Just a bit of AN before we begin, thanks.

I am ThArcanist. This is my first REAL attempt at writing a decent Fanfic. I value input heavily, but please, don't flame for the sake of it. There may be typos in my chapters; if so, please, and I cannot stress this enough, PLEASE send me a pm. It will greatly improve the experience of those who read my story after you do. Thanks. Also, when you see three -*-'s it is a time change, as well as a POV change. Three * * *'s are just time changes. I bet you can guess what three ---'s mean, right?I hope you enjoy the very first chapter.

(DISCLAIMER:I do not own My Little Pony or Doctor Who. Thank you.)

---

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue.

Twilight Sparkle looked around the inside of the library and breathed in slowly, happy to be there. The Canterlot Royal Archives was a extensive underground labyrinthine collection of shelves, on each one was placed an innumerable amount of scrolls, books, tomes, journals, compendiums, dictionaries, atlases, encyclopedias and the occasional manila folder. Every now and then the maze of shelves would be broken by artifacts, each of which would be surrounded by the required tools and scriptures required to understand its significance.

She trotted towards one of these now. She had memorized its location by heart since Princess Celestia had shown her the pegasus-eye view of the library. Every 20 feet the gloom would be broken by immaculate pairs of brilliant white orbs of energy that seemed to cast no shadow, due to the careful placement of the spheres by the library’s caretakers. She seemed to recall that, according to myth, there had been a tiny creature living in the shadows of the library some eight-hundred years ago.

She shivered quietly in the Archive’s cold, berating herself for reading more of that silly book “The Many Creatures of the Known Universe and Equestria” earlier that day. “Stupid ghost stories” she muttered. The object of her search was now before her, in all its unexplainable majesty.

It was the newest addition to the archives. This artifact alone had its own guards, to whom she nodded to before she approached. It also had the largest stack of papers and literature related to it. She remembered the words Princess Celestia had spoken to her before she had ventured into the deeps.

“Now, Twilight” she had said, “I am sure you know about the anomaly we have currently in the Archives.” She sniffed with displeasure. “Not a single pony has been able to make sense of how it is opened, its use, and who made it. More importantly, who owns it currently. We found it a couple days ago near your current place of study. It seems to have no exterior mode of movement, and no marks were made in the surrounding soil.” Twilight had nodded. She had heard the gossip about the strange object in her monthly visit to Cantelot. “There are also legends and writings throughout history, dating back to our earliest predecessors, about this. It seems to be an important piece in history. When there is trouble, it is there.”

“But Celestia,” she had said, suddenly disquieted. “Our greatest spellcasters have tried to answer the questions you have, but to no avail. Why me, then?” Celestia had smiled at that.

“Because I think you’re greater than the lot of them.”

She looked at the nearest one and smiled. “The Legend of the Blue Box” it read. She smiled. Perhaps now she could make some headway by reading the old legends.

It was just then that she heard a bone chilling scream.

-*- -*- -*-

~Earlier that day~

The Doctor was not happy. “I could have sworn I had left the TARDIS here!” He scowled. In the middle of what the ponies called the Everfree Forest. There were patches of torn-up soil that most certainly were involved. Great, He thought. I just regenerated into a quadruped and now some joker up and stole my TARDIS. No, he was not happy at all.

He had recently gone into the town nearby to learn about his present predicament. He had asked about the current events, for he remembered all to well that while he could control where the TARDIS took him, it was usually the other way around; it would take him where he was needed. The houses were vibrant in their hues and the happy pony faces passed him by without the slightest glance. There he learned that this land-or planet? He was not sure- was called Equestria, that the town was Ponyville, and the capitol was named Canterlot. And so he left and went back to his TARDIS. It had vansished.

And that led him to his present predicament. From what he saw, it was socially acceptable to go without clothes on this planet. So he trotted along the path made by the torn-up earth.

