Chapters The Shadows' Wrath
Prologue
(The prologue is probably going to be boring, but that‘s what prologues are, boring first segments that start the wheels of motion that lead to something better)
(I'm going to finish the story before coming back to re-edit grammatical errors so bear with me, and try to ignore the mistakes)
Warning: There is no gore in this chapter!
"Did you get rid of it?"
The miner looked at the foreman, watching his workers mine rock and dig into dirt to find metal or minerals. "Yes, but-"
"But what?" The foreman interrupted.
"The boulder, it didn't crack open, it fell?" The miner pointed to a hole in the excavated cave.
"You know what that means then don't ya?!" The foreman eyes lit almost wanting to kiss his worker.
"No..."
"It means we found a cavern; and when there's a cavern there's treasure to be found!"
These miner ponies worked for a rather ignorant and arrogant boss. Thinking that whatever they found would make him rich. If a worker didn't mine the way he thought was the proper way he'd lecture them on how to use a pick-axe properly, often doing worse than the pony he was correcting. Whatever this cavern was, it made the foreman see bits being showered over him, and seeing himself get a raise from the CEO of the company. Strange how the company is called the 'Silver Stall' yet no one has found silver, just some other metal or gems.
“Well, what are you waiting for!? Get down there and start excavating!”
Thinking back, the miner remembered his father telling him that mining would lead him to riches beyond his dreams, of course it was because he said that that he wanted to be a miner too, instead of following his own goals. Hoping to find priceless gem stones or discover a cave of gold, not being bossed around by some idiot foreman, he regret listening to his father’s words.
“Yes sir.” The miner grabbed a rope and tied it to a near stalagmite. He dropped a torch down the hole just to see how deep it really was. 1-2-3-4-5.……14-15-16-17. The well was deeper than he anticipated. Seventeen seconds deep!? That’s a long way down!
He attached himself to the rope with a clip and descended down the hole. He turned on the flashlight attached to his helmet just to see how big the cavern was. “By Celestia…” His mouth agape at the sight. The cavern was enormous, much bigger then he thought as well. It was well large enough to hold a small community, just like back home at the ‘Trade Corral’. Very wide and open, only thing missing was a spring. There was no way he could get to the bottom, the ground below had to be at least a thousand feet deep. Looking around to see if there was anything else he found a large ledge that could support him, and a whole team of miners. Yanking the rope, he was pulled up back through the hole to give his analysis.
“Well, how big is it?”
“It’s massive sir. I don’t think I’ve seen a cavern so big before.
“Then what are doing up here then!? Get down there and start mining!”
“Yes sir.”
-
A team of miners went down the hole, all attached to the same rope. The miner before them pointed to the ledge that would be safe enough for them to start their operation.
Detaching themselves from their support they all stood in awe at this natural monument. Though not being able to see all the cavern with just flashlights, the size still took them.
“Hey uh fellas, ya’ll might wanna look at this.” Another miner said. “There’s a pathway leading into the rock.” He said while the other miners pointed their helmet lights to him.
“A pathway?”
“Yeah, it descends too, look.” He was mentioning how the path went downward. Shining a few more lights they could see the ledge was actually the beginning of a stairwell. “What is this? Some kind of underground city?”
“Yeah a city, I’m pretty sure that’s why there’s no buildings.” One the miners shot a smartass comment.
The other gave him an annoyed look and went for the rope and yanked it, then attached himself to it.
-
“Find anything?” The foreman asked surprised to see one of his miners coming up.
“There’s a stairwell that descends downward, I think it might lead to the bottom.”
“Then get to it, the sooner you reach the bottom, the better.”
-
Once back down onto the ledge, the miner team descended into darkness as the stairwell lead deeper into the cavern. “Hey, ya’ll think there were ponies here before and built these stairs.”
“Maybe, but why down here?”
“Maybe they didn’t like to go outside.”
“Doubt it, c’mon lets keep moving.”
