Chapter 5 – Negotiation

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=The Doctor's PoV=

"SPARKLER, DINKY!" Derpy yelled as she and he ran frantically toward their home, seeing the broken down front door.

The Doctor had insisted on heading straight home, not able to shake that uneasy feeling he had since last night. Celestia had offered him breakfast if he chose to stay for an extra hour, but he had insisted to her that they head home. So with all of his tools in tow, he and Derpy left the palace at the crack of dawn and began making their way back to Ponyville.

They had been walking for a while before Derpy asked him why he was so insistent on going home so soon.

"Doctor why didn't we stay for breakfast?" Derpy asked as they left the palace behind them. "I know you want to go home, but why couldn't we have at least had breakfast before going? It just seems rude to just tell Princess Celestia no after she offers us breakfast."

"I know Derpy, but something tells me that something is wrong, something is very wrong!" He replied as they continued to walk. "There are a lot of things that don't make sense and just seem wrong, and I won't feel any better about any of it until we get home and make sure Dinky and Sparkler are safe and sound."

"Does it have something to do with your toys missing their power thingy's?" Derpy asked him, her eyes 'derping' as she looked in confusion.

"I think so, something just doesn't add up when you think about it." He had said. "My toys are the targets and not me or any of the owners? Why the power cells and nothing else? Why not take the technology inside the toys as well when she clearly had the chance and opportunity, heck why not just take the toys like she did last time? Why only take their power cells, and why be so stealthy about it?"

Naturally Derpy didn't understand how much thought his brain had put into thinking about the situation all night. Yet that didn't matter, it was one of her best points that she asked these questions, it made him put even more thought into those questions he just proposed to her.

The Professor had been stealing the power cells from all of his toys in Canterlot, not because they were of better quality but because of the sheer number of toys that were in Canterlot. Compared to any of the other towns, cities and other places where he shipped his toys, most of them could be found in Canterlot, thanks in part to Celestia and Luna being his number one customers.

The fact that she went to Canterlot, and over the course of three days stole the power cells of probably every single toy she could get her hooves on, clearly indicates that she needed them for something. What that something was however, he didn't know. Was she trying to create some super weapon to wipe out life on Gaia? Was she trying to prepare a doomsday device specifically designed to eradicate Time Lord DNA? What was she planning to do with all that energy?

There wasn't nearly enough energy to power anything beyond an atomic bomb from Earth, and the sands of time forgive her if she tried to create some kind of death beam similar to the Daleks. The energy wasn't lethal enough and it wasn't transferable, at best she could make him laugh with a serious tickle beam. Apart from a joke weapon, she couldn't do anything with those power cells.

This also didn't include the fact that she took them from their sources of transferable power, the toys themselves. If she needed a convertible energy, one that was renewable and limitless for whatever purpose she wanted, she would have taken the toys whole and not just the power cells, which again raises the question of what could she have planned with those power cells?

However at the moment, all those questions were thrown out the window the moment he and his wife spotted the busted down front door of their house.

The moment he entered the house, he instantly knew that something terrible had happened. The living room was a complete mess, the couch had been thrown to one side, the shelves were in a terrible state, and books were tossed around. The table was broken, and the front door was quite literally everywhere.

"SPARKLER, DINKY!" Derpy yelled as he looked around the living room for any evidence.

Derpy ran into their daughter's bedroom, but came out shaking her head. "They're not in their room!" She said quickly.

"Are any of Dinky's toys in her room?" He asked.

"No!"

"The Tardis!" He said quickly. "Maybe they're in the Tardis; if something happened Sparkler would take Dinky and go in there!"

They ran out the back door, The Doctor only pausing to grab his sonic screwdriver from their bedroom before joining her outside. He quickly activated his sonic screwdriver and turned off the Tardis' disguise, revealing the blue box beneath the tree. Seeing the police public callbox instantly made him stop, already realizing that their daughters weren't in there.

"They aren't in there…" He whispered sadly. "If they were in there, The Tardis wouldn't have hidden itself as a tree in our backyard. If they were in there it would have been in its blue box disguise, not a normal tree. Not to mention it would have hidden itself far away from our home to keep those two safe."

"Well where are they?" Derpy cried. "Where's our filly Doctor, where's our daughter Sparkler?"

"I don't know!" He shouted. "I don't know everything Derpy, I wish I did!"

They went back inside the house, him wanting to try and find some clue as to where his daughters were, and who would have done this. Only after the shock of seeing their home ransacked and his family missing, did he finally notice one of Dinky's toys hiding in one of the room's corners.

It was her WalkNTalk Celestia toy, hiding in the corner and watching him with its glassy eyes. "What happened here?" He demanded, not needing to go through the whole 'Creator' speech. All of Dinky's toys would respond to his voice and image, all he needed to do was ask and they would answer.

