Shadow Men: Where Light Can't Touch

Chapters

Prologue - Joy Becomes Sorrow
Chapter 1 - Shadows Remain(Unedited)
Chapter 2 - Casting Shadows (Unedited)
Chapter 3 - Chasing a Shadow
Chapter 4 - Shadows within Shadows(unedited)
Chapter 5 - The Darker Sins of Shadows(unedited)
Chapter 6 - Murder in the Woods
Chapter 7 - Dark Storms Approach
Chapter 8 - Seeds of Trust
Chapter 9 - The Taste of Blood
Chapter 10 - Arise Sorrow
Chapter 11 - Two Sides of a Coin
Chapter 12 - Dark Storms Begin
Chapter 13 - Shadow's Mercy

Prologue - Joy Becomes Sorrow

Author's Note

Welcome to my new story: Where Light can't Touch.
I hope you enjoy my dark story about what a monster truly is and my creations the Shadow Men.
I am also sorry about how gory this chapter is and how gory any future chapters are.
With that enjoy my story.

Prologue - Joy Becomes Sorrow

Feeling starts to return to the pony laying on ground as she wakes up. She tries to move her hoof and is unable to. She opens her eyes to find herself in near total darkness, the only light coming from beneath her. She is lying in a huge magic circle, and is strapped into the middle of it by four metal clamps

‘How in Tartarus did I get here?’ she thinks, confused and frightened.

Yesterday she got up. Had breakfast. Went to school. She aced all her tests. Went to do her part-time job and then went home. She said hello to her family and sorted through her mail. All of them were confession letters that she still haven’t got around to rejecting. She played with her little brother until dinner and after which she went up to her room to study and then went to bed… Then she remembers: during the night she was awoken by somepony breaking down her door, which she always locked to keep her brother from playing with her stuff. The attacker then shoved something in her face causing her to fall unconscious. What had happened to her family?

She looks around franticly, searching for any sign of where she is. But it’s too dark and all she can see is a large crystal mirror above her. She looks at her refection, her purple eyes locked with her own. Her long rose red mane and tail were spread across the ground, tangled. Her light blue coat and her thin body appears to be unharmed just dirty. She then catches sight of her biggest shame… her cutie-mark. The white oval with a black outline. Her parents guess it has something to do with math, but she doubts it. She doesn’t have to check her horn or wings for she has none, she is just a plain Earth-pony, just like the rest of her family. Her family. What has happened to them?

The sound of a door opening break her from her thoughts. Soon some robed and hooded ponies stand above her.

“Is she the vessel he chose?” asks one of them.

“No, he just happened to tied down a random pony in the middle of the magic circle for kicks,” says another, sarcastically.

“Quiet!” cries one, with an older voice, who wears slightly grander clothes then the others, he must be the leader.

“She looks so young,” says one.

“And pretty,” adds another.

“And that why he choose her,” says another.

“Ha, horny old man,” one laughs. The mare shivered, are they going to rape her?

The leader slams his staff into the ground with magic, silencing them. He must be a unicorn.

“Her looks don’t factor into it,” he says angrily, “I choose her for innate magic and her intellect, which could rival Princess Twilight Sparkle herself! The creature will be drawn to her magic and her intellect, not her looks!”

This is not the first time somepony said that she could be as smart as Princess Twilight Sparkle. She doubt it herself, sure she aced all her tests(beside sports), but she is Princess Twilight Sparkle she probably know things that she couldn’t possible understand… right?

“I’m not sure we should do this anymore,” says one.

“Look we can’t back out now,” one says angrily, “We already killed her family to power the circle.”

The mare thought she feels her heart stopping. She finally musters enough courage to talk. “What did you do to my family?”

One of the hooded ponies bends down and looks at her, she swears he is grinning under the hood. “Well you see we are going to summon a very dangerous creature, and you see well none of us want to die. So we just used your family’s blood to make this very powerful binding circle so that the creature won’t kill us and will follow our orders,” he says, as one might lecture a child, she heard traces of insanity distorting that voice, “But you see we needed a lot of blood for this circle and sadly your family passed away as we extracted it…”

She can’t listen anymore. She wants to cover her ears to stop hearing these horrible things.

“… and if you want to see them, they’re right over,” he continues, pointing to the other side of the room.

She looks and screams. There laying on the now illumined floor were her family, their throats were slit, but there is no blood around them, they have all been drained. Tears start to flow down her face as she looks at the bodies of her Father and Mother who are still clutching her little brother’s motionless body.

“YOU MURDERED MY FAMILY!!” she screams at them, tears streaming down her face, hate and sorrow burning in her guts.

“Oh temper,” says the most likely totally insane one.

The unsure hooded ponies shivered. “No, we shouldn’t do this,” he says, looking around nervously, “I mean we could get killed for this!”

“But once we have this creature under our control, not even the Princess will be able to stop it, right Leader?” says one of them to the older pony.

“Yes, these creature cannot be destroyed by magic or even by might,” says the old pony, “It’ll just absorb any spell they throw at it and then swat them out of the sky! Even if they manage to destroy their body it will reform! It will then summon more of its kind under my… our control and then we will conquer the whole world and rule it with an iron hoof!”

The insane one giggles. “Oh yes, what fun we will have!” says the insane one dancing on the spot, “I will finally get to cut open a living Alicorn to see how it works!”

“I guess you’re right,” says the unsure one, “We’ve have come too far now to stop.”

“YOU ARE ALL INSANE!!” she screams, struggling against her bonds. They sound like they are going to summon something worst then Tirek.

“No, visionaries,” says the old one, “I’m tired of following a rulers too weak to even defend their own kingdoms. Soon I will summon a creature that will make Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra and Lord Tirek seem like a joke. For this creature has no known weakness, it cannot be defeated by friendship or love, for it cares not for these things and all magic is just food to it. Soon even the gods will fear it,” he learns close to the mare, “And the best part is that there is only one thing that could stop it and it doesn’t exist in this realm!”

It can’t be true, no creature that powerful can exist.

“Come brothers,” he says, waving his staff, “Now is the time. It is midnight, the time of darkness!”

The hooded ponies walk away to the edges of the circle. She over looks at them and sees that there are more of them, maybe about ten or twenty of them. They start to form a circle around the magic circle and then start to all chant. She can’t understand the words of the chant, it is a different language. It sounded very alien. The circle starts to glow brighter, sending out shafts of red light that reflect off the crystal mirror and back onto the floor making a cage of light.

She feels a sudden burst of pain as magic starts pouring into her body from the circle. Her body spasms as huge amounts of magic are forced into her body. She blacks out.

She finds herself in a familiar blurry landscape, one she hasn’t seen since she was very young. When she was seven her pet rabbit died and she ran away from home because her parents buried her bunny without her knowing or letting her see her bunny. Later she found out a fox got her bunny and there wasn’t much left. When she ran away from home she hid in a small cave near her house. She had cried for hours, that was when she found herself in the blurry landscape and met the tall man. When she woke up, she was back at home and in bed. Her parents had found her. After she got up she found out that she got her cutie mark and didn’t feel sad anymore about the bunny, but she never told anyone about the tall man or the blurry landscape. But now she is back in the blurry landscape and there in front of her is the tall man, as blurry as the landscape. It leans over her and reaches out its long hand and wraps its fingers around her neck. Not choking her just feeling her neck. Its ice cold fingers start wrapping right around her neck, still not trying to choke her. Linking them.

Suddenly the landscape fades and instead of the tall man standing above her, she sees the old hooded pony standing there. Carrying a knife! He starts muttering a few words then suddenly stabbing the knife right into her heart. She screams in pain as he twists the knife, letting more blood pour right out. He pulls the knife out and backs away, leaving her to a slow and painful death.

Why is this happening to her? What has she ever done to anypony? Somepony save her…

The voices of the chanters fade as does her vision. She will be dead soon, she knows it.

“Do you wish to die?”

She opens her eyes. She isn’t bleeding anymore… well she is, but it has stopped moving! It is like all her blood has frozen, but she hasn’t. She is lying in the blurry landscape again only it is clearer.

“Do you wish to die?” the voice repeated.

She looks for the source of the voice. It is the tall man, only not blurry anymore. It stands on it two hind-legs, the legs are nearly a meter tall and very thin. It body is small compare to its legs, with long black tentacles sticking out of its back, reaching all the way to the floor. Its arms were long too, reaching past its knees, at the end of its arms were long claws that look like they can rip steel, even though it arms are about as thick as a flag pole. One hand is still wrapped around her neck. She then looks up at its face, which is smooth, round and sort of flat, on it where a pair of sad dark blue eyes and an equally sad dark blue mouth which both looked painted on, they reminded her of an opera mask. It stood above her unmoving. She never knew the tall man is this scary.

“Do you wish to die?” it asks a third time.

Its voice is hard to describe. It sounds like a million sad voices joined together to make one very sad voice. It almost sound at times like it is wailing. It mouth never moves when it speaks, the voice just comes from it.

“Do you wish to die?”

“Who are you?” she asks.

“Do you wish to die?”

“What do you mean?” she asks.

“Do you wish to die?”

It can’t seem to answer her. It just asks the question over and over again. It must want an answer.

“No, I don’t want to die,” she answers, softly.

It then says something new, “Will you face the consequences?”

“What consequences?” she asks confused.

“Will you face the consequences?” it repeats.

It doing it again. It just wants an answer.

“Fine I will face the consequences, I don’t want to die!” she yells, frustrated.

“The deal is complete,” it states, “You will have your vengeance. I promise.”

It then melts, oozing all over her. She watches as it covers her legs and body. She notices where ever it covers she loses feeling there, completely numb, it reaches her chest seeping into her wound making it numb. For some reason, she didn’t feel scared as it climbs over the rest of her body, just tired. Soon she was nearly completely covered, beside her head. It is weird feeling only feeling her head, but it isn’t to last. Soon it starts to climb up her head, covering everything beside her face. It slowly makes its way up her face, first onto her mouth seeping between her lips and teeth and then down her throat, covering her innards making them numb, then it covers her nose slipping down her nostrils and finally her open eyes. Soon she feels nothing, not even herself.

“Stop, brothers,” commands the leader, “It is done!”

There laying in the middle of the circle is the mare. All her colours are bleached away to different shades of grey. Her hooves slip out of the straps like they were covered in butter. She struggles to her feet, her head hanging low.

“She got out of the straps?” says one hooded pony, nervously.

“Of course,” says the leader, “It is no longer a creature of flesh, blood and bones!”

She raises her head and they all look at a face void of emotion. Like a zombie, she stares at them, unblinking, like she is trying to capture them with her eyes. She points one of her hoofs at them.

“You killed them,” she says, in a dead emotionless voice.

“It is talking,” says another, worried.

“The creature is linking us with the death of its host and her family,” explains the old one, “Listen here creature! We have bound you, you will to do what we tell you.”

“You killed them,” she repeats, slightly louder. She puts a hoof forwards, magic sparks shoot out of circle. She pulls her hoof back and looks at it, still no emotion passing her face.

“You cannot escape this circle,” says the insane one, “This circle could hold the gods!”

“You killed them,” she says again, much louder. Suddenly she place one hoof on the edge of the circle. The circle faded until it is just a pattern on the floor.

“IT JUST DRAINED THE CIRCLE!” screams one.

She starts to walk unsteadily towards them, unsure how to walk. Suddenly black tentacles shot out her back. Pinning three of the hooded ponies to the wall. Her hoof then shoots out transforming into a giant claw, crushing four more ponies against the wall.

“IT KILLING US!” yells one.

“HELP US, LEADER!” But the leader and two goons are already gone. They have abandon them.

“IT’S CHANGING!”

And so she is. Her body becoming black, starts bubbling, expanding and changing. She grows rapidly. Soon they are all staring at a huge monster. Its head a huge mouth, full of sharp teeth and covered in spikes. Her hooves now just huge black claws, with spikes climbing up her legs. Her body has become more reptilian and spiky, with a tail with barbs all across it.

“RUN!!” yells one. They all rush to the door, trampling each other to get away.

The monster roars at them. “YOU KILLED THEM!” It charges them, ripping, tearing and biting them apart. Their screams echoing throughout the hall as each one is torn apart.

Outside the door to the hall a crowd of students, guards and staff gather outside wondering what’s happening inside. Suddenly the door burst open, crushing ponies against the wall. A huge black monster jumps out of the room and bites a poor nearby pony in half, her agonized scream echoing though out the hallway. The monster roars and wails at the same time.

“YOU KILLED THEM!!”

The teachers and students run away in fear of their life, guards ready themselves for combat. It is futile. With a swing of its huge spiked tail it wiped out the entire row of guards. The wall is brought down, exposing a group of shivering huddled ponies hiding. The monster stood above them.

“WHERE ARE THEY!?!” it roars/wails, before crushing them underfoot. There screams of fear and anguish quickly silenced.

The monster turns its head towards the direction the ponies are fleeing. A small part of the monster falls off and starts to grow and expands like roots, covering the entire building. The monster then heads after the fleeing mob.

Escape is blocked by the black roots that now cover the doors. They are trapped! The monster walking towards them. Black tentacles whipping around above it like whips.

Some ponies try to teleport away, but the black roots blocks and drains the magic. The monster stood above them. Blood drips from its jaw as it opens and a severed pony leg falls out. Some of the ponies fall to their knees begging for mercy, some cry prayers for salvation and others close their eyes willing it all to be a nightmare. The hallway is filled with screams and cries of pain as the monster butchers the ponies. The monster continues to look for what it’s seeking, leaving behind the corpses, flung against the door.

No matter where the ponies ran or hid the monster finds and kills them. If a pony escaped onto the grounds the roots would slice them or fling them against the ground, a nearby wall causing them to splatter. Parts of the building are levelled, killing any pony underneath. Any pony that tried to fight are chewed up. Soon, it seems not a single pony is left alive.

The monster starts to climb a large pile of rubble as all the roots flow back into it body. As it reaches the top of the pile it lets out a scream that can be heard all the way across Equestria.

“WHERE ARE THEY!?! THEY KILLED THEM!!”

The monster suddenly transforms. Soon the mare stands there, staring blankly ahead. She blinks and looks around in horror. She looks at her hoof which is covered with blood.

“What have I done?” she quavers. She looks down at a shard of the crystal mirror at her now colourless body. Blood drips from her mouth and she wants to retch but nothing comes. She looks at the rest of her body. Her body is covered with blood. Her cutie mark has changed, it is still an oval, but within it is a sad pair of dark blue eyes and dark blue sad mouth, just like the tall man’s face. “WHAT HAVE I BECOME?!” she screams, and breaks down sobbing. Her cries echo throughout the dead hallways as snow starts to fall.

Chapter 1 - Shadows Remain(Unedited)

Snow hangs off gates of Canterlot Castle and its towers. The guards beside them stand to attention as Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends enter through the gates. They trot through the snow covered paths, looking at icicles hanging from the tree’s branches and their breaths fogging up in front of them. These would all normally contain much joy and wonder but something heavy hangs on the air. Like a great sadness. The world feels very quiet.

“It was quite the snow fall, wasn’t it?” comments Rarity, trying to break the eerie silence.

“Yeah, it all blew in from the Everfree Forest,” adds Rainbow Dash, rubbing her hoofs together.

This only makes it even more eerie. The snow fall was natural, not pegasus made. The eerie silence starts again.

“Any idea why Princess Celestia summoned us, Twilight?” asks Applejack, breaking the silence again.

“I don’t know, but it must be important because she called Cadence as well,” replies Twilight.

“Maybe it has something to do with the weird snow fall,” ponders Pinkie Pie. She then gasps, “What if the windigos are attacking!”

“I doubt it is the windigos, Pinkie,” Twilight states, certain.

They enter the front doors of the palace and into the warm hallways. Soon they reach the throne room. There speaking amongst themselves were Princess Luna, Princess Celestia and Princess Cadence. They seemed to be worried.

“Princesses!” Twilight calls to them.

The Princesses turn towards Twilight, they smile but their faces were still lined with worry. Twilight has a horrible feeling in her guts.

“What is happening?” asks Twilight, worried.

“Is it windigos?” exclaims Pinkie.

Princesses show a slight genuine smile for a while before it fades to worry again.

“No, Pinkie, if it was only that simple,” states Luna.

“Then tell us what has happened,” Rarity asks.

Luna’s and Cadence’s eyes land on Celestia, who sighs.

“Have you girls ever heard ‘Star Swirl the Bearded University’?” asks Princess Celestia.

“Nope,” states Applejack.

“You’re kidding?” Twilight says, shocked.

“Actually, I haven’t heard of it either,” adds Rainbow Dash. There are nods from the rest of the girls.

“It’s like… the next step after ‘Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorn’ if you want to learn about magic,” explains Twilight, “If I didn’t become Celestia’s student I would of liked to go there.”

“Oh, I get it now,” says Rainbow Dash, “It is a University for magic nerds.”

“Does Star Swirl the Bearded run it?” asks Pinkie, while Rainbow Dash and Twilight glare at each other.

“No,” replies Cadence, “It was simply named after him.”

“Oh, ok,” Pinkie says, smiling.

“Now that we are all well acquainted to what ‘Star Swirl the Bearded University’ is lets continue,” suggest Celestia, smiling.

Everypony quiets down and pays attention.

“Last night after Midnight Luna heard a noise coming from the direction of the University,” continues Celestia.

“Excuse me Princess,” calls Rarity, interrupting Celestia, “But where is the University? I mean it’s not in Canterlot, I imagine.”

“You’re right, Rarity,” confirms Luna, “It is near Foal Mountain, next to the small settlement of Foalstead, about a four hour flight away from Canterlot.”

“How could you hear something four hours away?” says Rainbow Dash, shocked, “Was it really that loud?”

“It wasn’t that it was loud but it carried,” explains Luna, “We have reports from Vanhoover, Las Pegasus, Crystal Empire and Manehattan all hearing at the small volume.”

“It was meant to be heard,” adds Cadence.

“What did it sound like?” asks Twilight.

Luna seems to ponder it for a while, “It sounds a bit like roar of anger but it is tone was of sadness.”

“It can be both?” asks Pinkie.

“It is just what I thought of when I heard it,” explains Luna, “I also thought I heard words in it, later reports confirm that there was indeed word within it.”

“What were they?” asks Twilight.

Luna looks at Celestia who nods, “It was ‘Where are they. They killed them.’”

A sudden chill is felt.

“That ominous,” states Applejack.

“Also a bit before that, around midnight Discord said he felt a huge magical build up at the University and then a few minutes later a huge sudden magical drop,” adds Celestia.

“What is weird about that?” asks Rainbow Dash.

“While magical build up in a University that studies magic is not weird, a sudden magical drop is,” explains Cadence.

“Why?” asks Rainbow Dash, still not getting it.

“Because… magic doesn’t disappear,” says Twilight, catching on, “It has to go somewhere.”

“Well done, Twilight,” praises Celestia, coursing Twilight to blush.

“In most cases a sudden magic drop would mean a magical explosion, but there was none,” explains Luna.

“I have a bad feeling about what happened at the University,” states Applejack.

“You are right, Applejack,” agrees Celestia, “When Luna sent guards to investigate they reported that everypony there were massacred!”

The girls gasp.

“Not a single survivor has been found yet,” continues Celestia, “And parts of the building has been knocked down as well.”

“A team of experts are investigating right now,” adds Luna, “So far it is believed that a group of ponies summoned something and it got lose.”

“While am mighty sad to hear all about this,” Applejack says, taking off her hat and hugging it to her chest, “But the Foul Mountain is on the other side of Canterlot to Ponyville, so what does it has to do with us.”

“Do not think idly of this, Applejack,” warns Luna, “The University had some of the finest Anti-Magical fighters guarding it, if it could kill all of them then it must be formidable.”

“And it could still be lose,” adds Cadence, “Most summons disappear after the magic runs out, but some don’t.”

“All communities’ officials have been warned and as you six are some of the foremost important ponies of Ponyville we needed to warn you as well,” states Celestia.

“Do you know what was summoned?” asks Twilight.

“As of now we do not know,” states Luna.

Twilight seems to ponder this, “Then with your permission I would to go there.”

“WHAT!?!” yells her friends, even the princess seem shocked.

“You do not need our permission, Twilight, you are a Princess now,” explains Celestia, nervous, “But I must warn you it is quite horrible. Even the reports make my stomach churn.”

“Thank you, but I must find out more and I will be fine,” Twilight states proudly.

“Then I will prepare a chariot to carry you there,” says Celestia, still uncertain.

Celestia, Luna and Cadence leave the room, leaving behind Twilight and her friends behind.

“Do you really have to go, Twilight?” asks Fluttershy, who has been quiet until now, “I mean it could be dangerous.”

“Yes, I do,” Twilight states, “If I am going to protect Ponyville I need to know what I am facing.”

“Do you mean WE need to know what we are facing,” corrects Applejack, “You not leaving us behind.”

“Oh, do we have to go?” asks Fluttershy, quietly.

“Yes, we, do,” answers Rainbow Dash.

“Are sure? I just want to check somethings,” asks Twilight.

“We are sure,” states Applejack, followed by three nods and one hesitance nod.

“Then let’s go,” Twilight says smiling.

The chariot flies across the sky, pulled by two Royal guards.

“I spy with my little eye, something beginning with a C,” says Pinkie.

“Cloud,” answers Applejack, bored.

“Right!” Pinkie says, happily, “Your turn.”

“Fine, I spy with my little eye, something beginning with…” Applejack cast her eyes around, until she spots something “B.”

“Oh, is it… a bird?” asks Pinkie.

“There are no birds in Winter, Pinkie,” states Applejack.

“A balloons?”

“There are no balloons.”

“A blimp?”

“There is no blimp either!” says Applejack, getting annoyed.

“Is it a book?” asks Twilight, holding up the book she is reading.

“Yes!” says Applejack, sighing in exasperation.

“I was going to guess that next!” pouts Pinkie.

“What are you reading anyway, dear?” asks Rarity.

“I’m just brushing up my knowledge on summoning magic,” answers Twilight.

Rainbow Dash groans, “This trip is taking forever!”

“Well it is a four hour trip,” states Twilight.

“You won’t have to wait much longer you can see the University now,” states one of the guards pulling the chariot, who Twilight believed is called Thunderclap.

The girls looks over the edge and sees the probably once grand building of the University, but they can even from here see the damaged parts of the building. As they get closer they can see that it is fenced with tall stone walls with only one entrance. They soon land near the entrance.

A large crowd of ponies are gathered outside it, yelling, complaining and… crying. Three Royal Guards stand in front of them. Two stand in front of the gate and one addresses the crowd.

Twilight and her friends approach the gate and almost instantly mobbed by some of the crowd that turns out to be the Press.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle, can you tell us what the situation is inside the University?” one goes.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle, is it true that everypony in there was massacred?” another goes.

“Alright, bugger off the lot of you before I arrest you for bothering a princess,” says coltney voice, which turns out to be the guards that was addressing the crowd.

The rest of the guards dissolved the crowd and press.

Soon the guard that spoke approaches Twilight and extends a hoof, Twilight takes it.

“Corporal Jack Ripper, Homicide,” he speaks in a coltney accent. Twilight notices that every time he speaks causes Rarity to cringes.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle, a Princess,” Twilight replies.

“No shit, never would have guessed,” he says smirking, “We got a messages that you were coming.”

“What is happening right now?” asks Twilight, ignoring his rude behaviour.

“Don’t know. We came in, saw the magic circle and then called the Hexxers. Nothing left to do but clean up the rubble and what’s left of the bodies,” Jack lists off.

“What’s left,” Fluttershy squeaks.

“Oh yeah, there all over the floors… and the walls… and in some places the ceiling,” he lists off again.

Fluttershy looks faint.

“Who are the Hexxers?” asks Twilight, glaring at the very rude guard.

“The Magic Crime and Spell Defusal Squad, we just call them Hexxers,” he explain.

“We would like to go in and speak with them then,” states Twilight.

Jack looks shocked, “I can’t let six nice mares go in there…” he then grins, “Not without a bucket! We have enough mess to clean without you adding to it.”

“How can you be casual about this?!” yells Rarity, having enough.

“I’m from Liverypool, I’m used to it,” Jack says unfazed, pulling out a dog end out from behind his ear and lighting it.

“Can you just let us in?!” Twilight yells, also having enough.

“Fine fine, don’t have to yell,” he says, opening the gates, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

The girls rush past him and onto the grounds. When he is out of earshot Rarity says.

“His horrible accent suits him perfectly.”

They soon reach the doors to the university where a few more members of homicide are moving body bags out of the building. One of them breaks off from and approaches them.

“Greeting Princess Twilight Sparkle,” says the homicide member, bowing slightly, “I am Captain Iron-Sight, head of Canterlot’s Homicide. I hope Jack didn’t give you any trouble.”

“Define trouble,” says Rainbow Dash, angry.

“I am sorry about him,” Iron-Sight apologizes.

“Why do you keep him anyway?” asks Rarity.

“Because he is just so damn good at his job and not many ponies want to join Homicide,” he explains.

“Is he really that good?” asks Pinkie.

“He is one of the best corporals we had in a long time… unfortunately he is also Jack and therefore a total ass,” he states.

“Well, what can you tell us about what happened here?” Twilight asks.

“Can’t tell you much beside they were attacked by something very big,” he replies.

“How big?” asks Fluttershy, nervously.

“About dragon sized,” he guesses, “The Hexxers may be able to tell you more.”

“Thanks, where are they?” asks Twilight.

“In the main hall. Just go through the doors and keep going until you see the big broken down doors and behind that is the main hall,” he explains.

“Thank you, we will head there right now,” Twilight says, heading to the doors.

“Be careful, it isn’t pretty in there,” states Iron-Sights.

They realize truth behind that statement when they look through the door and see the giant pool of blood behind it. They all went pale. This is the most real blood they have ever seen in one place. Rarity and Fluttershy look faint, even Rainbow Dash and Applejack look like they want to run away. Pinkie just stares at it. Twilight notices that somepony put something over the puddle to act as a bridge. Twilight gulps and takes a step on the bridge. She looks down and nearly loses her lunch, there are bits of flesh among the blood. She dashes across the bridge and moves away from the puddle. Soon the rest of the girls’ cross and they look down the hallway, the sight horrifies them. There is blood everywhere and few dead bodies as well.

“I don’t think I can take walking down this path,” Rarity says, looking rather green.

“Me nether,” adds Rainbow Dash.

“Hold on, I will teleport us there,” suggests Twilight.

With a flash of light they are gone. A few teleports later they manage to reach the main hall. Where a somepony greets them.

“That was quite the entrance, Princess,” says an old unicorn stallion, with spectacles.

“Sorry, we didn’t want have walk down the hall,” explains Twilight.

“I understand,” he says, nodding his head, “And don’t worry, beside the magic circle, around the door and one of the walls it is pretty clean in here.”

“Are you one of Hexxers?” asks Twilight.

“Yes, I am Professor Hard Facts, Head of the Magic Crime and Spell Defusal Squad, Canterlot division” he says, bowing.

“Can you explain what’s happening?” asks Twilight.

“I will try, we don’t know all the facts yet,” says Hard Facts, adjusting his glasses.

“Can you start with magic circle,” suggests Twilight.

He nods.

They walk over to the edge of the large circle.

“This is a class F circle,” he starts to explain.

“What does the F mean?” asks Pinkie.

“It means Forbidden, these circles were outlawed nearly a thousand years ago,” he answers.

“Why was it outlawed,” asks Twilight.

“Because it requires blood and a sacrifice,” Hard Fact answers.

“Oh,” Twilight says, shocked, “What was it summoning?”

“We don’t know,” he says, rubbing his chin. He then points at two of the rings within the circle, “You see those ones are the rings of summoning. We don’t recognizes the symbols.”

“What does that mean?” asks Rainbow Dash, confused.

“The outer ring of the two is the ring of location, that is for choosing where your summon is coming from, i.e Equestria or another plane of existence like Tartarus or the Abyss. These markings are totally new to me, so I have no idea where the thing came from,” he explains.

“I think I get it,” replies Rainbow Dash, “What about the other ring.”

“That is the ring of being, it what you would use to pick what you are summoning. These marking are also total new to me, but they are simple so the summoner must not have been picky about what they were summoning,” he explains again.

“What are the outer rings for?” asks Pinkie, curious.

“There the rings of binding,” he says, pulling out a small book and flicking through it, “Extremely powerful, but not powerful enough it seems.”

“Can you give us an example of what kind of creature this circle would usual hold?” asks Twilight.

Hard Facts frowns, “A circle like this was once used to hold an Ancient Ursa Major a long time ago. It is also believed that these kinds of circles could hold the Princesses as well.”

“It could really hold a princess!?” exclaims Twilight in shock.

“I said it is believed!” he snaps back, “No one has ever bound a Princess before.”

“Sorry,” Twilight says, backing off a bit.

Hard Facts rubs his brow, “No, forgive me, Princess. It’s just that I don’t know what kind of creature could break a magical circle like this and that scares the hell out of me.”

“Could the magic circle been done wrong?” asks Twilight, “I mean most magical circles accident are caused by badly made circles.”

“I would like to believe this too but this is the best made circle we have come across in decades,” he states, “Whoever did this knew what they were doing.”

“What is going on in the middle of the circle,” asks Applejack, pointing to a group of ponies gathered in the middle of the circle.

“Their trying to deal with the biggest mystery of the circle,” Hard Facts states.

“What’s that?” asks Pinkie, curious.

“The mark that the creature must have left behind,” he replies.

Twilight’s ears perk up, “Can we see it? That might help us.”

“Sure. Just be careful not to damage the circle,” he says, walking towards the middle.

The girls follow careful not to damage anything. The crowd parts and shows the inner circle. In the middle of the circle is a red oval, within it is a simple sad face, like one would find on an opera mask. Before Twilight can say anything a conversation catches her attention.

“The tests show it’s slightly different from the other blood of the circle,” says one of the Hexxers.

“It must belong to the last missing member of the family,” says another Hexxer.

“So she was used as the sacrifice then,” says the first Hexxer.

“Poor family,” says the second.

“What are you talking about?” asks Pinkie, who has come right up to them.

“What?” says one of hexxers, surprised by the sudden pink pony.

“Miss Pinkie Pie, can you leave them alone to work,” asks Hard Facts, “I will answer any questions you have.”

“Ok,” says Pinkie, backing off to the relief of the Hexxers.

“What where they talking about?” asks Twilight to Hard Facts.

“They were talking about the pony that was sacrificed and her family that were used to make the circle,” he explains.

“Who were they?” asks Rarity, horrified.

“They were the Flower family,” he says, pulling out a picture and handing it to girls, “There was four members, the Father: Ferrum Flower - age 49, the Mother: Fair Daisy Flower - age 43, the young son: Quick-Jump Flower - age 9 and they daughter: Joy Flower - age 17. They disappeared the previous night from their home, most likely kidnapped.”

The girls look at the picture, it is a classic family picture. Full of smiling faces and hugging.

“Where are they now?” asks Twilight, looking up from the picture.

He points to the far side of the room where three bodies are being tended by few members of Homicide, “Over there is the last remains of Ferrum, Fair Daisy and Quick-Jump Flower. All their blood was drained and used to draw the circle. I wouldn’t suggest looking at them, a body drained of blood is not a pretty sight.”

“How horrible!” exclaims Rarity, paling.

“What happened to Joy?” asks Fluttershy.

“We believe she was used for the sacrifice,” he explains, “Ritual must have destroyed her body, because this blood is all we can find of her.”

“Oh my,” whimpers Fluttershy.

“If you don’t mind can we look around the University?” Twilight asks Hard Facts.

“As long as you don’t disturb anything I can’t think why not,” he replies, happy at the idea of getting back to his work.

“We won’t cause any problems,” Twilight promises.

Hard Facts nods and heads off to another group of Hexxers.

“Where are we going, Twilight?” asks Pinkie, as they head out.

“I want to check out the Headmasters office, there might be some clue to want was going on,” explains Twilight.

“Good idea,” Pinkie shouts, before Twilight teleports them away.

After getting directions from a Homicide member they head towards Headmasters offices.

“It is soo cold in here!” whines Rarity, tightening her scarf, “It is colder in here than outside!”

“I wonder how much it would cost to heat this place?” wonders Applejack.

“Actually they used magic to heat the building,” comments Twilight, “They built powerful wards into the walls while they were building the university… they still should be working though.”

“Weird,” comments Rainbow Dash.

“You know what this reminds me of,” states Pinkie, excitably, “The time we solved the mystery on board the Friendship Express!”

“Only this time it not who ate the cake, but a massacre and a very dangerous monster,” Applejack shoots down.

