Shadows of the Night

I gave call to the shadows after walking a fair distance from Spinel’s gravesite, intent on going back to Canterlot, just out of habit, not really thinking. Somnium gave a quick pulse of distress, as well as a vindictive burst of pain along my spine.

‘I remember my promise to stay away from the castle,’ I thought. I just didn’t know where I was going. I half-thought that I might... I dunno, hitch a ride with a merchant. Especially with the lot of them that make their way through a town to keep the mountain city stocked. I could probably hire myself off as a guard, but on the other hand, what good would I be during the day? I wasn’t sure how long I could sustain solid shadows in the sunlight with the strain they caused me, but still, maybe.

Stepping out the dark portal I blinked onto the main street that, while it curved some, went straight to the Princesses castle. My boots made a dull clicking sound as I walked over the paved street, away from the castle. I truly had no idea what I was doing here, but it felt good to be able to walk down a hard street. It reminded me of my evening strolls I’d take when I had a particularly frustratingly pointless day of college.

Coating the shadows around me I sent them to swirl in little eddies and spirals under the eaves of the roofs around me for my own amusement. I continued to walk in the darkness, though it still seemed rather light to me, not so much due to the moon above, but when I looked into the dark it had a grey-scale quality to it. The real colors were there, but they were muted.

My left foot jostled a loose cobble, making an awful racket from the silence it had disrupted. I didn’t even have time to curse my clumsiness when I heard a single voice call out behind me.

“Halt, who goes there?” said a male voice, followed by the sound of hooves.

I looked behind and saw a trio of unicorns wearing dusty blue jackets with matching hats that sported a shining black bill, the police. As they rounded the corner however, they suddenly stopped and began to gaze around quickly.

“Yes sir?” I said, and all of their heads snapped towards my voice.

“The market place is closed, come out where we can see you.” Said the lead pony, who was largest of the three.

‘Oh, I’m in the market place…wait.’ Squinting quizzically, “I’m sorry sir, but what do you mean come out?” I was standing just to the side of the street. In fact, it was a good place to be surrounded. There were no alleyways, no doors or windows directly around me.

“You heard him,” the stockier one, to the left of the lead pony, said.

I couldn’t figure out what was wrong, but I thought it best to comply regardless, police officers were good guys in my book, after all, my dad was one.

Stepping out into the moonlight covered, white cobbled, street, and pulling off my hood it was only then, with the group gasping and looking up to my six foot four height, though closer to six since I like to stoop, that I remembered that it was quite unique to be able to see through darkness. In fact, since I could so readily do it, it was a little hard for me to label a lot of it as dark since, well, it didn’t obscure.

My hood down, I could hear them mumbling over a piece of paper that the lead pony was holding, the illumination provided from the glowing yellow aura that surrounded it. I caught a few snatches, mostly the word giant, two hind legs, yellow eyes, but what kinda bothered me was when I heard one say scraggly goat-beard, my chin hair is wispy not scraggly.

I didn’t get much farther with that train of thought when, “You, biped,” the lead unicorn shouted from across the street, horn ablaze in a yellow light, “You are under arrest for the felony assault of two pegasi and inciting public terror.”

My blood went cold as the other two unicorn police officers began to follow behind him. Both were trailing sparks from their horns as they encircled me. Despite the glow the area grew a little darker due to my fear, but lessened as my head bent down. I was a criminal.

Closer now, the lead pony with the yellow sparks, a slate grey coated stallion with a yellow mane, trotted up to me, coming up just a slight bit higher than my waist, and said in a commanding tone, “You will follow me to the station and put into holding. Do not attempt to escape or w- we will be forced to take action.” It had been small, but I heard his voice slip, I glanced down and saw his fore legs ramrod straight, but since that was a little harder to do with the back pair I could notice them shaking. I was instantly filled with shame, but that was what I got for doing what I’d done to a pair of, technically, non-criminals.

I slumped my shoulders, and muttered solemnly, “Yes sir,” as he turned around, letting out a nearly imperceptible sigh of relief that I was not some savage monster but a sentient, enough, creature, and we began our march through the moon-dappled town.

It didn’t take long to get to, I suppose the jail house, which sported opaque glass globes that jutted from there curved metal supports to greet me as I was led into the station. Walking inside, the same murky illumination showed stacks of papers on desks, some stain covered, and the wood beneath was thick, the varnish long gone from the used tops, the sides showing signs of cracking from many a coffee spill. As I was led to the front desk the lead unicorn said, “Captain Blocker, we’ve apprehended the creature Rumor.” The Earth pony, Blocker apparently, sat behind the desk and sported a white mane and tail, but sported a black comb moustache and mane. He raised a singular eyebrow when the grey one mentioned the name Rumor and I began to contemplate my navel.

