//------------------------------// // The Empty City, Part Three // Story: Running Out of Time // by CluelessBrony //------------------------------// "Who are you?" It was a simple question, really, but not one with a simple answer. "I'm the Doctor, and I'm here to help." The two princesses looked at each other skeptically. "How are you still here?" Celestia asked. "Every other pony we've seen enter the city has disappeared." Luna lowered her horn and got into a combat stance, and her horn started to glow with magic. "If he is not being affected by this foul magic, he must be the perpetrator!" The Doctor raised an eyebrow and looked up, noticing his lack of a horn. "Oh yes, you've got me! This completely magic-less Earth Pony has cast a spell large enough to foalnap every single pony in your kingdom! Oh, I surrender to your might, oh grand princess of the night." Luna glared, but otherwise didn't say anything. "How is it that you are still here, 'Doctor'?" Celestia asked, a hint of suspicion evident in her voice. It didn't put off the Doctor, however. "I don't know! Let me tell you, I hate not knowing. Now, what do you know about the disappearances?" Celestia's suspicious look remained. "Everypony disappeared." The Doctor stared at her, his expression blank. "...That's it?" he asked. "You don't know anything else about it?" Celestia shook her head with a sigh. "The day started out normally. I woke up and rose the sun. The market was busy, the castle was staffed, and everypony seemed happy. At first I believed it to be the work of Discord-" Celestia abruptly silenced herself. "Oh, don't worry princess, I know all about Discord. Do go on," the Doctor said with a wave of his hoof. The princess looked down at him, more suspicious now than ever. "Oh, that's not public information yet, is it? Drat, I'm horrible with this type of stuff. It's like that time I told the king of Raxacoricofallapatorius about his daughter's pregnancy. Haha, that was a fun day!" "Raxaco-what now?" Luna asked. "Oh, doesn't matter. So, do continue, your majesty!" Celestia cleared her throat. "Well, I checked on Discord, and he's still trapped in stone. I have no idea what or who could have caused this to happen." Celestia looked down in sadness. "If you are truly here to help, 'Doctor'... please. We're out of options." The Doctor nodded. "Alright! I can help. We need to brainstorm. I'll start!" The Doctor started to pace, a thoughtful look on his face. "We know they were teleported somehow. You would have noticed something creeping through the streets and taking ponies, right? That means teleportation! "It couldn't have been magical teleportation either, because neither of you felt anything. You're the near-immortal rulers of Equestria, you'd be able to feel such a large spell being cast!" "If it wasn't magic, then how did they get taken?" Princess Luna interjected, only to be ignored by the rambling brown colt. "Which means it was artificial teleportation! Was it a transmat beam? Perhaps all the taken ponies had something that acted as a beacon for a teleportation device somewhere. Princesses! When they disappeared, was there any light or other strange phenomena?" "Yes," Celestia answered. "They were ensnared by a silvery mist for a few seconds before disappearing. I grabbed a hold of my servant before it happened and tried to disrupt the spell, but it had no effect." "You touched one of the ponies as they were being taken? Brilliant! Which hoof did you use?" The princess tentatively her right hoof off the ground. "Why does this matter?" she asked, only to be taken aback as the Doctor licked her hoof. She pulled back quickly. "What in the world are you doing?!" The Doctor put his hoof on his chin for a few moments, before his face brightened. "That tastes like an Eldathi transmat beam! Quickly, come with me! We need to get to the spot my assistant was taken before the remnants become too stale to track!" With that, the Doctor rushed out of the hall and pulled his sonic screwdriver out of its pocket. The princesses hesitated. Were they really going to follow this obviously insane stallion into what could possibly be a trap? "Wait for us!" Derpy sat staring wide eyed at the console before her. It was a large thing, full of buttons, knobs, levers, and wheels. The device would be quite confusing if each button were not conveniently labeled in perfect Equish. Each button had a label above it, telling its exact purpose. That was the thing that surprised Derpy. Why would an alien spaceship label everything