The Shadow Griffon

We begin this story with Princess Luna out in a field. Her mind is corrupt with darkness from her quarrels with her sister. As Luna raised the moon she loathed all the time her sister got with the sun in the sky. She wanted the night time to be longer. When the sunlight turned into moon light Luna closed her eyes. Her horn glowed in a dark red magic. Shadows in front of her rised up forming shapes. Shapes of a living being. The lump of shadows started to grow. A little flash of light and a griffon stood tall right in front of Luna. He had a black coat and light grey feathers that tapered off into the darker grey. His beak was pure black. His eyes somehow were a deep blue. He bowed down to her. "What are my orders?" He asked. His voice was deep. Deeper that that of her guards.

Luna grinned. "Well... The leader of my private militia needs a name first..." She said. "Your name is... Nightshade. Nightshade The Shadow Griffon. You are now my follower. You gather up any more followers. Everypony you scratch with your claw becomes part of my army of darkness which you lead! You'll develop new powers as your life progresses. Sometimes they'll reveal themselves and sometimes they even are learned through much practice with this!" Luna's horn glowed yet again and a book appeared. It had no markings on it. Not even a scratch either. "You keep this book to yourself." She said as Nightshade took it. "Keep it in secrecy away from other ponies eyes." Nightshade opened the book and held his claw out. He closed his eyes and put a claw to the ground in front of him. He brought it up and gripped a long dark pole. Luna ducked as Nightshade brought it up over his head and span it. He then planted the pole in the ground revealing it was a scythe. The blade at the top reflected the moonlight. "Seems someone learns fast..." Luna said.

Nightshade opened his eyes and looked at the weapon he created. He released it and it fizzled away turning back into shadows. He looked to Luna and bowed again. "Thank you Princess of Eternal night." He said.

Luna grinned. "You still have much to learn. Hide away somewhere during the day. Meet me back here during the night." She said. "My sister will get suspicious if I don't take the throne soon."

Nightshade brought his head up. "What is to become of me if someone intends to strike me down? How will I carry out your orders?" He asked.

Luna thought to herself for a moment. "You might be right... My duties aren't going to be fulfilled if you were to fall." She said. Her horn glowed a third time and so did Nightshade. Another flash and the dark griffon looked at himself. He checked every inch of his body from the feathers on his head to the tail on his behind.

"Lady Luna I look no different!" He said looking back to the mare. Luna lunged at Nightshade wrapping her arms around his head and in one swift move she forced his head to turn around almost all the way with a loud cracking sound. She hopped back as her warrior of darkness dropped to the ground. She waited looking at the corpse in front of her. Suddenly one of his claws started to twitch. His wings flapped a bit starting to lift his body back up. He stood now with his head hanging off to the side a bit. Nightshade sat down and picked his head back up setting it back into place. Again loud cracking. He shook his head a bit dazed and looked back to Luna.

Luna gave an innocent smile. "Well?" She said.

Nightshade looked at himself and picked the book back off the ground. "Many thanks Princess.... I'm now immortal am I not?" He said.

Luna nodded. "You are immortal!" She said. "Just like me and... Ugh... My wretched sister..." She brought a hoof up from the ground and pointed towards the hills just to the right of the lit Canterlot Castle. "Now GO! Create my army of the dark ones!"

Nightshade bowed one last time before Luna flashed away. Nightshade stood back up gripping the book against his chest. He started flapping his wings and quickly flew off towards the castle. As he neared the castle a thought came to his mind. How would he blend in with others and where would he blend in with them? He figured he needed somewhere close to Canterlot. He observed the land that bathed in the moonlight. Tree's, shrubs, grass and dirt lie on the floor below him. No animals. No ponies. Not even the water of a nearby pond moved. "I see why nopony appreciates the gloriousness of the night..." Nightshade said to himself. "They do not yet see the wonders of what Princess Luna has for them...."

He continued on for a while until he came up on a city of clouds. Rainbows cascaded to pools below. Nightshade landed on a cloud just above the quiet cloud city. He looked closely seeing some movement. What he saw were two lone pegasi. They flew in his direction too. As they neared he flew to another cloud hiding behind it. Soon they passed him. Just before Nightshade came from the cloud both Pegasi stopped in mid air. A closer look at the Pegasi revealed one mare, one colt. The mare looked back towards the cloud Nightshade was gripping from behind. "Sweetie what's wrong?" The colt asked.

The mare looked to the colt. "I cant say for sure but... I think we might have been followed up here..." She replied.

The colt sighed and brought the mare over to the cloud Nightshade sat on before. "Honey you know Cloudsdale is one of the safest places to be around at night." The colt said sitting with the mare on the cloud.

The mare sighed and looked to the night sky. "... I guess you're right...." She said. "... The night is beautiful... Maybe it was a nice thing that we went out here....."

Nightshade felt something. His heart beat. Hesitantly he climbed up onto the top of the cloud facing the colt and the mare. The mare saw him and screamed a bit clinging to the colt. Nightshade shushed them. "Don't worry I'm not here to hurt you... Anymore that is..." He said.

The colt gave him a weird look. "...W-What do you mean by 'anymore'...?" The mare asked.

