The hatred of the shadow

Malonex spent the rest of the day alone without any more visitors. He created the last potions he needed for his plan. 'Tonight I can finally begin with the first phase of my plan.'

At the evening a guard entered the prison to take the potions over night and like usual, Malonex placed one of them in the hiding spot and gave them the rest. After the guard was gone he sat on the ground and began to meditate.

In his mind he was in the black room again and his master was standing in front of him. "It is time my apprentice. The plan will start tonight."

Malonex nodded and they both closed their eyes. They concentrated and began to reach out with their magic.

A small black crow, made out of smoke flew out of the prison. With high speed it flew to his destination, Canterlot.

After an hour long flight the crow reached Canterlot in the middle of the night and it began to search. For hours it looked out for its goal till it sensed the unicorn. It found that its target was in a small house.

It entered the house through a open window and saw the simple inside of it. The target lived in a small room with one bed. On the nightstand next to the bed was a picture of a stallion with his wife and daughter.

The crow looked down at the bed. A gray stallion with a brown mane was lying in it. The strange thing about him was that half of his face was covered in dark crystal and his right front hoof was complete made out of crystal. The crow few inside of the head of the stallion.

The stallion saw himself inside a black room. He looked around for some time before smoke began to gather and Malonex was standing in front of him. "Greetings Lock Changer, long time not seen."

Lock was surprised to see Malonex but quickly got his mind back together. "I didn't expect to see you ever again after I heard what happened."

"So you know what I did and who I really am?"

Lock nodded with a smile. "And it doesn't matter to me. No matter if you name is Fallen or Malonex, you saved my life. So, what is the reason for your visit, I don't think it was easy for you to reach me."

"It took me two years to finally get that far and even now I can only talk with you this one time. I am here to ask for your help."

Lock looked at Malonex and asked. "You still want to free your race and take over Equestria?"

Malonex nodded and Lock smiled as responds. "Well I will gladly help you no matter what your plans are."

Malonex was surprised by such an happy reaction. He already prepared a mind control spell for the case that he wouldn't agree. "Why are you so relaxed after I said I would take over Equestria and probably kill many ponies with an army of darkness? Most ponies would immediately try to get away from me."

Lock just shrugged. "I don't care if your kind is the darkness. If you want to free your kind there is nothing wrong with that goal. And if your kind wants to claim Equestria it is in the hoofs of the princesses how this would go. If even one ponies dies it is their fault that they decide to fight."

After this sentence Malonex smiled the first time after a long time from his own happiness and not the pain and fear of others. "Then I need your help to get free of my prison."

"So what is the plan?"

"Next night you will steal my old equipment out of the laboratory I used while I was free. You will use the instructions I will leave behind. That is all I can tell you for now. I expect to see you in two days."

Malonex disappeared from the black room and Lock Changer woke up. He looked around and saw the black crow standing in front of a notepad. As it noticed that Lock saw it flew directly into the notepad.

Lock levitated the notepad to him and saw that words began to form. These were the instructions Malonex told him about. He read them and then stood up. He searched through his nearly complete empty house to find all thing he needed for his trip.

Malonex was back in his own mind and his master looked at him. "Did the plan work?"

Malonex nodded. "Yes and even better than we expected. It seems that he will support us with his free will."

A sinister smile appeared on Sombras face. "Perfect. Now we just have to wait and hope that he will execute the plan without any problems."

Sombra turned into a black cloud and fell apart. As Malonex was alone in his dark room he decided that this was not the time to meditate.

Malonex opened his eyes and was back in his cell. He knew that it was still late in the night and got onto his crystal bed for some sleep.

The next morning Malonex was woken by the sound of guards entering the prison. They walked to his cell with his breakfast. They placed it in his cell and one guard sat down to watch him for today. Another guard gave him his potions back.

Malonex took the potions back and began his experiments like every other day. After some time Malonex noticed that he needed an ingredient that he didn't had. He tried to do it without it but it failed.

He sighed and walked to the transparent wall to talk to the guard. "You. I need you to bring me a ingredient that I need."

The guard shook his head "No, I have my orders. I can't leave my post."

Malonex sighed, this was a problem. He needed this ingredient to finish the potion he was working on and if he waited too long the potion will lose its effect in a bunch of hours.

