The Doctor and Derpy find themselves in the prison of Tartaurus, and along with Lieutenant Shining Armor and other friends, have to confront the creatures of nightmare to solve the murder of minotaurs.
Ten years prior to Friendship is Magic, the Doctor and Derpy arrive in Tartaurus to find murdered minotaurs and nightmarish creatures threatening to spill over into Equestria. Aided by Lieutenant Shining Armor, High Commisioner Plus-Four (who knows more about the Doctor than he is willing to say), and a pair of native Tartaurusians, the time-travelling duo discover secrets that have been kept from ponies for a thousand years and a villain who is even older than that.
This story is written in tribute to the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, in the style of the classic Doctor Who series. It contains many references to things that piqued my interest in MLP: FiM, and attempts to put a bit of backstory on many elements of the show. I hope this story entertains you.
Up on the ramparts of the massive grey castle, irritation flashed across the guard’s face as the little filly galloped by giggling, and a fellow minotaur growled and lumbered after her theatrically. This young minotaur was impressively muscled, even for one of his race, but moved as if he was not yet sure of his own size and strength. The filly’s dark blue and grey coloration and bat-like wings marked her as one of the pony outcasts that had infested the homeland since time immemorial. Bad enough that their kind are even here, thought the guard, but for one to corrupt a young minotaur? That’s a step too far.
“Oi, you! Get back here!” the guard called, wincing as his movement triggered his headache again. He made a mental note to talk to the quartermaster, as he was sure his armour shouldn’t be this tight. Just because this is my first day on the job, doesn’t mean it should be painful, should it?
The youth turned around his eyes downcast, which somehow made it all worse. Is he truly shy? The rot runs deep in the youth of today.
“Yes, sir?”
“You should not be playing here!” the guard yelled as he adjusted his ill-fitting helm. “How did you get up here, without anyone stopping you?”
Vilhelm, son of Iron Helm, latest in a long line of fierce warrior minotaurs, bowed his head and murmured, “Sorry, sir.”
“Sorry? Sorry!” The guard cast his eyes around the battlements of the massive stone castle, hoping to find something in his surroundings to explain this bizarre occurrence. This apparent complete and utter lack of minotaur sensibilities in Vilhelm. Lacking anything else, even another guard, he fell back on the default reaction bred deep in every minotaur. He shouted. “What kind of minotaur are you?”
The filly Lethe, oblivious to her playmate’s predicament, ran up and yelled, “You’ll not get me, evil zombie thing!” Her wings were not yet strong enough to truly fly, but she fluttered them excitedly as she spun and double-barrel bucked the young minotaur.
Vilhelm collapsed to his knees, eyes bugged out, gasping in pain.
Just in time.
A dark, cold wind streamed over his head, hitting the guard fully in the chest. Vilhelm glimpsed only a black shape half again his own size with a curved razor horn and leathery wings envelope the guard. There was a moment of confused shock, but when the screaming started his own pain was forgotten. Vilhelm did the only thing he could think of: he jumped back to his hooves, scooped Lethe into his arms, and ran. Behind him, the creature’s head turned to watch the retreating pair with yellow, cat-like eyes.
Just like ones staring back in fear from Vilhelm’s arms. Eyes just like Lethe’s.
A brown earth pony’s head, complete with spiky mane popped out from behind the blue door, wide-eyed. He glanced around at the grey stone corridor, lit with torches, and frowned. “Hmmm.”
He pulled back into the blue box, and trotted around the hexagonal control panel in a space far too big for the small box it seemed to be inside. He flipped switches and adjusted controls, looking at the monitor that showed a forest with a distinct lack of stone corridors.
“Well? Where are we, Doctor?” A pretty grey pegasus with a blonde mane and oddly fascinating eyes watched her travelling companion. “You’re usually out that door like a shot when we land.”
“Something’s wrong. We’re not where I expected.” He pounded on controls, but the forest image stayed stubbornly idyllic. Sound wavered into existence, resolving into gentle birdsong.
Sarcasm dripped from the reply. “Really?”
“Yes, yes, I know. However, the scanner is not showing what’s outside, Derpy.” The Doctor nodded at the monitor. “That’s new, and I don’t like that.”
Derpy’s curiosity replaced sarcasm in her voice. “Really?” She cantered past the Doctor and slipped through the doors. “Wow! It’s an old castle, from, like, the Knights of Dream Valley stories!”
Following behind, the Doctor scraped at one wall with his hoof and peered closely at the resulting grit. “Yes, given the use of torches, the type of stone, and general upkeep, I’d say you’re not far off in your guess. This might even be as far back as the end of the Discordian era.” He stamped his hoof to clean it off. “But the TARDIS is insisting that we’re no more than ten years before we left Ponyville, and sitting in an undeveloped forest at that.”
The Doctor carefully locked the TARDIS doors before turning and waving Derpy down one of the passageways leaving their landing zone. “Given the torches are lit, there have to be ponies around here somewhere. Shall we go find them?”
“Sir, I think this is the wrong train.”
“Hrmmm? What would make you think that, newly minted Lieutenant Armour?” The heavy-set and somewhat elderly red roan unicorn was dressed in a sensible-but-stylish travelling frock coat, his white mane shining in bright contrast. He looked up from his newspaper and peered over his reading glasses at the much younger pony. “Crack of dawn departures are a bit early for me, I’m afraid, but I am fairly certain I have gotten us onto the correct train despite myself.”
Lieutenant Shining Armour, a well-built white unicorn with a multi-shaded blue mane, seemed uncomfortable in his undecorated regimental dress uniform. His horn glowed blue as he twitched the curtains aside with magic, quickly glancing out the window of their private compartment while attempting to confirm his suspicions. “We seem to be travelling west, towards Tall Tale, sir. Hollow Shades is between Canterlot and Manehattan. Isn’t that in the other direction?”
Eyebrow raised, High Commissioner Tweedy Plus-Four looked puzzled, as he carefully folded the newspaper and put it aside. “Did they tell you we were going to Hollow Shades?”
“Well, no, sir.” Shining frowned, wondering if this was some form of test. “The briefing just said ‘the Shades,’ and since we don’t need a train to reach that section of Old Canterlot, the only other place I could think of was Hollow Shades. Sir.”
Shaking his head slowly, Plus-Four chuckled, “No, no, Armour. Our official destination is a little mountain hamlet called Snowshades. I understand the name is a bit of a mangle from some old language or another, with nothing to do with Snow or Shade, but according to reports it lives up to its name, especially at this time of year. Perhaps less than a hundred or so citizens live there.”
This confused Shining even more. Shifting nervously in his seat he replied, “That small, but they have a royal facility for you to inspect?”
“Ah, they were very close-muzzled when they briefed you, weren’t they?” Plus-Four used his magic to adjust his glasses. “There is a difference between our official destination and our actual one. Snowshades is the default location we always say we’re going when we want to keep our movements circumspect. Everypony always assumes we mandarins are taking a publically funded skiing vacation, and look no further.”
With unexpected agility, Plus-Four heaved his considerable bulk off the train’s comfortable bench. “In fact, now that you have drawn my attention to it, we should be arriving at our first waypoint shortly. Let’s retrieve our bags and startle the conductor with your military precision, hmm?”
Sauntering down the corridor, Derpy and the Doctor entered another large chamber lined with small iron doors. Derpy peered closely at one door. A square stone carved with runes was affixed to it, faintly glowing green.
“This is like the third room of these, but nothing else. What are these things?” A spark jumped to her nose, causing her to cry out and jump backward into the air, her wings sculling in her retreat. Moving too fast for agility, she slammed into the door opposite, knocking its stone off. With a creak the door swung open, its lock perished from age and lack of maintenance.
The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the green stone, triggering a buzz. He glanced at the readings and translated, “A psionic dampener.” He looked over at Derpy as she blushed and picked herself up from the floor. “You’d call it a magic ward. I’d say these are security safes or something like, with the wards to prevent any magic from operating in the vault. I suppose so that a unicorn thief can’t teleport the contents out. Almost out of power, though, and not very secure anymore.”
