Private travels to a strange asylum in search of a missing pony. What he finds is a madhouse filled with all sorts of horrors the likes of which he's never seen. But one madpony in a box has...
Something strange is going on in Hoof Creek. A mysteriously deserted town has played host to a mental hospital. Private goes to investigate after Screw Loose mysteriously got sent there. What he finds is a mad house of horrors the likes of which he's never faced before. But he's not alone, The Doctor and Derpy have come after the Tardis mysteriously was forced to land there. Trapped in the insane asylum, the trio will be forced to use their wits if they ever hope to survive. But who is behind this mad house? And what do they want with Private and the Doctor?
“I know it’s going to be here soon!” Twilight said, excitedly pacing the library floor. For nearly three hours Twilight had been eagerly awaiting a package. This package contained a book that supposedly belonged to Starswirl the Bearded. To say it got Twilight excited was like saying my coat is grey.
I was reading at a nearby table as Twilight continued pacing. I looked back at her and smiled “Geez Twilight, you’d think this was his greatest work or something,” I said teasingly.
“Any book from Starswirl is valuable,” Twilight replied seriously as she stopped in front of me. “I can’t wait to take a look at it once it arrives!”
“Twi, it’s almost midnight,” I said, gesturing to the clock. “You should probably head to bed and wait for the package to come tomorrow.”
Twilight just gave me a “are you crazy?” look. I sighed and closed my book “I’m going to swing by the office for a bit.”
“Are you sure?” Twilight said, looking at me “I’d love to show you it, maybe Starswirl had something to say about Tenacity.”
“As much as I would love to stay up till one in the morning, I gotta hit the hay pretty soon,” I said with a yawn.
Twilight walked to me and laid a kiss on my lips. I returned it slowly and Twilight said as we parted, “Right, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
As I turned to leave I felt a strange urge to say, “Twi?”
“Yeah Private?” Twilight asked, looking over at me.
“No matter what, we’re going to stick together, right?” I asked, looking back at her.
Twilight smiled and replied, “Nothing is going to change how I feel about you, Private. You’re the love of my life.”
I smiled and said, “I do love you.”
She walked to me and nuzzled along my cheek. “I love you too, even if you aren’t willing to stay up till two o clock for a good book.”
We both laughed at that. Then Twilight’s face turned a little serious. “Have you been okay these last couple of weeks?” she asked with concern.
“Why do you ask?” I returned, looking at her.
“Well, you’ve seemed so distracted lately,” she explained. “It’s pretty easy to tell with you, since you’re usually so focused.”
I knew what she was talking about. During our dates I kept coming up with ways to try and propose. So far, they basically failed on all fronts. I tried to convince a waiter to put it at the bottom of a champagne glass. Turns out all the champagne was taken by a certain Berry Punch that night. I tried to get Raiden to help sky write but the weather team threw a fit when one of their clouds was made to look like a terribly written P.
Suffice to say, yeah I have been distracted. Just every time I think about marrying Twilight I get flustered and honestly a little too happy.
“Private?” Twilight said, that snapped me back to reality.
“Yeah um,” I said rubbing the back of my head, “just dealing with something right now, something very personal.”
“Oh,” Twilight blinked and said, “well if you need an-“
I shook my head and replied, “No Twilight, this is something I have to work out on my own. You have to understand.”
Twilight frowned, and then slowly smiled and nodded. “Alright, I won’t pry, just tell me if you need any help.”
She has no idea how much me telling her would ruin the plan. I smiled anyway, and laid another kiss on her. She returned it and wrapped her forelegs around my neck. I hugged her back and set my head on top of hers. “Twi, just, don’t change.”
She let out a muffled laugh as she nuzzled my chest. “I’m not going anywhere Private, at least not until that book comes...”
With that we parted and I walked outside. There was a small spring in my step that was there every time I thought about Twilight. I never thought I’d feel this way about anypony. Just being around that lovable, adorkable, sweet, and unbelievably talented mare just made the whole world seem brighter.
I returned to the office to find the light on inside. Somepony broke in?
I pulled out Blackbird and slowly opened the door, peering inside. There, sitting on my desk was Doctor Stable. He was a yellow coated, brown maned unicorn with glasses and a doctor’s coat on. He saw me standing there with a gun and raised his hooves. “Please, Detective! I’m not here to steal anything!” he said fearfully.
“What are you doing in my office, Doctor?” I asked, holstering Blackbird.
“I came to ask for a serious favor, but when you weren’t here I tried to see if you had any files I could use,” he said honestly.
“Why are you here so late at night?” I inquired. “If you wanted me to take on a case couldn’t it be in the morning.”
“If my superiors knew where I was I could lose my license,” he answered seriously. “Listen, you have to help me, Detective. One of my patients has gone missing, I’m sure you remember Screwy.”
“Screw Loose?” I asked, falling into the habit of using her nickname. I’ll admit I felt a little guilty afterwards. From what Twilight told me Screwy was a mare who used to own a hardware store with her husband, fella by the name of Locksley. But Locksley died about a year before Twilight arrived in Ponyville and Screwy sort of fell off the deep end. She started barking incessantly and chasing anypony who would come close to her home.
“I thought she was rehabilitated,” I said. “She was dropped off at home about a week ago.”
“I had hoped that would be the end of it,” Doctor Stable said with a sigh. “She was a good patient, and she made great progress under our care. However, the family of her husband made a call to the hospital. They claimed that she needed to be put under permanent psychiatric care. I told them it wasn’t a good idea and tried to convince them of all the progress we'd made, but they wouldn’t listen.”
“Where is she now?” I asked gravely.
“They convinced the medical board to take her to St. Synapse Hospital for the Mentally Ill. I tried to fight for her as best I could, but the board threatened to revoke my license if I didn't stop. My hooves were tied and she was sent there about two days after she got released.”
“That can’t be good.” I shook my head and continued, “If she’s forced into a new environment so quickly it could cause her to regress.”
“You’re quite knowledgeable for one so young,” he complimented.
“I was very good at Psychology classes in college,” I said with a shrug. “Anyway, where is this St. Synapse place?”
“It’s a few miles away from Ponyville.” He reached into his coat to pull out a sheet of paper. “Here’s the address, you can take the train to the Hoof Creek Station and you’ll be right there.”
Hoof Creek was an abandoned mining town though. Why would a hospital be active there? Unless their practices are not exactly legal.
“I’ll take a train in the morning,” I said, pocketing the address. “Consider this payment for you putting up with me in the hospital.”
“Just find her please,” he said earnestly. “She’s probably scared and confused. She needs to come back home as soon as possible.”
I nodded and replied, “Alright, I’ll bring her back.”
“Thank you so much, detective,” he said with a smile. “This little meeting stays between us, right?”
“What meeting?” I asked with a nod. “I just found out why she suddenly went missing and decided to investigate myself.” I gave a wink and he got the message. I wasn’t about to sell him out if it meant his license could get revoked. He was the guy who helped cure me after the fire all those months ago.
As the doctor left I debated whether or not I should ask Twilight to come along. She’d probably be busy with whatever Starswirl’s book told her. Knowing her, she’d probably be up all night and sleep in the next morning for several hours.
Right now, I was going to get some sleep, and I’ll handle this business in the morning. If all goes well, I’ll be having lunch with Twilight and Screwy will be nestled at home, hopefully without barking.
“Come on! Let me see it!” Tailspin demanded the next morning.
Tailspin and I got up a little bit early for whatever reason, it was a Saturday so he didn’t have to worry about school. However, he wasn’t interested in catching up with Pony Rangers but rather in what my ring for Twilight looked like.
“Alright,” I relented as we sat down at the kitchen table. Tailspin rolled over to me as I pulled the small black box from my trench coat. I opened it to reveal Spike’s claw made ring and Tailspin’s eyes grew wide.
“Wow! It’s amazing Private! Twilight’s gonna love it!” he said happily.
I closed the box and said, “I sure hope so, pal.”
“Hey, Private,” Tailspin said looking at me, “what’s gonna happen to me once you and Twilight are married?”
I looked at Tailspin, this is one of the things I had to think about before getting married. I thought Twilight may want us to have the house to ourselves. I couldn’t ask Tailspin to leave though. Where would he go? Who would take care of him?
But I knew Twilight would never even think of that. I wouldn’t ask her to kick out Spike, she would never ask me to kick out Tailspin. We’ll figure out a housing situation once everything is settled. But, I’m not letting my little brother get left behind. Twilight would agree.
I just smiled at the colt and said, “I’ll figure something out, I always do.” I rubbed his mane and he laughed a little.
“This is going to be awesome,” he said with a happy smile. “I get to have Twilight for a big sister!”
The prince and princess of the crystal empire, a dragon for a brother sort of, and the cutest niece he would ever see. Looks like Tailspin was going to get quite the family once I married Twilight.
I loved how excited Tailspin was for all of this. I’m sure he’d love to have Cadence and Shining Armor for family members. Skyla would absolutely be adored by my little brother. Though he may get a little jealous that somepony in the room is cuter than he is.
But, I think I’ll save this fact as a surprise for both parties. I pocketed the ring and looked at Tailspin. “You have a good day pal; I got a case this morning”
“Come back soon, okay?” Tailspin said as I walked out the door.
I gave him a wave and set out on a strangely cloudy day.
I stepped off the train just as the sun was about to rise over Hoof Creek. The town was practically deserted. A long time ago this used to be a silver mining town, but it went under after the mines dried up. Soon it became a ghost town like many mining towns in the past.
I looked back at the conductor and asked, “Do many ponies come by here?”
He shook his head and replied, “Not until recently, we get very few ponies stopping at this station. We mostly use this spot as a pit stop whenever the train gets busted. Never thought anypony would set up a mental ward here.”
“Where is it exactly?” I asked, feeling a little suspicious about all of this.
“It’s over on the hill in the old hospital,” he explained, pointing to probably the biggest building nearby, “but I wouldn’t go there.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“For the few ponies that do go there,” he said gravely, “never come back to the station to leave.”
Okay, this sounded like the set up to a bad ghost story. I walked off, undeterred by what he said. I was going to find Screwy, and I was going to get to the bottom of this.
I entered the hospital to find it too was deserted. There was nopony seated in the waiting room and nopony at the front desk. This was very strange.
I walked up to the front desk and ran my hoof across it. “An inch layer of dust, either the janitor is slacking off or nopony has used this desk in ages,” I muttered to myself.
I then looked at the name plate at the front. I lifted it with my magic and wiped away the dust. My eyes grew wide; it read “Dawnbird Thatcher.”
Dawnbird worked here? Glimmer’s daughter that went on the same crazy train as her insane mother? Now that I think about it, Hoof Creek isn’t too far away from White Tail woods where the Thatcher family home was.
If Dawnbird worked here at one time, it may explain her hatred for anypony like Derpy.
I set the name plate down and walked behind to investigate the desk. Most of the papers were yellowed and were mostly bland medical records. Then…
I opened the list of patients and scanned them hoping to find something about Screwy. But nothing, no new patients were added since the 80s. Wait…
The last patient to be introduced, was a mare named Giddy Doo. It couldn’t be…
I heard a weird skittering sound. I closed the file and looked up. The sound was coming around the corner and I pulled out Blackbird. I was ready to fire at anything that came around that corner!