Each step they took was with caution, the steps were narrow and not very wide, one wrong move and one could fall down. The stair case just lead to another ledge but again there was another stairwell leading deeper. “One of us go back up to the first ledge, just to see how far we got.”
One volunteered and headed back up the stairs to the first ledge and waved his helmet light. To the rest of the miners surprise they actually went down a lot deeper than they thought. A good three-hundred feet maybe. That wasn’t important to them though, reaching the bottom was what they wanted.
-
Several ledges later they eventually arrived at he bottom, looking up they saw their colleague’s light, but very faint.
Scattering, the miners wanted to move around and explore.
After a couple minutes they all met back at the stairwell to start discussing where to start mining.
“Okay any pony have any ideas where to start?”
“I don’t think we need to mine.” One the miners said pulling out something form behind him. “Check out what I found!” The miner pulled out a crystal from hiding behind him.
“Where’d you find that?!” One of others demanded.
“I just found it, it was sitting on a stand or something, just sitting there as if some pony forgot it.”
“And you just so happened to stumble across it?” A miner asked suspiciously.
“Yup, pretty much.”
“Wait a minute, am I the only one noticing this, that crystal’s glowing.” One of them pointed out.
“Hmm, oh yeah I thought that was weird when I found it, but didn’t think much because of all the other ones that were glowing.”
“There’s more!?”
“Yeah, there’s a whole bunch of them, over in a cave over here.” The miner began walking toward where he found the first crystal.
Following the other miner they saw that he wasn’t bluffing or telling a story when he said there were a bunch of them, but a bunch was probably a small term compared to the amount they saw. In the cave there were hundreds maybe thousands of these crystals. What took them by surprise was the fact that every crystal was sitting on a stand. Gruesome looking stands actually, each one was jagged and at the very tip where the crystal sat there were stone talons that kept the gem in place.
“I thought you said you just picked it up as if someone forgot it.”
“I did, it was sitting on a stand and I just, well not pick up, but plucked it out of the stand.” He said still admiring the crystal he held.
“Some pony go tell the foreman that we found something, and don’t start taking the crystals I don’t think that’s a good idea, this place might be booby trapped.”
One of the pony miners left and headed back up the stairwell to report their findings.
-
“You found what?!”
“Glowing crystals. There’s a cave down in cavern that’s filled with them!”
“What are we waiting for then, set up operations down there and start hauling them up! I’ll send another team down with yours to help out.”
-
Several days had passed, making the stairwell more safe to travel by setting up small wooden fences to prevent some clumsy pony from falling. The crystals were being plucked from their stands, some harder to pull out than others because the talons had a good grip on them. The miners started to figure the crystal’s true color too, when light hit the gem it stopped glowing, of course, but the color was a dark purple. Each gem had been cut too, making them all perfect prisms. Some of the miner’s were a little superstitious though, saying that taking the gems is a bad omen, but the foreman just yelled at them for that, saying that this place was just another mine that needed to be cleansed of its treasures. Whatever the case maybe, they all knew that when they got home at the ‘Trade Corral’ these crystals were going to sell fast, it’s not everyday a pony gets their hooves on a glowing gem stone.
-
The cavern didn’t just have the crystals though there were other treasures in there. One of the miners found a massive geode, and another found a large outcrop of topaz. The more they found the more happy the foreman was,…that was until they came across the metal door. Engraved with old runes and markings they figured that they were actually in some kind of safe, considering they sort of cheated their way in and took everything. The door made the miners shudder, not by it’s large size but because the runes weren’t all that was engraved in the alloy. There were claw marks, lots of them. Thinking that something was trying to get out, the superstition tensed. Many of the miners had spent enough time in the cavern and wanted to go home and sell what they found, or they wanted to just leave because of paranoia caused by the marks.
-
It wasn’t until half a week later when they were returning home to deliver what was found.
