The Chronicles of Swarm: The Equestrian Front

by kildeez

Chapter XII: The Doctor has his Day, Swarm has his Fight

“SWARM! YOUR LEFT!” Celestia screamed, a bolt of magical energy from her horn cracking one of the choppers circling above them in half.

The man immediately lashed out with a devastating roundhouse kick, sending the squad of advancing soldiers flying. Behind him, Luna landed hooves-first on yet another squad, knocking them out as her bats circled around her, blinding every man that might have been taking aim at any of the combatants below. As she focused on beating the snot out of everyone in front of her, a soldier suddenly reared up from behind, a bayonet in his hand. His weapon plunged, aimed at her neck, only to transform into a bouquet of dandelions, now spreading their seeds in an unseen wind. Before he could react, an alligator’s tail whipped across the back of his skull, sending him spinning to the ground.

“Eyes on all sides, dearie,” Discord said, a wave of his claws transforming a squad of soldiers advancing with bayonets ready into a group of men in mascot costumes wielding various brass instruments. “I can’t be there to save your flank every time.”

“Her flank can watch itself, Discord,” Celestia said icily, rushing to her sister’s side and knocking over every soldier who got in her way.

“Sister!” Luna moaned, smacking another soldier away with the side of her hoof. “I can handle myself just fine, thank thee verily much!”

Ignoring her, Discord carried on with a toothy grin: “Oh? You sure her flank can watch itself? Because I’m rather certain I can watch it all day long, no trouble at all.”

Luna’s face turned bright red as Celestia screamed: “How DARE you insult a princess of the royal Canterlot…”

“WILL YOU THREE STOP FLIRTING AND START FIGHTING!?” Li screamed, his fists slamming into the side of another soldier’s head before he turned with a flurry of lightning-quick jabs to another’s rib cage. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re about to be overrun!”

“No need to get jealous, Swarm dearie,” Discord snickered as Celestia’s face turned a red to match Luna’s. “We have…”

A ringing sound from Swarm’s pants caused him to pause. “Excuse me,” he said, pulling his cell out with one hand while the other grabbed a soldier by the throat and tossed him aside like a rag doll. “Yes, sweetie?”

“You’ve got more incoming!” A voice with a mild Punjabi accent gasped from the other side. “A bunch of them got past me! They’re on a flanking maneuver from one of the more sci-fi universes!”

“Oh don’t worry!” Swarm screamed in reply, a roundhouse kick sending a dozen soldiers flying, “I’ve already fortified against them!”

“What!? Fortified!? How!?”

He paused in his combat long enough to grin and reply: “By calling in a favor from an old friend.”

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The fog of the void swirled around them, parting just enough to allow their metal casings to glide past. If any of the group had a concept of poetry, one of them might have been compelled to comment on the way the fog parted before them. But Daleks have no concept that could even come close to what a human or a pony would call poetry, and this small group was no different. They just wheeled forward, the constant whining of the machinery moving them buzzing into the distance. The pack of at least six Daleks continued with their machine-like determination, the lights on their bodies shimmering off the mist until they came to a stop before a small, pony-like shadow in the mist.

“HALT!” The lead Dalek screamed.

“WE OBEY!” His comrades replied, and the leader turned on the form.

“IDENTIFY YOURSELF OR BE EXTERMINATED!” The lead Dalek bellowed.

“Oh come now, sure I’ve had a bit of a makeover, but you must recognize The Doctor when you see him,” the pony replied as he stepped forward from the mist, his trademark half-smile on his face.

“THIS IS AN IMPOSSIBILITY! THE DOCTOR IS DEAD! YOU ARE AN IMPOSTER!”

“Oh yes, that is possible. I could just be a little pony who hitched a ride to this little spot in the void, trying to hold you off from joining the battle raging just behind me.” He shrugged in the direction of gunfire booming over his shoulder. “But then again, if I’m not The Doctor, how am I able to do this?” The little brown pony tapped a single hoof on the mist-covered ground beneath him, and with its usual whooshing, crunching sound, the TARDIS slowly faded into existence at his side, the blue light of the time vortex itself shimmering off the mist around it.

“IMPOSSIBLE! IMPOSSIBLE!” The lead Dalek exclaimed.

“There’s that word again. That’s the thing about you Daleks: never willing to accept the obvious, even when it’s right in front of your faces. Well…” he squinted, “…Perhaps I should say ‘eyestalks’.”

“THEN HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN!!”

“Oh, now see, you’re asking the wrong question there.”

“THE WRONG QUESTION!?”

“Yes, but don’t worry! You can find the right one by simple process of elimination. So, where is here?” He spread his arms out. “The void between worlds. Well, that can’t be the question if it already has an answer, so let’s move on: when is here? Right now, that’s when. What is here? Oh, not much, just my TARDIS, and this,” he reached into the mist and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, clenched between his teeth. Every Dalek immediately backed away a few paces.

“Just a little old sonic screwdriver, that’s all,” he grinned at the aura of fear suddenly filling the air. “Now, we’ve already established ‘how’ to be the improper question, which leaves us with just one possibility: who?”

“WHO!?”

“Who. But before you set about answering this question, look into your databanks. Scour your little memories for every time I met your kind. Every moment, every conversation, and every dark day I brought down upon your heads. Look for every single foiled plan, every single Dalek ship destroyed, every single member of your race who curses the day they ever crossed paths with me. Then, once you’ve done all that, after you’ve relived every single moment of despair and failure that I’ve rained down upon you, come back to the little question I’ve found for you.”

At that, he reared up on his hind hooves, and even with the screwdriver glowing in his teeth, his voice was perfectly clear as he boomed the question out to the captive audience around him: “WHO IS GOING TO FACE ME FIRST!?”

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“This is insane!” Luna shrieked, her rear hooves bucking another group of soldiers into the air. “Just how many of these guys are they sending!?”

“Enough to keep us busy, that’s for sure!” Swarm replied, smashing another pair of enemies’ heads together before back-flipping over them to land in the middle of yet another group of soldiers, narrowly dodging their bullets.

“Oh, I’m not complaining!” Discord announced, turning a helicopter hovering overhead into a clump of balloon animals with one wave of his paw. “This is the most fun I’ve had in ages!”

“Could we please try to remain focused!?” Celestia screamed at him as she head-butted a squad of soldiers that had been sneaking up on him. “We’re fighting for the fate of Equestria here!”

“Oh, do lighten up, princess, I’m only trying to…”

Her eyes widened as she caught a glimpse of something high over his head. “GET DOWN!” She screamed, tackling him to the ground just as a ball of white-hot energy moving blindingly fast shot by, bound for the crowd gathered around Swarm.

“Ooh, Princess! Ah do declahe! I didn’t think you could be so forward!”

She ignored him, her jaw dropping as she stood over his body. Confused, he turned to see what she was looking at, and his own jaw dropped. There, at the heart of the pack, the fighting had abruptly stopped. Swarm still stood in mid-pose, his hand wrapped around a soldier’s throat, as he stared in shock at the glowing being before him. Eventually, the blinding light faded away, revealing yet another man in a sinister-looking uniform, with black gloves, a grey long-coat, and a black leather cap. Swarm recognized him immediately.

“Muh-Muh-Mars?” The Chinese man gasped, eyes widening in shock.

The newcomer grinned wickedly. “Hello, father.”

Comments

[vullture]

HA! The Doctor! Awesome.

[steel soul]

(So he's there to help?)