THE TALES OF POND: EPISODE 9

EPISODE 9 –THE CIRCUS OF MADNESS

The Doctor couldn't exactly tell how long he had been out for. All he knew is that the transmat beam had teleported them to a large, open space. The only lighting came from a fixture above his head, keeping the rest of the area completely shrouded in the darkness. The Doctor slowly picked himself up off the ground and reached over to nudge Susan with his hoof. She groaned and stirred, and when she opened her eyes she looked around and stood up.
"Grandfather, where is this place?" The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and examined the area around them.
"We're in space," the Doctor nodded, "judging from light thrumming I feel below, and according to the sonic we're in a pretty big room, possibly anywhere between forty to fifty feet in diameter. I do like a big room; lots of open space." The Doctor heard something pounding behind him. He turned around and remembered that he had left the others inside the TARDIS. He pointed his sonic screwdriver to the doors and activated the device. Immediately the ponies that had been locked inside the capsule spilled out of the time machine, almost scrambling over each other just to get out.
"Doctor, oh thank goodness you're here," Rarity sighed.
"Doctor, something strange is happening here," Amy muttered.
"Yes, I think I've figured out the whole strange aspect of the situation," The Doctor replied without much emotion.
"No, Doctor," Rory added, "listen, that strange colt that you mentioned once before, he looks exactly like you; not only his voice but his appearance and everything-" Rory was interrupted by the rest of the lights activating. As they turned on one by one the Doctor and his friends saw that they had been contained within a massive circular room. The walls were made of transparent material that could be activated on command to allow the viewing of space outside, and adorning these walls were red and white striped flags that started at the ceiling and reached the floor. The flooring and ceiling were still made of metal, but had elaborate black and red patterns on them, almost in compliment to the flags. At the front of everything there was a large stage decorated in white and red cloth that extended outward to the front.
"Doctor," Twilight whispered, "This looks eerily similar to a-"
"A circus ring!" a voice announced on the intercom. It was a female voice, filled with ecstasy and joy. All of the lights turned to focus on the center stage, and when they did a drum roll began to play. After the drum roll came some kind of circus music, recognizable as such but performed by utterly alien instruments. Then several robotic clowns came out on stage, juggling batons and bowling pins. They juggled for a few minutes, playing prerecorded laughs as the Doctor and his companions watched in awe and confusion. The clowns soon twirled around and pointed to the back curtains of the stage, where a figure fluttered out. It was the shape of a mare, and as she emerged from the curtains she did several back flips all the way to the front of the stage. Upon reaching the front she jumped into the air, twirled at the peak, and landed facing the Doctor. She threw her hooves into the air and shouted "Tada!" as a prerecorded clap track played in the background. The mare herself was dressed in a tight fitting leotard decorated with black and red patterns, very similar to those printed on the floor of the room. Her coat was of the most brilliant white, and here and there were bits of red makeup on her face that made her look much like a clown. Her deep red mane glittered as the lights focused on her, and when she bowed it flowed like a great and mighty river.
"Well, that's most certainly new," Amy smiled.
"Hello one and all and welcome to the Circus of Madness!" the mare shouted as she did another back flip. "Allow me to introduce myself. Although I was born with a different name, I have come to accept the one that most matches my personality. They call me…" The mare spun around and around as a drum roll played, and when she stopped spinning a cymbal crashed and the drum roll ceased. "…The Jester!" The Jester then laughed and the mechanical clowns behind her clapped.
"Well she most certainly does fill the part," Rarity commented, "but I do love her outfit."
"Not the best time to be commenting on design," Rory muttered.
"Now," The Jester smiled, "you may all be wondering why I have brought you here. Why did I, The Jester of time, bring you all to visit my marvelous show? Well, I regret to inform you that you're here not for your own entertainment, but for mine." The Jester chuckled menacingly as a beam of light hit the Doctor. He looked around, panicking for a moment before he was teleported away.
"Doctor!" Twilight screamed.
"Grandfather!" Susan called after him.
"Don't worry about our jolly good old Doctor," The Jester continued, "he's just going to be preoccupied with a few things; a few, important, things. What you all should be worried about however is how you're going to get out of this alive." The robot clowns jumped off the stage, landing right next to the ponies. One group of clowns grabbed Amy, Rory and Twilight, while the other group grabbed Susan, Rarity and Fluttershy. "Don't try and struggle," The Jester growled, "You're lucky I don't just have you all killed right now."
"W-What do you want from us?!" Susan shouted.
"I want to be entertained," The Jester replied, "I want to see how long you can last in my Circus of Madness. I want to hear you beg to be let go, I want to hear you scream in fear. This is not just a show of your will, but a fight for survival. So let us begin; I hope you're all ready for a long night." A transmat beam enveloped the rest of the ponies, teleporting each group to their own separate destinations. The Jester smirked as Susan and the others vanished from the floor of the chamber; the games have just begun.

