Memories: Chronicles of the past

by spymanx

Rating: teen
Tags: Slice of Life, Adventure
Length: 8499

A pony, difting place to place, another, an ex-student of Celestia, and a war that is milleniums old

The prequel to Memories: Empire of the shadows, a story I am working on making…
4 short stories to introduce you to the main char's & setting

A pony, a drifter who can never stop fighting long enough to call a place home….

A ex-student of Celestia, who's obsession with the mythical "Undergroud" is willing to do anything to prove his sanity…

A simple shadow from the underground tells a story for those who hear his words…

And a short entry of a pony of "good" tells how the light is finally on the track to victory…

What do these stories have in common? Read on to find out…Welcome to the shadows.

(If you read my last story don't worry…This one will be better props to Cloudiest Nights for directing me to some how-to's for writing and AppleCrumble for beta-reading and grammar corrections)

(Empire of the Shadow is now out, now the real fun begins…)

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-10-12 02:20:01 UTC

Story 1: Loyal to the Past

‘Well, this day sucks.’

Loyal sighed as he had to skip town once again; he just had no luck at this kind of thing. But so what? He loved to fight, and he didn't see why this was such a problem.

Loyal imitate the voice of the Mayor who just kicked him out

"Loyal Hoof! It is not polite to openly fight ponies in the library!" Mayor Star Light had told him. "You will submit to authority or else!"

Granted, telling the mayor where he could shove authority may have not been his finest moment, but still. This was the third town this month!

Loyal sighed, he looked around slowly at the tall trees around him.

Where the hell am I?

Loyal stopped for a second and sat down to get his internal compass going, he was so quick to get out of that last town that he forgot to pack.

Nothing I could do about that now, Loyal thought to himself as he got up and continued walking

‘Ba! Who needed that town anyway? I have me as company! Who needs other ponies?’

Loyal's life was always like that: enter a town, stay for a bit, get into a fight, and have to gallop away before he got himself arrested. Rinse, and repeat.

‘I'll never understand other ponies! I'm great company! Not to brag but I'm well built, fairly intelligent, and very good in a fight.’

And none of that was a lie. Loyal was a very strong earth pony, very well-built and quite bright...His biggest flaw was his love of fighting, the thrill of hitting and getting hit; it made his heart skip a beat. In fact, to be brutal, most of his flaws stemmed from there; he was quick to resort to violence and very unsocial, as he knew getting attached would just make it harder when he had to skip town a few weeks, or days, later.

‘I'm running out of places to go…’ He thought glumly to himself. He had been almost everywhere in Equestria, yet had never found a place that was good enough to call home. Well, you know, home enough not to get into a fight there.

‘Dad would be SO proud of my life.’

Loyal sighed, hanging his head. It had been a few years now since he left Manehatten to explore the world, and left his family behind. As a colt, he grew up rich and pampered, which he hated. It wasn’t because he was spoiled, but because he felt bad for ponies who were not like him. Sadly, his sympathy came across as arrogance, and he was picked on. And when you’re picked on, you learn how to fight. His family was always concerned when he came home with a black eye and a smile on his face.

"Boy, what happened to you!?" his father would say.

"I went to a tea party, he would reply sarcastically. “What do you think? I got into another fight,"

"Who keeps doing this to you?!?" his father would say,

concern and anger in his voice.

"Not telling," Loyal would say with a shake of his bruised head a proud smile still on his face.

"Why not!?" His father would shout at him.

"Because then you would put a stop to it." And with that he would walk upstairs and go to sleep.

After a few months of this, he got his cutie mark. He used to look back at his flank with pride, a smile flitting across his muzzle as he studied the golden horse shoe surrounded by circles to symbolize his hoof giving a black eye to whoever messed with him. He was so proud of it.

His father, the fancy, wealthy business-pony...not so much.

"I don't understand it! Your special talent is being a hooligan!" his father shouted at him.

"Sounds like you understand it, Dad," he would say back calmly.

He still remembered the day he left, he really did like his dad, but he wasn't going to kiss flanks just to make someone happy, his mother was always the quiet one, she always backed off when my dad I had our fights. Still he couldn't help but miss her, AND her signature brownies... but the day he left was the biggest surprise he had had in a long time, that was when his father gave him 500 bits, hugged him and whispered thirteen words that still followed him to this day...

"When fighting a unicorn, go for the horn so they can’t use magic." He pulled away and winked at his son. Loyal always wondered what that meant; was that a friendly piece of advice his father had looked up on how to fight...

Or was telling his son he wasn't so different from his old man after al-

*Growl*

A sudden noise, a quick reaction, but not quick enough.

Loyal felt himself being knocked to the side as a large wolf-like creature attacked him. It had jet black fur and glowing purple eyes.

And it looked hungry.

Don't panic...Ahhh screw that!

"You want to go you sad excuse for a wild animal?!?!" Loyal Hoof announced to the wolf. It seemed taken aback by its prey’s lack of fear.

"RAAAAAA!!!" Loyal yelled and he tackled the wolf and began hitting it over and over again.

