The hatred of the shadow

Tremor looked upon his army as they got ready for their first attack. It was only a small troop of maybe seventy soldiers but after everything Tremor heard about Griffenstone he knew that this would be enough.

The day was even darker than the days before, the clouds have become thicker and lanterns with dark fire were placed all over the empire, thereby warping every part in a sinister light, but the empire still remained a bit of its bright and colorful look.

Tremor hated the bright colors in that the empire was still colored and was almost relived that he could leave it for some time, even if he would miss the return of his king while he was gone.

As all his troops was ready he stepped in front of them and raised his voice. "My fellow Umbrum! This will be our first attack on this world! We will make the first step towards a golden era for our kinds, an era of despair for everypony who dares to oppose us! They will feel pain for every Umbrum that died under the ground! They thought that they had defeated us all long ago but soon they will see that their only reward will be the taste of their own blood! We will show this world what it means to suffer and to fear! "

With a smile Tremor watched his soldiers stomping on the ground and listened to the sound of their shouts. Tremor began to speak even louder to be heard by his troops. "Let us go and let us bring them their end!"

With that he turned into a smoke cloud and flew into the air. The other umbrum did the same. So, Tremor and his army began to fly towards their goal.

The path was a long one but Tremor had studied the maps of Equestria since he was a colt and, even though the ones he had were probably a bit old, he knew that they would reach Griffonstone in less than one day if they fly on high speed.

Malonex watched the cloud of smoke flying away from his room. 'Finally it has began. There are only a few things left to do before I will have my revenge.'

He heard the sound of somepony knocking against his door. "It is open."

The door was opened and Venae walked inside. She bowed before Malonex and said. "My master, all the salves are gathered in the stadium and our king demanded that you shall immediately begin with his resurrection."

He nodded slightly and looked down at the empire in front of him. 'Soon my king will be back and Equestiras last hope is gone.'

"Then I will talk with the king. Now, where is the report about our mage that I ordered yesterday?" said Malonex as he turned around.

He waited for a moment till Venae finally levitated a long scroll from under her cloak. "These are all unicorns that are powerful enough to be called mages."

Malonex levitated the scroll to his desk and nodded. "Well done, I will look over it after the ritual. Go and tell Gladuis, Tacit and Lock that the ritual will begin soon."

"Yes master." said Venae and bowed again.

She turned around to walk away but Malonex stopped her. "Don't even think about harming one of them."

She looked up in shock and took a step back. "What? How..?"

A grin appeared on Malonex expression ."You should really learn to control you anger. I can sense that you would like to kill me every time you have to call me master. It makes every of your actions predictable and inefficient. If you don't get it under control I will make sure that it will be fear in the future."

Her eye widened for a moment and she bowed again. "I am sorry master. I will take myself under control!"

"Good. Now leave! Also inform the queen of the changelings , I think she wants to be present at the resurrection of our king." Malonex said pleased and only a moment later Venae was gone. Soon after her Malonex left the room too and made his way to the throne room. As he walked past the guards he noticed that always one changeling and one shadow pony was guarding the path.

Soon he reached the throne room and one of the guards opened the doors. He walked inside towards the throne. On it was the Sombra shaped smoke cloud sitting. There was no other pony in the room, not even a single guard. Malonex bowed down before his king.

Sombra looked down at Malonex and spoke. "You have finally come! I was already getting impatient to finally get out of this form!"

Malonex lifted his head and looked directly into the red eyes of his king. "We can immediately start with the ritual master."

Sombra nodded. "Good, but from now on call me king and not master. You are no longer my apprentice. You already know more about dark magic than the any other powerful mages I know."

"Thank you my king, I studied hard and learned everything I could." He said lowering his head again.

Sombra just responded "I expect nothing less from my archmage. Now let us go, it is time."

Malonex lifted his head again and nodded. The smoke left the room into the crystal and Malonex levitated it to himself.

With the crystal next to him in the air he walked out of the throne room again. Malonex walked through the halls of the castle and as he walked by the guards bowed down.

He left the castle and made his way to the stadium. On the way he saw that there was more order in the streets now than the day before. There weren't so many unnecessary ore any hectic running through the streets.

Malonex noticed that many ponies were on their way to the stadium too. As he entered it he saw that the seat places were filled with mostly shadow ponies but also a big number of changelings.

Malonex to the place where the seat of the royals where and saw that the seats of the princesses have been replaced normal seats. Malonex saw that queen Chrysalis was sitting in one of the seat with guards sitting next to her. She looked up as she heard Malonex coming closer. One the other seats were Venae, Lock, Tacit and Gladius sitting.

