Memories: Empire of the shadows

Ponyville, shadow year 3567: third cycle of the dark.

one sun and one moon until the summer sun celebration

Twilight Sparkles peered at the two small stone tablets that sat in front of her on her desk. She looked closely at them, bending closer. They both had strange symbols on them; the first symbol appeared to be made of gold in some kind of elegant design. She felt…safe around it, as if it was a gentle thing meant to protect.

The other one, though…it was exactly the same, but the symbol was made of some kind of purple gem…  She felt cold and angry when alone with the object. She started writing a letter to Princess Celestia detailing what she found on them, biting her lower lip in anticipation of what her teacher would say, after all she had already sent her here for being to worried about Nightmare Moon. (She still WAS worried about it.)

Dear Princess Celestia,

One of the objects I found does indeed match the description of the Lightstone. And the fact that Golda’s forces contacted us matches with what we know about the Golda nation, as little as that is. Therefore, I can safely tell you that the Golda nation probably means us no harm. However, I must warn you about the other object: the Darkstone. If my studies are correct, then this stone belongs to a mythical city know only as the “Underground”. They are apparently very violent and show no mercy toward their enemies. I warn you to watch for such ponies and keep your guard up, as they will probably try and stop the Goldinians from retrieving the stone. I shall give you the stone tomorrow at the summer sun celebration.

Your faithful student,

~Twilight Sparkle

Twilight looked out the window of the ponyville library and felt her mind wander, what was the Princess thinking? Keeping the stones could result in a major conflict, as if in fact the ponies from the Underground do come, things could get dangerous. She yawned as she saw the sun come up. Just one more day till the summer sun celebration…she should get some sleep. After all, it’s not like anything important was happening.

Same time, Underground cave entrance outpost.

Flair Wing paced back and forth as he went through the checklist once more.

“Currency?” He asked sharply.

“Check, sir!” a nearby solder stated.

“Weapons?” He continued.

“Eight Shadow-bows sir, plus two Shadow Shots for you and Silver Light, sir. Fifty-four Shadow-bolts for ammunition, sir!” The same pony replied.

“Armor?” he questioned.

“Seven sets of shadow-plates, sir! And one set of leather armor for you, sir!” The pony said, snapping a smart salute before joining his comrades in front of the large purple crystal.

Flair smiled. He hated heavy armor, so he did what any solder would do: he went to the surface and killed enough cows to fashions himself leather armor. It fit snugly around him, with several pockets and a slot on each side for his wings. It was thick enough to protect him, but not too thick as to effect his mobility. Plus it was black, his favorite color; and, after one sarcastic soldier told him all that was missing was a evil black cape, he started wearing a sable-hued cloak as well.

“Good. Now, the plan is to get up there, get the Darkstone, and get back before the Goldans realize we were even there.”

“YES SIR!” The six solders barked in reply.

“You ready?” Silver Light, his good friend, and fellow shadow commander, said from behind him.

“Are you kidding me? I was born for this!” Flair grinned at Silver. “I’ll head in first Silver, get ready to follow.”

Flair held his breath as he stepped up to crystal, its dark purple glow pulsing. This was it; he would be the first shadow pony in years to use the Darkport crystal. It didn’t allay his fears that his technicians could only speculate if it would work. Flair Wing thought of asking Truth about the statistics again, then remembered his Shadows had left him to go to Ponyville to prepare for his coming. Flair Wing took one more breath, and touched the crystal with one blue hoof.

And everything went dark.

Gold Soul looked around the Everfree forest, sighing to himself as two guards trailed behind him. His father had insisted on sending protection with him. Soul, however, didn’t agree with this; he was a royal! A knight, even! He did not need protection from anything. But his father probably had his reasons. and Soul respected his father enough to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“My Prince, we are approaching Ponyville. We are an hour out at most,” the first guard said for the first time since they had left Canterlot.

“No need for formalities. As I said before, call me Soul.” Gold Soul said, rolling his eyes at the guard.

“If that is your wish, my Prince,” The first guard said with a slight bow.

Gold Soul frowned; why did everypony treat him like this? He wasn’t stuck up like other ponies he knew. He sighed again as he continued walking, the only sounds that could be heard being their hoofsteps. Sometimes being the Prince wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

Loyal was having a bad day to say the least. He was cranky and REALLY wanted to punch somepony. It had been weeks since he had hit somepony, and to top it all off this pink ball of energy was annoying the buck out of him!

“…and that’s how Equestria was made!” Pinky Pie finished with a flourish, a couple of party cannon going off behind the counter.

“You know what Pinky?” Loyal said, his light Scottish accent filled with annoyance and impatience.

“what is it Loyle, is it a party, OHHH is it about the summer sun celebration tomorrow?!?! I am in charge of the part, I love parties it my specal talent say did I tell you about how I got my cutie mark it's a funny story you see…” Pinky started going on and on… Loyal scowled, only pinky dared use that nick-name.

He was tempted to throw the blueberry muffin in his hooves at Pinkie's face. Anything to get her to stop talking.

Loyal didn’t care about the Voice's instructions anymore. It hadn’t given him any more advice in a week, but it didn’t matter to Loyal. It was time for him to move on, and punching this ball of energy would be his ticket out.

‘If you don’t want me kicked out of Ponyville, oh mysterious voice, then give me a sign.’

“Oh yea and did you hear the summer sun celebration this year’s special supper spectacular event is that the sun’s not going to go down all day and night?” Pinky Pie rambled on, her mouth never ceasing to move and her hooves gesturing in the air.

Loyal stopped suddenly, taking in the sentence, letting it sink in. “The day will come when the sun will not set” …That’s what the Voice said…

Loyal stood up and dashed out the door, leaving a couple bits in the counter for the cupcake. It was high time he found out what this Voice was talking about.

“Bye!” Pinky Pie hollered as he ran off, trotting to regale other ponies with the story of how Equestria had been formed.