Loyal wasn't book smart, he wasn't even that street smart, but if there was one thing he could do, it was fight. He relished the experience, he was quick on his hoofs and easily dogged the wolfs attacks and countered them, time seemed to slow down as he hit blow after blow. Other were born to lead, others born to help others.

But this is what he was born to do, and he enjoyed every minute of it.

The wolf however after taking blow after blow, slashed a large cut on Loyal’s belly, causing considerable pain. After that it was a losing battle; the wolf seemed to become quicker and stronger than before.

'Well this is great! I’m gonna die a lonely death in a forest because of a wolf! Great end to my life! Ah well, might as well go down kicking.'

And that's exactly what he was doing as the wolf pounced on him. The kicks had little effect, except for a lucky kick in the belly. The wolf instantly hurled all over the ground (and on Loyal).

'Greaaat, now I'm going to die in wolf puke as well!'

Suddenly the wolf stopped attacking, his eyes turning back to normal. He simply ran off.

"YEAH, YOU’D BETTER RUN!" Loyal shouted after the animal as he slowly got up.

Loyal then sat down again and inspected the hurl of the animal, and saw a small purple shard lying there…it was just lying there...

Ha ha! There is my next house payment!

Loyal bent down and picked up the shard and instantly heard a voice.

"You...are not like the rest..."

"Who's there!?" Loyal jumped up and looked around.

"They died...how interesting...you could...fend off my attacks, you…found my weakness..."

"I'm warning you, who are you!?!" Loyal was starting to become aggravated by this annoying voice.

"The light will come and cover the land. The shadows shall be pushed aside. The night will come when the sun will not set, a hero will rise...and three shall hold their own; truth and reality will be warped, ponies will be tested, and the hero will win, the hero will always win..."

"WHO...ARE...YOU!?!?!" Loyal screamed

"The hero would always win...Now we have you..." the voice spoke in an almost excited tone at this last part.

"Why me?!?" Loyal was really angry now, angry Loyal was not a very intelligent one.

"Because the heroes will always win...but we understand now, to beat the light…"

"WHO ARE—"

"The shadows need heroes too." And with that, Loyal had enough.

"Whatever, I don't care!" Loyal began to leave. However, he suddenly saw something that made him stop: a large bag of bits was just sitting there.

"The bits are yours if you will do one simple task," the voice said calmly

‘Bloody...ga...I need the money...’ And that was true; every time he moved, his living conditions got worse and worse, making his new start worse and worse. But with those bits...his new start might finally be a new start...he would finally be able to be somepony...

"What do you want?" Loyal said anger being replaced by impatiens.

"A simple task: go to Ponyville and wait. You will know when you are needed when the light begins to come..."

"And I get this bag of bits?" Loyal asked to confirm what he was hearing.

The voice cackled. That creeped him out. "Yes...IF you follow your part of the deal...DO we have a deal?"

"Fine, ok, I can do that!" Loyal grabbed the bag of bits and looked, pleased by the amount inside. ‘Finally, my new start begins here...’

"Good now- Ga, I must go...Remember, when the li-" The voice cut out mid sentence and Loyal stood there for a long time waiting for the voice to continue or for a pony to jump out and laugh at him, saying it was a joke, at which pont he would proceed to beat that said pony to near death.

'Well, I guess I'm off to Ponyville... Hopefully this "light" comes before I get kicked out...'

And with that Loyal Hoof walked off not understanding what just happened…

...or what would happen in the days to come.

Loyal now resides in Ponyville in a small, bleak house near Sugarcube Corner. Every day he goes through the same boring old rut: he will get up, go to work as a door to door sales-pony, then around lunch head down to Sugarcube Corner and get a cupcake from the overly excited pink pony who works there. Then he waits, waits for the light to come over the land…or something like that. His life is fairly simple, and he has succeeded in not fighting anypony for the whole time he has been in Ponyville. He is very unknown in Ponyville. Well, except for that sugar-high pink ball of energy in Sugarcube Corner.

But, of course, he knows that it’s only a matter of time before whatever is going to happen happens...

And he already has two bags packed and ready to go.

Story 2: A horn ahead of his time

Dear Journal

Happy birthday!

It has been 2 years since I started writing in you to control my anger, as with my "problem" keeping my anger in check is the most importation job any non real object could be tasked with.

Good work, I'd bake you a cake if you had a mouth.

Well on to the entry, Princess Celestia is starting to make my blood freeze, honestly, this "Twilight Sparkle" that she brought in irritates me to no end, true I was not with her for as long, but I was a "horn ahead of my time" if you would, my power to manipulate the weather more efficiently than even a pegasus pony made me a great student, I never got lazy, I LIVED in my work place, I was on call 24/7 for any kind of discovery that would relate to my work.

Oh yes and my home, the spire tower recently got a new paint job, blue and gray like I requested, yay!

But back to the subject at hand, my ability to become more powerful the angrier I am (yet apparently become more unstable...what dose THAT mean?)

and to be truthful I started learning magic 3 years before "Twilight" did, bah! that sad excuse for a magical unicorn ugly stupid dumb unsocial idiotic

I have decided to save my insults for my "Hate" Journal, in which I state how everypony I have encountered is...err not going to start that here.

