Chapters The TARDIS hurtled through the vortex of time and space like a car hurtling down the track of a rollercoaster. Inside the time-travelling ship, Derpy Hooves stood opposite of the Doctor, a stallion whom she had just met and agreed to take her travelling with him in this spaceship-disguised-as-a-blue-box.
“You’re gonna love this one!” the Doctor called out over the whirring of the TARDIS engines, “We’ve landed just on the other side of the Canterlot mountains, in the sprawling metropolis of New Canterlot!”
“Wonderful!” Derpy said, as the TARDIS settled with a thump and jolted her forward.
“If I timed it right, it ought to be right around the turn of the 31st century, give or take a few decades on either side.”
He clapped his front hooves together, and adjusted the collar of his leather jacket. Derpy had never seen ponies wearing leather coats before; but then again, the Doctor wasn’t even a pony to begin with.
“Open up that door, and step out into another time,” he said, offering the way to Derpy, “It’s fantastic!”
“Have you ever been to this time before?” Derpy asked.
“No,” the Doctor replied simply, raising both of his eyebrows, “This’ll be fresh to both you and me.”
****
As Derpy opened up the doors of the TARDIS, she was greeted with the sight of a side alley, made of stone and rather unremarkable save for a touch of graffiti. Derpy frowned. This wasn't what she had expected at all.
“Doctor?”
“Wouldn’t want to park the TARDIS in the middle of a busy street now, would I?”
The two of them moved out of the alley and onto one of the main strips. The boring side-street was replaced with a grand vista of the cityscape, and for the first time Derpy was able to take in the beauty of Equestria’s future.
Carriages for earth ponies and unicorns zoomed through the air, and shops lined the street on other side, featuring bright displays advertising deals and sales that seemed to materialize in thin air. The ponies milling about seemed mostly normal save for unusual mane cuts and accessories, but the most interesting change was their companions. For every pony she could see around her Derpy could also spot an accompanying robot, decked out and customized to meet that pony’s needs.
“They have personal robots that follow you around?” Derpy asked, turning around to face the Doctor.
“Yeah, isn’t it fantastic?” he replied, “Though I’ll bet they’re a tad expensive. No matter, Canterlot is the premier high class destination.”
Derpy began to walk down the road with the Doctor, glancing wildly in different directions at the new sights, taking in the familiar yet different smells, and listening to the ambience. She caught a whiff of a scent she recognized: freshly baked goods!
“Doctor I smell muffins!” she exclaimed, flapping her wings and comically floating through the air toward the bakery. The Doctor followed on hoof, reaching for the door to the shop to let her in. Instead the door whooshed open, retracting into the wall long enough for them both to enter.
At the counter, a robotic cashier stood waiting. It was stylized and it’s metal painted a bright pink, complete with a fake blue mane. Rather than eyes, it’s optics were in the shape of a single visor. The Doctor smiled as he approached it.
“Alright, a bit of grub, then? Derpy, what kind of muffins do you want?”
The blonde pegasus was nearly bouncing off the walls in excitement, looking in display cases and promotional posters and an electronic bulletin board hanging on the wall that flashed notices.
“Chocolate chip!” she called over.
“Two chocolate chip muffins,” he ordered. The robot raised it’s head, looking at him through a glowing blue optic.
“Identify account,” it spoke in a voice that sounded completely and totally artificial.
“Erm, I don’t have an account, do you take cash?”
“This company no longer accepts cash payments,” it replied, generating an automatic prompt, “would you like to open a free account now?”
“....sure,” the Doctor said, growing wary.
“Temporary account created. Please state your name and cutie mark.”
“Time Turner, hourglass.”
Derpy stopped what she was doing and snapped her head. Time Turner?
“Vocal patterns match: Time Turner. Your total is five bit credits.”
“Thank you,” he said, scooping up the two muffins the robot placed on the counter. He gave one to Derpy, and sat down at one of the simplistic tables in the corner.
“Doctor, who’s Time Turner?” Derpy asked between bites, her mouth still full.
“Alias. I travelled to the 2840’s a while ago, and I made an account during my visit. Vocal patterns, everything.”
“If this is 2984.... why is that account still active?”
“Must not have deleted it,” the Doctor said simply, taking a bite out of his muffin.
“Doctor, nopony would keep an account open for over a century like that, especially if it hasn’t been used in decades.”
At that very moment, the doors of the bakery zoomed open, and an entire squad of blue pegasus drones entered, all identical and uniform. The Doctor grinned, and Derpy hid herself under the table as the drones surrounded them.
“Don’t worry Derpy, they’re not gonna shoot. They’re not armed.”
“Vocal identification confirms as Time Turner, Hourglass Cutie Mark, Earth Pony!” said the mechanical voice of one of the drones.
“Well, I wouldn’t say that myself,” the Doctor replied glibly, “What, is this the debt collectors of the future? Get a load of this Derpy, they’re after me for 140 year old debts!”
“Your presence is requested at the Canterlot Castle. You will accompany us.”
The drones began to glow, as did Derpy and the Doctor, and in the blink of an eye all of them had vanished entirely from the shop, leaving their half-eaten muffins behind and rematerializing in an expansive throne room, one that Derpy recognized as Princess Celestia’s!
“Oi! What was all that about?” the Doctor said, looking about.
“They’ve taken me to see the Princess herself... This is just fantastic ! I wonder what she wants this time.”
“You’ve met the princess before?” Derpy asked, looking at him with one of her eyes.
“Yep.”
Celestia entered, her mane flowing with an array of colors as it always had. Despite the passage of time, she did not look much older than before, though the weariness was slightly present in the tone of her smooth voice as she spoke.
“Doctor?” she expressed, looking and sounding completely surprised, “You don’t look a day older than when we last met, and that was.... dear me.... that was centuries ago.”
“Doesn’t it feel just like yesterday?” he replied, “For what reason was my presence so urgently... no, that sounds too silly and formal. Who talks like that? Anyways, I was enjoying a muffin with Miss Derpy here when these drones went and whisked me away.”
Celestia frowned.
“I simply called for a clocksmith, I didn’t request you specifically. I asked my security guard to fetch me a clocksmith, not whisk somepony away in the middle of a meal.”
“Apologies,” replied the mechanical voice of the floating guard, “I merely thought that since you two had a connection?”
“You thought ? Don’t be silly, robots can’t think for themselves, it’s all programming.”
It was the Doctor’s turn to frown now. He had visited the 31st century and the 29th century in turn. The 29th used robots similar to these, but never had he heard one identify itself using the pronoun ‘I’, nor had one ever claimed to have been capable of abstract thought. Of course, by the 31st century robots were considered individuals; had it already started?
“Where’s the clock that needs fixing, your highness?” the Doctor asked.
“In my sitting room, over the mantlepiece. It’s an old clock, and it fell from it’s place this morning during the earthquake, and something inside must’ve been knocked out of place.”
“Earthquake?” Derpy repeated, floating past the Doctor and landing at his side.
“Yes, the Earthquake, didn’t you two feel it this morning?”
“Must’ve slept right through it,” responded the Doctor, shooting the princess a quick grin, “I’ll take a look at the clock and see what I can do.”
He trotted off in the direction of the sitting room, followed by Derpy flying behind him.
“That’s weird,” the Doctor said as he entered Celestia’s sitting room, “I haven’t known Celestia personally, and I certainly haven’t ever introduced myself to her.”
“Maybe you two just haven’t met yet,” suggested Derpy, stretching out on one of the plush royal sofas.
“What was that?”
“You know, you’re a time traveller. You meet her in your future, but in her past.”
“No, not that.... listen!”
The two paused, straining their ears to hear a distant rumbling. The floor beneath them began to vibrate. Each and every pedestal and furniture piece started to shake, and a bust of Princess Twilight fell right off and crashed onto the floor, shattering it.
