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!

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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.

Next Chapter: Chapter 3 Estimated time remaining: 15 Minutes