Chapters A Carriage Ride to Nowhere
In the early morning sunlight, a bubbly pegasus walked along the sidewalk, holding a wooden basket in her mouth. She was on her way to pick up a loaf of bread for a picnic she and her friends had planned for later that afternoon. She considered flying the rest of the way, making short time and arriving at the bakery in a matter of minutes, but that would upset or spill the other ingredients in the basket. She needed to go the rest of the way on hoof.
Derpy passed by a familiar face, a unicorn with a diamond cutie mark. The two were cousins, and about the same age.
“Hiya, Derpy!” this mare said, “What’ve you got there?”
Derpy set her basket down, stopping to reply.
“I have a jar of mayo, a tomato or two, lettuce... Carrot Top, Lyra and I are having a picnic on the green later. What about you, Sparkler?”
“I’m on my way to check out some books on trigonometry. I have a test on Monday, and I need to study.”
“You’re a junior this year?”
“Senior.”
“You’re a senior and you’re only taking trig?” asked Derpy with a cocked head. “I graduated last year, and everypony in my calculus class was a senior.”
“Yeah, but you’re, like, freakishly good at that stuff,” Sparkler said, “I honestly don’t know how you got so good at some of those things...”
“I remember random things,” said Derpy, “Like, really random things.”
“But you almost didn’t pass your tech class. I remember, you came over to my mum’s in tears .”
“I said random things. Anyways... I should be going. Good luck on your test!”
“Have fun with your picnic, cuz!”
****
Derpy was passed by a taxi carriage, pulled by a stallion with a square-cut mane and a grey coat.
“Hey kid, need a lift?” the driver said. Derpy paused, realizing that he was talking to her.
How very odd, she thought, Since when did the taxi driver call out ponies off the street?
“Erm... I don’t have a lot of spare bits. Sorry,” she replied, turning to leave.
“C’mon, it’s a free ride.”
“Free?” she repeated. As unusual as it was, she had been walking all day, and the chance to rest to reach the bakers would save her time and energy. She was happy to seize this opportunity.
“Free of charge.” said the driver. “Come on in.”
Derpy went to get into the taxi, throwing open the door and placing her basket carefully inside.
“I wouldn’t do that!” called out a sharp voice from behind her. Derpy turned her head, one eye sticking on the taxi while the other did as she wanted, and looked at the stallion. Her eyes did that occasionally.
“Who are you?” she called over across the street, focusing on the stallion. He was a bit tall, blue, and had his mane cut very short. Stranger still was his choice in clothing: he wore a green jumper underneath a leather coat.
“Doesn’t matter," the stallion nervously said, "just don’t get on that taxi, trust me.”
Derpy shook her head. It was a free ride; there was no way she was passing this offer up. She climbed in, and closed the door behind her as the stallion hung his head.
“Wheaty’s Bakery, please,” she said to the cart-puller.
****
About ten minutes into the trip, it was quite clear that the driver was not bringing her to the bakery. The taxi had left Ponyville in the opposite direction of the baker’s, heading off towards the north.
“Hey!” shouted Derpy, rocking the cabin, “What gives? I asked you to take me to the bakery!”
There was no response from the driver. Derpy was now in a state of panic. It was an abduction of some kind... where were they taking her, and what did they want?
Derpy tried reaching out and tugging at the driver’s reins, where they connected to the cabin. As soon as she touched one of them, a blue bolt of electricity zapped out at her, striking her hoof where she touched the rope.
“Yeouch!” Derpy shouted, falling backwards as her eyes bulged and rolled about in opposite directions. That had hurt .
“Look out!” shouted a voice. From alongside the carriage came the blue stallion in the jacket, galloping alongside the driver. For the first time, Derpy could see his cutie mark: an hourglass.
The driver glanced over, his head swiveling at an odd angle while the body continued running. He growled at the blue stallion, but only moments before this strange pony tackled him to the ground, pounding at something on the neck.
The carriage skidded to a halt and crashed onto its side, as the basket flipped up into the air and landed on Derpy’s upside down belly on the door of the carriage. She popped the top open, expecting the glass jar to be broken. It wasn’t.
The blue pony poked his head up and over the other door, looking down into the crashed carriage at Derpy. He had an extremely short brown mane that barely grew past his ears, and didn’t go down any farther than the back of his head in the back.
“Hold on a sec, I’ll have you out,” he said, ducking and picking a small metal device out of his jacket. He held one end up to the lock, and a thin blue light glowed through the keyhole, opening it up.
Derpy crawled out through the door with the assistance of this strange pony, standing over the wreck of the carriage. She floated down onto the soil on the bank of the carriage path, setting her basket down and moving over to the dead driver with a wall-eyed stare.
“You alright?” the stallion asked.
“Yeah...”
“I told you not to get onto that carriage,” he said, furrowing his brow. He kicked the detached head of the driver, and Derpy could see a tangle of wires coming out of the neck. She stared at it, wide-eyed and speechless.
“What... was that thing?” Derpy asked, her mouth agape. The stallion countered over, picking up the head in one of his front hooves and holding it aloft
“It’s a drone of sorts... a cybernetic creature controlled by remote from someplace far away,” he said, looking into the cold eyes of the robot’s head and grinning.
“They’ve been making fake carriages, taking a bunch of ponies to somewhere secret, there to do who knows what. I’m out to stop them before anypony gets hurt... but nevermind me. You need to get out of here. Go off to your picnic or whatever you ponies do.”
He turned to leave, walking off with just the cybernetic head in the direction of a tall cluster of trees and bushes on the edge of the forest. Derpy stood still for a minute, and began to follow after him curiously.
“Sir... who are you?”
“Listen,” he said, stopping on the edge of the forest and wheeling about to face Derpy.
“This is very dangerous business, and anypony getting involved with this is liable to get killed. For your sake and your safety, don’t mention this to anyone. Don’t come looking for me, either.”
With that, he disappeared into the bushes, leaving a bewildered Derpy in his wake. He didn’t stay gone for long however, as he poked his head back out a moment later, face to face with the wall-eyed mare.