“Earthquake!” Derpy shouted, getting up from the couch and hovering in midair as everything around her vibrated and rumbled. Almost as soon as it had started, it faded. The building stopped shaking and the rumbling died down with a final thump, leaving everything as still as it was before.
The Doctor stood, legs buckled and with a pensive expression on his face.
“What’s the matter?” Derpy asked, landing next to him.
“That wasn’t an earthquake,” he said, “I know when the land beneath me is shaking, and that wasn’t it.”
“So.... what was it?”
“The foundation of the building itself,” said the Doctor, “The castle itself was shaking.”
****
Derpy walked back out into the throne room, where Celestia was flipping through newscasts given by ponies by region on a transparent board to her side, against the wall next to one of the many stained glass windows.
“And tonight in sports, the Fillydelphia Dragons will face the Baltimare Timberwolves in Hoofball, to be broadcast on Equestria Sports Network, channel 421. The Manticores beat out the Bad Wolves last night in a double overtime, winning 45 to-”
“Weather, please,” Celestia commanded the automatic display, “I need reports of earthquakes across the country, and possible damage.”
“...and it’s clear skies today, dropping to lows around 40 this evening, with the scheduled thundershowers occurring overnight. Tomorrow the sky will be overcast, so make sure-”
“No, news on Earthquakes!”
Derpy thought that was odd. The display couldn’t give Celestia any news on the earthquakes, and since the Doctor had said it had just been the castle shaking....
“P...princess?” Derpy asked, her legs turning to rubber. She hadn’t ever spoken to her princess one on one before, and the experience was a little bit intimidating.
“Yes?” replied Celestia, looking up from what she was doing.
“I....I.... Uh....” she stumbled, “The Doctor’s working on the clocks right now!”
“Oh,” she said, “Thank you for telling me. Say, miss....”
“Hooves.”
“Miss Hooves, can you please tell the Doctor to check for any other broken clocks? I’m worried that something important might have gotten knocked over.”
“Oh, a ...a..s-statue did get knocked over.....” Derpy sputtered, “It was kinda purple, and had a crown on it.”
“That’d be the bust of Princess Twilight,” Celestia sighed, “Thank you for telling me.”
****
“Doctor,” Derpy said, flying into the sitting room and nearly knocking over a statue of a blue princess this time, another one that she didn’t recognize.
“Yeah?”
“The Princess wants you to look at all the different clocks all over the castle, check for anything broken.”
The Doctor set the clock back on the wall freshly ticking, and pocketed his sonic screwdriver in his jacket.
“Did she now? Fantastic! That’ll give us an excuse to check the place out!”
“Excuse me?”
The Doctor rounded the corner, followed by Derpy flying after him. They were in a hallway now, poshly decorated with rich carpets and paintings from all over Equestria’s history. It was almost being inside a museum.
“Can you imagine that one pony lives in this palace?” Derpy said, astonished.
“Two, actually. There’s also Princess Luna,”
Derpy’s head snapped up, her eyes looking straight this time as she stared at the Doctor quizzically.
“Hasn’t happened yet, sorry. No.... that earthquake came from somewhere nearby, and since it was the foundation that was shaking I’m betting it came from down below. We have to find a way to get to the lowest part of the building.”
At that moment, they rounded the corner and nearly collided with a tallish alicorn, a princess with a royal navy coat. The Doctor backed off, and Derpy landed herself at his side.
“Oh,” the pony started, “Sorry, I should’ve been watching where I was....”
Her voice trailed off, and the night princess’ eyes bulged suddenly, her mouth agape. She pointed at the Doctor with a single hoof, backing up with a shocked expression. The Doctor had a huge grin on his face.
“Doctor?! After so many years, why did you return?” she started, “Well, I suppose it hasn’t been long for you, since you’re a time traveller and all.”
“How did you know that?” he asked, looking worried.
“Hm?”
“Who told you about time travelling?”
“You did,” Luna said, “Back in.... what was it, the 21st century? Ages and ages ago, I know. Yeah, you told me about being a time lord, about the TARDIS machine you travelled in, about how you and Derpy had just gotten back from-”
“Woah woah woah woah,” the Doctor interrupted, holding his hoof up. Derpy raised her eyebrows this time. Nopony could get away with interrupting a princess, not even the Doctor !
“Don’t tell me about what happened when we met before, because it hasn’t happened for us yet, alright?” he said, “I don’t to run the risk of creating some kind of paradox.”
“Doctor... who is this?” Derpy asked, her eyes crossing.
“I’m Luna, Princess of the night,” Luna said, introducing herself, “and you are Derpy Hooves, of the 21st century.”
“20th,” replied Derpy, “Just barely. I’m from 1999.”
“If we’re done chatting,” said the Doctor, “We should keep poking around. Oi Princess, is there any way for us to get beneath the foundation?”
“Why would you want to?” she asked, flipping her mane, “It’s sealed off, has been ever since the changeling invasion.”
The three of them made it down a set of brilliant marble stairs, to the ground floor of Canterlot castle. The doors opened to reveal a spacious room with black and white tiled floors, tall ivory columns, and gold-spun tapestries on the walls. The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and held it in his mouth as he made outlines on the floor, listening to fluctuation in the whizzing sound that his screwdriver made.
“What’s the matter?” Derpy asked, floating above him.
“It’s sealed off,” he said, “You were right Princess.”
“You think that something down there caused the earthquake?” asked the Princess. Before the Doctor could answer, a buzzing robotic pony entered through a side room. It was maneless, tailless, and had no paint on it’s metal hide. The eyepiece glowed a bright red as it took mechanical steps toward them.
“Attempt to breach quarantine detected!” the robot uttered in a soulless voice, “Intruders will be executed!”
Out from under the robot’s neck came a cylinder with what looked like a needle at the end, which swiveled to point at the two ponies and time lord.
“What do we do, Doctor?” Derpy whispered.
“Basically..... run.”
The three took off in separate directions, Luna flying to the right while Derpy flied to the left. The Doctor dashed off diagonally towards one of the columns. Confused by the multiple targets, the robot began taking shots at the two flying ponies, firing a reddish beam of energy into the air after them and barely missing Derpy.
The Doctor leaped out from behind the column, levelling his screwdriver at the robot and jabbing it’s glowing blue end at various points on the robot’s surface. A leg began to malfunction, and the optics crackled.
“Princess!” the Doctor called out.
Luna swerved in mid air, flapping her navy feathers to level herself, and concentrated her magic into a blast aimed at the robot. The Doctor ducked out of the way as Luna’s blast blew the robot apart, scattering broken parts away from a smoking scorch mark on the tiles.
“It shouldn’t have had weapons,” Luna commented, landing next to the Doctor. A moment later, Derpy landed as well, breathing rapidly as her heart continued to race.
“Are you all right?” asked the Doctor, leaning a foreleg over Derpy’s shoulders.
“I’ll be fine,” she replied, “What was that thing?”
“A typical service robot from a new shipment. We hadn’t customized it yet, it must have been activated but left uncustomized. Maybe they stopped in the middle of the Earthquake,” suggested Luna.
“You said they shouldn’t have had weapons?” the Doctor asked the Princess. She nodded.
“All of the robot manufacturers are expressly forbidden from utilizing any weapons technology. The last thing we want are soldiers capable of being programmed to kill anypony.”
“Like that one just tried to do?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
The Doctor paced about, looking at the burnt scrap remains of what had been a functional robot, until he found the cylinder that had been firing at them only moments before.
“See this?” he said, “This is a holographic emitter, but with the specifications changed and with a power re-route.”