in Equish? Not one to complain about a good thing, she looked over the buttons, looking for one that would help her. After a moment, she found a section of buttons conveniently labeled "Comm Systems". Derpy smiled. Just what she needed! She used her hoof to flick a button labeled "Distress Signal" before pulling a lever labeled "All frequencies". She had no idea what the second one meant, but she felt like it would be helpful. She continued to press more buttons until she felt something cold and hard on the back of her head. "And what do you think you're doing, little pony?" The Doctor ran back to the spot Derpy was taken as quick as his hooves could take him. "Come along, princesses! We're almost there!" he shouted over his shoulder. We need to hurry, he thought, we don't have long before the remnants of the transmat beam become too old to track! The TARDIS and the spot Derpy disappeared quickly came into view, and the Doctor started to wave around his sonic screwdriver, which emitted its signature whirring noise. The princesses, who had quickly caught up to him, looked at the little device in his mouth with confusion. "What is that?" Luna inquired. "Some sort of weapon to battle whoever is responsible for this?" "Weapon?" the Doctor asked. "Why would I need a weapon?" The princess started to answer but was cut off when the Doctor whipped his screwdriver up to his face. "No..." he muttered, his voice soft. Celestia took a step forward. "Is something wrong?" she asked, a look of concern crossing her features. The Doctor continued looking at his screwdriver in disbelief. "We... weren't fast enough. The signal's gone." "Are they gone, Doctor? Can you not save them?" Luna asked, anger bubbling up to the surface. He was our last hope. He cannot have failed! "I... I don't know what to-" Beep beep beep The Doctor was startled by the sound coming from his screwdriver. He brought it up to his face, and the hints of a smile appeared on his face. "This... This is a distress signal from an Eldathi cruiser! Why would they be broadcasting their position? Was it... Derpy!" The Doctor looked up to the sky. "You clever girl, I could kiss you!" he shouted. The Doctor turned to the princesses. "Stay here! I'll be back with your citizens in no time at all!" With that, he turned and ran into the TARDIS, closing the door behind him. The princesses tried to follow, bu the door refused to open. "Where are you going?" Luna shouted. "I thought you said you were going to go save our citizens?" They stopped shouting and fiddling with the door when they heard the strangest noise. Vworp... Vworp... Vworp... The strange blue box began to fade, and the princesses stared wide eyed. Within moments, the TARDIS was completely gone. "Why don't you step back from the console and we can talk about this?" Derpy heard a calm voice say from behind her. She gulped, expecting one of those magic energy blast that she had seen destroy an entire console to fly towards her. When it never came, she slowly back up from the console. "Good girl! Now, because you're obviously smarter than you look, you're a bit dangerous to me and my plans. So let's step back into the lab and I'll dissect you first. Sound good?" Derpy didn't answer. She was too distracted by the familiar noise that she had just noticed. "Well, aren't you a rude one. Not even going to... answer... me..." The voice trailed off when he heard the noise as well. The device was jabbed painfully into the back of Derpy's head. "What is that? What did you do?" asked the bug-man, the calm in his voice starting to crack. "Oh, hello there!" a cheery, accented voice called from behind the bug-man, who turned and pointed his weapon at the newcomer. This gave Derpy an opportunity to fly off to the ceiling and towards the blue box that now dominated the center of the room. The Doctor stood by it, leaning on the side of the TARDIS. "So, what's an Eldathi like you doing all the way out here, hmm?" he asked. "Well, no, don't answer that. I know enough about you that I can probably guess." The Doctor started pacing up and down. "You Eldathi are constantly at war with your neighbours on the planet Drazub IX, correct? I'm assuming you coming out here has something to do with the war effort. But what could it be that you would need live Equestrian specimens? Something that the Equestrians have, but you don't. When you consider how advanced you are, that can only be one thing- magic!" Derpy cut in before the Doctor could continue his deductions. "Doctor, he's got unicorns in