The Misadventures of Doctor Whooves: Dilemmas with Doppelgangers

by IndigoMoon

Gathering Ingredients for Potion-Baking 101

When they exited Town Hall, they knew things were wrong immediately. It was dark outside, almost as if something was blotting out the sun. But when they looked up, they didn’t see anything. As they ran through town, they noticed it was oddly barren. Not even Zygons were on patrol which worried the Doctor even more that the shadow of an invisible something. When they got to the TARDIS, they noticed the door propped open. The console room was nearly pitch black, with the only light coming from the emergency lights that had come one when the HADS had activated and the the central column. The Doctor had to admit, he was scared. It was uncharacteristically dark and creepy but what really put him off was the lumps on the floor. They became silhouettes every time the red lights faded on. As his companions stood motionless with terror, the Doctor walked over to the console, very slowly, found what he was looking for by the light of the rainbow-filled column, pulled the required lever, and light suddenly flooded the room. To everyone’s horror, the lumps on the floor were the bodies of Pinkie, Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity. He immediately ran over to Pinkie, and checked for a pulse. Much to his obvious relief, Pinkie had one. As he checked the others, he confirmed that they were alive but unconscious. Starlight and Berry walked over and began moving the comatose ponies to a couch off to the side. As Starlight began levitating Pinkie, the pink pony shot up, wide awake, startling Starlight.

“Ack!” cried the pale-pink unicorn.

“Oh, hi Starlight,” said Pinkie. “Um… as much as I like floating, could you please put me down?”

Starlight shook off the shock and lowered the the pink earth pony back to the ground. As soon as she touched the ground, Pinkie shot off like a rocket towards the bathroom. As Pinkie ran past, Berry walked over to the Doctor and said,

“What do we do now?”

The Doctor turned to look at her and said, “We go find Zecora.” As he walked over to the console, he began typing into the keyboard, but stopped. He looked over at Berry and asked, “Um… what… er… species… is Zecora?”

“She is a zebra,” replied Berry. The Doctor resumed his typing, and when he had finished, he pulled the red-knobbed lever that began the takeoff. As they flew, the Doctor turned to his companions as Pinkie walked out of the bathrooms. He took a deep breath and said,

“I know what you’re thinking. And I don’t know what we’re going to do. Currently, we are traveling back to three hours ago to get the potion from Zecora. That is just before you“raided” Twilight’s library.”

“Umm… Doctor?” said Starlight. “I saw Zecora leaving the Town Hall cellar when we liberated everypony. From how she looked compared to everypony else, I’d say she’d only been there a few hours at most.”

The Doctor looked confused but then realization struck him. When they got there, Zecora would’ve have already been captured by the Zygons. He began looking around desperately.

“Does anyone know potion-making?” he asked. Pinkie raised her hoof.

“I’m a baker. Does that work?”

The Doctor sighed, not coming up with any better ideas. He slowly nodded as the TARDIS landed. As they walked out of the box into the Everfree Forest, they saw Zecora’s hut just up ahead. They broke into a run, and stormed inside. The hut was devoid of life, with broken bottles and things overturned. The Doctor pulled the book from under his hat where he stuck it after he picked it up off the floor. He gave it to Pinkie and asked Starlight to help her.

“Doctor?” said Starlight.

“Yes?”

“Umm… it says here that we need Poison Joke, Black Iris, Sticky Sap, and Purple Mushrooms, along with Chernoberries and artichokes.”

The Doctor stood where he was, only knowing what artichokes were. He shook himself out of his confused daze and looked at his companions,

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, except for artichokes. Berry, I’ll need your help. Starlight, Pinkie, you two stay here and see if you can find any of the other ingredients. I’ll pop into the TARDIS and grab the artichokes. Berry, see what you need to go find and then go and find it, but please be quick about it. We are in a hurry.”

The Doctor ran out of the hut and back into the TARDIS. Berry turned to the two ponies rummaging around trying to find any of the ingredients.

“How can I help?” asked Berry.

“Well,” began Starlight. “Zecora seems to be out of Poison Joke and Sticky Sap, and I have no idea what Chernoberries are or where you can find them.”

“Oh, I know what Chernoberries are,” said Pinkie. “I never leave home without some!” And with that, she used the front curl of her mane like an appendage, reached into her mane, and pulled out raspberry-shaped berries, but green, and glowing. She dropped them into the cauldron, and they thumped against the metal bottom.

“Do you know where we can find Poison Joke,” asked Berry, still stunned about the Chernoberries.

“Yep! My friends and I ran into a patch once,” replied Pinkie. “Follow me!” Pinkie bounced out of the hut. Berry looked over at Starlight.

“Go with her,” said Starlight. “I can have the Doctor help me when he gets back.”

