Survival of the Cyberponies

by Fedora

City in the Sky

The TARDIS engines groaned, and the ship materialized in the center of a storage room housing stacks of collapsible tables. The Doctor, Derpy and Lyra exited one after another into the cramped space, barely able to fit in the leftover space of the storage room.

“You’d think for a space station there’d be more space to breathe,” Lyra grunted. They pushed and shoved at each other in the dark before one of the ponies found the door. The three filed out into a much more spacious hallway.

“Here we are,” the Doctor said, leading them out toward a grander hallway with multiple levels. It served as a hub of sorts, and would not have looked out of place as a futuristic city. The sides were lined with shops, ponies with carts, and bright lights.

Derpy was the first to spot one of the aliens: she caught a glimpse of what looked like a tall-necked pony with smooth, shiny skin and suction cups on the end of their legs instead of hooves. Dressed in similar clothes and walking with a group of relatively normal-looking ponies, the alien was right at home on the station.

“This is the year 190,000,” the Doctor said, “We’re orbiting the planet Earth right now, look up!”

Derpy and Lyra turned their eyes toward the ceiling, and were greeted by the sight of a transparent window into space, through which they could see the surface of the planet glittering with the lights of a thousand cities.

“There it is,” the Doctor said, “Planet Earth at it's height. Covered with mega-cities, three stations like this - population 19 billion. The hub of a galactic domain, stretching across a million planets, a million species - with ponykind right in the middle.”

An announcer’s voice came on over the speaker.

“For all interested, the premiere of the newest season of Taming Equestria’s Frontier is set to begin in five minutes in holotheater two. Tickets are purchasable at the ticket counter.”

“That sounds like fun, can we go and watch, Doctor?” Lyra asked, “I’ve never even heard of a holo-theater before.”

The Doctor nodded.

“Tell you what,” he said, “Meet me at the ticket counter, I’m going to get myself some credits to buy stuff with.”

****

The Doctor leaned in over a credit kiosk, trying to look inconspicuous while dragging the tip of his sonic screwdriver over the dispenser. Slivers of plastic slid out one at a time, labeled with consecutive numbers.

He took these three cards and stuffed them in his jacket’s interior pocket, and continued back toward the holotheater at a brisk pace.

Passing by a support structure holding up an overhanging ledge of an upper floor, the Doctor noticed a glowing notice standing out against the dark surface, surrounded by a white backdrop. It took on a similar appearance to a scrap of paper stuck to a post, but actually appeared as an image on a screen. The image changed to an advertisement for a pancake breakfast put on by the station’s Foal Scout troop.

“Slideshow bulletin board,” he said to himself, “They had something like that back home... this is fantastic!”

The image changed to one of a “MISSING!” sign for a young stallion by the name of Snap, put up by family members. He was 19 years old, and a photographer for the weekly magazine update.

The Doctor took note of this sign and the information it contained, and continued back to the theater.

****

Derpy, the Doctor, and Lyra seated themselves in a sort of circular amphitheater surrounding a simple black surface. The lights around them dimmed, and the show started.

The blank center of the stage was replaced by an elaborate three-dimensional environment made to look like the desert lands of Equestria’s expansion days. The sand, skies, and rocky red cliffs in the background were arranged in a convincingly real way, such that the center of the amphitheater briefly turned into a slice of that environment.

“In your time you watch movies on two dimensional screens off of film strips,” the Doctor said to his companions, “this is a three-dimensional viewing experience, but the concept remains the same. The actors, environment, everything’s on a set when they filmed this.”

“Doctor, be quiet,” Derpy whispered, “Something’s happening.”

A wagon came into view, pulled by a brawny stallion wearing an oversized felt hat over his head to shade his eyes. An older mare walked by him to his right, and on his left was a small colt and a pair of young adult mares.

“This is it,” the stallion said, bringing the cart to a halt, “Dodge Junction.”

The wagon turned, and the family went down toward a set of buildings in the distance. On the side of the wagon was emblazoned the words “Hoofstock Hatters: The Best Hats in The World!”

The Doctor’s eyes lit up.

“They’re doing a show about the Hoofstock incident of 1887,” he whispered, “I was there for this!”

“What were you doing?” Lyra whispered back.

“I was in jail for cheating at poker, no sonic,” he said, “It’s interesting because I was the only proper ‘Doctor’ in town at the time, so I was released to tend to the wounded. Slipped away not too long after.”

The Doctor’s whispered words were drowned out by the sounds of struggle. Two stallions that had been introduced while he had been speaking grabbed ahold of the older stallion with a big hat. He was pinned to the ground by the others, but an upwards kick sent one of the attackers off and onto the ground.

