//------------------------------// // Patchwork Peril // Story: Wolf at the Door // by Fedora //------------------------------// The dusty passageway felt cramped from above, forcing each of the three ponies to keep their heads lowered. Unfortunately for the Sixth Doctor his curly blonde mop of a mane would pick up cobwebs and other debris and force him to stop every now and then to pick the material out. Lyra and Medley walked side by side, and went at a slightly slower pace than the Doctor in order to carry out a conversation between themselves without being overheard by the Doctor himself. Something about the Ninth Doctor’s reaction to that one coffin made Lyra uneasy, and she wanted to learn what she could. “Has your Doctor ever… you know, broken down?” Lyra whispered, keeping her eyes fixed on the garish rainbow up ahead of them, just out of earshot of their whispered conversation. “What, like back there?” replied Medley, “No… but he’s had other times when he became really down. Last week he played a game of some kind on a little gray box. I think he called it a visual novel.” “What was it called?” “I don’t know,” admitted Medley, “Something with a ‘K’. All I remember is that he got depressed after finishing it. I think he got emotionally attached to a character.” “What, like a crush?” Lyra snorted. Up ahead the Sixth Doctor stopped, and her heart skipped a beat in fear of being overheard whispering. She was relieved to see him angrily shaking his mane out, and trying to flick a spider off his head with a hoof. “I didn’t think the Doctor was capable of love and romance,” Lyra whispered, “I’ve never seen him show affection to anyone or anything, fictional or real… except maybe the TARDIS itself, but I’m not sure if that really counts.” Medley shook her head. “I think he feels the same way that you or I do,” she whispered, “He just keeps it all to himself. I do know that he has a granddaughter somewhere, and he also romanced a mare of his own species a couple hundred years ago. Other than that, he hasn’t been very forthcoming. I kinda found this stuff out by accident and through offhoof references, you know?” Lyra had to mull that one over. She knew that the Doctor had lost his entire race, he had said as much before. Just when had that occurred? Were they all still alive by the time of this incarnation, or had he been the last of the Time Lords for a long time? What was the proper word for a mare Time Lord? It would make sense if the traumatic event was more recent. This Doctor acted differently compared to hers. He was much more confident, if his ability to wear such a horrid costume un-ironically was any indication. He carried himself with a sort of swagger that was still present in the Ninth Doctor… but here it was more prominent. If the Time War had occurred more recently, sometime after this version of the Doctor, then it would explain everything from his contemporary sense of style to his downright bipolar nature. That reminded Lyra of another question… “Does your Doctor have mood swings?” she whispered, “does he go from being really happy and caffeinated to being dark and depressed?” “No,” Medley whispered back, “He’s… well…” “What?” “He’s a bit egocentric.” Medley whispered in her quietest voice. “I am not egocentric!” the Sixth Doctor cried, turning about and shouting back at the two ponies, “I am perhaps the least egocentric being out there!” Medley was silent and the Sixth Doctor decided against pressing the issue, leaving the three in a short silence while Lyra contemplated the hearing abilities of a time lord. The cramped corridor came to an abrupt halt, ending in a rectangular threshold to another chamber of some kind. Beyond the opening was no light, and even with dark-adjusted eyes neither of the ponies could make out anything about it. The Sixth Doctor stepped through the portal, disappearing into the blackness. Medley paused for a moment, and carefully followed the Doctor with Lyra bringing up the rear. Even from within, the blackness was all-encompassing and left the three travelers blind to what lie ahead. What little information they could gather came through hearing, smell, and touch. Lyra could hear her hoofsteps echoing about, leading her to conclude that the area was sizable. The ground felt hard like a rock, but was cold and wet. Sniffing the air didn’t reveal anything new. “Doctor, do you have anything that lights up?” Medley whispered. “No… I haven’t a flashlight, if that’s what you mean,” the Doctor replied. “I’ve got it,” Lyra said. She concentrated for a moment, focusing her energy into her unicorn magic. Her horn glowed a bright green for a brief moment, and then illuminated brilliantly from the tip. The sudden brightness caused Medley to cry out and shield her eyes. Pointing her horn upwards, Lyra revealed the chamber around them to be cave-like and earthy, without much marking to guide them further or reveal anything important about the entire facade. In the direction they had been previously moving toward was nothing but a rock wall. In fact, the entire chamber was little more than rock walls and