Shadows of Drakmord

It was an exciting afternoon in the Crystal empire, for the Equestria games were well underway, and ponies from all over the continent had come to root for their favorite teams. Though it was cold and snowy outside, the shield over the city had kept it as warm and sunny as the ponies’ spirits. It was perfect weather for the competition.

Twilight and her friends were at one of the many concession stands outside the stadium getting snacks before the intermission was over, and the next event began. One of the guards told them that they could send somepony else to get it for them, but Twilight insisted on getting it herself, to make sure they got the order right. Yeah, that’s the reason. Certainly not to avoid being treated like royalty, she didn't feel uncomfortable about that at all… nope, definitely not.

Fortunately, her friends had gotten used to her subtle hints, and were more than happy to accompany her.

“Oh, these games have been just wonderful so far! I simply can’t wait to see the air teams preform next.” Rarity commented as she and the others made to returned to their seats, various snacks in tow.

“I know! And the only thing better than watching the games, is being IN them!” Rainbow dash joyously announced. “Am I right Fluttershy?”

“Oh, umm… I guess. I don’t know how much I like everypony watching me, but it's such an honor to be on the team.” Fluttershy replied.

Fluttershy still wondering to herself why she had signed up in the first place though. She wasn’t that strong of a flyer, and wasn’t even too fond of being in competitions at all. She knew there HAD to be other pegasi who could have competed in her place. But in the end, she decided not to question it too hard.

“Well good luck to both of ya’, we’ll be rootin’ for you the whole way.” Applejack said to them as Rainbow and Fluttershy headed towards the field.

The rest waved to them and sent their own wishes of good luck (which in Pinkies’ case included a megaphone and a comically huge sign) as the group split and went their separate ways.

“Whoa, I almost forgot the rest of the popcorn!” Spike yelled in panic before running off to make a last minute purchase. “You guys go on ahead, I’ll catch up!”

“Just hurry Spike; you don’t want to miss the start of the next event!” Twilight yelled after him.

Just then the trumpets announced the end of the intermission, as the last few roaming ponies hurried to get back to their seats.

“And neither do we,” Rarity reminded them “We’d better hurry.”

“Hey girls, glad you all made it back it time. The next event is just about to start.” Cadance welcomed them as they make it back to their seats in the overseers’ booth.

Down in the center of the games field, Princesses Celestia and Luna announce the start of the next event.

“WELCOME BACK CITISENS OF EQUESTRIA!” Luna addresses the crowd using her Royal Canterlot voice “TO THE SECOND PART OF THE EQUSTRIA GAM-.”

Celestia quickly muffled her younger sister by clamping her mouth closed. Luna looked up at her older sister in confusion.

“My apologies sister, but perhaps you shouldn’t use the royal Canterlot voice, AND a megaphone at the same time.” Celestia says in a worried whisper while motioning the crowd, who were either clutching their ears or blown back in their seats.

“Oh” Luna said, slightly blushing with embarrassment. “Sorry about that.” She announced thought the megaphone “But as I was saying, please join us in welcoming the flight teams!”

On their cue, the flight teams emerged from the sidelines as Princess Luna announced their names.  The crowd of spectators cheered wildly for them, Twilight and her friends especially, when they spotted Rainbow and Fluttershy. Rainbow dash looking as confident as ever, and though Fluttershy looks to be on the verge of fainting, she still seemed genuinely happy to be there, even if she started hyperventilating every so often.

“Oh my, there are even more ponies here than I thought.” Fluttershy said to herself as she inched closer to Rainbow.

“I know, and they’re all about to see how awesome our team is.” Rainbow said as she threw a hoof around Flutters and dragged her over.

“YEEEEEAAAAAHHHH!” Snowflake yelled for emphasis while flexing his massive muscles.

“Hey Dash!” a voice called over to them.

“Gilda.” Rainbow dash responded stiffly.

The griffon walked over, stopping a couple feet away.

