S.T.I.A.D.L: Future problems and past solutions

~~~~~Cynder’s POV~ ~8 years ago~~~~~

  “Cynder!” he roared into my cave.

  “What?!” I snarled annoyed.

  “Are you really working for Malefor?” he asked with hostility in his voice.

  “Yes and since you are my student so are you,” I answered.

  “I will never help that ingrate…” I cut him off with a stream of shadow fire.

  “You will watch your tongue especially when addressing your master,” I snarled.

  “He will never be my master!” he said jumping into the shadows to attack me.

I slashed him as soon as he reappeared with my tail before turning and hitting him again with my shadow fire. I kept my fire stream as relentless as I could for over two minutes at temperatures that could kill a dragon in thirty seconds. When I stopped shadow fire attack I could see my student’s limp body but I didn’t stop hurting him. Shortly after the fire stopped I brought the cave down on top of his body.

~~~~~~Present Day~~~~~

  “Cynder, snap out of it,” was the first thing I heard as I regained my senses. The first thing I saw, other than the dark void in front of me, was the form of my savior, Spyro.

  “What happened?” I asked as I started heading back to our cave wanting to be as far away from the shield as possible.

  “It looked like you were having a nightmare,” Spyro said obviously worried as he followed me.

  “Bad memory is more like it,” I finally said, after nearly a minute of silence, not wanting to elaborate as we entered the cave.

  “It’s okay Cynder. You don’t have to say anymore if you don’t want to. You are who you are and nothing can change that,” Spyro said as he laid down a little ways away from me.

It has been about a month since we arrived in the hive but nothing has really changed. We are basically just waiting for something to pull us back onto their planet. I laid down hoping for the sweet embrace of sleep but every time I closed my eyes I always saw the face of Shade. I don’t even remember his real name but ever since he mastered Shadow magic I always called him Shade.

It doesn’t really matter what I call him since I can never undo what I did to him.

~~~~~~Luna’s POV~~~~~

The walls were a brilliant color that almost perfectly matched a sunset while the stained windows with star patterns had been enchanted so that they changed based on the phase of the moon. The ceiling was designed to appear as if it was my night sky itself while the floor had some 3-D art to make it look like Canterlot at night. A knock on my bedroom door broke my concentration on the book I’d been reading and I opened it with my magic to reveal a light brown unicorn with an orange mane but there was something wrong with him.

  “You’re a changeling!” I accused to the seemingly normal unicorn in front of me.

  “That’s no reason to go and blow out my eardrums, Lulu,” he replied before dropping his disguise and closing the door behind him.

  “You have broken Equestria law by-” I started to say but the look on his face told me that this was important. It had been so long since something could silence me with a look alone. Other than my sister the only other creature to pull it off had been.

My mind nearly broke down when I realized that I couldn’t remember. My memory is usually very good and since I never experience the thousand years trapped in the moon from my point of view it was a mere fifteen years since the creature had accomplished that. I shook the half thought out of my head and focused on what was so urgent.

  “How close are we to completion?” someone asked though it sounded gargled and muffled somehow.

  “Not even halfway yet, sire,” another voice answered the first. I looked around my room for the source of the voices but couldn’t find it. The only ones here were me and the changeling.

  “We’ll have to just wait for-” the first voice got cut off but it was enough time for me to pinpoint the location of the voices. I turned around and finally realized that the hive scanner had just shut off. I put some power into it to turn it on but there was very little this time, just the changelings in Equestria. I looked back at the changeling to find him passed out on the floor, sleeping soundly.

The undeniable sound of a sonic boom drew my attention from the unconscious changeling to the nearby balcony. I walked outside just in time to see something crash into the mountainside about a mile below the summit. I prepared to take off but stopped as the ground started shaking shortly before another loud boom was heard. The second crash sounded like it came from the other side of the mountain but it made the ground shake even more anyway.

After a few minutes the ground stopped shaking and I prepared to take off again however I hesitated when I notice that the moon was next to the sun in the sky. I finally took off to check on whatever collided with the mountainside and it didn’t take long before I could see another figure flying the same way. Needless to say I was extremely confused. First, a random changeling showed up and got the scanner working. Then something collided with Canterlot Mountain itself hard enough to shake the entire city twice. Finally even though it was early afternoon something brought the moon into the sky.

As I closed in on the mountain I could see an enormous tunnel that was a nearly perfect funnel and went the whole way through the mountain. I flew through the new shortcut through the mountain and noticed that the edges of the tunnel were jagged slightly. It became more obvious the further in I went and the only thing I could think of that could make it jagged like that, as crazy as it sounds, would be an incredible amount of wind resistance.

Finally the exit was in sight but on the other side was an enormous crater along with nearly two miles of destroyed trees and upturned dirt. Luckily there wasn’t anypony living on the other side of Canterlot Mountain but this would have been fatal to anything. I knew that whatever lied at the center wouldn’t be pretty but I had to know what could have crashed through a mountain. Two ponies were already at the center of the crash and one of them was obviously my sister but I didn’t recognize the other.

I looked at the center of the crater and found a Pegasus face down in the crater. The fur around it was burnt black and covered in dirt, ash, and soot. Its wings were so broken and bloody it was a miracle they were still attached at all. Its wings were the only reason I could tell it was a pony at all for the body looked like it was nearly melted away.