It was… a weird metal slug?
At least that’s what it looked like as it moved towards me. It stopped periodically and turned to look in different rooms as it went down the hallway. It honestly looked kind of cute, if not for the fact I was alone and anything skittering always made me jumpy. I stared at the strange thing as it moved up to me.
I bent down to look at it carefully. “What are you...”
Suddenly the weird metal slug thingy opened a flap in front, to reveal a real pony mouth! I jumped back as it tried to bite me. What the hell was this! It looked mechanical but it had a real mouth inside?
I moved back from it as it leaped towards me. I aimed Blackbird and shot it out of the air. The bullet merely bounced off it’s metal skin but the force sent it back a few feet. Looks like the outside was bullet proof and I had no way of shooting it.
Unless I could get at it’s inside.
I waited for the slug to recover and it hissed at me in anger. It then leaped again at me and I grabbed it with my magic. It looked confused and tried to wiggle and bite at me. I aimed Blackbird down it’s throat and fired.
Blood poured out of the slug’s interior and it let out a quiet hiss before it died. I slammed the thing down on the ground and leaned against the wall to catch my breath. After that was done I bent down and levitated the slug up to me. It obviously didn’t seem to understand magic, strange.
Whatever it was this slug wasn’t friendly. I was lucky there was only one of them this time. Who knows what a swarm of these things can do.
I slid the slug into a large plastic bag and left it on the desk for later. I wasn’t about to let something like that come to life while I’m carrying it around.
I reloaded blackbird and started moving down the hallways. This place really was deserted. Nopony came out after hearing the gunshot.
I rounded a corner and saw a very strange looking statue in the middle of the hallway. It resembled a pegasus but its pose was very odd. It had it’s eyes covered with it’s front hooves, as if it were weeping.
I passed the statue without a second thought. Then I saw painted words on the wall…
DON’T BLINK…
I looked back at the statue. It wasn’t in the same pose, it was looking right at me with these blank yet strangely angry eyes. As if it wanted to kill me…
What did it mean by don’t blink?
Was there somepony else here? Did they see this statue move like I did?
I walked up to the statue, and put a hoof on it. It didn’t react or move, it was a stone statue but it definitely moved as if it turned to look at me.
What was going on? First metal slugs now statues that moved when you didn’t look at them?
If this thing moved when I didn’t look at it, I can’t leave it alone. Who knows what it’ll do if it moved again.
I had to give it something else to look at…
I wonder…
I reached into my trench coat, my eyes not leaving the statue. If this thing moved when nopony was looking at it, then maybe it’ll be tricked by it’s own reflection. I pulled out a small hoof mirror that I used sometimes during cases. I then took out a rubber band with my magic and used it to place the mirror over one of it’s eyes.
I took a tentative step back and blinked.
The statue didn’t move. It worked! Now I just need to turn around and...
Look right into another statue’s eyes!
The hell!
I fell back as I saw that a second statue was behind me the whole time. How long had it been there?
I had to get outta here! Now!
I ran back the way I came, not bothering to look back. I rounded a corner and found myself in another hallway? However, it was not the same hallway I came from. What the hell was going on here?
I burst into a room and slammed the door behind me. I don’t care if those things can teleport I just wanted to hide.
I wiped sweat from my brow and took a deep breath. Whatever those statues were they haven’t followed me inside what looked like a hospital bedroom.
Just what was going on here? Weird slugs, statues that moved when you didn’t look at them? Just what did I get myself into?
Why was it getting so windy?
I looked up and I heard a very familiar sound. The whoosh of a blue police box coming into existence before my very eyes greeted my ears. I stood and stared at the blue box, and instantly knew who was going to come out.
I didn’t expect him in a Haywaii shirt however.
“Geronimo!” Suddenly a brown stallion leaped out of the Tardis door and landed in front of me. He grunted as he made contact with it and tapped the ground. “This isn’t the eastern ocean of Antalin!” He then turned and glared at his box. “This is a hospital! Derpy, our vacation was cut short by the Tardis being weird again!”
He then turned around to look at me. “Private? Fancy running into you here.”
“Doctor?” I asked, still in shock. “What are you doing here?”
“I was on vacation,” he said tilting his head, “but apparently life translates vacation as ‘someponies in trouble, go get em’ and I end up here.”
“Doctor, you’re not going to believe what’s going on here,” I said frantically. “There was this weird metal slug, and then statues that move when you aren't looking at them and sudde-“ The Doctor put a hoof on my mouth, cutting me off.
“Just take a breath, Private,” he said, before removing his hoof. “You’ve obviously had some very strange encounters.”
I nodded slowly and asked, “Ditzy is with you?”
“Yeppers!” I heard that childlike voice I'd grown to love coming out of the Tardis followed by the muffin loving mail mare herself, Ditzy Doo, aka Derpy Hooves. The wall eyed, rain cloud colored Pegasus, smiled upon seeing me. “Hi, Private! I didn’t know you knew the Doctor too!” she said excitedly.
“So you really are a companion,” I said with a smile. “It’s nice to see you, Ditzy. How’s the family?”
“Great!” she said, hovering over to us. “Dinky is on the honor roll and she’s going to graduate at the top of her class! Sparkler is doing well too. She just discovered the most amazing flavor of muffins. I'll bake you some when we get home.”
The Doctor then spoke up, “So Private, what brings you here?”
I spent the next few minutes explaining how I ended up in this predicament. The Doctor’s eyes went wide, and then he put a hoof on his chin, wondering aloud, “That’s odd, why would they just let you go?”
“You know those things?” I asked warily.
Ditzy nodded and replied, “Uh huh, the Doctor and I ran into those things a while ago on this one planet.” She shivered. “They were very scary.”
“They’re called Weeping Angels,” the Doctor explained. “Nasty assassins who’ve developed the ultimate means of sneaking around. They’re quantum locked, that means they can move only when nobody is looking.” He smiled and said admiringly, “Clever idea using the mirror, since their own kind also count as lookers.”
“What about that weird slug?” I asked, still a little leery about how casually the Doctor was talking about a monster.
“Cyber matt,” the Doctor explained, “nasty little critters. Who knew Unicorn magic would work on it?” He then clapped his hooves briskly and said, “Well, sounds like we've got a bit of a mystery to solve.”
“Wait, you guys are seriously considering looking around here?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Ditzy nodded, replying, “We do this all the time. It’s scary, but also kind of fun to figure out things.”
I knew that if I had any hope of getting Screw Loose out of here I’d need the Doctor. He was the expert on these things. I was a little worried that Ditzy was also versed in what they are. Just how long have those two been traveling together anyway?
The Doctor locked the Tardis with his key. “Now keep your keys on you. I can’t tell you how many times I nearly had to regenerate because somebody forgot where the Tardis was parked.”
I checked my inner trench coat pocket then sighed with relief. I still had the key the Doctor had given me a few cases ago. I moved to the door, and slowly opened it revealing… another hospital room?
“I didn’t know there was a hospital room connected to this one,” Ditzy said, tilting her head.
“There wasn’t,” I responded, looking over at her. “There was a hallway here before.”
The Doctor stepped inside the other room and pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver. He ran it over the area, analyzing it. “No time anomalies, no teleporter, nothing.” He shook his head. “It’s as if its always been here. Now things are getting interesting,” he said with a smile.
He stepped back inside the room with the Tardis and closed the door. He then opened it again, this time the door lead to a hallway. “Ah, very interesting,” said the Doctor.
“All right,” I said, pulling out Blackbird, “Ditzy, you stay behind me. I’ll take point.”
I slowly walked outside, Ditzy behind me, and the Doctor bringing up the rear. Doctor Hooves looked around and observed, “Not exactly homey, is it? Maybe if it had a little shop.”
“It’s a mental ward, Doctor,” I said, looking over at him. “Nopony would exactly want a souvenir from here.”
“Never underestimate the power of a little shop,” the Doctor said, laughing a little. How can he be so cheerful in a situation like this? Is he getting a kick out of it?
Ditzy then hovered up beside me as the Doctor moved ahead. “Don’t worry, Private, I’m sure the Doctor will be able to help,” she assured me.
I then looked at Ditzy warily, asking, “Is he always like this?”
“Sometimes, but I think it's just so nopony will get scared or sad,” she said, looking after him.
Again, we do seem to be a lot alike.
“Ditzy, Private!” the Doctor called urgently from around the corner.
We ran up and saw the Doctor standing still in the hallway. Before we could move towards him, though, he cried, “Don’t move!”
We stopped in our tracks, and that’s when I noticed it.
There was a shadow making its way towards us. However, nothing was casting it, the lights certainly weren’t…
“Private, do you have any food on you?” the Doctor asked.
I reached into my trench coat, pulled out an apple, and tossed it to him. “I was going to save that for la-“
He tossed the apple into the shadow and within seconds it was gone. It was like Tailspin with a chocolate chip cookie, just there and gone!
“What’re you doing here?” The Doctor asked bending down to look at the shadow as it inched closer.
I looked at Ditzy, asking, “He’s talking to a shadow?”
“Vashta Nerada,” the Doctor said, still looking at the shadow, “the Shadows that melt flesh. You’re an awfully long way from your forests, aren’t you?”
The Shadow seemed to, I don’t know how to describe it, converge and expand, as if it were an ink blot that suddenly came to life.
“Taken? Somebody took you?” The Doctor asked, tilting his head. “Who brought you here and why?” His voice was rising in volume.
The Shadow simply moved away from the Doctor, and towards me…
“Private, don’t touch it!” the Doctor shouted.
I leapt back from the shadow as it approached. I figured, “Shadows that melt flesh,” was enough of a warning. Ditzy and I began backing away from the shadow as it came at us. This was insane, shadows were going to eat me!
“RUN!” the Doctor yelled as he galloped around the shadow and took off back the way we came. Ditzy and I followed suit. I dared to look back and saw more shadows cast by nothing chasing after us. These things wanted to eat us! Sweet Luna!
The Doctor opened set of double doors and cried, “In here!”
Ditzy and I dived inside and the Doctor slammed the doors shut behind us. He then pulled out his sonic screwdriver and ran it along the lock.
I bent down to catch my breath. “What the *huff* was that?” I panted.
“Lousy blighters called Vashta Nerada,” the Doctor replied offhandedly, as he studied the ground. “Three shadows, three ponies, that's good.”
“Do you encounter these things on a regular basis?” I asked, looking at him in wide eyed shock.
“Well, not all the time,” he said with a shrug.
I gave Ditzy a look and she said, “Well, at least we’re safe now.”
I scanned the room around us. “Looks like some kind of operating room,” I said, gesturing to the table in the center.
The Doctor picked up a scalpel on the tray and observed, “I hate to imagine what kind of surgery was performed here.”
“Let’s not stay too long. I don’t like this place,” Ditzy said nervously.
“Neither do I, Ditzy, but Private’s friend Screwy is missing, and I’m not about to give up.” He began walking around the room, running his Sonic Screwdriver over everything.
