The Doctor is in

Rain poured down from the night sky in ponyville. Shops and stands were empty or closed, and rats and other street creatures took refuge in the allies. The town was mostly empty except for a cloaked mare trying to unlock a door.

“Stupid Bon Bon, why did she have to get these brand-new locks?” The mare cursed under her breath. The key in her golden-colored aura continued to miss the keyhole, the mare looking to her left and right in a panic.

Thankfully, the key made its way into the hole; the mare wasted no time going through the door and slamming it closed. She sighed in relief and threw her soaked cloak off to reveal her sea foam green coat and white and light blue mane. The mare used her golden magic to put the key into a pair of saddle bags on her flank, walking through the house's halls.

"Hey, Bon Bon!" The mare called out. "I'm back from Sugurcube Corner. They didn't have some of the stuff you wanted, but I was able to snag most of what you asked for." The mare turned a corner and found herself in the kitchen, proceeding to place the stuffed saddlebags onto the old table.

A bumping sound from deeper in the house made the mare turn to it in surprise.

"Um, Bon Bon, you alright?" The mare poked her head out of the doorway of the kitchen. There came no response. Fear built in the mare's heart as she slowly made her way to the origin of the noise, the main room.

She reached the room in no time; the only problem was it was too dark to see anything. The light illuminating the room was only the moons, its soft glow allowing the mare to see something lying on the ground.

The mare slowly made her way to it, only to jump back in surprise when it started to squirm around, a soft muffled scream coming from it.

"Finally, I was starting to get bored waiting for you...Lyra."

The mare's, or Lyra's, blood went cold at the familiar voice. The room was suddenly lighten up by a lamp behind her. The first thing she saw only resulted in her blood running even colder. On the floor, tied up with rope and cloth gagging her mouth, was a cream-coated mare with pink and dark blue hair with tears coming out of her pleading eyes.

"Sorry I have to do this, but she was screaming a storm when I broke into your home. Also, I love what you did with the place, though your room is horrendously messy." The voice sarcastically cooed.

Lyra slowly turned her head around, her vision starting to blur slightly. Upon seeing the grinning stallion in the corner foreleg chair, Lyra took a few steps back towards Bon Bon.

"W-What are you doing here?" Lyra muttered under her heavy breathing.

"Oh, There is no need to be afraid, my darling." A dark purple aura wrapped itself on the handle of a teacup. "If you don't mind, I need to ask you a couple of questions." The stallion took a sip from the cup and set it back with the rest of a tea set situated on a coffee table.

Lyra thought she never had to see HIM again; that was the reason she moved to Canterlot. Moving to Ponyville was even better; cause who would look for her in some backwater town in the middle of nowhere?

But here she was, talking to the one pony that she couldn't meet right now.

"Please, you don't have to involve her!" Lyra pleaded with a hoof pointing to the tied-up Bon Bon. "Just tell me what you want and Leave!" Lyra's mouth was forcibly shut by the stallion's dark purple aura as he tch'ed.

"Now-Now, there isn't any need for shouting." The stallion scolded. "My problem isn't with your whore; it's with YOU." The magic around Lyras's muzzle dragged her towards the scowling stallion, stopping just before him. Lyra tried to get away, but no matter how hard her hooves dug into the ground, she couldn't move an inch.

The stallion's magic disappeared from her muzzle, now appearing around her whole body. Lyra was levitated into the air as her stomach churned from the sudden weightlessness.

"Let's see what you know, Lyra." The stallion giggled as thunder boomed in the night sky.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You're being difficult to work with right now, dear." An irritated Velvet night sneered at the bound and bedridden Arctic Specter.

Arctic Specter, who was now back to his original age, had his hooves bound by cuffs, a muzzle-shaped cage, and an anti-magic ring locked to his horn. The young necromancer glared at Velvet with silent hatred, to which Velvet sighed and trotted out of the room.

"Nothing?" Twilight's voice asked. He looked at the mare, who stood by the hospital room door with a worried look.

"No." Velvet sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his muzzle with a hoof.

"I don't get it." Velvet looked over to Twilight with a questioning look." Why would somepony want to do something like that?" The sad mare sat on her haunches and looked at the floor.