“Look dash, I’m not too great at this stuff. But I’ve gotta tell you this.” Gilda took in a deep breath “I know I was kind of a jerk to you and your pals, and I just wanted to say I’m sorry for all that stuff. It’s been eating me up ever since. So… just, pass the message on to them, or whatever. And… good luck out there.”

Gilda paused for a moment, staring awkwardly at the ground before turning to head back to her own team. Before she took the first step however, Dash stopped her with a hoof on her shoulder.

“I’m not too great with this kind of stuff either, but I forgive you. To be honest, I was angry about this whole thing too, but i never stopped thinking of you as a friend. I’m glad you told me what you did just now; it made me feel a whole lot better. But I think you should tell the rest of my friends yourself when you get the chance, it would mean a lot more if they heard it straight from you.” Rainbow dash explained with a smile “And… good luck to you too.”

Gilda smiled back at this “Thanks Dash, maybe I will.”

As the teams took their positions at the starting line and the relay race was about to begin, the entire sky above became dark. And an ominous chuckle came from above, echoing throughout the empire. Everyone looked up to the pitch black clouds forming overhead while murmuring unsurely to one another.

Back in the overseers’ booth, Pinkies’ Pinkie-sense was going into overdrive, causing her to jitter, inflate then deflate, moonwalk, and spaz out in nearly every sense of the word.

“This is BAD you guys. REALLY BAD!” she yelled over the thunder as her friends tried to keep her from hurting herself from her continuing spasms.

“Pinkie, what is it? What does it mean?” Twilight asked.

Many crystal ponies were getting very nervous, thinking that maybe Sombra had returned again. Little did they know, it was something far worse.

Suddenly, there was a huge burst of black flame in the center of the stadium. When the flames subsided, there was a lone figure in a tattered black cloak floating high above the ground. He amplified his hollow, rattling voice, addressing the crowd in an eerily calm tone.

“Hello Equestra, I’m afraid there’s been a change of plans. I am Wither, the dread shadow! And my Dominion had arrived!”

As Wither finished his last sentence, the barrier around the Crystal Empire shattered. The blizzard outside quickly filled the vacuum of warmth as snow and wind whipped through the streets and open skies. Hundreds of Withers’ followers materialized throughout the empire and converged on the stadium. They looked like changelings, but much more dark and menacing, almost demonic. With near-skeletal bodies seemingly cloaked in the clinging darkness, and empty eyes like dark sunken pools, they looked less like the bug-ponies Chrysalis had led, and more like something from a forgotten layer of Tartarus.

“Before you ask, no, we’re not here to take part in your stupid games, and we’re not some stupid half-time show! We’re here for blood and vengeance!” Wither screamed, his voice now filled with anger. “This has been a VERY long time coming, so run if you wish, run in fear! We WILL catch you, make you suffer and scream… and then kill you SLOWLY.” Wither finished, putting extra emphasis on his last word.

The shadows all let out sadistic calls of delight for impromptu festival of havoc about to take place. But their cheers were cut short as Princesses Celestia and Luna launched themselves up from the field to confront Wither, light emanating from their forms.

“You’ll do no such thing to our subjects, monster!” Celestia declared with fire in her voice.

“INDEED. YOU’LL NOT DO THEM HARM WHILE WE ARE HERE TO PROTECT THEM!” Luna added in the royal Canterlot voice.

As they flew higher, beams of raw destructive magic erupted from their horns and shot towards Wither. And Wither didn’t move an inch before he was blasted into dust. The ponies below cheered, and as the smoke cleared, Celestia and Luna looked over their victory expecting to see the Shadows fleeing. But the Shadows did not flee; they stayed right where they were. And then, one began to laugh, then another, then more joined in. It was a quiet laugh at first, but it quickly grew louder as the ponies cheering below faded out. Before long every shadow was laughing hysterically, baring their wicked fangs.

“Why are they laughing?” Luna asked “We just obliterated their leader, why aren’t they- GAH!”

Before Luna could finish, they had their answer, an answer in the form of a blade in each of their backs. Wither appeared behind them from a cold mist, the daggers in his grip, and very much not-obliterated.

