The Raggedy Doctor Hooves

by Flutterguy89

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The pair of pegasi deposited the Doctor on a roof top half-way across town.

“What are you doing!? We need more distance! Now!” The Doctor’s usual energy had been diverted from bubbly and charming to frantic and manic. “That thing does not stop. It doesn’t rest, not until we are swirling about in its gut!”

Fluttershy cowered at the Doctor’s words. Rainbow Dash immediately stepped in front of her lover, shielding the shy mare with her own body.

“Shut up!” Dash spat. “First off, you might not realize how taxing tandem flying is, but it’s not easy! Add in a passenger and it’s even rougher! Second, Flutters isn’t the strongest flyer and you scaring her isn’t helping!”

The Doctor stood his ground- or roof, as it were - and took a step towards the cyan mare

“That thing down there could slaughter this entire town should it decide that’s the best way of flushing us out. The Jihaxian super-predators are merciless, prideful killing machines. They live for the hunt and the hunt alone. They live to kill, to consume, and spend their entire adult lives hopping from ecosystem to ecosystem. We’re lucky, we must have wounded it’s pride when we escaped from it all those years ago, so for now its focusing on us, but if we don’t lead it out of here soon we won’t be the only ones on the menu.” The Doctor’s tone was urgent, yet measured.

Rainbow cast a backwards glance at Fluttershy, worried about how the frankly frightening revelations would affect her marefriend. It was as Dash had feared, the buttery mare was shaking and her eyes had widened with fear.

“M-maybe… I could… try to talk to it?” Her voice was quivering and quiet. Maybe if she could just show the beast some kindness, she had done it before. There was the manticore, and the cockatrice, and-

“No,” the Doctor replied firmly.

“Then what the buck are we supposed to do!” Rainbow shouted again, though the volume of her voice didn’t completely mask her growing sensation of dread.

“I told you, we run, fly, whatever we can. We get clear of town.” The Doctor’s face had become hard. Only a few hours into his current iteration and he was already facing down a nightmarish foe, and what was worse if that he was endangering the two fillies… no… the two mares whom he had first met.

“…and then?” Fluttershy squeaked timidly.

“I’ll think of something” The Doctor said, before adding with a reassuring smile. “Trust me.”

--------------------

The trio had reached the edge of town by way of another short flight, but effort had severely taxed Fluttershy’s underused wings. The Doctor directed the pegasi towards the Everfree Forest with an outstretched hoof, and the three ponies began to sprint as fast as their legs could carry them.

Dash was about to question the Doctor’s choice of havens when the she felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. A deafening roar erupted from behind the fleeing ponies. Rainbow dared not look back, though. It easier to put on a brave face when she wasn’t constantly looking back at the obsidian form which had assaulted her dreams in ages past.

‘No, it can’t be just an act. I am brave! Fluttershy needs that to keep going and I’d rather be banished to the moon than let my doubts keep that strength from her!’ Rainbow thought to herself, as the three ponies crossed the tree line.
Suddenly Fluttershy planted her hooves in the soft soil, wheeling about to face the oncoming horror.

“What are you Doing!?”The Doctor called out.

“Flutters!” Rainbow cried urgently.

“…no… no I can’t let it hurt anypony…” Fluttershy whispered, more to herself than her companions. “…can’t let it hurt Dashie…I can stop it…”

The beast had begun to charge, its delicate nostrils had noticed that the scent of its prey had begun to grow stronger rather than fade. ‘So the prey has decided to face death. Noble.’

“’Shy!”

“I can end this!” Fluttershy shouted, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes.
The timid mare held her breath, her eyes narrowing to angry slits as she began to give the alien predator the Stare.

“How. Dare. YOU!?” She screamed at the chitin-armored beast, the force of her voice tearing at her throat. “How can you hunt ponies like this!? We did nothing to you! Just-… Just leave us alone! You… You big-”

She felt her own sharp inhale of breathe cut off her tirade. The empowering aura of the Stare left her. For the first time she could see the beast clearly as it closed the remaining gap between them. The beast that she had thought could not get more horrifying charged towards her, and she could for the first time see its ghastly face.

Its blind, eyeless nightmarish mask of a face.

Fluttershy screamed. Panic gripping her as she realized she would face her death shaking in fear.

