Doctor Who and the Voice of the Shadow

by spartiecat

Chapter 8

The Doctor was the first to reawaken. He looked around at the opaque blackness that surrounded him. He could not see anyone near him, nor could he hear anyone breathing.

“Hello?” he called out.

He groped around in the blackness on his hands and knees, looking for anything that might aid him. He fiddled in his pockets and pulled out his small flash light. He shone it around the room, but the darkness seemed to absorb the light. He tucked the flashlight back into his pocket and began to crawl. He groped his way around the darkness when he felt something. He grabbed it with both hands. It felt like a rough leather. He continued to prod at it, feeling what he thought was a nose, and a fang.

“Oh my word!” The Doctor gasped, realizing what he’d found. “I’m so sorry, Spike." He patted the unresponsive dragon on the head and continued to look for the others. The fact that he found Spike reassured him that the others should be close by.

He continued to crawl around, searching for the rest of the group, when he heard a voice in his mind “I’ve been expecting you, Doctor."

The Doctor looked around for what was speaking to him, but could not see anything more than the darkness around him. He talked to the voice as he continued to search for his friends.

“Who are you?” The Doctor shouted.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Doctor!” snapped the voice. “I can see into your mind. I know everything about you."

The Doctor felt movement around him. He knew he was being watched by the creature. He stood up and carefully dragged and swung his feet around as he walked, still searching for the ponies and his companions.

“Sceadungenga, I presume.”

“The very same” said the voice, in a smug tone. “And I know you, Doctor. You are from so far away, with such a knack for cunning and deception. Do your companions know why you travel with them? Why you've taken them to wander time and space with you?” The Doctor ignored the question as a feeble and well worn attempt to intimidate him. He continued to walk around in the darkness, and soon tapped his foot on a body. He could not tell who it was, but it certainly was human.

“You say that you’ve been expecting me. How do you know who I am?” asked The Doctor. He tried to keep his mind on as many disparate things as possible, in order to disguise his true thoughts; cheese, Cybermen, the smell of burning rubber, the offside rule, anything that would distract the creature from seeing The Doctor’s true thoughts.

“I’ve never visited this world before. Did you bring us here?” The Doctor bent down and felt the stiletto of Zoe’s shoe. He made a mental note of his movement and reminded himself of Spike’s location.

“I felt your presence since you landed on this world” said the voice. “I was already well into my task before your arrival. You were merely among the first to discover it.”

“But why take ponies?” shouted The Doctor. “Your kind will only interact if you want to feed on love. Why would you take them? And why in such an obvious manner? Surely inspiring fear defeats your purpose”

The sound of laughter filled The Doctor’s mind, but it still seemed to echo around the room. “Oh Doctor. You assume that feeding is my purpose!”

He realized that if Sceadungenga was looking into his mind, he could look into its mind if he concentrated. As he closed his eyes and tried to focus his mind on the creature, he heard a voice in the darkness.

“Spike? Applejack? Doctor?”

The Doctor was relieved to hear Twilight's voice. “Twilight! Over here!” The Doctor called out.

The Doctor could hear the others starting to stir. He took a step back, and stumbled on an outstretched leg behind him. He fell backwards and felt around him. The Doctor grabbed onto an object. It was a stiff fabric, but he could not quite place it. It felt like a small cloth bowl with a very wide brim.

“Doctor!” the voice snapped in his mind. He was startled by the voice and dropped whatever it was that he held.

The Doctor stood up and dusted himself off. “Right then. Where were we? Oh yes. You are not taking the ponies for any sort of sustenance. Then why are you taking them?”

Sceadungenga swirled around each member of the party. It picked each one of them up, and set them on their feet.

“For justice, Doctor!” The voice in The Doctor’s head grew louder. “For equality in this land of Equestria. The roll of the cosmic dice has given me such great power… but it has also denied me the most basic of things”

“Such as what?” asked The Doctor, in a concerned and suspicious tone.

“A VOICE!” yelled the creature in The Doctor’s mind. The blackness was suddenly lifted from around the group. They all looked around as a gust of cold, damp air hit them. Sceadungenga floated in front of them, appearing as the flying shadow that pursued Rainbow Dash earlier in the day.

