All was peaceful in the Land of the Dead, the Blue Sun was shining to the East, as the Red Moon was shimmering to the West. A young undead pony named Shadow Skull was enjoying some time to think about his current take on the after-life while sitting on a mound of bones he found on the outskirts of the City of the Dead. The Land of the Dead however, was not at peace, as there were two types of the undead, the Skele-ponies, who were all Pegasi and Earth ponies as well as making the majority noble class; and the Soul-ponies who were either Unicorns or Alicorns like the Queen, though she was the only one in the Land of the Dead. The Skele-ponies were stuck in the form of their skeletons while Soul-ponies had no physical form but looked like they did in life, their soul emitting light from the core of their spectral body. Then there was Shadow Skull, not really fitting into either of these, since he had both bones and a soul, though his bones were a dark black instead of the bleached white of normal Skele-ponies, and his soul emitted a green light that looked more like fire, whereas the Soul-ponies glowed a light purple.
Given his strange appearance, most Skele-ponies ignored him as if he didn't exist, never wanting to play or do things with him. This didn't bother him though, he preferred Soul-ponies any day as company. He always enjoyed hanging out with his friend Split Soul, a Soul-pony who could be the most entertaining and lighthearted undead pony ever, then suddenly change to the most irritable and angry. Shadow thought that was how he had gotten his name, but he didn't mind his friend's mood swings, thats what he liked about Split Soul.
Unfortunately, he couldn't always go see his friend because he lived within the Valley of the Fallen, forced there with all the other Soul-ponies. The Valley of the Fallen wasn't a place most wanted to live, seeing as how it was the entrance to the Labyrinth, a maze filled with traps designed to destroy the anypony who couldn't beat it, even if they were already dead. The Valley was where monuments and gravestones were placed in memory of those who entered the vile domain. Any of the ponies in the Land of the Dead could try their luck against it, the reward being reincarnation back into life. There was even a story of a Soul-pony named Soul-Shield who had supposedly made it to the end of the Labyrinth, only to go insane by the time he reached it, some ponies even claim to hear a disturbing laughter from the Labyrinth every so often, when most would be asleep.
'Well, time to start heading back' Shadow thought to himself 'Mom and Dad are probably worrying their skulls off, that is if they aren't meeting with the Queen'. It should be know that, while Shadow had no interest in politics, his parents were two of the Queen's five personal advisers, which made up what was called the Counsel. Jumping down from the bone mound, he started the long trek back to his home, unaware that somepony was, and had been, watching him the entire time.
"Finally, that was a bit farther from the City than I originally thought" said Shadow to himself as he walked under the large portcullis that marked then entrance to the City of the Dead. Though his hope for a quite return was destroyed when he heard somepony yelling.
"HEY, HEY SHADOW!" came a loud voice from nearby, turning his skull, Shadow saw his friend Split Soul galloping towards him, a goofy grin plastered across his face. "Hey Split, how's it going?" asked Shadow, wondering how his friend always seemed to know where he would be, "Pretty good, I was gonna try and mess with some of those snooty Skele-ponies in the market place, wanna join?" inquired the small Soul-pony. "Sorry Split, I need to get home, my parents are probably wondering where I'm at about now." answered Shadow. "Okay then, see ya later!" yelled Split Soul as he galloped off towards the market place, that grin still spread across his face. 'I will never understand him' thought Shadow to himself, turning back onto his path home.
As Shadow continued his walk home, an uneasy feeling crept it's way into his bones. Shadow felt as if somepony was watching him specifically, out of all of the undead ponies walking the street, and it unnerved him to his core. Hoping to lose his unwanted observer, Shadow decided to take a short-cut between some buildings. As he entered the ally, a bright started building up in the middle of the dim side-street and suddenly, after a blinding flash of white light, there stood a Keeper, one of the Queen's personal guards, dead center in front of him. After quickly getting his bearings, the Keeper said in a tone fitting a Queen's guard "Shadow Skull, by request of the Queen, I am to escort you to the palace for the Saeculum Parentalis to take place this following evening." Shadow was genuinely surprised at this, he hadn't expected to be invited to the centennial festival of the dead. Still feeling as if he was being watched, Shadow thought this would be the perfect way to loose his unseen stalker "I will happily oblige, sir" he answered with a bow of his head.
Shadow soon found himself teleported into the main palace courtyard, right in front of the main gate. The guards stationed at the entrance opened the large door with magic, allowing him to enter as it slowly slid shut behind him, scraping against the tiled floor of the palace hall. The main hall which Shadow now entered was packed with the high-ranking families of the afterlife, all discussing politics or small, meaningless gossip. He quickly saw his parents at the top of the stairs, his father and mother standing next to the Queen and her three other advisers. As soon as Shadow trotted up the stairs, his parents immediately diverted their attention from whatever it was the Queen and other advisers were arguing about in hushed tones.
