Chapter 5: One Hour
Gaia, 1215 C.E.
The Doctor could instantly tell that something was wrong when a series of quick and frantic footsteps could be heard echoing from the throne room.
"Your majesty! Are you safe?!" called one of the guards. King Lycus walked over to the door and opened it. The Atlantean guards were frantically running all over the place with their spears at the ready. Something was definitely wrong here.
"What is going on?" asked the King. The guards gave Lycus a salute before running towards him.
"My King," gasped one of the guards. "We believe that there has been an attack on the castle."
"What reasons do you have to assume this?"
"A hole was blasted into the wall of the hallway leading to the King's guard rooms. We also heard screaming, yelling, and the sounds of a struggle. We have reason to believe that someone may have been kidnapped."
"But this doesn't make sense," said the Doctor. "If someone were to attack the castle, it would make sense for them to try and go for the King. Who else is here to be kidnapped?" Everyone was silent for the moment. A light clicked on in the Doctor's head and he proceeded to face-hoof. "The Prince!"
Just then, a loud ringing sound reverberated through the air. The Doctor recognized it as the sound of a broadcast about to begin. "King Lycus, I know that you can hear me," chuckled a deep, booming voice.
Lycus clenched his webbed fists and hissed angrily. "Lea," he growled.
"Lea?" asked the Doctor.
"He's the leader of the terrorists." The Doctor and Lycus fell silent as Lea continued.
"Listen to me, Lycus, and have the one known as the Doctor listen to me as well," Lea chuckled. The Doctor felt one of his hearts jump. This didn't sound good. "I have two ponies in my possession as of now: the Prince of Equestria and a warrior of the blue box!"
The Doctor felt his insides clench up. "Derpy!" his gasped under his breath.
"Now, Lycus, you have a choice. Surrender the throne to me and I shall let both of my prisoners live and I will let all ponies leave Atlantis is peace. Continue to fight against me and I shall kill my prisoners and any ponies I come across. Surrender and let Atlantis continue to remain separated from the overworld or don't surrender and let the overworld isolate itself from us through the spilling of the Prince's blood. Either way, Lycus, I win. You have one hour to make your decision." A dead silence fell amongst the inhabitants of the throne room as soon as Lea's voice faded away.
Lycus slammed his fist down on the armrest of his throne. "How could this have happened?!" he snapped.
"It must have been one of our own, my liege," said Dolarez sadly.
"A betrayal!" The King gave a groan of angry annoyance as he sat down on his throne. "This is not good. I can't let that madman kill the Prince!"
"But we can't let that madman take over Atlantis either," said the Doctor.
"Doctor, what choice do I have if I wish to have the Prince rescued? And let's not forget that your companion's life is on the line as well!"
"Yes, but let me tell you something. Lea made a big mistake when he had his men kidnap the Prince. He made a gargantuan mistake when he had his men kidnap my companion! Your majesty, do you recall when you summoned my TARDIS here?"
"Yes, of course."
"Can you quickly explain to me how that works?"
Dolarez awkwardly tapped the Doctor on the shoulder. "Pardon me, Doctor," he said, "but we don't have much time-"
"We have one hour. One hour's all I need. So, your majesty, can you quickly explain to me how you summoned my TARDIS here from where it had been originally parked?"
King Lycus presented his wrist to the Doctor. A metal band with a series of buttons was strapped to it. "This is the Band of the King," he explained. "It gives me the power to look upon any part of the city and, within reason, teleport anything to wherever I want it to go."
"How come you haven't used it to find and capture Lea's group?"
"They've stolen technology and have developed devices that can block out the signal of the Band."
"Okay...tell me, do you have technology that allows you to track calls or transmissions?"
"Yes. I know what you're thinking, Doctor, and, no, we can't track Lea's signal because they have devices that block that as well." The Doctor shook his head and smiled at the King. "What are you smiling about? I don't believe what I've told you is really good news."
"You see, your majesty, there is a way to track Lea's call," the Doctor said with a smirk.
"How?" the King asked curiously.
"We only need three things. One, the device that you use to track calls." The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver. "Two, a Sonic Screwdriver." He then pointed the Screwdriver at the TARDIS. "Three, a TARDIS." Everyone in the room stood still for a moment. "Well, hurry up, you lot! We've got a prince and a pegasus to save! Move, move, move!"
The soldiers turned to look at Lycus. "You heard the stallion! Move, move, move!" the King ordered. The soldiers saluted before running off in search of what they were sent to find.
"You should feel happy, your majesty!" the Doctor said cheerfully as he began walking over towards the TARDIS. "Lea lost this fight the moment he called in."
Derpy awoke to find her legs and wings tied. Prince Shining Armor VI was lying on the floor a few feet from where she was. A strange, metallic device had been strapped to his horn. "So you're finally awake," chuckled a familiar voice. Derpy looked to see the soldier that had attacked her sitting in a chair a few feet from where she was lying.
"You!" Derpy snapped.
"Yeah. Me." The soldier twirled a knife in one of his webbed hands as he stared at Derpy. "I'm actually kinda hoping that Lycus doesn't surrender to us. I'm dying to learn what a pony looks like on the inside."
Derpy was shaking on the inside but she didn't want to give the soldier the satisfaction of knowing that he was getting to her. "You'll be sorry for doing this! The Doctor-"
"Is just a pony with a box. I tell ya, the blue box is nowhere as near as impressive as it sounds from the old tales. And the warriors are even more disappointing: an odd earth pony and a pegasus with some sort of eye problem."