emptiness. There didn’t seem to be anywhere to go from here, nor anything of importance to see. The Doctor didn’t seem to agree, however. He held up a hoof, signaling for silence. Medley and Lyra focused, straining their ears to listen for a sound. A very quiet, very soft squelching noise seemed to emanate from the far side of the cave. The Doctor cupped his front hooves in front of his mouth, and made incomprehensible sucking and squelching sounds with puffed out cheeks. He seemed to be trying to communicate with something. The original noise stopped. The Doctor waited for a response, and after hearing none tried making the gross sound effects with his mouth a second time. After once again not hearing a response, he looked down toward his hooves and picked up a small stone. He held the stone with one hoof and watched the opposite wall intently for a moment before throwing it. Rather than strike the rock wall with a clatter and bounce off, the rock stuck with a sharp splatting noise. The Doctor seemed surprised by this turn of events, and turned back to face Medley and Lyra. “Most curious,” he said quietly, “There appears to be a creature over there, camouflaged as a rock formation. I’m wondering if perhaps it could be blocking the exit from view.” “What kind of creature?” Medley asked, “Intelligent?” “I suppose,” the Doctor said, “But not in the way you’d recognize as ‘intelligent’. I’m sure that it’s a sentient life form as it communicates using a language I recognize, but not one that the TARDIS can translate.” “That’s what those noises were?” said Lyra, “That was you trying to talk to it?” “Basically, yes, if you can call that talking.” The Doctor replied, “I’m not sure it’s worth explaining in full… unfortunately the creature seems to be unwilling to respond.” “Or unable to.” Medley noted. “Interesting idea,” the Doctor said, “Excellent idea, in fact. Good work Medley, you're improving!” “Thank you.” “It’s all due to my influence though, you mustn’t take any of the credit.” the Doctor said, clapping his front hooves together, “Now here’s the question… why can’t it respond? What’s holding it back?” “Fear.” guessed Lyra, “We scared it by our noise.” “Not quite,” the Doctor said, “Not by our noise, but by the vibrations that make up our noise. This species isn’t capable of the same kind of hearing that you or I recognize… but they can sense the sound waves and vibrations. Makes sense for a gelatinous being, but I don’t particularly envy it. Couldn’t hear a thing, but you’d always know if someone was talking. That’s just downright frustrating.” “So… what do we do?” Medley asked, “Where do we go from here?” The Doctor was silent for a moment, and paced back and forth. Lyra’s horn light began to dim as she lost concentration on maintaining the spell, so she renewed it and the place brightened back up slightly. “I wonder…” the Doctor started, his words trailing off. He approached the “rock wall” with outstretched front hooves, attempting to form a psychic link with the creature. All was silent for a moment. The Doctor stood with his hooves connected to the gelatinous creature’s side while Medley and Lyra watched on with bated breath. At that moment, a terrible thing happened. The Doctor’s hooves were violently sucked into the side of the creature. The Doctor let out a terrified cry seconds before his face vanished into the side of the blobbish monster. “Doctor!” Medley cried. Her loud voice and the Doctor’s point-blank scream irritated the creature. It reared back on itself, seeming to fold backwards and for a moment revealing the way out before plummeting back down onto the stone floor. The shock sent a vibration through the rock. Medley had the sense to take to the air, but Lyra was hit by the force of the blow and fell onto her side. Her magic light extinguished as she fell, but a dim glow seemed to emanate from the outer layers of the blobbish creature’s skin. Had it absorbed some of the light? A silhouetted form of a time lord was visible just underneath the outermost layer, kicking and thrashing about to no avail. He vanished, along with all sight of the creature as the slight glow faded and the chamber was full of absolute darkness again. Lyra went for an illumination spell again, but accomplished nothing in the way of startling the creature enough to make it spit the Doctor back out. At least she and Medley could see again. “Spit him out, Spit him out!” Medley cried, flying higher and zooming down in the direction of the blob with outstretched back hooves poised for a drop-kick from above. Unfortunately, her brave move did little more than get her stuck to the beast’s topside, sucking her in just as the Doctor had been. “Lyra!” she shouted, “Bad idea, don’t try hitting it!” Her hindquarters were trapped, and in the process of speaking the creature’s outermost layer ensnared her wings. Within moments, her head would be stuck as well. “Medley, fight against it!” Lyra cried. “I’m trying!” she yelled back, “It’s not working! Do something with your magic!” “It’s only basic things and talent related-stuff! I can’t lift it up, it’s too heavy!” “Think