Chapter 5: The Plot Thickens
A few days had passed since the creeper incident and the competition between the Doctor and Derpy had slowed to a halt. They took refuge in Derpy’s building which still lacked any illumination. The hole from the explosion was crudely patched with dirt and the walls were reinforced to be three blocks thick instead of just one. The duo was detached from the outside world safe from dangers such zombies, skeletons, and creepers, but also disconnected from important resources such as food and water.
Derpy’s stomach growled loudly and echoed through the room, catching the attention of the Doctor. “Are you alright over there?” he asked.
Derpy picked her head up and turned towards the Doctor’s general direction. “A bit hungry, but otherwise, yeah.”
“You know, I’ve never been in a situation like this before,” commented the Doctor.
“Woah what? Really?” Derpy replied.
“Yeah, well, to be fair, I don’t travel to other universes too often, and when I do, they aren’t drastically different from our own universe.” The Doctor paused for a moment. “Err, I mean my own universe.”
Derpy sighed. “It’s strange to think that we have, or rather had, the ability to travel through space and time, and now, we’re stuck here in a dark, crudely made dirt box.” She paused and waited for the Doctor to respond, but when he didn’t, she decided to continue on with her little rant. “Normally, I’m an optimist, but honestly, this is just depressing. I’ve tried to shoo away the bad thoughts, thoughts of the hundreds of potential disasters and scenarios that could leave one of us, or even both of us, dead. But they keep coming back and bothering me like a persistent fly.”
Derpy paused again, but she didn’t wait as long for a response from the Doctor, or care as much when she didn’t get one. Instead, she continued to speak, gradually becoming lost in thought. Her tone of voice was much more somber as she continued. “I wonder what the ponies back at home are thinking. They probably think that I’m still at the edge of the universe and seeing wonderful and amazing things.” She choked up. “They don’t realize the truth of it all. Everywhere we go ends up being some death trap! Just like this place. Sure, we always escape it through some Doctor miracle.” Derpy chuckled for a second but snapped back to her depressed mood. “But there are so many that don’t make it. So many that we promise we would save but don’t!”
Derpy’s voice reduced to a small murmur. “Why am I thinking like this so suddenly.” She stopped talking. In the moment of silence, survivor's guilt had finally caught up to her. Faces of those who she's seen perished flashed before her eyes. Each one sending sharp pain to her gut and chest. She broke down, and began sobbing. "Why am I thinking this?!" she asked herself again. She sighed, and regained some of her composure. “I t-think... I want to go back home. No more adventures. I can't take it anymore.”
The Doctor climbed out of a hole in the ground and back into the interior of the shelter. “Hey Derpy! Look at what I made!” he shouted proudly. He took notice of the now gloomy Derpy. There were slightly most lines on her face where tears had run down. The Doctor turned around and looked back down at the small tunnel he had dug. “I did not choose a good time make this,” he muttered to himself.
“Hey, Doctor. What’d you make?” Derpy struggled to sound enthusiastic for the sake of the Doctor’s feelings. However, even to the most socially inept person, it was easy to tell something was wrong.
The Doctor caught on instantly but he didn't want to offend her, so he remained quiet and didn't ask. Yet. He had seen this before with other companions. The spark of curiosity that beckoned humans to reach and explore the far reaches of the universe, had died within Derpy.
He still had a shred of doubt that that wasn't it, but he had to make sure. Before he could think, he shouted, “Derpy! Do you still feel the desire to continue traveling with me?!” The Doctor clasped his mouth with his hoof, released the grip, then facehoofed at his unintentionally and uncomfortably direct approach at confirming whether or not his hunch was correct.
The Doctor quickly tried to fix this error. “Wait, I meant to say—”
He was quickly cut off by Derpy’s equally uncomfortable and direct answer, “No.”
“What?” he replied in disbelief. Derpy was the last person he'd expect to experience this.
“I said...” Derpy paused and thought momentarily, “No.” It pained Derpy to say it the second time. The first time was easy to say because it was more of an impulsive answer, but the second time really assured Derpy that this was what she truly believed. Her knees trembled, causing her to sit down. She looked down at the ground and tears began to flow once more.
“It wasn’t that kind of what.” The Doctor sighed and also turned his eyes towards the ground. “I’ll get you out of here. The next stop will be your front door."
