Shadows of Darknessby BloodHive1998ChaptersDarknessShadowsDeathFearVoidDarknessThe ponies were busy getting ready for something none of them (short of the four princesses, crystal ponies, and Discord) had seen in their lives, a solar eclipse. Everypony around the town known as Ponyville was preparing, though in an odd way. All around the village, decorations were being hung, flowers that only bloomed in darkness were being potted, banners were being hung, and special lights that only provided enough illumination to see were being hung, That's where the normalcy ended though. Traps were being strung all around the village's borders, protective wards were being placed, weather was being strategically placed to keep things out, medical teams were all over the place, and guards were stationed everywhere. One would have thought that the townsponies were preparing for an attack, which was pretty much exactly what the town was doing. After all, they seemed to have a disaster every month and they didn't want such a thing for an event such as this. A group of Pegasi maneuvered a super charged storm cloud in place, making sure not to let the lightning hit them in the process. Some Earth Ponies carefully finished off complex traps that, like the lightning, wouldn't kill, but would detain. Unicorns worked together with the local princess to weave insanely powerful ward and shield spells around the borders. The guards helped out and worked to properly establish a temporary base in the town. A few Changelings from a hive bellow the town added in sensor spells. Countless teleportation relays were scattered around the place to ensure the main six could get to the castle on the outskirts and retrieve some of the weapons the castle provided should the need arise. The reason for all of this was obvious, after all, anypony could recognize the deadly Everfree Forest right next to the village. Of course, the Everfree wasn't the only problem the Chaos capital (as nicknamed by both the God of Chaos and the local princess) had to face, there was endless possibilities for threats, which was why the security for this event was bordering on (or maybe past) insanity. Twilight smiled as she saw the preparations going well. While she really didn't plan to attend this event, she wasn't going to keep the town from witnessing it. As to just why the pony that loved new information wasn't planning to attend, well, time travel spells came in handy. "Hope this is as good as I expect." said a voice right next to the princess, the voice came from an almost exact replica of Twilight, with the black suit being the only difference. Twilight, in the future, had apparently gotten permission to alter and study the time travel spell she had used a few years ago. Her future self had then continued a loop by showing up and frightening her. "I wouldn't know, the only time I, I mean we, saw one was during Luna's transformation. I wasn't even aware that it was an actual event until recently. Of course, you know all this already." The current Twilight said. The current time's Twilight was excited, after all, with this event distracting the population, that meant she'd be able to study something that she's been meaning to return to, without her duties getting in the way. Of course, her friends had insisted on coming, even though it meant missing out on the solar eclipse. Twilight was in her lab a few minutes later (her castle had been generous enough to provide her with one), she was gathering a variety of objects including test-tubes, flasks, burners, and several chemicals. She also grabbed some custom-made necklaces that had the cutie marks of the main six on them (A form of identification). Twilight smiled and she finished preparing and headed out, stopping to thank her future self in the process, before going to the borders. At the town's borders, Twilight met up with her friends. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were in the middle of another of their fights, Fluttershy was trying to calm them down, Rarity was worrying about getting dirty, and Pinkie was being Pinkie. "Hey girls." Twilight said as she came up. "Hey Twilight." was the collected response. The group talked for only a few minutes before heading to their destination, the Mirror Pool. Finely, after nearly three years, Twilight could study it. Canterlot Castle Luna sat on the balcony of her room. She was looking up at the sun and her moon, which were getting ever closer, looking as if they were about to battle or something. The Princess of the Night shivered in fear. "What's wrong Luna?" Celestia asked from Luna's side, causing the younger princess to jump. Luna spun around in a defensive position with her horn alight, she calmed down when she realized that it was only her sister. "Tia, you know not to sneak up on me like that!" Luna complained. "Sorry Luna, I was just wondering what was wrong." Luna's face fell suddenly. "It's just" a pause; "I'm scared... w-what if the Nightmare Takes me again, or worse, takes somepony else?" Luna shivered again. Celestia just hugged her sister, both of those were real possibilities now and two of her own fears as well. Luna returned her sister's hug without a second thought. After a moment, the Lunar Princess went to her chambers and decided to do a little dream walking, even though not many ponies would be asleep just yet. The Dream Realm The Dream Realm was basically a huge, near endless, realm of stars filled with light-blue light and billions of doors leading to each dream. Some of the doors had marks on them while others didn't, it really depended on weather the pony in question had a cutie mark or not. A few of the doors had a dark-blue mist flowing out of them. Princess Luna used her power to isolate these doors in particular, the mist an indication of a Nightmare. Luna decided to go to a door that was lacking a cutie mark, no doubt a young filly or colt. The nightmare, though, wasn't much and she easily took care of it before leaving the Dream Realm. As the Lunar Princess left, a blue mist could be seen flowing silently through the realm. If the mist had eyes, they'd been looking sadly in the princess' direction. Mirror Pool Cave Twilight and her friends were in the cave. While her friends performed their own experiments with the waters of the pool, Twilight busied herself with directly examining the magic. The magic she tapped into was wild, every time she tried to grasp it, the energy just squirmed away. Unlike other magics, this energy seemed to have a mind of its own, showing defiance and even some anger. The energy seemed to match the magic in the Everfree perfectly and came shockingly close to Chaos magic. The Princess of Friendship cringed away as the magic seemed to lunge at her. This magic was definitely self-aware, It even seemed to try to control Twilight, but not in the same way as Black Magic. Black Magic simply filled her mind with dark thoughts (something she could easily ignore), but this magic attempted to warp her very mind, to turn her loyalties to the forest. It whispered that the forest had to be protected at all costs and that her resistance could harm it. There were a lot of mind control and body control spells in Equestria, but those could be fought back, this was different. Every-time Twilight attempted to understand the magic, it attacked and tried to control her. Unlike other magics that slowly dissipated when being fought back, this magic seemed to burrow deep into her mind and force her to either retreat from the magic's matrix, or be controlled by it. Twilight, however, was lucky, or unlucky, enough to get a glimpse of the form large concentrations of the magic took on. A huge wolf-like creature with bat wings and sharp fangs. She stopped examining the magic after that. A short time later, the main six were putting the necklaces Twilight had brought on copies of them. The replicas were perfect, down to magical power and intellect. This struck as a little odd for Twilight since Pinkie's first time cloning herself led to several copies that didn't know anything about her. "So, do you think you could tell me what you know about the pool?" Twilight asked her copy. The copy looked down at the golden necklace with its blue gem and Twilight's cutie mark printed on it. She caught a faint glimpse of her reflection in the stone. While her eyes looked normal in pony, her reflection showed a swirling gold light in the pupil with her eyes shifting between the colors of the rainbow and the colors of an inverted rainbow, never staying a single color for more than a few moments. She looked back up at the original Twilight. "Sorry, I only know what you know, I wish I could be of more help." she said. The original Twilight nodded in understanding before suggesting they work together. Elsewhere, on the balcony with her sister, Luna finally found the courage she was looking for and lit up her horn, pulling her moon in front of the sun. As this happened, the moon blocked out almost all of the sun's light, leaving a ring around blackness. The eclipse had begun. Luna waited for a moment, but when nothing other than the eclipse happened, she sighed with relief. "See Luna, there was nothing to worry about." Celestia assured. "Never say that Tia, it's like an invitation for disaster." Luna said, seeming worried again. Hidden in the shadows, a pair of light-blue eyes watched Luna's worry with sadness. "I wish I could apologize, but I can't, not yet." a familiar yet different voice said before walking off in silence. as the pony walked away, it heard faint whispering and glanced at its shadow. The pony's shadow was several shades darker than it should have been. It was glaring at the pony, intentionally off step with the pony in question (This clearly indicated that the pony was a Nightmare, a nocturnal version of Earth Ponies with a different magic). "I know, but I can't, not yet at least. I don't want Celestia their when I talk to her." the pony whispered, revealing it to be a mare. Her shadow growled in annoyance, it wasn't very patient. "I know, just let me do it on my own time." the mare's shadow grumbled, knowing full well that it couldn't really stop her. Back at the Mirror Pool Suddenly, one of Pinkie's countless hidden party cannons went off. The six original mares yelped as they jumped back, which, with them having swapped positions with their copies, led to the six falling in the pool. Strangely, the pool was more like sludge now, but they were still sinking fast. "Face alone the shadows of thy past." the clones said in unison as the ponies went under, falling through sudden darkness. The clones all looked at each other, they could all see their true selves, which were still copies of the originals only with the unique eyes that the Twilight clone had. The group of six clones nodded to each other as their necklaces began glowing. The Twilight clone flared up her horn and in a flash, the group looked like completely different ponies (specifically ponies from the guard). With that done, they walked off. "Five hours, three minutes, that's how long they have." the Twilight clone said to the others, who all nodded in understanding. Author's Note I'm back, with another story. Hope you enjoy. side notes on this story - the necklaces of the other clones look exactly like the Twilight clone's, only with the cutie mark of the pony the clones were created from in place of Twilight's. I'm going to be updating a little slower, most likely, than most previous visitors are use to. feel free to guess who the pony hiding in the shadows is. I look forward to seeing why you like/dislike this story. ShadowsTwilight Sparkle opened her eyes slowly, only to jump back and cry out as she beheld the ground she had been laying on. The grass wasn't like normal grass, it was nothing but flames in the shape of grass. Thankful for the fireproof bubble she had around her (and too shocked to question where it had come from), the Alicorn examined her surroundings. The green fire that was the grass wasn't alone. All around her, Twilight saw that the trees that made up the forest she was in were made of flames as well. Brownish-red pillars of flowing lava made up the trunks while green, and some yellow-green, fire made up the leaves. A single fiery leaf falling from a tree was proof enough that the flames were the leaves. Twilight landed carefully on the grass and started walking, unsure of her location or of how she got there in the first place. As Twilight walked, she could have sworn that she heard whispers from different points around her, whispers so faint that she thought of the whispers heard when performing Necromancy, faint and unintelligible, but sharp and twisted. The only difference was that the whispers she heard had what seemed to be crackling fire laced into each word and lacked an echo (unlike Necromancy whispers). The forest was large too, which would leave her walking around for quite a while. Twilight found a lot of things over the next hour including a variety of fire or heat based plants, several signs of life (including some paw and hoof prints), and some traces of intelligent beings (mainly bits of buildings made of a black stone). After a while, Twilight found what she had partly been looking for, a village which was made up of black stone and had several... demons (at least, that was the closest thing she could think of to describe the sight) living in it. The creatures varied greatly. There were creatures that had dragon-like scales, or multiple thin tails. Some had several heads, of which a few were arguing. Some looked like normal ponies, only with fire for manes and tails (and wings for the Pegasi, Bat-Pony, Changeling, and Alicorn like ones). Twilight walked through the village with care, unsure of what she'd find. Luckily, nopony seemed to be paying attention to her. Twilight soon found a sign proclaiming two useful bits of information. The village's name, Cordis, and the name of the forest it was in, Ignis. Twilight shivered at the name of the forest. Ignis was the name of a forest near Tartarus, that was indeed rumored to be made of flames. "How am I even in here?" Twilight asked herself, then yelped as she felt an odd sensation go through her, causing her to jump and stay airborne with her wings. When Twilight looked down, she found a stallion-like creature with eight tails and spikes down its back standing exactly where she had. Slowly, Twilight landed, but she misjudged and tripped, falling through the creature, which only left her more disoriented. At first she thought the creature wasn't solid, but that changed when she saw it hug sompony else. Her head hurt afterwards as she processed the reason she, for she was positive that it was her, wasn't solid. The only reason thinking of this made her head hurt was because she had been able to touch the various plants she had found, but she couldn't touch these creatures. The fact that she wasn't solid did make some sense though. After all, she wasn't sure of the consequences of physically touching any of these creatures, nor of them hearing her. Even without them seeming to be able to see her, she felt like prey. Either way, it wasn't something to dwell on at the moment, especially since she suddenly realized that there still seemed to be a pull towards protecting the Everfree in her, the magic of that place was definitely not something she wanted to learn too much more about. Unseen by others, a pair of glowing eyes had watched everything and soon stalked off, continuing to follow Twilight. unknown location #2 The place had black walls with a glowing green gel woven with intricate designs through them. Aside from that though, it looked almost like any other castle, with plenty of furniture and the residence buzzing around, completely oblivious to Rainbow Dash' presence. The place was a Changeling Hive, and while she hated the fact, Rainbow knew exactly which