"What’s your name?”
“Derpy,” answered Derpy honestly, “Derpy Hooves.”
“Pleasure meeting you Derpy. I'm the Doctor by the way...."
There was a flash of light from within the forest, and what sounded like weapons fire and crackling. The Doctor suddenly had maniacal grin spread across his face.
"Run for your life!" he exclaimed, disappearing into the forest amid the sounds of electric sizzling and bangs.
Derpy hastily made her way down the bank and back onto the road to Ponyville. She didn’t know where anypony would want to go in the bushes on the edge of the woods, or what those weird sounds and lights were. She could still hear them in the background, and then the Doctor yelled something. There were pops and cracks, and a thin line of smoke trailed up from within the trees, then all was silent.
She heard a thumping sound, and from the woods came a rhythmic humming.
VWORP! VWORP! VWORP!
“Sorry for being late girls,” Derpy said honestly as she came to the picnic spot in the middle of Ponyville Park. Two of her friends were there, a bright aquamarine unicorn and a pale yellow earth pony with a ginger mane.
“Where’d you go off to?” Lyra asked, looking a bit cross, “Did you lose your direction again? Oh, clumsy, clumsy Derpy!”
“I didn’t!” Derpy insisted, setting the food down on the picnic blanket sitting atop a grassy hill.
“You left us waiting for a long time,” Carrot Top said, being a bit more tactful in her approach.
“Yeah.... I don’t know.... I kinda got held up by somepony else.”
They made sandwiches, and in a matter of minutes Derpy’s tardiness was all but forgotten as the group of friends conversed.
“So, Written Script and I are thinking about it,” Carrot Top boasted, eliciting a girlish giggle from her companions.
“You’re a bit young, fresh out of school and all,” Lyras said, “but a nineteen year old mare getting hitched isn’t that bad.”
“We haven’t made any kind of plans yet,” she said, looking down at a newspaper. Carrot Top usually did the crosswords in the paper while at picnics.
“This one’s ten letters long, and I can’t get it,” she noted reproachfully, asking for help.
“What’s the hint?” Derpy asked, looking over the paper with a crooked gaze.
“Big-toothed huff-puffer,” said Carrot Top, “I’m thinking of one of those Puffer Fishes, but that’s too many letters.”
“It’s not supposed to be obvious like that,” Lyra commented, flicking her shades down, “Though big teeth and huffing and puffing sounds like the Big Bad Wolf to me.”
“Oh.... duh.”
“Wow Carrot,” Derpy said, shaking her head. She glanced back at the paper, noticing an illustration of a carriage at the top of the page, connected to an article.
“What’s the headline of that article at the top?” Derpy asked, “I can’t read from this angle.”
“It says ‘Ponies Missing After Wave of Carriage Abductions’.”
“I heard about that,” gasped Lyra, “Ponies getting onto carriages and then disappearing totally... it’s scary stuff!”
“Nopony’s doing anything about this?” Carrot Top said with a raise of her eyebrow, “You’d think the princess would put a stop to this sort of thing.”
Derpy remained silent. She couldn’t possibly begin to talk about all that had happened to her, about the carriage and the robot and The Doctor. He had expressly forbid her from talking to anypony else about him.
“I suppose they’d have to know who they’re dealing with. There could be a royal investigation going on right now, all secretive, to try to figure out who’s behind the disappearances.”
“What if they’re robots?” Derpy blurted out, not able to stop herself.
“Robots?” Lyra snorted. Carrot Top buried her face in her paper, her head shaking slightly. She was laughing.
“I mean.... uh...”
“Derpy, you seriously think that ponies are getting scooped up by robot invaders?”
“I didn’t mean-”
“Robot invaders from planet Mars .”
“Stop picking on me girls! I just meant-”
“Sorry,” Carrot Top said, leaning back, “If you’re gonna get upset over a little joke, then I’ll stop.”
“Imagine if she was right though,” Lyra said, suddenly serious, “If there were really aliens under our nose, nopony would believe it.”
****
Derpy stood at the corner of two streets, looking about in the crowd. She was searching for a face, the face of The Doctor out of the mass of ponies milling about. She squinted her lopsided gaze, but could not pick him out.
Maybe he didn’t live in town. That would have made sense; she had never seen the pony before their brief meeting. Perhaps he had just been passing through the area.
Derpy made her way to Carrot Top’s later that afternoon. Having no family in Ponyville, Derpy had taken up residence in her friend’s small cottage, working various jobs to help pay the rent.
While Carrot Top tended to her gardens out back, Derpy sat on a cushioned sofa in the living room, reading over the article in the paper from earlier.
“Celestia promises to find and put a stop to these disappearances, and she asks anypony with information to contact the Canterlot Investigative Agency,” Derpy read to herself. She pondered that for a moment. She was the only pony who had escaped from the abduction carriages that she knew of, so her story could offer key details.
“The carriage took me away from Ponyville, and to the north,” Derpy muttered to herself, “Toward Canterlot.”
She decided that she would need to write a letter and send it to the authorities at once. Grabbing a pencil in her mouth and a scrap of paper off of one of Carrot Top’s tables, she began to write.
Dear Canterlot Investigative Agency,
After reading an article in today’s (April 4th, 1999) edition of The Ponyville Enquirer, I have decided to come forward with my story regarding the odd disappearances.
I was approached by a carriage offering me a free ride. Being in a hurry and rather weary of walking on my hooves, I accepted the offer. Instead of taking me to my destination, the carriage went north towards Canterlot.
I was unable to escape, but a strange stallion who called himself “The Doctor” intervened, kicking the cart driver over and twisting it’s head off. The driver looked like some kind of robot. It is because of this “Doctor’s” actions that I am alive and able to send you this letter.
I hope that my testimony can be of use, and that the perpetrators can be caught before anypony else gets taken away.
Sincerely,
Derpy Hooves
Sealing her letter in an envelope, Derpy prepared to go to the post office to mail it to Canterlot. She threw on a bag over her withers and wings, slipping the letter inside one of the exterior pockets.
