Missing In Equestria

by VoxelTron

Of Friends and Enemies

Missing In Equestria
By VoxelTron

Part 5: Of Friends and Enemies

Clara was once again, stumped for words.
Kate began her explanation, “Well the Doctor hasn’t been seen for over 2 years now. No phone box sightings, no temporal activities have been picked up on any corner of the globe, and there are only decade old traces of artron energy left on the planet. Yes, there had been many interactions with extra-terrestrial life in those years, but each one that was encountered, whether friend of foe, had the same information: The Doctor was missing”
Clara felt sick, her destiny was to save the Doctor from every peril he has, may do and will face. But with no Doctor to save, what was she doing here?
“Well I suppose I’m stuck here then” she said finally,
Kate walked up to her and placed a hand on Clara’s shoulder “Now don’t be like that, we can offer you a job here at UNIT, until the Doctor wishes to reveal himself, the only thing you can do is to wait”
“But you don’t understand, the only reason I’m ever alive is because he is in trouble, but with him missing, how am I meant to help him?”

The conversation was still running through Clara’s mind even a fortnight after. The Doctor was missing; there was no doubt about this. The Cybermen that was destroyed the night Clara appeared had no data that could be salvageable from its data banks other than that fact. And even with UNIT tracking down any possible sighting non-stop for a fortnight, there were still no signs. Clara had had enough with waiting around for other people to do her job for her. And she knew just what to do.

She had only visited Bannerman Road once in all her previous lives, and that was only because she’d hitched a ride back in the TARDIS without anyone noticing after the “funeral” of The Doctor at the UNIT base in Snowden. Clara liked Sarah, she liked the way that the former companion knew the Doctor wouldn’t come to help her out if she got into trouble, but regardless of that she carried on in the name of The Doctor, for the Doctor, representing the best intentions for the human race. And she even got some of the younger generation involved too. With Clyde, Rani, Maria and even her adopted son and daughter, Luke and Sky, all helping out on those crazy adventures they have from that attic.

Clara walked up to the front door of 13 Bannerman Road and checked the houses around the area. She knew Clyde, Rani and Sky would all be at school, and of course Luke was away at university, so there was no trouble with that lot asking any questions. She knocked on the door twice, and waited for what seemed like an eternity until finally the door opened to reveal a dishevelled looking Sarah Jane Smith standing in the doorway.

“Yes? Can I help you; I’m a bit busy with my work”
Clara simply smiled “Hello Sarah Jane” Sarah Jane looked over the top of her glasses
“How do you know my name? Did you read one of my reports? If so you could have just sent me an email like everyone else does” Dismissing the unhelpful comments, Clara continued. “No, nothing like that, but I do know that I need your help. It’s involving the Doctor”
Immediately Sarah Jane’s attention was now fully on Clara, she turned around with a serious look on her face “You’d better come inside” And Sarah ushered her into the house and across the corridor into the living room.

“Please make yourself comfortable” Gesturing towards one of the many upholstered seats in the room
“I’m not one to deny those who know about the Doctor” Clara lounged out comfortably on the beige settee; Sarah joined her fairly quickly and started “so how do you know him?”
Clara sat up and smirked “Oh, I’m his companion, like you were. Well I think I’m still his companion, not too sure though, having multiple lives does throw that sort of perspective out of the window”
she then laughed in an attempt to reduce the impression that she was in fact, completely insane. Thankfully Sarah Jane didn’t notice and continued with her train of thought “Well I’m pretty sure last time I saw him he was with some Mrs and Mr Pond, but they were on their honeymoon”
Clara remembered this, quite clearly “Ah, that was the…. Shansheeth wasn’t it?”
“How’d you know that?” Clara rubbed the back of her neck in an attempt to recollect what actually happened
“I was there, on the planet you went to? Yeah people do tend to miss me when I’m around, but you get used to that sort of behaviour after the 1000th time of being ignored completely”
Sarah started to look rather worried “ Now dear, you’re not making the slightest bit of sense”
Clara sighed inwardly “I’m going to have to explain all this from the top again aren’t I?”
Sarah Jane then got up and walked towards the door “It would help, I’ll stick the kettle on, I’ve got a feeling we may need it”

Two hours later Clara had finally finished explaining her entire situation to Sarah Jane Smith.
“So here I am, and I’m not here under orders from UNIT, I’m here for a personal favour. You know, they don’t actually know I’m here so…”
Sarah leaned back into the comfy armchair she’d been sat on for the past hour “I see, well that’s quite a tale, and I’m pretty sure it’s not over yet for you, but I’ll do what I can, and seeing as you already know what’s upstairs, and Clyde, Rani or Sky won’t be back for a while to give us a hand, we might as well get started now finding the Doctor, don’t you think?”
“That’s great! What time are they back from school?”
“Well it’s around four o’ clock they normally get out and they don’t get around here till about five at the earliest”
Clara then bounced up to her feet “Well then, best we get to work, and I’m afraid I don’t really want to be around when they’re here, too many questions if you know what I mean”
Sarah nodded acceptingly “Fair enough, but they could help out while you’re not here” she added as the two of them climbed the flights of stairs to the Bannerman Attic.

