A beam of light had found it’s way into the cave through a very small crack in the wall, illuminating the cocoons stacked on the floor and suspended from the ceiling. The shaft of sunlight focused on a particular spot on the floor of the cave, running over a fresh cocoon and penetrating the outer skin enough to illuminate the closed eye of the pony contained within.
Sensing the bright light source against his eyelid, the Doctor’s eyes snapped open. He gazed out through a thick fluid, mind churning while his senses came back to him.
He and Lyra had been trapped inside cocoons by the changelings inside the cave. In the back of his mind he wondered why he had regained consciousness, though it probably had something to do with his Timelord physiology. He tried moving about, reaching with a hoof and pressing against the side of the cocoon. Unable to puncture the side, he began shifting his weight.
The cocoon shifted a few centimeters on the floor of the cave. The Doctor tried again, throwing more of his weight against the side of the cocoon. It rolled over more, and he now found himself upside down and facing away from the light source. He tried standing up inside the cocoon unsuccessfully, but managed to place himself in the right position to roll it a bit more.
The cocoon had rolled on top of an object on the floor of the cave. The Doctor flipped himself to face the ground once more, feeling the indentation in the cocoon’s edge caused by the object. Cylindrical and small, it created a spot of blue light when pressed against with a hoof.
He had rolled over the sonic screwdriver.
The Doctor pressed the sonic’s button again, trying to shift it into a specific function. Immediately, the bright end grew brighter and hot, burning a hole through the side of the cocoon pressed against it. The hole reached the sac of fluid, causing it to drain out onto the floor.
The Doctor’s lungs began to work once more. Why had they stopped while he was suspended inside the cocoon? It wasn’t particularly important now. Taking a deep breath, the Doctor stretched his legs and threw the remnants of the cocoon off from himself. Wiping the remains of the fluids off his leather coat, he scooped up the sonic screwdriver and got to work on Lyra’s cocoon.
The glowing end of the sonic burned a hole in her cocoon in no time at all, and as soon as the fluids drained from the pod Lyra was coughing and sputtering, slowly regaining her consciousness.
“Doctor.... where... where am I?” she groaned, trying to stand up on wobbly legs and peel the remnants of the cocoon away.
“Still in the cave, I think,” he replied, lending a hoof to extricate her, “A couple of dodgy creatures attacked us... changelings I think they were....”
Lyra shook her mane, retching at her own smell and the slimy material stuck to her. She found the wall of the cave in the dim lighting and rubbed her sides against it in an unsuccessful attempt to scrape the ick off.
“What’s a changeling?” she finally asked. She had regained most of her senses ny now, and stood near the small crack in the wall through which light poured in.
“Small black creature, full of holes and capable of mimicking other creatures’ appearance,” answered the Doctor, “They’re kind of like what ponies would be like if they were insectoid instead of mammalian. These cocoons are meant to preserve the ponies they’ve replaced... maybe I told you that bit already, I don’t remember. My memory’s a bit foggy at the moment while I’m waking up. Let’s see.... what year is it?”
“1999,” Lyra said, “and....wait for it.... I think it’s election day. Depends on how long we’ve been asleep.”
“Can’t be that long, with memory coming back as fast as that,” the Doctor noted, “More than a few day’s worth of hibernation would take hours to recover from, not minutes.”
He took the sonic screwdriver out again, and used the blue light to search the unlit corners of the cave, searching for more changelings. When he found none, his attention shifted to the crack in the wall.
“How’s your geology, Lyra?”
“Middling,” she said with a shrug, “Why?”
“Caves on this planet.. what’d you say they’re made out of?”
“Uhh.... limestone?”
The Doctor nodded. Sedimentary rock, made up of long-dead marine organisms. Since it was formed in layers, this would be relatively easy.
“Watch out then,” he said, waiting for Lyra to back herself up against the opposite wall away from the crack.
