Chapter One
An ominous mist rolled onward, filling the air with an ethereal sense that the world was gone. The world nearly agreed. The ground was scorched and razed, with the grass dead and no sign of life for miles.
The Doctor had not thought he would find himself here. After his recent run-in with the Sontarans, he and his companions used a transmat beam to escape. However, he now found himself knee-deep in a hellhole of a different sort.
Needless to say, he was very upset with whoever had done this to him.
"Welcome, Doctor."
The scarf-wearing Time Lord turned around to see another stallion standing in the mist. This stallion wore a dark cloak and a large headdress.
"A Chronological Intervention Agency member. You damned fool, do you know about the dangers of trying to intecept a transmat beam?" he asked.
The other Time Lord chuckled. "Doctor, you and I both know that Gallopfrey perfected and transcended transmat technology since the universe was less than half its current size."
"Whatever, I'm done," The Doctor spat. "Upon my victory over Omega, I received a full pardon from the CIA. My banishment is over, and I am no longer your lapdog."
"We have granted you your freedom, Doctor, but we need you. Time Lords do not interfere in the affairs of the universe."
"Except for me," The Doctor corrected.
"Exactly my point. We can use you as our proxy in such matters so we may go outside our laws of non-interference."
The Doctor scoffed at this. "I have no reason to work with the CIA." He turned around and began to walk away. "You have nothing to offer me, and nothing you could say could convince me to help you."
"This involves the Daleks."
The Doctor stopped dead in his tracks. "Tell me more."
Tom Baker
Tara Strong
Peter New
DOCTOR WHOOVES
Genesis of the Daleks
Based on a Story by Terry Nation
"The High Council has looked to the future," the agent explained. "We forsee a time when the Daleks will have suceeded in their goal, and all other forms of life will have been destroyed."
"Bleak, but possible," The Doctor said.
"We intend to have you go to Skaro, prior to the Daleks' evolution."
"You want me to prevent their birth," The Doctor translated.
"Or keep them from becoming agressive. Alternatively, find some sort of inherent genetic weakness."
Suddenly The Doctor realized the truth. "You don't want to protect the universe. The High Council is just protecting themselves."
"Perhaps," he replied. "But will you help us?"
The Doctor sighed. "One last time," he muttered. "Just give me the coodinates."
"No need. You're already here."
The Doctor looked around, and inhaled the atmosphere. It really was Skaro! He grit his teeth. "So I never really had a choice in the matter."
The CIA agent smirked, and pulled out a golden hoof-band. "When your mission is complete, use this Time Ring to return to your TARDIS."
The Doctor placed the ring upon his front right hoof. The other stallion walked away into the mist.
"Wait! What about Twilight?! What about Dr. Stable?!" The Doctor yelled.
"What about us?"
The Doctor turned to see his companions right behind him.
"Doctor, where are we?" Twilight asked.
"It seems there's been a slight change in our itinerary," he replied. "We're on Skaro."
As if to punctuate The Doctor's statement, a massive explosion went off none too far from them. The tell-tale sounds of gunfire broke the silence of the ethereal mist.
The Doctor took notice of a nearby foxhole. "Get down!" he cried, and the three ponies rushed for the shelter, lest they become a fixture of the scorched earth around them.
Within the foxhole, they could remain somewhat safe. However, the image of a young pony's bloodied corpse inside it certainly did nothing to alleviate their stress.
"Sweet merciful Celestia," Stable swore, "he's barely a schoolcolt."
Twilight was in shock. War wasn't common in Equestria, as they were a fairly peaceful culture and world. They had a formal military mind you, they would be fools not to. Furthermore, her brother was part of the Royal Guard, she had long since come to grips with the idea of death by combat. But never on somepony who was even younger than she was.
The Doctor, however, jumped instead to an inconsistency about the body. "Look at this. Wielding an advanced laser rifle, but also wearing a jacket of synthetic fibers, topped off with a gas mask."
