The Song in the Shadows

by Prince Colgate

The Shadow and The Doctors

The Doctor sat down in front of Rarity as she told him all about her conversation with Octavia. The Doctor gave a worried frown then proceed with the brain-thinking.

“Living shadows? Oh, that’s not too bad. WELL, that’s sort of bad. WELL, not good. Very not good.”

“Well what ever does it mean? Have you worked with this before?”

“Once or twice. There was this library, and these people. Most of them died, not my best work.”

“Wait, they DIED? How did you stop them?”

“Oh, I used my head to formulate a brilliant plan.”

“And what was that?”

“We ran away.” The Doctor stood up and walked to the door. “The Vashta Nerada. Swarms of microscopic carnivorous organisms flying around in the shadows. Basically, very bad things.”

“And they’re clinging to Octavia?”

“Yes, see, that’s the part that doesn’t make sense. If they’re clinging to Octavia, she should be pretty dead by now. Pretty really dead.”

“Well, you have to help her then!”

“Yes, of course. I have a plan. The Vashta Nerada are just shadows right? Basically, yes. So all I really have to do is flood the shadows with light. That should work. It’s like when you see something scary in the dark so you shine a flashlight at it and it goes away. Actually, exactly like that, since the scary thing in the dark is usually the Vashta Nerada.”

“You know, I can hardly understand half of the stuff you’re saying.”

“That’s okay, I like it that way. After all, you’re only human... Er... Equine.”

Octavia stared down at her empty cup, her cello laying at her side, as she began to give up hope. Just then, at the darkest of moments, a few bits fell down into her cup. She looked up to see an unusual looking stallion with a bowtie. “Allo” he said.

“Hello there. Thank you very much.” Octavia smiled.

“Ah, don’t mention it. So, I heard that you’re some sort of... Ahem, evil enchantress?”

Octavia sighed. “If that’s what you want to believe, then yes.”

“Well, good thing I don’t want to believe that. Now, tell me, what ACTUALLY happened?”

Octavia’s eyes brightened slightly as she realized this stallion wasn’t like the rest. She smiled slightly as she told him the same story she told Rarity. The Doctor nodded as she spoke, and then knelt down beside her cello.

“So, this is the magical device?” He asked, reaching for his sonic before remembering that he didn’t have fingers anymore to grab the sonic with, or even clothes to hold it on. He frowned and turned back to Octavia.

“Yeah, I was just playing this song, Shadow of Your Smile. It was a strange song, like none I’d ever heard, and I just loved it.”

The Doctor’s eyes seemed to widen slightly at the name of the song. “Really now? Well
that’s not right.”

“What do you mean?”

“I know that song. It was written by a human, Johnny Mandel, on Earth.”

“Human? Earth? I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“Exactly! You SHOULDN’T understand, you SHOULDN’T know what humans and Earth are, and you CERTAINLY shouldn’t know this song. And yet you do... Was this performance your first time performing it?

“Yes, it was the first time this song had ever been performed in Equestria.”

“Would you mind playing it for me? Right here? I might be able to help.”

“Oh, well, of course.” Octavia nervously picked up her cello and began to play the Shadow of your Smile. The Doctor grew both uneasy and intrigued as he confirmed that the song she was playing WAS the 1960’s Earth hit he was so fond of. His eyes widened yet again though as he noticed something very unsettling.

“Octavia, you can stop now.” She obeyed, and laid the cello back down.

“All right then, what did you find out?”

“Oh, nothing BAD persay. Just something very, very, VERY not good.”

“Wh... What’s that then?”

“You have two shadows.” Octavia turned and looked behind her. She has one shadow that casted in the direction it logically should, and another one casted at a 90 degree angle from the other. “Octavia, hold still. They haven’t killed you yet, so you SHOULD be fine. I’ll be RIGHT back.”

Rarity looked out her window to see The Doctor running by, back out to the desert. Concerned, she followed after him. “Doctor!” She shouted at him.

“Rarity, what are you doing?” He shouted back, still running.

“Can’t I help you somehow?”