The toy slowly walked out of the corner and stood in front of him, limping whenever it took a step with its front left leg. "Creator, last night at time index 16-25-12, we detected a strange energy signature 9.4 feet west of the house." The toy said. "At this Boopyball and I went to the window to get visual identification of what was outside. We could not get a visual for Mr. TomTom to identify, but we could see a strange pony. Unknown reason at the time as to why they were there, however fifteen point seven seconds later, an EMP device was activated, shutting down our systems and deactivating all of us simultaneously."

"What does that mean?" Derpy asked.

"Celestia toy, what happened after EMP device went off?" He asked, knowing that Dinky's toys were each recently equipped with an emergency power cell.

These emergency cells were designed to give the toys an alternate power source in case of something like an EMP. This would also allow the toys a chance to restore power to their primary power cells and continue acting in case of a power failure.

Apparently his choice to add the backup power cells had been a good choice.

"After the EMP Device deactivated our systems we went offline, however approximately one hour after our initial shutoff our Emergency Power Cells became active and transferred energy to allow us to restore our systems to normal functionality. We proceeded to analyze the situation and after determining the abduction of Dinky Doo Hooves and Sparkler Hooves, we entered condition Red Mode, and proceeded to activate our Filly Protection Tools and protocols. Mr. TomTom, Mr. Wheely, and Boopyball all went to locate and attempt a rescue."

"What does that mean Doctor, did they find Dinky?" Derpy asked.

"No Derpy, the toys probably haven't found Dinky yet or else they would have communicated a successful rescue and returned safely." He said. "Though why didn't you go with the others Celestia toy?"

At these words the Celestia toy looked at its front left leg before it answered him. "When the EMP went off, Boopyball and I fell together and he landed heavily on my leg, damaging it. The damage is not severe, but the damage reduced my movement speed by fifteen percent, rendering me incapable of keeping up with the others at top speed. Therefore we elected to have me stay behind, while they proceeded to find Dinky. It was my task to inform you of the situation, should you arrive before they did."

"Well that explains that, but why would The Professor take Sparkler and Dinky?" He said. "What could she possibly want with them… unless…"

Derpy looked at him nervously when he didn't finish what he was saying. "Unless what Doctor?"

"Unless she's planning to take revenge on me… with them…" He finished, praying to whatever would spare him that fate. "Dinky's part Time Lord, of that she knows, but besides that she has no real value to her besides as a means to hurt me. The same goes for Sparkler, she's just an adopted Unicorn to her, but to us she's one of our precious daughters. If she was planning to take revenge against me… she would take those two… they wouldn't have stood a chance if they had no warning…"

As he continued to hope that his two daughters were alive and well, the toy walked over to him and nudged him with one hoof to get his attention. "Forgive me creator, but there are two things I would like to point out." It said in a respectful voice. "The first is that there is a foreign object that does not belong in the house, lying among the remains of the door two feet to your left. The second is that my sensors have not received any signals from Mr. TomTom as of two hours ago, this is because they left my maximum sensor range."

The Doctor ignored the second statement for the moment however, as he looked where the toy had pointed out the 'Foreign Object' for him. The object in question was, after a brief glance, a two way communicator with a holographic projector installed.

"What is it Doctor, does it have something to do with our daughters?" Derpy asked.

The communicator hummed for a second after he picked it up, and then started glowing. "I think we're about to find out." He said coldly as the holographic projector turned on.

The holographic projector was clearly a hashed up, put together at the last minute design, because the image was static for several seconds before it finally stabilized. The image of The Professor standing before them appeared, looking like she had just walked through a collapsed building that was on fire while it was hailing outside.

[Greetings Doctor, as you know who I am I believe the formalities of introductions are not needed for this little call.] She said to him. [I want to thank you for being so timely and predictable with arriving at just the right time. It makes this call so much more purposeful, the battery for my end simply won't last a second call.]

"What do you want Professor?" He said with barely suppressed anger.

[I'm here to talk about a deal; no doubt you've seen my work in your home?] She said with a smirk. [You want your daughters back right, well I've got them both here. You do what I say and get me what I want, and I'll give you back your two pony daughters.]

"How do we know they're both fine?" Derpy demanded from his side, taking the holographic projector for herself. "For all we know you could have… have… vaporized them or… or dissected them or…"

In response The Professor vanished from the hologram, and two seconds later pushed a struggling Sparkler Hooves, wearing a glow rod around her neck, into view. [Tell them who you are, and tell them something only the REAL Sparkler would know!] She yelled in the background.

Sparkler got up, giving her captor a glance that told him that she was afraid of something else. [My name is Sparkler Hooves and dad… I know you and mom were having… 'Fun'… two weeks back before The Professor fillynapped Princess Celestia. I'm keeping it a secret from Dinky because she's too young to know about that… stuff.]

