From the Shadows

Twilight's lungs burned, as did her legs, and her head from lack of sleep, as well as her wings, still pumping in hopes for a miniscule increase of speed. The cobblestones resisted the downward blows of her legs, and her hooves pounded against the road as she neared Sweet Apple Acres.

She did not bother to go through the gate, the main entrance to the property. Rather, she cut across the knolls of apple trees, punishing the grass in her haste, and found herself at the farm house in no time. She panted and staggered for breath as she cantered, her pace being reduced from a gallop, to the front door.

"Applejack!" she called out, hoping she would be heard.

"Applejack! Big Macintosh! Can anypony hear me?!"

Again, she was not answered. She decided it best to break and enter, and bucked the door inwards on her second kick. She gasped for air as she hurried up the stairs, passing a recently awakened stallion in a bedroom doorway. She hurried down the hallway, almost too quickly to notice the few crystals poking up through the floorboards, and leading towards Applejack's room.

She reached her friend's bedroom door, and violently knocked, yelling out, "Applejack!" but again, the door was not answered.

She looked behind her after she pounded the door a second time in vain to see Big Mac, standing wide eyed and awake in the center of the hallway, looking at her concernedly.

"I'm sorry," she said, wheeled around and kicked the door in.

She spun back around to enter the room, but stopped, frozen by what she saw.

Sombra was standing at the bedside, a crimson and black aura surrounding his shadowy essence, and growing brighter as each second passed. His horn was aglow, he was breathing deeply, as if relishing in something unseen, and his head was bowed with closed eyes over Applejack, kicking and tossing as she muttered inaudible words in her sleep. The energy in the room was awesome, and terrifying.

Whether it was the shock of catching the king at work, or the horror of what he may be doing to her friend right before her eyes, Twilight was unable to speak for a few seconds. But, after a moment's passing, she shouted the only, utterly unintelligent word that came to her stunned mind.

"Hey!"

The king's eyes suddenly snapped to hers as a malicious snarl escaped his throat, and he bore his teeth into a menacing snarl as the electric hum in the air was suddenly amplified, and the aura around the king retreated into his being.

Applejack woke violently, screaming a bit in tearful sobs, prompting her brother to begin charging towards the room. But, the king never gave him a chance at retribution.

The king's entity began twisting around itself, until the equine form was replaced by an ominous shadow, hovering in mid-air, but the eyes, and glistening fangs remained prominent even in his new form.

Like a rocket, he launched from the bedside, a sudden back blast overturning the end table and sending anything smaller into the walls as the windows shattered outwards. The king blasted out of the room, blowing past Twilight and the oncoming Big Mac, knocking them both to the floor with ease.

A driving wind followed the king down the hall and out the door, and after the resounding slam of the door, the home was filled with a moment of complete, deafening silence.

Applejack stirred, ushering in the relief of sound. Big Mac got to his hooves first, followed by Twilight, who quickly darted to Applejack's side. She was sitting up in her bed, clinging to her sheets, and trying to chase away tears.

"Are you alright A.J.?" she asked as Big Mac came up silently behind her.

"I think so," she whispered, turning her teary green eyes downwards, "That wasn't a normal dream. I mean, I've had nightmares before, but that..."

"Sombra," said Twilight glumly in explanation, "He's been doing this to everypony. The others are meeting in the library now; we need to meet them, and try and stop him before he does anything else."

Twilight turned hurriedly, and began walking out the door, expecting to hear Applejack following behind her, but she didn't. She whipped back around as she reached Big Mac's side; Applejack still hadn't left the bed.

"Was he right?" asked the mare, unable to hide her sorrow, "About my parents?"

Big Mac's eyes widened as he looked to his right, to Twilight.

"What do you mean?"

"Did they love us?" she pressed, "Did they leave because they had to, or because they wanted to? Please, I need to know."

"A.J.," consoled Twilight, " I'm sure your parents loved you."

"Are you?"

"Look, Applejack, we don't have time for this. We need to go, now."

"I guess you're right," she sighed, and kicked off her sheets

The mare rose from her bed without speaking, and followed the alicorn down the stairs in haste. after adorning her hat from the rack near the entrance, they both pushed through the door, and galloped off.

****************

Again, Princess Twilight punished the cobblestone of the streets as she raced through town, this time, with a friend doing the same behind her. They were going for the library, the site of the rendezvous with the other elements, recently gathered from all around Ponyville to bring an escaped king to justice.

They would make him pay for his actions; they would let him know that fear and hate were not as powerful as love; they would reform him yet.

Into the aging night the duo pushed, the leader's expression contorted into sheer focus and determination, but her follower's still wet and glum in doubt and depression.

The first rays of sunlight had begun to come over the horizon, and the darkness of the night sky had begun to shift to deep blue, the grey clouds to pink, and the wet, dark ground to gold and lush green.

The pair crested a hill, and now, finally able to see the library, realized that they were the last of the group to reach the oak's expansive base. Twilight slowed as she came barreling down the hill, and came to a stop amidst her friends.

"Everypony here?" she asked, panting.

"Yeah," came the response from all present.

"Did he get to anypony else, other than Applejack," she stammered, revealing yet another victim of the king as of late.

"Pinkie," said Rarity, gesturing to the mare behind her, her normally prominent smile evicted by a glum frown, and her energy gone as well; she was sitting on her flanks, poking the ground with her hoof with a look of pure depression on her face, the only resemblance to the Pinkie they knew being the gem in the shape of a balloon on her neck.

"He never got to Fluttershy," said Rainbow Dash calmly, "I got to her before he could."

"Well, that's at least a small victory," encouraged Twilight in vain, "See, we're starting to come back. We'll have him in no time."

"So," began Rarity after a moment's passing, "what's the plan?"

"I don't know yet," admitted Twilight, "We'd better get inside and think of something. I'm sure if we pool our resources, we can come up with something."

The six, exhausted by the night's trials, followed the alicorn as she pushed her way into the library. Twilight's horn began to glow as she lit the wicks of the candles within the oak's shell, illuminating the full extent of the damage done to the library's interior; it was enough to cause jaws to drop, and gasps to escape into the air.

Gigantic crystalline columns and shards had overtaken the home in its entirety, and now reached for the ceiling and stretched from wall to wall. Everything was ruined; furniture, the floor, most of the bookcases, everything, except the doorway to Sombra's room, the staircase, and a path of uncorrupted floorboards that connected the two to the home's entrance.

Shock stole time, and it was a minute, or ten, before any of them spoke.

"It wasn't like this before," realized Twilight aloud.

Rarity was the first to realize her implication.

"Which means, he's been here."

A new voice suddenly joined the conversation, coming from the ceiling, the floor, the crystals, and within the mares' heads, all at the same time.

"You're late," grumbled the voice.

"Sombra!" yelled Twilight to the ceiling as she took a ready stance, "Come out! It's time to pay for what you've done!"

She strutted forward, confident and ready while her friends involuntarily huddled together; none of them realized the growing gap between them.

A low, chuckling laugh answered her, echoing through the oak's interior.

"Oh princess," mocked the king, "You really think you can stop me, don't you."

"With the elements we can. Now quit hiding! Show yourself!"

A swirling black cloud began to form in the center of the room, and it twisted itself into an equine form. Sombra stood amidst his crystalline creations, smiling.

"Who's hiding?"

Before he finished speaking, Twilight heard the bursting of the floorboards behind her, and she spun around to see her friends being ensnared within a shell of growing limpid stones, trapping them within an opaque shell; only Twilight was left on the outside.

"Now, princess," mocked the king from beyond her plane of view, "do you still think me vulnerable?"