...where was I...yes "Twilight" the Princes treats her like a bloody daughter, why just last week my request for a rare tome that could save me years, not days, not months, YEARS of work towards proving the existence of the "underground" was denied, which normally wouldn't bother me if it was the case of I had gotten a grant recently (which I have NOT) or perhaps another pony had an equally important thing to get, in which one must respect other ponies, but it was not that.

Twilight wanted some new (ironically) old magic books to study out of.

And the Princess said yes.

What.The.Buck. (excuse my language)

Twilight wanted and I quote "to study out of" these books, the Princess chose that over saving me years of work in deciphering.

I hate that pony.

Other than being personaly selected by "your highness" (who couldn't even keep her bloody sister from rebelling against her.) Me and twilight are almost exactly the same (oh and shes a filly, I am colt, but that shouldn't be important!) Even both our cutie marks represent magic, mine a snowflake, to represent my control over the weather (ice in particular, but you already knew that journal.) And hers...Don't even bloody understand it!

Sigh...Oh well, I must go to the library, if I do not have that tome to save me years of work, I might as well start deciphering as I normally do...

~Your residential spire mage

Frost Horn

Frost stretched as he stopped levitating the quill and closed his journal, it felt good to get his thoughts out on paper, as to stop any...Incidents from occurring regarding his powers. He took a second to look around his home, the Spire, the closest thing he had to a home. Rows apon rows of ancient scrolls and books lined the dusty shelfs that occupied the space of the Spire. He sat in the only un-ancent thing in the entire Spire, his small organized desk where he conducted his work.

Most ponies found Frost different, but it was a result of how he showed his emotions. When frost was nothing more than a newborn colt, his father knew he was special, his father was a great unicorn mage who loved his wife dearly, and his wife, Frost's mother, loved him back. So much that she would have a child that she didn't want. Frost's father was gone off to study or teach most of the time, which left Frost Horn at home with his mother. Though Frost mother was a nice woman and would never hate someone she knew, let alone gave birth to, but she treated Frost more as a close friend than a son. She had no idea the effect this had on him, as Frost took this as his mother was not proud of him and he would have to work, and study, and labor to show his mom he was worth being a son. Frost became unsocial as he thought that he could not make a friend until he could prove to his own mother that he was a worthwhile son. And thus began his life of studding, his mother saw this as nothing more than a little hobby and took no interest even though if she paid attention she would see Frost was doing advanced equations most ponies would be simply stumped by. This only made him work harder and harder, causing his mother to care less and less with every "Discovery" Soon however Frost's father found these "Useless hobby sheets" according to Frost's mother, and within twenty four hours had Frost booked on the next train to Canterlot.

At first he loved Celestia, she was the mother he never had, he even started to become a bit more open and less boxed up. Then Twilight started to learn magic, and jealousy and hatred took over. Frost could not bring himself to express the anger he felt towards Twilight in words, so did it in work, he was on the case twenty four-seven, never stopping, but alas, unlike Frost thought it would it did not bring him closer to Celestia, it merely pushed he away from her, as his obsession with the "underground" he became less attached to anything outside his work. Other ponies thought this meant he didn't like them, Frost thought he was bringing them closer to him by showing his devotion to what he did. Eventually he seemed to forget why he started working so hard in the first place, and instead did it to substitute for friendship and companionship.

He cracked his neck and began to walk to the library a smile on his face, meany would (and do) find his constant smiling creepy, but it is something he must do, as frowns can lead to sadness, which can lead to anger...And that doesn't go over well with Frost, the last time he had openly expressed his anger they had to replace all the windows in the hallway and the poor custodian ponies were shoveling snow in the middle of summer for the entire day.

Ah good nopony around to inter- drat.

Frost couldn't hide a small frown when a new guard (against the warnings of his superior not to mess with the pony from the spire) walked up to him and smiled

"Hello there, would you be Frost?" the guard said a happy sound to his voice

Now something some ponies (and again, many do) are taken aback by the fact that even though Frost may seem happy smiling all the time, he speaks with a very refined and bored tone of voice, as if he would prefer to be anywhere but speaking to you at the present time. (That was a very good guess and was usually quite true, as was the case now.)

"yes, but that is Frost Horn, Kafra Sarra, in shadowspeak, now may I please pass?" Frost Horn said to the guard

"uhhh...well...you see the princess said nopony was to enter whe-" The guard nervously spoke

"Look, you are a very busy, pony and so am I, by coincidence, I have important work to do, and you probably require all four of your hoofs to do your job, so lets do something here which allows both of us to benefit here, yes?" Frost said in his regular, bored tone, but with a bit more of an edge than usual.

"...Uh, wow look at the time my shift is over, nice...well BYE" the guard said as he ran down the hallway

Frost for the second time today, frowned, he didn't like scaring the new guards, but it was the only way to assure that he could focus on his work. Ever since his father sent him to Canterlot as a very young colt to study magic and learn to control his powers, he had been focused on just that, if he could just find the location of the legendary "underground" the amount of history that would suddenly be flipped upside-down, it would look like discord was dancing on what we thought we knew of the universe.