Derpy looked into the vault she had broken open. “Empty,” she said, although there was a small circle of rust in the centre, as if something made of iron that had been sitting there for a long time had been recently removed.
Another corridor continued past the chamber. The pair followed it, climbing a long set of stairs and passing through a pair of heavy doors that were already open. The Doctor examined the rough mortar around the frame of the doors and the pile of stones, picks, and crowbars nearby. “Alright, Derpy. Here’s another test for you. What do you see?”
Derpy’s golden eyes slid back and forth. “The stones that were removed are different from the regular wall. That means this door had been sealed up deliberately. It’s been broken down, but not carefully or completely. That means the goal was just to break through, not a renovation.”
“And there’s been no effort to clean up the tools or anything. They’ve just been shoved out of the way.” Derpy frowned. “So they got what they wanted, and didn’t care about anything else.”
The Doctor replied in a cheery tone, “Or what they found on the other side was too much for them, and whatever it was shoved everything out of the way to get out.”
Several passages later, branching paths chosen at random, they finally chanced upon a window. The sky outside the castle was striated red and orange, the land rocky with scrub bushes. In the distance, a quaint wood and stone village spread out beneath them. “Pretty,” whispered Derpy with a small smile on her face.
“Not so much, I’m afraid.” The Doctor had found an iron bound door further down with a hatch at eye level. Peering through that hatch, he saw a corridor lined with thick bars and shuffling shapes behind them. “This isn’t just a castle.”
“Sorry sir, but I’m still very confused.” Shining pulled at his blue mane in frustration, a habit that officer training had not managed to break. “There’s no station or town here. I’m not really sure there’s a here here. Other than trees, that is.”
The pair of unicorns were alone, having left the train tracks far behind. Beyond a brief stint in survivor training at the West Hoof Academy, Shining was a city pony, and he was finding the wilderness disturbing. Concentrating on levitating all of the luggage, as well as maintaining a watchful and suspicious eye on the surroundings as per his former drill sergeant’s instructions, was getting to be a bit of drain.
“It may be difficult for you during your time as my assigned escort and guard.” Plus-Four looked sadly at the young lieutenant as he meandered through the forest. “But I want you to know that the reason why you are here is that you were thought very highly of by your superiors, a pony of discretion with prospects. What the pegasi call a potential ‘high flyer’.”
“I think I understand, sir. Muzzle closed, sir.”
“Good colt. I swear to you that this will make sense eventually. If all goes well, there will come a time when you will be able to speak freely of what you see and hear while in my service. That’s what my job really is, you see. Determining when a secret shouldn’t be a secret anymore.” The path opened up into a clearing and Plus-Four inhaled deeply. “Ah, good. I was starting to join you in thinking I had gotten us lost.”
Shining’s eyes widened as he entered the clearing. A massive hound with three heads growled menacingly. Iron chains secured it to equally massive pillars on either side. However, the creature was dwarfed by a giant stone arch filled with a swirling red light. Plus-Four showed a small folder of papers to the two large minotaurs in full armour flanking the portal, each significantly out-massing the unicorn despite his own size. The minotaur on the left nodded, and Plus-Four trotted into the red light, disappearing from sight.
The minotaur on the right grinned toothily at the young stallion. “Welcome to Tartaurus,” he said. “Mind the gap.”
“Doctor, what’s wrong?” Derpy pursued the Doctor as he trotted down the passage.
“We need to get back to the TARDIS,” the Doctor muttered. “I need to know for sure that we can leave.”
He paused for a moment at a crossing corridor before selecting one direction thanks to a familiar guttering torch.
“This is a prison. Prisons in a place like Equestria tend to have special rules. Rules that will trap creatures that can teleport. Rules that may not understand the difference between teleportation and dematerialization.”
Caught up in the Doctor’s grim mood, Derpy pulled him into a side room as she heard the sound of marching hooves approaching. Peeking through the gap in the door, she spies a pair of guards in full armour stomping past. “Minotaurs,” she whispers to the Doctor.
The Doctor sagged, rubbing his forehead with a hoof. “The Bull Men of Tartaurus, the Men o’ Taurus. Well, we know where we are now. This isn’t just a prison. It’s the Prison. Tartaurus itself. All part of the Shadow World, a parasite dimension sitting just off of Equestria.”
Cautiously, the Doctor and Derpy tiphoofed out and bustled down the corridor again once the minotaurs were long past. “That explains what the scanner was showing. I’ve been in one of these before, a long time ago. Even more reason to get back to the TARDIS. The last time it was a full-on trap, it took me ages to find a way out.”
“But can’t the TARDIS can go anywhere?” Derpy queried.
“There are ways to stop it, and if it’s already confused as to where it is stopping it becomes a lot easier. Mind you, just like this one, that dimension wasn’t empty. Others had been trapped there as well.” The Doctor nodded in recognition as they passed through the safe room. “There was a dark castle there too, and the most horrible monsters. The most deadly menaces from the dawn of Time Lord history, sworn enemies of all life.”
His voice dropped to a whisper, “Vampires!”
“Really?” Derpy gives the Doctor a look of derision. “Vampires?”
“Yes... well... I mean, there was only one. And it was a quarter mile from wingtip to wingtip, but technically...”
Just as they rounded a corner, directly in front of the TARDIS, a dusty grey unicorn with a luxurious yet greying mane, a curved glowing horn, and cat-like green eyes span to face them. He reared at the two travellers, eyes wide and fanged mouth hissing menacingly at them.
The Doctor and Derpy wheeled, calling in unison: “Run!”
A big, scarred minotaur strode around her office waving her arms angrily as she blustered. “Do I need to put you in one of the cells? Maybe some time as a prisoner here will help!”
Vilhelm shrank before the onslaught. “But mom, we saw...”
Iron Helm forced herself to calm down. “You! You saw! And you saw nothing! You were caught hanging around with an outcast yet again, and you’ve come up with this new story as a way to get out of punishment.” She resumed pacing the office, glaring at her son. “We keep the most dangerous, most evil villains in all the lands as prisoners. We do! Not the gryphons, not the wolves, not the ponies. We’re the toughest there is, and I plan on making us even tougher. But everyone sees my own son playing with ponies! At your age! You need to grow up!”
There was a knocking at the door. Iron Helm turned away, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. “As soon as our ‘guests’ have left, we will deal with this once and for all.” She straightened herself up and boomed, “Come!”
The door opened and Plus-Four ambled in, followed at a crisp march by Shining. “Ah, my dear. I hope we’re not intruding on official business?”
Iron Helm tried not to snarl. “No, just family affairs. Nothing for you to be concerned about, Commissioner.”
“Good, good.” Plus-Four nodded happily, gesturing towards his companion. “Iron Helm, this is my escort, Lieutenant Shining Armour. Armour, this is the Warden of Tartaurus Prison, Iron Helm.”
“Ma’am.” Shining saluted. Iron Helm frowned, ignoring the courtesy.
Plus-Four looked pointedly at Vilhelm, and coughed. Iron Helm narrowed her eyes, and waved dismissively. “My son, Vilhelm. Who is going to his quarters and staying there. Right now.”
“Yes, mom.”
“Doctor? Why did the evil vampire unicorn have a mop and bucket?”
Both the Doctor and Derpy breathed heavily, the Doctor leaning up against a cold wall. “What?”
“I think...” Derpy looked off in the distance, as if her unfocused eyes would help focus her mind. “I think it was washing the TARDIS, and we interrupted.”
The Doctor looked at her, perplexed for a moment, before he chuckled and then burst out laughing. “Oh, my dear Derpy. Those eyes of yours really do see more than most, don’t they?”
Derpy cocked her head to the side. “So it was, like, a vampire... janitor? That just sounds wrong.”
“Yes, it does.” Derpy and the Doctor grinned at each other as they headed through an archway and found themselves on top of one of the fortress’ walls. Now thoroughly lost, they strolled across the wall, looking for another staircase down into the lower levels. “Which tells me that I worked us up into a panic over nothing. He wasn’t a vampire, just an odd looking pony that we surprised as much as he surprised us. If it really was a vampire meaning us harm, it would be on top of us right now.” His tone dropped into a deeper register. “Soon we would be merely corpses, sucked dry of blood.”