vats of stuff!" The Doctor nodded. "And that confirms my suspicions. Thank you, Derpy." He turned back to the Eldathi, who was still pointing his weapon at the Doctor. "So you've been foalnapping ponies to try and find a way to use their magic for your own ends..." He shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that." The Eldathi made a light chittering noise that Derpy took as laughing. "Oh, and who do you think you are to stop me?" he asked. Without warning, the Doctor smoothly took out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it to the weapon in the Eldathi's hand. A shower of sparks erupted from the device, and the Eldathi dropped it in shock and pain. The Doctor ran past the Eldathi while he was distracted, sliding between his long legs and making his way to the console. The Eldathi turn to face the Doctor, but the brown colt had already pressed all the buttons he could. "Who am I to stop you?" The Doctor said, a dark look crossing his features. "I'm the one the shadows fear. Thousands of races across the galaxy tremble at my name!" He turned around and pulled a lever, which caused the entire ship to quake. "I'm the saviour of galaxies! The oncoming storm!" He turned back to face the Eldathi. "I'm the Doctor, and I'm the one who's going to save all the ponies you've stolen." The Eldathi backed away, sensing the darkness that had crept into the Doctor's voice. "What are you doing?!" he shouted. "That's the problem with these one-man cruisers. All the controls for the whole ship are clustered in place. They're so simple to sabotage." "What did you do to my ship?! Answer me!" "Oh, well, first I sent all the Equestrians back home by reversing the polarity of the transmat beam. It was pretty simple stuff, really, could have done that when I was just a foal. When I was done with that, I tripled the output of the on-board generators and rerouted all of their power to the ship's shielding system. I estimate we have about..." the Doctor looked up in thought. "Thirty seconds before the shields implode, destroying this ship in the process." The Eldathi started to move for the console, but the Doctor pointed his screwdriver at it first. "I wouldn't do that, if I were you. If I press this button, the entire system will lock in place and become irreversible! Give up, Eldathi. I'm giving you one chance for redemption." The colt's eyes softened. "Please, take it." The Eldathi screamed in rage before charging at the Doctor, who pressed the button on the sonic screwdriver and locked the whole system in place. He jumped out of the way right before the Eldathi would have impacted him and made a break for the TARDIS. "Derpy, get in, now!" The pegasus nodded and quickly entered the TARDIS, the Doctor close behind. The doors of the TARDIS closed and the Doctor ran to the console and pressed a few buttons. With a whooshing noise, they left the ship. Moments later, the entire ship was crushed by its own shield system, sending debris flying across the vast expanse of space. Back at the castle The princesses watched as the townsponies reappeared in front of their eyes. The townponies all stood up and looked around. Each and every one of them was sent back to the exact spot they had disappeared from. They all looked around in confusion, asking each other questions such as "What happened?" The princesses let out a sigh of relief. Celestia turned to Luna. "I don't know what happened, but I feel we owe this 'Doctor' our thanks." Back in Ponyville, present day The TARDIS rematerialized in the Doctor's dusty basement. It had been three hours since they had left, and nothing had changed. The door opened and a tan stallion and grey mare stepped out. The mare had a goofy grin on her face, but the Doctor had a more somber look. "Hey Doctor, that was great! You saved the day!" The Doctor let out a chuckle at that. "Well, nothing new there! Of course, I couldn't have done it without you. You're the one who managed to tell me where you were, after all." He looked at her with a small grin. "You're the one who saved all those ponies, Derpy. You're a hero. Don't ever forget that." Derpy blushed before hovering in the air and turning away. Meanwhile, the Doctor looked away with a smile. Maybe I was wrong about her... After all, there were only two ways somepony could have gotten into the TARDIS without a key. They could be malicious invaders with time lord technology... The Doctor looked at the still-blushing grey mare beside him. ...or perhaps the TARDIS had let her in for a reason.