“The robot changed itself so that it could fire a beam out of the projector?” Luna said with a surprised expression, “That’s quite a loophole.”
“Yeah,” said the Doctor, “Somepony’s up to a bit of jiggery-pokery. That robot was guarding something, something beneath these floors that causes earthquakes. Something sinister is going on down there.”
“What do we do?” asked Derpy.
“We need to find another way down.”
Checking the Alternatives
“Princess Luna, what is down underneath this castle?” asked the Doctor quickly. He was in action mode now, and he began to talk very fast, pointing with a blue hoof.
“Years ago- centuries- it used to be a mine for precious stones. The walls are made of crystal, but they’ve been sealed off ever since the changeling invasion, nearly a millennia ago.”
“If it’s a mine, there has to be a secondary shaft somewhere, and I bet you it was at the base of the mountain, which would put the entrance smack in the middle of New Canterlot,” he said.
“If the robots are protecting whatever’s down there, maybe that means the ponies making them have something secret they don’t want anypony to see,” suggested Derpy.
“Aha!” the Doctor exclaimed, “They knew teleportation was sealed off, so they built a shop right over the mine entrance! Princess, how many robot dealers are there in New Canterlot?”
“Three,” she answered, looking up as she tried to recall the names of the companies.
“There’s Cogstad Corp, Robotech, and Ironclad Industries.”
“We’re going to need to split up,” the Doctor said, taking to the stairs, “Your highness, do you want to help?”
“Gladly,” replied Luna.
“Fantastic!”
****
The three ponies walked down the main strip as night began to fall. As the sky darkened above, the bright lights and transparent advertisements of buildings and skyline glowed even brighter to compensate. The nightlife started to emerge as ponies who slept most of the day awoke and began going about their business. Princess Luna wore a cloak over herself to prevent attention being drawn to her.
“Here’s the plan,” the Doctor said, “We’re going to have to split up into two groups, and that means I’m on my own. Princess, can you do that message-teleport thing that your older sister does?”
“Are you asking me if I can send messages to you via magic? Yes.”
“Fantastic- now I’m going to check out Cogstad first, you two can choose between Robotech and Ironclad. First group that finds anything useful to point us in the right direction gets the others.”
“What are we looking for, Doctor?” asked Derpy, stretching her front legs out and arching her back.
“They’re not going to want you to get anywhere near the entrance, so insist of seeing every square meter of the building. If they get testy, press a bit harder until the robot does what it did earlier. Princess?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t let anything bad happen to Derpy. Good luck, you two.”
****
As Derpy and Luna walked down the road via sidewalk, Derpy felt completely alone in an alien world. The sidewalks glowed bright colors here, and every hoofstep she took made it shift around and ripple with light like a puddle of water. The robots all around, no matter how much dressed up or prettified they may have been by their owners now posed a potential threat, and that was unnerving.
“So, Princess, erm...”
“Luna,” the cloaked alicorn said, “My name is Luna. You don’t remember me, do you?”
“When I come from, there’s only two princesses,” Derpy explained, “Celestia and the much younger Cadance.”
“Since you travel with the Doctor, I think it’s alright to spoil some things. In your time- the early 21st century?”
“Late 20th. Like, the tail end of it,” corrected Derpy.
“Well, I was imprisoned in the moon up there at that point. I had a thousand-year sentence, and the time was up in 2010. I broke free as a terrible monster bent on revenge, but then six friends tamed that wild beast using very powerful magic. I was.... rehabilitated in a way. I joined my sister’s side, and it took a year or two to get back up to date with current culture.”
Derpy paused, passing by a sign near a gravity bus station that showed a three-dimensional map of downtown New Canterlot. She stuck a hoof to the point showing where they were, and traced the path they would need to take to get to the Robotics dealer. Just a few more blocks.
“But enough about me,” Luna said, “What about you? What’s life like? You and the Doctor, travelling together all over time and space?”
“This is the first place he’s taken me,” Derpy said, “It was gonna be a quick trip until we got zapped to the Castle, then came all of this robot stuff.”
Luna stopped, motioning for Derpy to look at her. The princess poked her snout out from beneath the cloak, examining Derpy’s face. She peered at her slightly-off gaze, at her scruffy blonde mane, and her youthful features.
“You look like a filly just out of her teens. How old are you?”
“19, turning 20 in about a week,” Derpy replied. Luna released her, tapping her hoof to her chin.
“So you just met the Doctor?” she asked, continuing to walk down the busy sidewalk.
“Yes,” replied Derpy, “He saved me from the Synax, and I saved him in return. I don’t know him that well, he’s almost a bit of a stranger to me still, but he’s told me enough that I know that I can trust him.”
“Like what?”
Derpy paused.
“I’m not sure I’m supposed to tell.”
“Derpy,” Luna pressed, “Did he tell you that he was the last of his kind? That he wasn’t even a pony at all?”
“...yes, how did you know that?”
Luna laughed.
“You were the first pony he ever revealed that to, about him being the last Time Lord. I was the second. Don’t forget, you two meet up with the past me later, at some point.”
Derpy’s eyes crossed, and her face contorted in an extremely confused expression.
“Ugh, time travel.”
****
The Doctor strolled casually into the storefront of Cogstad robotics. Cogstad specialized in mostly industrial robots, and the storefront reflected that purpose. The walls were rather gray plain, and painted a criss-cross of yellow and black in the corners as a sort of factory motif. The lights in the ceiling above were square, and the robots on display angular and bulky. These were the heavy lifters, the true workhorse of 30th century Equestria.
A clerk of some kind came forward, looking with bewilderment at the Doctor.
“The sign says that we’re closed, and I locked the door! How did you get in?” the gray-maned stallion asked.
“It wasn’t locked,” the Doctor lied, pocketing his sonic screwdriver and withdrawing a leather wallet with a slip of paper on the interior, holding it up like a form of identification.The clerk looked at the slip of paper, lifting up his glasses carefully.
“Oh, dreadfully sorry Inspector,” he apologized profusely, “I must have misread the schedule, I thought you weren’t due until next week!”
“Maybe you mismarked it in the first place,” the Doctor said, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to do a structural integrity test. I’m gonna walk the length of the building, the entire building. Any broom closet, bathrooms, storage shed, they all need to be checked.”
“What for?” asked the stallion as the Doctor wheeled about toward the far wall of the complex. The Doctor’s head craned back to glance at him.
“Testing the structural integrity, of course! Now give me space.”
****
“Welcome to Robotech industries,” welcomed a smooth-voiced clerk pony with an ivory coat and a silky mane. The inside of the robot retailer had that typical futuristic look to it, right down to the streamlined curves of the furniture and lights and the ever-present chrome finish. Derpy looked at the wall, seeing her reflection and giving herself a goofy grin. Virtually everything in this place was polished and reflective.
“Hello,” Luna introduced herself, taking her cloak’s hood off and revealing herself. The clerk seemed quite surprised to be visited by a royal princess, as she dropped herself immediately into a deep bow.
“Oh, your highness,” she said, “We are humbled by your prescense. Please, if there is anything we can do for you, let me know at once.”
“Surprise Royal Inspection, I’m afraid,” said Luna, “My assistant here will accompany me around the facility.”
“I didn’t know we were going to have a Royal Inspection!” gasped another staff member.
“Hence the ‘surprise’,” remarked Luna with the slightest of smirks, “Come along now, Derpy.”
****
The Doctor stood inside the outer edge of the garbage chute, leaning with his hind hooves and stretching his glowing sonic screwdriver out into the structure ahead of him. The air inside the shaft smelled odd, though not foul. When the sonic returned no useful information, he went back onto all fours and closed the hatch of the garbage chute, pocketing his screwdriver.