As soon as she opened the door, she was greeted by the sight of one of the Taxi Carriages from earlier, with an identical driver standing outside of it. It had parked itself on the road to Carrot Top’s cottage.
Derpy backed away from the taxi slowly, though she had already caught the driver’s attention. It began to creep towards her, forcing the pony to back herself up against the wall of the cottage. Automatically, the doors of the taxi carriage sprung open, and the driver reared back, dashing towards her.
Derpy did the only thing she could think of, which was to take off flying, swooping up and nearly crashing into the branch of a tree before landing on the tiled roof of Carrot Top’s cottage.
At that moment, a loud noise began to sound to her side, and a blue box faded in from nothingness. Derpy stared, her mouth agape, as a blue box labeled “Police Public Call Box” appeared on top of her friend’s roof.
The robotic driver and carriage appeared as well, looming over the edge of the roof.
“The carriage flies?!” Derpy shouted, backing up against the blue box now as the carriage landed atop the tiled roof.
The door of the box swung open to her side, with The Doctor himself poking his head outside.
“Get in quick, before it charges at you again!”
Derpy complied, dashing into the strange box and slamming the door shut behind her. As the pegasus turned around, she was greeted by the sight of tall bronze walls covered in roundish bumps, and a hexagonal surface at the center of it all, against which the strange stallion leaned.
“Well, what do you think?” he asked, beaming.
“It’s.... it’s.... it’s a spaceship,” Derpy stuttered, backing up, “inside a wooden box....”
“Who are you?” Derpy stuttered.
“I’m the Doctor, I already told you.”
Derpy shook her head, stepping around the huge interior of the ship carefully. It was bigger on the inside than it appeared, MUCH bigger.
“That’s not a proper name, that’s a job,” she said, frowning at the Doctor with a cross-eyed gaze.
“That is my name, it’s just ‘The Doctor’,” he said, turning around and looking up at a small screen that was over the console. The machine was still making a loud noise, the same one Derpy had heard earlier on the edge of the woods.
“The Doctor?”
“Hello!” he said cheerfully. The ship jolted for a moment, and a shower of sparks flew up from a particular spot on the console. The Doctor picked up a small mallet, and whacked at a button before he wheeled about the other side and spun a dial.
“The carriage has locked onto the TARDIS,” he muttered aloud to himself, “It can shoot as well! Oh, this is fantastic! ”
“What’s the TARDIS?!” Derpy yelled over the rumbling of the ship, taking flight and hovering over the Doctor’s head to look at the screen he could see. Sure enough, there was the carriage. Though the driver was clearly not a pegasus, some kind of engine had sprouted from the underside of the taxi and it flew about like a fighter, spraying them with occasional blasts of energy.
“The ship,” The Doctor answered simply. It was obvious he had a million other things on his mind, and couldn’t be bothered to have a proper conversation with Derpy.
“You travel in outer space in a ship called the TARDIS?” Derpy said, landing beside The Doctor.
“Yep.”
“So that makes you an alien?”
“Yeah, is that alright with you?”
Derpy shrugged. She didn’t really know what to make of an alien. She had thought they might exist, but hadn’t paid it much thought unlike her friend Lyra. This particular alien had saved her life two times in a row now.
“Why does your ship look like a blue box?” Derpy asked, just as the TARDIS lurched once more.
“Look, save the question and answer session until I’ve got us out of this bind,” the Doctor said, cranking a lever. The sounds started again, coupled with a few bleeps. The sounds of the flying taxi carriage lessened, and altogether ceased.
“There, that should do it,” the Doctor said with a wave of his front legs, “now, you were saying?”
“I asked why your ship.... why it looks like a blue box on the outside,” Derpy repeated.
“It’s a disguise. It’s a police box from decades ago, I landed here once and the TARDIS has been stuck on that shape ever since. Anything else?”
Derpy raised her eyebrows.
“What was that thing, and who are you?”
“That,” the Doctor said, “was a remote. It’s remotely controlled from somewhere else, and it’s targeted you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, whoever they are that control the taxi carriage are following your signal. Tiny chip they injected, remember that shock? It’s biodegradable. It’ll tell them about you until it disintegrates in about a day or so.”
“And you?” Derpy asked, sitting on her haunches.
The Doctor paused, looking forward into the distance. He craned his neck, making eye contact with Derpy.
“I’m trying to stop them.”
****
The TARDIS groaned, and re-materialized elsewhere. Before Derpy could approach the door, The Doctor blocked her.
“Stay in here, touch nothing,” he ordered.
“Just who do you think you are,” Derpy said angrily, “Telling me what to do?!”
“I’m the Doctor, we’ve met already.”
“I want to know what’s going on,” Derpy said, trying to reach the door, “and if whatever’s out there is going to tell me, I’m going to find out.”
The Doctor shook his head, walking over to the console and flipping a lever. The TARDIS was off once again, dematerializing and then reappearing once again somewhere completely different.
“Derpy, those creatures are bad news. They’ve been scooping ponies up off the street, and none of them have been seen since. I’m going to stop them, but I can’t have you coming along and asking questions the whole way, you’ll put yourself in danger.”
With that, the Doctor opened the doors of the TARDIS, which led to the streets of Ponyville. Derpy stepped outside, looking about her. Nothing had changed since she had stepped into the alien ship.
“Doctor,” she said, “That thing was chasing me.... suppose it comes back?”
“It took them six hours to send a second carriage,” The Doctor said, leaning his front legs up against the doors of the box so that his leather coat draped down freely.
“But that one’s still out there! You never disabled it.”
“‘Course I did, I triggered an electromagnetic pulse. They’ll have crashed and burned. Besides, in the next six hours I’m hoping to have found their hideaway.”
He closed the doors of the TARDIS, and was about to depart before he swung the doors open once again, poking his head back to talk to Derpy one last time.
“I’m serious about this. If we’re not careful, ponies could die . Lay low for now, I’ll let you know if I pulled it off in six hours.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” she said, turning to leave.
“Derpy,” he called back, causing her to turn.