When the Doctor regained consciousness for the second time he was chained up inside a sterilized metal cell. His head was pounding, but he knew that was because of the transmat beam; it's normally not a smart idea to transmat multiple times, he remembered being told on several occasions. He shook his head a few times just to clear his vision, and when he did he was able to see the room in front of him. Several control panels decorated the observation area directly in front of his cell, and above the panels were several massive screens, each showing a specific location on the ship. At the helm of these controls sat the Jester, grinning madly as she looked over the Doctor.
"I see you're awake, Doctor," The Jester chuckled, "About time, too."
"What are you going to do to them?" The Doctor muttered.
"You mean your companions?" The Jester frowned. "Oh, they are just going to fulfill my revenge is all. I don't really intend to kill them; at least not yet."
"You let me go," The Doctor hissed, "you let me and my friends go or I swear I'll-"
"You'll what?" The Doctor fell silent. "Exactly, Doctor; you can't do anything to me. I helped lay out the perfect trap for you, and you fell in like a choreographed dancer. Not to mention the fact that I have this." The Jester held the Doctor's sonic screwdriver out in front of her, taunting the doctor as she threw it up into the air and caught it. "You're a long way from Gallifrey, Time Lord, and do you know what? So am I."

"Please tell me this isn't what it looks like," Amy mumbled. Rory, Amy and Twilight had been teleported to the entrance of what looked like a haunted house ride. The doorway in front of them was decorated to look like a rickety old house, and a sign at the front said 'beware' in big red lettering. If that wasn't enough, the windows of the house gave off a cheesy purple glow that added a sort of retro ambience to the whole place.
"Looks like a haunted house ride to me," Twilight shrugged.
"So, we're supposed to explore this haunted house," Rory muttered, "for the Jester's entertainment. Do you want to go in?"
"I do like a good haunted house every now and then," Amy nodded, "besides, it's not like we have a choice."

"Do you know why I agreed to this shady little scheme, Doctor?" The Jester asked. The Doctor wasn't looking at the Jester as she spoke. Instead his attention was focused directly on the screen behind her that showed Rory, Amy and Twilight stepping into what looked like an old wooden house of some sort. "While you were fighting on the front of the Last Great Time War I was sent far away to protect a certain something… something that not even the Time Lords fully understood. You have no ideas what wonders I learned from it, Doctor; all the magnificence and beauty of the universe, and all of its horrors."
"What are you talking about?" The Doctor asked coldly.
"I'm speaking of an ancient relic that still remains from the Dark Times; a relic so old and yet so powerful that even I have yet to understand its true nature."
"And what is this relic?"
"Now, now, Doctor," The Jester laughed, "if I told you all about it that would spoil all the fun! You and your friends came here for the fun, and I really do not intend to disappoint."

"Well, Susan, looks like we're stuck together once more," Rarity sighed. The three of them were at the entrance to a house of mirrors, complete with an automated droid motioning for the mares to enter.
"Looks like it, and not in the most pleasant of places, either," Susan muttered, "I never did like places like these while I was on Earth; they're so disorienting and troublesome."
"It looks kinda scary," Fluttershy whispered.
"It is a little bit," Susan nodded, "but if we stick together we'll do just fine. Come on, before we get thrown into something even more troublesome."