He decided to just wait till the next visit and hoped that it wouldn't be too late.

Malonex spent the rest of the morning creating other potions in silence but later he heard some ponies entering the prison. He heard voices talking.

The first one was Bright. "Are you sure? He wasn't in the best mood the last days."

He heard the voice of a filly answer. "We are sure! We want to help him too!"

He heard two other fillies agreeing to the first one. "She is right!" "Yeah!"

Malonex saw Bright entering the room together with a unicorn, an earthpony and a pegasus filly. As he saw them he remembered that he already saw them years ago and spoke to them. "So you three want to 'help' me?"

They stopped and Bright talked to him. "Yes, they are here to talk a bit with you."

Malonex looked down at them and grinned devious. "Are you already so far that you sent foals to change me? I guess you and Rising are out of ideas?"

Bright stayed calm and turned to the fillies. "If you are sure that you want to talk with him..."

She was interrupted by Apple Bloom "We are sure!"

Bright nodded, still not very sure herself. "Well then I leave you alone. Guard, you should come with me."

The guard hesitated for a moment but decided to follow her order.

She turned around and left the prison. The three fillies turned back to Malonex after she left the room.

Malonex turned around and began to work on a different potion as he heard the fillies talking to him. "Hey don't turn around we want to talk with you!"

He turned back and looked down at them. "Talking with little foals is beneath my dignity."

"Please! We just want to talk a bit."

Malonex just growled at them and turned back to his potions. They couldn't see that he was smiling. "Stop wasting my time."

Sweetie Belle stepped a bit closer to the wall. "Can't we do anything to get you to talk with us?"

Malonex turned around to them and looked at all of them with a short grin. "Maybe there is something I want and if you get it for me I will talk with you."

"They all smiled at him and asked at once. "What is it?"

Malonex smiled sinister. "Fresh dragon blood."

As they heard this they turned around and began to whisper to each other. After a few seconds Malonex turned back around. "Well if you can't do it than we won't come to an agreement."

He was pleased as he heard that they began to talk faster and louder. He head a few words like 'have to', 'no other way' and 'at least try'.

They turned back around and Apple Bloom talked to him. "We agree. We will bring you your dragon blood and then you will talk to us."

Malonex nodded and he heard them running out of the prison. He only had to wait a few minutes till they came back with a vial full with red blood. "We have to thank Spike later again."

"We have what you wanted!" They walked to the transparent wall and held the vial in his direction. Malonex just raised their eyebrow at them and waited for them to realize.

A few seconds later they realized that there was a wall and the door was magically locked. They ran away again only to return a later with the general. They dragged and pushed him towards the door.

Malonex waited a few moments till he talked to the general. "And I already thought that my view on the royal guard was too low but you can't even stop three fillies."

The general ignored that statement and opened the door. He threw the vial at Malonex who caught it with his magic and the general closed the door again and left the prison without a word.

Malonex looked at the blood of a moment and then walked with it to his potion. He put a few drops of the blood inside and put the vial away. After that he began to work on other potions.

He heard protest of the fillies. "Hey you said you would talk with us if we bring you the blood! Now talk with us!"

Malonex sighed and walked back to the transparent wall. "If you insist, ask me whatever you want."

They stepped forward now completely serious. "Why are you doing this?"

He raised an eyebrow a such an simple question. "Didn't the others told you?"

"They said a few thing but we want to hear it from you."

Malonex looked at each one of them before he answered. "They probably told you something about my magic corrupted me or even my master did it... No, the real reason is more personal. As I found out that I can use dark magic I was happy to know what I could do in my future but soon I found out that other ponies didn't had the best view on dark magic. I was hated and feared my whole life."

Malonex closed his eyes as he went on talking. "I learned to live in darkness and without anypony else. After years I knew that I was alone, the only free umbrum."

Malonex opened his eyes again and they were glowing with dark magic. "My kind is hated and feared because they dared to take a power enerypony else was too afraid to use. It is a old saying of shadow ponies that I learned from my father's book that said, 'only these who dare to go the farthest are these who are destined to conquer and rule.' My kind will take what belongs to us!"

