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Part 1: Splendid Surroundings3,423 words
Part 2: Cruise Corrupted4,549 words
Part 3: Change of Command2,360 words
Part 4: Eclipse of Ruta 33,868 words
Part 5:Nova Do That Again!3,051 words

Part 2: Cruise Corrupted

Doctor Whooves: New Settings
STORY 2: Voyage Towards Extinction

Part 2: Cruise Corrupted

Vinyl’s eyes were wide beneath her signature shades. She’d never seen such amazing looking surfboards. To be fair, she hadn’t seen many surfboards, period. Surfing wasn’t a big thing in Manehatten. That was more of a Jockey Shore thing. Still she was sure no-one in New Jockey ever saw boards like these. They were stream-lined silver chrome, like large kitchen knives, though rounded on the edges. They all shined magnificently, with unique decals of flames and flowers and other symbols, giving each a distinct style.

Octavia was less concerned with the boards than she was finding something comfortable to lie down on. The two mares wandered the small shop they’d been teleported into. Vinyl spent the whole time marveling at the glittering boards, while Octavia simply observed the beach chairs, which were all similar in design, each coming with a comfortable cushion and a built in umbrella. They were simple fold-out chairs, not as overly extravagant as the boards, meaning Octavia made her decision first, one with a blue cushion and red and white umbrella.

As Octavia took the chair she’d picked up to what she presumed was a check-out counter, this one run by a more normal looking pony creature. The clerk was a sea-green coated, blue-haired pony-like creature with the unique three-horned crest that the Doctor had described, leading Octavia to assume that the clerk was a Nauta. If anatomy held true, the clerk was male.

“Is that all?” The clerk asked.

“Not quite,” Octavia said. She turned to her counterpart and called out, “Vinyl! Hurry up!”

“Just a sec!” Vinyl replied. “I can’t decide between the white lilies or the crimson flames! Which one do you think is more me?”

“Is there one with blue lightning?” Octavia asked.

“I don’t… oh wait! Yeah!” Vinyl said, spotting the board Octavia suggested.

“Take that one,” Octavia said in a commanding tone.

Vinyl grabbed the board, a broad smile on her face. “Great pick, Octy,” Vinyl said. “It’s so totally me!”

“Of course,” Octavia replied. “Never let it be said I have no sense of… did you just call me Octy again?”

Vinyl’s checks flushed again. “Oh, sorry,” She said, embarrassed. “Not the best nickname, huh?”

“Not my favorite, no,” Octavia replied.

“How ‘bout Tavi then?”

“I’d prefer it if you just called me Octavia,” she said.

Vinyl sighed in defeat. “Nevermind,” she said, turning to the clerk. “How much?”

Octavia’s eyes widened in realization. She turned to Vinyl and said, in a hushed voice, “Vinyl, we don’t have their money. The Doctor forgot to tell us how currency works for them.”

“oh, crud!” Vinyl exclaimed. When she noticed the surprised look on the Clerk’s face, she chuckled nervously. “Heh, heh, heh, I don’t suppose I can put this on a tab or something, could I?”

The Clerk smiled. “Oh, don’t worry,” he said. “Cost of rental is part of your ticket price. Didn’t you know that?”

“Oh,” Octavia replied. “No, I didn’t. Our… uh… friend, yes… our friend purchased them for us. It was a big surprise. Didn’t know about it until the last minute and we’ve never been on a cruise before, so we aren’t sure how everything works.”

“Oh…” replied the clerk, a thoughtful look on his face.

Both Vinyl and Octavia chuckled nervously.

The clerk then smiled. “Ah, I understand!” he said cheerfully. “Well, I won’t keep you two. Just let me scan the items and you can be on your way.”

The two looked at each other in confusion before presenting the items to the clerk. He pulled out some sort of gun-like device from behind the counter and ran it over each item, letting out a high beeping sound.

“All set,” the clerk said, still grinning like the cat that caught the canary.

Vinyl and Octavia picked up their items, said thanks and headed for the door to the shop.