"Hello sweetie, how was your day?" inquired his mom, her soft voice reminding Shadow Skull of some sort of angel. "It was fine, like always mom." replied Shadow, smiling slightly. Turning to face the Queen he said "Thank you for inviting me your majesty, but I'm a little puzzled at why you would want me here" "I thought that you might like to see what it is your parents actually do." replied the Queen in a warm and gentle voice, something you wouldn't expect from the Queen of the Dead. This time addressing the rest of the guests, she said "Mares and gentle-colts, it is time we proceeded to the Ball Room to start this wondrous night.". As Shadow started to head for the Ball Room, his parents called him back. "We don't actually participate in the festivities, Shadow" explained his father "While all the other families are dancing, we discuss matters of state, this is one of the few nights we can do so without interruptions, allowing at least some things to get done relatively quickly."
"Then why am I here?" asked Shadow. "Because we wanted you to see what we actually do, just like the Queen said" his father replied "Though I'm starting to sense that you aren't quite concerned with what we do" he added, seeing his son's head droop a little, "So why don't you go and wait in the Queen's private courtyard while your mother and I... discuss issues with the others." his father said the last few words with a look of disdain towards the other advisers
*BANG*
Was what Shadow heard from the courtyard as another hoof was slammed down for about the twentieth time that afternoon. Shadow had been sitting out here for who knows how long, thinking about what they could be talking about that would cause so many loud noises and raised voices.
As he had been sitting, Shadow noticed there seemed to be a few Keepers coming and going through the area apparently patrolling the courtyard. He didn't think anything of it, not even when some stopped to whisper to each other did he get any sort of anxiety. Though as the number of Keepers grew, Shadow couldn't help but glace back at them, only to quickly look away when he saw them throwing their own glances at him. Starting to get a little nervous Shadow got up off his haunches and started to trot inside, only to get blocked at the entrance by another Keeper. Quickly apologizing to the Keeper, Shadow tried to inch his way around the Soul-pony, only for the Keeper to start moving forward, pushing Shadow back up into the courtyard.
Now Shadow was starting to get nervous, the Keepers' behavior was wrong. 'They're supposed to keep the Queen safe in case of usurpers.' thought Shadow 'Surely they can't think I'm a danger to the Queen, can they?'. "Umm excuse me, sir, is everything all right?" he asked aloud to the guards, who had now formed a semi-circular formation around him. One, who appeared to be in charge took a step forward, "No, by order of the Triumvirate, the new rulers of the Land, you have been sentenced to annihilation".
Shadow couldn't help but feel both confused and terrified. He had never heard of this "Triumvirate", and he was sure he had never done anything to make somepony want to obliterate him indefinitely, at least not intentionally.
As Shadow was pondering what this meant, the Keepers' horns had started to glow, enough magic building up to end his very existence. AS the hum of the growing amount of magic snapped Shadow out of his thoughts. He could see that all the Keepers' horns radiating massive amounts of magic, enough to completely annihilate him as he already knew. turning his attention from the the Keepers, Shadow started looking for a way out. Shoving past the guards as they kept building their magic for a while longer, he galloped to the door, only to fall flat on his rump as they didnt so much as budge. He then started to frantically search for something that could let him in, a window, a hole, anything! Only to find no escape route.
Sighing in defeat, Shadow turned to face his executioners. The dozen guards all smirking at his attempts to try and escape simply made Shadow feel even worse. He then did the only thing he could do, lay down and wait.
"Hey now, that seems a bit unfair doesn't it?" came a loud gruff voice from behind the now startled guards. All pairs of eyes, including Shadow's, now rested upon the interloper, or rather, interlopers. For there stood two ponies, extremely strange looking. The first was a Soul-pony, the only noticeable thing about him was his his cutie mark, it was a shield surrounded by what looked like fog. The other pony was by far the more puzzling of the two, probably because he had no cutie mark, instead, there was a large orange-glowing hole in the center of his chest. And for some reason the strange, corpse-like stallion was wearing the shredded remains of a tuxedo coat and a pristine top hat, a cane was floating to the side, seemingly of its own will.
The Keepers, who had not planned for something like this, were dumbstruck as to what to do. The one who spoke to Shadow earlier now addressed the two ponies, "You two, leave now, you are interfering in a royal decree!" he shouted, rather unsure of himself. "Really? So a royal decree has sentenced a poor innocent pony to annihilated?" retorted the Soul-pony, he voice laced with disdain. "Wicked, you mind?" the Soul-pony asked his friend, "With pleasure." he replied, with a strange accent. the undead pony named Wicked slowly stepped up to the dozen guards and, in a matter of seconds, rendered them all unconscious.
Placing his top hat in the center of the courtyard, the pony Wicked stepped back, only for his hat to grow roughly five times its original size. The Soul-pony with the strange cutie mark slowly trotted up to the startled Shadow Skull. "Now that they've been dealt with, I'd say introductions are in order." said the Soul-pony. "My associate here" to which he pointed a hoof towards the walking corpse who in turned bowed gracefully "is Wicked K. and you may call me Soul Shield".
That last part did it for Shadow, hearing the name from the stories that kept ponies from the Labyrinth set him shaking. He was now, undoubtedly scared for his very soul.
