Shadows

by Vanillacider

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Dark
Length: 1592

The air is growing cold...

The air is growing cold… And nobody knows why. The Everfree Forest is pushing its boundaries, and hints seem to be popping up everywhere that a certain stranger who wandered into town knows why.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-01-08 02:34:03 UTC

Prologue

`“In the beginning, there were the great nations of the Earth Ponies, the Pegasi, and the Unicorns.  The Earth Ponies grew the food, the Pegasi controlled the weather, and the Unicorns raised and lowered the sun.  These are the three main races that we know of today, and the vast majority of Equestria is populated by exclusively these.

In addition to these, there are the Alicorns, two of which remain, who are the most powerful of all ponies.  Alicorns were once the largest and most common species of pony in Equestria, until low birth rate and several plagues damaged their kind beyond repair.  However, they are still alive today, and show no signs of aging.

The four types of pony now live in harmony and peace in Equestria.  With the cooperation of the thankfully merciful Alicorn sisters, we are able to maintain our current climate with hardly any trouble at all.

There are, however, rumors of a fifth species of pony.  The Shadow Pony.  Since the Earth Ponies control the surface of Equestria, the Pegasi control the sky, the Unicorns control the magical flow, and the Alicorns cause the Sun and the Moon to raise and set each day, historians have guessed that there may be a fifth type that controls the shadow magic.  Just as there is day and night, and heat or cold, there is magic that is inverse to the magic we now use.

It is magic that draws energy from surroundings, and gives off no light as our spells do.  It is easy for a shadow pony to create, but difficult to keep under control.  It comes from within the pony itself, and so no horn is required to cast such magic.

These rumors are also backed up by cave paintings created thousands of years before our beloved Princesses were even born.  They depict large, dark ponies with a propensity for either extreme violence or extreme kindness.

Their powers were once deemed necessary to keep the flow of magic balanced, so that shadow magic did not build up and cause damage.  However, the Moon, thanks to several powerful Unicorns who wished to minimize the risk to our safety, is imbued with a spell that allows excess shadow energy to be cycled through it, creating moonlight.

With their purpose in the system of Equestria taken away, the Shadow Ponies are depicted to have turned against each other, the Unicorns, and the Alicorns as well.  They fought each other and the other species until there were no more.

These writings cannot be considered completely true yet, since the drawings may have simply been a fairy tale to scare prehistoric colts and fillies into behaving.”

“Twilight, do you always have to read out loud?”  Groaned Spike.

Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes.  “Well, no, but it helps me stay focused.”

“Do you mind?  It’s almost three in the morning!  I’m trying to get some sleep, so could you read somewhere else?”

“Spike, we live in a small library.  There isn’t anywhere else I could really go.”

“Well, could you stop reading out loud?  Some of us have to sleep once in a while!”

“You’re a dragon.  You have thousands upon thousands of years to live.  I don’t know of a single dragon who has died of old age.  You’ll have more time than you know what to do with for sleeping.  Couldn’t you just endure a bit?”

“I’m not old enough to go for years without sleep!”

There was a knock on the door to the library.  Twilight bit her tongue, and went to answer it.

Pinkie Pie poked her head out of a bookcase.  “Ooh, Twilight!  That must be the plot!”

Twilight jumped.  “Pinkie… it’s the middle of the night.  I don’t have time for your nonsense.”  She walked down the stairs, and opened the door.

Nurse Redheart was standing there, dark circles under her eyes.  “Twilight, I need your help with something.”

Pinkie flew down the stairs and started bouncing in place next to the door.  “Ooh!  I told you it was the plot!  Oh, I’ve missed you so much, active story!  It’s been years… Hey, Twilight!  When did the last exciting thing happen?  Oh, I remember!  That was, like, three or four years ago!  This is so exciting!  I haven’t been this excited since that time that I saw you walking into town like six years ago and I was all like-“

“Yes, Pinkie, I remember.  Now, Nurse, what do you need me for?”