“Oh, and congratulations on the nuptials,” the clerk shouted just as they left.

“What?!” they both replied, but the door was already closed.

They both looked back at the closed door, and then at each other. They quickly turned away, their faces red with embarrassment.

“L-lets just head to the beach,” Octavia said with a stutter.

“Y-yeah, lets,” Vinyl replied.

The two wandered away from the shop, not noticing the two strange figures running past behind them.

Derpy sighed, her wings fanned out, her head resting on her hoofs, the light of the star engine on her back. She’d never felt so relaxed, laying in the sand. She peeled one eye open enough to look off to her left. She could see the Doctor helping Dinky build her sand castle, though she couldn’t make out what they were saying. She smiled as she closed her eye, happy that her daughter was enjoying herself, and happy that the Doctor was there to help.

“You see, Dinky,” the Doctor said as he shifted some sand with his hooves. “The trick to the perfect sandcastle is to get the granular particulates to align in a symmetrical pattern. Obviously this is nearly impossible since… well, they’re so darn small.”

“Uh, huh?” Dinky muttered, not sure exactly what the Doctor just said.

“Luckily,” the Doctor continued, pulling out his sonic screwdriver, “size is irrelevant.”

He buzzed the sonic over the pile of sand in his hooves. Dinky’s eyes widened as the pile seemed to spill upwards and form into a perfect bucket-shape, as if somepony had filled a bucket with sand and dumped it, upside-down, in front of the Doctor.

“Wow!” she said.

“Now, what’s say we get piling?” The Doctor said, scooping up more sand.

“Yeah!” Dinky said, excitedly. She turned and began kicking up dirt like a diamond-dog looking for rare gems.

Shrugging, the Doctor turned and followed her method.

Far away, inside the very tip of the thin metal structure surrounding the beach and the engine, there is the bridge of the Splendor. The bridge is a massive command area, supervised by hundreds of Nauta staff stationed at various control stations across the chamber. These equids were all occupied with the operation and maintenance of the ship and the wellbeing of the hundreds of thousands of guests riding aboard her.

In the center of the chamber was a control station monitored by a single Nauta in a large chair. This Nauta was female, with soft redish-pink fur and a red mane. She wore a golden medallion around her neck, marked with the same field of stars mark that adorned her flank. She had a very stern look on her face.

Before her, on screens of the command console, reports were displayed. Each report said pretty much the same thing; a member of the security staff was missing. One member for each report. The number of reports indicated that almost all of the security staff in the beach were missing, including all of the lifeguards. There were no clues as to who was responsible for the disappearances. The only unusual factor was that, aside from the staff, the only other person missing was a bartender native to a small planet somewhere near Betelgeuse. She had met him once. Nice fellows; served a good Jinninton’k.

One of the bridge security staff, a dark blue Nauta armed with a blaster on his right fore-hoof, crossed to this area on a metal platform. He walked up to the Naura at the chair.

“Any news?” she said.

“No Captain,” said the crewman. “Still no sign of the missing crewmen.”

“Have the passengers caught on yet?” she asked.

“Not yet,” he replied. “Our bridge crew are maintaining the guard-droids while we look for the lifeguards. So far no-one has noticed.”

“Well, that won’t last long,” the Captain said. “Soon there’ll be an incident (there always is) and they’ll wonder why it’s taking so long for our staff to respond. We need answers.”

Suddenly, another crewman, this one at one of the control stations along the wall, called out, “Captain! I think I have something.”

The Captain and security officer walked up to the consol. “What is it crewman?” She asked.

“I’ve been running ID checks on the passengers,” the crewman replied. “I figured there might be saboteurs on board and wanted to run their IDs through the Galactic Database.”

“Any matches?” asked the security officer.

“No,” replied the crewman. “But I did find something else.”

The crewman pressed several keys on the panel. The monitors displayed five images, each of a different Equinoid. These were images of the Doctor and his companions.

