Shadows

by Snap Shot

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 2330

EQD Friendoff Entry: On her nightly patrol, Luna encounters a strange creature that attacks her unprovoked. Was it a malevolent being, or perhaps something deeper?

An entry into Equestria Daily's Friend Off competition. 1002 years before the events of Twilight's Kingdom, Luna finds herself in a battle with a creature of the Everfree Forest that she had never encountered before.

Published 2014-10-29 12:40:04 UTC
Last updated 2014-10-29 12:40:04 UTC

Shadows

At one time, the forest would have been filled with the elegant song of birds; even at the late hour of Luna’s patrol. Now, an eerie silence settled over the Everfree, the birds and smaller animals having fled for some unknown reason. All that remained were the largest and most dangerous creatures of the forest; those who could not be readily threatened. The silence that engulfed the forest felt unnatural, and…

Lonely, Luna thought to herself, as she regarded the stillness around her.

The soft clanking of her armor echoed off the trees as she trotted down one of the many paths that wound through the Everfree Forest. The patrol had become part of her royal duties of her own volition. Where her sister preferred to observe the kingdom from atop her tower with a telescope and only react when necessary, Luna preferred a more active approach to protecting their domain.

The armor she wore was a testament to how dangerous protecting the kingdom could be. Sleek and elegant, it was forged by the best earth pony smithies and enchanted by Starswirl the Bearded himself. When it was presented to her, she hoped that she would never need it, but she was undyingly grateful when she did. The resilient plate had deflected the claws of timber wolves as well as the manticore’s sting and the enchantments warded her against numerous spells that had been cast with malicious intent. Yet it was incredibly light; even with the helmet and mail, it simply felt as though she were wearing a satin gown.

The forested path was illuminated by her weapon of choice; a long slender glaive that hovered beside her in the grip of her magic. The polearm was infused with the power of the moon, and gave off a soft silver light when that power was unleashed.

Luna smiled at the Waning Crescent moon that served as her only companion on this long journey, as all the other ponies slept through the night. It was in her second favorite phase, since the silver semi-circle in the sky mirrored the Waxing Crescent that she bore on her flank. Its position told her that she was almost to the halfway point of her patrol; soon she would begin her return journey to the castle so she could wait out the day.

The princess paused as the moon slowly became enveloped in a fog so dense that it obscured the moon’s light from her. The white mist surrounded Luna until the only things visible were the faint glow from her glaive to her left and her shadow in front of her.

Suddenly, her shadow moved without her.

The shadow’s glaive lashed out and Luna felt a searing line of pain across her muzzle. She jumped back, placing a hoof on her injured nose in shock; it came away bloody.

The shadow sidestepped, moving to her right; Luna instinctually stepped with it, following her training from the royal guard. The two opponents circled, glaives hovering in front of them like loyal hounds awaiting commands from their master. Luna’s heart began to beat harder in her chest as she mirrored her opponent’s movement.

Her shadow struck again, the sound of clashing metal shattered the silence in the forest as Luna blocked the attack with her blade. The princess countered, swinging her glaive in an upward stroke, hoping to cleave her foe from right foreleg to left shoulder, but the shadows weapon parried the blow with the spear haft.

It deflected Luna’s strike causing the lethal blade to sail harmlessly over its head, before it brought its own shadow blade crashing straight down at the princess. Luna sprung back but the shadow found its mark, catching the brow of her helmet. The edge skipped on the enchanted metal, causing her ears to ring and slicing the left side of her face. Blood obscured her vision, and she shook her head trying to clear her sight.

The shadow saw the opening and charged, its glaive blade pointed at Luna’s heart. Luna’s own weapon weaved around her in a quick figure eight motion, forcing the shadow back. The wind whistled around Luna as her blade sliced through it; preventing her opponent from advancing. The stance was rapidly exhausting her magic, but the defensive maneuver bought her enough time to recover from the shadow’s strike.

“What are you?!” Luna shouted at the shadow.

She was shocked when the shadow replied with a laugh. The feminine voice was sinister, yet beautiful and somehow familiar. The princess gritted her teeth as her blade began to slow in its spin; she would not be able to endure much longer.

There had to be a trick, a way to defeat this creature, but she had never encountered something like this. A realization struck her, she may have never seen this creature before but she had heard of it. It was just an old pony’s tale, but even old pony tales could be based on some inkling of fact. The legend that ponies whispered about the being that haunted the Everfree: the Pony of Shadows.

If it’s shadow… Luna though to herself. How about this?

Her horn began to glow bright, and her glaive erupted in a brilliant flash of silver moonlight. The shadow in front of her faltered and then dissolved into nothingness.
Luna kept her battle stance, her chest heaving from the exertion of the fight. The fog began to clear, leaving as quickly and quietly as it had rolled in. Luna waited, her unhindered eye scanning for the shadow, glaive at the ready next to her.

Once she was again bathed in the light of the waning moon, she was able to breathe a sigh of relief. This was not the first strange creature she had encountered in the forest, and many could use magic to change their form. Why this one chose to become her own shadow she didn’t know, but she would be on her guard for the strange fog.

Luna retraced her route on the forest path, to a river she knew would allow her to clean her wounds. She washed her face in the cool, clear water, and watched the moon’s reflection dance along the surface. Her reign had almost ended for the day, and her sister would soon raise the sun to drown out her moon and stars. Silence had once again descended on the forest, leaving Luna with only her thoughts.

“It’s lonely,” she whispered those thoughts out loud.

The sun had barely broken the horizon as Luna reached the castle outskirts. Daybreak always tugged at something inside of Luna; she wasn’t sure what it was.

