I don't own My Little Pony or Doctor Who in any way, shape, or form.
Chapter 8 Pleasure Cruise
A large cruise ship sailed across the sea, it's passengers in a state of blissful relaxation. So, quite naturally, none of them were aware of the large blue box materializing within the bowels of the ship. And luckily for the inhabitants of the box, none of the ships crew was around to see them either.
The front of the box opened and a rainbow manned pegasus stepped out, looking around in utter shock and bewilderment. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" she quickly exclaimed, "We moved! We actually moved!"
"Told you so!" Pinkie Pie said she skipped out of the TARDIS.
"This is so awesome!" Rainbow Dash said and turned towards the open TARDIS door, "So, where are we anyway?"
"Well, we were supposed to land in unoccupied luxury suite on the legendary cruise ship, the S.S. Sea Horse," the Doctor said stepping out and looking around, "But it would appear we have instead ended up within it's engine room."
"Wait a second, did you just say the Sea Horse?" Dash said incredulously, "The cruise ship that sailed around the world forty years ago?"
"The very same," the brown pony said with a somewhat smug smile.
"Didn't I tell you it would be awesome?" Pinkie said bouncing up and down excitedly.
"But, wait… If we were supposed to be in a luxury suite, why are we in the engine room?" Dash asked.
"A combination of hooves and unfamiliar timing," the Doctor said and began walking away, "Now come along you two. There's much to do and much to see. No time to dawdle."
"Oooo, are we gonna find that Light thing those mole ponies we're talking about here?" Pinkie asked following him.
"No, actually. There was nothing about the Light in any of the TARDIS's databases," he replied.
"So why are we here then?" Dash asked.
"To relax and have a good time of course!" the Doctor exclaimed, "And what better place to do it then on the most famous cruise ship in Equestrian history?"
"Wait, how do you know about Equestrian history?" Pinkie asked, "You've only been here about a month."
"I've been doing research during our downtime."
"Really? I've never seen you doing any research."
"Just because you don't see me doing something doesn't mean I don't do it."
"Wait, hang on guys…" Dash said stumbling, "I feel kinda sick."
"Dashie, are you getting sea sick?" Pinkie said going over to support her friend.
"I dunno, I guess," Dash said.
"Well, that shouldn't be to much of a problem," the Doctor said, "Just float above the ground and the rocking of the ship shouldn't bother you."
"Hey, that's a good idea," Dash said and began to float a few inches off the ground.
"Feeling better?"
"A little."
"Hurry up you guys!" Pinkie said bouncing up and down impatiently, "I wanna see the rest of the ship!"
"Right, off we go! Sally forth!" the Doctor said semi-dramatically, then groaned, "Ugh, terrible…"
The group emerged onto the upper decks and looked around. There were several ponies lounging about on deck chairs, reading books or tanning themselves. Others walked about and some were playing shuffleboard.
"Well, this looks fun," the Doctor said.
"Oh yeah, I could definitely get behind this place," Dash said looking to the deck chairs.
"I think I'm gonna like it here," Pinkie said excitedly.
"Howdy strangers!" a pony called out to them as he approached. The pony was a bright yellow earth pony with a short green and blue mane.
"Uh, hello," the Doctor said a little confusedly.
"The names Spring Clean," the earth pony said extending a hoof.
"Nice to meet you," the Doctor said shaking his hoof, "I'm, uh, Timepiece."
"And who are these two lovely ladies?" Spring Clean asked looking to Pinkie and Dash.
"I'm Pinkie Pie and this is Rainbow Dash," Pinkie said grabbing the other pony's hoof and shaking it vigorously.
"You're a lucky one Timepiece," Spring said pulling his hoof away from Pinkie, "How'd you manage to snag these two?"
"Um, I'm not sure?" the Doctor said sounding very confused.
"Ah, I got ya. Trade secrets and what not, eh?"
"Uh, sure."
"Right, so, anyway, you're probably wondering why I'm here talking to you guys."
"Um, yes actually."
"Well, I'm the cruise director here on the ship, and I don't remember ever seeing any of you before now."
"You don't? You didn't see us when we boarded?"
"No, I didn't. I also didn't see you when I handed out room keys every passenger on the ship. So, tell me. How did you three get onto this ship?"
"We got here using the TAR-" Pinkie started, then was quickly cut off by the Doctor covering her mouth.
"It's a, uh, trade secret," he said nervously.
Spring Clean looked at each of them for a few seconds, then said, "Alright, you three are gonna need to come with me."
"Doctor?"
"Yes Pinkie?"
"Next time we go somewhere, can it be somewhere where we don't get thrown in prison?"
