Cast into Shadows
Chapter 1: A Day without Details
A dark adventure fic by DigitDaemon.
Edited by Womboman666 and BlitzShade
~~~~~
It started as one of the greatest archeological finds of this century. An ambitious young doctor from the Royal Canterlot Academy had made a remarkable discovery at the summit of an unnamed mountain deep within the Shadowlands, a geographical location almost completely devoid of life. The constant cloud cover made growing anything impossible and the cold temperatures were almost unbearable. On top of that, their remote location, right below Saddle Arabia, made them hard to reach as well.
The intelligent Dr. Dusted Stone had deciphered an old poem that told of a great battle that had come to a close only after the sun had been purged from the sky. Many other scholars had thought it referred to the Nightmare Moon incident, but he found a place where even to that day the sun didn’t shine. Everypony in the end wished he hadn’t.
For almost three weeks the dig was going great, artifacts were beginning to total in the thousands and there was no end to the knowledge that could be grasped from the objects they had found. Metal alloys in weapons that had strange properties, one of the assistants reported that after accidentally cutting her hoof on one of the blades that she had collapsed from a sudden and overwhelming exhaustion. The present medical team said that her vitals were so low that they would have thought the young mare was on the brink of death.
Then, halfway through the third week, they unearthed the opening to a chamber deep in the mountain. Dr. Stone quickly assembled an expedition group to uncover the chamber’s secrets, himself at the lead. As they reached the chamber’s center, they found themselves in a strange circle of unfathomable design and at the center, on a pedestal, was a small amulet. The doctor walked up to the pedestal and picked up the trinket, which bore a glyph similar to that of the ancient Romane sign for sealing or imprisonment. Dr. Stone then made his final contribution to this ordeal and in an attempt to wipe the dust off of the amulet, scratched the glyph and breaking it’s seal.
Immediately, the circle carved into the floor lit up with radiating darkness. Only one pony was quick enough to jump out of the way and watch instead as the rest of his comrades were swallowed in the pitch black energy storm. Finally when the darkness faded, at the center of the circle was a great serpentine pillar of smoke with a mocking grin and a jagged black crown. The beast smirked at the survivor, and the lone pony ran as fast as he could out of the cavern.
He was able to get most of the pegasi to flee to safety before the serpent burst from the cave, but the other ponies didn’t stand a chance as it tore through them with ethereal fangs. They fled as fast as they could back to Equestria, and quickly put together an assault group to fight the beast. But when they reached the border of Saddle Arabia and Equestria, they could see the Shadowlands’ cloud cover, extending over a thousand miles further than it should have.
Over the next week, the wall of clouds pushed further into Equestrian territory. The pegasi found that they could do nothing to disperse the clouds and the clouds were even so heavy that they could not be flown through. The Crystal Empire held up for almost three days before the power of the Crystal Heart stalled and broke down. The Earth had once before faced an eternal night, but now they lived within the walls of a never ending storm.
Thinking quickly, the Princesses decreed that all plants be sampled of seeds and other methods of regrowth, and it wasn’t a moment too soon. Within a week the plants began to die and the crops fail. Ponies began to rely on the mushrooms that grew out of the great mass of rotting vegetable matter for food, and were able to supplement their new diet with a small amount of magically grown fruits and vegetables.
For a while, everything seemed like it would blow over and everything would be fine, but those thoughts didn’t last long either. The great beasts that hid on the outskirts of society slowly died out and then a new threat replaced them. The umbra, a smoky beast that takes many forms. It is thought that it chooses its shape based on the instincts of the great beasts that they replaced,.some shaped as wolves, other bears and some even took the form of fearsome drakes and dangerous manticores. The weapons of the royal guard could do nothing to stop the raids that they made into Equestrian cities and town, and only by luck did they finally discover the purpose of the strange alloy that had been found in the artifacts in the Shadowlands. A museum curator was attacked inside of a room displaying some of the unearthed weapons from the ill fated dig and grabbed a sword to defend herself from an umbra beast that had been stalking her through the museum halls on night. The cold, silvery blade had sliced cleanly through the beast and suddenly, Equestria once again had a way to protect itself.