“Another night done,” she sighed as she slogged across the rope suspension bridge that spanned the chasm before the castle wall. “Let my sister’s day begin.”

The building seemed out of place, standing like a majestic stone behemoth in a sea of green trees. The Everfree forest was creeping closer to the walls, attempting to reclaim the land on which the castle resided. Luna pressed against the heavy wooden gate that led to the castle courtyard. The princess found herself surrounded by large statutes of unicorns that flanked the path to the castles interior.

She gazed up into the tower where her bed awaited her return. On the balcony of the highest room in the tower stood a white alicorn facing east. All over Equestria, ponies would be awakening to greet the day having slept through Luna’s night. Peering higher, Luna watched the last star fade into the red dawn light. She turned her attention to the eastern horizon where the sun had soaked the sky in a symphony of color.

Beautiful, Luna thought at the sight. But the night can be beautiful as well, if only any pony was awake to see it.

She couldn’t blame ponies for loving the day. Daylight brought protection from the creatures that wished to do them harm; like the shadow she had fought in the forest. Beings of darkness often fled from the light.

Too exhausted to speculate on the creature further, she made her way up the stairs of the castle, careful to avoid the switch that her sister had installed that would collapse the stairs into a slide. As much as she enjoyed racing down them, it would be uncomfortable to do so in her armor. The stairs led her past the library and she pulled her shared journal off its podium determined to make at least an entry in the book before she slept.

Her room was extravagantly furnished; a large bed sat in the middle of the room, gilded with gold, as was the vanity pressed up against the far wall. The walls themselves adorned with skillfully woven silk tapestries, many bearing the symbol of the sister’s rule; a blue alicorn and a white alicorn chasing each other with the sun and moon. It was a symbol that they were to rule equally; one with the sun to spread light, warmth and joy, the other with the moon to inspire dreams and wonder. They were equal.

Then why does is feel so unbalanced? Luna wondered to herself. Her gaze shifting to the ceiling, which was enchanted to be a facsimile of the night sky regardless of the time of day.

Her magical aura enveloped the glaive strapped to the back of her armor and floated it to its resting place above the vanity. Luna set the journal down on the vanity shelf, opening it to the first blank page.

She placed her hooves on her helmet, carefully sliding it from her horn and placing it gently next to the book. She inspected the damage that the helm had suffered from the attack. A chip of metal was missing above the left brow, but it was otherwise unscathed. She looked in the mirror at the fresh cut over her eye, a testament to how close she had come to being blinded. A similar cut across her muzzle was still caked in dried blood; giving the fur around it a slightly grotesque shade of brown.

She rubbed her armored hoof across her nose to clean it and her muzzle returned to its midnight blue hue, save for the redness of the slash itself. Neither cut was very deep but they would leave scars…scars that would fade into nothing once her fur grew back to cover them. Nopony would know she had them, much like nopony would know what she did to protect them as they slept.

The thought brought a pang of sadness to her. The ponies of equestrian loved and respected her sister and adored her bright days. With all her heart, Luna simply wished that she be treated the same, as it was supposed to be. Instead, she was ignored and forgotten as ponies slept through her wondrous night.

With heavy sigh, she levitated a quill to make her entry into the journal.

Another venture into the forest, which appears to be growing wilder with each visit. I worry that the removal of the elements from the tree has caused a backlash that we could not have predicted. The creatures seem… anxious, like a storm is coming. Some have even become aggressive. During my latest patrol, I ran into a creature I have never before encountered, a doppelganger of some kind as it took the form of a pony; a pony made of shadow. Have my sister and I unknowingly unleashed it in a desperate attempt to defeat the Tyrant of Chaos? Regardless, whatever this creature was, it was strong and needs to be respected.

Her azure eyes looked up from the parchment of the journal, falling on her damaged helmet. Strength was something that ponies respected, if she were more powerful perhaps the ponies of Equestria would show her the same respect they showed her sister.

Shadow magic was a powerful force, she had seen it firsthand. It had been powerful enough to banish an entire empire, even after she and Celestia had vanquished its wielder. If she could learn to control that power like the creature did, she could be even stronger than her sister. She quickly shook that thought from her head. The shadow magic she had encountered in the Crystal Empire had been a dangerous, dark magic; the kind that consumed the user until there was nothing left of their soul. It was the kind of magic that required the suffering of others to make it come to fruition.

Luna placed her head in her hooves; she did not wish to cause the ponies to suffer, just to be treated as an equal ruler. How could she even consider such a horrendous act? Dark magic would not bring others to love her, nor would it earn her their respect. Any use of that breed of magic would only sow fear and sorrow.

She lifted her head to gaze into the mirror, but what she saw was not her reflection. The mare in the mirror had a coat that was black as pitch, evil blue eyes and the teeth of a predator. Luna fell back with a shriek of surprise, pulling her glaive from the wall as she did.

She chanced a look in the mirror again, and found only her own scarred face staring back at her.

“Nightmare,” she said, trying to calm herself. “I fell asleep, that was just a nightmare.”

Dream or not, the image had been unsettling. She returned her glaive to the hooks above the vanity and realized that she was shaking.

“Luna!”

The princess jumped as the cry echoed around her room. She looked over to find her sister standing in the doorway, the white alicorn’s face awash with concern.

“Oh Luna, what happened to your muzzle?”

Celestia trotted over to inspect the cuts; Luna quickly pushed her away.

“I am fine, sister,” she stated bluntly.

“I heard a scream…”

“It was nothing,” Luna dismissed. “Just a nightmare.”