"What the-“ Was all Chrysalis of the Changelings had to say before stopping. There was… something trying to invade her body? Hundreds of tiny little things, all buzzing around her and trying to alter her biological makeup. She shapeshifted the interior of her body slightly, to throw them off, and it worked- for a second. Then they were back, adapting to her new setup. She grimaced, before taking the chance to look around the room. There seemed to be chairs, and sitting in them were the skeletons of some manner of biped. They looked something like minotaurs, but without the horns. She stopped dead, hearing clanging and muffled voices above her. She shapeshifted into a stone, causing the metal floor beneath her to dent under her suddenly denser mass. A sort of tunnel above her opened, and she noticed a ladder in the new light. It sounded like something was climbing down. Three more of the bipeds, these ones with flesh, climbed down, and dropped to the floor. Their emotions were… odd. One of them, a female with orange hair, was confused, slightly angry, worried, but still enthusiastic. Another, one of the males, wearing a bowtie, had such a maelstrom of emotion Chrysalis didn’t even try to pierce it. The last seemed to be devoid of emotion at all, and was dressed in what looked like a parka. Emotionless spoke as he walked over to a locker. ‘We should have some climbing rope long enough for that hole.”
“Won’t you introduce us to your crew?” Asked Maelstrom.
"Ah yeah, sorry. Guys, this is the Doctor and Amy.”
The skeletons, being skeletons, didn’t respond. Though now that Chrysalis thought about it, shouldn’t they have collapsed, being just bones?
“Guys?” Asked Emotionless.
The ‘Doctor’ walked over to one of them, and patted it’s shoulder, causing the skull to rock back and become visible.
“Oh my God!” Emotionless gasped, still not actually displaying any shock. The Doctor took a small device from his pocket, and ran it over the bodies, the tip glowing green as it buzzed and warbled. “They’re dead. All of-“ He cut short as the device happened to pass over Chrysalis’ stony form. ‘What?”
Internally, Chrysalis cursed herself, for not picking a better disguise rather than just panicking. The Doctor walked over to her. “The Sonic’s saying there’s… a concealed lifeform? And a lot of energy it doesn’t recognize.” Suddenly, Emotionless spoke.
“Oh, of course! Stupid me.”
“What?” Amy asked.
“I died outside.” At this, if she still had muscles, Chrysalis would have frozen. ‘Died’? An undead?
“The cold preserved my body. I forgot about dying.” He turned to look at them, and some kind of eyestalk pushed out of his forehead. Chrysalis decided she had had enough. She burst into her natural form in a blaze of emerald fire, and shot a magic bolt at Emotionless. Sensing the utter confusion from the Doctor and Amy, she yelled “Shut up and go!” They seemed nice. They’d help her until she found out how to contact Discord and got back to Equestria.
The Doctor shook himself out of his stupor, and yelled to Amy “You heard her! Run!” He dashed for the door as the skeletons received eyestalks and stood up as well. The three dashed trough the door, only pausing to pull Amy from the skeletons’ grasps, before slamming the door shut.
“Right. I’d ask what those things were, but I’m more concerned about the bug horse thing?” Amy panted.
“Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings, thank you very much.” Chrysalis muttered at her. “And calm down! You’re so scared and confused I can’t think straight.”
“Why would our emotional state affect you?” The Doctor asked, still buzzing the ‘Sonic’ at her. ‘And how are you alive? You just have a heart and a brain, both located in your head, and otherwise your body’s practically solid! And it’s constantly changing!”
“I’m an empathovore. I don’t particularly require a digestive system. My body is solid because I’m a shapeshifter. Need to get the mass from somewhere. It’s changing because there’s something in the air trying to get at me. I’m having to shift my body to stop it getting a grip.”
“That’s… amazing!” The Doctor exclaimed. He seemed to be about to say more, when suddenly a female voice emitted from the ether.
“Unauthorized personnel may not enter the cockpit.”
“Shut up!” The Doctor called gleefully. “I’ve just encountered an alien that defies the laws of physics! This almost makes up for getting shot at the planet!”
“Is that her again? Soufflé Girl?” Amy asked the Doctor as he bounded up to a camera.
“Yes. Shush. How are you, Oswin?”
“Fine. I’m scanning you. You’re in another of the escape pods from the Alaska, right? Same ship I was on.”