“I’m trying to look on the bright side,” says Pinkie, deflating.

“Innocent ponies died, Pinkie!” Applejack shouts, angrily, “There ain’t no bright side! A family lost their life for this sick ritual and a lot of other ponies got killed because of it!”

Pinkie backs off, but Rarity comes to her defence.

“Listen Applejack, I know you are upset but that is no reason to take it out on Pinkie!” warns Rarity.

Applejack looks at the dejected Pinkie and sighs. “Look I am sorry I yelled at ya Pinkie, it just that all this,” she says, gesturing to everything, “kinda scares me. The thought of a family getting sacrificed to summon something and then everypony getting killed by it is terrifying.”

“Apology accepted,” Pinkie says, happily.

“I know what you mean Applejack,” comments Rainbow Dash, “I mean I am not scared of anything but… the thought that the monster may still be here creeps me out.”

Silence consumes the group as they walk to the office, luckily they soon reach it.

“There it is!” yells Twilight.

They rush to the door, only to find it locked.

“Figures,” complains Rainbow Dash.

“It is magically locked, impossible unlock without the right spell,” comments Twilight, “Luckily I know a trick.”

“Really, what?” asks Pinkie.

Her answer comes quickly as Twilight rips the door off its hinges and throws it away.

“Cool,” comments Rainbow Dash, “Why don’t you do that more often?”

“Later Dash,” replies Twilight, “We need to search the room for answers.”

The girls begin their search, but found nothing.

“Oh come on, there has to be something,” complains Rainbow Dash, looking through a filing cabinet.

“Nothing just records and a few books about basic magic,” replies Rarity, looking through the shelf.

“Check the desk, Pinkie,” suggest Twilight, looking through a cloth cabinet.

Pinkie nods and heads to office desk.

“What kind of pony has a bust of King Sombra?” comments Pinkie, looking at the bust on the desk.

“I don’t know, I don’t remember who the current Headmaster is,” states Twilight.

“Well, take that Sombra,” Rainbow Dash says, as she childishly pushes it over.

There is clunk as a secret compart of the desk opens, revealing two worn books.

“I don’t know what is sadder, the fact of how cliché that is or the fact that we didn’t think about it,” comments Applejack.

“Let’s just see what’s in them,” Twilight says, opening one of the books. She can’t hide the disappointment on her face.

“What’s wrong, Twilight?” asks Fluttershy, nervously.

“Nothing, it’s just in a different languages,” sighs Twilight, closing the book.

“Really, what about the other one?” Pinkie says, grabbing the other book.

Pinkie stares at the pages seriously. “Yes, yes, hmm,” she says, flicking another page. Her friends wait hopefully. “Yes, this definitely in a different languages!” she announces, causing her friends to groan.

“Don’t get our hopes up, Pinkie,” complains Rainbow Dash.

“What did I do?” replies Pinkie, confused. As she closes the book a piece of paper slips out, Rarity picks it up and looks at it. Her eyes widen.

“You may want to look at this,” Rarity says, showing the paper. The girls gasp.

On the paper is a drawing of the magic circle in the main hall, and also attached to the paper are two pictures, one of the Flower family and one of their daughter, Joy. There are notes scrawled all over the paper but all in the different language, beside one word that sat underneath Joy’s picture, ‘Perfect.’

“Creepy!” says Rainbow Dash, giving a quick shiver.

“At least we know the Headmaster had something to do with it,” states Twilight.

“Let’s go show the Hexxers this,” suggest Rarity, “Maybe they can help us with this language.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” agrees Twilight.

After all agreeing they all rush out of the office and head back to the main hall.

They are halfway to the main hall when Rainbow Dash suddenly stops.

“What’s wrong, Dash,” Rarity asks, stopping.

“I thought I heard something in that room,” Rainbow Dash states, pointing to a broken door she stopped next to.

“What kind of sound?” asks Fluttershy, nervously.

“Sort of a rattling,” Rainbow Dash explains, slightly nervous herself.

“What if it is the monster?!” yells Pinkie.

“Then don’t shout,” hushes Applejack.

“I’m going to open the door,” warns Twilight, “Be ready.”

The rest of the girls nod and stand to ready to fight… or in some cases flee. Twilight throws opens the door and they gasp. Laying on the floor dead is a pony, most likely a student. His back was ripped off and he is now laying in a pool of his own blood.

“Did… did he make the noise?” asks Fluttershy, hiding behind Rarity.

“No, I don’t know much about dead bodies I am pretty sure this one has been here since last night,” comments Twilight, trying not to be sick.

“Then where did the noise come from?” asks Rainbow Dash.

As if on cue the rattling starts again, the girls look and see it comes from a barrel in the corner of the room. Twilight creeps towards the barrel followed by her friends. When she reaches the barrel she turns towards her friends who nod in confirmation. Twilight quickly tips over the barrel. A grey earth-pony rolls out. She wears a maid uniform splattered with blood and is shivering uncontrollably with her eyes squeezed shut.

“Rainbow Dash, tell homicide we have found a survivor!” orders Twilight.

Rainbow Dash nods and flies off.

“She’s freezing!” exclaims Rarity, rubbing the side of the maid to warm her up.

“In this cold and in that outfit I would be too,” comments Applejack.

“I think she is waking up!” yells Pinkie, as the mare stirs.

The maid eyelids flutter. Her eyes suddenly snap open and focusing on something behind the girls. She screams.

“NO! PLEASE I DON’T WHERE THEY ARE!” she yells, getting to her feet and slamming into the wall in an effort to escape, “I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”

“WAIT! Calm down,” calls Twilight, “We are here to help you.”

The maid seems to notice them for the first time.

“What are you doing here?!” she gibbers. “You must hide or it will find you and then… and then…” she tries to say.

“And then?” asks Twilight.

“It will kill youuuuu!” the maid wails. “It can’t be stopped, it will kill us all!” she cries, curling up into a ball.

“Don’t worry you’re safe the monster is gone,” Twilight tries to comfort the maid, “But we need to know what it looks like.”

“You don’t want to know!” the maid cries, “And I can never be safe, it will hunt me down and kill me like all the others.”

“Please, we can protect you,” states Twilight, “But we need to know what it looks like.”

“It was black, sometimes bigger than a dragon or sometimes bigger then minotaur, it always had sharp claws and tentacles coming out of its back,” the maid says, shivering again.

‘Shape-shifter?’ Twilight thinks. “Anything else?” she asks.

“AND IT KEPT KILLING US!” the maid screams, clutching at her head.

Just then Rainbow Dash returns with Captain Iron-Sight and two other members of homicide.

“What is going on here?” Iron-Sight barks.

“We found a survivor,” states Pinkie.

“I know that!” he retorts, “But what is all the screaming about?”

“It is the survivor,” explains Twilight, “I believe she is severely traumatised by her experience.”

“I see,” replies Iron-Sight, “We better get her to the doctor then.”

The two other members of homicide walk over and carefully pick up the mare and prepare to leave.

“Wait,” Twilight calls.

“What is it, Princess?” asks Iron-Sight.

“I want to try something before you take her,” states Twilight.

“What?” asks Iron-Sight, raising an eyebrow.

“I mind reading spell,” explains Twilight, “With this we can find out what attacked the university.”

Iron-Sight seems to think about it and then sighs. “If you weren’t a Princess I would refuse you.”

“Does that mean I can do it?” asks Twilight, hopefully.

“Yes, but be careful,” warns Iron-Sight, “This is the only witness we got.”

Twilight nods and starts to prepare the spell.

Twilight found herself looking out of the mare’s eyes and hearing what she does, like a first-pony movie. It is like being a spirt inside the maids head, watching her every move.

“This sucks!” complains the maid to another maid, who are both sweeping the floor.

“Suck it up, Flickering Shadows,” the other maid shot back, “You’re on parole remember? For crimes against Equestria, you’re lucky not to have been locked up. So if they say you have to work late, you have to work late.”

“I just stole some things,” mumbles the now known Flickering Shadows.

She is then shoved aside by two students heading down the hall and the around the corner. Twilight hears them snicker.

“Damn rich aristocratic brats,” mutters Flickering Shadows. “What is going on anyway, Tough Luck?” she asks the other maid.

“I don’t know,” Tough Luck replies, “All I know is something is happening at the Main Hall.”

“The seniors aren’t hosting other party, right?” moans Flickering Shadows.

“I said don’t know,” Tough Luck snaps. She then gave a cheeky grin, “But if they are I bet I know who is cleaning it up.”

Flickering Shadows glares at the other maid and starts sweeping again. After a few minutes screams can be heard.

“What is going on now?” complains Flickering Shadows.

“I don’t know,” replies Tough Luck.

“I hope the seniors are not doing anything stupid,” states Flickering Shadows.

“I better check,” says Tough Luck, walking over and sticking her head around the corner.

Black jaws snap shut around Tough Luck, bitting her in half. Her severed legs slump to the ground, twitching. Twilight would scream if she right now had a mouth. Flickering Shadows stands there stunned, unable to move.

The monster walks around the corner and Twilight finally see the monster in it full glory. It stands taller than a dragon, its whole body is covered in spikes, its claws looked as sharp as knifes and while many black tentacles moved above it body. It starts to approach Flickering Shadows. Twilight can feel the fear coming off the mare and Twilight shares it.

Twilight watches in horror as its jaws open and the other half of Tough Luck falls out. The body moves, she is still alive! Tough Luck looks at Flickering Shadows, her eyes begging for help. But then the monster crushes her underfoot, silencing her final screams and covering Flickering Shadows in her blood. Twilight can’t watch anymore, but found herself unable to undo the spell. The monster is now only a mere meter from Flickering Shadows, Twilight can feels Flickering Shadows wet herself in fear.

“WHERE ARE THEY?!” the monster screams.

Flickering Shadows can’t make herself talk, she is frozen. The monster’s mouth opens and heads towards her. A spear hits the monster mouth. The monster roars and backs off a bit. Three guards fly between her and the monster.

“What the abyss are you doing!? RUN!” yells one of the guards.

Flickering Shadows legs unfreeze and she runs as fast she can in the opposite direction. Twilight can hears screams behind them, and she is sure so can Flickering Shadows. She turns and see the monster cut guards down with a rain of its black tentacles.

It then starts after her. It starts off slow but keeps gaining speed like a train. Flickering Shadows stumbles and falls over, rolling across the floor until she slams against a wall. She opens her eyes and to her and Twilight’s horror the monster stands above them. It raises its claw, ready to crush her. A bolt of lightning strikes the monster. The monster turns towards the unicorn casting the spells.

“Die foul abomination!” yells the unicorn, throwing another bolt of lightning.

The monster seem to absorb the lightning and roars. More tentacles shoot out of its back and spear the unicorn to the wall, killing him. Flickering Shadows uses this distraction to get up and run away. One of her legs are limping because of her fall, but forces herself to run faster.

After a minute of running she stops and turns around. She seems to have lost the monster. Just then her injured leg gives way. She collapses and looks at her injured leg, even Twilight thinks it looks bad. It is totally inflamed and has a very nasty looking bruise. A scream gets both of their attention. Flickering Shadows looks down the hallway and sees the monster chasing a few students. Flickering Shadows starts panicking, she can’t run anymore, her leg won’t make it. She then sees a nearby door and limps her way to it.

She enters the room, closing the door behind her, Twilight recognizes this is the room where they found her. Flickering Shadows looks around the room franticly and sees a few barrel lined against the walls. She limps towards one and crawls inside it. There she lays, nursing her leg. Suddenly she hears the door slam open and shut. Flickering Shadows looks out of a notch hole in the barrel and sees a student looking around franticly, he then leaps into another barrel and goes quiet.

A minute passes, neither one of the two room’s inhabitants making a sound. A smashing noise causes Flickering Shadows to freeze. She looks and sees the now broken door open and something tall enters. The notch hole isn’t big enough to see the top of it but what Twilight can still see scares her. It stands on two legs and is very tall, since she can’t see its top she doesn’t know how tall, but it is differently taller than a minotaur, it’s also totally black. It has long hands and fingers that nearly reach the floor, its finger are more like claws, very long and sharp. Tentacles hang from its back and are being dragged across the floor. It walks across the room and knocks over a barrel, dragging out the screaming student.

“Where are they?” it says, in a tone halfway between a hiss and a wail, “They killed them!”

Twilight recognizes them as the words shouted last night. The student just cries and pleads for mercy. He then screams as the monster’s claws tear at his back until he stops screaming and moving. The monster pulls its claws out of his back and leaves. Flickering Shadows doesn’t move, Twilight doesn’t blame her. For a single movement might mean detection for her. And there Flickering Shadows lays, flicking in and out of unconsciousness as the student dies a less than a few meters away.

Twilight awakes and screams.

“Are you alright?!” asks Applejack, worried.

“How horrible!” states Twilight, holding the sides of her head.

“What happened?” asks Iron-Sight, calmly.

Twilight looks around and finds that Flickering Shadows is gone. “Where is the maid?” Twilight asks.

“I said they could take her away,” says Hard Facts, appearing beside Iron-Sight, “Because if I am right the spell that you are using only requires the subject to be there in the beginning.”

“What are you doing here, Hard Facts?” asks Twilight, surprised by the sudden appearance of the Hexxer.

“We can talk about that later,” replies Hard Facts, “I would first like to hear what you saw.”

“Ok,” Twilight says, looking down, she cringes at the sight of the dead body, “But not here.”

They go to a clean part of the hallway and after Twilight claims down she explains everything about the memory and the books.

“So it is some form of shape-shifter,” comments Hard Facts.

“And it sounds very dangerous,” adds Iron-Sight, “Good thing it is gone.”

“What do mean it is gone?” Twilight says, confused.

“Most summoned creatures disappears after the circle runs dry,” explains Hard Facts, “That is especially true with creature you bind with binding circles.”

Something about what was said didn’t make sense to Twilight, then it hits her. The circle.

“Excuses me, Hard Facts,” asks Twilight, getting the unicorn’s attention, “With this circle when it activates would there be a huge raise of magic?”

“Massive,” he replies.

“I thought so,” comments Twilight, “Last night Discord felt a huge raise of magic which I imagine was the circle.”

“Most likely,” agrees Hard Facts.

“Not long after he felt a huge magic drop,” explains Twilight, “Do magic circles drop in power after the creature is summoned?”

“Not these ones,” answers Hard Facts.

“Then that means…” Twilight starts.

“That means that the circle wasn’t keeping it here and it might still be in Equestria,” muses Hard Facts. He then pulls out a piece of paper and starts writing down on it, “I must report this to my superiors.”

“What about the books?” asks Iron-Sight.

Twilight hands him the books.

“What languages is this?” asks Iron-Sight, angrily.

“I don’t know,” replies Twilight.

“I don’t recognize it either,” comments Hard Facts, looking over Iron-Sights shoulder before getting back to writing.

“You better take this to the Princess,” suggests Iron-Sight, handing them back to Twilight, “So you found them in the Headmasters office, right?”

“Yeah,” answers Twilight.

“That makes sense,” states Iron-Sight, “I always knew one day he would do something like this. Celestia should have locked him up a decades ago.”

“In all fairness being rude isn’t against the law,” states Hard Facts.

“What are you talking about? Who is the Headmaster?” asks Twilight.

“You must have heard of the unicorn call Catalyst?” comments Hard Facts. The girls all shake their heads beside Twilight who looks shocked.

“I’m guessing be your looks you have, Twilight,” comments Rarity.

“You don’t mean the Catalyst, do you,” asks Twilight, shocked.

“I not aware of any other,” replies Iron-Sight.

“He is like the next Star Swirl the Breaded,” yells Twilight, “He is the best male magic user in Equestria. He has studies nearly all forms of magic and he is also one of Equestrian best historians.”

“He is also a total looney,” states Iron-Sight.

“I gather you don’t know what else he is famous for,” adds Hard Facts, “He is also one of the biggest critics of the monarchy.”

“Meaning,” says Rainbow Dash, not getting it.

“He doesn’t like the Princesses much,” explains Hard Facts.

“I think hate is a better word,” interjects Iron-Sight, “He has spoken out against the Princess Celestia many times before and written a few books saying why the monarchy is making Equestria weak.”

“I didn’t know this,” Twilight says, shocked.

“Well it doesn’t really matter,” says Iron-Sight, shrugging, “He is most likely dead now.”

“How did a guy like him become the Headmaster anyway,” asks Rainbow Dash.

“It is a privately run university, Catalyst was the apprentice of the last Headmaster and he wanted him to have it when he died,” explains Hard Facts, “Celestia didn’t like it but what can one do.”

“Well I thinks this all has given us some leads to work on,” Twilight comments, “I will take these books to Celestia, hopefully she can read them.”

“That would be great, Twilight,” says Hard Facts, walking off, “Make sure to send us what you found out. I have to send a letter.” With that he disappears around the corner.

The girls are about the leave as well when Iron-Sight stops them.

“Actually there is one more lead I need help with,” he asks, rubbing the back of his neck.

“What is that?” asks Twilight, curious.

“You see the ponies of the nearby town won’t talk to us,” he explains “They don’t like city ponies much, mostly because of all the student causing trouble for them.”

“So how can we help?” asks Twilight, not getting it.

“Well I happen to know that Miss Applejack is farm pony and you all come from a rural area, they might talk to you,” he explains.

“What would we be asking?” asks Applejack.

“Just if they saw anything,” he answers.

“Sounds easy enough, we’ll do it” replies Twilight.

“Thanks we appreciate it,” he says, smiling.

The girls turn to leave.

The girls leave the university and only got a few smartass comments from Jack Ripper. They then head towards the town, only a few minutes away.

“Ok, Applejack you handle this,” suggests Twilight, as they approach two stallions working on a cart.

“Leave it to me,” Applejack says, confidently, as she walks towards the two stallions. “Howdy!” she calls.

“Howdy,” they reply, smiling.

“My name is Applejack, from Ponyville,” she says, offering a hoof.

“I’m Barley and this is Weetbix,” Barley says, taking the hoof and giving a firm shake.

“I saw some trouble down the down the road, any idea what’s going on?” Applejack asks, casually.

“Eh, I hear they just all offed themselves,” Weetbix comments.

“Any idea what happened?” Applejack asks.

“Nope we were all asleep,” answers Barley, “The first we heard was when the guards were banging our doors.”

“Oh, ok,” Applejack says, disappointed. She about to say her goodbyes when she is interrupted.

“There was that picture that Natural took,” comments Weetbix.

“You mean the one of the white pony jumping over the walls of the university? Yeah, I forgot about,” replies Barley.

“What picture,” asks Applejack, interested.

“You see Natural, who is a our local photographer was out last night taking pictures of the wildlife,” explains Barley, “He was beside the walls when he saw something jump over it and he took a picture of it.”

“Didn’t he hear the roar?” asks Applejack.

“That idiot is always listening to loud music with his headphones,” comments Weetbix, “Properly didn’t hear.”

“I would be much obliged if I can see that picture,” asks Applejack.

“Sure we are heading home anyway, we will take you to him,” offers Barley.

Applejack nods and follows the two stallion, she gives a secret wave to her friends, who wave back.

“I guess we have to wait until she comes back,” states Twilight.

An Hour Later

“Applejack better hurry up,” complains Rainbow Dash, “I’m freezing!”

As if on cue Applejack appears running down the road.

“Sorry girls that took longer than expected,” she pants.

“So what did you found out?” asks Pinkie.

“I got this,” Applejack says, showing the picture, “Taken last night.”

The girls look at the picture. It shows a pony whose head has been cut off by the angle of the shoot. She is thinly built, with an almost model like build, her coat is a very light grey and her tail is a dark grey.

“So what so amazing about it?” comment Rainbow Dash, “It might just be another survivor.”

“Look at her Cutie Mark, Dash,” replies Applejack.

The girls look and gasp. It is the same symbol as the one found in the middle of the magical circle. The sad face. But its eyes and mouth are blue this time.

“Let’s take this back to Iron-Sight,” orders Twilight and the girls agree.

The girls took this to Iron-Sight, who tell them to take it to Celestia and then took the long flight back to Canterlot.

In a burrow far away from the University the creature once known as Joy Flower cries.

“The blood, why won’t it come off?” she cries to the empty cave, washing her clean hooves in a pool of water.

Visions of the night comes back and she gives a haunting scream.

“I killed them all…” her eyes squeezing shut. Suddenly the open, “NO! It wasn’t meee!” she screams, smashing the stone floor with her hooves causing cracks to spread across it.

She sees her reflection in the water, she thinks sees blood dripping from her mouth.

“NO!!!” she yells, splashing her water, destroying the reflection. “Why won’t the blood wash off?!” she cries.

"Because your guilt keeps it there," comes a voice behind her.

She turns around slowly, scared of what she may see. She gasps, the burrow is a lot bigger than before and taking up most that space is the biggest dragon she has ever seen, and it is looking down at her. Its scales are a jet black and its underbelly is a very dark purple. Its head has four black horns, two on each side, a smaller one under a larger one. It doesn’t seem to have any eyes but she can imagine where they would be located if it did have some. It spine is covered in black spikes perfectly aligned, pointing toward its tail. At the end of its tail is a fan-like frill that the dragon seems to fan itself with. She wanted to escape but can’t seem to see the exit anymore.

"Come now," the dragon spoke in a serious male voice that sounded older than stone but still somehow young, "This can’t be the first time you’ve spoken to a dragon?"

“Yes, it is actually,” she replies, nervously, still looking for the exit.

"I know, I was making a joke," he says, still in the serious tone, "And if you are looking for the exit I removed it so you wouldn’t escape."

She gulps, she is trapped then.

"Do not worry, I wish you no harm, thou I doubt much can hurt you now, physically anyway," he states.

“Wait does that mean you know what happened to me?” she asks, hopefully.

"Oh I do. I’m somewhat of an expert actually."

“Does that mean you can help turn back?” she asks.

He pauses before saying, "No, I can’t. You see, there is no way back for you. You’re stuck."

“You mean I can’t become a normal pony again,” she says, all her hope draining away.

"Normality is overrated," he dismisses, waving his talon, "“Normal is just when a pony sets the none-existent stranded, do you still feel like a pony?"

“I don’t know what I feel like, I still think I’m me, but everything else feels different like I’m not entirely there.”

"Then tell me your answer in the future when you have worked it out."

“Huh?”

"It does not matter now, there is more important things to talk about, Joy Flower."

“You act as if you know me, have we met before?”

"One would think you would remember one such as I, but no we have not met before, but you have heard of me though."

“Where?”

"I believe the wording was: And the best part is that there is only one thing that could stop it and it doesn’t exist in this realm!" he says, mimicking the voice of the leader of the circle.

It took a while for her to get it but soon it made sense. The only thing that could stop it… her. She starts to run.

“Stop,” he says calmly.

She does.

“Come here,” he says, tapping a piece of ground in front of him.

She starts to walk towards him.

“Why can’t I control myself!?!” she panics, as her body disobeys her.

“What that stallion failed to understand is how I stop them,” he states, “I am the only one that can stop them because I am the only one that can control them.”

“But how can you control me? Magic doesn’t work on me!” she cries, guessing that’s why the magic circle failed.

“It isn’t magic, just words spoken a long time ago,” he explains, “The race that you are now swore allegiance to my predecessors in a time and place now long forgotten and those words still hold strong.”

“What race? You mean I am really no longer a pony?!?” she cries, now standing in front of the dragon.

“You are now a part of a race that has been around since the first lifeforms appeared,” he explains. She has the feeling he didn’t just mean on Equus. “The ritual merged you with one of the members of this race. Permanently saving you from death and giving it your sentience.”

“Was the Tall Man the one I merged with?” she asks.

“I see you called him the Tall Man… what a cute name. His real name is Sorrow,” he explains.

“Sorrow? Why is he called that?”

“Because it is the word he choose for himself. You will understand soon.”

“What is their race called?”

“Their race does not have an official name because few are aware of their existence and your languages lacks the words for what my race calls them, but a common name for them is Shadow Men, for they live in a realm of shadows.”

“You also said that they gained my sentience, what does that mean?”

“It means that they are usually barely aware of their own existence and only the really powerful and old ones gain a name and a unique look. Only when they merge with a sentient creature do they gain sentience.”

“What can you tell me about my one?”

“Nothing. I will let you found out for yourself.”

She frowns, what does that mean? She then realizes something. “Wait, the stallion in charge…” she shudders as she remembers him, “…of the circle said that you don’t exist in this realm… whatever that means?”

“That stallion is a fool and knows little about me or the Shadow Men. I exist in all realms but am only conscious in one, and this is the first time I have been to this particular realm of Equestria.”

She thinks about this. “What exactly are you, I don’t think you are really a dragon and you haven’t told me your name yet.”

“Clever. You are right, I am not a dragon and I will tell you one day what I am, when you earn it... that includes my name.”

“When I earn it?”

“When the blood disappears,” he says, point at her.

“The blood?” she looks down at herself. She screams. She is covered in blood. “WHY DOES THE BLOOD KEEP RETURNING!?!” she screams.

Tentacles shot out of her backs and start thrashing around, smashing into the walls. Then one slices across the neck of the dragon. Black blood falls on her, startling her out of her fit. She looks up at the dragon who looks back down at her, his black blood falling from his neck.

“I’m so sorry!!” she cries, tears streaming down her face. “I didn’t mean… I…”

The dragon holds up a talon, silencing her. He then places his hand on his neck stopping the blood, as he removes it she see that the wound is gone.

“It would take a lot more to kill me,” he states, calmly. He places his hand over the ground and all his blood oozes towards it and then disappears. “A Shadow Man is created by a single negative emotion. They are sensitive to them and when you are sad, angry or scared you will effect yourself in these ways. Because when you merged with Sorrow it dissolved your body and merged with your soul, destroying it. Literally making you one.”

“Does that mean… there is nothing left of me?” she asks, horrified.

“I don’t know. Is a pony’s existence just physical, spiritual or is it just memories,” he asks, “This is something else you have to work out for yourself.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It is for you to decide if Joy Flower did die on the circle, and if this is a new existence, or that she was reborn as a Shadow Man and still lives on.”

She hangs her head. She didn’t know what to think. She remembers everything about Joy Flower, her hopes and dreams but as he just said they are just memories, nothing else of her remains. Is she or is she not Joy Flower and if not who is she?

“Right now Sorrow is in a way is both your body, soul and its own unique existence. The Shadow Man called Sorrow still exists within you, whoever you are now, you and Sorrow are one.”

“What?”

“Sorrow was the one in control when you killed everypony but one in the University, at Joy’s wish.”

“I NEVER WISHED FOR ANY OF THIS!!” she screams, tears streaming down her face.

“Did she not want to die?! Was she not willing to face the consequences?!” he says, raising his voice.

She remembers. The deal. She would have her revenge.

“I didn’t know this would happen!” she cries.

“Those who are truly guilty escaped and others suffered because of it. Sorrow won’t find peace until the three that escaped are dead and the Flower family is avenged.”

She just cries, covering her face. She became a monster and there is no way back for her, the blood will never wash off, for she will keep making more. She looks up and sees that the dragon has lowered one of his huge talons in front of her face. On it is an oval mask with what looks like Sorrow’s face on it only it is white instead of black. The sad face looks back her.

“Sorrow is a Shadow Man of sadness, born and grown on it, as shown on its face. This mask is made from a material found in the Shadow Men’s realm, wear it until you work everything out, it will help hide the guilt.”

She picks up the mask and examines it. It front was curved and smooth, no room for her snout. The sad face stares back at her own sad face. She flips it around and see that it is just white on the other side. She is about to argue about how it would never fit, until she found herself moving the mask towards her face. As she touches it with her snout, it is absorbed into the mask. She closes her eyes as the rest of her face is absorbed.

As she opens her eyes and gasps. Her vision has got slightly darker, but she can see into the dark now, like isn’t there. She can also see… magic! It floats in the air as a slight purple haze, where it then swirled around her before she absorbed it. She looks at herself in a nearby pool and sees that mask has now connected to her face, she runs her hoof across the mask, it is weird not having a snout… or eyes or mouth. She looks back at the dragon and gasps again. The dragon’s body is made of black fire and magic pours from his body. For some she thought this is the closest she will ever be to seeing his true form. It is amazing.

“How is it to see the world as a Shadow Man would?” he asks, “I am told it is quite stunning.”

“It is…” she gasp, her voice is different, it sounds sad like Sorrow’s voice.

“A Shadow Man can only speak in one tone and that is the one closest to its emotion.”

“I see.”

“How do you feel?”

“I feel… better.” And she does, everything feels fare away and distance. She can still feel the presences of the remains of Joy but it felt like a different pony and she can now feel another presence which she guesses is Sorrow.

“You are right now between Joy and Sorrow, basically as a new existence that we will call Sorrow for it is its face you wear.”

She nods, she feels fine with this.

“Although I must warn you that if you take off the mask you will be Joy again, with all the pain she carries and if the mask goes black the real Sorrow has taken control.”

She nods, understanding.

“I also have clothes for you to wear that will change with your body. You will want to wear them. Later you may want to remake them to your taste. It will also help to hide the blood.”

She nods again.

“Good, I like someone who will just listen, and we a lot talk about and little time to do it.”

Chapter 2 - Casting Shadows (Unedited)

It has been a few weeks since the massacre at Stars Swirl the Bearded University and news of it has spread all over Equestria and the known world like wild fire. Somehow it leaked that the monster may still be about and the effects of that news can be seen everywhere. Ponies are too scared to go out at night and more guards have been posted to the smaller town to protect them. The mental health institute where Flickering Shadows is being taken care of has to have extra security to protect her from the press wanting to talk to her. In the meantime Twilight had spent the weeks trying to translate the two books… she hasn’t got far.

Twilight yells in frustration as she crumples up another attempt to translate one of the pages. She throws the paper on a large pile of other crumpled paper. It is quite high.

“Twilight, if you keep going at this rate we’re going to run out of paper again,” states the small dragon called Spike.

“Do YOU want to try and translate it?” she replies, irritably.

“No thanks,” he says, shaking his head, “Why don’t you just give up and use a translation spell.”

“Because, Spike, even translation spell would get confused by this language and most likely destroy the book,” growls Twilight.

“Well Celestia did tell you it would be better to let her scribes deal with it,” he says, placing more paper on Twilight’s desk.

“I wish I did,” agrees Twilight, “No wonder Celestia and Luna never bothered to learn it. It is nearly impossible!”

“Well duh. Any language that incorporates both the tone, mood and facial tones of the speaker is got to be hard,” Spike states.

“The race must not have been able convey emotion any other way,” guesses Twilight, “They must have been very bright.”

“Or possibly alien because only one place in all of Equus has this writing ever been found,” adds Spike, who looked this up, “Don’t you think that’s weird.”

“I don’t really have time to work out the origins of this language, Spike, I have translate this,” dismisses Twilight, “I believe this book is all about the monster’s kind.”

“Isn’t the other book Catalyst journal?” comments Spike.

“Yes, that’s right,” answers Twilight.

“And how much of the other book have you translated again?” asks Spike.

Twilight looks embarrassed. “Around twenty,” she says, sheepishly.

“Great, at this rate it will be years before you finish,” Spike says sarcastically, throwing up his hands in frustration.

“Hey, it is really hard!” pouts Twilight.

“Just suck up your pride and send them back to Celestia, so her scribes can do it,” states Spike, “It will be much faster if a bunch of ponies are doing it.”

Twilight has to agree with Spike. She never realized how hard this languages is to translate. It was supposed to have taken Catalyst five years of study before he could read it without help and another ten years to learn to write it. Before Twilight can doubt herself anymore her friends come in.

“Morning Twilight, you asked for us?” asks Pinkie.

“Yeah, good morning,” replies Twilight, who had asked them to come over yesterday.

“So what have you found out from the books?” asks Rainbow Dash.

“Not much,” Twilight answers, embarrassed.

“Well tell us what you found anyway, dear,” comments Rarity.

“Well… the monster comes from another plane of existence like the abyss, but parallel and mirroring our own. It mentions that a few races of creatures live there, but I believe I know which one was summoned,” explains Twilight.

“What is called?” asks Fluttershy.

“I haven’t been able to properly translate that yet,” answers Twilight, “Apparently the words used in its name has a lot of other meanings, I haven’t been able to guess the right one.”

“But how do you know which one was summoned?” asks Rarity.

“Because I believe that this book is mostly about this race,” explains Twilight, holding up the book, “The name is mentioned all the time.”

“So what do we know about them?” asks Applejack.

“Well that they have three levels of power, they are immune to magic and they can’t be killed, only be sent back to their own plane of existence,” runs off Twilight.

