Chapter 2: Air Lock

=Gaia, The Desert Zone, The Desert Zone Safety Systems, Just Outside in the Desert Zone, 345, 075 C.E. =

The Doctor was looking around. He could well see that there was no way that without a transporter device like the TARDIS, you wouldn't be able to get close to this place. If the Ice Zone and Mountain Zone were the only other two populated zones, and if they were named after the climate, then he could see why nopony else had gotten near the Jungle Zone successfully. He looked around, wondering where all the dragons around here lived if there was nothing but the desert.

Nearby, Romana was observing the same thing. She noted that from the outside looked like a very long school. It looked like something to that effect, especially since the walls had turned a red brick color from being in the baking sun too long. She looked about the place, wondering why Augustin was not a robot (she was rather certain) but almost always acted like one. His lack of emotions was actually quite annoying to her. She wondered if the ponies in the city were truly happy. Unless this was an Orwellian society, probably not.

Then Augustin's voice buzzed in their hats. "Your time is up. Return to the inside of the complex. Immediately." It said.

The Doctor rolled his eyes as he went back to the airlock. It slid open in front of him, and he and Romana went back in. It slid closed behind them, and they went in through the other door. Augustin was looking at the readings of heat in this room, and wasn't paying attention to them at all. It was then that they realized who was missing in this picture.

"Where is Daring Do?" Romana asked.

"I did not see her come in." Augustin said simply, refusing to look at them.

"But where is she?" The Doctor wondered.

=Gaia, The Desert Zone, The Tunnel Systems Underneath the Desert Zone, Section G, Where the Drains Let Out, 345, 075 C.E. =

When her vision came back into focus after landing head first on the solid ground, she rubbed her aching head and tried to see where she had ended up.

She was in a small room. There was a hole above her head that was spouting out water on her head, and flooding the room.

She frantically looked for a door, but there wasn't one. It was a solid four walls of something harder than steel. She tried to fly up, but found that her suit covered over her wings. She began to rip it off, starting with the hat and the netting hanging down from it. She then began to rip off her four boots. She tore the rest of the suit apart, pulling it off. But sure enough, her wings got wet, water logging them and making it impossible to fly.

By this point, the water had reached almost all the way up her hooves. She began to panic. Before she knew it, the water had covered over her wings, making there no chance of flying away and getting out. She tried to jump out of the water, but something was holding her hooves down as well. The water covered over her head, and she couldn't breathe in the least. She readied herself to die…

Then one of the walls fell away, and all the water and her rushed out. As this was a total surprise to her, she began gasping up air. She was then picked up by something else.

She recognized all the features. The bony structure. The more horse like hooves. The hands on its fore hooves. The more serpentine nostrils. This is what she had faced in the far past and 600 years in the future of where they were now.

"I trust that you're all shaken up now?" it asked.

She knew the answer was yes, although she couldn't speak, but she was even more shaken up by seeing it there right now.

"Good." It said. "It makes this take effect much faster." And then he jabbed a syringe with red liquid in it into the side of her body.

Immediately her vision grew all blurry, and she couldn't see anything. Her heart rate dropped a pace. Her breathing grew slower. Her wings flapped rapidly, and then stopped. This was all she remembered before she fell into a trance-like delirium.

=Gaia, The Desert Zone, The Tunnel Systems Underneath The Desert Zone, Section G, The Coordinator's Office, 345, 075 C.E. =

Daring Do found that her vision was coming into focus. Her memory had been knocked around by whatever she was injected with. Of course, she didn't remember being injected. A little bit of a Swiss cheese effect, actually. She found that she was sitting in the office of Milton, who was seated in front of her.

"Hmm." He said. "I'm rather impressed with you. 80% of ponies who are injected with that serum, after 45 minutes, have a seizure and die."

"What serum?" she asked, still confused.

"And that's the side effect if you don't die." Milton finished. "Temporary memory loss. Not any problem of mine anymore."

"So." Said the Moloid that had brought her there, making his presence known. "What do we do with her now that the effects of said serum have made her tell us everything she knows?"

"I'll let you decide, Chee Sevn." Milton said. "We were all correct to bring her down here. Leave me alone to decide what to do with the information she gave up to us." Milton said, waving them off.

Chee Sevn walked over, grabbed her, and dragged her off against her will to who knows where. She didn't even try to protest in her confusion, and allowed herself to be carted off.

=Gaia, The Desert Zone, The Desert Zone Safety Systems, The Dormitory of Cardinal Augustin, 345, 075 C.E. =

All of the miniature fans were slowing to a stop as the power was drained out of them. The first one came to a stop completely, no longer functioning at all.

In the room that the fan gave cold air to, Augustin was sitting on his regal looking bed, not giving squat about the protests that The Doctor and Romana were making to him.

"Well don't you have any location devices in the heat suits?" The Doctor asked.

"No." Augustin said.

"But why not?" Romana asked.

"We used to, but they stopped working because of the intense heat. That happened to a lot of out devices, so we had to settle for more old fashioned technology." He explained dully.

Then they became aware that almost instantly, it was baking hot in the room. They tried to reach the door, but the full heat of the desert outside was zapping their energy. They collapsed before they could get out of the room.