The problem was that madness and genius are two sides of the same coin, the more genius you went after, the more ponies thought you were mad, he had long ago crossed the line of simple genius, and he was bloody sure there wasn't one pony that knew of his existence that didn't think he was mad.

Frost looked up at the book of shadow, the tool he used to understand the language of the shadow, the problem was there were many symbols that were not in the book, and he could only guess when trying to find other things, sometimes he got lucky and could find new symbols by knowing what a word should look like, other times entire scrolls could not be read as he had no knowledge of what anything meant.

why is it so hard to get the bloody book out!?!

Frost tugged on the book with all his magical might, but it would not move.

GAAAAAA!!!

Frost suddenly became angry, he tried not to repress his emotions, but every now and then he cracked, and when he was angry, he became a lot stronger.

"YIKES" a voice yelled as he pulled the book (and a surprised purple pony) out from the book slot.

however, using his magic when he was angry was one thing, controlling it was another, the book flew across the room and flew right through a glass window.

"...woops..." Frost said, he silently lectured himself on not to let himself do that again.

"I am dreadfully sorry I just tho-" Frost instantly shut his mouth surprised that the purple pony in front of him was none other than Twilight.

why today?

"It's okay..." the purple pony said as she stood up "I didn't know the freak in the spire was in the library or I wouldn't have come, please forgive me!"

"oh it...wait...WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?!" Frost said he felt himself getting angry, but didn't care.

"Oh, isn't  that your name? It's what everypony calls you! The poor pony who can't even stop smiling because he's not right in the head!" Poor Twilight said, still to young to understand that this was NOT something you said to someone.

Frost lost it, he tackled the much younger Twilight held her against the wall which poor Twilight was still too young of a filly to defend herself from the older colt, once she was up against the wall Frost froze his hoof (and the area around it) trapping Twilight's neck in sold ice, he felt his body temperature drop, a sign he should stop, but she had crossed the line, and Frost just snapped.

"ga..haga.." Twilight said as she could no longer breath very well.

"hear me out you sad excuse for a unicorn, I am BUCKING FROST HORN the GENUS! THE GREAT, THE POWERFUL! NOT FROST HORN THE FREAK!"

"UNHAND HER!"

frost heard the voice and instantly matched it to princess Celestia.

"Ah Celestia, finally your interested in something I have done!" Frost said

suddenly Frost felt his body temperature drop a few digress more, the guards were shivering, and snow was beginning to gather on the windows (except for the one he broke)

"Unhand her frost, you have crossed the line!" Celestia tried to reason with frost, but they both know that time was over.

"Oh, I crossed the line?!? How long have I been called the "freak in the spire" and don't you dare lie to me!" Frost said anger seeping from his every word.

Then, he felt it, zero was coming, the one reason he had to control his anger, if he hit zero that was it, he crossed the line, the last time he hit zero he leveled the original spire in a burst of cold magic energy. Problem was this almost killed him, he was in a coma for 4 weeks and couldn't use magic for a month after that, and worst thing about it, it only seemed to affect the world, not ponies, true the temperature dropped to zero degrees Celsius, and it leveled any pony made structures withing a hundred hoof radius, but it had no effect on living breathing ponies, so there was no reason for him to hit zero, but it wasn't something he did on purpose.

Celestia looked him strait in the eye "It has been 2 years since the name stuck."

Frost cracked for the second time.

"RAAAAAA" Frost screamed as he ran at Celestia, the windows shattered from the weight of the ice and snow built up on it and as a result, snow flew everywhere, his horn froze with ice that he shot at Celestia.

"Zap" and with that he was down, Celestia only needed one shot to take down the unstable mage.

Frost stood up after a minuet, now fully in control of himself "Apologies...It has been a hard few days...Perhaps you should work on getting that name removed from my head my princess."  Frost said in his normal calm tone.

"I will, Frost Horn" Celestia said sadly

why dose she sound sad? Perhaps it because of the damage yes that must be it.

"You have an hour." Celestia said

"excuse me?" Frost said confused

"you have one hour to get you things and leave Canterlot, the spire is no longer a home to you." Celestia said simply

"...who will the spire go to?" Frost said, although he already knew the answer

"Twilight sparkles, my student" Celestia said

"Of course my princess, just let me pack." frost said quietly as he walked to the spire

Frost winced as he cut himself with the small blade, he took a bit of blood from the cut before sealing it back up. he slowly traced an symbol on the inside of the spire wall, the symbol glowed and disappeared along with hundreds of others that were previously made.

If I am not the one to discover the secrets of the underground, no one will.

Frost Horn smiled as he looked back from the train to ponyville as the spire collapsed, no reason, and everyone simply thought the old thing just gave out, they were however surprised by the fact that not a single note, book, or scroll was savable.

It's as if the spires secrets died with it.

