“And then we all played pirates together!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed excitedly, causing her voice to squeak on the word ‘pirates’.
“Uh-huh,” Rarity muttered, only half-listening as she tried to focus on making measurements of the dress she was cutting, while magically utilizing the tape measure.
“Rarity!” Sweetie whined. “Are you even listening?”
“I’m sorry, Sweetie Belle.” Rarity replied, adjusting her red work-spectacles. “I am listening, it’s just that I’m under a very strict deadly for a very important deadline, please continue.”
For the first time in over a week, the Carousel Boutique was completely empty, save for the two sisters. Sweetie intended to make the most of it by finally spending time with her big sister, who always seemed busy these days. Unfortunately, it seemed as though Rarity’s mind was too preoccupied to take note of what a big deal it was that Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara, hadn’t acted like jerks towards the Cutie Mark Crusaders, for once.
“Ugh!” Sweetie merely released a frustrated groan, that was the end of the story and now she would have to tell it all over again.
Instead, Sweetie moved towards the center of the store and collapsed on her back. The combination of her boredom and Rarity’s apparent lack of interest made today seem pretty crummy. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw some kind of movement from the head of one of the Marrequins.
“RARITY!” Sweetie exclaimed, suddenly sitting up. “Did you see that!?”
“See what?” Rarity asked, not shifting her attention from the project she was working on.
“A marrequin’s head just moved!” Sweetie shrieked, alarmed.
“I’m sure you just imagined it.” Rarity muttered, brushing it off.
“But, I saw it!” Sweetie protested. “It looked right at me!”
“Sweetie Bell,” Rarity sighed, turning towards her younger sister. “I realize that you’re upset that I can’t spend time with you right now, but-”
Her sentence was cut short as she noticed something quite disturbing; every single marrequin within the store had its head turned in their direction, almost as if the plastic statues were looking at them.
“Sweetie Belle, were you playing with the marrequins while I was working?” Rarity asked, barely above a whisper.
“No…” Sweetie replied, becoming increasingly worried at the signs of her elder sister’s distress.
Rarity’s mouth and throat became dry as her heart began palpitating.
“If this is some kind of prank…” she began.
“I didn’t touch them!” Sweetie protested, adamantly.
The marrequins all dressed in various outfits, then slowly turned towards them and began moving in the direction of the two sisters.
“Sweetie Belle,” Rarity whispered, as her horn lit up with a light blue aura. “Get behind me.”
Sweetie did as instructed, peeking out from behind her sister’s hind-leg.
One marrequin that was completely naked, lacking any clothing whatsoever, stood out in front of the others, lifted up its left foreleg before stopping. It appeared to be pointing at Rarity, causing a confused expression to spread across her and her sister’s faces. The hoof part then flipped downward, revealing a stubby, metallic barrel.
The door of the boutique flew open as The Doctor rushed in wielding the Sonic Screwdriver between his teeth.
The barrel emerging from the marrequin’s foreleg emitted a buzzing sound, similar to one heard within a factory, before the Sonic Screwdriver whirred to life as the blue node at the tip lit up.
This chain reaction resulted in the leg exploding, as smoke bellowed out from the damaged stump.
“Run!” The Doctor shouted as Rarity and Sweetie Belle galloped towards the door.
The marrequins had all tilted their heads in examination of the damaged stump, making it easy for the sisters to bypass them.
A few feet from the door of the boutique in the middle of the street stood a wooden blue box.
The Doctor ran towards it before throwing himself at the door, pushing it open.
“Get inside!” he shouted back to the other two.
Looking back, he could see the marrequins slowly walking towards the display window of the shop before one wearing a tuxedo lifted its foreleg before smashing the glass.
Rarity reached the doorway before pulling Sweetie Belle inside with her as the door slammed itself shut.
“That was me.” The Doctor explained as the two sisters looked back towards the door with concern.
There were the faint sounds of plastic knocking against wood as Sweetie Belle squeezed Rarity tightly in a panic.
“Don’t worry.” The Doctor reassured them. “The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn’t get through those doors, and believe me they’ve tried.”
Rarity briefly wondered who or what that was, but more importantly, she wanted to know what those things outside were and what they wanted with her and Sweetie Belle.
The Doctor noted the look of concern still evident on her face and that Sweetie Belle was terrified to the point of shaking slightly.
“I wouldn’t worry too much.” He reiterated. “Those doors are the only way in or out, so we’re perfectly safe.”
“Doctor, what are those things?” Rarity asked.
“Back where I’m from there was a species known as the Nestene Consciousness, who could control and manipulate plastic.” He began.
“These pieces of living plastic were both created and controlled by it, they are known as ‘Autons’.”
“But, why are they here?” Rarity pressed. “I’ve had them for years and they’ve seemed like completely normal marrequins.”
