The Shadows' Wrath

The Shadows’ Wrath

Chapter 1

The Package

(This chapter will contain past events on the attack)

Two days later…

“Oh opalescence! Isn’t it wonderful!” Rarity squealed. Admiring her new piece of jewelry.

Opal just sat on her pillow not giving two bucks what her ‘owner’ had to say. All she said was “Meow…”

“I know, it does match my latest design!”

That’s not what Opal said though. If Rarity could speak Feline she’d probably would’ve gotten a reply like, “I hate you, and I hope you stab yourself with one of your sewing needles.” That would make the miserable cat happy, seeing her caretaker in pain. How’d she’d love to see it. After all it should make her happy after being forced into a shower back at Canterlot.

“ I must show my friends, I bet they’ll adore it just as I do.” She said heading for the door.

After the white unicorn closed the door behind her, Opal rolled her eyes and started her catnap for the day.

-

“Wow Rarity! Where’d you get it?” Twilight asked, the crystal reflecting in her eyes.

“Oh, I ordered it from the Silver Stall. I found an advertisement on a flier I got in the newspaper.”

“How much was it? It looks really expensive.”

“I couldn’t believe what they charged for it. Two-Hundred-fifty bits! Can you believe it?”

“Why so much, I mean you have a lot of other jewelry, but none that much.”

Rarity began to wonder how Twilight knew how much her other jewelry cost. Sure none of them were the same amount, they were close though. Rarity quickly rubbed the thought out of her mind viewing it as irrelevant to her conversation. “Well, if you should know, the advertisement also read that the crystal glows in the dark.”

“Really?! I have to turn the lights off to the believe this, there’s no way a gemstone can glow in the dark without being enchanted.” Twilight’s horn glowed and a few light bulbs went off leaving the room pretty dark for morning standards.

“I’m not seeing a glow. What if we move to the closet.” Twilight suggested.

“Please Twilight, maybe it only glows in the night. Besides if it does glow I don’t expect it to be bright as the Sun.”

Twilight recalled some of her filly day toys, when she had glow in the dark animals. She’d put them next to a light and when it was night time they would glow a faint color. Not the most entertaining of toys, but fascinating. “Maybe, but two-hundred-fifty bits is a little outrageous though.”

“Maybe that’s because you pay for cheap, fake jewelry.” Rarity remembered when Twilight first moved to Ponyville, and the only jewelry she had was fake. Eventually she gave in and had to give her friend quality gems, she couldn’t stand fake gems, they irritated her.

“Outrageous, maybe, but that’s not why I bought it. I’m designing my costume for Nightmare Night, and the instant I saw the crystal *gasps* I knew it would be a marvelous addition to it! Other than that I missed Nightmare Night last year and this gem with my costume is going to make it up.”

“Well I hope the crystal matches your costume Rarity, I can’t wait to see it.”

“Neither can I!” Rarity squealed.

“Hey you think there are other ponies here that ordered the crystal too?”

“I wouldn’t doubt it, only somepony with no taste would not order one of these…Not saying you don’t have any taste Twilight.” Rarity said sheepishly.

“Mmm-hmm,…thanks for showing me your new piece of jewelry, but I have some studying to catch up on.”

“Very well.” Rarity headed to the door. “Do tell my Spiky Wikey that I said HI.” Rarity closed the door behind her leaving Twilight in solitude.

“What was I looking for again?” Twilight thought, trying to remember which book she was looking for. Browsing through the many shelves in her library her eyes lit up after coming across old black dusty tome. Bringing it down with her magic Twilight didn’t recall reading it. Some of the books she didn’t read due to that fact she was the town librarian and the Princess’s pupil, so she didn’t always have time to read; and many ponies had given her books throughout the months she lived there, so her collection has grown through time. “Kinda creepy looking.” Twilight noticed a small gash on the books spine.

This wasn’t the book she was looking for but it did intrigue her. “I think I can take a few a minutes for myself.” Twilight said looking at the clock.

Opening it she noticed the book didn’t have the authors name on the first page or anywhere on the tome. “Odd.”

The author didn’t mean much though, she wasn’t going to waste her ‘free time’ trying to figure out who the author was. Skimming through she noticed the words she read were written in first pony.

The tome had many illustrations of different animals that roamed Equestria, and even ones that were extinct. Twilight knew just about every animal that had roamed the planet, so this book was like another school study guide.

Skimming a few more pages to see if there was anything else, she found a page that read ‘Necromantic Species’. Necromancy was a subject Twilight wouldn’t even dare to consider learning, though she found the idea interesting, able to raise the dead, but still horrid.

Looking back at the clock, she could see she still had a little time to waste. “Maybe just a peek.” It wasn’t teaching her how to raise the dead, so reading about the creatures shouldn’t do any harm.

The different undead entities were illustrated well for being in a book, Twilight began to think that whomever wrote it practiced necromancy.

