The Whooves Collection Episode Three: The Crystal Shadows

by Perceptive Key

Slipping Through the Cracks

Chapter 3
Slipping Through the Cracks

Gaia; Equestria; Crystal Empire; Crystal Palace; Main Dining Hall; 1 P.C.E.

"WAIT!" Jonathan screamed as he regained consciousness.

"WOAH!" the Doctor and Twilight shouted as Jonathan shot up.

"DON'T LET IT TOUCH YOU!" Jonathan screamed, "DON'T LET IT TOUCH YOU!"

"Stop," Twilight said to him, "Stop! Jonathan!"

Jonathan slowly ceased his struggling and was breathing heavily. "D-did... did you... see it?!" he asked between breaths, "Whatever it was?!"

"Yes. Yes I did," Twilight replied calmly hoping that he would calm down as well. Jonathan started to do so, placing his hooves over his eyes and rubbing them.

"Actually..." the Doctor started, "What did you see?"

Jonathan looked to the Doctor, his eyes wide open, full of worry. "There was... there was this... thing. A creature that sounded, um, male. He... he knew me, about my life. He told me that I wasn't supposed to happen. That I was a mistake." Jonathan looked towards the floor, "He knew about the numbers."

"What about the numbers?" the Doctor urged, "Tell me."

"Four, one, eight, three, zero," Jonathan said, head still lowered.

"Four, one, eight, three, zero," the Doctor repeated in a whisper.

Twilight turned to the Doctor, "Is that important?"

The Doctor nodded silently. "On my way here in the TARDIS," the Doctor began to explain, "the monitor on the console flashed and those numbers appeared, but they disappeared shortly after."

"And you think that Jonathan knows what they mean?" Twilight asked.

"Perhaps."

"Just perhaps?" Twilight said doubtfully, "That's it?"

"Mmmm... yes."

"Have either of you seen my book?" Jonathan asked, looking around. "I thought I had it."

Twilight spotted it on the floor a few feet away. "There it is." She went over, picked it up, and returned it to Jonathan. He quickly flipped open the book and stopped on a page that held only one line of writing: 'Left; 42, 38, 10; Up; 40, 16; Left; 18, 38; Blue; 38, 10, 40.'

"Twilight, could you hang on to my sonic screwdriver for me so I can read this?" He tossed it over when she nodded, catching it with her aura and storing it magically. The Doctor spent a few moments going over the writing before closing the book and giving it back to Jonathan. "That's good!" he shouted before rushing to the large exit doors.

"Wait!" Twilight hurried up to him, Jonathan, book on his back, close behind.

The Doctor pushed open the doors and the trio jumped back in fright when they saw the group of four Vashta guards in front of him. "Sneaking up on people-" the Doctor started.

"Ponies," Twilight corrected.

"-ponies -thank you Miss. Sparkle- is very rude!" the Doctor scolded.

"You will come with us," one of the guards ordered, ignoring the Doctor's comment.

Twilight and Jonathan yelped as two of the guards disappeared and then reappeared behind them. The forward two began to proceed down the corridor, the three ponies, reluctantly, following close behind.

Gaia; Equestria; Crystal Empire; Crystal Palace; King Sombra's Royal Suites; 1 P.C.E.

The doors to Sombra's chamber opened inward and the Doctor, Twilight, and Jonathan trotted in silently. The room they were in was entirely black crystal from floor to ceiling. Even the the enchanted torches had been made to give off black flames, though still providing a light source. Sombra stood straight at a window, looking outward over the Empire.

"Doctor," Sombra said, without turning around.

"Sombra," the Doctor responded.

"You may be wondering why I need you here."

"Not really," the Doctor said thoughtfully, "I was actually wondering about apples. And grass. Perhaps apple-grass. I do love apple-grass! New New York is covered with it. I wonder what it tastes like, being a horse and all."

"New new what?" Twilight asked confusedly.