one. She remembered the black halls of the castle that was hidden in a mountain all too well. She knew that five doors ahead and then three meters in was the throne for the corrupted queen of the hive, and she knew just who that queen was. Dash rounded into the throne room, paying little mind to the Changeling that walked through her in the process, sitting in the throne was someling she had never wanted to see again. Queen Chrysalis, Queen of the Venom Hive, sat in the throne, four Changeling guards around her. While three of the Changelings were unknown to her, she recognized the fourth (since she was out of her combat form) instantly. The nymph had a cyan coat with a blue saddle carapace, her mane and tail were yellow (both being curly and long), her wings were ruby, and her slitted eyes were blue. Her name was Crystal Wing, which Rainbow confirmed by checking her Cutie-Mark, a red crystal heart. She actually did it. She actually got into the guard. Rainbow thought with a smile. Her smile faded though when she felt a familiar energy attack her mind, though she easily took it down. "Someling knows I'm here." Rainbow observed angrily, before growling at herself for using that particular term. The Pegasus spun around casually and walked off, heading for the training arena. After only a moment, she took flight and continued forward. There were no hoof-steps or wing-beats behind her as she flew, short of those coming from the Changelings that weren't paying attention. This did tell Rainbow one thing though, her pursuer was an infiltrator (assuming it was a Changeling in the first place), that wasn't good. The infiltrators were masters of both disguise and stealth, a skilled infiltrator could walk right through a crowd of ponies without a disguise and still be left unnoticed, they could take on a disguise and perfectly emulate the pony they're disguised as in personality with only a few bits of information to go off of and about three minutes of observing the target. Most infiltrators were also at least Alpha-level spell-casters, which was the second highest form of magical skill. For a Changeling, an Alpha-Level had enough power to change both general form and even size, they also had access to some of the stronger magic spells. There were only a hoofful of Gamma-levels in the infiltrators of the Venom Hive, with one notable one being Night Shade, a female Changeling who had gained a huge reputation for being the youngest infiltrator and the strongest as well. Rainbow knew that Changeling all too well, of course, she was positive that it couldn't be that Changeling. unknown location #3 Fluttershy walked fearfully through the lifeless, mist-filled, forest she had found herself in. The Pegasus yelped when she heard something under her hoof and shot into the air, stopping and looking to find... an apple that had been sucked dry. Slowly, she landed. The apple could mean that there was life, but that didn't really mean that that life was friendly. She landed timidly and, after looking around her for a moment, continued walking. The forest she had found herself in was a lot like Everfree. Everything seemed to be working on its own. The place looked almost completely dead, with the exception of a few apple trees. There was a terrifying whisper that seemed to come from every direction at once. The most confusing thing though, was that the entire forest seemed shrouded in fog. Of course, this could make sense, if it weren't for the feeling the Pegasus got while walking through it. All Pegasi were taught to feel out the condensed water molecules that made up clouds (it was essential to being a weather Pegasus). This was something taught in grade-school. The strange thing about this fog though, was that it lacked that faint magical pulse Fluttershy knew from school (fog had the same effect as cloud) and in its place was something that (had it been physical) would have burned like acid. The mare shivered from the feeling. Scratch what she had thought before, this place was even less natural than Everfree. She watched Fluttershy from a distance, never staying in one area for more than a few minutes. Her prey remained unaware of her presence as she flew silently overhead, ensuring her shadow never passed the Pegasus' line of sight. The creature landed on a tree not long after, Fluttershy's fearfulness was just making this chase boring. Absently, she grabbed an apple off the tree and proceeded to drain it. "Your boring prey Flutters." she said. her voice, coming out calm and cold, sounded similar to Fluttershy's, but with the exact opposite tone and other vocal features that made identifying Fluttershy almost too easy. She took off again soon after and used the mist, which didn't bother her, to keep hidden, it was midnight here so the creature wasn't really sure why she was even concerned about her shadow being visible at ground level. She actually knew why of course. Fluttershy was perceptive, kind of had to be to be an animal care taker. The creature knew the extent of Fluttershy's perceptiveness far better than anypony short of Fluttershy herself. This meant that she had to be careful as Fluttershy would be able to notice her shadow even if any normal pony couldn't. The creature was a predator after-all, she knew she had to be stealthy and know her prey if she hoped for the catch. Dream Realm She walked down the halls with care. She had dawned the armor of the Dream Guard, an odd lightish-blue armor that's pattern swirled and moved like waves to symbolize the very nature of the Dream Guard. I hope doing this will help she thought. She stopped in-front of an orange door with a purple outline and the dark-blue mist of a nightmare seeping out, more specifically, a Nightmare (as in the pony race of the same name). She nodded to her self before opening the door and entering. Scootaloo cried out in fear as the Changeling in front of her approached, the blood of her recently killed parents dripping from the creature's mouth. The Changeling had jumped out of nowhere and Scootaloo didn't even have enough time to blink before the thing was over her parents. She was so scared, in-fact, that she had yet to notice the ambient dark-blue energy that was faintly flowing into the creature, or the other pony that had materialized out of nowhere. Right when the Changeling lunged at the Pegasus filly, however, somepony else shot across the room and slammed into the insect-like pony, who cried out. Scootaloo, who had shielded herself with a hoof, slowly lowered it as she beheld the strangest of sights. Standing over the Changeling; with a sword that had a light-blue blade, black handle, and black bat-wing hilt; was a pony, one that looked shockingly familiar. The pony had an orange coat, purple mane that was styled exactly like Scootaloo's own, and had a Cutie Mark of a pair of black Pegasus wings that were on fire. Right before her eyes, the filly saw lightish-blue armor with a swirling pattern that also held a wave-like design appeared on the Pegasus that was holding the Changeling down. Actually, the armor literally blurred into existence. The sword in the Pegasus' mouth brought it slashing down with cackling cyan energy. The blade slashed clean across the Changeling and turned the thing into dark-blue mist. "Whoa, who are you anyway? You look just like me." Scootaloo continued with several more questions before the Pegasus held up an armor clad hoof to quiet her down. "I'm you, or rather an adult interpretation of you dreamt up from your mind to help you battle that nightmare." was the Pegasus' response. "Wait, I'm dreaming?" the older Scootaloo just nodded, which led the real Scootaloo to go into a hover and smile. Her job done, the older Scootaloo spun around and started walking off, starting to blur out of existence, the last thing the filly heard before her older counterpart vanished was 'Have a good night.' Scootaloo failed to see the dark-blue energy entering her counterpart as the mare left. The pony walked out of Scootaloo's dream calmly. Her brilliant blue mane tumbling down around her head since her disguise had fallen away the second she had left the filly's dream. She felt mentally worn out from having been in the dream plain, and outside of a dream, for so long. On the bright side, she had gotten a decent meal along the way. That was a notable feature in the four different 'nocturnal' races, they all fed off a form of ambient energy, except in one case (emotional energy for Changelings; Dream energy for Nightmares, which was tastiest when weaving their namesake; base magical energy for Bat-ponies, which was the latent magic in most living things and couldn't be physically accessed, loss of it also only resulted in minor sickness in living creatures; and ambient magic for Dracorns, which was poisonous if it was their own). She smiled a little, feeling full and noting how odd being a Nightmare was, before leaving the dream realm. Author's Note Been a while huh? I'm back with a new chapter. So, feel free to guess who/what the creatures stalking RD, Flutters, and Twi are. Feel free to also guess who/what the pony in the last part is. Hope you enjoyed. DeathThe cave was dark, lit by dull light. blood splattered the walls while razor sharp objects hung from various hooks, all stained with blood. Pinkie Pie walked carefully, not bouncing for fear of what would hear. The cave system was large, she was sure that she'd been walking for at least an hour, and the blood and sharp objects were always present. Pinkie pulled out a flashlight from who-knows-where and shined it on some writing that she had noticed, the writing read Laughter and blood spread like disease and where there is Laughter, there will be blood-shed written in blood. Pinkie shivered at the dark message relating to her element. There were other messages like that too. Pinkie approached one of the walls of weapons slowly. There was everything from simple knives, to military-grade weapons. It seemed that everything was placed in sections. in the upper left corner was only several knives. The upper right section consisted of brass hoofs, magic-swords (which were basically swords of highly condensed magical energy that were created by either Unicorns or, in some cases, Pinkie herself), and other magic weapons, including a sharp and dull Unicorn horn the same color as Pinkie's coat. the third section made Pinkie growl. It contained mini party cannons armed with poison filled needles, party-hat bombs, balloons filled with explosive gases, cakes made of C-4, and several presents of unidentified weapons. The final section caught the party mare's attention though. It was a section of military-grade weapons, including RPGs, hoof-claws, grenades, various guns, and even wing blades (right next to a pair of Pegasus and Alicorn wings that matched her coat) Pinkie was really starting to hate this place. She was currently in what looked to be a torture room, there were skeletons all over the floor with messages like Laughter kills and Laughter is a heartless demon along the walls and written in what seemed to be the victim's blood. Some of the skeletons had been arranged to make tables or cabinets (which held drugs to prevent ponies from sleeping, intensify pain, cause agony, or keep them alive a little longer). There was a room off to the side which, when Pinkie entered, had a large statue of Princess Celestia with a spear through her chest made of bones and pony manes and tails. A trail of dried blood ran from the wound to the base of the stand the statue was on. The stand also had an inscription that read Pray to yourself Celestia, for nothing will stand between you and me when I finally strike. Prepare for this for soon you will know only agony and the depths of Tartarus will be your only safe haven. written in blood red, Pinkie shivered again before turning and walking off, though it quickly became bouncing out of habit. "This doesn't look good." The pink mare giggled a little afterward, not being able to keep a serious face for very long "Oh well, I need to find a way home anyway." with that, Pinkie bounced off in a completely random direction. She growled in anger, she had hoped to weekend Pinkie Pie and yet the reality warping Earth-Pony had casually ignored every terrifying thing the cloaked creature had thrown at her, though she should have seen that coming. That little brat isn't as simple as I thought, you'd think I, of all beings, would be able to deter her. the creature thought as she turned around to walk off, only to come face-to-face with the party pony herself. The creature jumped back in shock before taking on a defensive stance, her black body suit hiding her colors well. "I found you, now it's my turn to hide." Pinkie giggled a little after that before her tail began twitching and both mares jumped away as a boulder fell between them, crumbling afterwards. "Okay, then I'll start counting and you sta-" the creature was cut off from her attempt to get Pinkie away as fast as possibly by the mare in question literally vanishing into thin air. She shook her head. "When we finally meet, I hate to say it, but the outcome is not as predictable as I first thought." she said before following Pinkie's example and ceasing to exist where she had been siting. Venom Hive As her fellow guards walked off, since they were changing shifts, Crystal Wing turned to her queen, having been told that they needed to talk in private. Crystal bowed. "What did you need me for my queen?" she asked, Chrysalis chuckling darkly. "A special mission. I need you to enter the town of Ponyville and gather as much Intel on the Elements of Harmony as you can. While your there, I need you to also try to locate a rogue that I have reason to believe is present in the town." Chrysalis said, receiving a nod in reply as Crystal headed for one of the hive's exit. Though she ensured that it didn't show in the Hivemind, Crystal was both excited and a little frightened. She was excited because, last she had heard, her friend Night Shade was in Ponyville, so she might run into her. She was frightened though because Chrysalis might know that Night Shade was there. Night Shade, even though she was a Gamma-level spell-caster and high level infiltrator, had abandoned the hive some time after Chrysalis started planning some rather insane things, attacking Canterlot for instance. Crystal Wing remember that day all too well She had been casually talking with Night Shade until the nymph had brought her to her room. Once they had entered, Night had thrown up a powerful shield that completely blocked out the Hivemind. She had proceeded to explain that she was leaving and that she was going to ensure she was never found. After that, she had explained that her leaving was never to leave the confines of her quarters. She had at least showed Crystal what she planned to look like when she left. Having made it to the exit sometime during her trip down memory lane, Crystal took on her base disguise before taking off, double checking the disguise in the process. She still had her cyan coat, but now it lacked holes, her wings were now Pegasus wings, her eyes were normal (normal for most at least), her fangs were gone, and her saddle carapace was gone. Crystal took a moment to do a few of the complicated Pegasus aerial moves that Night had taught her, wanting to just feel the air under her new feathers. It had been a long time since she disguised herself as a Pegasus, she had almost forgotten how it felt. Having taken enough time to relax in the air, Crystal took off to Ponyville. unknown location #5 Applejack smiled at Queen Stormy Forest, queen of the Terra Hive. After a moment, the country mare spun around and walked away, heading for the sleeping quarters. As she walked, she looked around, observing the thousands of Changelings that buzzed around the halls, some coming in from doors on the ceiling that lead to the