I do not own My Little Pony or Doctor Who in any way, shape, or, form.

Chapter 10 Hunting the Hunter

"I must say, I did not expect to ever encounter another time traveler here," the Doctor said as the group moved trough the ship, "Didn't expect to see one anywhere actually."

"Really?" Gear Head replied, "You really didn't expect to meet other time travelers?"

"No. Based on the technology I've seen and the general sort of way this universe seems to operate, I didn't think ponies would ever achieve time travel."

"You really shouldn't underestimate pony kind Doctor. We've achieved a lot of things most ponies didn't think would ever be possible."

"I'll have to keep that in mind. So, how many times have you run into me before?"

"Just once so far."

"And when was that?"

"Can't say. You should know as well I do how dangerous knowing your future is."

"Fair enough."

"Why's it dangerous?" Pinkie asked skipping up next to the two stallions.

"Remember back in Canterlot? How I'm going to do something to Celestia?" the Doctor said.

"Oh. I see."

"Wait a second," Dash said stepping up, "You did what to Celestia?"

"Don't know yet."

"Then how do you know you did something?"

"Because she arrested us."

The pegasus looked at him very confusedly for a few seconds before saying, "How does that make sense?"

"Time travel."

"Ugh, when are you going to stop claiming you're a time traveler?" Heart Breaker asked, clearly annoyed.

"Um… Never?" the Doctor replied a little nervously.

The red mare sighed and shook her head. "Fine, whatever. If you lot want to keep acting like foals, be my guest."

"You know what? I take back my offer. You are no longer welcome to travel with us."

"Wait, you were gonna come with us?" Pinkie asked, sounding excited.

"No, I wasn't," Breaker replied.

"I did offer though," the Doctor chimed in.

"Shouldn't you bring that kind of stuff up with us first?" Dash asked.

"I wasn't aware this was a democracy."

Gear Head burst into laughter.

"It never changes with you, does it?" he said, "No matter what the situation, you're always gonna be this way, aren't you?"

"Of course. There's no point in being grown up if you can't act a bit childish every now and then. You should try it sometime Captain."

"No thank you. I much prefer acting my age," Breaker said

"You could at least smile," Pinkie said skipping up next to her.

"Why? There is nothing about our current situation that calls for a smile."

"There's always a reason to smile!"

"Really? And what reason do we have to smile here?"

"I dunno," Pinkie said with a shrug, "Just 'cause there's a reason doesn't mean I know what it is."

"You are a very strange pony, you know that?"

"That's what everypony says."

"Pinkie's right though Captain," the Doctor said, falling back slightly to walk next to her, "You could stand to lighten up a bit."

"Lighten up? Why? I'm the captain of a major cruise ship, a job that requires a certain level of professionalism, and that's something I take very seriously."

"Doesn't mean you have to be so grumpy all the time."

"I am not grumpy!" she snapped, glaring intensely at the brown stallion, "I am a professional!"

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry."

Breaker sighed and shook her head. "No, I'm the one who should be sorry. That was a bit… unprofessional of me. But, you are wrong about me."

"Oh? Am I now?"

"I only act this way when I'm working. I'm a very different mare when I'm off the clock."

"Really now?"

The red earth pony nodded her head. "My friends have given me the nickname 'Wild' Heart Breaker."

The Doctor looked at her for a few seconds before saying, "You're certain you don't want to travel with us?"

"Doctor!" Pinkie and Dash called back at him.

Suddenly, there was a loud metallic clang that echoed through the ship. The group stopped dead in their tracks and began looking around.

"What was that?" Dash said.

"Probably our mysterious creature," the Doctor replied.

"Not likely," Gear Head said, "From what I've observed, it's a stealth hunter. I highly doubt it would alert us to its presence like this. That noise was most likely Burns."

"He must be close by then. Probably heard us and is trying to get our attention."

"My thoughts exactly."

"But where is he?" Pinkie asked, "This place is really echoy"

"Give it a second," the Doctor said holding up a hoof. Just then, there was another clang. "See? Now then, I do believe that sound came from over there."

"The kitchen is that way," Gear said, "Come on!"

The group quickly moved through the ship and found themselves in front of a large metal door marked 'Kitchen'. Gear took hold of the doors handle and pulled it open, rushing inside, calling out, "Burns!" as he did.

A light grey pegasus poked his head up from behind a counter, then leapt over it and rushed over to the brown unicorn.

"Gear! I so happy to see you!" he exclaimed, hugging his friend tightly.

"I'm happy to see you to Burns. You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Hows everypony else?"

Gear shook his head and looked downwards.

"Oh. I see. Where's it at right now?"

"No clue. I haven't seen it since it got Ink Spot."