The doctor waved his hooves in front of his face moaning, “OOOoooooh!”
“Like that?” Derpy’s face had gone several shades paler as she stared at the dead minotaur on the ramparts.
“Oh... Yes.” The Doctor frowned and deflated. “Quite a bit like that, in fact.” There was a whisper of spears falling into readiness, pointed at the two travellers as guards stepped from behind cover to surround them.
“Yes,” sighed the Doctor. “Now, this is unfortunately familiar.”
The guards shoved the Doctor and Derpy into the office of Iron Helm at spear point. Plus-Four’s eyes widened, and a broad grin spread across his face. “My dear fellow, what a surprise to see you here.” He rushed forward to shake the Doctor’s hoof, forgetful of the guards still in the doorway behind. “Or should I be concerned? You do have a tendency to bring trouble with you, don’t you Doctor?”
The Doctor covered his confusion by taking in the increasingly cramped office as the guards forced themselves into the room. “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage, Mister...?”
“Commissioner, now. High Commissioner Tweedy Plus-Four. Oh, I’m not surprised you don’t recognize me. When we last met, I was teaching mathematics at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.” Plus-Four’s eyes clouded in remembrance. “Almost ten years ago now. Never thought a simple star chart would cause such chaos.” He pumped the Doctor’s hoof yet again. “Must say, though, you haven’t aged a day.”
The elderly unicorn took notice of Derpy. “And you still have an eye, I see. What ever happened to the adorable... Miss Sprinkle, I think it was? Purple unicorn with endless questions? Ah, well, it was some time ago.”
The Doctor muttered to himself, “Or some time yet to come, I think. I hate spoilers.”
Shining Armour and Derpy Hooves shyly exchanged hoofshakes as well. “Call me Derpy.”
“Shining. Pleased to meet you.”
Still, the Doctor was puzzled by the feeling that he had met this pony before. “Teaching mathematics? I’m sorry, were you ever in the military? Colonel or Brigadier, perhaps?”
“Brigadier?” Plus-Four struggled to turn in the enclosed space to face Shining Armour. “I think that’s a Gryphon militia rank, isn’t it, Armour?” With a grin he looks back at the Doctor. “No, no. Always an Equestrian, myself.”
“Enough! I demand an explanation!” screeched Iron Helm, incensed that she was being ignored in her own office.
The forgotten guards snapped to attention. “We found them over the body of Poll Axe. He was drained, just like the others.”
“Others?” questioned the Doctor.
Plus-Four spun around, knocking a dagger off the wall with his tail to stick straight up in the credenza top beneath it. “What is this about bodies? Warden Helm, if this prison is compromised, Celestia herself will...”
“We are not compromised, not yet, no thanks to you and your princess!” sneered Iron Helm, shoving her desk aside in an attempt to get closer to Plus-Four. “We know who’s responsible, and if we were allowed to confine the snow properly as we have repeatedly requested of your government, we would not be having this problem!”
Derpy looked from face to face, hoping to find someone who understood. “Snow? Why lock up snow?”
Shining shrugged, staying as still as possible. “I have no idea. I’ve been lost all day.”
“They call themselves the Sdukʷalbixʷ,” explained Plus-Four. “If you’ll remember, Armour, I mentioned Snowshades earlier? I believe it’s from a similar ancient language. Not sure what it means, and we seem to be mangling the pronunciation somewhat. There’s some debate among the few ponies-in-the-know about who or what they are.” He waved his hoof in the air, outlining an imaginary pony. “They’re shaped like ponies of all three tribes, but they all have draconic eyes. The unicorns with sharp curved horns, the pegasi with bat-like wings, so on and so forth.”
At his companion’s intake of breath, the Doctor nodded to her. “Ah, that explains the janitor.” He slipped between the occupants of the office in an attempt to wander around the room, examining the weapons on the walls. He paused to look more speculatively at the massive gothic mace mounted behind Iron Helm’s desk. Obviously a badge of office, and equally obviously an actual tool of combat for someone the size of Iron Helm. “So these Sdu live here, do they, and only here?”
“They stole into our lands, infiltrating Tartaurus like vermin.” Iron Helm shoved the other guards out of the room in a vain attempt to create enough space to move. “We try to trust them with menial tasks, to integrate them into our society, but they abuse that trust at every turn. They are outcast ponies, yet Equestria won’t authorize us to deal with them appropriately. And now they are revealing their true colours, their carnivorous appetites turning to blood.” She slammed the door shut behind the guards and turned to face the small crowd still in the room. “Likely they are trying to compromise this prison.”
“There are prisoners here that they believe they could use, to turn to their needs, in a vain attempt to conquer Tartaurus, or simply to increase their own numbers.” Iron Helm stalked forward, stopping in front of Plus-Four to lean down and looked him directly in the eyes. “As the official representative of the Equestrian government, you must give us permission to imprison these ponies once and for all!”
“I’m afraid I cannot agree to that without proof, Madam Warden.” Plus-Four turned away from Iron Helm, toward his companions. “But I do believe that we cannot allow your people to suffer due to our inaction.”
Plus-Four smiled kindly at Derpy. “My dear, would you be so kind as to stay with an aging bureaucrat and help him organize the proof Iron Helm has for us?” He looked sidelong at his escort. “Shining, as a pony of action, I expect you would wish to go with the Doctor as he tracks down the murderer directly?”
The incredulous look on Derpy’s face spoke volumes. “You what? Really?” The twinkle in Plus-Four’s narrowed eyes gave her pause, however. The oddly charming unicorn was up to something, and it wasn’t exercising his chauvinism.
Plus-Four walked forward, separating Shining Armour from the others as much as he could, and lowered his voice to whisper in Shining’s ear, “My experience with the fellow tells me to trust the Doctor to be the Doctor, no more, no less. I need someone keeping tabs on him who has our best interests at heart, and I won’t be able to keep up with him. That leaves you, I’m afraid.”
“But, sir?” whispered Shinning.
“Yes, it’s a risk. A calculated one, you see.”
Shining dropped his head. “Yes, sir.”
“Right! First order of business, find us a blood-drinking creature that has already killed several minotaurs without leaving a trace!” The Doctor clapped his hooves together as he and Shining were escorted back to the parapets by guards. “Easy-peasy!”
Shining thought for a moment. “Bait.”
The Doctor stopped. “Bait?” He motioned to the guards to go on ahead through the door. “Careful,” he whispered conspiratorially to them, “the creature may have returned.”
“If we can’t go to it,” said Shining, slowly working through the logic, “because we don’t know where it is, we need to bring it to us, right?”
The guards went through the door slowly, spears at the ready. Once through, the Doctor slammed the door shut. “For that to work, we need to know more about it. Otherwise, we don’t know what bait to use.”
“Wait, what are you doing?”
With a grin, the Doctor dropped the bar across the door. “Oh, I need some time to think. It’s distracting with them looming around so much.”
Shining wondered if it was as distracting as the pounding that started up as soon the minotaurs realize they had been tricked.
The Doctor ignored the noise, looking beyond Shining and into a shadowed archway. “And it lets the young fellow who has been tailing us since we left the office come out and meet us.”
“Uhm... “ Vilhelm stepped out of the shadows. “I...”
“Now, now, don’t be shy. We won’t bite.” The Doctor looked askance at Shining. “Well, I won’t. Can’t promise he won’t. You know military types.”
Shining recognized the young minotaur. “This is Iron Helm’s son, Vilhelm. We were introduced when we first arrived.” The white unicorn turned to the Doctor. “And, hey!”
Vilhelm glanced from side to side, making sure no one else is near. “We saw the Thing. We saw it take the guard. I didn’t know him, but he was talking to us when it attacked. Mom won’t believe me, but we did see it.”
“Ah! Excellent!” The Doctor sidled up to Vilhelm to increase the feeling of conspiracy. “You said ‘we,’ Vilhelm. Who else was there?”