“That’s been bothering me as well.” The Doctor replied. “As far as I can tell, the Nestene doesn’t exist in this universe, nor would it have any reason to.”
“I’m afraid I still don’t follow…” Rarity prompted, curiously.
“Well, typically the Nestene fed upon toxins within a planet’s atmosphere…but, there are little to none to be found here.” The Doctor elaborated.
“If I had to theorize, I would say that the telepathic signals from the Nestene could have traveled here through the same path my TARDIS and I were flung through in the Chaos Storm that brought us here.”
“Meaning?” Rarity prompted, still not getting the full picture.
“It means,” he replied. “That they were given life, but no purpose…there only drive seems to be to kill-fortunately, they only seem to be here in Ponyville-specifically, your shop.”
“How much damage could they possibly do?” Rarity asked. “I mean, surely there must be some way to stop them.”
“They could easily kill everyone in Ponyville before anyone figures out what’s going on.” The Doctor replied. “Fortunately, they seem to be solely focused on us for the moment. As for defeating them, I seem to recall that conventional weapons were more or less useless, however they were vulnerable to both extreme heat and radio waves and radio waves.”
“Couldn’t you simply use the Screwdriver of yours like you did early?” Rarity suggested.
“I could.” He conceded. “But, I would have to use it on them one at a time for the full effect and others could easily grab or kill me while I focus on destroying another, plus I had the element of surprise on my side earlier.”
“Is there some way to stop them without going back outside?” Sweetie asked timidly.
“Maybe…” The Doctor replied, examining the TARDIS control panel and pulling out the Sonic Screwdriver and inserted it into a slot as it once again whirred to life with blue node at the tip lighting up.
Making a few calibrations through pushing a few buttons and pulling a few levers, the TARDIS came to life as the time rotor began to piston.
“Doctor, what’s going on?” Rarity demanded. “What are you doing?”
“It’s a long-shot, but I think I just might be able to slightly alter and amplify the waves of my Sonic Screwdriver with the help of the TARDIS to cover just a small radius outside.”
After a few moments, there were a series of dull thuds which could be heard outside.
Once they had stopped the trio waited a few minutes, before Rarity opened the door of the TARDIS, just enough to peek out through the crack.
Outside of the TARDIS, on the ground below lie a series of fancily dressed marrequins including the one wearing the tuxedo. There was also the one other from earlier with the damaged hoof, which now that the smoke had cleared, could be seen with several wires sticking out.
“Rarity?” Sweetie asked timidly from behind her sister. “Is it safe to come out, now?”
“I-I think it is…” Rarity replied, uncertainly.
“Are they still moving?” The Doctor queried from behind the control panel.
“No…”
“Then, it should be safe.”
Taking his word for it, Rarity opened the door and emerged from the TARDIS with Sweetie Belle in tow.
The Doctor tried taking the Screwdriver out of the slot, but recoiled as the heat it was emitting burned his hoof.
“Ah!” he blew on it before following Rarity and Sweetie back outside.
“Ponyville should be safe now, from the Autons at least.” The Doctor announced, kicking one of the fallen marrequins to ensure that it had been decommissioned.
“Thank you, Doctor.” Rarity replied, turning to him. “If it weren’t for you Sweetie and I may not have…”
“Don’t worry about it.” He brushed it off, waving a hoof. “After all you gave me this new outfit for free…so why not just call us even and leave it at that?”
“Oh…” she muttered, turning away, slightly disappointed that he either didn’t realize she was interested in him or simply wasn’t interested in her.
“What are you going to do now?” Sweetie Belle asked from the doorway of the boutique.
“Well, I’ll start by cleaning up this mess…and then I’ll park the TARDIS somewhere where I don’t have to risk obstructing traffic.” He replied.
“I can help you!” Sweetie exclaimed, excitedly before an idea came to her. “In fact, why don’t I get Applebloom and Scootaloo to help us? Maybe we can even get out Cutie Marks from it-Cutie Mark Crusaders; Trash Collectors!”
“I appreciate the offer, but I’d prefer not to take any risks in case some of these are still active and playing possum.” He replied.
“What if I helped out as well?” Rarity asked. “My magic should make this task much simpler and I could get the rest of my friends to help out as well, plus they could keep an extra eye on the children and help things move along much more swiftly.”
“Alright,” The Doctor conceded. “Sweetie, could you go inside and fetch a bag for us to throw these in?”
The filly nodded enthusiastically at the chance to finally be rid of these creepy marrequins.
Rarity went of to collect the others as The Doctor began sorting the broken Autons into a pile.
Author's Note
Story twelve for One-Shotober
Based on the Autons from Doctor Who and the fact that I find mannequins in general REALLY creepy (unless they have no heads or faces.)