“Is this how time normally passes?” He said out loud. “Reeeeeealy slowly. In the right…order?” It had been midday when the sun was going down, and now the moon was peeking its way over the horizon. He wondered what planet he was on. It was certainly nowhere he had been before. Somehow he had the feeling that he had forgotten something important. Shrugging, he decided to let it pass.

In the distance as the moon reached its apex in the starry sky
He saw something white on a mountainside. He blinked, and it came into focus. A massive castle hung impossibly over the side of a cliff face. “Huh. Do physics work differently here? I wonder if I’m in a different universe.” He laughed. “I really do have to stop talking to myself.”

He wondered if he would meet Rose.

So it was that he entered Canterlot, in all its majesty, through the main street, and as an incredible fatigue set suddenly over his shoulders, and for the first time in what he felt was several days, he laid himself to sleep out of sight.

* * * * * * * * *

“Ow. Stop that.” He said. He was rewarded with another dig between the ribs.

“State your name” a cold voice growled. He rose up from the alleyway he had slept the night in and looked the stallion in his face.

“I’m the doctor.” He said. Remembering what he had learnt in the town-Ponyville, the name was- “You must be a guard of her Royal Highness.” He said, seeing the sun/moon emblem on his breastplate.

“You guessed correctly.” The guard said. “Why are you out after curfew?”

Ah. Curfew, he thought. As the experienced liar he was, he knew when it was the right time to do the exact opposite.

“Well, you might think I’m crazy, but I’m looking for a blue box that fell from the sky a good long ways over in that direction. And he pointed towards the Everfree he had originally crashed in.

A flicker of recognition and something else, a pair of emotions he could not identify, sparked in the guard’s eyes.

“I don’t know about falling, but I do know that there’s someone who would very much like to hear your story. You’re coming with me, kid.”

He laughed inside as he was called ‘kid’. Jaded as this warrior may be, he was over a thousand years old, and doubted anyone else in this Equestria could claim that much. Do I really look that young? He thought to himself.

The guard looked back at him, showing the same two emotions he had earlier seen. Then he realized he had accidentally given voice to his thoughts. “Oops,” He said. I sometimes think out loud.”

It was only when they had come before a majestic white hall, complete with a sun engraved on the left of the door, the moon on the left, the moon on its opposite, that he pinpointed the adjectives he wracked his brains for.

Awe and Fear.

AN: Well here we have it! You all aksed for it(the few people that have seen it this far) so here it is! Have some pony for a good end to a weekend! Anyway, I'm not so sure about the first section of this story, but bear with my on it. It all gets better at the end, and this concludes my little two parter to start off the story with a bang!

---

Shadows that melt the flesh

Princess Celestia looked down at him disbelievingly. “So you’re saying that that blue box we found in the Everfree Forest is a time machine that’s larger on the inside than it is on the outside, you’re one-thousand two hundred and twelve years old, and you are the last known survivor of a race called the ‘Time Lords’ that can change their forms at will?”

“That’s not exactly what I said, but yes. You’re close enough.”

“I don’t believe it. You come in here, tell me this ridiculous story, and just expect me to nod my head and say ‘Seems Legitimate?’ No!” That made the Doctor angry.

“First of all,” He said, “I didn’t just mosey in here of my own free will. I seem to remember being hand-hoofcuffed by your guard over there. “Second,” he said, “I really couldn’t care less what you do and don’t believe. It doesn’t change the truth, now does it?” A second later his mind caught up to what he was saying. “Wow. I’ve regenerated into a prick. Will wonders never cease?”

He expected the princess to fume up and order him to be executed, but quite to the contrary, Celestia rubbed a hoof over her eyes and apologized.

“It’s been a long day. It’s to much for me to grasp at one moment, and I sent one of my students down into the archives and she should have come back by now.”

Off in the distance, they heard an echoing scream. “Twilight!” Celsetia screamed, and charged off to a set of stairs. “You stay there!” She shouted at him over her shoulder. He looked over his shoulder at the guard. He shrugged.

“My duty is to protect the princess, but I can’t leave you alone. Come on!” He shouted, and they followed the princess into the depths of the earth.