of something with your ta-” The end of Medley’s sentence was lost as her head and the rest of her body vanished to the blob. Lyra stood still, watching the shadows of both ponies trapped inside still trying to fight their way out unsuccessfully. She was lucky that she had a moment to think, and that the creature wasn’t actively after her, but she had to think fast. She doubted either of them could breathe through that… whatever that was. She could levitate small objects, create light, and talent-related tasks. What good was a cutie mark in music and vocals if one is trapped in a cave with a giant blob trying to eat your friends? She could sing it a lullaby, perhaps. But then, the Doctor had mentioned that the thing didn’t have a sense of hearing. But it could sense vibrations. After all, they had startled it when they had spoken up earlier, and shouting had irritated it. That gave Lyra an idea. Lyra’s horn glowed a bright yellowish green, and a funnel formed out of the magic energy. The magic funnel moved toward her mouth, and Lyra sang in a high soprano. “Do Re Me Fa So La Ti Do!” The creature seemed to react negatively to the amplified sound of Lyra’s voice, but didn’t release it’s grip on the ponies. She tried again. “So Do La Fa Mi Do Re, So Do La Ti Do Re Do!” Still little reaction. So much for the warm up. Lyra’s mind snapped to something a bit louder, a song she had learned as a filly listening to her father’s old records. “Baby you can haul my cart! Yes I’m gonna be a star! Baby you can haul my cart! And maybe I love you.. BEEP BEEP’M BEEP BEEP YEAH!" Lyra’s voice was less of a high soprano and more of a passionate alto at this point, blasting out the lyrics acappella and letting them reverberate loudly off the walls. This seemed to agitate the creature much more, and it started to push the ponies out halfway. The Doctor’s head and forelimbs were still stuck inside, and so were Medley’s hind limbs, but Medley was able to gasp for air. Lyra continued her loud singing, trying to remember the words to the verse “Asked a filly what she wanted to be She said baby, can't you see I wanna be famous, a star on the screen Um… something something in between…” Medley gave a large kick to the ailing creature, which released its grip on her hind hooves entirely, causing her to take a fall down onto the hard rock. The Doctor was still stuck, seeming to have gone limp and unable to work his way out. “Baby you can haul my cart! Yes I’m gonna be a star! Baby you can haul my cart! And maybe I love… Doctor are you all right?!” Lyra stopped singing as soon as the creature had spat the rest of the Doctor out onto the rock floor in protest to the intense assault on the senses caused by Lyra’s vocal chords. It seemed to ball up and retreat into a corner. Taking the one chance they may have before the exit would be blocked again, Lyra dragged the Doctor by the collar of his ugly-looking outfit through the blackish threshold, beckoning for Medley to follow. When all three had made it into another set of corridors, Lyra bent her lit horn over the Doctor’s face, listening for breathing. She didn’t hear anything, nor was his chest rising. “Let me do this,” Medley offered, patting his neck with a hoof, “They taught us how to check for vitals in flight school.” “You went to flight school?” Lyra asked, “That hasn’t been a requirement for ages.” “I enlisted,” Medley said proudly, “Class of ‘89… He’s got something pulsing in his neck, but it’s irregular…” “That’d be the second heart.” a different voice said. The Doctor sat himself up with his back against the wall, and lower hooves stretched out on the ground. He was instantly taken down as two ponies tried to hug him at once. “Take it easy, take it easy!” he said in a muffled voice. Returning to all four hooves, he dusted the dirt off from his patchwork frock coat and pulled it snugly about himself by the lapels. “Respiratory bypass,” he explained, “Comes in handy every now and then… can’t say it’s too pleasant.” “I thought you were dead.” Medley pouted, “You sure you’re all right?” “Honestly Medley, I’ll be fine.” The Doctor assured her, “Though that little incident makes me certain of one thing… the threats down here are deadly. At least, they have the potential to be. I must warn my future self.” The Doctor sat himself back down again, crossing his back legs and placing his front hooves on his forehead in a sort of meditative position. His expression became placid, and his breathing slowed down. Medley and Lyra watched him sit like this for what felt like an eternity, unwilling to make small talk for fear they might break whatever trance he had put himself under. The Doctor stirred after a while, and at a moment’s notice bounded back onto all fours with a huge grin on his face. “I made contact,” he said, “I warned myself about the possibility of these constructed apparitions being deadly. Haven’t done that in awhile, I must admit.” “You what?” Lyra asked, tilting her head to one side. “Oh, never mind that. It’s all Time Lord voodoo. We've got work to!” The Doctor said, taking the lead of the trio once more.