“You forgot your bag.”
****
Derpy paced within Golden Oaks library, which was inside of a hollowed out tree. The downstairs served as a large spiral library, while the upper levels were actually a functional house for the aging librarian and her husband, and were considered off-limits.
“Is there something I can help you find?” The librarian asked. She was an old mare, with a faded green coat and an cutie mark of a book and a pair of spectacles.
“Yes,” Derpy responded, “I’m looking for books about conspiracy theories. Anything concerning this “Doctor” figure.”
“A book about Doctors?” the librarian asked, pushing her glasses up, “That’d be under medicine. Did you have a particular title in mind?”
“No no no,” Derpy corrected, “Not a Doctor, The Doctor. It’s some weird alien conspiracy theory thing.”
“398.2,” said the librarian, “Though Miss Heartstrings probably has half the shelf cleaned out.”
“I do not!” protested a voice from the other side of a great wood carving of a horse’s head. Lyra emerged, having been sitting on a large beanbag and reading a science fiction magazine.
“You two take care, I’ve got some cataloging to do,” the librarian said, taking out a thick records book and getting to work at her desk.
Derpy gave her friend a grin. For once, she actually wanted to hear Lyra’s crazy rantings, as long as she knew something of use about this Doctor.
“Lyra,” Derpy began, but before she could finish her sentence her eyes suddenly drifted apart, giving her a crooked gaze. She groaned, smacking the side of her head to set her eyes straight again.
“Yeah? Overheard you were looking for something about The Doctor,” Lyra finished for her. Derpy nodded.
“Well, I don’t think you’re going to find any serious publication about him,” continued the aquamarine unicorn, “But I’ve got a collection of articles about him, if you’re interested.”
“I am interested,” Derpy responded.
“Alright,” Lyra said, “We’ll head over to my house then, I’m sure my parents won’t mind.”
“You know, a smart young mare like you ought to be capable of living on her own, instead of in the basement of her mum and dad’s,” scolded Lyra’s father, a stallion with a pencil thin mustache on top of a hairy ivory coat.
“Dad, we’ll just be a second,” Lyra pleaded, moving through the living room and towards the basement.
Lyra’s parents apparently had little regard for picking up after themselves. The sofa had a half-eaten bag of chips still on it, while a baby pen set up to contain a small little magenta unicorn was in danger of being knocked over by a particularly tall stack of half-folded laundry that had yet to be sorted into baskets.
Lyra’s space in the downstairs was considerably more organized compared to the chaos above. She had drawers, a proper desk, and although her bed and table top were covered in scraps of paper it lent the appearance of somepony in the middle of a project rather than being carelessly left where it was.
“I swear, I’ve had it,” the unicorn fumed, “I’m trying to get a position using my vocal talents at the recording studio, I almost have the position nailed. But no, that’s not good enough for them. It’s always ‘Lyra, pick up the room you never come up to’ or ‘Lyra, stay home and watch your baby sister’ or ‘Lyra, when are you gonna get your own space’.”
“Maybe you should move in somewhere else,” Derpy suggested, sitting herself down on the carpeted floor, “That’s what I did.”
“Maybe... yeah. Maybe." Lyra shrugged her shoulders.
“Anyways,” started Derpy, “About this Doctor business....”
“Yes, The Doctor. I’m not surprised you heard about him after all of this business about disappearing ponies. It’s like.... evidence of him turns up after events like this. Weird events. Did somepony from the Crypto Club tell you about the Doctor?”
“No, not really,” Derpy mumbled.
Lyra plopped herself down on her bed, moving her papers and notes about to give her some space. She then used her magic to levitate a large scrapbook folder out of one of her cabinets, which was labeled “The Doctor” and featured a hoof-drawn picture of a frizzy-haired stallion wearing a long scarf and a crooked felt hat. Certainly not anything like the pony she had met, though on closer inspection....
The cutie mark was the same.
“Stories of this ‘Doctor’ have been around for centuries. Starswirl the Bearded’s own journal talks about a traveling healer calling himself “The Doctor”, somepony who took to wearing a jacket made of animal hide and did battle with a giant pony-eating worm.”
“Who’s Starswirl the bearded?” Derpy asked, cocking her head to one side.
“Somepony ancient and famous, doesn’t matter,” Lyra said, "Though on a separate occasion, years later, he wrote about the Doctor coming back, but looking different and having forgotten all about the encounter."
She flipped through a few pages, until she found a black and white photograph from the coronation of Princess Cadance, about twenty years ago.
“This is Cadance’s coronation, in 1978, “ Lyra said, holding up the photograph for Derpy to see, “That pony there, you see him?”
“The one with the hat?”
“Look at his neck... look at the collar.”
“He’s... he’s got a stalk of celery on there, imagine that!”
“I think it’s the same pony from Starswirl the Bearded’s account. The journal described him in more detail, and the outfit, the whole outfit matches. Hat, collar, garnish...”
“He can’t be the same pony,” Derpy said with a laugh, “He’d either have to be over a thousand years old or a time traveler!”
“Several thousand. Many, many thousands of years were between these two sightings.”
She showed Derpy a drawing of a blue box... the TARDIS!
“The club seems to think that this is what his time machine looks like, as it’s also shown up scattered in history. It’s on a stained glass window in a Saddle Arabian palace, from the fifth century After Discord.”
“Wow,” Derpy said, stunned. Even though the drawings and the pictures of the ponies meant to be ‘The Doctor’ were clearly different save for the cutie mark, the ship had remained the same- the ship she had been on. She wrestled with telling Lyra the truth, seriously considering spilling the beans then and there about her involvement with The Doctor, but she didn’t.
“So, what connection do you suppose he has to what’s going on?” asked Derpy, rolling to her side.
“The Doctor always appears in times of significance; either something significant or historical is happening, or there’s a big tragedy,” Lyra said, flipping the book to an index of sightings.
“So, he’s a superhero?”
“Not really, more like a... I don’t even know how to describe it. He’s such a mystery; nopony even knows what he does. Most think it's just a gag or a hoax, including most of the Crypto Club. It's just me and a hoof-full of other ponies that have done any real looking into it.”
