The Plague Doctor.

Canterlot Castle

The Throne Room.

There the Doctor stood at the doors to the throne room of the two princesses of Equestria. When he was a foal coming here would have been the highest honour for him...but not any more. Not after the things he'd seen, and now they call for him. He raised his ears under his cloak and he ever so slightly managed to hear what was being said inside the throne room. If it was normal talking he would not be able to hear anything through the huge metal doors, thankfully the sisters were yelling at the top of their lungs.

"Tia don't do this! you know what he's done, his methods are sick!" said a voice from the other side of the door.

"I'm sorry Luna but I won't sit here while a plague befalls my kingdom!" came another voice,

"And what do you think he can do?!"

"He's seen things like this before. He could help the elements of harmony tend to the sick!"

"Fine but don't say I didn't warn you sister! that pony is a demon, NOT one of your subjects!"

Oh lovely the Doctor thought that's nice to hear.... but she's right.... I am a monster.

His thoughts were soon cut off when one of the guards that had been watching him for the last few minutes, probably because of his odd looking uniform, said "you may now enter" and the doors in front of him finally opened, the Doctor straightened himself and he walked in.

The two Princesses eyed him carefully, not that they could see his face, let alone his entire body under his pale coloured beak mask and his dark hooded cloak. All he did was make the usual bow, and stand there and wait for them to talk just in case they were the only speak when spoken to type of royalty.

After about a minute princess Celestia broke the silence, "hello there um sir um.... I don't actually know your name" she said in a voice like she didn't properly know how to greet him.

"Princess if it's all the same to you I just prefer Doctor."

"Very well then, Doctor. Do you know why we have called you here?" she asked, trying to hide her curiosity about his his real name.

"Depends." he said.

Princess Luna finally spoke up and said "depends on what Doctor?" cursing herself that she had to call that... that thing Doctor.

"Depends on if the things I heard on my way up here are true" He said remembering back to overhearing ponies talking about a town by the name of Ponyville that had some sort of sickness there.

"They probably would be true" Celestia said knowing that the stories had been running rampant through the streets all week.

"Well then tell me what is this.... pestilence then?" the Doctor hadn't been in Equestria for seven years now and had forgotten most of the way to Canterlot, he was only lucky that Canterlot was completely unmissable.

Celestia took a deep sigh and said "a terrible plague has fallen over my subjects and it's spreading faster than I thought it would, it first started in Ponyville, and now it's reached Manehattan, Canterlot And Cloudsdale.

The Doctor remained silent.

"Look!" said Luna angrily, she didn't like the pony neither did she want to,  "what my sister is trying to say is that it wont be long before this plague is everywhere and we are running out of options"

"You speak as if I've got a cure to everything" The Doctor said.

Celestia frowned, "we heard you had experience in this sort of problem" she said sadly.

The Doctor saw how ever much he would try the Princesses would probably not take no for a answer, and however much he hated it this still was his job. "well then princess. I accept. I will help".

The princess looked at him, "Oh thank you Doctor. We have already put a quarantine over PonyVille to stop the disease from spreading. We will give you anything you want"

"Spare me!" the Doctor said cutting her off, "I don't need nor want your money or your gratitude. Do you think i deserve anyponies thanks for things I've done? For the things I'll do? don't try to hide it Princess, you know perfectly well what i''ve done and what I did. but do you know why I did it?..." The Princesses didn't answer. "Because nopony else would!....." He said in cruel manner.

"You've lost your mind" Luna whispered under her breath hoping the mentally scarred pony in front of her hadn't heard her, but he did.

"You would too if you'd seen what I've seen" he said

"What have you seen?" The princesses both said, of course they had lived for thousands of years but the princesses were not quite sure about what had been going on outside their peaceful kingdom with Luna being banished to the moon and and Celestia having to run night and day entirely by herself, and now that they'd seen a pony that was not Equestrian born they were getting rather worried about what was beyond there peaceful kingdom.

All the masked Doctor said was "you don't want me to answer that...."

Ponyville

Five hours later

Train station

"I'm not sure about this y'all", Applejack said to five other ponies and one dragon. They had been waiting at the train station ever since they got word that an experienced Doctor was on their way. The element's immunity and that dragons are unaffected to the plague allowed them to go outside unlike everyone else who was forced to stay indoors until there was a cure, "Granny Smith told me that these Doctors could kill you with one single touch and then after he killed ya he'd turn ya into a Zompony."

"Oooo! Oooo! !Oooo! I could throw him a 'I hope you don't turn us into Zomponies' party!"

"Pinkie i'm pretty sure he isn't able to turn us into Zomponies" Twilight said

"Yeah well he better get here soon" said Rainbow Dash, clearly bored of waiting for half an hour, "Who is this guy anyway?"

"All it says he's had experience with this kind of thing and that's all" said Spike as the train came around the bend. They watched as the train came to a slow halt and three guards came to check if there was nopony sneaking onto the train to get away from the plague.The guards gave the all clear and and the one and only passenger was allowed to get off.

"I hope he will be able to help the...th" Fluttershy stopped mid sentence and gasped as she saw the figure appearing at the door of the train. A stallion, or at least she thought it was a stallion, in a dark hooded cloak wearing a pale white mask with a strange beak and glass eye holes for seeing through. There was truly no way of seeing the stallions face or anything about him.

Rarity gasped as she she saw him, she mostly gasped at his fashion. Fluttershy squeaked and hid behind Applejack who was trying to maintain a normal composure with limited success. Pinkie Pie's smile faltered for only a second before she was her normal self again. Rainbow Dash stood there in awe as she had never seen anything like that before. Twilight looked at Spike who whispered to her "I smell something."