“How can you hack into everything? You’re on a crashed spaceship!”
“Long story. Is there a word for total screaming genius that sounds modest and just a tiny bit sexy?” Chrysalis rolled her eyes.
“Doctor. You call me the Doctor.”
”I see what you did there. Check the floor. I'm picking up a breach at floor level, there could be a way out. See you later!” The camera cut out, and the three walked over to a hatch in the floor.
“Aha, hatch! Looks like it's been used already, and they tried to block it off behind them.” Exclaimed the Doctor as Chrysalis heaved it open.
“Can’t imagine why.” Amy muttered.
“Shush.” Chrysalis told her. Amy shot the changeling a dirty look, but said nothing more.
“The lower part of the pod is buried, so this must go down to the Asylum.” The Doctor rambled, peering into the hole.
“Where Rory is?”
“Yes. Speaking of which, what happened with Rory?”
“Really? We’re doing this now?” Asked Amy as they began climbing down the ladder, Chrysalis flying alongside them, ignoring Amy’s occasional comments on “Stupid cheating wings”.
“Yes, we’re doing this now. What happened?”
“Stuff, we broke up. What can you-“
“Stop lying.” Amy and the Doctor looked at Chrysalis.
“I’m an empathovore. I can feel emotions. That spreads into basic telepathy. Not enough to read thoughts, and anyone with a manner of control over their mental defences can block me out, but I can sense lying.”
“Cheater.”
“Making use of the resources at hoof.” When they blinked at her again, she slowly raised a hole-ridden hoof for them to see. As realization blossomed on their faces, she planted her face firmly into said hoof. As she lifted it away, she noticed something.
“What’s that?” She pointed at the glowing blue device on the Doctor’s wrist. “Oh! Protects me and Amy from… the… nanocloud…” The Doctor trailed off as he stared at Amy’s wrist.
Amy’s bare wrist.
“Doctor…” Amy started. “What’s going to happen to me?” Meanwhile, Chrysalis was running through calculations in her head furiously. “Nanocloud. Nano is tiny… Doctor. Remember that I mentioned hundreds of tiny things trying to change my body?”
“Yes? Oh! Yes! That’ll be the nanocloud! And now Amy’s unprotected…”
“Doctor. What’s going to happen to me?”
“You’re being… Rewritten.” They reached the bottom of the ladder and stepped out into a corridor.
“So, what? I get one of those things sticking out of my head?”
“Physical changes come later.”
“So where does it start?”
“With your mind.”
“And it’s started already.” Chrysalis put in. “I can actually feel your anger levels rising by themselves. And now you’re scared. Good. From what I’ve figured out, scared isn’t… what made the cloud, anyway?”
“Daleks. Basically, hate incarnate inside mini-tanks.”
“Right. Yes.” Chrysalis walked forward alongside them, as they came up to a door. Chrysalis stopped. “You said Daleks were practically hate incarnate? I’m getting a lot of hate signals. Most of it’s suppressed though, like they hate everything, so it’s become an undercurrent.”
“Sounds like Daleks. Don’t open the door. Oswin?”
“Hello, Bowtie! I have visual.”
“Why don’t I ever have visual on you? Why don’t I ever see you?”
“Limited power, bad hair, take your pick. There's a door to your left, open it. Going to send you a map to that screen. I've put your little friend somewhere safe, I can get you to him.”
“You found Rory?”
“I call him Nina. Personal thing. Hush.”
Meanwhile, Amy stumbled forward. “Who are you?” She asked, looking through the window on the door. “Amy?” Chrysalis cautiously asked. Her eyes widened as Amy opened the door, her horn lighting up green as she restrained the Scottish girl in telekinesis. “Doctor! Little help?” The Doctor ran over to them, as Amy muttered about the obvious Daleks in the room being just people. Chrysalis thought while the Doctor looked around frantically for something to help Amy. Finally, Chrysalis came to a decision- and clocked Amy in the head.
“What’d you do that for?!” The Doctor asked, grabbing the unconscious companion.
“Fastest way to get her to stop hindering us. I’m a telempath with magic, I can wake her up whenever needed.” The two ran back towards the ladder, to see it was moving.
“Right, they’re coming down. I saw that energy bolt earlier, think you can-?”