I looked over at Ditzy and asked, “Hey Ditzy, what was your mother’s name?”
Ditzy put a hoof on her head in thought and replied slowly, “I had two sets of mommies and daddies. My first daddy was named Mickey Doo, I think. I don’t really remember him. My first mommy was named Giddora Doo, but she left me in the woods when I was really little. I didn’t find out about her until years later.”
“She, may have been kept in here,” I said slowly.
Ditzy looked down. “So Dawnbird wasn’t lying? She really was funny in the head…”
“Hey,” I said gently, putting a hoof on her back, “I’m sorry I brought it up.”
“Dawnbird told me she had lots of foals at one time, but that she hurt them all really badly. I was the only one she left in the woods, but I never knew why,” she said sadly.
I rubbed her back gently and assured her, “Nopony is saying you are the same way, Ditzy. Just because your parents are one way doesn’t mean you have to be. Your genes are only the starting tools, you build your life however you want with them.”
She smiled and said more cheerfully, “You’re very smart Private.”
“I just don’t want my friend to feel sad,” I said smiling and rubbing her head affectionately. She just laughed in turn. I always loved Ditzy and how childlike she can be. She didn’t need much to be happy. Just good friends, good muffins, and the smartest and sweetest fillies I know for daughters.
The Doctor returned and said, “Well, I scanned the room, no nasty monsters in here.”
“Still, we can’t stay here,” I said firmly “Who knows what’ll find us in here.”
“Right,” Doctor hooves agreed, “which is why we are going to stick toge-“ He stopped mid-sentence, staring up at the ceiling.
“Doctor?” I asked, tilting my head.
“Private, whatever you do, don’t look away from what you are about to see.”
If it’s more of those statues, we’re really in trouble. I looked up and saw… ponies? No, they were much lankier and almost resembled Slender in a way. They were clad in suits, with large alien heads, and surprisingly flat faces. They stared at us with dark eyes and made strange hissing noises.
“Just when I thought I was done with you fellas,” the Doctor said with a sigh.
“What are they,” I asked, yet again. I seemed to being doing that a lot today. I think when all this is over I am going to have to check out a Monster Manual from the library.
“Silents,” The Doctor replied, “fellows I am not at all happy with.”
“Are they dangerous?” I asked, noticing they hadn’t moved.
“Only if you look away,” he said calmly. “They are memory proof, the minute we look away, they'll erase us seeing them from our memories.”
“They don’t look like they want to hurt us,” Ditzy observed innocently.
“They aren’t looking to hurt us,” the Doctor said. “They are going to make us hurt each other.”
“They’re psychic?” I wondered, and then in my head…
Do not move, we can hear you.
“Who said that?” I asked, keeping my eyes trained on the creatures.
The Silence did not fall, the question was answered.
Then another question came. The eleventh fell,
and rose again as a new being.
“I don’t know what you want,” the Doctor shouted at them, “but if you even think of using one of my friends, I won’t hesitate to really make you all silent!”
Just what did these creatures do to him?
The Doctor, The Doctor,
“That’s right, it’s me!” Doctor Hooves shouted. “Now, what the hell is going on here?”
End, the Doctor’s end…
Suddenly the creatures fell from the ceiling, about half a dozen of them stood before us. I watched as they slowly advanced on us. I glared at them and cried angrily, “I don’t know what you freaks are, but if you think you guys can hurt my friends you've got another think coming!”
Fool! We need no weapons to destroy you…
I pulled out Blackbird and shot one of them in the head. After a small screech it died, and the other Silents looked at me. “Welcome to Equestria,” I growled.
They started advancing on us and I felt a ringing in my head that wouldn’t stop. Ditzy and The Doctor covered their ears as the ringing continued.
The Silents raised their hooves, sparks of electricity forming seemingly out of nowhere. I tried to aim Blackbird, but I couldn’t concentrate. The last sound I remember hearing was Blackbird hitting the floor, before unconsciousness took me.
I groaned as I woke up on the hard floor of a different room. How did I end up here? The last place I remembered being was an operating room. The Doctor had told me to look up, now I’m here?
I climbed stiffly to my hooves and looked around. I was in an office, dusty and abandoned after years of neglect. Papers were strewn everywhere and some cobwebs were in the corners. No spiders I could see though…Thank Celestia for that.
I reached into my trench coat and felt that Blackbird was in its holster. Didn't I take it out? Who put back in? Why can’t I remember what happened?
This is all too weird, I couldn’t wait to get home where my only really problem was proposing to my marefriend.
I dusted myself off and moved around the office. It was eerily quiet and I felt a strange feeling of being watched. I pulled out Blackbird and looked around, ready to encounter any statues, moving shadows, or equicidal metal slugs.
I heard a roar and leapt out of the way just in time to avoid a large creature, standing where I had just been. I looked up at it. It walked on two legs, and was clad in what looked like an old doctor’s coat and scrubs. It was tall, muscular, and had no fur on its skin. It looked at me with beady eyes and growled menacingly. Then it lifted one of its claws and swung at me.
I leapt backwards and aimed Blackbird at it. I fired rapidly, hitting the creature in the shoulder. It screeched as the bullet clipped it. In a furious rage it lifted the nearby desk, throwing it at me. I managed to dodge a direct hit but it still winged me, knocking me backwards.
I leapt over the desk and delivered a swift kick to the creature’s jaw. It roared and swung at me, slamming a fist into my face. Stars exploded in my head as I flew into a nearby copier. I shook my head and felt the creature grab my throat tightly. I squirmed as it squeezed tighter, trying to strangle me.
I can’t let this thing eat me…
BANG!!!
A bullet hit the creature square in the arm, causing it to drop me. I fell to the floor panting as the creature turned its attention towards the shooter.
The stallion looked to be about a couple years older than I was. He was a blue Pegasus, with a short black mane, and green eyes that seemed to display a certain arrogance about them. He was clad in a long blue coat that resembled a uniform a soldier would wear. He had a .45 in his mouth and smiled smugly at the creature. There was no fear in his eyes, didn’t this guy care he was taunting a Doctor monster?
The Creature roared and charged at the Pegasus, but he leapt over it with surprising agility and shot it in the femur, causing it to roar in pain. He then pulled the gun out of his mouth and said, “Don’t just stand there looking handsome, give me a hoof here!”
Did he just…
Nah.
I levitated up Blackbird and fired the gun at the beast. I hit it in the chest and it roared weakly, most of the fight having gone out of it. The Pegasus walked up to the downed creature and shot it in the face, putting it out of its misery.
The Pegasus wiped the sweat off his brow and slid the gun back inside his coat. He then flew over to me and smiled. “Thank you very much for lending a hoof back there,” he said.
“Um, you’re welcome?” I said, giving him an odd look.
“Oh wait, I haven’t introduced myself.” He held out a hoof and said, “The name is Ca-“
He was cut off by a roar and I looked up to see more of those creatures coming through the doorway. The Pegasus smiled smugly, “Seems I’m a lot more popular than usual.”
“What are they?” I asked, reloading Blackbird. There was that question again.
“Weevils,” he replied, hovering in the air a little. “Not exactly the friendliest race in the galaxy.”
Seems I’m running into all kinds of weirdoes today.
About a dozen of them ran towards us. The Pegasus looked at me and said, “You’re about to get a crash course on companionship, kid. When encountering dangerous killer aliens that want to turn your innards into fine dining. The best option is to run like hell!”
I took his advice and we booked towards another door. I galloped through it, the Pegasus flying beside me as we raced down the hallway. I looked back and saw the Weevils were still chasing after us. They roared and growled like timberwolves as they pursued us.
“How’s your ammo count?” I asked the Pegasus as we fled.
“I wasted my last bullet on the first one,” he explained as he flew. “I ran into a room full of Flesh. Imitation may be the sincerest form a flattery, but I’d like it not to require me being thrown into a furnace, thank you!”
This guy reminded me of Raiden in some ways.
We rounded a corner and he landed when we saw what was there. More Weevils were running towards us. “Geez!” I said. “What is this a Weevil convention? All you can eat ponies?”
My Pegasus companion laughed and said, “I knew I’d like you.”
“So what now?” I asked, looking around and seeing no way out.
“Just brace yourself!” he said, reaching into his coat and pulling out a strange looking gun.
“For wha-?” I started to ask as he aimed the gun at the floor and fired. My question turned to a shriek as the floor suddenly disappeared and I fell down onto the floor below, landing hard. He flapped down beside me, aimed the gun back at the hole, and fired again, resealing it.
I rubbed the back of my head and groaned. This was going to be a long day.
The pegasus walked over to me and offered a hoof. “Okay, I think it’ll be a while before they find us again,” he reassured me.
I grabbed his hoof with my own and he helped me up. I dusted myself off and said, “It’s nice to see there’s a normal pony around here.”
He frowned a bit and said cryptically, “Well, maybe not as normal as you would consider me.”
“You were going to introduce yourself earlier,” I said, “I’m Private, Private Eye.”
He gave a smile and said dramatically, “The names Jack, Captain Jack Harkness.”
“You’re a captain?” I asked, looking at the pegasus as he holstered his blaster.
“In a way, yes,” he replied. “I’m a time agent. I came because I heard about ponies going missing around here.”
“A time agent?” I asked skeptically. It certainly wasn’t the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. After moving statues, weevils, and pony eating shadows, time agents don’t seem so far-fetched anymore.
“Yeah,” he said, and then smiled in a way that reminded me of Raiden all too well. “So, what’s a guy like you doing in a place like this?”
Okay, I’m starting to feel a little uncomfortable with the way he’s looking at me. He did save my hide though so I guess he deserved an explanation. I told him who I was looking for, but left out Doctor Stable’s involvement. Then another question occurred to me. “Wait, you said ponies, as in plural?” I asked.
He nodded and explained, “Your friend isn’t the only one who up and vanished. This has been going on for nearly three years, different ponies being sent here, and they are never heard from again.”
“Were they all mental patients?” I asked.
“Well, yeah,” he replied, looking at a strange watch on his front leg. “Twelve victims so far, your friend Screw Loose would be the thirteenth.”
“Why would anypony be sent here in the first place?” I asked, looking around. “This place is filled with nothing but monsters and freaks. How the Doctor manages to deal with them I’ll never know,” I said putting a hoof on my head and sighing.
“Wait,” he said as his eyes grew wide. “You’re friends with the Doctor?”
“Uh, yeah,” I said, looking at him suspiciously. “How do you know him?”
“I may or may not have helped him save an entire galaxy several times,” he bragged, flashing me an arrogant smile.
“You’re a companion too?” I asked, my jaw dropping.
“Yep,” he replied, and then pulled out a wallet. “Here’s my I.D.”
I looked at the I.D. and frowned. “This is Psychic paper isn’t it?”
How’d you guess?” Jack asked, looking crestfallen.
“First of all, I doubt the Doctor would hand out I.Ds for his companions. Secondly, this paper makes reference to your um… length,” I said, tossing the I.D. back at him.
He caught it and laughed a little. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”
“Okay, now that introductions are over, time to get out of here.” I looked around the room. It looked like we came out in some kind of storage area. Large boxes filled with old yellowed medical records were piled up gathering dust. I saw a door over on the wall and pulled out blackbird.