Derpy let out a shaky breath and looked back up at the Doctor. “Thank you.”
The Doctor turned around and trotted back into his hole. “Yeah.”
A pang of guilt attacked Derpy. The Doctor was in such a good mood beforehand but now she had destroyed him. If this was their last adventure together, she was at least going to make it a good one, for the Doctor. She quickly followed him to the hole and lightened up her mood. She stopped at the top of a small staircase. The Doctor was at the bottom.
“So, what’d you build again?” she asked the Doctor.
The cheeriness in her voice surprised the Doctor. He didn’t mind. He trotted over to the base of the stairs and looked up at Derpy. “Oh, this? I’m working on a system of tunnels. If we can’t navigate the world above ground, we’ll do it underground.”
“How did we not think of this earlier?!” Derpy exclaimed.
“I have no idea.” The duo exchanged a snort of laughter.
“How can I help?” Derpy walked down the staircase, the Doctor backed up a bit to make room.
“Uhm, let’s just switch off every once in awhile. We’re digging that way, as you can see.” The Doctor pointed to the edge of the tunnel.
“Okay then. Let us commence digging! By us I mean you. I’ll take the second shift.”
The Doctor and Derpy’s coats were sticky and disheveled from the hour of constant digging. It was the Doctor’s shift when he crumpled to the floor, panting. “Let’s stop here, agreed? I don’t think I can dig any more.
Derpy, who was already laying down, nodded her head. “Me either. What now?”
The duo looked down the dark, two block high, endless-looking tunnel. “Build a staircase up, if there’s anything up there, sentient ,inanimate, or whatever else it could possibly be, we go back in and seal up the hole! It doesn't seem like anything here can break blocks other than us. We'll create a bunch of emergency exits all over the place. This system is nice, simple, and efficient. I love it!”
The Doctor began digging and making the staircase. It didn’t take much time for him to break the surface. The duo turned their head away in unison as the light blinded them temporarily. They shielded their eyes and slowly emerged from the hole.
They scanned their surroundings looking for any danger. “
"Moo.” Derpy shrieked and ducked back into the hole. The Doctor’s eyes widened as he was reminded of the cow's existence. He was disappointed in himself for not making the connection earlier.
“Moo,” the cow uttered again, now right behind the Doctor.
The Doctor's face contorted slightly with anger. “Youuuuuu...” he said with contempt in his voice.
Derpy poked her head back out of the hole. “Doctor, are you alright?” she cocked her head. “Doctor?” She climbed back out of the hole and waved her hoof in front of the Doctor’s face. “Helloooo?”
The Doctor turned around and faced the cow. The awkward cow. “You stole the TARDIS, didn’t you.” His voice was unnerving, you could feel the anger and sense the fact that he wanted to do horrible, horrible things to the cow. Yet at the same time, the voice was still calm.
The awkward cow turned 180 degrees without even moving it’s legs. It just sorta slid. Then, it began to walk away. "Moo."
“Oh no you don’t.” The Doctor glared at it’s rear. “Stay here, Derpy.”
“Uh, okay,” answered Derpy. She was unable to comprehend what was going on. “What are you doing?”
The Doctor shushed her, “Just stay put.”
Derpy nodded slowly and retreated back into the hole. She sealed the top, pressed her ear against the roof, and listened intently.
“Running away, cow?" He said softly before escalating to a normal talking volume. "That’s a horrible mistake, because I assure you." He took a breath, "I am very good at running!” he shouted.
With that last sentence, Derpy heard the scuffling of footsteps that faded into the distance. Shortly afterwards, there was an explosion. She was concerned of course, but she was mainly confused.
“Did the Doctor... just. Did he just run into a cow and explode?”
From the Doctor’s perspective, things were a little different. The cow wasn’t very fast and the Doctor caught up quickly. He wasn’t even breathing hard. He stood in front of the cow and their eyes locked in on each other.
“I know you’re a lot smarter than you look. So, what did you want the TARDIS for?” The Doctor maintained a serious face. The cow simply blinked.
“Come on, drop the act, I know you ha—”
The Doctor was interrupted by a hissing noise. His attention was drawn towards a creeper which was partially blocked by a tree. It was flashing and expanding.
He turned back to the cow. “You clever piece of scum."