The Doctor then used the screwdriver against the wall, running the tip both up the side of the wall and then across it again and again. The warbling sound changed pitch at a few points, which the Doctor focused on and changed settings to try to manipulate the rock layers. After a few minutes of this type of activity, the rock wall began to crack in places, and chunks of limestone fell away. The Doctor turned himself around, kicking at the weakened rocks and widening a hole in the side of the cave wall until it was large enough for him to duck through. Lyra herself followed after a moment, crawling through the hole and stepping out into blindingly bright morning sunlight.
“That was cool.... almost like magic!” she remarked, shielding her still-adjusting eyes from the sun.
“No magic involved, just a bit of using science to one’s advantage, it’s a good thing I had the sonic or else we’d be stuck without chisels and wedges,” he joked.
The pair quickly found themselves not far from the edge of the Everfree Forest, and from there they came upon a dirt path leading toward Ponyville. The Doctor had an idea of how to free the TARDIS from it’s own cocoon back in the caves, but it would involve either finding Derpy or borrowing a ladder to reach it.
More troubling was the number of ponies contained within cocoons still. As he walked along the path with Lyra he did the math- he had noticed that there were between fifty and seventy-five ponies trapped in that one cave. Judging by what he had seen of the town so far, it was probably less than 10% of the total population, but he had a nagging fear that there were more hiding places yet undiscovered, and they could be looking at nearly a quarter of the town’s population being changelings if there were.
That didn’t seem like an isolated incident or a small band of changeling raiders, that was a deliberate incursion.
“Doctor,” Lyra said, interrupting his thoughts, “The path branches here, and this way leads to the hospital.”
“Are you sick?” he asked.
“No... but they’ll have showers. I still feel kinda gross from that stuff, I need to be clean before I go into town itself.”
The Doctor conceded, and they started down the path toward Ponyville Hospital.
****
Derpy stood in a crowd of ponies, gathered in front of town hall awaiting the Mayor’s speech. Despite Carrot Top’s best efforts she remained uneasy and worried about the Doctor and Lyra after they had not shown up in the morning.
Regardless, she had agreed to go to town hall and listen to the Mayor’s speech, as well as the speech of the opposing candidate. At the moment, the opposition was wrapping up her speech and Mayor Bowler stood to the side, reading over his notes and removing his hat briefly to wipe his sweaty brow.
“I dunno about her,” Carrot Top quietly admitted, “She’s talked an awful lot about building a new dam for hydroelectric power, but hasn’t said a word about agriculture and health care.”
Derpy wasn’t listening. She was too busy scanning the crowd for a bluish pony with a buzzcut mane and a leather coat. The ponies around her began stomping their hooves on the ground in applause as the greenish mare -the opposition- bowed her head and took a seat to the side. Not long after Mayor Bowler himself stepped up to the podium, sporting his trademark grey bowler hat.
The Mayor was a taller stallion, and his coat was a peachy orange color. His mane had at one point been a reddish brown, but had faded to a greyish color by this point in his life. As the applause died down, he spoke into the microphone at the podium.
“Thank you, citizens of Ponyville,” he began, “As I reminisce about the past four years and all that we’ve accomplished together, I got around to thinking about just what a tight-knit community stands before me today. Ponyville has to be one of the most love-filled communities I’ve ever had the privilege of residing in, and I thank you for that. Every morning when I awake, I feel energized by the love and care that each member of this community holds for their fellow pony.”
“We are on the verge of a major change,” he continued, “It would be imprudent of me not to note that there are only a few months left in the 20th century. Those years behind us have been both good and bad, and this community has felt firsthoof the hardships as well as the successes of this past 100 years. Our small town sprung up in that much time from a small apple-farming operation to a sprawling township, complete with hospitals and bowling alleys and little shops selling novelty quills. Overall, this has been a century of progress and growth for Ponyville, and as we look toward the 21st century we must carry that tradition forward to the future generations....”
“That sounded a bit rushed,” Carrot Top whispered, “I wonder if he wrote this script last night...”
