Doctor Whooves: The Sentaurans

Doctor Whooves: The Sentaurans

Chapter 4: The War Party!

by Neorenamon

This story takes place after the events of Doctor Whooves, the Re-Imagination.  I give credit to both Doctor Who and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic for the characters and the rights to the same.

…

The Doctor and his Assistants in Training moved from one fake work camp to the next in search of the Master, but all they found were groups of stallions who all were of the same size, shape and mass.  They were all carrying energy weapons wrapped in cloth.  He suspected that there was more weapons and suits of body armor hidden in crates scattered about the various camp.

“Hey Doc,” asked Apple Bloom, “How y'all gonna find tha Master if he looks like one of them there... Zen... Scent... Seen...”

“Sentaurans?” offered the Doctor.

“Yeah, one of them.”

“Because if the Master is in fact a Time Lord,” mused the Doctor, “He's not going to act like one of the Sentaurans.  The people of Gallifrey are... proud... somewhat arrogant.  The Sentaurans are born as clones of a professional soldier, and they all inspire to act like one.  I can tell that they resent even having to pretend to be performing manual labor.”

“Oh, I see,” she replied, “and what about that do-hickey we all is lookin fer?”

“I'm looking for some tent or temporary building that appears to be more important than the others.  That would be an officer's accommodations, and that's where we'll find our communications device.”

“I would be a heck of a lot more useful if I could fly,” sighed Scootaloo.

“Well, your wings seem to work even if they aren't strong enough to fly,” he mused as he looked her over, “Perhaps I can make something to help you once I have some time to use the TARDIS workshop and its tools.”

“What can you do to help?” she asked as she looked up into his eyes, “You can't fly.”

“Ah yes,” he replied, “But there is some Science... things available that just might.”

She brightened up as she chirped, “If you could do that for me, I'd be FOREVER GRATEFUL!”

“I promise I'll do everything I can to help.”

“Hey Doc,” interrupted Apple Bloom as she tapped him on the shoulder, “That tent over there looks kinda important.”  She pointed with her other front hoof.

“Hmm,” observed the Doctor as he looked where she was pointing, “I think you're right about that.  Especially since there appears to be two Sentaurans standing watch outside the entrance flap.”

“I got this,” said Sweetie Belle as she walked forward.

“Be careful.  I promised to protect you.”

“Will she be safe?” as Scootaloo.

“Well, one advantage is if these beings are like the Sontarans I know, then they are all cloned.  They don't have an idea of what fillies are supposed to be, so they treat them like defective clones.  I hope they see her as being harmless.”

The unicorn filly approached the ponies by the tent, spoke to them quietly, and they suddenly ran off.  They went up to the other Sentaurans, talked to them, and they all began emptying the camp as they poured out onto the road passing the camp.  Once they were out of sight, the Doctor and the others came up to the tent.

“What ever did you tell them?” he asked.

“Oh, I just told them that the Master ordered them to get everyone in this camp over to Gusty's War Party,” she replied with a grin.

“Clever filly,” said the Doctor with a broad grin.

“Oh, I figured I had to get something from being around Rarity as much as I have.”

“Now let's slip into that tent and see what we can find.  There's no idea how long it will take before they discover that they've been tricked and come running back here.”

So the four of them slipped into the tent.  It definitely looked more like a military command center than a tent for somepony just supervising laborers.  There was a large wooden desk in the back, and a picnic  table sized table in the middle covered with papers of various types.  The Doctor looked over the table and noticed a map of Marelin.  It was marked up with symbols he almost magically knew were Sentauran notations for various types of military units and arrows that showed paths of invasion.  It was fortunate that the Time Lords had an affinity for almost all known languages.

“This is it,” he said, “Proof that the Sentaurans are planning to take over Marelin by military force.  We need to alert the Marelin Authorities as soon as possible.  Judging by the intricacies of the planning, the Master must have had some hoof in it.”  Pausing, he looked around and added, “But first we need to find a communications device, or we can't monitor their communications and keep track of their plans.”

The three fillies began to look around, searching through drawers and boxes.  As they searched the obvious places, the Doctor searched the less obvious ones (such as the garbage can under the desk where no Sentauran would stoop to empty it, or under the hollow base of the table lamp).

“Hey Doc,” said Apple Bloom as she looked in a drawer, “This thingie here looks kinda familiar.”

The Doctor came over, looked, and replied, “You're right.  It's a slightly different model of my own sonic screwdriver.  I better hang on to this.”  He placed the device from the drawer into his pocket.

“So this all proves that the Master was here?”

“While not 100% proof,” he replied, “It certainly does make it quite a convincing argument for that point of view.”

“And that all means?”

“It means you're right unless something peculiar is going on.”

“Oh...”

“Hey Doc!” shouted Scootaloo from under the desk, “There's something that looks funny in this garbage can!  It sure doesn't look like it's broke or anything!”

“Not so loud,” he replied, “There may be someone outside.  Even the Master might return here at any time.  Your voices would surely tip him off that something's amiss.”

“Sorry Doc,” she replied more quietly.

“It's all right.  I just want to play it safe with you three until you've been trained to handle more dangerous situations that this.”

…

“Gusty?” whispered Firefly (Rainbow Dash) in her ear, “Don't you think the Party Cannon is just a little too much?”

“There can never be enough party favors,” replied Gusty (Pinkie Pie) back.  She waved her hoof about at the three dozen or so Sentauran “workers” and added, “Don't they look like they're having the time of their lives?!”

There was tables set up everywhere with bowls of fruit punch, ladles and cups all about, along with trays full of nuts, candied fruits, sweet breads and cake.  Around the edges of the area was a few of Pinkie's special party cannons that spit up gouts of multicolored streamers and small random gifts at various times.  Even the Sentaurans soon realized that the harmless paper and lightweight presents were no threat to them.  The more they ate and drank, the more they began to act oddly.