He was quiet for a few moments, then remembered that, as a unicorn, Rarity’s magic would be helpful. “Yes, yes you can!”

The Doctor slowed to a stop in front of the TARDIS, and gave the exhausted, panting Rarity a chance to catch up. When she was beside him, he opened the door and stepped in. He ran up a flight of stairs, out of sight, while Rarity caught her breath. After a few moments, several large floodlights rolled down the stairs.

“Can you use your magic to hang these on the walls around the room?”

“Well, I may.” Rarity tested to see if she could lift one. It was heavy, but liftable. “Yes, yes I can.”

“Good, good. All right.” The Doctor hurried to the control panel. “Let’s do this!” The Doctor rammed his hoof against the controls, hitting multiple buttons. He’d completely forgotten about the whole hooves thing yet again. He reached to grab another lever, but just hit more buttons. “Well, this is gonna be difficult.”

Octavia stood perfectly still. In the corned of her eye, she could see her second shadow moving, growing. She started to panic, wishing The Doctor would hurry up.

Just then, off in the distance, she could see a strange little blue thing in the sky, jerking back and forth uncontrollably. As it got closer, she could see that it was a strange blue box with a little light on top. As it got closer, she also became aware that it was heading straight towards her. Her first instinct was to get out of the way, but she remembered The Doctor’s stern warning, and didn’t move.

The box hit the ground a few yards in front of her and skidded across the ground, stopping a few inches in front of her. The doors flung open, and The Doctor and Rarity pulled her in.

“Hey, it’s you again!” Octavia recognized Rarity as they positioned her in the center of the floodlights.

“Indeed it is.” Rarity noticed the double shadows. She then understood the floodlights. “Doctor, are you sure this will work?”

The Doctor grabbed his sonic in his mouth and aimed it at each one of the floodlights, super-charging them. “‘Ope!” The Doctor said with the sonic still in his mouth, before activating the floodlights.

The TARDIS was filled with a sudden, blinding light. The Doctor put on sunglasses and watched Octavia. Her natural shadow was gone, but the secondary shadow remained. It twisted into an almost humanoid shape, then twisted around violently, as though in terrible pain, before finally evaporating.

The Doctor killed the floodlights, an incredibly confused look on his face. He stepped down to where Octavia was, and Rarity followed.

“What happened? Is it gone?” Octavia asked.

“Yes. It is. And you know what that means?” The Doctor answered, and Octavia and Rarity gave him confused looks. “That means something either really good, or incredibly terrible.”

“What do you mean?” Octavia asked.

“I mean I was wrong. You see, if we really WERE dealing with the Vashta Nerada, that shouldn’t have worked. You can’t kill the Vashta Nerada that easily. That means we’re dealing with something completely different. Possibly something better. Likely something much worse. There’s no telling really, it’s just usually best to assume and prepare for the worst.”

Octavia turned to Rarity. “What in Equestria is he on about?”

“I have no idea. It’s best to just not ask questions.” She answered. Octavia smiled.

“So then, what... Wait a minute...” The Doctor stopped suddenly. “Oh, that’s not right...”

“What is it?” Rarity asked.

“Think about it, this whole situation, there’s something that doesn’t add up. Something from the very beginning. Wait, never mind, you weren’t there. But it’s not right, not right at all.”

“What do you mean?”

“... Why didn’t I remember me?”

“I don’t understand.”

“I thought it was the Chameleon Arch... How did I not notice this before? I’m not even the same, not at all. I shouldn’t look like this, and more importantly, I shouldn’t remember. All that said, the only reason I wouldn’t remember myself then would be.... That wasn’t me...”

The Doctor returned to Luna after his voyage to the other universe. He comforted her since she was still feeling down because of Riley. When he was done, he stepped into his TARDIS and headed off. Something still confused him though.

The strange looking biped creature who claimed to be The Doctor, was that supposed to be him in the past? He didn’t understand why he didn’t remember something like that. Something just wasn’t right.