The Trade Corral was rather a small business town that had several different shops and general stores. A lot hikers and travelers came though to buy supplies or just get a souvenir. After delivering the crystals however, that’s what ponies wanted, it was new and interesting. But selling their product would have to wait, they had to conclude a price. !50 bits a piece seemed reasonable, considering that these crystals might be the only in existence. When finally they could be sold, the news of the new gem hit all around Equestria and many were ordered due to the fact the ‘Trade Corral’ was an isolated settlement in the mountains, so getting there was difficult, unless one was a pegasus. There first order came form a unicorn by the name of… “Rarity?”
“Mmhmm, she’ll be the first to receive one these treasures.” The Silver Stall CEO informed the foreman of their first buyer. “Get a crystal and send it to her, I would love to see what our first consumer of this gem thinks.”
“Right away sir.” The foreman immediately went to the Silver Stall general good store and wrapped up a gem, then sent the package to the pony express.
Going back to the Silver Stall he stopped to admire the crystals as they continued to glow. “You’re going to make us rich.” He cooed to the other gems piled up in a vault before heading home.
-
Though the miners went home, some of the others had to stay behind and watch over the mine.
“Hey I’m going to go take another look in the cave just to see if we missed anything.” The miners were sitting by a campfire at the bottom of the cavern.
“Okay, but don’t take too long, this place creeps me out.” The other pony shivered.
“Fine, I’ll bring back anything that I find okay.” He went off to the direction of the cave.
The miner pony that was left by the campfire just pondered, being superstitious his thoughts lead him to the recalling of the giant metal door. “What’s up with the claw marks? Where does the door lead to?” These questions kept his mind flowing, but before he knew it he was drifting off and didn’t notice his fellow miner did not come back.
-
Searching the cave for anything the miners missed he came across one of the crystals lying down by its stand. At least he wasn’t going to go back empty hooved, might give it to the Mrs. as a gift. “This thing sure is pretty, I’d like to see the look on her face when I put you in her hooves.” He said to the gem.
The crystal didn’t respond, of course, but it did do something out of the ordinary,…it stopped glowing.
-
Back at the vault in the silver stall, all the crystals started to glow faintly until they were just nothing but a dark purple crystals.
The foreman was back at home asleep in his bed. The CEO allowed him to keep a gem at no charge because he led the teams that found them. What would seem to be a good night light would actually turn into something horrifying.
-
“Sheesh it’s been over two hours now. Where is he?” The miner tapped his hoof in frustration. Tapping his hoof like an angry mare wasn’t going to do any good though, he was just going to have to look for him; it’s a small cave so it shouldn’t take him too long.
After entering where all the plundered stands stood he could see his fellow miner’s helmet on the ground. “Hey, why’d you take your helmet off, you’re going to get hit on the head by something if you don’t put it back on!”
There was no reply, and he figured that his colleague just wanted to spook him. “C’mon this isn’t funny, come out.” He would think that his fellow miner would be more mature than play these childish games but he guessed he was wrong. He didn’t like what he was about to do, going to have to drag the other out like a child but at a consequence of being scared senseless.
Hearing a noise to his right he pointed his helmet light toward the source and saw his colleague trying to hide.
“Aww c’mon, I was gunna get you good too.” The miner whined like a foal.
“If you would’ve I’d probably kill you.”
“Pfft, no you wouldn’t.” He said putting his helmet back on. “But why’d you leave earlier. I was all set to scare you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You came in here about thirty minutes ago right.”
“No…”
The miner‘s childish smile turned serious and alert, someone else was in here with them.
“Then that means some pony else is-” He stopped and his mouth started to gape at the red eyes forming behind his co-miner. Before he could tell his fellow miner what he was seeing, he as forcefully pulled to the ground and dragged off in the darkness, screaming as he went, leaving behind his helmet. The other miner panicked and headed for the stairwell only to meet the same eyes on the floor that he saw drag off his partner. Glaring at the eyes was all he could do, they had him petrified with fear. But if fear wasn’t enough, the eyes started to rise from the cold floor and a smoky black shape started to appear before him. The sight looked like it crawled right out of a nightmare and into reality. Though standing still did nothing but prove that he was an easy target, so he bolted again for the stairwell. Before he reached the steps the last thing he saw were four black jagged claws reaching out and engulfing his head.