--- --- ---

Twilight sprinted over to the source of the sound. A unicorn filly, not much younger than Twilight was herself, lay on the ground. She was about to say something when she realized that the filly’s right foreleg was missing. “What happened?! She shouted. The filly tried to speak, but when she opened her mouth, no words came out. Finally, she managed to speak.

“There was…” She began, but trailed off. About ten seconds later, she started again. “There was a shadow. By… by the stairs farther underground,” She gasped.

A guard who had followed Twilight to the young unicorn said, his voice rising in urgency, “What significance does this have?! Stay with us!”

“Nothing was casting it” she whispered, and lost consciences.

“She’s dead” another guard said, after pressing his hoof up to her neck. As he said it, a number of orbs lost their brilliance and the hallway they were in fell into darkness. At Twilight’s command, a pulsing red werelight floated above her head, casting at least some light onto their surroundings. They looked back at the filly.

What they saw was a stripped white skeleton.

“Run!” Twilight screamed. She and the four guards charged back towards the blue box.

“Twilight!" She heard someone shout. They rounded a corner of the shelves and saw Princess Celsetia at the box. “What happened?!” she shouted, seeing the stricken faces on Twilight and the guards. “Please, tell me what happened!” It took Twilight many moments to catch her breath after her headlong flight.

“We heard a scream, and we ran there. There was a filly there, and one of her forelegs was missing. When we asked her about it, she only said something about a shadow that wasn’t supposed to be there, or something else like that. Then-“

A strange voice, one that she had never heard before, interrupted. “Then you looked back at her and you saw her skeleton. Am I right?” Celestia turned around, seeming both fearful and disapproving.

“I thought I had told you to stay up there.” She said. “What are you doing down here?”

The strange brown colt smiled. “One,” He said, “I came for my box.” He started, seeming disquieted. “How could I forget about my sonic screwdriver? I’ll need to get that. Three- no, wait, two; I’m the Doctor, and I’m here to save your life and every person-pony,gotta start saying that- currently in this library. I hope I have your permission, your Royal Highness.” Pulling something off from around his neck, he walked towards the blue box, and opened up the door with what Twilight assumed was a key.

“Wait,” Twilight called. The strange colt turned around. “How did you know what happened to the filly?”

“Because I’ve met this creature before. It’s called the Vashta Nerada."

Turning around again, he stepped into the blue box. He emerged a minute or so later with a very long scarf, a couple of bananas poking out of the folds of said scarf, and a metal device she could not identify in a hoof.

“So, care to tell us how you’re going to save us with bananas?” the princess asked, interrupting Twilight’s plans to speak.

“I don’t know yet. But they’re a good source of potassium You should always have one on you.” And so he threw one of his bananas into the nearest shadow. It seemed to evaporate before their very eyes. “Well,” He said quietly, “That confirms my suspicions.”

“I have my own questions” Twilight said, before she could be interrupted. First of all, what happened to the banana? Why did it just- disappear? And also, what is a ‘Vashta Nerada’? I’ve heard about them before, but only in a book of ghost stories? Why here? Why now?”

“It didn’t disappear, to answer your fist question. It was eaten. The Vashta Nerada are a species, the name literally means ‘Shadows that melt the flesh’. They hunt in hordes, but I’ve only encountered one of similar size in one other place that was very similar to this. Another library. They usually live in forests, but it was apparent that they came in tiny spores on the books, since paper comes from trees. How large is this library?” he asked, seemingly at random. The guard that had accompanied him down cleared his throat.

“Most of the inside of the mountain Canterlot lies upon is part of the Archives. There are many levels, but the deepest levels were sealed off about eight hundred years ago.”

“Oh yeah?” the Doctor replied. “Why were they sealed off, pray tell?

The guard shuffled his hooves and looked downwards at them. “Those who ventured into the deeps were never seen again.”

“Well there you have it!” he smiled, a gesture that seemed inappropriate for their present predicament. A second later he looked back at where the shadow he had thrown the banana into had been.