"So you're upset that this poor guy is a fashion victim?" Twilight spat.
"No," The Doctor countered, "well somewhat, but the issue is that these things just don't go together. It would be like going to the stone age and finding a transistor radio."
"Playing rock music?" Dr. Stable joked.
"Possibly. So this is the end result of a thousand-year war. You run out of your technological marvels and are forced to fall back on primitive supplies. A true war of attrition."
The sounds of heavy artillery faded, and The Doctor gestured to the others to get moving. Upon leaving the foxhole, they set out to find any form of civilization they could. After all, it was highly unlikely that the Daleks were born on the fields of war in a literal sense.
"Be very careful. There's probably traps around this area or-"
"Doctor?" Dr. Stable asked. "Why did you stop talking?"
"Because I'm standing on a land mine."
The two unicorns looked to The Doctor's hooves, and sure enough, there was a round metal object beneath them.
"What should we do?" Dr. Stable asked.
"Can't you use the sonic screwdriver?" Twilight offered.
"The sonic detonates landmines. Not exactly what I'm hoping for at the moment," The Doctor snarked. "What I need is to be able to keep the same amount of pressure on the mine, even while I'm stepping off of it. Can either of you use your magic to do that, or maybe insulate the explosion?"
"I can try," Twilight replied. Her horn lit up with her violet magic aura as Dr. Stable looked on with concern. Granted, Twilight was more skilled in magic then he was, he had only learned the standard fare and a few medical examination spells, but she was still a student.
The mine began to glow with the same violet light. Twilight was clearly over-exerting herself from the concentration, but she resisted the urge to shut her eyes from the pain. If she did, it was entirely possible that she would make a mistake.
The Doctor cautiously lifted his hoof off of the mine. Thankfully, it did not explode. The Time Lord then proceeded to remove himself from the land mine completely.
Twilight, realizing that though The Doctor was safe her work was not quite done, lifted the land mine as high into the air as she conceivably could. The Doctor gestured to the two unicorns to get as far away as possible. Once they had gotten a safe distance away, they hit the dirt as Twilight released the mine from her control. The explosion went off, but they had gotten away safely.
As they looked past the mist, The Doctor could make out the image of barbed wire. "Do you see that?"
Twilight nodded. "Yeah, and I think I see some kind of dome further back."
"An entire domed city?" The Doctor wondered.
"If they can build a giant domed city, why even bother with the barbed wire and land mines? They're pretty old-fashioned, even by Equestrian standards," Stable commented.
The trio made their way over the barbed wire, and found themselves in the middle of the trenches. The ponies there were dead. The whole lot of them. Perched across the trenches to give the illusion of a large force lying in wait. The gruesome display put the three off, but it wasn't like they could really do anything about it.
"Doctor," Stable pointed out, "these ponies are wearing different uniforms than the other corpse we saw."
"We must have crossed the lines along the way," The Doctor figured.
"Doctors!" Twilight shouted.
The two stallions ran over to their female compatriot and found what appeared to be a trap door.
"Probably a service tunnel," Stable said. "Likely leads right into the dome."
The Doctor pulled out the sonic screwdriver, but the buzzing noise it gave off seemed to indicate failure. "Wood," he muttered.
Twilight pulled on it with her telekinesis. "And it's locked tight," she said in defeat.
"Well, I guess we search the trenches," Stable offered.
A whistling noise sounded through the air, and by the time the living ponies in the trench turned to look, they saw a round metallic object land. The object then let loose a stream of yellow-colored gas.
Acting on instinct, The Doctor and company grabbed the gas masks that the dead soldiers were wearing and slipped them over their own faces.
From the trap door, a unicorn soldier emerged and blasted the three with a burst of magical energy. The Time Lord and his allies collapsed as the soldier turned back down to the tunnel. "Three intruders sir. Two male, one female. Don't look like Thals," he reported.
"Bring the stallions, the mare's of no use to us."
