The History of Crimson Shadow and the Origins of the Past

Fast forwarding the mainly uneventful parts of the next five years, and my life was going along great. Luna was even noticing my love for her and we hit it off pretty well...until I turned twenty. That is when the horseapples really hit the fan. You see...When a shadow pony is born, they are born with a dark spirit inside each of them. Once a shadow pony reaches the age of twenty-one, this dark spirit emerges. Before it does, however, it is up to the host pony to find a life partner to love so they can suppress this spirit before it gets too strong.

Love suppresses the emotions of sadness, anger and hate that these spirits feed on to get stronger. If the spirit gets strong enough, it can latch onto the host pony's very soul and take over their body. And each spirit is pure evil. There is no
good dark spirit as far as what I know. And the most powerful of all these dark spirits is their leader and ruler: Emperor Shadowbane. He was said to be the very pony that brought evil to this land of good. It was said that his sole goal for existing was to take over this land. And not only is it true, but it was unfortunate that I was born with this dark spirit inside me. Its not easy living with this fact, mind you. Sorry. Trailing off a bit again. I seem to be doing that a lot lately. Where was I..,Oh yes...Shadowbane.

Shadowbane only inhabits the members of the royal family of the shadow pony race and always skips a generation. I do not know exactly how this whole situation works, but from what I know, there can be no more than two royal family members at once. No more. No less. For example, For me to even be conceived, my grandfather had to die because he hosted the spirit. It skipped my father, because he was already alive, and therefore went to me. The dark spirits, even the Emperor, cannot inhabit a living pony. They must latch on to a pony upon conception, when they are most vulnerable.

Back then I did not know any of this information, so I was oblivious to him existing. When he emerged on my twenty first birthday, Canterlot was celebrating my birthday with a kingdom wide celebration. Geesh...why do bad things always happen to me on my birthdays. Am I cursed or something!? Oh...right... Anyways, his emergence was so subtle. I did not even realize that it happened when it did. I never knew until it was too late. I assumed that no one knew any information about this at the time. Nor did I find anything in the books I read. And if Blacktail knew, he forgot to tell me. It's obviously too late now. But I digress...

Once he awoke, Shadowbane knew that the emotions I felt towards Luna were a threat to his powers reaching full strength. He then proceeded to plant a piece of his dark essence onto Luna's soul (Do not ask how cause I still do not know and I sure as hay will not ask). Slowly after this happened, Luna started to act bitter and resentful to her subjects, her friends, her sister, and even me. At the time we did not know why. We tried to reason with her, but her madness only grew worse until eventually the shard of evil that was planted within her soul fed off enough negative emotion and turned her into a wicked mare of darkness that called herself Nightmare Moon.

Once Nightmare Moon came to be, she threatened to make the night last forever. This was a serious threat to the land as she solely controlled the night itself. If night lasted forever, then crops would never grow and everything would eventually wither away and die. She did not care, she was angry that all the ponies worked and played during Celestia's day time, and slept through her beautiful night.

Nightmare Moon could not be reasoned with, no matter what we tried to say. I went back to my family's castle, back to the hidden room with Blacktail. There, he and I researched ways on how to change her back or at least remove the darkness that was within her. But this did not make sense to me. Through our perseverance, we found a secret page of the book that told of other effects that the Elements could have on a pony if they were taken over by a dark spirit, like Nightmare Moon. One of them being able to destroy any darkness in one's heart, leaving them only good. If it did not work, then the only other option was imprisonment.

I did not want imprisonment for the mare that I loved so much. But the big question for me after reading that passage was....Was Luna a shadow pony, like me? Was I truly not the last one? But she could not be. Naught but a few years earlier she was imprinted on by the Elements. One needed a pure heart of good to do that. Something must have corrupted her? But what...and why? I had to find out!

I teleported myself back to Canterlot, with the knowledge I gained, leaving Blacktail behind to do more research. I was feeling weak for some reason and only got as far as the city gates. I could not even fly. But with all the strength I had left, I galloped up the city and into the castle. As soon as I entered the throne room, I found Celestia suddenly casting a spell at Nightmare Moon, the Elements floating around her. The light that came from the spell blinded me and I had to cover my eyes. I felt this power before. It was when the Elements imprinted on the sisters. What was going on now?