“What's in there?” Asked Spike as Twilight opened a door infused with dark magics.
Twilight sighed as she and Spike saw a staircase that went as far up as the eyes could see Stairs. “Lots and lots of stairs.” Sighed Twilight as she looked at Spike. “Maybe you should come with me this time.” She said as the two started their long journey up the stairs.
After some time past both Twilight and Spike panted as they stopped for a moment. “What if this is just more of his magic? He makes a door that leads to your worst nightmare. Why not a staircase that goes on forever?” Asked Spike as he put his hands on his knees.
“Hold on to me.” Twilight said as an idea formed in her head.
“Uh…” Spike said confused as he grabbed onto Twilight before she jumped into the air as her horn glowed, then both her and Spike landed on the bottom of the stairs above them before they started sliding upwards.
In no time they reached the top of the tower where they found the crystal heart floating at the center of the tower. Twilight raced over to it and went to touch it but as soon as she stepped inside the circle it turned black, and black crystals rose trapping her inside while knocking the heart out of the circle, and out of her reach.
My name is Micheal Moore and this is the story of how I became the pony of shadows. Today is February 5th 2021 and I was born on April 11th 2000, but today is the day I die. Arrested by some idiot cop and charged for a crime I did not commit and sentenced to death by injection, and now I was enjoying my last meal, a McRib sandwich, large fries, a shamrock shake, Coke Zero, black Licorice, and pie al la mode.
After I finished my meal the guards brought me to the injection room and strapped me in. “Is there anything you want to say before your sentence is carried out?” Asked a man on the intercom.
“You're killing an innocent man. I hope you can live with that, if not, I’ll save you all a spot by the fire.” I told them, I got no reply as a man hooked my arm up to a machine which started to inject me with unknown drugs. I could hear the heart monitor continue to beep until everything went black as I heard the machine flatline.
—Elsewhere—
There Spike stood at the edge of the tower at the top of the crystal empire grasping the crystal heart with both claws as he avoided the dark crystal that grew ever closer, and left with no other option, Spike jumped onto a spiral shaped black crystal and started running. Sombra saw this from awar, and slammed the ground causing dark crystals to erupt from the earth toward the crystal spiral, and suddenly Spike tripped sending both him and the heart falling to the ground.
When I opened my eyes again I was sitting in a chair in an office waiting room. I looked around and saw large writing on the wall across from me.
I don’t know why, but it made me smile and feel calm.
Then a door to my left opened up and a man stepped in. He was wearing a suit and bowtie and he had white hair, green eyes and pale white skin. He smiled at me and waved. “Michael Moore, come on in!” He said.
I followed him in and took a seat as he sat behind his desk. “Hi Michael.” Said the man. “How are you today?” He asked.
“I’m fine.” I said. “Um, where am I?” I asked.
“Right, you Michael Moore, are dead, Your life on Earth has ended, and you are now in the next phase of your existence in the universe.” Said the man.
“Come again?” I asked.
“Ok, you are dead, maggot food, the groundhogs are delivering your mail, pushing up daisies, do you get the picture yet?” He asked. “Don’t ever laugh as a hearse goes by, for you may be the next to die, They wrap you up in plain white sheets and you in a big black box and cover you up in dirt and rocks!” He sang.
“Ok, ok! I get it!….. I was hoping that was just a dream though.” I said.
“Sadly no.” Said the man.
“So is this… and are you Jesus?” I asked.
“Yes, I’m Jesus.” He said calmly. I was about to get excited but he cut me off. “No! I’m Rob!” He said.
“Oh, so am I in…” I began.
“This is neither heaven nor hell, this is purgatory, or Limbo if you prefer.” He said.
“Why am I here?” I asked.
“Because apparently both sides are having trouble placing you. I’ve been reading through your file.” He said, taking a file from his desk and looking through the many papers in it. “In and out of foster homes till you were 15, petty theft, minor assault, public indecency?” He said, listing things I've done.
“That last one was an accident. I didn’t have a belt.” I said with a slight blush.
“Ah. Completely understand.” He said then went back to reading the file aloud. “Ok, there’s also a few actual sins in here but I’m going to stop with your conviction of murder. Wanna tell maybe about that?” He asked.
“I didn’t do it, I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s that stupid Cop’s fault, he thought I did it and acted as a witness in court, they sentenced me to life and lethal injection!” I told him.
“Yeah, your life sucked. But you're dead now soooo…… huh, that’s odd.” He said as he began stroking his chin.
“What?” I asked.
“Well, I don’t see any reason why you should go to heaven or hell, your good deeds seem to be completely balanced with your sins, which is odd.” He said as he looked up at me.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“Well, since your soul’s a bit evened out, there’s nowhere to put you.” He said.
“But where am I supposed to go? What should I do?” I asked.
“Uuuuuuuuuuh, well, I don’t think I’m supposed to do this but I’m going to give you another chance at life.” He said looking around as if someone was eavesdropping.
“You can do that?” I asked.
“That’s reincarnation. And unfortunately I can’t send you back to your world so I’ll have to send you somewhere else.” He explained.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Them's the rules.” He said.
“I thought you weren’t supposed to do this?” I asked.
“I’m not, that’s why I’m sending you somewhere else.” He told me.
“Uh, ok, so where are you going to send me?” I asked.
“It’s a surprise.” He said.