“These five appeared on the ship about an hour ago,” the crewman continued. “They aren’t registered as guests and they don’t match any Galactic Data Files. That’s what first drew my attention to them.”

“Appeared?” the Captain replied. “What do you mean? Did they trans-mat in?”

The crewman shook his head. “I don’t think that’s possible. We would have detected a ship if it got close enough to trans-mat.”

“They must have stowed away somehow,” the security officer said. “They must be responsible for the missing crew.”

The captain nodded. “Send whatever security officers we can spare to the beach and apprehend those stowaways. I have questions for them.”

Derpy moaned softly as she returned to consciousness. She yawned and stretched her legs and wings. When she opened her eyes, they both focused together in surprise. Before her sat a huge sandcastle. Huge, of course, relative to a normal child’s sandcastle. This sandcastle wasn’t much bigger than a tool shed, but it was definitely impressive. The walls were detailed to look as though they were made of stone. It had windows, a big door and a brown flag on top flying on a stick. Derpy quickly realized the flag was the Doctor’s vest.

Speaking of, the Doctor stepped out with the Sonic Screwdriver in his mouth. Hr hsd s big grin on his face as he trotted up to Derpy. “So,” he said, “what do you think?”

Derpy, eyes unfocused, gave the Doctor her best impersonation of Octavia’s skeptical look. “It’s not bigger on the inside, is it?” she asked.

The Doctor chuckled. “Sorry, but no. It’s just an oversized sandcastle.”

Derpy smiled. “It’s lovely.” She looked about. “Where’s Dinky?”

“Here I am!” came the cheerful voice of the filly as she popped her head out of the window. “Isn’t it awesome mom?!” She exclaimed. “I wish I had a camera! Scoots and the others won’t believe me when I tell them.”

Derpy walked up and nuzzled her daughter. “It’s wonderful sweetie,” she said as her daughter climbed out the window and slid down her neck and onto her back. “You and the Doctor did a wonderful job.”

“Yeah!” Dinky said. “He’s the best ever!”

The two walked up to the Doctor, but the moment was broken up by a loud cry:

“LOOK OUT!!!”

To their shock, Octavia shot past them. Though it was fast, they could barely make out the shape of what she was riding; a beach chair with a built-in umbrella. Apparently, the chairs rented on the ship came with hover-movers for convenience. Also, apparently, Octavia hadn’t realized that and had somehow set it off without knowing how to stop it.

She made another pass. “DOCTOR!” She cried out. “HELP!”

The chair began to circle around them. The Doctor pointed his Sonic Screwdriver forward and buzzed it in time with the chair passing in front of him. After a few seconds, the chair stopped in place, launching Octavia forward. The mare screamed as she flew through the air and landed, face-first in the sand. The others ran up to her as she lifted her head up and spit sand out of her mouth.

“Octavia!” Derpy exclaimed. “Are you okay?”

Octavia stood up and began brushing off the sand. “Oh, yes,” she said calmly. “I’m completely fine. I just got LAUNCHED OUT OF A FLIPPING BEACH CHAIR FLYING AT A HUNDRED MILES AN HOUR!”

“Oh, don’t be overly dramatic Lieutenant,” the Doctor replied. “70 miles per hour at-best given the hang-time.”

Octavia glared at the Doctor with a look that made both his hearts skip a beat in fear. The Doctor had scared down many scary things, but Octavia was knocking down most of the top ten at the moment.

“Sorry,” the Doctor muttered. “Rude comments ceasing.”

Octavia sighed in frustration. “Now I have a hangover AND sand in my hair,” she said. “I’m not enjoying myself Doctor.”

“Hey,” Derpy said, looking about, “where’s Vinyl?”

“YIPPEE-KI-YAY LITTLE PONIES!!!”

It was then that the whole group turned towards the water. Approaching fast on a massive wave was Vinyl Scratch, Hanging Fore (standing on your fore-hooves on the front of the surfboard with your hind legs are up in the air) and racing towards them. The board hit the beach, but didn’t stop. It glided along a few inches from the ground towards the group. Vinyl flipped off, landing in front of her friends, using her hind right hoof to kick-flip the board, launching it into the air and planting it point-first in the sand.