“Alright,” I said looking back at him, “this place changes no matter which door we open, so be ready for anything.”
He smirked. “It’s hard to be ready for anything when the Doctor and I are involved.”
I opened the door with my magic and saw it led us into another hallway. Jack followed and hovered, looking the other way. “Okay, looks like the coast is clear, no sign of any monsters, yet.”
“We need to find the Doctor,” I said, “Then we find Ditzy and Screw Loose and get outta here.”
We walked down the hallways a bit. The only sound was the sound of my hooves on the floor. Jack was looking around; I could tell he had at least a bit of military training. He seemed to focus on everything. The walls, the doors, the corners, my fla- wait what!?
“Will you cut that out!” I cried, glaring at him.
“Sorry can’t help it” He said, flying upside down and putting his front hooves behind his head. “I see a fine piece and I can’t help but look and say hello”
I rolled my eyes, okay, this guy reminded me way too much of Raiden, only Raiden’s straight.
We rounded a corner saw a strange sight. There was a door, but instead of having a number it had a name on the plate.
Amy Pond
I slowly opened the door and saw a sad sight. I was in a filly’s room, a vanity, all the dolls, and stuffed animals told me that. I noticed on the walls…were pictures of the Tardis.
When I looked towards the window I noticed a little filly sitting there. Her coat was yellow and her mane long and red. A cutie mark of an apple with a smiling face on it was on her flank. She couldn’t have been older than six or seven. She stared out at the night sky, seeming not to have noticed I came in.
Jack was standing in the hallway, for once he was silent and simply looked at the filly.
I walked over to the little filly as she stared at the stars of a strange night sky. But how could it be night? It was morning when I came to this place. I spoke gently, “Hello there.”
She looked at me with pretty green eyes and then turned back to looking at the stars. After about a minute I spoke again “Your name is Amy, right?”
She nodded, her eyes still focused out at the stars.
“What are you looking for?” I asked, coming to sit beside her.
“The Raggedy Doctor,” she replied. I could hear a Lyrish accent in her voice. “He’s gonna come back.”
“You know the Doctor?” I asked, looking at the filly. Just how young did the Doctor recruit companions?
“Uh huh,” she said with a nod. “He’s gonna come back and take me in his magic blue box to see a bunch of different places.”
“How long have you waited?” I asked, a little concerned.
“Two weeks” She said, her eyes still on the stars.
“You’ve been waiting on him for two weeks?” I said, surprised. “Don’t you have school to worry about? Dolls? Games of tag? Colts?”
“Roary’s okay,” she said, and then tilted her head. “He really acts weird though, I think he likes boys. Anyway, I’m gonna meet the Doctor real soon.”
I was amazed at such simple faith this filly had. I was friends with the Doctor too, but I don’t know if I would’ve waited for this long just to travel with him. The real question was why did it come here? Why this filly specifically?
How long did she still have to wait?
“I hope you get to meet him,” I said comfortingly.
“Hope.” She smiled and looked at me. “Such an odd word.”
I raised an eyebrow, but she simply turned back to the stars. I walked back into the hallway, closing the door gently behind me. Jack’s expression was a little sullen.
“You know her?” I asked, giving him a look.
He was quiet for a minute and then answered, “I’ve heard of her, the girl who waited. She was a companion to the doctor after mine.”
“How long did she wait?” I asked suspiciously.
He didn’t answer.
“How long, Jack!” I demanded.
He was quiet for a long time, before finally sighing and saying, “I heard from a friend of a friend about it. She waited for fourteen years before the Doctor came back.”
“Fourteen years” I looked back and looked at the name plate on the wall. Just, how was this even possible? Was there some sort of pocket dimension in this hospital? Was it just a memory?
Still, to wait that long for her “Raggedy Doctor”, that was amazing, but also sad. Poor Amy, having to wait so many years to see her friend. Still, what was a room like that doing in here?
“Let’s go,” Jack said, walking away. I followed him and our walk continued in almost total silence. As we went on, I didn’t know what to think about all this. I thought my problems were huge, but I guess mom’s old saying holds true.
“Before you can understand your own problems, walk a mile in another pony’s hooves. Then you will see how small your problems really are.”
We rounded another corner and opened a set of double doors leading to another hallway. This one wasn’t unoccupied.
“A trash can?” I asked, as I looked at the inhabitant.
That was basically how my mind could describe it. On its head was an eye stalk at with two lights coming out of its head. It had all these bumps along the sides of it’s body leading down to a flat bottom. It had two arms coming out of its armored shell, one that was like as if somebody stuck a plunger into its base. The other was a short cylindrical gun like arm.
It was honestly the silliest looking thing I’ve ever seen.
I looked over at Jack and he looked like his blood just turned cold. I looked back at the trashcan and it spoke, “YOU ARE NOT A DA-LICK!!” Its head lights flashed as it spoke. It was as if it was shouting, but it was putting emphasis on the Da. Wait, didn't the doctor mention Daleks before?
“Private, we gotta go,” Jack said, taking a step back.
“It’s just a freaking trashcan,” I said, rolling my eyes. “What can it do?”
“Don’t let appearances fool you,” He glared at the Dalek “Just one of these things could wipe out an entire army.”
“By what?” I pointed to one of its arms “Using its plunger of doom?”
“DO NOT INSULT THE DA-LEKS, EQUINE!” the Dalek said. “ANY MORE OF YOUR PRATTERING WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE EXTER-MINATION!”
“Listen here; you overstuffed tin can,” I yelled at it, “I've faced down monsters a lot scarier than you are! Now step aside!“
“DALEKS DO NOT STEP, EQUINE!” It moved it’s tiny arm and shot a laser at my hooves. It missed but it still caused me to jump back.
“Okay, maybe your argument holds some merit,” I said, looking over at Jack.
“Shall we run for our lives?” he asked.
“Oh yes, let’s!” With that we bolted back down where we came, passing Amy’s room as the Dalek moved towards us.
It fired Lasers at us shouting, “EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!!”
I dodged and weaved my way around the lasers as we ran. I looked at Jack and cried, “Tell me that thing has a weakness!”
“You wouldn’t happen to have a dinosaur, freeze ray, or bazooka in that trench coat would you?” Jack asked, I couldn’t tell if he was serious or just being a smart ass.
“No, but what about that blaster of yours?” I asked, dodging yet another Dalek beam.
“It needs time to recharge!” he said, dodging his own laser. “We’ll just dive into another room.”
We rounded another corner, only to find another Dalek there. It shouted, “EXTERMINATE!” Then it aimed its laser arm at me.
It fired and Jack leaped into its path. I watched in horror as Jack stiffened and fell to the ground in a heap. I pulled out Blackbird and fired at the tin can. The bullets bounced harmlessly off the armor. The Dalek from before joined its friend and left Jack on the floor like a lifeless doll. I backed into a wall as they approached.
“EQUINE CREATURE WILL TELL US WHERE WE ARE!” they ordered in unison.
I tilted my head, “You mean you guys don’t know where you are?” I asked, a little confused.
“DO NOT PLAY GAMES, EQUINE CREATURE!” The other aimed his laser arm at me. “ANSWER OR YOU WILL BE EXTER-MINATED!!!”
“How should I know where you are?” I asked, not wanting to go down without a few jabs. “For the most dangerous species in the galaxy you guys certainly are dense.”
“DO NOT INSULT THE DA-LEKS!” The first one shouted “DALEKS ARE SUPERIOR! ALL RACES WILL BE LIKE THE DA-LEKS!”
“What? Overgrown tin cans with plungers for weapons?” I asked, using insults to hide the fact I was scared to death.
Then, I saw something happen.
I looked and saw Jack stood up behind the Daleks. He was perfectly fine! How was that even possible? He gave me a look and mouthed, “Stall.”
I didn’t move and simply said, “So you guys are the toughest race in the galaxy?”
“DALEKS NEED NOT PROVE OUR SUPERIORITY TO INFERIOR EQUINES!” the second Dalek said.
“That’s another thing, if you guys are so superior to all species, then which one of you is the most superior?” I asked, wanting to give them something else to talk about.
“DALEKS ARE ALL SUPERIOR!!” the first Dalek shouted.
“Really?” I looked at the second Dalek. “He’s the one who killed my partner.” I then turned to the first Dalek and observed, “You just missed all the time.”
“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!” The first Dalek said, turning its eyestalk towards it’s partner.
“I SHOT THE WINGED EQUINE FIRST! WE ARE THE SUPERIOR DALEK!”
“I AM THE SUPERIOR DALEK! I FOUND THE EQUINE FIRST!”
They argued for a moment then I saw Jack coming with a fire ax in his mouth. He began pouring something on the blade from a bottle he had.
I interrupted the argument with, “So, you both think you’re so superior?” Their eyestalks turned to me. “I should warn you, my friend is not going to be happy if he finds out what you did”
“NOBODY CAN SLAY DALEKS!” the second Dalek shouted.
“Not even…” I paused for dramatic effect, “The Doctor?”
They moved back about an inch at the name. Their eye stalks moved left and right. The first one spoke, “HE SPEAKS OF THE ONCOMING STORM!”
“Two of the most members of the most feared race in the galaxy afraid of a pony obsessed with bow ties? What a laugh,” I said with a smirk.
“YOU WILL NOT FIND YOUR DEATH HUMOROUS, EQUINE!” The first one aimed his gun at me, and then Jack leapt from behind and slammed the ax into the back of the Dalek. The tin can screamed and spun its cylinder head in pain. The other Dalek tried to retaliate but Jack swung the ax down on the eye stalk, severing it. That ax could cut through Dalek armor?
He looked at me and cried, “Now run!”
We both ran and opened another set of double doors as the Daleks kept screaming. Jack and I dived through. I slammed the doors shut behind me and let out a breath. I looked at Jack and said, “I thought you died!”
“I did, kind of,” Jack said, rubbing the back of his head.
“Then how?” I said, looking at him, he didn’t die when he got hit. Either the Daleks have the worst death rays ever, or something else was going on.
“Long story short, I can’t die,” he explained, opening his hooves.
“You know normally I would question that,” I said with a sigh. “After tin cans and shadows trying to kill me, though, I think I’ll just go with it.” Then I asked, “What was with the stuff you poured on the ax?”
“This?” he said, holding up a small bottle. “Cherdine Acid, comes from a species that tried to create a race that could eat Daleks. Didn’t work out as the Daleks wiped out the species before it could get anywhere. However, their saliva can make any weapon able to cut through Dalek armor.”
I then looked up, and saw another door with a name plate on it. This one read…
Rose Tyler
I looked at Jack and he was quiet again.
I opened the door… and found myself on a beach?
I walked out onto it and saw I was in some kind of cove. I looked back at the door and saw it was only a door leading to nowhere. I smelled the salt in the air and saw another sad sight. There was a mare sitting on the sand, looking out at the ocean. She was pink, with a long blond mane that came down her side. She looked about the same age as Sparkler, maybe a little older.
She had her head bowed and pawed the sand with a hoof. She looked up at the ocean as the wind blew her mane gently. I spoke up, “Miss?”