The Doctor was still staring at the cow when the explosion went off. He was thrown off as feet and onto his side. The cow let out one final, distressed, “MOOOO!” as it toppled over and faded from existence.
The Doctor stood back up relatively unscathed. His injuries were small in comparison to the last encounter with a creeper back at Derpy’s shelter. He stood back up, brushed himself off, and stared at the cow’s remains. All that was left was a pixelated red lump of meat, and what looked like a browner orange peel.
“DAMN IT!” the Doctor shouted at the remains. The cow was his only lead and only chance to retrieve the TARDIS, and now, it was reduced to pixelated scraps. The pieces floated towards the Doctor and were absorbed into the EFM.
He slowly trotted back to the hole in disappointment. However, the ringing of a telephone distracted him. The Doctor immediately traced the sound back to the old-fashioned telephone.
He picked it up to be greeted by a worried Pinkie Pie. “Oh my gosh, Doctor, I saw what happened between you and Derpy are you alright? Do you need someone to talk to? I’ve been trained to deal with these situations! Don’t worry, I can make you feel better right now!” The squeaking of rubber could be heard from the other side of the line. “Hey look, it’s a puppy made out of balloons! He tells you to cheer up! Are you happier now Doctor?”
“Umm, thanks Pinkie, but I’m alright, really.”
“That was a huuuuuuuuge surprise when that happened. And I’m not a pony that’s surprised very easily since I throw a bunch of surprise parties and surprise pranks and surprise cantaloupe eating contests. Actually I stopped having surprise cantaloupe eating contests, the last one didn’t end too well.”
The Doctor raised an eyebrow“You, did, what?” He shook his head. “Nevermind, forget I asked. Why did you call?”
“Me? Oh, I noticed that you guys were hungry then I noticed you picked up meat. Cook it, and eat it!”
The Doctor physically recoiled. “How can I possibly eat meat? I’m a pony, ponies don’t eat meat. Well, I’m a time lord in a pony body so I guess I can eat meat. What about Derpy?”
“Nononono, it’s not real meat. It’s soy!”
“A cow, made of soy? That’s new. It still came from a living thing though, it’s morally wrong! For Derpy, I mean.”
“The cow was never alive. It can’t even think. It’s just a fleshy, err, soy-y automaton walking around to make the world more lively.”
“What? No, that isn’t possible. The cow stole my TARDIS!”
Just as he finished his sentence, a distinct whirring noise started coming from Pinkie’s end from the line. “Oh... Hey. The cupcakes are ready.” Pinkie nervously laughed.
The whirring stopped and the Doctor listened to the door open. He could recognize the distinct clacking of the lock mechanism and the squeak of the hinges. “Pinkie...” he said using the same, intimidating yet calm voice he used on the late cow.
The strange screeching noise that he heard when he was throwing spheres and cubes was heard. “Oh, hey G-gummy. I guess you r-really want some cupcakes right?” Pinkie started laughing even more nervously and almost uncontrollably.
The Doctor heard the phone drop followed by Pinkie’s panicked panting and squeaking.
“Pinkie,” he said in a stern and serious tone. The panting and squeaking stopped but he could still hear her trembling in her chair.
“I won’t tell anyone or hold anything against you for stealing my TARDIS.”
“WHO SAYS I STOLE YOUR TARDIS?!” Pinkie shouted before shutting herself up. “Sorry,” she said weakly. “Go on.”
“Under one circumstance.”
Pinkie was curled up in a ball with the phone pressed tightly against her ear, listening intently.
“You don’t tell Derpy.”
“What?!” Pinkie exclaimed in a hushed and shaky voice.
“You heard me. Not a word.”
“B-but, why?”
“I can’t lose her. As soon as I get my TARDIS back I have to return her back to her home. I’ll be alone, again. I just can’t lose her. I’ve lost too many companions and I need her. You may have thought I had already given up on her, but I haven’t. I’m going to reignite that curious spark inside of her. She will want to keep traveling. I will not be alone. Now, do you agree to the terms?”
Pinkie was trembling. She had never heard the Doctor be so serious and menacing before. She managed to squeak one word, “Y-yes.”
“Alright. That’s good.” The Doctor snapped back to his cheeky old self. “So, Pinkie, what exactly did you need my TARDIS for anyway?”
“I thought it would be a good location for a party.”
The Doctor facehoofed.