“Nope, that was designed to stun, and it affects the brain. We were very lucky it worked on him. These things don’t have brains, and with how many there were I won’t be able to fire off enough lethal shots in time.”
“So we-“ The Doctor spun around, to see a Dalek advancing towards them. “Ah. Stuck between a rock and a hard place.” The Doctor dived into the wall niche, still holding Amy, while Chrysalis shifted. Into what, the Doctor didn’t see. There was a small buzzing, hissing noise. The Doctor slowly poked his head out of the niche, to see the Dalek’s gunstick being nonfunctional.
“It’s damaged…”
“That’s lucky. Now what?” Chrysalis asked, shifting out of what looked like thin air with a loud crack, wobbling slightly. “Bleh. Screw you, Law of Mass Conservation…”
The Doctor strode up to the Dalek. “Identify me! Access your records, who am I?”
“You… Are… The Predator…”
“Access standing orders concerning the Predator.”
“The Predator must be destroyed!”
“And how are you going to do that, huh?”
“Doctor…” Chrysalis warned.
“Dalek without a gun! How’re you going to stop me?”
“Self-destruct initiated.”
“Oh, brilliant work, genius!” Chrysalis yelled at the Doctor, even as he soniced the Dalek.
“Self-destruct cannot be countermanded.”
“I’m not looking for a countermand, dear. I’m looking for reverse.”
The Dalek began rolling backwards, chanting “Forwards! Forwards! Forwards!” even as Chrysalis burst out laughing. The Dalek collided with another Dalek in the room, detonating. As the smoke cleared, a man ran into the room. “Oswin? What happened? What killed all the Daleks?”
The Doctor strode out of the smoke, carrying Amy’s prone body, Chrysalis walking alongside him.
“Who do you think?”
“Um. What’s that?” Rory asked, pointing at the insectile equine.
“Who, thank you very much. Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings.”
“Right, okay then.” Rory muttered, taking it in his stride, as he turned and started walking back the way he came. “Follow me!”
The four made it to a fairly large room, with a platform in the center. “Will sleeping help her? Slow down the process?” Rory called, the group having exchanged stories while walking.
“You’d better hope so. Because pretty soon, she’s going to try to kill you.” Oswin replied.
Amy groaned, coming round, as the last wisps of green glow faded from Chrysalis’ horn.
“Ow.”
“Amy, do you remember me?” Asked Rory. She reached up and slapped him. Chrysalis snorted in amusement. “She remembers me.”
“Do you know how you make someone into a Dalek? Subtract love, add anger. Doesn’t she seem a little too angry to you?” Oswin asked.
“Well! Somebody’s never been to Scotland!” Amy responded. Chrysalis cut off the Doctor. “She’s right though. Your anger levels are a lot higher than when I originally met you, and love is down. Here, let me try something.” She sat down in front of Amy. “This is going to leave you drained, but it’ll delay the process. Alright?” Amy glared back, then nodded. “Right.”
Chrysalis opened her mouth, and a faint red mist started to flow from Amy into it. Everyone but the changeling watched, amazed. Her horn lit up, in the same crimson flecked with black glow. Amy rocked, before falling back as the mist flow stopped, Chrysalis standing up shakily. “Right, I’ve drained about half the anger that was in her. Give me something to destroy. Anything will do. I need to get this stuff out of my system. Blah. There’s a reason most changelings stick to love…”
The Doctor tossed her a stony sphere, that reformed when she shattered it, to her delight, and turned back to Oswin’s camera.
“What about you? How come you’re okay? Why hasn’t the nanocloud converted you?”
“I mentioned the genius thing, yeah? Shielded in here.”
“Clever of you. Now, this place. The Daleks said it was fully automated, but look at it! It’s a wreck!”
“Well, I’ve had a year to mess with them and not much else to do.”
“A junior entertainment manager, hiding out in a wrecked ship... hacking the security systems of the most advanced warrior race the universe has ever seen. But you know what really gets me about you, Oswin? The soufflés!”
Amy, rising slowly behind him, mouthed “soufflés”.
“Where do you get the milk? Seriously, is nobody else wondering that?”
“No. Frankly, no. Twice.” Rory responded. Chrysalis looked up from her blissful destruction to reply “A little, but not really.” before going back to imagining the sphere was Starlight Glimmer’s head.