It was gone.

“Have any of you cast a light recently?” He asked. When they all shook their heads, Twilight spoke up.

“But, that’s good, isn’t it? She asked nervously. “That means it’s gone, right? Right?” She looked around at all the faces around her, and finally at the mysterious Doctor, the one that had proclaimed himself to be their only hope.

“They haven’t gone,” he said. “They’ve moved. They don’t let go that easily, so that means…” He trailed off as he raked the floor around the group with his eyes. “Oh. You,” He said. “What’s your name?” He queried, pointing a hoof towards Twilight.

“Twilight Sparkle” she said, suddenly afraid.

“Pretty name. Very fancy. Well, my dear Twilight Sparkle, if you value your life I advise you to stand absolutely still.”

“Why? She said. “What do you see, Doctor?”

“Well, it occurs to me that you have two shadows when there’s only one thing that should be casting it. That’s how they- the Vashta Nerada, I mean- hunt. So, stand still, stand absolutely still, and pray to whatever gods you believe in that they lose interest in you very soon or I have a very clever idea right about now.”

She did as she was told, barely breathing. She did not trust the mysterious Doctor, but she was certain that his advice was good. “You,” the Doctor said, at one of the guards. “Shine a light into our friend Twilight’s second shadow. That one.” He said, indicating the darker of the two umbras around Twilight’s hooves.

“I can’t, sir. I don’t have a torch and I’m not a unicorn.” He said, looking apologetically at the Doctor.

“That’s rubbish. Only unicorns can use magic? You then” he said, pointing at a different guard.

As the bright light shone on her shadow blinked into existence, she wondered why it had no effect on it. But then another question entered her mind. How could this mysterious colt not know that only unicorns could use magic? She was dumbfounded that anypony could be so out of the loop.

“Ooh! I am indeed brilliant. I’m being very clever right now so anyone who has any thoughts or questions, pipe down now,” stifling the words that had risen to Twilight’s lips. “So, what do we know about the Vashta Nerada? They will eat anything and everything they can, especially things that they have encountered before. But what if we trick them? What if we give them bait designed to kill them?” He smiled, a dorky grin that, however ridiculous it looked, reassured Twilight. He pulled out the second banana from the endless folds of his scarf. “Saving mankin-ponykind, one high-potassium source at a time!”

Princess Celestia caught on quickly. “You want us to poison your banana? It makes sense, I suppose.”

“You’re sharp.” The Doctor answered. Yes, that’s exactly what I want.” A yellow glow enveloped the Princess’s horn.

“It is done” she said.

“Well then, I- wait. I was going to say something cool, but I forgot it. Damn. Oh well,” he said, as he tossed the banana into the shadow. It vanished like the first, but instantly afterwards the shadow disappeared as well. Pulling the strange metal object from his scarf once more, he pointed it at where the shadow had been. It made a horribly annoying sound and cast a green light onto the tiled floor until the Doctor put it back into his scarf. “Dead as a doornail,” he proclaimed. “Well, perhaps you’ve learnt the lesson about how useful bananas are at saving lives. I leave you to continue the extermination of the horde in the library. Good day.” And, before anyone could stop him, he vanished into his box.

What she saw confounded Twilight for a very long time afterwards. The blue box made a whirring sound, and began to fade away. A few seconds later, the noise ceased, and the box had vanished from the archives; and from Twilight's life.

Because I just love the sound of my own(voice) fingers hitting these keys, I have some more AN for you all! Thanks a bunch for all the views, likes, tracks, comments, and favorites(?). I'd like to acknowledge a certain Bookpony230, thanks for acting as my editor; hope you continue to give me a hand. EDIT: Man, I am on a roll today! Two chaters, same day. Sorry about not getting this out sooner, stuff hit the fan. Anyway, hope you like! Anyway, remind me to never do any act in one chapter ever again, It's freaking annoying. WARNING: I didn't do much editing, I just wanted you guys to get this ASAP. Thought it had been delayed long enough.