She flipped the page, and there was an ink drawing dated from the 1800s, depicting a box shaped like the TARDIS, and the Doctor himself, dressed almost exactly the same as she had seen him: a short mane and a loosely worn leather coat. To his side was a mare, a unicorn mare with her mane flopped over one side of her head. Her cutie mark wasn’t visible.
Lyra took little notice to the picture, and continued flipping through the pages while Derpy felt a chill running down her neck, though she didn’t know why.
“...and here is my favorite image, an image of The Doctor and an alien!”
The image was blurry, and in black and white, but Derpy could see another version of the Doctor, with a floppy wide-brim hat and a scarf, facing off against something that was almost equally blurred and partially cut off, which was covered in odd bumps and had something resembling a plunger sticking out.
****
After spending some time conversing with Lyra, Derpy was ready to take her leave of the house. It was late, and it was nearly time for Carrot Top to be making stew back at the cottage. She said her goodbyes to Lyra and her parents, and left.
The sky grew darker as Derpy trotted down the dirt path toward the cottage, which was almost a mile away. She took care not to take the short route home through ponyville, still wary of the taxi carriages. The Doctor had said that she had a few hours until they - whoever they were- could launch another for her, but she didn’t want to press her luck.
Her heart sank as a taxi carriage adorned with a lantern for the darkening sky swooped down on her, landing in such a way as to block her path.
The sides of the yellow carriage were dented inwards, and the paint had been scraped off in places, and cracked. It appeared slightly damaged.
“Get into the carriage,” a rather dull robotic voice sounded from the driver. Whatever tech that had been used to make him sound ‘normal’ before must have been damaged, as well.
“I don’t think so,” Derpy said, spreading her wings and backing up. From the side of the carriage extended a small turret, fixing it’s sights on Derpy. She was being held at gunpoint.
“On second thought....”
She had no choice. Either she could try to run away and risk being shot, fly away and risk it ramming her in midair, or she could get inside and try to find the Doctor at whatever location the taxi brought her to. If she couldn’t escape, she’d have to submit herself willingly.
She just hoped that wherever ponies were being taken wasn’t fatal.
The wall-eyed pegasus found herself thrown forcefully onto a cold, hard surface inside of a dark cave. As soon as she was in, a translucent barrier of magenta energy blocked her exit. She was trapped, like an animal inside a pen.
The cell itself was made of a hollowed cave, carved into the rock walls. Interestingly enough, the walls were made of crystal, leaving a reflective surface. In the dim light from the glowing barrier, Derpy could look to the wall and see her own reflection. Had she not been in such a dire situation, she might even have found her own cross-eyed appearance amusing.
“What’s your name?” whispered a voice from the other end of the cell. Derpy slowly and cautiously made her way in further. As her eyes adjusted to the total darkness, she could make out the shape of several ponies.
“I’m.... I’m Derpy Hooves,” she whispered back.
“Derpy?!” another voice excitedly whispered, belonging to a young mare.
“Who is that?”
“Derpy, it’s me, Cheerilee. I was two classes ahead of you at Ponyville High.”
“How many ponies are in here?” Derpy asked, sitting herself down. Apparently she had sat on somepony’s side, as there was a sudden yelp. She shifted, apologizing.
“Four in this cell, and five in all of the others,” Cheerilee answered, “Stay quiet, something’s coming.”
In front of the glowing barrier passed what looked like a jellyfish, but faint like a ghost. It crackled and pulsated, but seemed insubstantial. A second creature floated toward the first, and they seemed to be conversing.
“You have the gray pegasus pony?” the second arrival said, with a voice that sounded almost distant, and was half drowned in a crackling sound.
“She arrived moments ago.”
“And the Doctor?” the second pressed, “The Doctor has been trying to locate us for weeks on end. The masters warned us about him.”
“Relax, brother. He cannot find this place, we have made it invisible to all outside scanners.”
Derpy thought it strange that they would discuss details loud enough for the prisoners to hear them speak. Didn’t they figure that overhearing parts of the plan might tip them off?
“Unit Alpha has integrated himself into one of the equine shells. Our presence is requested at the central system.”
Almost as quickly as the pair had arrived, they departed. Derpy was left with all sorts of questions. Who were they, and why did they look like electric jellyfish ghosts?
“Did you all hear that?” Derpy whispered. Everypony else was silent, and the one nearest to Derpy scratched it’s head.
“Young lady, all I heard was crackling static, like a broken radio.”
“But they were speaking ,” Derpy insisted, “Speaking words .”
“Derpy,” Cheerilee said in a hushed voice, “the old stallion is right. All we heard was static.”
The gray pony sat back once again, mulling over what they had said. They knew about The Doctor, and had gone to great lengths to disguise this place so that he couldn’t find it in his spaceship. It seemed important, but she didn’t know what good it would do her.
Sighing, Derpy unslung her pack that she had still been carrying, and laid it against the ground like a pillow. Something light and metal clattered out of a side pocket, and onto the crystal floor of the cell. Derpy scooped it up, feeling the device in her hooves. It was unusual, almost like a leg watch, but with a few buttons on it, and one button that was larger than the rest.
“What is ‘integration’?” Derpy asked, “and I don’t mean the stuff they do in math class. The jellyfish things spoke, and I heard them. They mentioned integration with equines, equine shells.”
“They... I don’t know how to put this nicely, because it’s so horrid.... they can take over the body of a living thing,” the older voice whispered, “Like a disease, or maybe a parasite. But once inside, they can control you, like a puppet.... or maybe they’re wearing your body like a costume. It’s sick.”
“But why?” Derpy gasped, “Why would they do that?!”
“We’re like lab rats,” Cheerilee said glumly, “They do experiments, randomly choosing ponies. Once they call on you, you don’t come back.”
“Where do they take you?”
“I don’t know.”
At that precise moment, two of the creatures appeared on the other side of the barrier, lowering it.