She looked over at me, and spoke in a Trottingham accent “Oh, I thought everybody had left.”
“Left?” I asked, looking at her “What are you talking about?”
“Sorry. I just thought you might’ve known him too.”
I took a wild guess and asked, “The Doctor?”
She nodded and looked back at me with brown eyes. “He had to go, he left me here.”
I looked around at the deserted beach and asked, “Why?”
“Because I screwed up,” she said, looking down again “Maybe if I had left well enough alone, we wouldn’t be in this mess. I’d be home, mum wouldn’t have been killed, Jack…” She put a hoof on her face.
I walked to her and said, “I don’t know all that’s happened, but I don’t think you should blame yourself.”
She looked at me and replied “If I had just listened to him, though, we’d still be together…”
Sounds like she was as close to the Doctor as this Amy girl was. I decided to give as much comfort as I could. “I don’t think he’d want you to sulk on the beach like this. I know it’s going to be hard being apart from him. As long as we hold our friends in our minds and hearts they are never truly gone, right?”
She turned to me and slowly smiled. “Change can be a scary thing, can’t it?” she asked.
I tilted my head at the unusual response. Then I said, “What do you mean?”
“You’re about to get a big change, Private,” she said, walking away.
“Wait, hold on!” I shouted as she walked away. “What are you talking about?”
“I’ve seen what could happen, Private, when the Tardis and I were one,” she said cryptically. “You’re in for a big change coming up. Can you face it like you told me to face mine?”
With that I felt a strong wind tugging me back towards the door. I tried to yell but the wind was too loud and I fell back inside the hospital. The door then slammed shut behind me. I groaned as Jack picked me up. “You alright? What happened?”
“I think I met another companion,” I said, shaking my head. “She knew my name, and something that was going to happen. Her name was Rose, I think.”
Jack smiled and said, “Ah, good old Rose Tyler. Gotta love that girl.”
“You do realize she’s at least half your age,” I said flatly. “Besides, I thought you rode sidesaddle.”
“Is there a law that says I can’t appreciate every wonderful thing in the universe?” Jack asked with a small laugh.
Note to self, keep this bastard away from any kids I have with Twilight.
I reloaded Blackbird and we both made our way towards another door. “Alright, keep your hooves crossed that this is a good door,” I said.
Jack nodded and held the ax in his hooves. Holding Blackbird aloft in my magic, I opened the door...
Jack and I galloped into the next room only for me to run into The Doctor and Ditzy. I fell on my back and rubbed the back of my head as I sat back up. Ditzy flew to me and hugged me tight. “You’re okay, Private!” she cried happily.
I smiled and hugged her back. “I’m fine, Ditzy.”
The Doctor dusted himself off and said, “Thought we lost you in the operating room.” He then looked at Jack and narrowed his eyes. “You…”
Jack smiled nervously, he was visibly sweating. “Um, hello Doctor.” he said awkwardly.
“You’re a friend of the Doctor’s too?” Ditzy asked, letting go of me and walking over to Jack.
“Yes,” he replied, going back into charming mode. “I must say he never seems to find unattractive people for his companions…”
“Stop it,” the Doctor ordered with a glare.
“I was just saying hello,” Jack said, trying to sound innocent.
“Like you were just saying ‘hello’ to Jenny?” He raised an eyebrow.
“How was I supposed to know she was your daughter grown from a machine?” Jack asked, sweating a little.
“You know, there are many ways I could make your life miserable without killing you,” Doctor Hooves said, crossing his forelegs.
“Oh don’t worry, Doctor,” Jack said, raising his hooves. “I know when to keep my hooves off.” He then slung an arm around me and continued, “Now this nice thing here-“
“Is straight,” finished the Doctor.
“You never let me find out on my own,” Jack whined.
“There’s a reason why,” The Doctor replied, rolling his eyes.
I got out from Jack’s arm. “Plus, I don’t think my marefriend would appreciate it,” I said firmly.
Jack smirked and I gave him a “don’t even think about it” look.
“Right,” the Doctor said. “We've got to find a way out of here.”
“Have you guys noticed there aren’t any windows?” Ditzy asked. “If we had windows we could fly out.”
“Every time we enter a room it just leads to more rooms,” Jack said with a sigh. “I’ve been running around this place for hours and I haven’t seen an exit.”
I then went on to explain how I found Jack and all the monsters we'd encountered since I woke up in the office. The Doctor put a hoof on his chin. “Again, they didn’t kill you when they easily could. This is very weird.”
“They shot me,” Jack pointed out.
“You can’t die, so you don’t count,” the Doctor said. “It just doesn’t make sense, why not just shoot him right there?”
“Maybe they were taken,” I said, looking at the Doctor, “just like that shadow. They didn't seem to know where they were.”
“Do you think this could be a prison of some sort?” Jack suggested.
“If this is a prison then where are the guards? Then again maybe this place doesn’t need them. I’ve heard of some cultures that dedicate entire planets for use as prisons and allow the prisoners to simply roam. They kill each other off and no guards are needed,” the Doctor explained.
“We gotta get outta here,” Ditzy said, with a troubled expression. “My girls are probably worried sick about me.”
“For now we stick together,” the Doctor said, and then he began walking down the hallway from where we came from. We left the doors open so it hadn’t changed. The Daleks were still there.
“Not those things again!” Ditzy cried, hiding behind me.
“You’ve seen these before?” I asked, looking back at her.
“Uh huh, they were very mean and tried to hurt the Doctor,” she answered. “Are they still working?”
“Nope, Jack and Private did a number on them,” the Doctor replied, running his sonic screwdriver over the dead Daleks. “Clever use of the acid on that fire ax, Jack. You cut right into their core and smashed them.”
“Anything you can tell about the other one, Doctor?” he asked, pointing to the one with the sliced off eyestalk.
“Well, he’s mostly intact but he isn’t going anywhere,” the Doctor said. He looked down and checked the data from the sonic screwdriver. “Well, this is interesting, leftovers from the Cult of Scara. So this must be a prison after all.”
“Cult of what now?” I asked.
“Daleks that essentially research us squishies to figure out how to kill us.” Jack said. “That explains why you managed to tick them off and got them to fight each other. The Cult allows the Dalek to have its own thoughts in order to better understand us. At least until they can zap us with a death ray.”
“Still, why didn’t they kill Private outright?” the Doctor said, putting a hoof on his chin. “Daleks despise anything that isn’t a Dalek. They are a shoot first ask questions later species.”
“They did ask a question, where they were,” I said, putting a hoof on my chin. “Then, there are the doors.”
“Doors?” the Doctor said “What about doors? I like Doors, except when they lead to deadly traps and the such.”
“They lead to companions you used to have,” I said.
His eyes grew wide and he said, “That’s… very interesting.”
“Whoever’s in charge of this place knows how to get under people’s skin,” Jack observed.
“Let’s just go,” I said, looking at my friends. “I just wanna find the Tardis and get home.”
“I heartily agree,” the Doctor said, turning and preparing to go back the way we came. “Allons-y!”
As we walked down the empty and dusty hallways we encountered no beast or pony. A silence hung in the air, only broken by the sound of our hoof steps. Jack had the fire ax slung over his back using a belt he had in his coat.
I had Blackbird out, but I only had a few bullets left. Enough to reload Blackbird twice, maybe. I should’ve brought White Tiger or even Silver Wolf would've be useful. Though I don’t know if Voidera made the sword to be anti Dalek.
We opened another door to find a welcome sight. There was a pony sitting in the middle of what looked like a padded room. She was a earth pony mare with a bright blue coat and a long teal mane that came down around her, it looked far overgrown and ratty. Her green eyes seemed to be clouded and not looking anywhere. She had a cutie mark of a pair of wagon wheels.
Jack lowered himself in front of her and held up his odd watch. “This is Wheelbarrow. She's the gal from Hoofington who got sent here. She’s one of the missing ponies, the fifth that disappeared.”
“Is she okay?” Ditzy asked, fluttering over to the mare. “Hello? My name is Ditzy, these are my friends. We’re here to help you.”
Wheelbarrow didn’t seem to notice her. She was muttering something, “Wet…too wet…” It sounded like.
“Hello?” I said, waving a hoof in front of her. “Doctor, what’s wrong with her?”
The Doctor ran his sonic screwdriver over her .“Sleep deprived, starving, thirsty. She’s been in here for weeks, and nobody’s been in here to help her,” he said with a frown.
“Wheelbarrow, it’s okay, we’re going to help,” Ditzy said again.
Wheelbarrow shook her head. “Too much water. It's everywhere…”
“Who brought you here?” Jack asked. “Do you even know where you are?”
“They said, I was weak,” Wheelbarrow said, still in her trance. “That I had to face fear. Water… water everywhere…Can’t swim. WILL DROWN!” She started screaming and suddenly I felt my hooves getting wet.
I looked down and saw water was starting to fill the room at an alarming rate. Within seconds the water was up to my fetlocks. I looked at the gang and cried, “Time to go!”
The Doctor opened the door, but the water didn’t flow out.
“Come on!” The Doctor called, leaping out of the water and into a new hallway.
“What about Wheel?” Ditzy asked, looking on the mare who continued screaming as the water kept rising.
“Get out! I’ll help her!” I cried.
Jack grabbed Ditzy and flew out with her. I swam towards Wheelbarrow and reached for her, her piercing screams filling my ears.
“Let me help you!” I yelled, trying to grab her hoof with mine.
“Nopony can help…I wish, I wish I didn’t feel it anymore,” Wheelbarrow said. Her eyes seemed to go blank, then she fell into the now head height water.
I felt a strong current tugging at me. I tried swimming against it but it carried me out of the room. No water came out except the water dripping off my body. There was just a wall of water inside the room, completely filling it, but never leaving the obvious hole.
Before any of us could react, the door slammed shut. Ditzy was the first one to speak up, “Wha, what happened?”
“Fascinating,” the Doctor said, opening the door again. Only this time it lead to another hallway. “The water didn’t leave it when we opened it. That must mean that each room is its own pocket dimension.”
“Huh?” Ditzy said, tilting her head. I was tempted to imitate her. I never could understand physics, or Doctor Physics in this case.
“In a sense, each room is a separate chamber. It’s kind of like a Rubik cube puzzle, where the squares represent a different room and we’re constantly dealing with somebody or something moving it.” He ran a hoof through his dark brown mane. “The question is, why would the water suddenly flood the room?”
“I think I may have a guess,” Jack said, looking at his weird watch. “I got Wheelbarrow’s records here.”
“Where exactly did you get those records?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. \
“They were “procured” from a very willing source,” he replied with a smile. He then tapped some buttons and continued, “Okay, Wheelbarrow. Twenty eight years old, made wagons over in Baltimare.”
“Baltimare is a sea port,” I mentioned. “Why would somepony from there be scared of water?”
“She was from a place called Dodge at first,” Jack explained. “According to this, she moved to Baltimare to be with her extended family after her parents died. When she was sixteen she nearly drowned trying to retrieve her baby cousin who fell into the ocean. She was diagnosed with severe Aqua phobia.”