"Spike not now we can eat later" Twilight whispered back in irritation, annoyed that her number one assistant couldn't concentrate on the matter at hand.

"No I mean I smell something coming from.... whatever he is, and I can't put my claw on it" he said with a worried look on his face.

Twilight looked at him and gave him a reassuring look as the so called Doctor approached them.

When he finally was standing in front of them he decided to speak up since the look on their faces said they weren't going to. "Good evening" he said.

"Hi!" Pinkie said bouncing up to the Doctor. "I'm Pinkie Pie and this is Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy, oh wait I already said Fluttershy!" pinkie said giggling.

"Don't worry she's always like that" Rarity said, trying not to ask if she can get him a better suit for his job.

"so" Twilight said, "how about we show you everything that's been happening around here?"

"It would probably be best if I could be shown a place where I can set up a laboratory as well" the Doctor said

"oh yes of course" Twilight said. They began to walk into Ponyville. To a normal pony you wouldn't be able to tell there was a plague going on. It looked like your average happy town, but not to the Doctor. He'd seen this before plenty of times. Ponies going about their business trying to act like nothing was wrong.

"I expected there to be more coughing and ill ponies in the street by this time" the Doctor said in a curious tone.

"So did we but we were hoping you could explain that." Rainbow Dash said.

The Doctor wasn't listening. He was busy watching a stallion across the street that had been coughing for the last two minutes, before Rainbow could ask what he was looking at he was already walking towards the coughing stallion, "excuse me sir I'm a Doctor and I was wondering how long have you had that dreadful cough?" the Doctor asked the stallion who seemed shocked at the fact that this pony was a Doctor!

"uum about two days" the stallion asked in a raspy voice.

The Doctor started thinking to himself when the Six came over to join them. "Hello Thunderlane" said Twilight.

"Hello... you... guys" he said between coughs, but then the Doctor saw what he predicted due to his experience, Thunderlane threw up violently and collapsed on the floor.

Fluttershy went to help him. If the Elements weren't protected he would not have allowed this at all.

He began to examine Thunderlane but he easily came to the conclusion, he turned the six and said "I wont lie to you, he's going to die within the next few days and it will be very painful."

They stood there looking at Thunderlane wide eyed and pitiful. 'How could he just.. say that?!' Applejack thought.

The Doctor looked down at Thunderlane and said "hold still"as he pulled out a needle with a odd looking liquid inside and injected the contents into Thunderlane's neck.

"Will... it... cure me?" Thunderlane asked while choking.

The Doctor paused for a moment, "of course it will good sir" he lied

Thunderlane's body began to toss and turn uncontrollably, Pinkie had only just realized what the Doctor was doing. She moved to help Thunderlane but the Doctor immediately caught her, "If you knew this pony you would let him die quick." he whispered in her ear.

The ponies looked over Thunderlane's now dead body either crying or angry at the Doctor for what he did but still..... you can't blame him for giving a quick death.

Five minutes later

Golden Oaks library

WHAT IN EQUESTRIA DID YA DO?!!!! Applejack yelled at the Doctor.

"Well I simply injected a fluid that shuts off the lungs and slows the heart rate down into his neck letting him choke to death" the Doctor said keeping his as Fluttershy cried into Rainbow's neck. Twilight and Spike were fascinated, stunned, angry, sad, there are to many to name. Pinkies hair had deflated and she had not spoken a word the whole way to the library and Rarity was in total disgust.

"THAT DON'T MAKE IT ANY BETTER!!!" Applejack responded.

"Miss Applejack I politely ask you to calm down" the Doctor said while dragging Thunderlane's dead body inside.

And that was it. Applejack had had enough. She stomped right up to him and faced him snout to mask, "Listen here you" she said anger glistening in her green emerald eyes, "If you don't start giving us some answers then I'm gonna break every bone in your body and send you home in a box!..."

The Doctor found this very funny to say the least. He had dealt with violent ponies before but not as protective as this, the Doctor thought back to a large Griffon who attempted to kill him a few years back in the griffon kingdoms, it did not end well for him. but still he maintained his composure as always and played along.

"If you insist" he said. "first things first, the reason I..... put that stallion out of his misery is that I needed a victim of the disease who had died within a few hours of it, secondly I needed to know how the disease spread"

"So that makes killing ponies alright?" said Twilight.

"Better a few die then all" he replied. now Miss Twilight do you have a laboratory?" Doctor asked.

"Well... I... yes I do but" Twilight stuttered and then was cut off by the Doctor.

"Excellent I will need to set up my gear there then if you don't mind" he said. "But for now I will need to go back out and take a few samples from around Ponyville."

"Uuuuum... give us a sec" Rainbow Dash said pulling the rest over to her "we're not going to let him go out and cause more havoc are we?" she whispered.

"I agree" said AJ somepony needs to go with him and make sure he don't do anything else crazy while we stay here, I am determined to find out who this guy is" she said trying to calm down after yelling so much.

"I'll go with him" said Pinkie who had been very unusually quiet.

"Are you sure Pinkie? you don't need have to" said rarity.

"It's okay" she said.

"I-Ii'll go too" said Spike.

Twilight was quiet for a moment not wanting her number one assistant to come to harm, "but Spike you really don't."

"No I feel like I must" Spike said cutting her off.

"All right then" Applejack said, "lets do it" they turned to the Doctor and Spike and Pinkie left with him. as soon as they were out of sight they turned to Fluttershy, Rarity and AJ and said. "okay lets find everything we can on mask wearing doctors and would somepony please put thunderlane's body in my lab!"