“A little filly, Lethe.” Vilhelm mimed picking up a small bundle. “I carried her when I ran.”
“Filly, not calf?” The Doctor’s eyes narrowed as he contemplated the options. “Is she one of the Sdu? You talk to the Sdu a lot, do you?”
Shining looked to the door, now shaking as the guards had found something to ram against it. “Doctor... maybe we should just go and ask them?”
“Maybe we should just go and ask them?”
“The minotaurs? Could we trust the answers though, my dear?” Plus-Four poked around looking at the effects of one of the three corpses laid out in state before them. “Something about this situation is raising my hackles, and it’s not being in the morgue. So what we’re looking for is information that Iron Helm is reluctant to tell us.”
Derpy peeked outside the door, seeing two guards stationed there. “I guess so.” She closes the door and with a sigh looked back at Plus-Four. “Okay, here are my questions: Why here? It sounds like nobody in the village has been attacked, just the prison.”
“Indeed.” Plus-Four examined the wounds on the bodies, little to no bruising, but that would be expected when the blood is drained from them. “The village is less protected, and prey should be easier to find there.”
The blonde pegasus softly closed the door. “Why now? It looks like this all happened in the last few days.”
Plus-Four gave up on the corpses, and started to examine the room itself. “With no attacks prior, I would have to assume something recent has triggered this.”
“Why them?” Derpy motioned to the cadavers with her hoof. “They’re not guards. I’m not sure about the other two, but this one is, like, a baker or a cook.”
“A... pardon? How do you know that?” Plus-Four was stymied, turning and studying Derpy’s face more intently. Her odd eyes and clumsy manner wasn’t matching up with this line of questioning.
“Calluses on their hands aren’t right for weapon training. Their armour doesn’t fit properly. Oh, and he has flour and rosemary under his chin.” Derpy seemed unaware of the scrutiny. “Oh, and the final question: Why me? You deliberately swapped us around.”
“I do apologize for doing you an enormous disservice, Miss Hooves, but it was not to gain your most enjoyable and perceptive company.” Plus-Four turned to examine what appears to be a back door, tapping the lock with his horn. “Unfortunately, our dear lieutenant is a very nice, honest young colt who good at his job, and he believes his job is to guard me from harm.” Magical manipulation of the lock directly had no effect. “Which means he would prevent me from doing this.” Plus-Four extracted a set of tools from his cuffs, and set to the lock. A satisfied smile, a click of the mechanism, and Plus-Four pushed open the back door. “Now, let’s go find the answers to your other excellent questions.”
Iron Helm sat at her desk, when she suddenly looked up and stared into space. At what point did she simply accept the two strange ponies being there? They were brought in at spear point... then Plus-Four... Blast it! She stormed to her hooves, wrenched the mace off of the wall, and strode out of her office.
“Where are they?”
The other minotaurs gathered around in confusion. “Well the brown one and the white one just left with Vilhelm.”
“Left? Left? You let them leave the prison? With my son? ” Iron Helm snarled.
“Sorry, ma’am. They’re not prisoners... Are they?” The one minotaur grinned vacantly, his eyes unfocused.
“Of course they.... What?”
Two more guards sauntered up, swaying slightly. “Ma’am, the inspector and the mare he was with... they’re gone.”
“Gone where?”
“Don’t know, ma’am.” There was a slight flicker in the guard’s eyes, as if something was trying to assert itself, but then was gone.
“Fine! Fine!” Iron Helm pointed at the first set of guards. “You! Go find the commissioner. Tear the entire castle apart if you need to.” Her finger stabbed out at the second set of guards. “You! If the wanderers find their way back here, take them to central processing and keep them there. ” Iron Helm turned and stalked away, her eyes glowing red. “So they want to do this the hard way? Let’s see if they’re hard enough!”
Down in the village, Vilhelm led the Doctor and Shining Armour through the cobblestone streets, while trying to listen to the Doctor’s continual rambling. “Now you see, it’s all about presentation. If you need respect from your peers, you have to show them you mean business. And you know what means business? Ties!” The Doctor whipped off his own tie, and wrapped it around Vilhelm’s neck. “There!”
“You look silly!” squeaked a little voice.
Seemingly offended, the Doctor frowned. “He does not. He looks distinguished.”
Sighing, Shining pointed down. “Doctor...”
The Doctor finally looked down. “Oh. Hello.” He smiled and crouched down to be eye-to-eye with Lethe. “So you’re Vilhelm’s friend. The vicious Sdu that has all these minotaurs quaking in their hooves.”
“Yep, that’s me.” The filly beamed as she stood up on her hind legs and threw her hooves wide. “I’m awesome!” She pointed at Vilhelm with her wing. “Red’s wrong. It should be black.”
The Doctor looked speculatively at Vilhelm, who was shrinking under the attention. “Maybe polka-dots? Blue ones?”
Shining facehooved. “Okay, fine. Monster can wait, right? This is a fashion crisis!” Stalking up to Vilhelm, he stares up at the minotaur. “You know you don’t have to put up with this, right?”
“It’s not that bad...” started Vilhelm.
“I don’t mean them, they’re just teasing.” Shining tapped Vilhelm in the chest with his hoof. “The way you’re reacting to it, though. You’re not used to teasing, are you?”
Vilhelm shook his head, as Lethe trotted up and hugged his leg. She grimaced a little. “Minotaurs don’t make jokes, except about horrible things.” He looked down as his hand fell to stroking Lethe’s mane. “We’re not a nice people.”
“Minotaurs are a strong and stubborn people.” The Doctor waved a hoof to encompass everyone present. “You’ve made friends outside your own kind, which is very hard to do at the best of times.” He shrugged, and straightened Vilhelm’s tie just a little bit more. “Nobody tells a minotaur what to do. So I’m not going to try. But I’m going to suggest that you worry less about what you are, and be proud of who you are.”
“Now,” said Shining, “let’s get back to monster hunting.”
A heavy crunch caused all four to look up to the roofline above them. Tiles slid free as a large shadow crouched there.
“Snap,” whispered Shining.
With a screech the shadow leapt down, its claws leaving sizable gouges in the cobblestone road, wings outstretched. Its twin horns glowed red, dark mist streaming from its eyes. The Doctor, Shining and Vilhelm staggered when they met its gaze. Lethe cried out in fear as she cowered beneath the bigger ponies.
“No...” whispered the Doctor as he felt his will draining away.
The dark shape’s dank breath rustled the Doctor’s mane as the Time Lord tried to resist the creature's hypnotic power. Vilhelm shuddered, repeating the words, “No. No. NO!” Shaking off the creature’s spell he exclaimed,
When a monster wants to munch
You have to punch! Vilhelm slammed it with a vicious uppercut, causing it to sit back on its haunches, shaking its head in confusion.
Free of the mind control, Shining took one look and cast his best spell in panic. A lavender shield erupted from the unicorn’s horn, throwing the monster back into a stone wall.
“Running’s good. I like running. We should do it more often.” The Doctor grabbed Lethe by the her withers, and shouldered Vilhelm into motion. Shining stood there, sweating as he tried to hold the creature against the wall with his shield.
The Doctor tossed Lethe over to Vilhelm, and yelled back to Shining, “Come on!”
“I...” the shield broke, and Shining took off with the creature fast behind. Unfortunately, in a different direction than the rest had run.
“No, no, no, no...” the Doctor started to run after Shining as well, when Lethe called out, “This way!”
The filly jumped out of Vilhelm’s arms and pointed down another alley. “They’re heading towards home, but this way is faster!”
The village flashed by as Lethe’s directions and short cuts allowed them to get ahead of Shining and the creature. She ran up to a large warehouse, pushing open the door. “We’re all in here.”
“All of you?” questioned the Doctor before a cry reverberated down the street, cutting him off. “Vilhelm, get in there with her, and get ready to close the door.” The Doctor backed up and hid behind a barrel, just as Shining came around the corner with the monster almost on top of him.