“So, Doctor. I’ve been looking you up. You’re all over the Database. Why do the Daleks call you the Predator?” Chrysalis gave herself a prominent eyebrow just so she could raise it at Oswin changing the subject.
“Oh, I’m no predator. Just a man with a plan.”
“You have a plan?” Chrysalis asked.
“We’re all ears!” Rory stated.
“There’s a nose joke going, if anyone wants to pick that one off!” Amy croaked. Chrysalis gave her a look.
“So! In no particular order, we need to neutralize all the Daleks on the planet, get Oswin out of the wreckage, get offworld, and fix Amy and Rory’s marriage.”
“Right, counting three lost causes, anyone else?” Amy asked. Rory groaned in frustration, while Chrysalis calmly told Amy to shut up.
“Oswin, there’s a Dalek ship in orbit.”
“I know. Picked it up on the sensors.”
“The Asylum has a force-field. The Daleks upstairs are waiting for me to turn it off. Soon as I do, they'll burn this world and us with it. So, Oswin, my question is this. How fast can you drop the force-field?”
The three other beings in the room stared at him.
“Pretty fast. Why?”
“Because this is a teleport, right?”
“Yeah. Internal use only, though.”
“Right. But, I can boost the power once the field is down, and beam us off the planet.”
“But when we drop the field, the Daleks attack. Even if we were quick enough to somehow get off, the only place not on the planet in range is the Dalek ship, where they shoot us on the spot.” Chrysalis rattled. “This is seriously the plan where we live about three seconds longer?”
“You can do lots in three seconds. Oswin! How fast?”
“Can do it from here. Once you come get me.”
“Why can’t you just drop it and come to us?”
“There’s enough power in there for one go. Why would you wait for me?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Dunno. Never met you. Sending a map to your location.” Then Chrysalis spoke up.
“I can read emotions, Oswin. The Doctor’s going to wait until the last millisecond for you.”
“All right, but the place’s crawling with Daleks. You can handle yourself. I just hack things.” Came the reply. Chrysalis pondered this for a second.
“All right, fair enough.” The Predator and the Queen walked over to the screen.
“Right, when the forcefield goes down, the Daleks attack. If it gets too explodey-wodey,” The Doctor told Rory, earning himself a sigh from Chrysalis, “in here, go without us. Okay?”
“And leave you to die?”
“Oh, don’t worry about us. You’re the ones beaming up to a Dalek ship to get exterminated.”
“Fair point, love this plan. Amy?”
“You heard what Oswin said.” Chrysalis responded as the Doctor fiddled with the teleporter’s wiring. “They’re subtracting love. Keep her remembering and focused.”
The two got up and left.
“Clever of you, subtly putting your own bracelet on Amy.” Chrysalis commented to the Doctor. “Do you even need it?”
“Technically, but I’ve lived so long and felt so much love it’ll take decades to convert me.” He replied.
“I can tell. Oswin? We close?”
“Um… yes! You are! About 20 meters away. Which is the good news…”
“And the bad news?”
“You’re about to pass through Intensive Care.”
The doors opened and the unlikely duo stepped through.
“So, what’s so special about these ones?” Chrysalis asked, tasting the air- or was it the emotions?
“Dunno. All survivors of particular wars; Spiridon, Kembel, Aridius, Vulcan, Exxilon. Ringing any bells?”
“All of them,” The Doctor muttered. He walked forward, till he was right in front of a Dalek. “These are the ones who survived me.”
“Doc… Tor…” The Daleks groaned, slowly becoming aware of his presence. “Woah.” Oswin breathed. “Those ones usually don’t wake up for anything.”
“Yeah, well, special visitor.” He ran over to a door. “Okay, door, but it won’t open. You can’t be far away though.”
“Hold on, I’ll try to find the release code. Anything happening?”
“No.” Chrysalis answered her.
She turned, seeing the Daleks reactivating, one even managing to snap it’s brittle, rusted chains. “Okay, I retract my statement.”
“Oswin, get this door open!” The Doctor yelled. Chrysalis shifted into a small barricade surrounding him- nowhere near high enough to block the Daleks even if they had guns, but tall enough that with their broken elevators they couldn’t get past. She still had to constantly reform from their ramming though…
“Oswin!” Suddenly, the Daleks stopped, trundling around randomly.
