Doctor Whooves: Luna's Republic

by masorin

Chapter 2

The Group of seven ponies, and one baby dragon, stood dumbfounded. The living shadows of the Vashta Nerada moved about, freely passing over them, but never touching them it was almost as though they were sticking up their collective noses at the free meal.

The Doctor stared hard for a moment at the darkness, waving his hoof, as if trying to see what was going on. This went against everything that he knew of the Vashta. “Well it’s probably for the best that we don’t stick around.”

Not a single pony was about to protest that fact as they turned and began walking again, ignoring the Vashta Nerada, just as the Vashta had ignored them. Twilight felt uneasy about this; she had a feeling something was entirely wrong with this picture. Looking back, Twilight noticed that the shadows which had fallen behind the group, now moved with the group.

“Doctor, I think we are being escorted.” Twilight said in a hushed tone.

Pinkie Pie was still smiling, but the idea of carnivorous shadows had brought back some old fears to the pink mare. She was trying her hardest to find something to laugh at, but was failing. “Wait, does that mean they are intelligent?”

“Ah don’t think so Pinkie.” Applejack said as she walked in line with Rainbow Dash. “They are just a bunch ah bugs after all.”

The Doctor frowned at that, he had to wonder if there was something he was missing. The Vashta Nerada could have the intelligence of a pony, regarding that enough of them collected in one spot, but there certainly wasn’t enough here. As he walked, he made his way to the pipes that lined the walls; slowly, he unfurled a wing and grasped his sonic screwdriver from its hiding spot. He pointed it towards the device at the pipes, and there was a high-pitched whistling noise, that had only lasted a moment, as he pulled the screwdriver along the wall.

“W-what, w-was that!” Fluttershy almost had a heart attack as she darted around the group; she hid behind twilight as they continued to walk.

“That’s the Doc’s sound screwdriver.” Applejack said confidently.

“Ahem, that would be Sonic Screwdriver.” The doctor corrected as he finished hiding it back under his wing. “Sound Screwdriver makes it sound silly, though I guess it works.”

“What did it do though?” Rainbow Dash interjected.

“Nothing; I was trying to see if there was any weather in the pipes, but they appear to all be bone-dry.” The Doctor said, looking at the group.

“Dry? How can they be dry? Those are steam pipes; they should be piping out hot air.” Rainbow said, in a confused fashion.

“Wait, Doctor, didn’t you say the hot air was responsible for heating the city?” Twilight asked with genuine concern. “Without it, what will happen to everypony on the surface?.”

The Doctor looked at the ground before turning to answer Twilight’s question; his voice carried a sober tone. “These weather generators are the only source of heat here. Once the sun has set over the Lunar Republic…” The Doctor paused, taking a loud gulp before continuing, “…everypony will die.”

**

The sun setting celebration was a huge event for the citizens of the Luna Republic. The celebration was to commemorate the day that the city was formed; the day Luna left her sister behind, on her own planet. Luna stood tall now, no longer as small as she had been when she had broken free from the corruption of Nightmare Moon. Now she looked like the spitting image of the dark queen of the night, except for the fact that her coat was dark blue and not sleek black.

Luna stood on the platform, an exact replica of the stage in Canterlot. Her city was made from marvelous marble stone, just as Canterlot, but, in Luna’s eyes, it was so much better than her sisters’ city. Luna had originally wanted to name her new land New Canterlot, but her advisor warned against it; pointing out that the name would be appropriate for the city that saw little sun.

“My loyal subjects, I thank ye' all for coming together so that we may celebrate this grand occasion. Upon this day, five hundred years ago, our fair city had reached its completion! Now we gather together to watch as the sun sets, and to celebrate this glorious occasion. Let the fun be doubled!” The Royal Canterlot voice boomed from the alicorn, easily addressing the many ponies who were attending the celebrations. It seemed everypony was gathered there, well almost everypony. Two mechanics Luna had sent to fix a problem involving the city’s heating had yet to return. Luna had been noticing several decreases in temperature all day, and she was determined to find out what the problem was. Hopefully it was just those blasted weather generators again; yet, she couldn’t help but feel something was wrong.