Hoping he has his timing right, the Doctor tackled Shining through the door, and the monster screeched past. Vilhelm slammed the door shut, and the group found themselves surrounded. The room was dark, a few dim candles providing minimal light. Draconic eyes of various colours looked at the intruders, variations of dark grey, blue and purple manes and coats blending into the shadows. Some with sharp horns shimmering with magic, while on others leathery wings rustled, but all had various antique but effective weapons that glinted menacingly.
“You know, prisons should have better locks.”
“I’ll add that to my recommendations for the Warden.”
Deep into the castle, in a filing room, Plus-Four and Derpy rummaged through boxes and mounds of ledgers and scrolls. “Good record-keeping, though,” said Derpy sighing as she pulled more papers off the shelves.
“A little too good, perhaps.” Plus-Four, flipped through a series of scrolls, before putting them down to rub his face with a hoof. “I’m being overwhelmed by sheer volume. Have you found anything interesting?”
“No.” Derpy swung around, and upset a pile of records which then collapsed upon another pile, and then another pile after that. A brief flurry covered the entire room in an even layer of paper. “Sorry.”
“No matter. “ Plus-Four idly swirled some papers around. “I don’t think we’ll find what we need here. Maybe we’re approaching this all wrong. Instead of trying to find something that’s here...”
“Try to find something that’s not here? How does that work?”
Plus-Four shrugged. “What should be here, and isn’t?”
“I don’t know.” Derpy pulled one page out of the mess. “They’ve got records on all the prisoners.” She pulled another. “They’ve got records on all the guards and staff.” A third. “They’ve got records on food and supplies coming in.” And a fourth. “They’ve even got records of stuff going out.”
Looking up at the ceiling, Plus-Four tapped a hoof against this chin. “How up-to-date are these records on the guards and staff?”
“Uhmmmm. This one’s got an entry from yesterday.”
“So where are the records for the three dead in the morgue?” Plus-Four started digging around in the papers again. “The most recent was called ‘Poll Axe’ if I remember correctly.”
“Here’s a guard roster from last week. No Poll Axe.” Derpy looked more confused than normal. “Why wouldn’t he be on the roster?”
“He wasn’t a guard.” Plus-Four slammed a hoof down in frustration. “They were substitutes, brought temporarily up from the village, so no real guards were lost. They weren’t torn apart because they didn’t want the useful, reusable equipment damaged.” He growled as he headed towards the door. “This is all a disinformation tactic. Do you know what happened in the last month that triggered this?”
“They received the announcement of the inspection. A letter that told them I was coming. Those poor souls are in the morgue to convince me that the prison is under attack.”
“Monster. Out there. Not you,” gasped the Doctor, leaning heavily against a desk.
The door was ripped off its hinges as the Sdu looked at each other. They rushed to barricade the opening, shield spells and furniture blocking the creature as it clawed and screeched at the defenders. Javelins sang past overhead to sink into the beast. Swords flashed as the Sdu rapidly raised and lowered mystical shields as the weapons flew by. Badly injured, the monster retreated, leaving a collection of ponies and one minotaur to collapse from the adrenaline rush.
“What was that?” asked the Doctor still panting.
Shining shook his head. “That... that was more gryphon than pony.”
“It wasn’t what we saw the first time.” Vilhelm shuddered slightly, Lethe holding on to him with concern.
The Doctor chuckled, “No I don’t mean the beastie. I mean, rhyming? Do you get that much zebra poetry here?”
“Oh... uhm.” Vilhelm blushed. With a grin, Shining took the chance to needle the barely younger minotaur. “It was the tie. Must have been.”
With a laugh, the Doctor slapped Vilhelm on the shoulder. “You resisted the spell better than either of us. They should call you Will Power, instead.” He then looked around at the strange ponies that fought off the monster. “I’ve been looking for you lot.”
A worn Sdu stallion in dusty shades of grey, the same stallion the Doctor had encountered in the basement of the castle, stepped forward. “We are the Sdukʷalbixʷ.”
He gestured to include all the Sdu, which the Doctor could now see included more than two score of adults, elderly, and young. The Sdu translated, “We are the Children of the Moon.”
“Shouldn’t we be avoiding guards more?” Derpy flipped through some scrolls she had brought along, as she hovered down the corridor.
Plus-Four frowned as he trotted ahead. “Yes, I was wondering that myself. There should be at least a score of guards on duty, and over two hundred prisoners from Equestria and the surrounding lands. This prison is supposed to be near capacity, yet this entire wing is empty. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen more than a half-dozen guards and the Warden the entire time I’ve been here.” He stopped to examine an abandoned cell. “Look here, this had a unicorn in it recently.” Plus-Four tapped the square stone on the door. “The spell-ward is still here, and powered up.”
Derpy narrowed her eyes as she looked over Plus-Four’s shoulder. “That’s like the seals we found down in the basement, locking up the little vaults. So the Doctor was right, they block magic.”
“Suppress it and block it.” Plus-Four turned to look at Derpy, cocking his head to one side. “Why are you looking through those papers again? You’re leaving a bit of a trail behind us.”
“The oldest records sound like fairy tales I’d read to a foal.” Derpy showed him a few samples. “Look at these: The Demon Goat, The Mare in the Moon, Three Witches and a Hungry Pudding.”
Shrugging at the paper, Plus-Four continued on down the passage. “I hadn’t realized how old this prison was.”
Derpy shook her head. “I’m not sure it is, they’re not talking about prisoners at all in them, but the things that were taken from them. More like scavenger hunt lists: Three bells, one sack, something called a flashstone... The first thing that looks like an actual prisoner record is a lot more recent, about two hundred years ago, I think.”
Plus-Four continued to search, looking for any signs of the population that should be here. “So this castle wasn’t originally a prison, it was a warehouse?”
“For storing magical artefacts too dangerous to let roam free in Equestria,” interrupted Iron Helm, flanked by two guards. “And if you had just let me confine the Sdu, you would be able to roam free back to Equestria as well.”
The Doctor and his companions rested on pillows facing Cereus, the Sdu leader. Faint candles flickered in their faces. Cereus conjured images of various ponies in ancient clothes with his glowing horn. “In ages far gone, we few looked upon the Night with joy. Unlike the rest of Equestria, we travelled from all corners of the world to devote ourselves to the Starry Sky. Unicorn, Pegasus, and Earth Pony. She looked down upon our meagre group from Her resting place, and She smiled upon us. Blessed with Her dark light so we may see Her works when others refused. We served Her willingly, and without question.”
The ponies shifted, coats fading into camouflaging greys, pale blues, and dark purples. As the individuals changed into Sdu, their clothes were replaced with livery of the Crescent Moon. “Most ponies shunned the dark glory of Night, and they shunned us for our mistress’ blessing made us ugly in their eyes. It was in our loneliness that a seed was planted in our hearts. It grew and grew, fuelled by greed, fear, and jealousy. In some, it reached full bloom and demanded true darkness. It sang of not simply of Night, but of Eternal Night, darkness never ending.” An image flashed by of an Sdu unicorn clad in full armour, horn glowing crimson, standing proudly over a series of regular ponies draped with chains. “Those who succumbed to their taint did such evil that the Mistress herself would join with Her sister Day and take action against them.” Two elegant forms, one shining white and one dusky blue, each with three shining stars spinning around them, radiated beams of colour that blasted the armoured unicorn into smoke.
“In one such battle, She was caught in the reflection of Her own dark light, and Her heart was lost to the flower of jealousy. “ Something large and fearsome and as dark as coal towered over all the Sdu, showing only white fangs, and hate-filled Sdu eyes. “Yet still our oaths bound us to Her, and we took up arms in truth beneath the banner of Eternal Night. War consumed the land.”
Heavily armoured earth Sdu smashed through villages in slow formation, unicorn Sdu seared the crops with green fire, pegasi Sdu used shining wing-blades to cut down all who stand against them. A light intruded, sourced in a single white, winged unicorn, now surrounded by five faint stars. All the Sdu, both real and not shielded their eyes, as the image was washed away. “We lost.”
Cereus stood and turned away from the group. “Our mistress was taken from us, exiled where we could not follow. There was no shelter for us in Equestria. We fled and found our way here, where the minotaurs took us in as refugees. We keep our traditions, train ourselves in the old ways, but we dwindle as we await the return of the Moon. And we hope that in that return, she has healing for our souls after both of our exiles.”
