Shadows of the Night

(Author's Note: Prereader: LunarLover thank you)

Blast it if mountain spring water isn't frigid!

I tried forming coherent thoughts whilst trying to scrub out most of the blood that was stuck to my underclothes, but I didn’t get much farther than, ‘cold, cold, cold…’. My cloak, however, simply let the blood upon it flow off like quicksilver, small miracles. Though, as cold as I was I simply couldn’t shiver. I knew it wasn’t hypothermia, because I certainly wasn’t feeling warm and/or sleepy, if anything the snow melted water had revived me some. Resistance to cold, now that was something useful (this comes to you from a guy who finds anything under ninety degrees Fahrenheit to be worthy of long sleeves). Still didn’t change just how hungry I was. I pulled the darkness around me and made my way into a copse of trees in the garden before the entrance to the Royal Hedge Maze, I was hoping to, hopefully, find some food still there. When the two bouncers weren’t there to greet me I had already prepared for the worst, but it didn’t quite end up like I expected anyway.

I followed the red line, which was rent to shreds, and just flat out missing in some places, to find all the tables upturned that had once held food. It looked like the stampede from Jumanji had busted through here. I know I wasn’t a ranger of much of a woodsman or tracker, like, at all, but all the perfectly shaped foot indentions of nearly every sort of shape and size was an elementary clue that not even I could miss. All the food that had reached the ground was smooshed, and all the food that had somehow remained on a structure of some kind was completely eaten, and rather messily too if the haphazard way huge chunks seemed to be taken out of them was.

‘Back to the kitchens!’

Calling the ever darkening shadows of the maze around me they began to slide over my skin and begin their familiar twine, when a brain splitting wail began to resonate in my skull.

‘No, I hate it there!’ It felt so weak, and frightened. That is to say I knew that if Caligo was wiped out then Nightmare must have been exhausted, if at least a little. So if she was able to manage a migraine inducing wail, I was not about to get her worked up to a point where that would, at the very least, continue, if not get stronger.

‘Look, I know you have some issues with this, but I NEED to get some food, not to mention I’m employed at this castle, both of which I rather enjoy.’

It was weird to hear it, but it felt like Nightmare was hyperventilating. ‘Plea… Please, please just go, I hate this place!’ A tear, not of my own, began to well up in the corner of my eye. ‘I can’t stand to be here. She lives there! Can’t you find food someplace else?’

Well, there it was, it was either help pacify an ancient energy construct, that has taken on a female persona, or… oh who was I kidding, I couldn’t even come up with another idea. But that meant that I’d have to leave my new home, my first, actual, friends since first grade (shut up), and my rather mundane, but still enjoyable, job, but mostly my best friend Twister. She had been there since my first day at the castle, and actually understood the boundaries between friendly joking and pranks, unlike a certain blue pegasi I knew of. I’d be giving up all of that. And I didn’t like it, but it was the right thing to do, right? A quick response from my conscience, that had long, unwillingly, rolled over from my lie of an existence here gave a swift and well thought out rebuttal of pain.

With an exasperated sigh I whispered the phrase that had gotten me through the many situations in which I gave up some comfort in order to help someone else, even it was a bit of a chore, “Dammit.”

‘Somnium, I promise you, I won’t let any harm befall you whilst we’re in the castle. In fact, we’re going to leave, BUT, I need to, at the very least give my goodbyes to those who have shown some care to me while I have worked here. AND, I will do this as fast as I can.’ I could still feel the waves of anxiety she was radiating in mass quantities, but she gave a silent acquiesce and relaxed a little at the calling of her former name. So I, once again, pulled up my shadow proxy around me and drew upon the shadows that connected me to the servant’s bedchambers.

***

“Dear sweet Celestia, there you are!” was the relieved/angered shout that reached me once I made my way into the servant’s dining room, surprisingly coming from Weather Vein. “Do you know how long Twister made me search outside for you? Where have you been?”

“Umm, well this is a little embarrassing,” my proxy rubbed the back of his neck, “but I actually been in the restroom.” I let the implications of that sink in, considering I’d been gone for a few hours. This led to a small blush to appear on Vein’s face, as well as the Clean Sisters’ who’d come up after Vein had rocketed over to me. “So, does this mean that Twister is out there still looking for me?” Vein nodded. “Okay, well, I’d say we should all go out and go find her, but I’m afraid I’m in a rather desperate need for fluids.” This wasn’t entirely untrue, though I was still mostly hungry and the three of them went off.

I piled my plate high of fruits, mostly strawberries, and a few slices of mango that had managed to last this long into the night, grabbed a tall glass of milk, and began to chow down. It bothered me that anyone would go to such lengths, just trying to search for me. It seemed like such a waste of effort. Regardless, once they got back it would save me the time to write a letter to them and just tell them in a group.

Having finished my plate, I got up and proceeded to repeat the process, but decided to opt out and sat back down. This time around I tried to access my new powers, myself, since Somnium (she didn’t like being called Nightmare, like, AT ALL), was in too great a state of worry to attempt to help me with anything. It was… interesting. I sat there, blending into the shadows around the tables while I sent off my proxy, I felt kinda naked without it around me. It wasn’t so bad though, it kinda worked like a shell. I could make the whole thing solid, but at this point in time I was a little too green to do so for long, let alone well. When I was done the whole thing looked rather... block-y. As though it were a wooden replica a craftsman hadn't begun to put the final touches. The mane and tail were an absolute joke as well. Needless to say it wasn't going to fool anypony or one.