"I'll take that into consideration."
The three ponies sat in a small cell below the decks. The Doctor leaned against the back wall. Pinkie sat next to him, looking frustrated and Rainbow paced around, floating just above the ground.
"Hang on a second," the pegasus said, "You guys have been thrown in prison before?"
"A few times, yes," the Doctor answered.
"Sounds like you guys got some great stories. I wanna hear them."
"If we have time later. Right now we should focus what we're going to do about this."
"And what are we gonna do?" Pinkie asked.
"You got a plan to get us out or something?" Dash asked.
"If I had my saddlebag I could get us out no problem. I do so miss the days when they wouldn't take my stuff when they captured me."
"So what are we gonna do?" Dash said.
"Wait for the captain to come down here and try to convince him that we are not stowaways."
"But we are stowaways," Pinkie said.
"Yes I know, but we need to convince him that we aren't so that he'll let us out of here."
"And how are you gonna do that?" the pegasus asked.
"Not sure yet. Give me a bit and I'll figure something out."
The three ponies sat in silence for a few minutes before Pinkie broke it, saying, "Hey, Doctor?"
"Yes Pinkie?" he replied, sounding a little frustrated.
"What was with that fake name you gave that Spring Clean guy?"
"Well, sometimes when I'm out I need to blend in and be inconspicuous and I find that using a fake name helps with that immensely."
"That makes sense," Dash said, "The Doctor isn't a very normal kind of name."
"Exactly. I figured Timepiece would sound like a more normal pony name and it went along with my, uh, what was it you called it Pinkie? My, uh, beauty mark?"
"Cutie mark."
"Right. That."
"Still, Timepiece is kind of a lame name," Dash said, "Why not use something that sounds cooler, like Doctor Time or Time Sands or something."
"Because it's my name and I wanted a name that I liked and I liked Timepiece. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to figure out a way to get us out of this mess."
They all went back to sitting in silence for a few minutes before they heard a door open. Looking up, they saw a red earth pony wearing a very fancy white sailors coat and a very fancy hat on her head, with Spring Clean following close behind.
"Greetings," the mare said looking at each of them in turn, "I'm Captain Heart Breaker. I would very much like to know how the three of you came to be aboard my ship."
"Well Captain," the Doctor said standing up, "There is a very simple explanation for that. We boarded your ship when it was last at dock."
"The last time we were at dock was at the start of this cruise and you three were not seen amongst the passengers who boarded."
"That's because we were wearing hats at the time. Big hats that obscured our faces so you couldn't get a very good look at us."
"You know, that makes sense," Spring Clean said, "There were a lot of ponies wearing big hats."
"What about your cutie marks? Were those hidden as well?" the captain asked.
"It's possible," the Doctor replied, "There were a lot of ponies. It's possible they were obscured by the large crowd."
The captain looked at him for a moment, taking in what he had said. "Your explanations do make sense. I concede that it is possible you were just looked over in the throng of ponies boarding. However, I have one last question for you."
"Sure thing. Go ahead and ask," the Doctor said with a confident smile.
"What room are you three staying in?"
The Doctors smile dropped. "Um, room number… five?" he said nervously.
Heart Breaker shook her head and turned away. "Spring Clean, stay here and keep an eye on these three. I need to go alter our course. We're going to be making an unscheduled stop."
"Aye aye captain!" the yellow stallion replied with a salute.
The captain saluted back and left the room. Spring Clean turned back around and looked at the three ponies in the cell.
"You almost got away with it," he said, "If the captain hadn't asked that last question, you could've gotten away with stowing away. But Captain Breaker is just to smart for you."
"Is that so?" the Doctor said moving up to the bars, "What if my plan was to get caught and force the captain to stop at the nearest port? What then, hmm?"
Spring Clean stared at him with a look of shock and confusion. "What… What are you planning?"
"Nothing. Just giving you something to think about."
Suddenly, the ship rocked violently, knocking everypony to the ground.
"What was that?" the Doctor exclaimed, leaping to his feet.
"It felt like we hit something," Spring said, "I should go see if the captain needs help, but I have to stay here and watch you three."
"Not much point to that," Dash said, "We're not going anywhere."
The yellow pony eyed them suspiciously for a few seconds then nodded and ran out of the room.
"Alright Doctor, now what?"
"Well, we still need to get out of this cell. Not sure how were gonna do that though."
"Will this help?" Pinkie said holding up a key ring.
"What the…? Pinkie, how did you get that?" the Doctor asked taking it from her.
"Spring Clean dropped it when the ship shook, so I picked it up."
