E4P2: "slice of bureau life"
Rescued from the fires of Makai through the use of miniature UFO’s by Kryxel.
Incident surrounding aforementioned rescue resolved by Ray10k.
Doctor Whooves trotted around his library. He looked over to the other side of the pool, where Ditzy was organizing the books with Dinky’s help.
"Ditzy, have you seen ‘sub-spatial/dimensional hyperlinks for the brilliant’, or even ‘gateways to parallel worlds volume 2?’" He asked, looking back at the shelf.
"Hmm... Is that the yellow book with the black shapes on it?" Ditzy said, returning a few books to a shelf near the ceiling.
"Ye- Ah, there it is! Thanks hon!" The Doctor said as he pulled a thick tome off the shelf. He carried it to his main desk, near the console of the TARDIS, and started reading.
An hour later, Colgate stepped into the TARDIS and walked over to the Doctor.
"Doctor, break is over. Time to get back to work.”
The Doctor sighed. "Five more minutes please."
“No, Doctor. Your schedule started five minutes ago, so there are already some people waiting for you. Your book will have to wait.”
At this, the Doctor gave Colgate a look that said, “do I really have to? I don’t wanna!”
Having had to deal with the Doctor, Colgate put a hoof over her eyes in annoyance. When she removed her hoof however, her eyes seemed to somehow glow with an inner soft, golden light. "Doctor, don’t make me..."
"...Don’t. You. Dare." The Doctor said, slowly walking away from his desk and toward Colgate.
Colgate didn’t reply. However, the light illuminating her eyes went from that of dying embers to a light rivaling the brightness of the sun, while small wisps of what looked like golden fairy dust started to flow from her.
"OKAY OKAY! YOU WIN!" The Doctor shouted, his fear obvious in his voice. “Ditzy! Dinky! Break is over! Time to get back to work!” He shouted down the corridor towards the Library.
Colgate’s eyes returned to normal, a smile on her face as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened."Now, with that out of the way, I believe it is time for the daily status report. Victor, Grace and their foals are all doing fine, the latter developing as can be expected. Hal has gone missing, again, Galinda was caught trying to hack into the Earth main government systems, again, and Elane is complaining about the lack of stores around here, yet again," Colgate said as she trotted alongside the Doctor.
"And what on the... Outer fronts?" The Doctor asked, turning his head towards Colgate.
"One possible Cyberfleet over Mars, a Sontaran training mission landing on one of Jupiter’s moons in four hours, a diplomatic mission of the Judoon arriving in five weeks, intending to open negotiations with both the Equestrian and Terran governments. Oh, and River will be... heading to The Library in four days."
The Doctor stopped his trot toward his office, and nodded. "Don’t tell ‘me’ about that last one. He... would not take it well. Send flowers to the Ponds instead. I’ve prepared a letter for them, it is in the top-right drawer of my desk, I want you to send it along with the flowers."
Colgate nodded, hardly a trace of emotion visible. "Best hurry. ‘You’ will probably be getting impatient by now"
The Doctor nodded, and continued his trot towards the office of his past counterpart.
“Come on in!”
Whooves entered the office, finding Doctor Tennant behind the desk. “Ah, my Equestrian counterpart. So, I’ll be a little tardy later on? Guess I’ll have to get used to that.”
Doctor Whooves chuckled a little, before he regained his composure and started talking. “True, but right now, there are some things going on, both on and beyond earth. Mind if I deal with the aspiring newfoals, while you take care of the extraterrestrial matters?”
This time, it was Tennant’s turn to chuckle. “No problem. I’ll deal with securing the future, you make sure we get there.”
Whooves nodded, and left the office as Tennant started planning how to keep the Cybermen and the Sontaran from meeting. Last time that happened, things got ugly fast.
------------------------------------
"Welcome to flight 101. I am Surprise, and this featherball here is Soarin’. We will be your flight instructors for the rest of your two-week stay here," Surprise said as she marched past the newfoal Pegasi assembled in a single row. "For those of you who do know how to use your wings, follow Soarin’ to the practice cloud arena, where he’ll teach you the basics of weather duties. As for the rest, you get to come with me," she grinned and trotted down the field, a handful of somewhat intimidated looking Pegasi trailing behind her, Grace as the only new addition to the group.