"It wasn't only the relic, Doctor," the Jester sighed, "but it was you as well. If it weren't for what you did to Gallifrey, if it weren't for what you did to our people, I would not have remained to guard the relic for the thousands upon millions of years that I did. I had no way out, no way back. I was stranded, Doctor, all thanks to what you did."
"I didn't have a choice," The Doctor mumbled.
"Didn't have a choice?!" The Jester sprang up from her chair and slammed both of her hooves onto the door of the Doctor's cell. "Didn't have a choice?! You had a choice, we all had a choice! We made up our minds, we fought our own war!" The Jester calmed herself down and returned to her chair. "You made the choice that affected the whole universe, Doctor, for better or for worse. Now, after all this time, your choice is about to come back and return the favor."
"What are you going to do?"
"Well, first things first," The Jester giggled, "I'm going to let your friends into two of the most dangerous parts of my ship, and then I'm going to break them; physically and mentally. You on the other hand, will be watching as it all unfolds. You are the audience in the ultimate torture, and how rightful… how rightful for you to be after all this time."

"Well, I can't say it isn't fancy," Twilight said as she looked about, "though this place could really do with a little bit of tidying up."
"It's a haunted house," Rory mumbled, "it's supposed to look like the place has been run down for years. Haven't you ever been to one?"
"Once," Twilight muttered, "when I was with the Doctor. He took me to a real haunted house. Though, as usual, he proved that the ghosts were actually-"
"Aliens?"
"Yes, yes they were," Twilight smiled.
"The Doctor has a way of doing that," Amy chuckled, "he takes the scariest things you had ever seen or heard of, turns them scarier, and then makes them look like they were the most harmless things in the universe."
"Hang on," Rory whispered, "look over there." He pointed a hoof over to one of the doors, which had a green light coming out from underneath it. "Do you hear something a bit odd coming from behind that door?"
"I hear it," Twilight whispered back. "It sounds like some kind of wheezing, or gasping of some kind." The three of them slowly crept up to the door, making sure to keep an eye on their surroundings.
"Recon we should have a look?"
"Up to you," Amy whispered.
"I'm not going in there unless you really want me to," Rory smiled nervously.
"Likewise," Amy chuckled.
"Can we just open the door and get this over with?" Twilight sighed heavily. Amy and Rory turned to look at Twilight at the same time, and then they faced each other. They both nodded, and Rory proceeded to open the door. It was locked.
"I can't open the door, it's locked," Rory grunted.
"When has a lock ever stopped us?" Amy asked. Rory looked at her, and then back at the door. He then backed away from it, getting a good angle and eyeing the floor to make sure it can take the leverage. Then, with a mighty roar, Rory ran up and slammed into the door, snapping it off of its hinges and sending it flying several feet across the room in front of them. The green light washed over the three ponies, and as they looked out in front of them they saw an incredulous sight. The green lights had been coming from several large tubes of glass, each filled with a lime colored liquid. The glass tubes were about the size of a person, and each one had a metal pipe that reached several hundred feet up. Not only was the height mind boggling, but the entire chamber up ahead was at least twice as big as the circus ring, and contained as many as a thousand tubes of green fluid.
"What… what is all this?" Twilight gasped.

"They're in the cloning vats," The Jester mumbled as she watched the screens in front of her. "Funny. I was hoping that they would be taking more time to explore the fun of the haunted house, but it looks like your friends are keener on exploring the dangers up ahead. Bravo, Doctor, you've taught your friends well."
"Please," The Doctor whispered, "Just let them go. They haven't done anything. It's me who you should be torturing."
"But I am torturing you, Doctor. Don't you see? By hurting the ones you love and care for the most I can drive a pain into your hearts that nothing else in this universe can."
"They don't deserve this!" The Doctor bellowed.
"Well, obviously not," the Jester replied calmly and coldly, "but you're the one who's responsible for their fate. After all, you're the one who allowed all of this to happen; the Doctor, the one who wished to bring peace to the universe. look at you now, Doctor. Look at your friends from your cell… and see what future you've given them."