Every day and night, the Princesses still diligently raised the Sun and the Moon in the hope that somewhere they would still shine. As time wore on however, the royal sisters felt something that they had never encountered before, age. Their manes slowly greyed and their energy fell, without exposure to there celestial charges, they, like the plants before them, began to wither. Blessed without death, they deteriorated to a point where public appearances were impossible and even now reside hidden within the castle in Canterlot.
Where many other countries devolved into chaos, Equestria stayed strong, The young Princess Twilight took charge over the kingdom and became the vessel from which Celestia and Luna enacted their will. Now, six years later, Equestria’s population is at the beginning of a tunnel, a tunnel whose ending light is but a faint flicker far beyond their ability to see.
~~~~~
Nightlight was sitting with her back to the alleyway wall. In front of her were two great bears, Their fur replaced by a thick, palpable fog. In a flash, which came from her own horn, the umbras were gone and instead her mother’s dying spirit lay before her, telling her that she was proud and that she would never be alone. In another flash, a new form stood before her, a tall white mare with a mane and tail of the same color, her mane flowed in long tendrils through the air and her body was covered in softly glowing blue lines. The most distinct features though were the lack of a mouth and the glowing solid white eyes.
The being walked up to Nightlight and in a low, solemn voice reminded her once again, she wouldn’t be alone.
~~~~~
Nightlight slowly awoke to find herself in her bed with a musty grey light filtering through her window. The Castle had recently created a large bright beacon over the center of town, high in the sky, to denote the time of day.
“Sorrow, I had that dream again.” Nightlight whispered quietly to her empty room.
Nightlight rolled onto her back when she felt a gentle hoof run through her mane. Standing between her and the window was the odd white being the had appeared in her dreams.
“The one about your mother, and I?”
Nightlight nodded.
“I’m sorry, I know it is hard for you, having to remember every night,” Sorrow replied in the same quiet voice she had in Nightlight’s dream.
Nightlight had only dreamed of one thing since that day four years ago, that day. She had been running from the two umbra beasts that now made home in her memories. she remembered being cornered in the alleyway, backed up against the wall and in fear, unconsciously discharging her magic.
She had never used a single spell before that day, but the results were nonetheless, fantastic. in front of her appeared the ghost of her own mother, a mare she had never known. She watched in horrid fascination as her mother's soul fought and defeated the two beasts, but then in terror as the spirit turned to her. There was no mistaking the mare that Nightlight had seen in so many of her dad’s old photos and in many of her own foal pictures, but her mother's body was torn and beginning to break apart.
The apparition walked carefully over to her daughter and placed her forehead to Nightlights and spoke a single line.
“I am so proud of you.”
With that line a flood of her mother’s memories crashed into Nightlights mind and they all said the same thing, I love you.
Nightlight wept as he mother’s soul disintegrated before her and heard the last whispers of her mother’s voice say, “You are not alone.”
Nightlight received a second visitor that night. A peculiar pegasus colt who called himself Death. She had been too preoccupied in her own sadness to notice his arrival, but she remembers looking up and seeing the pegasus walking around swinging a butterfly net. He had a pale brown coat and a darker brown mane, with grey-blue eyes and a broken chain for a cutie mark.
When the teenage filly confronted the strange colt he was at first so startled that Nightlight could see him. After the shock wore off though, he introduced himself.
“I’m Death, protector of souls and gates-pony to the spirit realm. Though nowadays I feel like more of a janitor.”
“So...can you bring my mother back then?”
Death shook his head. “This is your mom? Figures since you can see me. Sorry, but I already made one allowance for her, and in this state, being all but dust, it’ll be hard enough for her to recover in the spirit realm.”
Nightlight just mumbled something to herself and went back to looking at the ground.
“I will tell you a secret though,” Death said with a conspiring grin, “When a spirit passes on, it sheds all the things that weighed it down in life. Things like sadness and anger, but also a little bit of the souls love and affection. I bet you would be able to gather it all up too.”
Nightlight looked back up at the pegasus, “How?”
“Well, I’m not used to unicorn magic, but it’s been described to me as imagining something happening while pushing magic through your horn.” Death shrugged, and returned to his soul dust collecting.
Nightlight looked back down at the ground and concentrated, ever so slowly she felt as if her mind was tugging at the air around her and within a few more moments a bright little sphere of pulsing souls energy was floating in front of her.
“Well somepony’s a quick learner.” Death said, interrupting Nightlights contemplation, “I’m glad I let your mom stick around to help you.”