He stared at the three fillies for a short time and then turned around and began to work on his potions. Apple Bloom was the first who talked to him again. "Wait, we have more questions!"

Malonex didn't even turned around to answer them. "Not my problem. I promised to talk with you I never said how much. Now go and do something else, I am working."

They tried to talk with him multiple times but after a hour of trying they gave up and left the prison without a word. As they left the guard walked back inside and Bright talked to them. They told her what happened and said that they were sorry that they couldn't do more. Bright thanked them for trying and told them that they should go home. After they left Bright went into the castle to start her lesson for today.

At noon Lock made his way to the train station in Canterlot. He wore a brown cloak to make sure that no other pony could recognize him or see his crystal face and hoof. He sat down in a empty seat in the train and looked through his equipment again.

Some anti magic shoes, a few throwing knives, a notepad, a quill, a jar of ink and a dagger for emergencies.

He looked outside of the train and sighed. "Time to leave everything behind and move on." The train stated moving.

The train reached Ponyville a few hours later and Lock left the train. He made sure that no pony saw his face and walked away from the trains station. Since he still had a few hours till it would get dark he decided to walk around a bit.

As he walked through the town he avoided to talk to any pony. He made his way towards the castle. As the castle doors came into view he saw a few guards guarding the castle and the arena and even more at the prison.

While he walked towards the castle he tired to look as unsuspicious as possible while he tired to spot every position where the guards were placed. The guards watched every step he did towards the castle. As he came closer to the arena he heard sounds of somepony training coming from inside it.

He walked to the entrance and saw Rising Light. He recognized him from the instructions Malonex gave him. He quickly looked around to see if Bright was somewhere near. The instructions said that Bright would be able to see through every lie but not Rising.

After he couldn't see her he decided to wait here and watch a bit. Rising noticed him after a while and called out to him. "Can I help you?"

Lock nodded and stepped closer, in his mind he get through his fake story one more time. "Actually yes. I am Quill Tip and I am here to see the pony who is named Rising Light."

Rising put his hammer and his shield on his back and smiled. "Well that is me. How can I help you?"

"I am here on behalf of princess Celestia. She ordered me to write down the events of two years ago for the history books. I wanted to ask you a few questions about what happened since every other pony I asked, that was there, only remembers how it stated and ended but not what happened in the time between beginning and end."

"Oh, I didn't expected that this was all important enough to be written down. Maybe I should get Bright first, she was there too."

Lock shook his head hectically that his hood nearly fell from his head. "No Mr. Light. The princess told me to only talk with you. She said that I shouldn't force her to go through these memories again."

Rising nodded slowly. "You are probably right. So what is your first question?"

Lock took out the notepad and the quill from his bag and levitated them in front of himself. "It would be the best if you would start by telling me the exact events with all the details."

So Rising began to tell him about the events and Lock just wrote them down. At the end Rising sighed. "Now he is in prison and we try our best to change him back to his former self. Well that was the whole story. Is there anything else?"

Lock nodded. "Yes there is. I am quiet interested on seeing the laboratory he once worked in."

Rising raised an eyebrow before he answered. "That should be possible. May I ask why?"

"Just curiosity." Lock tried to look as honest as possible even with the hood hiding most of his expression.

Rising nodded and they left the arena and walked to the castle. Rising led the through the hallway to the basement where they reached a closed door with a crystal on top of it.

"This is the door to his laboratory. Till now we weren't able to open the door because as you can see," he pointed at the crystal, "the door is locked with a crystal and no pony besides Fallen knows which spell he used to locked it and he won't tell us which one it was."

Lock looked at the crystal and lifted his normal hoof to his chin. "Maybe you should consider to hire a specialist."

Rising nodded. "We searched for one but none of them was able to open the door."

Lock tired to sound as disappointed as possible. "That is a shame. But I think I have to go now. I still have some writing to do."

Rising nodded and he led Lock out of the castle. At the entrance Lock turned around. "Thank you for your time. I wish you a good day."

Rising nodded. "Good day Quill."

Lock walked away and made his way back to the town. He looked at the sun and saw that it was already late. 'Not long and I have to start.'

He spent the rest of the time wandering around till the sun set down at the horizon and the moon lifted high in the sky. As everything was dark he walked quietly back to the castle and saw guards leaving the prison but that didn't matter to him for tonight, he had a different goal.