Berry nodded and trotted out the door. As Starlight magically grabbed a bucket of water, the Doctor burst into the room, carrying a basket of artichokes. His abrupt entrance almost made Starlight drop the bucket.

“What the heck!” yelled Starlight. “You almost….”

“SHHHHHHH!!!!” interrupted the Doctor. “We have unwelcome guests.”

Starlight looked out the window and saw that Cloudchaser and Lily Valley were snooping around out front. Based on their current activity, she immediately deducted that these weren’t Cloudchaser and Lily Valley, but Zygons. She tip-toed back over to the cauldron and softly put in the Black Iris, artichokes, and Purple Mushrooms next to the Chernoberries.

“We need to distract them,” whispered Starlight. “I sent out Pinkie and Berry to go get Poison Joke and Sticky Sap.”

The Doctor paled. “Why did you do that?” whispered the Doctor.

“Zecora must have been out to get some when she was captured. She must have gone out to get them because she ran out,” replied Starlight.

The Doctor peeked through the curtains. “You’re right about the distraction,” he said. “And I know just what to do. Do you know how to make holographic images of ponies,” he asked with a sly grin.

Starlight returned the grin, as her horn began to glow. “Why yes, yes I do,” she replied.

{-----}

As Berry and Pinkie trekked through the forest, Berry looked over at Pinkie, who seemed less bouncy than usual. She was about to ask what was wrong when Pinkie suddenly perked up, and tackled Berry.

“What was that for?!” cried Berry.

Pinkie put a hoof to Berry’s mouth to silence her and pointed over the bush she had tackled Berry behind. Berry looked over and saw what she could only assume what was Poison Joke, but what worried her was the pegasus standing guard. With a glance she recognized the pegasus as Blossomforth. She noticed a couple of bushes near the white pegasus and formulated a plan. As she told Pinkie about her plan, Pinkie looked more and more nervous. Berry snuck over to one of the bushes close to Blossomforth. When the pegasus’ back was turned, she leaped out of the bushes and tackled Blossomforth away from the blue flower, leaving room for Pinkie to run over and snag a couple with her gloved mane-appendage. As the purple earth pony grappled with the pegasus, she managed to land a hoof into Blossomforth’s eye. As Pinkie ran past the pair of fighting ponies towards a tree with a shiny substance on its bark, she pulled out a vial and scooped up some of the sap.

“Come on, Berry!” called Pinkie.

Berry abandoned the scuffle and began to run after the pink pony as fast she could. She winced with pain, as Blossomforth had managed to hit her in the shin, rather hard. But she dismissed the throbbing pain as she ran with Pinkie back to the hut.

{-----}

The hologram had worked splendidly. Starlight had managed to capture the Doctor in his exact likeness. Using the hologram she had distracted the Zygons by having the puppet bounce up and down near the side of the hut, yelling,

“Over here, you ninnies!!!”

The Zygons had chased the hologram into the woods when Starlight cut the spell.

“That should leave them occupied for awhile,” said Starlight. No sooner had the words left her mouth, Pinkie and Berry came running in, and slammed the door behind them. Berry barricaded the door with her body as she nursed her wounded leg. Pinkie ran over to the cauldron, dumped in the last ingredients, grabbed a spoon and the book, and began stirring. The Doctor rushed over to see if Berry was ok as he asked her,

“What happened?”

Pinkie paused her stirring and said, “She fought of a Zygon disguised as Blossomforth so I could grab the Poison Joke and sap.”

The Doctor turned back to Berry as Pinkie resumed her stirring.

“Let me see it,” the Doctor said. Berry reluctantly lifted her foreleg for him to see. She gasped in pain as he poked with his hoof.

“Just as I thought,” he said. “Broken. You got into quite a nasty scuffle, I’d imagine.”

Berry nodded. Starlight walked over with some bandages and began binding Berry’s leg.

“Done!” cried Pinkie.

“Great! Now, back to the TARDIS!”

Starlight carried Berry on her back as the Doctor poured the potion into a bottle with Pinkie’s help. Then the group hurried out of the hut and towards the TARDIS. As the Doctor opened the door as a shrill whine filled the air. It suddenly cut out, leaving the forest silent for a split second before Zecora’s hut exploded.

Author's Note:

Sorry about being extremely late on this chapter. I meant to do it about 2-3 weeks ago, just after Chapter 5, but I had a couple problems. One, I didn't know how I wanted this chapter to end. I kind of like it now, but if I think of something better I'll change it. Or not. Who knows? And two, life got in the way. I was helping unpack a POD for my grandmother, and you wouldn't believe how much homework high school freshmen get. Or you would. Either way, it's a lot. So once again, sorry for the very late update. I'll try and get Chapter 7 out soon, but I can't make any promises.