"We shouldn't waste anytime getting out of here then. Come on, let's… Oh. Who are they?" Burner asked seeing the rest of the group.

"Oh yeah. Sorry I didn't introduce you guys sooner. Guys, this is Bunsen Burner. Burns for short. Burns, this is the Doctor, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Heart Breaker."

"You're the Doctor?" Burner said incredulously, moving up to the brown earth pony.

"Indeed I am," he replied, "You've heard of me before?"

"Yes I have," the grey pegasus said extending a hoof, "There's not a pony at the institute who hasn't heard of you. We all dream of meeting you."

"Oh, well… That's good," the Doctor said shaking his hoof.

"And these three are your traveling companions?"

"They are, I'm not," Breaker said gesturing to the other mares.

"For now at least," the brown colt said.

"Doctor!" Pinkie and Dash said.

"Yes, right. Anyway, we should be leaving. That… creature or whatever it is could be anywhere. We'd best get out of here before it corners us or whatever it does."

"Agreed," Gear said with a nod, "You ready to go Burns?"

"More then ready," the pegasus replied.

The six ponies moved quietly back through the ship, doing their best not to attract the attention of the still unseen creature stalking the halls.

"I'm starting to get a little worried," the Doctor said after a few minutes of walking.

"Worried? About what?" Dash asked.

"We haven't seen the creature."

"Why is that worrisome? Isn't that good?" Breaker asked.

"No. No it's not," Gear replied, "This is a small ship. We should have seen it by now. The fact that we haven't…"

The red mare gasped. "You… You don't think that…?"

"It's possible," the Doctor replied with a nod.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Pinkie asked, confused.

"The creature may not be on this ship anymore."

"What? That can't be! If it got off then it could be-"

"No! Don't say that!" Heart Breaker interrupted, "We can't think like that! We can't…. think like that."

"It'll be okay Captain," the Doctor said placing a hoof on her shoulder, "Everything will be fine."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I'm the Doctor."

Breaker looked past him at the others. The four ponies all smiled and nodded.

"Alright then. I trust you."

"Good to hear."

"I'm still not going to travel with you."

"I wasn't going to ask."

"So what do we do?" Dash asked.

"We need to find it as quickly as we possibly can. If it's still on this ship, we'll need to keep it here so that we can lock it in."

"And if it's not?"

"Then we need to get it back on board."

"What then? We can't just leave this ship here, floating in the middle of the ocean," Breaker said.

"That's where Burns and me will come in," Gear said, "Once we get this thing trapped in here, we can go back to our own time and have the institute take it back."

"I just about to suggest that," the Doctor said, sounding impressed.

"It's like they say. Great minds think alike."

"So how should we go about this?" Burner asked, "Split up and search in groups?"

"Doesn't seem like the safest option," the Doctor responded, "But we'll able cover a lot more ground that way."

"Same groups as before?" Pinkie asked.

"Sounds good to me. Gear, Burner, you two good to go together?"

"No problem," the brown unicorn responded with a nod.

"Now then, before we head off," the Doctor said, reaching into his saddlebag, "You two are going to need… Wait, where are… Oh blast it, I only had four."

"What's the problem?" Burner asked.

"I was going to give you both communicators so that we could all keep in touch, but I don't have anymore."

"That shouldn't be a problem. Can I see yours for a moment?"

"Sure," the brown earth pony said taking the small disc from his ear and handing it to the grey pegasus.

Burner placed the communicator on his vortex manipulator and began pressing a few buttons, then gave it to Gear Head who did the same and handed it back to the Doctor.

"We tuned our vortex manipulators to the same frequency as your communicators," the pegasus explained, "We'll be able to communicate now."

"Good show," the Doctor said, clearly impressed, "Would either of you like to come with us?"

"Doctor!" Pinkie and Dash yelled at him.

"Seriously! Knock it off," Dash added, slapping him across the back of the head.

"Okay, okay. Sorry," he replied rubbing his head, "Lets go ahead and split up. If you see the creature, call the rest of us and run. Get off the ship as fast as you can. Got it?"

The other five ponies nodded.

"Right. Lets go."

After roughly an hour of searching, the three groups met back up where they had parted ways. Between the six them, they had searched every inch of the ship but could find no trace of the creature.

"Not good. Not good at all," the Doctor sighed.

"What do we do now?" Dash asked.

"We're going to have to head outside. The creatures out there somewhere. It may be on the Sea Horse. We need to find it and get it back in here."

"Dear Celestia, please let my ship be safe," Heart Breaker whispered to herself.

Quickly, the group moved to the door the Doctor had opened earlier, which stood wide open. Hesitantly, they stepped out and on the boat they had taken to get there. It wasn't quite big enough for all six of them to stand on it, so the pegasai floated above it.