outside. She also saw the bright orange gel-like substance that covered the walls in intricate patterns, the walls that weren't covered showed compacted dirt. Applejack knew all this with ease, after all, the Apple family often did business with this hive (it turned out that their apples and other products happened to have more than enough love put into them to sustain the hive), thanks to this, she had been in and out of the hive quite often, though exactly how much of her life was spent in the hive was something she never wanted to talk about. After a few more minutes, Applejack found the house and room she was looking for. The room looked like any typical Terra Hive Changeling's room. An orange sleeping cocoon hung from the ceiling; several shelves, consisting of books, underground plants, and some above ground plants, were on the walls; a few windows were on the ceiling with some doors to lead to the outside; and a closet that had Changeling cloths in it sat to the right of the sleeping cocoon. The cloths were made of a unique, silk-like, substance and often had glowing parts to add to the design. Applejack knew that the exact process of creating the cloths was a closely guarded secret among Changelings (it was the only thing that ALL hives agreed upon). On the far wall was what looked, at first glance, to be scribbles, but any Changeling (or their ally) knew the language written in orange, it translated to the name of the Changeling that once lived there, Thorn, a Changeling that Applejack knew for a fact was dead. That aside, Applejack was shocked to see that the room was the same even after nearly fifteen years. Friendship Castle Throne Room C-Twi (Twilight's clone) looked down at a random guard who had approached her and the other clones. "Are all the preparations ready?" she asked. "They are Princess Twilight." the guard said, his silver armor shinning with a hole-filled purple crystal heart as the chest piece (this was the marker that this guard was a Changeling, even though he was in disguise). C-Twi rolled her eyes. "Seriously, you don't have to act like I'm Twilight Sparkle." she said, the guard nodding and heading off. She had held her and the other clone's disguises for all of five minutes before realizing how pointless it was and getting rid of them. It was C-Dash (Rainbow's clone) who had spread the fact that they were just clones to Ponyville and even explained that the necklaces they all wore were indications of that. At the thought of her necklace, C-Twi glanced down at her own. The glow, which was subtle before, was now painfully obvious. The same could be said for the necklaces of the other clones as well. C-Shy (Fluttershy's clone) smiled as she noticed the intensity of the glow from her and her friends' necklaces. Looking at a clock on the wall, she saw that it had been two hours. "Good" she said, catching everypony's attention "They're early." she finished, everypony nodding at the statement. Future Twilight, who was laying down and resting, chuckled, yes they were early, but she already knew that. Standing up, Future Twilight walked off, quickly returning to a balcony that had a telescope on it, she proceeded to indulge herself in some stargazing while the eclipse made it possible. unknown location #6 Rarity looked around the Crystal Caves she had found herself in almost an hour and a half ago. The cave was filled with crystals, most of which had dried blood on them. There were also several diamond weapons, also stained with blood, hanging from the ceiling and the walls. Purple crystals were glowing softly near what, at first glance, looked like a wall, but Rarity had figured out a while ago that the crystals were there to mark otherwise unseen doorways. the fashionista walked through the door to behold a terrifying sight. In the center of the otherwise empty room, was a large pool of blood. Rarity shivered as she beheld the sight, this was clearly a psychopath's den. A trail of bloody hoof-prints spread from the pool and lead to another room where the sound of screaming could be faintly heard, Rarity had no intention of looking into it. Opting for the only other doorway in the room, Rarity walked to her right, soon entering another room filled with shimmering crystals. She would have loved the sight, if not for the body that laid on a table in the center, various crystal blades and sharpened diamonds jutting out from several places on the body. "This is just horrendous." she said, she would have fainted if it wasn't for the fact that she could still here the tortured screams a distance away. Moving as quickly as she could, while still being quite, Rarity left the room and quickly made her way back through the door she had entered the blood-pool room from. She went into another door afterwards, not wanting to be anywhere near the pool room. She came into a room with an odd combination of bones, blood, gems, and crystals. The place had several statues made of the materials mentioned. These were statues of some ponies that Rarity hadn't seen in years, or rather, hadn't seen at all. In the center of the room was a statue of Luna. As much as she hated to admit it, Rarity could see a certain, very dark, beauty to all of it. Shaking her head and shivering from that thought, she left for another room. Author's Note Well... this took a lot longer than I had hoped. Oh well, I guess that's to be expected when one doubles their usual minimum word count. Really though, typing a minimum of 2000 word instead of 1000 is a lot harder than I expected. For future reference, here are the nicknames the clones are using (if there's also a name in parenthesis then it's one the clone prefers to go by). The name in bold is the pony that the clone is from. Granted, it's obviouse, but oh well. Twilight Sparkle: C-Twi Rainbow Dash: C-Dash (Spectrum Flash) Fluttershy: C-Shy Pinkie Pie: C-Pie Applejack: C-AJ (Applecore) Rarity: C-Rare feel free to guess who/what the creatures stalking the main six (yes there's one for Applejack, but not yet) are. FearTwilight walked into a large demonic tree, not bothered by going through the walls, since she'd been doing it for quite a while now. Within the tree was a large amount of books on demonic magic. The Alicorn walked over to a table that had one such book laying opened. Examining the book proved useless though as it was written in an odd language. Twilight groaned because the language looked familiar, like she'd seen it in passing. Looking back to the book shelves, Twilight lit her horn in preparation of levitating one to her. Obey! Twilight jumped and lost concentration as the voice rang strongly in her mind, leaving her with a minor headache. She knew the voice though, it was the voice of the Everfree. The urge to fly back to the Everfree forest and protect it had quickly escalated to the Everfree telling her to obey and she had been dealing with it for an hour now. Twilight shook her head as she walked out of the library through the same path as before, through the wall. As she left though, she caught a glimpse of glowing red eyes disappearing from sight. "This isn't good, I'm being followed." Twilight observed as she took to the air and flew off towards the Ignis Forest. Inferna growled as Twilight flew off. Taking to the air She followed, keeping to the smoke and clouds that were all around her. As she flew, she chastised herself for not being more careful while following her target. Apparently well aware of her pursuer, Twilight started sending blasts of magic behind her. Inferna growled as she dodged the attacks, if it was up to her, then she'd counter, but they weren't even meant to battle yet, not until they entered the clearing at least. Over the next few minutes, Inferna found herself dodging constantly, but that lead to a realization. This is good, no, this is great! If she wears herself out before we get to the clearing, then my chances of winning will increase dramatically. Then I can have her power all to myself! the demon thought excitedly as she flapped her fiery wings to avoid another attack, showing her razor sharp teeth from how much she was smiling from it all. Twilight landed in a large clearing within Ignis, breathing heavily as she turned around to face her pursuers. The demon landed with a sadistic grin that showed razor-like teeth. The demon's appearance though, was shocking. It's mane, tail, and wings (all made up of orange flames and keeping their form when it shouldn't be possible) were all shaped and styled exactly like Twilight's; its coat was a light orange; and its eyes were glowing red (the pupil and iris blending into one another). "Hello Twilight Sparkle. I'm Inferna, now let me explain the rules here." Inferna paused as her horn lit up in orange fire-like magic and she created a screen to project the rules on. The screen read -No holding back -do not keep just to ground or air, use both -all magic allowed -battle's not over until sompony dies Almost immediately after she had finished reading, a wall of flames lit up around the two, trapping them together. Twilight shivered, she knew who Inferna was, the 'monster' that she had feared as a filly, and that was a part of her. unknown location #2 Rainbow Dash landed in the center of the arena, memories of the last time she had fought there resurfacing. Begin Flashback Rainbow Dash, or rather Night Shade, looked across the arena at her opponent, he was a soldier. As for the reason behind the battle, the soldiers and infiltrators were at a disagreement about the treatment of prisoners, so they were having their representatives battle to decide which choice would be enacted. In a flash of red flames, Night Shade's purple coat was replaced with a carapace and claws adorn her hole-filled hooves. The soldier took on a more basic form, looking like a bulkier version of the forms that were used in battles and invasions (including the invasion of Canterlot that would occur almost twenty five years later). "We all know the rules, but for those unaccustomed to this kind of battle, I'll explain." an announcer's voice rang through the Hivemind "This is a battle to the death, that means that it's not won unless your opponent's heart stops. You are to use only Changeling magic and all that it implies to fight, anyling caught using another kind of magic will be forced to forfeit. Any questions?" after a pause, the announcer smiled. "Very well, you may begin!" The second this was said, a powerful shield went up around the chamber, ensuring noling interfered and noling got hurt. Night Shade shot forward the second she heard that, the soldier soon meeting her in the center of the battle field. The soldier lit his horn and hit Night with a blast of magic, sending her flying as he lunged at her. Night saw him coming though and flipped herself around, her sky blue wings buzzing softly as she lashed out with her back claws, catching the soldier off guard, he stopped dead in an attempt to avoid the attack, but was met with an explosion of magic. As the soldier cleared his eyes, Night attacked again, raking her claws across his back and flying back several feet. Her slitted magenta eyes locked with her opponent's yellow ones as he shot after her again. Night had prepared for that, what she hadn't prepared for was the sudden blast of magic that hit her a moment later, sending her flying into a wall. Her blood red saddle carapace was able to stop her though and she landed on her hooves, only the saddle carapace sustaining much damage. Night Shade smiled as she began to blur, soon vanishing from sight. The soldier stopped in his tracks at this and began looking around. Night increased the size and sharpness of her claws as she approached. She soon hovered silently over the soldier before dropping, she didn't waste time with a struggle and immediately slit the Changeling's throat before dropping her disguise. "The winner is Night Shade with her expert use of covert disguise!" the announcer said proudly. Night Shade smiled and bowed to the crowed. The Changeling proceeded to use her red magic to carve her name into the center of the arena, granted, it'd be removed within the next week as the builders and the nursers were having arguments. End Flashback As Rainbow Dash looked around the arena, she caught a glimpse of the intricate markings of the Changeling language. The Pegasus took wing as she flew up to see what was written, since it was pretty large. She froze upon seeing the full name. Night Shade was carved in bright red magic along the floor. "A fitting place for a battle, don't you think?" someling said from behind her, spinning, Rainbow came face to face with a shocking foe. Hovering several feet from her, wings dead silent, was Night Shade herself. Impossible, she doesn't even exist anymore Rainbow thought as her past self, though they looked about the same age thanks to the age spell she had used all those years ago, smiled darkly and landed, taking on a fighting stance, Rainbow followed this. "You know the rules Rainbow Dash." Night Shade said with a smile. unknown location #3 Fluttershy yelped and hid in a bush, looking out, she found that the thing that had fallen on her was just another drained apple. "W-who's draining a-all these apples?" she asked herself in a whisper. Reluctantly, she walked out of the bush and continued through the forest, shivering from the unnatural fog. As she walked, Fluttershy became painfully aware of the fact that literally no life seemed to exist in the forest, not even a blade of grass. This raised the question of where the apples were coming from, seeing as there were no living trees around her, only dead ones. Flutterbat hissed in anger as she watched her shy counterpart jump and hide at every little thing. Taking wing, she flew through the air, soon gliding down low and briefly passing Fluttershy's vision. The second she was a few feet away from Fluttershy, Flutterbat pulled up. She snagged an apple as she ascended and quickly drained it, discarding the apple in front of her counterpart and grabbing another one, doing the same a few feet away. Luckily, Fluttershy caught on quickly and began following the trail. Flutterbat knew not to underestimate her counterpart. 