The Doctor and Derpy made their way up a flight of stairs usually used by maintenance. It was by this point the only way of reaching the upper levels, as all main stairs and lifts were jammed with frightened beings trying to leave the station.
Ships leaving from the hangar sent a near-constant rumble through the station, and even on the upper levels the Doctor and Derpy could feel it.
“We’re looking for a locked room of some office complex,” He said, pacing erratically, “Any ideas?”
“Well, he did use the station-wide speakers,” Derpy said, “So somewhere with access to a PA system?”
“Derpy, you’re fantastic!” the Doctor cried, “That’s got to be it! I’m willing to bet those particular signals only come from one place in particular… this century’s equivalent of a radio control tower. Only problem now is locating it in time.”
At that moment, a screaming mare rushed toward the two, dragging a half-zipped duffel bag behind her. Derpy stepped in the way, preventing her escape down the stairs they had just ascended.
“What are you, crazy?!” the pony yelled, “You’re going to get me killed, move out of the way!”
“I need you to tell me where the radio tower is,” Derpy said with a strong voice, “This is important- it might save this station.”
The mare backed down.
“I...I don’t know what a radio station is. You mean the Announcements hub? It’s where the announcements are made from.”
“That’s what I meant.” Derpy said, “Where is it?”
“Back in the direction I came from, there’s a balcony. The only way up there is a ladder… listen, can I GO now?”
The mare ran off, and Derpy followed her instructions. She and the Doctor ran up another level, and arrived on a platform that was more industrial looking, more utilitarian than the rest of the station. This was a no-nonsense place that existed for a purpose, not to look pretty.
The balcony was now in view, and a one-way screen prevented them from seeing inside to tell if anypony was even in there.
“The ladder,” the Doctor said, “Let’s try the door.”
Using her wings, Derpy was able to bypass the ladder entirely and tried to open the door. It didn’t budge. She tried slamming her weight against it several times, but found it to be shut fast.
“Doctor, it’s locked from the inside.” she called down, “I can’t get in.”
The Doctor was halfway up the ladder, and took a moment to reach for his sonic out of reflex. He remembered that he had given it to Lyra, and frowned.
“Alright, time for plan B.” he said.
“Which is what?”
“I dunno yet,” the Doctor said, dismounting the ladder and landing on the ground below once again.
“The TARDIS!” Derpy exclaimed, “You can use that, can’t you? Materialize inside the booth?”
The Doctor shook his head.
“I’m strictly against taking the TARDIS into battle,” he said, “It’s supposed to remain hidden or out of the way.”
“But Doctor, this could bbe what saves everyone’s life! You’ve got to!” protested Derpy.
****
Inside the booth sat a pony with sunken eyes and a fur coat that appeared dull and grayed. He seemed to wear a tattered dark cape over his withers and backside, but on closer inspection an observer would notice that this had once been an overcoat, now ripped and torn beyond all recognition.
This creature watched on monitors and displays as the station residents desperately packed every belonging and family member they could onto theirs ships before blasting out of the hangar in a hurry. He wasn’t very concerned about them, and as far as he cared their lives were negligible. His major concern was the Cyberponies.
At that moment, a mechanical groan filled the small compartment. An artificial breeze fluttered about, whipping the remains of the Bad Wolf’s coat around. The form of the materializing ship came into view- it was the TARDIS itself. The first thing he noticed about the materializing timeship was it’s bare sides. Hastily, the Bad Wolf drew a hood over his face so that only a portion of his snout remained visible.
****
With the Sonic Screwdriver clenched between her teeth, Lyra set to work locating the explosives. Amid the confusion of the crowd she scanned the edge of the support structures. They appeared as marble columns rising up several levels. She spotted something- a little dark box tucked into the corner of the column's top and the ceiling.
Lyra set to work climbing the column. With hooves wrapped around she could shimmy up bit by bit, but she wasn't getting anywhere incredibly fast. She thought of Unicorns that were skilled in magic that could levitate themselves, and how much it would have helped in the situation. She was a level up, about halfway toward the first bomb. There wasn't a lot of time left.
****
The TARDIS doors crashed outwards, and the Doctor was the first to bound out, jumping to pin the Bad Wolf to the floor. Derpy flew out of the TARDIS , swooping down over the console of this compartment to pick up the Bad Wolf’s detonation device. She held it in her hooves and hovered in the air to keep it out of his reach.
The Doctor and the Wolf were on the ground, crashing into towers of music tapes and unused electronics. Entire stacks of equipment crashed down upon them, breaking and clattering about. The Wolf purposefully struck at a black cart used to hold a projector in place, causing the projector to fall down and crash into the Doctor’s side.
