My Little Pony: Shadows of the Two Kingdoms

The six ponies exited the train to behold the beautiful city of Rubia. Rarity’s eyes shined in disbelief at the fabulous city. The buildings were made of perfectly crafted white marble stone and outlaid in gorgeously cut rubies and garnets. The ponies that walked the streets looked proud and appreciated their city, without a hint of self-arrogance. The sky was a calming light blue with a few scattered, puffy clouds here and there.

“What could possibly be wrong with such a wonderful city?” Rarity asked her friends.

“Check out the weather, it’s nearly perfect. I wonder how many pegasi work on their weather team.” Rainbow noted.

Twilight walked forward and interrupted her friends. “I don’t know, but the princess sent us here for a reason and we have to find out why.”

The six ponies trotted off from the train station, searching for any possible reason for why they were called to this city. Each enjoyed a small piece of the city. Rarity wandered the dress shops in the market admiring each carefully made gown and dress.

“These dresses are immaculate and very well made. Why, their skill almost matches mine.” Rarity thought to herself as she observed several different multi-colored fibers being woven into intricate patterns and symbols. With a toss of her mane, she continued to trot down the fashion district.

Pinkie went straight to the candy and sweets part of the city. What she found almost brought her to screaming with excitement. Candy on every corner. Some she knew well, some she had never seen before. Pinkie hopped down the street wanting to taste them all. “What’s this?” Pinkie Pie asked a vanilla colored mare with a light green mane.

“That is one of our most delicate sweets in the city. It’s called a Rubia zapper, and they can only be found here in this city. Would you like to try one? They are free today.”

“OF COURSE!” Pinkie exclaimed almost bursting in happiness. She popped one into her mouth, and chewed it slowly. Pinkie Pie, being the candy and sweets master in Ponyville, tasted it carefully. The zapper had a tart taste but slowly changed to a sweet yet sour taste, and finally changing to a cool mint flavor that washed over Pinkie’s mouth. Pinkie swallowed it and continued to stare at the vanilla mare with a serious almost penetrating gaze. “That.... was.... AMAZING.” Pinkie yelled at the top of her lungs. “I’ll take twenty to go.” Pinkie said, grabbing two boxes and throwing six bits on the countertop. The vanilla colored mare laughed softly as Pinkie sped off down the street in full gallop.

Rainbow arrived at the clouds district to see just how the weather in this city was so perfect. Rainbow found the building she had been searching for the Pegasus Hub. It was a fairly large building, closely resembling her cloud home in Ponyville, and yet this building was far larger and had three rainbow falls spilling off the side. The huge rainbow falls spilled into a small pond of crystal clear water with a soft rainbow colored hue to it. Rainbow Dash rocketed through the skies reaching the building in only a few seconds. Rainbow walked in with a confident strut and spoke up without a hint of hesitation to a lone pegasus mare.

“I’m Rainbow Dash, greatest flyer in Ponyville and possibly the best flyer in Equestria. So how is the weather so perfect in this city? It’s almost as great as the weather I make in Ponyville.” When Rainbow had finished speaking, she was shocked to see the mare in the building was paying zero attention to everything she had just said.

“Hey, are you paying attention?” Rainbow asked with a slight bit of annoyance. The young mare turned around coming face to face with the proud rainbow maned pony. Rainbow could now fully make out all of the features of the mare she has been speaking to. The young pegasus had a softly colored sky blue coat that brought out the color of her white mane and tail highlighted with streaks of yellow colored lightning.

“Yes, I’ve heard of you and your tremendous ego.” The mare said with a smooth voice. “You’re Rainbow Dash, only pegasus to have ever successfully performed the Sonic Rainboom, and you dream of one day becoming a Wonderbolt. As for our weather, it is watched and attended to every day by the pegasi that work on our weather team. As for me, my name is Barrel Roll and it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Rainbow Dash was a bit bothered by Barrel Roll’s comment on her ego, but she quickly shrugs it off and continues to ask questions about the Rubia weather team.