Side note- This chapter is looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong.

---

It has been a long time since I last gazed upon the colt. The colt and his magic blue box, he so full of laughter and jibes and he so full of hate and anger and loneliness and despair. He was from beyond Equestria, Luna knows exactly where. I wanted to travel with him in the box, I wanted to see the stars and see the entire universe with him. What a time we could have hat together. The doctor and I, The perfect team. I have waited for him for so long, wishing for his return, hoping every single day and every single night that I would at last see his return.

Instead I grew up.

- - - - - - - - -

The Book of Answers

“Ah! Good old Ponyville. Glad the TARDIS is up and running, was afraid I broke it. Wonder what that was I saw on the moon.” The doctor trotted out of his Police Box and smiled, gazing down at Ponyville from a small hill. He looked down at Ponyville and frowned. “Well. Let’s go see why the TARDIS landed me now instead of when I had expected to land.

Below him lay a sprawling city and, at its center, a massive tree whose’ boughs spread shadow over much of the town. Around it lay a ring of skyscrapers, and even further away, a mighty wall inset with great mosaics of gold, lapis lazuli, amethyst, and other precious metals and gems. The mosaics seemed to convey stories, stories of happiness and friendship. The guards at the gate stood tall and dignified, but had no weapons. Between the gates a constant stream of ponies flowed. “Well.” He said, in awe. “I didn’t think I had gone this far.

Making his way through the grand archways, he walked down the main thoroughfare past hovels and run-down shacks for what must have been a mile or two. He reflected that no matter how rich any civilization was, there would always be those who were poor, performing the jobs that nobody- or rather, nopony, he assumed the term would be now- else wanted to do.

Then came the skyscrapers. They towered above the houses around them, and it seemed to the doctor that they substituted crystal for glass. They were not unlike the buildings he had seen on earth, but these seemed top glow with internal radiance, rather than just a reflection. He walked by the buildings, and then to a scene that seemed frozen in time. It was almost exactly the same as when he last visited Ponyville, however many years ago that been. The only difference was a short wall around it, with more guards at every entrance, as well as a rather more significant change: the tree that had once housed- maybe still did house- the library was the very same tree that covered the sky and showered the earth with mottled shadows. Everyone- everypony, rather- Needed to show some sort of ID before going past the wall. No Problem, he thought to himself, and pulled a small scrap of paper from his scarf.
Trotting up to the guard, he said, “Bureau of Inspection of Structural Architectyness. I’ve come to check on the buildings, there have been reports of cracks in them. The gold-clad pegasi blocking the path sighed and looked suspicious, but he got out of the Doctor’s way. “Guess I still have my touch,” he muttered once he was out of earshot.

Yet more ID was required as he passed into the tree. He wanted to know what had either forced such a rapid change in society or had caused his TARDIS to overshoot his destination so far. And he knew of only one pony that would tolerate his questions- if she was still alive. And her name was Twilight Sparkle.

“Hello doc. I’ve been waiting for you- or rather, I was waiting for you. I stopped about four years in. I’m curious to hear what waylaid the good doctor for so long that it made his next appointment almost eight years overdue.”

* * * * * * * * *

“So you’re telling me,” Twilight said impatiently, “That my eight years is your couple minutes, you’re a time traveler -well, I suppose that last bit makes that obvious- you’re the last of your kind, and you come from a place so far out in the stars that we can barely see it on telescope, and you’re a bit more than twelve-thousand years old.” Twilight stood up from the lavish red chair and paced around the room, then walked up to his own chair that he was more lying down at than sitting, and stopped. I’m prepared to believe that. Fine. Well, really, most of it. I knew you must have been older than you looked, and I was pretty sure you weren’t from anywhere near Equestria. But time travel is, like, Im-Possible. You can only do it for a couple moments, not extended periods. I mean, that’s common knowledge.”