“Poor girl,” the Doctor said sadly.
“Why would somepony flood her room, though?” Ditzy asked, crossing her forelegs. “That's really mean.”
“She was also starved and sleep deprived,” I said. “It’s how some cults get members. Keep a pony awake and starving long enough and they’d do anything you ask.”
“Who would do such a thing?” Ditzy asked in horror.
“We’ll figure it out,” the Doctor said, patting Ditzy on the back soothingly.
“Let’s get moving,” I said, making my way through the door to the new hallway. We rounded a corner only to find more doors that lead to more hallways. This went on for almost an hour…
Clank…Clank…Clank…
“Do you hear that?” I asked, stopping suddenly.
“Yeah, I hear it,” Jack said, looking around. “It doesn't sound good.”
Clank…Clank…Clank…
“Private, Ditzy, whatever happens to me and Jack, you run,” the Doctor ordered.
“But-” Ditzy began.
“Jack can’t die, and I can regenerate,” the Doctor argued. “However if you two die, that’s it! I’m not having anypony else die because of me!”
Doctor…
Clank…Clank…Clank…
“It’s getting closer,” I said, pulling out Blackbird and aiming down one side of the hall. Ditzy was behind me and The Doctor and Jack were behind her, awaiting whatever comes.
I looked forward as the clanking became louder and then I saw it…
It looked a pony, only encased entirely in metal. It had strange instruments on it’s forelegs, and red soulless glowing eyes. Unlike the Daleks which I just found silly, I felt a cold fear run down my spine at the sight of the machine. It felt, unnerving, to see something like that…
My gun to shook a little in my magic. I was losing concentration! Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good!
Then it spoke in a metallic voice that gave me the chills, “Intruders have been located, identifying…”
The Doctor turned and his eyes grew wide, “No! No, not you…”
“What is he, Doctor?” I asked, as Jack stood beside me.
“That’s a cyber-pony,” Ditzy answered for him. “It used to be a pony, but not anymore…”
The machine then looked right at me. “Subjects have been identified. One unicorn male, one pegasus female, one human male, and one time lord male…”
“Human?” I asked in shock, looking at Jack.
“Well, the cat’s out of the bag I guess,” Jack said, trying to add some levity to all this.
So, humans did exist. Lyra will never let anypony hear the end of it.
The Doctor shouted “Oi! Just what do you think you’re doing here!”
“The Doctor is here.” The cyber pony raised his foreleg and ordered, “Stand down, or we will delete you.”
“We..?” I said, and then turned around, there were four more of them with their forelegs’ raised. I noticed two of them had some sort of laser gun attached to their forelegs.
The one in the middle spoke up, “The Doctor will surrender the pegasus female to us.”
“As if I’d do that, you pony shaped rust buckets!” the Doctor shouted. “If you want anybody, your fight’s with me. I’m the one who has stopped you time and again. I’m the one you should fight. Leave them alone!”
“Yet another sign of the Doctor’s weakness in emotions,” the one in front of us said.
“What do you want with us?” I cried.
“You will be upgraded to cyber-ponies,” the one holding a laser said. “You will no longer feel the weakness of emotions, or the frailty of pony flesh.”
“You never could get it through your thick steel heads, could you!” The Doctor shouted, with that same white hot fury I’d seen him have once in the past. It was, almost more terrifying than the cyber-ponies.
“What the doctor desires is irrelevant. We will upgrade them all."
“I’m not going to upgrade, you meanies!” Ditzy shouted “You guys tried that once already. You’re not going to try it again!”
“Your protests are irrelevant. Soon, you will willingly choose the path of cyber pony.”
“Over my dead body!!” Without thinking I fired a bolt of magic at the machine. It contorted and screamed as if in agony. So, they didn’t like magic, did they?
“DELETE!” one of the cyber ponies ordered, as two others fired their lasers at us. One grazed my trench coat as we galloped away. I felt a slight burning sting but shrugged off the pain. Jack turned around, holding the fire ax.
“Jack, what in the bloody hell are you doing?” the Doctor asked, stopping and looking back at him.
“I’ll hold them off!” Jack said. “You guys hurry!”
“Forget it, Jack! Don’t be stupid!” The Doctor cried.
“At least I’ll look good with a heroic sacrifice under my belt,” Jack said, as a Cyber pony ran up to him. Jack swung the ax in his mouth and cut into the machine’s foreleg. Sparks flew out as Jack kept trying to fight it off.
The Doctor closed his eyes, and then turned, “Come on!”
“But what abou-“ Ditzy began.
“No time for arguing!” the Doctor ordered. “Just run!”
I followed his command and ran as fast as I could to keep up. Ditzy started lagging behind as we rounded corners and ran inside hallways. As we rounded another corner we came across a pair of cyber ponies. They shouted “Delete!” and moved towards us.
We turned and ran down another hallway. At every point we ran into more and more of them. The simple clanking sound from before became a deafening roar as they gave chase.
We came to a door and I pointed. “This way! We’ll lose them if we go in!” I opened the door with my magic and dived inside.
The Doctor soon followed and looked back at Ditzy who'd started lagging behind. Fatigue seemed to have gotten to her.
“Come on, Ditzy!” the Doctor cried. “You can make it!”
“I’m coming, Doctor…” Ditzy said, trying to run or fly, but all this running had gotten to her. She was never the most athletic of ponies from what I heard. For once let me be wrong…
Suddenly a Cyber pony grabbed Ditzy by the tail. The other cyber ponies ran past her towards our door. “DITZY!” the Doctor screamed.
“DOCTOR, RUN!" Ditzy cried as she was pulled away by the cyber pony. The machine raised a hoof, and pressed it down on her back. For a minute Ditzy jolted as if zapped, and then she closed her wall eyes and fell unconscious.
“NO!” I roared, pulling out Blackbird and firing at the Cyber pony. “BASTARDS!”
The bullets pinged harmlessly off them. I knew it was useless. How could they… just do that to her.
Didn’t they care who she was, that she had friends, and a family? No, they didn’t care. She was just a new recruit to them.
For their sick game…
More kept coming, I looked over and saw with horror that the door the Doctor ran into had slammed shut by itself. NO!!
I opened the door and found it lead into another hallway. I looked back as Ditzy was being dragged away. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry, Ditzy.
I ran into the hallway and slammed the door shut behind me. I then sat on my haunches and yelled at the top of my lungs. “WWWWWHHHHHHYYYYYY?”
Why Ditzy, why her? She didn’t do anything wrong.
She was an innocent. She didn’t ask for any of this. The Doctor, he brought her. He allowed them to take her. It’s all his fault, all of it….
I shook my head. Those thoughts again, why now? I can’t just blame the Doctor though. He couldn’t have known. He couldn’t have prepared for all of this.
I sat down and looked at the ground. How was I going to explain this to Dinky and Sparkler? That I failed to save her. That I couldn’t stop them from taking their mother.
I couldn’t do anything… I couldn’t stop them! I have no powers, no knowledge of these monsters, no weapons that can hurt them. I just wish I had some way to fight them, some means to help.
Why does my horn itch so much?
I felt my horn and found out why, it was glowing brightly. I focused whatever magic was causing it onto the floor in front of me. Before my very eyes a small pillar came jutting out of the floor. It was made of the same material as the floor.
Voidera mentioned this… Alchemy!
“It’s the power of alchemy. The art of taking a material, breaking it down, and reforming it as something new.”
Did it manifest because I wanted things to change? I wasn’t going to give up on Ditzy or the Doctor. If this power can help, then maybe it’ll work.
I walked forward a little ways and saw that the Dalek corpses were still there. I must’ve looped around somehow. I walked up to the creatures and tapped their metal shells. Maybe…
I tried to emulate the wavelength of my magic from before. My horn glowed a pale grey and I put my hoof on the Dalek. I wish I had a weapon. Something light, effective to move around with, but that could cut into the Cyber ponies. Something that was strong, yet swift…
I opened my eyes as sparks came from the metal and suddenly I saw a piece of the domed casing come off with my magic and I concentrated harder. Sparks enveloped the metal and a light covered it. The metal began to reform itself into a bronzed colored sword with a silver handle.
I let out a long breath. creating the weapon took a lot out of me. I felt like I'd just run half a marathon. Was this alchemy? Voidera said I could learn it. I went to Canterlot a couple of times a weak to learn under him. So far he'd only had me reform some screws. I never pulled off something as advanced as this before.
I levitated the sword and put it on my back. I looked at the Daleks and said, “Who knew that the corpses of killers could be used to save others.”
I walked back towards the door, my new blade in tow. I walked slowly as I began recovering from the energy drain. I should be fine in a couple of minutes, but I still had to find the others.
I opened the door, and saw I was in another padded room. Only this time I saw the Doctor was sitting there by himself. I smiled and exclaimed, “Doctor! You’re okay!”
He didn’t move for a minute. Then he slowly turned to me and said, “Private, give me… your gun.”
Why did the Doctor want my gun? This was so unlike the Doctor. He was usually so upbeat and cheery. Right now though, his eyes held a blank stare and his face a terrified expression. Just what did he see?
Thankfully Blackbird didn’t have any bullets…
I held up my hooves and asked, “Doctor, what happened? I can help.”
“Nobody can help me…” The Doctor said, a tear falling from his eyes. “Even now you are in danger too.”
“Doctor?”
He looked down at his hooves “I lost so many Private, so many friends in my existence. So many who could’ve lived happy and blissfully unaware lives had I not decided to involve them. Yet in my own arrogance I decided to meddle. I, can’t take the guilt anymore… not after Ditzy.” He looked at my newly made sword and said,“That will do.”
He lunged at me and I shoved him back. I wasn’t going to let him kill himself. He slammed against the wall and then stared at me. “Doctor! Even if you could kill yourself you still have one more regeneration left.” I said, looking at him. “You’ll just come back!”
“It won’t matter,” The Doctor said, a tear rolling down his face. “It’ll be somebody else that will face the guilt! I can’t, Private! I can’t stop! I’ve been in here for hours! I saw each of my companions die or have their lives ruined and I couldn’t stop! It’s all my fault! All mine!”
Amy, Rose…
“So let me end it,” he said, the tears flowing freely. “Just let me die so I can’t hurt anyone anymore!” Then he lunged at me again. This time tackling me to the floor and causing the Dalek sword to fall from my back.
Before I could do anything he reached for it and held the blade to his neck. I looked at him and cried, “Doctor, don’t do this! You can’t die!”
The blade cut into the Doctor’s neck. I watched with horror as blood poured from the wound… and then, the blood stopped. The blood flowed back into the wound and it sealed up as if the Doctor never injured himself.
“I can’t,” he said, dropping the sword and putting his hooves on his head. “I can’t do it, even when I want to. I can’t end it…”
“SNAP OUT OF IT!” I yelled as I raised a hoof and decked him across the face. He fell to the floor in a heap and looked up at me. I looked back at him and said, “We can’t just give up! The Doctor I knew never knew the meaning of the word! Ditzy is counting on us! You can’t just sit here wallowing in self-pity while somepony needs your help!”
He just stared at me for a long minute.