“Well, that’s every single meter of wall I could find, and not a single structural weakness,” the Doctor congratulated the clerk, “Though I did notice an odd scent in the garbage chute. Have you been dumping Rubidium?”
“Yes,” the clerk answered honestly, “We had a case of spare holo-emitters. You know, spare parts for robot repairs. The occasional customer wants them fixed. So, one of my colleagues tested the emitters and found that the entire boxful was susceptible to overload. Since rubidium is used in the emitters, that’s just the smell of a few of them breaking open inside the garbage chute.”
“Improper disposal of alkali metals,” the Doctor said with a fake sigh, “I’m sorry. You were doing so well, too. Still though, that’s a near-perfect score. Mind if I ask, though- where’d you get the bad holo-emitters?”
“Well,” the stallion responded, squinting and adjusting his spectacles, “I think they were industrial supplies from Ironclad Industries.”
****
“What’d you find?” asked the Doctor. He, Luna and Derpy all sat on a park bench in the center of New Canterlot, on the corner of two streets. Traffic and turbo-carriages zoomed by noisily, though they were still able to hear each other.
“Robotech shows nothing,” Luna said simply, “No bad reactions from the robots, or anything odd when we took a complete tour.”
“We literally looked in every single part of that building,” Derpy said distastefully, “What about you, Doctor?”
“Well, I think I found a source on those bad holo-emitters. Turns out Cogstad got sold some holo-emitters from Ironclad Industries that overloaded on them. Sound familiar?”
“So Ironclad has the technology to make the robots be able to shoot off like that one in the castle?”
“It’s a place to start,” replied the Doctor.
The Doctor, Luna, and Derpy Hooves all entered through the sliding door of Ironclad Industries, a robot manufacturing plant combined with a functional storefront. It was located on the very edge of New Canterlot, though the closest to the mountain itself and by extension ‘old’ Canterlot.
Almost immediately, a pair of identical twins came to meet them, shaking their heads. The pair were both purplish stallions, with short-cut silver manes.
“We’re sorry, but our storefront is getting ready to close for the night,” one of them said with the slightest hint of agitation.
“Oh, we’re not customers,” the Doctor replied, flipping open a wallet containing only a single piece of paper. The first twin looked at the paper carefully, and then the second took a glance.
“Surely...... an inspection can wait until the morning?” the second stallion asked with a nervous grin. Luna spoke from underneath her hooded cloak this time in response.
“We will be in Los Pegasus tomorrow. Besides, this was scheduled months ago.”
“I don’t remember-” one of the stallions started, but Derpy was quick to interrupt him this time, taking to the air and landing herself right in front of his face.
“That’s your fault for not writing it down then. Let us through, or we may have to declare this factory unfit for service until we can reschedule,” she said. The Doctor shot her a grin, mouthing the words ’Well put’.
****
The Doctor lay on his back underneath a conveyor belt, his sonic screwdriver humming away as he waved it around the underside of the production machinery. Luna was up on the second level of the factory complex, tapping her hoof against the walls and listening for a certain type of reverberation that could reveal a hidden room. Derpy was with the Doctor, standing and waiting for him.
“Doctor,” she asked, “What was that thing you showed the two stallions at the front?”
The Doctor scooted himself out from under the conveyor, standing back up on all fours and tossing Derpy the wallet.
“The paper inside is slightly psychic. Show’s ‘em whatever I want. Isn’t it great?”
Derpy opened the wallet, and inside were coupons for free banana muffins at the place they had eaten earlier. Her eyes lit up, and she showed it to the Doctor gleefully.
“Banana muffins?” he remarked with a whistle, “I could go for some banana muffins. I like bananas. Lemme see that for a sec.”
Derpy tossed the wallet back to the Doctor, and he caught it with his front hooves. He looked at it for a second and then showed it back to Derpy. Instead of showing the free muffin coupons it had shown earlier, it had one word written in bold text: FOCUS.
“How’d you do that?” Derpy asked, cocking her head to the side.
“I told you, it’s slightly psychic. Whatever the holder wants you to see, you see. Now, less talk about muffins and bananas and let’s get back down to business.”
“Alright,” Derpy said with a frown, “find anything under there?”
“Nope.”
Luna landed next to them, bowing her head down to whisper. Both Derpy and the Doctor leaned in carefully.
“I went on all floors of the factory level. Nothing. Not even testy robots,” she whispered. The Doctor nodded.
“I’ve taken a peek at the machinery myself,” he said, “Looks like the internal stuff- all the wires and cables and little chips- have little to no wear.”
“What does that mean?” Derpy asked, “Maybe they just replaced them?”
“No,” said the Doctor in a low voice, “I doubt they really make the robots in this building, aside from showcasing. It’s odd.... I don’t see any equipment for making or installing the quadtronic processor. Its the most important bit, too.”
“What do you think, then?”
“Those stallions,” the Doctor said, “They had a real dodgy look about them. They’re hiding something all right.”
Raising his gaze, the Doctor caught sight of one of the two stallions. Each pony stood by the door to the factory, leaning and rocking about on their hooves. One of the two reared back and leaned himself against the wall, running one of his hooves through his mane while stealing the occasional glance at the supposed “inspectors”.
Derpy listened quietly as nopony spoke. The Doctor was staring down the two stallions from across the factory, and Luna did not speak a word either. In this silence, she heard a muffled noise beneath her. The sound was distant and rumbly, but it was present. The Doctor seemed to have noticed it as well, as he glanced down to the cement floor for a moment.
They were above the entrance to the mines, alright. That was all the confirmation the Doctor needed.
“Right,” he said, moving quickly across the factory and leaving the Princess and Derpy to fly in his wake.
“F-find everything to be satisfactory, sir?” one of the two twins stuttered.
“Oh, absolutely fantastic! ” said the Doctor, “Really superb. You said your turnaround rate is...”
“Four hours,” stated one of the brothers, “We put in the command and four hours later you get a robot, ready to go and perform whatever tasks you give it. Any questions that any of you three want to ask before leaving?”
“Don’t be so hot to shove us out the door, I have plenty of questions. I have to say, for a full-scale industrial complex, I expected more employees,” started the Doctor, “You two brothers, here running the place by yourselves? That’s a lot of automation. Not to mention the pristine shape of your machines.”
“We take very g-good care of our equipment!” stated the second brother, moving against the wall like a cornered animal when the Doctor eyed him.
“Almost too pristine,” continued the Doctor, “In fact, it makes one wonder whether or not they see continuous use... Where are the Quadtronic Processors?”
“The what?”
The Doctor snorted, and pulled his leather jacket down a bit on his shoulders. Derpy couldn’t help but sit back and watch as the Doctor forced the two stallions into a metaphorical hot seat, bombarding them with direct questions.
“Don’t be thick,” he said, “There are no Quadtronic Processors produced in this place. You haven’t the machines to do it. Where do you install the processors for your robots?”
“W..we have a separate plant out on Vanhoover that does that.”
The Doctor smiled. He had caught the twins in the middle of a lie.
“Princess Luna,” he called out, as the night princess dropped her hood to the amazement of the stallions standing before her, “Do you have any teleportation technology in this era?”
“No,” Luna replied, “Only gifted unicorns are able to teleport, and only short distances.”
“How long would a trip take to transport a shipment of industrial freight from New Canterlot to Vanhoover?”
“Just more than two hours,” she replied, “so a round trip would take about four hours, and that would be if the processors were installed instantaneously and the transport returned immediately afterwards.”
“So, four, five hours on top of the initial production time of the robotic shell itself?” the Doctor continued, “Doesn’t sound like your initial figure, does it? Do you want to try to answer me again?”
The two licked their lips, and exchanged glances. It was clear to see the wheels turning as the cornered ponies raced to come up with an excuse to cover their tails, and their facade crumbled to bits around them to reveal a poorly planned falsification.
