Part 22
Exterminated
All was still for a brief moment before the Doctor spoke up. "Well, I suppose we've arrived."
The Master shuddered. "D'you feel that?"
"That creepy crawly tingly feeling that makes you want to jump out of your own skin?"
"Yeah, that."
"No, not at all." At the Master's glare, the Doctor rolled his eyes. "Of course I feel it."
The Master hopped from one hoof to the other. "How close to the Void are we anyway?"
"It's always difficult to tell precisely, but it can easily be measured in miles and in minutes," the Doctor responded. "Really, quite a genius hiding place, right at the very edge of the universe. No one would think to look for him here."
The Master harrumphed. "Because nobody would be mad enough to, and I'm plenty aware of the irony of that statement so you can take that fool smile elsewhere."
The Doctor coughed into his hoof. "Right. Well then, we'd best be off, I suppose." As he turned away from the console to leave, it beeped at him, grabbing his attention. The Doctor turned to see a metal cylinder pop out of an opening in the main board. "A new sonic? Oooh, you always did know just what to get me." When he pulled the new tool from the console, he was surprised to note that it seemed a bit larger than his last one, the now green emitter held in the middle of a three pronged claw. "Have you been toggling the personal settings again?" he asked.
The Master cleared his throat in annoyance. "Oh do shut up and let's get this over with." He pulled the door open, but with a sudden embarrassingly high shriek, he slammed it shut almost instantly.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow quizzically. That was... unexpected. "What was that all about?" he asked.
The Master's eyes were glazed over, and a cold sweat had begun to bead on his forehead. "You should take a look for yourself."
Confused, the Doctor punched a few buttons and turned the monitor on. He paled at the image that appeared on the screen. They were surrounded by... but no. That was impossible. To the inexperienced, they didn't appear all that frightening. More than one of his companions called them giant pepperpots before learning of how terrifying they actually were. See, they had no real sense of aesthetics, but the forms were near perfect killing machines. "Daleks," the Doctor managed to get out.
"Borusa led us into a Dalek trap," the Master said.
"No. No, I don't buy that," the Doctor argued. "Whatever else he may have become, he's still a Time Charger. And even during the Game of Rasstallion, where he brought in a full regiment of Cyberponies, he only risked bringing in one Dalek."
"Well how the bloody hell do you explain it?"
The Doctor didn't answer. He was busy examining the screen. Now that the initial shock was wearing off, there was something strange about the image before him. Ah, there it was. The Doctor resolutely marched over to the door and threw it open, and he managed not to cringe at the orb he found himself face to eyestalk with.
And there was silence.
Not a single 'exterminate,' not a single blaster shot. Just silence. "What's going on?" the Master asked.
In answer, the Doctor pointed his new sonic screwdriver at the Dalek shell in front of him. It opened easily, and inside where the horrid little blob was supposed to be was empty. Just a rather unpleasant stain where it had once been. "Well now, it looks to me like we've landed in a Dalek ghost ship," he explained.
The Master's expression was quizzical. "A ghost ship?"
The Doctor stepped out into the morgue like room, making sweeps with his screwdriver just in case there was the odd survivor. "Makes sense, doesn't it? Borusa could only have survived the Time War by escaping it unnoticed. The best way to do that would have been to repair and commandeer a ship that had been shot down, and we took out a lot of Dalek ships around the Death Zone."
That said, he put the sonic in his mouth and went further into the room. This wasn't the main bridge. There were a number of terminals along the walls and, if the Doctor recognized the markings on the Dalek shells correctly, these were engineers. Slowly picking his way around the Dalek shells, his screwdriver pointing every which way, just in case, the Doctor made his way to the nearest terminal. Of course, it wasn't designed for pony use, but that was what the sonic was for.
It only took a couple of tries to find what he was looking for. It was a map of the ship, overlaid over a visual of the currently active power flow. As he suspected, he was in an old engineer station, and most of the power was being sent to the main bridge. Made sense, that. The Doctor glanced to his side, to see that the Master was there, his face completely neutral. "This is our target," the Doctor instructed, "right here. The main bridge, as you'd expect. This is the route we need to take. Memorize it--Dalek computers don't do printouts."
"Naturally," the Master responded, a touch of forced arrogance to his voice.
The Doctor simply nodded, shut off the computer, and led the way toward the exit. It was strange, the quiet that permeated between the two Time Chargers. There was never silence between the two. Especially during rare moments like this one, where they were forced temporarily to work together. Where there should have been a near endless stream of irritated arguing and veiled insults, existed a silence that was almost as loud as a gunshot.
The Doctor himself found it difficult not to jump in fright at the least unexpected sound, something which irritated him to no end. There was a time when the Daleks were nothing more to you than another set of monsters to stop, a small corner of his mind chided. Oh, they were always dangerous, and you always hated what they stood for, but if anything you always welcomed the challenge they presented. That was true enough, the Doctor conceded as he snapped his head around to make sure he didn't actually see one of the shells move. But for both himself and the Master, the Time War changed all of that.
The Time War changed a lot of things.