The Doctor frowned. “The war of the Sun and Moon? That’s a thousand years ago, give or take. You’ve been hiding here for that long?”
“Time is not the same in Tartaurus as in Equestria, but it has been a very long time even for here.”
Cereus motioned around at his kin. “As you can see, the dark taint is still with us. We know what we are capable of, and we do not wish to succumb to it. When we heard that the minotaurs were attacked, we gathered here, and waited for the change to take one of us, to reveal the monster in our midst. There are so few of us now, but we will take care of our own.”
Vilhelm spoke up from where he lay, slamming a fist into the floor. “You can’t be convinced that you’re doing this. That thing didn’t come from you. It’s not your fault!”
The Doctor glanced over at the young minotaur. “Perhaps they have a reason to be frightened of themselves. They were obviously alarming to the ponies in Equestria.”
Shining grimaced and clambered to his hooves. “Look, maybe a thousand years ago they were scary and threatening to other ponies. But I’ve met gryphons, and even a giraffe once. These guys aren’t really that much different.”
The Doctor’s face went dark as did his voice, “No, they’re much less different than gryphons. No matter what’s been done to them, they’re still ponies. They’ve been stashed away, forgotten until they die off. All because their ancestors many generations past were on the wrong side of a war nobody remembers anymore. That’s not acceptable.”
Shining nodded, turning to face Cereus. “Funny eyes don’t make them bad ponies.”
The Doctor smiled, and was about to remark when Lethe interjected, “I like you. You’re cute!” She gave Shining an impromptu hug, before slipping off to stand conspiratorially with the other young Sdu. They all giggled at each other as Lethe glanced over her shoulder at the young soldier, grinned and then turned back to her clique.
“I... what?” Shining stared at her, confused.
“Hah!” Vilhelm laughed, and elbowed Shining in the side. “Lady-killer.”
“What??”
The Doctor looked out the demolished door to the castle overlooking the village. “We need to get back. Whatever is going on, it’s happening up there. Derpy and Plus-Four are in more trouble than they realize.”
Derpy and Plus-Four were in separate cages kept distant from each other, along with several other ponies, plus two donkeys, a goat, and a zebra, all arranged in a pattern around the outside of a large circular room, the ceiling arched high above. Iron Helm, dressed in voluminous robes fussed over a podium in the centre, a black shapeless bag sitting on it. The sack pulsed with a rhythm like a beating heart.
“That’s not good, is it?” whispered Derpy.
The zebra in the cage beside her whispered back,
I doubt it bodes well,
for that sack is quite fell.
Derpy surreptitiously pointed to the minotaurs spaced around the room. “What’s with the guards? They’re all dopy and swaying.”
The zebra shook her head, unable to move further in the small cage.
They have been increasingly lost,
their bodies and mind now exhaust,
as it seems enforced obedience has a cost.
From somewhere in the vaulted ceiling, the leathery winged beast that had attacked Doctor and company swooped down. Blood dripped from its mouth as it screeched at Iron Helm before collapsing. Dark shimmers covered the body, as it slowly resolved into a dead gryphon. The shimmers gathered up and streamed into the bag.
“Unfortunately, I have not yet mastered this artefact,” Iron Helm snarled. “It only seems to work occasionally, and the subject does not survive long. But I will master it soon.”
She lifted up the sack, and hung it around her neck. Opening it, she screamed, “By the power of Darkness!” Swirling inky light streamed from the bag. The zebra screamed as the power enveloped her, fire erupting from her eyes. Flesh ripped apart and reformed, bat-like wings and glowing fangs dripped venom as she burst free from the cage.
One step, two steps, and she screamed again, as the dark energy ripped her apart once more, leaving a steaming corpse behind. Again, the energy rose up and flowed back to its source.
“Blast it! If I had the Sdu...” Iron Helm’s face had grown red, her voice dropping slightly into a deeper register. “They have to have been through this before, to look the way they do!”
“I will master it soon!” She glared madly at Derpy. “I will! With the Dark Rainbow at my command, you will all serve me! For the Eternal Night!”
Derpy’s eyes widened as her gaze took in the increasingly manic Iron Helm and the zebra corpse. A movement behind all of that shook her out of the paralysis. Thinking quickly she shouted at Iron Helm, “You’re not that tough! You could have just taken the Sdu you needed. Why didn’t you?”
Focusing again on the caged pegasis, a puzzled look crossed Iron Helm’s face. “I can’t just...”
Derpy interrupted, frantically keeping Iron Helm distracted. “You still had to ask a pony for permission, didn’t you! Big mean minotaur, and you can’t take control, not really.”
Iron Helm’s colours slowly faded from pale red back to the original light blue. “There are rules... ” She staggered back as if struck. “No! We... I am in control. I make the rules now.” Shifting towards crimson again, Iron Helm turned to confront Plus-Four, to find that his cage was empty, the door hanging open. “What? How?”
She span around to find Derpy’s cage also empty, and the escapees galloping like mad down the corridor away from the chamber. A faint “really bad locks...” wafted back to her ears.
“Why did you not...” she yelled at the guards, seeing increasingly blank looks on their faces. “Arrrggghhhh!! After them you fools! Destroy everything that gets in your way!”
The score of guards pursued Plus-Four and Derpy out of the castle into the rocky wasteland between the prison and the village. The pair had no plan, no ideas, just running to keep ahead of the guards.
They run into the Doctor as he rounded a particularly large boulder. “Oh, good, I was worried.”
The two scramble past the Doctor without pausing. Puzzled, he turned back to see where they came from and yelped at the sight of the charging minotaurs. He sprinted back around the boulder.
The mass of guards slammed into the troupe of Sdu that had been behind the Doctor. The two armed, but surprised, groups came to blows giving the Doctor and company time to duck into the dry ditch around the castle, putting some distance between them and the impromptu battle.
“What was all that about a calculated risk?” asked Shining as glanced up at Plus-Four. “Sir?”
“In a calculation, there are two sides to every equation.” Plus-Four panted from the exertion. “I may have missed telling you about the other one.”
Derpy did a quick headcount. “Doctor! You brought children with you?”
Attempting to be impressive Vilhelm posed, hands on his hips, chin held high.
I determine my own path.
Others should do the math!
The Doctor frowned as he composed himself. “Okay, no. Stop doing that; your accent is all wrong.” He shrugged. “I didn’t bring them. They brought themselves. After all, could you say ‘no’ to this face?” Derpy was confronted by Lethe, held by up by the Doctor, and the pair both giving her the most extreme big-doe-eyed treatment they could muster.
Plus-Four gave a full-body shake and took control. “We’re finally all together again, and it’s obvious we’ve all learned something. What do we know?”
Derpy gave the Doctor a stern look, ignoring the increasingly cute Lethe. “Iron Helm has a magic artefact. She called it the Dark Rainbow. It’s normally kept in a bag, and she lets it out to transform stuff. She’s not really in control of it, it’s acting like it’s alive itself, and it’s doing some kind of mind control to all the minotaurs.”
“Except me,” snapped Vilhelm.
“Oh, dear fellow.” Plus-Four reached to comfort the minotaur. “I’m so sorry.”
“No... I... “ Vilhelm shook off the unicorn’s hoof. “It’s okay. I knew something was wrong with everyone, and we have to deal with it. Sitting around moping and being a pushover isn’t going to help. We have to stop this, no matter who is behind it.”
Vilhelm paused, looking down at his hands before glancing up at the Doctor, his eyes narrowing. “Mind control. They’re not in control. Someone has to take control. Someone can take control. And I’m...”
Before the others could react, Vilhelm scrambled out of the ditch and onto an overlooking boulder. “Hear me!” he yelled out over the battle.
In confusion the Sdu and the minotaurs broke off their fight and stared at the youth making such a spectacle of himself.