“So what’s with the three levels thing?” asks Rainbow Dash.

“I haven’t finished translating that part,” Twilight says, rubbing the back of her neck, “All I know is that the two highest levels have titles. The top one is an Aspect and the middle one is a Ghost.”

“So they are also immune to magic then?” asks Rarity.

“I think feeds on magic is a better word,” Twilight corrects, “They plane is full of unstable magic apparently and for most of the creatures that exist there magic is a small part of their diet and thus they are immune to it.”

“I see… what is the rest of their diet?” asks Rarity.

“I don’t know yet,” replies Twilight.

“You’re just full of answers,” comments Rainbow Dash, sarcastically, “What have been doing for the last few weeks?”

“Reading the translation guides actually,” snaps Twilight, putting her hoof on a large book on her desk.

“No offence Twilight, but you read books that big all the time, how come it took you so long?” asks Applejack.

Twilight frowns and places another book on top of the other one.

“That still not muc…” Rainbow Dash pause, as Twilight places another book on the pile, and another, and another. The girls watch as Twilight makes a huge pile of books, there seems to be nearly thirty of them.

“That what I spent most of the time reading,” pants Twilight, “All 28 volumes of it!”

“Sorry Twilight, I didn’t know,” replies Rainbow Dash, shocked, looking at the huge pile.

“I doesn’t matter anyway, that is not the reason I ask you all to come here last night,” explains Twilight.

“Then why did you call us?” asks Pinkie, curious.

“Yesterday I have just heard that homicide has sent back the dead bodies of the Flower family and I wanted to go attended their funeral,” states Twilight.

“Why would you want to go to their funeral?” asks Applejack, confused.

“Because I want to see if there was any special reason that they were used for the ritual,” explains Twilight, “Did you know their town is near the Unicorn Range. That is on the other side of Canterlot to Foal Mountain.”

“Your point is?” asks Rainbow Dash, not getting it.

“My point is that that is a long way to go just to get somepony to sacrifice and I wonder if there was some special reason why they were used,” answers Twilight, starting to remove the books from desk.

“So why call us?” Fluttershy asks, confused.

“I’m just telling you where I will be gone for the next few days,” Twilight explains, “I will be taking the overnight train this afternoon and tomorrow taking the afternoon train back.”

“Oh, oh, can I come too, I love train trips,” calls Pinkie, hopping on the spot excitably.

“I’m not frightfully busy either,” adds Rarity, “I could use the trip to gather inspiration for my next line up.”

“You do know you are going to funeral,” comments Applejack.

“I know and I have a wonderful black dress I’ve wanted to try out,” replies Rarity, happily. Applejack just rolls her eyes.

“You girls don’t have to come,” Twilight says, not wanting to bother them.

“Don’t worry about it, Twilight, we offered to,” reassure Rarity, Pinkie nodding in agreement.

Twilight smiles and looks at the rest of the girls.

“Sorry Twilight, but I will busy for the next few days with farm,” apologies Applejack.

“I will also be busy, Twilight… sorry,” apologies Fluttershy.

“Let see, going on a long and boring trip to watch a funeral isn’t my idea of fun, Twilight,” comments Rainbow Dash, “I will pass.”

“Don’t worry about it girls. I originally planned to go by myself anyway. I guess it will be just three of us,” Twilight says, looking at Pinkie and Rarity, “You can go home and pack, while I will organize two more tickets for this afternoon.”

“Will Spike be coming with us,” Rarity asks, noticing that the dragon must have left at one point during their conversation.

“No, he will stay here and hold the fort and relay any message that comes for me,” explains Twilight.

“From who, dear,” asks Rarity.

“I have asked Celestia, Hard Facts and Iron-Sight to inform me of any new developments that may appear,” explains Twilight.

“I see,” replies Rarity, “Well I better start packing. Come Pinkie, we need to find a black dress for you.”

“Okie dokie lokie,” Pinkie says, following Rarity as they leave the room.

Twilight turns towards the three remaining girls. “Please, you must send for me if the monster appears, I just have a feeling in my guts that it is still out there somewhere,” begs Twilight.

“Don’t worry, Twilight,” reassures Applejack, “Celestia placed guards around Ponyville to protect it, we will be fine.”

Twilight doesn’t feel reassured. They didn’t see how easily the monster cut down the guards.

“Well, we better get going now,” comments Applejack, “We will see you off at the station.”

“Ok, see you later,” Twilight says, smiling as her friends leave.

Twilight walks back and forth on the station, waiting for her friends and the train. Her friends arrived first. Pinkie first then Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and finally Spike carrying Rarity’s luggage. The trains also appears in the distance. Everything is on time.

“Jeez Rarity,” comments Applejack, looking at the pile of Rarity’s luggage, “Packed enough? I mean you will only be gone for two nights.”

“A lady must always be prepared,” Rarity replies.

“Thanks for coming to see us off,” Twilight thanks, as their train pulls in.

“What kind of friends would we be if we didn’t?” Rainbow Dash smiles.

“Bad ones,” answers Pinkie, with a goofy grin on her face.

“We better get on the train now,” suggests Rarity.

Twilight, Pinkie and Rarity climb on-board the train, Twilight taking the luggage off Spike. They wave goodbye to their friends who return it as the train leaves the station, soon they lose sight of them.

“So what is the plan, Twilight?” asks Pinkie.

“Well tomorrow morning we will reach their town and we will attend their funeral that starts at 10am, after it is over we will ask our questions,” explains Twilight.

The girls spend the following hours doing their own things. Pinkie goofs off, Rarity works on some black dresses and Twilight reads through one of the translation guides she brought.

“Listen to this. It says under here certain conditions one word in this languages can mean hate and love both at the same time,” Twilight explains.

“That sounds weird,” comments Rarity, putting down the dress she is working. “Did you manage to bring a black dress, Twilight?”

Twilight looks shocked. “I forgot all about that,” Twilight says, starting to panic.

“Don’t worry I brought a spare dress just in case,” states Rarity, holding up the dress she was working on. “Try it on so I can see if it fits.”

“What about Pinkie, does she have a dress?” Twilight asks, taking the dress.

“I have already fitted Pinkie this morning, now hurry up,” hurries Rarity.

The three girls spent the rest of the day, messing around with dresses until they went to bed.

The next morning is cloudy as they arrive in the large town of Grazing Hill and got off. After dropping off their luggage at a storages place at the station, they got dressed and headed to the funeral, which is being held at the Town Hall. The outside is quite crowded, it seems most of town has gathered. Ponies funnelled through the front door, paying respect to the two mares by the door, who must be the Flower families relatives. The girls wait at the back of the crowd and greet the two last.

“Hello,” says one of the mares next to the doors, “Thanks for coming and you are? I don’t recognizes you from town.”

“I’m Twilight Sparkle and these are my friends, Rarity and Pinkie Pie, we are taking part in the investigation into the families death, and we thought we might pay our respect, as well ask some questions,” explains Twilight.

“Princess Twilight!” she says, shocked, “Sorry I didn’t recognize you. I’m Gemma Flower, Ferrum’s older sister and this my wife Singing Grace Flower.”

The girls look at the two mares. Gemma is an earth-pony and looks good for somepony that must be in her fifties, her messy spiky mane is a ruby red with a sapphire blue coloured streak running down the middle, her coat is jet black and her eyes are an emerald green. Singing Grace is a pegasus and looks a lot younger and prettier then Gemma, she looks around the same age as Twilight, her long curly hair is a bright silver, her coat is snowy white and her eyes are a bright pink. She reminds the girls of a doll.

“And this is our daughter Sparkling-Diamond Flower,” says Singing Grace, in a beautiful silky voice, showing a young filly that is hiding behind her.

Sparkling Diamond is a unicorn and has Gemma’s coat and Singing Grace’s hair, but Gemma messy style and her eyes are an amethyst purple. She looks like she has been crying a lot.

“The deaths of her only cousins hit her pretty hard,” explains Singing Grace.

“I see,” replies Twilight.

“Doesn’t she have any more cousins?” asks Pinkie.

“No, we are the last of the Flowers,” states Singing Grace, “Gemma’s parents passed away four years ago peacefully and they had no brothers or sisters.”

“I will hopefully be able answer any questions you have,” Gemma says, “But it will have to wait until after the funeral.”

“We never wanted anymore,” replies Twilight.

They head inside the funeral followed by the last of the Flowers. The funeral starts. Pinkie cried through the whole thing. It seems like nearly everypony there went up to and said something nice about the family.

“They were a good neighbour.”

“They were good friends.”

“It won’t be the same without them.”

“We will miss them.”

They went on and on. Their deaths have really effected the town. It made the girls wonder if when they die, will it be the same for them? How does the remaining Flower family feel about this? Are they heart-broken like Sparkling Diamond is? And why would they be picked for this disaster to happen to them? Out of all the families in Equestria they sound one of least deserving of this.

Soon the two large coffins and the one small coffin are carried out and taken to the graveyard. As they walk to the graveyard, Rarity thought she sees somepony standing by the grave holes, but when she blinks it is gone. The three coffins are lowered into the holes, two big and one small. They throw dirt into the holes and then fill them up. The ponies all lay flowers on the three gravestones and a cenotaph dedicated to Joy Flower, whose body was never found. The final words are spoken, the final goodbyes. Tears are shed and as ponies share their woes. Then everypony leaves and goes back to their life, as best as they can. Soon only the girls and the Flower Family remain. Singing Grace is trying very hard to calm down the crying Sparkling Diamond, who bawling her eyes out, while Gemma places a picture on Joy Flowers cenotaph. It shows the whole Flower Family, all seven of them gathered together at a picnic, smiling.

“I see that they are really going to be missed,” Twilight says to Gemma, while wiping a tear out of her eye. Behind her Rarity tries to calm down their bawling Pinkie.

“They were good ponies and they are missed,” replies Gemma, angrily, obviously upset. She then pulls out a piece of paper and writes down an address on it and hands it to Twilight, “This is where we are staying. It is my late brother’s home. We will meet there, yes?”

Twilight nods. The two parties leave, both carrying off their respected bawling member, just as the havens start to cry.

After they leave a pony covered in totally black robes appears next to Joy’s cenotaph. Its face is covered by a curved mask with a sad face on it. The rain pours down the pony’s robes and mask, not able to wet it. It grabs the picture on the cenotaph before it can get wet and places it carefully into its robes. The robed pony then disappears, leaving four new flowers on the graves and cenotaph.

The girls walk through the town towards the Flower’s house, umbrellas overhead.

“I’m just singing in the rain, just singing in the rain…” sings Pinkie, skipping through the puddles.

“Nothing gets Pinkie down for long does it,” comments Twilight, sighing.

“You know Pinkie, dear,” replies Rarity.

There is a silence, besides Pinkie’s singing, until Rarity breaks it.

“I believe I recognized Gemma from a magazine I read awhile back,” comments Rarity.

“Really, who is she?” asks Twilight.

“I believe she’s a very important pony in the entertainment business in Manehattan,” answers Rarity, “I believe there was some sort of uproar at something she did in the last ten years, involving a relationship I believe.”

“Well there looks like there’s a pretty big age gap between the two,” comments Twilight.

“WE ARE HERE!” calls Pinkie, appearing behind them.

The house in front of them is a very simple two storey house with a well looked after garden. Twilight knocks on the door, which is answered by Singing Grace.

“Oh good you’re here,” she says, opening the door wider, “Please come in out of the rain.”

The girls walks in.

“It is nice to know that a Princess is looking into why my step-brother’s family was taken like this,” she says, taking their coats.

“Your welcome,” replies Twilight, “No pony deserved to be used like that.”

“Where you close to the Flower family, Singing Grace?” asks Rarity.

“They were the only one that accepted my relationship with Gemma,” she explains, smiling, “My family disinherited me, you know.”

“how dreadful,” says Rarity.

“It doesn’t really matter,” replies Singing Grace, “Ferrum also let me hide here while I was pregnant with Sparkling Diamond, until the press calmed down.”

“Ok, that’s enough,” says Gemma, walking in, “Can you check on our daughter, dear?”

Singing Grace gives the girls a parting smile and leaves the room. Kissing Gemma on the cheek on the way past.

“Sorry I couldn’t answer the door, I was dealing with Sparkling Diamond,” explains Gemma.

“It is ok, Singing Grace, was good company,” assures Rarity.

“How did you score someone so young?” asks Pinkie, earning a glare form both her friends.

Gemma just smiles. “I think she would say she scored me,” she explains, “I run a model and talent agency back in Manehattan…”

“That where I heard of you,” interrupts Rarity, “The Precious Gems model and talent agency, one of Manehatten’s best agencies. Famous not for following the trends, but making them!”

Gemma chuckles. “I see our reputation proceeds me,” Gemma says, walking into another room, followed by the girls, “Singing Grace was one of our singers and models. I became her agent to escape from all of the desk work. She was about fifteen when we first met. After a while she started to pursue me, but being totally ignorant to love I totally missed it. It wasn’t until we were stuck in a hotel together that I noticed that she had the hots for me…. now that was a shock I can tell you. I was in my mid-forties by then and was long out of my prime, but apparently she had liked me even before we meet and was inspired by me from a young age and always wanted to join my agency and was thrilled when she got in, even more so when I became her agent.” She pauses and looks embarrassed, “Sorry, I rambling.”

“No, don’t stop, it was getting interesting,” says Rarity, who loved a good romance story.

Gemma smiles and continues, “Well of course I refused her, there was nearly three decades of age different between us. But she didn’t stop and kept trying and eventually I gave in. That was the best and most stressful time of my life, dating a teenager in secret. It wasn’t until she was nineteen that she became more open with our relationship. The press of course found out and made a huge deal out of it, and then she was disinherited by her family. I then married her to help protect her. Then a year later she got pregnant and then the media was up our arses again and I had to send her away to protect her from them.”

“Yes, she told us about that. She stayed here, right?” comments Rarity.

“Yeah, well after it died down, I sent for her to come back and the rest is history,” finishes Gemma.

“How on earth did your agency survive through that?” asks Twilight.

“We have weathered far worst,” answers Gemma, “Some ponies left because they were disgusted, but more ponies joined. In the end it was all good publicity, everypony loves a good love story.”

“That is all very interesting,” comments Twilight, “But I want to hear about the other Flower family.”

“Sorry got distracted,” Gemma apologizes, “What do want to know?”

“Was there anything special about them?” asks Twilight.

“Not really. They were kind, good-natured and friendly, a typical earth-pony family,” answers Gemma, switching into a more professional tone.

“What were their professions?” asks Twilight.

“Ferrum was the town’s blacksmith and Fair Daisy was a florist,” answers Gemma.

“So there was nothing unusual about them?” asks Twilight.

“Nope, they were just a loving earth-pony couple,” explains Gemma.

“What about their kids?” asks Twilight.

“Quick-jump was just a normal nine-year old kid, nothing unusual about him,” answers Gemma.

“What about Joy?” asks Rarity, noticing she hasn’t mentioned her.

Gemma bites her lips and looks around nervously. “Well she was a bit special…” she concedes, nervously, looking like she wanted not to talk about her.

“In what way?” asks Twilight, hopeful.

“Well, she was very bright and attractive,” explains Gemma, “With her looks, brains and her voice she could have gotten a job nearly anywhere… beside an athletics career, she sucked at PE. She was considered perfect in every subject beside sports. She made friends where ever she went and she had a large group of ponies that loved her in a romantic way, although she turned them all down and always offered to be friends instead. I offered her a job at my agency for when she graduated, but she wanted to follow an academic career.”

“She sounds very special… and had a huge friend zone,” comments Pinkie.

“But why are you nervous about talking about her,” asks Twilight.

“Well…” Gemma starts and then sighs, “I will have to start at the beginning. When she was seven her pet bunny was eaten by a fox. My brother and his wife in panic hid this from her. Needless to say she got really upset and ran away from home. They later found her asleep with a fever, she had hidden in cave near the edge of town. When they carried her home and found out she had earned her cutie-mark… that was when all the trouble began.”

“What do you mean?” asks Twilight, confused, “What was her cutie-mark.”

“Follow me,” Gemma asks, walking into another room, it is somepony’s room. She opens a draw and pulls out a portfolio, “She didn’t know how she got her mark and her parents were baffled. When they asks what happened she explained that she meet a tall man in a black, white and grey world and it made her tears go away. They guessed that it was vison caused by her fever, but they still didn’t know what the mark meant.” She hands the girls the portfolio, “I offered to have experts in Manehattan look at the mark and they accepted. This the results.”

The girls look at the picture of the mark. It was a white oval and nothing else.

“There is quite a lot of reports here,” notes Rarity.

“I can give you a rundown of what they all said… they were just as baffled,” Gemma snorts, “The best excuse there is that it may be an incomplete cutie-mark and she hasn’t quite realized her true destiny yet.”

“I don’t think that how cutie-marks works,” comments Twilight, “Couldn’t you just see what she was good at and work it out from there?”

“That was the problem, she wasn’t very good at anything,” states Gemma.

“But you said she prefect in nearly every subject?” asks Pinkie, confused.

“Yeah, but she got there by studying and hard work,” dismisses Gemma, “A cutie mark can’t make you smart.”

“But you also said she was pretty and had a good voice,” counters Twilight.

“Fair Daisy’s family was full of gorgeous mares with beautiful voices,” states Gemma, “Joy was just one in a long line of knock outs. Actually I would have been more surprised if Joy wasn’t pretty. Still can’t work out how Ferrum managed to get her to marry him,” she mumbles the last part.

“That still doesn’t explain why she wasn’t good at anything,” Rarity says, confused.

“She could only cook at a home based level. Her art skills were nothing amazing. She wasn’t that amazing at gardening. And she didn’t have great crafting skills. She was mediocre at everything she did. She only got straight As because she worked very hard to get them. She hated her cutie-mark and lack of a special talent. She got teased a lot because of it. Fillies and colts called her a real blank flank, for being talentless and for only having a white oval for cutie mark,” Gemma says, angrily, “So she tried her hardest not to be talentless and studied hard and proved that she was smart. The teasing soon stopped and she moved on in life.”

“That sounds inspirational,” comments Rarity, admiring Joy a bit.

“But in the end it doesn’t matter anymore, she’s gone now… they all are,” Gemma say, sadly. “But the cutie mark wasn’t the only think that changed about her while she was in cave,” Gemma adds.

“What do you mean?” asks Twilight, now flicking through the papers in portfolio.

“When she was young she was a huge cry baby and threw huge tantrums when she was angry, sad or didn’t get her way, but after running away she never got sad or angry again,” Gemma explains.

“What happened?” asks Rarity.

“We don’t know. When she was young she always said that the tall men keep taking the feelings away. When they took her psychologist, he said she wasn’t suppressing her emotions and they shouldn’t worry and be happy that she was such a cheerful daughter,” Gemma explain, she then sighs, “But it just felt so unnatural, no matter what she would never cry or get upset and most angry she ever got was irritated. If when she was teased it didn’t bother her and never upset her.”

“What are these tall men you mentioned?” asks Twilight.

“They were just her imaginary friends, she may have just made them up to help deal with the loss of her bunny,” explains Gemma, “There is some pictures of them she drew when she was younger in the portfolio.”

The girls pulls out a few crayon drawings. They show tall figures, that stand on their hind legs and look to Twilight a lot like humans, only they had claws and are totally black. They heads are smudged by what looks like… coffee.

“Did anypony else know about this?” asks Twilight.

“Nope, it was kept among our family,” states Gemma.

Twilight thinks about this. If it was just kept just among the family, then the ponies that made the circle can’t have known about this. So even though it is weird it can’t be the reason why they were chosen… she was drawing a blank.

“Nothing else?” asks Twilight, hoping for more.

“Nothing else comes to mind… sorry,” replies Gemma.

Twilight sighs, “Thanks for the help, Gemma, you given us plenty to work on and we won’t trouble you further.”

“It is no problem. It is the least I can do for them now that they’re gone. I just hope I helped,” replies Gemma.

“You did, but can I have you address in case I need you to answer some more question or you find something else to tell me,” asks Twilight.

“Sure let me get my card,” Gemma says, grabbing her wallet.

They exchange address and leave, saying goodbye to the remaining members of the Flower family. They went to the station, picked up their luggage and waited for the train back to Ponyville. Soon they were aboard the train and heading home.

“Did you get anything from the trip, Twilight,” asks Rarity, laying on one of the seats.

“Not really,” sighs Twilight, pacing the up and down the carriage, “I believe they were just picked by random.”

“Oh yeah!” shouts Pinkie, appearing from the luggage’s rake, “What about this!” She then shoves two pictures into their faces.

“Pinkie, this the picture that Natural took at the University,” states Rarity, looking at the body of the pale pony.

“And this is the picture of Joy’s cutie-mark… you stole it!?” yells Twilight, shocked.

“Nope,” says Pinkie, shaking her head, “Made a copy.”

“Oh, that is all right then, but you should have asked for permission…” Twilight say, looking back at the picture. She then realized something, “Wait, how? When do you have the time to copy the picture?”

“Oh, I have my ways,” Pinkie says, smiling mysteriously.

“I don’t get what we are supposed to be seeing, dear,” asks Rarity, looking at the two pictures.

“Can’t you see the similarities in the cutie marks?” questions Pinkie.

“You mean beside they both have white ovals in their cutie marks,” asks Twilight.

“That’s it!” yells Pinkie, happily, “There the same oval in colour and shape.”

“Two problems, Pinkie,” states Twilight. “First, one has something else on it,” pointing towards the University picture and the sad face on the mark. “Second, their colours are different. Joy is very colourful and whatever jumped over the wall is not.”

“I never said it was Joy…” Pinkie says, defensibly, “But when we were discorded and the time when we lost are cutie marks we also lost our colours.”

“No we didn’t,” counters Twilight, “We only got slightly greyer, we still had our colours. For this to be Joy, she would of have to have all her colours bleached away and not aware of any magic that does that… beside a magic disguise spell and she would have to be a unicorn or at least have a unicorn nearby for that to be the case.”

“What about the cutie marks? Can they change?” asks Rarity.

“From what I know they don’t,” Twilight explains, “You get your cutie mark when you realize what you were meant to do. Not including Starlight Glimmer and her spell of course which simply removed the cutie-mark.”

“Joy didn’t know what her cutie mark meant,” states Pinkie.

“Maybe she did on a subconscious level,” guesses Twilight, “I have heard of cases where that’s the case and there are cases where ponies just forget what their cutie mark means because of a shock or a brain injury.”

“That is horrible,” comments Rarity, “What happens to them?”

“Even if they forgot I believe the magic of their cutie marks will guide them… or you could just go to a cutie mark specialist,” suggests Twilight.

“But you got to admit that the cutie marks are similar,” Pinkie says, holding the pictures up to Twilight’s face.

“I have to admit nothing,” Twilight says, pushing the pictures away, “Beside the similarities they are still different and cutie marks don’t change.”

“But…” Pinkies tries to say.

“Joy is dead, Pinkie!” growls Twilight, warning her not to continue, “They found her blood at the circle.”

Pinkie’s ears and head hang low. “I just wish one of them were alive, you know,” says Pinkie, sadly, “You didn’t see it but it hurt for Gemma to talk about Joy on a deep level.”

“I can understand that,” adds Rarity, “They never found her body and they can’t tell what happened to her. What happened to the rest of the family is horrible and would have hit them very hard, and not knowing what happened to her is even harder for it leaves it up to the imagination to guess.”

Both Twilight and Pinkie look shocked.

“That was pretty clever thing to say, Rarity,” comments Twilight.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” huffs Rarity, glaring.

“No, what I mean to say it was clever for you,” Twilight corrects, regretting it instantly.

“Are you saying am not clever?” says the affronted unicorn.

“NO! I mean it was very deep and clever about how you understands how they must feel even though you just met them,” quickly explains Twilight.

Rarity glares at the alicorn giving an awkward smile. She then sighs and smiles back, forgiving Twilight.

“Maybe we would feel better after a night sleep,” suggests Rarity.

“Yeah I’m beat,” states Pinkie, “Going to funeral is tiring.”

Twilight just nods and heads to sleeping carriage, followed by her friends. It is getting late anyway.

As they reach the carriage, which they have all to themselves. They climb into bed and after saying good night they feel quickly to sleep.

The three awaken in total darkness.

“Where am I?” asks Twilight.

“Is that you, Twilight?” asks Rarity, peering into to the darkness.

“Yeah am right here,” replies Twilight.

“Is that Rarity?” asks Pinkie.

“Yes am right here,” replies Rarity, “Is that you Pinkie?”

“I don’t know, it is too dark to see,” Pinkie replies.

“That’s definitely Pinkie,” states Twilight.

“Who’s over there?” asks a familiar voice.

“Is that Rainbow Dash?” Pinkie says, recognizing the voice.

“Yeah, it’s me and I got Fluttershy and Applejack here as well,” Rainbow Dash yells, “Is Rarity and Twilight with you?”

“Yeah we are both here,” Twilight yells back, “Give me a minute.”

Twilight lights up the area around her with her horn, revealing the six friends.

“Yep, I’m here,” states Pinkie.

“How did we all get here?” asks Fluttershy.

“We just went to bed and here we are,” explains Twilight.

“Same here,” agrees Rainbow Dash. Applejack and Fluttershy nods their heads agreeing.

Suddenly the room is illuminated by many purple lights lining the walls and they found themselves in a long hallway. Behind them is a wall, there is no doors down this hallway making it a dead-end. At the other end of the long corridor it turns off to the right.

“Where are we?” Twilight asks, again.

“Maybe we are at the beginning of a maze,” suggests Pinkie.

“I hate mazes,” states Rainbow Dash, remembering their first time with Discord.

“These walls remind me of the University,” comments Applejack.

“I think it is because it’s the same sort of architecture,” states Twilight.

“Does that mean we are at the University?” Fluttershy says, scared.

“I don’t know yet, let’s found out,” Twilight says, starting out. She stops when she heard something coming from the end of the hallway. “What that..?”

Her question is answered as something huge shoots around the corner. It is black with lots of spikes, sharp teeth and claws. Twilight recognizes it.

“It’s the monster!!!” Twilight screams.

“That’s it?!?” questions Rainbow Dash, who have only heard of what it looks like by Twilight.

“What do we do??” asks Fluttershy, holding onto Rarity as the monster runs towards them.

Suddenly six bright flashes of light appears around their heads and now they wear the Elements of Harmony.

“Wait, where did they come from?” questions Twilight, confused by their sudden appearance.

“Who cares let’s use them!” yells Rainbow Dash, “Let’s see if can stand up to the power of our friendship!”

Twilight nods and closes her eyes. The rest of the girls do the same. The six start to float and streams of rainbows connect them. Twilight opens her eyes which glowed with a brilliant white light and a beam of rainbows shoots towards the monster. It disappears behind a tornado of rainbows.

“Yeah, we did it!” cheers Rainbow Dash.

“How on Equus did you manage to get our Elements of Harmony back?” Rarity asks a puzzled Twilight.

Twilight shakes her head. “I didn’t do anything, I don’t…” She gasps, a crack has appeared in Rarity necklace. “Rarity your Element is breaking!!”

Rarity looks shocked and looks down at her Element and then looks Twilight and gasps, “Your is too!!”

Twilight looks up and to her horror a bit of purple crystal falls on her nose.

“Are Elements are falling about!!!” screams Pinkie.

A voice is suddenly heard, “Magic used on one, is magic WASTED!!”

Just as the final word is spoken the Elements shatter and the tornado dissipate, revealing the monster standing there unharmed or changed. It starts moves towards them again. Its body absorbing the remaining tornado.

“It just absorbed the Elements!!” yells Rainbow Dash, realizing what happened.

“What are we going to do now, Twilight?!?” yells Applejack.

“I… I… I don’t know?” Twilight replies, losing hope. It is even immune to the powers of the Elements of Harmony, no wonder it could escape the circle.

“Getting closer!!” yells Pinkie.

The girls huddle together. Fear overtaken them. The monster now stands over them. Twilight can’t believe it will end like this, with so much question left to answer. It mouth lowers and moves towards them. The girls squeeze their eyes shut, expecting to be eaten.

“Help me…” it whispers, in a sad and nearly silent voice.

The girls open their eyes and sees the monster is gone and in it place a shadowy tall creature. It stretches a claw towards them.

“Help me…” it asks again. Its sadness pouring off its words. The girls found themselves stretching their hooves towards it, wanting to grab it.

Suddenly a chain wraps around its neck. Another went around its outstretched hand. More chains falls, trapping the creature. It tries to break the chains, but for every chain it breaks more falls. Suddenly the chain tighten and the creature is dragged backwards, towards a group of hooded ponies, who are pulling the chains.

“You’re ours!” they hiss, in an inpony voice, as they pull the creature towards them.

The creature stretches out its hand towards the girls. “Help me…” it calls to them, as it is dragged away.

The girls are about to react when the wall behind them collapses, showing a pathway hovering over an endless darkness. At the end an archway stands, a bright light glowing within it.

The voice is heard again, “Two paths. One leads down one way and one leads down the other. Both full of hardships and both have their own unique consequences. Choose one or the other before it is too late.”

The girls notice that the pathway and the hallway are starting to fall apart, falling into the Endless Darkness.

“What are we going to do?!?” yells Rainbow Dash, dodging a falling piece of stone.

“Are we going to save it or not!?” screams Pinkie, as the deafening noise of a building falling increases.

Twilight looks at the creature being dragged away and the pathway that is collapsing quickly. She takes a step on the pathway before turning around and heading towards the creature. The girls are quick to follow her. They run, jump and fly their way through the falling stones getting closer to it. They stretch out their hooves towards claw and grab it.

“Let it GO!” yells Twilight, trying to pull the creature back.

“IT IS OURS!!” they hiss back.

The creature stretches out a claw and touches Twilight’s forehead. There is a flash and the Element of Magic appears back on her head. The girls gasp as they ones return too.

“Magic unwanted is magic returned.”

“LET GO!!” warns Twilight, still holding onto the creature. Her eyes glowing white.

“NEVER!! IT IS OURS!!” they scream back.

Twilight warned them. With a blast of Rainbow she shatters the chains. The hallway behind it creature collapses and the hooded ponies fall with it. Letting off an unearthly scream as they do.

“What are going to do now?!!?” yells Rainbow Dash, looking back down the hallway which has mostly fallen away.

“We will never make it back!!” yells back Applejack, dodging a stone falling from the ceiling.

Before anypony can answer they are wrapped up in two long arms and picked up. They look up and see that the creature is holding them. Then like a bullet it shoots forwards. Leaping over holes, bouncing off walls and jumping off falling stones. The girls look behind them and to their horror see the hallway collapsing totally behind them. Up ahead the pathway that leaded to archway is gone. They are heading to a dead drop. They squeeze their eyes and wait. After the worst doesn’t happen they open them and see that they are gliding across the darkness, behind them the last of the hallway disappears.

“We are still not going to make it!!” yells Rainbow Dash. She is right. They have started to drop and the platform where the archway is still too far way.

Just then they are thrown forward. Hitting and rolling across the platform, stopping in the middle. The archways light starts to glow brighter and starts reaching out to them. The girls run to the edge to look for the creature. They find it hanging off the edge by one of its hands. It looks up at them.

“Save me…” it whispers, sadly.

“Here grab my hoof! We will pull you up!” offers Twilight urgently, stretching out a hoof.

The creature reaches out a claw, but then retracts it. It shakes its head. “No. Save me…”

“What do you mean?!” yells Twilight, “How can we save you?”

They look at the creature face and for a second they think they saw a sad pony’s face looking back.

“Save me from myself.”

With that it let go. Dropping. The darkness consuming it. Before the girls can do anything the light reaches them, dragging them back to the waking world.

Twilight shots up from her bed. Placing her hoof on her chest to calm her fast beating heart. She looks around and sees her friends in similar states.

“You had the dream too?” Twilight asks them.

“I think so,” replies Rarity. Pinkie nods.

“What was it about?” asks Rarity.

As is the way of dreams, they distort and disappear. Twilight is already forgetting things about it, but she remembers one thing.

“It was plea,” she states, “A plea for help.”

The wind flies through the robes of the hooded pony standing on the roof the train. The morning sun passing through her like a ghost, barely casting a shadow. She stands there unmoving, like a statue. She twitches slightly and then raises her head, showing her sad mask to world.

A Shadow Man have no brain and can’t sleep so dreaming is impossible for them. But Aspects can drive deep within their own thoughts and enter a dreamlike state. Totally stopping their awareness and movement, temporally deading themselves from the real world.

