It was a beautiful morning-- birds singing, flowers blooming, pegasi in the sky working the weather-- everypony was happy! Everypony except Lyria, Lyria was not happy -- she was never happy when the sun came up...
"I almost wish Nightmare moon was in rule..." A wide smile grew on her face, as she remembered her past and with a sickly-sweet tone she spoke to her mirror, "Shade, don't you remember what it was like before those.." She looked for the word as her search was cut off by a voice from the mirror.
"Preposterous? Irrational? Ill-advised?" A mare with a curved horn, pitch black mane, and glittering silver coat spoke from the mirror.
"Yes, before those preposterous princesses came to rule..." Lyria looked at the mare in the mirror, "How's your banishment, Shade?"
"Horrible as usual.. but this time I have a plan to escape... and when I do... those foolish princesses wont see it coming...It will be just like the way it was before those princesses came to rule..." Shade looked off into the distance.
"And if you fail again... it will be my turn." Lyria spoke with an impatient tone.
"I wont fail... not to the likings of those foolish alicorns, not again." She glared at Lyria, then turned and left after adding,
"Soon, we will be the ones ruling and they will be the ones following..." And the mirror was simply a reflection of Lyria again after.
"You better not fail... I don't like failures, you of all ponies know this..." Lyria said this even though Shade could not hear her anymore.
~~~~~~~~
Later in that day Lyria went back to the mirror, "Shade?" She waited for a reply and soon got one.
"Yes, that's my name. What do you want?" Shade replied.
"Oh, shame... I'd think you were smart enough to escape by now." Lyria gave off an ill intended smirk.
"It's a shame you can't just let me out-" She cut off with a giggle,"But wait! You don't have that type of magic! YOU don't have any magic! You're just a baticorn!" She made a joke about Lyria being a bat alicorn, "And for that horn of yours... you lost your magic just as I lost my freedom.." Shade watched Lyria's smirk fade.
"You're right..." Lyria submitted and then slammed her hooves onto the table that held the mirror in rage,"BUT DONT YOU FORGET WHO GAVE YOU THE POWERS YOU HAVE TO BEGIN WITH!" She screamed at Shade.
"Now, now, no need to get mad... YOU only gave me the spells... YOU never gave me the powers to go with them! I Earned my magic, And don't you forget that again." Shade seemed to have an oddly calm tone for somepony who just got yelled at.
Lyria calmed down, " I suppose you are right... but your magic is weakened from your banishment... the sooner you escape, the sooner you can regain your strength..." Lyria grinned.
~~~~~~~~
As the sun set and the moon rose the ponies soon went to sleep, yet within their sweet dreams darkness, fear, and nightmares began to play.
Shade laughed from her realm of mirrors and reflections, "Foolish princesses! Soon I will be back! And Equestria will be filled with fear and nightmares once again!" She cleared her throat, "Sounds good... Now to escape somehow and play that out for real... and not just as a rehearsal." She walked to princess Celestia's room in the reflection realm and looked into her mirror, seeing Celestia sleeping she smiled and used her magic to enter her dreams. "Oh how sweet... I hate it.." She saw Celestia dream of when Twilight became an alicorn princess, Celestia looked proud to see this memory.
"My prized pupil. I am so proud of you, Twilight." Celestia said softly before her dream began to grow dark until it was just a pitch black void that surrounded her and Shade.
"Hello, Princess Celestia." Shade spoke up and Celestia was shocked.
"Shaded Image? But- How? My sister and I banished you!" Celestia exclaimed, "How did you escape?"
Shade snickered,"I didn't escape, not yet... but now that you know I'm back, I expect a challenge this time, I grow more powerful with each passing moment." She smiled before leaving through a portal back to the realm she was banished to.
"Decades trapped here, and now it almost upsets me to plan my leave." She trotted outside the castle and looked to the grey sky, the whole world was colorless in this realm, "I cant recall the last time I've seen this world in color..." She walked to the lake, "I cant recall the last time somepony , a stranger, has talked to me and not ran, either." She sighed and stared up at the empty sky and watched time slowly pass and with each second she grew tired, before falling prey to slumber's out stretched hooves, that was the only comfort she ever got anymore.
As the sun rose Shade awoke to find herself alone again, in an empty, silent, colorless world. "Morning already..?" She sat up, "Time to continue planning." She sighed, beginning to wish she wasn't in this business.
Prologue: And So it Began.
Equestria hasn't always been peaceful, and at that it hasn't always had villains categorized as good or bad. . .
Two fillies were running around the school yard, one was an alicorn with bat wings, eyes, and ears, the other was
unicorn with a curved horn, a pitch black mane, and a glittering silver coat.
"You cant catch me!" One called out.
"I bet I can!" The alicorn replied and gave chase.
The two fillies were the closest of friends and two the others they seemed to be like normal fillies their age.
"Gotcha!" The alicorn hugged her friend.
"Lyria! Not so tight! I cant breath!" The other joked and Lyria let go, giggling.
"Hey Shade?"
"Yeah?"
"We're still meeting up tonight for 'you know what', right?" Lyria asked.
"Of course!" Shade smiled.
That night they met up just outside the everfree.
"I want to play a prank on the princesses!" Shade jumped up and down a few times out of excitement before calming down and adding, "But what to do..?"
"Let's take it a step down, and mess with all the ponies of ponyville!" Lyria grinned, wide.
"Okay! Want to try that spell you were making? The mirage one?"
"Sounds good! We can make everypony see some spooks!" Lyria giggled.
"Let's do it tomorrow!"
"Okay!" Lyria smiled. "See ya then!" She dispatched the meeting and skipped off.
"See ya..." Shade sighed when she was all alone, then it began to rain.
The next day when they came to school Shade and Lyria whispered to each other about timing,
"Let's do it at recess." Shade whispered.
"No! Let's do it now! it will have more impact!" Lyria disagreed.
"I guess it would be better to do it now... Okay! Let's do it!" Shade agreed and smiled.
"Okay!" Lyria suddenly got up and jumped onto the teacher's desk igniting her magic and casting a spell on all the ponies of ponyville except for Shade and herself.
"Lyria! Get off my desk!" The teacher exclaimed before going silent when the spell was cast.
The spell caused all of the ponies of ponyville to see nightmares as mirages, this was bad enough that Luna and Celestia had to come and take the spell off the ponies.
"Is this what you call fun?" Luna spoke to Shade and Lyria.
"Yeah!" Lyria shouted out.
"I guess.." Shade was ashamed that she took part in the planning of this.
Through out their foalhood they continued to cause trouble, it was only when they had both grown up that they created their evil plan to take control of equestria, and in doing so caused the banishment of Shade and Lyria's magic. Shade was banished the the mirror realm to keep Lyria and her separate so they could not continue their evil schemes, and without magic Lyria couldn't do much but sit idly by.