Nightshade sighed and averted his gaze. "...Someone sent me to make followers for the glorious night that was made..." He said sadly. "...I wont say who it was to keep my leader safe... They made me to make an army to take down the Celestian guard..." He met their gaze again. "...I cant help but feel remorse for what I was supposed to do for my master... You have shown you like the night.... Others aren't so vigilant when it comes to noticing what's good and what isn't...." He hung his head with tears in his eyes.

The colt looked to the mare. "Maybe we should get out of here..." The colt whispered. "...He already said he wasn't going to hurt us but... We should get away just in case...." The mare nodded and dove off the cloud. The colt followed. Nightshade watched as they flew back to where they came from. He stood up and turned back around seeing Canterlot close by. He jumped off the cloud still clutching the book. Tears streamed from his eyes as he flew back.

Not even a few minutes later he arrived back at the field he started from but closer to the castle. "... Those two really made Princess Luna seem wrong..." He said to himself as he approached the castle. "... Princess Luna is always right... She said no one loves the night... I love the night... Those ponies loved the night...." He stopped just meters from the back wall of the castle and flapped his wings flying up to a bright window. He looked inside and saw a throne room. At an angle he saw Princess Luna sitting at the throne. Nightshade didn't even bother tapping on the glass risking alerting the guards that sat next to her. He sighed and flew away from the castle going back into the open skies over the field. He couldn't help but land and lie on the ground looking up at the night sky. He stared at the sky so long he ended up falling asleep until morning. When he awoke from his slumber Nightshade hissed covering his eyes from the bright light of the sun. Nightshade looked around on the ground below him and saw his book there where he was lying. Quickly feeling a bit singed from the sun he grabbed the book and flew away. He didn't know where he could go in daylight.

He flew on for a while keeping the sun out of his eyes and the book pressed up against his chest. Soon enough he found himself just outside a large forest. It was a dark in the forest. "Perfect...." He said. ".... Darkness prevails over light here..." Nightshade quickly ran into the forest. He wandered for a while until he found a hollowed out tree. A gaping hole in the middle of the tree made easy access. He hummed as he looked at everything. He figured he needed something. Nightshade opened the book and flipped through the pages. He set the book down and closed his eyes putting his claws together at his side. Slowly he brought one claw away and shadows came from around him starting to make a sword and a sheathe. The sheathe stayed at his side as he brought his other claw to the handle of the long and slim sword. Quickly he ran at the wall just to the right and jammed the blade into it and quickly brought it around it back to where he stuck it in and kicked the piece of wood he cut out. He put the sword back in the sheathe and it evaporated back into shadows. He leaned on the window, just about 4 inches thick. As Nightshade looked out over the forest he noticed strange blue flowers. He didn't like the way they almost surrounded his new home. Especially with the sunlight poking through the tree tops.

Hours he waited there until the sunlight faded away. He left at sunset to get a start on the night he enjoyed but something was off. As Nightshade flew back to Canterlot he looked up at the sky. He saw a dark shape covering what was left of the sun giving the sky an eerie red darkness. "What is this? Is Celestia trying to intrude on the glory of Luna's night?" He said starting to fly faster towards Canterlot. As he neared the air grew tense. He knew something was wrong. Nightshade flew back to the window he once looked through the night before. No one in there. Suddenly a huge crash startled him. He fumbled with the book of darkness. He caught it and sighed relieved.

"THE NIGHT WILL LAST FOREVER!" Someone yelled. Nightshade looked to the skies and saw Celestia and a familiar figure. Luna. Except it wasn't just Luna. It was Nightmare Moon.

"SISTER PLEASE! DONT MAKE ME DO THIS!" Celestia yelled almost sounding hysterical.

Nightmare Moon growled. "NO! THE PONIES SHALL LEARN TO LOVE THE NIGHT!" She yelled out. "NOT YOU OR ANYPONY ELSE WILL KEEP ME FROM FULFILLING MY DESTINY OF BEING ETERNAL RULER OF EQUESTRIA!" Celestia's horn glowed and colorful gems formed around her. Red, Orange, Pink, Purple, and Blue gems floated around creating a rainbow around the princess of the sun. A gem then appeared above her horn. This gem had 6 prongs on it. The rainbow went from the gems below to the spiked gem above.

Nightshade let out a screech just as Nightmare Moon was blasted with that rainbow. He flew straight towards the ray to take most of the damage but... He was too late. He had enough time to hit the rainbow but it ended up making Nightmare moon disappear. Nightshade clipped the rainbow but blacked out. Before the gems disappeared Celestia flew down and caught Nightshade before he hit the ground. The book almost dropped from his claw but Celestia caught it in her magic. "...There's no doubt that my sister made you to protect her...." She said tearing up as she looked at the bright moon in front of the sun. A dark unicorn head shape appeared on the moon. The celestial Princess looked back to Nightshade and flew back towards the hole in the castle she resided in now alone other than her guards. "You wont be destroyed...." She said. "...I see potential in you... Hopefully this does not happen again...." Colors of the rainbow ran over the terrain of Nightshade's motionless body. What is to become of him?