It has been a long time since Frost left Canterlot he has done a lot, he now lives in a house that is wonderfully painted, and quite large, continuing his research into the "underground" But recently something strange happened...Frost found a sample of a rare gem that matched the description of darkite, a rare underground mineral that the citizens of the "underground" used.

how interesting

Frost picked up the strange mineral

"We have found you" A voice says slowly

Frost was not in the least bit surprised by this, he had heard that the shadows communicated by transmitting their voice through rare minerals that grow in the head of the ponies who live in the "underground" and normal ponies can hear the voice through touching darkite.

"We do not need to bribe you, we know you will understand, you must find the one who will oppose the light, and when the day comes that the sun will not set, you will find what you were looking for." The voice said slowly

"what am I looking for?" Frost said, he knew, but he had to be sure

"The way to the "underground" Frost, so you may know, and so others may know your genius" and with that the voice left leaving Frost standing there.

Knowing his time, the time he would once and for all no longer be considered mad, or totally insane.

He would be known for who he knew he is...

He would be...well slightly sane.

Story 3: six (hundred) feet Underground

Who are we?

We are the shadows.

We reside in the legendary "Underground". Paired with a pony at birth, each one of us is a part of THE SHADOW: our Master, our Creator...our Mother.

Deception, Truth, Jealousy, Cruelty, Hatred, Greed... We take the names of what we represent...

I am Sadness. I was paired with Silver Light...and this is the story of the beginning of the end.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Years ago...

"Not to be rude, but I wonder why you get up sometimes. All that waits you outside is death..."

Silver got up and stretched. His room was bleak and gray with a single desk containing his collection of homework.

"Good morning to you too, Sadness." Silver Light said a grin on his face.

"What’s so good about this morning in particular? It's still going to be the same old Underground. Pain, suffering and death..."

"Yeah, still not seeing how that's not a particularly good thing," Silver said, checking the rune on the back of his forearm.

"Huh, you hungry Sadness?" Silver asked, even though the gray outline of the scar told him his shadow required energy.

"I told you already: I do not hunger, but I require energy like all living things to survive."

"Yeah- shit, SHIT! I'm late!" Silver screamed as he realized the time. If he ran, he could just make it to school.

"I still require energy." Sadness said annoyed with Silver’s knack to forget his requirement for energy.

"I can grab something on the run." Silver said to stop Sadness from complaining

Silver Light grabbed his saddlebag and ran for the door. His father and mother waved to him as he left. His parents were always good to him, he would have given them a hug if he didn’t want to not die. Silver sprinted across the bleak streets of the Underground. The large stone wall that surrounded the town was still gray and covered with moss; the red flags blew loosely in the fake Underground wind, and the bleak cracked stone buildings surrounded him. Still, Silver had to give the Underground one thing: it may have been bleak, but the architecture was amazing. Spiral buildings surrounded him, and it looked almost beautiful in a sad sort of way, this may have been because he always saw things in the saddest way possible, a side effect from his shadow.

The Underground was a horrible place to those who had not lived in it their entire life. The killing and death may seem senseless, but they figured if they could only have so many ponies at one time, the weak should not take up valuable space. The cave surrounding the city was filled with jagged rock, and it was dark; not blow-out-all-the-candles dark. It was a somepony-stole-the-sun dark. Luckily, the ponies of the Underground developed a sort of night vision.

The Underground was a testament to their ingenuity, for they had built this town by hoof hundreds of year ago. Yet nopony knows how, well the shadows do, but that’s a secret they won’t tell, stating that the last time they had tried to reveal their secrets, more bad than good came out of it. The ponies of the Underground were proud of their heritage. After all, the Shadows were as old as the sun and the moon. As the Queen of the Shadows says:

"When the sun rose for the first time, it cast a spell which awoke our kingdom and birthed our ways. We rule both the day and night, for even when the sun goes down, you don't fear the darkness; you fear what lurks in the shadows

Silver almost tripped as he ran to the border between the living area, the Upperground, and the Lower area, the Downground

.

Got to stay focused He thought to himself

Sadness started complaining again, so silver decided that it wasn’t worth letting him complain all day. So he stopped in the Middleground, where all the shops and business were located. The place had a strange look to it, shops that were as old as the Underground itself bordered the outskirts of the Middleground lots of smaller, newer stands and stalls were scattered around. Not meany ponies were around at this time, as the children were at school and everypony else was eather off at their job or sitting around at home completing a ritual or practicing their runework.  He stopped at the first stand, a red and black stall that had been there for about eight months and was trying to get a permit to build a real shop.

"Excuse me?" Silver said to the shop owner

The pony turned around. He had sleek red fur and a kindness in his eyes, but there was still a fire in that kindness, he was  big and muscular, and had several scares (probably due to the fact that his shadow wasn’t that helpful in the fight during his time in school.

"’Morning kid,” he greeted, a smile on his muzzle. “What can I get for you?"

Sadness suddenly spoke excitement in his voice. "Hello, Kindness. It's been too long. Excuse me Silver, but Kindness and I are going to catch up on the last fifty years." And with that, Sadness’s presence abandoned Silver, leaving him with an empty feeling in his gut.

