//------------------------------// // Whispers in the Dark // Story: The Whooves Collection Episode Three: The Crystal Shadows // by Perceptive Key //------------------------------// Chapter 1 Whispers in the Dark Somewhere in the Time Vortex; TARDIS; Control Room VVRROOMMP! VVRROOMMP! VVRROOMMP! VVRROOMMP! "Come on! Work for me here!" the Doctor shouted at the TARDIS. The TARDIS jolted to the left in response, flinging the Doctor into one of the twisted pillars. "How rude!" the Doctor groaned as he picked himself back up. He made it to the control panels and checked his progress on the monitor. "Almost there! I'm coming Ms. Sparkle!" Suddenly, the monitor screen began flashing and dozens of images appeared and disappeared within seconds. "What the-?" The screen blackened and a number sequence popped up digitally: 4, 1, 8, 3, 0. Then, as suddenly as they appeared, they vanished. VVRROOMMP! VVRROOMMP! VVRROOMMP! The TARDIS came to a bumpy halt and the Doctor raced to the doors. He threw them open and ran into Twilight. They tumbled on the ground and landed side by side. "Doctor!" Twilight cried. "Twilight!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Doctor?" Jonathan said. Twilight and the Doctor jumped to their hooves and began talking rapid fire. "You made it!" Twilight said. "I did!" "How did I get here?! And how did you find me?!" "Long story. Better for another time." The Doctor approached Jonathan and asked him, "Who are you?" "I- I- I'm Jon- Jonathan," he stammered. "Were you holding Miss Sparkle here hostage? Hmm?" Jonathan began to step away, but Twilight stepped in, "No he wasn't, Doctor. He's a friend. He's the one being held against his will." "Oh, well then. I guess I can rescue both of you!" The Doctor smiled gleefully, "That's a plus. Now, come on! Into the TARDIS, both of you!" The Doctor turned back to the TARDIS, but... it was gone. The Doctor stood there with his mouth hanging open. "What?! WHAT?!" The Doctor was about to step forward when Jonathan grabbed him from behind. "DON'T!" he yelled. The Doctor got out of Jonathan's grip and turned to face him. "Don't what?" Jonathan pointed at a patch of shadow that spread out about a foot in front of the Doctor. "Don't touch the shadows." The Doctor looked between the shadows and Jonathan, his expression deadly serious. "What about the shadows?" he questioned, voice lowered. "Don't touch them. They'll hurt you." The Doctor instantly pulled out his sonic screwdriver, held it in his mouth, and scanned the shadow that was lying in front of him. "Not here," he pleaded, "Not now!" "What's wrong with the shadows, Doctor?" Twilight asked him. "Everything." "Everything, what?" The Doctor turned to Twilight. "Every species has had an irrational fear of the dark for almost all of time," he said, "but it's not irrational. They've been afraid of what's been in the dark. The Vashta Nerada." "The Vashta what?" Jonathan said. "Vashta Nerada," the Doctor corrected, "They're microscopic, flesh-eating creatures that are in the dark. Very hard to spot, but you can see them sometimes: the bits of dust in sunbeams." Twilight stared at the shadows. "Have you faced them before?" "Yes," the Doctor said distantly. He began thinking back to The Library, and his frightening confrontation with them. The Doctor came back to the real world and felt somepony shaking him. "Doctor?!" Twilight's voice was suddenly panicked and fearful. The Doctor shook his head to clear it and was able to say, "Wha-?!" "The shadows," Jonathan said, "They're coming." The Doctor looked at the shadow and watched it inch towards them, slowly. "Back away!" he ordered, "Quickly!" The three ponies stepped away from the shadow and ran into the wall. "Is there an exit?!" the Doctor shouted. "Only the one directly behind us," Jonathan answered, "but it's magically sealed." "Good enough!" The Doctor spun around and pointed his screwdriver at the wall and it slid open. "Go, now!" "Wait!" Jonathan ran over to his stack of papers and proctored a notebook from under it. He grabbed it in his mouth and ran out of the cell. The Doctor and Twilight were on the other side of the door, and the Doctor sealed it as Jonathan jumped through. Outside of the cell was a large staircase that spiraled upward. Twilight was looking up "What was that about?!" the Doctor demanded an explanation. Jonathan