Coming close to the end of the tome, Twilight noticed one illustration that made her heart skip a beat. ‘Chaos Specters, firmly known as Shadows: Little is known about these creatures due to that no pony has ever seen one in thousands of years. Though the few ancient descriptions I uncovered did give me some clues to what they looked like and what they did. Shadows were living nightmares. These creatures hid in the dark, hence the name shadows. Not only would these creatures hide but they showed a parasitic like attitude to its victims. Once a shadow had captured its prey it would then either instantly slaughter the poor creature or become the creatures’ ‘new shadow’. I would guess they did this to take forms of others. These creatures cannot stand any form of light, it tortures them; from what I’ve read they would let out a paralyzing cry that could deafen any pony for a few moments. My research on how these creatures is becoming a challenge to me,  I can’t find any source of information that could tell me how they were created. I do know however, is that they disappeared long ago without a trace. Good thing too, from what else I’ve read it turns out that these creatures were also merciless when it came to fighting. Fighting couldn’t be an option though, they were undead spirits, you can’t harm something that is already dead, you can only imprison it. I’ve heard stories that they might have been Discord’s minions, but that wouldn’t make any sense; Discord causes random chaos to take place not plague and death. I bet the elements of harmony were used to banish these foul souls from where they came, but that proof is still questionable.’

Finishing the somewhat short description, Twilight put the tome in her favorite book shelf for safe keeping. “Could serve me some better use later.” She said while the tome floated into its new slot.

Looking back at the clock again, she had realized she spent an extra two minutes reading. “Ponyfeathers!” Twilight stopped her stalling and immediately hopped on her chair to begin her research. Though quickly noticing she still didn’t have the book she wanted, her horn glowed brightly and all the books came off the shelves and danced around her like some kind of Disney movie (Referring to ‘The Sword in the Stone’).Looking at each book that passed by she finally found the book she was looking for, ‘ancient magic and curses.’ Not being the pony that would cast curses upon others either, her curiosity grew because she already took a peek at necromantic creatures, so why not look at a couple of curses.

After skimming to a curse that caught her attention she started to read, squinting her eyes to read the small words. “How to trap one’s soul.”

• Two days earlier

“You know what to do, or do I need to repeat myself again?” The CEO looked at the crooked eyed mare.

“Uhh, deliver the package to Mr. Rarity at Ponyville!”

“No! No! It’s Ms. Rarity, say Ms. Rarity when you give her the package.”

“Okay!” The pegasi  put the small brown box in her satchel and flew off.

As she flew off the CEO of the Silver Stall sighed in relief. “Pfft, wont be surprised if this Ms. Rarity doesn’t receive it.” He said heading to his office.

“Alright let’s see here.” He opened a letter on his desk. “Ohh, another pony wants a crystal. Well by golly they’re going to get it!” The CEO has never disappointed any customer, whether they lived in the Trade Corral or all the way in Trottingheim.

Pushing a button on his desk, the foreman of the miners came into the office. “Sir?”

“These crystals are selling kind of slow foreman, I would’ve expected them to sell faster.”

“I don’t see why a pony would not want to buy one.”

“Indeed, but…”

“But what?”

“Never mind,…these crystals have to be the biggest thing we’ve seen all year, so for your efforts I’m going to allow you to keep one for no charge. Besides, for all I know the fliers we sent probably haven’t reached the big cities yet, but when they do the crystals are gunna sell! Oh and here’s the key to the vault, be sure to lock it back up when you take one.”

“Yes Sir!” The foreman took the key with his jaw, and down to the vault he went, almost tripping down the stairs in excitement.

-

Taking one of the crystals for himself, then quickly galloping back to his house to admire the gem, he forgot to lock the safe; back at the silver stall the safe stood wide open, the CEO being a foal for not checking , he didn‘t even ask the foreman when he returned.

-

As night approached all the ponies went home, the Silver Stall’s CEO didn’t go home because he already was, his workplace was his home.

“Haaa, bliss…” He said as he closed his eyes in his office chair.

All the lights in the town below his windows turned off one by one.

The foreman was in bed, thinking about how good it would have been if he had a mare with him, he was still too up and at em to go to sleep after what happened today, but eventually he did grow weary and had to snooze, he didn’t notice that the crystal serving as his night light had stopped glowing. Scooching around in his bed trying to find a comfortable position to sleep he eventually became satisfied and drifted off, and before he let his mind take over he smiled. “Good night.” He said warmly to his imaginary mare.

“GOOOOD NIGHHHHT!”

As his eyes cracked open to see who the intruder was, he felt a freezing shiver go down his spine, all he saw were bright violet eyes that stared daggers at him. Before he could get up and hop out of bed, and dash out the window,  he looked outside and looking straight at him through the glass was another pair  As quickly as he saw them they left his sight, for if the light were on he would see that his chest was ripped wide open and his internal organs were falling out with his blood dripping off the side of his mattress.

Outside the window there were haunting figures that each entered a house. The locals were so unprepared for what was going to happen, even the colts and fillies would have to suffer. They wouldn’t see it though, shadows work quick and as quickly as they appear…they’re gone. The deaths were quick but the gore was everywhere, even on the cradles for baby ponies. A few screams could be heard but just like the miners, they were quickly silenced.

-

Soaring in the sky a little ways away from town was a pegasi, moving at her own pace and kept a goofy smile on her face. Not the most brightest of ponies, though she sure was the most optimistic. Singing and frolicking in the air she headed to ponyville to delver the package. “Mr. or Ms. Rarity? Oh, I’ll just call her both so I don’t mess up!” She pulled a muffin from the satchel and quickly munched on it. “Good thing the mail ponies gave me this muffin bag.”