The unicorn replied and brought the two stallions into the tunnel with him, leaving Twilight alone and unconscious on an unfamiliar and war-torn world.
Meanwhile in the Storeroom...
The Doctor and Stable were barely starting to regain consciousness. The Doctor found himself drifting in and out of the conversation.
"Rumors...Thal Robots...General Ravenwind...Clean Weapons..."
He noticed that he and Stable were inside what appeared to be a mining cart, and heard an electrical charge start up. The cart was pulled past like a trolley along the tracks.
When the cart slowed to a stop, he was greeted by a group of ponies who all seemed around Twilight's age. They were led by a pegasus with a tornado cutie mark. His coat was obsidian black, and his mane and tail a shock of orange. The room had computers and maps strewn about it, with a table in the center. On the table was a model of the battlefield, with domed cities on each side, and a mountain range through it. Small markers to indicate settlements, battalions, and theorized traps littered the model.
The pegasus leader stepped forward. "Who are these supposed to be?"
"Prisoners sir," a soldier explained.
"For interrogation, then? Good. I love interrogation." He smirked.
"Yes, you seem like the type," The Doctor muttered.
"You have no place to talk, you insolent muto," the leader barked.
"Sir," the soldier continued, "my section was able to protect the area from Thal attackers, but our ammo supplies are running low."
"Conserve them. Ammunition is a valuable resource and we cannot afford to run out, lest we be forced down to nothing but spears and rocks."
"Yes sir." The soldier saluted.
"For example," the leader said, "these two prisoners will be hung once we're done with them. No weapons, no muss, no fuss. Dismissed."
The group of soldiers left. Now the only ponies in the room were the young general, Dr. Stable, a guard, and The Doctor.
"So the Thals have been reduced to recruiting mutos, eh? Empty your pockets!"
The Doctor gladly stood up and began to rifle through his pockets. Amongst the items he found were his sonic screwdriver, a bag of jelly fillies, a magnifying glass, a yo-yo, a monocle, tickets for The Wiz, a college textbook on quantum mechanics (which he referred to as 'light reading'), a small number of bits, and a library card. "This may take a while," he joked.
The general groaned.
The Doctor turned his attention to the table. "If I may say, that's a nice model you have there, mister..."
"Ravenwind," the pegasus replied, "General Ravenwind. And in a few weeks that map will be changed forever. We'll wipe the Thals right off the face of Skaro!"
"If I had a bit for every time I heard that," The Doctor muttered.
"What are you trying to say, mister...?"
"Doctor. Just The Doctor. And I can't help but wonder how you intend to win this war when you're running out of weapons and your soldiers, and your generals for that matter, are barely old enough to go on a date, much less enter harsh combat," The Doctor replied.
"Make your jokes now, Doctor," Ravenwind asserted, "but your insolence will change nothing about our glorious victory. We will wipe out every last trace of the Thals. We will build a monument to the sacrifice of every Kaled who fell to those wretched fools. We will be the ultimate soldiers of justice and vengeance! Our battle cry will be 'Total Extermination of the Thals!'"
The Doctor shuddered. The poor boy was sounding more and more like a... well, you can probably guess. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Stable had started to wake up. The time to hatch an escape plan was now. "So you intend to sweep across the battlefield completely?"
He then proceeded to wave his hoof to emphasize his point. In doing so, he smacked Ravenwind across the face. As Ravenwind stumbled, The Doctor snuck his keys away from him. Sensing the plan immediately, Dr. Stable used his magic to take the guard's handcuffs away, and clasped them onto the guard. The Doctor then grabbed his sonic screwdriver, and shorted out the various computers in the room.
Ravenwind was still able to get his footing back. "You two will never be able to get out of here alive."
"So you say," The Doctor replied. "Kaleds, eh? K-A-L-E-D. My, how creative."
"Even you mutos should be able to tell Kaleds from Thals," Ravenwind said.
"Maybe, but we're not mutos, whatever those are," Stable said, getting up from the cart.