“You let her what?” she asked.
“Well, when your mother died, she asked to be allowed to stick around and protect you. I don’t know what it was, but I felt something in you, an energy not unlike my own. So, I granted your mother’s request.” Death shrugged, “It’s not technically my business to mess with the affairs of the living, but who knows? Maybe you are the one they have been waiting for.”
“That who is waiting for?”
Death just smiled and turned around, “You’ll know soon enough.”
With a slap of his wings against his side a rather enormous scythe fell from the sky. The pegasus jumped deftly onto the handle sticking out of the ground and in a flash of light, both Death and the scythe were gone.
Nightlight climbed out of her bed and made her way down stairs. The house she shared with her father would have been a nice a warm environment, but the scarcity of light made it look depressing and sad. As she sat down to eat breakfast, Nightlight took the time between casting a simple summoning spell for all her bowl, cereal, and milk, to read the note her dad had left her.
Dear Nightlight,
I hope you have a great day today. I love you and I’ll see you at dinner.
Love Dad.
It was like most of the notes that her father left her, but it still touched her that he took the time each day to sit down and think of her, even for a minute or two. Nightlight quickly finished off her breakfast and made her way out of the house. She wasn’t really paying attention to it, but she was sure that Sorrow was somewhere nearby, watching over her.
Most of the ponies in Canterlot walked around town as if on edge. Jumping at every shadow, of which there were many. Nightlight stood out in that sense, her ghostly guardian allowed her to walk around with a sense of confidence.
“Hey, Nightlight!” A male voice came from somewhere behind the unicorn mare.
Nightlight turned and saw a white, pegasus colt dressed in Royal Guard armor trotting up to meet her.
“Oh, hi Rhythm,” she responded happily. Circadian Rhythm was one of her close friends from her days in elementary school, and currently one of her only friends period. Once her magic began to develop in an unusual way, the odd and “spooky” things that would occur from her magical outbursts drove most ponies away. Nightlight now had full control over her magic, but she still gave off an aura of mystery that other ponies would try their best to avoid.
“What’s up?”
Rhythm made a show of fogging up his breastplate and shining it with his hoof, “Well, the captain assigned me to street patrol for the first time.”
“So, you're finally breaking out from your rookie shell?” Nightlight asked in a teasing tone.
Rhythm scratch his head sheepishly, “Well, not quite.”
With a thump, another white pegasus guard landed next to Rhythm and gave the two a disdainful look. “Hey Rhythm, I don’t think this is what the captain meant by patrolling.”
Rhythm turned to the new arrival and gave him an annoyed look, “Oh, come on. I’m allowed to say hi to my friends. Plus, we are supposed to go out and get to know the lay of the land, place our hooves on the pulse of the street and such.”
“I don’t think talk with someone you are obviously good friends with counts as getting to know the lay of the land.”
Circadian Rhythm scowled at his partner for a moment before turning back to Nightlight, a smile back on his face. “This cheerful fellow is Strict Code, and as much as I hate to admit it, he is kind of right.”
Nightlight giggled at her friend’s indomitably cheery attitude, “Well, I should get going anyways, class starts in ten minutes. Have fun you two.” Nightlight waved and walked away while both pegasi tapped their helmets in a tipping gesture as was customary for sworn officers. Rhythm however, added a quick kiss blowing to the tradition which earned him another giggle and a blush from Nightlight.
Strict Code turned to Rhythm once Nightlight was out of sight, “So she is the one you keep babbling about then?”
Rhythm shook his head in disagreement, “First of all I do not babble, my chit chat is in fully formed and easily understood Equish. She is the one I talk about though.”
“Doesn’t look like she’s on quite the same page as you.”
Rhythm shrugged as they started to walk down the street, “She’ll come around.”
~~~~~
Nightlight walked out of the classroom and leaned up against the wall, giving a small sigh.
“What’s the matter? Finally realizing you’re too weak to be in advanced spellcraft?” A pink mare with white and pastel purple mane said as she walked up to Nightlight.
“Diamond Tiara, how many time must I tell you. I can craft spells just fine.”
“Oh sure, too bad you can’t use them. All I have ever seen you do with magic is lift your pencil.”
Nightlight sighed again. It was hard not being able to show her fellow students just how much she knew about magic, but ever since the event, anything involving spirit magic had gone from taboo to in most cases illegal.