When they reached the training grounds, Surprise turned to Grace. "Well Grace, you ready to soar the skies above?" Surprise asked with a wide grin.
"N-not really. I- I’m a tiny little bit... afraid of heights,” Grace nervously responded, her thoughts flashing back to a particularly memorable event involving The Man She Once Called Father, the roof of the church, some marbles and a handful of dice.
"Don’t you worry! With your wings, you can stop any fall, and if we get to the clouds, you’ll always make a soft landing. First things first though. We need to get you hovering. So, I heard some newfoals say that they had some problems at first, figuring out where their wings were and how to move them, so have you figured that out yet?" Surprise asked with a gentle smile.
"Yeah..." Grace mentally prodded her wings, causing them to spread.
Surprise giggled a little, confusing Grace, before she returned to the matter at hoof. "Right then! Here is your first exercise for today: I want you to walk after me, and on every fourth hoof beat, you must flap your wings once. Just tap your flanks and spread, ok? Good! Then let’s get started!” Surprise pulled out an old war helmet, borrowed from Granny Smith, with a few Equestrian markings on it, before straightening her face and switching to a voice Grace assumed was supposed to sound like that of a Drill Sergeant, but which mostly sounded like she was trying not to laugh.
"ALRIGHT THEN MAGGOT! TWO ZEE BRA HUT! TWO ZEE BRA HUT!" Surprise started trotting and grace chuckled as she followed with her wings flapping
-------------------
Victorious Shield leapt through the trees, chasing after the blue shape that was currently nimbly jumping through small gaps between the branches, whereas he had to either charge through them or take a longer path around them.
He sped up, and soon he could once again see the hourglass on her flank, at most two feet ahead of him.
Colgate jumped through a particularly small hole between two sturdy oaks at that moment, leaving Victorious with only an instant to change his course before he slammed into the trees, sideways. "Come on, Victor, you‘re slowing down again!" Colgate said as Victorious got back on his hooves, and continued his chase.
He managed, with what he thought to be some clever use of the environment, to corner her between a few particularly densely packed trees, carefully moving in for the capture. However, when he thought he had her, she suddenly bent one of the trees with her magic, before jumping out of his way, once again forcing him to walk around the trees.
Victorious slid around the trees, and soon caught up with her again. "How.. *pant* How is this supposed to help *pant* me with my Magic?"
"No questions now, and no answers either. Just run, kiddo," Colgate said as she bounded off, once again forcing Victorious to pick up the pace.
"Would you just stop running for a moment? Right now, I think you are only doing this because you either don’t take this any bit serious, or because I somehow offended you, and you are trying to make me pay for it!”
"No need to get your saddle in a twist, and believe me, there is a point to this. And you know what? I will tell you what it is. After you catch me, that is!" Colgate grinned, and accelerated to a speed that would leave some Pegasi in the dust.
Victorious groaned. “Somehow, I doubt it... But it’s not as if I’ll get my answers by standing here.” Victorious started running again, set on finally catching up with Colgate.
---------------------
Sales headed down to his Calm Place. A place, where he knew he was always welcome, no matter who else was there.
Sales opened the door to the nursery, and immediately gets pounced and pinned to the ground by two small, brown and off-white blurs.
"SAWES!" The excited cake twins shout as Sales gets up, a big smile plastered across his face.
""Hey you two. Cheerful as ever, right? Wanna play a game of hide and seek?" Sales said, putting the Unicorn and the Pegasus back on the floor.
The foals look at him, blinking once before they both break into grins and gallop off, doubtlessly in search of a new hiding spot.
"Sales, Sales, Sales... Sometimes, you seem to have more energy than most foals I’ve seen."
Sales turned around, watching Rainbow Spring as she walked around the corner with a big smile.
Sales chuckled. "Least I could do, who are the two new arrivals?" He said as he nodded towards the two forms in the new crib, near the window.
"Oh, those are Victory and Grace's foals. They are called Pepper and Chip. Pepper is the brown and green Pegasus, and Chip is the grey and white Unicorn. Do be quiet though, they need their sleep," Spring replied with a gentle smile.
Sales nodded, and peeked into one of the nursery’s rooms. "OH.. I WONDER WHERE THE CAKE FOALS COULD BE." he whispered loudly as he saw Pound's tail peeking out from under one of the cribs.