-
All was quiet, the cavern was dead, but had an additional two bodies to be added for its collection, and many more to come. There would be no warning for the ponies back home, just hope that they would soon figure out what was coming to them; but why hope and figure out what was going on when the town was already being plagued. What was thought to lead them to wealth would bring destruction and sorrow for the rest of land. The crypt , not being disturbed for thousands of years because of being shut away. The miners opened it. The crystals, once serving as their prisons.They’ve been unleashed. They want revenge. The land of Equestria will now suffer ‘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.”
“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.”
Nightmare night, what a FRIGHT
The Shadows’ Wrath
Chapter 2
“Nightmare night, what a FRIGHT!!!”
(If there's a lot of grammatical mistakes I apologize, this was typed at and finished at 4:00 in the morning)
One knows when it’s time as the sky darkens and leaves fly from the ground from sudden breezes that seem to come out of nowhere. One knows when jack-o-lanterns are placed around and individual pieces of straw (hay) lay on the ground. One knows when this day comes every year, all dressed up in costumes to ward off any evil spirits. One knows when it’s Nightmare Night. Sadly, no pony knows what true horror is until it strikes at them from the dark.
-
Prancing about, Rarity finished the final touches on her Nightmare Night costume. Admiring her work as she always did, she noticed that she forgot one tiny detail. “The Crystal! How could I have been so stupid!”
Rarity’s horn glowed and the crystal hovered away from its rich, purple, gold trimmed pillow. Being magically encrusted into a a gold fitting, Rarity displayed her final piece on a manikin with the rest of the costume. “The perfect outfit for the perfect enchantress.” She stomped her hooves excitedly.
Opal just thought the same as she always thinks about Rarity’s creations, she doesn’t give a flyin’ BUCK! Though, she had to admit that the crystal did look pretty nice, even for her feline standards.
Looking through her makeup, Rarity gasped because she didn’t have any purple eye-shadow to match her crystal. “This simply will not do! This costume needs to be perfect on me!” She took the crystal out of its fitting and placed it back on its pillow, so no damage would come to such beauty.
Rarity heard little hoof steps coming from above and down the stairs. “Rarity you told you’d told me you’d take me to Applebloom’s!”
“Now, now Sweetiebell. I will take you, but first we both need to take a stop at the beauty parlor to improve both our costumes.”
“For what, my costume is fine.” Sweetiebell was referring to her witch outfit she crafted from Rarity’s supply closet. It was rather mediocre to Rarity’s standards, but an improvement to her little sister’s previous works.
“Just some touch ups with some makeup is all.” “I cannot believe I do not have purple eye-shadow!”
“Hmmf.” Sweetiebell pouted, crossing her hooves.
“Do you want to attend to Applebloom’s invitation or not?”
“Fine, we’ll go to the stupid makeup place.” She grumbled, as the tip of her witch hat wilted.
Rarity’s horn glowed and the manikin, with her costume on, floated outside. Sweetiebell gave her older sister a confused glare. “I’m must know what I look like in the costume after the makeup is done.”
“Sooo, the manikin comes too?”
“Yes, I don‘t want to come all the way back to get my costume, then realizing the air rushing on my face blurs the eye-shadow; surely you understand!”
Shutting off the emporium’s lights and locking the door the duo headed out, discussing what they were both going to do this Nightmare night
-
Opal let out a soft *meow* before crawling into her cat bed. She was quite happy that the ‘Terrible Two’ were gone because with no noise , and no lights on, (other then the jack-o-lanterns outside) she again had the few hours of peace she received every year, not to mention she had the whole emporium to herself,…or so she thought.