Shadows never died. Even when their host pony was killed, they merely went back to being a part of THE SHADOW to be selected for a new host. That is why death was so normal; the day you were born, an old host pony was killed and you were given his shadow, the process was fairly random, you never knew what you would get. There was a steady population of three-thousand ponies, no more, no less, and each pony had their own Shadow. So it was not strange for two Shadows to want to catch up after fifty years of not seeing each other. It also meant, however, that there were a constant number of shadows: 3,000. That would also explain why when a pony is born, a pony is killed (or vise-versa).

Silver smiled at the pony and said, "One darkite shard, please."

The pony nodded, his red mane flopping over his neck. "Over-charge?" he asked as he turned around, his blank flank showing as he went to grab the shards.

A blank flank was nothing strange in the underground, as nopony had a cutie mark. The shadow determined who the pony was, not what their skill was.

Silver pondered this for a second, and then shrugged. "Sure, why not. I have the points."

Unlike most places, bits were considered stupid in the Underground; it was not taken as a currency. (Granted if you HAD bits it meant that you’re not from the Underground. And that means you probably don't have a shadow, and that means you’re already dead, and somepony is bathing in your blood. Literally not metaphorically; it's a ritual.) in place of bits, there were points. Points could be gained from all sorts of places: fighting, allowance, simple jobs and things like that.

"Have a good day kid!" the pony said, smiling and waving at Silver.

"Haha… Oh Kindness…she is such a kidder," Sadness said, returning to Silver Light.

Silver rolled his eyes and held up the darkite shard, the small purple crystal fitting perfectly into his hoof. He then crushed it under his hoof causing the crystal to quickly disappear, flowing into Silver’s body, feeling its power absorb into the rune on his forearm. He quickly checked it, grinning at the dark black outline on the rune-scar. Suddenly, he felt himself fall over with sickness, his vision spinning in dangerous circles. However, the dizziness disappeared as soon as it came. Silver stood, and peering at the rune; it now also had a purple outline that circled the black design. Silver shrugged and continued on his way; the sickness was a small price to pay for the extra energy overcharged darkite gave him.

"You late too?" The voice, which sounded fairly lonely, spoke from behind him.

Silver turned to see a fellow classmate, Flair Wing, a pegasus pony who was a bit taller than Silver Light but much thinner. Blue and black fur lined his small body, along with his signature hair style which was split down the middle, blue on one side and black on the other. A pair of big blue glasses covered his dark grey eyes. Flair was a short-life, which meant the doctors didn't expect him to make it past colt-hood.

"Yeah. Shit, I bet they’re going to throw us in the Spike Room. You’re lucky you can fly; I'll have to walk to the other side." Silver said, his head drooping a bit.

The Spike room is what they called the “late room”, where you were forced to walk, or fly, to the other side of the room which was covered in small painful spikes that dug into the tardy ponies’ hooves. But to stop pegasus ponies from simply flying across, they also wore a saddlebag that was filled with whatever heavy things were near it at the time, be it bricks or weapons. Falling was a slow painful death; if you died, which wasn’t that rare, your head was then put on display outside the school doors.

"Perhaps not…I've been…working on…something…" Flair said slowly as he looked around and whispered in Sliver’s ear. "I stole a…book on magic runes…and my shadows...I meant shadow… helped me decipher it…I think I might be able to harness my shadow’s energy..."

Silver was surprised at this. The rune-scar (or shadow-scar, as most ponies called it) was imprinted in them at birth, sort of like a rash. It allowed them to tell if their shadow required energy; a light gray meant very low, a deep black meant full, and flashing purple meant that it was overcharged. And when they graduated from school, they learned about harnessing shadow energy. Ponies could take their shadow’s power and use it to do all sorts of things, from levitation to their Shadow-skill. The Shadow-skill was a single power unique to the user and their shadow. That could come in many shapes and sizes, such as an offensive spell, (like the old war-pony Tybra Burn and his skill, “Shadow-flame” which created a large shockwave of lava around him) to the ability to never become sick. It depended on who the pony was and what their shadow represented.

The only problem with shadow energy was that it caused a massive depletion of energy, causing your shadow to require power almost directly after use of a single spell. Unicorns were the one exception to this rule as they don’t take their magic from there shadows, but instead use them to enchant there magic making it much more deadly. Darkite was, thank the Shadows, very easy to come by, and some could even grow it if they have the skill. Still, young colts and fillies were deemed too irresponsible to use this, but like mostly everything in the Underground, it wasn't a rule; it was a suggestion. If a young pony got his/her hooves on something that could teach them this, they didn't care.

"I could try to take us there…but we might end up…in a wall..." Flair said slowly.

Silver was silent, debating the choice in his head. An instant death that would be laughed at for years to come, or a slow and painful one in the Spike Room...tough call.

"Meh, what have I got to lose?" Silver said, shrugging.

"Only your life," Flair Wing grinned.

Flair closed his eyes and brought up his hoof to his muzzle, touching his rune-scare with his other arm. A bright purple light flashed and suddenly, they were in the small bleak grey room in which Sliver Light recognized to be his homeroom.

