Elementa in Aeternum

The first train in a thousand years from the Crystal Empire had just arrived in Ponyville, the home of the elements of harmony. While most ponies would assume that the train contained only a few guard ponies with some cargo, hidden on it was the black unicorn Tenebra. While some may question his motives for fleeing his home, in his mind, what he did was perfectly justified to escape the tyrannical reign of King Sombra, and his slave-master-like parents. As the train stopped, if somepony was actually looking closely at the exits, they would have seen a near invisible shadow run out of the vehicle, and quickly into the darker parts of the towns streets.

When Tenebra exited the train, he sprinted towards the darker streets of the town for the purpose of remaining unseen. In the alley, Tenebra absorbed his shadow cloak, and ventured back out into the main areas of the town, which seemed to contain a population much lower than that of Tenebra’s original home. As he exited the alley, Tenebra was approached by a green earth pony with a blue mane and eyes that seemed to pierce his soul. “Hello little colt, are you new here?” She asked him kindly. The young colt nodded in confirmation, not trusting his voice. “Do you have somepony to stay with?” she inquired. Tenebra shook his head, “well, let’s fix that.”

Tenebra ended up staying with the owner of a local vegetable store, who went by the name of Pure Cabbage. She was a kind-hearted mare, and seemed to be loved by all who came into contact with her, though the reason Pure lived alone was a mystery to the young colt. That night, Pure asked Tenebra what he intended to do in the town of Ponyville and whether he wanted to attend school. Having never been to a school in the Empire, Tenebra was excited by the prospect of learning things and making new friends. The next morning, luckily being the first day of school for the year, Pure and Tenebra ventured over to the school and spoke with a kind mare named Cheerilee about enrolling the black unicorn. The mare seemed very happy to accept Tenebra into her class of students his age, and offered that he begin his academic journey that day, which he accepted.

Class began a short time later, which started out being interesting, though Tenebra began to lost interest in everything except mathematics and magic. The formulas for different purposes fascinated him, and while they didn't learn how to use magic, they covered some of its history. The class was soon dismissed for lunch, where two fillies named Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon began to take interest in him. “Hey new kid, over here!” They somehow yelled in perfect synchronization, “We want to talk to you.” Tenebra wandered over to the yelling fillies, and asked them what they wanted to talk about. Apparently, they wanted to discuss the possibility of a scavenger hunt after school, and seemed satisfied after Tenebra agreed, though he was rather cautious because of a cunning smirk the fillies shared after he accepted.

When school finished, Tenebra rushed back to Pure’s house to gain her approval for the after school scavenger hunt, and to find a new spell to learn. When he entered the dwelling, Pure was waiting in the living room for him, and asked the unicorn about his day. After Tenebra had described what seemed like every detail, he managed to ask if he could spend some time with new friends after school, which Pure happily accepted. With still an hour until Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were due to arrive at his house, Tenebra immersed himself into his Umbramancy book, deeming it more important than the history learnt at school today.

Umbra Gradum

This spell will transport the caster to a location of his or her choosing, though the magical cost is greatly reduced if the destination is in shadows. If shadow stepping to a bright place, it would be more practical to use the standard teleportation spell from the school of Amicitiamancy, because of the lower cost.

To cast Umbra Gradum, the Umbramancer must direct their magic to form two doorways, one at the current location, and another at the destination. They should then step through. Be warned, that these shadow doorways, while difficult to see, are not invisible, and somepony could step through the other end to teleport to the casters location. If both the original location and the destination are located in a dark area, the magic cost is greatly reduced, making it far more useful in caves or forests.

Knock, knock, knock!

“Ah, they’ve finally arrived,” Tenebra thought with smile, hoping he had imagined the cunning grin he saw on the fillies faces earlier in the day. When he came out of the house, the fillies began to dictate the rules of the hunt to him, “you cannot return to Ponyville without your goal, no help from anypony else…” While Tenebra insisted that he knew how to do a scavenger hunt, he was a little worried about the not returning to Ponyville rule, though he dismissed it as a childish condition. After all the rules had been rattled off, Diamond Tiara announced that the hunt would be conducted within the Everfree forest, which was apparently safer than everyone thought. While Tenebra had his doubts about this, he didn't voice them so not to sound like a coward in front of a couple of fillies. After this, Silver Spoon announced that each of them would be going alone into the forest to obtain each ingredient, for Diamond Tiara, the ingredient was a blade of mystical Everfree grass, which she assured the Tenebra was reasonably difficult to find, Silver Spoon’s ingredient was a green Everfree leaf, and after careful consideration, it was decided that Tenebra’s ingredient was to be a small stone retrieved from the castle of the two sisters, located in the centre of the forest. Internally, Tenebra was balking at the prospect of walking all the way to the centre of the forest only to obtain a pebble, while the other two were to retrieve the most trivial of items, though once again, he didn’t voice his concerns so as not to sound like a coward before the fillies.