Sorrow likes that state. It helps her escape the problems of her own mind. The mask can only helps so much and you can only distance yourself so far from your own problems.

She notices the train is approaching a town and that means a stations. With that in mind she jumps off the train, landing lightly on her hooves. She then heads towards town. She doesn’t know what the town is called, but she doesn’t care. She needs to keep moving. She needs to keep running. She needs to escape… from herself.

Chapter 3 - Chasing a Shadow

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 4 - Shadows within Shadows(unedited)

Author's Note

Urgent: Require Assistance!
Yo, DH here and I need help editing, for my new editor left Fimfiction and my old editor is still very unhelpful(like for example this chapter was finished a month ago and he still hasn't looked at it).
So I need a new editor and with his/her help I will be able to hopefully release chapter sooner(and fix this chapter, sorry for any mistakes) and finish these two books so I can work on others. I also have another story in the works that I needs someone to look at, it is a human in Equestria/romance thing that just needs to fixed up.
Also don't forget to like and comment, cause it helps me a lot.

Chapter 4 - Shadows within Shadows(unedited)

“JOY!?!” yells the girls.

Joy’s eyes widen, she moves a hoof to cover her face.

“NO!! DON’T LOOK AT ME!!” she screams, backing off slightly, “DON”T SAY THAT NAME!! GIVE ME BACK MY MASK!!” With that she lunges forward at the mask again.

Twilight hops out of the way, causing Joy to fall over again. She starts to wail loudly.

“It hurts, it all hurts,” Joy wails, tears falling down her face, and slowly rising to her hooves.

“What does?” asks Twilight, very confused.

“Need to distance myself.., NEED THE MASK!!” with that scream, Joy turns around and lets her hoof shoots forward, extending and turning into a claw, it is heading for the mask.

Twilight throws away the mask and jumps out of the way of the claw, Rainbow Dash manages to catch it.

Joy hoof returns and changes back. “Why do you do this to me!?” she cries, “Why do you torture me so? What have I ever done to you?”

“What about tiring to kill us!!” yells Rainbow Dash, angrily.

Joy is quiet for a while, she then places her hooves around her head and screams. A scream so loud that the girls feel like they are going to go deaf, they can hear glass breaking in the distance.

“I DIDN’T KILL THEM!! I DIDN’T MEAN TO KILL THEM!! BLOOD ON MY HOOVES!! IT WASN’T ME!!” Joy’s screams, making no sense what so ever. She then collapses on the ground as a sobbing heap. “I’m sorry, so sorry! So much blood on my hooves…” she whispers, before the rest of her words disappear into her sobbing.

“Hey, are you ok?” asks Rainbow Dash, now slightly guilty that she cause such a reaction.

“Maybe we should give her back her mask, Twilight,” suggests Rarity, “The poor dear looks so distraught about losing it.”

“YES, please Twilight let’s give it back,” begs Pinkie, who hates seeing a pony this unhappy.

The rest of the girls look at Twilight, waiting to see what they should do. Twilight looks at Joy who is still sobbing on the ground, she then looks behind her and sees that a large crowd has gathered, whispering to themselves. It probably can’t look good, six mares surrounding a crying one, they are probably getting the wrong idea.

Twilight walks over to the crying mare. “Look if you promise to come back to my house and not run away we will give you back your mask.”

“REALLY!! Yes, I promise, give me back Sorrow!” Joy begs.

Twilight is about to question why she calls the mask Sorrow when Pinkie interrupts her.

“You gotta Pinkie promise!” Pinkie declares.

“What’s a Pinkie promise?” Joy’s sniffs.

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Pinkie says, doing the actions, “And you have to do the actions!”

Joy frowns, but gets to her hooves, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” she mutters, doing the actions, but like Twilight she forgets to close her eye, but unlike Twilight it doesn’t seem to hurt her.

“Alright here,” says Rainbow Dash, passing back the mask.

She greedily snatches the mask and places it back on her face. Twilight wants to ask how in Tartarus in fits on her face, but will save it for later.

“Ok, now follow us back to my place,” Twilight says, walking toward her castle.

Sorrow has other ideas, she turns in the other direction to bolt. But she finds Pinkie there.

“Forever!” she says, ominously.

Sorrow decides to ditch the other ideas and follow the six weirdos.

Sorrow stands outside the large beautiful crystal tree palace. It is very magical, Sorrow can see the magic flow past her in purple waves. She tightens her clothes, she got to make sure she doesn’t touch it without her clothes, for any prolonged exposure to her skin may just drain all the magic.

‘Thank my master, it came with shoes,’ she thinks, taking a step inside.

“Follow me to the basement,” orders Twilight, Sorrow just nods and follows her.

They walk down the steps into the stone basement. Sorrow can rest easier now, less magic.

“Is that a cage?” asks Applejack, looking at the aforementioned item in the middle of the room.

“Yes, I had one installed, just in case,” explains Twilight, grabbing a ring of keys.

“That’s not creepy or anything,” Rainbow Dash says, jokingly.

“Oh shhh,” replies Twilight.

“What is it made of?” asks Applejack, “I mean she broke through two brick walls without stopping.”

“Don’t worry they are made of mithril,” explains Twilight, “The strongest metal known to ponies.”

“I see,” says Applejack, impressed.

“Yes. Now can you please get in the cage,” Twilight says, looking at Sorrow.

Sorrow just nods and walks towards the cage.

“Now you just have to wait for a second while I find the right key,” Twilight says, flicking through the keys.

“Ummm, Twilight,” says Rainbow Dash.

“Just a second, I got to find the right key,” replies Twilight.

“She is already in,” continues Rainbow Dash.

“Yes, yes in second I just… What did you say?” asks Twilight, looking up at Rainbow Dash.

“She already in the cage,” repeats Rainbow Dash.

Twilight looks at the cage and her eyes widen, she is in the cage, just sitting in the middle of it.

“How did she do that?!?” yells Twilight.

“She slipped through the bars,” explains Applejack.

“Like the Smooze,” offers Fluttershy.

“It was quite disturbing,” adds Rarity.

Twilight angrily throws away the keys, “Well that just made the whole thing pointless!”

The keys landed in the cage, next to Sorrow.

“Well done, Twilight,” laughs Rainbow Dash, “Now it is even more pointless.”

“Oh shut up,” snaps Twilight. She then feels a tap on her shoulder, she turns and sees Sorrow standing next to her and she is offering the keys to Twilight. “Thank you,” she grumbles, snatching the keys.

Sorrow nods and to add insult to injury walks back into the cage. Rainbow Dash is now laughing so hard that she can’s support herself anymore, and is lying on the ground.

“Ok, let’s just asks are questions and get it over with,” snaps Twilight, annoyed.

There are nods from the rest of the girls and a nod from Rainbow Dash, when she stopped laughing.

“Ok,” Twilight says, turning toward Sorrow, “Ok, were you there at the Star Swirl university at the night of the massacre.”

“Yes,” Sorrow replies, in her usual sad tone.

“Yes?” Twilight repeats, hopefully, confirming it.

“No,” Sorrow adds.

“No?” Twilight says, confused.

“Who was there?” Sorrow asks.

“YOU WERE!” Twilight yells, now irritated.

“Was I?” Sorrow replies, “Which me?”

“What in Tartarus are you talking about?” asks Twilight, confused.

“Can you make a little more sense please,” asks Applejack.

Sorrow tilts her head, “But I am making perfect sense.”

“No you are not, you just making no sense,” complains Twilight. She then rubs her forehead, “Ok, what happened on the night of the massacre?”

“Ponies died,” Sorrow states.

Twilight feel like slamming her head against the wall. “I know that ponies died! I want to how!” Twilight yells.

Sorrow looks at Twilight. Twilight feels a chill down her spine as she looks back at the mask.

“The remains of Joy retreat, you scare her with your anger,” Sorrow states.

“What do you mean by that?” asks Rarity, confused.

“Aren’t you Joy,” adds Applejack.

Sorrow shakes her head. “Joy is dead, she was sacrificed in the ritual, she was the host. Her body was destroyed and her soul was absorbed by being known as Sorrow. What you saw before is all that is left of Joy, her remains that have yet to decide if she is still Joy or something else,” Sorrow explains.

“Then if you aren’t Joy or her ‘remains’ than what are you?” asks Twilight, confused but feeling like they are getting somewhere.

“I am a place between the remains of Joy and the being known as Sorrow, I am also known as Sorrow for I wear her face, I was created by the mask she wears now,” explains Sorrow.

“Who is Sorrow?” asks Twilight.

“A Shadow Man,” Sorrow states.

Twilight is about to ask what a Shadow Man when Applejack speaks up.

“I got question,” states Applejack, “If Joy’s body and soul is gone, then what the buck remains?”

“Her memories, her hopes and fears,” explains Sorrow.

“Her memories… does that mean she remembers what happened at the night of massacres,” asks Twilight, hopefully.

“Yes,” Sorrow replies.

Twilight feels like jumping for joy, at last they seem to be getting somewhere. “Then can you tell us what happened?”

“No,” states Sorrow.

“What! Why?” cries Twilight, feeling like they went back to square one.

“She does not wish to face her memories yet for the pain and confusion they bring,” explains Sorrow, “So I will act as a wall between her and her memories, until she is strong enough to face, and then I will no longer be needed.”

“That means if we take off her mask she will remember,” Rainbow Dash says, flying over to the edge of the cage and reaching for the mask.

Sorrow dashes to edge of the cage, advoiding the hoof like a frighten animal.

“Rainbow Dash, stop it!” scolds Fluttershy, causing Rainbow Dash to back off, “You saw what she is like before, she in no way can answer questions when she is like that.”

“I guess we now know why she wanted the mask back,” comments Applejack, “Those memories must be painful.”

“Twilight, I think we should give up on asking these question for now,” suggests Rarity.

Twilight sighs and nods, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“I question though,” states Pinkie, stepping forward, “Why do you always sound so sad?”

Sorrow pauses for a long time and then answers, “Because Sorrow is a Shadow Man of Sadness and thus I always sound sad.”

“Wait does Sorrow know what happened on the night of the massacre,” asks Twilight.

“Yes, most likely better than the remains of Joy does,” answers Sorrow.

“Why's that?” asks Twilight.

“For she watched the whole thing unfold... and she is the massacrer,” Sorrow states.

The room suddenly got a lot chiller.

“SO IT WAS…” Rainbow Dash yells, before she is muffled by Applejack.

“Then can Sorrow tell us what happened?” asks Twilight, nervously.

“No,” Sorrow states.

“Why?” asks Twilight, not really surprised.

“For she has no desire to speak to creatures of flesh and emotions,” Sorrow states, “Not once in our entire conversation has she added anything, all that I have said came from the remains of Joy.”

Twilight is about to question her further when suddenly Spike runs down the stairs.

“There you are *huff* Twilight *huff* I have been *huff* looking all *huff* over for you,” Spike huffs, obliviously out of breath.

“I'm sorry Spike,” apologies Twilight, “I should have told you I was back.”

“Don’t worry *huff* about it *huff* I only just got back *huff* myself,” Spike explains, still huffing.

“Did you send the letter?” asks Twilight.

“Yeah, I went to quills and sofas since it was closer, and borrowed a quill and some paper, and sent it off as quickly as possible,” explains Spike, “That why I was looking for you, I got a reply.” He hands Twilight scroll.

Twilight unrolls the scroll and reads it to herself.

“Who's in the cage?” asks Spike, noticing the hooded pony.

“She calls herself Sorrow,” explains Applejack, “She is the pony that we were chasing before.”

“Oh, you caught her then,” says Spike, amazed.

“Caught might not be the right word,” snickers Rainbow Dash.

“So what does Celestia say Twilight?” asks Rarity.

“She says that both her and Luna are coming here at once,” Twilight says, panicking, “When did you get this letter, Spike?!”

“About ten or fifteen minutes ago,” guesses Spike.

“Then they could be here any minute! We got to go met them!” Twilight yells, running up the stairs.

Twilight’s friends roll their eyes and follow after Twilight.

While the remains of Joy panic.

Twilight rushes to the door and opens it just as the first knock is heard, revealing the two royal sisters. Twilight had made it in time.

“Twilight, I am sorry that I didn’t come sooner,” apologies Celestia, entering, “When your letter arrived I was in the middle of something and didn’t read it until later.”

“Don’t worry, we've managed to contain the situation,” Twilight explains, “The creature is right now in my basement.”

“Is it properly contained?” asks Luna.

“Sadly not,” mutters Twilight, bitterly.

“I think you better explains everything,” orders Celestia.

Twilight does, not leaving out a single detail...

“I see,” Celestia says, frowning.

“Sister have you ever heard this race known as Shadow Men?” asks Luna.

“I was hoping you might,” replies Celestia.

“They sound ominous,” adds Applejack.

“She said that Sorrow is a Shadow Man of Sadness,” adds Fluttershy.

“What are doing, Twilight?” asks Celestia, to her once student, who is now pouring over one of the books from the university.

“Sorry, Celestia, but now that I know what their races name is I feel like I can manage a major breakthrough,” says Twilight, excitably, “In this language not knowing one word can make translating a sentence impossible.”

“Yes, I am aware of this,” replies Celestia.

“There has been these two words in the first book that have been bugging me and making any sentence with them in it nearly impossible to translate, for each word has multiple meaning,” Twilight continues to explains, “But if it they mean Shadow Men/Man, then it all makes sense.”

“What have you worked out, Twilight,” asks Rainbow.

“Well for starters, the book is called ‘Shadow Men: Enternal Walkers of the Shadow Realm’,” Twilight says, happily, “And also what the rest of their diet is.”

“And that is?” asks Rainbow Dash.

“It say that Shadow Men feeds off a single negative emotions that is part of one of five groups,” reads out Twilight, “These five groups have give different powers to the Shadow Men compared to the others… I’m not really sure what that mean,” Twilight says, confused.

“What are these five groups called,” asks Luna, “Maybe that will give us an idea what they are.”

“The first group is called Emotions of Flowing, the next is Emotions of Burning, the third one is Emotions of Force, the fourth one is Emotions of Many, and the last is Emotions of the Final Moment,” Twilight finishes.

“Which one has sadness?” asks Fluttershy.

“I think it says it is Emotions of Flowing,” answers Twilight.

“I wonder why,” wonders Fluttershy.

“Most likely because of tears,” states Luna, “Burning is most likely has something to do with anger, but I have no idea what the other three are.”

“I will continue to translate it,” states Twilight, closing the book, “It will be easier now that I have a name.”

“May we see this Shadow Man,” asks Celestia.

“I guess, but like I explained before it can escape from the cage,” Twilight says, walking towards the basement. She opens the door to the basement, which seems darker than before.

“Be careful, Princesses, it is a long way down,” Twilight warns, walking down the stairs.

“We will Twilight,” confirms Celestia, following Twilight down, with Luna and the rest of the girls behind. They soon reach the bottom.

“There she is,” Twilight says, pointing to the cage in the middle of the room, where the hooded of Sorrow sits, her head cast down.

“Is she alright?” asks Luna, “She doesn’t seem to be moving.”

“I will go and check,” declares Pinkie, hoping over to the cage, knowing no fear.

She sticks her hoof through the bars and waves it in front of the Sorrow's face. Sorrow doesn’t respond. Pinkie starts to poke her. Nothing happens.

“Maybe she is asleep?” suggests Fluttershy.

“She is still sitting upright though,” comments Applejack.

“She not a dummy I hope,” adds Rarity, worried.

“She seems stiff, maybe I should poke the mask instead,” suggests Pinkie, “She may notice that.” Pinkie moves her hoof towards the mask.

Suddenly a clawed hand shoots out of the robes and wraps itself around Pinkie leg. It then pulls Pinkie’s leg sideway, slamming her into the bars.

“PINKIE!!” her friends yell, rushing to her side.

Pinkie just continues to stare at the clawed hand, terrified. Each claw was longer than a normal pony's leg and looks shaper than a sword and more pointed than a needle. Pinkie can feel their sharp edges dig into her flesh. Then Sorrow hood starts to rise, a pairs of glowing dark blue sad eyes appear, soon the rest of the mask is revealed. It is no longer white, but pitch black. Everypony now found it hard to move under it gaze.

“You wish to steal somepony’s guard, somepony’s shield, SOMETHING’S FACE!!!” Sorrow yells, her voice sounding halfway between somepony wailing and somepony raging. It also feels ancient and powerful. “TO STEAL SOMETHING FACE IS TO STEAL THEIR IDIENTY, CAN YOU GUESS AT THE CONSEQUENCES OF THIS!!”

Suddenly Pinkie remembers the time when she thought that her friend weren’t her friend, but turned out to be just planning her birthday party. The sadness she felt, the loneliness she felt, the sorrow she felt, she remembers it all like it is actually happening. She starts crying.

“DON’T WORRY, PINKIE, WE GOT YOU!!” yells Applejack, as she and Rainbow Dash grabs hold of Pinkie, with a strong pull they manage to remove Pinkie from the grasp of the claws. Pinkie falls on the floor, sobbing. Fluttershy and Rarity start to try and comfort her.

The claws drop back to the side of Sorrow, where they turn back into clothed hoof, she drops her head down too. It feels like something just left the room, and everypony feels like a great weight is lifted off their shoulders.

“What is going on here, Twilight?” demands Celestia, who has had been to shocked to move. She starts walking to Twilight side with Luna beside her.

“I… I don’t know Celestia?” answers Twilight, “I have never seen the mask like that before.”

“What is wrong, Pinkie?” asks Rarity, “Tell us what is wrong so we can help.”

“Don’t leave me,” Pinkie cries quietly, gripping Rarity’s side, “I don’t want to be alone.”

“You are not alone, Pinkie,” comforts Fluttershy, “We are right here with you.”

Pinkie doesn’t seem to notice and just continues to cry.

“Why does the Pink one cry?” asks a voice behind them.

They turn around and to their horror see Sorrow standing there, out of her cage.

“KEEP AWAY FROM US YOUR MONSTER!” yells Rarity, gripping the still crying Pinkie.

“WHAT DO WANT NOW!” yells Rainbow Dash.

Sorrow backs off a bit from the hostile glares she is getting.

“I do not understand why you suddenly now seem to hate us with such vigour,” says Sorrow, confused.

“LOOK WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO PINKIE,” yells Twilight, “DON”T TELL US YOU DON’T REMEMBER!”

“Then what do I tell you then? For I don’t,” Sorrow says, her usual sad voice sounding slightly confused, “I caused this sadness?”

Some of the girls seem about to yell at her again, when Luna stops them.

“Wait, didn’t you say that there were two beings?” asks Luna, “Could what we saw before be the other one?”

Twilight thinks about that. “That might be the case,” agrees Twilight, realization dawning on her face, “If that is true then we just met the real Sorrow.”

“She felt very ancient and very powerful,” adds Celestia, still slightly amazed by what she felt before.

Sorrow hangs her head down. “Sorrow was born from the sad cries of a now long extinct creature, after losing its young,” Sorrow speak, as if she is recalling something, “She saw the evolution of many creature, including ponies. She also followed the ponies as they migrated to Equestria… she has been with ponies since the beginning of their existence on this planet… she is very very ancient.”

Twilight gobsmacked by this. How old does this make Sorrow? It must be over a billion years.

“This all very interesting but Pinkie is still crying!” yells Applejack, pointing to the crying pony.

“Oh sorry!” Twilight says, panicking, she rushes to Pinkie side, “What’s wrong with her?”

“I don’t know,” says Rarity, worried, “She won’t tell us.”

“She wants to help,” states Sorrow.

“Who does?” asks Rainbow Dash, angrily.

“The remains of Joy,” answers Sorrow.

“We don’t need your help!” snaps Applejack, “You caused this!”

Sorrow seems to hesitate for moment, then she moves her hoof towards her mask and removes it, showing the pained and sad face of Joy.

“Please let help fix this,” Joy begs, “I don’t want any more ponies hurt because of me. Let me do what Shadow Men of Sadness are meant to do and take away the sadness.”

The girls are shocked by this, for she removed the mask herself, despite the pain it will supposedly brings her.

She walks past Applejack and towards the crying Pinkie. Fluttershy, Twilight and Rarity move out of the way. She stands in front of Pinkie and lifts up her crying face, until Joy's sad eyes met Pinkie's crying eyes.

“I am sorry for the pain I brought you,” Sorrow says, looking like she is about to cry, “Let me now take the sadness away.” She then suddenly kisses Pinkie right on her open mouth, shocking everypony.

It only lasted a few seconds but to everypony there it feels longer. Joy and Pinkie part, their mouth’s still open. Everything gasps as a dark blue stream slithers from Pinkie mouth to Joy’s. Like a snake. It soon stops and Pinkie stops crying and instead looks confused and slightly embarrassed. In her place Joy is crying.

“I’m am so sorry,” Joy cries, tears streaming down her face, “I am so sorry I forced you to remember that.” She starts to move the mask back to her face, but before she finishes she says, “No pony wants to be alone.” She finishes placing the mask back on her face, and dashes back into the cage, like the bars will protect her from everything.

“What the buck was that??” asks Rainbow Dash, breaking the embarrassed silence.

“Pinkie, are you ok?” asks the slightly blushing Rarity, tapping Pinkie on the shoulder.

“Huh?” replies Pinkie, still confused.

“Do feel better?” asks Twilight.

Pinkie tilts her head slightly, “Actually I can’t remember why I felt bad,” Pinkie says, confused. Whatever it was that had upset her, has now disappeared deep within her mind, to the place where all bad memories go. “Actually I feel super happy... and super embarrassed!” Pinkie says, with a huge grin on her face and a slight blush on her cheeks.

All the girls sigh in relief, no pony likes to see Pinkie unhappy.

Twilight then turns to the two princesses. “What do you think about all of this?” Twilight asks.

Celestia closes her eyes and thinks for a bit, when she opens them again she speaks, “She is indeed powerful and this Sorrow even more so… but despite what Sorrow did to Pinkie I don’t believe either one of them to be evil.”

“How can that not be concerned evil?” asks Applejack, trying to hold back the anger in her voice.

“For we believe it was just trying to protect its mask, for it must of believed that Pinkie was about to steal it like what Twilight did before,” explains Luna, “It talked like it was protecting its face and identity, so to both it and Joy that mask is very important.”

“I guess that makes sense…” admits Applejack, “But it could still be evil.”

“But she didn’t physically hurt, even though it could have,” adds Celestia, “Those claws look quite sharp.”

“But we don’t believe it is good either, it is right now an unknown factor,” comments Luna, “But I believe Joy is good. For she doesn’t what to hurt anypony and took away Pinkies sadness somehow, she must still have a good heart.”

“She not moving again,” comments Rainbow Dash, peering in the cage at the now rigid Sorrow.

“Best not to disturb her,” Twilight suggests, “We don’t want a repeat of what just happened.”

Rainbow Dash nods and flies away from the cage.

“Luna and I will head back to Canterlot now,” Celestia says, turning toward the stairs, “We will return when we can talk to Joy again.” She turns to Twilight, “Make sure to message us if anything happens and will rush here as quickly as possible.”

“I hope you will take proper measures to guard yourself, Twilight,” asks Luna.

“Don’t worry I will set some alarm wards, and if those don’t work I will also set some other traps as well,” replies Twilight.

“Good idea, one can never be too sure,” agrees Luna.

Twilight shows the princesses and her friends to the door and after saying goodbye, heads back into the basement to set up the wards.

On the way home

“It was quite the day, wasn't it Pinkie,” asks Rarity, who is walking the pink mare home, who is right now spacing out.

“What? Did you say something, Rarity?” Pinkie says, noticing that Rarity just talked to her.

“Are you sure you are alright?” Rarity asks, concerned.

“Oh, don’t I'm fine,” Pinkie says, blowing it off, “I was just thinking about something.”

“Well if you are sure,” replies Rarity, still concerned.

By the time they reached Sugarcube Corner, the sun is just about set.

“Thanks for walking me home, Rarity,” thanks Pinkie, standing outside the door, “Will you be ok, getting back home yourself?”

“I will be fine, dear,” comments Rarity, “I planned to eat out to tonight anyway.”

“Oh, ok then,” Pinkie says, smiling. She waves Rarity off, as she heads home. When she is out of sight, Pinkie rushes inside and upstairs.

“Oh, Pinkie, you back,” calls Mrs Cake, as she notices Pinkie climb up stairs, “We will be having dinner soon.”

“I’m sorry but I think I will skip, I not that hungry,” Pinkie replies, before continuing up the stairs and into her room.

She closes the door of her room and slumps onto her bed.

She thinks back onto what happened today, one point makes her blush again.

“What should I do…?” she says to herself, “That was my first kiss.”

Back in Twilight’s basement

Twilight finishes setting everything up.

“Wow, that took longer than expected,” Twilight says, to Spike who is nervously watching the still form of Sorrow.

“Are you sure that this will be alright, Twi?” asks Spike, nervous.

“Don’t worry, Spike,” calms Twilight, “Even if it does escape I imagine it will just run away rather than attack us.”

“I hope so,” replies Spike.

“Come let’s go get something to eat,” Twilight says, picking up Spike and placing it on her back. She then climbed the stairs, careful not to trigger any of the wards or traps she set up. She turns off the light and closes the door, leaving the basement in total darkness.

Sorrow head raises, her glowing blue eyes cutting through the darkness.

“Soon the town will slumber and then I will seek.”

Chapter 5 - The Darker Sins of Shadows(unedited)

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 6 - Murder in the Woods

The glow of the sun has long since dispersed the darkness and now shines through the window of Twilight’s room, awakening her. She groans as she wakes up and slowly crawls out of bed. She notices Spike isn’t in his basket, but that doesn’t worry Twilight, he must of got up to make breakfast.

Twilight yawns and stretches, she then checks herself out in her vanity mirror. She sighs when she sees the slight bags under her eyes. She didn’t really have a good sleep last night. Kind of hard with the thought of what she has got locked in the basement and the possibility of it escaping. After quickly combing her hair, she trots out of her room and heads downstairs, she then hears somepony knock on her front door.

“I’ll get it, Spike!” she yells, not bothering to wait for a response.

Twilight quickly trots up to the door and opens it, only to find somepony she doesn’t want to see… ever.

“Good morning, Princess,” says the familiar and unwanted sight of Corporal Jack Ripper, Homicide, with his annoying coltney accent, “You remember me, right?”

“How can I forget,” Twilight sighs, frowning slightly, “Can I help you with something?”

“Captain Iron-Sight sent me to get ya,” he says, pointing towards the Everfree, “He thought you would want to know that there has been a murder nearby, with you being the local princess and all.”

“What!” Twilight says, horrified and quickly rushing out the door, “Take me there at once!”

“You wish is my command, princess,” he smirks, before heading for the forest, “But I warn you, it ain’t pretty.”

“Spike! I’ll be going out for a while!” Twilight yells back inside, before closing the door. Once again not waiting for response.

The two head for the forest with Twilight keeping a fair distance from the corporal. It doesn’t take long to get there, and they soon reach the forest. They find Captain Iron-Sight talking with Applejack and Rainbow Dash, by the forest edge near Apple Aches.

Rainbow Dash quickly notices Twilight and gives her a wave, “Morning, Twilight!”

“Morning,” adds Applejack, also waving.

“Good morning, Princess Twilight,” says Iron-Sight, giving a polite bow, “Sorry to have to get you.”

“It’s no problem,” Twilight says, waving it off, “So what happened?”

“Murder is what happened,” Iron-Sight says, seriously, “Last night two stallions were killed by an unknown assailant, or assailants.”

“How were they killed?” Applejack asks, worried by the idea of murder being so close to the her home.

Iron-Sight opens his mouth to answer when a rustling behind him catches their attention. He and the girls quickly turns and faces the forest, they are relieved when it just turns out to be another member of homicide coming out of the forest.

“Sir!” the homicide member says, performing a salute.

“Speak officer,” Iron-Sight says, addressing the homicide member.

“The pathway is now clear, sir, we can now take you, the princess, and company, to the murder sight, sir!” he explains, throwing another salute.

“Good work, officer,” Iron-Sight says nodding, he then turns back towards the girls, “We can continue our talk when we get to the sight, it will be easier there.”

“Ok, sure,” nods Twilight, not totally looking forward to seeing more dead bodies.

Iron-Sight turns back to the homicide officer, “I will lead with Corporeal Jack Ripper and you will cover the rear,” he orders, walking past him.

“Yes, sir!” he says, saluting and standing to attention while he waits for everypony to pass him.

As Jack Ripper passes him to catch up with Iron-Sight, he stops suddenly in front of the officer and turns to him, smirking, “Lucky… You get to be in the rear, and as a extra bonus, get to look at all the nice rears!”

“What! I would never!” he says, his face going red and slightly losing his stance.

“You just keep telling yourself that,” smirks Jack, running off to catch up with Iron-Sight.

The stallion continues to stand there, looking flustered and embarrassed until Twilight walks up and pats his shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it. Jack is just being a arse,” Twilight says, smiling, “I trust you to not stare at my flank and do your job properly.”

“Thank you for your trust, princess,” the homicide officer says, calming down, “It’s my first day as a member of homicide and I am kind of nervous to be guarding a princess on my first day.”

“And you're doing fine,” Twilight says, smiling before walking off.

Applejack just gives a friendly nod as she passes, but Rainbow Dash stops.

“Yeah, don’t worry about you are doing fine,” smiles Rainbow Dash, before suddenly leaning in. “Plus if you want to stare at a flank you can look at mine,” smirks Rainbow Dash, giving him a playful wink, before following her friends.

His blush returns... with a vengeance!

“Can you please hurry up,” calls Iron-Sight, getting impatient by how long it is taking.

“Yeah, hurry up slackers!” yells a smirking Jack, standing by Iron-Sight side.

“Don’t start, Jack!” Iron-Sight warns, pointing a hoof at the smirking Corporal.

“Ok, we are ready, let’s go,” Twilight says, walking up to Iron-Sight and then glaring at the still smirking Jack.

“Follow me then,” Iron-Sight says, walking into the forest with Jack by his side.

They walk through the forest for quite a while. Like usual it is dark, humid, spooky and all around just a bad and scary place to be in. But it’s hard to imagine a murder happening here, yes you can imagine somepony getting killed here, but getting murdered? You would think there would be better places to kill somepony. They walk through the forest for at least half an hour, and are pretty deep when they finally reach their destination.

“We’re here,” Iron-Sight states, as they pass two guards patrolling the area, he then turns to the homicide officer that is following them, “You stay here and wait until we need to go back to Ponyville.”

“Yes, sir!” he says, standing to attention.

“We are pretty deep into the forest,” Twilight says, wiping the sweat off her brow, “How did you find out somepony was murdered here?”

“A pegasus was flying over the forest and noticed the timberwolves, eating what looked like ponies and reported it to the guards. Anyway the bodies are over here,” he says, as he passes through a bush, that is blocking their vision.

“I’ll warn you again, it ain’t pretty,” smirks Jack, before following his Captain through the bush.

The girls follow them through, gasping at the sight before them. What lay before them is two ponies bodies, both of which look like they have been devoured, for large amounts of their flesh have been ripped off. One of them has been decapitated and their wings ripped off. It is a gruesome sight.

“I think I’m going to hurl!” Rainbow Dash says, holding her hoof over her mouth.

“They look like they’ve been eaten!” Twilight says, staring horrified at the mangled and slight devoured corpses.

“Yeah, by Timberwolves,” Applejack says, shaking her head. She has seen this before but to animals not to other ponies, “I thought you said they were murdered? They look these two just have been met their ends with a Timberwolves attack.”

“Look, we would love to write this off as a Timberwolves attack, but we can’t,” sighs Jack, rolling his eyes.

“Why?” Twilight asks, confused.

“Like Jack said, we can’t, because the Timberwolves came after they were killed,” explains Iron-Sight, approaching the bodies.

“How can you tell?” Rainbow Dash asks, trying to see if anything is weird about the bodies… while also trying not to be sick.

“Jack discovered it, so he can explain it,” suggests Iron-Sight, looking at Jack.

“I would be delighted, gov,” Jack smirks, walking over the dead ponies. “First off, this one here,” he says, pointing to the decapitated one, “He’s a pegasus and the amount of them killed by Timberwolves are basically nil and the ones that are, are usually foals. Also his head has been removed, a clear sign of assault…”

“Couldn’t a timberwolf just of ripped it off?” Rainbow Dash interrupts, crossing her front hooves.

“A strong timberwolf might be able to rip off a head, true, but no timberwolf can slice off a head!” Jack states, pointing to the dead pony’s stump.

