Lonely Among Us

After sending the captain, to the moon, Celestia had hoped everything would get back to normal… or as normal as could be expected - unfortunately, it was not to be. In the following months, Equestria’s troubles just kept piling up. Random pony deaths still occurred, but what’s even worse, magic ‘holes’ - places where magic was nonfunctional - started to form, disappear and then re-appear, all over the country.

“Twilight! Darling stop, please!” Rarity shouted to the purple alicorn.

“Oh, hi Rarity… Look, I need to hurry for my train - what’s on your mind?" Twilight asked, but in reality - she already knew the question.

“I think you know the answer to that, my dear… It has been three months - how long does Celestia intend to keep him there?”

Twilight looked to the ground, she knew she didn't have the answer to that question. “I don’t know… every time Luna or I try to talk about him, she immediately changes the subject… I guess she got her hooves full with the current crisis," she answered with resigned voice, "In any case, I doubt he will return anytime soon - I am sorry.”

Rarity didn't respond at first, but deep inside she was furious - to her James was a hero, he not only saved her and her little sister, but he was also a friend to Fluttershy, and defended her from that bully Hoops - how could Celestia do this to him?

In the meantime, Twilight’s train arrived - before she was able to board it, Rarity finally spoke her mind. “This is… this is an OUTRAGE if you ask me!” she shouted angrily.

“Rarity, I know how you feel - but for now, there is nothing I can do…” Twilight responded with a sad voice, as she boarded the train.

She knew precisely how Rarity felt - while she and Fluttershy were hit the hardest by the news of the captain’s ‘whereabouts,’ Twilight herself was also hurt deeply. She knew he saved her brother when he didn’t have to and surrendered willingly to save lives. Since even after his departure, ponies were still dying in unexplained circumstances - both she and Celestia knew, he was not responsible for the deaths, they suspected him of earlier. So why didn’t she want to bring him back? It didn’t make sense…

***

When Twilight arrived at the briefing room - everypony else was already there, waiting for her. “Alright, since Twilight is here we shall get started,” Celestia said. “Captain, report.”

“I am afraid we got more bad news. Three more ponies died from this weird magic, and we still weren’t able to identify the culprit. What we can say with near certainty, is that captain Gastovski is not responsible,” Shining Armor said, hoping for some reaction from the Princess relating to James, but she remained stoic, “we also got reports of another weird magical shifts - apparently magic stopped working in the center of Manehattan for two hours yesterday, then returned to normal, similar thing happened in Cloudsdale and Appaloosa. I’m afraid we still can’t explain it, your majesty-”

“What we do know,” Luna interrupted, “is that these magical shifts or ‘holes’ are getting stronger - at first only unicorn magic was affected, but now pegasus flying powers, as well as earth ponies stamina is too.”

“But how these ‘holes’ are formed,” Twilight interjected, “or how they work, is still a mystery - they seem to be localized phenomena, but other than that we don’t know much.”

Celestia stood up, and walked towards a window in silence… everypony knew she was under a lot of pressure to sort this out and yet - she couldn’t find any answers. Finally, she asked with her stoic voice, “Do you think he could do any of those things, from the moon?”

There was silence - everypony knew this was next to impossible, even Celestia herself wouldn’t be able to affect Equestria directly from that distance. “Your Highness,” Twilight responded, “this is impossible… whatever is happening, the answers lie somewhere here.”

Suddenly, another pony revealed himself from the shadow of the room, he was a black alicorn, his cutie mark was a gray shuriken on a black background, he was wearing a ninja-like outfit and carried two swords on his back. “She is absolutely right my dear Tia."

***

“SHADOWDANCER?! But that’s-” Celestia couldn't believe her eyes.

“Impossible? Hardly… that’s your problem, Tia. You always use temporary solutions to permanent problems - Sombra, Discord and ME,” the voice of the black figure was chilling, and his eyes were full of menace.

“Enough! Whoever you are, you are speaking to the ruler of Equestria! Show some respect!” Shining Armor demanded as he drew his sword.

“I admire your spirit, but your lack of respect for MY persona saddens me… perhaps a little lesson will fix that?” Shadowdancer said with a grin on his face, and then a bolt of black magic hit Shining Armor directly to the chest, sending him to the nearest wall.

“BROTHER!” Twilight shouted in horror, as she saw Shining Armor lying motionless on the floor. “YOU MONSTER!” she tried to charge her horn, but Celestia stopped her.

“What do you want Shadowdancer?” Celestia asked with unrest in her voice.

The black figure went slowly to the nearest window, turning his back towards the Princess. “I am here, to take back what you have taken from me. And I am not alone Princess, we are ALL back - the Clan of Shadows is reborn! And this time we will make sure there are no interruptions to our plans!” he said calmly with a chilling voice.

