the garden of shadows

*Prologue part 1

Everfree forest*

time: around 8 pm

As I ran, I could feel my heart beat fast, almost in unison with every hoof step I took. I glanced back and I saw them, Vesperti(1) chasing after me, and one of then I knew personally.

"STOP!" The leader yelled as he galloped after me, followed closely by four others.

"Forget it Dark Wing, I'm not... going to let you... or.... anypony else execute me when I did nothing wrong!" I yelled back taking strained breaths. Course what else do you expect if you pushed yourself to run for five hours straight. I could hear a growl of frustration come from my former friend.

"So be it Night Hawk!" He yelled back. That's when I could hear wings start to flap. I knew what they were doing, taking to the air in an attempt to over take me in speed. So I gave a smile and began to charge a spell. Causing four others of myself to separate from my body. One stayed in the original position as I separated to the right with one other, while the other two went left. A simple spell I had learned in the dream realm, allowing one to make illusions of himself or herself. Were I learned such a spell you may ask. Through a dream of course, the dream of an Alicorn Princess. Sadly I never got her name, but she was a lavender color.

"Bucking Hell! which one is he?" A voice called out, clearly confused.

"The far left, the far left!" Another voice called out as they began to chase one of my fake selves. I simply gave a grin as I turned to my right, following the path. The forest I was in was rather dark, mostly because it was night, but also it gave off an unnatural darkness too. Once or twice I had heard the name in the dreams of the pony's I've visited. "everfree forest..." I said in a low mumble, glancing back for a few seconds as a slowed to a trot. That's when something unexpected happened, I bumped into something... lavender!?!

"Umph!" I moaned as I fell to the ground, the being before me surprised. Suddenly there was a flash of a bright light, causing me to cover my eyes. It was almost as bright as the sun, which I only ever seen a few times in my life, being the nocturnal creature that I am.

"What the..." The female voice rang out as she herself fell to her flank. Though this voice I heard before, the one from the dream. Okay, if this is confusing you, let me clarify this, I'm a dream traveler, as in, my job is to travel about the dream realm, and pear into the dreams of other pony's. If these ponys are having nightmares, I step in, and assist them in turning that nightmare into a dream, though this wasn't what I was suppose to do. In actuality, I was suppose to do the opposite, turning dreams into nightmares. But I was the white sheep amongst a herd of black sheep, so to speak. I could never really harm anypony on purpose, be it physically or in a dream. And yes, I mean black sheep as evil and me a white sheep as good. You see, my home is the garden of shadows, an empire started by a cult that wanted to take over the world and all that stupid comic book stuff. Surprisingly, they were the ones that created the miasma, that corrupted princess luna and turned her to nightmare moon. But enough of that, I guess that's a story for another time.

I glanced up after shaking the dizziness from my head to see an Alicorn the color of lavender. For a few seconds, I had watched as the Alicorn sat there looking at me with confusion and for a while, our eyes met. I knew right there she saw how my eyes. I was glad the, seeing as how I had put a spell over my eyes to hid how they truly looked However, my eyes still glowed a blood red in the dark, something I could never hide.

"who... are you?" She suddenly asked me out of confusion, before she turned her attention to me or was that the hoof steps coming from behind me... oh buck.

My ears turned to pick up the sound more quickly, and instantly they went back. I knew for a fact I was in trouble at this point. those bat Pegasus were back once again.

"Well, well ,well. look at what we got here, a false princess and a unicorn traitor, well boys, lets kill them." The leader said in a intimidating tone as the others began to spread out around the three, giving off low growls. Their wings adorned with blades that actually shone from the light of the moon reaching down through the thick canopy of trees overhead.

Behind me I heard a gasp from the Alicorn. I could believe this, they were going to attack them just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. not to mention she was an Alicorn, and Royalty no less, I was sure of that much.

I turn back to look at the Alicorn, and I could see fear in her face. I knew what I had to do. I gave a smile and in a hushed tone I spoke. "don't worry, I'll protect you with my life..." And with that I turned to face them. Intent on defending both myself and those behind me. "So thou want to dance Dark Wing, okay, let us dance. But thou better be warned, I wont make this easy for thou." I said in a regale voice, sounding royal. And what else could I say, I was related to princess Luna(2).

And with that the battle began