I ended up just going for the shell and putting on my normal shadow on it like an overcoat, then sent them walking over in unison to the buffet line. But before it made it the whole way back the darkness within the shadow just vanished. All the hardness I'd poured into it just vanished once it had reached a distance of about seven of my own paces it just popped out of existence. I tried calling it back to me, concentrating on making it real again. Once it came a mere two paces, of it's own, I pushed back into reality with a small push of, almost non-existent, wind. It was certainly a drag that this new power clearly had a range limit, but on the other hand, I technically have another super power, and that's always a plus I thought with a half-cocked grin.

I ended up just having to walk with my little hardened proxy and spend several minutes figuring on how to get the hooves to grab anything. Eventually I just gave up and did it myself, holding the tray aloft, sitting back down as my puppet followed behind me. It was just about to sit down when Twister burst into the room and started rocketing towards my proxy as the rest of the group followed swiftly behind.

Now over the past few weeks I’d gotten rather good at faking my proxy’s reality, a fist bump here, a contorted jab of the elbow there, but I’d never anything else beyond fleeting touches. So when a distressed looking Twister tackled by proxy and brought it down like a fainted goat, there wasn’t much I could think to do, I was rather out of my depth.

“You had me, err... us worried sick, where have you been?” Twister asked as she pushed her face into the stunned face of my proxy, which mirrored my own.

Gasping for air, “That’s what we were trying to tell you,” Vein said as he gulped a lungful of air, “he was in the restroom.”

This only got my proxy a queer stare from Twister. “Umm, yeah, I think I had some bad fruit for breakfast. Sorry, I really didn’t mean to get y’all worried.” I ended with a squinted grin, shrugging.

“Well don’t do it again, cuz I thought you’d been trampled or something when all those animals from the zoo busted out after you ran off.” Twister said as she got off my proxy and again adopted her more serious “I’ve got this” attitude.

“Understood,” was all I could muster until I could get my thoughts back in order. Something of which took longer than normal due to Somnium’s fear being pumped into my mind. I figured it was best to do it quickly so I simply stated, “well guys, I’m afraid I have some news for y’all, I’m leaving.”

All of them started shouting at once, some out of confusion, others in anger, and something about not to be such a drama queen and that stuff like this happens at pretty much all the time at the Grand Galloping Gala’s now-a-days, but I just waved my proxy’s front left hoof for silence.

“It’s not for any of those reasons, in fact, I don’t think I can tell you guys the real reason anyway. The point is, I just wanted to properly say goodbye to my friends that I’ve made here in this castle, so that I’d have one last happy memory of us all together before I left.”

That sure got everyponies attention, if the massive group hug my proxy received was any indication. Farewells and well wishes were given, but what bothered me the most was that Twister had some tears in her eye. ‘Why do people think I’m worth getting upset over?’

At any rate, I really didn’t have anything to grab, having led a surprisingly Spartan lifestyle, mostly due to the fact that everything I’d wanted had been provided in the castle, but upon asking if I might take some food with me I was, very, quickly saddled with some bags, each side begin filled with some long lasting food, mostly dried out fruit, and a few granola bars (at least, that was the closest approximation I could give, I’m not sure, they might have been granola), a canteen for water, a few other odds and ends I didn’t catch to see, and the top was layered with a few fresh candied green apples, compliments of Devil Cake who came to wish me off and how he was sorry to see me go.

They’d actually made me walk all the way outside, rather than just vanish away, much to my pleased chagrin. It made me feel rather warm inside to think that I’d made such an impression on them that they would go to such lengths, almost, until my conscience gave me a long overdue spike of pain because all they’d ever known was a fake. That certainly put a damper on my mood, which never showed on my proxy, which maintained its smile.

Once we were at the castle gates, I turned around and gave them one last goodbye, and as they gave their own farewells I gave call to the shadows as they thrust me forward out into the night.

That was a horrible idea. But I suppose that’s what I get for trying to be dramatic. Without a proper idea of where to go I’d just popped up in one of the nearest shadows which, oh so luckily for me, led me to a lovely little steep incline over the side of the mountain, of which I took a bit of a tumble until I could grab my thoughts together and put myself down at the mountain’s base.

Waiting a few seconds for my head to clear, wiping and shaking the accumulated debris off myself, I then took a status check of the saddle bag that had gotten tangled up around me on my way down. I was certainly missing a few things, and the candied apples were gone, one of the clasps had come undone, and the granola was back to being oatmeal. All in all, though, things were pretty okay, if only a little bruised. But going through my pack had left me with one positive note, I found it. Specifically, an item that would allow my shadows purchase in the day, something that would finally allow me to access my bank account, an umbrella. A compact one to be sure, but it would work, and I could always get a bigger one later.

No longer worried about being able to have to buy such necessities like food, and other assortments, until my own store was used up, I felt pretty good, though that may just me being nonplussed at Somnium’s fear lessening with the distance between her and the royal Canterlot Castle widening.

‘Well, at least someone’s happy.’ That was good enough for me, for now, as I made my way down the road trying to figure out where to go from there.