"Sometimes...we necromancers are like that." Twilight looked up at Velvet, her saddened expression still present. "We become bitter and angry ponies; ponies who only desire for others to hurt because of our pain." Twilight's expression turned into one of curiosity as she stood back up.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked. Instead of answering, Velvet turned and walked off, stunning Twilight for a moment before she caught up with him.

"I don't think you need to worry about that now, dear." Velvet gave her a small smile, which Twilight noticed to be more tired than usual. "Aside from our long and tedious attempted questioning, is there anything else to do today?" Velvet asked.

It had been a hoof full of days since Velvet visited Minty. Artic specter woke up not long after, Immediately put into custody in his Hospital room; moving his injured self could harm his recovery. Since then, Velvet had taken it upon himself to interrogate him personally since the royal interrogator/ detective, Minty Breeze, was obviously in recovery.

So far, there had been no results. Every time Velvet tried to question the young necromancer had only resulted in nothing but snarky remarks and silence.

"Well, Pinkie Pie said she had a surprise for you," Twilight said with a sudden happy tone. "She said to come by Sugar cube corner by 5 pm."

"Hmmm, I never was one for surprises." Velvet muttered under his breath. "But I'm not one to shy away from new things." He smiled at Twilight. "Say, you know what the time is?" Velvet asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm sure it isn't that late. We got a lot of time until- AHHH" Twilight shouted in shock upon looking at a nearby wall clock.

Velvet was distracted by her sudden outburst and ran into an earth pony nurse, causing the two to fall onto their behinds. They both shook their heads and looked at each other; the one Velvet knocked into looked at him with surprise.

"Hey, aren't you that-" The mare was interrupted when Velvet was grabbed by his shirt collar by a purple aura and dragged off through the front entrance.

"There's no time to talk; we're late!" The panicked and distant voice of Twilight shouted.

The nurse looked at the distant forms of the two ponies disappeared with a confused look. She looked down and was surprised to see a small, pocket-sized notepad lying on the ground.

"Mister Velvet must have dropped this." The nurse guessed. "I'll take an early leave to return this; it's a slow day anyway." She sighed, grabbed the notepad with her mouth, and walked off to her office.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ugh, where's Twilight? You would think she'd be the first one here." An irritated Rainbow Dash whispered.

"Shush Rainbow, Ya gonna give ourselves away." Applejack hissed. Rainbow dash only rolled her eyes as she, Applejack, and a small crowd of over ponies waited in the dark.

"I hope he doesn't get mad." Fluttershy's voice whispered under her breath, jumping a little at the feeling of a white hoof touching her back.

"Don't worry, darling. I'm sure Mr. Velvet will be delighted to have a party." Rarity Comforted.

"Everypony quiet! He's coming!" Pinkie quietly shouted, pointing out the wind at the approaching Twilight and Velvet.

Outside, Velvet was finally let go as he fell to the ground face first, kicking up a mini dust cloud. He picked himself up with a groan and fixed his hair and attire. Thankfully, his glasses fell off at the last moment; Velvet sighed in relief and used his magic to replace them on his face.

"You didn't have to do that, you know!" Velvet scolded Twilight, who was panting in exhaustion.

"S-Sorry, I... panicked." Twilight panted out. After a moment, she corrected herself a walked until she was just in front of the door. "Here we are; you can go in first." Twilight wearily smiled at Velvet, which meant that she was hiding something.

"If you insist." Velvet sighed as he walked to the front door.

Opening the front door to the bakery shop, he faced almost complete darkness that slightly unsettled him. Taking a few cautious steps in, Velvet had to shield his eyes when the light came on.

"SUPRISE!"

The sudden noise startled Velvet as he froze up with a shell-shocked expression on his face.

Magic bolts flew through the air; his comrades fell like flies despite their sured victory. They were missing limbs, entrail laid by their owner's corpses, and the sympathy of agonizing screams filled the air. Velvet looked over when a fellow necromancer clung to his blood-stained shirt with a pleading look on his face.

"Dr. Velvet, Dr. Velvet, Please, you got to help me! I can't feel my legs!" The injured mare said. His vision got blurry as a ringing sound filled his ears. Tears formed in his eyes as he repeated useless apologies to his comrade.

"Velvet, VELVET!" Twilight yelled in his ear.