“S’up everypony?” She said, leaning against the board cross-hoofed.

They stared at her for a few seconds, stunned, before the Doctor and Derpy sat and applauded her. The DJ bowed, a huge grin on her face. Then she turned to Octavia, who still looked stunned. She noticed the copious amounts of sand in her hair and remembered what lead her here.

She walked up to her. “You okay Octy?” she asked. “You didn’t get hurt or anything?”

Octavia shook herself from her surprise. “N-no. No,” she said quickly. “I’m fine. It’s only sand. I’m sure it’ll wash… are you going to stop that, or is that just what you think of me as?”

Vinyl knew what she meant. She just shrugged. “At this point, I’d just get used to it.”

Octavia sighed and smiled. “Anyhoof, you were magnificent just now,” she said. “I thought you never surfed before.”

Vinyl shrugged again. “Never fought aliens before either, but I’m good at that. Sometimes, I’m so awesome I amaze even me.”

“Say Vinyl,” the Doctor muttered nervously, his eyes darting about.

“Yeah?” she said, turning to him.

“You know that alien fighting thing?” he continued.

“Yeah?” she replied.

“I’d hold off on it right now.”

Suddenly, the group realized what the Doctor noticed first; they were surrounded. A dozen Nauta guards covered them on all sides. They all had a hoof mounted laser pistol pointed at them. While the ponies had no concept of what a pistol was, they didn’t imagine the group of pony-like guards standing around them with menacing looks on their faces with cans of silly string.

“Oh, lovely,” Octavia muttered.

A few minutes later, the group found themselves in a cramped little holding cell with a force field keeping them in. Every few seconds, a pair of security drones would fly past, which was the only thing breaking the monotony at the moment. Octavia was seated by one wall. She looked even angrier than before, leading the Doctor to look for weak panels (that he could access to find a means to break out) on the wall opposite of her. Vinyl laid on the ground, looking calm and natural; as though this wasn’t a new experience for her. Derpy and Dinky sat huddled together in the corner closest to the Doctor.

“This is the single worst vacation I have ever been on,” Octavia muttered. “Hangover, mad beach chair and now, prison. Yes, this is definitely the worst vacation I’ve ever been on.”

“I’m still calling Canterlot Natural History Museum, 4th grade Summer vay-kay the worst,” Vinyl interjected. “But this is coming in around fourth.”

“First weekend at Skaro,” The Doctor replied. “Worst three days of my life. Pray I never have to explain why.” He said the last sentence as a command.

The Doctor suddenly felt a chill. Looking back, he could see both Octavia and Vinyl giving him looks. Octavia… what more needs to be said; she was coming up on autons. Vinyl simply pulled her glasses down to reveal her red eyes and give him an incredulous stare.

“Oh,” the Doctor said. “I see. I thought this was ‘share your worst trips with the class’ banter; but it’s really ‘you’re a total putz, Doctor; why did we go with you?’ banter.”

“Got it in one,” Octavia said. “I told you something like this would happen. I don’t know how you talk me into following you when all common sense tells me not to, but now I’m finally paying for it!”

“Now, be fair,” The Doctor interrupted. “Parts one and two of your complaint aren’t necessarily my fault.”

“Don’t try to salvage yourself Doctor,” Vinyl said, her glasses back up and her head resting on her forelegs, “you’re only sinking deeper.”

“NOT YOUR FAULT!?” Octavia shouted, standing and glaring angrilly. “Everything is your fault! I’m in a cold cell in the middle of a cruise ship because of YOU!”

“STOP IT!” Derpy shouted, standing between Octavia and the Doctor. “Stop blaming the Doctor for this! All he did was try to help us have some fun! He wanted to bring some excitement into our lives! We made the choice to go with him! Don’t act like he’s to blame when you really blame yourself!”