Clara almost forgot about Mr Smith, as the wall opened up to reveal the great Xylok computer “Sarah Jane, who is this woman? I am detecting a large amount of temporal rift energy surrounding her, is she important?”
Clara scoffed at the computer’s ignorance, but Sarah Jane was ready for this “Oh don’t worry Mr Smith, she one of the Doctor’s friends”
The vents surrounding the monitor burst a great bout of steam “Ah I see, another time traveller”
“Mr Smith! Haven’t I told you that your sarcasm is getting worse?”
“I apologise Sarah Jane, I must admit I do not enjoy being in the knowledge that we have more than enough visitors up here as it is, I am supposed to be, as you say: covert. Also K9 has contacted me today, something about the Macarena. I would suggest replacing his main processor as it appears to be malfunctioning”
Both of the time travellers looked at each other and smiled, but Sarah Jane quickly turned her attention back to the task at hand “Yes, that’s all well and good, but we need you Mr Smith”
“Of course, how can I be of assistance Sarah Jane?”
“We need to find the Doctor”
The computer paused, the great swirls of colour beaming from the monitor. “But Sarah Jane, according to my scanners there is no current extra-terrestrial threat to planet Earth in the Solar System; do you need to find the Doctor for another reason?”
Clara then spoke up, rather annoyed that she was being left out of the conversation, “Yeah, brainbox I need your help to find him. Name’s Clara Oswald by the way, considering you didn’t actually ask”
“I already knew who you were Miss Oswald, I have all the data I need here”
Clara was about to have an outburst at the Xylok, but Sarah Jane quickly intervened “Great, so Mr Smith, can you start looking?”
Clara then realised having an argument with an alien super-computer probably isn’t the best way to get it to cooperate, so returned to smiling.
“Yes Sarah Jane, I will begin the necessary scans imminently; however they may take some time” the Xylok stated
“How long exactly Mr Smith?”
“Five minutes and forty seconds”
Both Sarah Jane and Clara burst into fits of laughter “Oh good, my sense of humour is improving”

*DING*
“Scans complete Sarah Jane”
Clara shot up, and got aware to her surroundings, somehow she’d managed to fall asleep, and dream about something, but what the dreams were she couldn’t recall. She stood up and looked across the room where Sarah Jane was standing with her own handheld scanner, looking for any possible alien activity.
“Well Mr Smith, is there anything?”
“There is no current Artron energy surrounding the planet Earth, nor are there any other currently on-going time-rift distortions. Other than yourself, Miss Oswald”
Clara sat back down, once again glum that another attempt had failed. Sarah Jane was not one to be put off that easily however “Wait. Mr Smith, why did you say currently on-going?”
The warping shapes on the computer monitor changed into a series of Galifreyan symbols “Well... The last time the TARDIS was here, we had an exchange of data cores; I must admit I took some information on past and future occurrences of time travellers, knowing that we’d encounter other associates of the Doctor in due time”
Clara now returned to the conversation, spurred on by the possibility of future events. “So you mean that you know when other time travellers are going to arrive?”
“That is correct, Miss Oswald, in fact there will be one imminently, however as the data is in High Galifreyan, it will take more time to translate the coordinates, as the time is already translated for some reason, I will invest processing power in translating the coordinates embedded, it will take but a moment”
Clara still didn’t trust the computer, even with the current information it held on finding the Doctor “So what is the time that is in the data Mr Smith?”
“Oddly enough, the date and time are within five minutes of current Earth time”
“What?!?” Both companions said excitedly
“Yes, and now that I’ve translated the coordinates, they are also positioning the temporal influx within 5 square miles of current position, calculating exact coordinates now”
Clara and Sarah Jane cheered with joy and danced around laughing, until Clara worked something out and stopped in her tracks. “Mr Smith, who exactly is making this influx?”
“I am afraid Miss Oswald it has no traces of Artron energy, so it is not a TARDIS that is appearing, but I have detected the cardiovascular system of a non-human species, whether it is the Doctor or not, I cannot be certain”
Clara gave a nod to Sarah Jane, who held up the coordinates on a piece of paper, Clara grabbed them and said out loud “That’s all I need to know” And with that, Clara bolted towards the attic door, swung it open and raced down the stairs without a seconds notice.
“Charming friends the Doctor associates himself with” Mr Smith chided to himself.
“What was that Mr Smith?”
“Nothing Sarah Jane” The computer quickly replied.
Sarah Jane laughed “I thought not”.

