I was once the prince of a race of ponies that were said to be born of the shadows and be descendants of the evil spirit emperor, Shadowbane. My racelived in a place that is known today as the Everfree Forrest. But back when I was around, it was called the Shadow Realm. That is why it is assumed to not be a part of Equestria to begin with. It was the capital of my family's kingdom and race. We lived there because it was a place filled with the energy we ponies needed to live on: pure darkness. Some ponies believe that it was actually a portal into the realm of darkness itself. We were a proud race that housed all species; unicorn, pegasi, and even earth ponies. But the royal family consisted of mystical alicorns; a combination of both unicorn and pegasus.

When it came to things like violence or sadness or anger, my race tried to avoid it as much as possible. I will explain why later. If anything, we were more pacifistic. My race was more well known for forging than fighting; even to defend our own borders. We could forge practically anything from armors and weapons to enchanted amulets that helped control one's magic more efficiently or boosted one's magical prowess to unimaginable levels. Our only limit was our imaginations.

I even had my own amulet that my parents had given me as a gift when I was a little filly. They told me it would help me control my powers when I grew up. How wrong they were. I lost it long ago and have no clue what happened to it. I hear whispers and rumors that it is now being called the 'Alicorn Amulet' by some of the Equestrians, though I do not know if it is my own amulet until I see it for myself. If it is Shadowbane must have cast it away before we....Sorry. I am getting a bit ahead of myself. Where was I? Ah yes!

I lived in the royal castle with my father, mother, and older sister and had many friends, especially the royal adviser named Anpu Ra. To this day I still do not know how to pronounce it properly. It was his job to make sure that everything went smoothly around the kingdom whenever my parents were unavailable to do so. He was a great alicorn stallion, standing tall. He looked so large to me at my small size. If I remember correctly his special talent was the ability to bring life.

I do not remember the full extent of his abilities but he was just as powerful as my parents. I was glad to call him my friend. He was also my teacher, teaching me basic reading and writing and some general magic such as levitation and teleportation. He had an old saying. Lets see if I can remember it. Hmmmm.... Ah Right!: "There are always four directions through time. You can take take two steps North into the unsettled future, South into the unquiet past, East into the present day, or West into the great unknown."

Despite me being a prince and all, every pony treated me so nicely and welcomed me without fear. I had this one particular friend who I played with as often as I could. His name was Willow Freemane. He was my best friend and a unicorn. But during one time that we played together, he accidentally fell on his head and his horn broke in half. After that he styled his mane to cover what was left of his horn and a flower blooms from the tip. This makes him look like just any other earth pony, but he was far from it. His magic, from what I remember, was earth based in nature. He could make flowers bloom anywhere, even in the most non-fertile soil.

I even had a little dragon friend. His name was Blacktail. He was a small purple dragon with well....a black tail. He was awesome and the greatest friend anypony could ever ask for. My family knew him since he was a little hatchling. He was also extremely smart. Smarter than me. His only real draw back, though, was that his eating habits were...well...a bit excessive. He ate every jewel he came in contact with. It was a surprise the guy was not the size of a house with how much he consumed. Either way, he was a great companion to have and he went with me everywhere I went.

All in all I had a fairly good start to my life. Even though this one only lasted for five years. On my fifth birthday, while the kingdom celebrated, a major tragedy entered, not only my life, but the lives of all the ponies in the kingdom and Equestria. A beast, known as a dragonequus entered our lands. He called himself Discord, The Lord of Chaos, and without even a simple warning he started wiping out my race right in front of our eyes, laughing as he did so. I found out later that he was scared of the shadow ponies; of what our species was capable of. I still do not know what we were truly capable of, but if this monster had to wipe them out because of it, it must have been powerful.

With my parent's orders, the captain of the royal guard, Sombra, was told to help me escape. Blacktail, of course, was right behind, not wanting to leave my side. I do not know what happened to my sister or Willow as they were lost in the commotion. I never saw what happened to them. Sombra brought us to my parent's royal chambers and activated a secret entrance that led to a passage out of the kingdom. I said that we should wait for my parents, to make sure that they got out with us. He fought me on this, but I had to use my royal position to force him to stay put. He reluctantly did as he was ordered and we hid, waiting for my parents to arrive and escape with us.

As we hid, we saw my parents enter the room, Discord right behind them. I witnessed Discord snuff my parent's lives out of existence. To this day I have been unable to remove that scene from my memories. Discord heard my screams and cries and Sombra pushed us into the secret passage, staying behind to try and fight Discord. I never saw him again. Blacktail helped us escape by leading us out of the secret passage and outside the kingdom into Equestria. To this day I do not know if anypony survived the attack other than myself and Blacktail, but... I am always hoping. Especially for my sister and my friend Willow. Just for a moment, imagine if somewhere there was a group dedicated to hate you for what you do, that otherwise wouldn't be trying to offend anyone. A fine paranoia fuel right there, no?

Author's Note

Here we go. Chapter one to my storyline. Here we are at the beginning of my character Crimson Shadow. I hope you all enjoy it and please feel free to leave some criticism. I'm trying my hardest to make a great story and I want to turn it into an actual series.