Equestria and the Time Lord Episode 4: Shadow Over the Sun

Prologue: Four Hundred Dawns

=Gaia, Equestria, Canterlot, Canterlot Royal Palace, 1066 C.E. =

It was sometime in the middle of the night. The Moon was right there in the middle of the sky. Princess Luna was looking at it with a somber look. She sighed and walked back into the room. She stretched and lay down in her bed. She had no need for sleep, but she could still think of reasons she needed to relax, but she had many things holding her back from total relaxation. Her royal duties, all that she must tend to, and most of all the ever present shadow off…

'The nightmare of Nightmare Moon?' Said a dark version of her own voice inside her head.

'What?' Luna thought in her head in fear.

'Nightmare Moon, the embodiment of all your jealousy and anger? The thing living in your shadow and legacy that you can't bear to think about but slithers into your mind every day in your every moment of the 66 years you have deluded yourself into thinking you were truly free?' the voice continued.

'I am free.' Luna thought indignantly.

'There is still fear. There is still hate. There is still a lost glimmer of me living in your mind, and you may spend your day running and running from the fear, the hate, but you can't move anywhere farther from your own shadow.' The voice argued.

'I will not give into you. I am no longer Nightmare Moon! I AM NOT YOU!' Luna screamed in her head.

'Tomorrow the sun will rise, but then it will give away to shadow. There will be eternal night by your power. And when all who you care about, all that you know, all that you will come to believe in cannot stop it, when you see what magic is really worth, you will be broken and nothing can stop me from coming forward and the both of us will be reunited.' the voice toldevilly.

'What are you talking about? How can you make eternal night from daytime? That is impossible!' Luna thought angrily.

'Tomorrow is the day of Darkness. Tomorrow is the first eclipse.' The voice said as it began to reach a hoof through her shadow.

'What is an eclipse?' Luna asked as the hoof grabbed her and she lost consciousness.

=Gaia, Equestria, Canterlot, Canterlot City Streets, 1066 C.E. =

The Doctor looked up from the console as the TARDIS materialized. "This is very exiting!" he said as he ran over to a TARDIS closet and few it open, dodging a large pile of stuff coming out.

"Where and when are we?" Daring Do asked.

"We're in the city of Canterlot in the year 1066." Romana read off from the scanner.

"Canterlot! How wonderful! Canterlot is a very great city! I've been there several times myself." Daring Do said.

"Exactly!" The Doctor said as he pulled out a large telescope and ran out of the TARDIS holding it.

Daring Do and Romana followed him out to see the Doctor positioning the telescope in the direction of the sunlight, which was now making its first traces over a hill.

Daring Do walked over to him. "It's a pretty sunrise, but I doubt it's why we came here."

"Have you ever had an eclipse before?" The Doctor said.

"What's an eclipse?" Daring Do asked.

"An eclipse." K9 said next to her, causing her to jump. "An eclipse is an astronomical event when an astronomical object is temporarily obscured, either by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another pass between it and the viewer. A solar eclipse is when the Moon passes in between the planet and the Sun. A lunar eclipse is when the planet is positioned directly in between the Sun and the Moon, causing it to turn a red color. Early primitive cultures believed that eclipses were a sign that they had angered their gods and panicked at them." He described.

"And in precisely 5 hours 47 minutes, we are looking at a total solar eclipse!" The Doctor said excitedly.

"How is this of major significance?" Daring Do asked.

"In 1919 on the planet Earth, a scientist named Albert Einstein photographed an eclipse and used it to prove the theory of relativity. He became known as one of the greatest scientists of all time! And I believe them because I met him at least a hundred times! Before that, in 1868, an eclipse was used to discover the chemical properties of the Earth's Sun! An eclipse in 1842 identified the corona as part of the Sun's atmosphere. So many astronomical discoveries were made because of eclipses and you bet that I'm going to be here to witness the first eclipse in recorded history, because who knows what is going come from it! And frankly, how can you have never had an eclipse before, they are a regularly scheduled astronomical event that cannot be held off!"

I guess Princess Celestia and Princess Luna never scheduled one before." Daring Do said.

"What on Earth are you talking about?" The Doctor asked as he continued to follow the Sun with his telescope.

"You see Doctor, every morning; Princess Celestia raises the Sun with magic, and then lowers the Sun at night. Every night Princess Luna raises the moon, and then lowers the moon in the morning. I can't think that they would have a reason to put an eclipse in there." Daring Do explained.

The Doctor stared blankly at her for at least two minutes. Then, he snorted. This snort quickly escalated into…"Ha ha ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

Daring Do glared at him as The Doctor fell to the floor laughing like a total maniac. She heard him all too well. Unfortunately, those that weren't woken up by The Doctor's rambling session about eclipses were certainly woken up by him laughing.

The Doctor stood up as his laughter died down. "You may not have been able to tell, but I don't believe in magic."

Daring Do wanted to answer, but was poked in the back by a spear that was held by a Royal Guard, who looked rather tired. "You're disrupting the peace. You will come with me." The Guard said.

"With pleasure. I'd rather like to have a word with this Princess Celestia and discuss with her a few words about the scientific fundamentals of how it isn't possible to raise the Sun or the Moon, and make her understand the prospect of orbit. Come to think of it, if they still think the planet is flat, I am getting out of here and taking off 200 years in the future or so…" The Doctor began as Daring Do rammed her hoof into his side to stop his rambling before the Guard did so in a more aggressive fashion. They all began to walk away.

Miles away, they were being watched from a balcony. On this balcony was Princess Luna. But it wasn't Princess Luna. Princess Luna was unconscious in her bed, and her shadow was stretching out to a transparent copy of Princess Luna with catlike eyes. "5 hours and 30 minutes to the first eclipse. No one will know what has caused it. The panic will bring death to them all. The ones you will come to trust are here. There is so much you will never know. Your mind is full of distorted holes. It will not take much to make it shatter." The shadow receded into Luna's body, which began to shiver and convulse.