//------------------------------//
// Chapter Seven: Interplanetary War 
// Story: Cranks and Bubbles 
// by guppygirl 
//------------------------------//

   The night was calm.  Peaceful.  Small creatures rustled through the foliage of the forest as a nighttime bird began a beautiful aria.  Aside from these animal sounds, the scene was quiet.
   This quiet was abruptly shattered by an odd sound.  VWORP!  VWORP!  VWORP!
   Any nearby animals were startled into fleeing into the underbrush as a large blue box appeared between two trees.  Eventually, with a thud, it solidified on the forest floor.
   The Doctor burst out, already talking at a hundred miles a minute.  “Here we are!  Yoskuatera, home of the legendary Yoskuateran Meteor Shower!  Thousands of falling stars every single night!”
   “Doctor, we’re in the middle of a rather dense forest,” Tick Tock pointed out, mildly annoyed.  “We can’t see those ‘thousands of falling stars’.”
   “Ah, now patience, my good pony!”  The Doctor grinned at Tick Tock and Derpy, who was closing the doors of the TARDIS.  “Avante!”  He bounded off, and with a shared look and a frustrated sigh from Tick Tock, the companions followed suit.
   He was waiting rather impatiently beside a large clearing.  “What are you waiting for, slowpokes?  Don’t you want to see?”
   “Doctor…” Derpy grumbled affectionately.  Before she could reprimand him any further, he quickly turned, leading the way into the clearing.
   Upon following, Derpy froze, staring at the sky.  “Wow…”
   The Doctor hadn’t been kidding about those falling stars.  The night sky was filled with moving points of light, flashing across the sky almost too quickly to even process.



   “Completely fascinating,” Tick Tock whispered beside her, prompting a smile out of the mare.  She was quickly becoming accustomed to hearing that word.
   “See?” the Doctor asked proudly.  “I told you - best meteor shower you’ll ever see in your life.”
   “And it’s really a nightly thing?” Derpy responded, eyes still not straying from the sky.  Tick Tock looked at her and saw the brilliant light of the falling stars reflected in her wide golden eyes, lighting them up.  He then awkwardly glanced away and back to the sky, blushing slightly.
   “Yup,” the Doctor confirmed.  “In my old universe, when the aliens I spent the most time with discovered how beautiful this planet was, they colonized it immediately.  It became well-known as one of leisure planet, set apart from the others by the way that it was not particularly technologically advanced.  I wonder what ponies will do when they get here?”
   “What year will they arrive?” Tick Tock inquired, shooting a glance at the Doctor.
   “Year 2159 of Celestia’s Reign,” the Doctor answered confidently.  “Not for another 67 years.  For now, we’re the only sentient life-forms on this planet.”
   “Then… what’s that sound?” Derpy asked.  The stallions looked over to find that she was no longer gazing at the sky, but now had her gaze fixed to some trees on her right.
   “Probably a native night creature,” the Doctor answered, somewhat dismissively.
   That was when a black-coated Earth pony appeared.  Her dark green eyes drilled into theirs.  “Who are you, and what are you doing here?” she demanded.
   “Or maybe they’re here right now…”


*o*o*o*o*


   The mare led them through the thick forest, hacking aside underbrush in their way with some sort of weird metal tool.  Derpy had never seen anything like it before in her life, though Tick Tock and the Doctor both recognized it as a “machete”.
   She was confused.  This pony, whoever she was, was treating the three as though they were hostile.  It was almost like she expected anypony she wasn’t familiar with to attack her!  It reminded Derpy - somewhat uncomfortably - of the look on Tick Tock’s face when they crashed in his workshop back in Neighers.  Almost like this mare was living her life surrounded by fighting, too…
   “You look nervous.”  Derpy glanced up to find Tick Tock looking at her, keeping his voice low as he spoke.  “Is something wrong?”
   “I don’t know,” Derpy whispered back, shooting a glance at the mare as the Doctor trotted merrily beside her, carrying on a one-sided conversation and annoying the heck out of her.  “I just don’t like the way she seems kind of… afraid of us.”
   “I agree,” Tick Tock said.  “She seems to believe that anypony she doesn’t know may be out to harm her.”
   “But why would she think that?” Derpy asked, looking back to him.
   His gaze was hard as he spoke, confirming her worst fears.  “We may have stumbled across a war zone.”



   A war zone.  Like Neighers.  Derpy had been in more than enough war zones for one lifetime.
   “There!” cried the mare triumphantly, catching the attention of the ponies with her.  She’d whacked a branch away to reveal one of the most depressing sights Derpy had ever seen - a small, walled-off village with cobbled-together fortifications protecting it from outside attacks.
   Yup.  Just like Neighers.