“What?” Asked Chrysalis, even as she shifted back to normal.
“Oh, that’s cool. Tell me I’m cool. Hold on, I think I found the door thing.”
“No, tell me what you did.” The Doctor asked.
“The Daleks have a hive mind- well, no, they don’t, but they have a sort of database. I deleted everything related to ‘The Doctor!’” Oswin cried gleefully.
The door slid open, and the two walked in. And stopped dead.
“Oswin, we have a problem.” The Doctor said.
“No! No we don’t! Don’t even say that! Been stuck here for a year, hopped on the Alaska to see the stars! Now you can show me them instead.”
“Does it look real?” Asked Chrysalis.
“Does what?”
“Where you are. Right now.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s not. It’s a dream. A dream you dreamed because the truth was terrible.”
“Where am I?”
“You’re a Dalek.”
“No! How? I’m human!”
“Not anymore. Because you're right, you're a genius. And the Daleks need genius. They didn't just make you a puppet, they did a full conversion. Oswin, I am so sorry. But you are a Dalek. The milk, Oswin. The milk and the eggs for the soufflés, where, where did it all come from?” The Doctor cut in sadly.
“Eggs.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Eggs… ter… mi… nate…”
The Dalek trundled forward, raising the gun and breaking the chains. The Doctor backed up, when Chrysalis leapt forward, horn glowing, and touched it to the Dalek. Both fell still.
“Nice place you have here.” Came a voice from behind Oswin. She spun in her chair to see Chrysalis looking around the living quarters. Living quarters that were flickering softly. Oswin blinked, and realized what she was about to do. Her eyes watered, when a figure came up beside her. A humanoid figure? She turned and looked. A lady with dark skin, and silky dark green hair, just like Chrysalis’ mane was. Chrysalis took Oswin in her arms, and held her. The girl choked out words, words the Doctor heard.
“Why do they hate him so much?”
“I fought them. Many, many times.” The Time Lord responded.
“We grew stronger, in fear of you.” The Dalek said.
“I know. I tried to stop.”
“Then run.”
“What?” The Doctor replied, as Chrysalis returned to her own body.
“She’s taken down the forcefield. The Daleks will have begun their attack. Come on!” Chrysalis yelled.
“Oswin?”
“I am Oswin Oswald. I fought Daleks, and I am human. Remember me.”
“Thank you!”
“Run!”
The two fled. And even as they did, the last remnants of Chrysalis’ connection with Oswin echoed with six words.
“Run, you clever boy. And remember…”
The two made it to the control room, even as the explosions rocked the asylum, to find Amy and Rory kissing. “Right, we’re here, let’s go!” The Doctor told them. When they made no response, he continued. “Come on!” They still didn’t respond, prompting Chrysalis to let out an exasperated “Oh for Aphrodite’s sake!” and grab the remote from them and give it to the Doctor.
They reappeared in the TARDIS. The Doctor ran over to a microphone sitting on the console as Chrysalis made her comments on the interior (“Too much stuff, tone it down a bit”) and called into it. “You know, you guys should really have seen this coming. Thing about me and teleports, I've got a really good aim. Pin-point accurate, in fact. Or to put it another way...” He dashed over to the doors, and poked his head out. “Suckers!”
“Identify yourself! Identify! Identify!” Came voices from outside.
“Well, it's me! You know me! The Doctor! The Oncoming Storm? The Predator?”
“Titles are not meaningful in this context.” Came a female voice. “Doctor who?”
“Doctor Who?”
“Oh, Oswin.” The Doctor grinned. “Oh, you did it to them all! Oh, you beauty!”
“DOCTOR WHO? DOCTOR WHO?”
“Fellas - you're never going to stop asking.”
He danced back to the console, pulled a lever, and with a groaning noise the column in the center began rising and falling. “Right! Back home for the Ponds!”
After dropping them off, he turned to Chrysalis. “Now, we probably can’t get you home. Yet, anyway. So, how about sticking with me as we fly around?”
She smiled, and he didn’t need to be telepathic to tell what her answer was.
Author's Note
Here we go! As always, don't be afraid to point out mistakes, things that could make it better, etc.