“Well isn’t that just so me. Silly old faraway old impossible old me. He trotted over to a stack of blue books and read the name several aloud. “The Legend of the Blue Box, the Constellation of Kasterbourous, the Pearl City, the Shadow Proclamation: For Foals, and The Last Great Time War. Despite the fact that you said you no longer were interested in what I said, you seem to have done an awful lot of research on my exploits. Why? What has you so interested in m, such a boring Little Pony?”

Twilight seemed agitated. She paced again, walking about the pile of books and levitated books off of it seemingly at random, throwing them away soon after she looked at them for a few moments. “There have been strange events recently. Something bad is underhoof; I can feel it in my bones. Ponies have been vanishing without a trace recently. The city of Ponyville have been getting restless. After the Vashta Nerada emerged from the undergrounds and attacked, we evacuated Cantelot, as I said earlier. I had insisted that we took every book in the library with us. But as soon as we got back here, people started to go missing. Not the same way people went missing when the Vashta Nerada were involved- these left no skeleton, and all that is ever found is a pool of blood that quickly evaporates.” As she spoke, there came a frantic knocking at the door.

“My lady Twilight Sparkle! Please! It’s an emergency! Come quickl-“the words died in the caller’s throat and in its place rose a stifled gurgle. Twilight jumped up and opened the door, motioning at her guards to unhand a spluttering Pegasus. The young mare coughed for some moments and then spluttered one last time, speaking quickly and urgently. “My ma, she’s been coughing up blood. All morning. I got a doctor to come see her, but he said there’s nothing medically wrong with her. I think- I think she has the consumption.” At these words the filly’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Please, I beseech you, Help!” The guard’s looked at Twilight then.

“My lady, it’s too dangerous! What happens if-“

“There will be no ‘What Ifs’. I will not my worry for my own personal safety interfere with my duty. Nor will I let yours.” She ran off then, the guards following her. The doctor took this as a sign to follow.

Being a pony with two hearts makes it easy to run really fast. The doctor decided after he overtook Twilight, the guards, and the mare that had come begging for help and arrived at the source of the problems quickly. It was a house just on the edge of what Twilight had called Old Ponyville. He pushed open the unlocked front door and trotted up a flight of stairs to an old mare, lying in front of a bin and pouring out blood from her nostrils, occasionally spitting a globule of crimson liquid out.

“Who are you?” The mare said weakly, barely managing to say anything at all through her coughing fits.

“I’m the doctor,” he said.

“There’s nothing any doctor can do for me now, I’m afraid. The consumption has me, and it will not unclench its grip.” Coughing again, the mare turned around and looked at him sadly and somewhat reproachfully.

“You’d be surprised.” The Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his scarf and pointed it at the bin filled with blood. He passed it’s glowing green tip all over the bin and the mare’s body, then pulled it back to look at its side. “That’s odd.” He said, not so much to her as himself. “The blood doesn’t have any viruses in it, no radiation, but it’s outputting a massive amount of sub-atomic meta-particles. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The doctor was concerned now. He knew most things about the universe, and the things he didn’t know of tended to bite. The mare coughed up yet more blood, but now, it was different. The stream was not interrupted by coughing, and it came from her throat and nose… no, from her eyes. From here pores and every opening in her body blood flowed. The doctor stood back, horrified. “Oh no. I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry. There’s nothing I can do for you but make sure this never happens again. He ran downstairs, only to find Twilight and her entourage going in a conflicting direction. He bounced off her into the wall.
“Ouch. Anyway, more importantly, she’s dead.” The Pegasus wailed and ran outside. Twilight looked after him, a strange, almost reminiscent look on her face. The guards looked at him distrustfully. The one on the left said, in a gruff, low voice that he faintly recognized,

“What did you do to her, doctor?”

“Oooh you’re that fun guard I met eight years ago. Hello fun guard! Anyway, all I did- all I could do, really- was take some readings of her blood. No viruses, no infection, nothing, just a rather high amount of sub-atomic particles being emitted- or perhaps, transmitted to- the blood. In layman’s terms, there’s something emitting a bunch of energy that’s causing these disappearances.”