“They ship the processors down here, we install them here. We have stockpiles ready to go, it’s not like ...”
The Doctor raised a hoof, signaling the pony to remain quiet. The rumbling that Derpy had heard beneath their hooves returned, this time shaking the ground beneath them a bit not dissimilar to the earthquake that had struck the castle earlier in the day. As the shaking subsided, the Doctor eyed both of the stallions, and began to pace.
“Alright, so you ship the Quadtronic Processors down here from Vanhoover, and install them in this factory. That’s all well and good but that raises my first question...”
He wheeled about on his legs to look straight at the pair of twin stallions.
“Where do you actually install the processors for your robots?”
There was a moment of silence where nopony spoke, but in that same moment of silence the rumbling continued, and the concrete floor began to creak. It increased sharply in sound and intensity before trailing off once again.
“Sir, m’am, Princess,” the first stallion said, “I’m going to have to insist that you leave at once.”
“Or what?” the Doctor retorted, lumbering up to the purplish stallion, “The floor creaking is significant, isn’t it? Something big is gonna happen soon, am I right?”
“I wish I could tell you. I really wish I could but they forbid it. I can’t say a word. For your safety sir, just go . Please! It’s not safe here!”
The Doctor paused, glancing to Derpy and then to Luna with a raised eyebrow. His expression changed from one of consternation to one of glee, with a huge grin covering his face.
“I get it now!” he exclaimed, jumping into action and climbing halfway up a flight of stair. He leaned out over the rail and pointed at a spot on the factory floor, a point that was entirely clear of machinery and marked out with a great X.
“That’s actually a portal, isn’t it? That’s why nothing showed up on the Sonic. It’s no door or physical entryway, it’s the spot where these things come from.”
“What things?” Derpy asked, flying up and landing next to the Doctor on the grated stairs.
“Am I right in saying that you two are legitimate businessponies caught up in a terrible plot? You’re under threat from a higher power?” Luna asked of the two silver-maned brothers. They nodded quietly.
“You lot, what’s your names?” asked the Doctor from the staircase.
“I’m Gearhead Cladd,” the first one replied, “and this is my brother Gadget Cladd. Cladd brothers of IronClad industries. Now will you please go before the things appear! They’ll kill you, and maybe us too if they knew the word got out.”
“Right, Cladd brothers,” the Doctor continued, “If you value your lives, run now. Run for your life, because I’m staying. You don’t want to be caught in the crossfire when the Doctor comes to call.”
The two stallions took their chance and dashed through their own front door, and out into the busy streets of New Canterlot, leaving the Doctor, Derpy, and Luna standing in the dimly lit factory as the rumbling peaked once again. The stairs began to shake, the equipment shifted, and this time a beam of light shot up from the very center of the X mark on the factory floor. Luna flew up to stand next to the Doctor and Derpy Hooves as the bright shaft of light grew brighter, expanding in circumference.
“Doctor, what is that?” Derpy asked, grabbing ahold of his leg as if to hide herself in the fold of his leather coat.
“I’ve got a bit of a hunch, actually,” he admitted with a wide grin, “Oh, see there in the center? They’re starting to come through the portal! Legions of them! This is just fantastic! ”
“Hardly the word I’d use,” Luna commented, “Those things look dangerous .”
“I know,” replied the Doctor, “and isn’t that just the coolest part?”
The forms materialized, revealing heavily armored versions of the robots they had seen all day, sans artificial mane and bright coloring. The eyepieces glowed a deep crimson, yet kept their gaze forward. The robots formed a circle around the portal in groups of five, forming a pentagon totaling twenty five units in all.
At the center, the portal solidified into a physical entrance to the mines below, one that had been upgraded and coated in hi-tech paneling and lights. Through this, a slender unicorn mare emerged. She had a long, flowing mane and an equally long tail of dull rust, and a coat that had at one point been brown but had now faded to an almost steel-like tone. Her cutie mark was that of a processing chip.
A confused look came over her face when she did not see the two ponies she had been expecting. Instead of the Cladd brothers, she was greeted by a wall-eyed pegasus, an alicorn princess, and a leather-clad stallion grinning like a colt.
“What is this? Who are you?” she called out in a flustered tone.
“I’m the Doctor, and I think you’ve got a little bit of explaining to do.”
“Doctor,” Derpy whispered, pulling him aside. He leaned in down so that the pegasus could whisper into his ear.
“If you’re a time traveller and all, don’t you know who she is and what she wants?”
Smiling, the Doctor shook his head and mouthed the word ‘no’. He turned his attention back toward the tall mare and her legion of armored robots.
“Fantastic creations you’ve got there. Like regular old robots, but toughened up and battle-ready. What do you call them?”
“These are far more than robots, Doctor,” she replied with a half grin, “These are droids. Artificial Intelligence put to use for my purposes. Do you like them?”
“Artificial Intelligence?” the Doctor repeated, “They have free thought, ideas, emotions, everything?”
The pony didn’t answer his question, but took to pacing down on the factory floor.
“You still haven’t told me your name, nor where my associates have gone to,” she said, “I’m a very dangerous pony to be crossing.”
“No, I’m the more dangerous one to be crossing. It’s just ‘the Doctor’, by the way, miss....”
“My name is unimportant,” she replied, “I give you five seconds to tell me where my associates have gone before I order the droids to open fire.”
The Doctor raised a hoof, trying to think of something sassy to retort with. Finding nothing, he let a nervous grin come over his face, and locked hooves with Derpy. Luna bowed her head in.
“Basically, run.”
Derpy and Luna took to the air amid bright blasts of energy shooting skywards. The Doctor dashed down the rest of the stairs and catapulted himself up and over the railing.
Derpy swooped down through the exit of the factory but smashed into the front desk of the storefront. Disoriented, she flew out into the open sky without opening the door, smashing the glass to bits and crashing down into the asphalt outside clumsily.
Luna was behind her promptly, grabbing ahold of the gray pegasus and vanishing in a blast of magic energy and leaving the Doctor behind. The droids followed him as he ran through the remains of the glass window and out into the street. They had a quick pace, but clanked and clicked with every step.
Rounding the corner of a tall building emblazoned with bright signs declaring low prices on cider-based beverages, the Doctor bolted for the nearest back alley he could, hoping that he had remembered the correct one. He was met with a brick-like wall and sprayed-on graffiti declaring the name of high-profile degenerates. One called himself ‘Colt Cool’ and another ‘Bad Wolf’.
There was no sign of the TARDIS to be found, and the Doctor wheeled about to find that he had been trapped. The way out of the alley was now blocked by several bulky droids, with firing prods trained for the Doctor.
“WAIT!” he cried out, halting the red-eyed droids preparing to fire. He removed his leather coat and dropped it onto the ground below, leaving himself just wearing a greenish shirt over his natural blue fur.
“According to International Robotic order number 63, you must-”
“No such order exists! Don’t try to play games with me !” the first of the droids replied with a metallic voice. Surprisingly, the Doctor could hear inflection and tone in this robot’s voice rather than a dull lack of emotion. It actually had a personality .
“You will be taken to the Commander for further processing,” it commanded.
“Alright then,” the Doctor replied with a grin, “Take me to your leader!”
Derpy and Luna materialized on a streetcorner several blocks away from the Ironclad factory, wheezing and panting. Derpy lay down on her side, picking a rather painful shard of glass out from the base of her wing. She was covered in cuts and scrapes from head to hoof, and the sudden magic teleport had shaken her up.
“I’m sorry for the rough ride,” Luna apologized, “I haven’t teleported another pony in decades. Good to know this old girl still has a few moves left in her.”