“Huh?” I said. I suddenly started feeling a bit dizzy. I got up and tried to move around to walk it off, but the room began melting and spinning and my head got more dizzy each second. I started to fall as everything spun.
I looked down as everything started to turn black, the floor seemed to melt as I took each step. I began screaming as I started to melt and turn black as well, then my mind began slipping until I couldn’t feel anything. “Good luck!” Was all I heard before my vision went completely dark.
Shining threw Cadance through the air as Sombra grew closer to Spike and the heart, and just before he reached them Spike landed on Cadence’s back as she took the heart with her magic. Her body quickly grew stronger and her fatigue vanished as she flew down to the crystal ponies below.
“The crystal heart is returned, use your love and light to ensure that Sombra does not.” She said as she placed the heart at the base of the castle, as two crystal spikes held it in place. One by one the ponies bowed their heads to the ground lighting up the ground beneath them till the entire city was filled with magic which collected in the crystal heart, then it exploded with energy destroying Sombra as the magic of the heart reached every corner of the room lighting up the sky with the colors of the rainbow, sending magic throughout equestria. However, this magic had a very unintended side effect.
When the magic reached Hollow shades, it was absorbed into the ground and went down into the Well of shade.
From the cracks on the wall, a black tar-like slime started to seep out as if they had started to bleed, and from the floor and the ceiling it seeped from out of the crust of the earth, the ooze moved as it slowly covered the entire room turning it black as it was drawn to a single spot.
The black muck began to slowly rise and take the shape of an amorphous dark gray and black Alicorn with glowing white eyes and wispy, smoke-like wings. His horn was large and curved, and he was the size of the average pony. He gasped for air as his eyes opened, and shakily stood on all four of his legs, having trouble maintaining his balance like a newborn standing for the first time. Then when he tried to take a step he fell to the ground, his form falling apart and becoming a mass of slime that slowly tried to regain its former appearance.
After he regained his form he slowly looked at himself and screamed. “Aaaaaaaah!!!!!!!! What the- What the hell is happening?! What am I?! What is this place?! What’s happened to my voice?!” He exclaimed, genuinely freaking out.
“Welcome to-” began Rob, but was interrupted by Michael’s screaming.
“Aaaaaaahahaaaaa!!!!” Michael screamed.
“Uh-!” Rob began again but was interrupted by yet another scream.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!!” Michael screamed, running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off.
“I’m just going to let you ride this out.” Said Rob as Michael continued to freak out.
“AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAaaaaaaaaah!” Michael continued.
The screaming went on for quite a while. Rob decided to lean against a pillar until Michael calmed down. “Dude! Calm down you’ve been like this for over an hour! Please stop.” Rob said, holding Michael upside down by the tail.
Rob put Michael down and with trembling legs looked up at Rob. “Wh-wa-what am I?” Michael asked.
“You’re the pony of shadows. I was going to let you figure things out for yourself, but I wasn’t sure if you knew the my little pony series, so I came here to help make things easier.” Rob explained.
“Wait, my little pony? I got beat up for watching that show. Still, I liked it a lot, I waited every week for a new episode!” Said Michael.
“Good. So you’ve watched all the way to season 9 and the mlp gen 5 movie?” Rob asked.
“Whenever I could, I’d watch the show. But how am I, how are we…” he said.
“Almost anything is possible, that’s the one simple rule of any universe. I read your file and decided to put you here, because the show made you the most happiest.” Said Rob.
“Thanks!…. I guess…. So how do I get out of here? What should I do in this new world?” Michael asked.
“Well, first thing you need is a new name, can’t have you be called Michael Moore here, that was your old life, so… what name do you choose?” Rob explained.
“How about…. Duncan?” He asked.
“Hmm….. Duncan, Gaelic/English origin, meaning “dark warrior” I suppose it fits. Nice to be the first to meet you Duncan.” Rob said, holding out his hand.
The new being now known as Duncan shook Rob's hand with a hoof. “Nice to meet you too I guess.”
“Now that you have a new body and new name, head to ponyville. Although you might wanna wear this.” Said Rob, manifesting a brown cloak and putting it on Duncan.
“Why a cloak?” Asked Duncan.
“Ponies are dumb and are afraid of things that are different. Now hurry to ponyville! Schnell!” Said Rob, literally kicking Duncan out of the well of shade.
—Duncan’s POV—
“Ok ok! Jeez!” I said rubbing my butt and dusting off Rob’s footprint. “Now how do I get to ponyville?” I wondered out loud. Just then I got struck with a brick. “Ow!” I said then noticed there was a map attached to it. I took the map and looked at where I was then looked for how to get to ponyville. “Huh… ok if I’m here then… I should probably take a train. Oh wait… I don’t have any money. Then I looked back at the brick and saw a small sack filled with bits. “Huh. That guy thinks of everything doesn’t he?”
I took the bits and headed for a train station. I got a few odd looks, but not many looked at me long enough to suspect anything. I paid for a ticket and got on the train. I took a seat and looked out the window.
“Wow, equestria is beautiful!” I said to myself.
After a while It began getting dark and ponies began turning in for the night, except for me, I didn’t feel tired, in fact I hardly noticed it was nighttime. ‘Must be my new body’ I wondered. ‘I should probably go to bed too, tired or not, I need rest.’ I left the passenger car and headed to the cabins and got in bed.