They stood in a cave. Fire flickered and cast a red glow over small cages that lined the walls. Dozens of ponies were penned in small cages, suspended off the ground by chains. Most of the ponies lay motionless in the cages. They did not look big enough to stand up in. Some of the prisoners looked like they had been there for days, perhaps weeks. On the ground lay tables with chemistry equipment. Solutions and chemicals bubbled and fizzed away. Dried out and half eaten carrots and lettuce littered the floor. At the far side was a long hallway, with a large set of doors at it’s end. The Doctor nodded at Jamie and Twilight and gestured toward the door. It looked like the only exit, and he was determined to delay their captor long enough until everyone was able to run.

“Now do you see?” said the voice in an exuberant tone. “I’ve been denied a physical voice. I can speak inside of your mind, but I cannot communicate with ponies. I can only do so with creatures like you, with a mind I can access, or with some woodland creatures.”

“Then why take the ponies? And what do you need me for?” The Doctor shouted. The fury in his voice was rising. He could not imagine what the Sceadungenga could have planned that could justify the cruelty he saw in the room.

“I need you as the voice of my creation!” exclaimed Sceadungenga as the shadowy figure coiled itself around The Doctor like a snake.

The Doctor was taken aback as the creature unfurled itself and hovered in the air once again.

“What do you mean ‘voice’?” he demanded.

Sceadungenga was only talking through The Doctor’s mind. The others stood and watched The Doctor shout and respond to what they saw as a silent entity.

The shadow drew itself closer to The Doctor. One part of it hovered close to his face, and The Doctor could feel it staring at him.

“It’s all part of the plan, Doctor.” The Doctor put his hand behind his back and made a slight gesture toward the door at the end of the hallway. Jamie spotted it and slowly snuck around to the others.

“You keep on saying ‘the plan’. What is your plan for these ponies?” The Doctor asked. He was working doubly hard to scramble this thoughts and make them hard for the Sceadungenga to read.

“Oh it’s not my plan exclusively," said the creature as it flew up and seeped through the cages containing the imprisoned ponies. Twilight Sparkle strained to look at the cages. She could not see Rarity, Rainbow Dash, or Pinkie Pie in any of them. Sceadungenga continued, “The plan is the inspiration of my master.”

The shadow swirled among the cages, gloating triumphantly as it admired his handiwork. It was so engaged in his triumph, that he did not see Jamie and Twilight Sparkle starting to lead the group down the hallway.

“We will construct our own Alicorn. It will be as powerful as Celestia when we are complete. It will have the magical abilities of a unicorn, the power of an Earth pony, and the dexterity and energy of a Pegasus. When we place your mind in its body, it will have the power to dethrone Celestia! And the creatures of the forest shall rule!”

“Why that’s monstrous!” shouted The Doctor. “You can’t butcher innocent ponies! And I defy you to control my mind in that body!”

Sceadugenga was about to respond when he realized that The Doctor had not spoken out loud, The Doctor had completed the psychic link and was speaking to the creature with his mind. It spun around, and discovered that his audience had disappeared. It descended to the ground level and swirled around, surveying the area it had brought them. It felt The Doctor’s presence rushing down the large hallway.

“You cannot escape your fate, Doctor” hissed the entity as it pursued the group.

“RUN!” yelled The Doctor at the top of his lungs, as he looked over his shoulder. The shadow was in the distance, but closing the gap alarmingly quickly. The group, led by Twilight and Jamie, charged toward a pair of large ornate cathedral doors, painted a bright red. The brass hinges, and ornate brass decorations glinted and sparkled as it caught the light from the torches that lined the cavernous stone hallway.

Spike was starting to fall behind the pack. He pushed his stout legs as fast as they could go. The Doctor saw that the small dragon was lagging behind. He scooped up Spike in mid-stride and tucked him under his arm like a rugby ball and pushed for the goal.

The shadow continued to close the gap on the group. Applejack charged forward and threw her body at the doors. The doors violently swung open as the orange pony crashed into them. Twilight and the others rushed inside behind her.

The others watched as the black mass gained on The Doctor and Spike.

“DOCTOR!” yelled Zoe.

“SPIKE!” yelled Twilight.

The shadow looked to be within striking distance of the two. The Doctor threw Spike directly at Twilight, who stood in the doorway. Spike hit Twilight with full force and both of them tumbled backward. The Doctor lunged himself forward, with the shadow at his heels. The Doctor crashed to the ground and rolled into the room, as Jamie and Zoe slammed the door shut.