The Man in the Shadows

Derrinus stabbed and slashed at the wraiths that were swarming his adventuring party with his trusty dagger, Sanguine Crescent. The wraiths were able to get the drop on them because the wraiths had been here for ages, even though they were in a moderately large burial chamber. One of the wraiths singled Derrinus out and was quick to attack. As they fought, Derrinus realized the was dagger having little effect on the wraith as the poison on the blade couldn't harm the ghostly apparitions. The wraith was gaining the upper hand, until it was blasted into nothingness by a flaming ray on psionic energy to the side.

Derrinus surveyed the battle around him and began to realize that he was the only one having trouble with the wraiths. Being just a petty thief doesn't lend much to combat skills, and he began to once again envy the combat skills and magic his companions. He had no innate magical power, just the ability to pick locks and disable traps. Though he did have a talent for jewel crafting and speaking elven as well as common, that didn't count as a magical power. His party, however, had both in spades. He watched as a beautiful half-elf monk and tall, wiry human fighter used their fists and powers to crush their opponents while a battle hardened human soldier, brandishing his summoned musket, decimated undead from across the burial chamber. The powerful psion who saved him earlier was barking orders to the party while unleashing psionic attacks upon the enemy. The wounds the party has sustained are healed as a short, talented human bard plays a wonderful melody. Derrinus then turns his attention to the item the client wanted, an amulet worn by the mummified corpse of an ancient king. The mummy is wailing away at the groups paladin, who is using his divine might to make the mummy focus on him and only him. Derrinus makes his way behind the mummy to try and give the mighty paladin an advantage.

Derrinus struck away at the mummy, quickly becoming a nuisance to the it. It can't strike him because of the paladin who has engaged it. As the party finishes the rest of the wraiths, the mummy lands a hefty blow on the paladins head, causing a lapse in concentration. Without the paladins concentration, the spell fails to continue; allowing the mummy to remove the rogue from the fight. With a mighty kick, the mummy knocks the rogue off balance while conjuring a sandstorm to tear away at the party.

The world seemed to slow as Derrinus watched his some of his companions avoided the attack while the paladin weathered the storm with his armor. Derrinus, knocked off balance and lightly armored, could only scream as the sand literally ripped him apart.

Derrinus slowly regained consciousness. He looked around, finding himself floating in some sort of void. Where am I? Am I dead? The rogue looked at himself, surprised to find that he still had his gear with him. He couldn't hear any sounds and all he saw was faint lights all around him. This 'void' had a calm and serene atmosphere to it, accompanied by the beautiful lights around him. If this is the afterlife the gods saw fit for me, then I better be thankful. I could spend an eternity here.

Derrinus floated for among the lights for a long time. He didn't know if was mere hours or if it was days, he didn't care. Then, he heard a deep rumbling sound, almost like a beast bellowing in the dark. Curious, Derrinus turned towards it, only to see something that truly terrified him. Among the light, was a large black object with tendrils coming off it in every direction. One of these tendrils extending towards him. It took Derrinus a second to process the threat, and it was too late once he did. The tendril wrapped around his mid section, pulling him toward the writhing mass.

Now that Derrinus was closer, he could see it for what it was. He was being pulled into the Shadow Plane, a realm of darkness and undeath. He struggled and stabbed at the tendril, he tried everything to get away. Derrinus didn't want to be taken to the plane of undeath and evil so soon after dying. As it pulled him closer, he got desperate. He began praying, begging for something to get him out of this mess. Then, like a godsend, one of the lights drew close, showing itself to be another plane of existence. It collided with the tendril, tearing through the tentacle like appendage. Derrinus was still moving, though, now toward the other plane; as it was in front of the Shadow Plane. As he floated, he could feel the sheer amount of good energy coming from the other plane. He felt the tendril quiver as unlife left it, leaving only a husk of shadows wrapped around him. As he reached the outer barrier of the plane, Derrinus had one thought. This is going to hurt.

Twilight Sparkle was sitting behind the telescope on the balcony of her tree house in Ponyville. She was having trouble falling asleep after a long day of cleaning up after the Summer Sun Celebration when she felt a surge of magic. To feel surge of this scale so soon after the return of Nightmare Moon, she had to be vigilant. Celestia wouldn't be able to sense it due to her recovering from being trapped within the sun. So here she was, up later than normal peering in the direction of the surge. As the night drew on, she began getting tired, having seen nothing for hours. She retreated into her home, telling her sleep addled mind that she will look into it in the morning.

What she failed to notice, however, was the shadow moving through the night sky and landing in the Whitetail Woods.