A strong hoof hooked around her midsection and she felt herself pulled backward into the forest. Rainbow was flying low to the ground, her marefriend on her back, dodging low lying branches and tree trunks. The Doctor ran beside her, strong earth pony legs – and a spare heart – allowing him to just barely keep up.

There was a crash behind them as they heard the beast barrel into a tree. Then another. Then another. A howl of purest rage pierced the cool night air, as frustration welled up within the creature. It hated forests. It longed for the flat plains of its home planet.

The trio stopped for half a second to allow Fluttershy to get back on her hooves. She had tears trailing from her eyes, but she nodded resolutely and the three continued on.

“You should have told us it was blind.” Rainbow growled at the Doctor as they plowed on through the forest. “Fluttershy could have been killed!”

“There’s no time.” The Doctor replied, his voice rising a bit in frustration.

“Tell me you have at least thought of a plan?”

The Doctor remained silent for a moment. Slowly an idea began to dawn on him.

“Yes… Yes I think I do.”

--------------------

The beast felt another tree snap before its sinuous form. The dense growth of the forest was nothing that the beast couldn’t shrug off, but the effort stole precious moments. The beast bumped into another tree, powering through it and reducing it to splinters.

Suddenly the scents of his quarry began to intensify.

‘Close. They must be close now.’

Despite this the beast was wary. It had been convinced that perhaps the prey had chosen to die in a manner as honorable as could be expected from prey, but the shame of this game apparently knew no bounds. To face death and flee, there was no greater dishonor.

The beast drew another of its ragged breathes through its sensitive snout. The intensity of the scent remained unchanged.

“Hello there.” A voice called out to the beast. “I think you have chased your prey long enough.”

“<The chase does not end, little morsel, until the prey has been caught>” The beast replied in its own native tongue. To the ears of the two mares it sounded only as indecipherable grunts and growls, but the Doctor, the last of the Time Turners, the stallion whose race was ancient before the star that Jihaxis orbited even winked into existence, The Doctor understood every word.

“Do you miss your home world? I can take you there you know. I can take you away from this planet and back to your kin.”

The voice with which the prey spoke held no fear; if it was lying the beast could not tell. The prospects was indeed thrilling, to leave this backwater planet and return to the glorious plains of Jihaxis. Such an offer seemed beyond belief, yet the confidence with which the prey spoke told the beast that it was indeed within its power.

“All you have to do is let us live.”

“<Your price is to high, little morsel>” The beast replied as it coiled its muscles, gathering all its strength and preparing for the final strike. “<You expect me to return to my home with my honor shredded beyond repair! I would much rather die millions of millions of light-years from my home, festooned in the entrails of a million hunts, than let a single quarry go unslaughtered!>”

And with that, fate was sealed. The beast leapt forth, pouncing with all the might it had garnered from its many hunts. Its claws whistled through the air, seeking the soft flesh of the prey.

The Doctor breathed a sigh.

“Now!” He shouted and the two pegasi flew off in opposite directions, leaving the earth pony alone on the narrow rope bridge that spanned the deepest canyon in the Everfree Forest.

As the beast came down upon the spot where it thought its prey had been, it tore through the rickety structure like it was tissue paper. The claws that had been meant to mutilate its prey were now the instruments of its own demise as they severed the taut ropes that held the bridge aloft.

The Doctor had begun running for the other side of the chasm before the bridge had lost its tension, but he hadn’t been quick enough. He too was tossed from the rotting planks of the bridge, down into the gaping maw of the canyon whose jagged rocky floor waited for him below.

‘Well…’ he thought with a slight smile, ‘…this has certainly been my briefest regeneration…’

Suddenly, once more he found himself hovering in midair held aloft in the forehooves of two pegasi.

“If you’re going to make a habit of this, I’d recommend losing some weight.” Rainbow Dash said with a grin.

--------------------

The trio had returned to Ponyville later that night. They were exhausted, bruised, and Fluttershy in particular had an extraordinary amount of twigs and leaves in her mane and tail. Despite all this however, they were victorious. Though

Fluttershy herself had been too squeamish to inspect the grisly sight, Rainbow Dash had confirmed that the creature had indeed not survived the fall.