"Good job Pinkie, good job," the Doctor smirked as he unlocked the cell door, "Now come on, we need to find out what happened."
Moving stealthily, the three ponies made their way back to the upper deck of the ship. Looking around, they saw that everything seemed okay. Everypony looked a little confused, but no one was panicking, nor did there appear to be any sort of damage to the ship.
"Hmm, curious," the Doctor said. He made his way over to a nearby pony and tapped him on the shoulder. "Excuse me sir, do you have any idea what just happened?"
The pony shook his head. "Sorry no. Nopony seems to know. The captain will probably make an announcement soon."
"Mmm, yes, right. Well, thanks anyway."
"I don't like this," Dash said as the Doctor returned, "Something doesn't feel right about this."
"No, it certainly doesn't," he said, "We'd best go see the captain. She'll have answers."
"That might not be such a good idea," Pinkie said, "I mean, we did just kinda break out of jail. She might not be to happy to see us."
"Oh most definitely not. But she has my saddlebag and I really want it back."
The three of them headed towards the bow of the ship and quickly found their way up to the bridge. Opening the door quietly, the Doctor took a look inside. The captain, Spring Clean, and a few other crewmembers stood together talking quietly amongst themselves. None of them seemed to notice him as he slowly opened the door wider and slipped into the room. Rainbow Dash quietly slipped in as well. Pinkie Pie, however, burst into the room with a shout of "Hello!" and a shower of confetti that seemed to materialize out of thin air.
Everypony turned to look at her, the Doctor and Rainbow Dash staring at her with looks of equal part confusion and anger, while the crew looked at her with pure confusion.
"How… How did you escape?" the captain said after a moment.
The Doctor sighed and shook his head. "Spring Clean dropped these the ship shook," he said throwing the key ring to her, "Which brings me to why we came here. Why did the ship shake and why are we no longer moving?"
The captain stared at him for a moment then turned to one of her crew. "Take them back down to the brig."
"Wait, hang on! I can help! Just tell me what's going on!"
"You can help?"
"Yes."
"Take them back down to the brig."
"Stop that! Just listen to me, okay? I can help! Just tell me what's going on! Please!"
The captain sighed and shook her head. "Alright, fine. I'll humor you. How can you help us?"
"That depends."
"On what?"
"On what caused the ship to shake and why we have now stopped."
"The ship shook because we seemed to have hit something and we stopped because we seemed to have hit something."
"I see. And what, exactly, did we hit?"
"That is unknown."
"Unknown? How do you not know what the ship ran into?"
"Because no one could see anything anywhere around the ship."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing. Just open sea stretching out in all directions."
"Hmm. That is curious. Alright, I think I have an idea as to what happened."
"Really? And what do you think happened?"
"To answer that, you'll need to follow me down to the front of the ship. And give me back my saddlebag."
"Lets see…" the Doctor muttered as he moved around the bow, "The impact seems to come from somewhere around here."
Leaning over the railing, the Doctor looked down at sea below.
"You're right captain, there is nothing here. Nothing visible at least."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Heart Breaker asked moving next to him.
"I believe the ship was struck by some sort of invisible craft."
"An invisible boat? Impossible."
"Mmmm, really don't like that word. Anyway, if I'm correct, we should be able to see the boat if I do this."
Reaching into his saddlebag, the Doctor pulled out his sonic and pointed it at the sea.
"What is that?" the red mare asked eyeing it suspiciously.
"It's a sonic screwdriver. Good for all sorts of things. Especially making things visible."
Suddenly, a large object appeared in the sea below, resting up against the ship. The object was a silvery egg shaped object about the size of a small house.
"What is that?" the captain shouted moving back.
"Well, it's definitely some sort of water craft," the Doctor responded, looking closely at the sonic, "Made of some very, very strong metal. I'm surprised it didn't pierce the ships hull."
"Maybe it wasn't going very fast," Pinkie said.
"Possible. But if that's the case, why didn't it swerve out of the way? The pilot was sure to have seen the ship."
"Maybe something happened to them," Dash said.
The Doctor stared at the craft, contemplating what he was seeing.
"Alright," he said after a moment, "I'm going to need to go down there and investigate it in closer detail. Anypony willing to come along?"
"Ooh, ooh, I'll come! I'll come!" Pinkie said bouncing up and down excitedly.
"How about you Rainbow?"
"Sure, why not? Not everyday you get to see something like this," the pegasus responded with a smirk.
"I'll be coming along with you as well," Captain Breaker said, "I want to make sure you three aren't up to something."
"Fair enough," the Doctor said, "Anypony else? No? Alright then. Lets go take a look."
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