“You expect me, to believe that you and the wonder twins,” Captain Blocker said in a bored brassy voice, “brought in the thing that took down the muscle bound pair of Crash and Burn with nary a lift of a... uh...” looking down at my sides, “...claw, Slate?”

I could feel their gazes upon me, but I couldn’t manage to justify or hide away from it this time. They were right to judge me, I shivered, a little, I was disgusting. The first human in Equestria and this is how I end up.

Pooling my thoughts to below me, a black circle of darkness grew around me in the light of the station. With another thought the shadows pulled together in the form of a mass of claw tipped hands as they clenched and tried to steal the light pouring onto them.

The general noise that accompanied a police department suddenly quieted, causing me to flinch and look up from my feet. Taking stock of the many ponies, all with some mark relating to police work, though instead of guns, for those who had a firearm related one it was either a canon or crossbow of some kind. Each of them had stopped. The more veteran ones were poised to react to whatever hostile act I might do, a few grabbing what appeared to be hand cuffs, but had four circles instead, from behind their desks.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, again putting my head down. I really didn’t stand up well against figures of authority, especially when I knew I was in the wrong. But at least I’d proven who I was, considering I lacked a formal, or even informal, form of pictorial identification.

“H-he came without a fuss sir,” Slate replied, shaking in equal parts from his boss’s stare and the show of power from the cloaked shadow-creature behind him.

“Very well, bring him to interrogation room thirteen.” The mustached pony said waving a hoof then returning to the paperwork on his high desk.

***

The room was sparsely lit with a single lamp over a plain, probably, steel table. It was most likely meant to act as a way to seem more foreboding, but it meant nothing to someone like me, who could see through both mundane and magical darkness. But if it was any consolation, for anyone who might ask, I was already feeling bad enough as it was.

I was sitting, hunched over, on a large wooden stool, obviously made to accommodate

somepony of a more quadrupedally inclined persuasion. My back to the door, exposed, and my front facing a surprising lack of black one-way glass, instead a plain worn white wall met my gaze.

‘Why are you doing this? You are better than this Master.’ The voice of Caligo said, echoing through my mind.

“No I’m not. I broke the law, and now I have to pay for it.” I said, crossing my arms.

***Across an Enchanted One-Way Wall***

“What’s he doing Captain Blocker?” Slate said, looking to his mustached superior.

Blocker just sighed, ‘rookies,’ he thought, then said, “He’s talking to himself, and seems to be going at it too.”

The room kept darkening for half the conversation then dissipating for the other half when the perp’s lips moved.

“We’ve let him stew long enough, and it looks like we don’t want to agitate this thing further” Blocker said as he began to walk out of the room. Turning his head to address the other two unicorns in the room as well, he said, “Just keep your horns lit, I need you guys to pull me out there if this thing starts to go crazy. Just because he came in quietly, doesn’t mean he’s going to stay that way.

Leaving the room and walking the short distance to the interrogation room Captain Blocker mentally prepared himself, cracking his neck and smoothing his moustache as he trotted.

There had been a rise in the number of reports of strange and powerful creatures simply appearing from thin air, underground, and simply out of nowhere. They generally caused trouble wherever they went, even if a few of them were working for the greater good, it didn’t excuse many of the laws they broke once they were done, for quote ‘shits and giggles’ or ‘trolling’ as he had heard some of the new phrases that had been circulating, though the most confusing of all had to be ‘bad ass’. Labeling donkeys, on whole, as a misbehaving in general seemed more along the lines of racist than anything to him. Thinking further on it, he was hard pressed to even think of any noteworthy infamous donkeys in history, let alone recent history.

Taking one last breath, he plunged into the interrogation room marked 013. He heard a sharp, but muted intake of breathe from the biped, a creature that called itself Rumor, as the door silently opened. The light of the room grew brighter as Rumor seemingly sucked the shadows back into himself, causing Blocker to involuntarily shiver, glad that the thing had his back turned to him.

Moving to the open side of the table, Captain Blocker took a seat upon the other stool. It was designed to be a noticeable few inches taller, allowing the officer using it to look down upon the current malcontent that would normally be seat across from them. This one however, Rumor, sat there, slumped over, clad fully in black cloak and hood, still sat a few inches above him. But what was most disturbing of all was the way that shadows seemed to pour up out of him, blurring his already indistinct dark edges making it hard to tell where he ended and the shadows began.