The Doctor cried out as broken glass stuck into his side just behind the back edge of his jacket. He went and tried to pounce on the Wolf and strike him with both front hooves, but the Bad Wolf fought like a dog. He rolled the Doctor back and tried to bite at his neck like a savage animal, but the Doctor kicked him back.
The Bad Wolf landed in a pile of broken disks and tapes, and lay there for a moment. The Doctor stood above him, panting heavily. Sweat trickled down his face.
“Well, what are you waiting for, Doctor?” the Bad Wolf taunted, “Aren’t you going to kill me?”
“Not without some information first,” the Doctor replied, “Firstly, how do you know about me?”
The Bad Wolf spat at him in response, so the Doctor stepped out to pin the hooded villain down with his hoof.
“You and I are not that dissimilar,” the Bad Wolf said, “We are the same.”
“We are not the same!” the Doctor insisted, “I don’t know who you are or what your problem is, but I don’t go around telling innocents they have to die! If I have a problem with the actions of an alien race I…”
“You what?” the Bad Wolf retorted, “Give them an ultimatum? Change your ways or the Doctor will destroy you- is that your approach? You’re not a time-travelling thrill seeker as you’d like to think of yourself, you’re a Marauder. A crusader against all the wrong-doers of your bloodied past.”
The Doctor closed his eyes, and furrowed his brow.
“What would you do if you found a population of Daleks?” the Bad Wolf asked.
“The Daleks are all-” started the Doctor.
“But what would you do?” the Wolf asked, “Would you show them any mercy?”
Eyes still closed, the Doctor shook his head.
****
Lyra held the sonic aloft in a small magic field, using her unicorn powers to move the device.
She was now far above the terrified masses, close to the ceiling and still clinging to the marble column with all four legs. Her sweaty mane stuck to her face in places, but she was concentrated. The little black box had a little red light on it that flashed in a rhythm.
She maneuvered the sonic to this light, holding the tip against it and holding down the button with her magic. The blue end lit up and made a high-pitched whizzing sound.
The red light lit brightly, and the box exploded. It wasn't a large explosion, just a flash and a bang. Bits of plastic broke apart, and a piece of it landed on Lyra's face. She shook her head and it fluttered down along with the other bits of the bomb.
In the spot where the bomb had been was a blackened streak. The column wasn't broken or cracked, so Lyra assumed that whatever she had done disabled the bomb.
One down, she thought to herself.
****
“You see, you and I are not that different,” the Bad Wolf said, “I also seek to cleanse the galaxy of races bent on conquest and devastation. The difference between you and I is my moral code. I am not afraid to harm innocents, you see.”
“I’m aware of that,” the Doctor said, “and that’s why you have to be stopped.”
The Bad Wolf laughed.
“Our methods are not much different. I’m but a shadowy reflection of yourself, Doctor.” he said, now standing up from the Doctor’s loosened hold, “It would only take a little push to make you like me.”
From above, Derpy snickered.
“What’s so funny?” the Doctor called up to her, “It’s not a laughing matter, Derpy.”
“I know, sorry,” she said, landing at the Doctor’s side, “But this is the Bad Wolf? He's quoting lines from Daring Do villains.”
She cried out in surprise as the tattered pony somersaulted over the Doctor’s head and pinned her down. She couldn’t see his face other than his snarling mouth, which was pressed against her face.
“I’ll take that!” he snarled at her, wresting the detonator from her.
The Bad Wolf jumped up onto the console, brandishing the detonation device.
“My choice of words were stolen, yes, but the meaning was very sincere. I’ve met you before, Doctor,” the Bad Wolf said, “But judging from the bare side of your TARDIS, you haven’t met me yet. I don’t want to cause a paradox, so unfortunately I can’t kill you on this occasion.”
“Better luck next time,” the Doctor said.
“Quite.” the Wolf replied, “Now I must be getting to my… er… my machine. You’ve got thirty second to get to the TARDIS before this place blows up.”
He glanced to his side.
“...hardly a race against the clock.”
He pressed the detonator, which began flashing red, and dashed out of the compartment’s door and down the hall.
“Doctor, now what?!” Derpy cried, “He just pressed the switch!”
The Doctor paused. He had been counting the seconds down from the moment the Bad Wolf had pressed the switch. It had been fifteen seconds so far. He motioned for Derpy to enter the TARDIS, which he then entered himself. Twenty five seconds.
He closed the door.
Derpy sat by the console, hunkered down with hooves holding her ears shut. To her surprise there was no sound.