Fluttershy had gone straight to the city gardens to relax and be where she felt she was most welcome. The gardens were a beautiful sight to behold small waterfalls flowed into miniature streams. The trees were trimmed perfectly and the hedges looked as though they were carefully maintained every day. The strange assortment of animals fascinated her. Animals she had never seen before roamed the gardens in the city. There were Crystal birds, an assortment of different colored bunnies, frogs of all shape, sizes, and shades of bright colors. “ None of the animals seemed bothered by what was going on. It’s almost like nothing is wrong.” Fluttershy thought to herself as she continued to walk through the gardens, listening to the animals for any sign of what could be wrong in the city

Applejack had somehow ended up in the armory district. She saw everypony working their hooves to the bone. Crafting armor sets; saddle mounted javelins, and blades that strap to the legs. Applejack walked into one of the random stores. “Ahfter noon. Do you know how to find the workers district of the city Ah seem to be a little lost?”

The stallion she was talking to simply glanced up and continued his smithing. “Well you don’t seem too lost to me. You’re in the workers district. The ponies in this city are excellent smiths, and we craft the highest grade tools in Equestria, for a fair price of course.” The stallion said in a deep scratchy voice. Applejack merely looked on in wonder, gazing into the bright forge as the stallion used the hammer-like horseshoes he was wearing to shape the tough piece of iron.

“Watcha makin’?”

“I’m making a new pair of iron bucking boots. Powerful enough to break a bone or two, maybe a skull if I’m lucky.”

“Can Ah watch?”

“Sure I don’t see why not. I’m always happy to teach other ponies in the fine art of smithing. So, what’s your name little lady.”

“Applejack, but my friends call me AJ.”

“Well Applejack, I’m Anvil Hooves. It’s nice to meet you.”

Twilight knew where she was going as soon as she got off the train. “Guess I’d better hit the books.” Twilight said to herself as she trotted off to find the nearest library.

Twilight stumbled upon a fairly large library just a few steps into the magical district “Ah here we go Legends, Histories, and Magical Theories.” With a big smile Twilight walked inside. The library was enormous, filled top to bottom with scrolls containing different catalogued spells and books holding hundreds of magical theories, and shelves upon shelves of history books and legends.

“Oh boy.” Twilight said with a sigh. Twilight went looking and after what seemed like fifteen minutes she found the book she was looking for. The book was titled The Dark History of Equestria: Forgotten Kingdoms. With a flash of violet light from her horn, the dust that had covered the book immediately dissipated. Twilight walked down to the lobby of the library and found an empty chair.

“Ok, time to study up.” She said with a grin, and using her magic to gently place her reading glasses on her face. “Let’s see what this city has suffered through in its past.”

Images of fire flashed through Twilight’s mind as armor was smashed, blood was spilled, and screams of death flowed over the burning landscape. Twilight looked around a look of sheer terror across her face as vague figures fought back and forth. The smell of fresh blood sifting through the air as the heat from the blazing fires increased traumatically. Twilight screamed for help, but nothing was heard as the black silhouettes turned from their victims and began to approach her with an increasing stride. Twilight tried to move, but an abyss like darkness kept her firmly locked in place. The shadows stopped a few meters away from her. They began to laugh, their ghostly voices piercing her ears like daggers truly a voice could never be more horrible or disturbing than this. The flickering pony-shaped shadows began to twitch and shake the shadows changed taking on silhouettes that looked all too familiar.They looked like her friends. The five false mares continued to laugh, almost bringing Twilight to tears. She wanted nothing more than for it to stop, to end, to all just go away. The shadows twitched and shuddered some more as they began to combine bodies, morphing into something out of nightmares. The beast the shadows morphed into was jet black with wisps of dark smoke seeping off it. The beast spread its wings and let out a roar so horrible it shook the ground Twilight stood on. The beast revealed teeth as sharp as swords and as jet black as its body. The creature reached for Twilight shouting only one word “Death!”

A loud slam tore Twilight from sleep. As she looked around she noticed the book that was in her lap was closed, at least three hours had passed. “Must have fallen asleep.” She said, her heart racing from the terror of the nightmare. “What a nightmare.” Twilight said finally calm enough to speak.

“Yes, it was.”  A deep loving tone emanated from the corner of the library. Princess Luna stepped from the shadows with a look of great concern apparent on her face. A crimson colored stallion followed closely behind her equally sharing her distressed look.