Clara was already halfway down the next street before she’d even considered thanking the Smith household, well I can always go back and thank them later she told herself, at the moment finding whoever or whatever was going to arrive in less than 5 minutes time was more important to her than mere formalities. Using the coordinates that Mr Smith gave her, and the pocket edition of a tourist map of London she’d finally pinpointed the location, and was heading in the right direction to make it in time. She reached an odd looking, abandoned café with sweat forming on her brow before she could run no more. Leaning against a lamppost on the other side of the street, recovering from another marathon sprint, the sun was yet again setting in the sky, it was winter after all. Clara then looked up into the sky to see if there were any tell-tale signs of another time traveller: strange weather patterns, odd power fluctuations, anything unusual.
What she failed to notice was the eerie blue glow coming from the café, and as that had subsided, the silhouette that had appeared in the doorframe. Clara was quickly notified to someone clapping across the street, quickly followed by the lamp above her exploding in a burst of power, She jumped out of the way just in time to miss the large shards of glass and scrap metal falling on top of her. “My, My, Clara you really are determined this time aren’t you?”
Clara turned around to meet the attacker head on, but failed to notice where it came from due to the lack of light in the downtrodden street “Hey! Who the hell are you?!?!”
The shadow’s smile glinted in the first of the night’s moonlight that reached the café. “Oh that’s right, multiple lives. You know if you weren’t so intent on finishing me off you would actually be quite interesting, think of all the information I could gain, Intelligence is as we all know the only power in this universe. Like so”
The entity then gestured towards her and the wall behind Clara burst open, sending Clara flying into the middle of the road, scattering shards of brick and mortar into the street.
“My plan will proceed, without interference from the Children of Time, or you. But how to get rid of you?” The shady figure walked out of the doorway into the street, his black top hat glistened in the crisp winter moonlight, he then walked over to the recently destroyed lamp, completely ignoring the seriously injured Clara in the road, and leant against the destroyed remains of the pole.
“Well I could do to you what I did to the last accomplice who dared to get in my way, but that would be too easy” The Great Intelligence mumbled, either to scare Clara (Which had worked exceedingly well) or just because he was deep in thought.
“Well this is no fun at all. Of all the things I can think of doing to you, not one of them is a fitting demise”. Clara tried to use this moment to her advantage; unfortunately, her entire body was frozen stuck, whenever she tried to move her brain would punish her with another wave of intense pain. It felt like her left leg, her right arm, and multiple ribs were broken.

She lay silently until the monotony was broken by a small chuckle “Oh…I know exactly what to do with you Miss Oswald”
The entity then walked forward and crouched over the incapacitated companion. “What do you know of other universes? Actually, don’t answer; I’m going to tell you”
He then returned to standing and looked towards the moon “Every single choice that appears in any universe will instantly create another universe, a parallel if you will. Now, a parallel is impossible to enter conventionally, but what if you had a link to the another universe…say, like this one”
He then held a dusty tome in the air, the book itself looked impossibly old with a rich purple cover, but any symbols on said cover had been lost to time. “Theoretically you could use the relic as an anchor point to that universe, but first you’d need the base codes for this universe and enough energy to burn out the physical barriers between the worlds. Now wouldn’t it be a shame if someone didn’t have those things, eh?”
He then turned around with a smirk on his face. “And guess who has those things Miss Oswald, get ready, because this is going to be… spectacular”
The Great Intelligence then walked away from Clara, who was still unable to move on the ground, made his way to the abandoned doorway and stopped. With a snap of his fingers the blue glow returned, he then span on his heels, and gestured towards Clara. Silently, blue flames began to form around her, but she didn’t have the energy to react and soon the mystical flames completely surrounded her. Almost as suddenly as the flames, Clara’s mind began to spin and burn, all Clara could feel was intense pain surging through her body, as though something was trying to push her into the ground itself. The Great Intelligence looked on, clearly pleased that all was going according to plan; he threw the book into the flames and then continued with the incantations. With another snap of his fingers, the flames turned from blue to a coal-black. He then pulled his hands together, watching with an evil grin on his face as the brimstone flames obeyed his commands and compressed together, finally he blew into his now closed hands, and released them. The flames subsided almost instantly, leaving behind no trace of whom or what had been contained inside of them.
“Good luck out there Miss Oswald, because not even I know where you are going to end up… Heheheh”
And as quietly as he arrived, he continued back into the dark café, clicked his heels together and disappeared, leaving the street once again silent in the winter moonlight.

Author's Note:

Wow, look, another chapter.
To be honest i've had this one sitting around on my hard drive for about two months and after finishing the chapter AFTER this one, I thought I should actually post it because you know, Science.
And guess what? LAST HUMAN CHAPTER!!! See you in Equestria next time folks!