The Resurrection of Darkness

Chapter 4:

Kolri, the Demon King, was furious. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE WERE SURVIVORS?!” He boomed, as his tail whipped at a pillar in his castle.

“S-sir… I’m so sorry… we were trying to catch the white mare… we almost caught her, but, but…” Sputtered his demon scout.

“But what?...” Kolri said, his voice becoming high-pitched, full of fury. It was even more terrifying than being yelled at.

“I-I’m so sorry… But there seems to have been survivors… It was a Pegasus with brown glasses and a purple sword… Him and a group of others all seemingly going against us… We would have caught the mare, but that blasted bat mix swept her away… We tried to fight the teenagers, but they were too powerful in a group… If we, your scouts were to catch them outside of a group we would be able to possibly stop them… You see, we had to retreat… Too many of our men were taken out, we would not have had a chance…” Sputtered the scout.

“HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?! YOU, MY MOST TRUSTED SCOUT AND FIGHTER, HAD HIS ARMY FELLED BY A BUNCH OF TEENAGERS!” Screamed Kolri. His scout was sobbing on the ground. “Scout, you are dismissed. You have failed me, and if you are to fail me again, I will not be so merciful!” And with that, the scout ran off in terror. ‘Hmm… catch them out of there group…’ he thought

“ SERVANT! Fetch me the Spying Glass.!” He roared. Immediately, his servant brought in a dark mirror crusted with jet-black gemstones. He looked into it and said “Show me these ‘heroes’” he told the mirror. The mirror immediately started to swish, and after about a few seconds, it showed an overhead view of our heroes. “Hmm… set up base at the top of the mountain. Have people stand guard outside, and don’t let those heroes get past!” He commanded his troops. “And don’t forget to set up a ‘shadow clone’, you know what it is” he commanded them.

And just like that, they were off. He gave a horrible, evil laugh. “Hehehehehe… One last surprise for those meddlesome heroes! They might be able to conquer my troops, but can they conquer themselves?!”

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, they were in good moods, and were talking to each other. It seemed that ever since they had their skyward battle the night before, they were all much fonder of each other, not just Silverwing and Felix. It also was good to have a unicorn join their group; sure Felix was able to perform magic with his amulet, but all he really ever used it for was carrying things; that was the only form of magic he knew. Now before they had run into the army the night before, Felix did try to use magic to help them, but it was obvious him and magic didn’t mix well, he was much better at using a sword.

But having Voice Over join their group proved to be a great choice. She could light fires, she could enchant their camp to be more protected, she had helped them much more than once when taking out scouts from a distance (her spells reached pretty far), actually, it seemed they needed more far-ranged fighters; all they had were Voice Over and Steamgears and Echo Wave. Having her on their team was a very good choice.

It wasn’t just Voice Over that was especially helpful; there was also Echo Wave. Echo, as they soon learned, was born into a family that could control dark magic at their whim; but was taken in by a good family that was not evil. In other words, Echo could control dark energy, but was against evil. The reason this bat mix was so helpful is that, like Voice Over, the pony could take out enemies at a distance, and when they camped for the night, Echo surrounded the camp in dome; anyone outside the dome just saw an illusionary patch of grass. Echo also helped in other things as well. He could brainwash guards that saw them, and read memories. The only problem with using dark energy was that once he used too much, he could only regain it by resting for a while, so they had to use it in moderation only.

But that’s enough of that; let’s get back to the story. Today they were walking up the mountain in pairs, each about fifty meters apart, so if they saw something strange, they could all group up and investigate it. Rob was paired with Gears; Silverwing was paired with Tempest, Rainbat was paired with Pomaria, Woodsy was paired with Echo Wave, and Felix was paired with Voice Over.

Voice Over turned to Felix. “What’s your name again?” You must remember, they had only just met each other the day before.

“Oh, my name’s Felix.” He felt his ears start to glow and his cheeks burn. He, with one swift movement, covered his ears with his hair, but it was useless; he could tell his cheeks were glowing. So, he asked something to take the attention off him. “Where did you say you were from again?” He asked, not that he didn’t know; he did know, but he was too distracted with one question in his head to ask something he didn’t remember. That question in his head was ‘Why am I so flustered?’

“Oh, I’m from a little village not too far from the other side of these mountains.” She said. “How about you?”

“Ponyville. That’s where Gears and I are from.” He said. “Hey, what’s that? It kind of looks like a hideout.” He quickly called the others.

There in the distance was a small fortress made of brick. “What do you think is in there?” Said Rainbat.

“I don’t have the foggiest idea” Said Gears. “Anyone else have an idea?”

“Wait!” said Tempest. “Look at the guards! They’re all shadowy, just like the ones we fought last night!”

“They’re bound to be servants of that snake!” said Echo Wave. “Who else thinks we should go in?”

Many hoofs went up, but Rob said “I don’t know… This is kind of an obvious place to put a hideout, don’t you think? Maybe it’s a trap…” A few hoofs went down. “Maybe we should go investigate first, just a bit?”

“Ok then, that sounds like a smart move. Let’s peek from behind that boulder.” Said Echo, and so they did

There were guards everywhere. “Felix, why don’t you look and try to find a way inside without being caught by the guards?” Said Woodsy.

Felix put his head up a bit, and found himself face-to-face right in front of a guard. He quickly tried to draw his sword, but it was too late; he felt his head getting struck by something with the force of a boulder, and then his vision flashed and everything went black…

Felix woke up. His head throbbed. “Ohhhh, my head… What happened?” He looked around him to see himself in a prison cell made of gray brick. He noticed that his amulet was gone. “Guys, where are we?” He asked, but the he noticed that he was all alone. He heard someone say his name from behind him. There behind him was Voice Over sitting against a wall. He ran to her. “What happened? Where are we?” he asked her.