*o*o*o*o*


   “So.”
   The mare - turned out her name was Obsidian Sun - had brought them before the general of the encampment, a sky-blue unicorn stallion called Ocean Waves.  His steel-gray eyes drilled them.  “You want us to believe that you just happened to get past our defenses and land on this planet with nopony noticing?”
   “Well, that mare noticed,” the Doctor pointed out, pointing at Obsidian Sun.
   Ocean Waves’ eyes narrowed.  “Very funny, ‘Doctor’, but we have a careful eye on the sky.  We have to, after all.  This is a planet at war.”
   Derpy heard Tick Tock mutter a curse beneath his breath.  She glanced uneasily and him and froze.
   Over the time that Tick Tock had been travelling with them, Derpy had grown accustomed to the stallion’s ways.  She’d gotten used to hearing the term “fascinating” and variations thereof.  She’d learned to smile at the sound of his familiar ticking.  She’d become an expert at picking up on the few physical cues he could give to understand his emotions at a glance.
   Now, though, the stallion she’d gotten used to was gone.  The expression on his face was one she recognized only from the time the Doctor had faced Terror.  It was cold, distant, calculating.  It was a look that made her believe a pony was capable of killing.
   It was this thought that finally brought to her attention something she’d never even considered since Tick Tock had started travelling with them, something that startled her:
   Tick Tock had killed before.
   He didn’t even notice her scrutiny of his face, gaze focused on Ocean Wave as he spoke up.  “Who are you fighting against?”
   Ocean Wave shook his mane in annoyance.  “It’s the Kaygawans.”
   “Kaygawans?” the Doctor demanded, shocked.  “But the Kaygawans have been nothing but a completely peaceful race!  I have never known them to engage in war with anybo- err, anypony!”
   “Then perhaps,” Ocean Wave answered coldly, “you have not known the Kaygawans at all.”
   “What exactly are Kaygawans?” Tick Tock asked.  His voice lacked curiosity.  He wasn’t intrigued to learn - he wanted to know what they were up against.  It was a startling change.
   “They’re a race of somewhat pony-esque aliens,” the Doctor explained.  “They’re larger than your average pony, can tolerate much colder temperatures, and most have an extra pair of eyes and limbs.”
   Derpy was initially repulsed by the description, until part sank in.  “Pony-esque?  Are they of pony intelligence?”
   Ocean Wave snorted.  “If they were dumb beasts, they wouldn’t be able to declare war, now would they?”
   “You’d be surprised,” Tick Tock muttered darkly.
   Derpy tried to ignore him, turning to the Doctor with a forced smile.  “That’s great, Doctor!  That means that everypony can negotiate, right?”
   The Doctor smiled back.  “Yes, of course, Derpy.”  But she had seen the shadow that passed over his face.  He didn’t think that they could negotiate.
   She wouldn’t give up that easily.  “Surely we can compromise.”  Derpy turned back to Ocean Wave.  “Why are you fighting?  I bet it’s all a giant misunderstanding!”
   Ocean Wave looked at her coldly.  “Unlikely.  One of their ships bombed our innocent colony!  We were forced to counterstrike.”
   “Oh.” Derpy deflated slightly.
   “Counterstrike how, exactly?” Tick Tock inquired.
   “Simple,” answered Ocean Wave.  “We launched a rocket at their planet in return.  We’ve been at war ever since.”
   Tick Tock gave the other unicorn a mildly confused look.  “A rocket?”
   “Wait a second!”  Derpy’s voice was suddenly chipper again inspiration struck.  “Did you ever meet the pilots of the bomber ships?”
   “What?”  Ocean Wave blinked at her.  “Of course not - they returned to their own planet before we were able to identify them.”
   “Maybe it was an accident!” Derpy declared.  “Maybe somepony hit the wrong button and accidentally dropped the bombs.  They might have run away ‘cause they were scared to tell you!”
   “A-An accident?” Ocean Wave spluttered.  “Miss, you do understand that ponies lost their lives with the bombing?”
   “And haven’t more lost their lives fighting?”  Derpy countered.  “Do you really want to fight and lose more ponies over an accident?”
   Ocean Wave gave her an uncomfortable look.  “Erm…”
   “It’s at least worth checking out,” she said, looking towards the Earth pony standing behind her.  “Right, Doctor?”
   The Doctor gave her an uneasy smile.  “Right, Derpy.”  He didn’t sound convinced, but Derpy was sure.  Ponies were peaceful, and according to him, so were Kaygawans.  There had to be a misunderstanding somewhere if they were at war.




*o*o*o*o*


   It was decided that their arrival on Kaygawa would seem far less suspicious if they were to arrive in the TARDIS, rather than a Yoskuateran  spacecraft, so the trio departed from the base they had been brought to, making their way towards their ship.
   “Derpy.”  The mare looked up at the sound of her nickname and saw Tick Tock watching her with a careful expression on his face.  “I’m sorry, but you must know - there is a chance, however slim, that this is not an accident.  We may not be able to resolve this without conflict.”
   Derpy’s ears drooped slightly.  “I-I know,” she confessed.  “It’s just… in Equestria, I’ve never encountered a problem yet that I couldn’t solve by talking… I just want to believe it would be the same out here.”
   Tick Tock blew out a breath.  She’d expected him to be frustrated, or exasperated, but he didn’t sound that way.  He just sounded… tired.  “Unfortunately, some problems can’t be.”
   Tired.  Just like everypony in Neighers had seemed.
   Tick Tock had changed a lot since she’d met him.  He’d slowly grown to be a little more open, a little more emotional.  He’d learned to like hugs, and had even shared with her how he got his name.
   Derpy didn’t like seeing him regressing back to his old Neighers self.
   The Doctor seemed to sense it, too, as he flashed one of his not-quite smiles.  “But we can’t know until we try, eh?  Maybe this one can be!”  With just a little too much brightness and positivity, he bounded forward, through the trees, only to stop short.
   Four vaguely pony-esque creatures were surrounding the TARDIS.  They were taller than most and incredibly bony, with enormous, slanted eyes with no sclera and elongated ears.  There was no doubt about it - these creatures were Kaygawan spies.
   “Hey!” the Doctor cried out indignantly.  “That’s my ship!”
   Immediately, four sets of eyes turned upon him and his companions with all the coldness of a winter blizzard.



   The Doctor shrank back slightly.  “Oh, dear…”