The Doctor had told her that it hadn’t been necessary, but Rainbow needed to be sure. At first she had told herself it was for Flutters, all to make her feel better, to assure her that it could never come after them again. About halfway to the canyon floor Rainbow realized that she was lying to herself, that she needed the proof as much as Fluttershy.

The sight had indeed been every bit as gruesome as Rainbow had expected, but it truly was proof positive of the creature’s demise. She was free. The monster was dead. She was safe. Fluttershy was safe. Her nightmares had been real, but now they were really over.

The trio pulled up to an alley off Ponyville’s market street. Tucked into a little corner, was the Doctor’s TARDIS. It was the first time the pegasi had seen the thing standing upright, and for some reason it just seemed much more, well, undamaged. It was true though. The paint was a deep blue, no longer scorched or cracked. The windows were no longer shattered but instead stood whole.

“Hello old girl.” The Doctor said, rubbing the corner of the box with genuine affection. “Let’s see what you’ve got for me this time.”

The Pegasi then stared as the Doctor tapped a hoof on the ground and the door to the box opened revealing an impossibly large interior.

It was beautiful in a way that was all its own. The walls filled with odd holes here and there, some cosmetic, others appeared to function as windows, while still others appeared to lead to other parts of the TARDIS. Walkways and sets of stairs too lead this way and that off of the main room, and in the center of it all was the main console.

It was both wonderful and baffling. It glittered with various blinking lights, not unlike several of the machines the pair had seen Twilight fiddling with from time to time. However unlike Twilight’s machines, the console appeared as though somepony had scattered a foal’s toys across its surface, and then glued them in place. Yet somehow the whole thing still made sense.

“What do you think?” The Doctor said as he stepped through the threshold, casting a backward glance at the two mares.

“Its…um…bigger…” Fluttershy managed, astonishment plain in her voice.

“…On the inside.” Rainbow said, finishing her marefriend’s thought.

The Doctor simply smiled as he turned and waved the pair inside. “What are you waiting for, then. Come along ponies.”
The mares looked to each other.

“But… Dashie tomorrow is…” Fluttershy whispered.

“It’s a time machine Flutters. As in we can go on and be back in five minutes.” Rainbow said with a comforting hoof placed about the timid mare’s shoulders.

“O-okay…if you’re sure you want to…”

“It’ll be fun! We can see the universe. You’ll get to meet all kinds of new critters and we can go on all sorts of adventures.” Dash gave the buttery pegasus a peck on the muzzle. “Together.”

Fluttershy felt her cheeks heat up a bit as a smile curled her lips. “Okay Dashie, let’s do it.”

The Doctor had taken up the controls, and smiled as he saw his new companions cross the threshold.

“Close the door after you’re in, and wipe your hooves. The TARDIS isn’t all that fond of muddy floors.” The Doctor then threw a switch and the engines began to engage, “Alrighty. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, hold on tight! Next stop: Everywhere!”

Comments

[Dusty Old Qrow]

An epic end to an epic story! I expect great things outta you, Flutterguy!

[BlueBlitz15]

Sequel pweaaaaaaasse!?

[lillytheomegawolf]

Oh.... this is gonna be good. Cant wait to see where they go next.

Gerat chapter by the way, I enjoyed every bit of it.

[fedback]

i kind of liked this : D nice ending

[JadeHarley]

You should continue this. The episode I particularly want to see is 'The girl who waited' using Flutters as Amy

[Rainbow87dash]

Next stop: Everywhere!”

Shouldnt it be anytime?

[Flutterguy89]

2670629 That's actually a reference to the name of the 11th Doctor's theme music, which is in turn named for a quote from "Forest of the Dead" made by River Song.

[Rainbow87dash]

2671146 spoilers

[Blaze Song]

Ok shy/dash... WHAAAAAAAA! cool.. Oooo Captain Jack meets those two... :) have him also be very good friends with Lulu and Tia

[ArcAnge1 I4]

I agree! Always wanted to see a fic where cpt. Jack met Tia and Luna! Haha-as they say-omnisexual!2678738

[NUCLEARRRRRRRRRRR]

Need, sequel

[twinn]

the girls who waited

[tastygrapepony]

Good....

[There At The Close]

SEQUELS, SEQUELS, SEQUELS!!!!!
~Wywint