“You were knocked out, and we tried to escape, but there were too many guards.” She said. “We’re in their hideout right now, and I think that the others are in another cell.”

“Can you teleport us out of here? You have magic” Felix responded.

“I already tried, but I can’t teleport other people. Plus this cell has some kind of enchantment on it, because I can’t use any magic" she said. Felix walked towards the jail bars, looking for loose ones, but that was soon interrupted by a laugh and a swirling cloud of darkness, and after a second, he saw before him, a darkened copy of himself, as well as Voice Over.

“You have potential, kids. You have overcome many obstacles. How fitting it is that you shall be fell by your own selves!” These copies said in a distorted voice of their counterparts.

Felix made to draw his sword (by now it was a natural instinct to him), but he noticed that it was gone! He panicked and ran to the wall where the real Voice Over was standing. “What do we do?! They took out weapons!” He asked Voice Over.

“I don’t know! Try fighting without your weapon!” She said. Felix went to punch at his shadow, but it was no use; he went right through himself. His shadow then drew a distorted version of his reflection’s sword and struck Felix in the face. The shadows were now coming towards their counterparts. “Just dodge them for now!” Said Voice Over.

Just at that time, in the cell next to Felix and Voice Over’s the rest of the group was trying to find a way out of their cell. “Where are our weapons?!” Asked Woodsy.

“I’m sure they’re in that box up there” said Silverwing, pointing at a box attached to the unusually high ceiling.

“How do we get them?! We don’t have any magic, and from their sounds in the cell next to us, we can’t use it to begin with!” Said Rainbat.

“Magic... Magic… MAGIC! Why didn’t I think of it before?! We can’t use magic, but I can use dark energy! How would the guards use it if it were disabled?” Said Echo Wave, and he shot down the box with a focused beam of dark energy. Their weapons fell from out of the hole in the box, and everyone grabbed their own.

Silverwing grabbed his bracelets, Rainbat put on her wing blades, Woodsy grabbed his spear, Gears grabbed his boomerangs, and Rob grabbed his sword. “Someone carry Felix’s sword, we’re busting them out of there!” Said Gears. Woodsy grabbed Felix’s sword, and Echo busted a hole in the wall. They ran in the room where Voice Over and Felix were being attacked.

“GUYS?! Oh thank goodness, we needed your help!” Yelled Felix.

“Heh, we couldn’t let you get killed!” Said Woodsy, throwing Felix his sword.

Now, if there was anything they didn’t notice, it was that their weapons didn’t glow when they picked them up. They didn’t know this, but that meant that their weapons didn’t have the power infused in them to defeat these shadows.

Just then, the shadows walked into a corner. Slowly, their shadowy substance making them reconstructed itself to, this time, a shadow clone of every one of them. Their heroic counterparts dashed at them, but their weapons were no use, their energy to defeat supernatural evil was gone. “What now, guys?” Yelled Tempest.

Echo then blasted a hole in the jail bars. “RUN FOR IT GUYS!!!” He yelled. Running through the halls (while being chased by their own shadows ) , they took out surprised guards. Suddenly, they ran into a dead end room, with the shadows closing in on them. Felix felt his back hoof touch a box. Not knowing what to do, he opened it and inside found his amulet. He quickly put it on. He felt his body raise off the ground.

His eyes turned from their normal ocean blue to glowing purple. He was now floating in midair. His body gave off a blinding flash of light. When everyone looked back at his after regaining vision, he was back on the ground, glowing, and his eyes were now purple. Everyone was also emitting a light.

Pomaria’s fangs were glowing blue. Voice Over’s horn was glowing green. Silverwing’s blades were glowing silver. Rainbat’s wing blades were glowing sky blue. Echo’s hoofs were glowing dark yellow. Tempest’s dagger blades were glowing green. Steamgear’s boomerangs were glowing red. Woodsy’s spear blades were glowing violet. Rob’s sword blade was glowing orange. Finally Felix’s sword was glowing purple, as was his whole body. Everyone had regained their force energy.

Now it was a fair fight. Everyone immediately went to war with themselves. Rainbat finished herself with a cleverly-planned fake-out. Woodsy dodged an attack and struck his clone in mid-jump. Gears threw his boomerang, and it missed, but he wasn’t aiming for his clone, for it finished him coming back to him. Tempest caught his self from behind him. Voice Over shot a giant ball of focused light energy, Echo did the same but with dark energy, Pomaria grabbed her clone’s leg and threw it against the wall, Silverwing did a swift air-dive on his shadow, Rob struck his shadow between its eyes, and Felix slashed his enemy’s sword in half and finished him.

They dashed down the halls and eventually came out the entrance, where all the guards were waiting for them. They came at them, but Felix once again was raised in the air, and his amulet let off a shockwave of energy that sent them all flying in every direction. Then he fell to the ground, more exhausted than he ever was in his life, unable to walk. The rest of our heroes set up camp for the day and dragged him into tent where he slept. He didn’t wake up until night, when he noticed that he was no longer glowing, but his eyes were now permanently purple.

He walked out of the tent and sat down in a circle around the fire. “What was that that happened earlier?” They asked.

“I don’t know, but I feel that this journey will good, seeing how good fighters you all are.” He said. He noticed Voice Over was sitting next to him. His ears and cheeks burned. And this was not the last time it would happen.

But, as I stated before, their journey is not over. They have barely even began.