Twilight gasped, looking horrified. “Maybe somepony was using magic to make this happen, but, why would anypony do such a thing? It’s just… I don’t know what to say.”

“Ok. Magic. I guess that answers that question, but I still have so many…” Holding the screwdriver up in the air, he waved it around in the air. Eventually, he stopped. “That way!” The four of them charged out the door, and with the doctor in the lead, they sprinted towards the center of the trouble.

* * * * * * * * *

They found it in the form of a strange green unicorn muttering in a strange eldritch tongue that’s very sound made Twilight want to plug her hooves in her ears. He had no whites of his eyes- only deep green ringing huge black pupils. The doctor stepped in front of her then, and started waving his screwdriver that didn’t have a screw around the pony. It emitted the same green light and buzzing noise as it had eight years prior, but the unicorn didn’t seem to notice at all.

“Well” the doctor said. “That explains a lot.” Twilight wanted to laugh, since all it meant to the rest of them was that the unicorn was a bit off in the head, but stopped, remembering the seriousness of the situation. “Who are you?” he said, trotting circles around the oblivious unicorn. “What’s your purpose in taking this body? Well, I suppose it’s because you need its magic, but why this one? What did it see, what did it know…”

Twilight started. Suddenly, she remembered: she had seen that very same unicorn working as a scribe in the restricted section of the library. And- oh no, she really didn’t want to be right for once.

“Doctor! He’s one of the library scribes of the restricted section! When we evacuated Canterlot he was assigned to haul the cart with all of the books that were stored there: we need to go!”

Then the scribe’s head snapped towards Twilight.

“Why!?” He asked, in a voice that seemed like it was only half his own. Twilight noticed that his eyes had returned to normal.

"What?” Twilight said, looking puzzled. The guards drew weapons hidden in their armor, their beauty masking their deadliness.

“Why!” He asked again, in a slightly more ponylike voice. Then a sudden pain seemed to afflict him, and he doubled over, uttering a soundless shriek. He held his hooves up to his temples and crouched, and when he spoke, it seemed to cause him great pain. “I looked at the book I brought from Canterlot. The book of answers. I think it somehow took control of me, I can’t remember why I’m here, but-no… NO!!”

“What! What is it!” The doctor shouted. Then he noticed that the scribe’s horn was glowing. “Stay back, all of you!”

They looked on in horror, as, screaming to the sky in agony, the scribe collapsed. He was crying- but every drop that spilled was hued slightly more and more red.

“No!! Please, help! Someone, please! I never wanted to do any of it, I remember, I REMEMBER!!!” The unicorn seemed to shrivel up, like a cut apple left out in the sun. He oozed blood, until nothing but a withered black, emaciated corpse with flesh stretched over it, taut as a drum.

The doctor looked at Twilight over the blood pool. “Well, we may as well be on with it. Lead us to the book.

*** *** ***

They skidded to a halt once in the library of the great tree. “It’s larger than the archives. That’s quite something. Anyway. I suppose that big old ‘Restricted’ sign over there means the restricted section, and that would be where we look first.” The doctor said. They continued their headlong rush through the library, through the restricted section, which felt like a labyrinth, and finally, stopped. There was a circular room at the end of the hall, and in the center, on a pedestal, lay a massive book. It seemed the size of four ponies, and it lay open. As they walked into the room, a certain presence seemed to pervade their minds. And the presence thought in a soft, quiet, but entirely insidious voice.

“I am the book of answers. I hold the every question ever asked, and its answer. What is yours? A young scribe came to me recently, used to be a nice little pony.”

The guards drew their weapons again. But before they could charge at the book, a tendril of thought that Twilight could feel in her own mind, and they flung themselves on the ground, much as the green unicorn had. “Oh, my little ponies, such an archaic attack will never work on me. Ask away, Twilight Sparkle, Doctor.”

“Perhaps I will then. Why did you take control of an, I assume, innocent scribe?”