Twilight, being a bit brave, approaches the dead body and looks at the its stump, the sight of which nearly causing Twilight to be sick, but she can’t find any evidence of being sliced off, actually it looks quite chewed. “I can’t see anything Jack?” she says, shaking her head.

“You gotta look at the bone, Princess,” suggests Jack, smirking, pointing at the spine that is sticking out of the neck.

Then Twilight sees it, the vertebrae sticking out of the neck has been cleanly cut through the middle!

“It has been cut!” Twilight exclaims, shocked that she didn’t see it before.

“It’s not the only proof we have,” Jack says, pointing to a nearby tree, where two pieces of a spear stick out of the ground beside it, “He was at one point pinned to the ground by his wings with those spears, but the timberwolves must’ve ripped him off cause bits of his wings were left behind.”

“Now that is nasty,” notes Applejack, horrified.

“Now the second body,” Jack continues, seeming like he's enjoying this, “He was easy to figure out. Multiple sharp objects stabbed through the head. His dead body was then thrown through this fire,” he points to the remains of a fire, “causing it to extinguish, later letting the timberwolves approach.”

“So what killed them?” asks Applejack, concerned.

“Don’t know,” Jack shrugs, before then smirking, “Maybe a crazed granny with her knitting set and a butcher's knife, who also likes to feed dangerous animals.”

“Jack, I told you not to mention that case again,” sighs Iron-Sight, rubbing his forehead.

“Couldn’t a creature have done this?” asks Rainbow Dash, trying very hard not ask about the previous question, “I mean a lot of weird creatures live in the Everfree.”

“I guess we can’t rule out the possibility…” mutters Iron-Sight, he then turns to Twilight, “Do you know of any such creature, Princess?”

Twilight closes her eyes and thinks about it. Something does comes to mind, a clawed hand, each claw longer than a normal pony's leg, sharper than a sword and more pointed than a needle, gripping around a friend’s hoof… “I think I have an idea,” Twilight says, opening her eyes.

“Really, what?” Iron-Sight says, surprised that she found a answers so quickly.

“I have a feeling that it’s Sorrow,” sighs Twilight, to the surprise of her friends and the confusion of Homicide members.

“But wouldn’t that mean she escaped Twilight?” Applejack says, nervously.

“After all the trouble we went to capture her,” whines Rainbow Dash, facehoofing.

“I think the more important part is that she escaped,” Applejack says, glaring Rainbow Dash.

“Excuse me, ladies, if you don’t mind me asking but… who the buck is Sorrow?” interrupts Jack, looking confused and a bit annoyed.

Twilight looks around makes sure no other ponies are in earshot, when she sees that is the case, she becken everypony to come close.

“I can tell you only if you promise to keep it a secret,” warns Twilight, lowering her voice.

“I promise on my honor as Captain of Homicide,” Iron-Sight says, bowing slightly.

“What about him?” Twilight asks, looking at Jack Ripper.

“I promise of my honor as a complete bastard,” Jack smirks, throwing a mock salute.

Twilight throws an unimpressed glance at Iron-Sight.

“Despite what he just said he is actually very trustworthy,” Iron-Sight sighs, facehoofing.

“Ok, but if you tell anypony I will tell Celestia,” warns Twilight, glaring at them.

“Oh scary,” smirks Jack, showing mock horror.

“Shut it, Jack,” warns Iron-Sight, looking like he’s about to hit Jack.

“Me and my friends captured the thing that destroyed the university,” Twilight whispers, causing everypony to lean in.

Both Jack and Iron-Sight eyes widen in surprise. “And it’s called Sorrow?” Iron-Sight whispers back.

“Sort of,” Twilight answers, before noticing their confused expressions, “It’s hard to explain, but it has claws that I think could have inflicted the wounds you mentioned.”

“But if it did do this than it has escaped,” adds Rainbow Dash, crossing her hooves again.

“I would've noticed if it escaped,” Twilight says, defensively.

“Princess, stop giving us mixed messages,” sighs Jack, scratching her head, “Did it do it or not?”

“We’ll have to check out my basement to find out,” Twilight says, shaking her head.

“Argh, does that mean we have to walk all the way back to town,” groans Jack, stomping his hoof in frustration.

“Fraid so, Jack,” answers Iron-Sight, he then waves over another officer, “We are going back to town to follow a lead, finish up things up here!”

“Yes sir!” he answers, saluting.

“What needs finishing?” Applejack asks, as they start to leave.

“For one we still need to figure out who they are, but we have some leads in that regard and are following them up,” explains Iron-Sight, leading them out, “Also we are trying to track down the poor stallion's head. We think a Timberwolf ran off with it when we chased them off, and we got to get the bodies back to base to be properly examined.”

They reach the edge of the crime scene and meet up again with the officer who came with them, who is still waiting for them to return.

“All done sir?” he asks, throwing a salute.

“Yes, Officer Fawkes, we can head back to town now,” Iron-Sight says, walking ahead with Jack beside him, the girls behind him and Officer Fawkes behind them, like before. After a while Jack speaks up.

“If you mind boss, I think I will fly the rest of the way and keep watch,” Jack says, spreading his wings.

“If you must, Jack,” sighs Iron-Sight, watching as Jack suddenly takes off, disappearing above the trees.

“I didn’t notice Jack was a pegasus,” Twilight says, surprised, though she has never really looked.

“He prefers to walk,” Iron-Sight states, smiling slightly.

“That’s weird,” Rainbow Dash says, wondering why a pegasus would rather walk than fly.

“Argh, this forest is thick!” Iron-Sight complains, knocking away a branch, “Sometimes I wish I could fly like Jack.”

“Why is someone like Jack in the guard anyway,” Applejack asks, ducking under the branch, “He seems almost like a criminal himself sometimes.”

“That is because he sort of is,” Iron-Sight explains, smirking, “He has the mind of a master criminal, but he knows the differences between right and wrong, and chooses right. He is extremely valuable to any investigation and that is why he is a Corporal, even if he does piss everypony off.”

“So he can think like a criminal?” Rainbow Dash asks, wondering what that exactly means.

“Yeah, it means he can work out a criminal’s motive, its reasons and other stuff like that, he’s also very good at working out what a criminal next move would be,” Iron-Sight continues to explain, “I’m just glad he is on our side, he would be a real nightmare as a criminal.”

The girls and Iron-Sight continue to talk about Homicide the rest of the way back to town, but soon the forest starts to thin, and they are soon out of the forest. But when they do they see Jack talking to a very upset Rarity.

“I said calm down miss,” Jack says, trying to calm down upset pony, “Your friends will be back soon, now if you can tell me...”

But before Jack can continue Rarity sees her friends leaving the forest and rushes past Jack. As she approaches they can see Rarity’s mascara is in a mess and her eyes are red and puffy.

“Twilight, oh Twilight, it’s awful *sniff*,” Rarity sobs, as she reaches Twilight, “It’s Spike, he..*sniff* he…”

“Spike? What’s happened to Spike!?” Twilight asks, eyes wide with worry and some fear as panic enters.

“He… HE HAS BEEN KILLED!!”

Author's Note

This chapter couldn't have been done(at least not this early) without the help of TheLunarRepublic2244.
I hope you enjoy :pinkiehappy:

Chapter 7 - Dark Storms Approach

Twilight runs through the streets of Ponyville, trying to get home as fast as possible. Thinking, ‘NoNoNo this can’t be possible this can’t be possible!!’

She can see the palace in the distance, but it seems like a infinity away. Of course it isn’t and Twilight soon bursts through the door, her eyes scanning the room for the fearful sight of a dead dragon. What they see instead is Fluttershy.

“Twilight, calm down,” Fluttershy says, trying to calm down the frantic alicorn.

“But Spike, Rarity....” Twilight cries, close to crying.

“Spike is fine, Twilight, he is just unconscious,” Fluttershy explains, causing Twilight to sigh in relief, “Rarity just overreacted and ran off before we properly found out.”

“I see,” Twilight says, relief plan on her face.

Soon Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and the two homicide officers arrive, and the situation is quickly explained.

“Sorry, Twilight,” Rarity says, looking pretty sheepish, “I really thought… well.”

“Don’t worry about Rarity, I am just glad Spike is fine,” Twilight says, smiling at Rarity.

“Gee, Rarity having us worry about nothing,” Applejack says, patting Rarity on the back to show no hard feeling.

“Has Spike woken up yet?” Rainbow Dash asks.

“No, do you want to see him?” Fluttershy asks, looking at Twilight.

“Yes I would,” Twilight says, before turning to the homicide officers who have been patiently waiting, “Do you mind if I just quickly check on Spike before we check if Sorrow is still there?”

“No, go ahead,” Iron-Sight says, smiling and slightly shaking head, “But do you mind if we tag along, so we can hear if Spike has anything to say?”

“It will be no problem,” Twilight answers, smiling back.

“Well you can count me out,” Jack says, shaking his head, “Since there has been no murder here, I think I will just go outside and grab a fag.”

“If you must,” Iron-Sight sighs, “Just don’t run off somewhere where I can’t find you.”

“No promises captain,” Jack smirks, leaving the palace. No girl is sorry to see him go.

“Spike is on the couch, follow me,” Fluttershy says, leading the way.

Jack walks outside and away from the palace before looking around carefully. He then notices Pinkie approaching the palace, he makes a show of lighting a cigarette and taking a few short puffs. He smiles at the approaching pony who smiles back. Pinkie is one of the only ponies that would genuinely smile at Jack Ripper.

“Morning, Jack,” Pinkie says, giving a bright smile.

“Morning. It is Pinkie right?” Jack says, taking another puff at his cigarette.

“Yep, that my name,” Pinkie says, happily, “Do you know where my friend are?”

“Yep, they are in the palace,” Jack says, jerking his head towards the palace.

“Thanks, I gotta go, bye!” Pinkie says, quickly bouncing off towards the palace.

Jack watches Pinkie, and as soon as she enters the palace he looks around to see if there is anypony else before he drop the cigarette and steps on it, he then walks off, disappearing down an alleyway.

“So how did you two find Spike?” Iron-Sight asks Fluttershy and Rarity, as they walk towards the living room.

“Well we came over to visit Twilight and found poor Spike laying on the floor,” Rarity explains, looking sheepish again, “He looked so still I panicked and thought he was dead, then went looking for you since you were gone and I feared something may have happened to you as well…”

“I guess this is also the work of Sorrow?” Iron-Sight says, turning towards Twilight.

“Then she must of escaped,” notes Applejack, sighing.

“I wonder how she got past all my traps on the stairs?” Twilight wonders, down cast.

“Here he is,” Fluttershy says, leading them to the sleeping dragon.

Spike is laying on the couch, covered in a blanket. His eyes are closed and his breathing seems steady. Twilight approaches him.

“Spike, hey wake up,” Twilight says, shaking him gently.

Spike eyes scrunch up slightly, before he turns over, away from Twilight, mumbling, “Oh, Rarity,” before smiling in his sleep.

“Yep, he’s fine,” chuckles Rainbow Dash, smiling.

Twilight also smiles in relief before shaking him harder, “Spike wake up!”

Spike groans and opens a single eye, “Ah, come on Twilight, just five more minutes…”

Suddenly Spike is swept up into a tight hug by Twilight.

“Spike! I was so worried about you!” Twilight says, refusing to let go of the struggling dragon.

“Twilight what are you doing…” Suddenly Spike remembers what happened before he was knocked out. “Twilight! It escaped!” Spike says, with urgency.

“We know, Spike, we know...” Twilight says, still hugging Spike, “I am just glad you are alright.”

“Could you explain what happen last night Spike,” Iron-Sight says, approaching Twilight and Spike.

“Who are you?” Spike says, managing to untangle himself from Twilight.

“I am Captain Iron-Sight from Homicide,” he says, showing his badge, “I am here to ask you about what happened last night.”

Spike looks nervously at Twilight, who gives him a nod, confirming that it is alright to speak with him.

“Well, last night I woke up and felt thirsty, so I went to get myself a glass of water,” Spike starts to explain, “I came out of the kitchen and saw something dash past me and stop at the door, I looked at it and…”

“Go on,” Iron-Sight says, encouraging him.

“I saw a monster!” Spike blurts out, “It was huge! It looked as tall as Discord, with long hands and huge claws! It’s face looked like the mask that Joy wears only black instead of white and the blue is glowing slightly! It also had tentacles hanging off it’s back that moved!”

There is no doubt in Twilight’s mind now, that is the real Sorrow that Spike saw.

“So what did you do then?” Iron-Sight asks, seeing that Spike has finished.

“I dropped my glass of water,” Spike says, matter of factly.

“Don’t worry, I’ve already cleaned that up,” notes Fluttershy, smiling.

“What happened after that?” Iron-Sight says, ignoring what Fluttershy said.

“I tried to call out to Twilight, and then everything went black,” Spike finishes.

“I see, so this creature is Sorrow?” Iron-Sight asks, looking Twilight.

“I believe that was the actual Sorrow and that was responsible for the massacre,” Twilight says, noticing Iron-Sight confused, “I better explain everything.”

Twilight tells him everything they know about Sorrow and Joy.

“I see, we better find her before she can do anymore damage,” Iron-Sight says, shaking his head.

“My friends and I will look too,” Twilight says, her friends nodding in confirmation.

“I will call for backup, put out a bulletin and…” Iron-Sight tries to say.

“Wait!” comes a voice by the door, it turns out to be Pinkie.

“Pinkie, what are you doing there?” Rarity asks, surprised, as they had not notice the pink pony until now.

“Well I came in a while ago but you guys seem to be talking and it seemed important so I didn’t want to interrupt so I decided to wait but when you said you were going to go look for I realized that I had to say something so I interrupted…” Pinkie quickly says, in one breath.

“Pinkie breath and then tell us what you wanted to say?” Applejack orders, signaling Pinkie to slow down.

Pinkie takes a deep breath and then says, “Have you checked the basement?”

“Why would we check the basement, Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash says, rolling her eyes, “She has already escaped, remember?”

“But she may have come back,” Pinkie states.

“No offence sugarcube, but why would she came back?” Applejack asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, she may…” Pinkie says, trying to think of a why of convincing them without breaking the Pinkie Promise she made to Sorrow. Lucky Iron-SIght says something.

“She has a point though, we might as well check before we may possible waste time and resources,” Iron-Sight suggests, “She may have even left behind a clue or something.”

“It really can’t hurt,” agrees Twilight, nodding her head.

They head for the basement, with Pinkie hanging behind. It is killing her that she can’t tell her friends about what happened last night, but she Pinkie Promised… she just hopes that she hasn’t made a huge mistake. They reach the basement door.

“She definitely went through here,” Twilight says, opening the door, to reveal the pitch black room.

“I will go first,” Iron-Sight gallantly offers, stepping forwards.

Twilight stops him, “No I will, the traps I set up might still be active, so I will go first and disable them, you follow behind,” Twilight orders, stepping into the basement.

“If you insist, Princess,” Iron-Sight says, following behind Twilight. The rest of the girls follow behind him.

They descend the stairs that is lit up by Twilight horn, having to stop every few steps so Twilight can disable one of the traps.

“I wish Jack was here,” sighs Iron-Sight, trying to peer into the darkness, “He has great night vison.”

“This is taking so long,” whines Rainbow Dash, getting impatient.

“If you think this is taking long you should've seen how long it took Twilight to set it up,” jokes Spike, who at the back of the group.

“It is weird how none of traps on the stair were set off,” notes Twilight, as she disables another trap, “She must have somehow avoid them.”

After a while they finally reach the bottom.

“About time,” mumbles Applejack, also trying to peer into the darkness.

“Let me just turn on the lights,” Twilight says, turning on all the candles with her magic, revealing the cage. All the girls beside Pinkie gasp.

“She’s still here!?” Twilight says, shocked, as Sorrow still sits in her cage.

Sorrow’s head raises, revealing her sad mask. “Can we help you?” she asks, her usual sad voice breaking the girls from their shock.

“So this is Joy, right?” Iron-Sight asks, who still is having trouble wrapping his head around this.

“Sort of,” Twilight answers, slowly approaching the cage. Twilight reaches the cage and looks directly at the mask, “We need to ask you some questions.”

Sorrow is quiet for a long time, until she finally says, “Ask them quickly then.”

“Did the real Sorrow go to the forest last night and kill two ponies?” Twilight asks, hoping for a straight answer.

Sorrow hangs her head, before saying, “Maybe… asks the rest of your questions quickly, for your questions scare the remains of Joy and she may soon retreat.”

Rainbow Dash flies up to Twilight, and points to something on the cage floor beside Sorrow front hoof. “Look Twilight, it’s blood!”

“Where did this blood come from?” Twilight says, pointing to the blood.

Sorrow doesn’t even look at the blood before saying, “The two ponies most likely…”

“Did you attack Spike?” Twilight asks, with gritted teeth.

Sorrow just stares at Twilight for a long time before just nodding her head.

“Why? Why did you do this?” Twilight cries, angrily.

Sorrow hangs her head again, “Only Sorrow can answer this.”

“Then let me speak to it!” Twilight says, glaring at Sorrow.

“She does not want to,” Sorrow states.

“Why?!” Twilight yells, having enough of this.

“Because you are just a short lived mortal,” Sorrow says, sadly, “You aren’t worth the time… you will one day die and we won’t, so words are wasted on you.”

Twilight is shocked. So the reason Sorrow won’t speak to her is because they are mortal. A hoof is placed on Twilight shoulder, it’s Iron-Sight.

“I think I have heard enough, let’s go,” he suggests, jerking his neck upstairs.

Twilight looks at Iron-Sight, before looking back at the cage and then at Iron-Sight again. She nods her head. They head for the stair, hearing all they needed to hear, Pinkie only staying to briefly stare at the cage before chasing after her friends.

Until she hears the words, “Forever!” in a familiar sad voice.

Pinkie whip her head around back to Sorrow, who is hanging her head, not moving. Pinkie shivers and runs after her friends.

“So this how it feels,” Pinkie mutters to herself.

“So what do you plan to do, Iron-Sight,” Twilight asks, as they sit around the kitchen table, while Spike makes some tea.

“I have no idea, Princess,” Iron-Sight says, shaking his head, “I have never in my entire career had to deal with something like this. Can’t arrest her since I doubt any cage beside maybe a giant cement block would hold her, also it wouldn’t feel right to either… she belongs in a mental hospital but there is no gunantere that they could even help or even hold her. Bottom line is I have no idea.”

“Could the Hexxers help?” Twilight asks, remembering Hard Facts.

“Nay, but I think I will talk to Hard Facts about it anyway, with your permission of course,” Iron-Sight asks, looking at Twilight.

“You can, but no one else, I don’t want this leaking,” Twilight answers, sighing.

“Of course, Princess,” Iron-Sight says, nodding.

“But what are we going to do?” Twilight asks the world in general.

“May I make a suggestion?” says a voice behind them.

They turn around and gasps for Princess Celestia stands there with a passive look on her face.

“Celestia, what are you doing here?” Twilight says, shocked, while the rest of the room bows to the Princess of the Sun.

“Standing currently,” Celestia says, earning a giggle from Pinkie. Celestia walks forwards and sits herself by the table, she then notices Spike walking in carrying a tray with a tea pot and cups on it. “Ah Spike, I would like mine with two sugars please,” Celestia says, smiling.

“Princess Celestia!” Spike says, surprised by the Princess and nearly dropping the tray, “Of course, let me just get another cup!” Spike places the tray down and rushes off to get another of the aforementioned item.

“Princess, if you would beg my pardon, you had a suggestion?” Iron-Sight says, still bowing.

“You may rise your head Captain,” Celestia says, in her usual kind tone, “And yes I do… I want you to let Sorrow out of her cage.”

“What! But…” Rainbow Dash says, shocked.

“The cage is useless and we are no steps closer to solving the mystery that is surrounding the her,” Celestia interrupts, just as Spike appears reappears and starts serving the tea, serving Celestia first of course. She takes a sip before speaking again, “The key to all this could very will be Joy, for she is or at least her memories are locked away in Sorrow, she could tell us all we need to know.”

“But she won’t even talk to us, she is too scared of her memories,” Twilight says, sighing.

“Luna and I thought about this and we think we know what to do,” Celestia says, with a heavy look on her face, “We must make her trust us, so we can then help her deal with her inner demons. It is the only way.”

“But how?” Twilight says, confused, “How can we do this?”

Celestia gives Twilight a sad smile, “By doing what you girls are famous for, with friendship.”

“We have to befriend her?” Applejack says, shaking her head, “Sorry to say this Princess, but how do we befriend somepony who isn't even really there all the time?”

“But she is, just not totally,” Celestia answers, turning to face the farmer, “As proven yesterday with Pinkie Pie,” Pinkie blushes at this, “she is still affected by what happens in the real world. It won’t be easy, but I trust you girls and I believe you can do this.”

“So that’s why we have to let her out of the cage,” Twilight says, getting it, “Cause it will be hard to get her to trust us like this.”

“Yes and maybe if you do this you can get Sorrow to actually talk to us as well,” Celestia adds, placing the cup down, “For I believe Joy and Sorrow are connected to each other and if you earn one’s trust maybe we can earn the other’s one as well.”

“I suppose it is the best plan we have now,” Twilight agrees, nodding her head, “But what if she attacks somepony again?”

“I believe poor Spike was just in the wrong place in the wrong time,” Celestia says, smiling as the dragon fills up her cup again, “I think Sorrow definity had a reason to attack those ponies, and we just need to find out what.”

“Of course,” agrees Iron-Sight, nodding his head, “We need to put this whole case to rest.”

“Another thing,” Celestia says, looking very serious, “Nopony is allowed to know about this, this must remain an absolute secret.”

“Why Princess Celestia?” Applejack says, not liking to lie.

“Because ponies are still very upset and angry over the University Massacre,” Celestia says, a sad look on her face, “A lot of nobles and other ponies had family in there, they are already angry at being kept in the dark, imagine what they will do when they find out about Sorrow?”

“They may try and take the law into their own hooves,” Iron-Sight sighs, shaking his head.

“That might be very bad,” Twilight says, imagining the consequences and shuddering.

“Joy is already feeling guilty for a crime I believe is no way her own fault and she is very emotionally unstable as a result,” Celestia says, casting her head down and shaking her head, “And that can make her extremely dangerous. Plus we still don’t understand enough about Shadow Men, all we really know is they somehow feed on emotions and magic, and can change their shape, but I feel l there is more to them than that. I will be relying on you Twilight to continue to use the books to research them.”

“You count on me,” Twilight says, smiling, reading and research are one of the thing she is best at.

“And Captain Iron-Sight, I need you to get more guards posted around town,” Celestia asks, turning towards the Homicide Captain.

“Technically I can’t order the Guards but I will tell the current Captain that we need more security around town while the investigation is on,” Iron-Sight offers, bowing slightly.

“Thank you, Captain,” Celestia says, gracefully. She then stands up, “I believe that is all, so I will be leaving now. I will of course require regular reports from both of you.”

“Of course, Celestia,” Twilight says, quickly nodding her head.

“I think I will leave as well,” Iron-Sight says, also standing up, “I got to write a report… excuse me princess, but how did you find out about this, I haven’t reported it to you yet?”

“Oh, your corporal did it for you,” Celestia says, smiling her warm smile.

“Damn it Jack, I will kill him,” grumble Iron-Sight, quickly leaving the room. “Excuse me, princesses,” he says as he leaves the room.

“That Jack Ripper,” chuckles Celestia, also leaving the room. Making the girls frown, are they the only ones who dislike Jack?

Sorrow stands outside the palaces spare bedroom, looking in cautiously. Confused by why they are letting her out of the cage and giving her a nice room.

“You can stay here,” Twilight says, showing her the bed, while Pinkie bounces on it.

“It is very nice and soft and bouncy!” Pinkie giggles, bouncing off the bed and landing on the floor beside Twilight.

Sorrow looks around the room and then at the floor before saying, “Can we stay somewhere else if I have to stay somewhere?”

“What? What is wrong with this place?” Twilight asks, confused.

“This place is just too magical,” Sorrow explains, “I fear I will damage it by accidentally absorbing the magic.”

Twilight eyes widen in shock, she forgot about this. “You’re right, you can’t stay here!”

“But where can she stay?” Rarity asks.

None of the girls really thought it would be a good idea for her to stay at their houses, because some had family, friends or animal living with them and Rainbow Dash lives in a cloud home, so…

“Actually I have an idea,” Applejack says, rubbing her chin.

They arrive outside an abandoned house on the edge of town.

“Who lives here?” asks Twilight, as they walk through the door and into the dark interior.

“An old friend of Granny Smith, she passed away last year and it has been abandoned since then,” explains Applejack, coming in behind Twilight.

“Will you be fine living here?” Rarity asks Sorrow, wrinkling her nose at the place, “I mean it is a bit dirty?”

“It will be fine for us… but how will you know we won’t run away?” Sorrow asks, standing in the middle of the room.

“We are going to trust you,” Rainbow Dash states, flying beside her.

“We are going to try to help you,” Fluttershy says, in her kind voice.

“We are beyond help… but we won’t run away,” Sorrow says, still not facing them.

“We will come and visit you tomorrow, ok,” Twilight says, leaving the house, her friends behind her.

“You can do want you want… we are beyond help,” Sorrow says, as they leaves.

Only Pinkie stops by the door, she looks back, and so does Sorrow. Even though the mask is in the way, Pinkie feels like their eyes have met. Sorrow is the first one to break away, turning back into the house.

“I promise to make you smile again, like you helped me before,” Pinkie states, remembering Joy’s crying face, she then leaves as well, catching up with her friends.

Sorrow head casts down, saying, “We are beyond help…” Then in a voice too quiet for anypony to hear, “... help me…”

In a unknown place the unicorn known as Catalyst sits behind his desk, writing notes. He thinks to himself that he misses his old desk at the university, actually beside his room it is the only thing he does miss at the university. It is a shame what happened there, how the binding failed, luckily he and his two right hoofed ponies could escape, shame about the rest though, still what can he do.

Actually he had a feeling the binding would fail, he just hoped… never mind, magic is never easy. Anyway, there is more than one way to control somepony. He was a fool to leave his journal and the book behind, luckily he rewrote the journal in the same language as the book so it will take a long time to translate both, anyway he still has the translation notes with him so it is not like he really lost anything.

Suddenly a crystal that sat on his desk starts to glow. One of his agents are trying to contact him. He picks up the crystal.

“Who wishes to speak with the Master?” he says into the crystal, using his codename.

“It is me the Dagger,” says a voice on the other side the crystal.

‘Ah, the agent in Homicide,’ Catalyst thinks, he then says, “What do you have to report?”

“I have found her, she is in Ponyville!” the Dagger says, happily.

“I see, that’s why my two agents in the Everfree hasn’t reported in yet,” Catalyst says, rubbing his chin. He hates sacrificing ponies, but he must, he had to draw her out somehow.

“The amulets attracted her a magnet, they never had a chance,” Dagger explains, “What are you orders?”

“Nothing for now, but I will have some in the future, good day,” Catalyst says, placing the crystal down.

He smiles to himself, at last she has been found. Now he can make plans...

Author's Note

Hope you enjoy :pinkiehappy:
Like and comment if you do

Chapter 8 - Seeds of Trust

Pinkie approaches the old house where Sorrow resides, carrying a basket on her back. Despite what she said, she has no idea how to help Sorrow smile again, but that won’t stop Pinkamena Diane Pie from trying!

Pinkie bounces on the spot outside the door, to help gather her nerves. She has trouble looking Sorrow in the face, mostly because of Sorrow’s mask, for Pinkie can’t stand sadness in all forms, but it also reminds Pinkie that under that mask is an equally sad face that she cannot see.

Taking a deep breath and putting on her biggest smile, she enters the house. Sorrow is sitting in the same place as yesterday, she hasn’t moved an inch.

“Hello,” Pinkie calls out, happily, “I came to visit.”

Sorrow stays quiet until, without turning to Pinkie, she then says in her usual sad tones, “Hello...”

“How are you doing?” Pinkie asks, trying to struck up a conversation.

Sorrow doesn’t answer Pinkie and stays quiet.

“Ok…” Pinkie says, trying to think of something else to say.

“You seem to be carrying something, what is it?” Sorrow asks, still not looking at Pinkie.

‘I wonder how she knows that? Does she have eyes on the back of her head or something…? that would be so cool!’ Pinkie thinks to herself, before placing the basket down and opening it, “I bought you some treats from the store, cause I thought you might be hungry?”

Sorrow finally turns towards Pinkie, until she faces her. “I cannot eat, I have no stomach…”

“Oh, sorry…” Pinkie says, slightly disappointed, until, “Wait, why don’t you just taste it and not eat it?”

Sorrow hang her head down, “Can’t taste either, have forgotten how to or maybe I never knew how to taste in the first place…”

“Oh…” Pinkie says, sadly, hanging her head as well.

The two sit in silence until surprisingly Sorrow breaks it, “They do look good though…” Those sad words continue to hang there until Sorrow says something again, “Can you tell me how they taste?”

“What?” Pinkie says, confused.

“Describe to me how they taste,” Sorrow states, “Since I can no longer taste, could you be my taste?”

“Ok,” Pinkie says, happy to be able to do something, “Which one do you want to taste.”

Sorrow looks over the collection of sweets and evently points out a cupcake, “This one.”

Pinkie sits down and picks up the cupcake, taking a bite from it, making sure to examine the taste carefully, “It is very sweet and fluffy, the icing is also sweet and has a nice lemony tang…” Pinkie continues to describe the taste, switching between sweets and describing them to the best of her abilities at Sorrow’s request, and soon an hour has past.

“Boy, I am stuffed,” Pinkie says, patting her full belly.

“Thank you for that, it was… interesting,” Sorrow says, looking at the empty basket.

“Did it help cheer you up?” Pinkie asks, hopefully.

“Cheer me up?” Sorrow asks, look back at Pinkie.

“Yeah you know, make you feel better,” Pinkie asks, getting a bad feeling.

Sorrow hangs her head, “It did help me temporally take my mind off things, but it is over now…”

“I see,” Pinkie says, sadly as she gathers up her thing, before standing up, “This doesn’t mean I am giving up, I will think of something else.”

Sorrow just turns her head away and says nothing.

Pinkie sighs and leaves the house. As she walks away an idea struck her. What she needs to do is to help her take her mind off things, and what better way to do that than to do fun stuff, so the answer is, to keep setting up fun things to do… she is going to need the girls help for this.

In the dark room where Sorrow still sits, she shifts and pulls out a cupcake she had hidden under her robe when Pinkie wasn’t looking. She moves her mask up so her snout is visible, and lifting up the cupcake she takes a bite from it, trying to remember the tastes Pinkie described. She chews slowly before stopping.

“Just like always...” Joy says to herself, “First comes the taste of ash…” suddenly a dark liquid streams out of the sides of her mouth, “...then comes the taste of blood.” Joy can’t remember if it is her own blood or the blood of the ones she killed. She slips the mask back on her face. “Will I ever be free from my own torment…?”

Sorrow stops moving and stays still, just like a statue. She is gone.

Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack stand around Ponyville’s Lake, waiting for Pinkie.

“Why did Pinkie ask for us to meet here?” Applejack asks everypony.

“No idea,” Rarity answers, shaking her head, “It can’t be to swim, it is too early in spring.”

“Yeah, we had the Winter Wrap Up like only a few weeks ago,” adds Rainbow Dash, flying around impatiently.

“Maybe it has something to do with Joy?” Fluttershy suggests, nervously.

“Speaking about Joy, has anypony visited her yet?” asks Twilight.

The girls start to shuffle awkwardly around.

“Yeah, I think Pinkie did,” Rainbow Dash says, frowning.

“What happened?” Twilight asks.

“I don’t know, didn’t ask,” Rainbow Dash says, shrugging, “I think she took some cupcakes?”

“Maybe we’ll find out more when she gets here,” Applejack suggests, looking around for Pinkie.

And as if by magic, Pinkie suddenly appears beside them, surprising them to no end.

“Sorry I’m late!” Pinkie says, happily, “It took longer than I expected to convince her.”

“Who?” Twilight asks, confused.

“Her!” Pinkie says, reaching into a nearby bush and pulling out Sorrow, who seemed to be hiding in there, “She really didn’t want to come out.”

“What is going on Pinkie?” Rarity asks, raising an eyebrow.

“This all part of my plan! Part one of my operation: Help cheer up Joy so she’ll became our friend and thus trust us!” Pinkie says, proudly.

“Pinkie you shouldn't say that outloud,” Twilight whispers, signaling Pinkie to be quiet, “What if she hears this, and thinks that we are only being nice to her because we want her to trust us?”

