//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Doctor Whooves: The Search For Derpy // by Jeseille-Hazim //------------------------------// “Ugh, I keep thinking about that colt. What if he got injured on the way back?” the Doctor asked himself as he continued walking through the forest. “Nah, he’s probably fine,” the Doctor replied to himself. The Doctor, not paying attention to where he was going, bumped into a tree. He looked down at the ground and saw some berries. Then he realized that this was the same tree from earlier. “Are you serious right now?” the Doctor asked himself. “I went around in a circle?!” the Doctor shouted loud enough to wake some owls up from sleeping. The owls glared at him for this. “Heh, sorry,” the Doctor whispered. The owls ignored this and went back to sleep. “Gah! I can’t believe myself!” the Doctor shouted quieter as he sat down and put his head into his hooves. He looked up from his hooves and saw that there was a pond nearby. “A pond? In the Everfree Forest? My brain must be playing tricks on me,” the Doctor pondered. He thought about it for a while and decided that he would go check it out to make sure if it’s real or not. He got up from where he was sitting and started walking cautiously towards it. For all he knew, it could’ve been a trap. He made it to the pond and knelt down. He slowly put his hoof in the water and brought it back out. The water seemed to just drip off his hoof back into the pond. “Nothing happened. Huh...” the Doctor said, surprised that it wasn’t a trap. “Might as well clean myself up. I’ve gotten a bit of mud and leaves on me while being in here so why not?” the Doctor said. Deciding to just jump right in, he walked back a few steps to get a running start. He then ran and jumped into the water, getting every part of his body wet. He emerged out of the water and spit some water out, back into the pond. He relaxed against the end of the pond. After moments of just relaxing there, he grabbed onto the ground and got out of the pond. Obviously seeing that there were no towels or anything to dry himself with, he just shook himself. He got all the water off after a while and stretched. “Well, that was nice, I suppose,” the Doctor said. “Glad nothing bad happened when I was in there,” the Doctor said once again and continued walking. Alas, the Doctor was wrong as the pond started bubbling and something began to climb out. “Oh dear... I had a feeling this wouldn’t end well,” the Doctor said as he turned around to look at the pond. He closed his eyes and braced for the inevitable. When he opened them, he didn’t expect that he would see this. On the ground in front of him was a baby alligator that was way smaller than him. Thinking that it was harmless, he knelt on the ground and reached a hoof over to pet him. However, this wasn’t an ordinary baby alligator since this was the Everfree Forest after all. As soon as he got close to the alligator, its teeth grew to a massive size. The Doctor began scooting away at this. “Yep, I think this might be a good time to run,” the Doctor said with fear visible in his eyes. The Doctor got up and started running away from the alligator. He looked around as he was running for somewhere to hide. He looked behind him at one moment and saw that the alligator was fairly close to him. His legs then started to get tired. The Doctor looked down at his legs. No, I’ve got keep going! The Doctor thought as he forced his legs to keep going even though they started to hurt. The Doctor looked ahead again to continue looking for a place to hide. He saw that same tree again. There’s that damn tree again, the Doctor thought. He looked closer and saw that there was a log in front of it. When was that there? the Doctor wondered. The Doctor took a chance and used the log as a way to get onto one of the branches. He jumped on the log and then jumped onto the branch. Now the Doctor wasn’t very good at aerobics so he only got his forelegs on the branch. He pulled the rest of himself up and held onto the branch for dear life. He looked down and saw that the alligator was trying to get on the tree too, but failed to do so. The alligator growled at the Doctor and went back into the pond. “I’m actually glad to see you for once,” the Doctor said as he wiped his forehead of sweat from running. “Well, it was stupid and pointless of me to go in that pond for two reasons. I just nearly got killed by a baby alligator and now I’m sweaty again,” the Doctor said as he pointed out the obvious. “At this rate, I’m never gonna find Derpy if I keep going around in circles,” the Doctor said as he got rid of some tears that came down his face. “Doctor!” called out somepony familiar. “Derpy?!” the Doctor called out as well. “I’m over here, Doctor!” Derpy called out again. The Doctor got down from the tree and starting running towards the sound of Derpy’s voice. He turned around the corner and saw Derpy standing there. He ran towards her and gave her a hug. “Oh, Derpy... You have no idea how sorry I am,” the Doctor said with tears running down his face. “It’s too bad you don’t know who I really am,” Derpy said. The Doctor had a confused look on his face as he pulled away from the hug. “Huh? What do you mean, Derpy?” the Doctor asked. The pony who he thought was Derpy suddenly turned into a changeling. The Doctor looked around the area and saw that changelings were coming out from trees and bushes. They were soon ganging up on him. “Crap,” the Doctor said before he was knocked out.