'Shy may have been, well, shy, but she was actually pretty strong when she needed to be. Then there was the dreaded stare, though that wouldn't be a problem. Bottom line, so long as the Bat-Pony didn't anger her, then she wouldn't pose a huge threat, theoretically speaking of course. Soon Fluttershy was lead into a clearing, which lacked the fog. She looked around timidly until the creature she had seen fly by her earlier landed. The Pegasus let out a quite gasp and turned to run, only to find a wall of dead vines in her way. Turning back around, Fluttershy looked at her Bat-pony counterpart fearfully. "Okay Fluttershy, here's the rules. This is a battle to the death" Flutterbat stopped to smile at the horror on 'Shy's face before continuing "That means that one of us isn't walking away from this. Neither of us are allowed to stay grounded or airborne, you'll have to alternate. Finely 'The Stare' is off limits, don't pretend you can't control it either." with that, Flutterbat got down low and hissed harshly. unknown location #4 Pinkie Pie giggled as she bounced through the caves, wondering who the pony she met had been. The bouncy pink pony soon found herself in a large, empty, chamber within the cave system. The chamber had literally nothing in it. "Oooo... What's this for?" Pinkie asked excitedly as she looked at the other side of the chamber, where the cloaked pony from before now stood. Ignoring the fact that she had come in through the only possible entrance, Pinkie giggled at the pony across from her. "This is where it all ends." the pony said as she removed her cloak, revealing a replica of Pinkie, only with flat mane and tail, in a stealth suit. Pinkemena smiled sadistically as she pulled out a knife from nowhere and continued with "The only rule is that one of us is going to die at the end." Pinkie Pie was suddenly in front of her counterpart. "Where'd you come from, I mean, Twi got rid of all my clones, and I suppressed you, so Why are you here." she asked, Pinkemena instantly relocating her self to the opposite side of the chamber, where the door had shut. "What does it matter, I'm here to kill you, why should I give away information?" Pinkemena asked, before finding Pinkie in front of her again, Pikemena relocated to the ceiling. "Come on, let's play!!" the party pony yelled out, giggling at her sadistic counterpart's attempts to avoid her. Pinkie stopped then and briefly pondered what to do to get to Pinkemena, an idea soon came to mind, complete with a light bulb over her head. Pinkie reached into nothingness and pulled out a pair of Pegasus wings that matched her coat, before attaching them to her in the proper places and opening them. She gave the wings a few test flaps before taking to the air, where she hovered in front of her counterpart. Pinkemena didn't give Pinkie a chance to speak though as she once more relocated to the ground and took on a fighting stance. "Enough, I'm going to kill you now." she growled. unknown location #5 Applejack walked quietly through the Terra Hive, heading for the farming section, where they grew several underground plants. Around her, Changelings flew from one place to another, going through her in some cases. The path to the farming area had been memorized by Applejack so it didn't take her long to enter the place. All around the chamber, odd looking plants grew, glowing mushrooms being a prominent occurrence. Off in a corner, there was a shrine of sorts. Applejack walked up to it with care so that she could see it. The shrine had Moon Star flowers all around it, they glowed subtly with the light of the moon. Aside from that, the shrine had dead vines wrapped around the two pillars that were against the wall. In the center was a small statue of someling that Applejack knew all too well. Finally, right above the statue, carved into the wall by the blue magic that was Queen Stormy Forest's, was Thorn Gamma-level spell-caster, loving nurser, and skilled gatherer Applejack smiled, the part of her that still saw itself as a Changeling happy to see her importance in the hive had garnered a shrine. Thorn, or rather the construct that represented Thorn, lit her horn as she looked around the large battle arena that was so rarely used. She had etched her name in her amber colored magic onto the floor to symbolize the battle to come. In a flash, Applejack appeared in the center of the arena. The Changeling took her time examining Applejack and comparing the farm pony to herself. Their coats were different colors, with Thorn's being red. Thorn's wings and saddle carapace were the same color as Applejack's coat. Her mane and tail, not held by bands, were a completely different color to Applejacks, they were bright green. Their eyes were the same color though, except with Thorn's being slitted. Applejack looked around the moment she got over her confusion from the sudden teleport. She froze though when she saw Thorn herself standing on one end of the arena. "You and I both know the usual rules to this arena. Changeling or Terra Magic only, no interference, and the battles over upon one participant pinning the other. Well... the last rule has changed. One of us isn't making it out alive, and the battle wont end until one of us dies." Thorn said as she leaned down in a fighting stance. Applejack shivered, this wasn't going to end well. unknown location #6 Diamond Shard cackled madly as she finished violently murdering the unfortunate stallion on her table. Putting her knife down, she spun and walked off, heading for her pool. As she approached the pool, Diamond removed the blood-red cloak she had been wearing. Her white coat, almost completely red from blood, was shinning thanks to the aforementioned blood. Diamond slowly lowered herself into the blood pool, sighing in content as the blood reached her chest and she relaxed. The blood was warm thanks to several preservative and heating spells that she had learned for just this reason. Diamond Shard smiled sadistically as she felt the dried blood on her coat wash away with the constant swirling motion of her pool. The sadistic mare dunked her head briefly, coming up and shaking her head slightly to clear the excess blood off. Her purple mane was slightly stained, but she could fix that with a simple spell. The mare giggled sadistically before letting herself relax again. Rarity quietly walked into a room, the room was odd compared to the rest of the rooms she'd seen. It lacked blood stains or statues, instead, there were thousands of sharpened gems and bladed weapons. A loud bang sounded through the empty chamber, causing Rarity to yelp and spin in the direction it had come from, the entrance, she found that the it had closed. Spinning back around, Rarity watched as a segment of the wall slowly opened, accompanied by three more bangs. As the wall finished closing, she stepped back in shock of the pony that had stepped through the new door. Though the pony was slightly obscured by the blood on her white coat, there was no mistaking her purple mane and tail (both of which looked like Rarity's when her mane and tail were either down or wet) or her Cutie Mark, a red variation of the fashionista's own. "Neither of us thought we'd see each other again, now did we my dear reincarnate. That aside though, here are the rules" Diamond said before lighting her horn to reveal a darkened area of the cave, this showed the rules painted in blood along the walls. -all kinds of magic and spells are allowed if the participants know them -Both parts of the chambers are allowed to be used -The weapons on the walls are not for show, they must be used -This battle doesn't end until sompony is dead Rarity shivered slightly at this. VoidCrystal Wing glided down to the ground as she approached Ponyville. The entire town was encased in a very thick magical shield. Crystal approached the shield and tapped on it, any trained guard could spot detection spells from a mile away. A moment later, a guard walked up to it. "Hello sir, may I come in?" Crystal asked. "What is your reason for coming here?" the guard countered "My friend Rainbow Dash lives here, I was just wanting to surprise her." "Rainbow Dash isn't here at the moment, I can take you to the clone that's temporary taking her place though." Crystal shrugged and nodded, leading to the guard opening the shield partially. The Changeling stepped through and followed the guard, thinking back to when she had been told of Night Shade's plans. Begin Flashback Crystal yelped as the Hivemind went completely silent from the intense shield Night Shade had just put up. The Changeling in question's horn slowly died down, though the spell stayed. "Can I trust you to keep a secret Crystal?" Night Shade asked as she looked to her friend. "Of course. why would you even bother asking that question?" Crystal asked, too shocked from the question to even think about the powerful spell that was blocking the Hivemind entirely. "Even from the queen?" Crystal was stunned at that question and took a shocked step back. Why wouldn't I be able to tell Queen Chrysalis, what's Night planning? "D-depends on what you're wanting to do?" she asked, of course, there was little chance that she'd deny such a request from her friend, her loyalty to her friends was one of the reasons her father wasn't sure about her joining the guard. "I'm leaving the hive. I don't want any part in our queen's plans. I'm going to change most of my life to ensure I'm not found." the second she finished, Night went up in red flames, a cyan coated and rainbow maned Pegasus now stood in her place. "How do you plan to do that?" "Simple." the Changeling stood proudly as she continued "When I'm done talking to you, I'll perform this spell with others to cover my tracks and keep suspicion away from you. Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to sneak away and head into a forest, where I'll send a false distress call and cut my link to the hive (effectively faking my death). From there I'll sneak off and fly to Cloudsdale, where I'll perform an advanced metamorphosis spell to permanently change my form to this. My magic wont dwindle from doing this and so I'll then perform an age spell without the memory restrictions and pose as an orphan until I'm found. I'll start building my new life from then on." Night smiled as she went into a hover, even as a Pegasus, the infiltrator's wings were silent. Crystal stood with shock, she wanted to find a hole in that plan, but there wasn't any, at least not with the hives strongest infiltrator as the planner, Night simply knew too many spells to let her plan even waver. "H-how will I find you?" she asked. Night went up in red flames again as she reverted to her true form and spun around to walk off, saying only four words as she did. 'Look for Rainbow Dash'. With that, the shield fell away and the Hivemind returned. If Night didn't know her so well, then Crystal would have wondered why the infiltrator didn't bother asking if she'd keep what she learned a secret, but Crystal knew the reason. Night knew that she wouldn't dare give away a secret that one of her best friends had shared with her. End Flashback Crystal shook her head to clear the memories away as she was lead into a castle and then a throne room with seven thrones in a circle. She quickly scanned them and found Rainbow Dash, or the clone of her. "And you are?" the clone asked as she glided down and landed. "Crystal Wing, I'm under Queen Chrysalis' orders to gather intel on the Elements of Harmony." she whispered. "Sorry, you missed the Elements of Harmony about two hours and twenty minutes ago. They're in the middle of some very important missions from sompony I'm not at liberty to identify, you can wait here though if you want." "Um, okay, I guess I can stay for a bit. Thanks umm." she paused when she realized that she didn't know the clones name. "I'm C-Dash, just call me Spectrum Flash though." with that, the two took wing and C-Dash flew over to the window, inviting Crystal to a flight/tour around the village. Dream Realm The Changeling filly cried out as her queen threw her across the room. The filly yelped as she felt herself impact the wall. Her queen began approaching with pure evil in her eyes. An odd dark blue mist was flowing off (or into) her as she lit her horn in Black Magic. The hatch-ling looked at her queen with terror, until something else hit the queen and sent her flying. The being had shimmering butterfly wings with a dull horn and kind blue eyes. She had a pure white coat with a Cutie Mark of a ring of words in the Changeling's language, all translating to countless kind and good words. She looked, in every possible way, like the ponyfication of good. The queen growled and lunged at the being, only to find a long and razor sharp blade embedded in her chest. A moment passed before the queen vanished in a puff of black smoke. "I'm sorry for what you saw dear. don't worry though, it wont bother you again. Have a good night." with that, the being vanished. Nova Moon stepped out of the door with a happy smile. Over the past few days, she had really started to like helping fillies and colts with their dreams. When she awoke four weeks ago she had cried over her choices in life (the Elements had that effect on there targets). Then she had spent nearly a week just getting use to the nature of being a Nightmare and another getting properly attuned to the Dream Realm. Nova stretched slightly before walking away. She glanced at her black coat and crescent moon Cutie Mark, which barely resembled her original, she liked that though, though there were now a few burns from the nightmare she had just finished fighting, those were going to hurt when she returned to the waking world. Nova stopped at a door with a familiar black mist (which indicated just a nightmare, not a Nightmare) flowing out of it. The door had a crystal design to it, which indicated that it was a crystal pony. She opened the door and found herself in a field of flames with Sombra laughing and a filly crouched down in fear. Not really wanting to go through a long and harsh fight again, Nova formed a bow and gave herself a horn. Holding the bow in her, still blue, aura, Nova took aim. An arrow made of light formed and the Nightmare fired. The nightmare image of Sombra was cut off as the arrow pierced its chest. It looked up in pain and found Nova staring at it calmly. A few more seconds passed before the nightmare exploded in a shower of light. "Have a good night." Nova said as she left the dream. When she turned around after fully closing the door, she found none other than Princess Luna standing in front of her with an angered expression, Nova gulped while her shadow chided her for not being more careful, a harsh glare from the Lunar Princess shut it up though. location and POV unknown Balance is often seen as harmony, however, harmony and balance are two completely different things. Balance is between two opposing forces. Evil and Good, Harmony and Chaos, Darkness and Light. Balance is all of those and more, it's the silent acceptance of both one's good and their evil, it's the nature of equal chaos and harmony, it's the shadows between the light and the darkness. Ponies see a harmonic life style as a balanced one, but that is simply an illusion, for a harmonic life is not a balanced one. While there are countless forms of balance, none are as strong or as powerful as the balance between Harmony and Chaos, though Darkness and Light are a close second. When Harmony reigns for too long, it becomes Chaos, likewise when Chaos reigns for too long it becomes Harmony. These two forces are entwined with each other on an unimaginable level. Neither force has the power to truly surpass the other. Harmony is peace. It's a state where nothing bad seems to happen. The force of Harmony is one that ponies would probably describe as 'boring' because of a lack of shock or interest. As powerful as many see it, Harmony has limits, it must correct a problem, it can rarely create one. Chaos on the other hoof can only create confusion and misunderstanding, its power can only confuse just as Harmony's power can only give sense to the world. If Harmony were to rule alone, ponies would soon find it to be a form a Chaos, for absolutely nothing would change. Similar is true for Chaos as well. If Chaos rules for long enough, then it becomes normal, it becomes Harmony. The world simply can't exist without both Harmony and Chaos, and the two forces can't exist without each other either. The world's balance is delicate, the wrong move could end it entirely, sending the world into disarray. Sometimes though, to keep the balance, one must risk it. I know this better than anyone. When the Light in a pony (especially such important ones) overshadows their Darkness, I must ensure the two level out, an act that risks the same balance it strives to create. Split as they are, they must face their Darkness as their Light... all of their darkness. The young ruler must face magics none should ever touch; the wild legend must atone for the choices of her past; the shy flier must take the reigns of emotions she has almost never felt; the logic warper must stand against the evils of her family; the young worker must reveal the lies she lives; the resurfaced soul must face a life forgotten; the forgotten dream must mend her severed bonds; the god and goddess must put their differences aside; and I, the queen, must watch a changing world and ensure my kingdom never falls again. Author's Note This was shorter than I wanted it to be. The last section is in a first-pony perspective (feel free to guess the character in question).