"Either way, General, you are going to lead us out of here," The Doctor asserted.
"Why should I?"
Dr. Stable grabbed the yo-yo with his telekinesis and decided to take a gamble. "If you don't, we'll set off this bomb."
Ravenwind grit his teeth. "Where do you want to go?"
Stable, happy his plan worked, returned the yo-yo to The Doctor as he collected his other items. "Just back outside would be fine," The Doctor replied.
"Feel free, but you won't get much further," Ravenwind said. The stallions then left the room.
Meanwhile in the Trenches...
As Twilight stirred awake, she found herself alone. She couldn't help but be worried. While other ponies her age would point out how she spent most of her time alone, they didn't realize just how inaccurate that statement was. She had Spike for a study buddy, or Princess Celestia to teach her, or her parents or somepony in the next room, at least.
But here, with neither Dr. Stable or The Doctor anywhere in sight, she was alone. Well and truly alone.
She sighed beneath her gas mask, and made her way out of the trench. There wasn't anything she could do there, so she figured that her only chance to find either of them was to go looking for them.
How wrong she was.
Meanwhile in a Corridor...
General Ravenwind kept up his pace, leading the two off-worlders through the bunker's various halls.
"Where are we? We told you to bring us up to the surface," Stable asserted.
"I know, I know," Ravenwind retorted, "there's an elevator at the end. You must have seen it, mutos."
"Why do you keep calling us mutos? We don't even know what mutos are!"
"Mutos are the things that live in the wastelands," the pegasus explained, "If your friend is out there, she won't last much longer."
"Why not?" The Doctor asked.
"Because it will be dark soon. The mutos really start moving at night."
As they kept moving, the tell-tale sound of another set of hooves echoed through the corridors. Dr. Stable whispered to Ravenwind, "Don't forget we still have that bomb."
The other pony was a royal purple stallion with a blonde mane. His mane was short and combed to each side. His piercing green eyes were framed with highly stylized glasses. Lastly, his cutie mark was a knight's helmet. This earth pony was truly the no-nonsense type.
"General Ravenwind," he said.
"Security Commander Right Hoof," Ravenwind replied.
"I was going to ask you come to my office, but I see you've come to the decision that entertaining civilians is more important," Right criticized.
"We'll not be staying long Commander," The Doctor said, "don't let us stop you."
"I'm not too worried about that," Right Hoof claimed. He pressed a button on the side of the wall, and a P.A. system sprung to life. "This is Commander Right Hoof, two Thal intruders have made their way into the bunker. Take them down, and bring them in for questioning."
The Doctor and Stable traded glances, and quickly made their way away from the Kaled stallions.
Right Hoof kept his focus on Ravenwind. "You damned fool. What kind of so-called General is overpowered by a couple of Thals that easily?"
"I've seen their eyes, Commander," Ravenwind asserted, "they aren't Thals, and they claim not to know what mutos are, so I doubt that they're either type."
"Well they aren't Kaleds," Right Hoof replied, matter-of-factly. "We'll just have to wait for the autopsy, then." Right Hoof pressed the P.A. button again. "Be on the lookout for intruders in the area of lift platform seven."
Meanwhile on the surface of Skaro...
The Doctor and Dr. Stable had been able to escape using one of the elevators, and had begun to run.
"Doctor, what was the plan?!" Dr. Stable asked.
"Keep running!"
"And after that?"
"Run some more!"
Once he finished sharing what was essentially his life philosophy with the medical officer, he noticed that Stable was about to run into a tripwire. "Look out!"
But he was too late, and the trap went off. The two were trapped in an energy net. A group of Kaled soldiers approached them.
A Bit Later in the Strategy Room...
After yet another extended bit where The Doctor started to empty his pockets (at which point Right Hoof simply requested he remove his jacket) the Security Commander looked to a strange device he didn't recognize. "What is the function of this device?"
"It's an etheric beam locator," The Doctor explained, "it detects ion charged emissions. And it's made from a very firm material."