Eventually opal purred herself to sleep due to the sweet serenity that spread through her thoughts like wildfire. Though in this poor kitty’s life there’s always something that woke her up. Opal’s ears perked and her eyes opened, sharply scanning the room she was in. Most ponies would brush this feline behavior off and say it was nothing, but the cat’s senses told a different story. Opal could hear something in the room, it was stationary but still emitted an alarming disturbance. Through her cat eyes it was like looking in a room with night vision goggles, the areas of white showed heat, but the only thing giving off heat was the crystal on its lavish pillow. It was like switching through different visions for Opal, see could see in the night, and then she could see true colors when she wished to turn off her ‘night eyes.’ She couldn’t believe it; the crystal was glowing?
At first sight of the glowing crystal, Opal thought that maybe Rarity had drugged her food so she would sleep through the night just like last year. It wasn’t her fault she kept hissing at the monsters that passed, they were SCARY!
Quickly pushing that memory aside, Opal put her attention back at the glowing gem. She didn’t know what to think what was happening to it; but as quick as her feline mind raced to find a solution to why this was happening, it stopped glowing.
Opal jumped out of her kitty bed and gave the crystal a quick touch with her paw before scrunching down to see what would happen. Nothing, the gem just sat there dumb as a rock, or because of the fact that is was a mineral formation turned into a piece of art, also not to exclude that it couldn’t move in the first place! She was so sure though, when her cat senses tingle they don’t lie, but for once maybe she’s doing this out of paranoia because of all the ‘mistreatment’ she receives. Whatever the case, Opal wasn’t going to waste the little time she had left obsessing over a crystal.
As she purred herself to sleep again, her ears perked, but this time with an alarming tingle, she quickly jumped out of her bed and landed on a ledge of a window. Again examining the inside of the emporium she saw nothing, not even the crystal was glowing; but before she could switch back to her normal vision, two glowing white ‘spots’ shown themselves from the floor. The ‘spots’ quickly moved below the window’s ledge, and what caught Opal by surprise was that the ‘spots’ were rising.? Her mind had to be playing tricks on her, there’s no way that’s possible. Quickly shutting her eyes and opening them, so she could see normally, Opal was wrong when thinking her mind was playing tricks, because not even the farthest, deepest, darkest thoughts of her mind could create such a horrific image before her.
Its eyes glowed of yellow, like a candle in a jack-o-lantern. Opal’s claws retracted and out of fear she attacked whatever this thing was. The creature raised its jagged talons and cut through the contact like soft butter. A squirt of blood was sprayed on the window and dripped down to form tiny pools at the window’s ledge where the cat once stood. Many colts and fillies thought the blood was a crafty Nightmare Night feature as they passed by. They had no idea what really went on, but why should they care.? They were too busy taking the pieces of candy Rarity left out in a bowl for them. Good thing the door was shut and locked, or the foals would’ve suffered the same as Opal.
-
“Rarity! Aren’t you done yet?” Sweetiebell knocked on one of the makeup parlor’s makeup rooms.
“In a minute Sweetiebell, I am trying to look stupendous to make up for last year. Rarity replied behind the door.
“But were going to be late!”
“Thirty seconds is all I need! Can’t you wait?!”
“Noooo!”
Rarity sighed behind the door, then put on the final touches of the makeup. As she emerged from the room, Sweetiebell coughed at some of the perfume her sister put on while in there. “Well, what do you think.”
“I think you over did it.”
“What, me!? Over do something? Don’t make me laugh Sweetiebell, overdoing something is just making it more perfect.”
“I take back what I said. I don’t think you will be overdoing it without your crystal.”
Rarity looked dumbstruck, how could she look perfect without her ‘piece de resistance.’ Her and Sweetiebell quickly left the parlor and went back to their house/emporium.
“Now we are going to be late.” Sweetiebell mumbled.
“Don’t mumble Sweetiebell its unmare like.”
