Everlasting Shadows (Beta Name)
Celestia turned to Twilight, who wore a bored look, but instantly sat upright at the princess’s gaze. Celestia waved her hoof to dismiss the guards, and gave a light chuckle once they were alone. Twilight returned a smile as Celestia stood up, turning to Twilight.
“Princess, it has been such a pleasure to see you for the week, and I wish I could have stayed longer.” Twilight said sadly as she stood up as well.
“Maybe you should visit more often. You’re being formal to me again. It’s kind of annoying…” Celestia smirked and walked to the window, staring at her bright sun.
“Oh, um, sorry, Princess…” Twilight shied away as Celestia laughed at her student’s antics.
“Twilight…” Celestia said in a sing-song voice. She chuckled, staring into the sun yet again. Blinking, she turned to the room’s center as she felt a wave of magic. Narrowing her eyes, she stepped forward.
“Something’s amiss…” Celestia started, as an image of a unicorn mare appeared. Celestia tilted her head, trying to mask her surprise as the shadowed figure laughed.
“Hello, my pretty little ponies.” The figure spoke loud and clear, but Celestia could not recognize the voice, outside of it being feminine. The pony seemed colorless, with shadows engulfing the cutie mark and dark gray eyes, and a common mane and tail style. The figure grinned looking around the floor.
“I- My identity is unimportant, ponies, but… What I preach is what will strike. Know me as fear, ponies, for I shall be death… If I do not gain that which I seek, you pretty little ponies will be my food, my work, and my joy. Usher in a world of darkness for you to live, and forever be my slaves. Do not take my words lightly; for they will rain down on your fragile little heads, every one of you has heard my warning. All can see me as bright as day, though I appear as dark as the night. Yes, everypony will bow down to me, even your silly little sun princess, right Celestia?” The figure looked up to Celestia with a wicked grin, as Celestia in return stood with authority. Twilight walked up beside the princess with a worried look.
“You can hear us? Who are you?” Twilight asked the pony, as Celestia signaled for her to do the talking. The figure let out a laugh, turning around and walking away (though the image didn’t move). It turned sideways with a glance to Twilight, chuckling yet again.
“Of course I can hear you! I can hear every one of your subjects, Celestia, and also those who exist outside of your rules, but don’t worry about my ears; it’ll be much more… chaotic for you later on. Wouldn’t you like to hear the screams of your subjects drown out this world? Such a beautiful melody it would be…” Celestia growled at the figure, who in turn mocked a scared visage, cackling soon after.
“State your business!” Celestia commanded to the figure who suddenly seemed bored out of her mind. The figure checked her hoof for a bit, before turning back to Celestia.
“You see, ponies, I have something… Not important… Hm, not inspiring… I have something boring. But, when I show you what I’ve done to it, you’ll gasp! But, I don’t think it’ll be from the excitement, no, no. It will be… fear!” The pony shouted, as her horn glowed black.
Suddenly, an image of a pony appeared behind her, gagged, tied up and screaming. Blood stained her fur, and she had a black eye. Twilight gasped, as the figure laughed. She flashed her horn again, as the second image suddenly gained color and her muffled screams were made audible echoing through the room. The pony was a Pegasus mare, had three suns as a cutie mark, a green coat and a pink mane and tail. Celestia growled once more, earning a chuckle from the shadowed pony.
“Yes, you know her, what was her name again? Merry May…? Hah…! What kind of name is that? Such an ugly little pony… isn’t she?” the figure turned to Merry May, who whimpered at her gaze.
“Ah, how a little remodeling can strike such… emotion in your audience. Artistic license, I think it’s far superior to the original. Do you want to know how easy it was to break her? She was practically screaming the moment she woke. Hey, Merry May, guess what? Everypony in Equestria can see you, even your coworkers, your neighbours, your friends, your family, and the Princesses! But all you have to show them is your pathetic crying? How sad. Here, your gag’s off, say something. You’re… the evening’s entertainment… and soon to be my food.” Merry May turned away from the pony as her gag came off. She gave a pleading look.
“Help me… Celestia, help me! I’ve been stuck here for…” The figure threw the gag back on as she cackled at Celestia.
“You see, Merry, I give those details. She has been mine to play with for the past week, and she will soon be scraps on your front door if you don’t obey me, Equestria, so have fun!” The figure’s horn glowed as Merry May disappeared. The figure turned to Celestia, a determined look on her face.
“You are powerless, Equestria, how does it feel? You can’t help, your friends can’t help, and your princesses can’t help. You are hopeless… hopeless to fear… so, until next time, my little fillies!” The image disappeared, as Luna burst into the room.
“Sister, hast thou… did you see that? She’s not lying, it’s all over Equestria! We must find them at once!” Luna yelled, as Celestia nodded in agreement. Twilight turned to Celestia.
“Celestia, do you know who that was? Should we use the elements?” Twilight flapped her wings nervously as Celestia shook her head.
“No, Twilight, I do not know who that was, and I fear that the Elements will not bring us any answers. Luna, I cannot trace the magic, I need you to gather some intellect and find out whom she is, where she is, and I need it to be fast. I fear for my subjects…” Celestia ordered, as Luna flew out.