“Oh, doctor. It’s a reason I think you know. I was lonely. Having people to control, people who follow your every will like blind dogs, is fun, I’m sure you know from experience.”

Twilight snapped. She charged at the book, intending to impale the book with her horn, but she was flung aside as easily as her guards.

“Stay there, my dearest Twilight. Doctor, I wonder what you will ask next. How to kill me, perhaps? It matters not. Of course I will not tell you that. I even know the answer to the most asked question in the universe, the one I think not even you know, with twelve-thousand years of time and space. Doctor Who?”

“I don’t need you to tell me how to kill you. I know perfectly well. In the early medieval ages of a faraway, farawhen planet called Earth, the ultimate punishment for books was burning. They would be burnt simply for disagreeing with people’s ideas. However, there is a new reason- you have killed in the most merciless way, using others as puppets. As you’ve made clear to us, your psyche is linked to the Book, and when the body is destroyed, so too is the mind.”

Then the doctor took out his screwless screwdriver and pointed it straight at the book. “And you won’t even be able to stop me from doing this with your so-called mind control- it’s really blood control. I’ve seen it all before, and I’m not a pony- thus, different blood. Bye-bye now.” The buzzing from the screwdriver became more intense, and the book’s thoughts, once lucid, became an incoherent wail of anger and pain and fire. The book caught then, and it created an inferno that licked the roof of the chamber. The four of them watched as the flames died down, and then, they left the ashes to float their sad way to the ground. And they walked, the four of them, through the city up to gates. And they left Ponyville under the cover of twilight, and headed for the hills.

They stopped at the TARDIS.

“That’s it. That’s the box” the guard on the right said, awed. The left one looked at him oddly.

“What’s so special about this box? I mean, it is in the middle of nowhere, but we are in the Everfree. It’s not that odd.

“Oh, but you aren’t the fun guard.” The doctor said, smiling. “Fun guard, meet fun box. It’s called the TARDIS. That’s Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. Not-fun guard, you should say hello too. Well then, Twilight, I would be honored to have you aboard my ship. The guards looked at each other, barely suppressed mirth on their faces. “Oh come on, grow up. It’s bigger than it looks.”

The guards sobered, returning to seriousness. “I cannot allow Twilight to go in there. If it is what the name implied, which I highly doubt, then it is too dangerous for the Lady Twilight Sparkle to enter.”

Twilight looked the doctor in the eye, and smoothly said, “He’s right, I’d love to come, but my duties are more important.” And she winked. Once, slyly, and was sure the doctor understood.

“Well, it’s a shame. I won’t be seeing you for a long time, I guess. This is goodbye.” And he stepped into the box, and they heard the lock click.

“Come on, you two, I have work to do in my study, and it won’t be delayed.”

They looked back as they walked back into the city.

The TARDIS was gone.

* * * * * * * * *

Twilight was writing. A thousand worries ran through her head. “Don’t be late this time, doctor, you better not leave me again.” She muttered softly.

The clock struck twelve. At that instant, the same vast whirring noise filled the room, and a blue glow emanated from the corner. And the TARDIS was there, and the Doctor opened its door and walked out.

“Man, it has been a while. For me, hopefully not you. Just went to Raxacoricofallapatorius, amazing planet. Such nice people there. Anyway, hop in!”

“You bet I will!” She ran in after him, barely reading the words on the door. She was stunned. “When you said it was bigger than it looks…”

“I’ll say it for you. Bigger on the inside”

“This is impossible.” Twilight ran out, ran a circle around the box, and ran back in. “How- What- I- I don’t- I don’t get it.”

“The look on your face was absolutely priceless. It’s a time machine that’s bigger on the inside. Impossible, but so much fun! Choice of bathrooms left, right, and above. Where to first? How about…” He ran up a set of crystalline stairs to a large circular console, with a tube emanating from it. He pulled a lever, and the tube began a pumping motion. But Twilight had an even better idea than anything the doctor could come up with.

“Wait! Go to the moon, ten years ago on the summer solstice.”

And so they began their adventures in time and space.