Sweetie rolled her eyes and kept walking along her sister’s side until they reached their home. “Awww, they took all the candy already.” She whined looking into the empty bowl.
“Hmpff, foals these days don’t know how to read. I wrote take one from the bowl or the cat will tell.”
Despite her older sister’s ignorance or the present day’s foal behavior she tossed her insult thoughts aside.
Once opening the door, Rarity’s horn glowed and a few lights came on downstairs. The crystal was where she had left it, untouched and undamaged. Though when reaching for her crystal something crimson red dripped onto her muzzle, then another splattered on her head. Slowly looking up to the tall dresser above Rarity noticed a little stream of crimson red paint dripping from its upper most ledge. “I don’t keep paint up there.” “Sweetiebell did you put paint up here!?” Rarity demanded.
“No, wh- Hey, somepony put paint on the window seal.” Sweetie noticed the dripping crimson red on the window pane.
“Well this is just great! First they take all the candy then the break and splatter paint everywhere.” Rarity kicked the tall dresser behind on accident due to her frustration. Something rolled off the top of the dresser and hit the floor. “Aggh, now what spiiiiiii-…BY CELESITA!!!” Rarity screamed. Her frustration suddenly turned into horror. There on the ground staring right back at her big blue irises was Opal’s head.
Sweetiebell quickly rushed to her sister’s side to see what caused her to scream, and the instant she saw what was left of Opal she screamed too, then hid behind her sister. “RARITY, WHAT HAPPENED TO OPAL?!”
Rarity stood silent, paralyzed at the sight, trying to not believe what she was really looking at.
“Rarity what do we do!!? Rarity!!?”
Rarity turned to face her sister, and as she did she saw a gruesome hand reaching for her little sister from a dark corner of the room. “SWEETIEBELL!!!” Rarity yelled before snatching up her younger sibling with her hooves.
“What!?”
Rarity set her sister down right beside her and pointed at the horror, but as quickly as she pointed, the hand disappeared into the shadows.
Sweetiebell held her sister’s hoof for comfort before they both shot for the door. Once exiting their home they looked back through the entrance to see what madness was in their emporium. Both sisters looked at each other with frightened faces before they saw it. As they looked into their home, they both saw a par of yellow bright eyes staring right back at them from the top of the central stairs. The eyes moved through the darkness like some kind odd chess piece, it avoided the dim lit areas of the bottom floor until it came as close at it could get to them. Just like what Opal saw before killed, Rarity and Sweetiebell both saw the eyes rise from the ground while a black, smoky figure took shape before them.
“RUN!!!” Rarity ordered her sibling.
Sweetiebell took off like a rocket down the street and was quickly followed by Rarity. “What was that thing!?” Sweetie asked.
“I don’t know! But we need to tell Twilight now!”
-
Twilight was at Applejacks with the rest of her friends, including Fluttershy, who decided Nightmare Night was worth a try.
“Shoot! Where do ya’ll think Rarity’s at?” Applejack asked the other four.
“Better yet, where’s Sweetiebell? She shoulda been here thirty minutes ago.” Applebloom cut in.
“Oh you know Rarity, probably dragged her sister to the beauty parlor so they can both look over the top.” Rainbowdash suggested, wearing an ancient pegusi armor costume.
“Even if she did I don’t think she would be late after missing last year’s Nightmare Night.” Twilight counteracted. She held a makeshift staff that she made at the last minute before Nightmare Night, finally concluding that she wanted to be a necromancer this night.
“Think what you wanna think Twi’, but I still say she’s at the-”
“TWILIGHT!!!”
The five turned and saw Rarity along with Sweetiebell, running then jumping like jaguars over the fence and then finally stopping when they reached them.
“Wow Rarity, I didn’t know you can run so fast!” Rainbowdash commented, bewildered at how high Rarity jumped Applejack’s fence.