“My faithful student, all we can do now is hope…”
Hope will be the greatest fear…
Twilight walked into the conference hall with Celestia, eagerly awaiting information. Luna turned to them with a frown, and Twilight knew they came empty-hoofed. Celestia nodded to Luna, who sighed, shaking her head.
“Sister, we are hopeless. We- I have gathered many experienced unicorns with hope to unravel The Shadow- that’s what Equestria has taken to call her, but our results yield more than one subject. I’m afraid the pony has done well to hide all traces, our results seem to be a random collection she used.” Celestia gave an irritated look, and contemplated what to do. Twilight hoped that the princesses could figure out how to find the mare fast, or Merry would be hurt even more.
“Such does not matter, tell me every result your research has concluded, we may find a pattern.” Celestia told Luna, who gave a doubtful look, but nodded in agreement, and pulled out a list with magic.
“When we tried to trace her location through the transmission, we got results that say it came from Ponyville, Cloudsdale, this castle, and the Everfree forest. When we tried to match her magic with those in our data files, her magic resembled the following ponies: Amethyst Star, Rarity, Prince Blueblood, Morning Flare, Star Swirl the Bearded, Twilight Sparkle, Spitfire, Hoity Toity, Photo Finish, and my own.” Luna stated, as Celestia growled in frustration.
“Impossible, none of them have those capabilities, and some aren’t even unicorns!” Celestia fumed, lying on one of the conference chairs.
“Sister, there were more results from the trace. The things the magic resembled that weren’t even ponies include: Discord, changeling magic, the Elements of Harmony, the Crystal Heart, Nightmare Moon’s armor, King Sombra’s dark crystals, and the Mirror Pond.” Twilight would have burst out laughing at all the random results had the situation been less serious. Luna continued.
“Her voice gave no results, her accent was too generically evil, and her mane and tail style matched 34% of Equestria’s ponies. Her eyes were completely black… so no leads there. No visible cutie mark either.” Luna sighed, turning around to signal that she was finished. Celestia grunted, closing her eyes to think. Luna shook her head, turning back to Celestia.
“Sister, I see few options in our scenario. We have no leads to where she is, it would be impossible to search for them, even with the entirety of the Royal Guards and my own guards.” Celestia allowed herself a small chuckle, opening her eyes to look at Luna.
“Oh, Luna, how many times have I told you? Your guards, my guards, royal guards, it doesn’t really matter unless we’re giving orders to them for specification. I agree… It takes effort to scour even a town if we had no leads, if not simply from the ponies’ complaints of privacy breach. But, we cannot simply sit idly by while our ponies live in fear. What else can we do?” Luna tilted her head to the side before sighing.
“Then I can only think of two vague options. One, we wait until the Shadow acts on her threats, perhaps answer what she asks for, or two… we… well…” Luna gulped, and Celestia blinked, narrowed her eyes expecting the worst.
“We ask for help.” Celestia blinked in surprise, and rolled her eyes, turning to Twilight.
“Oh, Luna, you have always been so reluctant to ask for help when you needed it. Of course, I will contact the Crystal Empire; surely they can help with our predicament, no?” Luna chuckled nervously, looking around the room.
“Oh, um, they’re already helping, and they have no idea what to do either. I suggest we turn to the… No, wait, how about… No, you said the griffons already are part of Equestria… Do we actually have any neighboring powers besides the Changeling Kingdom and the Crystal Empire?” Luna asked, with a contemplative look. Celestia shook her head sadly, trying to brainstorm a solution. Twilight sighed; she wasn’t really sure why she was here, but she was told and she would stay.
“Well, we could ask… Discord…” Luna said with a shiver. A laugh sounded through the air as a draconequus formed beside Twilight. Everyone fired their horns in surprise, and of habit from seeing Discord, and Discord laughed once again.
“Oh, did I… startle you? Well, I’d think you’d be more cheery to see me, didn’t someone page for chaos?” Discord flew around the room, appearing randomly beside the ponies.
“Aw, look at those pretty little wings, Twilight. Oh, I apologize, that’s Princess Twilight Sparkle. You know, Celestia, it seems that more and more princesses just… pop up after your sister came back. In fact, you had to make a public service announcement to calm them after they discovered that you two weren’t goddesses, am I right? I might be of chaos and disarray, but I certainly believe in math, and I see double the princesses that before!” Celestia sighed irritably, stamping her hoof.
“Discord, we are asking for your help, and I’d appreciate not hearing any more of your riddles and mockery. Certainly you have heard of The Shadow, no?” Discord, sighed, snapping his claws. He suddenly wore a detective’s outfit, and smoking a bubble pipe. Luna shook her head at the outfit, turning away.
“Oh, you seek the Shadow? Ah, yes, I’ve heard of her, I’ve seen her too! She practically appeared in the middle of my room and started talking to me. In fact, I quite recall a mention of someone living outside of your rule and getting chaotic. Now, I wonder what she could be referring to…” Discord gave a mock look of contemplation, as Celestia sighed at her old archenemy.
“Twilight, I do believe you take leave for home tomorrow, and I apologize for the last few days being so chao- hectic.” Celestia looked to Discord again who was playing with figurines of the Elements of Harmony.
A vain struggle it will be… Shadows, they're everywhere, they come to you. To seek one... such discordance...