”Just because my magic is weak doesn’t mean there is any reason for me to not take this class.” Nightlight paused, thinking for a moment on a way to end this conversation, “It’s a shame you just inherited the filthy part from your father.”
Diamond Tiara gave Nightlight a glare that would have made most ponies tremble, Nightlight just silently laughed in her head. If she only knew.
Nightlight often lamented that college was just like high school, but she was happy to admit one advantage, she could decide her own schedule. Having only one class a day and getting out just before lunch was always a good thing. She casually trotted through the pristine halls of the university and stepped back out into the dark. An odd side effect of the total twenty-four hour a day darkness was that most ponies couldn’t tell what time it was without a clock or watch, there was one pony who still could though.
“Nightlight!”
Nightlight looked up and saw Circadian Rhythm walking up to greet her. By some miracle, it just so happened that his shift on guard duty ended at around the same time her classes did most days. Nightlight was suspicious that this was not necessarily a coincidence, but she had no reason to question it either.
Sometime in the last century, the adoption of magical enhancements to the Royal Guard’s armor also brought about the use of enchantments for coloring as well, it ended the need for the guard’s to dye their coats on a weekly basis and cut down on the money required to do so. Without the aesthetic changes brought on by the guard armor, Rhythm had a seafoam green coat and and a pale blue mane. He also had freckles across his muzzle, which had earned him the nickname of Freckles in guard school. Of course he immediately lost the nickname upon graduating because the armor hid those as well. His cutie mark was an image of the moon and the sun superimposed on a pair of arrows the curved around to form a circle, and he had the odd talent of always being able to tell the time of day and as if to spite the natural order of things, being able to get a fitful sleep no matter what that time may be. It was for this reason that he was often placed on reserve to fill for a guard that could not work, a job he was hoping to finally break free of.
“Oh, hi Rhythm, how was the rest of your shift?”
The two automatically fell into step next to each other and headed towards their favorite cafe, or at least the one that they both agreed upon liking.
“It went alright. It was boring as ever, I guess the umbra have learned not to go into the city.” Rhythm shrugged in indifference, “How was school?”
“School was fine, Diamond Tiara was being a bitch as always but that’s nothing to get my tail in a knot over.”
Rhythm nodded in agreement. Diamond Tiara had been another student at their high school and they were both very familiar with her antics.
They spent the rest of the trip in comfortable silence and quickly found an empty seat at the restaurant. A few minutes later and their attention was focused on their lunches.
~~~~~
Once again Nightlight found herself wandering the lonely streets on her way back home. This time however, her normally eventless journey was interrupted by a whispering in her mind.
“The umbra are here,” Sorrow’s voice informed the young mare.
Nightlight’s unique relationship with Sorrow gave the two of them an interesting connection. They were always in contact mentally and Sorrow’s own strength was dependant on Nightlight’s. Of course, that did have something to do with the fact that Sorrow was a construction of Nightlight’s own magic. After collecting the small amount of her mother’s energy during the night she met her mom for the first and only time. Nightlight had continued to collect the latent spirit energy left behind by a collected soul, and one day, the energy began to shift and hum to its own spiritual harmony. That day Sorrow was born and has been by Nightlights side ever since.
“Where?” Nightlight asked back.
“Around the corner two blocks down.”
Nightlight quickly checked her surroundings before galloping around the corner and down the street. When she reached her destination, she did in fact find three umbra in the shape of timber wolves contemplating the jump to a second story balcony window that was left open by the house's occupants.
She had no problems getting their attention, the alpha’s head evaporating in a haze of spirit energy did the trick nicely. The other two turned and immediately charged at Nightlight, but found that they could not move more than a few inches at a time. Nightlight turned and found her faithful companion standing behind her. Sorrow’s eyes, which were normally a solid pale blue, were bright with energy and Nightlight could feel the waves of sadness that now impeded the umbras’ progress.
Nightlight prepared to deal with the other two wolves, but before she could lift her horn, they evaporated simultaneously as two spinning blades struck the pair.
Sorrow closed her eyes and audible whispered to Nightlight ”I guess he turned up after all.”
Nightlight looked in the direction that the blades had originated from and as expected, found Wrath standing there. His expression was unreadable due to the mask of bones covering his face.