With that, Luna left the stage. The cheers and applause from her short speech continued, even after she had left. The crowd was practically putty in her hooves. Luna sometimes wondered if she even had to even bother making public appearances at all during these kinds of events.

“Guard,” Luna’s voice was hushed as she addressed one of the gray unicorns that formed her magic high guard. Like the others, he adorned silver armor, engraved with the decal of a crescent moon, which he displayed proudly on his chest. “We wish to travel below to see the weather generators for ourselves, let no pony know where we hath gone, and make sure the games proceed as planned.”

**

With the small, narrow hallway now behind them, the group of time travelling ponies now stood in a bright central room. Large vats and towers extended high above them, and Pinkie Pie was bouncing about the room. “Oh wow, aren’t those the three point fives, Dashie? In fact Dashie, didn’t you work on these?”

Rainbow Shifted uneasily, looking at the generators. She recognized them as the three point fives, the top of the line weather generators used in Cloudsdale. But there was something different about these generators, they were beaten and old. Dash nodded at Pinkies question. “I was just a consultant, all the weather managers were. Honestly, I don’t think I understood half the questions those guys asked me. I just told them that the generators needed to work 20% better than the old ones.”

Twilight blinked, these generators were top of the line back in their time, “Hold on, just how old are these generators then? Why wouldn’t Luna have upgraded them by now? Are these generators seriously a thousand years old!”

“I think we are getting off track a bit here.” Said Rarity. “What exactly are the Vashta Nerada? More importantly, how do we beat them?”

“You don’t,” answered The Doctor. “The Vashta Nerada are as abundant as dust, basically, the living darkness that eats flesh. They are everywhere you can think of. Well, almost everywhere; but I’ve never seen a swarm like this. Not eating us goes against everything that a swarm of Vashta Nerada stands for...”

Pinkie bounced along. “So… then are they like parasprites!? Yuck I hate parasprites!”

The Doctor nodded. “Almost exactly like parasprites. However, the main difference is that if enough Vashta gather in one place, they can become quite smart…”

Twilight blinked, “How smart? Do you mean to tell me that these things can talk?”

Pinkie Pie looked around her hair looking almost deflated. Her fears from when she was just a little filly crept back into her mind. “But there was nothing in the dark! You just have to giggle an- and- and everything will be fine!”

“No, Pinkie. Every single race in the universe has an irrational fear of the dark. In some times, like now, when the Vashta aren’t after us, we can consider that fear to be silly. But anywhere else in the universe, that fear isn’t irrational.” The doctor’s voice was grave.

“Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Can’t you see your scaring them!” Fluttershy yelled out she turned to the Doctor with a glare, and for a moment, even he took a step back. “You are scaring Pinkie, and my friends. We have seen it, and we can’t deny that they are living, but just look at her! Look at poor Pinkie she is absolutely terrified of all this! And you have done nothing to console her, now apologize for scaring my friend!”

Pinkie was almost in tears as another rumble of thunder could be heard off in the distance, but the group was silent. Fluttershy was breathing heavily, she could live with being afraid, but seeing her friend so afraid, and the way the doctor was almost antagonizing them, it had pushed her over the edge. The Doctor took a step forward “I-… I am sorry for scaring you Pinkie Pie.”

Fluttershy’s glare lessened as the moment passed, and the Doctor suddenly found himself breathing easier. How was it that such a shy and timid pony could have that much power? Fluttershy was scarier than half the creatures The Doctor had ever faced, and that was saying a lot!

**

A shiver ran across Luna as she walked along the now frigid hallways. The sun was descending, and the city was growing much, much colder. The alicorn entered the maintenance area she had sent Sparks and Coal, the center for the steam machines, and yet, there was no sign of her two maintenance ponies that were sent down in the early morning.

Luna thought about how the two ponies had been impossible, thinking that her genuine concern for the city was some sort of punishment against them, and she looked at the arcane generators. She pressed her hoof to them, expecting to feel the warmth and heat of the steam, but instead felt only cold metal. Luna was in deep though as she was suddenly bowled over by a running pegasus.