"Sales, if you keep coming here so often, other ponies might think you enrolled in the daycare," Spring said with a smile as Sales stalked the little foal.
Sales just grinned in reply. "Sorry, but I doubt you have a crib in my size," he said before diving under the crib, barely in time to see the foals run out the other side.
"Well then, I’ll leave you to your game." Spring said as the two foals managed to sneak up on Sales from behind, pouncing him on his back.
-------------------------------
Doctor Tennant was having a fairly normal day. Just the usual running for your life, while Daleks were shooting at him and his companion.
"Doc.. Daleks on the left!" Terrence said, rolling and firing his U.N.I.T. Standard Issue Rifle at the oncoming aliens.
"Right! Keep them pinned down!" The doctor said as he sonic’d the control panel open.
"Sontarans. Why, in the name of all that is good, are Daleks disguising themselves as a Sontaran ship?" Terrence shouted as he tried his hardest to keep the aliens from advancing any further.
"Strategy. They know that the Sontaran are not stupid enough to come back here anymore, not since the last time we met, so everyone assumes that any of their ships will steer clear of the earth. Anyhow, odds are that with one well-timed micropulse, I can fry the shield expander that was aimed at Equestria, and at least stop the acceleration of the shield’s expansion. I just need... do you happen to have some gum?"
"Sure, here!" Terrence said, making a quick gesture that knocked the hat of his head into the direction of the Doctor.
The Doctor reached in, and pulled out a package of gum, quickly grabbing a stick and unwrapping it. He chewed the gum as he put the foil wrapper over a fuse he had retrieved from the panel, before reinserting the fuse the wrong side up.
"Now, there should be a green button on the other end of the hallway. Shoot it, then run for the TARDIS!"
Terrence dropped down to the ground, and flipped out the mounts so the sniper rifle looked down the hall. One target, about 100 feet away, immobile. He had done harder shots.
He carefully aligned the scope with the small green dot, exhaled once, and fired.
A direct hit.
-----------------------
There are a lot of things to see in space. Meteorites, stars, planets, moons, you name it. However, at that point in time, there was but one truly interesting sight, somewhere on the surface of Jupiter.
At first, it was just a small speck of light, one might mistake for lens flare. Then, the light grew, as the Dalek battleship turned into a massive ball of radioactive fire, before finally collapsing into the storms of the gas giant.
One more thing that would be quite notable, though a lot harder to spot, would be the small, blue box soaring away from the inferno, carrying two downright ecstatic gentlemen of little wealth and questionable taste with it.
"YEEEEEE HAH!!!!" Terrence said, as he sat down on the chair next to the console of the TARDIS, tossing his hat on top of the latter.
"Right. Yee-hah," the Doctor said, a bit distracted as he turned on the autopilot, a process involving twenty-five different steps, a few dozen controls and various muttered prayers and/or curses.
-----------------------
As luck would have it, at that moment someone was, in fact, looking to the night’s skies. Though, maybe, luck had less to do with it than nostalgia and a good memory.
Doctor Whooves was up on the roof of the bureau, looking at Jupiter as the events on it unfolded.
"Good job... I knew you could do it," he muttered with his eye pressed up to the telescope.
"Daddy? Are you talking about past Daddy?" Dinky asked, looking up at her father.
"Yes dear... He just saved the world again. Well, Jupiter technically, but anyway. Come on Muffin, dinnertime. Besides, I have a day report to fill out.”
“Can we look a little more after that? Please?”
Doctor Whooves smiled warmly. “Sure. Anything for my little muffin.”
/////////
Kryxel:
this is more of a "slice of the day" part rather than a just sales part
it also has a few sort of "mini spoilers"
Ray10k here.
Actually, a spoiler would imply that you are revealing plot-relevant information too early. I think the terms you are looking for are “foreshadowing” and “slice of life”.
Also, Jupiter is a gas giant, and therefore doesn’t have a surface, but rather an outer layer.
Finally, only one chapter is longer than this one. A job well done if I may say so.
kryxel again: well it is kind of both if you know what to look for.
also even though it is a gas giant it does have a solid core... it is small but nothing "planitary" scale. the clouds are 30 miles thick.
Kryxel again: small fix. change in sales' dialogue at his own request