"Anypony see anything?" the Doctor asked.

"There appears to be some sort scratch marks on the hull of our ship," Burner said, "It looks like the creature may have climbed onto the top of it."

"Can you see it?"

Burner floated up high enough to see the top of the ship, than floated back down and shook his head.

"Blast! That just leaves the Sea Horse."

"Hold on a second," Gear Head said holding up a hoof, "What if it went down the other side?"

"I'll check," Dash said flying around to the other side, then called back, "I found something!"

"Rainbow, we have communicators remember?" the Doctor said pressing his.

"Oh, yeah. Right," her voice replied through them.

"So what did you find?"

"The creature, I think."

"What? Get away from there!"

"No, it's okay! It's, like, dead or something."

"Dead?"

"Yeah. It's floating in the water and not moving."

"Captain," the Doctor turned to the red mare, "Get us over there quickly. And Rainbow, keep your distance. It could be playing possum."

Firing up the engine, Breaker quickly maneuvered the small boat around to the other side of the smaller ship. Rainbow Dash floated above the water, a few feet away from a large insectoid looking creature floating in the water.

"That's defiantly the creature," Gear Head said as they pulled up next to it.

"And it certainly looks dead," Burner added.

"Get us a little closer Captain," the Doctor said.

Nodding, the red mare brought the boat slightly closer.

"Okay, everypony, keep back a little."

"What are you doing?" Pinkie asked.

Leaning over the bow, the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and began scanning the creature.

"I'm doing a little scanning to see if I can figure anything out. And what do you know?" he said looking at the sonic, "It really is dead."

"What killed it?" Heart Breaker asked.

"No clue. All I can see is that it's dead."

"Any idea what it is?" Gear asked.

"None. I've never seen anything like this, and the sonic can't tell me. I may be able to get more information back at the TARDIS, but I doubt it."

"Well, if this whole affair is over now, I would like to back to ship," the captain said.

"Ah yes, well, there's one more thing we need to do."

"And what's that?"

"Get this creature back onto Gear Head and Bunsen Burners ship."

Back on the Sea Horse, the group was collected together on the bridge. After tapping a few buttons on his vortex manipulator, Gear Head looked around at the others.

"Well, we've got the coordinates set to take us back home, after which we'll have the institute bring our ship back." He extended a hoof to the Doctor, smiling. "It was good to see you again Doctor."

"And it was good to meet you," the earth pony replied, shaking his hoof, "You to Burner."

"Likewise," the grey pegasus said smiling.

"I just one question before you go."

"What's that?" the brown unicorn asked.

"This institute you both work at. What is it?"

"The Canterlot Royal Institute of Scientific Research."

"Sounds fancy. I'd like to see it."

"Sorry Doctor, but the director said you aren't allowed to visit unless she personally invites you."

"Oh. I see. Well… that's… um, interesting."

"Sorry, but that's just the way it is."

"Right. Well you two had best be off then. Best of luck friends. Until we meet again."

"See ya later!" Pinkie cheered franticly waving goodbye.

"Yeah, see ya," Dash said with a smile.

Heart Breaker simply nodded her head.

Smiling, Gear Head and Bunsen Burner pressed a button on their vortex manipulators and disappeared in a brief flash of blue light.

"Believe us now?" the Doctor somewhat smugly asked the red mare.

"Seems I don't really have a choice anymore," she replied.

"So, what do we do now?" Dash asked.

"Well, we did come here to relax. I'd like to do that, if the Captain is willing to let us stay aboard."

Chuckling softly, Breaker shook her head. "I suppose I do owe you something for what you did today."

"Awesome," Dash said.

"This is gonna be so much fun!" Pinkie exclaimed bouncing up and down.

"Thank you Captain. Don't suppose there are any unoccupied rooms we could stay in? Like, for instance, a luxury suite?"

"Don't push your luck Doctor."

"Ah, what a nice, restful trip this has been," the Doctor said as he entered the TARDIS.

"Definitely," Rainbow Dash agreed, "Although that first day left a lot to be desired."

"Yes, well, theses things happen sometimes."

"Especially around the Doctor!" Pinkie said.

"Unfortunately."

"So, you ever figure out what that thing was?" Dash asked.

The Doctor shook his head as he began manipulating the TARDIS controls.

"TARDIS databases had no information on it. Whatever it was, it's gone now."

"It's kinda sad if you think about," Pinkie said, "The only one of it's kind ever found and it's dead now."

"That's the nature of the universe I'm afraid. There's always darkness, even in the brightest of lights. Enough of that though. We have a lot to see and do. Let's go."

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