DarknessThe ponies were busy getting ready for something none of them (short of the four princesses, crystal ponies, and Discord) had seen in their lives, a solar eclipse. Everypony around the town known as Ponyville was preparing, though in an odd way. All around the village, decorations were being hung, flowers that only bloomed in darkness were being potted, banners were being hung, and special lights that only provided enough illumination to see were being hung, That's where the normalcy ended though. Traps were being strung all around the village's borders, protective wards were being placed, weather was being strategically placed to keep things out, medical teams were all over the place, and guards were stationed everywhere. One would have thought that the townsponies were preparing for an attack, which was pretty much exactly what the town was doing. After all, they seemed to have a disaster every month and they didn't want such a thing for an event such as this. A group of Pegasi maneuvered a super charged storm cloud in place, making sure not to let the lightning hit them in the process. Some Earth Ponies carefully finished off complex traps that, like the lightning, wouldn't kill, but would detain. Unicorns worked together with the local princess to weave insanely powerful ward and shield spells around the borders. The guards helped out and worked to properly establish a temporary base in the town. A few Changelings from a hive bellow the town added in sensor spells. Countless teleportation relays were scattered around the place to ensure the main six could get to the castle on the outskirts and retrieve some of the weapons the castle provided should the need arise. The reason for all of this was obvious, after all, anypony could recognize the deadly Everfree Forest right next to the village. Of course, the Everfree wasn't the only problem the Chaos capital (as nicknamed by both the God of Chaos and the local princess) had to face, there was endless possibilities for threats, which was why the security for this event was bordering on (or maybe past) insanity. Twilight smiled as she saw the preparations going well. While she really didn't plan to attend this event, she wasn't going to keep the town from witnessing it. As to just why the pony that loved new information wasn't planning to attend, well, time travel spells came in handy. "Hope this is as good as I expect." said a voice right next to the princess, the voice came from an almost exact replica of Twilight, with the black suit being the only difference. Twilight, in the future, had apparently gotten permission to alter and study the time travel spell she had used a few years ago. Her future self had then continued a loop by showing up and frightening her. "I wouldn't know, the only time I, I mean we, saw one was during Luna's transformation. I wasn't even aware that it was an actual event until recently. Of course, you know all this already." The current Twilight said. The current time's Twilight was excited, after all, with this event distracting the population, that meant she'd be able to study something that she's been meaning to return to, without her duties getting in the way. Of course, her friends had insisted on coming, even though it meant missing out on the solar eclipse. Twilight was in her lab a few minutes later (her castle had been generous enough to provide her with one), she was gathering a variety of objects including test-tubes, flasks, burners, and several chemicals. She also grabbed some custom-made necklaces that had the cutie marks of the main six on them (A form of identification). Twilight smiled and she finished preparing and headed out, stopping to thank her future self in the process, before going to the borders. At the town's borders, Twilight met up with her friends. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were in the middle of another of their fights, Fluttershy was trying to calm them down, Rarity was worrying about getting dirty, and Pinkie was being Pinkie. "Hey girls." Twilight said as she came up. "Hey Twilight." was the collected response. The group talked for only a few minutes before heading to their destination, the Mirror Pool. Finely, after nearly three years, Twilight could study it. Canterlot Castle Luna sat on the balcony of her room. She was looking up at the sun and her moon, which were getting ever closer, looking as if they were about to battle or something. The Princess of the Night shivered in fear. "What's wrong Luna?" Celestia asked from Luna's side, causing the younger princess to jump. Luna spun around in a defensive position with her horn alight, she calmed down when she realized that it was only her sister. "Tia, you know not to sneak up on me like that!" Luna complained. "Sorry Luna, I was just wondering what was wrong." Luna's face fell suddenly. "It's just" a pause; "I'm scared... w-what if the Nightmare Takes me again, or worse, takes somepony else?" Luna shivered again. Celestia just hugged her sister, both of those were real possibilities now and two of her own fears as well. Luna returned her sister's hug without a second thought. After a moment, the Lunar Princess went to her chambers and decided to do a little dream walking, even though not many ponies would be asleep just yet. The Dream Realm The Dream Realm was basically a huge, near endless, realm of stars filled with light-blue light and billions of doors leading to each dream. Some of the doors had marks on them while others didn't, it really depended on weather the pony in question had a cutie mark or not. A few of the doors had a dark-blue mist flowing out of them. Princess Luna used her power to isolate these doors in particular, the mist an indication of a Nightmare. Luna decided to go to a door that was lacking a cutie mark, no doubt a young filly or colt. The nightmare, though, wasn't much and she easily took care of it before leaving the Dream Realm. As the Lunar Princess left, a blue mist could be seen flowing silently through the realm. If the mist had eyes, they'd been looking sadly in the princess' direction. Mirror Pool Cave Twilight and her friends were in the cave. While her friends performed their own experiments with the waters of the pool, Twilight busied herself with directly examining the magic. The magic she tapped into was wild, every time she tried to grasp it, the energy just squirmed away. Unlike other magics, this energy seemed to have a mind of its own, showing defiance and even some anger. The energy seemed to match the magic in the Everfree perfectly and came shockingly close to Chaos magic. The Princess of Friendship cringed away as the magic seemed to lunge at her. This magic was definitely self-aware, It even seemed to try to control Twilight, but not in the same way as Black Magic. Black Magic simply filled her mind with dark thoughts (something she could easily ignore), but this magic attempted to warp her very mind, to turn her loyalties to the forest. It whispered that the forest had to be protected at all costs and that her resistance could harm it. There were a lot of mind control and body control spells in Equestria, but those could be fought back, this was different. Every-time Twilight attempted to understand the magic, it attacked and tried to control her. Unlike other magics that slowly dissipated when being fought back, this magic seemed to burrow deep into her mind and force her to either retreat from the magic's matrix, or be controlled by it. Twilight, however, was lucky, or unlucky, enough to get a glimpse of the form large concentrations of the magic took on. A huge wolf-like creature with bat wings and sharp fangs. She stopped examining the magic after that. A short time later, the main six were putting the necklaces Twilight had brought on copies of them. The replicas were perfect, down to magical power and intellect. This struck as a little odd for Twilight since Pinkie's first time cloning herself led to several copies that didn't know anything about her. "So, do you think you could tell me what you know about the pool?" Twilight asked her copy. The copy looked down at the golden necklace with its blue gem and Twilight's cutie mark printed on it. She caught a faint glimpse of her reflection in the stone. While her eyes looked normal in pony, her reflection showed a swirling gold light in the pupil with her eyes shifting between the colors of the rainbow and the colors of an inverted rainbow, never staying a single color for more than a few moments. She looked back up at the original Twilight. "Sorry, I only know what you know, I wish I could be of more help." she said. The original Twilight nodded in understanding before suggesting they work together. Elsewhere, on the balcony with her sister, Luna finally found the courage she was looking for and lit up her horn, pulling her moon in front of the sun. As this happened, the moon blocked out almost all of the sun's light, leaving a ring around blackness. The eclipse had begun. Luna waited for a moment, but when nothing other than the eclipse happened, she sighed with relief. "See Luna, there was nothing to worry about." Celestia assured. "Never say that Tia, it's like an invitation for disaster." Luna said, seeming worried again. Hidden in the shadows, a pair of light-blue eyes watched Luna's worry with sadness. "I wish I could apologize, but I can't, not yet." a familiar yet different voice said before walking off in silence. as the pony walked away, it heard faint whispering and glanced at its shadow. The pony's shadow was several shades darker than it should have been. It was glaring at the pony, intentionally off step with the pony in question (This clearly indicated that the pony was a Nightmare, a nocturnal version of Earth Ponies with a different magic). "I know, but I can't, not yet at least. I don't want Celestia their when I talk to her." the pony whispered, revealing it to be a mare. Her shadow growled in annoyance, it wasn't very patient. "I know, just let me do it on my own time." the mare's shadow grumbled, knowing full well that it couldn't really stop her. Back at the Mirror Pool Suddenly, one of Pinkie's countless hidden party cannons went off. The six original mares yelped as they jumped back, which, with them having swapped positions with their copies, led to the six falling in the pool. Strangely, the pool was more like sludge now, but they were still sinking fast. "Face alone the shadows of thy past." the clones said in unison as the ponies went under, falling through sudden darkness. The clones all looked at each other, they could all see their true selves, which were still copies of the originals only with the unique eyes that the Twilight clone had. The group of six clones nodded to each other as their necklaces began glowing. The Twilight clone flared up her horn and in a flash, the group looked like completely different ponies (specifically ponies from the guard). With that done, they walked off. "Five hours, three minutes, that's how long they have." the Twilight clone said to the others, who all nodded in understanding. Author's Note I'm back, with another story. Hope you enjoy. side notes on this story - the necklaces of the other clones look exactly like the Twilight clone's, only with the cutie mark of the pony the clones were created from in place of Twilight's. I'm going to be updating a little slower, most likely, than most previous visitors are use to. feel free to guess who the pony hiding in the shadows is. I look forward to seeing why you like/dislike this story.
ShadowsTwilight Sparkle opened her eyes slowly, only to jump back and cry out as she beheld the ground she had been laying on. The grass wasn't like normal grass, it was nothing but flames in the shape of grass. Thankful for the fireproof bubble she had around her (and too shocked to question where it had come from), the Alicorn examined her surroundings. The green fire that was the grass wasn't alone. All around her, Twilight saw that the trees that made up the forest she was in were made of flames as well. Brownish-red pillars of flowing lava made up the trunks while green, and some yellow-green, fire made up the leaves. A single fiery leaf falling from a tree was proof enough that the flames were the leaves. Twilight landed carefully on the grass and started walking, unsure of her location or of how she got there in the first place. As Twilight walked, she could have sworn that she heard whispers from different points around her, whispers so faint that she thought of the whispers heard when performing Necromancy, faint and unintelligible, but sharp and twisted. The only difference was that the whispers she heard had what seemed to be crackling fire laced into each word and lacked an echo (unlike Necromancy whispers). The forest was large too, which would leave her walking around for quite a while. Twilight found a lot of things over the next hour including a variety of fire or heat based plants, several signs of life (including some paw and hoof prints), and some traces of intelligent beings (mainly bits of buildings made of a black stone). After a while, Twilight found what she had partly been looking for, a village which was made up of black stone and had several... demons (at least, that was the closest thing she could think of to describe the sight) living in it. The creatures varied greatly. There were creatures that had dragon-like scales, or multiple thin tails. Some had several heads, of which a few were arguing. Some looked like normal ponies, only with fire for manes and tails (and wings for the Pegasi, Bat-Pony, Changeling, and Alicorn like ones). Twilight walked through the village with care, unsure of what she'd find. Luckily, nopony seemed to be paying attention to her. Twilight soon found a sign proclaiming two useful bits of information. The village's name, Cordis, and the name of the forest it was in, Ignis. Twilight shivered at the name of the forest. Ignis was the name of a forest near Tartarus, that was indeed rumored to be made of flames. "How am I even in here?" Twilight asked herself, then yelped as she felt an odd sensation go through her, causing her to jump and stay airborne with her wings. When Twilight looked down, she found a stallion-like creature with eight tails and spikes down its back standing exactly where she had. Slowly, Twilight landed, but she misjudged and tripped, falling through the creature, which only left her more disoriented. At first she thought the creature wasn't solid, but that changed when she saw it hug sompony else. Her head hurt afterwards as she processed the reason she, for she was positive that it was her, wasn't solid. The only reason thinking of this made her head hurt was because she had been able to touch the various plants she had found, but she couldn't touch these creatures. The fact that she wasn't solid did make some sense though. After all, she wasn't sure of the consequences of physically touching any of these creatures, nor of them hearing her. Even without them seeming to be able to see her, she felt like prey. Either way, it wasn't something to dwell on at the moment, especially since she suddenly realized that there still seemed to be a pull towards protecting the Everfree in her, the magic of that place was definitely not something she wanted to learn too much more about. Unseen by others, a pair of glowing eyes had watched everything and soon stalked off, continuing to follow Twilight. unknown location #2 The place had black walls with a glowing green gel woven with intricate designs through them. Aside from that though, it looked almost like any other castle, with plenty of furniture and the residence buzzing around, completely oblivious to Rainbow Dash' presence. The place was a Changeling Hive, and while she hated the fact, Rainbow knew exactly which one. She remembered the black halls