Silent Night

by Sixes_And_Sevens

WHEREWITHWHICHINTO Battle is Done with Taxidermy, the Cold is Vanquished, and a Leaf Soars on the Wind

Maple quickly sprung at the corpse, bucking it to the ground. “Run for it!” she shouted.

The workers quickly scurried out from the burning tent simply by rolling under the rolls of cloth. The creatures made to follow, but shied back once the cameleopard caught alight.

Soon, only the Doctor, Maple, Rumble, the Yeti, and Gordon remained fighting. The griffon beat back a few of the oncoming drones with a mighty wingbeat, sending them sprawling into the flames. As he turned, however, he let out a squawk as a burning centaur grabbed his tail and pulled him back into the flames. A quick punch from the Yeti knocked the stuffed beast backwards.

The ringmaster took a couple of deep breaths and pointed at the Yeti. “You,” he said, “are absolutely getting a raise.”

Rumble found himself standing in front of a manticore. As the beast struck, he rolled underneath it. While it was still off-balance, he leapt up and caught it square in the chest. It staggered toward the flames, but caught itself at the last moment. Snarling, it reared back to smack the colt down, but suddenly the Doctor was standing beside it. A quick buck, and its leg fell off. Stuffing and fluff flew through the air as the chimera toppled into the flames. The Doctor grinned at Rumble. “How did you survive?” he asked, incredulous. “Come to that, how did you get here before us?”

The colt grinned back. “Turns out the Yeti was still alive. We talked it out. As for getting back here? Well, we’d already figured out the carnival was a key thing, and it’s a lot quicker getting here if you take the back allies.”

The Doctor’s smile grew. “Oh, well done!”

“Down!” Rumble shouted, diving for the ground. The Doctor promptly followed suit. A second later, the changeling dove right through where the Doctor’s head had been a moment earlier and fell into the fire.

“Thanks,” the Doctor said.

A creaking groan from above caused Rumble to look up in alarm. “We aren’t safe yet,” he said. “We’ve got to get out of here. Hey, Yeti?”

The shaggy white beast glanced over. “Can you knock through those guys for us?” he asked, pointing at the group of creatures who, along with Climber, were blocking the door.

The Yeti grinned and grabbed a seapony. She reared back her huge hairy arm and rolled the beast down the center of the tent, straight at the blockade. They collided with a fleshy smack, sprawling in all directions. “Come on!” the Doctor shouted, running for the exit.

Climber staggered to his hooves. His horn lit and he pointed it at Maple Leaf. “No!” Gordon shouted, knocking her towards the door. The unicorn fired. Gordon staggered. He fell. Blood mixed with ice.

And then Climber was standing over him, hauling the ringmaster up against a glass case. The ringmaster was breathing hard, his feathers singed and his eyes moist. “Earlier today,” Gordon said quietly, “I swore that the next time I saw you would be the last.”

“You were right,” the corpse said, its horn glowing once again.

With a speed and power that belied his age, the griffon reached up and with a sickening crunch, snapped the horn off at its base. “Yes, I was,” he whispered. Then, he shoved Climber’s body into the flames. “Come on,” he whispered to himself, grabbing at his side. “Come on. Please.” He stumbled outside to join the others.

***

The Doctor stared at the flames. “Come on,” he whispered. “Come on!”

Gordon burst out of the flaming tent. “Yes!” the Doctor shouted.

Maple merely stared. “Oh no,” she whispered.

“What?” the Doctor asked as she and Rumble ran over to the griffon. Then he saw how badly the ringmaster was bleeding. “Oh. No. No, no, no…”

Rumble reached Gordon’s side first. There was a lot of blood, crusted over with ice. The flesh around the wound was stiff. The griffon glared at him. “You. Colt.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you work for me?”

“Uh, no.”

“Shame. Did we win?”

“Yeah,” Rumble said, smiling softly. “Yeah, we won.”

“Good,” he said, smiling widely. “The show must go on. Maple!”

She didn’t even try to hide her tears. “Yes, sir?”

He took off his top hat and plopped it on her head. “I’m getting too old for this,” he growled. As if to prove his point, he broke into a hacking fit. “You’re in charge now. Run it well, or I’ll come back and haunt you.”

She smiled through her tears. “I will.”

“Give the Yeti a raise,” he added, voice failing. “Dr. Climber’s salary should do fine. And you, tan one!”

The Doctor nodded. The griffon glared at him. “I leave you in charge of my obituary. Make sure to mention it was my damn choice, right? I died saving her. Got that?”

The Doctor nodded. “Good.” Suddenly, the griffon’s face slackened. “And that, I believe,” he croaked, “is curtain.”

He slumped over. Maple checked his pulse, then rolled her eyes. “For Celestia’s sake,” she grumbled. “One of you go call an ambulance.”

The Doctor blinked. “But he said--”

“Never trust anybody in show business. Look, he isn’t dead, but he’s heading that way so for crying out loud--”

“On it.” The Doctor ran off, kicking up a cloud of frost in his wake.

Maple sighed. “S’pose it’s too much to think you’d all be staying around?”

“Kinda, yeah,” Rumble admitted. “I’ve gotta get back home, and I think Yeti wouldn’t mind getting back to the mountains.” He hesitated. “You could probably come with us.”

