The hatred of the shadow

In the early morning Malonex opened his eyes and looked up. He knew that it was soon time to go and woke his companions up. "Get up!"

Lock slowly lifted his head and stretched his back. "I would have preferred to sleep on grass and dirt instead of these hard rocks."

Meanwhile Tacit was still sleeping on her bed. Malonex looked annoyed at her and cast an energy beam at her. She was knocked down from her bed, against the nest wall and then on the ground. On the way she screamed in surprise. Now on the ground she asked. "Why did you do that?"

Malonex began to gather the books he had looked through at night and answered. "We will go in a few minutes and I will not wait till you finally consider to wake up."

Tacit groaned and got up from the ground. Malonex gave her a dismissing look. "Now stop wasting time and hurry up. I will wait outside the cave."

Malonex left without another word and Lock looked a bit surprised after him. "Seems like somepony stood up with the wrong hoof..."

Tacit nodded slightly and made herself ready to go. There wasn't must do do exect making sure she had lost nothing. Only a few moments later she was ready and waved Lock good bye. "See you!"

Lock waved back. He was ready to go too but he decided to walk around in the cave for some time till the rest of the army would follow.

Tacit walked through the cave and soon reached the outside of the cave where she saw Malonex talking about the plan once more, with his back to the entrance. "... and if one of you messes this up I will make sure to sent what is left of you back to you queen after I am done with you!" As demonstration he shot as a rock next to them with a red lightning and it exploded into dust.

A few of the changelings managed to stay calm but of few of them gulped as they saw the remaining pile of dust. Now Tacit noticed that half of the were wearing armor.

Malonex looked around once more and then levitated twenty-five syringes out of his bag. "You all know what the plan is and with these syringes you can trick the security system of the empire, just take a hair of the pony you are impersonating, add the hair into the liquate and inject yourself with it. For three days no pony can find out that you are changelings."

The changelings who were wearing armor took the syringes and the rest just waited. Tacit now walked up to them and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around. "So you are finally here. Then we are ready to go now."

The changelings nodded and got ready to fly while Malonex turned towards north. Tacit stepped next to him and leaned a bit towards him. "Can you tell me the plan? Please!"

Malonex didn't look at her and just cracked his neck to get ready to start. "I will tell you everything you have to know when you need to know it. Until then just follow me and don't leave the formation!"

Tacit sighed but accepted it and got herself ready to fly. Soon Malonex turned himself into a smoke cloud and began to fly Tacit followed shortly after him and behind them flew the group of changelings. They flew in high speed and Tacit began to wonder how long this journey would go.

For some time the only sound they heard was the wind but soon Tacit had to ask Malonex. "How long will it take us to reach the empire?"

As Malonex answered, his voice sounded strange, it didn't came from him and she could hear a echo in it. "When we stay at the current speed we will reach our first goal within one day."

Tacit raised her eyebrow. "First goal? I thought we go straight towards the empire."

"Yes and this will be our second goal but on the way we will stop for a short time and then fly the rest without any breaks."

Tacit nodded and they flew in silence for some time till Malonex spoke once again. "Tacit listen to me, this is important!"

His serious tone made her a bit worried. "What is it?"

Malonex tone got a little bit more quiet. "When we reach the first goal they is no going back anymore. So I have to ask you this one time, are you sure you want to be a part of this? This fight has just started, there will be a lot of death and destruction once we reached the empire and then there will be no other way for you then to be a part of it. Maybe you have to fight maybe not, but sure is you will be a part of a war! If you leave before we reached our goal, I will let you go..."

This made her think for a while, she didn't knew if she could manage that but then she remembered her father and what Equestria had done to him and nodded. "I will be a part of it!"

Malonex was glad to hear her answer but he had to give one last warning. "That is good to hear but if you try to run away after we reached the empire or even try to betray us..." Red eyes began to glow in the cloud of smoke. "then death is the biggest mercy you can hope to get from me!"

The glow stopped and Tacit nodded slowly. She stayed quiet from there on and the flight went on with nothing happening. Soon they left the forest behind and the sun began to set.

While the sun slowly lowered in the horizon Tacit began to struggle to stay awake. Her wings began to flap slower and she had a hard time to hold her eyes open. At one point she was about to fall but Malonex caught her with a levitation spell. "I am awake!" She shouted but it wasn't very convincing because of the yawn that followed directly afterwards.

Malonex was still holding here. "Stop this and go inside my shadow. There you can rest for the night."

Tacit was about to object but another yawn escaped her mouth. "Fine but what about you? When will you rest?

Malonex chuckled a bit. "I don't really need sleep. My magic helps me to stay awake."

Tacit locked behind herself at the Changelings following them."What about the changelings?"