Octavia fell back on her haunches. She was stunned speechless. Vinyl shot up, her glasses slipping down her nose and her eyes filled with surprise. The Doctor paused his knocking, which he hadn’t stopped until then.

“You keep talking about how this is the worst vacation you’ve ever had,” Derpy said. “Well I’ve never had a better one. You know why? Because I’ve never had a vacation my entire life!” She started to sob a bit. “When I was little, my family was always too poor to ever go anywhere. Even if we had money, we knew that I’d never be happy with ponies gawking at my eyes. Now, as an adult, I still can’t take a vacation because I have to support my daughter. I’ve worked every day of my adult life and the last few years of my teen life because I love my daughter. And now, for the first time, not only did I get to have fun and relax, but my little girl got to play on a beach for the first time in her life. She got to build a massive sandcastle, encounter alien technology and have fun. I may never look back on this day as a great day, much less the best, but I’ll always be grateful for it!”

Octavia had tears in her eyes now, as did Vinyl. They both walked up to Derpy, who was severely tearing up and embraced her. Dinky ran around and got into the hug too. The Doctor abstained, not feeling right jumping in at that moment.

As they broke off, Octavia cleared her throat and said, “I- ahem, I’m sorry Derpy. I guess I am being a bit overdramatic.”

“I agree,” Vinyl said, with a cocky smile. “You’re definitely overdramatic.”

Octavia cocked an eye at her, but knew she was just trying to lighten the mood. “I suppose its good you and Dinky had some fun.”

“Thanks,” Derpy said.

“Yeah!” Vinyl said. “Besides, we’re only stowaways. They must get hundreds each cruise. What‘s the worst that can happen.”

“Quite right,” The Doctor interjected. “The Nauta are fairly lenient with stowaways. We’d stop at the next port; they’d let us off with all our things, including the TARDIS; we’d get fined a not too unreasonable sum (which I’m sure I’d deal with sooner or later) and that would be the end of it. Honestly, we’d have it really easy as stowaways.”

They all turned to him. He continued his knocking.

“Doctor,” Octavia said. “Why did you just say that like a hypothetical?”

“Because I seriously doubt we’re here for being stowaways.”

“Quite right.”

They all turned to the door. There stood the Captain, flanked by two actual Nauta guards.

“You lot are being held for sabotage, conspiracy and kidnapping; possibly piracy also,” she said.

“Really?” the Doctor said, almost cheerfully. “Don’t think I’ve been held for piracy before. I don’t know. I‘d have to think on that.”

“Why am I not surprised that this sort of thing has happened to you before?” Octavia chided.

“I have some questions for you lot,” The Captain continued. “Starting with…”

“…Where your missing security crew are?” the Doctor interrupted.

The Captain stared at him, shocked at his response. “You confess so quickly? I’m surprised.”

“Confess?” the Doctor said, annoyance in his tone. “Confess what? What did I confess to?”

“To kidnapping my crew,” she said. “How else…?”

“…Could I know they were missing?” he interrupted again. “Oh, my dear Captain… you are captain right?”

She nodded. “I am. Captain Alhab, at your service.”

“Nice to meet you ma’am,” the Doctor said with a bow. “I’m the Doctor. There. Formalities out of the way. No need to be a rude prisoner. Anyhoof… my dear Captain, you underestimate me. It wasn’t hard to deduce why we were here.”

“Really,” she said, eyeing him skeptically. “How so?”

“You sent about a dozen security officers to pick us up,” he began. “If you merely saw us as stowaways, one or two would’ve surely been enough. Obviously something was wrong; and, seeing as we were the only ones not on the guest list, we got scapegoated.”

“But how…” the Captain began.

“…Did I know what exactly it was?” The Doctor continued. “The Security droids. I know the basic rules of how you run the ship. You have the latest in security devices all over to keep the passengers safe. But you don’t like to use them. Nauta are the sailors of the cosmos. Your world is covered in a vast ocean. You survived the seas by working together and watching each other’s back. Its in your nature to look out for each other, including those in your care; even your prisoners.”

