earthquake that had struck the castle earlier in the day. As the shaking subsided, the Doctor eyed both of the stallions, and began to pace.
“Alright, so you ship the Quadtronic Processors down here from Vanhoover, and install them in this factory. That’s all well and good but that raises my first question...”
He wheeled about on his legs to look straight at the pair of twin stallions.
“Where do you actually install the processors for your robots?”
There was a moment of silence where nopony spoke, but in that same moment of silence the rumbling continued, and the concrete floor began to creak. It increased sharply in sound and intensity before trailing off once again.
“Sir, m’am, Princess,” the first stallion said, “I’m going to have to insist that you leave at once.”
“Or what?” the Doctor retorted, lumbering up to the purplish stallion, “The floor creaking is significant, isn’t it? Something big is gonna happen soon, am I right?”
“I wish I could tell you. I really wish I could but they forbid it. I can’t say a word. For your safety sir, just go. Please! It’s not safe here!”
The Doctor paused, glancing to Derpy and then to Luna with a raised eyebrow. His expression changed from one of consternation to one of glee, with a huge grin covering his face.
“I get it now!” he exclaimed, jumping into action and climbing halfway up a flight of stair. He leaned out over the rail and pointed at a spot on the factory floor, a point that was entirely clear of machinery and marked out with a great X.
“That’s actually a portal, isn’t it? That’s why nothing showed up on the Sonic. It’s no door or physical entryway, it’s the spot where these things come from.”
“What things?” Derpy asked, flying up and landing next to the Doctor on the grated stairs.
“Am I right in saying that you two are legitimate businessponies caught up in a terrible plot? You’re under threat from a higher power?” Luna asked of the two silver-maned brothers. They nodded quietly.
“You lot, what’s your names?” asked the Doctor from the staircase.
“I’m Gearhead Cladd,” the first one replied, “and this is my brother Gadget Cladd. Cladd brothers of IronClad industries. Now will you please go before the things appear! They’ll kill you, and maybe us too if they knew the word got out.”
“Right, Cladd brothers,” the Doctor continued, “If you value your lives, run now. Run for your life, because I’m staying. You don’t want to be caught in the crossfire when the Doctor comes to call.”
The two stallions took their chance and dashed through their own front door, and out into the busy streets of New Canterlot, leaving the Doctor, Derpy, and Luna standing in the dimly lit factory as the rumbling peaked once again. The stairs began to shake, the equipment shifted, and this time a beam of light shot up from the very center of the X mark on the factory floor. Luna flew up to stand next to the Doctor and Derpy Hooves as the bright shaft of light grew brighter, expanding in circumference.
“Doctor, what is that?” Derpy asked, grabbing ahold of his leg as if to hide herself in the fold of his leather coat.
“I’ve got a bit of a hunch, actually,” he admitted with a wide grin, “Oh, see there in the center? They’re starting to come through the portal! Legions of them! This is just fantastic!”
“Hardly the word I’d use,” Luna commented, “Those things look dangerous.”
“I know,” replied the Doctor, “and isn’t that just the coolest part?”
The forms materialized, revealing heavily armored versions of the robots they had seen all day, sans artificial mane and bright coloring. The eyepieces glowed a deep crimson, yet kept their gaze forward. The robots formed a circle around the portal in groups of five, forming a pentagon totaling twenty five units in all.
At the center, the portal solidified into a physical entrance to the mines below, one that had been upgraded and coated in hi-tech paneling and lights. Through this, a slender unicorn mare emerged. She had a long, flowing mane and an equally long tail of dull rust, and a coat that had at one point been brown but had now faded to an almost steel-like tone. Her cutie mark was that of a processing chip.
A confused look came over her face when she did not see the two ponies she had been expecting. Instead of the Cladd brothers, she was greeted by a wall-eyed pegasus, an alicorn princess, and a leather-clad stallion grinning like a colt.
“What is this? Who are you?” she called out in a flustered tone.
“I’m the Doctor, and I think you’ve got a little bit of explaining to do.”
“Doctor,” Derpy whispered, pulling him aside. He leaned in down so that the pegasus could whisper into his ear.
“If you’re a time traveller and all, don’t you know who she is and what she wants?”
Smiling, the Doctor shook his head and mouthed the word ‘no’. He turned his attention back toward the tall mare and her legion of armored robots.
“Fantastic creations you’ve got there. Like regular old robots, but toughened up and battle-ready. What do you call them?”
“These are far more than robots, Doctor,” she replied with a half grin, “These are droids. Artificial Intelligence put to use for my purposes. Do you like them?”
“Artificial Intelligence?” the Doctor repeated, “They have free thought, ideas, emotions, everything?”
The pony didn’t answer his question, but took to pacing down on the factory floor.
“You still haven’t told me your name, nor where my associates have gone to,” she said, “I’m a very dangerous pony to be crossing.”
“No, I’m the more dangerous one to be crossing. It’s just ‘the Doctor’, by the way, miss....”
“My name is unimportant,” she replied, “I give you five seconds to tell me where my associates have gone before I order the droids to open fire.”
The Doctor raised a hoof, trying to think of something sassy to retort with. Finding nothing, he let a nervous grin come over his face, and locked hooves with Derpy. Luna bowed her head in.
“Basically, run.”
Derpy and Luna took to the air amid bright blasts of energy shooting skywards. The Doctor dashed down the rest of the stairs and catapulted himself up and over the railing.
Derpy swooped down through the exit of the factory but smashed into the front desk of the storefront. Disoriented, she flew out into the open sky without opening the door, smashing the glass to bits and crashing down into the asphalt outside clumsily.
Luna was behind her promptly, grabbing ahold of the gray pegasus and vanishing in a blast of magic energy and leaving the Doctor behind. The droids followed him as he ran through the remains of the glass window and out into the street. They had a quick pace, but clanked and clicked with every step.
Rounding the corner of a tall building emblazoned with bright signs declaring low prices on cider-based beverages, the Doctor bolted for the nearest back alley he could, hoping that he had remembered the correct one. He was met with a brick-like wall and sprayed-on graffiti declaring the name of high-profile degenerates. One called himself ‘Colt Cool’ and another ‘Bad Wolf’.
There was no sign of the TARDIS to be found, and the Doctor wheeled about to find that he had been trapped. The way out of the alley was now blocked by several bulky droids, with firing prods trained for the Doctor.
“WAIT!” he cried out, halting the red-eyed droids preparing to fire. He removed his leather coat and dropped it onto the ground below, leaving himself just wearing a greenish shirt over his natural blue fur.
“According to International Robotic order number 63, you must-”
“No such order exists! Don’t try to play games with me!” the first of the droids replied with a metallic voice. Surprisingly, the Doctor could hear inflection and tone in this robot’s voice rather than a dull lack of emotion. It actually had a personality.
“You will be taken to the Commander for further processing,” it commanded.
“Alright then,” the Doctor replied with a grin, “Take me to your leader!”