Coal had been running for hours, from what she couldn’t even tell, but she knew that something had hurt or harmed her friend. She was breathing heavily and in a blind run when she had hit the one pony she had honestly never expected to see. “Princess! You need to get away! You need to leave there is something here! Something that’s just unnatural.”

“What doth thou mean? What be chasing after thou? Why hast thou abandoned thy post, and allowed for our generators to fall into disarray?” Luna said getting to her hooves she glared down at coal. “What be the meaning of this!”

“The meaning is run! The generators are royally bucked up! Half their circuitry has been eaten, the only thing that still works is the thunderstorm generator, and that’s not going to last much longer! Now, run!” Coal said in a matter of fact tone as her wings unfolded and she took off, leaving Luna confused. It seemed that Coal didn’t even have a desired direction, she was just going off at random, trying desperately to leave. As she attempted to fly off, a purple glow held her in place.

“We shall do no such thing until thou explains what is happening to our city!” Luna said in a strong tone of voice.

“Apparently, it’s being eaten.” The voice was familiar to Luna but one she had not heard for many years, and she turned around, dropping Coal to the ground with a thud. Luna regained her composure.

“Twilight Sparkle?” Luna said as she turned to see the young unicorn guided by a pegasus, with an all too familiar cutie mark, and her group of friends. “Doctor, hast thou met us before as ye are now?” Luna asked, excitement reaching the princess’ voice. “Doest thou remember Canterlot’s hedge maze?” Luna asked, her eyes brightening at the memory.

“No, sorry, first time meeting you like this. Last time I saw you, Luna, I was still an earth pony. I recall having a tan coat and a short, black mane.” The doctor said smiling.

“Not much ever changes in thou’s color scheme...” Luna said with a roll of her eyes.

“Hey, I have wings now, wings are cool.” The doctor said defensively.

Luna merely unfolded her own wings; the wingspan was twice that of a normal Pegasus. “We are not impressed. Tell us when thou hast become a unicorn, then we may be impressed.”

“Well, I was impressed when I got them.” The Doctor said lowering his gaze down to the floor.

“Are you all insane!? We need to get the hay away from here! Fly as fast as we can! Leave the city! And you are just getting chummy with some pony?! Princess are you mad?!” Coal’s eyes were still darting around the room, she desperately wanted out of this dark hallway.

Luna nodded to the maintenance pony. “We wish we could continue the pleasantries, but our clock is ticking, Doctor.”

**

“Vashta Nerada?” Luna said in a low tone it had taken only a few minutes to recount the tale, as they had seen it, to the princess and Coal. Who was more relaxed when she was told that what she had been running from this entire time, was not after her, but instead was after the generators that she was working on.

Twilight Sparkle, however, was still very worried. “They have eaten almost every weather generator, except for the thunder generator. As soon as the sun sets were are all going to freeze to death. There has to be something we can do.”

Luna nodded “We could use priority one.”

“What’s that?” Rainbow Dash asked. “It sounds important.”

Pinkie Pie responded. “Priority one, evacuation, duh! If an area, or location, is compromised to the point where it threatens the lives of too many ponies, then an evacuation of the area is called upon.”

“Wait, how did you know that?” Twilight blinked, asking the question, as if she didn’t already know the response.

“It was under P.” Pinkie said as she pointed to a sign, which read: ‘in case of emergency, submit request for a priority one evacuation.’

“Submit request? So there is a form we need to fill out? Twilight responded. “What kind of organizational neat freak would actually require you to fill out a form for an evacuation in a time of a crisis?!”

Luna smiled mischievously and added. “Actually thy papers must be filled out in triplicate, but there is a different problem with priority one.”

“Where would we go?” Rarity said trying to enter the conversation.

“No, the Lunar Republic is fit with a massive teleportation spell in case the citizens ever needed to evacuate. If activated, it would send everypony to the Solar Empire, actually, right into Canterlot.” Coal said, “The problem is without the weather generators, there is nothing to power the spell.”

“That’s not entirely true.” The Doctor chimed in. “we don’t have the power requirements for the spell, but what we do have, is a generator.”

Coal laughed darkly. “What generator?! They are all dead! I’ve flown by every single steam generator and rain device, nothing remains! They have all been gutted!”