"Shit, it wor- Flair? Are you ok?" Silver asked as Flair Wing simply stood there, unmoving, before falling to the ground. The small colt panted heavily, sweta rolling down his coat.

"I...am...fine...just...took...a...lot...out...of...me..." Flair said, taking a breath in between each word.

Flair stood up and peered down at his rune-scar through blurry eyes. Seeing the weak, light gray outline on his friend’s rune-scar, Silver decided to help. He closed his eyes and generated a darkite shard using his own energy, handing it to Flair. Sure, he was down a bit of energy, but what were friends for?

"Take it. It's the least I can do." Silver smiled as he turned and walked away.

He heard a small clink as Flair slowly stepped on the crystal, gaining a bit more energy.

School, or, as the ponies who went there called it, the Slaughterhouse, got its name due to the fact that every day, two ponies were pitted against each other in a battle to the death. The rules were simple: winner lived, loser died. It was so simple that anypony could understand, and everypony feared it.

The first part of the day flew by, first was P.E. Where they were trained to withstand large amounts of pain, and were taught that only fools follow a code of battle and honor. Next was science, which they learned about, what else? How to kill things more efficiently and what part of the body was the weakest, and now found himself back in his homeroom…

Silver sat in class, watching as his teacher, Blue Burn, demonstrated how to use a Shadow Bow. It was one of the Shadow World’s most creative inventions: it had two bows crossed in an X formation, mounted to a large wooden mechanism with an iron barrel. Underneath this was a large iron cylinder which ponies placed their hoof in. At the end of the cylinder was a trigger which, once pushed, fired the weapon. The weapon also had a small wooden plank mounted on the left side, which has an iron chain attached to it. The other end of the chain attaches to a custom-made saddlebag with a special holster for the weapon, along with a quiver for the arrows. Now, the ponies of the Underground were much smarter than the ponies of the Aboveground; the Underground ponies would not make such an advanced weapon and load it with run-of-the-mill arrows. The “Shadowbolt” is the nickname given to the specific type of arrow used by the weapon. It is an average arrow, other than the fact that the tip is replaced by an unstable darkite shard that exploded after a few seconds once it hit an object hard enough. It was one of the many inventions of the Underground, since the society had no other problems other than "how do I kill this thing faster and easier than I already can?" Advancements in weapons and war were very creative…and deadly. He heard Blue Burn asking for volunteers for anypony wishing to fire the weapon, Silver looked around and saw that Flair had volunteered to try and fire the weapon. That didn’t surprise him, Flair was always fascinated by weapons like the Shadow-Bow. The class burst into laughter as he fell backwards from the kick of the weapon firing. "Don't worry, it happens to everyone the first time," Mr. Blue Burn said, stifling a laugh.

*RING! RING!*

The bell for lunch sounded, and everypony grabbed a darkite shard and a treat and went to the gym to watch the fight. The Shadows allowed their host to feed off them, since most ponies in the Underground didn't need food. But still, it tasted good, so most ponies ate when they found something they liked.

Silver looked to the Board and waited for the names of who would be fighting to appear. It was the last fight of the year, and his name had not been drawn yet. As is sometimes the case, there were leftover ponies. It’s not because their name had not been drawn, but because some ponies loved to fight so much they took the place of others. He waited, twitching slightly, then the first name appeared:

Flair Wing.

Then the second:

Rune Dust.

Silver bit his lip. He had been hoping not to be picked. But poor Flair…Silver knew his friend wouldn’t make it; he was small and frail, and his shadow, Truth, was one of the weaker ones as well. Not a good combination for a fight.

"How sad...Oh well. I told you this day wasn't going to be any different."

"Shut up, Sadness" Sliver snapped quietly.

*SNAP* The sound of a neck cracking surprised Silver; Rune was one for brain destruction, not snapping necks. Suddenly, the crowd of ponies gasped as Flair, each eye displaying a different color, stood over the dead body of Rune Dust. Suddenly it all came together, why he said "Shadows"…plural…

As in more than one.

The effect that a Shadow had when he/she took over a body was a change of eye color. Silver’s personally was a lighter blue, almost gray color...but since Flair was displaying two colors, it showed he had two shadows... And that wasn't exactly allowed. Barely anything in the Underground was a rule, but this is one ponies tend to like to stick to.

The principle ran down, enraged more by the fact that a student had two Shadows when he had one, and less by the fact that the bell for the fight had not rung and a student was already dead. "What is the meaning of this?!?"

"SILENCE!" a voice rang out. Suddenly, everypony dropped to the floor as their Shadows screamed into their ears. Ponies’ voices rung out everywhere. Silver clutched his head with his hooves as Sadness wailed within him.

"Wh- AHHH THE VOICE! MAKE IT STOP!"

"HELP ME! AHHHH!"

"NONONONOOO!"

The Shadows stopped screaming, and all eyes turned to the cloud floating at the roof of the gym.

"WHAT PROBLEM CURSES YOU?" The cloud spoke in a loud, yet kind demeanor.

"Who are you?" Flair asked, his eyes wide with fright.