was breathing heavily and staring at the door. "They never do that," he muttered, "never..." "Why did you go for the book?!" Jonathan placed it on the floor and opened to the first page. The Doctor looked over it and his eyes widened. "The numbers, Doctor," Twilight said, noticing his shocked expression, "Remember what that mirror creature said about the numbers?" The Doctor nodded quickly and turned to Jonathan. "You need to come with us. Now." The Doctor quickly began to trot up the large spiral staircase, Twilight following behind. Jonathan looked back to the door and watched some shadowy tendrils begin to pour through any available cracks in the wall. "Wait for me!" Jonathan shouted up the steps. He grabbed the book in his mouth and raced after Twilight and the Doctor. As the sounds of his hoofsteps faded away, the misty tendrils of shadow began to form into the shape of one of the armored guards. "Find them," it hissed, "and inform the Master of their prescence." The guard's body dissolved, and the shadows began advancing up the stairs in pursuit of the trio. Gaia; Equestria; Crystal Empire; Sombra's Throne Room =Year Unknown= Sombra stood on the balcony, overlooking his empire and its inhabitants. He watched as dozens of chain bound ponies struggled to work and harvest the crystals that this region of the land was best known for. He watched one of the slaves struggle under the load of a mine cart filled to the brim with crystals that needed to be shined. Sombra laugh was a deep, throaty sound that was mixed in with the growl of a panther. Sombra smiled the slave's pain as he pulled the cart, and it looked wonderful to behold. "Master?" Sombra turned from his viewpoint to face one of his shadow guards. "What is it?" "The nameless one has escaped," the guard hissed. "How is such a thing possible?!" "It is them. The Wandering One and the Traveler," the guard flinched after he said those words, as if they physically hurt him. Sombra turned back to look at the Empire and addressed the guard, "Bring them here, immediately. But make them... comfortable. I wish to know their purpose in my realm." Sombra didn't need to turn around to know that the shadow departed. He knew it left, he felt it leave. Gaia; Equestria; Crystal Empire; Lower Caverns; =Year Soon to be Revealed= "Doctor?" "Yeth?" he answered through his teeth. He was holding the sonic screwdriver in his mouth and scanning the path ahead of them for any Vashta Nerada. Luckily, the passages were lit with enchanted torches that were charmed so that they would never go out, according to Twilight. "Would you happen to know when we are?" she asked. The Doctor proceeded to scan the tunnels, but spoke between button pressing. "I would geth that from the shmell that we're about... one thousand... tree yearsh before we left your library." "One thousand three years..." Twilight did the math in her head, "... that means that we're in year one Pre-Celestian Era!" "Whath?" the Doctor said through the screwdriver. "We're one year before Princess Celestia banishes Nightmare Moon to the moon and begins ruling Equestria on her own." "Huh!" the Doctor remarked, "When we find the TARDIS, you should tell me more about your country's history. It may come in handy in the future." "Or the past," Twilight joked. "Wait. How are we going to find the TARDIS, exactly?" "There's a tracking device inside of the TARDIS that is connected to my sonic screwdriver. With this handy feature, I'll never lose the TARDIS. It's even more useful when I forget where I park!" Jonathan listened to the two of them converse as he followed behind. He would occasionally glance behind him to see if any guards were following them, and to check on his book, which he had skillfully balanced on his back. Jonathan began to think about what the stallion who called himself the Doctor, and Twilight, were talking about. It didn't seem like a normal discussion, all the terms they were using: Pre-Celestian Era, when they were, able to tell what year it was by smell. