Wretched Hive 3: The Gray Pony

The gray pony opened his eyes to a gleaming city. Made from beautiful crystals, it was a living paradise. The sky above was filled with the colors of the rainbow. Looking back to the streets, the strange shadow from earlier moved toward the center of town. The broad daylight gave the shadow a more misty look, like a unicorn made of shade rather than some demonic, swirling hole.

“Hey!” Kernel called out to the shadow. It kept shifting away. “Hey, I’m talking to you!” The shadow continued on, unhindered by his voice. Kernel galloped in pursuit. “You’re not ruining this world too!”

The dark pony turned to him. No eyes, even in daylight, stared through his soul. “Who are you?” a familiar voice echoed from its lack of a mouth.

“I am... Kernel.” The pony nodded. “Kernel.”

“Do you know where you are?”

The pony shook his head.

“No familiarities? None at all?”

Kernel glanced around the crystalline structures. Not a single memory came to his mind. “Should I be remembering this?”

“I can remember. So I persist. You cannot. You should die.”

Kernel took a step back.

The shadow took a shifty step forward. “You are dreaming, you know...” It shook its eyeless head. “You will awake without any pain. And staying asleep can’t give you the same promise.”

“How do I know I’m dreaming?” Kernel asked the shadow. “Could be some crazy spell teleporting me around!”

“You stand in the realm of the dead and ask for a sign of life with your own breath?” The shadow chuckled. “I do wonder what our host sees in somepony like you.” The shadow crooked its head dementedly. “You’re not even a pony, are you?”

“So what if I’m not?!” Kernel asked the shadow. “How do I know you’re not a pony!”

“You make me more sad than even myself,” the shadow admitted. “Now that’s an accomplishment.” It skulked backwards.

“Hey,” Kernel said in a more somber tone. “What do you call yourself?”

“Enemy.”

“Is... is that your name?”

“My name is an axe looming over my neck. My identity a dark and hollow shell. But they call me ‘Foresight.’”

Kernel’s eyes widened in realization. “I know you... You’re that changeling healer that helped the others!”

“Only after Advantage assuaged my bloodlust,” shadow Foresight corrected. “And you, the forbidden fruit that killed the Oasis.” The shadow nodded. “I think I know where we are...”

The shadow looked into a crystal jutting up from the ground, and a purple unicorn looked back at the shadow unicorn. He and the shadow frowned as they turned to the gray earth pony.

“Why are you a shadow?” Kernel asked Foresight.

“It is a mask,” the shadow explained. Its hoof pressed against the crystal and, upon touching its purple counterpart, shattered the mirror into a thousand pieces. “You know why we wear masks, don’t you?” it asked the startled pony as a thousand tiny ponies looked back at him from the ground. “We could be hiding what we are from strangers who might judge us. We could be hiding what we can be from enemies we seek to surpass. Or... we could be hiding what we were, and still are, from those we hold closest to ourselves.”

“Foresight?” the scared pony asked.

“Do not fear the shadows, Kernel. For they tell that a light shines upon you.” Foresight began to sink into the ground. “Instead, fear the absence of a shadow.”

Foresight disappeared into the black street. The crystals of the city twisted and turned to black. Two ponies made of the corruption appeared before the pony. They wore some kind of metallic armor and brandished large weapons made of the black crystals.

"Look what we have here!" screeched the guard on the left. She drew a sword.

A strange, if not haunting, guttural moan came from the guard on the right. Kernel turned and saw that the other guard was missing his lower jaw.

The guard on the left cackled. "That's right, Silence! Someone new to kill!"

Kernel turned and ran through the blackened streets, away from the demented guards.

The guard cackled again. "Oh ho! This one's much more fun than those 'changeling' things!"

Her blade struck Kernel's hind leg from behind, reducing his speed to a bleeding limp. The pony wished he had his changeling horn again. The thought occurred to him there was no reason he wouldn't have it... If it were just a dream.

The guard laughed as she circled her prey. Silence lumbered around them and raised his mace over the path Kernel was limping toward.

"What do they call you?" the pony asked his pursuers in pain.

"I am she who speaks for two!" the female guard gloated. "I talk for him but not for you!" She ushered her friend over.

The guttural moan returned, but the sounds rebounded inside Kernel's mind enough for him to make out a few words:
"She is a mother..."

He lifted his mace.

"She is a mother."

Kernel cowered and closed his eyes.

"She is a mother."

"Who's a mother?!" he screamed, hiding behind his closed eyes.

The female guard grabbed his throat with green magic and pulled him from his blindness. "Hi, there..." she said, chuckling. "You didn't think I'd let you die without knowing my name, huh?"

Kernel struggled in the unicorn's grip. "What... What?"

"Duplicity." She plunged her sword into his chest. His blood spilled onto the streets and she dropped him into it. He writhed on the cold, hard road.

The guards disappeared with a blink. As the blood drained from the pony, his vision painfully faded. A cold wind howled.

"She is a mother."