The ringing in his ears stopped, and his vision became clear. The inured mare was gone, only replaced by Twilight's worried face; there was no war-torn battlefield, only the inside of the Sugarcube Corner filled with confused and worried ponies.

"Velvet, is everything alright?" Twilight asked with visible concern.

Velvet tried. He tried his best to put on a usual smile and say everything was okay. But after seeing a repressed memory he NEVER wanted to see again, he just stood there in horrified silence.

"I...I'm-" Velvet tried to respond, but all he could do was wordlessly mouth his mouth. Suddenly, his face gained a green hue, causing him to gallop out of the bakery.

"Is his tummy not feeling well?" Pinkie pie asked, a hint of concern in her voice.

Twilight followed Velvet out the door and looked around to find him. She quickly spotted him with his face in a bush dry heaving. When she approached him, his head rosed from the bush, the sight only filling Twilight with more concern.

In only 20 minutes, he went from a healthy-looking stallion to looking like a ponies with the worse case of cold she had ever seen. His skin was a sickly pale, his eyes were bloodshot and exhausted looking, and thrown-up stomach contents were on his lower lip, which he wiped off with a hoof.

"Velvet, you have to tell me if something is wrong!" Twilight firmly said. The necromancer faced the studious mare with an uncomfortable gaze.

"I assure you I am-" He was interrupted by Twilight stomping a hoof into the ground.

"Don't give me that! You're lying to me. I can see you aren't fine!" Twilight shouted in his face.

Velvet flinched back in surprise at the mare's sudden anger. Velvet stared at her after the sudden outburst and, after a few moments of staring, just sat down where he stood. Twilight soon joined him by sitting right next to him.

"You're right, Twilight...I'm not. " Velvet began. "I've been keeping...things...from you for a while." He looked away from Twilight with a guilty expression.

"You can tell me what's bothering you." Twilight put a hoof on his shoulder. "My friends and I are here to hear you out." She smiled at Velvet, who just turned his head to face her with a look of confusion.

"Why do you mares even care?" Velvet jerked his shoulder, which caused Twilight's hoof to remove itself. "I'm a necromancer; you normal ponies are supposed to hate my kind. So why are you all not disowning me?" Velvet's voice was strained and filled with exasperation.

"You have a point," Twilight admitted, shocking the necromancer." We didn't think you were going to be pleasant to be around. Rainbow dash was the worst; when she got the letter, Rainbow couldn't stop ranting about how bad of an idea it was and that she wanted to kick your flank." Twilight gave a small giggle at the memory.

"When you arrived at my home, I expected some brooding, darkly dressed pony with a terrible attitude. Sure, the cleaning you made me a spike do was torturous," Twilight cringed. But shook it off and continued to speak. "Besides that, I could tell you were a good pony at heart if a little strange." Twilight rubbed the back of her head as she gave him a kind smile.

Velvet sat there and looked at Twilight with mild surprise. Either she was a complete fool, or what Minty said was true, and he was that transparent. Sure, he talked and acted that was considered weird; even back then, ponies gave him creeped-out glances.

But here were ponies like Twilight and Minty seeing right past that. They see past the charade, the weak and pathetic pony he thought he was.

"My brother was murdered a long time ago." Velvet said with zero hesitation. Twilight's eyes went wide with shock but kept silent as Velvet continued. "My father didn't care; he never did, so I ran away at a young age. For years, I lived on the streets fending for myself, met many great ponies, I even met the pony who taught me necromancy."

"But in the end, they all went away or died. Because of that, I became the type of necromancer I hate now. I was bitter, cold, and filled with unending rage towards the world and everypony in it. I also joined the Dark moon legion at this point to get to the leaders but made no progress in doing so because of my anger." Velvet looked to the ground with a dark look.

"It was like that for a while until..." Velvet went silent as his dark expression turned into dread as he spoke. "One day, when a bunch of my comrades and I had sent out, we were ordered to take over a royal outpost. It wasn't a large one, about over 800 guards stationed there, but when we fought..." Velvet started to shake visibly; as tears formed in the corners of his eyes.

"Velvet, y-you don't have to continue if you don't want to." Twilight interrupted with her concerned voice.

"I had to lead a squad," Velvet ignored her. " We were confident that this fight would be easy...but we were wrong. Even though the fight went well, I got too cocky, and my team..." Tears fell from Velvet's eyes. "They all died because of me." Velvet held the sides of his head as his breathing became erratic.

