Dark tails New friends

Chapter 1: Enter the Dark Duo

I’ve been traveling for days now the sun beating down on me relentlessly, my only cover being the occasional cloud that would block the light. Today however there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky which made me curse having a pitch black coat, my sweat was causing my mane with to obscure my purple eyes. The old dirt path was barely visible through the tuffs of purple and black that made up my mane.

I was lucky the path I was traveling was mostly flattened from use. It would be a pain lugging my caravan otherwise, well more of a pain. I still can’t believe that I was able to win the thing from that showmare. She was so proud of her abilities that she was willing to make a bet ageist me, here caravan if I won and 1000 bits if she won. Needless to say I won but I could tell she was down on her luck so I bought the caravan from her for the 1000 bits.

If she had stopped boasting for just one moment then maybe she wouldn’t have underestimated me. Although she did think I was an earth pony not a unicorn, I can’t really blame her, my horn is just a broken stump easily hidden by my mane. I unconsciously rub the spot with my hoof feeling the jagged points that prove that there was once a horn in the first place. I don’t remember exactly how I lost it, my parents always said that it was when I was very young and that doctors said it would grow back. Obviously it never did but to my parents surprise I could still use magic.

Speaking of family I haven’t seen my sister in a while. She said she would check down the path claiming that she saw a hill and a few trees, but I’m at the base of said hill now and I haven’t seen a single sign of her. I look around for a few more minutes before concluding that she is not here. It is not uncommon for her to run off, but she is usually were she said she would be. I have the upmost confidence in her ability to take care of herself, so I decided to stop looking and focus on climbing the hill.

The hill was at the perfect angle for me to climb without loosing the caravan. Not that I cared to much for the thing but the stuff inside was important. It was obvious when I bought the caravan that the showmare hadn't lived there very long and that the previous owner didn’t take very good care of it. The outside of the caravan looked fine but the inside looked like somepony had a drunken brawl in there.

As I climb the hill my mind races with thoughts of my destination. Ponyville, I believe it is called. I had heard many good things about the small town. I don’t know how much of it is true, but I’m sure it will be an interesting experience.

I’m a traveling merchant, buying and selling in every town I visit. I mostly sell little things like enchanted good luck charms and basic potions or other trinkets. Sometimes though I get to deal with artifacts.

Artifacts are easy to sell if you know who to sell it to. Since some artifacts have magical enchantments on them, not only can I make a profit on it but I can learn a new enchantment that can be placed on other items as well.

I lose my train of thought when a ray of light shines straight into my eyes. I look around trying to figure out where the light came from, when I realize that I’m at the top of the hill and the light was the sun setting over the horizon.

‘Great’ I thought sarcastically ‘it’s getting dark and I still don’t know where this Ponyville place is.’ I sat down and lowered my head thinking how much farther the town could be.

“Try looking under the sunset stupid” said a young voice. I looked up and saw Shades hovering in the air in front of my face. The look on her face gave me the feeling that she was annoyed that it took me so long to climb the hill. She would probably scare anypony else with that look, almost solely because of her pitch black eyes.

Shades is about a head shorter than me she usually flies around to make herself look bigger than she really is. Shades has a dark purple coat and black hooves. Her mane is black with a single thick purple stripe whereas her tail is black with three thin stripes. Her wings are a bit odd to say the least, they look like they're made of some sort of stone, but in fact they are exactly like the wings of any other pegasi. Her feathers cling together to form sharp edges at the end of her wings. The frame of her wings is covered in a black metal-like substance. I have never seen it be scratched or broken yet it bends like any other body part with ease.

I decided to heed her advice and look beneath the mountain ridge the sun was setting behind. That’s when I saw it, a beautiful little town with what appeared to be an apple orchard and a Forrest on the edge of it. The Forrest gave off a threatening feeling but the town seemed to radiate friendliness. That’s it, there was no mistaking it. We had found Ponyville.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

∞–(°π°–) (°π°) (|°π°|) POV Change: Shades (|°π°|) (/°π°)/ (–°π°)–∞

“Equestria to Shadows, can you hear me? Shadows? Hello? Big bro?” I yelled to Shadows, he didn’t even blink. He’s been staring at that town for awhile now. I don’t see what’s so special about it, we’ve been to tons of towns before. So what is different about this one? I keep getting this weird felling when I look down there, it’s a good warm feeling but I’ve never felt so much of it in one place before.

‘I think it’s time to go down there’ I thought to myself as I flew over to Shadows. I hovered right next to him, lifted my right forehoof and smacked him upside the head. The sudden force caused him to fall forward, the weight of the caravan being the only thing that kept him from tumbling down the hill.

“Ow, what was that about?” Shadows asked as he rubbed the back of his head.

“You have been standing there starring for the past five minutes.” I replied in an unamused tone. “You can look at it all you like when we get down there. I want to get there before tomorrow.”

“I don't know what you are complaining about, I'm the one who has to drag along the caravan" Shadows stated matter-of-factly.

"Then why are you the one taking so long. Don't you want to quit lugging it?" I responded.

"Well, what's the point of rushing now, we actually know we’re close actually now." Shadows stated in a relaxed manner.

"You are never in a hurry, are you?" I huffed. To which his only reply was to look at me with a goofy smile plastered on his face. I sighed trying not to giggle at the face Shadows was making. He right though (not that I'd ever tell him that), the town would still be there in the morning and we were both exhausted from the long trip.

A few moments later the campfire was lit and Luna’s moon was bathing the night in a beautifully soft glow. The sky was clear and the fire gave out the perfect amount of heat. If there was ever a time to be out at night now would be it. ‘Nights like this one are my favorite’ I thought as I began to smile subconsciously.

My eyes started to droop and I let out a yawn as I was trying and failing to drive off sleep. Shadows had said something to me but I was too tired to understand what. As I drifted into unconsciousness Shadows turned to me and whispered a soft ‘Good night’ into my ear, just as everything went black.

Author's Note

This is my first story so if you have any advice it would be welcome. ~DX
thanks to thenecromanticunicorn for proof reading.
if you want to see the images of Shadows and Shades click the links below.
Shadows: http://xofdarkness.deviantart.com/art/Oc-pony-Shadows-X-with-Background-346481202
Shades: http://xofdarkness.deviantart.com/art/Oc-pony-Shades-X-with-background-346482635