Derpy spat another chunk of glass out onto the brightly lit sidewalk pad, and tried standing. She had gotten all of the shards out from under her hooves, but it still twinged with pain when she took a step.
“Here,” Luna offered covering the pegasus with a shroud of blueish magic. It swirled around her like smoke before dissipating, leaving her free from cuts, scrapes, and shards. The pony exhaled sharply.
“Thank you,” she said, “Princess.”
“No problem. We need to find out what happened to the Doctor. If my memory’s correct, then the last time I saw him he travelled in a blue box of some kind. He said it was a spaceship or something.”
“That’s the TARDIS,” Derpy replied. Luna noticed some of the ponies passing them by in the middle of the New Canterlot nightlife had begun to stare at her, so she replaced the hood covering most of her face.
“Where was the TARDIS last time you saw it?” asked the Princess, walking down the street away from the noisy restaurant crowd.
“Side street, not too far from here I think. Near a muffin shop.”
The two ponies rounded a corner, the same corner the Doctor had made the mistake of looking in first. Luna stuck her head down and used her magic to illuminate the dark alley. In doing so, she found nothing but graffiti on the walls and a crumpled jacket lying on the ground.
“This is his jacket,” Derpy said, swooping down and landing next to it. She picked the leather form up, shaking the dirt out and examining the cut. Wide collar flaps, a little worn in. It was the Doctor’s all right.
“Why would he take the jacket off?” she wondered aloud, slipping it over herself. Her legs were a bit more slender than the Doctor’s, and inside the jacket sleeves they barely touched the sides.
“Maybe he got vaporized,” Luna suggested with a grim look, “Just left his clothes behind.”
“He was wearing more than just the jacket though,” Derpy recalled. She began to pace while still wearing the Doctor’s jacket trying hard to think of what he would do.
“He deliberately took it off and left it here. This isn’t the same alley as the TARDIS, so it’s not like he took it off before going in.”
“How do you know it’s not the same one?” Luna asked, “They all look the same to me.”
“The one we parked the TARDIS in didn’t have graffiti. I think it’s around here somewhere... he didn’t find it the first time either,” Derpy said, “and he took his jacket off before being taken by those things. That’s it! They didn’t vaporize him, they took him prisoner. He left this jacket behind on purpose!”
The pegasus dug around in the pockets of the jacket, withdrawing a key on a length of rope.
“TARDIS key,” she remarked before digging around in the other ones. She produced the sonic screwdriver, psychic paper, and a banana from the other one.
“That pocket’s not big enough for all of those to be crammed inside,” Luna commented, picking up the banana and taking a bite. It was still fresh.
“Neither is the TARDIS,” said Derpy. She flipped open the wallet containing the psychic paper, expecting to find it blank. Instead, there was a single word written on the surface in black ink, as if it had been scrawled out by hoof with a fountain pen.
DERPY
Derpy cocked her head, looking at the paper sideways. Was she making it do that? The Doctor had said that since the paper was psychic it was supposed to display whatever the pony holding it wanted, but she hadn’t willed it to say “Derpy” at all. She looked back at the surface, and noticed that the text had changed.
IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S ME. THE DOCTOR. GET TO THE TARDIS. MORE ARE COMING.
Derpy’s jaw dropped. That was it! That was why the Doctor had left his jacket behind!
“Princess, look at this!” Derpy exclaimed, shoving the psychic paper underneath her nose.
“It says ‘stop wasting time and get to the TARDIS’,” Luna said with an arched eyebrow, “He left a note for you?”
Derpy looked at it again, but the message wasn’t what the Princess had just read off. It had changed once again, this time in bolder and bigger text.
NEXT ALLEY OVER. GET IN THE TARDIS
“He wants us to get to the TARDIS,” Derpy explained hurriedly, “Next alley over. Go!”
They turned to leave the alley, but came nose-to-steely nose with an entire squad of angry, glowing eyes. The droids had found them, too. Derpy slowly took a step back as the menacing robots advanced, speaking.
“You will follow us, ponies !” the leader commanded. Derpy recoiled further, but found the wall at her back. She had nowhere else to go from here.
Luna stepped past the pegasus and brought her horn down, conjuring a sphere of magic energy that she detonated in front of the robot squad, throwing them violently to the ground. Taking the momentary distraction, both ponies took flight up and over the alley before the droids could return to their hooves.
“There’s the TARDIS!” Derpy shouted excitedly, landing in front of the blue box. Brilliant white light from the inside poured out through the squarish windows, illuminating the back alley.
From not far away they could hear the sounds of the robots recovering and clanking toward them. Derpy placed the key into the door and unlocked it hurriedly, pushing her way into the TARDIS. Luna entered right behind, just as the droids appeared at the entrance to the alley. She closed the door swiftly as the robot fired, sending a shower of sparks into the air on the outside but leaving the interior unharmed.
Derpy collapsed on the old chair the Doctor kept around inside the spacious interior, letting her head sink back as she rested for a moment. The Princess removed her hood from around her face and took in the features of the TARDIS’ interior.
“It’s a bit dimmer than I remember. The console’s not made out of as much random junk. Then again, I think the last time I saw the Doctor he was on his eleventh incarnation. What’s this, his ninth? He remembered me from his ninth, I think.”
Derpy shook her head. She had no idea what Luna was ranting about, and she didn’t much care.
“What does the psychic paper say now?” the Princess asked. Derpy flipped the wallet open and held it at hoof’s length, studying the surface. It was blank.
“I don’t see anything,” she said, “Do I have to want it to show me what the Doctor is trying to say?”
As the words came out of her mouth, text began to appear on the psychic paper, scrawled out as they had been before.
JUST WAIT.
****
The Doctor stood in the center of a vast factory, though unlike the factory that he had seen in the Ironclad building, this was messy and active. Brilliant blue flames shot up from a machine, and smoke poured out from under a vent. The floor was greasy, grimy, and uneven. He kicked the ground with a hoof to test it out.
Crystalline. The factory had been built down inside the crystal mines beneath Canterlot.
“So, the Synax renegades use these old shafts in 1999 for crackpot experiments, and then they get sealed off, is that correct?” he began, pacing in front of the nameless mare, “Then you lot move in ages and ages later, making your little army while everypony else turns a blind eye?”
“The Synax Consulars decried the experiments of the renegade group. After their destruction, they removed any and all traces of their race’s technology, leaving these mines as they were before,” she explained, “They remained that way until 2012, after which Celestia herself put a lock on the mines themselves. It’s taken centuries for that spell to decay, but twenty years ago the entrance was accessible to us.”
A klaxon sounded above, triggering flashing lights that illuminated the factory through a cloud of dense smoke. All around the Doctor, red eyes switched on and droids raised their heads. It was then that he got a better scale of the operation: at one eye per robot, there had to be hundreds crowded into this small factory plant. This mare had created an entire army of intelligent, artificial life to be used as her private soldiers.
It was then that the Doctor sensed a presence in his mind. It was a bit of an innocent curiosity, mixed with fatigue and subsiding terror. Derpy had found the psychic paper after all! He couldn’t help but grin. He had a way of communicating with them from down here.
“So, all of these soldiers,” started the Doctor, “What are you going to do with them?”
The mare opened her mouth, but the Doctor cut her off.
“No, WAIT! Don’t tell me, you’ve built yourself a personal army of supersoldiers, capable of overthrowing all of Equestria! That’s it, isn’t it? How cliché.”
“Not quite,” she retorted with a flick of her tail, “It’s not that dramatic, actually. I just want to take the capital city by force. That’s all it will take, just Canterlot. After that, the rest of Equestria will be on all four knees, with Celestia as my hostage. Then, I can bargain for whatever I want, even the re-establishment of my nation!”