“We aren’t?” Rainbow Dash says, earning a glare from Twilight.

“Oh she already knows all about that,” Pinkie says, smiling. She then suddenly leans in and whispers, “She has eyes and ears everywhere.”

“I hope not,” Fluttershy says, scared of the idea of her having eye and ears everywhere.

“Anyway, so why are we here?” Applejack asks, trying to get back to the point.

“To have fun!” Pinkie says, happily.

“Pinkie, it is early spring!” Applejack says, raising an eyebrow, “Why the lake, we can’t go swimming.”

“I know that silly,” Pinkie giggles, “But it is the only place I could think of that has no ponies, and we all know how shy Joy is right now....”

“You never let my shyness stop you before,” mutters Fluttershy, casting her head down.

“Yes but you don’t turn into a monster when you get angry!” Pinkie says, appearing in front of Fluttershy and gently poking her in the chest.

“Not most of the time anyway,” Rainbow Dash jokes, getting a unhappy stare from Fluttershy.

“So what’s the plan then Pinkie?” Twilight asks, totally lost.

“Well, we’ll have a picnic, play some games, talk a bit and then go home,” Pinkie says, pulling out a picnic basket and box of games out of nowhere.

“I guess it sounds alright…” Rarity says, looking around Pinkie, “But Joy seems to be missing?

Pinkie head snaps around to find an absence of Sorrow. “She is escaped!” Pinkie says, narrowing her eyes, she then declares, “YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME JOY! YOU’LL BE FRIENDSHIPED IF YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!!!” Pinkie then leaps into a nearby bush, disappearing.

“Well that was something,” comments Applejack, raising an eyebrow.

“Why do you think Joy ran away?” asks Fluttershy, concerned.

“If someone was talking about me the same way as we were, I’d run away too,” comments Rainbow Dash, huffing.

“Look Pinkie’s coming back with Joy,” notes Rarity, watching as Pinkie drags Sorrow back by her robes.

“I got her!” Pinkie states, letting go of Sorrow.

“We can see that,” notes Twilight, rolling her eyes, “But your idea does sound like a good one.”

“Great cause I’ve already set up the picnic!” Pinkie says, now sitting under a tree with Sorrow next to her, and the food laid out on a blanket.

Twilight looks back and forth in confusion to where Pinkie was and where Pinkie is now, wondering when she moved between them, until she sighs and smiles, “I guess that’s Pinkie for you.”

“How does she do it?” Applejack wonders aloud, before heading to the carpet, followed by the rest of the girls, where they all sit down.

“Well, dig in girls!” Pinkie states, happily.

The girls start eating in silence. It’s that awkward silence that nopony knows how to fill. It is the silence that somepony wishes would break, luckily Pinkie comes to the rescue.

“Joy do you want me to taste for you?” Pinkie asks Sorrow, who is just staring at the food.

“If you wish, but can you all stop calling me Joy and call me Sorrow instead?” Sorrow asks, hanging her head further.

“But Sorrow is such a depressing name, dear,” Rarity comments, frowning slightly.

“It suits her though,” adds Rainbow Dash, earning a glare from everyone, “What? It does.”

“Girls, if it makes her comfortable we should call her Sorrow if she want’s to be called that,” states Applejack, nodding her head sagely.

“But don’t worry Sorrow, soon we’ll turn your frown upside down,” Pinkie says, grabbing Sorrow’s mask and turning it upside down.

“Please don’t do that…” Sorrow says, her mask righting itself by itself.

“Creepy. Pinkie you said something about tasting for her?” Twilight asks, trying to ignore the sight of the mask turning by itself on Sorrow’s face.

“You see, Sorrow can’t taste anymore, so I’ll taste for her!” Pinkie says, picking up a sandwich and putting it in her mouth, “Hmmm, this one tastes like… one of my socks?” Pinkie pulls out a wet sock from her mouth, “Oops, I did make these in a hurry.”

The girls now eat their sandwiches with extra caution.

“So Sorrow,” Rainbow Dash says, gaining the shadow man’s attention, “How does your mask work? I mean it seems too small for a normal pony’s face?”

“My face just melts into it, it is the same as my clothes,” Sorrow answers, quickly.

“Cool but creepy,” says Rainbow Dash.

“If I may be so bold, my I feel you clothes?” Rarity asks, approaching Sorrow, “I am curious to what it is made of.”

“Only if you don’t undress me,” states Sorrow, flatly, causing some snickers from some of the other girls.

“I wouldn’t dream of that!” Rarity says, blushing slightly.

“Then go ahead,” Sorrow says, lowering her head.

Rarity reaches out and feels some of the material in her hooves.

“It is soft and light, like silk. It feels lovely on my fur, what is it called?” Rarity asks, holding it to her face.

“Nightmare Silk,” Sorrow states.

“Oh, lovely… I should've guessed,” Rarity says, dropping it.

“Why the blazen is it called Nightmare Silk?” Applejack asks, worried.

“Cause it comes from a Nightmare Spider,” Sorrow states again.

“Yew, gross!” Rainbow Dash says, looking disgusted.

The girls continue chatting among each other, occasionally getting Sorrow to join in, and when she does, they learned quite a lot from Sorrow, nothing about Joy’s murder or Joy herself, but a lot of things about Shadow Men, which it was quite interesting (to Twilight). Soon they finish lunch and split up into groups, Rarity and Fluttershy talking among themselves, Rainbow Dash and Applejack throwing a frisbee, and finally Pinkie, Twilight and Sorrow hanging around the rocks near the water, looking for interesting things.

“Look at these rocks!” Pinkie says, happily, picking them up, “Aren’t they neat?”

“Yes, very nice,” Twilight says, not as interested in rocks as Pinkie, but happy to see her happy.

“Maybe I’ll send them to Maud?” Pinkie ponders… suddenly she turns towards Sorrow, who is looking at the cold waters of the lake, “Do you like rocks Sorrow?”

“Maybe… I wouldn’t really know…” Sorrow says, briefly turning to Pinkie, before turning back to the lake when she finishes talking.

“Speaking about rocks, we better watch out, these rock are rather slippery,” warns Twilight, testing her hoofing.

“What are you looking for Twilight?” Pinkie asks, putting the rocks somewhere safe.

“Looking to see if there is any interesting mosses growing,” Twilight says, cheerfully, “Did you know there is over 10,000 kinds of…”

“What are you looking for Sorrow!” Pinkie asks, interrupting Twilight and causing her frown.

“Salvation, a meaning for my existence, the…” Sorrow starts to sadly list off.

“Ok, that’s great!” Pinkie says, also interrupting her, “Let’s us talk about something else, do you think there are crabs in our lake?”

“Unlikely, freshwater crabs are usually found in tropical…” Twilight starts to explain but is interrupted again, but this time by a frisbee flying towards them.

“Hey look out!!” yells Applejack, rushing over to them with Rainbow Dash, who is trying to catch the frisbee, but with no luck.

The two ponies duck, dodging the frisbee, but Sorrow isn’t as lucky. She turns around, only for the frisbee to smack into her mask, causing her to fall backwards into the lake, where she sinks into the deep waters under the rocks…

“Sorrow!” yell Twilight and Pinkie, as they rush to the edge of the rocks where Sorrow fell in, being careful not to fall in themselves.

“Oh no, is Sorrow alright!?” asks Applejack, coming up next to them.

“Don’t know, she hasn’t surfaced yet!” Twilight says, worried.

They look down into the murky water, only slight ripples show where she fell, though there wasn’t any bubbles.

“Can shadow men even swim?!” Rainbow Dash says, nervous.

“I don’t think anypony could swim in all that clothes!” Rarity says, who saw what happened and rushed over.

“Do you think she’s drowning?!” Fluttershy says, panicking, she also came over with Rarity.

Pinkie suddenly jumps into the lake, disappearing under the surface.

“Pinkie!!!” her friends yell, shocked.

Pinkie is under the water for at least a minute before she suddenly breaks the surface, taking in a huge breath of air.

“Pinkie are you ok?!” asks Rainbow Dash, worried.

Pinkie turns to them to, her face sad and scared. “I couldn’t find Joy anywhere,” Pinkie says, looking like she is about to cry, “The waters around here are too deep…”

“Oh Celestia, what do we do?!?” Twilight says, also panicking.

“Should we get help?!” Rarity asks, worried.

“No, by the time they get here it’ll be too late!!” Applejack says, shaking her head.

“We have to do something!” Rarity yells.

“Why is Pinkie in the water?” Sorrow asks, in her usual sad voice, unknowing of the girls plight.

The girls suddenly turn towards the voice, and to their shock see Sorrow standing behind them, totally unharmed and somehow as dry as a bone.

“Sorrow!” Pinkie says, climbing out of the water and rushing to Sorrow, giving her a bone crushing hug (or would be if Shadow Men had bones), “I was so worried.”

“We all were,” Twilight says, relief clear in her face.

“Why?” Sorrow asks, confused.

“What do you mean why?” Rainbow Dash says, shocked, “We thought you drowned!”

“But Shadow Men don’t breath,” Sorrow explains, while Pinkie continues to hug her.

“Yeah we didn’t know that!” Applejack says, irritated.

“Also you just sank, so we were worried,” Fluttershy adds, quietly.

“Shadow Men don’t float either,” Sorrow states, “Sorry if I worried you, but I had to find a place where I could climb back out of water, I was stuck on the bottom of the lake.”

“Well I think we are all just glad that you are alright,” Rarity say, getting nods from everypony.

“So you can stop hugging her Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash states to Pinkie, who is still hugging Sorrow.

“Oh right, sorry,” Pinkie says, letting go, her cheeks a bit flushed.

“Let’s get you dried up Pinkie, before you catch a cold,” Rarity says, leading Pinkie away.

“Wait a minute, why are you dry?” Rainbow Dash asks Sorrow, who is as I said before, as dry as a bone.

“Shadow Men are water retardant,” Sorrow states, following after Pinkie.

“Figures,” Rainbow Dash says, rolling her eyes.

The rest of the outing goes on without a hitch, they played some ball with Pinkie and Sorrow vs Rainbow Dash and Applejack, which Sorrow turned out to be surprisingly good at it once she was told what to do, although Rainbow Dash and Applejack still won, cause Pinkie was distracted by something. Rarity enjoyed the springtime sun, while Fluttershy and Twilight talked about mosses and different types of fishes together… very interesting. But soon the sun starts to set and the girls begin to pack up everything.

“This was actually very fun Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash says, helping Applejack pack away the outdoor equipment.

“Yeah, and Sorrow is kind of fun to hang with, if you can ignore her gloomy attitude and her odd way of speaking,” notes Applejack, smiling.

“That is great to hear!” Pinkie says, happily.

“Maybe becoming friends with Sorrow won’t be as hard as we thought?” suggests Fluttershy, helping Rarity with the picnic basket.

“I for one want to know how to work that wonderful nightmare silk and where I can get some,” Rarity states, smiling, “Even if it does come from icky spider!”

“I wish to hear more about the Shadow Realm,” Twilight says, excitedly, “It’s very fascinating.”

“Sorrow, did you enjoy yourself?” Pinkie asks, approaching Sorrow who is staring at a tree.

“I guess,” Sorrow says, not turning around.

“Well that’s better than a no,” Pinkie says, cheerfully.

They finish packing up and head home, Pinkie taking Sorrow back to the old house. It doesn’t take long to reach it.

“Here we are,” Pinkie says, smiling, “I hope you did enjoy yourself.”

Sorrow stares at Pinkie, before casting her head down. “We guess we did. Joy did enjoy the parts she was there for, and Sorrow found it slightly interesting, especially the ball game.”

“Sorrow was actually there?!” Pinkie says, shocked.

“Sort of…” Sorrow says, not saying anymore.

A silence hangs over them until it becomes too unbearable for Pinkie and she breaks it.

“We’ll do it again right?” Pinkie asks, hopefully.

“I guess so, considering I don’t get a choose in this matter anyway,” Sorrow states, opening the door.

“Sorry,” Pinkie says, smiling awkwardly, “I’ll see you later?”

“I guess, I can’t stop you,” Sorrow says, before entering the house, closing the door behind her.

Pinkie is about to sigh, before she stops himself, “No I can’t sigh all my happiness away! I’ll will make this work! I’ll make Joy happy, I know I will!”

Pinkie then runs back to the cakes, she need to make more plans!

Author's Note

Sorry for the very late chapter, I've had a lot going on.

Chapter 9 - The Taste of Blood

The following weeks after the trip to the lake, Pinkie and her friends kept taking Sorrow to hang out, trying to cheer her up… they’re still unsure whether it’s working or not. So Pinkie has now gathered her friends around a table at the Cake’s, to help decide their next move.

“Pinkie, I’m tried of having fun,” mutters Rainbow Dash, a sleepy look on her face.

“How can you be tired of fun?” Applejack asks, giving Dash a puzzled look.

“When you seem to be doing it none stop,” answers Rainbow Dash, yawning.

“I know what you mean. All these trips to the Cake’s, Bowling Alley, the woods and other places are getting tiresome,” agrees Spike, who has recently joined the girls in their effort to gain Sorrow’s trust.

“Have we even made any progress?” Rarity asks, curious, “I mean, have we learned anything?”

“Lots,” Twilight states, smiling, “Sorrow is very informative about Shadow Men, and it’s helped me make great progress in translating the Shadow Men book...”

“But about the murders?” interrupts Applejack, annoyed.

“Oh, then absolutely nothing,” Twilight says, sheepish, “But by translating the first book I am then hoping I’ll be able to translate the next one, which doesn’t seem to be as easy to translate.”

“Why is the second book harder?” asks Rainbow Dash, confused.

“I think whoever the second book, while they could understand the language, they couldn’t write as natural as whoever wrote the first book and made a few mistakes,” explains Twilight, nodding her head in agreement with herself, “So I’ll need a better understanding of the language to read it... I think.”

“So, what now,” Rainbow Dash asks, trying to change the subject to a less boring one.

“Well I was thinking of throwing Sorrow a big party!” Pinkie says, finally speaking.

“Oh, that sounds like a great idea!” Spike agrees, excitedly, “With lots of food and drink, lots of ponies dancing to sweet music, and lots of games as well!”

“Yeah! That is what I’m thinking as well!!” Pinkie says, happily.

“No, that sounds like a horrible idea!” Applejack says, shaking her head, “Getting a pony that murdered a large group of ponies and putting her in another large group of them.”

“Applejack has a point,” agrees Rainbow Dash, sighing.

“Wait, you are being a bit unfair,” Rarity says, frowning in disapproval, “I mean she hasn’t hurt any of us.”

“Yet!” Applejack and Rainbow Dash say in unison.

“But I think this party will really help,” argues Pinkie, pouting, “I think we’re really getting to her.

“How can you tell?” Fluttershy asks, curious.

“Yeah, I mean she wears a mask all the time,” adds Spike, curious as well.

“I just feel it here!” Pinkie says, proudly thumping her chest.

“Would she even want to come to a party?” comments Twilight, raising an eyebrow, “I mean, we’re always having to drag her to the other places.”

“I’ll work something out,” Pinkie states, confident.

“Well if you are sure I guess we could try it out,” Twilight says, smiling.

“We’re going to put a lot of ponies in danger if we do this” Applejack says, frowning.

“I believe that Sorrow is no threat,” Twilight states, turning towards Applejack, “And if Pinkie says it will work then I’ll believe her, I mean she has never let us down before.”

Rainbow Dash and Applejack begrudgingly accept this as true.

“Great! I’ll start setting up the party right away!” Pinkie says, before zooming out the door like rocket, leaving the rest of the girls behind.

“I hope this works out,” Fluttershy says, echoing the rest of the girl's thoughts.

It is rather surprising what Pinkie can do in a few short days. Like for instance, she can set up a party, invite all of Ponyville, and even (and this is the most impressive part) convince Sorrow to come. But what type of party is it? Well it is not a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ kind since she knew Sorrow wouldn’t like to be the center of attention, so she decide on a ‘Masquerade Party’, now everypony will wear masks and costumes so Sorrow won’t look so strange.

“What a clever idea of Pinkie’s,” notes Rarity, as Twilight, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Spike head for the party, in their own costumes, wearing a carnivale costume, “I would've never thought of throwing a Masquerade Party for Sorrow.”

“I hope my costume is good enough,” Twilight says, adjusting a her mad scientist costume with goggles.

“Hey, compared to what Sorrow wears all the time, anything’s good,” jokes Rainbow Dash, smiling, wearing a superhero costume.

“I don’t think that very nice Dash,” Fluttershy says, disapprovingly, wearing a cute masked butterfly costume.

“Look, we’re almost there,” Applejack states, pointing out a large gathering of ponies, while wearing a desperado outfit with mask.

The party is being held outside in the fields besides Ponyville, right under the starry night. The girls enter the party to find that it seems fully underway, with ponies dancing, talking to each other, and eating & drinking, and each wearing different costumes, although quite a few ponies are wearing Phantom of the Opera costumes. They eventually find Pinkie deeper within the party.

“Hey guys!” Pinkie says, coming to greet them, “Enjoying the party?” She is wearing a clown costume with a non-scary clown mask.

“We just got here, but I’m loving what I’m seeing so far,” Rarity says, happily.

“Hey where’s Sorrow?” Applejack asks, looking around.

“Oh don’t worry about her,” Pinkie says, waving her hoof dismissively while smiling, “Last I saw her she was hanging around the catering bench, she was even talking to some ponies! Isn’t that great.”

“What about?” Twilight asks, curious.

“Mostly asking what her costume is supposed to be,” Pinkie replies, frowning before then smiling again, “But still, ponies are talking to her.”

“So no problems?” Applejack asks, relived.

“Of course, what do you expect to happen?” Pinkie says, rolling her eyes, “Just enjoy the party!”

Applejack smiles, nodding her head before turning to Rainbow Dash with a smirk on her face. “Hey Dash, bet I can out dance you!” she challenges.

“You’re on!” Rainbow Dash says, before they both rush off to the dance floor.

“Umm Rarity, my I have the honor of having the first dance with you?” Spike asks, shyly.

“Of course you can Spiky,” Rarity says, smiling at the shy dragon, before she leads the lovestruck dragon to the dance floor as well.

“Well now that they are gone, can you take me to see Sorrow? I want to see how she is doing” Twilight asks Pinkie.

“Sure, I was going to check on her soon anyway,” Pinkie says, beginning to skip off.

“Can I come too?” Fluttershy asks, not wanting to be left alone in this large group of ponies.

“Of course you can,” Twilight replies, following after Pinkie with Fluttershy in toe.

They find Sorrow still hanging around the cantering table, looking at the things on the table, occasionally ponies would stop and stare at her but move on, since she is now not the weirdest thing here.

“Hungry?” Twilight asks, forgetting who she is talking to.

“I can’t really remember what hunger feels...” Sorrow states, looking at Twilight, her usual sad voice attracting some attention from passing ponies before they too, move on. She continues, “Isn’t like a pain here?” she points to her stomach.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to…” Twilight begins to say, but stops when she sees Sorrow still staring at her. “Yes, it is sometimes like a pain there,” Twilight answers, since for some reason it seems like the right thing to say.

“Yes, I remember now…” Sorrow seems to says in a dreamlike state, “Hunger is often linked with sadness…”

“Ok, let’s move on,” Pinkie says, hatting where this conversation is going, “Enjoying the party so far Sorrow?”

“It is a party…” Sorrow states, looking around before saying, “I don’t belong here, in this place of happiness.”

“Don’t be such a party pooper!” Pinkie says, cheerfully slapping Sorrow on the back, “Even a creature of sadness needs to have fun!”

“....maybe…” Sorrow says, sounding unconvinced.

“Come on, let’s dance!” Pinkie suggests, trying to drag Sorrow to the dance floor.

“No,” Sorrow says, being strangely to the point and refusing to move.

“Pinkie, I don’t think you should force somepony to have fun,” Fluttershy says softly.

“Oh fine, but I’ll get you to dance sooner or later,” Pinkie says in challenging voice.

Sorrow doesn’t respond to this and just avoids Pinkie gaze.

“Come on, let’s join our friends on the dance floor,” suggests Twilight, thinking they should leave Sorrow alone right now.

“Ok, everypony clear a space on the dance floor! Twilight is coming to dance!” Pinkie pretends to yell.

“Very funny,” Twilight says, giving an embarrassed smile.

“What? Your dancing style is mad,” Pinkie giggles, skipping towards the dance floor, “The ponies must be warned.”

“That’s not funny,” Twilight pouts, chasing after Pinkie. She stops at the edge of the crowd and turns towards Sorrow, “We’ll see you later Sorrow.”

“Don’t forget to have fun!!” Pinkie shouts over the crowd.

The two disappear in the crowd, leaving Fluttershy and Sorrow to enjoy each other's silent company in the slightly calmer area around the cantering zone.

Pinkie later returns to the cantering tables to check on Sorrow again, this time with Rarity. They met up with Fluttershy, helping herself to some punch.

“Heya Fluttershy, still here?” Pinkie asks, remembering that they left her behind before.

“Yeah, I like it here,” Fluttershy says, sipping some punch, “Lot calmer and not so many ponies.”

“How’s Sorrow doing?” Pinkie asks, looking around for her.

“She’s over there,” Fluttershy says, pointing to another cantering table, where Sorrow is sitting in front of a plate full of jelly.

“What is she doing with a plate of jelly?” Rarity asks, curious.

“She was looking at bowl with jelly in it, so I served her some… is that not alright?” Fluttershy asks, worried she may have done something wrong.

“No, I can’t imagine jelly causing any problems,” Rarity says, reassuring Fluttershy.

“Unless you choke on it,” Pinkie adds, unhelpfully.

“I think she is beyond that Pinkie,” notes Rarity, frowning.

“Do you like jelly, Sorrow?” Pinkie asks, changing the subject.

“...I think Joy did,” Sorrow says, poking the jelly, “She found it calming… I think.”

“That sounds a bit odd,” Rarity says, tilting her head in thought, “But I think I get what you mean.”

As they continue to talk about jelly, Rainbow Dash and Applejack return from the dance floor.

“So who won?” Rarity asks, noticing the two head over.

“No one, we called it a tie before somepony could get hurt,” Applejack says, rubbing her fore hoof awkwardly.

“It got kind of heated,” Rainbow Dash says, casting nervous looks behind her, “You should've seen some of the stink eyes we were given.”

“I can only imagine,” Rarity says, giggling.

“So where’s Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asks, trying to change the subject.

“I think she’s still dancing,” Pinkie guesses, shrugging.

“We should probably get her before she hurts somepony with her ‘dancing,’” notes Applejack, smiling.

“Good idea,” Rarity says, before giving a cheeky smile, “Well, off you go Applejack.”

“Wait, I just got off the dance floor!” Applejack says, annoyed.

“Hmph, so did I,” Rarity says, taking a sip out of the punch she just poured, “And I want to drink this lovely punch.”

“Ok, who hasn't just been to the dance floor?” Rainbow Dash asks, looking around.

All eyes eventually ended up on Fluttershy, who looked around nervously.

“I guess I could get Twilight…” Fluttershy says, hopelessly, looking nervously into the crowd.

The girls start to feel really bad that they put Fluttershy into the spot, but before anypony else can volunteer Sorrow speaks up.

“I’ll go,” Sorrow says, walking up to Fluttershy, “In thanks for the jelly.” Sorrow places the plate with the jelly on it on Fluttershy’s head, “Can you look after my jelly until I get back?”

“Umm, ok,” Fluttershy says, looking up confused at the jelly on her head.

“I’ll be back,” Sorrow says, disappearing into the crowd like a shadow.

“Well that was nice,” Rarity says, impressed.

“Maybe she is changing?” Applejack notes, also impressed.

“Can somepony help me take this plate of jelly off my head?” Fluttershy asks, nervous that it is going to fall off.

Sorrow slips through the crowd unnoticed, just like a shadow she slips under everyone's gaze. She eventually finds Twilight by herself in a clearing, doing something that Sorrow would only call dancing because that is what her friends said she was doing, but in Sorrow limited gained knowledge from Joy would never call it so, it looked like she is spinning while bucking uncontrollably. Sorrow slips out of the crowd and head towards Twilight.

“Twilight, your friends….”

CRACK!!!

Twilight stops mid-dance, for one her hind hooves just whacked against something hard. Fearing she just hit somepony she turns around, and sees that her fears are confirmed when she sees a hooded pony sitting on the ground, holding her fore hooves to her face.

“Oh Celestia, are you alright…” Twilight stops as she suddenly recognizes the robes. “Sorrow… is that you...?” Twilight asks, scared at what just happened.

Twilight manages to pull down Sorrow hooves slightly, and sees Joy’s frightened eyes looking back at her, unmasked and exposed.

“Joy?” Twilight says, instantly wishing she didn’t.

Joy’s pupil’s sinks, and she starts muttering.

“No no no no NO NO NO NO NO NO NO....
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!”

Suddenly Joy screams, her voice carrying across the entire party as it drowns out the music and crack nearby glass. All eyes are on Twilight and Joy, as she continues to scream. Ponies cover their ears as they try and block out the banshee like noise.

“JOY PLEASE CALM DOWN!!” Twilight yells, trying to be heard over Joy’s scream, as she looks around for mask, but she can’t see it.

“WHAT’S HAPPENING!!” yells Rainbow Dash, who as come over with the rest of Twilight’s friends, while she tries to block out the scream.

“I THINK I KNOCKED OFF HER MASK BY ACCIDENT!!” Twilight yells back, blocking her ears as well, “I THINK IT FLEW INTO THE CROWD!!”

A nearby light explodes, sending sparks across the crowd, frightening them more.

“WE BETTER FIND IT SOON!!” yells Applejack, looking around for the mask, “BEFORE SOMEPONY GETS HURT!!”

“WE'LL LOOK FOR THE MASK!!” orders Rarity, shouting to be heard, “PINKIE! YOU AND FLUTTERSHY TRY AND GET HER TO CALM DOWN!!”

Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack and Twilight head into the frightened crowd, leaving behind Fluttershy and Pinkie to deal with Sorrow.

“JOY! IT’LL BE ALRIGHT!!” Pinkie yells, trying to calm Joy down, “WE ARE GOING TO GET YOUR MASK BACK!!”

Joy doesn’t seem to care or possibly notice, she just continues to scream like it would somehow suppress the pain she is now feeling.

“SHE WON’T STOP! FLUTTERSHY DO YOU HAVE ANY….” Pinkie asks, turning towards the pegasus, only to notice that she isn’t there any more.

Did she run away? With Fluttershy it isn’t an impossibility, but she wouldn’t… but before Pinkie can dwell on that question further, Fluttershy appears, carrying a plate of something.

“SORRY! I THOUGHT THIS MIGHT HELP!” Fluttershy yells, in her loudest voice she can manage, which isn’t very loud but still manages to make it’s way through the scream.

The plate held a piece of jelly on it, which jiggled madly under the sound, but before Pinkie can question ‘why jelly?’, she remembered that Sorrow mentioned that Joy found jelly calming.

“GOOD IDEA FLUTTERSHY!!” Pinkie yells, taking the jelly from her and holding it in front of the screaming Joy, “LOOK JOY! JELLY!!”

Joy seems to notice the jelly right away, and thankfully it seems to have a instant effect and she stops screaming right away, relieving everypony. She watches as the jelly jiggles and shakes, causing a strange but angel smile to spread across her lips, and she starts giggling.

“Jelly!” Joy says, in sweet filly like voice.

Both Fluttershy and Pinkie found themselves smiling as well at Joy’s angelic smile, at least Pinkie seems to have brought a smile to Joy’s face… but sadly nothing last forever. Suddenly Joy coughs, sending an inky black liquid to the ground, Joy wipes her mouth and notices that it came away covered in more. Her eyes widen and her pupils shrinks as more black liquid drips from her mouth.

“I… I, I can taste it again!” Joy whimpers, her voice trembling.

“Wait, what can you taste?” Pinkie asks, confused at what is happening to Joy.

More of the black liquid drips from Joy’s mouth, pooling on the floor as she looks up at Pinkie with terrified look on her face.

“It’s…. it is… I taste BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!”

Joy scream again, somehow louder than before. It shatters row after rows of lights, sending huge amount of sparks over the crowd, while it shatters glass and pops balloons, some ponies even faint this time. Pinkie wonders if even Canterlot can hear this?

But just in time, Twilight flies out of the crowd, holding Sorrow’s mask.

“JOY HERE!!!” Twilight yells, handing her mask.

Faster than lightening, Joy snatches the mask away and places it on her face. The screaming suddenly stops, leaving the world in a deafening silence, and by the time the rest of the girls return, they find the other three alone for Sorrow has disappeared.

Author's Note

Another chapter at least, hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 10 - Arise Sorrow

Two days, it has been two days since Sorrow disappeared after the disaster at the party. Ponies of course wanted answers, but the mane six kept quiet and made up a story to cover it up. It upset Applejack to have to tell lies to everypony, but the girls knew that telling them who Sorrow is will just cause a greater problem.

And Sorrow has not been seen since then, not in the house, anywhere in town or even in the forests, until on the second day of her disappearance…

“I’ve seen her!!” Applejack yells, bursting into Twilight’s palace.

“Seen who?” Twilight asks, who had seated all her friends around a table, to help her decide if they should tell Princess Celestia what happened.

“Sorrow! I was checking up on the old house and I saw her in one of the windows!” Applejack says, catching her breath, since she’d run the whole way.

“We need to get there quickly!” Twilight exclaims, standing up and rushing out of door, everyone else following her.

The girls soon reach the old house, but even after they search house they cannot find Sorrow, until…

“There she is!” Pinkie yells, pointing up to the roof where Sorrow’s sitting and looking down at her.

“You’ve found me,” Sorrow says, in her usual sad monotone.

“Sorrow we were so worried,” Rarity says, coming beside Pinkie.

“I know,” Sorrow answers, “I saw… sorry.”

“We thought you’d ran away,” Fluttershy says, also arriving.

“I did... but the master made me come back,” Sorrow says, looking beside her like someone is there….

“Your master?” Applejack says, confused, walking up to group.

“I think she means either Time, Space or Darkness,” Twilight explains, joining the group, “In the book it mention that there are three masters of the Shadowmen, Time, Space, or Darkness.”

“You're wrong...” Sorrow says, tilting her head, “There’s only one master.”

“But the book said…” Twilight tries to say, confused.

“Twilight, it’s not the time to ask these questions,” interrupts Rainbow Dash, frowning.

“I guess you're right,” Twilight says, frowning slightly as well, “Where have you been, we’ve looked everywhere for you?”

“The Shadow Realm,” Sorrow states.

“I guess that’s why we couldn’t find her,” Applejack sighs, shaking her head.

“Can you come down please?” Pinkie asks, giving a comforting smile.

“.... alright…” Sorrow says, literary walking down the wall and then standing in front of them.

Suddenly Pinkie unable to hold herself now that Sorrow’s in front of her, hugs her.

“We were so worried!” Pinkie says, squeezing Sorrow between her hooves.

“I’m really sorry for knocking off your mask!” Twilight says, joining the hug, “It was an accident.”

Soon everypony else joins the hug, surrounding Sorrow in a warm embrace. Sorrow is confused, but lets herself be embraced, enjoying their warmth on her cold body. They cannot explain when, but sometime after hanging out with Sorrow/Joy for only a short time, they’ve grown fond of her. I guess it’s hard not to hang out with somepony for a while without becoming friends, even if she is a Shadowman, but I guess she was a pony once.

“Sorry…” Sorrow finally says.

“It’s ok Sorrow, we know it’s hard for you,” Rarity says, smiling, “I know it sounds strange, but we’re here for you.”

Sorrow doesn’t know what did it, maybe it is the acts of kindness or maybe the warmth and the kind feelings, but for once, behind the mask, inside the turbulent being which is Sorrow, the remains of Joy surfaces properly.

“Thank you!” Sorrow sobs through her mask, her monotone breaking.

The six are surprised by her crying but continue to hug her, waiting for her to calm down before talking to her.

“Better?” Fluttershy asks, patting her back.

“No, it’ll never feels better…” Sorrow whimpers, shaking her head, “But I feel a lot less worse.”

“Well it’s better than nothing,” sighs Rarity, a sad smile on her face.

“Sorrow, do you think you can tell us what happened at University now?” Twilight asks, hoping that she may be ready.

Sorrow is quiet for a very long time, until...

“No, not now…” sounding like her monotone is returning.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset…” Twilight quickly tries to say, fearing that she upset her, as well as done something stupid.

“But maybe tomorrow, I feel like I’ll be ready by then,” Sorrow interrupts.