They passed an observation port, outside of which was a nothingness far deeper than the mere emptiness of space. The Dimensional Void, the very edge of the universe itself, both spatially and chronologically. Being this close to it, this close to the edge of-of everything, well, it certainly wasn't helping either of their moods. The sooner this adventure wrapped up the better.
The journey to the main bridge passed without incident. There weren't even all that many Dalek shells in the main hallways. Even so, the Time Chargers' diligence never wavered. Neither one of them completely trusted that the Daleks were all dead and gone, despite the increasing evidence. As such, when the final door opened, and the Doctor saw Discord casually leaning against the inside of a containment field surrounded by a rather large amount of high tech computers and equipment, he actually sighed with relief.
When the Master saw him, his eyes widened slightly in disbelief. "He's what you were looking for?" Then his expression turned shrewd. "That actually explains a great many things."
"Doesn't it?" the Doctor remarked as he entered the room.
"Ah, hello there little ponies," Discord said in that deceptively friendly tone of his. "Welcome to my humble and very temporary abode." He looked over the Doctor with penetrating red eyes. "You must be the Doctor my ever-so-gracious host can't seem to shut up about. I must say, I was expecting something... a bit more impressive."
The Doctor harrumphed. "I could say much the same thing, Discord. You've certainly seen better days."
"I would be a liar if I were to deny it," replied Discord. "Which, granted I am anyway. Still, given my current, ah, situation, I think some degree of honesty might prove somewhat advantageous."
"Likes to hear himself talk, this one," the Master remarked.
The Doctor smirked. "Pot, meet kettle. Not that I can talk. We all have a bit of a gob here." he turned his attention to the captured draconnequis. "I'm actually looking for a friend of mine. Don't suppose you've seen her? Grey pegasus, wingdingy eyes. Very bubbly."
"Oh, her? She's over there." Discord pointed a talon over his shoulder, where a conical piece of hardware, roughly half again as tall as the average pony, sat. The Doctor was there instantly.
"Derpy? Derpy, you hear me?" he called. A pair of maladjusted golden eyes appeared from the other side of a small rectangular opening in the cage.
"Hi, Doctor. Glad you could make it."
The Time Charger laughed. "Oh, are those googly eyes a sight for sore ones. Don't worry, I'll have you out in a jiffy." He trained his screwdriver on the locking mechanism and frowned. "Okay, maybe a little more than a jiffy. This lock is emitting a counter pulse. Difficult to circumvent but not impossible. Seems a bit overkill, though."
"Well I did sorta kinda maybe possibly buck that jerk Borusa in the face. Twice."
"Yes," Discord interjected. "It was the most entertainment I've had since I've arrived here."
The Doctor chuckled. "That's my girl."
"Yes, yes, ha ha," the Master put forth. "This is all so very funny and touching and whatever, but aren't you the least bit concerned that Borusa hasn't shown up yet?"
The Doctor shrugged. "I'm sure he's just waiting for the opportune moment to make his grand entrance. One thing at a time."
The Master sighed in frustration, but conceded that there really wasn't much to do but wait. So he began studying the field that held Discord. He whistled. "This is quite an anti-magic field. One of most powerful ones I've ever seen. Certainly not Time Charger technology."
The Doctor nodded as even as another tumbler fell into place. "Probably Dalek tech that Borusa modified. They can't use magic, so naturally they've spent a good deal of time and effort devising ways to counter it." Finally the lock disengaged and one side of the cage split open like a walnut, allowing Derpy to escape. No sooner had that happened than a blue dome of energy formed around the cage an the immediate area around it, trapping both ponies within.
"What...?" the Master started to say before being taken by an instant sensation of vertigo. When it passed, he saw he was suddenly inside the force dome along with the Doctor and his companion. They all turned to see Borusa limping out of the shadows, his horn smoking and his breathing coming out in ragged gasps.
"I had forgotten how difficult teleportation magic is," the old Time Charger managed to get out.
"I told you,' the Master grumbled. "Did I not tell you? I told you."
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes. You were right I was wrong. Now please stop being such a foal about it." Turning his attention to Borusa he asked. "So, what do you plan to do with us now, eh?"
"Nothing just yet," Borusa responded. "I was quite serious when I said I'd prefer to keep the last remnants of the Time Charger race alive. For now, I'll be satisfied with you witnessing my ultimate triumph.
With that, Borusa put on the Circlet of Rasstallion, wires still connecting it to his equipment, and he flipped a number of switches. As he did, Discord cried out in pain, visible currents of energy surging through him. Borusa himself grimaced as he continued to work his controls. After a moment, the current stopped surging through Discord, and transferred to the Time Charger, causing the stone on his face to visibly crack. With one final pull of a lever, Borusa flung his head backward and, with the stone shattering off his face, his eyes flew open.
They were glowing with a golden light.
"Doctor?" Derpy said in concern. "That's what you looked like back when... when you..."
"I know," the Doctor replied. "He's regenerating."
The three captives threw their hooves in front of their faces as their captor was suddenly lost in a sea of golden energy.