“T-Twi-Twilight *gasps* w-we need your help…now!” Was all Rarity managed to say before taking in huge breaths of air.
“With what?”
“There’s a monster in our house!” Sweetiebell squeaked.
“But there’s monsters everywhere tonight.” Twilight giggled at the filly’s words.
“No Twilight, there’s an actual monster in our house!” Rarity said slightly angry that Twilight didn’t believe them.
“Fine, Fine…we’ll go see this monster of yours.”
Twilight and the rest of her friends followed, with Fluttershy in the back slightly concerned if Rarity was telling the truth.
-
As they arrived at Rarity’s emporium, Twilight questioned the crimson red stuff on Rarity’s muzzle. To her surprise, Rarity started sobbing and the makeup she had on showed the trails of tears that dripped off her face.
“I didn’t mean to offend your costume Rarity, I was just going to ask if it was fake blood.”
Rarity started crying even more, then fell to the ground covering her eyes. “W- Why did it take Opalescence!!! WHY!!!”
“Rarity get a hold of yourself. There’s nothing in here, see.” Twilight’s hoof pointed to the inside of her friend’s emporium.
Rarity still didn’t look up and Sweetiebell was trying to comfort her but it did very little to help.
The others just stood a little inside the entrance of the emporium looking around for the monster.
“Well no monsters here let’s go.” Fluttershy nervously said, wanting to get out of the house. Her hoof touched something soft and furry while backing away to get to the door. “Hmm, what’s th-AHHHHHH TWILIGHT!!!!!!!!!” Fluttershy screamed a the top of her lungs.
“OW! Fluttershy why are you screaming?” Twilight rubbed her head trying to drown out her friend’s scream.
Fluttershy didn’t answer but instead pointed a shaky hoof the remains.
They looked at what she was pointing at and Rainbowdash almost vomited along with Applejack, Pinkie, she…well, she wasn’t acting very pinkyish after seeing the sight. Twilight walked up to the remains of Opal and examined it closer; though her stomach was churning at the sight and she wanted to get out of the house,she couldn’t, if there was a monster in the emporium and it caused her friends harm she was going to banish it.
Twilight gathered the ponies in the room and formed a circle so every part the house could be scanned; but as soon as she formed the circle Twilight noticed some of the chandlers lights were flickering, and shortly after the only visible light were from the ones outside.
Twilight started to get scared, and her eyes shifted side to side, feeling a cold sweat coming down her forehead. After a few moments of fear, Twilight, with her friends, headed for the door, but as the got close the door slammed shut and a lock was heard.
“Leaving so sooooon.” A ghastly voice echoed through the emporium.
Fluttershy huddled down and was on the verge of tears, she wanted to leave; Rainbowdash could fell her pegusi friend shivering and put a wing over Fluttershy’s body to let her know she wasn’t going to be harmed. “I wanna go home.” She barely squeezed out of her mouth.
“Show yourself!” Twilight demanded, taking on a fighting stance. The second she said that the pair of eyes shown, glaring daggers at the elements of Harmony. As the eyes moved they could see its true horrific form when coming into contact with the moons glow, coming coming from the window. Like what she saw in the Tome, Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. “You’re a-” Twilight didn’t have time finish as the monster struck out at her. She managed to duck and not get harmed, but she couldn’t say the same for her staff. “Applejack, Rainbowdash, get the door open!”
She didn’t have to tell them twice, they were already on the job.
-
Rarity and the Cutie Mark Crusaders outside the emporium heard the door being slammed into. “What was that?” Applebloom perked hearing the loud bursts against the door.
“They’re trying to get out! They must of saw it!” Sweetiebell said dashing to the door with the two other Cutie mark Crusaders right behind her.
“Applejack! You okay in there!?” Applebloom yelled.
“Get this confounded thing unlocked!” Applejacks voice shot through the door.
“Rarity do you have the key!?” Scootaloo yelled, tugging on the doorknob.