Malonex nodded pleased at his apprentice and turned to the field of the stadium. He looked down upon a crowd of crystal ponies. They were all chained in heavy shackles and they were sitting lined up and a few soldiers were walking between the lines, watching every move of the slaves.

Malonex created a crystal platform in front of himself and placed the small crystal on it. As the crystal was now exposed to the view of everypony in the stadium, Malonex increased the volume his voice with magic. "My fellow shadows! Long have we waited for this moment and now it have finally come. I will resurrect our king and seal the fate of this world!"

The shadow ponies began to cheer in together while Malonex already saw fear filling the eyes of the slaves. Malonex spoke up again. "The true king of Equestria will return and with him our kind will finally have what should have been ours long ago!"

As the crowd cheered more Malonex began to conjure his magic. Malonexs eyes began to glow green and purple mist streamed from the corners of his eyes. His magic reached out to the sky and he could sense that his dark cloud responded.

Red lightning began to flash inside of the clouds as Malonex began to take control over the magic. Wind began to blow over the empire and the slaves looked up in fear. Every soldier that was down in the stadium flew away fearing they might be influenced by the magic if they are too close to the slaves.

Malonex lifted his crystal hoof into the air and more lightning began to flash inside the clouds. Every sound in the stadium was drowned by the sound of thunder and wind. As the connection to the darkness grew stronger his eyes turned black and the mist turned red, just like they were when he freed his kind.

With one big flash of light a red lightning struck into Malonexs hoof and Malonex felt how dark power was lead into the hoof. The hoof was filled with purple and green light and red lightning swirled around the crystal.

Malonex turned to the crystal ponies that were shivering in fear. He pointed his hoof towards them and in the next moment a gigantic swarm of black beams shot down at them, creating a connection to every single pony. The ponies began to scream in pain as green light was sucked out of their bodies.

The energy followed the black beams back to Malonex who grinned as he began to feel the fear, despair and pain of the slaves. As the last bit of energy as streamed into Malonexs hoof the black bounds were cut and the slaves collapsed on the ground, powerless and weak.

Malonex stomped with his crystal hoof on the ground and watched as purple lines began to creep over the ground. The lines began to form a complex rune that surrounded Malonex and the crystal. The dark lightning had stopped but the wind was now blowing even stronger than before.

The dark flames that had lighten up the arena were blown out by the wind and the runes of the ritual were the only thing in the stadium that created light. Black clouds began to fly around the crystal and soon a small tornado surround it. Purple and green light began to glow inside of the black tornado. Black smoke began to leave the tornado at the bottom and crept over the ground of the whole area.

The whole empire turned darker and dark crystal began to grow everywhere. The castle turned into black crystal and the air began to fill with red fog.

Suddenly the whole tornado burst into dark flames and blinded everypony in the stadium for a moment. As Malonex opened his eyes again he saw that the dark fires were burning again.

As the last bit of smoke vanished Malonex saw that there where once the small crystal was, was now a big gray stallion. He was as high as Celestia and Chrysalis if not higher. His horn was curved and red and his eye were constantly green glowing with purple mist surrounding his eyes, even though he wasn't even using dark magic. The black mane of the king was flowing constantly and he wore a steel armor and a dark crown.

Malonex bowed down before his king and so did the entire stadium.

Sombra nodded to Malonex, who then got up again and Sombra turned to the stadium. His deep voice began to spread over the crowd. "My subjects, finally I am back and do my task as your king. I will lead our kind to the ultimate victory. This day will be know in history as the day where the light of the world began to fade and darkness took everything! Now go my subjects and prepare yourself, soon we will begin!"

The shadow ponies and the changelings began to cheer and stomped on the ground. King Sombra turned around and looked at the group behind him. "When will we be ready for our first attack on Equestria?"

Gladuis quickly answered. "We have to wait till Tremor comes back to coordinate the army in one day. I could take a while till we will be ready to march into war."

Sombra looked over the now leaving crowd again and a grin formed on this face. "That is fine. We have the time and when Tremor returns we can begin!"

Meanwhile Tremor had reached Griffonstone. The troop flew low and stopped at the foot of the mountain and they got ready to attack.

Tremor nodded at his shadow ponies and they turned to smoke clouds again. "Bring them terror and death!"

The smoke clouds quickly reached the old tree that was on top of the mountain and the half of the shadows began to fly around it while the rest started flying through the streets and between the wrenches.

