A Storm of Chaos: A Doctor Whooves Adventure

by Shotoman

The Edge of Destruction

Part 17

The Edge of Destruction

The battle between the two Time Chargers had reached a small lull. Both the Doctor and the Master were panting, bruised, and bleeding. "Ah, just like old times," the Master noted with a slight giggle. "I was afraid that you've lost your touch, what with this ridiculous semi-pacifism you've developed over the years."

"Having lost my taste for violence does not mean I've lost the capacity," the Doctor responded, a tiredness in his voice that had little to do with the battle. At this, the Master charged his opponent, who ducked down in response and used his own momentum to flip the crazed Charger through the air, whereupon he landed flat on his back, the air knocked out of his lungs. "I do have to admit," the Doctor panted, "that I am getting more than a little tired of how often our encounters devolve into some sort of physical duel."

The Master had crawled to his hooves and was about to reply when instead he brought his forehooves to his temples and began a long, drawn out howl of pain. Once it had subsided, the Master was furious to see that the Doctor was grinning. "What did I tell you?" the Doctor asked smugly. "Never underestimate my Derpy."

In response, the Master simply charged the Doctor again with an inarticulate roar, clapping his forehooves on either side of the Doctor's head. While the stars swam around the Doctor's head, the Master spun and delivered a hard buck to his chest, sending him sprawling. "We're not done yet!" he shouted.

"Right. 'Course we're not," the Doctor muttered as the got to his hooves. "It'd be too easy otherwise, wouldn't it?"

~DrW~

Derpy quickly slammed the TARDIS doors closed, smiling at the sound of several changelings crashing headfirst into it. "Well, that takes care of that," she said, satisfied that both she and her charge were securely in the safest place in the universe.

Dawn Riser, however, was staring at her surroundings in total awe--a reaction she'd be the first to admit as being difficult to inspire in her. "It... it is..." she sputtered.

Derpy chuckled as she patted Riser on the back. "Go ahead and say it. Best to get it out of your system."

Dawn Riser looked Derpy in the eye and almost whispered, "It is larger within."

Derpy burst out laughing at that. "What?" Dawn Riser asked indignantly.

"You said it wrong! It's supposed to be 'It's bigger on the inside.' Don't worry I got it wrong, too. Said it was smaller on the outside. Anyhoof, welcome to the best ship in the universe, the TARDIS. Short for Time and Relative Dimension in Space, but we just call her the old girl. Though, you probably shouldn't. She doesn't know you yet. It'd probably offend her."

Dawn Riser blinked in confusion a few times before grasping a straw in the conversation that made sense. "Did you say this was a ship?"

"Yep," Derpy responded as she began digging for something under the overstuffed armchair. "Best in the universe."

"And you... captain it?"

Derpy grunted as she pushed a large wooden chest out of the alcove beneath the chair. "Nope. Only the Doctor can fly her, really. And even he messes up, like, a lot. I only got her this far with her help, and my insides are still doing loopedy-loops from that, so I don't think trying it again would be a good idea." Derpy had opened the chest and was now digging through it, her visible rump bouncing to some unheard tune. "Now where did he put it...?"

"Apologies, Miss Derpy, but you are making very little sense."

Derpy pulled herself out of the chest, a thoughtful look on her face. "Really? Huh. Sorry 'bout that. I think it's a side effect of the Doctor." She glanced back into the chest and brightened up. "Oh! There it is!" And with that, she dove into the chest, completely vanishing into it despite it not being quite big enough for a pony to fit in. Dawn Riser simply rose an eyebrow at the sight. After a few moments of some rather large banging noises, Derpy popped back out of the chest, a large black vinyl disk in her mouth.

"What, pray tell, is that?" Riser asked.

Derpy walked over to the console in the middle of the room, and gave it a good kick with her left hind leg. A turntable popped out of the face, with a 'ching' sound. Derpy placed the record on the turntable, then pushed it back into place. "It's the recall code. If this works, we should automatically get sent back to where the TARDIS last was, with some adjustment for time, so we don't cross our own timeline. That's dangerous, you know."

"Wait. What do you mean 'if this woOOAAH!" Dawn Riser was knocked on her flank as the room shook with surprising violence, and an unEquestrian sound flooded the room. She watched in stunned silence as Derpy threw her forelegs in the air and badly mimicked the sound. She briefly considered the idea that she'd let herself get abducted by a madmare.

~FIM~

The fight wasn't going well. The Master was well and truly berserkring at this point, lashing out without strategy or care of consequence, and the Doctor just couldn't keep up anymore. Despite earlier words, he'd spent considerable effort avoiding physical confrontation since the Time War (unless absolutely necessary, like that one time with the Syccorax), and it had been a great many more centuries and regenerations beyond even that since he was at his prime in that regard. So it was, then, that the Doctor was lying on the floor, struggling to get back to his hooves, and the Master was standing triumphantly over him.

The Master had a hoof raised, ready to bring it down on the Doctor's skull, when he was suddenly jerked off the ground. Looking around for the source of this outrage, he suddenly found himself looking into the coldly furious eyes of a certain sky blue unicorn. The rage that had filled him suddenly drained from his body as he realized what was about to happen. "Oh, bollGRGH!" he managed to get out before being violently thrown against the far wall, with enough force to crack it. He dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes before being thrown against the opposite wall. And again. And again.

The Doctor took advantage of the respite to gingerly get up on his hooves. Then he heard a most welcome voice call out his name. Looking up, he saw his Derpy looking at him in worry. "You're hurt!" she said worriedly.

"Hello, ow. Hello Derpy," the Doctor said with a pained but genuine smile. "I see you were successful."