“The gray pegasus with the bubbles cutie mark, you have been chosen. It’s your turn,” it said, in much clearer voice. Apparently it was trying to make itself understood this time, as everypony else in the cell gasped.
“I have a name you know,” Derpy said, standing. She slipped the leg watch over her leg, and strapped her bag back on over her withers.
“Names are not needed. You will come with us.”
****
Derpy was led through corridors carved into the crystal, and over grates of steel with vents of steam bursting out every now and then. The crackling aliens accompanied her like armed guards, and though she didn’t know what they had for weaponry, she wasn’t too keen on finding out either.
She was then led into a bright room, with light making it painfully easy to see. After being in the dark, it was almost blinding, and Derpy squinted her eyes shut.
“Supplies are not needed. You will remove the bag,” commanded the alien, moments before extending an arm -if those crackling formless appendages could be called arms- and vaporizing the bag right off from her back with a sizzling bolt of electricity.
She was forced to sit down onto what looked like an operating table. Her lower legs were fastened to the bottom, while her front hooves could not fit into the cuffs. Frustrated, the guard told his brother to remain while he went to find a larger pair.
Derpy took a moment to take in her surroundings. She was alone as far as she could tell, and surrounded by these crackling ghost jellyfish aliens. She blinked, and looked down at herself, and at the leg watch. Engraved onto the surface were the words “Emergency Teleport”.
Emergency Teleport?!
“We must fit you into bigger cuffs,” the previous alien said as it returned.
“Wait, before you do, can you at least tell me about yourselves?”
“We owe no explanation to inferior species,” it replied curtly.
“This one’s really stupid looking, don’t you think?” the same alien said, this time with the fuzzy voice Derpy had heard outside the cell earlier.
“I heard that,” Derpy said, “and I’m not stupid.”
“How did she hear our speech?”
“What I want to know,” Derpy asked, “Is what you plan on doing with us ponies?”
“We owe no explanation to inf-”
“No,” Derpy said, hitting her right hoof on the table and sitting herself up, “Tell me.”
“She speaks our language!” the alien exclaimed at her last words, and Derpy cocked her head, confused. She hadn’t said anything differently.
“The Synax must inhabit the bodies and the minds of all equines! We must have corporeal form, while our current bodies are ones of energy; of the spirit!”
“Well, you’re not having my body, I’m getting out of here,” Derpy said, pressing the button on the leg watch. Immediately, she flashed away, vanishing from the experimentation room and reappearing in the middle of a grassy field, somewhere completely different.
The stars were out, and the sky was clear that night. Derpy marveled at the power of the nifty leg watch, though she had no idea where it had come from.
“There you are,” came a voice, and the pegasus wheeled about to see the Doctor standing about a hundred meters away in the tall grass of the field, leaning against the front of the blue police box.
“Sure took you long enough to find the teleporter,” he said, bounding over to Derpy with a huge grin on his face, “Oh, you did it Derpy. This is absolutely fantastic! ”
“What’s fantastic?” Derpy asked, following the Doctor back to the TARDIS, which he opened up and allowed her to enter. It was still a bit unnerving to walk into a spacious bronze room after having seen the ship as being rather small on the outside.
“You teleported out of there, right?”
“How’d you know where I was? You set this up, didn’t you!”
“I’m sorry for lyin’ to you Derpy, but this way I can find the Synax hive,” he said, motioning for her to give him the watch.
“You used me as bait!”
“Yeah, and I also gave you a teleporter that saved your life, we even now?”
The Doctor leaned back against a column of his ship, letting his jacket drape as he crossed his front hooves. He raised an eyebrow, waiting for Derpy to respond.
“Alright, we’re even,” she conceded, “What are you going to do now?”
“Reverse the coordinates of the teleporter watch,” he said, bounding into action and cranking a lever on the console, taking up the watch and looking at some string of data.
“Then I’m going to go into the Synax test center, and rescue the ponies that are still there, wanna come and help?”
Derpy stood still for a second, and cocked her head to a side. Finally, she nodded. The Doctor laughed.
“Fantastic!”
The TARDIS materialized inside one of the crystal caves, the same one Derpy had been held inside earlier. As the doors of the blue box flung open, a shaft of light poured onto the ponies held in the cell, which was reflected on the shiny crystal faces. Derpy flew out of the TARDIS, closing the door behind her and the Doctor.
“Who are you, that can appear out of thin air?” the older stallion asked, crawling at the Doctor’s hooves.
“Stand up, you don’t need to embarrass yourself,” the Doctor said, “I’m the Doctor, and I’m gonna put a stop to this.”
“Derpy, you’re alive!” Cheerilee exclaimed, embracing the pegasus in a hug.
“I brought help,” she said, pointing toward the Doctor.
“Derpy, you can either stay with them or come with me, but make up your mind fast, I’ve got work to do.”
“Oh, I’m coming with you,” Derpy said, “I’m the only one to get inside that place and come out alive.”
“Fantastic,” the Doctor said, “You lot.... don’t touch the TARDIS. Stay where you are, don’t make a sound. We’ll get you out of this, I promise.”
He withdrew a small device from the pocket of his leather jacket, and pressed a button with his hoof. The device’s tip began to glow bright blue, and he moved it around the perimeter of the glowing barrier, causing it to shimmer and fade.
****
Derpy and the Doctor ran down the hallway, and over the grated floor beneath them. After rounding the corner they were suddenly stopped by a pair of Synax. The Doctor grinned, lifting his hooves as about to surrender.
“Intruders, identify yourselves!”
“After you, I insist,” The Doctor said, taking a bow of mock formality.
“You must tell us your names!” crackled the second Synax, waving it’s transparent appendages angrily.
“You first. Go on, let’s hear them then.”
“We are the Synax! Now identify .”
“I’m the Doctor, this is Derpy. Derpy, Synax, Synax, Derpy.”
“We’ve met,” Derpy mumbled.
The two creatures became four as two more came, sensing distress and hearing the sound of raised voices. The other pair floated behind Derpy and the Doctor.
“Who are these, who wander about freely?!”