Malonex just responded."They are trained soldiers. They could fly for four days without a rest." Tacit looked back one again and now she noticed that they seemed like they just started flying and not like they were already flying for hours.

Without any more words Tacit accepted his offer and flew down to his shadow and turned into one herself. She flew over the ground inside of Malonex shadow. I wasn't the most comfortable place to rest but she actually managed to sleep.

The group flew nearly the half night till Malonex could see their first goal, the train tracks towards the Crystal Empire.

They stopped in the air and the changelings turned to Malonex. "You all know your task. Now get into position!"

The changeling nodded and flew into a bunch of bushes next to the tracks. As the last one was hidden Malonex turned around and saw the train coming towards them with its lamp lighting up the night.

As the train reached Malonexs range he summoned a cloud of black smoke and sent it inside of the train.

The sleeping ponies didn't noticed how the smoke entered the train while they slept. They breathed in the smoke and soon they all weren't only asleep but they were under the effect of Malonex spell. They would not wake up for the next few hours.

As the smoke vanished the changelings left their hiding spots and flew inside the train. Always two of them entered through one window, one with armor and one without.

The ones with armor took a hair from the mane of a pony and added it to the liquid in the syringes. The ones with the armor injected themselves the liquid and transformed into the ponies while the ones without armor took the ponies and flew them out of the train. Malonex watched the twenty-fife unarmored changelings leaving the train with the ponies. The ponies would probably serve as a meal for the rest of the hive.

Soon after he saw that the train was out of his sight Malonex began to follow the tracks. While he flew he could see the sun rising and heard a sound from beneath him. Soon Tacit appeared next to him and yawned. ""Good morning."

As she flew next to him she needed some time till she noticed that all the changelings were gone. "Where are the changelings?"

"They are in a train towards the Crystal Empire and they should reach it a few hours." was the only thing Malonex said.

After a few moments Tacit realized what Malonex said."And what are we going to do?"

"We will follow them. They should have enough time to prepare everything for our arrival. When we reach the empire you will take out the guards on the way to the castle without anypony noticing you, the rest is my job." answered Malonex with a tone that made it sound like that should have be clear already.

She nodded as answer and they flew for the rest of the day in peace. They saw the train on its way backfrom the empire to Canterlot and soon they reached the mountains that cut the empire from the rest of Equestria. They saw the tunnel for the train and landed on the ground.

Malonex gave Tacit some quick instructions. "When the train comes towards here you have to turn into a shadow and hide inside the shadow of the train. After a few hours the train should reach the empire. Go into the shadow of the first pony you see to get past the security at the station. You use the pony to get inside the empire where you leave the shadow. You will wait till I find you and then we will head towards the castle. You know the rest of the plan."

Malonex put on a extra cloak to hide his horn. Tacit nodded and they both turned into shadows. Tacit did everything like Malonex told her and as the train came she went into its shadow. After two hours of waiting while the train traveled through the snow they finally reached the empire. Tacit was relived as she saw that there was no snow inside of the empire.

At the station Tacit did how she was told and went into the shadow of the first pony she saw. From the shadow Tacit saw guards at every train door scanning the passengers and their luggage.

Tacit groaned as she noticed that the pony whose shadow she was in had started a conversation with a guard,

The pony asked. "May I ask why there are so many guards?"

With a nod the guard said. "Sure, it is better when more ponies are informed about the recent events. There is a criminal who is traveling around Equestria and we have to make sure he can't enter any city."

While she raised an eyebrow, the pony asked. "This all just for one criminal? Isn't that a bit much?"

"It is not just a normal criminal! The criminal we are searching is the dangerous Malonex!" Clarified the guard.

"That monster is free?" Asked the pony with a gasp.

The guard nodded but ensured. "Yes but you have nothing to fear, there is no chance for him to get inside of the empire!"

"Well that is good to know." The pony nodded thanking.

To Tacits relive the pony finally began to walked into the empire and soon they were out of sight of the guards. Tacit left the shadow of the pony. She crawled behind the next house and turned to her normal form again. After that she stepped on the street and looked around to see Malonex.

Suddenly a pony grabbed her at her shoulder and as she was about to push the pony away as she realized that it was Malonex.

As they walked next to each other Malonex began to whisper. "The guards are watching from the top of a few small towers. There are always two guards on one tower. I will head straight towards the castle and you will take out all the guards on the towers on the way. After you reached the last tower you will wait there and watch out if guards walk towards the castle and take them out if needed!"

Tacit nodded and flew up in the sky. After she was out of Malonexs sight he began to walk towards the gigantic castle. He watched a small gray point flying through the sky from tower to tower without a noise. Each time he saw how the guards had vanished after Tacit was at their tower.

On his way towards the castle a small grin began to form on his face and soon he reached the center of the empire.