Derpy hadn’t been paying attention. She tried listening to what the mayor was saying now with some difficulty.
“... the recent wave of illnesses has taken us all by surprise. Nopony could have seen Malus Lupus coming, but this town has done incredible work these past few days in combating the virus....”
“What’s he talking about?” Derpy asked, whispering to Carrot Top.
“Oh, it’s this virus thing that’s started spreading around this past week. Not fatal, but if you catch it you’re likely to be bedridden, and you need somepony to care for you the whole time,” she said, “Sparkler got it on Tuesday, and I had to watch over her for that day and Wednesday. She was absolutely helpless until she recovered.”
****
Lyra and the Doctor walked through the Employee’s entrance of the hospital, walking carefully and keeping a low profile. Lyra was first to sneak into the employee restroom to use the shower, leaving the Doctor to keep guard.
He hadn’t stood in the hallway for more than two minutes when he was approached by a wide-eyed stallion.
“Sir, why are you back here?” he asked in a stern voice, “this is supposed to be employees only.”
The Doctor smiled a toothy grin, producing his psychic paper and holding it open with a hoof for the stallion to see.
“This is my identification, I hope it’s sufficient,” he said.
The stallion peered at it carefully, and after a moment nodded in approval.
“Sorry to hold you up like this, inspector. I’ll let you get back to your work.”
The stallion turned to leave, but hadn’t gotten more than a few steps down the hallway before he turned and faced the Doctor again, ready to ask a question.
“If I may, inspector,” he asked, “what should I be doing about visitors?”
“Come again?”
“Well,” he began, “We’ve been swamped by victims of the Malus Lupus virus of late, and when family or friends come to visit they don’t leave. They’ll stay there the entire night, and it’s getting out of hoof.”
“Don’t you have some kind of rule against that?” the Doctor asked, “Visiting hours or something?”
“Yes, but if a patient requests and extension for their visitors they’re required to be given it. These particular patients are demanding it, every one of them. Half the hospital is infected with Malus Lupus, and each one of them wants their loved ones to be with them the entire time. It’s ridiculous and obscene.”
The Doctor’s smile turned into a frown.
“What’s the name of that virus again?” he asked.
“Malus Lupus,” the stallion said, “Surely you’ve heard of it this past week.”
“The Bad Wolf virus,” muttered the Doctor, “That’s an interesting name..."
Lyra exited the restroom with a wet mane, but was looking refreshed and much cleaner than she had been before. At first she seemed confused by the other stallion with the Doctor, but before she could say anything the Doctor chimed in again.
“Oi! There you are, did you inspect the employee facilities?” he said.
“Oh... um... yes. Quite thoroughly,” replied Lyra.
“Fantastic,” the Doctor said, “Tell you what, I'm suddenly becoming quite interested in tomorrow's election. When does the mayor give a speech?"
Before Lyra could answer, the hospital employee responded.
"Right now, you can listen to his speech on the radio in the lobby if you're interested."
*****
“... the recent wave of illnesses has taken us all by surprise. Nopony could have seen Malus Lupus coming, but this town has done incredible work these past few days in combating the virus. Your love and dedication is hard at work caring for the sick as we speak, and I commend the citizens of this great town for all of their hard work.”
The Doctor listened to the mayor’s words over the radio with growing concern. The situation in this town was like a puzzle to him, and now that he had begun to fit the pieces together he was beginning to see the complete picture.
And what an ugly picture it was.
A new patient was being wheeled past, and as he made eye contact with the Doctor there was a glimmer of recognition in the supposedly sick pony’s eyes. He had seen the Doctor before, and he didn't like him. The Doctor connected the dots. Changelings- creatures that feed on love and attention- were replacing ponies in Ponyville. Suddenly, everypony starts getting bedridden and sick, which requires extra attention from loved ones.