“The Doctor has arrived!!!” shouted one of the original two Synax excitedly.
“I’d love to stay and chat,” the Doctor said with a false smile, “But I’ve gotta run, important errands you know.”
“You will not proceed!” The four stated angrily, moving to block the Doctor’s path around the corner.
“Not with you lot in the way,” he said, taking out the device from earlier.
“Make one hostile move and I’ll triplicate your energy supply!”
Before he could activate it, the four Synax hastily moved out of the way, allowing the Doctor to pass. He grinned, pocketing the device.
“Cease this!!!!”
“No, I’m just gonna have a poke around now, see ya!”
He and Derpy tore off down the adjacent corridor, even as more of the Synax were drawn to the disturbance. An entire wave of the crackling jellyfish came floating down in the direction the two ponies were running, causing the Doctor to skid to a halt.
“Detour!” he shouted, taking Derpy with him through a side passage down a flight of stairs carved into the rock. Derpy recognized it as being part of the way to the laboratory from earlier.
“Doctor, you’re heading right for their science lab!” she cried to him.
“That’s just where I was trying to go!”
****
The two entered the lab casually, where they were met by a floating Synax that was much larger than the others. The head Synax! The others gathered behind him, guarding the exit warily while their leader confronted the leather-clad stallion.
“Who are you that evokes such fear in my underlings?” the head Synax said, with a deep buzzing voice.
“I’m the Doctor, and I-”
“He said he was going to triplicate our energy supply if-” started one of the Synax, before the Doctor withdrew his sonic screwdriver and leveled it like a weapon.
“I.... WAS... TALKING !” the Doctor raised his voice. The Synax fell quiet.
“Now then, I was going to politely ask you to show me the nature of your work here,” he said curtly. The big Synax paused, rubbing it’s bottom edge with a crackling tentacle almost like a pony would scratch at it’s chin. Derpy noticed that there were several large crystal stones on an operating table, so she kept one of them quietly and subtly.
“Follow me, Doctor !” commanded the big Synax. Derpy and the Doctor followed him through a passageway, followed in turn by the smaller mass of underlings.
The new chamber was spacious, lined with white metallic walls built over the crystal, and containing what looked like a vertical reactor of some sort, encased in glass and glowing with odd patterns of various colors. Derpy couldn’t even begin to understand what it was made of, but to her it looked like a power generator. Multiple floating Synax underlings worked at consoles adapted to them around the perimeter, while the leader hovered over what looked like a pony, held in a state of sleep. of a pony.
“I will show you what our purpose is, Doctor!”
“Derpy, look away now! ” the Doctor shouted
As Derpy looked away, a brilliant light consumed the room, pulsating. It faded after several seconds, and when she looked back she could see that the pony was awake and animated, though it’s cutie mark had vanished and it’s eyes were blank white.
“I am using this form, inhabiting it,” the leader said to the Doctor, trotting up and looking him in the eye despite his lack of pupils.
“You’ve taken that poor creature’s body,” the Doctor said, disgusted, “Why?”
“We need corporeal forms in order to build. In order to reproduce and repopulate. In order to conquer the planet itself!”
“And do what? Make everypony like that ?!” Derpy spoke up, “I don’t think so!”
“The masters wish it, and they’ve told me all about you , Doctor. A time lord! The last of the time lords!”
“How’d you know that?” asked the Doctor, his cheeky grin turning sour and into a harsh scowl.
“We know many things, Doctor. Being dependent on electric energy to survive in a non-corporeal form may be harsh living conditions, but it does not inhibit our power to learn! ”
“Or feel emotions like fear and ambition!” the Doctor barked back, “By the way, can you feel pain too? Or what about empathy? How do you think that poor creature you’ve taken over feels? That stallion- he’s still alive inside that body, but you’ve enslaved him! You’re not only a parasite, you’re worse! You’re taking symbiosis to a new level, and using it to forcibly enslave ponies!”
“What else would we do?” the leader retorted.
“Come with me,” the Doctor said, “I can help you find a way. There are planets out there.... entire races that depend on symbiotic life forms to reproduce. You could survive in peace!”
“No Doctor, it cannot be! The masters command us to...”
“Your funeral.”
“....Doctor,” the half Synax-half pony asked, “You said you were going to ‘triplicate’ our energy source?”
“I did? Hmmm.... shoulda picked a better word. Oh well, hindsight's 20/20." he said.
“Guards, kill him!”
The Doctor cried out as the gathered Synax fell upon him, covering his legs, his side, and the back of his neck and zapping him with their electric energy. He collapsed into a heap.
Derpy backed away from the horrible scene, her mouth agape.
“You’re gonna kill him!” she protested.
“That’s the point!” the half Synax said gleefully, “and after the Doctor’s dead, nopony will be able to halt progress. Your entire species will be like me!”
The Doctor was again crackling with energy from the Synax attack, and reared his torso up into a sitting position. His eyes winced and his mouth hung open trying to choke words out.
"Derpy.... destroy...." he sputtered, "Smash the.... glass!"
Derpy did what he said, and spread her wings to fly into the air, lobbing the crystal stone with all of her might at the reactor’s glass and shattering it in one swift motion.
Broken glass clattered to the tiled ground, and the electric power crackled like bolts of lightning, unexposed and raw. It lashed out, striking at consoles and monitors, frying them in a cloud of acrid smoke. The light flickered, and at once each Synax creature cried out in agony. A horrible wail rose up throughout the room and throughout the entire facility as they died as one, powerless without the energy. The leader himself was the last to cling to life, falling over and drawing shallow, ragged breaths.
The Doctor stood up, his expression somber and his jacket smoking.
“Doc....tor....” the leader groaned, “My .... you killed.....”
“I offered you a way to survive in peace,” the Doctor said, “You refused. I’m sorry, but I can’t let you live by killing off other races. It’s not fair to them.”
“But what..... about..... us?”
“You're nothing but renegades, out to convert another species into your own image. The universe is better off without you," the Doctor said grimly. A burst of light from the sparking reactor danced across his shadowed face.