“I know it’s hard to face guilt,” I said a little more calmly. “I can’t possibly imagine all of the guilt you must be feeling. Still, I’m not about to let you take the easy way out like I almost did…You can’t let it destroy you when others need you!”
“Private…”
“Daddy…”
I looked ahead and saw a little lavender filly looking at me from behind the Doctor. She simply smiled and turned around, walking through a wall.
Twinkle…
The Doctor climbed to his hooves, the fire returning to his eyes. “Boy! That was depressing as all heck! What happened, Private?” He seemed back to normal. That’s a relief.
“You went all suicidal on me,” I explained. “You were like Wheelbarrow and kept going on and on about the guilt you felt. Next thing I know you grabbed the sword and tried to kill yourself, but you couldn’t do it.”
“Well, let me see the sword,” The Doctor said, picking up my newly crafted sword as if nothing happened before. “Hmm, very well designed, made out of Dalek metal. Whoever made this is quiet the crafts pony.”
“Uh, that was me,” I said, pointing to the sword. “I took off the Dalek’s plates and used the metal to make it.”
“Fascinating.” He gave the sword back to me and said, “We may need it for later. Honestly I prefer it to firearms.”
“Wait, Doctor,” I said. “You mentioned in your, well state, that you’ve been in here for hours?”
“Yes,” he replied, “I thought I was here for hours.”
“I found you in about five minutes though,” I said, shaking my head. “How is that possible?”
Suddenly his eyes grew wide, and a smile appeared on his face. “Of course! It all makes sense! I can’t believe I’ve never thought of it before!”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, as he began running his sonic screwdriver along the walls.
“I should’ve seen it before, the rooms all being disjointed! The time difference, everything pointed to it. How did I miss it?” He mumbled aloud as he kept running the sonic screwdriver over every padded area of the wall. “This isn’t a prison, or a hospital, Private! This is a TARDIS!”
“A what?” I gasped, my jaw dropping. “But I thought you were the only one with a Tardis!”
“I still am,” he said, looking at me. “This Tardis isn’t functional as far as timey wimey is concerned. However, the rooms, the time gaps, everything points to this being a Tardis. But, it’s like somebody jolted this Tardis awake. Sort of like Frankenstein’s monster. It’s not dead, but it isn’t alive either.”
He gave me a questioning look. I sighed and said, “Yes, we have something like that called Frankenstallion.” After his required laugh, I asked, “So, we’re inside an undead Tardis?”
“I guess you could put it that way,” The Doctor replied. “A Tardis is an actual living things. This one was dead for a while before it got reactivated. At least that’s what I believe. All of its functions must not be working properly though, otherwise, why keep it here?”
“Whose Tardis is it though?” I asked.
The Doctor didn't reply as he used his sonic screwdriver on one of the padded panels. He then pulled it up to reveal a set of wires and circuitry underneath. He began messing with the stuff muttering, “Now let’s see here, spin this wobbly gig here, mix that wire there, cross time dimensionator here, and here we go!”
He held up his Sonic Screwdriver and said triumphantly, “Now with this, we’ll be able to make the doors open anytime we want.” He smiled and continued, “Also, I downloaded a map function onto it. It’ll allow me to pinpoint where we need to go.”
I nodded and asked, “Okay, can it find where Jack and Ditzy are?”
He fiddled with his device for a couple minutes then replied, “No, I can’t get a lock on their exact signal. The Cyber ponies must be jamming it. However, I think we can get to the other padded rooms with this. Just give me a second…”
He ran the device over the door and he opened the door and sure enough, there was another padded room. I looked inside and found Screw Loose…
She was a mare about a decade older than I was. Her coat was the color of the sky and her mane was long and naturally silver. Her violet eyes weren’t the crazy ones I remembered hearing about from the hospital. They were blank, the same as the Doctor’s from before.
“Screwy,” I said gently, “are you okay?”
She looked up slowly and then back down. I heard a low whine come from her.
“Did she just whine like a dog?” the Doctor asked, a little dumbfounded.
“She’s been like this for a while,” I said, looking at her. “It was what got her sent to Ponyville’s mental hospital in the first place.”
The Doctor ran his screwdriver over her and said, “Same symptoms as Wheelbarrow.”
“Screwy?” I gently put a hoof on her shoulder “It’s me, Private. The detective from the papers. You remember right?”
She looked at me, and then tilted her head and gave a small whine. She was trying to remember something. Then she opened her mouth and said in Ponish, “Pri, Pri…”
“Yeah it’s me,” I said, smiling at her. “Dr. Stable sent me to look for you”
“Doctor?” she said, looking down, then she began whining again like a dog. Tears shone in her eyes as she tried to speak, “I, never co… could.. fi.. figure out… the wo… words… H… he…wanted… mm.. me… to learn…how to say…words.”
The Doctor bent down next to her and said gently, “Screwy, I’m Doctor um… Smith. Doctor Smith, Private and I are here to help you come home.”
She suddenly shook her head and growled “No! No home! Screwy no good! Screwy bark!!” She barked more and I looked around the room. Suddenly I heard laughter all around. Constant streams of laughter from everywhere followed by voices.
“Why can’t you speak normally?”
“You’re stupid!”
“Your mom was right to abandon you! Leave you with dogs!”
“Woof Woof, you retard!!”
I looked at the Doctor and said, “She must’ve been teased unmercifully she was a kid. This room is playing on that fear like it did on you and Wheelbarrow.”
Screwy shook her head and backed against the wall, barking and whining incessantly. It was as if every word cut into her very soul. Then I heard another voice, a female voice.
“Screwy, you know you shouldn't bark! You’re six now! Barking is not what ponies do!”
Then came a male voice, this one far angrier.
“You embarrassed me today, Screwy! You're a worthless daughter! I told you never to bark like that in front of ponies! Now I got fired from my job because of your mistake!”
Screwy was crying and whining right now to the point of pity. I heard more voices, all scorning this mare for what made her different. I hated the fact I took part in this by simply calling her Screw Loose. Poor thing…
The Doctor walked to Screwy and said, “Don’t listen to them, Screwy.”
She looked up at the Doctor, and then cowered away from him. Then she said “Want…it al.. all…to stop.”
“Is that what they told you would happen?” the Doctor asked suddenly. I remembered Wheelbarrow mentioning something about them. Could it be?
“They’re lying, Screwy,” The Doctor said flatly. “They want to change you, to make you into something you aren’t.”
“But,” Screwy said, looking the Doctor in the eye, “but… I… Screwy is different.”
“Says who?” The Doctor asked with a smile. “Besides, there’s something that people never say when they tell somepony that they are different. They never say, ‘I’m different too.’ In truth, all creatures are very different. Take me for example...”
He took one of her hooves and put it to his chest. Screwy tilted her head and barked once. Then the doctor moved the hoof over a little. Screwy’s eyes grew wide, then she barked twice.
“That’s right,” the Doctor said with a grin. “I have two hearts, I’m different too”
Screwy met the Doctor’s eyes. He continued gently, “Just because you’re different doesn’t make you any less of a pony. I’m sure you have friends that miss you, Screwy. I’m different and I have a lot of friends. Sure, I have a lot of ponies that don’t like me either. But, my friends help me get through it. I’m sure your friends can help you too. Not the ones who put you here.”
She hugged the Doctor right then and there. I walked to her, my horn glowing. I spoke gently to Screwy, “When you wake up, you’ll be home. I promise.”
She smiled and nuzzled me and the Doctor gently. Before licking me on the face. I smiled and gently touched my glowing horn to her forehead. She closed her eyes as the anesthetic spell entered her. The Doctor held her gently as she fell asleep.
“Right,” he said, lifting her unto his back. “We’ll use the screwdriver to head back to the Tardis and drop her off.”
_________________________________________________
The Doctor left the Tardis and shut the door gently behind him. Then a thought entered my mind. “Can’t we use the Tardis to find Ditzy and Jack?”
“You know how dangerous teleporting can be when you can’t see where you’re teleporting,” the Doctor explained. “Since the rooms move around so much I could accidentally transport us into a wall.”
“Right, because you’re still a terrible driver,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“It’s not my fault the Tardis has an attitude,” he grumbled. He then clapped his hooves. “Right, every Tardis has a central chamber, we can use that to pinpoint where they are.”
The Doctor walked to the doorway and ran his Sonic Screwdriver over it. He then opened the door and sure enough there was a large chamber beyond it. In the center looked like a rusted over version of his Tardis’ central computer. It looked far worse than when I found our Tardis in 963.
“Well, looks like most of the equipment is about as useless as a gold sword in minecraft.” He ran his device over it “But I think, yes, there are some ships logs here.” He looked at his device and said, “No, no this is unbelievable.”
“What are you talking about, Doctor?” I asked.
“Private, this ship was a research vessel that came here years ago,” he explained. “It was designed as a rehab center for any sort of hostile aliens they found.” He continued reading from his device “Looks like they ran into trouble with the power or some other timey wimey stuff. They crashed landed here, and couldn’t restore power to the Tardis in time to return to Gallopfrey to begin the time war.”
I looked at him “So, you’re saying that if any of them survived there are other Time Lords of Equestria?”
“One specifically survived, Private!” he said excitedly. “I don’t know her, according to the logs she was only a kid at the time. Her name was going to be, Minuette.”
I didn’t know anypony who went by that name. But the excitement on the Doctor’s face was evident. One of his kind survived and was out of the Time War’s reach.
Clank… Clank… Clank…
We slowly turned and saw eight Cyber Ponies entering the room. The Doctor and I stood back to back, I held my blade in my magic. I had no idea how much good it would do against them. But I wasn’t about to go down without a fight!
“So, it seems you failed to get your treatment, Doctor,” I heard a scarily familiar voice say.
I looked over and saw Thirteen. He had the same coat color as the Doctor. But he had a long ginger haircut and deep green eyes that betrayed madness.
“You,” the doctor said, his voice low and threatening. “I should’ve known you’d figure out some way to survive.”
“It seems you still need some treatment my friend,” he said with an evil sneer. “You are very unwell.”
“What are you doing with those Cyber Ponies?” the Doctor shouted. “Why is it you’re not one of them?”
“Simple,” he said, holding up a small remote, “because they can only obey. Every monster in here is under my control.”
“That’s why they didn’t kill us,” I deduced. “You wanted to scare us, to put us in danger without killing us. So that you could get to the Doctor!”
“Ah, the detective who helped stop my other plot to fix history, and ensure this planet’s death,” he growled with a frown. “It seems you have foiled my plans, yet again."
“Where are Ditzy and Jack, you bastard!” the Doctor yelled.
“I thought it would be fun, seeing another one of your companions leave you,” Thirteen said, looking to the door.
I saw with horror that Ditzy was walking between two cyber ponies, her eyes were blank and she appeared to have been crying earlier. No, they didn’t, those bastards!
“Ditzy!” The Doctor and I cried in unison.
Ditzy didn’t even respond as another pair of Cyber Ponies came through. They held a struggling Jack in their forelegs. Thirteen glared at him and said, “Ah, it seems you’ve awakened, Captain.”
“Hey Thirteen, I hope you’re not so sore about that little incident in Trottingham pre banishment,” Jack returned with a cocky smile.