He set the TARDIS to a random location and let it land. When he stepped out, he was in the middle of a small clearing in the Everfree Forest. Then, to his complete surprise, he heard another roaring sound, as another TARDIS materialized right next to his.

“Wait here.” The Doctor told Rarity as he stepped out of the TARDIS. He looked to his left and saw The Doctor from Luna’s Chamber standing right beside him, in front of his own TARDIS.

“Ah, glad I found you.” The Doctor on the left said.

“Yes, me too.” The other Doctor replied. “I want to check something.” He grabbed his sonic screwdriver in his mouth and held it out to the other Doctor. The other Doctor did the same, and they touched their screwdrives together. Nothing happened.

“Would you look at that?” The left Doctor said after spitting out his screwdriver. “The same screwdriver at two different points in its own time stream would probably make a little spark. Well, a pretty big spark. Well, could POSSIBLY put a big ol’ crack in the universe. That means they’re different screwdrivers, which must mean...”

“We’re different Doctors.” The right Doctor spit his sonic out as well. “That makes sense. You’re me in another universe.”

“Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? Of course Timelords exist in other universes too. The only question is, why were you a biped? Or better, why are you no longer a biped?”

“Oh, I’m a pony now. Something went wrong with the Chameleon Arch and I didn’t change back... Are all Timelords equines in this universe?”

“Yep! Well, they were. They’re gone now. It’s just me.”

“Makes sense, I’m the last in my universe too.”

“Yeah, I’m guessing it was pretty much the same situation in every universe.”

“Probably. I always just kind of thought the Timelords were exempt from the multi-verse.”

“I always thought that too. Guess we’re both living proof that we were both wrong!”

“That’s probably ironic. Anyway, your universe appears to be under attack by some sort of bipedal shadow creatures. Do you know of any bipedal races here?”

“Nothing comes to mind. There’s rabbits and things sometimes, but most creatures walk on four legs. Most the creatures I’ve met anyway. I’m sure there are plenty out there that I don’t know.”

“Hold on, I don’t understand.” Rarity butted in. “Which one of you is actually The Doctor?”

“We both are.” The Doctor who had brought Rarity here answered. He turned back to the other Doctor. “You look sort of like an equine version of my previous self. Which incarnation are you on?”

“Tenth, this is my tenth incarnation. And you?”

“Eleventh. Odd, you seem to have taken a little better care of yourself than I did. So, I thought these shadow creatures were the Vashta Nerada. I was wrong. Pretty sure I was wrong anyway.”

“The Vashta Nerada? They aren’t humanoids, they’re microscopic.”

“Well, they form together sometimes, and in my experience they took the shape of whatever they attached too.. I really don’t think Octavia’s a humanoid.”

“Octavia? I’ve heard of her. The musician right? The one who was disgraced as an evil enchantress?”

“Yes, her. The shadow creature latched to her, and became active when she played a song from MY universe. One no one here’s ever heard of. No idea what the creature is, could be anything really.”

“There’s still one other question. What broke the universe? Something had to have made the crack in the first place. Seems like the crack was made from your side. You weren’t able to go back?”

“Nope. Must be a one way crack.”

“Then how come I could go through?”

“Hm. I’m not sure. Maybe because you’re not me?”

“That could be it. Anyway, what do we do?”

“Hm... Rarity!”

“Yes Doctor?” Rarity responded.

“You need to go with the other Doctor. Tenny. I like that, that sounds good. Tenny, because you’re the tenth.”

“Hm, sounds good. What about you?”

“How about Ellie? Like eleven?” Rarity suggested.

“Ah, that’s good, I like it.” Ellie liked it. “Okay then, Tenny will take Rarity, and I’ll go with Octavia.”

“Alright then, Allons-y!” Tenny agreed.

“Sounds good. But what are you planning to do?” Rarity asked.
“Improvise.” Both Doctors said simultaneously.

Comments

[Br2nd66]

uhh......I am officaily mind fucked lol

[Prince Colgate]

533
Hm. Given the genre I'm gonna just take that as a compliment.

[StencilOST]

535
And that's why we love him!