The Captain looked at him, slightly taken aback at how well he comprehended Nauta philosophy.

“But you left us under the watch of droids,” he said. “Bloody droids. Why? Because you can’t spare the horsepower. Your people are disappearing from under your nose and that terrifies you, because you’re the captain and they’re your family.”

“You know our people very well, Mr. Doctor,” the Captain said.

“Let’s just say I’m a kindred spirit,” he said with a pleasant grin.

“But that doesn’t mean you aren’t connected,” she continued, “You speak well, Doctor, but a sharp wit won’t help you.”

“Of course,” The Doctor said. “Only the truth can do that. And the truth is, we’re not responsible for your people vanishing. Yes, we’re stowaways. Yes, we deserve to be locked up here. But someone else is doing this, and you’re not going to find them waiting here.”

“But then who else could it be?” she said. “You’re the only ones on this ship who don’t belong.”

“Have you detected any foreign trans-mat signals?” the Doctor asked.

“We haven’t detected any ships in range of…”

“That’s not what I asked!” The Doctor said. “Did you actually check to see if any foreign trans-mat signatures were detected?”

The Captain’s brow furrowed. “Bridge!” She said loudly.

“Yes Ma’am?” came a reply on the intercom.

“Did anyone actually check to be sure if there weren’t any foreign Trans-mat signals?” she asked.

“But, we didn’t detect any ships,” the crewman on the comm replied.

“That’s not what I asked!” The Captain said. “Check for any signals not matching our own.”

There was a brief pause.

“Uuuh… Ma’am,” came a nervous voice on the Comm. “There’s been… I can’t count how many there are.”

“So there have been incursions,” The Captain said. “But how? There aren’t any ships in range.”

“Are you positive of that?” The Doctor asked. “Perhaps they’re hiding in plain sight.”

“We can detect cloaked ships, Doctor,” The captain said.

“What if they’re hiding within your sensor range, too close to the ship to be detected?”

“Someone would have seen them,” The Captain argued.

“Not if they’re in your blind-spot.”

The Captain’s eyes widened. “Bridge! Activate nightshift!”

“But that’s still an hour off.”

“Don’t argue with me! Just do it! Project camera 14X5 at my location and aim it at the dome!”

A blue tinted hologram appeared in front of the cell. It was a two dimensional image showing the beach. Everyone watched as the dome above the beach seemed to rotate, though in reality it was the beach itself rotating, switching from day to night with mechanical proficiency. As the dark settled in, they immediately noticed the strange shapes over the Dome. The shapes were spherical in shape and numerous.

“I thought so,” The Doctor said, an unpleasant grimace on his face.

“What are they, Doctor?” Derpy asked, a frightened tremble in her voice.

He looked at her. The deep concern on his face filled everyone with dread.

“Hmm, it would seem we’ve been caught Commander.”

The words came from a blue colored, bipedal creature which looked to be made of metal. It stood no taller than the average Pony, with a wide, stocky build and a dome shaped head with two black eye slits. It was joined by several other identical figures. All of them stood inside one of the numerous spherical vessels surrounding the splendor. They were looking through a view screen at the frightened faces of the vacationers below.

“I agree, General,” the creature to the right of the first speaker said. “It seems these Nauta aren’t as incompetent as we were lead to believe.”

“How wonderful,” The first creature said cheerfully. “I was beginning to fear we weren’t going to get a challenge today. This whole operation would be far less glorious if we didn’t get some fight from these lesser forms.”

The two turned to the other creatures, who all stood at attention.

“My brothers,” said the General. “Today, we finally put an end to this endless conflict. Today, we wipe our enemy from the face of the cosmos. Today, fight for the glory of the Sontaran Empire!”

All the creatures began pumping their fists into the air, in time with a powerful chant;

“SONTAR, HA! SONTAR, HA! SONTAR, HA! SONTAR, HA! SONTAR, HA! SONTAR, HA! SONTAR, HA! SONTAR, HA! SONTAR, HA!”

To Be Continued…

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