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// Location #1 (cont.) - Doctor Whooves 
// Story: The Challenges in Time 
// by Homura-Akemi-Magica 
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“Octavia! I know what to do!” Vinyl shouted; her voice full of assurance. 

“WELL DO IT!” Octavia yelled loudly as she stared down the beast in front of her. 

If a pony would tell Octavia that one day she would be face to face with a monstrosity; Vinyl was the only pony to save her; and that she would nearly die, she would doubt them more than a blank flank when she can’t find her cutie mark. Only one thing was important to Octavia: getting out of this situation. She thought back to the mane 6 and questioned how they could go face to face with death but act like it was nothing. After the sudden slowdown of time in her head; she noticed Vinyl lighting up her horn to act as a beacon, of the sorts. 

‘So…the monster’s weakness is light, interesting.’ Octavia quickly thought to herself. 

She then realized that if she was an unicorn; she could get out just fine by herself. She glanced over at Vinyl and noticed that her horn was completely brightened; it was blinding. She stared back at the monster and out of the corner of her eye; she saw Vinyl charging it, horn first. Octavia closed her eyes, not wanting to see what would happen. She knew Vinyl was reckless; but she had no idea she was this reckless. She kept her eyes closed and waited for the sound of the impact.

She heard complete silence other than the sound of running hooves. She then heard a loud crunch, followed by a piercing scream. The scream sounded distorted; awful, disturbing, and any variation of those words. She heard silence; she decided to sneak a peek. The sight she saw made her want to gag. There was sludge and blood everywhere. She didn’t see Vinyl anywhere. She gulped out of fear of what could have happened to her friend. She heard the sound of fast-paced hooves and looked to the left. She saw Vinyl’s tail disappear behind the rock wall. She also saw sludge being trudged around. She assumed Vinyl started chasing the hideous thing when it attempted to get away. 
Octavia only thought of how cowardly the monsters actually were. She looked back to where her friends were placed and noticed Lyra using her horn to melt the sludge off each pony. She counted the ponies to make sure they were there; Lyra; BonBon; Derpy and… She didn’t see the Doctor anywhere. This confused her; she thought she saw him tied up. 

“Lyra, BonBon, Derpy, do any of you know where the Doctor is?” Octavia asked lightly. 

“We thought he was with you?” BonBon questioned.

‘Great…just great.’ Octavia thought of complete annoyance. 

“*sigh*, let’s try to find him.” Octavia managed to say before walking away. 

Lyra, BonBon and Derpy started following her. As they walked, they didn’t see any new landscapes. It was the same rocky-looking area as before. Other than some skeletons, blood, and sludge here and there; nothing seemed to change. Their hoofsteps continued echoing in the ‘abandoned’ cave. Lyra, Octavia, and BonBon all walked on the ground while Derpy flew overhead. 

“You’re higher up Derpy, do you see anything of interest?” Questioned the grey-colored coat pony. 

“Nope, not something up here.” Stated Derpy in her usual clumsy state.

Octavia was amazed at how even Derpy’s voice sounded clumsy. She didn’t question out of fear it would sound rude. Octavia continued her hopeless walking. Just to think that before all this, the six ponies were in the library looking for a way to bring Twilight Sparkle back to her normal pony self. Octavia then remembered Twilight and went from trotting to full on galloping. Lyra, BonBon, and Derpy were confused but all sped up their pace. 

“Why are we…running….so fast?” BonBon asked as she took deep breaths every now and then during her sentence.

“We need to speed this up. There’s no telling what Twilight could do; we have to hurry.” Octavia said without take a single breath of air.

BonBon was honestly surprised at this. She assumed a classical pony like Octavia wouldn’t worry about petty exercises; she kept her judgement to herself. Each pony had individual thoughts in their head; some important while some were not. BonBon still questioned how a classical pony can suddenly match Rainbow Dash’s speed. Octavia questioned what Twilight could do; including various examples. Lyra questioned how different each pony is in the group; Vinyl and Octavia are exact opposites; Doctor Whooves and Derpy are opposites as well, while Lyra and BonBon were a bit similar. Derpy was thinking about how each and every pony were different than the rest while still maintaining similarities; her thoughts then switched back to muffins. Derpy still wished ponies didn’t automatically label her as unsafe, just because she was a tiny bit clumsy. Derpy brushed this thought off and continued flying.

Octavia was in lead while running; Lyra and BonBon were going the same pace but still falling slightly behind Octavia, while Derpy flew overhead at Octavia’s pace. They continued running for around five minutes before eventually being tired out. Octavia was the first to stop; then Derpy; then Lyra; and finally, BonBon. 

A loud growling noise was then heard. Octavia quickly got up and trotted towards the noise. She went past a rock wall and noticed something odd. It was the Doctor’s green tie. While looking down; she heard a growling noise right near her. She looked up and then to the left. She didn’t like what she saw. She quickly yelled for Lyra, BonBon, and Derpy to get over there. The three ponies, confused by Octavia’s sudden yelling, began trotting towards her. The ponies eventually made it to the area Octavia was standing on. They were confused until they noticed what had Octavia in such a panic.
It was the Doctor. But, he seemed distorted; angry, ferocious, and a bit out of it. Then, they noticed his eyes; instead of the normal blue they usually were; it was a bright red. Lyra, BonBon, Derpy, and even Octavia stayed still out of fear. That’s when the Doctor started running toward them.