“Me? Nah. Didn’t you hear, I’ve got a circus to run! He gave me the hat. That’s a special kind of promise.”

“I could still take it back,” Gordon growled through gritted teeth.

“But you won’t, though,” she said. “Have to catch me first, old man.”

Still grinning, she turned to Rumble and the Yeti. “I suppose this is goodbye, then.”

Rumble nodded.

“Yeti?” she said, pointing at the shaggy beast. “You are brilliant and the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I wish you all the best.”

It was hard to tell under all the thick fur, but Rumble could swear that the Yeti blushed.

She looked at Rumble and smiled. “Congratulations,” she said.

The colt blinked. “Huh? What?”

The pegasus nodded to his flank. “You got your cutie mark. Well done, you.”

Rumble looked back, surprised. “I didn’t even notice. It’s a…” he trailed off. “It’s a stormcloud. Great. Love that reminder of the thing that nearly killed us.”

“No, no,” Maple insisted, leaning in. “Look closer, right under it. It’s a different color to the rest of your fur. A silver lining.”

“I’m sorry. My cutie mark is for being an optimist? Have you met me?”

Maple laughed. “Well, maybe. Might be a sort of reminder, like ‘count your blessings’ or something.”

“Could be thunder,” Gordon added. “For power or something.”

“You shut up,” Maple said firmly. “You’re still losing blood. Just lie there until the hospital ponies come. Anyway, the whole silver lining might be a coincidence, and it might be a mark for breaking up storms Who knows? Only one who can decide what it means is you.”

Rumble sat silent for a moment. “I like the sound of ‘count your blessings,’” he admitted.

“There you go.”

The Doctor trotted up. “Right. Ambulance is on its way. Rumble, Yeti, I think we’d best be off before we have to answer some awkward questions.”

“Oh, and of course you’ll leave us to deal with them,” Gordon grumbled.

“Well, we are taking the Yeti as well,” the Doctor reasoned. “That’s like a good forty percent of the tricky questions dealt with there. And I’m sure a performer of your caliber should have no problem with the rest.”

“That is true! That is very true…” Gordon grinned.

The Doctor turned his eye on Maple. “And what about you?”

She smiled. “Well, I always did want to travel. Think I’ll take this show on the road. Who knows, I might even get up to your mountain range.” She grinned at the Yeti, who was now definitely blushing.

The Doctor looked a bit taken aback, but he smiled at her. “Good on you, then. It’s been a pleasure knowing you.”

She grinned. “Thanks for the best Hearth’s Warming present ever.”

The Doctor, Rumble, and the Yeti made off into the dark of the night, fading as they left the light of the still merrily-burning tent. Rumble glanced back and waved before looking down at his new mark.

The faint detail of the silver lining was almost impossible to see against his grey fur, but it was there nonetheless. Rumble smiled faintly, thinking about his brother, Flitter, and Cloudchaser. Thinking about home. He looked back at Maple. “Thank you,” he whispered.

Count your blessings indeed.

***

When Thunderlane, Cloudchaser, and Flitter returned home that evening, they had hardly opened the door before being struck with a grey ballistic missile. “I missed you guys,” Rumble laughed, tears running down his cheeks.

The other pegasi exchanged glances of vague astonishment. “Okay, who are you and what did you do with Rumble?” Cloudchaser demanded.

The colt relaxed, but did not release his grip on the others. “You guys wouldn’t believe the day I’ve just had.”

Flitters eyes opened wide. “Wait. Rumble, your flank. Did you—”

The pegasus grinned. “Yep. I’ll explain over— whoa!”

The trio descended on him with smiles and congratulations. Rumble was content. How could he be otherwise? He was with his family.

Author's Note:

Next Time on Doctor Whooves

Apple Bloom exhaled softly. When she spoke again, all the fire was gone, replaced by ice. “Fine,” she said. “Ah’m goin’. Ah’m leavin’ mah problems behind, jes’ like when y’all went t’ live in Manehattan.”

“Uh?” Bloom asked, frowning. “What’d’ya mean, new? Ah’ve known Sweetie since…” she trailed off. She could remember vague shapes and colors. A voice, sweet and pure, if a little squeaky. “Well, Ah’ve known her fer years,” she said.

“Maybe you should get Applejack t’ look at it,” Bloom volunteered. “She’s pretty good about fixin’ stuff.”
Lyra squinted. “Apple… Who?”

Bloom stared at him. “Pa,” she said slowly. “Yer here. You an’ ma— ya ain’t meant ta — Ya can’t be here. An’ Applejack!” She turned her head wildly, as though following the path of a pesky insect. “Where’s Applejack?”

There was a wheezing, groaning sound, and the TARDIS shook violently. The Doctor’s face fell. “Oh, that’s not brilliant.”

Bloom’s jaw tightened. “Ah’m not a child.” she ground out. “Ah’m seventeen, near ‘nuff t’ bein’ a grown mare, and Ah am sick of bein’ treated like a li’l filly!”

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Really? No comments at all? A travesty is what it is.

Another excellent story, with plentiful drama and far too much fun being had in the chapter titles. Thank you for it. And now I'm almost caught up!