"Long story, good for another time, I'll explain later." Twilight rolled her eyes at the Doctor's response.

"Silence!" Sombra demanded, now turning to face them. "This conversation is irrelevant."

"I was talking!" the Doctor retorted.

"Well, I'm the KING!" Sombra shouted, "and my word is LAW!" He stomped his forehoof on the ground and the entire chamber shook. Some small cracks appeared in the crystals around them.

"ALRIGHT!" Twilight, Jonathan, and the Doctor screamed in unison.

The room ceased its trembling and Sombra addressed his guards, "Take them to the tower."

"Wait, wait, wait!" the Doctor shouted. Everyone looked at him, waiting for whatever he was about to do.

"What?"

"Just tell me one thing," the Doctor pleaded, "How did you get control of the Vashta Nerada?"

"Ah, yes. The guards," Sombra said thoughtfully. "I've grown quite fond of them since their arrival."

"Arrival?"

"Yes," Sombra repeated, "Arrival. My minions were lost. Floating in the infinite darkness. They were crying out. Alone." A dozen of the guards formed behind Sombra, their armor glinting in the black torchlight. "But I rescued them."

The Doctor, who had been listening with a great amount of interest, opened his mouth to speak, "You rescued them? And what is this 'infinite darkness?'"

"The Master brought us here," each guard spoke at the same moment, their voices merging into one. "We were wandering through the emptiness. The great divide in space. We serve the Master, for he is our rescuer. And soon, he shall rescue our waiting brothers."

"As you can see, Doctor," Sombra continued, "I am their god!"

"I met someone who called himself a god, once," the Doctor said, "and he was destroyed." The Doctor's voice grew quiet as he finished the sentence, and Twilight watched him look to the side briefly.

"Well, that was too bad for him," Sombra joked. "Now you will do as I instruct."

The guards watching the Doctor and his companions pushed the three of them into the center of the room and encircled them in shadow. Sombra then stepped in front of the Doctor and looked to the ceiling. Suddenly, the floor of the room shuddered and a circular patch of the floor the four of them were on began to lift away from the room. The ceiling opened up and the floor elevated through it. They stopped and were now inside of a smaller crystal structure that was more of a gazebo with a large crystal spire in the center, pointing to the sky. It pulsed with magical energy and briefly fired a beam of light into the sky every couple dozen seconds. Each burst made a single Vashta Nerada creature shoot down from the clouds and appear inside the tower.

"Doctor," Twilight leaned towards him, "what is that thing?"

The Doctor simply stared at the spire and muttered, "No, no, no, no, no..." again and again.

"What is it?" Twilight repeated her question, an extra amount of urgency added to her voice.

"It's a rift machine," the Doctor's voice was grave as he stared at the spire.

"And that does?"

"A rift is a gap in time and space, invisible to the naked eye, but it's like a long scar," the Doctor began to explain, "and sometimes the odd object passes through... like driftwood. It also bleeds energy, rift energy. The TARDIS can use that power as a sort of fuel. But, if you widen that scar, anything from anywhere and anytime can fall through, be it good or bad." The Doctor continued to stare at the spire, wondering how it got here, "And I'm sure that whatever Sombra wants with it is bad."

As if on cue, Sombra stepped towards the machine, "I want you, Doctor, to open up that... rift... up there to retrieve the rest of my soldiers."

"No," the Doctor replied sternly.

Sombra's head whipped around with frightening speed. "What?" he growled, his voice calm but layered with rage.

"I said no."

"And why is that?"

"What you're asking is almost impossible and beyond dangerous," the Doctor said. "Trying to open a gap wider than what you've already done could possibly destroy about four-fifths of the universe."

Twilight cocked her head, "Four-fifths?"

"Yes," the Doctor confirmed, "four-fifths."

"If you won't work willingly," Sombra's eyes began to glow green, "then I'll just need to persuade you." A group of guards quickly encircled Twilight and Jonathan, singling them out. The Doctor could only watch as the inky blackness of the shadows enveloped the two ponies, hiding them from view.