Memories flashed before Velvet, memories of his fellow necromancer begging him to do something to help them live through this.

"I was assigned a medical role after some of our medics got caught in the crossfire. My superiors knew of my medical knowledge because I told them; that only hurt my mental state even more. The feeling of blood is still on my hooves; I just wanted to cut them off to get rid of it." Velvet stopped talking when Twilight latched onto him with a tight hug.

"You don't have to continue." She said softly, burying her face in his hair.
Velvet wanted to ramble on; not like she cared, right? He didn't care. He didn't plead for forgiveness nor cry his eyes at the moment. All he did was sit in silence and embrace Twilights hug, his mind going blank and his breathing slowing considerably.

For what felt like hours, they sat in silence as the only sound was the muffled party sounds from the Sugarcube corner.

Both looked over when the sound of a door swinging open alerted them. In the open entrance were Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, the latter having a piece of red velvet cake on her back.

"You guys alright? You've both been out here for a while now." Rainbow dash informed but became confused upon seeing velvets condition.

"Yeah, all the cake is almost gone, and Velvy, you're missing out on HIS party!" Pinkie appeared next to Twilight with a wide-eyed look.

"Hey, Pinkie, I think me and Velvet are going back to the library for tonight.

Velvet ignored the mares as he sat there looking at his hooves. The blood of those he sent to their deaths, the ones he was supposed to help, the ponies he had to operate on in those dirt-filled trenches, their blood was on his hooves.

He blinked and was shocked to find himself suddenly walking down the dirt road, Twilight closely next to him.

"When did we...?" He quietly said, getting the attention of Twilight.

"Did you say something?" She asked with a curious look.

"Nothing." Velvet muttered.

For a while, both walked in silence, thunder and lightning going off in the distance. Twilight muttered something about unexpected rain tonight.

"Twilight," The mare in question looked over to Velvet." Do you hate me? Did the things I told you to make you want to despise me?" He said with a depressing tone.

"No, as I said before, you're a great stallion at heart despite the things you did. And I don't believe you should punish yourself because of past mistakes." Twilight had a comforting tone that Velvet felt like he had heard before.

"You are a weird mare, Twilight." Velvet lightly chuckled, some semblance of his smile appearing on his face. The rain started to pour down from the sky as Twilight cursed under her breath. But something caught Velvet's eye that made him stop walking.

From Velvet saw, he and Twilight weren't far from the Sugar cube corner, about a dozen houses or so away. Entering the bakery, the mare Velvet was here in ponyville in the first place.

Lyra.

"Twilight, go back to the library." she turned around, finally noticing his stillness, and faced him with confusion.

"Why? Are you sure you're okay to be out like this?" Twilight started to approach him, but the sudden feeling of fear, similar to when Velvet teleported away, appeared again.

"Yes...go now." Velvet ordered in a monotone voice.

In a flash of dark purple light, Velvet had disappeared, leaving Twilight in the rain.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Velvet appeared with a flash and immediately looked around his surroundings. Just as quickly, he wished he hadn't due to its messy and disorganized nature but ignored it anyway.

"Lyra, are you still up there?! I told you I need those ingredients for my shop!" A sudden voice came from beyond the room's door.

There were more important things at hoof.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"H-How did you even find me?!" Lyra angrily shouted.

"Could you please keep it down; my head is killing me. Besides, I think you remember the emergency communication crystal we necromancers carry with us." Velvet's magic levitated a small blue crystal attached to a string from his shirt pocket. "I mean, they have a specific magical wavelength only we necromancers know." His sinister smile only grew at the sight of Lyra's dreaded look.

"I'll tell you anything...please, don't get Bonnie involved." Lyra pleaded.

"I didn't want to anyway," Velvet set the crystal next to the tea set. "I didn't even want us to meet like this if I was being honest. But you have a track record of being a slippery little bastard." Velvet glared at Lyra for a moment before his gaze softened.

Lyra was abruptly released from Velvet's magical grip and dropped to the floor. She wasted no time and crawled over to Bon Bon and protectively stood in front of her.

"I'm going to ask you this once. Do you know where Iron hoof is?" Velvet asked in a low and tired voice.