"This is so weird," Fluttershy shivered, "I can see so many of us all around."
"Relax, darling, I'm sure that Susan is more than capable of getting us out of here," Rarity assured, "isn't that right, Susan?"
"You can count on me, girls," Susan smiled, "I'll get us out of here no matter what." The house of mirrors all around them seemed less like a house to Susan, but more like a maze. The roof of the building was mirrored as well, so Susan couldn't tell exactly how large the place was. The three of them traveled on, not paying attention to the length of the journey but to the prospect of success.
"I hope the others are okay," Fluttershy whimpered.

Amy, Rory and Twilight traveled along the catwalks that snaked outwards for miles into the cloning vats, unable to take their eyes off of the unbelievable sights up ahead. Every now and then they would encounter a cloning tube that was still full, and notice the fact that the ponies within the cloning vats had no eyes or mouths.
"What is wrong with all these ponies?! They haven't any mouths or eyes," Twilight gasped, "Why would some pony create ponies with no eyes or mouths?"
"I don't know," Rory muttered softly.
"I don't think I want to find out," Amy replied grimly. The three of them kept on walking, still looking about at anything and everything that was around them.
"So, Rory," Twilight whispered, "why does the Doctor call you 'Rory the Roman'?"
"Long story," Rory chuckled sheepishly.
"We've got time," Twilight smiled, "I want to hear about it." Rory looked at Amy helplessly. She smiled and punched his shoulder lightly.
"Come on, Rory, you can do it," Amy smirked.
"Okay, well, when Amy and I were traveling with the Doctor we encountered the Silurians. One of the well known Silurians died, one thing lead to another, and in the crossfire of that event I died." Rory gulped and continued. "I mean, literally I died. And then I didn't exist at all. It was this crack in time that was caused by the TARDIS blowing up that did it, but that's a whole different part of the story. So anyway, I didn't exist, and then all of a sudden I was reborn as a Roman, with Roman thoughts and Roman ideas. It's weird, but I realized that I was reborn because of the Nestine. They pulled the image of me out of Amy's mind, and created a version of me. That was when I almost killed her. The Nestine took control of me and made me… made me shoot her." He sighed and nodded. "That was when the universe didn't exist. Then the Doctor, Amy and I rebooted the universe with the help of a mysterious woman. Doctor River Song her name was. After that the name sort of stuck."
"You skipped a few bits," Amy grumbled sarcastically.
"Yea, well I think that it doesn't really matter now that we're both here," Rory growled playfully as he grabbed hold of Amy and gave her a big bear hug. She squeaked and laughed in surprise as Rory held her up high in his arms. Twilight looked at them both and couldn't help but giggle. Oh Twilight, she thought to herself, if only you could see yourself now; in the middle of a dangerous place and here you are with two of your friends just messing around. The elation and joy, however, would be interrupted by the most simple of sounds. Twilight heard a light clang of metal from the opposite side of the catwalk. Amy and Rory heard it too, and the minute they did the two of them looked in the direction of the sound. There was a pony standing there, in the darkness. Despite the glow of the green lights the pony's face was completely shrouded in darkness. The only thing they could see was the pony's front hooves.
"Excuse me," Rory asked the pony, "are you lost as well?" The pony did not respond.
"Maybe we can help you get out of here?" Amy asked it. The pony slowly stepped out of the darkness, and the minute it did Twilight and the others backed away from it in fear. The pony was one of the clones, but instead of no eyes it had a single camera mounted into one of its empty eye sockets, and protruding from its throat was some kind of tube that wheezed as the clone breathed. What made it worse was the fact that the clone had a gun attachment jutting out from its ribs, and it was aimed at the three ponies.
"Twilight?" Amy asked.
"Yea?" Twilight replied.
"Remember what the Doctor would always say in times like this?"
"Of course I do; run!" The three of them took off running down the catwalk as the clone barely missed them and blasted a hole into one of the cloning vats. Green fluid began leaking out down into the bottom of the cloning vats, and an alarm sounded off as the clone dragged its nearly lifeless limbs to catch up with Twilight and the others.