As he left the light outside the forest, Tenebra could feel his limbs getting stronger, as if transforming into those of an earth pony, though his horn and magic stayed. The weight of his personal spellbook inside the saddlebags had become negligible, and the effort of walking was rapidly decreasing. After a full hour of walking, Tenebra had not seen any sign that he was getting closer to the castle of the two sisters, it was almost as if he was going in the wrong direction, though he was sure that if he’d made a turn, Tenebra would have known. A short time later, the unicorn came across a strange sight, it looked like a doorway made out of pure shadow, similar to what the Umbramancy book had described, though why anyone would want to travel into the Everfree forest was beyond him.

Tenebra suddenly got the feeling that he was being watched, and turned around to see a pair of glowing green eyes staring back from the bushes. Hoping it was nothing harmful, Tenebra took a step towards it, and a timber wolf appeared. While having never seen one of these wild beasts, Tenebra had heard stories tell of creatures made entirely of wood that eat anypony they came into contact with. More pairs of glowing eyes appeared in a circle around Tenebra and the shadow doorway, forcing him closer to the magical portal, until finally, the unicorn decided that where the doorway leads can’t be any worse than being surrounded by timber wolves somewhere in the Everfree forest, so he entered the unknown.

Tenebra found himself outside a dark hut bordering on an incredible forest, “the Everfree,” he decided. The young unicorn called out to see if anyone was in the hut, and to his surprise, a grey stallion with a red horn and purple mist coming off his eyes appeared. “I feel like I know this pony from somewhere,” Tenebra thought to himself, but quickly dismissed the notion. One would remember anypony that had mist coming off their eyes.

“Done staring, young colt?” He asked, in a voice deeper than the ocean. Tenebra’s eyes widened a fraction as he realised he had, in fact, been staring at this mystery stallion. “Who are you?” the grey unicorn inquired curiously, “and how did you get here?”

“I a-am Tenebra Vicis, and I came through a magical doorway in the Everfree forest,” Tenebra explained, stutteringly. The stallion made a smile that did not reach his eyes, “so finally somepony has come through my shadow door. It has been many years since I have seen anypony other than myself.

I have a proposition to make you, young Tenebra. If you would apprentice to me, I will give you a gift that no pony else would be able to give or receive – the gift of immortality.” Of course, how could Tenebra refuse this gift, when it seemed like all he had to do was learn something off some old unicorn, so he accepted the stallion’s offer.

“Now, I must test you on your skill in regards to magical knowledge and power, so I will ask you to obtain an item from the town on the other side of the Everfree forest, Ponyville. This can be any item, just something that has been there for longer than an hour. Go my student, retrieve the object and return with as much haste as possible.” Amazed at all that had happened in such a short time, Tenebra had forgotten to ask his new teacher’s name, though he figured that it didn’t matter that much. Once the unicorn colt exited the dark hut, he retrieved his personal spellbook from his saddlebags and looked through its few filled pages for a way to go between Ponyville and this hut more easily. As he was flicking through the book, Tenebra came across the spell he read over before he left for the Everfree forest, Umbra Gradum, which also seemed to be referred to as Shadow Step.

The black unicorn decided to cast this spell to return to his home in Ponyville, which according to the Umbramancy book, would take very little magical power because both the start point, outside in the night, and the destination, his room, would be in darkness. Tenebra focused his magic out of his horn, and into the shape of a doorway right in front of his figure, and then imagined a matching doorway appearing in his room back in the house of Pure Cabbage. He then stepped through the dark portal in front of him and reappeared in his room.

When Tenebra arrived back at the house, he remembered that he was meant to have returned home by sundown, which was hours ago. He realised that Pure would be getting seriously worried about him, and decided to write a note describing all that had happened that day and why he wouldn’t be home for dinner anytime soon. Once this was written, Tenebra decided to grab the Umbramancy book and put it in his saddlebags, because he believed that it could be useful when one is learning magic. Then, the unicorn decided to grab one of the sheets off the bed as the object to give his teacher. Tenebra still didn’t trust the stallion completely, so he would hold off giving the Umbramancy tome to him.

With everything needed in his saddlebags, Tenebra created another doorway back to the hut on the other side of the Everfree and knocked on the door. The mystery stallion opened the door with his unicorn magic and looked at the young unicorn with surprise, “back already? I wouldn’t have though you were one to just give up. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to find another student.” The door began to close again when Tenebra shoved his hoof in the way and spoke, “I didn’t give up, and I’ve come with an object from Ponyville, a sheet from my old room.”

His teacher’s eyes widened a fraction, he was clearly impressed with the speed in which Tenebra completed the task, though he suspected that the stallion would think that the colt was some kind of insane runner to have gotten to and from Ponyville so fast.

Unbeknownst to Tenebra, his teacher had quickly surmised that he didn’t go to Ponyville by hoof. Though the type of magic used was unknown, the stallion was not stupid, he knew that some kind of magic was used for travel. Before his teacher could query him on his methods, Tenebra asked a question, “Teacher, what is your name?” At this question, the stallion grinned and replied in his deep voice, “I am Sombra.”