"Doctor!" Twilight's voice was muffled as she cried out, "Doct-" and she was cut off. The shadows that had enveloped her and Jonathan sank into the ground, leaving where the two had been standing empty, but Jonathan's book was still there.

The Doctor whipped his head around to face Sombra. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?!"

Sombra's eyes returned to normal, "Nothing... yet."

"Let them go, RIGHT NOW!"

"Only if you fix the machine!" Sombra insisted.

The Doctor's expression changed, slowly, from intense rage to slight sadness. "I'll do it," he said dejectedly.

"Ah-ha! Good! Now, get to work."

"Only..." the Doctor hadn't finished.

Sombra groaned, "What?"

"... only if you return them to me."

"I'll think about it."

"If you don't, then forget it," the Doctor said. He was taking a big risk, putting Twilight and Jonathan's lives in the balance.

The Doctor's hearts raced as he waited for Sombra to think it over. "Alright, then." Sombra's eyes glowed and a column of shadow appeared next to the Doctor. When it receded, Jonathan was lying on the floor in its place, dizzy and disoriented.

"Wha-? What just happened?" he muttered, eyes spinning in their sockets.

"And Twilight?" the Doctor glared.

"After you finish the job," Sombra responded with a glare of his own. Sombra, flanked by his guards, began to descend on a separate patch of floor. "You have twenty-four hours," the king added before the open spot solidified, as if the floor had been there earlier.

The Doctor watched as the tower was encased in a dull grey barrier that pulsed with magical energy. "He underestimates me," the Doctor said.

"Is that a good thing?" Jonathan asked, now standing back up.

"In our case, yes. In his..." the Doctor paused for a moment, "... not so much." The spire pulsed again, another blast shooting through the dark, swirling clouds. The Doctor approached the rift machine and ran his hooves down the sides. "This device is magnificent," he gawked, "I've never seen anything like it!"

Jonathan came over, book balanced carefully on his back. "What does he, um, Sombra, want you to do with it? Exactly?"

The Doctor continued to examine the spire, feeling along the outside. "A rift machine can widen the rift that I mentioned earlier, but you can't usually control what falls through. This machine, though, is paired with magic, that beam that shoots out is apparently magical energy that is being focused on one specific time an place. I've never seen anything like it! It's brilliant!"

"Can you explain it in lay-mares' terms?"

"This machine is opening another rift in a completely different time and place. The Vashta Nerada are being pulled out of that point and are being brought here, to this point." The Doctor completed his examination of the spire, "Sombra want's me to allow all of them to be brought here at once, but there's a reason that I said that it's impossible. The rift is very delicate and can occasionally collapse in on themselves, destroying entire cities. That nearly happened to me once."

"I heard the 'destruction of the universe' part earlier, but now it's only 'destruction of a city?'" Jonathan asked quizzically.

"Well, that was before I examined this, and, I'll say it again, it's brilliant!" The Doctor kicked the side of the spire and a square access panel opened in the side. "There we go." Inside of the hatch was a jumbled mass of wires and small, blinking, multicolored lights. The Doctor rubbed his hooves together, "Oh, you are a beauty!" the Doctor fit the entire front half of his equine body inside of the machine, leaving his lower half hanging out the opening.

"So... you're going to help him?!" Jonathan was dumbfounded.

The Doctor eased himself out of the hatch, gripping a set of wires in his mouth. "No, I'm not," he replied. "All I'm doing... is biding my time."

"But how?! Twilight's still captured, we're being held inside of a magical bubble until you unleash an army... made of shadows! And I'm still trying to figure out why I'm trusting you so quickly!"

"I'm a very trustworthy pony." The Doctor smiled and laughed, "I remembered to say 'pony!' Ha! Oh, and Twilight's not captured, just held up."

"What?"

"Don't you remember that I gave her my screwdriver?" the Doctor smiled mischievously.