“You didn't spike that punch,” asked Firefly suspiciously, “Did you, cupcake?”

“Oh, why would you say something like that?” she asked back innocently.

“Because you've done that at your own parties at least once every year for more than 950 years.  Have you forgotten what happened the first time I got totally plastered at one of your parties?”  She said the last part as she waggled her eyebrows at Gusty.

“Are you saying I'm in a rut?”

“Maybe...” she said smoothly, “But perhaps I should remind you about that first time we...”  The sentence was never completed as by the time she was that close to Gusty, she had already embraced her about her neck and gave her a hot kiss on the lips.

A few of the Sentaurans saw this, and in there less than sober state, assumed it was a party game that they were supposed to play as well.  So they grabbed on of the other clones and kissed them on the lips in the same way Firefly had with Gusty.  While some tried to reject the advance, many of them were quite willing to go along with it.

Firefly and Gusty were dimly aware that the number of Sentaurans at the party continued to grow.  It seemed that word of the party was spreading by messenger or other traffic between the camps even as the party continued.  And it wasn't even noon at the time.

…

Romana was amazed how much she missed her new powers even though she was just learning how to control them.  It would have been much easier to escape the restraints that the Master had used on her.  Even the ball gag was enough to stop her from conversing in any way with the other prisoner, Miss Rarity.  But she just could not ignore the pain and confusion she was feeling because of the Master's disruptor he had placed over her horn.

“Perhaps it's time to call my field commander and see how things are going,” he mused as he stepped out of the room.

Romana knew by the nature of the TARDIS that the Master could arrange its rooms on a whim, so he most likely had the Control Room right next to this one.  It was close enough that she could overhear the conversation.

“Commander Stall,” he announced, “Come in Commander Stall.”  He waited a few seconds and said again, “Come in Commander Stall.”

“This is the glorious Commander Stall,” came the reply, “Speak.”

“How goes the invasion plans?”

“Everything is going according to plan and schedule.”

“It wouldn't hurt to get ahead of the schedule for once,” grumbled the Master.  In between his words, they could hear some sort of muffled noise coming from the background.  The voices were fairly high pitched, as if from a mare or colt.

“It is not our way to change schedules.  They are made that way for a reason.”

“Very well.  I have reason to believe a foreigner may try to infiltrate your camp, so keep an eye out for them.  He may call himself 'the Doctor'.  I shall not tolerate failure.  While you prepare the main attack, I shall continue working on the contingency plan from my TARDIS.  Master out.”

He returned to the room as he gloated, “It seems this Doctor is not as nearly as clever as I.”

'And that's where you're wrong,' thought Romana.

…

“It's lucky you all convinced the Master that you all was that Commander Stall character,” giggled Apple Bloom.

“It isn't difficult to impersonate a voice from a race of clones,” replied the Doctor as he pocketed the communications device he fished out of the garbage can, “But I can't help but wonder what that noise was in the background.  It certainly didn't sound like any piece of equipment one would find in a Time Lord's TARDIS.”  He took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned the device before turning it and taking a scan of the area.  “This seems to be the only communications device within this camp, so it shall be somewhat difficult and time consuming to replace this once they realize it's missing.  Now we better get going before someone comes back here.”

The Doctor stuck his head out of the tent, glanced about, and signalled for the three fillies to follow him outside of the tent.  “Now we can go back and check up on how Pinkie... I mean Gusty and Firefly are doing.”  The camp was still empty as they headed out onto the road.

As the approached the party camp, they could see two groups of “workers” approaching from opposite directions.  It seemed like there was hundreds of ponies assembled in the camp and partying their muzzles off.  The Doctor wondered how even Pinkie could keep them all amused until he remembered it was the future Alicorn Princess Pinkie Pie he was dealing with, and then it all made sense.

“Wait a few minutes,” advised the Doctor as they approached the boundary of the camp.

“Is there something wrong Doc?” asked Scootaloo.

“Oh, just a feeling something's about to...” he began to say as he looked up, and continued, “Oh, here it comes now!  We should all back up fast!”

The fillies looked up to see a humongous lemon meringue pie falling from the sky right down at the massive party. This monstrous pie was large enough to cover everything in camp and then some.  They all began to back away as fast as their legs could carry them.  The pie hit the ground with a massive “SPLAT!” sound.  Once again there was meringue, graham cracker crust and...

“Oh, it's a key-lime pie,” said the Doctor as he looked at the greenish pudding like goo, “I'm glad she doesn't pull the same stunt every time.”

“But it's still a gross and nasty pie,” whined Sweetie Belle.

“Gross and nasty?” asked Scootaloo.

“Well when it's spilled on the ground, of course it is.  It's always a mess just to clean up after one normal sized pie hits the floor... but this... this... IS! THE! WORST! POSSIBLE! THING!”

“She all is takin after Rarity, ain't she?”

“So who's in charge of Germaneigh?” asked the Doctor.

“Well we all learned in class that Germaneigh has a King, a Council, and a Chancellor,” replied Apple Bloom sagely.

“You stayed awake for that?” asked Scootaloo.

“I reckon so.”

“We better take our evidence to the Chancellor,” he replied, “He's the one most likely taking care of the day to day matters of state.  The King has royal duties, and the Council might only come together and make decisions at their meetings.  We'll have to hoof it into Marelin.”

“How come?”

“Judging by how dense those buildings appear to be even from here, I think it would be hard to find a place to move the TARDIS and not be seen by many ponies.”

“I reckon that all makes sense,” said Apple Bloom, “So let's git goin.”

The other two fillies nodded.

[to be continued]