“Oh Cyber Ponies,” Thirteen called in a sing song voice, and then one of the Cyber Ponies touched Jack on the shoulder , shocking him. Jack fell to the ground and his coat was removed. Then he was thrown at our hooves unceremoniously.
“So, you did manage to distract them,” I said, helping the captain to his hooves.
“Yeah, only for a bit,” he replied, “but, even the best of us get captured by homicidal machines once in a while.”
Not where I’m from…
“Let Ditzy go now!” the Doctor cried.
“Oh but don’t you know? Ditzy here wants to be upgraded,” Thirteen said, his voice dripping with malice. “With her and these other Cyber Ponies I’ll be able to turn this primitive world into a potential asset in the future Time War. Soon the tide will turn and the Time Lords will win.”
“At what cost?” The Doctor cried “You can’t seriously believe Ditzy would want this!”
“No guys,” Ditzy spoke for the first time. All three of us stared at her as she said, “I don’t want to be a burden anymore. I don’t want to feel the hurt anymore.”
“Ditzy,” the Doctor said, his face showing a great sorrow.
“I’m sorry, Doctor,” Ditzy went on. “They were right, all I’ve ever been to you was a stupid klutzy pegasus who couldn’t do anything. I’m useless to everypony. I don’t want to feel hurt anymore…”
The Cyber Ponies began leading her to an iron maiden like structure. I had a guess this was how she was upgraded. I wasn’t about to let that happen.
I shouted, “Turn around!”
Ditzy stopped in her tracks.
“Turn around, every now and then I get a little bit lonely when you’re never coming round…”
Tears began streaming down her cheeks. Thirteen pointed to me and ordered, “Silence him!”
A Cyber Pony held up his laser arm, but suddenly it was shot off. I looked at Jack who had a small laser gun attached to his foreleg. I stared at him and said, “But, they took your coat. Where were you hiding that?”
Jack just smirked. “Private, if you wish to keep your sexual orientation, don’t ask me that again,” he replied smugly.
“Get them!” Thirteen cried, then all the Cyber Ponies aimed their laser arms at us.
“What’s say, we bring along some friends!” The Doctor yelled, and then used his sonic screwdriver to open the door. Suddenly about a dozen weevils entered the room and tacked the cyber ponies.
Chaos followed as Jack and the weevils engaged the Cyber Ponies. Thirteen and my Doctor were fighting each other in what looked like a fist fight. I ran to Ditzy and sliced the leg of one of the cyber ponies guarding her. I then used my magic to levitate the two machines and threw them into a pile of eagerly awaiting weevils.
I looked at Ditzy and said, “You are a klutz, Ditzy, there’s no denying that. But you forgot who stood in front of thousands to sing her heart out. You aren’t a burden, Ditzy, you are my friend. More importantly, you're one of the best mothers I know.”
Slowly Ditzy’s wall eyes came to life and she looked at me. “Private, I’m so sorry! I worried you all so much!” she said, hugging me tightly.
“It’s okay, Ditzy.” I held her and then swung my Dalek blade so that it sliced a Cyber pony’s laser arm off before it could fire at us.
I opened the door that led back to our Tardis and said, “Go!”
Ditzy and Jack ran through the door and into the Tardis. I watched as the cyber ponies retreated to another room, the weevils at their hooves. I slammed the door behind them, knowing that would be enough to get rid of him.
The Doctor and Thirteen were swinging punches at one another. Then they stood back panting and glared at one another. Thirteen taunted, “I cannot believe you feel so inclined to defend these lesser beings!”
“I’m disgusted to believe I could ever be like you,” the Doctor returned. “Did you really think the Cyber Ponies would so easily ally with you? They would’ve turned on you the moment they saw an opportunity. They have no concept of loyalty, except to themselves.”
“I would’ve had their miserable race wiped out once the Time Lords were restored,” Thirteen retorted, as they started circling one another. “Unlike you, who constantly runs away from everything. I chose to fix the mistake that was made.”
“The only mistake here is yours,” the Doctor yelled. “You messed with my companions. You, above all, should know how much that pisses me off.”
“I've never been softened by these pathetic mortals,” Thirteen yelled. “I was born and bred in the ashes of war! There only the strong survive, and the Time Lords rule! I will restore their legacy in the universe one way or another!”
“That legacy should be left to die,” the Doctor replied sadly. “All those races who died because of us. Who we just watched as they were destroyed. We could’ve saved so many but we were content to sit back and watch. Not unlike the Romans when they watched Christians get thrown to the lions. Little did they know that a Spartacus would rise.”
He then aimed his sonic screwdriver at the control module. Alarms began blaring and Thirteen looked on in horror. “You’ll kill us all!”
“Not all of us, just you,” the Doctor smirked.
Thirteen was about to lunge at him when I tackled him in mid air. I struggled with him and then aimed the Dalek Blade at his leg. I stabbed through it, pinning his hind leg to the floor. He yelled in pain and he glared at me, crying out, “You pathetic gnats! The Time Lords will destroy you all!”
“You’re from a dead time, Thirteen. It’s time for the world to change, with or without you,” I told him.
The Doctor and I ran towards the door. “What did you do?” I asked.
“I overloaded the power on the Tardis. Luckily it won’t cause the universe to explode, but it’ll still wipe out this town. Luckily it's already been abandoned.”
“What about the cyber ponies? They were his victims too right?”
The Doctor gave me a look and replied, “There was nothing we could do for them.”
I nodded and we leapt into the Tardis. Jack and the Doctor immediately worked at the controls as I slammed the door shut. Ditzy looked at me and said, “You’re okay, Private…”
I smiled and hugged Ditzy tightly. She cried into my trench coat as I said consolingly, “It’s over, Ditzy. It’s all over now…”
As the Tardis vanished the entire town of Hoof Creek would pay witness to a massive explosion. But as for the Doctor and everypony else on the Tardis, we ended up right back in Ponyville, safe and sound.
The Tardis landed on a hill overlooking Ponyville. I carried a sleeping Screwy on my back as I left the Tardis. The stars shone in the evening sky overhead. Jack and the Doctor were there, along with Ditzy. The Doctor leaned back against a nearby fence and said, “Okay, I'll be avoiding hospitals from now on, thank you very much.”
“You think Thirteen is gone?” I asked.
“I seriously doubt it,” he said with a shake of his head. “If he’s as clever as I am, he’ll figure out some way to come back.”
I nodded solemnly and then Jack slid a hoof over my shoulder “Even still, it’s a victory for us. Whaddya say I show you this great bar over in the next system?”
“I’m sure it’s great, Jack,” I said, using my magic to shove him off. “But, I've got a mare friend to propose to.”
“You’re getting married, Private?” Ditzy asked, a huge smile on her face. “That’s so amazing! I knew you and Twilight would marry each other someday!”
“Ditzy,” I groaned, blushing a little.
“Well, just send me the date and I’ll make it there,” the Doctor said with a smile. “I know better than to skip weddings of my companions.”
“I promise you are all invited, if she says yes,” I said with a hopeful smile.
“Fraid I can’t make it,” Jack said. “I got some things to do, but you never know.”
“Just be careful where you establish, Torchwood Jack,” the Doctor said with a smile. “It goes without saying I did appreciate your help. If I hear one more word about you from my daughter, however, I know a couple of great black holes I can chuck you into.”
“Guess dads never change no matter what species,” Jack said with a laugh and then he looked at me.
“Not a chance,” I said flatly.
“Aw damn,” Jack shook his head and walked a little ways. “Well, I’m off on my own little adventure. Who knows, we may see each other again.” Jack then lifted his foreleg and was about to tap his watch when he looked at the Doctor and said, “Doc, I hope you find her.”
The Doctor just smiled and I watched as Jack tapped a button on his watch and he suddenly vanished before my eyes. Huh, he wasn’t lying about being a time agent it seems.
“Right, let’s be on our way,” The Doctor said, walking towards the Tardis.
Ditzy was about to follow when she looked at me. “I’m really happy you and Twilight are gonna get married.”
“Thanks Ditzy,” I smiled slowly. "I just hope she'll have me.
“I'm sure she will," Ditzy replied with a big grin. "When she does can I ask a favor?"
“Sure, what's that?”
“If it’s not too much to ask, could I be a bridesmaid?” she asked nervously. “I just, I always really like weddings and would love to-“
“Say no more,” I hugged her and replied. “I’ll talk to Twilight about it, I’m sure she’d love it. Plus Dinky would make an awesome flower girl.”
“Yay!” Ditzy hugged me back and then flew over to the Tardis. “Private, thanks again for helping me, time and again!”
I smiled at her and said, “I just don’t want to lose a good friend.”
With that, Ditzy entered the Tardis and closed the door behind her. I watched as the Tardis started up and eventually faded from existence.
I knew tonight was the night! After today, I’m not going to let anything stop me from proposing to the love of my life. I'd become convinced that this night would be just beautiful for it.
I’ve been gone almost all day though. I hope nothing terrible had happened.
I gently laid Screwy on a hospital bed as Doctor Stable stood over her and checked her vitals with his magic. “She should be fine after a few days rest and plenty of tender love and care,” he explained.
“That’s good to hear,” I said with a smile.
“So what about the hospital?” he asked, looking at me. “I heard in the news it blew up.”
“Some kind of wiring or gas leak problem I think,” I said. “Luckily I got her out before it happened. As for the medical board, I contacted a good lawyer who’s more then happy to help out. He’ll get to the bottom of why she was sent there.”
“Thank you, Private,” Doctor Stable said. “You really helped this suffering mare from having a regress.”
It was then I noticed something about him, his coat was a little off. “Doctor, were you sunburned or something?”
“We had a bit of an incident with the weather today,” he explained. “As well as with the food, the animals and all sorts of problems today. Thankfully, they were all resolved by Twilight Sparkle.”
I smiled, that’s my Twilight alright. I was a little saddened by not being here when she needed my help, but I knew she would figure it out on her own. Still, she won’t have to worry about everything much longer. I’m never going to leave her side after our wedding.
After all, we’re a team, we need each other.
I looked back at Screwy who was sound asleep and said, “You don’t have to worry about payment either. Consider it a favor for a friend, the courts won’t be able to convict you if I volunteered.”
Doctor Stable gave a smile and said, “Again, thank you so much for your help. The Staff will be happy that Screwy is back home safe and sound. She’ll have to stay here for a couple of days but I’m sure she’ll be home before anypony knows it.”
I walked out of the room, a slight skip in my step as I thought about what was coming.
I was walking through the quiet streets of Ponyville. For some reason the ground felt wet and muddy. Was there a rainstorm today I missed? Wow, the weather team must’ve had a serious incident for all of this to occur.
I then looked up at the stars in the night sky. Luna, guide my words and my steps tonight. I’m making a big step, and I could use your watch over me.
I saw as the stars moved themselves into a shape of Luna’s face. She smiled and winked at me before they realigned themselves. I’m guessing she’s glad I was willing to ask for her blessing on this night.
I walked towards the library when I noticed a light was shining above Ponyville, a violet Twilight cutie mark shaped star in the sky. I stared dumbfounded…