“We are pleased to see that thou art ok Twilight Sparkle. Thou had us worried. We felt your fear and terror across the city, so we peered into your dreams. We were quite afraid for you. That wasn’t a normal nightmare thou had. No normal nightmare has a dark power like that, not even we had the power to banish thy terrible visions.” Luna spoke softly, her concerned look subsiding a bit as she motioned for Twilight to follow her. “Your friends are already at the capitol waiting. Princess Ruby Heart sent her guards to get them as soon as we felt the distress in your sleep.”

"Another princess?" The thought danced across Twilight’s mind. Just the thought of there being yet another princess in Equestria was quite mind numbing.

“That nightmare you had wasn’t any normal nightmare Twilight Sparkle. It was a vision of possible future events. Perhaps it was the darkness interacting with you, and wanting to consume you that caused it, though we are not sure.” Twilight looked around and realized it was the crimson colored stallion that had been speaking to her.

“So, you know my name, but I don’t know yours.”

“My name is Crimson Steel. I am Captain of the royal guard and life partner of the princess.”

“Wow, so the princess here is married. That sounds pretty familiar.” Twilight thought to herself as the trio made their way up the steps to the Rubia castle. The giant doors swung open revealing 5 smiling faces.

“TWILIGHT! I TASTED THE MOST DELECIOUS CANDY TODAY!” Pinkie Hollered unable to control her excitement as she polished off the second box of zappers she had bought.

“Well I saw the most beautiful dresses this afternoon.” Rarity said with a toss of her hair

“I met the most awesome weather team today. They were so cool.” Rainbow said failing to hide her excitement and trying to remain level headed.

“I walked through the most beautiful gardens today, and made friends with many new animals.” Fluttershy said in her usual quiet voice.

“Ah learned from a blacksmith how to smith metal, and ah got pretty good at it.” Applejack smiled pulling out a pair of well-crafted metal boots.

“Sounds like you girls had quite a day. I fell asleep at the library and had a nightmare which may or may not have tried to consume me.” Twilight said, the worry in her voice ever present. Her friend’s faces instantly shifted from excitement to fear and worry.

“Yes, she speaks the truth. This is a serious occurrence.” Luna said stepping forward.

“Truly we are in dire straits.” Said a smooth regal voice sounding through the Great Hall. A tall rose-colored alicorn stepped into the room.

“Ah, Princess Ruby Heart. A pleasure to see you again.”

“Likewise Princess Luna.” Ruby Heart said turning to address the six ponies standing by watching anxiously. “I’m sure you’re wondering why the six of you have been called here. You see, Equestria is under great threat. The Eternal Shadow has returned from its depths, and it’s more powerful than we feared it would be. I fear that is what you saw in your nightmare, Twilight Sparkle. This is why I contacted Canterlot immediately, and this is why Princess Luna is here. The Eternal Shadow has been crossing into the city, but only fragments are getting through. This is what is affecting the ponies’ sleep in the city. Princess Luna is the only one powerful enough to enter a pony’s dreams, and dispel the small fragments of Eternal Darkness. It’s getting worse too. I feel a ton of power is assembling, and I’m afraid this Eternal Darkness will attempt to attack the city. This is why I sent word to Princess Celestia, and asked her to send the wielders of the Elements of Harmony. We fear that the Eternal Darkness is using a young unicorn named Diamond Dust as its catalyst. That’s where I need your help, my little ponies. I need you to enter the Broken Kingdom and retrieve a statuette. This statuette is the second key to activating our defense against the Eternal Darkness, and it was stolen.” The young princess gazed across the room finally finished with her full explanation of the situation.

“Ok I don’t know about anypony else, but I have one little question. Who exactly is Diamond Dust?” Rainbow asked always eager for adventure.

“Diamond Dust is my younger sister.” The six friends looked around surprised to see it was Crimson Steel who had spoken up. “Princess, I wish to accompany them through the Shrouded Lands to the Broken Kingdom. I must confront my younger sister.”

“You know you don’t have to call me princess, love, we’ve been married well over three centuries now. No need to be formal. If you’re sure about going then you should, just be careful ok.”

“Aw yeah Mane six together again for another adventure!” Rainbow Dash said rocketing out of the Great Hall.

“Do whatever you need to prepare for tomorrow your journey begins, and it won’t be an easy one.” The princess said with a hopeful smile.

“Don’t worry princess we’ll get that statuette back, we won’t let the kingdom down. Alright girls let’s go.”

“Aw yeah!” The five the ponies yell.