That’s when an idea occurred to the Doctor. Leaving Lyra sitting in the lobby, he quietly began to follow the nurse and the sick pony on a cart down a side hallway as she took him to his room. While doing so, he withdrew the sonic screwdriver from his jacket’s pocket.
He waited as he was brought into the room and tended to by the nurse, leaning his side up against the outside wall and tapping the sonic against his hoof to the beat of a waltz tune running through his head at the moment. Minutes passed, and soon the nurse left the room and proceeded down the hallway with an empty cart.
At this point, the Doctor went to the door of the room, peering in through a grated window at the pony resting in his bed within. He held up the sonic screwdriver, and fiddled with the settings in order to make the whirring sound as intense as possible. He flicked it on, and at that moment the pony in the bed transformed with a flash of green into a changeling.
The Doctor pressed himself against the wall, disengaging the sonic and waiting a few moments. His hypothesis had been confirmed- the sick pony had indeed been a changeling in disguise, and he think he knew why.
He made his way toward the front desk, where a receptionist scribbled on a notepad with a pen suspended by a magic field. The Doctor waited on the other side of the glass for her to notice him.
“Can I help you, sir?” she asked sweetly, smiling at the Doctor. He nodded, holding up the psychic paper against the glass for her to see.
“I just need to pop in there and check a few things, I hope it doesn’t interfere with your work too much,” he said, “I promise it’ll take only a second.”
“Of course inspector,” she said, moving her chair aside. The Doctor rounded the corner and entered the small booth, going right toward the phone and picking it up. He pressed a button that was labeled ‘INTERCOM’, and placed the tip of the sonic screwdriver against it.
What followed was an ear-splitting sound that echoed throughout the entire hospital in every room and on every floor, causing ponies everywhere to clasp their heads in agony and each changeling to unwillingly transform back into their original form. When he had finished, he was struck by the receptionist and thrown violently from the booth.
“You crazy maniac!” she yelled, “You should be ashamed of yourself! What about all of the...”
Alarms began to go off, and around the exits heavy metal doors began to close. The sudden appearance of changelings all over the place had caused the hospital to plunge into the highest level of alert, and the system was designed to seal the exits in case of an outside attack.
“Lyra!” the Doctor cried, grabbing her under her leg and dashing toward the closing door, “Under there now!”
Lyra slid underneath the closing metal door, followed by the Doctor himself as he rolled under with barely enough space. He landed in a heap with Lyra outside on a slab of concrete as the large door slid shut entirely, sealing them both outside the Hospital.
“Come on,” he said, “We’ve got to move fast!”
****
“I’ve said this time and time again,” the Mayor continued, moving into the twentieth minute of his speech, “The fact that Equestria, despite having a figurehead monarchy has chosen to allow democracy to prevail on the local level is a unique system, and I hope that in the coming election tomorrow you will all make the correct choice.”
A sound in the distance caught Derpy’s attention: the groaning of the TARDIS engines. She tried standing on her back hooves, craning her head to see where the Doctor and Lyra were coming from, but at that moment a collective gasp rose from everypony as the Doctor rounded the corner and bumped into the Mayor himself, knocking the venerable pony onto the ground in a cloud of dust.
“Young sir, explain yourself!” Bowler cried, bringing himself to his legs and dusting off, “This is absolutely absurd!”
“I’ll tell you what’s absurd!” the Doctor retaliated, grabbing the mic and speaking to all of the ponies in the crowd, “Citizens of Ponyville, it is my pleasure to introduce to you a fantastic individual, a true master of deception. Please give a warm Ponyville welcome to the real Mayor Bowler!”
He pointed the sonic screwdriver at the mayor, turning it’s loudest setting on once more and forcing him to change. A pillar of greenish fire erupted from that spot, and the bowler hat wearing stallion vanished, replaced by a taller still changeling.
The changeling was markedly different from the others. Aside from being taller, he sported a jagged horn and a pair of insectoid wings marked with holes and ragged ends. The mustache that had been one of the Mayor’s trademarks had vanished, and in place of a bowler hat a crown now sat atop the stallion’s crooked black head.