“What, Really?” Rainbow Dash says, surprised.

“Yes…” Sorrow says, breaking away from the hug, “But can I be left alone for now? I need to ready myself.”

“Ok,” Twilight says, smiling, “We understand, should we meet back here tomorrow?”

“No, I’ll meet you, tomorrow morning,” Sorrow says, tilting her head like she’s listening to something they can’t hear.

The girls start leaving, getting that Sorrow now want to be left alone. They wave goodbye to the Shadowman, who watches them until they are out of sight.

“Do you think I can do this?” Sorrow asks, this question directed at the giant black eyeless dragon, who’s looking at Sorrow from over the building. It’s surprising that the mane six didn’t notice him.

“Only you can answer this,” the dragon says, in a calm voice, “Your future is always in your own hands.”

“But I feel something bad is going to happen soon…” Sorrow says, worried.

“I would call that a gut feeling, but you have to have a gut first,” he jokes, before shaking his head, “No, the future is often a cruel place, but one people must weather, since not everyone can see it like I can.”

“What does my future look like?” Sorrow asks, curious.

“Hard, it’s always hard, but it is up to you to decide how hard it is, and nothing will be gained by running away.”

There is a silence between them, until the dragon lowers his head until it’s level with Sorrow.

“Do you have the answer to my question yet?”

“No, I still don’t know,” Sorrow says, sadder than usual.

“No need to rush, you’ll have all eternity to find out.”

And just like that, the dragon is gone, like he was never there to begin with.

“That’s what I’m scared of…”

Twilight’s Castle

Applejack paces back and forth while Rainbow Dash flies above her doing the same, waiting impatiently for Sorrow to turn up.

“How long until she shows up?” Applejack asks, looking out the window.

“It should be soon,” Twilight says, as she continues to try and translate the books, “Fascinating, did you know that Shadowmen are completely indestructible, with no known force able to destroy one?”

“So really nothing can hurt them?” Rainbow Dash asks, curious.

“Apparently the best you can do is send them back to their own realm, and this can only be done by himself or by severing a part of their body off, like a finger, arm, leg or something, and this only works on lesser Shadowmen,” Twilight explains, totally fascinated by what she’s reading.

“I can’t believe we are finally getting some answers from Joy,” Rarity says, changing the subject.

“Yes, maybe at last we’ll be finally able to solve the entire mystery,” Pinkie says, putting on detective hat and putting her pipe into her mouth, before blowing bubbles, “Also it means that Joy actually trusts us now, maybe she even sees us as friends?”

“We can hope,” Fluttershy says, hopefully.

“I’m just glad everything worked out after the disaster at the party…” Spike tries to say, but instead belches and a letter comes out.

“Oh a letter from Celestia,” Twilight says, picking it up and reading it. Her eyes widen, “Oh sweet Celestia, this is very bad!”

“What’s wrong?” asks Spike, as he and everypony reads over Twilight’s shoulder.

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
I wish I was writing about more pleasant tidings, but a emergency has a occurred in Canterlot. A reporter has broken into the ward where Flickering Shadows is being treated…

“Flickering Shadows? Ain’t she the survivor from the University?” Applejack asks, confused.

“Yes, the only survivor,” Twilight answers, before they returning to the letter.

... They managed to get information off her about the incident, while further traumatizing her and damaging her treatment. As if this wasn’t enough, an unknown member of homicide leaked all the information from the case, including everything you’ve told them about Sorrow and Joy…

“I bet it was the horrible officer, Jack Ripper,” Rarity huffs, glaring at the letter.

“We don’t know that, Rarity,” Fluttershy says, frowning.

... They released the all the information in the morning paper, all across Equestria. Everypony now knows about what happened at the massacre, and about Sorrow. Luna and I are right now trying to deal with the political fallout, while the Guards and Homicide are trying to find the reporter and the leak. You should be prepared and also, keep Sorrow hidden. We don’t want Ponyville to panic. If you haven’t read the newspaper, I suggest you do.
Celestia

Twilight places down the letter, before turning to her friends, “Have any of you girls read the newspaper?” Twilight asks, panicking.

“I didn’t, I rushed over here as soon as I got up,” Rainbow Dash says, worried as well by what she’d read.

“I didn’t too,” Applejack says, her eyes wide, “I wanted to know as soon as possible what happened.”

The rest of girls nod, agreeing that this was the case for them as well.

“Spike, get our newspaper,” Twilight orders hurriedly. Spike nods and hurries off, quickly returning with the paper.

Twilight grabs it and holds it out. Everypony gasps, since on the front cover is a sketch of Sorrow’s mask, next to is a picture of her mask drawn in blood at the university. Above it all is the title, ‘The Secrets behind Starswirl the Bearded University, Revealed!’, with smaller titles like, ‘Mass Murder found but allowed to walk free?!’, and ‘Murder is missing girl from Unicorn Range!’, as well as ‘Dark Rituals at the University!’, and finally, ‘Murder is roaming free in Ponyville!!’

The text underneath them are somehow worse, blaming the Princesses for keeping all this covered up, giving up personal information about Joy, worst is that most of this seems to be just speculation. The reporter just making up the parts that the mane six and homicide haven’t worked out yet, as well as just making entire parts that they had worked out, with him making out Joy and Sorrow to be total monsters, even stating that she could be worst than Trek.

“This is madness!” Twilight says, looking over it. The story spans multiple pages.

“Ponies are going to lose their heads over this,” Applejack states, frowning.

“It isn’t fair either, Joy isn’t a monster! She’s just a victim like everypony else,” Pinkie says, sadly.

“Celestia, how many ponies in Ponyville do you think has read this?” Rainbow Dash asks, staring through the paper.

“I don’t know many ponies who doesn’t read it,” Applejack says, shaking her head, “And those who don’t will get it by word of mouth.”

“Oh no!” Fluttershy says, covering her mouth in shock.

“What’s wrong Flutters?” Rainbow Dash says, looking at the shocked pony.

“Sorrow is going to be coming here soon, what if ponies see her?!” Fluttershy says, starting panic.

Everyponies eyes widen, she’s right.

“We got to find her now!” Twilight says, throwing the newspaper away and rushing to the door.

“I’ll fly to the house, to see if she hasn’t left and hopefully stop her,” Rainbow Dash says, zooming out of the door and towards where Sorrow stays.

“Come on! We got to stop Sorrow from coming to town!” Twilight yells, as they all leave the house as well, splitting up to look for Sorrow.

Sorrow walks through town, as she usually does, with her head hung low and her steps short, but if somepony who knew her well would also say that she walking with a purpose, of course that list of ponies would probably only include Pinkie… oh and of course her master, but he knows everyone very well…

Sorrow thinks she sees Rainbow Dash fly overhead, but she doesn’t see Sorrow back. Sorrow seems to have skill of being unnoticed that’ll make Fluttershy jealous, but today it doesn’t seem to be working that well. Ponies keep staring at her making her want to run away, but she can’t, she said today that she’ll will tell them what happened at the university…

She’s so deep in thought that she doesn’t see the group of ponies form in front of her, and nearly runs into them, they're staring at her harshly.

“Excuse me…” Sorrow says, trying to walk around them, only to find a group of ponies there.

She tries to back back the way she came, only to find another group blocking her way.

“Ummm, can I pass?” Sorrow asks, looking around at the large crowd that has gathered around her.

“Not until you explain this Sorrow,” says a light greyish amber pony, holding up a newspaper, “Or should we call you Joy?”

If Sorrow was capable of gasping she would, in life Joy was a fast reader making Sorrow one too, so she quickly reads through the titles and everything else before suddenly backing off nervously down her only route of escape, an alleyway.

“But… but… how?” Sorrow whimpers, scared.

“The truth is out Joy, and we want answers!” says a dark grey pony, as the closes in on Sorrow as she walks down the alley.

“NO! Go away!! Stop calling me Joy!!” Sorrow cries, soon realizing that this alley way is a dead end. She could just normally just smash through or jump over it, but she feels too overwhelmed by everything to even think about it.

“We want answers!” says a light green elderly pony, “Since Applejack and her friends are telling us squat!”

“Eeyup!” agrees a big red pony.

“NO!!! Leave me alone!!” screams Sorrow, curling up into the ball, trying to block out the noise.

But the ponies ignore her pleas, crowding around her and demanded answers, while Sorrow shakes and whimpers the remains of Joy retreating deep within herself, but instead of leaving herself empty something else raises…

Black starts spreading over Sorrow’s mask…

The mane six met in town square, which is surprisingly empty.

“Did you find her?” Twilight asks, slightly out of breath.

“No, she wasn’t at the house,” Rainbow Dash says, shaking her head sadly.

“Where could she be?” Pinkie asks, nervously.

“What if she saw the newspaper and ran away again?” Rarity says, worried.

“I wouldn’t blame her if she did…” Applejack states, sighing.

“We are going to get a lot of trouble about this aren’t we?” Fluttershy says, sadly.

But before anypony can answer Fluttershy, Spike final arrives, running towards them totally out of breath.

“I think *pant*I *pant*found her…” Spike pants, leaning against the fountain, “There’s a large group of ponies in alley down that street…” he points down the street he came, “You can’t miss it, I think Sorrow is in the middle of it…”

“We better hurry!” Twilight says, dashing off while her friends following her.

“Thanks Spike,” Fluttershy says, when she passes the pooped dragon.

“Your welcome…” pants Spike, slumping on the ground, “I’ll catch up with you girls later…

“I hope we are not too late to stop something terrible…” Twilight says, as they rush to help Sorrow.

They find the crowd quite quickly, gathered into the alley like sardines all crying out questions.

“We got to break it up!” Twilight yells, taking off, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy following her.

They fly over the crowd, quickly spotting Sorrow curled up into a ball against the alley’s wall while the crowd surround her. Three quickly fly down and land in between Sorrow and the crowd, surprising them and making them back off slightly.

“What’s going on here!?” Twilight says, in her best princess voice.

“That’s what we want to know,” Mayor Mare says, still holding out the newspaper.

The rest of Twilight’s friend push their way through the crowd except for Pinkie who hops across their heads. Pinkie quickly comes to Sorrow side.

“Are you ok?!” Pinkie asks her, but she gets no answer as she lays dead still. “She’s gone…” Pinkie says, sadly.

“Look what you’ve done!” Rainbow Dash says, angrily, “We were finally going to find out what happened at the university and you ruined it!!”

“Not to mentioned upset her to the point that she won’t talk anymore!” Applejack adds, angrily.

“Upset her?! What about us! You’ve been lying to us!” yells Thunderlane, angry as well, “We’ve had a mass murder wandering around us without us been able to know!!”

“It’s not like that!” Twilight says, defensively.

“Are you saying what’s in the newspaper is an lie?” Mayor Mare asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I won’t say that…” Twilight says, awkwardly, “But it’s not all true either!”

“Anyway if you all think she’s a mass murder, why have you all crowded into alley with her?” Rarity asks, frowning.

“Hmmm, I never thought about that…” Granny Smith says, rubbing her chin.

“Eeyup,” Big Mac agreees, slightly nervous.

Twilight once heard the theory that a mob’s intelligence is based on the dumbest member divided by the number of mobsters, and since she thinks she saw Snips and Snail in there and there’s also a lot of ponies here, so that would be pretty dumb…

“We want answers Twilight!” Mayor Mare says, stamping her hoof.

“I understand, but right now is not a good time…” Twilight tries to say.

“We want answers now!” somepony yells, over the crowd.

“You kept us in the dark for far too long!” somepony else yells.

More ponies start yelling demands, wanting to know things and overwhelming Twilight and her friends, until strangely Fluttershy speaks up.

“You should all be ashamed of yourselves!” Fluttershy says loudly, in her telling off voice, her soft voice somehow cutting through the other ponies yelling, “You’re all been very cruel and mean to Sorrow!”

“Yeah,” Pinkie chimes in, frowning as well, “She is just as much a victim as everypony else!”

The crowd backs off slightly again, getting told off by Pinkie and Fluttershy is nothing to laugh about or enjoying.

“But… but… the newspaper said…” somepony tries to say.

“The newspaper is wrong!” Fluttershy says, still frowning, stepping forward with backing off crowd, “It made Sorrow out to be a monster, but she’s not, she’s just a scared and confused pony!”

“Look at her! Does she look like a monster?” Pinkie says, pointing at the curled up Sorrow, her face saddening like she is about to cry, “She’s suffering so much… she feels so guilty about what happened and she doesn’t need ponies blaming her, she already feels bad enough.”

The unseen blackness around Sorrow’s mask seems to recede...

The mob of ponies seem to have calmed down, acting like a pack of dogs that were told off... but this is all ruined when somepony yells out…

“But she still killed ponies!!”

And acting like a mob should, starts yelling again, basically forgetting what Fluttershy and Pinkie said, pressing against the mane six, demanding answers…

The unseen blackness around Sorrow’s mask finishes spreading, it’s blue paint eyes flaring to life in a deep blue glow. Sorrow starts to stand up…

“Sorrow you’re back,” Pinkie says, happily while her friends do they best to hold back the crowd.

“I’m always here…” Sorrow says, in different but still familiar voice, causing Pinkie’s eyes to widen.

“You’re not Joy…” Pinkie says, realizing who this is.

Pinkie backs off, bumping into her friends.

“What’s wrong… Oh Celestia!” Twilight says, turning around and gasping in horror.

Black tentacles have spouted out of Sorrow’s back, and are waving menacingly above her as she stares deep on at the crowd with glowing blue eyes.

“All of you be SILENT!!!” Sorrow suddenly screams, silencing the crowd instantly with fright.

All eyes are on Sorrow as she begins to change, her clothes melting into her body as her torso and limbs extend, her hooves becoming clawed hands and feet before she suddenly stand up on her hind leg, making her tower over them like a giant, with her massively long and thin limbs, and her two hands with very long claw like fingers, her oval like head with Sorrow’s simple mask design on it continuing to stare dead at them, while her many black tentacles wave behind her.

Any of the girls could guess what they are now seeing, and one of them knows.

This is the real Sorrow!!

Author's Note

And another chapter!
Like and Fav!

Chapter 11 - Two Sides of a Coin

“Stop you whimpering cries and be quiet!!” Sorrow screams, her voice carrying across maybe the entire town, sounding sad but it makes you think she’s angry.

No pony makes a sound, all staring horrified at the large figure. Ponies start backing off quickly, leaving the alley as quickly as possible, and the mane six is no exception. No pony wants to be near the terrifying figure. Sorrow face while looking sad, actually make you think she’s angry, since while her sad mouth is static, there’s movement in the sad upturned eyes and that tear drop, as they thin and turn slightly making the illusion that she’s scowling.

“You cry, you whine!” Sorrow yells, stepping slowly after them, “You make so much noise!!”

Sorrow suddenly falls to her hands and knees, seeming to transform again, but not back into the more welcome form of Joy, but of a huge wolf, if you would take away all the warmth and familiarity from a wolf and replace it with fear and death. It has no eyes and her teeth look sharper than razors, instead of fur it just has sharp spikes, while multiple tentacles thrash around above it. It lets out a low and terrifying growl before walking towards the crowd of ponies.

Ponies are simple and non violent creatures, and when faced with a problem or threat they cannot deal with, they panic…

Like chicken with their heads cut off, ponies start to run around, screaming their heads off and making a huge racket. The only ones staying still and quiet are the mane six.

“What should we do Twilight!?!” Rarity asks, fearfully watching the steadily approaching Sorrow.

“I don’t know!!” Twilight says, doing the same.

“We can’t fight it can we?!” Rainbow Dash asks, trying to act brave in the face of fear.

“Look what happened to last people who tried, we don’t stand a chance!!” Applejack states, scared but standing her ground.

Pinkie is mentally panicking, will Sorrow hurt anypony? This does not feel like the Sorrow she met before, where’s the strange kindness and wish to help Joy…

“Tell everyone to be quiet and stay still if you wish to calm down Sorrow...”

“Huh?” Pinkie says, looking around for the voice.

“Tell everyone to be quiet and to stay still, it is your only option...”

‘Who is that?’ Pinkie thinks, unable to locate the source of the voice.

“Pinkie do you any idea what to do?!” Twilight asks Pinkie, breaking her out of her thoughts, only to see that Sorrow is mere metres away.

“Tell everypony to be quiet and to stop moving!!” Pinkie says, deciding to follow the strange voice’s directions, “We all have to be absolutely quiet and not to move a inch!!”

Pinkie’s friends are confused but decide to follow her instruction.

“OK EVERYPONY!! Be still and be quiet!” yells Twilight, causing everypony to stop like statues and to stop screaming. The ponies look confused but stay still, unsure why they are doing this. The mane six also stay still, Rainbow Dash even landing on the ground to stop her wings flapping.

Sorrow halts in her movement, like the sudden stillness and quiet confuses her. But then she starts moving again, heading straight for Pinkie. Pinkie watches fearfully as Sorrow walks right in front of her, her fangs a bare inch from her face.

“Clever…” Sorrow hisses.

Suddenly Sorrow shifts, returning to her true form, the towering black figure.

“How did you know Shadow Men hate noise and are attracted to movement?” Sorrow asks, talking in a sad monotone.

“It just came to me…” Pinkie says, weakly.

Pinkie feels like anypony would crumble if faced with Sorrow, the sadness that Pinkie feels from her is overwhelming, and it’s like being surrounded by a whole entire city of sad and depressed ponies and animals. It’s overwhelming for the usually cheerful pony.

“Liar,” Sorrow simply says, her eyes narrowing, “You were helped…”

“Pinkie can we move now?” Rainbow Dash interrupts, shifting slightly.

Sorrow makes a terrifying hissing noise that makes Rainbow Dash flinch.

“Sorrow please, can everypony go?” Pinkie asks, slightly scared of Sorrow might do, “They’ll promise to do it quietly, so can you let them live?”

Sorrow stays very still, but everypony feels like she is somehow looking over them all, judging their worth and holding their lives in her clawed hands.

“Leave, now!” Sorrow hisses, flexing her claws.

Everypony pony, beside the mane six, leave as quickly and quietly as possible, disappearing down streets and into houses where they close their curtains.

“Sorrow would you have killed anypony?” Pinkie asks, softly.

“No,” Sorrow answers instantly.

“You weren’t?” Applejack says, surprised, “But you looked like you were about to!”

“If I wanted to kill you all, I wouldn’t of given you the chance to run away,” Sorrow says, ominously, “No, I was just trying to scare you all away from us, to protect Joy.”

“To protect Joy?” Twilight asks, confused.

“Joy’s remains and I are one, I feel want she feels, and whenever I feel her become sad I feel desire to protect her,” Sorrow explains, holding a hand to where her heart would be, if she had one.

“But we were sure you’d kill ponies, like at the university,” Rarity says, confused as well.

“That was…” Sorrow starts to say but stops, she seems to think for a while for answering, “An unfortunate accident.”

“An unfortunate accident!?” Applejack yells, shocked and horrified, “Tons of ponies died at your hands, and it’s just an unfortunate accident!!”

Sorrow turns to stare at Applejack, making her flinch back.

“If I say it was an unfortunate accident, then it was an unfortunate accident,” Sorrow hisses, her eyes and tear narrowing.

“Sorrow, can you please explain to us how it’s an unfortunate accident?” Twilight asks, as friendly as possible.

“Why? What would I gain by telling you mortals anyway?” Sorrow hisses, clicking her claws together.

“Because…” Twilight says, trying to think of a reason, but surprisingly Fluttershy speaks up.

“Because we’ll understand you and Joy better,” Fluttershy says, trying to be brave.

Sorrow seems to ponder this before saying, “Do you know what it is like to be sentient?”

“Huh, well of course, I mean we are sentient,” Twilight says, confused.

“But what if you weren’t and suddenly became sentient, suddenly you were aware of things that were not necessary to you before?” Sorrow continues to ask.

“I… I would have to no idea, I guess it’ll be very confusing,” Twilight says, even more confused, “Are you saying that you were…?”

“Shadow Men are not sentient, we exist to wander the Shadow Realm for all eternity, or until we are absorbed, to just follower after creature’s shadows that are being cast into the our realm, taking away the negative emotions that burden their souls,” Sorrow explains, looking upward to the sky.

Sorrow walks passed the girls, and places her hand onto a tree.

“I was the same, I had a name but I wasn’t sentient, until that night at the university, when Joy’s sentient became mine as well. I thought I was going insane!” Sorrow hisses, her claws digging into the tree, “I was suddenly aware of thoughts and feeling Shadow Men aren’t supposed to have, and the only thing that remained clear in my new mind was my mission, to avenge Joy and her family!! In this blind rage, the ponies that needed to be punish escaped and I took out my confusion and fury on anyone in my way… that included innocent ponies!”

“Are you saying you had no control over yourself at the time?” Pinkie asks, trying to make sense of Sorrow.

“Yes, my actions were not my own,” Sorrow states, angrily, “I was like a baby at the time, unable to control myself or able to define right or wrong! If you wish for someone to blame, blame those who did the ritual!”

“Are you saying you won’t kill ponies?” Twilight asks, hopeful.

“I would not kill ponies who have nothing to do with my mission, and have doing nothing worst than bully Joy, I’ll scare them maybe at worst,” Sorrow states, before saying ominously, “But if they are responsible for what happened at the university, then I’ll kill them!”

“But why? Violence only begets more violence!” Rarity says, unhappily.

“But death is a very sudden end,” Sorrow counters, hissing, shutting Rarity up with her own cold logic.

“Wait, you said before that the ponies responsible escaped,” Twilight asks, curious, “Who were they?”

“I cannot tell you,” Sorrow states.

“Why not?!” Twilight whines, always tired of questions not being answered.

“Because only Joy can tell you, they are her memories, not mine,” Sorrow answers.

This surprises the girl, Sorrow has a point, they are Joy’s memories and no other creature, and even if they are sharing a body, she shouldn’t tell others them with Joy’s permission.

“Also…” Sorrow says, leaning over while her eyes and tear narrow, “I wouldn’t tell you even if I could.”

“What, why?” Twilight asks, suddenly confused by this.

“Since you’ll try and stop me from killing them,” Sorrow hisses, her eyes narrowing further, “They’ll die, I promised Joy I would kill them… and I’ll kill you if you get in my way, since you’ll become my enemies, and we both wouldn’t want that, would we?”

The girls shiver at that threat, they could tell she would too.

“Stay out of my way,” Sorrow warns, walking away, “Help Joy all you want, but keep out of my way!”

Sorrow disappears, like she was never there, leaving the girls to look confused and scared at each other. They’ve now heard Sorrow’s side of the story, they just need to hear Joy’s.

Catalyst sits behind his new desk, looking over papers until his two right hoof ponies walk in.

“Ah, Surgical Edge and Evening Brush,” Catalyst says, greeting them.

Surgical Edge is the most insane pony Catalyst has ever had the displeasure to meet or work with, originally a successful and famous surgeon until something drove him off the deep end and now has a obsession with understanding things, he loves to dissect things usually while they are still alive, so he can find out how they work. He also likes trying out strange and often horrible medicine on sick ponies, that often result in a painful and horrible death. He’s on Equestria’s most wanted list for a reason. But he’s useful for many things, he’s very good at getting rid of ponies and keeping the disciples in line, and payment he wanted was simple, he wants to dissect all of the alicorns in Equestria, a simple but gruesome price.

Evening Brush is totally sane, but a coward. He was originally a teacher in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorn, as a art teacher, but felt he was missing something in his life, he thought he found it in Catalyst’s work. It was easy to convince him to join up, and the only reason he’s not a disciple is that he was very good at getting ponies to join their cause, he has a strange charisma with the garbage of society and is able to get them to do things, which properly made him a great teacher with delinquent. Although now he seem to have started to have doubts about everything, and properly wants out. Catalyst will have to get rid of him later after his uses run out, but for now he lives.

“Have you dealt with the reporter?” Catalyst asks Surgical Edge, putting down his papers.

“Yes, soon he’ll have a very tragic accident,” Surgical Edge giggles, showing once again how insane he is.

“Do we really have to kill him, I mean he did help us,” Evening Brush says, unhappy at the thought of another pony dying.

“Are you doubting me Evening?” Catalyst asks, glaring at him.

“No, I am just saying.. ahhh…” Evening Brush babbles, scared.

“We can’t have him telling the Guards who our informant is in Homicide, so he must die before the Guards find him,” Catalyst sighs, looking over a paper.

“Why the newspaper thing anyway?” Surgical Edge asks, not at all scared by Catalyst, “It seems like a lot of bother and also it just tells the world what are weapon is.”

“The binding ritual didn’t work, so we have to find another way to bind her,” Catalyst says, smiling slightly, “Shadow Men are emotion driven creatures, so we need emotional attachments to control it. Once we control its emotions, we control it.”

“But how does this do it?” Surgical Edge asks, curious.

“We’ll have to find out, won’t we,” Catalytic smirks, looking back his paper, “You are dismissed.”

Seeing that they are no longer wanted the two leave.

‘I gotta get out of this mess!’ Evening Brush thinks, scared, ‘This is all going to far. Either we win and lot of ponies die, or we lose and we all die. I don’t want to be responsible for more innocent deaths.’

Evening Brush is still terrified, and feels very guilty, by what happened at the university, if wasn’t for the fact that Catalyst planned for it, they could've died like the disciples and all the other ponies there. Evening Brush never wanted any pony to die but he was naive to think that Catalyst wouldn't though, now he’s stuck with no way out...

Suddenly a blade is forced against his neck.

“What treacherous thoughts are going through your head Evening?” comes the scarily familiar voice of Surgical Edge.

“Oh Celestia, nothing I swear!” Evening Brush whimpers, terrified of the blade that the insane surgeon is wielding.

“Lair, I know you want to jump ship, and it won’t be long until Catalyst asks me to get rid of you,” Surgical Edge says, happily, “But I got a favor to ask, and if you do this, well, when I get the order I’ll let you get away from me, isn’t that better than dying?”

“What do you want me to do?” Evening Brush whimpers, accepting his fate.

“You see, Catalyst always talks about this Shadow Men like it’s the most unstoppable force in the universe,” Surgical Edge says, removing the blade from Evening Brush’s neck, “I want to see how strong it is!”

“But it killed the entire university, isn’t that proof enough,” Evening Brush asks, confused.

“Bah, anypony can kill a pony, I want to see it kill something greater!” Surgical Edge whispers, happily grinning like, well, like a insane pony.

“Like a dragon?” Evening Brush asks, nervously.

“Bah, I’ve killed dragons before, it’s not that hard,” Surgical Edge dismisses, shaking his head, “I got a much more dangerous creature!” he places a hoof over Evening Brush shoulder, “And you are going to help, since we are really friends aren’t we, and friends help each other, right?”

“Yeah, sure,” Evening Brush says, scared out of his wits.

“Good, now come with me,” Surgical Edge says, grinning like a mad thing and leading Evening Brush away.

Author's Note

Oh, something is happening! What is going to befall Ponyville?!
Also like and comment if enjoyed.... plz :fluttercry:

Chapter 12 - Dark Storms Begin

Evening Brush and Surgical Edge walk through a distant forest, one eagerly, one reluctantly.

“Hey Evening!” Surgical Edge says cheerfully, scaring Evening Brush.

“Yes?” Evening Brush says, nervously.

“Guess what we are getting,” Surgical Edge says, grinning creepily.

“I would rather not,” Evening Brush says, trying to avoid looking at Surgical Edge’s face.

“I insist,” Surgical Edge says, still grinning.

“I have no idea…” Suddenly a surgeon's scalpel imbeds itself into the tree right in front of Evening Brush’s face, nearly scaring him to death.

“I said, I insist!” Surgical Edge says, grin widening.

“Ummm…” Evening Brush says, panicking, “A Ursa Major?!”

“Nah, it’s very hard to rile up a Major,” Surgical Edge says, shaking his head, “Not to mention, they’re probably very hard to direct. Pass me back my scalpel.”

Evening Brush quickly hands back the scalpel to Surgical Edge, who hides it on his pony.

“Keep guessing,” Surgical Edge says, walking off again.

“Ummm, a manticore?” Evening Brush says, following after.

“Nope, you’re very far off,” Surgical Edge says, grinning insanely.

Evening Brush is starting to fear that if he continues to guess wrong he’ll be killed, but luckily before he can, Surgical Edge stops.

“Here we are,” he states, standing in front of a large cave.

Evening Brush looks at it, it seems a pretty normal cave, like the many that dot the landscape of Equestria.

“Ever did much history Evening?” Surgical Edge asks, a strange look on his face.

“Well the basics, you know wendigos, Discord, Nightmare Moon, and such,” Evening Brush runs off, wondering where he’s going with this.

“I once tried a bit of archeology once, was hired by someone to be a guard for him,” Surgical Edge says, seeming to ignore him, “Nearly got to slice up a charming young Archeologist named Daring Do, but sadly she got away, rather disappointing actually.”

Evening Brush just chooses to ignore what he said, probably just mad delusions.

“But anyway, history, I majored in it but my true calling was in the art of surgery,” Surgical Edge says, a nostalgic look on his face, “But thanks to it, I know of a creature that the royal sisters locked up here over a thousand years ago.”

“Really, but wouldn’t it be very well guarded?” Evening Brush says, confused.

“Over a thousand years ago, most of the magic that held it has probably weaken, and we can break it,” Surgical Edge says, giving Evening Brush a smirk, “I mean, you can.”

“Me?!” Evening Brush says, shocked.

“Yeah, you’re much better at magic than me, you can easily break it in its current state,” Surgical Edge states, smirking,

“But what are we releasing?” Evening Brush asks, worried.

“A cyclops, a male cyclops sorcerer to be correct,” Surgical Brush says, finally walking into the cave.

Evening Brush knows of the cyclopes, they’re a race of giant mountain people who live in a faraway land, he also knows that the males of the species are insanely stupid, and even the females, who are much smarter than males, are still dumber than a average pony. The idea of one being able to use magic sounds absurd.

“Cyclopes can use magic?” Evening Brush asks, wondering if he missing some information about cyclopes, while following after him.

“He can, they said he came from a faraway land to raid the rich land of Equestria, killing thousands until, since they were unable to beat him, the royal sisters managed to seal him away here,” Surgical Edge explains, cutting through some cobwebs.

“And we are just going to release him?!” Evening Brush says, horrified.

“Yep, and we’re going to direct him straight to Ponyville, we’ll see how little Sorrow holds up against a total beast,” Surgical Edge says, giggling.

They reach a door at the end of the cave, held by shut magical chains, while the door itself seems to be covered in ice. Evening Brush can easily see that the magic chains are weakened, and could be easily destroyed if you knew how the magic in them worked well enough, while the ice seems to be a byproduct of the chains.

“Let’s get to a better position,” Surgical Edge says, leading Evening Brush up onto a platform overlooking the door, “Good now break those chains, I’ll deal with the rest.”

“But what if ponies get killed?” Evening Brush says, worried.

“Who cares, just do it,” Surgical Edge says, making it clear he doesn’t care.

“But…” Evening Brush tries to say.

“Look at it like this,” Surgical Edge interrupts, pulling out a blade, “Either they die or you die, like right now!”

Evening Brush glups, weighing his own life with the possible others that might die if he releases it. A hero would refuse and face against the real monster that is Surgical Edge, but Evening Brush is a coward…

‘Sorry…’ Evening Brush thinks, shooting the chains with a bolt of magic, making them shatter and the ice melt away.

Nothing happens, the room is deadly silent. Evening Brush hopes that maybe the cyclop is dead behind the door, but…

Suddenly there's a crashing noise and the door buckles, soon after few more the door falls down, and a huge figure steps out. The cyclop is about three times as big as a minotaur, with muscles that’ll put one to shame. He then seems to yell trumpetitly and thump his chest.

“GOLIATH IS FREE!!!” he yells, causing the cave to shake slightly, “PUNY PONIES CANNOT HOLD THE GREAT GOLIATH!!!”

He then seems to notice Evening Brush and Surgical Edge.

“Me see puny ponies…” Goliath says, raising his fist, “ME CRUSH PUNY PONIES!!”

Evening Brush flinches back, but Surgical Edge stays still and just smiles.

“Wait, I bring news that there is someone that is claiming to be greater than you,” Surgical Edge says, calmly and for once not sounding insane.

“WHAT!?!” Goliath yells, her voice shaking the cave once again, “NO ONE IS GREATER THAN GOLIATH!!! ME WILL CRUSH THEM!!!” he suddenly points at Surgical Edge, “YOU TELL ME WHERE ME CAN FIND THEM!!”

“Well her name is Sorrow, and she’s in Ponyville right now,” Surgical Edge explains, calmly.