“At this very second, the robots have already taken to the streets. Soon, every stallion, every mare with her foals will quake in their beds as the battle begins in the streets. They will not be spared, of course.”
“But that’s murder !” the Doctor growled, bringing his face up to stare into the eyes of the taller mare, “I don’t care how you look at it. Extermination, upgrading, cleansing, it all comes down to the destruction of an innocent soul and I won’t stand for it.”
The mare snorted, and her eyes flashed a shade of deep green for a moment. It was only for a fraction of a second, but in that moment the Doctor’s expression changed completely. His angry visage melted into one of shock, one of surprise.
“You have no power over me, Doctor!” she cackled, “And tonight, I will restore what is rightfully mine.”
“You created a new race,” the Doctor said, “Those droids. If you weren’t controlling them, they would be independent and free-thinking intelligent life. Artificial life.”
“Yes, and?”
“You harnessed the power of electricity to do your bidding. After all these years, you have to create faithful subjects. Why is that? What happened to your population?”
The mare leaned inwards, eye to eye with the Doctor. She squinted at him, not sure what to divulge and what to keep hidden.
“You are wise, Doctor. I am the last of my kind, it is true. The very last of them.”
“I know the feeling,” the Doctor responded, “What happened to them all?”
“Disease killed some. Some left the hive, deciding to live their lives out as ponies, passing their nature on. The pure blood became mixed, tainted by ponykind until ponykind dominated. I am the last of the pure changelings, but I also possess the key to salvation.”
The Doctor nodded. He was speaking to the Queen of the Changeling hive herself, albeit the only member of that hive as well.
“Your name is....?” he asked, taking a step back.
“Queen Surrogate, savior of the Changeling race. The last, yet the beginning.”
The Doctor shook his head. He began to pace in front of the disguised queen, shaking his head madly and scowling.
“No. No, you can’t do that. Not like this. You can’t force that kind of change on a population. It’s not right!”
“Try to stop me then, Doctor !”
The Doctor licked his lips, tightened his green jumper, and stood his ground in front of the changeling queen.
“Listen to me, for this is important. There once was a race called the Daleks, a race bent on exterminating every form of life different from themselves. They had a name for me on their homeworld, steeped in Dalek legend and mythos. They called me the Oncoming Storm. The Daleks are dead now, every last one. You listen to me here, because I am about to give you a choice. You can either choose peace, and by doing so accept my aid in finding a way to rebuild your race peacefully. You can also choose to continue with violence and acts of war, but if you do you can guarantee that I am going to stop you.”
The mare laughed, rolling her head back at the blue stallion trying to assert his nonexistent prisoner’s authority. She had had enough. In the blink of an eye, two robotic guards clasped him firmly by the legs and shoulders, and dragged him off in the direction of the jail cell.
“A small amount of Synax technology remained behind. They had rather large containment cells, ones that were not used in many, many years. You will still be able to watch, Doctor. Enjoy the show.”
“Look, the paper changed again!” Derpy said, holding it up for the Princess to see. They were still within the TARDIS, resting on the railing that surrounded the center console.
I’M GOING TO GIVE YOU A VERY SPECIFIC SET OF INSTRUCTIONS. YOU NEED TO FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY AS I SAY OR EVERYONE’S TOAST.
“Alright,” the Princess remarked, “He has a plan. What’s step one?”
STEP ONE: DISABLE ONE OF THE ROBOTS AND BRING THEM INSIDE THE TARDIS. YOU NEED TO TAKE IT APART AND FIND THE POWER GENERATOR. IT LOOKS LIKE A GLOWING PYRAMID AT THE CENTER OF THE THORAX.
“Let’s get to work,” the Princess said. Derpy remained behind her as the alicorn bowed her head, horn at the ready at the door of the TARDIS.
“On my signal, throw the door open,” she ordered. Derpy nodded silently, taking position to the left of the double doors. Luna licked her lips, and her horn began to glow with magic energy.
“Go!” she shouted. In an instant Derpy had thrown the doors open, and Luna sent a powerful blast of magic out through the opening, leveling the group of robots as he had before. With seconds to spare she levitated one of the metal forms and whisked it inside the TARDIS with them. Derpy shut the doors again quickly.
Luna brought her horn down to the droid’s head, placing it under yet another spell that would shut the thing down, rendering it harmless for the time being.
“He said to find the power generator at the center of the Thorax,” Derpy said, “Can you try to get it out?”
“I can try,” replied the alicorn princess, “See if he has anything on the paper for you to do in the meantime.”
“He does. I need to separate certain wires and use the sonic screwdriver to connect them to another part at the base of the pyramid. I wonder what he’s having us make.”
****
From behind his cell, the Doctor watched as the gorgeous mare he had seen earlier transformed before his eyes in a flash of green fire, becoming replaced with an ugly blackened creature with a tattered appearance. Her legs were full of holes, as were her insectoid wings and mane. Instead of a straight crown, she had a broken off nub that had a gnarly appearance of decay.
“Queen Surrogate,” he remarked, “Last of the Changelings. How long have you been this way?”
“Over a century have I waited, Doctor. A century with no loyal subjects to call my own, no one to keep me company. No one to tell me when I had gone too far, or when I was doing something wrong. That loneliness and unquestioned authority both turned me into an ugly, horrid monster bent on vengeance. But no more, Doctor. Tonight is the night, the Changeling Empire shall rise from the ashes.”
The changeling flew to a raised crystal platform, speaking with power in her voice to all of the robotic minions she had created.
“Tonight is the night, my brood! Drill up through the floor of the castle, pour out through the storefront of the pony factory! Take the city by force, stun everypony you come into contact with, and bring them back here! Tonight, the changeling race returns!”
“Hold on,” the Doctor yelled back, standing on the edge of the energy barrier keeping him contained, “Just how do you transform full-blooded ponies into changelings? Do you chant a magic spell of some sort? Throw them into the cloning vats and set the timer to extra crispy?”
“It is much simpler than that. They will sit overnight in a cocoon, a cocoon of my making, and just like the caterpillar that becomes a butterfly, they will undergo metamorphosis!”
****
Derpy and Luna had created an odd-looking device, which resembled a glowing pyramid sitting atop a base that branched out with wiry tentacles. Attached at the end of the wires were sticky pads, allowing them to be fastened to another material. Surveying their work, Derpy and Luna had a sense of accomplishment, despite not knowing what they had made.
“What does the paper say now?” Luna asked.
LAST STEP. TAKE IT TO THE TOP OF CANTERLOT CASTLE, ON THE UPPERMOST DOME. THIS IS CRUCIAL, YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES UNTIL IT STARTS. GO NOW.
“Two minutes until what starts?” Luna wondered, “What’s he mean?”
“He said go now, so we should go, now .”
The two ponies flung open the doors, Luna clutching the device in her hooves and leading the way, horn brandished and ready to fight off any of the robots that stood in their way. As they charged out through the TARDIS doors, Luna sent a shock at the group of red-eyed robots. To her surprise, the magic attack had much less effect than it had previously, and none of the robots were knocked down for more than a few seconds.
They were learning.
She and Derpy swerved skyward as bright red beams of death shot out from the droids below, lighting the sky up like a fireworks display. Derpy ducked under a shot that barely grazed the edge of her tail, scorching the blonde hairs.
“Get to the castle!” Luna shouted amid the fury of weapons fire trained at them. It was now coming from multiple places in the city.
Robots had begun to swarm about the streets, shooting stun beams at ponies as they ran screaming. Missiles shot out and collided with the bright advertisements, sending them up in a shower of sparks and a cloud of smoke. Emergency sirens wailed, and the royal unicorn guard had been dispatched. Amongst the fray now were bolts of blueish magic trained at the robots, who in turn returned fire.
“It’s a warzone down there!” Derpy called back, looking down at the city beneath them.