of the castle that was hidden in a mountain all too well. She knew that five doors ahead and then three meters in was the throne for the corrupted queen of the hive, and she knew just who that queen was. Dash rounded into the throne room, paying little mind to the Changeling that walked through her in the process, sitting in the throne was someling she had never wanted to see again. Queen Chrysalis, Queen of the Venom Hive, sat in the throne, four Changeling guards around her. While three of the Changelings were unknown to her, she recognized the fourth (since she was out of her combat form) instantly. The nymph had a cyan coat with a blue saddle carapace, her mane and tail were yellow (both being curly and long), her wings were ruby, and her slitted eyes were blue. Her name was Crystal Wing, which Rainbow confirmed by checking her Cutie-Mark, a red crystal heart. She actually did it. She actually got into the guard. Rainbow thought with a smile. Her smile faded though when she felt a familiar energy attack her mind, though she easily took it down. "Someling knows I'm here." Rainbow observed angrily, before growling at herself for using that particular term. The Pegasus spun around casually and walked off, heading for the training arena. After only a moment, she took flight and continued forward. There were no hoof-steps or wing-beats behind her as she flew, short of those coming from the Changelings that weren't paying attention. This did tell Rainbow one thing though, her pursuer was an infiltrator (assuming it was a Changeling in the first place), that wasn't good. The infiltrators were masters of both disguise and stealth, a skilled infiltrator could walk right through a crowd of ponies without a disguise and still be left unnoticed, they could take on a disguise and perfectly emulate the pony they're disguised as in personality with only a few bits of information to go off of and about three minutes of observing the target. Most infiltrators were also at least Alpha-level spell-casters, which was the second highest form of magical skill. For a Changeling, an Alpha-Level had enough power to change both general form and even size, they also had access to some of the stronger magic spells. There were only a hoofful of Gamma-levels in the infiltrators of the Venom Hive, with one notable one being Night Shade, a female Changeling who had gained a huge reputation for being the youngest infiltrator and the strongest as well. Rainbow knew that Changeling all too well, of course, she was positive that it couldn't be that Changeling. unknown location #3 Fluttershy walked fearfully through the lifeless, mist-filled, forest she had found herself in. The Pegasus yelped when she heard something under her hoof and shot into the air, stopping and looking to find... an apple that had been sucked dry. Slowly, she landed. The apple could mean that there was life, but that didn't really mean that that life was friendly. She landed timidly and, after looking around her for a moment, continued walking. The forest she had found herself in was a lot like Everfree. Everything seemed to be working on its own. The place looked almost completely dead, with the exception of a few apple trees. There was a terrifying whisper that seemed to come from every direction at once. The most confusing thing though, was that the entire forest seemed shrouded in fog. Of course, this could make sense, if it weren't for the feeling the Pegasus got while walking through it. All Pegasi were taught to feel out the condensed water molecules that made up clouds (it was essential to being a weather Pegasus). This was something taught in grade-school. The strange thing about this fog though, was that it lacked that faint magical pulse Fluttershy knew from school (fog had the same effect as cloud) and in its place was something that (had it been physical) would have burned like acid. The mare shivered from the feeling. Scratch what she had thought before, this place was even less natural than Everfree. She watched Fluttershy from a distance, never staying in one area for more than a few minutes. Her prey remained unaware of her presence as she flew silently overhead, ensuring her shadow never passed the Pegasus' line of sight. The creature landed on a tree not long after, Fluttershy's fearfulness was just making this chase boring. Absently, she grabbed an apple off the tree and proceeded to drain it. "Your boring prey Flutters." she said. her voice, coming out calm and cold, sounded similar to Fluttershy's, but with the exact opposite tone and other vocal features that made identifying Fluttershy almost too easy. She took off again soon after and used the mist, which didn't bother her, to keep hidden, it was midnight here so the creature wasn't really sure why she was even concerned about her shadow being visible at ground level. She actually knew why of course. Fluttershy was perceptive, kind of had to be to be an animal care taker. The creature knew the extent of Fluttershy's perceptiveness far better than anypony short of Fluttershy herself. This meant that she had to be careful as Fluttershy would be able to notice her shadow even if any normal pony couldn't. The creature was a predator after-all, she knew she had to be stealthy and know her prey if she hoped for the catch. Dream Realm She walked down the halls with care. She had dawned the armor of the Dream Guard, an odd lightish-blue armor that's pattern swirled and moved like waves to symbolize the very nature of the Dream Guard. I hope doing this will help she thought. She stopped in-front of an orange door with a purple outline and the dark-blue mist of a nightmare seeping out, more specifically, a Nightmare (as in the pony race of the same name). She nodded to her self before opening the door and entering. Scootaloo cried out in fear as the Changeling in front of her approached, the blood of her recently killed parents dripping from the creature's mouth. The Changeling had jumped out of nowhere and Scootaloo didn't even have enough time to blink before the thing was over her parents. She was so scared, in-fact, that she had yet to notice the ambient dark-blue energy that was faintly flowing into the creature, or the other pony that had materialized out of nowhere. Right when the Changeling lunged at the Pegasus filly, however, somepony else shot across the room and slammed into the insect-like pony, who cried out. Scootaloo, who had shielded herself with a hoof, slowly lowered it as she beheld the strangest of sights. Standing over the Changeling; with a sword that had a light-blue blade, black handle, and black bat-wing hilt; was a pony, one that looked shockingly familiar. The pony had an orange coat, purple mane that was styled exactly like Scootaloo's own, and had a Cutie Mark of a pair of black Pegasus wings that were on fire. Right before her eyes, the filly saw lightish-blue armor with a swirling pattern that also held a wave-like design appeared on the Pegasus that was holding the Changeling down. Actually, the armor literally blurred into existence. The sword in the Pegasus' mouth brought it slashing down with cackling cyan energy. The blade slashed clean across the Changeling and turned the thing into dark-blue mist. "Whoa, who are you anyway? You look just like me." Scootaloo continued with several more questions before the Pegasus held up an armor clad hoof to quiet her down. "I'm you, or rather an adult interpretation of you dreamt up from your mind to help you battle that nightmare." was the Pegasus' response. "Wait, I'm dreaming?" the older Scootaloo just nodded, which led the real Scootaloo to go into a hover and smile. Her job done, the older Scootaloo spun around and started walking off, starting to blur out of existence, the last thing the filly heard before her older counterpart vanished was 'Have a good night.' Scootaloo failed to see the dark-blue energy entering her counterpart as the mare left. The pony walked out of Scootaloo's dream calmly. Her brilliant blue mane tumbling down around her head since her disguise had fallen away the second she had left the filly's dream. She felt mentally worn out from having been in the dream plain, and outside of a dream, for so long. On the bright side, she had gotten a decent meal along the way. That was a notable feature in the four different 'nocturnal' races, they all fed off a form of ambient energy, except in one case (emotional energy for Changelings; Dream energy for Nightmares, which was tastiest when weaving their namesake; base magical energy for Bat-ponies, which was the latent magic in most living things and couldn't be physically accessed, loss of it also only resulted in minor sickness in living creatures; and ambient magic for Dracorns, which was poisonous if it was their own). She smiled a little, feeling full and noting how odd being a Nightmare was, before leaving the dream realm. Author's Note Been a while huh? I'm back with a new chapter. So, feel free to guess who/what the creatures stalking RD, Flutters, and Twi are. Feel free to also guess who/what the pony in the last part is. Hope you enjoyed.
DeathThe cave was dark, lit by dull light. blood splattered the walls while razor sharp objects hung from various hooks, all stained with blood. Pinkie Pie walked carefully, not bouncing for fear of what would hear. The cave system was large, she was sure that she'd been walking for at least an hour, and the blood and sharp objects were always present. Pinkie pulled out a flashlight from who-knows-where and shined it on some writing that she had noticed, the writing read Laughter and blood spread like disease and where there is Laughter, there will be blood-shed written in blood. Pinkie shivered at the dark message relating to her element. There were other messages like that too. Pinkie approached one of the walls of weapons slowly. There was everything from simple knives, to military-grade weapons. It seemed that everything was placed in sections. in the upper left corner was only several knives. The upper right section consisted of brass hoofs, magic-swords (which were basically swords of highly condensed magical energy that were created by either Unicorns or, in some cases, Pinkie herself), and other magic weapons, including a sharp and dull Unicorn horn the same color as Pinkie's coat. the third section made Pinkie growl. It contained mini party cannons armed with poison filled needles, party-hat bombs, balloons filled with explosive gases, cakes made of C-4, and several presents of unidentified weapons. The final section caught the party mare's attention though. It was a section of military-grade weapons, including RPGs, hoof-claws, grenades, various guns, and even wing blades (right next to a pair of Pegasus and Alicorn wings that matched her coat) Pinkie was really starting to hate this place. She was currently in what looked to be a torture room, there were skeletons all over the floor with messages like Laughter kills and Laughter is a heartless demon along the walls and written in what seemed to be the victim's blood. Some of the skeletons had been arranged to make tables or cabinets (which held drugs to prevent ponies from sleeping, intensify pain, cause agony, or keep them alive a little longer). There was a room off to the side which, when Pinkie entered, had a large statue of Princess Celestia with a spear through her chest made of bones and pony manes and tails. A trail of dried blood ran from the wound to the base of the stand the statue was on. The stand also had an inscription that read Pray to yourself Celestia, for nothing will stand between you and me when I finally strike. Prepare for this for soon you will know only agony and the depths of Tartarus will be your only safe haven. written in blood red, Pinkie shivered again before turning and walking off, though it quickly became bouncing out of habit. "This doesn't look good." The pink mare giggled a little afterward, not being able to keep a serious face for very long "Oh well, I need to find a way home anyway." with that, Pinkie bounced off in a completely random direction. She growled in anger, she had hoped to weekend Pinkie Pie and yet the reality warping Earth-Pony had casually ignored every terrifying thing the cloaked creature had thrown at her, though she should have seen that coming. That little brat isn't as simple as I thought, you'd think I, of all beings, would be able to deter her. the creature thought as she turned around to walk off, only to come face-to-face with the party pony herself. The creature jumped back in shock before taking on a defensive stance, her black body suit hiding her colors well. "I found you, now it's my turn to hide." Pinkie giggled a little after that before her tail began twitching and both mares jumped away as a boulder fell between them, crumbling afterwards. "Okay, then I'll start counting and you sta-" the creature was cut off from her attempt to get Pinkie away as fast as possibly by the mare in question literally vanishing into thin air. She shook her head. "When we finally meet, I hate to say it, but the outcome is not as predictable as I first thought." she said before following Pinkie's example and ceasing to exist where she had been siting. Venom Hive As her fellow guards walked off, since they were changing shifts, Crystal Wing turned to her queen, having been told that they needed to talk in private. Crystal bowed. "What did you need me for my queen?" she asked, Chrysalis chuckling darkly. "A special mission. I need you to enter the town of Ponyville and gather as much Intel on the Elements of Harmony as you can. While your there, I need you to also try to locate a rogue that I have reason to believe is present in the town." Chrysalis said, receiving a nod in reply as Crystal headed for one of the hive's exit. Though she ensured that it didn't show in the Hivemind, Crystal was both excited and a little frightened. She was excited because, last she had heard, her friend Night Shade was in Ponyville, so she might run into her. She was frightened though because Chrysalis might know that Night Shade was there. Night Shade, even though she was a Gamma-level spell-caster and high level infiltrator, had abandoned the hive some time after Chrysalis started planning some rather insane things, attacking Canterlot for instance. Crystal Wing remember that day all too well She had been casually talking with Night Shade until the nymph had brought her to her room. Once they had entered, Night had thrown up a powerful shield that completely blocked out the Hivemind. She had proceeded to explain that she was leaving and that she was going to ensure she was never found. After that, she had explained that her leaving was never to leave the confines of her quarters. She had at least showed Crystal what she planned to look like when she left. Having made it to the exit sometime during her trip down memory lane, Crystal took on her base disguise before taking off, double checking the disguise in the process. She still had her cyan coat, but now it lacked holes, her wings were now Pegasus wings, her eyes were normal (normal for most at least), her fangs were gone, and her saddle carapace was gone. Crystal took a moment to do a few of the complicated Pegasus aerial moves that Night had taught her, wanting to just feel the air under her new feathers. It had been a long time since she disguised herself as a Pegasus, she had almost forgotten how it felt. Having taken enough time to relax in the air, Crystal took off to Ponyville. unknown location #5 Applejack smiled at Queen Stormy Forest, queen of the Terra Hive. After a moment, the country mare spun around and walked away, heading for the sleeping quarters. As she walked, she looked around, observing the thousands of Changelings that buzzed around the halls, some coming in from doors on the ceiling that lead to the outside. She also saw the bright