The Doctor blinked.
He circled the console himself, and flicked one of his own displays on.
“The Bad Wolf’s device just dematerialized,” he stated, “and it looks like the Cyberponies have gotten away to safety.”
“What about the station?” Derpy gasped, “What about Lyra, and everypony else onboard?”
The Doctor opened the doors of the TARDIS. Derpy peered out with him, and saw the wrecked compartment and smashed equipment left over from the Doctor’s fight with the Bad Wolf.
“Sixty seconds,” he said, “Everything’s still there, and we haven’t moved a second out of sync with time.”
“So that means…” Derpy trailed off.
“That means,” the Doctor said, “That Lyra was able to disable the explosives. She saved the lives of everypony- well, everybody onboard the station.”
“Including the Cyberponies?” asked Derpy. The Doctor nodded.
“Yeah, even the Cybers.” he said, “Only now they’re on the run.”
He closed the door and went back to the console.
“Let’s grab Lyra, and head off to somewhere else. We can find the Cybers later,” the Doctor said, "I hope that after this incident they tighten security around here... rather'd not have a repeat incident to be honest."
****
"So I'm sitting there standing on the balcony, holding this bomb in my hooves and it starts flashing rapidly like it's about to go off. Well, I guess it was about to go off, wasn't it?" Lyra recounted, "So I do the only thing I can think of, which is to lob it into the air where it explodes. Not really anything too loud, just a kind of a big flashy bang with lots of flame. It probably looked like a miniature firework to the ponies and aliens, but I'm surprised it wasn't a lot bigger... though since it was stuck onto the side of a fuel processor I'm guessing it wasn't the bomb itself but it catching the fuel that was the problem."
Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor sat himself of a broken couch alongside Derpy, while Lyra sat on a stool by the side of the console. They had been discussing the day’s events, and Lyra had just finished explaining how she had disabled the bombs. It was now Derpy’s turn to share.
“Well, the Doctor and I found out way to this place… kind of like a radio control tower, right?” she said, “And then we can’t get inside. The door’s locked. So I tell the Doctor to use the TARDIS, and when it appears inside the Doctor jumps out the door to tackle this guy- the Bad Wolf.”
“What was he like?” Lyra asked, “What did he look like?”
“I couldn’t tell,” Derpy admitted, “He covered himself in a ripped up old cloak. The way he talked was like a typical Daring Do villain- you know, the ones that try to compare themselves to Daring to make her feel bad? That’s what he was doing.”
The Doctor looked away from the two, and closed his eyes.
“He was trying to pull one of those on the Doctor, tell him that they weren’t that different. He got the jump on me- took the detonator."
“What I want to know,” the Doctor said, now turning back to face Lyra, “is why the words ‘Bad Wolf’ keep popping up everywhere. He never mentioned that, did you notice?”
“He did say that he’s met you before,” said Derpy, “What exactly does that mean?”
“Simple,” replied the Doctor, “He met up with me before I’ve met up with him. It’s clear he’s hiding something from me.”
“Like what?”
“His face,” the Doctor said, “He covered up his face with that hood, and never took it off. And then there’s the fake voice- that’s not him trying to be edgy, Derpy. Don’t you see? He’s trying to keep me in the dark about who he really is. He think I’ll recognize him when I see him.”
They sat in silence for a moment, with only the sound of the TARDIS ambience interrupting their collective thoughts about the Bad Wolf, and who he really was.
The Doctor broke the silence, standing up energetically and moving to the TARDIS console.
“That’s for future us to worry about, though,” he said, “C’mon, it’s your turn Derpy, where do you want to go?”
Derpy shrugged.
“I don’t know… someplace random?”
The Doctor smiled.
“Fantastic!” he said, “You want random? Alright, let’s try that. Anywhere in time and space?”
“Surprise me.” Derpy replied with a grin.
The Doctor grinned, and flipped a switch. To his surprise, the TARDIS lurched about violently. All of the ponies were thrown from their spots, with the Doctor hanging onto the console by a single hoof. The engines whined loudly and the walls of the ship shuddered and trembled.
The entire room felt like it was spinning, and indeed the TARDIS herself was spinning wildly and out of control in the time vortex. Sparks flew up from the console panel, which the Doctor tried to rectify with a kick. Somewhere far away within the ship, the cloister bell chimed.
"What's happening?" Lyra screamed out, clutching one of the great coral-like supports.
"Something's trying to force us out of the vortex, but the TARDIS is fighting it and losing," the Doctor yelled, "Hold on everypony, we're crashing!"