Rarity was already ahead of them and she slid the key in and unlocked it. She could sense the terror in their voices and wasn’t about to abandon her friends in their time of need.
-
Applejack kicked open the door, making it fly across the street and into a stall. Applejack, Pinkiepie, Rainbowdash, and Fluttershy all ran out of the house as quickly as their hooves could carry them. Applejack was breathing heavily and wanted to just faint but she couldn’t, she was too scared to know what could happened if she did. Fluttershy was wrapped around Rainbowdash crying up a storm at what just happened. Pinkie was telling the Scootaloo and Applebloom what was happening as she looked through one of the windows.
“Where’s Twilight!” Rarity demanded from Applejack.
“I -I think she’s still inside.”
“What are you all doing then, we have to help her!”
They all nodded and headed back for the entrance, but as they got close they could hear Twilight cry out in pain followed by a high pitched cry (think of the cry similar to the high-pitched squeal the raptors made in Jurassic Park) that left many ponies stunned for several seconds. Quickly after the squeal the five saw Twilight carry herself out with a bloodied muzzle, claw marks on her sides and flanks, what looked to be a broken hoof, and of course she was badly bruised everywhere on her body.
“Twilight!” They all said at once.
Before Twilight responded, her horn glowed and a purple aura of light was placed where the door once stood. “It doesn’t like the light.”
“Where’s it now!?” Applejack asked, eager to give whatever that thing was a whoopin’ of a lifetime.
“It retreated up-stairs after I hit it with a light bolt.”
“But how did you e-”
“Enough questions everypony! Twilight is hurt and needs a doctor!” Rarity exclaimed.
“Rainbowdash, alert the town guards on the situation. We need her here NOW. Pinkiepie and Applejack , you need to alert the mare about what’s going on. Rarity and Fluttershy, I need you both to help me get back to the library, Celestia nee-.” Twilight fell to the ground before she finished, and her friends quickly rushed to pick her up.
“Twilight, leave it to us to get things done. You need to go to the hospital.” Rarity said
“But Celestia has-”
“No buts Twilight. Were going to make sure everything his reported to the Princesses, and Ponyville. You need to rest.”
-
After dropping Twilight off at the hospital, they went to what they were to do. Rarity and Fluttershy rushed to the library, and found Spike sorting books. “Spike!”
“Oh, hey guys, I’m almost done here, then I can put on my costume.”
“No, this is an emergency!”
“W-What happened? Where’s Twilight?”
Rarity and Fluttershy looked at each other rather depressed at the question. “She’s in the hospital.” Rarity decided to say, knowing Fluttershy didn’t have the heart to say it.
“What happened?!”
“We’ll explain later, right now you need to inform the princess about what’s going on.”
“Why, what’s happening?”
“There’s something here in Ponyville that needs immediate attention.”
“You mean the monster.” Fluttershy shivered.
“What monster?!”
“Spike, listen, send a message to the princess that Ponyville is under attack!”
“WERE UNDER ATTACK!!!?”
“Were not under-under attack Spike, we just need the Princess here now!”
Without another word Spike grabbed a quill, some ink, and a piece of paper and began writing.
-
Princess Celestia was out on her balcony with Luna talking about the past days, days before Nightmare Moon. Without warning a scroll magically *poofed* in front of her Highness. “Hmm, let’s see what Twilight has learned about friendship today." Celestia smiled at Luna and began to read. Her expression went to happy to concerned very quick.
“Is there a problem sister?” Luna asked.
“Ponyville is requesting our immediate assistance.?”
“What for?!”
“Spike wrote that Twilight is in the hospital and her friends told him that Ponyville is in need of us because of a monster.”
“Twilight is in the Hospital?! How?”
“It doesn’t say, but I think this monster had something to do with it.”
“Then let us not waste time. I would like to be rid of this monster before Nightmare night becomes a night to fear again.
Without anything else to be said, both their horns glowed and were immediately teleported to the edge of Everfree forest.