"Yes," Right Hoof muttered. "I've never seen anything like this from Kaleds or Thals."
"Well my friends and I are not from Skaro."
"Aliens?" Right Hoof questioned.
"We're from a place called Equestria," Dr. Stable explained. "Well, I am, at least. I don't know about The Doctor."
"There is no such thing as life on other planets," Right Hoof asserted. "Davros has determined this to be an irrevocable scientific fact. As such, either he is wrong or you are lying."
"We're not lying," The Doctor said.
"And Davros is never wrong," Right Hoof countered. "We seem to have reached an impasse."
"I'd very much like to meet this Davros," The Doctor mused. "Even I'm wrong, sometimes. Who is he?"
"Davros is our greatest scientific mind," Right Hoof exposited. "He's in charge of all the research at this bunker."
Ravenwind offered his own theory. "Is it possible that they're some sort of intelligent form of muto, capable of developing advanced technology?"
"What are mutos, anway?" Dr. Stable asked. He had frankly grown sick of being called something he didn't understand.
"Mutos are relics of our former selves," Right Hoof replied. "They are monsters born of the nuclear weapons used in the first century of war. They were banished to the wastelands, and left to scavenge for themselves."
"The genetically wounded," The Doctor translated.
"Kaleds must be kept genetically pure," Right Hoof asserted. "Anything that is not perfect, is to be rejected.
"Harsh," The Doctor commented.
"I would've said horrible," Dr. Stable offered.
"We don't care what your views are." Right Hoof turned to Ravenwind. "I'll take these two back for interrogation."
"They're prisoners of war," Ravenwind countered.
"Then use your authority to release them to me. My unit will get more out of them than you ever could."
Ravenwind grumbled. Right Hoof was correct, but he didn't exactly need to hear that. "If you insist."
Right Hoof smirked. "I do." He gave a notepad to the General. "Furthermore, I need the following items sent to the bunker immediately."
"I can't spare this much equipment!" Ravenwind exclaimed. "These spare parts would near-completely drain our supply!"
"This supply order came directly from Davros. If you'd like to take it up with him..."
"Never mind," Ravenwind grunted. "I'll get you the equipment. I suppose having the tools to win was too much to ask of me."
"Believe me, Ravenwind," Right Hoof said, "by the time Davros is done, winning won't be a problem."
Meanwhile in a Series of Ruins...
Twilight's journey across the battlefield had led to little to no forward progress, but she was hopeful that some analysis of this destroyed area might offer some helpful information.
"Sir, we're ready."
Twilight hid cautiously behind a column. As she looked past the area she saw two ponies, but one of them clearly wasn't your average pony. The stallion was clearly an earth pony, but it was hard to tell anything else about him. He was sitting in what appeared to be some sort of invalid carriage. His left foreleg dangled at his side, and the right foreleg was hovering slightly above a console attached to the carriage. His face was withered and old. The most terrifying physical aspect of this stallion were his eyes. The skin over his eye sockets was so wrinkled and decrepit, it was hard to tell if he simply never opened his eyes, or he never had any eyes to begin with. In place of traditional eyes, he had an artificial robot eye lodged into his forhead. Wires and nodes were buried into his torso, making him seem more machine than pony.
"Observe this test closely," the decrepit pony said to the other. "This is the beginning of a new era."
A strange, mechanical being moved nearby the two ponies. To the uneducated, they would claim it resembled a pepper shaker. A plunger and a small blaster extended from the center of the metallic being, and an eyestalk protruded from the top.
Twilight could recognize it in an instant. "A Dalek!" she thought.
"Halt. Turn right. Halt," the elderly stallion barked.
At the shriveled pony's commands, the Dalek moved as requested.
"Now," he demanded, "exterminate!"
The Dalek fired a blast at one of the nearby columns, destroying it easily.
The wrinkled stallion chuckled. "Perfect. Now, we can really get started."