"I AM THE SHADOW, THE BIRTH MOTHER OF ALL THE SHADOWS THAT YOU POSSES, OR THE QUEEN OF THE SHADOWS IF YOU PREFER." The SHADOW spoke.

The principle spoke to the cloud, shivering in terror. "Well, what do we do with him?" he asked, pointing at Flare.

"...IS HE LIVING?" The SHADOW demanded.

"Well...yes?" The principle answered slowly.

"THEN HE HAS WON. RETURN TO YOUR DAILY TASKS."

The SHADOW announced

"What?!? No I deman-" The principle started to protest before bursting into flames.

"AHHHH!!!!" The principle screamed in pain as he slowly burned to death, as purple flames burst out of the ground and enveloped his screaming form before winking out, the body seemed to disappear with the flames, leaving no trace that anything had just happened.

“DOES ANYPONY ELSE WISH TO MAKE DEMANDS OF ME?” The SHADOW asked, a growl creeping into its voice.

As expected, nopony spoke.

And with that, the cloud disappeared and students began to flock around Flair Wing to congratulate him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later, Silver Light bumped into Flair when walking down the hall.

"Oh...hey," Flair whispered, keeping his eyes trained on the ground.

"So...you have two Shadows?" Silver asked, accusation in his voice.

"Yeah…trust me, all it causes…is a lot of racket up here" Flair said pointing to his skull.

"...Who are they? And how did you get two" Silver questioned quietly.

"Truth, as you know…and Deception. Let’s just say that they don't work well together." Flair laughed nervously. "And for how I got two… My father knew I wouldn’t survive…with such a weak Shadow, so he gave me his... Look uh, I'm sorry I lied but...are we cool?" Flair asked slowly, peeking up at his friend.

Silver looked at Flair for a long time before grinning. "Are you kidding me? You have two bucking shadows. THAT IS AWSOME! Yeah, we’re cool!"

"Yeah...I have to go...I'll see you around." Flair Wing said with a smile before running off.

"Bye..." Silver responded, knowing his friend was too far away to hear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the years to come, the two boys grew up together. Flair and Silver joined the army after school, fighting in the seemingly never-ending fight with the Golda army. After both of them ended up being trapped behind enemy lines and escaping with their lives (barely) and taking enemy intelligence, with them Flair and Silver were promoted to Shadow Commander, and found themselves in charge of a weak, small battalion of solders. However, under the command of Flair and Silver, it soon became one of the deadliest weapons in their army. But the war is getting desperate. The population is going down every day, and Flair and Silver have come up with an ambitious plan: to find the key for the most deadly weapon the shadow has.

But for that, they will have to leave the Underground.

Story 4: Light of the Day

We will stand when others fall.

When ponies flee, we will fight.

And thus is the way of the light.

~Gold Seeker.

Commander of the Golda army

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My name is Gold Soul.

I am but a simple Colt in the grand city of Golda, my father is the Commander of the Golda army. It is my duty to protect the citizens of my town from the evil that is the Underground. I write in you my journal after a particularly interesting day, as I walked by the streets of my fair town, I saw that the city is no longer using stone, but wood to build houses. Not to get cocky, but I think this is sign of our impending victory! For years have the Light and darkness struggled in our war, but now It seems like fate has finally decided to take a side, OUR side. For the far off town of Canterlot has recently found the Lightstone, (as well as the darkstone) And because we are not evil,(unlike our enemy) we have the intelligence to set up diplomatic relations that will allow us to collect the Lightstone and finally end this war! I must go now, as I am needed elsewhere

~Gold Soul

Solder of Light

I smiled as I used my magic to put the quill down, I was never one to be a rambler, most of my entries were two or three sentences long as I hated to take time away from protecting my town. Being a Unicorn born of magic and light, my powers are far more advanced than others can conceive. I have been trained in the art of honesty and mercy in battle. My life, devoted to the protection of the Golda army & nation. Now the time has come, the battle is coming to a close, soon we will finally be able to put this part of history behind us. I stand up and look around my room in the royal palace, being the prince had it's perks. Gold is used almost everywhere in the room, from the bed to the walls, gold here gold there gold everywhere, other than that there was a small wooden desk with some battle tactic plans put out on it. I smile, soon...

Very soon...Soon the day will come....

When the sun will not set...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the Everfree forest two black clouds of fog meet, the fog clouds shifts to reveal a purple cyrstal floting in the middle of each of them, one of them speaks up

"Did you find a sutable companon for our host?" the cloud asks

The second cloud scoffs and replies "It took a bit longer than I hoped, but it has been done none the less."

The first cloud says nothing and simply floats there before wispering "It's too soon."

"It is time"

"He is not ready...THEY are"

"And if we wait all it will acomplish is giving them another edge."

"But..."

"no, we have foud those with darkness, hate and greed in their hearts, it is the best we can do."

"I...I fear we may have made a mistake"

"We have, but now all we can do is hope that that shit about the good guys always win is just that."

"Deception...what if he...we fail?"

"Have faith Truth...that is all we can do now....have faith and kick flank."

*END OF CHRONICLES OF THE PAST*