Twilight - who was still near her unconscious brother - stood up and inquired angrily, “Who are you…? Why did you attack my brother?!”

"Twilight Sparkle... Is it? Don’t worry… he is only stunned - this time. And who am I? Hmm, I guess, I am not surprised you don’t know - Celestia made sure of that. Do you know the story of pony unification?” Twilight nodded to confirm - only to be interrupted abruptly, “No, you don’t! Or at least you don’t know the whole story - perhaps it is time to introduce your student to that forbidden part of the history, my dear Princess?”

Reluctantly, Celestia agreed and started talking, “Before the unification, most ponies lived in small communities, without anybody ruling over them, but there were exceptions - one of them was a country ruled by the ‘Clan of Shadows’ - Shadowdancer here, was their leader.

“They were a group of unicorns who only accepted the strong - those who didn’t pass their ‘initiation’ test were forced as slaves to the rest of their community. They also enslaved others - especially earth ponies, seeing them as lower life forms,” Celestia sighed heavily.

“They were the only pony nation that not only refused unification - they officially opposed it! Threatening to start a war at every opportunity. This finally happened, by the time Luna and I became the rulers of Equestria.

“During that brief war, many ponies died, many others were enslaved, but in the end Clan of Shadows was defeated and Shadowdancer killed… or so we thought. I ordered that history wiped forever, so no other ponies would ever try, to follow their ‘ideals.’”

Shadowdancer put a sarcastic smile. “As you can see, the reports of my death were greatly exaggerated - we were just waiting for the right moment to act. The first time we tried to strike 1000 years ago with Nightmare Moon,” he pointed his hoof at Luna, “but we didn’t know the true power of the Elements of Harmony back then, so she lost-”

“It was YOU?!" Luna suddenly interrupted his speech, "The voices… We knew they sounded familiar but... YOU?!”

“Yes… actually, I must commend you, my dear Luna - you were extremely resilient! We had to brainwash you slowly for months before you cracked… I was actually looking forward to having you by my side,” Shadowdancer responded calmly, with a sincere voice. “Anyway, as I was saying, the Elements of Harmony saved you back then Tia… but not this time.”

“We shall see about that!” Celestia responded with irritation.

“Oh… but we already have… all those magic ‘holes’ you witnessed, all the 'accidental' deaths - didn’t that gave you any clue?” Shadowdancer answered with a mocking voice.

“You did this? You killed those ponies? Answer ME!”

The black figure shook his head. "Those who died did it willingly - they were our own people, part of the clan - they were willing to become our test subjects."

"Test subjects for what?" Twilight inquired.

Shadowdancer replied with a grin, “We are draining Equestria of its magic, or rather we are making it incompatible with your people. Thanks to the Tree of Harmony, soon none of you will be able to use your powers. Our people sacrificed themselves, to make this possible."

For the first time in millennia Celestia look really scared. If what he said was true, then soon Equestria would be defenseless. “YES… ironic is it not? The same instrument that saved your precious country many times over will be its doom this time!”

“NO! I won’t let you!” the Princess tried to shoot her magic, but to her horror - only a few sparks came out of her horn. Luna tried as well, but with the same effect.

“Hrmph, fools! It’s already over - your magic is GO-”

BAM!

Twilight managed to fire her horn just fine, hitting gloating Shadowdancer, and sending him across the room.

***

There was no time to lose. “Twilight QUICKLY! You must get to the tree of harmony! Undo whatever they did!" Celestia shouted as she used her physical strength to hold Shadowdancer down. Twilight didn’t need to be ordered twice, she jumped out of the window, just as the clan followers broke down the door to the meeting room.

“Stop her! Stop that alicorn!” Shadowdancer shouted, and then all hell broke loose - many unicorns on the ground started shooting. Twilight was dodging incoming fire the best she could, but finally one of the shots hit her wing.

“ARGH! OH NO!” she shouted to herself as she crash-landed in Canterlot’s castle gardens.

With her wing injured, It was obvious she will not make it to Ponyville, not to mention the Tree of Harmony. What’s worse, she could already see ponies running in her direction - some of them were wearing royal armor, but she knew they were probably Shadowdancer followers.

“OH What to do?! What to do?! Think Twilight thi-” suddenly, she realized she was near captain Gastovski's ‘departure point’ - she saw no other options, she quickly jumped onto the pad and started charging her horn. It was difficult - the power drain was beginning to affect her as well.

“Almost there… ARGH!” Twilight shouted when one of the guards knocked her to the ground.

“Surrender Princess! There is no way to run!”

“Except… UP!” she discharged her horn into the gyroscope-like thing.

“Missed me, you stupid mare! What did you try to-” guard stopped and quickly jumped off the platform when he realized what she did.

A second later, a bright flash of light occurred, and Twilight passed out…