“We’re almost there!” Luna called back from a short distance ahead of the gray pegasus.
The tallest tower and the spire that sat on top of Equestria’s capitol loomed through the clouds and bursts of weapons fire. Even Old Canterlot had come under attack at this point, with more robots joining the fray as they poured out from the basement of the castle.
“Derpy, look out!” shouted the Princess. Derpy dove upwards through the sky, flapping her wings to stay ahead of a new pursuer: a droid with rocket boosters that had his sights trained on the pegasus.
****
“You see Doctor,” Queen Surrogate gloated over a video display showing the carnage taking place in the city, “It has already begun. The royal guard is becoming overwhelmed, and Celestia herself has barricaded herself inside her royal chambers. There is nopony that can help them now.”
From behind the glowing barrier, the Doctor made eye contact with the changeling Queen, a grin coming over his face.
“You’ve made a very grave mistake your highness, “ he said, “You’ve forgotten about my friends.”
“Your friends? A dreamy night princess and a wall-eyed pegasus?”
“Yeah. Them,” the Doctor continued, “Let me tell you something about them. That night princess is one of the most powerful ponies in all of Equestria, ruling alongside Celestia. That pegasus, as scatterbrained as you may think she is by her appearance is actually terribly brilliant . She’s absolutely fantastic at figuring these things out, and I’m betting that they’ve found a way to stop you already. I’m going to give you another chance to redeem yourself; call off this attack now, and we can work this out. I can help you rebuild your race peacefully, so that you can coexist with the Equines.”
“Let them try to stop me, Doctor ,” sneered the Queen, “for I laugh in the face of two ponies who try to stand up against an entire ARMY!”
****
“Princess, watch your flank!” Derpy called out. The rocketeer droid that had fixed on her had now moved on toward Luna, it’s energy weapon primed and glowing.
The beam fired, taking the Princess by surprise and striking her in the side. In almost slow motion a look of terror and surprise became fixed on her face. Her wings locked, and the mighty princess of the night began to fall down to earth. The device slipped from her clutches, falling free alongside the princess.
Derpy zoomed in, mustering what speed and agility she had left to snatch the pyramid out from the sky, clutching it between her hooves and landing atop the tower. She couldn’t wait to see if the Princess was all right, she had to do this now .
Attaching each of the wires to the bronze base of the minaret, the pyramid began to glow a bright orange, then red as it started flashing. The two minutes were up. Derpy left the device in place, bolting for the ground.
Above her head, the power center exploded with a burst of brilliant blue energy like that of a sonic boom, spreading out and sweeping out over the cities. Trees were swept aside, the wind howled, and in the wake of the brilliant blast all of the power was sapped. Advertisement signs, house lights, street light, and robots alike were shut down completely, leaving the city of Canterlot and New Canterlot in blackness and silence.
****
Down below the ground, the force field holding the Doctor back shut down, as did the display and every bit of electrical light. Taking the moment, the Doctor bounded up and over the Queen, striking her mainframe she had constructed to control the robots and physically assaulting it. He tore wires out, pounded the console, cracked the screens and smashed every bit of component he could touch in the several seconds of confusion he had.
“Stop! Stop! What have you done! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” cried the Queen in confusion in the darkness that enveloped her. A burst of sparks erupted from the broken mainframe, and fumes of smoke began to pour out. Her controls were history.
“I’ve destroyed your control mechanisms,” the Doctor said, “You have no way to control those robots that you’ve created. They’ll be waking up any second now, free of mind and consciousness. You created a new race today, but not the one you intended. These are living, thinking droids, capable of independent thought, and I don’t think they’re going to be happy about how you’ve ordered them around this whole time.”
The lights flickered, and came back on slowly. Around the crystal chambers, robots began to switch back on, but their eyes were now glowing blue rather than red. They shook themselves, and look about in a confused manner as they awoke free for the first time.
“Isn’t it fantastic?! ” mused the Doctor, clapping his hooves together.
****
“The court has met to determine the fate of Queen Surrogate, last of the Changelings,” called out Celestia’s booming voice through the royal courtroom.
It was day. Outside and in the cities below, rebuilding was underway. Inside the courtroom hundreds had gathered to learn of the fate of the new droids that had appeared, as well as their creator the changeling Queen. Celestia stood at an ornate podium, with Luna at her side, albeit covered in bruises and a cast over one wing.
“Queen Surrogate has been found guilty of creating an army of artificial intelligence with the goal of capturing an entire city population, then to force them into changeling metamorphosis. Do you deny these claims?”
The Queen bowed her head, not wishing to make eye contact with anypony that currently had their gaze fixed on her.
“Guilty as charged, your highness.”
“There were casualties,” Celestia continued with a grim tone, “six died in the attack on Canterlot before an electromagnetic pulse neutralized the attackers and reset the robots. Though independent now, the robots were under your control while committing acts leading to those six deaths. The punishment for murder is, as you know, banishment. A habitable area has been set up on the Lunar surface where you will live out the rest of your days.”
The crowd stomped their hooves in a sound of applause, but Celestia raised her head to signal for silence sharply.
“However, since you are the last of your kind, the council has decided to make amends. With the assistance of the Doctor, you will find a dozen changelings to accompany you in exile, a mixture of male and female. There will be routine shipments of supplies and tools for you and your new family. Think of this not as banishment, but a fresh start on a new world. A colony of earth, headed by Changeling hooves.”
****
Far above the planet surface, the Doctor and Derpy sat in the TARDIS, watching the transport take Queen Surrogate to the Lunar colony. Derpy even waved through the open doors of the TARDIS as the ship went past for several minutes. As it drifted out of sight, she closed the double doors and joined the Doctor at the center console.
“Well, how do you like that Derpy?” he asked, beaming.
“Bringing a crowd of changelings forward in time to rebuild the race, isn’t that cheating?”
The Doctor shook his head.
“No, time’s not a straight line. It can be melded into any form. Think about it Derpy, a fresh start for her race, a peaceful start, doing something productive. And with her gone, the same is true for the robots. They’ll be integrated into society, a vital part of Equestria’s future. The Robotech Revolution of 2984 wasn’t a war, it was the start of something brand new. Isn’t it fantastic? ”
He glanced at Derpy from across the TARDIS console with a huge grin on his face.
“Where to next, Derpy? Not so far in the future for you? The past? The distant past? Other worlds, other galaxies? All of space and time is at the tips of your hooves, just say the word.”
Derpy bit her lower lip, a look of concern growing on her face.
“Actually, Doctor, I was thinking I should see how my friends back in Ponyville are doing. I don’t want to just run away and abandon them. They’ll start to worry,” she said. The Doctor shook his head.
“That’s the thing though, Derpy. We can visit places and times for as long as we want, and then when you’re ready we can pop back and you wouldn’t have been gone an hour even. That’s the wonder of time travel!”
Derpy’s frown flipped up into a smirk. She flapped her wings and floated through the air until she was behind the Doctor’s back, landing behind him and peering over his shoulder.
“Alright, Doctor. Surprise me this time. Take me back to the past, somewhere interesting.”
“You got it!” the Doctor responded in earnest, cranking levers on the TARDIS console and flipping switches. The column began to groan in it’s usual way and glowed a bright blue. The TARDIS lurched into the time vortex, and they were off on another adventure through time and space. Derpy Hooves and the Doctor were as happy as could be, but all was not right.
Even as they continued adventuring around in the blue box, something had become aware of itself, its existence, and its surroundings. Buried beneath layers and layers of ice, It was trapped and forgotten, but not alone. A deep embedded hatred kept it alive, kept it living and fueled the beast within as it devised a means of one day escaping from the icy prison it had been forsaken in.
Something had survived.