“All but one…” Twilight said, pointing upwards at the still working light. “Listen, you can still hear the thunder.”

“The electrical generator? Nothing can get close to that without shutting it down first, and we need it to be active in order to hook it up to the spell in time. It generates a never ending electrical storm, any pegasus who enters that room gets fried!” Coal shouted.

“True a pegasus wouldn’t be able to get in their get through the clouds and reach the generator, but an alicorn, an alicorn would have the physical endurance and magical resistance to get close enough to make the connections. Isn’t that right Luna.” The Doctor said with a smile turning to her.

“This is true. However, a Time Lord would be able to fly into such a storm and come out on the other side, provided he was fast enough.” Luna countered. “We will help, but we refuse to get struck by lightning alone.”

“Right, thought that would be coming up. While we are doing that, however, the transport system will need to be on warm up. We have only about an hour till the sunset, and that means we have an hour to start up the spell, activate it and then get everypony else out.” The doctor turned to the group.

“Twilight, thou will need this.” the dark alicorn removed her crown and handed it to the unicorn. “Tell the guards of our intent; the crown will prove my words. Take Pinkie Pie with thou, she will prove most helpful.”

“Applejack, find Apple Wash. She must still be running around here. She could be anywhere, but you’re the one who should hunt her down. Take Rainbow with you, she’s fast and even on hoof, you two will make the best time.” The Doctor said speaking as quickly as he could.

Applejack nodded. “Will do, partner!”

“Fluttershy, Rarity, Spike and coal, you’re on the dead generators, see if you can breathe enough life into them to get some heat going, buy us as much time as you possibly can.” The doctor pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver from under his wing and tossed it to Fluttershy. “It’s easy enough to use, just think and press the button.”

Fluttershy nodded, putting the screwdriver under her own wing in the same manner she had seen the doctor do many times before. “Um… okay.”

Spike nodded, “Don’t you think Rainbow Dash would be more helpful on our team? I mean she did work with the designers of these generators.”

“Spike I already told you-” Rainbow Dash was cut off as she was suddenly given a very strong buck to the face, and laid flat by Coal.

“Whoa, what was that for!” Spike shouted.

Coal breathed, feeling more relaxed then she had in most of her life. Her voice was calm and almost happy. “Ten years of pent up aggression.”

“-Just an advisor.” Rainbow Dash said, lying down on the ground as a few stars seemed to float around her head. “Oh hello Scootaloo, are you here for dinner?”

“Is she gonna’ be okay?” Applejack asked, looking over at Rainbow Dash.

“Oh yeah, fine probably!” The Doctor said as he turned away from the group. “Don’t bother giving her ice, if we don’t start moving soon she will be covered in it. Come on group, let’s go! Geronimo!” The Doctor and Luna raced off as the other groups began to separate, leaving only Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

“All right sugar cube, ah need yah to get up now.”

**

Comments

[Mach and Gracie]

Woo! New chapter, getting good!!

[Professor Donger]

THIS IS BUCKING AND FUCKING AWESOME AT THE SAME DAMN TIME !

[WorldWalker128]

Who else is listening to Doctor Who music while reading these?

[masorin]

53374 I don't know about when people read them, but often i have Doctor Who music, or MLP music playing when i write them

[masorin]

60118 during chapter one's production two of my pre readers quit, and i was forced to write and edit it on my own. new pre readers were brought onto the team, but I have been busy, and never got around to asking someone to edit chapter 1 for me. I know its a poor excuse, but yeah chapter one was done souly by myself. sorry for that.

[Super_Big_Mac]

60122 Eh, don't worry. I understand, lol. I've got a good start on my own fic, but if it weren't for JuyUnseen and ratmage99 - along with my RL friend (username) Marik_Azemus, I wouldn't be as far along as I am. I have had much help, and I understand not getting it sometimes. I'm still waiting for Juy's RL to stop taking his time, he's been a really, really big help.

So, this is a thank you to all editors out there who aren't flakes. Thank you! You make reading these fan-fics bearable! (no offence, I mean my own as well.)

"Take Pinkie Pie with thee" not thou. Great Doctor story.