"I never did perfect those things," the Jester commented, "no matter how hard I try; they always seem so lifeless and weak." The Jester leaned in closer to the Doctor's cell, taunting him while she pressed the tip of his sonic screwdriver against her bottom lip. "But that's how I like them; lifeless and weak."
"What are they," the Doctor mumbled, "What have you done to those ponies?"
"It's always straight to the questions with you, isn't it, Doctor?" the Jester laughed and pointed to the screen recording the location of the clone. "That, my dear friend, is what I have become accustomed to calling a 'Freak'. It consists of simple cloning techniques, mixed together with a few extra obedience measures; makes for a perfect soldier, one that cannot feel pain or reason. It exists to serve me and only me."
"You're messing with life, Jester; do you realize what you've done?"
"No, and nor do I care."
"You're beginning to anger me. And the anger of a good man is not something that you should take lightly."
"You forget your place, Doctor," the Jester hissed, "you forget that I hold all the cards in this game and that at any moment I can make my play and make you wish you would have kept your mouth shut!"

"Susan, dear, I really hate to bother you, but I'm getting the feeling that we aren't alone."
"I'm getting that feeling as well, Rarity," Susan agreed. The three ponies stopped for a moment, listening in for a sound that they had heard earlier.
"Can't you two use your magic and get us out of here?" Fluttershy whispered.
"If we could use our magic I would have gotten us out of here already," Susan replied blankly, "the air is filled with airborne inhibitors. Even if I wanted to use magic I couldn't do it." Rarity tried to use her magic as well, but all that came out of her horn were dull sparks.
"It's like I want to use magic," Rarity gasped in exhaustion, "and then I don't want to."
"It works like a perception filter," Susan explained, "It makes it so that you don't think about using magic, even when you really need it."
"Girls," Fluttershy whimpered, "I hear something coming towards us." The three of them listened in, trying to home in on the source of the sound.
"I can hear it," Rarity shivered, "It's like the sound of something heavy being dragged."
"Listen in closer," Susan ordered, "whatever it is we need to be ready for it." They kept looking around, trying to find the source of the noise. Things became tenser and tenser until the sound ceased. The whole mirrored area was bathed in utter silence. Suddenly there was a crash as a large, metal hoof came crashing out from behind a mirror. Fluttershy screamed as a Freak with metal legs came running towards them. Susan and Rarity ducked out of the way as the rampaging Freak broke through another mirror.
"What in all of Equestria is that?!" Rarity shrieked.
"I don't know," Susan yelled in reply, "but it's strong enough to clear us a path! Stay out of its way; we need to break our way out!"

"This is so amazing," The Jester cackled madly, "your friends think they can break out when I've already sealed them in! A bunch of scared ponies sealed inside a room filled with broken glass; oh I wonder what could possibly happen!" The Doctor had stopped replying and simply sat in his cell, watching as the events unfolded on screen. "I'm sorry, Doctor," The Jester continued to taunt him, "did I hear something escape your lips? Did you say, 'I'm sorry Jester'?" She walked over to his cell, running a hoof gently across the metal beams. "Face it, Doctor; I've won. My vengeance is almost complete, and as soon as your friends die this whole ordeal will be over. My master will be most pleased."
"Who is your master?" The Doctor whispered.
"Oh, that's right! After all this time, after leaving you in the dark for so long, I forgot to tell you who thought up of this most ingenious scheme!" The Jester did a little dance, spun around, and pointed a hoof at the Doctor. "You!"

"Run, Keep going!" Twilight screamed as more laser fire barely missed them. The Freak was slow, but it still had pretty good aim for only a single eye.
"Okay, there's a freaky looking thing that's about to kill us all," Rory huffed, "what are we going to do?"
"Just keep running," Twilight gasped, "we've got to find a way around before we get our heads blasted off!"
"Dead end," Amy shouted, "we're trapped!" Sure enough the catwalk in front of the three ponies ended abruptly. They scrambled to a halt as the Freak hobbled ever closer to them, gun attachment raised and ready to fire.
"If any of you have any smart ideas," Amy mumbled, "now would be a really, really good time to hear them."