The half Synax drew it’s last breath, and the life force left it. The pony itself lay dead on the ground, amid shards of glass and smoking consoles. Derpy began to cry quietly, laying herself beside the dead pony.
“He had a name, a cutie mark.... Doctor, can you fix him?” she pleaded, nursing the pony's corpse.
“I’m sorry,” he said somberly examining the body, “It’s too late... why did that kill him? It shouldn't have killed him like that if he was still part pony....”
“I d....d...didn’t know that throwing the rock w...w...would.... destroy all of them,” Derpy muttered, “I thought they’d just be weakened, or something. Get them to stop attack you.”
“Derpy, listen to me,” the Doctor said, raising her chin with the edge of his hoof, “You didn't mean for it to work like that, and you know it. You were willing to extend a second chance to them. Besides,That's not the extent of the Synax race. What we saw were warlike renegades, working for someone else they called their masters. Think about it; if destroying the energy supply was that easy, and even while within a pony shell the Synax leader still perished.... what would have happened if they had achieved total conquest? Your entire species would be gone."
"Both the ponies and the Synax..."
"Right," the Doctor said, "Which makes me think that the Synax were merely a ploy... a puppet to be disposed of by something far more sinister."
“Doctor....” Derpy asked, sniffing, “Who are you?”
The Doctor took a step back, looking up and staring off. There was a shadow over his face, and for a brief moment Derpy could see the weight of guilt on his face. His previously happy demeanor- almost as bubbly as herself- was not to be seen. He turned to face her meaningfully.
“I had to make a choice like that. I chose to save the entire universe, but at a terrible cost."
“What happened?”
“There was a war,” he said, looking up and breaking eye contact, “there was a war spanning across space and time, and it threatened to consume all that existed. It had already done massive amounts of damage to non combatants. Some had their homeworlds destroyed. Some - like these Synax renegades for example- were subjugated by one side. Daleks, I'm guessing. And others were wiped out completely. Totally gone, forever.That’s a burden I carry around, one I have to live with for the rest of eternity.”
“The rest of eternity?” Derpy asked, leading the way out, “You plan on living that long?”
“I might, I might not. I have an awfully long lifespan. Maybe too long.”
“How old are you then?”
“I lost count. Last I checked I was about 900 years old, give or take a few centuries.”
“900? No pony can live that long!”
The Doctor stopped, turning to face Derpy. A sly grin had come back on his face again.
“Oh, I’m no pony.”
“What are you talking about?” she said, uncrossing her eyes and looking him over, “You’ve got a cutie mark, a mane, and-”
“It’s not a cutie mark. It doesn’t control my destiny.... I was born with it. Call it a personal symbol if you will. I look kind of like a pony I guess, I’ve got an equinoid body shape... but I've got two hearts. I’m a time lord.”
He raised his gaze again.
“I’m the last of the time lords.”
****
“Derpy! I heard all of the commotion, and I saw that all the cells had gone offline!” Cheerilee ranted, bounding about, “Thank you two, for whatever you did!”
She hugged the Doctor, and well as Derpy. Derpy had a huge grin on her face by now, seeing the multitudes of ponies clogging the hallways after having escaped from their cells. It was a terrific sight to see, and it even had the Doctor laughing.
“Derpy, I just realized,” he snorted, “They’re gonna want to know the way out!”
“What’s the way out?”
“That’s the thing; I have no idea!”
A crack of morning sun poked through the crystal walls, and Derpy flew up to see what it was. They were underground, this entire facility, and they seemed to be just north of a large city. She could almost fit through the crack.
Zooming over the crowd, Derpy located a door, a bulkhead of sorts to the outside at the top of a massive staircase congested with ponies trying to get out. It was locked, sealed tight from the inside by a keyhole.
“Doctor!” she cried out as the blue-coated time lord bounded in her direction through the sea of escapees.
“Derpy, hold on a second!”
He arrived minutes later, holding aloft in a hoof his sonic screwdriver.
“You’re gonna love this!”
He pointed the glowing blue tip at the lock, and at that very instant it clicked, opening the bulkhead and allowing fresh sunlight to pour into the facility.
The ponies were free.
****
“Well,” said the Doctor, “You did save my life, so I think that entitles you for a reward.”
The pair of ponies were standing in the same field as before, though it was now daytime. The birds were out chirping, pegasi zoomed through the sky, and Equestria was at peace.
“A reward?” Derpy asked, excited, “What kind?”
“Well, you did save not only me, but all of Equestria to boot.... how’s about you can travel with me for a bit? You know, in the TARDIS.”
“Oh but Doctor,” Derpy said, “I can’t possibly. I’ve got Carrot Top, and all of my friends here, and...”
“Funny thing about the TARDIS,” the Doctor said, “It can travel in time.”
Derpy’s eyes crossed for a moment, and her mouth sagged stupidly. She shook her head, snapping her gaze straight.
“WHAT?!”
“Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. TARDIS,” he rattled off, “You can travel to the horsehead nebulae and ride a solar wave and watch the Equestria Games of 1921 and still be back home before dinner.”
Derpy’s frown of disbelief turned into a grin.
“Count me in!” she said, galloping into the TARDIS.
“Fantastic! Where do you want to go first?”
Derpy leaned against one of the support columns of the interior, tapping a grey hoof against her chin. There were so many places to go and things to do, she could hardly make up her mind which to do first!
“I’ve always wanted to visit the future,” she decided, “I want to know if earth ponies and unicorns travel by flying carriages, and not the kind that try to kidnap you! Do they have robots in the future? Robots that do laundry? Robot bakers? OOOooh, I want to eat a muffin cooked by a robot baker, that would be so cool!”
“Robots and flying carriages, fantastic!” the Doctor beamed. He cranked the lever and bashed a panel with a hammer he kept on the multi-sided console. He then leaped over to the other side, pressing buttons and spinning an odd-looking dial.
Outside in the field, the TARDIS’ light began to flash bright blue, and the ship dematerialized completely, fading out from view.
“Here we go then, 30th century Canterlot!”
