Chapter 3

They landed smoothly and quietly, the tardis’ engines slowly whooshing and wheezing as they shut off. Derpy was sitting by the railing, still staring at the picture the doctor had given her. She could only remember bits and pieces of her foalhood. The last thing she remembered of her parents was her mother teaching her how to make bubbles. She didn’t really remember much else. But she knew the faces in the picture and was happy to see them again.

“We’re here” the doctor announced, breaking derpy out of her trance. He trotted down the steps and to the door.

Derpy stood to follow and started down the stairs when she heard a scream from outside. She looked up to see the door of the tardis was open and the doctor was gone.

She barreled down the stairs as fast as she could. Her hoof caught on the last step causing her to slam her face into the floor and summersault out the door. She shook her head to clear it and gasped at what she saw. A small group of stallions had surrounded the doctor and were trying to restrain him. He was obviously not happy about it.

He was bucking wildly trying to get them off of him. He managed to hit one solidly in the chin knocking him back and popping a few teeth from his mouth. The enraged stallion brought a hoof down on the back of the doctors’ head with a sickening thud, ending his struggle.

“NOOOOOOOOO!” derpy screamed racing towards them. One of the stallions turned to face her, his dark eyes boring holes in her soul. His coat was filthy and stained with blood and various scars peppered his immense body. On his back sat a gruesome looking pair of rusty mechanical wings.

She charged him, half out of fear and half out of desperation. He raised a hoof and bashed her across the face. The powerful blow sent her across the clearing and into a tree. She fell to the ground dazed and bleeding from her cheek and mouth. She spat up the blood and stood up again. The blow had severely thrown off her vision and now everything was a dark blur.

She watched helplessly as the shadowy figures lifted the doctors’ unconscious body and took to the sky. Something fell from his vest picket but she ignored it and gave chase as best she could. But it was a losing battle. They quickly faded into the distance and she fell to the ground, to tired and hurt to continue. She stumbled over to a tree near the road and collapsed. Rain gradually began to fall through the branches and land on her face, mixing with her tears and soaking her mane. She lay there, sobbing weakly, her picture sitting beside her, ink running together in the rain.

“Do you think that she’s okay?”

“I don’t know, she’s in pretty rough shape.”

“Look at the blood all over her face, she must have went through quite the ordeal”

“I know… wait! Shh! She’s waking up!”

Derpy slowly opened her eyes and blinked the sleep out of them. She lifted a hoof to block the blinding sun and groaned. She had an immense headache and her chin was caked in blood that she had coughed up in her sleep. Her eyes were crusted over and her whole body was sore. She turned to find two mares standing over her, both with concerned looks on their faces.

“Are you okay? One of them asked, her red eyes wide with worry for this pony she didn’t even know.

“You look like you’ve just fought an ursa minor” the other mare stated. She seemed to be the polar opposite of her companion. She had a neatly styled mane and tail with a perfectly knotted pink bow tie, which greatly contrasted with her beige coat. Her unicorn companion, on the other hand, had a wildly styled two tone blue mane and a pure white coat.

“They have him” derpy moaned, trying to stand but falling, too weak to walk.

“Have who?” the white unicorn asked.

“The doctor, they took him. I couldn’t stop them” she sniffled and tried to wipe the crud from her eyes. She saw her picture lying next to her and her heart skipped a beat. “No” she whispered, reaching over and picking the picture up off the wet grass.

The ink had smeared and run together into a big swirling mass of meaningless color. The picture had been completely destroyed. She turned it over numbly and found a note on the back.

To derpy hooves

My favorite companion

Happy birthday

-dr. whooves

“What’s that?” the white unicorn asked, leaning in for a better look. Derpy just drooped her head and cried. Her shoulders shook gently as her quiet sobs were noticed by the other two mares.

Octavia trotted over and lay down beside her. “Don’t cry, you have friends here to help you, don’t cry”

Derpy looked up with a glint of anger in her gaze. “HE was my ONLY friend, I don’t even KNOW you!”

Octavia was unphased by derpys little outburst and put a foreleg around her shoulders. “I’m Octavia,” she said giving her a little smile, “my friend here is vinyl scratch.”

“I’m, I’m derpy” derpy replied trying to smile back.

“So” Octavia said in a soothing tone, “why don’t you tell us what happened”

Derpy took a deep breath and recounted the entire story as best she could. Meeting the doctor. The tardis. The adventures they had. The doctors’ abduction. Everything. She didn’t even care whether they believed her or not.

Vinyl had a skeptical look on her face but Octavia clung onto every word. When derpy had finished Octavia helped her to her hooves and got her to the road.

“Let’s go get you cleaned up” she said, “then we’ll see what we can do about your friend”