“Not while you’re here, huh?”

Wither channeled his magic through the blades, turning them to a liquid which sunk into the gaping wounds in the princesses’ backs. Before another second could pass, the liquid solidified within them. Celestia and Luna screamed out in pain as the black crystals pushed their way out through their skin, tearing at their insides as they formed.

“I’ll just have to fix that then.”

Wither then let them fall to the ground before floating down to meet them. When he arrived, the princesses had already begun to recover and break free of their magic stopping bonds. Seeing this, Wither swooped down and snatched them up in his claws before they could get any further. Guards on the field, and even some of the athletes tried to intervene. But before they could get close, a ring of fire encircled Wither and his detained foes, denying any help for the princesses.

“You won’t get away with this; we won’t be so easily beaten.” Celestia growled defiantly

“Do you take me for some common threat, an average foe to be easily dispatched? I am not." Wither spoke to them as he drained the life and power from them. The flames around them growing taller as the pegasi attempted to breach through.

"I know of the two of you. You are the two immortal sisters that hold power over the sky and all that live under it. So much has changed, yet so much remains the same. You destroy not only that which means you harm, but also anything that would disrupt your status quo. You trick those that willingly serve you into believing your lies while you either kill or enslave all who would not, just as those who came before you have done.”

The agony that consumed Celestia and Luna was increased with every word Wither spoke. Finally his anger subsided, and the pain dispersed as the flames reached their apex.

“I may not have the power or the means to remove you permanently, but I will soon enough. And with you gone, all others who would oppose me will follow in your stride. Until then, have fun rotting in the wasteland your forefathers condemned us to for so long.”

As Wither finished draining the last of their power, Celestia and Luna fell unconscious, and in a blaze of light, Wither ripped open a portal and flung them far into the wastes of his world. But no one else saw this portal, to the view of all others watching, he had just single-hoofedly destroyed the goddesses of night and day, and he knew it. The ponies who were watching looked on in shock and disbelief at the scorched ground as Wither rose up once more.

“Where are your gods now!?” He yelled in triumph.

There was half a moments’ pause before screams of panic filled the stadium as ponies tried to escape. But Withers’ shadows blocked them in the air, and on the ground. If it were possible, things were even worse back in the overseers’ booth. Twilight, like everypony else, was filled with a mixture of shock, panic, and disbelief.

“No…” she whispered. “No no no.”

Shining took Cadances’ hoof. “Come on honey, we need to stop this maniac… Cadance?”

“Auntie Celestia… Auntie Luna…- I’m with you Shining, let’s do this!” Cadance said with a determined look.

“I’m with you too!” added Twilight, her sadness turned to anger towards the changeling that destroyed her beloved mentor and foalhood idol.

Cadance amplified her voice challenging Wither as the three charged out to face him. “We’ll never submit to you! You’ll pay for this!”

As Shining and Cadance overcharged their expecto patronum love-shield, the Shadows moved to intervene, but Wither signaled for them to stop.

“Stay where you are.” He told them before simply folding his forelegs and continuing to hover with a smirk.

The spell was fired off in full force, but the Shadows were not repelled by the blast. Instead, the warmth became chilling cold, and the spells' light turned to unfettered darkness as the Shadows fed on it, Cadance and Shining watched in shock as the Shadows turned what would be their bane, into a massive boon.

“No! This can’t be happening.” Cadance said as the Shadows let out their guttural calls.

“How? How did that not work?! It got rid of them last time!” Shining yelled, equally baffled.

“Try again!” Twilight urged them, “I can add a ‘disintegrate’ effect, or a ‘return to sender’ spell, or maybe-”

Wither warped over to the trio. “Don’t waste my time. That may have worked when you killed my second in command, but not on us. ”

Wither then amplified his voice once more, shouting one final order to his legion before departing upwards into the sky.

“The doors are open and the way is clear, it’s DINNERTIME!”

The Shadows give a resounding roar of approval before diving into to the stadium full of screaming, terrified food.