"Don't you 'Hello Derpy' me, mister," she scolded. "Look at you. Was this your plan? To get beaten to a bloody pulp?"

"I was a very effective bloody pulp I'll have you know. Kept the Master here, didn't I?" The Doctor cast a wry look over Derpy's soot-charred coat and messy, on-end hair. "And you're not exactly one to talk."

"Hmph. At least I won my fight." Derpy smiled and said in a very loud stage whisper. "I think she's a little embarrassed, actually."

This caused Dawn Riser to stop in her beating of the Master. "I am not embarrassed!" she said a little too quickly. "I am grateful, truly." She paused as the corners of her mouth drew upward in a smirk. "I should mention, though, that nopony under mind control will ever fight at their full capacity. And also, she cheated."

The Doctor laughed and ran a fond hoof through Derpy's hair, which actually zapped him a little. "Well, of course she did. D'you think we've survived as long as we have by playing fair? Oh, and Dawn, I think you've made your point." He gestured over to the battered and nigh unconscious Master still in her magical grip.

Dawn cast one last glare at her former master before conceding with a slightly annoyed snort. "Oh, very well."

She trotted over to the other two, still keeping the Master suspended and harmless, and cast a probing eye on the Doctor. "So, you are the Doctor, then? You certainly do not look like the Doctor I remember. Is it a title passed down from father to son, perhaps?"

"Oh, no. I'm still the same nutter you met all those years ago. Why, I still remember stumbling upon you in the streets of Bucksalona, having sampled a little too much cider, and..."

"That will be quite enough, thank you," Dawn Riser quickly interrupted, her face beginning to glow crimson. Derpy stifled a laugh. The Doctor, however turned suddenly serious. He was staring Dawn Riser full in the eyes, a thoughtful frown forming on his face. "Doctor?" Dawn asked. "You seem troubled, and, frankly, you are making me rather uncomfortable."

The Doctor quickly broke his eye contact, though the frown persisted. "It's nothing. Well, it's not nothing, it's definitely something, but it's probably nothing too significant."

"What is it, Doctor?" Derpy asked.

"Hmmm? Oh, well, it's just that there's no sign whatsoever of the Master's presence in Dawn Riser. Nothing at all."

Derpy scrunched her face up in confusion. "Isn't that a good thing?"

The Doctor nodded. "Oh, for Dawn Riser, most certainly. And Little Celestia will be downright thrilled once we return I'm sure." (Dawn Riser was about to protest the Doctor's overly familiar term for her Princess and mentor, but stopped when she realized that this was probably more important.) "But, it doesn't make sense for the Master to let his control be broken so easily."

"Easy?" Derpy sputtered. "You think that was easy?"

"Compared to how it should have gone?" the Doctor responded. "Most certainly. Think for just a moment. I've got a TARDIS. The Master no longer does. What better way to fix that problem than to manufacture a believable rescue, while still retaining a mental hold that he can reassert later, then have her turn on us. It's what I would do if I were evil and insane. And I had plans in place for just that eventuality, but now it seems they are no longer needed."

Derpy and Dawn Riser cast each other a worried glance. "Maybe the Master just got careless?" Derpy asked.

"Perhaps, but I doubt it. There's something missing here. Something... important." Suddenly his eyes shot wide open. "Derpy, how did the changelings react when you destroyed the transmitter?"

"I dunno. They swarmed the place all at once. They were all shrieking really loud and seemed really mad. Why?"

The Doctor facehooved. "Remember what the Master said earlier? About the 'fun' uses of a changeling army? We have to get back to Canterlot now!" The Doctor cast a glare at the still dazed Master, who was giggling in his sleep. "I think we may have actually set off the next phase of his plan."

Comments

[Tragicom]

Oh, The Master. He's always one step ahead.

Anyway, I've finally started writing fanfics. I've got a ponyfication of The Five Doctors going on. You helped inspire a few ideas, so would you mind trying it out?

Please... I feel alone.

[Shotoman]

2085558
I'm always one for helping other writers... at least to the best of my own abilities. Bring it on, then. And lets see what we can do.

[Stiggerzz]

l.wigflip.com/zEbK9cl3/roflbot.jpg

Darpy burst out laughing at that. "What?" Dawn Riser asked indignantly.

we have a stowaway on the TARDIS it seems shotoman, i don't recall seeing a Darpy on the passenger manifest

[Shotoman]

2087893
Fixed

[Stiggerzz]

2087938
deviantart.com/download/280574064/adult_simba_thumbs_up___vector_by_crusierpl-d4n1oc0.png

[Darth Link 22]

I think I need to go back and re-read this when I get the chance, because I am lost...still, I'm guessing this was a good chapter...

[Shotoman]

2088702
I think it might behoove you (behoof? I think horse puns will forever be part of my vocabulary ) to reread the last chapter or two. It's been a month to the day since my last update. That may help. Also, the Doctor realized something that won't be elaborated on till next chapter--he does that.

[Puzzle Reader]

So, no Venusian karate?

[Shotoman]

2302622
Oh, I was tempted. But, the Venusian Aikido/Karate/whatever it was was specifically a staple of the Third Doctor. I haven't seen any signs anywhere that any of the other Doctors can really use it (and, if I recall, the Fourth Doctor's famous 'there's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish line directly follows a demonstration that he basically lost it). I was tempted to write in some ability where, with enough mental effort, the Doctor can access skills from previous regenerations with the caveat that it wears him out faster, but in the end I went the simple route and just had him lose the fight.

[Dragaen]

mind... blown... seriously, you think Check! When the Master just quips with a nice counter.