“ME GO TO PONYVILLE AND SMASH HER AND PUNY PLACE!!!” Goliath says, angrily, storming out of the cave.

“Good thing that cyclopes are very arrogant and simple creatures,” Surgical Edge says, smirking.

But suddenly Goliath returns and points a finger at Surgical Edge.

“YOU!!” he yells.

“Umm yes?” Surgical Edge says, for once nervous.

“Tell me where to find this Ponyville,” Goliath says, for once not yelling.

“I have a map…” Surgical Edge says, smirking again.

The mane six sit upon a train to Canterlot, unaware of the threat now facing Ponyville.

“Put away your Daring Do book Dash, we’re almost there,” warns Twilight, seeing that they’re pulling in to Canterlot.

“Damn, I was just at the part when Daring Do is about to escape from the Mad Surgeon,” Rainbow Dash says, putting away the book.

“I don’t like that one much,” Rarity says, shaking her head, “The Mad Surgeon is a terrifying character.”

“It’s even worst if you consider that he must exist as well,” Applejack states, a worried expression on her face.

They go quiet after that, no one wants to think that such ponies do exist as they climb out of the train once it has pulled into the station. They met Captain Iron-Sight, waiting for them on the platform.

“Princess, once again, it’s a honor that you’ve came all this way to talk to me,” he says, bowing, “I’m sorry I don’t have better news for you.”

The girls came to Canterlot, not to sightsee or to see Celestia, but because Iron-Sight wanted to see them about the newspaper.

“So what is the matter, did you find the reporter?” Twilight asks, referring to the reporter that published the newspaper article about Sorrow and Joy.

“Sadly yes,” Iron-Sight says, shaking his head.

“Sadly?” Twilight asks, confused.

“He… he had a accident,” Iron-Sight says, sighing.

“What happened?!” Twilight asks, getting a sinking feeling in her guts, “Was it Sorrow?!”

They haven’t met Sorrow since meeting the Shadow Man, which is worrisome.

“No, this…” Iron-Sight tries to say.

“Let’s just cut to the chase Captain,” says the unwanted voice of Corporal Jack Ripper, appearing similarly out of nowhere, “He was hit by a runaway carriage, luckily, or depending how look at it, unluckily for him, it killed him instantly.”

“How’s that lucky?!” Rarity says, horrified.

“Cause it could've been long and painful,” Jack says, smirking, “And if you think this is all very suspicious, then it’s about to become even more so, the carriage was actually stolen a few days beforehand under the cover of darkness.”

“That does sound very suspicious,” Twilight agrees, nodding her head.

“We think so too,” Iron-Sight says, glaring at Jack who just grins back, before gesturing for the girls to follow him.

“So how did it happen?” Twilight asks, following beside Iron-Sight.

“He was hit by the carriage and he died, the end,” Jack says, laughing at his own morbid joke.

“Can it Jack!” Iron-Sight says, wearing the same unimpressed look as the rest of the girls have on their faces.

“What? Just trying to lighten the whole mood with a little joke,” Jack says, grinning like a maniac.

Iron-Sight just shakes his head before replying to Twilight’s question, “His name was Lightning Quill, he is… he was one of those reporters that liked to cause a stir, and it wasn’t hard to track the newspaper article down to him, we just had to ask his editor.” He takes a deep breath before continuing, “His neighbors reporting him leaving his house at 6am, which was strange for them, since he often only woke up in the afternoon, so seeing him up this early was unusual, he also looked worried, like he was scared of something, and as soon as he entered the street the carriage came zooming down the empty street, hitting him dead on.”

“It sounds like it was all set up,” Rarity states, a lover of mystery novels.

“Yeah, what I think happened,” Jack says, remarkable serious, “is that he was getting nervous, since he finally thought that he was now way over his head, and thought that he’ll actually get in serious trouble for this. He also must of thought that his life was in danger, so he left home early, hopefully to lose ponies that may be watching him, and was probably heading to the Guards for protection, since his widow said he was going to turn himself in the previous night. The pony who killed him must’ve been his informant in Homicide, who didn’t want his name leaked.”

“Horrible!” Applejack says, shaking her head sadly, “Was there anything at his house that pointed to the murder?”

“If there was we’ll never know,” Iron-SIght sighs, “Since it was suddenly burned down soon after he died. Luckily his wife and daughter weren’t in at the time, so they were spared.”

“It was a tragic but pretty sight, seeing his dead body illuminated by the sight of his burning house,” Jack says, turning to his usual bastard self, “Wish I took a picture.”

“Jack and Officer Fawkes were first on the scene,” Iron-Sight says, ignoring Jack, “Even before the Guards or the Fireponies arrived.”

“Funny that, I was just walking along the streets, touching up the streets graffiti with proper spelling, when I saw smoke,” Jack says, smiling, “I remember thinking to myself, somepony is burning down a house, and I then regretted that I hadn’t got any marshmallows. So I investigated it and I met Fawkes there later.”

“That sounds suspicious,” Rainbow Dash says, glaring at him.

“Are suspecting me?” Jack says, with mock offence.

“If the boot fits,” Rainbow Dash continues.

“Knock that off,” Iron-Sight says, glaring at them, “Since you haven’t got proof then don’t go accusing ponies.”

“Sorry,” Rainbow Dash says, frowning.

“It’s fine,” Iron-Sight says, sighing, “He is remarkably easy to blame for things.”

“Look here we are,” Jack says, giving a wave to the Officer there, who just glares back at him. It’s Officer Fawkes.

“Who’s Officer Fawkes again?” Applejack asks, now that there is a gap for her to speak in.

“He’s the other officer that came to Ponyville for the forest murders,” Rarity explains, “Quite the gentlestallion I thought.”

Jack Ripper seems to snort at that, but doesn’t say anything as Applejack and Rarity glare at him.

“Anything to report Officer?” Iron-Sight asks Fawkes, making him stand to attention.

“No sir,” he says, saluting, “Nothing to report.”

“I see,” Iron-Sight says, sighing again.

“He was probably staring at some of the nice flanks around here, I mean there’s plenty at the moment,” Jack laughs, once again having fun at somepony else's expense.

But unlike last time, when Fawkes went red with embarrassment, he went red with anger.

“Jack I don’t need any more crap from you today,” Fawkes says, with clinched teeth, since he was annoyed unmercifully by Jack before the rest of the guards arrived.

“That’s Corporal to you junior,” Jack says, smirking, walking right up to Fawkes face, “But at least this proves you have balls, you coward!”

Something snapped in Fawkes, and he suddenly punched Jack right across the face, making him stagger. Jack rubs his face, and seeing the blood, smirks, before smacking Fawkes right back, sending flying backwards. They all watch the two homicide officers fight, too shocked to do anything. But nopony notices as they fight, something falls onto the ground and get knocked away.

Eventually Iron-Sight steps forward and yells, “Cut it out, now!!”

Surprisingly it’s Jack who stops first, leaping backwards and letting Fawkes punch swing into mid air, making him fall over.

“This is no place to fight, in front a place where somepony died,” Iron-Sight lectures, glaring at them, “Officer Fawkes, you can go home and cool your head, Jack, you can take over his watch.”

“Yes dad,” Jack says, throwing a mock salute, while looking only slightly roughed up.

“Yes sir,” Officer Fawkes says, looking a lot worst than Jack is, picking up his stuff and walking past the girls.

“It must be hard to work with Jack,” Applejack says to him as he passes, “I can see how you can lose your cool.”

“Tell me about it,” Fawkes sighs, stopping beside the girls and massaging his jaw.

“Why did you join Homicide in the first place?” Pinkie asks, curious.

“Mostly cause the pay is better than the Guards,” Fawkes says, sighing, “Although Jack is worse here than he was when I was in the Guard.”

“You were in the Guard?” Twilight asks, surprised.

“Yeah, and Jack is just as troublesome to the Guards as he is to Homicide,” Fawkes spits, looking angry, “Always making our lives harder than it needs to be.

“It must sucks,” Rainbow Dash notes, looking sympathetic.

“Yeah, I was just glad I didn’t arrive at the scene first, cause I probably would of have lost it sooner if I was with him the whole time,” Fawkes says, shaking his head.

“Jack was here first?” Rarity asks, tilting her head.

“Yeah, way before me, strange since he must of been nearby when it happened,” Fawkes says, shaking his head before walking off, “Goodbye.”

“Bye,” Pinkie says, waving him off.

The girls turn back to the house, and see Jack and Iron-Sight having a conversation.

“What are you talking about?” Pinkie asks, curious.

“Nothing much, Jack seems to have lost something,” Iron-Sight says, sighing.

“Was it important?” Twilight asks, tilting her head.

“Dunno, maybe,” Jack says, looking actually rather confused.

“What?” Applejack says, also confused at Jack answer, “Is it important or not, it’s a simple question.”

“No question is ever simple,” Jack says, smiling a simple smile.

“Huh?” Applejack says, confused.

“Don’t worry your pretty little head about it,” Jack says, returning to his arseholish nature.

“Sorry I asked,” Applejack says, frowning.

“Anyway, you girls look around,” Iron Sight says, sighing, “Maybe you’ll notice something we missed, since you seem to understand this Shadow Man business better than we do.”

“Ok, we’ll see what we can find,” Twilight says, beginning their search, seeing this is the main reason the girls are here.

Sorrow hasn’t been seen since the incident, even though they looked everywhere again, to find her and lose her again, when they felt that they were so close to solving the mystery. They had to, of course, explain themselves to the town, since the gig was up as it were. The town’s ponies were not happy, nor did they like the idea of having a murder around their town, but they accept it after the word ‘Princess Celestia’ was brought up.

When they were called up to Canterlot by Homicide to talk about the reporter, they had two different hopes, one was that they’ll get to talk the reporter, the other was just hoping that Sorrow didn’t kill him. At least it seems that one came true, since they can’t find any evidence that Sorrow did it, although it doesn’t really feel like how Sorrow would kill somepony like this, Sorrow would be direct.

“I found something,” Pinkie says, picking up something from the ground. It’s a necklace with a X on hanging off it, “Is it important?”

“It’s not magical, if that’s what you mean,” Twilight says, frowning.

“Do you think it’s a clue?” Pinkie asks, kind of excited.

“Wouldn’t think so, you could find things like that nearly anywhere with such a simple design,” Rarity comments, examining it.

“I could examine it further at home for magical traces,” Twilight suggests, shrugging.

“So we’ll just take it back?” Pinkie asks, making sure she understand.

“Just tell Iron-Sight first that we’re taking something from the sight,” Twilight suggests, nodding towards the head of homicide.

“Okie Dokie Loki!” Pinkie says, hoping towards him.

After talking to Iron-Sight for a while she hops back.

“Well?” Twilight asks, curious.

“He said it is fine as long as we tell him if we find anything,”Pinkie explains, happily, putting the amulet in her saddle bag.

“I guess if that’s everything we might as well head home,” Rainbow Dash suggests, getting bored.

“You’re probably right, I don’t think there’s much we can do here anymore,” Twilight sighs, looking around, “I almost sure that Sorrow wasn’t here, so this is just a matter for homicide, so we’ll be no good here.”

Saying their farewells to Iron-Sight they leave, but Pinkie stops when she sees a mare crying in the neighbour’s yard, an adolescent mare and another adult mare comforting her.

“Why are crying?” Pinkie asks, kindly.

“Oh, sorry, am I bothering you? I’ll try and stop if I am…” the crying mare says, looking at Pinkie with tear stained eyes.

“No you’re not bothering me, I was just wonder why and if I can help?” Pinkie offers, smiling kindly.

“What a kind soul,” says the other mare, shaking her head sadly, “But I’m afraid you can’t help, unless you can raise the dead…”

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s wrong.

“Oh, you’re the reporter’s wife,” Pinkie says, her smile fading, “I’m sorry…”

“Yes I am,” the crying mare sobs, hugging the adolescent mare close, “This is our daughter.”

The adolescent gives Pinkie a sad look, who’s obviously been crying as well. Seeing this scene washes away any dislike Pinkie had for the reporter, you often forget that some ponies are just normal ponies like themselves, with families and a life outside what they do…

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Pinkie says, feeling like crying herself.

“Thank you,” she sobs, holding her daughter tighter, “Sorry, I think I need to rest, excuse me.”

“Yes, come inside and rest, my home is your home,” the other mare says, leading the two inside.

“Thank you for talking to me,” Pinkie says, as they walk inside.

“Thanks for your kind words,” the mare says, trying to smile as they enter the neighbour house.

Pinkie sighs as the door closes in front of her, she wonders how many ponies are suffering because of this whole mess, how ponies lost family members and friends to this whole problem…

“The path of the Shadowman is littered with a death and tragedy, there’s often no happy ending for a Shadowman or the people who met it...”

Pinkie whips her head around looking for the voice. It’s the same voice as before, the one that told her how to calm down Sorrow. She notices a black bespectacled stallion with a strange hourglass cutie mark walking behind her, his snout buried in a book.

“Excuse me, wait a minute!” Pinkie says, stopping the stallion.

“Yes?” the stallion says, looking at Pinkie, his voice no the same.

“Oh, sorry, I thought… Nevermind did you hear a disembodied voice?” Pinkie says, sighing.

“No, I don’t think so,” the stallion says, frowning.

“Oh, nevermind then,” Pinkie says, sighing again.

“Hey Pinkie! Hurry up, we almost left without you!” Rainbow Dash yells, flying up to Pinkie, “We’ll miss the next train!!”

“Sorry!” Pinkie says, dashing off with Rainbow Dash and yelling to the stallion, “Sorry for bothering you!!”

The stallion watches the two mares dash off, before turning around and walking away, holding up the book to his face so nopony sees his wicked smile, his mouth full of razor sharp teeth.

“What a nice mare Pinkie is…”

Suddenly he disappears in a column of black fire, leaving behind no trace that he was ever there.

Iron-Sight writes down his report in his office at base, reporting the current incident and the events that took place there.

“The Princess and her friends took something from the crime scene?” Jack Ripper says, who looking over the unfinished report.

“Yeah, but I haven’t written the item in yet. Getting to it,” Iron-Sight says, sighing as he continues to write the report down.

“What did she take?” Jack says, yawning.

“An amulet,” Iron-Sight answers, getting irritated.

“An amulet?” Jack says, seeming to be surprised, “Interesting…”

“It is?” Iron-Sight says, raising an eyebrow.

“Just thinking aloud Captain,” Jack says, standing up and heading out the door, “Want some coffee?”

“That’ll be great, just don’t put anything strange in it,” Iron-Sight warns, glaring at Jack.

“Oh thee of little faith,” Jack says, leaving the office. As Jack walks away from office he says, “Interesting…”

The ride back to Ponyville is long and boring, only broken up by the occasional conversation. But as they nearly reach Ponyville, they decide on something.

“When we reach Ponyville we have to look for Sorrow and Joy again,” Twilight declares, packing up the books she was translating on the trip.

“Right, we haven't seen her since the previous accident,” Pinkie adds, nodding her head, “I’m worried.”

“We also need to hear what she wanted to say to us before,” Applejack adds.

“I just hope we don’t meet the actual Sorrow,” Fluttershy says, nervously.

“Agreed,” Rarity says, nodding her head.

All in agreement, when the train pulls into the station the girls climb off, heading into town.

“Where do you think we should start looking?” Rainbow Dash asks, as they walking into town.

Twilight seems to consider it, “I guess the first place we should look is…”

A sudden sound above them attracts their attention, as they look they gasp as they see the actual Sorrow descend on them, landing and knocking Pinkie to the ground, sending her skidding across the ground. Within seconds Sorrow is above her, claw raised, seeming to strike her.

Her friends scream in horror and Pinkie covers her face, hiding her face in fear, fearing this is the end. The claws come down, the sound of tearing is heard.

Pinkie uncovers and opens her eyes, surprised that she’s not dead, looking at her side, she notices that Sorrow has torn open her saddlebag, and is rooting through the spilled content.

“What the abyss Sorrow?!” Rainbow Dash yells, angrily, helping the shaky legged Pinkie up.

“What’s this?” Sorrow hisses, ignoring Rainbow Dash and holding up the amulet she got from the crime scene in front of Pinkie.

“It’s a amulet?” Pinkie says, scared slightly.

“Where did you get it?!” Sorrow hisses louder, displeased with Pinkie’s answer.

“Canterlot,” Pinkie whimpers, scared.

“Stop that Sorrow!” Twilight yells, standing between Sorrow and Pinkie, “I don’t know what your problem is but being mean to Pinkie won’t help anything.”

“This is the amulet of our enemies, why do you have it!?” Sorrow hisses, referring to both herself and Joy.

“The enemy?” Twilight says, realization suddenly dawning on Twilight’s face, “You mean it belongs to the ponies responsible for what happened at the University.”

“It was made by their master,” Sorrow hisses, suddenly grabbing the amulet in her hand and crushing it, horrifying the girls as the broken bits of metal fall onto the ground.

“Wait!” Twilight says, horrified, “That’s an important clue!”

“Not anymore,” Sorrow hisses, letting the pieces fall to the ground, “Keep out of my business!”

“Don’t be so selfish!” Applejack yells, angrily, “You’re not the only one suffering here!”

“No, I’m not,” Sorrow says, flatly.

“Look we want to help, but this is not the way to do things,” Rainbow Dash says, angrily.

“I do not need any help, if want to help someone, help Joy, she wants it, I do not!” Sorrow hisses.

But before the girls have a chance to respond, Sorrow suddenly changes, turning back into the small, pony shaped shadowman that they’re used to.

“You’re back!” Pinkie says, cheerfulness returning as she suddenly hugs non scary Sorrow.

“Sorry,” the Joy Sorrow says, in her sad small voice.

“It’s not your fault, but we were worried about you,” Pinkie says, continuing to hug her.

“Sorry… can you stop hugging me, please?” Sorrow says, shly.

“Opps, sorry,” Pinkie says, letting go of her.

“Sorrow can you tell us what happened now?” Twilight asks, hoping that they might glean something from this situation.

Sorrow looks around before saying, “Can we go somewhere private first?”

“Sure,” Twilight says, hopefully, “Let’s head back into town.”

The seven of them start walking into town when a booming voice is heard behind them.

“IS THIS PONYVILLE?!!” it yells.

The girls turn around and see, what Twilight recognizes as a cyclops, behind them, staring at them and holding a small piece of paper.

“Umm, yes?” Twilight says, unsure.

“Good, me tired of reading tiny pony map,” he says, in softer tone while throwing away the map, “Me looking for Sorrow.”

“Umm, I’m Sorrow?” Sorrow says, unsure.

Suddenly the cyclop runs forward very fast, kicking Sorrow like a football, sending her flying off into the distance.

“That was easy,” the cyclop says happily, before yelling, “ME STILL THE STRONGEST!! SORROW WEAK!!”

“What the hell?! Why did you do that?!” yells Rainbow Dash, angrily.

“Noisy ponies… ME SQUISH!!” looking like he is about to step on the girls.

But before he can do any squishing, Twilight teleports her and her friends away from him.

“What do you want, why did you attack our friend?” Twilight yells, glaring at the cyclops.

“Noisy ponies won’t play fair,” he says, ignoring the girls, he looks at Ponyville, “Pretty Pony town, ME SMASHES IT AND LOOKS FOR TREASURE!!”

Suddenly he raises his hand, and Twilight, feeling a surge in magic from him, watches as he summons, what seems to be a army of tiny hims.

“Little minions, SMASH TOWN!!” he yells, causing the tiny hims to run into town, smashing into building and attacking ponies.

“What are you doing?!” Twilight yells horrified.

“ME STEALING PONY’S TREASURE!!” he says, proudly.

“Not if we stop you!” Rainbow Dash yells, angrily.

The girls ready themselves to attack this monster, preparing to blast it away with their friendship, but a sudden scream attracts their attention. A mare is about to be crushed by one of the cyclop’s minions, who holding a huge rock above her while she screams for help.

Acting without thinking, Rainbow Dash breaks off from her friends, flying like a bullet at the minion and kicking him and the rock away from the mare. But before she can rejoin her friends, more screams of help catches the attention of the girls, causing them to have to break away from the cyclop to help them.

“We can’t fight him like this!” Rainbow Dash yells, fending off one of the minions, as it tries to attack a group of ponies.

“But if we do go to fight him somepony will get hurt, or worst!” Twilight says, warding off some with her magic.

Suddenly Applejack is seen being thrown, before tumbling across the ground, but luckily she seem to be able to get back up, if not bit unsteadily.

“Applejack! Are you alright?” Rarity yells, concerned, coming to her side.

“I’ll be fine,” Applejack says, spitting out, what they hope is just blood and spit, and not a tooth, “They’re very strong, be careful!”

“I just hope we get some help soon!” Pinkie says, temporarily blinding a minion with her party cannon, “There’s too much to deal with!”

“There seem to be infinite amount of them!!” Twilight yells, wondering how long they could hold out.

It doesn’t take the girls long to realize, unless someone help them soon, something terrible will happen to somepony soon…

Flying through the skies Sorrow remains motionless, until suddenly she stops midair, hovering in the sky until she turns to face Ponyville in the distance, her mask pitch black. Nearly instantly she transforms into Sorrow’s true form, her eyes narrow in anger.

“How dare he!”

Her tentacles form into a pair of large wings and flies off to Ponyville. Something is going die...

Author's Note

Here's, maybe, a long awaited next chapter.
Next chapter will be a interlude chapter, between this one and the last one, explaining what happened at the meeting.
How you enjoy.

Chapter 13 - Shadow's Mercy

It seems like a never ending battle for the girls, six against an army and this didn’t work out so well the first time with the changelings, and now they have to protect others beside themselves and these monsters are happy to kill instead of capture. Goliath’s clones are tearing Ponyville apart, and probably would’ve killed somepony by now if it wasn’t for Twilight and her friends…

Although it’s a losing battle and soon they’re surrounded in a steadily shrinking circle, their attempts to defend themselves proving fruitless against these numbers.

“I guess this is it,” Applejack says, stancing herself to fight.

“I kind of hoped I would've died in bed,” Rarity whines, looking seriously at the approaching horde.

“Anypony got any last words?” Pinkie asks, preparing her last pie.

“Not at the moment,” Rainbow Dash scowls, gritting her teeth.

“I don’t want to die…” Fluttershy whimpers, speaking what they all feel.

“Oh Celestia help us,” Twilight prays, hoping that someone will save them.

Then the clones charge at them, leaping at the girls to attack. All of them flinch back, waiting for the killing blow… it never comes, instead Twilight feels something warm and wet drip onto her nose. She looks up, eyes widening at what's above her, a clone is inches above her face, its features locked in shock, blood dripping from its open mouth onto Twilight's nose. Looking further she sees a black long spike, forced through its head and right into the ground, holding it there in death. Looking around she can see that all the others are in a similar state. Looking up into the air, the six see their saviour…

“Pathetic!” Sorrow scowls, removing her black tentacles from the clones heads, letting their bodies fall motionless to the ground.

Sorrow lands on the ground, her fixed sad face glaring at them.

“You cannot even protect yourself…”

“Hey, we can! It’s just today is an off day!” Rainbow Dash yells, trying to defend herself, but Sorrow doesn’t care.

Suddenly a large horde of clones charge at them from seemingly no where, one of them running ahead, eager to get to the killing first. But as the leading one reaches and leaps at Sorrow, it suddenly finds itself hanging in the air, held up by Sorrow’s clawed hand, and with a simple movement, Sorrow crushes its head, letting the headless body fall to the ground.

With graceful movements Sorrow readies her bloodied claws, and, as if in some kind of dance, Sorrow slaughters her way through the waves of clones, each one falling as easily as the first, the ground around her feet becoming littered with the bodies of the dead as she steadily moves through the crowd. As the last one falls to the ground dead, Sorrow flicks the blood off her claws as she stands in a sea of corpses.

The girls find themselves unsure whether to be impressed, disgusted, or terrified, never had they seen so much death and blood in one place and in such a short time. Sorrow gives them one final look, before walking away, heading out of town.

“Wait! Don’t go! We need your help!!” Twilight yells, chasing after Sorrow, trying to stop the tall figure, “Ponyville is still under attack from those things!!”

“Do I look like I care!” Sorrow snaps, causing Twilight to back off in fear, “You all hate us, all your deaths mean nothing to me!”

“Sorrow please, we’re begging you,” Fluttershy cries, coming up behind Twilight.

“Cry and beg all you want, it means nothing to me…” Sorrow says, continuing to walk away.

“But Joy would want you to,” Pinkie says, surprisingly serious and causing Sorrow to stop dead in her tracks, “She wouldn’t want anymore ponies to die when she could’ve stopped it.”

Sorrow turns around and glares at Pinkie, her eyes narrowing, before hissing loudly in a way that one might consider a sigh.

“You’re… right Pinkie, I forget what Joy would’ve wanted, Joy is too kind…” Sorrow says, holding her arms to her chest.

Suddenly she outstretches them, holding them above her head in a dramatic action.

“Shadowmen come to my side!”

Suddenly town square is full of other shadowmen, they're not as unique looking as Sorrow, all of them looking the same beside different expressions on their faces, although they’re only expressions of anger, sadness, and creepily happy. They all stand around, almost motionless, some standing, some crouching down, all staring right at Sorrow. The girls even find shadowmen behind them, like they just popped out from their shadows.

“Shadowmen destroy these clones while I kill their creator!” Sorrow declares, pointing towards the town with her claw.

Like a black wave the shadowmen spread outwards, heading into the town. Whenever they come across a clone, they pile on top of them, covering them in a mound of sharp claws, tearing and ripping them apart as the clone tries to throw them off, but they keep coming. The town is soon filled with their screams as they are torn apart, even their strength is unable to protect them from the unrelenting army.

The girls chase after them, spreading out to help any ponies they find. Carrying the injured ones, and guiding the lost and confused ones, while doing the best to ignore the carnage that they asked for, the shadowmen leaving torn up corpses behind them as they clear the town of clones. One's mind wanders to the fact that if the shadowmen were not helping them, and instead were attacking them, how helpless they would be.

As the girls guide foals to the town hall, their eyes full of terror and fear, their innocent stripped from them by their saviours, the girls have to wonder if they’ve done the right thing.

The path of the Shadowman is littered with death and tragedy, those words ring true again.

Once the girls manage to thankfully gather up all of Ponyville's ponies in town hall, the injuries only minor, they realize that Sorrow is long gone. They rush off to find the cyclop, not sure what they can do, but they want to do something…

Goliath stares at the town while leaning against a tree, a look of annoyance across his face.

“The little mes haven’t brought treasure back yet, THIS MAKE GOLIATH ANGRY!!” Goliath suddenly yells, pushing over the tree in a fit of anger and childishness.

“And they never will Goliath,” says a sad voice.

“Who DARES talks to GOLIATH like that!!!?” he roars, looking around.

“I’m Sorrow, the one you wanted to fight,” Sorrow says, appearing a fair way in front of him.

“But Sorrow is tiny weak pony with bad dress sense? Me kicked her!!” Goliath declares, looking confusingly at the tall figure in front of him.

“Goliath, always so stupid and greedy, how long has it been since I felt the pain you caused!” Sorrow hisses, flexing her claws.

“You act like you know Goliath!!” Goliath roars, angry for some reason.

“I have comforted your victims many times as they cry over all they’ve lost, I grew on the sadness you caused and now I’m going to wreak vengeance for all of them!!”

Suddenly Sorrow leaps at Goliath, who just back hands Sorrow away, sending her flying, but as she is flying she manages to flip herself over and land harmlessly on her feet, skidding a bit.

“Is that all you are? Just brute strength, enhanced with magic, with a few magic tricks,” Sorrow seems to laugh, “You’re pathetic.”

“Stupid Sorrow doesn’t seem to see that it is no match for Goliath!!” Goliath yells, readying himself, “Me sent you flying!!”

“We’ll see,” Sorrow says, running and leaping at Goliath again.

Goliath manages to punch Sorrow midair, sending her flying, her body crashing through multiple buildings before slamming into the ground at the end. But as the dust clears, Sorrow is standing there, unharmed.

“Your strength is useless against me, your magic is useless against me, you're useless against me!!” Sorrow hisses, her eyes narrowing.

Sorrow then sprints towards Goliath, her claws raised…

The girls run through the ruined remains of Ponyville, the clones seem to think destroying a building is the best way of getting inside and looting stuff. The journey through town is made difficult by destroy remains of building, roaming clones and groups of shadowmen. In the distance they hear the sound of buildings being destroyed and something repeatedly being slammed into the ground, causing the earth to shake.

As they finally manage to get out of town, they see the battle between Sorrow and Goliath. Goliath surprisingly looks very tired, panting heavily while sweat drips down his face. Sorrow looks fine on the other hand, as she calmly approaches Goliath.

“Why does Goliath feel so weak?” Goliath pants, sweat dripping from her brow.

“Every punch, every kick, every time you touch me, I drain a bit of your magic, weakening you,” Sorrow says, continuing to approach, “Soon you’ll be too weak to fight, and I never will. I’ll keep coming until you fall!”

“ARRRGH!” Goliath roars, punching Sorrow as she gets close.

Although this time Sorrow is only pushed back a bit, skidding backwards she's soon walking forward again.

“You… can’t… beat… Goliath…” Goliath pants, punching at Sorrow each time she gets close, the power of each punch weakening over time, the distance between him and Sorrow decreasing.

The girls watch this all, unsure what to do. They look at Twilight for guidance, and all she can think of is to leave them to finish, it's too dangerous to get close. Another punch is thrown, but this time Sorrow catches it in her clawed hand, holding it tightly.

“It’s over Goliath!” Sorrow hisses.

In desperation, Goliath tries to punch Sorrow with his other fist, but she easily catches it too. The girls watch as Sorrow holds the giant, Goliath, by his fists, unable to escape, growing weaker and weaker as Sorrow drains the last of the magic out of him. Soon all over town the clones disappear, even their remains, like they were never there to begin with.

Suddenly, in a movement to quick and strange for a normal eye to register, Sorrow is behind Goliath, now holding his hand behind his back. With a powerful kick, she forces him on his knees before painfully pulling his arms back.

“URGH! You’re gonna break me arms!!” Goliath yells, who’s in a great amount of pain.

“That’s the point.”

Suddenly there's two loud cracks, before Goliath screams in pain. The girls and a small amount of ponies who have gathered behind them, gasp in horror, some even covering their eyes.

Sorrow releases Goliath's broken arms, letting him fall to the ground, his limp arms falling beside him, the once mighty warrior now crying like a child. Sorrow steps onto Goliath’s back, before bending down and grabbing him by the head, yanking it up.

“Since you never use this for anything other than headbutting, allow me to remove it!” Sorrow hisses, pulling his head back hard.

“No stop!! Mercy! Please spare me!!” Goliath cries in pain from feeling Sorrow trying to rip his head off.

“Why? You’ve never shown any!” Sorrow hisses, pulling harder and making Goliath scream in pain.

“Sorrow! Stop!” Pinkie suddenly yells, who has somehow moved up to Sorrow and Goliath, without anypony noticing, “No more death today! There has been enough!”

Sorrow glares at Pinkie, not letting go of Goliath’s head but lessening the pulling.

“Why? He’s a monster who has killed hundreds for nothing more than pride and greed, and he’s likely to kill again,” Sorrow hisses, looking down at the sobbing Goliath.

“Does that make this any more right?” Pinkie says, walking up and standing beside Goliath's head.

Sorrow doesn’t say anything, just stares at Goliath and Pinkie.

“Please Sorrow,” Pinkie says, placing a hoof on the claw which holds Goliath’s head, “No more blood on Joy’s hoof.”

Sorrow stays still for a good second, before letting go of Goliath’s head, letting it hit the ground, before standing up straight. Suddenly she arches her head and screams. Not just any scream, but a banshee like scream sounding like hundreds of smaller screams of animals, ponies and other creatures, all joined together.

Ponies cover their ears as the deafening noise carries across the town, shattering windows that were not already smashed. Then Sorrow runs off at unnatural speeds, disappearing in the town.

“What the abyss was that about?!” Rainbow Dash yells, her ears ringing.

“Don’t worry, I think that was just a scream of frustration,” Pinkie says, smiling, uncovering her ears. Her Pinkie Sense warned her that the scream was coming.

“Thank you for saving me little pony,” Goliath says.

“I didn’t do it for you, you big meanie,” Pinkie says, giving a light kick to Goliath’s arm, making him yelp in pain, “I did it for her…”

Author's Note

A new chapter that I hope you enjoy, and hopefully more chapters coming soon.
Like and comment, it helps motivates me to write.