orange gel-like substance that covered the walls in intricate patterns, the walls that weren't covered showed compacted dirt. Applejack knew all this with ease, after all, the Apple family often did business with this hive (it turned out that their apples and other products happened to have more than enough love put into them to sustain the hive), thanks to this, she had been in and out of the hive quite often, though exactly how much of her life was spent in the hive was something she never wanted to talk about. After a few more minutes, Applejack found the house and room she was looking for. The room looked like any typical Terra Hive Changeling's room. An orange sleeping cocoon hung from the ceiling; several shelves, consisting of books, underground plants, and some above ground plants, were on the walls; a few windows were on the ceiling with some doors to lead to the outside; and a closet that had Changeling cloths in it sat to the right of the sleeping cocoon. The cloths were made of a unique, silk-like, substance and often had glowing parts to add to the design. Applejack knew that the exact process of creating the cloths was a closely guarded secret among Changelings (it was the only thing that ALL hives agreed upon). On the far wall was what looked, at first glance, to be scribbles, but any Changeling (or their ally) knew the language written in orange, it translated to the name of the Changeling that once lived there, Thorn, a Changeling that Applejack knew for a fact was dead. That aside, Applejack was shocked to see that the room was the same even after nearly fifteen years. Friendship Castle Throne Room C-Twi (Twilight's clone) looked down at a random guard who had approached her and the other clones. "Are all the preparations ready?" she asked. "They are Princess Twilight." the guard said, his silver armor shinning with a hole-filled purple crystal heart as the chest piece (this was the marker that this guard was a Changeling, even though he was in disguise). C-Twi rolled her eyes. "Seriously, you don't have to act like I'm Twilight Sparkle." she said, the guard nodding and heading off. She had held her and the other clone's disguises for all of five minutes before realizing how pointless it was and getting rid of them. It was C-Dash (Rainbow's clone) who had spread the fact that they were just clones to Ponyville and even explained that the necklaces they all wore were indications of that. At the thought of her necklace, C-Twi glanced down at her own. The glow, which was subtle before, was now painfully obvious. The same could be said for the necklaces of the other clones as well. C-Shy (Fluttershy's clone) smiled as she noticed the intensity of the glow from her and her friends' necklaces. Looking at a clock on the wall, she saw that it had been two hours. "Good" she said, catching everypony's attention "They're early." she finished, everypony nodding at the statement. Future Twilight, who was laying down and resting, chuckled, yes they were early, but she already knew that. Standing up, Future Twilight walked off, quickly returning to a balcony that had a telescope on it, she proceeded to indulge herself in some stargazing while the eclipse made it possible. unknown location #6 Rarity looked around the Crystal Caves she had found herself in almost an hour and a half ago. The cave was filled with crystals, most of which had dried blood on them. There were also several diamond weapons, also stained with blood, hanging from the ceiling and the walls. Purple crystals were glowing softly near what, at first glance, looked like a wall, but Rarity had figured out a while ago that the crystals were there to mark otherwise unseen doorways. the fashionista walked through the door to behold a terrifying sight. In the center of the otherwise empty room, was a large pool of blood. Rarity shivered as she beheld the sight, this was clearly a psychopath's den. A trail of bloody hoof-prints spread from the pool and lead to another room where the sound of screaming could be faintly heard, Rarity had no intention of looking into it. Opting for the only other doorway in the room, Rarity walked to her right, soon entering another room filled with shimmering crystals. She would have loved the sight, if not for the body that laid on a table in the center, various crystal blades and sharpened diamonds jutting out from several places on the body. "This is just horrendous." she said, she would have fainted if it wasn't for the fact that she could still here the tortured screams a distance away. Moving as quickly as she could, while still being quite, Rarity left the room and quickly made her way back through the door she had entered the blood-pool room from. She went into another door afterwards, not wanting to be anywhere near the pool room. She came into a room with an odd combination of bones, blood, gems, and crystals. The place had several statues made of the materials mentioned. These were statues of some ponies that Rarity hadn't seen in years, or rather, hadn't seen at all. In the center of the room was a statue of Luna. As much as she hated to admit it, Rarity could see a certain, very dark, beauty to all of it. Shaking her head and shivering from that thought, she left for another room. Author's Note Well... this took a lot longer than I had hoped. Oh well, I guess that's to be expected when one doubles their usual minimum word count. Really though, typing a minimum of 2000 word instead of 1000 is a lot harder than I expected. For future reference, here are the nicknames the clones are using (if there's also a name in parenthesis then it's one the clone prefers to go by). The name in bold is the pony that the clone is from. Granted, it's obviouse, but oh well. Twilight Sparkle: C-Twi Rainbow Dash: C-Dash (Spectrum Flash) Fluttershy: C-Shy Pinkie Pie: C-Pie Applejack: C-AJ (Applecore) Rarity: C-Rare feel free to guess who/what the creatures stalking the main six (yes there's one for Applejack, but not yet) are.
FearTwilight walked into a large demonic tree, not bothered by going through the walls, since she'd been doing it for quite a while now. Within the tree was a large amount of books on demonic magic. The Alicorn walked over to a table that had one such book laying opened. Examining the book proved useless though as it was written in an odd language. Twilight groaned because the language looked familiar, like she'd seen it in passing. Looking back to the book shelves, Twilight lit her horn in preparation of levitating one to her. Obey! Twilight jumped and lost concentration as the voice rang strongly in her mind, leaving her with a minor headache. She knew the voice though, it was the voice of the Everfree. The urge to fly back to the Everfree forest and protect it had quickly escalated to the Everfree telling her to obey and she had been dealing with it for an hour now. Twilight shook her head as she walked out of the library through the same path as before, through the wall. As she left though, she caught a glimpse of glowing red eyes disappearing from sight. "This isn't good, I'm being followed." Twilight observed as she took to the air and flew off towards the Ignis Forest. Inferna growled as Twilight flew off. Taking to the air She followed, keeping to the smoke and clouds that were all around her. As she flew, she chastised herself for not being more careful while following her target. Apparently well aware of her pursuer, Twilight started sending blasts of magic behind her. Inferna growled as she dodged the attacks, if it was up to her, then she'd counter, but they weren't even meant to battle yet, not until they entered the clearing at least. Over the next few minutes, Inferna found herself dodging constantly, but that lead to a realization. This is good, no, this is great! If she wears herself out before we get to the clearing, then my chances of winning will increase dramatically. Then I can have her power all to myself! the demon thought excitedly as she flapped her fiery wings to avoid another attack, showing her razor sharp teeth from how much she was smiling from it all. Twilight landed in a large clearing within Ignis, breathing heavily as she turned around to face her pursuers. The demon landed with a sadistic grin that showed razor-like teeth. The demon's appearance though, was shocking. It's mane, tail, and wings (all made up of orange flames and keeping their form when it shouldn't be possible) were all shaped and styled exactly like Twilight's; its coat was a light orange; and its eyes were glowing red (the pupil and iris blending into one another). "Hello Twilight Sparkle. I'm Inferna, now let me explain the rules here." Inferna paused as her horn lit up in orange fire-like magic and she created a screen to project the rules on. The screen read -No holding back -do not keep just to ground or air, use both -all magic allowed -battle's not over until sompony dies Almost immediately after she had finished reading, a wall of flames lit up around the two, trapping them together. Twilight shivered, she knew who Inferna was, the 'monster' that she had feared as a filly, and that was a part of her. unknown location #2 Rainbow Dash landed in the center of the arena, memories of the last time she had fought there resurfacing. Begin Flashback Rainbow Dash, or rather Night Shade, looked across the arena at her opponent, he was a soldier. As for the reason behind the battle, the soldiers and infiltrators were at a disagreement about the treatment of prisoners, so they were having their representatives battle to decide which choice would be enacted. In a flash of red flames, Night Shade's purple coat was replaced with a carapace and claws adorn her hole-filled hooves. The soldier took on a more basic form, looking like a bulkier version of the forms that were used in battles and invasions (including the invasion of Canterlot that would occur almost twenty five years later). "We all know the rules, but for those unaccustomed to this kind of battle, I'll explain." an announcer's voice rang through the Hivemind "This is a battle to the death, that means that it's not won unless your opponent's heart stops. You are to use only Changeling magic and all that it implies to fight, anyling caught using another kind of magic will be forced to forfeit. Any questions?" after a pause, the announcer smiled. "Very well, you may begin!" The second this was said, a powerful shield went up around the chamber, ensuring noling interfered and noling got hurt. Night Shade shot forward the second she heard that, the soldier soon meeting her in the center of the battle field. The soldier lit his horn and hit Night with a blast of magic, sending her flying as he lunged at her. Night saw him coming though and flipped herself around, her sky blue wings buzzing softly as she lashed out with her back claws, catching the soldier off guard, he stopped dead in an attempt to avoid the attack, but was met with an explosion of magic. As the soldier cleared his eyes, Night attacked again, raking her claws across his back and flying back several feet. Her slitted magenta eyes locked with her opponent's yellow ones as he shot after her again. Night had prepared for that, what she hadn't prepared for was the sudden blast of magic that hit her a moment later, sending her flying into a wall. Her blood red saddle carapace was able to stop her though and she landed on her hooves, only the saddle carapace sustaining much damage. Night Shade smiled as she began to blur, soon vanishing from sight. The soldier stopped in his tracks at this and began looking around. Night increased the size and sharpness of her claws as she approached. She soon hovered silently over the soldier before dropping, she didn't waste time with a struggle and immediately slit the Changeling's throat before dropping her disguise. "The winner is Night Shade with her expert use of covert disguise!" the announcer said proudly. Night Shade smiled and bowed to the crowed. The Changeling proceeded to use her red magic to carve her name into the center of the arena, granted, it'd be removed within the next week as the builders and the nursers were having arguments. End Flashback As Rainbow Dash looked around the arena, she caught a glimpse of the intricate markings of the Changeling language. The Pegasus took wing as she flew up to see what was written, since it was pretty large. She froze upon seeing the full name. Night Shade was carved in bright red magic along the floor. "A fitting place for a battle, don't you think?" someling said from behind her, spinning, Rainbow came face to face with a shocking foe. Hovering several feet from her, wings dead silent, was Night Shade herself. Impossible, she doesn't even exist anymore Rainbow thought as her past self, though they looked about the same age thanks to the age spell she had used all those years ago, smiled darkly and landed, taking on a fighting stance, Rainbow followed this. "You know the rules Rainbow Dash." Night Shade said with a smile. unknown location #3 Fluttershy yelped and hid in a bush, looking out, she found that the thing that had fallen on her was just another drained apple. "W-who's draining a-all these apples?" she asked herself in a whisper. Reluctantly, she walked out of the bush and continued through the forest, shivering from the unnatural fog. As she walked, Fluttershy became painfully aware of the fact that literally no life seemed to exist in the forest, not even a blade of grass. This raised the question of where the apples were coming from, seeing as there were no living trees around her, only dead ones. Flutterbat hissed in anger as she watched her shy counterpart jump and hide at every little thing. Taking wing, she flew through the air, soon gliding down low and briefly passing Fluttershy's vision. The second she was a few feet away from Fluttershy, Flutterbat pulled up. She snagged an apple as she ascended and quickly drained it, discarding the apple in front of her counterpart and grabbing another one, doing the same a few feet away. Luckily, Fluttershy caught on quickly and began following the trail. Flutterbat knew not to underestimate her counterpart. 