Have I not been too long in the Shadows

It was an abnormally calm day in Ponyville, the kind of day where life was slower than normal. At least, as normal is now since the town became a center of world attention because of Twilight.

Applejack was selling her apples as usual, but she sighed as nopony seemed to be approaching her stand. Winona was calm for the most part, yapping playfully and happily. All was well and good, as always. Once all of Equestria had heard that this was the town which allowed Twilight to grow and become a princess, many a pony came to here to see what kind of town this was. Business had been booming since then as more ponies had been getting more apples, and thus the Apple family gets more profits.

Seeing nothing to do for now, I looked around at the scene of the town as it is now. Banners with twilight royal emblem waved and flapped in the breeze. Guards, though few, walked along the areas of town they’re assigned to. Within sight is the new ‘watering hole’, the Olden Days’ Tavern, in one direction and in the other direction is a newer motel, the Friendly Neighbors Inn. These are all new and have only popped up over the last few months. Ponyville is definitely different, yet it’s still not much changed from before. ‘Heh, guess Twilight was right,’ I thought to myself, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Then a figure made it's way into our line of sight. Winona was the first to notice, and immediately got into a defensive position, growling towards the figure. This then turned to whimpering as the pony was approaching closer and closer. I tried calming her down, but to no avail.

This pony was tall, lanky and a dark stallion, covered in a black cloak and a deep hood covering his face, more so his eyes. He seemed to glide towards the open air apple stand like a specter. He approached the stand, Winona nearly barking, as I felt severely uneasy. Something was very odd about this pony

“Uh... Howdy. What’cha lookin’ fer?” I asked hesitantly. Have to look out for the family business.

“. . . um, i’d like to buy an apple please. H-how much?” He asked, a little far off and distant. Or was it remorseful, and haunted. Couldn’t really tell.

“Two bits...” The money went down to the counter as the pony grabbed an apple, he moved to the side of the cart, Winona’s eyes following. He then pulled something out from under the cloak, a slender object that appeared metallic. As he took it to the apple, It cut through it, revealing it to be a blade. The knife was now clearly visible as the mysterious pony carved the apple. I stared at this object as its shape was unfamiliar, not a common tool seen by anypony around here, nor a military issue seen on the guards. Then I noticed the blade had markings in it ‘Is that writin’ on that thing’. Focusing in on it, it read ‘Sequitur omnia, fiducia nihilo’ along it’s side.

The heck does that mean? Curious, I decided to strike up conversation with him.

“So, when’d ya’ get here in town?”  I looked over at him, he never averted his eyes from the apple.

“Uh, a few moments ago.” he said after a short silence.

“What’s yer business here in town? Been seein’ an awful lot o’ ponies comin’ into town. for a while now. And ya’ seem to have a reason fer bein’ here.” I based that assessment of his demeanour on absolutely nothing. Maybe it’ll work.

He stopped eating and looked over at me, kinda’ puzzled, kinda’ impressed. “You're either very perceptive, or very good at guessing.” ‘Wow, I actually got it right!’ I thought, feeling proud of myself. “Let’s just say i’m here to meet someone I know.” he went on.

“Really?” This guy knows someone around here? That’s very interesting. “Who ya’ here to meet? ‘Cause i’d like to know if I know them.”

He looked at me with a serious look in his eye’s, and I then noticed the pupils in his eye’s. They were hexagon shaped. I thought of the crystal ponies, but i’ve met many crystal ponies, and none had eyes like that. Then something else caught my eye. He had weird markings on his face, they looked like tattoos. Never met anypony with tattoo’s in my life. This guy was strange. He then spoke with a serious tone in his voice, “You shouldn’t pry too far into other ponies business.”

‘Oh. uh, ok”

There was a silence for a moment after, he just kept on eating the apple.

Then he paused, and turned to me. “Oh, uh, i’ve been out of the country for some time. I heard somepony got coronated. What's with that?”

“Ya’ don’t know about that? It’s been news all over Equestria!”

“Again, been outside of Equestria for quite some time.”

“Right. Well ya’ see, this here town has become a real iconic place because of Twilight. She-”

“Who?” he asked cutting me off

“Princess Twilight Sparkle. She’s the one who got coronated.”

“Ah.” He replied

“Anyway, she was assigned the task to learn about the magic of friendship a while back by her teacher, Princess Celestia. Twilight’s been Celestia’s best and most favored student for years and when she made friend’s with us-”

“Whoa whoa whoa, US?”

“Yeah, i'm on of her friend’s. The name’s Applejack by the way.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Moonsorrow. Now you said that Twilight was taught by THE Princess Celestia, right?”

“Right! Now we’ve been friends through some pretty tough time’s. First defeating Nightmare Moon when she came back.”

“Ah, i’ve heard of this. Ok continue.”

“We helped out at the wedding in Canterlot, the one between Princess Cadence and Shining Armor? I was in charge of the catering!” I had a very proud look on my face.

“Alright then. Go one.”

“Well, there’s a whole lot that’s happened. I won’t bore you with it all. A few months ago, Celestia sent Twilight a book with spells made by Starswirl the Bearded. And we all got our destinies mixed up. She helped us get them right again and then, after that, all of a sudden she disappeared in a flash of light! She came back after night had fell and had returned as an alicorn! With her new wings! Celestia had come to tell us that she’s passed a final test to see if she was ready, and so she passed and became a princess. Ponyville got a lot of attention, being the place she learned what she needed to be a princess, and so now we have a new princess. That explain it all?”

“Almost. What’s with the villa?

“The what?” I asked. ‘What’s a villa?’

He pointed to Twilight’s home here in ponyville.