“Do you know why you’re here?” Blocker asked as his deep voice calm from years of talking down to things with more brawn than brain. Even if he really didn’t have the power, it was still better to act like you did, though it did help to know that there were two unicorns ready to blink his behind out if any trouble were to start.

The Rumor sighed, slumping further into itself, but still remaining taller than Blocker, said, “I let myself lose control and hurt others around me.”

Blocker kept his face straight, but was surprised of the creature’s response. It had sounded sad, contrite even. Not the sort of thing he had been led to believe of these alien-like creatures he had been hearing of more and more of late.

Putting his hooves together, Blocker then said, “Do you know what that means?”

“Yes sir,” Was all Rumor said.

Sir? Now that was particularly unexpected. “Indeed, well, the normal course of legal action for a felony assault, the reports say you broke nearly every wing bone in both Crash and Burns body.” The creature remained quiet, but rather than slumping forward, its cloaked head fell upon its upper body.  “Compounded with inciting terror in the general populace you are looking at either hefty prison time or a heavy fine.”

“Fine?” Rumor asked, his hood head cocking to the side.

Blocker almost cocked his own head, but he remained stone faced. It still escaped him sometimes that these creatures really were aliens and didn’t know all the laws on the books. “Indeed, as it turns out, something of this nature will run you the bill of 50,000 bits.” That’s it, Blocker thought. Don’t tell him if he doesn’t ask. Let him think just how much worse prison can be than tell him the sentence. It was a five years, maximum, and considering it was a first time offense he didn’t really even need much paper work done any way, heck, he could probably get the night judge Speedy Trial to get it all signed and official by six. Still, better to scare him than let him feel like he could get off practically scot-free.

“Umm, could I get it to you tomorrow?”

Blocker’s jaw almost hit the table, not many ponies had that sort of money to toss around, except the nobles and high class merchant, “And why do you need to wait till the morning to get it?”

“Well, that’s when the bank opens sir.” Rumor said quietly.

Blocker was dumbfounded, if the answer hadn’t been so simple, he might have bust a gut, so, instead, he just sat there, staring, eyes wide at the creature before him. Waiting a little bit to compose himself he said, “Very well, but we will have to keep you in holding for the night until then.”

The creature remained silent, but gave a silent nod of his hooded head.

“Follow me.”

***

It was, to put it lightly, a horrendous embarrassing to spend the night in jail. ‘If my Dad knew…’ I didn’t want to think about what he would say, let alone do.

Since the town didn’t have much crime, not really a shocker for a city like Canterlot, I was put in general holding. There was only one pony in there, a dark green Earth pony with a plum colored mane and tail, his cutie mark was covered by the alcohol smelling blanket he had wrapped around him, either that or the blanket was clean and he was the one with the smell. All I really cared about was that he was asleep so I didn’t have to worry about him staring at me, judging me.

The night waned on, but despite myself I just couldn’t go into a trance, the pit in my stomach made sure of that. Caligo kept pestering me for a while though, going on about how this was below my status, but relented after I forcibly told him to leave me alone. I immediately felt the metal walls go up. Even Somnium, who still wasn’t talking to me, made less of herself in my mind.

I sat cross-legged on the cool stone floor, the wooden planks attached to the walls being too small for me, and I attempted to think, or at least tried to. My head just refused to stay on anything too concrete besides going down a dark path of self-mutilation I could probably talk myself into. So, instead, I did what I normally did to distract myself, I made-pretend, which is much easier and gratifying when you can make shadow puppets with a thought.

Pulling the shadows along the floor up towards me, a scooted myself into a corner and let the silent battle begin. One of my favorite worlds to use was the Spider-Man Universe (I refuse to call it Marvel), but with my normal twist, instead of playing Spider-Man, I made use of a villain. It continues to be a source of wonder to me that the villains can have such cooler and better powers than the hero, but always seemed to lose anyway. Not that it mattered, considering I would only play the character as how they would run if they used their powers for good. My personal favorite is Doctor Otto Octavius, Doc Octopus.

I had him using his metal arms to swings and jump from roof to roof, angling from side to side of walls, then crashing down on a purse-snatcher, stopping the idiot thief with one arm, taking the purse with another, then making a grandiose bow with his real arms, then clambering up the wall, flinging the scum into a dumpster.