The Changeling king glared at the Doctor, while the crowd of ponies began to churn. Some screamed and started to run away in absolute terror, others stood their ground, paralysed by shock.
“Alright!” he growled, “You’ve got me, I’m not Mayor Bowler.”
The king grabbed at the mic, addressing the terrorized crowd as a whole.
“I am King Metamorphosis, your new ruler. If I can’t take this place by stealth, I’ll have to do it by force!”
A swarm of changelings began to appear, some descending from the sky, others from the buildings and the woodline. They called to each other with clicking vocalizations, descending upon the ponies of ponyville with the voracity of an ant colony that had found it’s next meal.
In the sudden confusion, Lyra lost sight of the Doctor. A changeling had found her, pinning her down on the ground and gnashing its teeth. She struck out at it’s chin, knocking it off from herself and dashed away as another changeling picked her out as a target.
The entire square, which had been quiet and attentive only moments before was now alight with an intense fray as ponies defended themselves from the attacking changelings. A young red stallion kicked at an attacking changeling that had been trying to tussle his younger sister, who sat on top of a cart loaded with apples. Once freeing the orange filly, they bumped hooves and took on the next wave of attacking changelings together.
Derpy kicked at a changeling that had snapped at her wing, striking its chest and knocking it to the ground in a heap next to Carrot Top, who screamed and recoiled from the beast. Derpy wheeled about, and came face to face with a familiar blue stallion.
“Doctor, I’m so glad you’re here!” she exclaimed, reaching out to hug him. Instead of receiving her hug, the Doctor struck her down, smiling antagonistically and towering over the pegasus.
Derpy’s eyes widened, and she cowered on the ground helplessly. The Doctor reared back to stomp his hooves on her face, right before another blue stallion tackled him down to the ground, rolling over and smashing it’s face into the soil repeatedly.
The first blue stallion flashed green, reverting back into a changeling right as the Doctor struck at it once more, knocking him senseless. The real Doctor then turned about, grabbing Derpy in a firm but quick hug or reassurance.
“Are you hurt?” he asked. She shook her head.
“It’s a changeling, they take the form of other ponies and...”
He was struck from the side with a bolt of green magic, knocking him to the ground and singing the edges of his fur and hair. The towering Changeling King stood over him, glaring.
“Who are you,” the king growled, kicking at the Doctor’s face, “and how did you find out about us?”
He kicked at the Doctor again, bloodying the timelord’s nose. The Doctor sprang back up upon the next attempted kick, grasping the outstretched leg and throwing the king over his own shoulder with a loud kiai. The king was slammed forcefully against the ground by the Doctor’s attack, and the timelord leaned in to speak to him.
“Don’t try to take on a master of venusian aikido, just a word of advice,” he said, “Now, if you’ll observe the edge of the forest, you’ll notice more and more ponies coming in to join in the fray. These are the ponies you’ve captured, freed from their cocoons by myself and told of your treachery. Trust me, they’re very angry.”
The king groaned.
“You’re outnumbered now by four-to-one, and that’s no basis for a hostile takeover.”
The Doctor reached into his pocket and produced something round and metallic, brandishing it to show to the fallen changeling king. It was an ominous looking red button, which reflected Metamorphosis’ face in the surface.
“I give you a choice,” the Doctor continued, “Call off the attack and return to your own world, and you'll be allowed to live in peace. But if you don’t...”
They sat still for a moment as the battle raged around them, neither the Doctor nor the changeling king saying a word.
“Who are you?” he finally asked, breaking the silence.
“I’m the Doctor,” he said, “and you’re out of time.” He went to press the red button, but the king cried out suddenly.
“No!” he cried, “No! Don’t do that! I’ll concede to your terms!”
“Very well,” the Doctor replied, smiling, “Thanks for your cooperation.”