'Shy may have been, well, shy, but she was actually pretty strong when she needed to be. Then there was the dreaded stare, though that wouldn't be a problem. Bottom line, so long as the Bat-Pony didn't anger her, then she wouldn't pose a huge threat, theoretically speaking of course. Soon Fluttershy was lead into a clearing, which lacked the fog. She looked around timidly until the creature she had seen fly by her earlier landed. The Pegasus let out a quite gasp and turned to run, only to find a wall of dead vines in her way. Turning back around, Fluttershy looked at her Bat-pony counterpart fearfully. "Okay Fluttershy, here's the rules. This is a battle to the death" Flutterbat stopped to smile at the horror on 'Shy's face before continuing "That means that one of us isn't walking away from this. Neither of us are allowed to stay grounded or airborne, you'll have to alternate. Finely 'The Stare' is off limits, don't pretend you can't control it either." with that, Flutterbat got down low and hissed harshly. unknown location #4 Pinkie Pie giggled as she bounced through the caves, wondering who the pony she met had been. The bouncy pink pony soon found herself in a large, empty, chamber within the cave system. The chamber had literally nothing in it. "Oooo... What's this for?" Pinkie asked excitedly as she looked at the other side of the chamber, where the cloaked pony from before now stood. Ignoring the fact that she had come in through the only possible entrance, Pinkie giggled at the pony across from her. "This is where it all ends." the pony said as she removed her cloak, revealing a replica of Pinkie, only with flat mane and tail, in a stealth suit. Pinkemena smiled sadistically as she pulled out a knife from nowhere and continued with "The only rule is that one of us is going to die at the end." Pinkie Pie was suddenly in front of her counterpart. "Where'd you come from, I mean, Twi got rid of all my clones, and I suppressed you, so Why are you here." she asked, Pinkemena instantly relocating her self to the opposite side of the chamber, where the door had shut. "What does it matter, I'm here to kill you, why should I give away information?" Pinkemena asked, before finding Pinkie in front of her again, Pikemena relocated to the ceiling. "Come on, let's play!!" the party pony yelled out, giggling at her sadistic counterpart's attempts to avoid her. Pinkie stopped then and briefly pondered what to do to get to Pinkemena, an idea soon came to mind, complete with a light bulb over her head. Pinkie reached into nothingness and pulled out a pair of Pegasus wings that matched her coat, before attaching them to her in the proper places and opening them. She gave the wings a few test flaps before taking to the air, where she hovered in front of her counterpart. Pinkemena didn't give Pinkie a chance to speak though as she once more relocated to the ground and took on a fighting stance. "Enough, I'm going to kill you now." she growled. unknown location #5 Applejack walked quietly through the Terra Hive, heading for the farming section, where they grew several underground plants. Around her, Changelings flew from one place to another, going through her in some cases. The path to the farming area had been memorized by Applejack so it didn't take her long to enter the place. All around the chamber, odd looking plants grew, glowing mushrooms being a prominent occurrence. Off in a corner, there was a shrine of sorts. Applejack walked up to it with care so that she could see it. The shrine had Moon Star flowers all around it, they glowed subtly with the light of the moon. Aside from that, the shrine had dead vines wrapped around the two pillars that were against the wall. In the center was a small statue of someling that Applejack knew all too well. Finally, right above the statue, carved into the wall by the blue magic that was Queen Stormy Forest's, was Thorn Gamma-level spell-caster, loving nurser, and skilled gatherer Applejack smiled, the part of her that still saw itself as a Changeling happy to see her importance in the hive had garnered a shrine. Thorn, or rather the construct that represented Thorn, lit her horn as she looked around the large battle arena that was so rarely used. She had etched her name in her amber colored magic onto the floor to symbolize the battle to come. In a flash, Applejack appeared in the center of the arena. The Changeling took her time examining Applejack and comparing the farm pony to herself. Their coats were different colors, with Thorn's being red. Thorn's wings and saddle carapace were the same color as Applejack's coat. Her mane and tail, not held by bands, were a completely different color to Applejacks, they were bright green. Their eyes were the same color though, except with Thorn's being slitted. Applejack looked around the moment she got over her confusion from the sudden teleport. She froze though when she saw Thorn herself standing on one end of the arena. "You and I both know the usual rules to this arena. Changeling or Terra Magic only, no interference, and the battles over upon one participant pinning the other. Well... the last rule has changed. One of us isn't making it out alive, and the battle wont end until one of us dies." Thorn said as she leaned down in a fighting stance. Applejack shivered, this wasn't going to end well. unknown location #6 Diamond Shard cackled madly as she finished violently murdering the unfortunate stallion on her table. Putting her knife down, she spun and walked off, heading for her pool. As she approached the pool, Diamond removed the blood-red cloak she had been wearing. Her white coat, almost completely red from blood, was shinning thanks to the aforementioned blood. Diamond slowly lowered herself into the blood pool, sighing in content as the blood reached her chest and she relaxed. The blood was warm thanks to several preservative and heating spells that she had learned for just this reason. Diamond Shard smiled sadistically as she felt the dried blood on her coat wash away with the constant swirling motion of her pool. The sadistic mare dunked her head briefly, coming up and shaking her head slightly to clear the excess blood off. Her purple mane was slightly stained, but she could fix that with a simple spell. The mare giggled sadistically before letting herself relax again. Rarity quietly walked into a room, the room was odd compared to the rest of the rooms she'd seen. It lacked blood stains or statues, instead, there were thousands of sharpened gems and bladed weapons. A loud bang sounded through the empty chamber, causing Rarity to yelp and spin in the direction it had come from, the entrance, she found that the it had closed. Spinning back around, Rarity watched as a segment of the wall slowly opened, accompanied by three more bangs. As the wall finished closing, she stepped back in shock of the pony that had stepped through the new door. Though the pony was slightly obscured by the blood on her white coat, there was no mistaking her purple mane and tail (both of which looked like Rarity's when her mane and tail were either down or wet) or her Cutie Mark, a red variation of the fashionista's own. "Neither of us thought we'd see each other again, now did we my dear reincarnate. That aside though, here are the rules" Diamond said before lighting her horn to reveal a darkened area of the cave, this showed the rules painted in blood along the walls. -all kinds of magic and spells are allowed if the participants know them -Both parts of the chambers are allowed to be used -The weapons on the walls are not for show, they must be used -This battle doesn't end until sompony is dead Rarity shivered slightly at this.
VoidCrystal Wing glided down to the ground as she approached Ponyville. The entire town was encased in a very thick magical shield. Crystal approached the shield and tapped on it, any trained guard could spot detection spells from a mile away. A moment later, a guard walked up to it. "Hello sir, may I come in?" Crystal asked. "What is your reason for coming here?" the guard countered "My friend Rainbow Dash lives here, I was just wanting to surprise her." "Rainbow Dash isn't here at the moment, I can take you to the clone that's temporary taking her place though." Crystal shrugged and nodded, leading to the guard opening the shield partially. The Changeling stepped through and followed the guard, thinking back to when she had been told of Night Shade's plans. Begin Flashback Crystal yelped as the Hivemind went completely silent from the intense shield Night Shade had just put up. The Changeling in question's horn slowly died down, though the spell stayed. "Can I trust you to keep a secret Crystal?" Night Shade asked as she looked to her friend. "Of course. why would you even bother asking that question?" Crystal asked, too shocked from the question to even think about the powerful spell that was blocking the Hivemind entirely. "Even from the queen?" Crystal was stunned at that question and took a shocked step back. Why wouldn't I be able to tell Queen Chrysalis, what's Night planning? "D-depends on what you're wanting to do?" she asked, of course, there was little chance that she'd deny such a request from her friend, her loyalty to her friends was one of the reasons her father wasn't sure about her joining the guard. "I'm leaving the hive. I don't want any part in our queen's plans. I'm going to change most of my life to ensure I'm not found." the second she finished, Night went up in red flames, a cyan coated and rainbow maned Pegasus now stood in her place. "How do you plan to do that?" "Simple." the Changeling stood proudly as she continued "When I'm done talking to you, I'll perform this spell with others to cover my tracks and keep suspicion away from you. Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to sneak away and head into a forest, where I'll send a false distress call and cut my link to the hive (effectively faking my death). From there I'll sneak off and fly to Cloudsdale, where I'll perform an advanced metamorphosis spell to permanently change my form to this. My magic wont dwindle from doing this and so I'll then perform an age spell without the memory restrictions and pose as an orphan until I'm found. I'll start building my new life from then on." Night smiled as she went into a hover, even as a Pegasus, the infiltrator's wings were silent. Crystal stood with shock, she wanted to find a hole in that plan, but there wasn't any, at least not with the hives strongest infiltrator as the planner, Night simply knew too many spells to let her plan even waver. "H-how will I find you?" she asked. Night went up in red flames again as she reverted to her true form and spun around to walk off, saying only four words as she did. 'Look for Rainbow Dash'. With that, the shield fell away and the Hivemind returned. If Night didn't know her so well, then Crystal would have wondered why the infiltrator didn't bother asking if she'd keep what she learned a secret, but Crystal knew the reason. Night knew that she wouldn't dare give away a secret that one of her best friends had shared with her. End Flashback Crystal shook her head to clear the memories away as she was lead into a castle and then a throne room with seven thrones in a circle. She quickly scanned them and found Rainbow Dash, or the clone of her. "And you are?" the clone asked as she glided down and landed. "Crystal Wing, I'm under Queen Chrysalis' orders to gather intel on the Elements of Harmony." she whispered. "Sorry, you missed the Elements of Harmony about two hours and twenty minutes ago. They're in the middle of some very important missions from sompony I'm not at liberty to identify, you can wait here though if you want." "Um, okay, I guess I can stay for a bit. Thanks umm." she paused when she realized that she didn't know the clones name. "I'm C-Dash, just call me Spectrum Flash though." with that, the two took wing and C-Dash flew over to the window, inviting Crystal to a flight/tour around the village. Dream Realm The Changeling filly cried out as her queen threw her across the room. The filly yelped as she felt herself impact the wall. Her queen began approaching with pure evil in her eyes. An odd dark blue mist was flowing off (or into) her as she lit her horn in Black Magic. The hatch-ling looked at her queen with terror, until something else hit the queen and sent her flying. The being had shimmering butterfly wings with a dull horn and kind blue eyes. She had a pure white coat with a Cutie Mark of a ring of words in the Changeling's language, all translating to countless kind and good words. She looked, in every possible way, like the ponyfication of good. The queen growled and lunged at the being, only to find a long and razor sharp blade embedded in her chest. A moment passed before the queen vanished in a puff of black smoke. "I'm sorry for what you saw dear. don't worry though, it wont bother you again. Have a good night." with that, the being vanished. Nova Moon stepped out of the door with a happy smile. Over the past few days, she had really started to like helping fillies and colts with their dreams. When she awoke four weeks ago she had cried over her choices in life (the Elements had that effect on there targets). Then she had spent nearly a week just getting use to the nature of being a Nightmare and another getting properly attuned to the Dream Realm. Nova stretched slightly before walking away. She glanced at her black coat and crescent moon Cutie Mark, which barely resembled her original, she liked that though, though there were now a few burns from the nightmare she had just finished fighting, those were going to hurt when she returned to the waking world. Nova stopped at a door with a familiar black mist (which indicated just a nightmare, not a Nightmare) flowing out of it. The door had a crystal design to it, which indicated that it was a crystal pony. She opened the door and found herself in a field of flames with Sombra laughing and a filly crouched down in fear. Not really wanting to go through a long and harsh fight again, Nova formed a bow and gave herself a horn. Holding the bow in her, still blue, aura, Nova took aim. An arrow made of light formed and the Nightmare fired. The nightmare image of Sombra was cut off as the arrow pierced its chest. It looked up in pain and found Nova staring at it calmly. A few more seconds passed before the nightmare exploded in a shower of light. "Have a good night." Nova said as she left the dream. When she turned around after fully closing the door, she found none other than Princess Luna standing in front of her with an angered expression, Nova gulped while her shadow chided her for not being more careful, a harsh glare from the Lunar Princess shut it up though. location and POV unknown Balance is often seen as harmony, however, harmony and balance are two completely different things. Balance is between two opposing forces. Evil and Good, Harmony and Chaos, Darkness and Light. Balance is all of those and more, it's the silent acceptance of both one's good and their evil, it's the nature of equal chaos and harmony, it's the shadows between the light and the darkness. Ponies see a harmonic life style as a balanced one, but that is simply an illusion, for a harmonic life is not a balanced one. While there are countless forms of balance, none are as strong or as powerful as the balance between Harmony and Chaos, though Darkness and Light are a close second. When Harmony reigns for too long, it becomes Chaos, likewise when Chaos reigns for too long it becomes Harmony. These two forces are entwined with each other on an unimaginable level. Neither force has the power to truly surpass the other. Harmony is peace. It's a state where nothing bad seems to happen. The force of Harmony is one that ponies would probably describe as 'boring' because of a lack of shock or interest. As powerful as many see it, Harmony has limits, it must correct a problem, it can rarely create one. Chaos on the other hoof can only create confusion and misunderstanding, its power can only confuse just as Harmony's power can only give sense to the world. If Harmony were to rule alone, ponies would soon find it to be a form a Chaos, for absolutely nothing would change. Similar is true for Chaos as well. If Chaos rules for long enough, then it becomes normal, it becomes Harmony. The world simply can't exist without both Harmony and Chaos, and the two forces can't exist without each other either. The world's balance is delicate, the wrong move could end it entirely, sending the world into disarray. Sometimes though, to keep the balance, one must risk it. I know this better than anyone. When the Light in a pony (especially such important ones) overshadows their Darkness, I must ensure the two level out, an act that risks the same balance it strives to create. Split as they are, they must face their Darkness as their Light... all of their darkness. The young ruler must face magics none should ever touch; the wild legend must atone for the choices of her past; the shy flier must take the reigns of emotions she has almost never felt; the logic warper must stand against the evils of her family; the young worker must reveal the lies she lives; the resurfaced soul must face a life forgotten; the forgotten dream must mend her severed bonds; the god and goddess must put their differences aside; and I, the queen, must watch a changing world and ensure my kingdom never falls again. Author's Note This was shorter than I wanted it to be. The last section is in a first-pony perspective (feel free to guess the character in question).