He walked around the castle till he found a open window. The window lead him into the kitchen of the castle. Before he went inside he took out the note with the description of the items he was suppose to get.

After that he climbed through the window and left the kitchen as fast as possible. He quietly walked through the castle to get the basement.

A short time later he was inside of the basement it was filled with bookshelves and he walked to the locked door to the laboratory. He got through the instructions once again.

'The door is locked with a heat beam that was cast through a dark crystal. The crystal needs to have my magical aura on it.'

Lock lifted the crystal leg in front of his horn and began to cast the heat beam. It went through the leg and turned darker. It hit the crystal and the crystal responded with a bright glow.

After it stopped glowing Lock pushed against the door and like expected it was open now. He walked into the windowless dark room. He used his horn to lighten up the room.

As he saw the room he remembered that this was where he woke up one time and met Malonex the first time. On the day that changed everything for him. He still couldn't remember how he got here on that day, but he remembered that it was Malonex who gave him the crystal parts to save his live.

He looked around the room and began to search for all items. First he searched for the easier stuff. The first was a red crystal spike, Malonex warned him to be careful to not get in contact with the tip. He also took a few of the books that Malonex said were important.

After he put the books and the spike in his bag he searched for the locked shelves. As he found them he took a look at the locks. 'These locks are really well made, I should ask Malonex where he got these.'

He closed his eyes and began to concentrate. He used his magic to unlock the shelves and after only the second he could hear all the locks on the shelves open at once.

He stepped to the first one and quickly found the book he should find at any cost. A black book with a dark crystal on the cover. Next came a few of the notes that were lying loose in one of the shelves. Lock saw a few protocols of complex spells.

In the next shelve was nothing more than just a sphere that looked like it was filled with dark smoke he could see many small green lights inside of it. He felt somehow uncomfortable looking at it so he put it in one of his bags as quickly as possible. Form the other shelves he took a few more items but mostly old books and a few bags full of bits.

After he was sure he had everything he needed he stopped the light of his horn and left the room. He used the heat beam cast through his leg again to lock the door.

The crystal glowed a bit and Lock changer walked to the door to see if it is locked. As he tried to push the door he heard two ponies walking towards the basement. Lock ran to the entrance of the basement and hide behind a bookshelf. He heard them walking down the stairs.

The first guard began to talk to the other one. "I tell you. I saw a light coming from down there! This laboratory is cursed"

"Did you had the prison-shift today or why are you so paranoid?"

"No I already did my turn at the beginning of this month. Now let's just look if there is something down there."

The second guard sighed. "Fine..."

A unicorn and an earthpony guard with spears entered the basement. They walked to the middle of the basement and looked at the door. Lock attempted to leave as he heard the earthpony talking again.

"I am sure I saw a light coming from here! Don't you unicorns have some sort of spell to see if something was here?"

"Fine I will do it. But I bet you I will find nothing..." After a short time the guard grasped in shock. "The crystal was affected by magic!"

"What?" The other guard shouted

"Quick we have to call alarm. The pony who did this must be still in the castle the aura is new!"

Lock began to panic and struggled to decided what to do. He saw the guards walking back to the entrance of the basement and he knew that there was only one way out for him.

He jumped out from behind his hiding spot and took out one of his throwing knifes and immediately threw it at the unicorn. It hit him in the forehead and he immediately sunk to the ground.

The other guard was to surprised to act and could barely lift his spear as Lock dashed at him. Lock used his crystal hoof to knock down the spear again and levitated his dagger out of his bag.

He used it to pierce directly through the throat of the guard. The guard tired to shout but only spit a few drops of blood on the ground.

A second later he fell to the ground too. Lock quickly took the knife and the dagger and used his magic to remove the blood. He put them back in his bag and decided the leave as fast as he could.

He sneaked back to the kitchen and jumped out of the same window he entered the castle.

He ran away and hoped that no pony would see him. As he was out of the view of the castle he slowed down a bit. He began to walk normal through the town. He made his way to the edge of Ponyville and left it. With slow steps he walked away from the town till he had reached a small hill.

He closed his eyes and began to sleep.