“Wow, you could make a shiny bit doin’ that professionally.” A deep, raspy voice said behind me, causing me to jump and let loose my concentration upon the shadows.

I shrunk into myself as I turned around, pointlessly confirming that the only other person in the cell with me was awake.

“He*hic*h, didn’t mean to scare you there, just thought I might say something to the magical diamond dog that I’m sharing a cell with.”

“Oh, I’m not a dia-“

“Whatever, don’t contradict me boy. I’ve lived too long for to care about such trivial things like that anyway.” He snapped, his hic-ups apparently gone now. “You kids these days are supposed to be the ones who care, but all I find are small pockets of it instead of the great wells that once gave life around Equestria.”

At this point he paused, and gave me a look, like maybe I needed to say something, so, taking a stab at it, “How exactly do I not care sir?”

“Humph, sir,” he said with a growl, “that’s the sort of thing I only hear in places like Canterlot, or some well-to-do village. Outside of that, even the fine community works and even the military begin to degrade. Tartarus, I’ve even heard of places like Bitsburg where even if the law isn’t too bad they don’t even have the ponypower to keep it all together. It’s a shame that a border town like that can’ be a shining example of what lies further into Equestria.” Pulling the blanket further around him he closed his eyes, “You kids need to learn how to care.” He said with a yawn, then, unceremoniously began to snore.

Putting my hands around my ears to block out the sound, until I thought to pull up my hood, it was with the dawning silence that a light bulb went off. Care, why couldn’t I care? I’d thought of such things before, but now that my gears were turning I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t chosen to go for it. But it was so simple, I could really make the world a better place, I could be a super-hero. I smiled, almost giddy. It was perfect, make the world cleaner and have a nice outlet for me to learn to control my emotions and have a suitable outlet for them should anything go awry. A win-win situation to be sure, but now that I was really starting to seriously think things over, there were many reasonable things to consider. I’d need a source of income; I’d also need to procure myself some lodgings. I looked down remaking the shadowed cityscape and with a small bit of effort turned the whole thing solid, resulting in my legs starting to tingle, I wouldn’t need to spend anything on gadgets, so that was a plus.

***

The morning wasn’t too bad, though I was a little tired since I’d spent the remainder of the night trying to think things through and how I would begin to make it happen. I was pleased when Caligo gave credit to the whole idea, and said it would be a great way of using my skills in the real world. I chuckled a little at that, since, even though I hadn’t been forced into any mindscape training recently, it had all revolved around me learning to read the shadows around me and made sure not to take a hit. My conversation was cut a little short once two unicorn officers came and opened my cell door.

       I was led through town towards the First Equestrian Bank, but the stares that followed made me want to, in equal parts, hide away from the brunch crowd that accompanied the late morning opening of any bank, and, sickeningly, my want to pluck out my own eyes so I wouldn’t be able to see them all rightfully judging me by my police escort and cuffed hands.

It was harder still when I had to explain to them my need to visit the restroom so I could dawn my disguise, now that I was out of the sunlight, so I could access my account. They relented, if reluctantly, as they cordoned off the men’s’ restroom, and allowed me entrance as one of the guards followed me in.

It made me feel both proud, and a little ashamed when the darkness came to my call as I hid within the three-dimensional shadow of the black unicorn I had worn, seemingly, so long ago, and it made the guard jump a little, as he looked down to make to make sure his own shadow was still there. The guard remained, as well as the one guarding the outside, but since he had a clear line of sight on me he was fine. I got my bank note with little hassle, leaving my own holdings to only a few hundred bits. I pulled them out as well. I was now carrying all my earthly wealth on me, it felt, scary, and yet somewhat liberating. I gave the bank note to the guard, and then went back into the restroom to change, so I wouldn’t cause a stir from the public, and then swiftly left, the other guard following me as well.

And that was it. I had just narrowly avoided years in prison due to my own previous holdings. To put it bluntly, it was elating. I was free, and now, with the guards walking away from me, I let a sigh escape through my lips as I smiled, and leaned over onto the bank wall. I was glad that I wasn’t going to spend years in prison, or whatever passed for it here.

The large bag of bits was starting to weigh down my left hand, so I began to pour them out into several of my own pockets, each one remaining, thankfully, silent as they jostled around slightly at my movements.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do now, but I did know that I wanted to have a direct destination this time. I didn’t have to wait long as a glance down the street showed a proud display that said, Trotter’s Travel Agency, printed in bold yellow letters on a carved, hanging, wooden sign.

‘This looks promising.’ I thought, as I crossed the small street and grasped the small brass knob.