As he saw the crystal heart he looked around and saw that no pony was around so he took a step closer. He looked at the heart for a moment but then turned around to one of the big doors of the castle. He opened them and walked up the staircase leading to the main structure of the castle.

While he walked Malonex kept his head lowered.

He soon reached the hallway leading towards the throne room and there he saw two guards waiting in front of the door. "Stop there! If you want to talk with the princess and the prince you have to take of you cloak."

Malonex smiled a bit and took off his first cloak and reviled his dark mage cloak. For a moment the guards just stared at the crystal hoof and the horn but then they lifted their spear. "In the name of Equestria, you are under arrest!"

Malonex lifted his head and the guards saw his eyes glowing with dark magic. Dark smoke began to cover the ground and two shadow tentacles dashed out of the ground directly towards the guards. They wanted to shout but before they could even open their mouths the shadows had grabbed them and smashed them into the wall behind them.

Cracks formed in the wall and Malonex heard the bones of the guards break. He sent a red lightning through each tentacle. First the guards screamed in pain and then they bodies just fell lifeless to the ground. Malonex went on towards the throne room and he used his magic to slam the doors open. The black smoke entered the throne room.

He saw princess Cadence sitting in the throne and Shining Armor standing next to her. They grasped in shock as they saw him and Shining Armor immediately reacted. "Alarm! Guards, get this pony!"

The guards that stood on the sides of the room stepped forward. Malonex grinned and his horn began to glow with dark magic. Shining Armor noticed that quickly. "Shields!"

Shining Armor summoned a shield around himself and Cadence and the guards tired to do the same. Malonex sent out a shockwave of dark fire that filled the entire room. Some guards didn't managed to defend themselves quickly enough and were burned to piles of ash in a second, while other guards managed to block the attack but they were knocked against the walls by the impact.

Now the royal pair and Malonex were the only ponies standing in the room and for a moment they just looked at each other. Suddenly twenty-five crystal guards dropped down from the ceiling of the room and stood next to the princess and prince. Shining Armor smiled. "One of my guards already warned me that you might come here! Because of that I got my best guards here to wait for you! Now give up peacefully and we won't kill you."

Malonex laughed a bit and looked at Shining armor with confidence. "Did you really thought it would be that easy?"

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow and in this moment the guards burst into green flames and a moment later the armored changelings had taken their places. They turned towards the royal pair and looked aggressively at them.

Shining Armor and Cadence turned each to one group of them and closed their eyes. In a bright glow they created a shockwave that knocked the changelings against the walls. Malonex was hit by the shockwave too but he only slide a few steps back. He looked around and saw the unconscious changelings.

Malonex stepped towards the royal pair that was facing him now directly. Malonex began to shot a rain of red lightning at them and Shining Armor summoned a barrier. The lightning smashed against the barrier and Shining closed his eyes in concentration on the shield.

Cadence stepped forward to help him but he stopped her. "Stay behind my shield or he will get you!" Malonex as so busy with his spells that he didn't heard them talking. "Cadence you have to get ready to go. I can't hold this shield much longer, so when I say now run to the left!"

She nodded and then he opened his eyes and shouted. "NOW!" He used a spell to shot his entire barrier at Malonex and while he was busy destroying the projectile Shining Armor turned to the left and shot a magic bolt against the wall. This created a hole in the wall and Cadence immediately run towards it. Shining Armor turned back to his enemy only to see a lightning flying towards him.

He got hit by the lightning and felt how the pain overwhelmed him. He slowly fell to the ground and struggled to keep himself from passing out. The last thing he saw before his eyes closed was a black cloud of smoke leaving through the hole in the wall.

Cadence flew through the air and quickly landed on the ground. While she ran towards the heart she heard something running behind her.

She began to channel her magic and turned around. As Malonex came into her view she shot a light beam at him that hit him directly and knocked him a bit away.

She turned back around and ran towards the crystal. She nearly reached the heart as suddenly a giant crystal claw grew out of the ground and grabbed the heart. As black smoke began to spread from the claw Cadence backed away from it. She wanted to fly away but before she could get far enough away from the smoke, shadow chains came out of it and grabbed her wings.

More and more shadow chains came out of the smoke and grabbed her legs and her head and dragged her to the ground. As she was unable to get away a pony began to form out of the smoke.

In the next moment Malonex stood in front of her. Half of his face looked like it was broken away and smoke streamed out of it."You are the first pony that managed to hit me," the destroyed part of his face slowly began to rebuild itself, "but next time you should consider using a spell that can actually hurt somepony."

His eyes began to glow green and purple mist began to stream out of the corners of his eyes. "I have a massage for you. This land now belongs to the darkness!"

The magic began to affect Cadence and her eyes began to glow green too. She began to scream in pain and fear and tears began to run down her face before she passed out and sunk to the ground.