“Look at yourselves! What do you see?” Vilhelm stalked back and forth on the limited platform of the boulder. “I’ll tell you what I see! We were once proud and strong and independent, but not anymore. Now we’ve let ourselves be doormats! Spending our lives waiting for someone else to tell us what to do, to give us permission to live! You know what?” He spread his arms for emphasis. “No more!”
“Good job, Will Power,” whispered the Doctor as he sunk back into the ditch to be with the rest of the group. “He’s got that handled, trust him.”
“Uh, right then.” Shining shook his head, speaking quickly, “The things created by the Dark Rainbow look a lot like the Sdu, but even more so. And whatever it is can be done to non-ponies, like gryphons.”
Derpy nodded. “It doesn’t always work, and they don’t live long afterwards. And the dark rainbow goes back to the bag afterwards.”
“So because she’s not in full control, she’s actually dumping too much power in for the host to handle, and they burn out.” The Doctor mused, “Whatever’s left returns to the source.”
He clapped his hooves together. “Okay, so it’s called a Dark Rainbow. What’s the antithesis of a Dark Rainbow?”
Plus-Four speculated, “A Rainbow of Light?”
The Doctor paused. “That sounds familiar. Why does that sound familiar?”
“The Elements of Harmony!” Derpy exclaimed, to the confusion of the rest of the group. “Whenever the bearers use them, they get a rainbow!”
“True,” agreed the Doctor. “But which manages to not help. The Elements are still hidden away, and won’t be found for several years yet.”
Shining scuffed at his hooves, and then raised his head again. “Why not close the bag?”
At the baffled looks on the others’ faces Shining shrugged. “It’s coming out the magic sack, right? And it goes back to the sack afterwards. What happens when you seal it up, so it can’t get in or out again?”
Everyone glanced at one another, not having a good answer.
Derpy looked askance at Vilhelm, dreading adding this detail. “Oh, and whenever she uses it, she shifts colour as if it’s changing her as well.”
The Doctor went very grim. “Oh. That’s bad.”
Iron Helm paced the room, looking at the few remaining prisoners. More corpses were on the ground, evidence of continued experiments. “I tire of this. No more trials.” Her teeth were fangs; her eyes were slit like a cat. With a primal scream, she opened the bag fully. “By the Power of Darkness!” The black energy whipped out of the sack, ripping around the room, settling on the prisoners to warp and twist them into hideous beasts.
Panting, Iron Helm stands taller than ever, her skin now fully crimson, hair black, horns glowing faintly with magical energy. “Serve me!” she yelled, her voice now much deeper.
“Not likely,” said the Doctor, stepping forward into the light of the torches.
The monsters stalked around him, gibbering.
“Ah, the Doctor. I didn’t recognize you before, of course. Doctor Meddler, Doctor Clown.” Iron Helm drew herself up to her new full height, towering over the pony confronting her. “Sometimes a pegasus, sometimes a unicorn, always a different face.”
“Spoilers again. I’m beginning to think the TARDIS is as much out of order as I am this time.” The Doctor frowned as he fiddled with his still tieless collar.
Vilhelm staggered into the room, blood smeared on his face. “Mom! Tell me it isn’t true? You didn’t send that thing to kill me, did you?”
Iron Helm laughed, “You honestly believe I’m your mother still? She’s gone now. She was consumed by her need for power, her desire for greatness. So now she has been consumed in truth. Only I remain.” She turned her back on Vilhelm, missing him straightening up and wiping the blood out of his eyes. “Oh! I need a new name. Iron Helm just isn’t appropriate anymore. Now, what was it the ponies called me? The Master... or was the Tyrant? No, I lie. It was Tirek the Master of Midnight. Pretentious, I know, but that’s the nature of ponies.”
The renamed Tirek stalked up to the Doctor, glaring down at him. “Not all that different, are we? Fellow immortals, stealing bodies down through the ages.”
“Quite different.” The Doctor prods one of the corpses on the ground. “You’re just a parasite, hiding away in the dark until the right host comes along.”
“You dare?” yelled Tirek.
“Oh, I dare quite easily.” The Doctor gave a lopsided grin. “What’s the goal, here, anyway? You already controlled the prison. You didn’t need to do this.”
“With these minions at my command, I will take control of all of Tartaurus!” Tirek raised her arms expansively. “I will wrest the Doom Bell from the Twin Kings and gain control of the Shadow World itself.”
“They still have that thing?” The Doctor walked around the room, ignoring the creatures keeping pace with him and drawing Tirek along, as others steal into the room behind Vilhelm. “Oh, of course, that’s how they are maintaining the portal between Tartaurus and Equestria. That’s quite clever. I hadn’t thought of that.”
His face went dark. “And of course from the Shadow World, you will move into Equestria, the Gryphon Protectorate, the Badlands, and beyond. Killing and destroying as you go. I can’t let that happen, now can I?”
Tirek laughed again, “And how will you stop me?”
“Oh, I have a few tricks up my sleeve.” He paused. “Sorry, collar.” He slipped the sonic screwdriver out and triggered it with a toss of his head. It flashed and buzzed as it flew up into the air. “Now!”
While Tirek was momentarily distracted and out of position, Shining Armour ran to the centre of the room and cast his shield spell, pushing the flames themselves from the surrounding torches in the same way he had pressed the gryphon monster against the wall previously, dousing the room in darkness.
Tirek snarled as she turned to advance on Shining, her eyes glowing, “You fools! The darkness is nothing to me, while you weaklings are blind!”
Blindly juggling the sonic screwdriver in the air, the Doctor hit a new setting. The screwdriver screamed, and for a brief moment the various monsters paused, the mind control wavering as Tirek’s concentration faltered.
Continuing the distractions, Derpy charged past Tirek, accidentally brushing the minotaur with her wingtips. The now demonic minotaur spun, swiping at the pegasus with sharp claws as a tiny figure leapt into the air to hover behind her.
A knife flashed as the only pony not blinded by the darkness cut the rope holding the sack around Tirek’s neck. Tirek screeched as Plus-Four slammed his bulk into her, knocking her away from the falling bag and Lethe, just before the torches flickered back to life.
Shining Armour galloped for the bag, scooping it up and tossing it to Derpy, and from Derpy, it flew to the Doctor. Lethe dropped to the ground, unable to hold the hover any longer, then ran to take shelter behind a cage. The Doctor quickly tied up the mouth of the sack with one of the seals stolen from a vault door and pointed the sonic screwdriver at it. The whirring noise changed tone as it sealed the artefact shut. “Finis!” the Doctor shouted.
All the transformed creatures staggered wavering in place for a moment. The dark magic wrenched from their bodies, swirling in the air as it sought to return to the artefact that had been suddenly cut off. The group ducked and weaved as the power careened around the room. At the end, every individual stream slammed directly into Tirek, the closest thing they could find that resembled their source.
She shuddered, her red skin glowing as she took all of the transformational magic into herself. With a final scream, her lower half shredded apart, expanding and reforming into a full black pony body. Now a demonic centaur, Tirek laughed maniacally, “Finally, I cast off the mortal form!”
“Ah.” The Doctor dove for cover. “Plan C everyone!”
Lashing out, magic blasts from her horns scorched the walls and ground as the various ponies and minotaur leaped to safety. “I am reborn!”
“C?” yelled Shining as he tore around the room, narrowly avoiding the energy arcs.
Derpy tipped over a table and drew Lethe behind it. “I think we’re on E now!”
Blast after blast scarred the room, each weaker than the last as Tirek’s magic was slowly depleted. “I will bring Eternal Darkness to Equestria. Tambelon will rise from the depths! The Nightmares will return! Nothing will stop me!”
“Except for four little things,” shouted the Doctor.
“What, you puny insect?”
Derpy, Plus-Four, Vilhelm, and Shining Armour tossed four seals into the air from four corners of the room, these liberated from unicorn holding cells. Plus-Four used his unicorn magic to fix them into location, hovering above the ground to define a square surrounding Tirek. Shining channelled his lavender shield spell into them, causing them to join together into a glowing green mystic ward. Tirek’s increasingly weaker blasts did not penetrate the reinforced shield, despite her redoubled efforts.