“That’s not right....” the Doctor said with a frown, “Old Hoofstock had been there for a month before the Claptraps were even in town, in this they’re showing the first fight right as he arrives...”

Derpy quickly shushed him.

The scene dissolved into an interior of some wooden structure. Hoofstock was lying on his side in a bunk of some kind, while another stallion with a frizzy mane was tending to his injuries. This stallion had a red cross cutie mark, but was rather obviously painted on top of the actor’s fur. He also wore a short green scarf around his neck, with the ends barely reaching down to his belly.

The Doctor buried his face in his hooves at the sight of this, shaking his head.

“You’re lucky they didn’t break your legs... stallions your age aren’t meant to be in tussles like that,” the “Doctor” said in the holodrama.

At this point, the Doctor stood up and left the holotheater, cracking up and unable to contain himself.

****

“I can’t stand it when somepony gets history wrong,” the Doctor said to Derpy as they walked along the station’s main business strip, “small details are one thing, but ignoring what actually happened in order to make a story seem more ‘modern’ or ‘streamlined’ just doesn’t sit well with me.”

Derpy and Lyra had joined him after he left the theater. It had been several hours for them since the picnic on Gebos, and it was once again time to get something to eat.

“Sooo...” started Lyra, “How about them aliens? Do they sell, like, extraterrestrial cuisine?”

The Doctor nodded.

“You bet,” he said, “This station’s chock full of shops, restaurants, bars and a café or two. All of ‘em are featuring cuisine, décor, and entertainment from other worlds throughout the galaxy. The only thing left is deciding on just one.”

“And how would you suggest we narrow the list down?” Lyra asked, stopping in the middle of her sentence and looking behind her. An alien of some kind was approaching her from in front of a vendor’s booth. It had a smooth, hairless skin and instead of hooves it had clawed feet. The alien appeared to have a flap of colorful skin dangling from beneath its chin, and held a stylus behind its ear.

“Pardon me m’am,” it said in a masculine-sounding voice, “But I was wondering if you’d be interested in a sketch. For five credits I can do a quick sketch of you and one of your companions.”

“Thank you,” Lyra said politely, “But I’m not interested today.”

She went to turn away, but Derpy stepped forward.

“I’ll take one for a souvenir,” Derpy said, “It’ll only take a minute, right?”

“Less than that,” the alien said, “We Nebvassi are very fast, and I’ve applied that talent to my drawing skills! What’s more, If you don’t like it I’ll give you the sketch for free!”

Derpy dragged the Doctor with her, and stood beside each other in a section of the floor marked off by the Nebvassi sketch artist while Lyra watched from the side. The Nebvassi removed the stylus from behind his ear, and lit up a blank light board.

Derpy struck a heroic-looking pose, and put on an expression that looked angry or determined. The Doctor rolled his eyes, but she kicked his side. He struck a similar pose and leaned back slightly, trying to match Derpy’s expression.

“Ok, now hold still,” the Nebvassi said, “I start with him first.”

The alien’s head began jerking about in front of the light board, and the stylus held in his mouth left a trail of pencil-like marks on the board.

Derpy tried to keep her expression as best as she could, and stared at a point against the opposite wall to focus. Something caught her attention in that direction in the form of what looked like a very large spider scurrying up the wall. Her instinctive reaction was one of revulsion.

A bit of light from the ceiling lights caught the spider and reflected off of its back, making Derpy aware that it was not just a regular spider, but one made of metal. That was a surprise to her, and a distressing one at that. Why would somepony make a metal spider?

“Done!” the Nebvassi cried, “The sketch is done. Shall I print it off for you? We have a 9X9 synthetic paper... sorry about your wife’s face, she changed expressions....”

“Wife?” the Doctor sputtered, “No, she’s...”

“We’re just...” Derpy began.

“Never mind,” the alien said, giving the printout to Derpy. She spread it out on the ground as the Doctor paid the sketch artist with the card he had created.

“Shame about your face,” he said with a grin as he leaned over to look at the picture, “Though mine sort of looks like somepony insulted my mother... is that really what I look like when I’m angry? You’ve got nice exclamation marks, what’s that all about?”

“I saw a spider!” Derpy protested, “A really, really big spider made of metal!”

The Doctor’s eyes narrowed in concern.

“Where’d you see a thing like that?” he asked, “Why didn’t you tell me when you saw it?”

“It was on that wall over there,” Derpy said, pointing with a hoof to the spot she had seen it, “It must have scuttled off. Is it important?”

The Doctor frowned.

“Maybe,” he muttered, “I hope it’s not... you two, take this card and get a bite to eat. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“And where are you going, Doctor?” Lyra asked the retreating Time Lord.

“I’m checking something out!” he called back, and disappeared around a corner.