Derpy felt a sudden, uncontrollable rage pipe up from deep within her. "SHUT UP! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT AN OVERGROWN CANDY LIZARD FISH!" The smile on the soldier's face grew wider and Derpy shrunk back.
"I guess I struck a nerve there." Derpy was confused. She didn't understand why she had suddenly felt so angry. Sure, she was angry at the soldier for kidnapping her and the Prince and insulting her and the Doctor, but something about him talking about her eyes had just pushed her over the edge. The soldier looked at a nearby clock and chuckled. "We're almost at the halfway point. Lycus has only a little over half an hour to surrender to Lea or else you and the Prince there will be fresh out of luck."
"Don't be so sure of yourself."
"Why? I think my true brothers and I have every right to be sure of ourselves. We have Lycus cornered."
"You may have the King cornered but not the Doctor."
"Why do you have so much faith in that stupid stallion?"
"Because I've seen him in action. I've seen what he can do when he puts his mind to it and I can see what his mere presence can inspire in others such as myself. He's much more than a stallion. He's any villain's worst nightmare."
"Of course he is." The soldier shook his head and chuckled again. "You remind me a lot of Dolarez."
"You know Dolarez?"
"Of course! We're both soldiers! He had so much faith in that blue box when I last talked to him. I wish I could get the chance to see his face when both the blue box and Lycus lets him down."
"He's better than you."
The soldier let out a wild laugh. "That's a laugh. I could take him on as well as the rest of Lycus's weak guards. They're pathetic excuses for fighters. Lea's followers are much better fighters."
"You're not going to win."
"Is that so?" asked a deep voice. Derpy looked as another figure emerged from the darkness. He was a green Atlantean with purple eyes and a thick layer of gold and silver armor attached to his body.
"Who are you?!" Derpy asked.
"Lea. I see that you've already become acquainted with Avarus." Lea took a few steps towards Derpy before sitting on the floor. "You seem pretty confident in your belief that my side will fall."
"You won't win. Good always overcomes evil. It's a fact of life."
"What makes you think that my side is evil?"
"Uh, you kidnapped me and the Prince and are threatening to kill us; and you're causing trouble and turmoil in Atlantis just to be a pain in the King's side."
"Sometimes, one has to get their hands dirty in order to fight for what's right."
"This doesn't look right to me."
"Of course not, a pony could never take the needs of Atlantis to heart."
"Not all ponies are bad, you know. We're not all like the ones who betrayed your kind."
"You're capable of doing it. It's best not to take the chance. Equestria and the other countries that exist above the water are all capable of corruption and lust. They lust for power. They lust for control. Atlantis remains out of their control and has so for a long time. I do not wish to see Atlantis fall to such a corrupted collection of species."
"You're one to talk! You're betraying your fellow Atlanteans and are causing pain to everypony!"
"I'm not betraying anyone but the ultimate betrayer: Lycus. He's the one that opened Atlantis up to Shining Armor IV and the rest of the overworld. He's the one who's trying to allow you overworlders to corrupt our perfect utopia. I'm putting my fellow people's best interests in mind. Someday soon, when all this drama is over, they'll thank me."
"Or curse you."
"You talk big for a pegasus trapped in the belly of the beast."
"You talk big for a terrorist that's about to lose."
Lea chuckled as he stood up and began to leave. "Keep a close eye on that one," he said to Avarus.
"You don't have to tell me twice," Avarus replied with a smirk. Derpy frowned angrily as Lea disappeared back into the darkness and Avarus turned his attention back to her. "Only thirty minutes to go, my little pegasus."
The Doctor was quick to open the TARDIS doors and enter the control room once had had obtained the Atlantean tracking device. Dolarez and Lycus entered the TARDIS and were both equally amazed by what they saw, though Dolarez showed off his amazement more than Lycus. "Yes, it really is bigger on the inside. Now, everybody remain calm while I take care of this!" the Doctor stated. He placed the tracking device (which looked like some sort of cross between a microwave oven and a satellite dish) on the control console and pulled out a few wires from the console itself. He connected the wires from the TARDIS console to the tracking device and aimed his Screwdriver at it. A few sparks began flying out of the machine while various bits of random dialogue emanated from the device. After a few moments, there was a loud pop and various pictures and pieces of text appeared on the TARDIS monitors. "There we go!"
Lycus approached one of the monitors and examined the pictures and text. "The Hotel of the East," he said softly.
"The what?" the Doctor asked.
"The Hotel of the East. It's one of the oldest resident blocks in Atlantis. It used to be used as a sort of last resort for homeless citizens. It closed down a couple centuries ago and we never got around to getting rid of it."
"So, Lea and his men are in the Hotel of the East, my liege?" Dolarez asked.
"They're not in the hotel, soldier. They're underneath it. That sneaky Lea built a secret headquarters underneath the hotel."
"Well it's not a secret anymore," said the Doctor. "Your majesty, I suggest that you get your men ready. Tell them to prepare themselves and meet inside here as quickly as possible. Trust me, the TARDIS will be much quicker than your tube system."
"Right," replied the King as he exited the TARDIS to alert his men.
"You better prepare yourself as well, Dolarez," said the Doctor as he turned towards the Atlantean soldier. "This Atlantean civil war has just reached its boiling point."