After she said this The Professor came back into view and pushed Sparkler out of sight, and moments later reappeared with a struggling Dinky in her hooves. [Stop squirming will you!] She yelled as Dinky wriggled around, trying to get free. [Now say something to your parents so they'll know it's you!]

[MOMMY, DADDY HELP ME!] Dinky cried helplessly.

"Dinky!" Derpy said.

"Don't worry Dinky, mommy and daddy will save you!" He yelled, letting Dinky know that they were there.

A moment later The Professor once more walked out of view, and this time they heard a cage slamming shut in the background. Then she came back, shaking her mane out of her face. [As you can see, they are not exactly happy about being my hostages, but they are perfectly fine at the moment.] She said. [Of course, now that you know they are fine, you have no choice but to help me if you want to see them again safe and sound.]

"What do you want Professor?" He said furiously, angered at the sight of his filly crying for help and unable to do anything to comfort her.

She pointed with one hoof at the floor, but The Doctor knew that this was her pointing at the communicator itself. [This device has inscribed on the back, a certain power core's specifications that I require for my own purposes. You are to get this for me, and deliver it to me within one hour to the coordinates specified on the back. I will be at those coordinates at the time, with your two daughters. Bring the power core as I said, and the swap will be easy, fast, and painless. You get your daughters, I get my power core, and we all go home happy. Fail to bring the power core when I'm there however, and we won't all be happy. When I'm not happy, then I'll make sure the cause of my unhappiness pays the price. What that price is, well…]

She looked to her right and from her back; a mechanical arm extended and pointed a handgun forward.

-BANG-

Dinky screamed in fear and Sparkler screamed as well over the background. [I believe I've made my point…] She said smoothly. [You have one hour Doctor…I suggest you get going…]

After she said that the signal terminated and he was left staring at a piece of technology that had been reduced to an overweight piece of paper. "She's gone too far Derpy… nopony threatens my family while I'm around!" He said to his wife as he turned the communicator over to see what her demands were.

"What does she want Doctor?" Derpy asked.

The Doctor read out her demands once he understood them. "She wants a sixty trillion metragon power core." He said after he understood the specifications. "What for is beyond me, why does she need such a powerful core? What's her game that she's playing? Is she trying to create some kind of WMD?"

It would be The Professor's goal to destroy him ultimately, after everything he's done to her over their last encounters. If she was still trying to get revenge on him, she would be aiming to cause him as much pain as she possibly could. Wiping out his new favorite planet, one that he now calls home, would be the most painful and direct method.

With a sixty trillion metragon power core, she could power any kind of WMD that her mind could conceive of. He himself could imagine what type of WMD she could use, from instantaneous to long term damage. All she would need was that core, and she'd be set.

"I'll figure out what she's plotting later, right now Derpy we have a power core to get." He said as he took the transmitter and put it in his tool bag for storage.

"But where are we going to get a sixty jigawaty thingy?" She asked, her eyes 'derping' whenever she was very confused about something. "And how are we ganna get it to her in 1 hour?"

"You forget my dear Derpy; we have the answer to both of those questions." He said as he led the way out of the house. "The Tardis travels through time and space, we just need to locate the right power core, and smuggle it out and onto the Tardis. Then we just take it to the right time, and trade it for our daughters."

"All right then!" She said, clearly not understanding half of what he said besides the last part.

As they headed toward the Tardis, The Doctor saw that the Celestia toy was also following them, even with its limp. "Yes Celestia toy?" He asked the toy.

"With your permission creator… may I join you?" It asked him. "I feel… useless now that my only purpose for remaining behind has been fulfilled. Also I would like to have some… repairs done to me?"

"Alright you can tag along." He said, knowing that the toy was just trying to fulfill its programming.

The Celestia toy model was designed to recite moral values and above all else, advise fillies and foals about difficult problems they are faced with. However this wasn't the case with Dinky's toys, each one of them received an AI upgrade after he repaired them, allowing them more conscious thoughts to be processed. One program however that remained the same was the directive to keep Dinky and Sparkler safe. So with a portion of the Celestia toy's filly protection tools damaged and without a filly to advise or protect, she would request to join her creator and for him fix her.

Once in front of the Tardis he took out his sonic screwdriver and activated it, making the Tardis door open, and allowing them access inside.

He would sort out what and why The Professor needed this powerful core later. Right now however, he had his priorities.

The Galaxy could be damned for all The Doctor cared, he was a father first, a pony second, and a Time Lord third now. First he would save his daughters, than he would save Gaia. After that was done, he would save the galaxy if it was indeed threatened.

The galaxy got along without him for a good while, it can get along without him for a couple more hours.