The griffons began to panic as they saw their city getting warped in black clouds. Tremor watched from the sky how the city was devoured by a dark cloud and as the troops landed on the ground and began to attack the griffons, Tremor landed too.

He walked through the streets of Grifonstone and listened, with a smile, to the screams of fear and terror all around him. Because of the smoke the view was very limited but sometimes Tremor saw how his troops impaling a griffon or cut someponies head of. He walked past many dismembered corpses and he saw that blood covered most of the ground.

He himself walked to the next building he was and tired to open the door but it was locked. He lifted his hoof and smashed the door away. The hinges broke and the door fell flat on the ground. Tremor heard grasps from the inside. With loud steps he walked towards the sound of fear.

He reached a room where he saw a pair of griffons cowering together. The male griffon stood with a knife in his claw. "Stay back you monster! We heard the screams of the others!"

Tremor stepped forward and smiled at he saw that the claw of the griffon was trembling in fear. Before the griffon could react Tremor grabbed the throat of the griffon and slammed him against a wall. With the other hoof he twisted the claw of the griffon till he could hear it break, which made him drop his knife.

Tremor watched as the griffon struggled to breathe. The female griffon watched with horror as the griffon was slowly strangled in front of her. Tremor smiled as the griffon stopped moving and just hung motionless in his grip. He dropped the dead body on the ground and he lifted his lifted his shoe made of dark metal and let it quickly slide over a wall. The shoe ignited with dark fire.

He stepped towards the other griffon who tried to back away but soon she bumped into the wall behind her. Tremor grabbed the head of the griffon with the burning hoof. The dark fire spread over the head and the griffon screamed in pain. The dark fire began to creep over the griffon while she tried to get the hoof away with all her force but it was for no use. Tremor stared her directly into the eyes while first her feathers and then her flesh began to burn away. The fire burned to the skull and began to devour the rest of the griffon .

As the in ash covered bones fell to the ground Tremor released his grip around the skull and it dropped on the ground and smashed it into pieces with a forceful stomp.

He made his way out of the building again with a smile and on the way he used the burning hoof to set the house on fire.

Tremor began to walk through Griffonstone with an evil grin and as he walked by he set everything on fire. Behind him began a path of fire that began to spread over the old tree that hold the city.

As he had reached the end he looked over the cliff of the city and with a quick stomp his shoe stopped burning.

Tremor then closed his eyes. For some time he embraced the sound of pain and destruction. He heard cries for help coming from the burning buildings and the sound of breaking bones and dying screams echoed from everywhere. He took a deep breath. As he sniffed the air he was filled with the smell of smoke and burned flesh.

While he embraced his masterpiece he heard a shout from behind him. He turned his head and saw that a griffon was flying towards him with a spear pointing at him.

Tremor smiled and as the griffon reached him he took a step to the side and grabbed the griffon at the neck. He slammed him on the ground and laughed. "How pathetic."

He pressed the griffon down with one hoof and with the other one he grabbed one of his wing. He began to pull the wing and it was slowly ripped from the back of the griffon who screamed in pain. Slowly the flesh and the mussels began to rip and Tremor threw the torn off wing away. Then Tremor grabbed the other one. Again he slowly ripped it of the back and threw it away. The now wingless griffon was screaming and writhing in pain.

Tremor watched the agony of his victim with delight and began to chuckle. He dragged the griffon at the neck towards the cliff the griffon left a trail of red blood behind him. Tremor lifted the griffon up and hold him over the deep abyss. The griffon looked down and saw how the blood of his back began to drip down into the cliff. As the horror began to fill his eyes Tremor grinned and let go of the neck. He watched as the griffon, unable to fly, fell down into the depth with a scream of terror.

He turned away from the cliff and looked at the burning city in front of him. He turned into a black cloud and flew into the sky. Tremor flew above the city and shouted with a echo in his voice. "It is time to retreat! NOW!"

A moment later the shadow ponies left the black cloud that surrounded the city. The black cloud began to slowly fade and the now burning city was viewable again. The whole tree was burning in the dark fire that Tremor has created.

Tremor knew that soon the entire tree will have burned down to the roots. Without the roots the entire mountain will collapse leaving nothing but destruction.

As his troop flew away they spotted a small group of griffons that managed to escape. One of the soldiers asked Tremor about it. "Some griffons are escaping. Should we hunt them down?"

The troop already got ready to change the course but Tremor stopped them. "No! Let them spread what happened here. The world shall see what happens if they stay in our way!"