“The Dark Rainbow might have the power to overcome those wards, but you don’t have access to it anymore.” The Doctor tapped the sack. His eyes narrowed as he walked up close to the barrier, peering at the captive inside. “Without it, you’re no more dangerous than the worst inmate of this prison.”
Tirek snarled, “These wards won’t last forever, Doctor.”
“They won’t have to.” The Doctor turned his back to Tirek, speaking over his shoulder, “You killed a lot of people, ponies, minotaurs, and others. All cruelly and without any mercy, and I’m including Iron Helm in that list. So I’m not going to simply end you, Tirek. I’m going to do something much worse.”
“Princess Celestia, Grand Marshal Ashclaw, Honourable Othiamba, and especially the twin Kings Mallus and Amoni are all going to want answers about their citizens that were lost here. I’m going to leave you to them.”
“Next time, I think I’ll leave the running to all of you.” Plus-Four chuckled as he followed the Doctor and Derpy down into the vaults. “I’m not a spry as I once was.”
Shining shook his head in resignation. “I doubt that highly, sir.” Lethe was riding on his back, while Vilhelm and Cereus were arguing quietly with each other.
When they had reached the TARDIS the Doctor handed the sealed sack to Cereus. “This needs to be secured again, along with anything else in these vaults. Be careful: there is bound to be similarly dangerous stuff down here.”
“Is this where we came from?” Cereus took the package reverently. “Is this the source of our Mistress’ Dark Light?”
“If it was, she had much greater control over it than Iron Helm had.” The Doctor pointed at the sack with his hoof. “But if I’m right...” The Doctor shudders. “There’s another very similar artefact still running loose out there, maybe more, each with its own nightmarish parasite like Tirek bonded to it. I’d be doubly careful down here doing inventory.”
“So the Sdu will be guarding the prison now?” Derpy asked cheerfully to distract everypony.
Plus-Four sighed as he answered, “No. The prison is still in Tartaurus, which means it belongs to the minotaurs. We can advise them, but we don’t have the right to command them. We’ve done a bit too much dumping of our problems on them already.”
With a narrowing of his eyes, Shining got an idea. “Why not bring them back with us, sir?”
“The Sdu?” Plus-Four shook his head sadly. “We can’t simply open the door and let the few score of them wander into Equestrian society, can we? Can you imagine what the reaction would be?”
“They’re ponies, Plus-Four.” Derpy smiled softly. “They’re different, but all ponies are, really. They should be allowed to go home. If they want to, that is.” She looked at Cereus questioningly.
Cereus shrugged. “We have always known we were in exile. This has never been our home. But we are still who we are. We will not abandon our traditions.”
“It’s your traditions that make you valuable. You’ve held together here in isolation for far longer than anyone should, keeping your skills sharp. That kind of dedication we need more of in the Guard. We can’t just dump you into Equestria though, you need time find your hooves again.” Shining set Lethe down, speaking directly to her, “It might even take a new generation.”
Lethe looked quizzically up at the larger pony before breaking out into the widest grin. “Will I get a cute outfit like yours?”
Smiling Shining rose back up, looking at Plus-Four. “Lethe here is just old enough to join the Junior Speedsters right now. In about six years’ time, she could properly cadet. Two more and she’d qualify for the Guard, and given the Sdu natural abilities, the Night Guard would be fools to refuse her. Heck, a couple more years of experience and she could try out for the Wonderbolts stunt team, if it strikes her fancy. And there are the Junior Sparks and the Junior Scouts for the unicorns and earth pony colts and fillies I’ve seen in Cereus’ tribe.”
Getting excited, Shining threw his hooves wide. “Heck, why limit it at all? There are gryphons, zebras, and donkeys who are citizens of Equestria. Why can’t they join the Guard? It doesn’t matter what shape they have, just who they are. If we’re going to do something, let’s do it right!”
Plus-Four burst out in laughter. “Remind me to introduce you to my son, when we get back to Canterlot. He also has a penchant for shaking up the social ladder and I think you’ll do well together.”
A small distance away, the Doctor shook Vilhelm’s hand. “What are you going to do? Where are you going to go?”
Vilhelm looked sadly at the ceiling, as if seeing through the stone to where the body of his mother was being possessed by Tirek. “Somewhere out there is this Rainbow of Light you mentioned. If I can find it...” He shook himself slightly. “But I’ll need to make a living out there while searching. Like what Shining said, everyone needs to have a chance to find their place. And to do that, they have stand up for themselves. I think I can help.” Vilhelm struck a pose. “What do you think of this:” He dropped his voice into a lower register to improve his projection.
If you’re getting a bad rap,
shut their trap! He span to face the other way.
When they give you grief,
show them the beef!
Everypony just stood there stunned for a moment, unable to really wrap their minds around what had just happened. “I really don’t think that rhyming will catch on, but I’m sure you’ll do fine,” laughed the Doctor as he opened the door to the TARDIS and stepped through with a wave.
Derpy hugged Vilhelm with her wings. “Good luck though, Will Power.”
“No.” Vilhelm hugged right back. “I’ve thought about that. It’s going to be Iron Will, son of Iron Helm.”
Derpy turned to enter the TARDIS but paused just long enough to check that the Doctor couldn’t see what she was about to do. Quickly she handed a sealed letter to Plus-Four before jumping into TARDIS as the doors closed.
He smiled sadly as he looked after the retreating pegasus. “I’m afraid I was already given one of these, forty some years ago when I was Captain of Celestia’s Special Intelligence Taskforce.” Plus-Four handed the unopened letter over to Shining saying, “I think this needs to go to new eyes.”
Shining, Vilhelm, and little Lethe looked at the letter in confusion and then up in surprise as a bizarre grinding noise filled the chamber. Slowly, the TARDIS faded away.
Shining unsealed the letter, and unfolded it to reveal the missive’s elegant script. “To whoever reads this, wherever and whenever you are...”
Canterlot, eight years since the events in Tartaurus.
The Princess of the Sun startled at the sight. “Luna? Your charioteers...?”
“Yes my sister.” The Princess of the Moon looked proudly at her guards. “It took some time, but I was able to find these two traditional Night Guard enchanted harnesses. It is disheartening to mind that their scarcity is due to mine own actions a thousand years past. Perhaps this night will be the first step upon the path to restore their rightful place in the Guard.”
The young stallions in question stood in the courtyard of Canterlot Castle. Darkly glimmering armour, slit eyes, fangs, and leathery wings making them remarkable, standing out from the normal pegasi of the Guard. Another guard, this one a mare with similar wings and eyes pulled the harness straps tight, strapping the pair into the ceremonial Moon Chariot. With a grin she stepped back. “Alright you two. You’re representing all of us. Don’t do anything I would do, you hear me?”
The matched pair stood even straighter, snapping salutes: “Yes, Sergeant.” A moment passed before one parsed out what Lethe had said. “Wait... what was that?”
The other interjected, “Yeah, you’re not a Sergeant.” The first charioteer facehooved.
Lethe rolled her eyes and stepped back with a low bow to allow the Princesses to pass.
Celestia shook her head. “Armour? Luna, you do realize...”
“As an aside,” interrupted an oblivious Luna as she almost danced across the courtyard in excitement. “It appears that there are now more Day Guards than enchanted harnesses for their use as well. As I recover my strength, I will be pleased to correct this. Although I think we can do without the cosmetic uniformity enchantments, as our Guards should not be judged purely on colour...” she looked sidelong at Celestia. “Or shape. Am I not right, Sister?”
Celestia paused for a moment, before smiling. The wounds were not fresh by any standard, but it appeared that her sister would not simply ignore them, but actively work to heal them. “You’re very likely right, Luna. Thank you for your thoughtfulness.”
The charioteers in question stole a look at each other, as Luna boarded the chariot. It had been a very, very long time, but they will serve their mistress once again, and everypony will see them do so. Celestia watched after them, long after they were airborne and gone. She turned to start the preparations for lowering the sun. It would soon be Nightmare Night for real, the first since Luna’s return from exile. With Twilight and her friends at the same celebration, it was assured to be an... interesting event.