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice Twilight had slowed down and was now walking next to him. "Are you alright?" she asked him, bringing him back to the real world. "Huh? Oh, yeah. Fine." "Are you sure?" Jonathan looked towards the Doctor, scanning the pathways "No," he admitted, "I'm not." "What's wrong?" "Everything. Everything's wrong. The biggest thing is that I'm escaping from a dungeon and an evil unicorn dictator, while at the same time I'm being rescued by two strange ponies who suddenly come out of nowhere! That, and the fact that I've just realized that I have absolutely no clue who the hell I am!" Twilight's expression became one of confusion, "You don't know who you are?" "I don't think that Jonathan is actually my real name," he said, "and I only remember being trapped down there for about three or four years. Still, it could have been longer." "I'm sorry about what you've been through," Twilight said softly, "I truly am." "I know you are. I could tell when you helped me with my injuries. You are the only pony that I can think of that's ever shown me kindness." Jonathan and Twilight walked in silence, the sonic screwdriver's buzzing breaking it occasionally. "What about you two?" Jonathan nodded towards the Doctor, "Are you two..." "Oh, no!" Twilight said quickly, "We're not a couple! At all." "Oh, okay. Yeah, I was wondering." "Why?" Twilight gave him a sly, sideways look. "Nothing." "Jonathan..." a voice called out. "What?!" he spun around, peering into the tunnel, "Who's there?!" "What do you mean?" Twilight mimicked Jonathan's actions. "There's nopony there." "We miss you..." it was a mare's voice as far as he could tell. Jonathan looked down another passage, his eyes searching through the darkness. "Come back to us..." the voice began to fade away. "Jonathan!" Twilight shouted. Jonathan opened his eyes and found himself standing a few inches away from the line of a shadow. "GAH!" he cried out and he stumbled backwards. "What happened?!" Twilight and the Doctor were standing over him, Twilight looking down and the Doctor looking at the shadow in front of the tunnel. "You started to walk towards that tunnel," Twilight explained, "but you were sort of... dazed... when you did it." Jonathan turned back to look at the tunnel, but all that he saw was the darkness within it. He was panting, "I... heard... somepony... calling... me." "Nopony was there." "No," the Doctor spoke for the first time in a while, "Something is." A light wind began to blow through the tunnels, creating a low howl. The three ponies looked around and saw tendrils of shadow approaching them from behind. There was another set of them coming out of the tunnel that they were facing. "Doctor," Twilight said uneasily, "what do we do now?" "Uhh... we run." "Run?!" "Yes," the Doctor confirmed, "RUN!" Twilight and the Doctor turned and ran while Jonathan grabbed his book and did the same. They raced through the twisted corridors, ran down narrow passageways, and went up and down some sloped tunnels. The shadow creatures following them the whole way. "Halt!" some of them hissed loudly. "Did it just tell us to halt?!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Yes!" Jonathan shouted back. "They shouldn't be able to do that!" "Can we finish this later?! After we're done running!" Twilight ordered. Suddenly, a wall of shadow rose up in front of them, making them slide to a halt. The shadow wall began to melt down and take the form of the guards, almost a dozen of them. "You will come with us." The trio turned around, but found themselves surrounded. The Doctor straightened up and addressed the creatures, "Come with you, eh? Why not kill us? Isn't that what you do?" "The Master requests your presence," one of the guards replied. "Who is your Master?" the Doctor asked. One of the creatures, larger then the others, stepped forward. "Our Master brought us here. He helped us escape the darkness. We serve him proudly and diligently, for he is our rescuer." The head guard approached the Doctor and they stood face to face. "You must come with us." The guard grabbed the Doctor's face and he fell to the floor, unconscious. "Doctor!" Twilight cried as she rushed to his aid. A guard came up behind her and she fell to the ground as well. Jonathan braced himself, waiting for the guards to get him. The leader approached him and looked him over. "The Master wishes for you to be unharmed. We cannot damage his possessions." "That hasn't stopped you before!" Jonathan spat, surprising himself with his sudden courage. "Though, I suppose I can make an exception." The guard punched Jonathan's face and he was out before he hit the floor.