“Oh! Well she didn’t want to leave her friends here in Ponyville, she cares so much fer us. So Celestia asked us to have the a new home made for here. Twilight asked if we could rebuild the library and make it a part of her private home. So she lives there when she’s not working in Canterlot.”

“Heh, that must take a lot of flying.” he replied with a slight snicker.

“That’s why Princess Celestia made a portal doorway for her to use.Twilight uses her magic to activate it, she can walk through it and go from here to there and back again. She lives here, but works there.”

“Neat.”

He then got back to the apple. he seemed to grimace a little when he ate each piece of it. Almost as if it tasted unappealing to him.

“How do ya’ like the apple?”

He, for a second, did not seem sure what to say. He was hesitating, as if he didn’t want to say. “They’re, um..  It’s uh, it’s good. Very good.” he said, then poorly putting on a fake smile. He didn’t sound too sure about that assessment. This guy’s lyin’, he doesn’t really think they’re good, he's sayin’ it.

“Come on, what do you really think.” I asked with a tone that said I could tell he was lying. “I can take it.”

“Really, it was good.” he said after he finished eating, “Thank you, have a nice day.”

“Now wait a minute,” I said moving toward this dishonest colt, “I’d just want to know what ya think is wrong with my apples.” He was about to leave when Winona started to bark at him again. AJ tried to get her to stop, but she wouldn’t stop barking. ‘What's gotten into her?’ she thought worriedly. Winona never does this to anypony. Ever. She stood in a defensive, yet aggressive posture, ready to attack him. ‘What is it about this guy that’s so dang disconcertin’ for Winona?’

He turned his head over to look at Winona, almost slowly, and suddenly she went silent. ‘What the-’ I started to think. Then suddenly I felt a feeling I have never felt before, a feeling likes I was surrounded by absolute suffering. Surrounded by pain and madness. ‘Whoa what’s goin’ o- MY APPLES!’ I looked at the apples in the stand, and was horrified as they seemed to be rotting and decomposing in the blink of an eye! The wood of the stand was aging and turning old, everything around us, except him, turned ancient and decayed. I suddenly felt nauseous, like I was gonna be really sick nauseous. How was this happening? I looked back at Winona, and she was terrified, slinking away from this pony out of fear. This wasn’t natural. I felt I was on the verge of a full panic, thinking ‘What in the name of Celestia is goin’ on!?’

He seemed to notice what was happening around us, was noticeably shocked, turned around, and hustled away almost as if in a slight panic. And suddenly everything went normal. The stand returned to normal, the apples became fresh and ripe. Winona seemed to calm to almost normal, but watched after this pony, just in case he decided to come back.

“The heck just happened!?” I wondered to myself in stark horror. What did he do? “Hey!” I called to him as I decided to catch up with him, “Wait up! What WAS that back there? What happened?”

“Please, leave me be.” he said. Was that fear I heard in his voice?

I caught up to him, grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. His hood fell and when I saw his face I was taken aback, shocked, as the first thing I noticed now were the scars. He had several on his face, a couple went into his hairline, but most prominent was one that went across his right eye. They seemed to be slashes from blades or claws. One even looked like some kind of burn mark. He looked like some kind of veteran, as soldier, or a warrior.. or a maybe even criminal.

He pulled himself from my grasp. “Get away from me.” he said coldly, placing his hood back on, and started to walk away.

“Holdup, sugarcube.” This guy ain’t getting away so easily. “You gotta tell me about what happened. Why’d all that weird stuff happe-”

“I asked you to go away, now leave me alone. Please.” he said still walking, still trying to ignore me.

He seems really desperate to be left alone. Maybe he IS a criminal! He certainly seems like the type who’d be a criminal. I should just make him say what he doesn’t want to say.

“Hey! Don’t you just blow me off stranger. I got more strength in me than you might think. So whatever you're hiding just say it, ‘cause you aren’t going anywhere till you do.” I got in his way and made him stop walking.

That apparently got his attention, he stopped dead in his tracks. The look in his eyes went from annoyance and worry to what seemed almost like disbelief.

“What did you say? Did you say strength?”  he asked with a lighter tone in his voice. He seemed to be a little shocked.

“Yeah, I did. Why?” Why would that concern him?

“It’s nothing, it just reminded me of something somepony told me.” he trailed off toward the end. This pony seems to be just stranger and stranger. He seemed to be in some trance for a moment then caught up with himself with a little shake. “Please, just leave me be.” he said as he tried to continue walking away.

“Wait a minute! You didn’t explain what happened!” I exclaimed.

“Just go away, I don’t want to cause anything to happen. Just get away.” He pleaded. I need to know what happened.

“Tell me what happened now!”

“NOOO!” he yelled as he spun around.  When he did his hood fell and suddenly his face had completely changed. For a moment, it had morphed into a grotesque and monstrous shape. Horns like a goat, fangs in his mouth, eyes like serpents going down the sides of his face. He had taken on a terrifying form. This was absolutely horrifying. ‘Oh my goodness...’

Then it returned to normal just as fast as it seemed to change. It seemed to only last for a second, and apparent only I saw it. ‘What in the name of  Celestia was that!?’ He must have figured out what happened, because he could clearly see the terror in my face. Realizing it, he himself seemed on the verge of panic again, and, without a word, scurried away.

I had never seen anything like that before. Dragons and Minotaur are things I have encountered before and handled well. But that was a whole new level of freaky.

I must have stood there for a while and was completely out of touch, as I didn’t notice Winona had come up next to me. She barked a couple of times and that snapped me out of it. ‘Wait, where’d he go?’ was my first thought.

I looked around but I couldn’t see him. He’d disappeared.

“I’ll probably see him again soon.” He said he was looking for somepony in town. I just hope they fare better, ‘cause now I actually hope I don’t see him again.

“ What kind of pony is he?” The thought sent shivers down my spine.