The Freak that was attacking Susan and the others had broken almost every mirror in the room, revealing that the rest of the house of mirrors was completely cut off.
"It's no use," Rarity screamed, "we're going to die!"
"Calm down, we've just got to find a way to use the mirrors to our advantage. The creature is already hurt, maybe we can-" The Freak brought a huge metal hoof down on Susan, knocking the breath out of her. She collapsed to the floor, partially unconscious and confused as to what hat just happened. Fluttershy and Rarity screamed as the creature lifted its hooves for another attack.

"Stop it," The Doctor shouted, "stop this right now!"
"And so, Doctor," The Jester cackled manically, "Witness the death of the ones that you have cared for the most! Witness the end of an era, and the rise of another!" The Doctor watched in horror as the six ponies struggled on two separate screens. They were going to die, and the Doctor was helpless to stop them. However, just when all hope was lost, both screens went blank. The signal didn't just cut out; the whole monitoring system just went dead. "What's going on," the Jester mumbled, "what's happening?" She tried pressing several buttons on the command console, but the screens remained blank. Not even the Doctor's sonic screwdriver was able to fix the broken monitors. "What did you do?" She looked at the Doctor, who smiled but did not respond. She walked right up to the cell door and slammed her hoof on it. "What, what did you do, Doctor?!"
"I didn't do anything," the Doctor replied honestly, "you have my sonic after all."

Amy, Rory and Twilight braced themselves for the worst when they heard a loud boom, similar to the crash of thunder. The freak turned around, attempting to respond to the noise. Instead it got a blast of hot plasma straight in the chest. The creature fell to the ground, passed on from its abnormal life.
"Did any of you do that?" Rory asked.
"No," Twilight replied, "That blast came from up ahead!" The figure behind the dead Freak was obscured by the smoke, but as soon as it stepped forward Amy knew exactly who it was. Her heart leapt with joy as she saw the miniature, blue armored form of Commander Strax stride into view.
"Commander," Amy beamed, "long time, no see!"
"And it would have been 'long time, no see' if not for the fact that the TARDIS messaged me. I was just about to tend to my regular nursing duties as well, mind you, so it was about time I got called into battle!" The Sontaran lifted his heavy blue helmet off of his head and sighed. "I take it things were just about to get really edgy, were they not?"
"Yea, just about," Rory mumbled.
"What about the others," Twilight asked, "they're still in danger!"
"Oh don't worry about your filthy little pony allies," Strax grunted, "They should be more than safe."

Susan thought that this was it; that after all this time she had spent with the Doctor, she would be killed before she had the chance to regenerate. Her wounds were not grievous as of yet, but if the attack continued they would be. She would be killed, and she would never come back. Just then, muddled with the shouts of Rarity and Twilight she heard the sound of thunder. Then, as she saw the Freak lifting its weight away from her, she heard a familiar yet horrifying phrase: "EXTERMINATE!" Then a blast of plasma energy seared across the air, landing its mark on the unsuspecting creature. It bellowed in agony as its life was quickly snuffed, falling on its side in one last, mighty groan. Susan tried to stand up, but she felt weak and nauseated. It also didn't help that there was a red Dalek and two ponies standing in front of her.
"Rainbow Dash," Rarity gasped.
"Applejack," Fluttershy gawked.
"Rainbow Dash, Applejack," Susan cried, "get back from that thing!"
"What are you talking about, " Rainbow Dash grinned, "This Dalek is my friend!"
"I HAVE THE CAPACITY OF BEING AWESOME!" The Dalek bumped its manipulator arm to Rainbow Dash's hoof in a handshake of respect.
"Long story, Susan," Applejack nodded, "but the sooner we get outta here the better. We've got to find the Doctor, and we've got to do it fast!"