She sighed.  “A wanderer came into town just a few minutes ago.  According to the ponies who brought him into the clinic, he was muttering to himself and coughing up black blood.  By the time we got him on a bed, he was completely unconscious.  He’s still alive, but I don’t know how much longer he’ll make it.  His breath is slowing down, and his heartbeat is speeding up.”

“And why do you need me?  I don’t know anything about medicine!”

“The cause… I’m sure it has something to do with magic.”

“How can you tell?”

“There are runes carved all over his back, and they’re glowing.”

“Oh my.”  Said Twilight.

“Yes, we don’t know what to do.  I have almost no training in magical remedies, and this looks like something you’d take to an expert in magic.”

“This will take a second.”  The stallion was large, and very thin.  He was light brown, with a white mane that had a black tint.  His cutie mark was a large, slanted eye with a black iris.  “That’s odd.  Usually an eye cutie mark means using magic to discover things… but he’s an earth pony.”

“Do you think you can help him?”

“Let’s see… These are runes in the languages of the peak dwellers… I think I’ll be able to read them.  Yes… allow this one to be vector of the dark energy for the aid of our great… Shinkiro?  I don’t know what that means.  I guess it’s a name.”  She traced one of the symbols with her hoof.  “Well, this is easy.  I’ll just have to interrupt one of these paths.”

Using magic, she carved a line down the center of the first symbol.  The letters faded, leaving behind only small black marks in their places.  The stallion jerked awake.

“There.  Now we’ll just have to let those marks heal.”

Nurse Redheart nodded.  “Oh, thank you so much, miss Sparkle.  I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been here.”

“Well, I’d probably better be going.”  She turned to leave.  It was the middle of the night, and she had to get some sleep.

“Wait!” coughed the injured stallion.  “Take my bags… Read the books.  If I don’t make it…” He was interrupted by another fit of his own coughing.  “I need somepony to know what they say.”

Twilight was surprised.  “But, of course you’re going to make it!  There’s no reason why you wouldn’t be perfectly fine.”

He shook his head.  “You never know for sure.”

Twilight walked over to the side of his bed, where there was a cloak with two large pockets inside.  The right side held two thin notebooks.  She levitated them away.

“Twilight, are you going to go to bed yet?!  It’s something like four in the morning!”

“Not yet, Spike.  I have things to read.”  She opened the first of the two.  It was thinner, and had a black leather cover.  Inside were pictures of ponies.  At least two for every page.  They all were black, with white eyes.  There were anatomy sketches that showed them to be much taller than normal ponies.

Pinkie popped her head out from underneath Twilight’s bed.  “Ooh, you found notebooks!  Those are a sure sign that the plot is starting up again!”

“Pinkie!  Enough of your nonsense.  I don’t know what this plot is that you’re talking about, and I don’t want to hear any more about it.  Now get out of my house before I kick you out!”

Pinkie stared, her eyes starting to water up.  “You don’t mean that, do you, Twilight?”  She started to cry.

Twilight groaned.  This was the worst time for something like this to start.  “Alright, I’m sorry, Pinkie.  I didn’t mean to upset you.  Just… could you go home for now?  I’m really busy, and I need some space.”

Pinkie nodded quietly, and walked down the stairs, and out the door.

Spike snorted.  “Like I’ve said before:  ‘Rude, much?’”

Twilight rolled her eyes.  “This is really important.  That stallion really wanted me to read his journals.  That means that there’s got to be something really interesting in here!”  She closed the first book, and picked up the second.  This one was heavier, thicker, and had a dented steel cover.

She opened it, and was surprised to see that the writing was all in the languages of the peak dwellers.  She read the tightly packed words. I have discovered that the true name of the Schattenesseren cannot be written in standard writing.  Therefore, I shall write this journal in the writing of the peak dwellers.

“Oh, this is great.  I was always terrible at reading their writing.”  She pulled out a piece of paper and a quill.  “But I don’t know why the name can’t be written in standard symbols… let’s see…” She tried to write the name.  By the fourth letter, the nib of the quill snapped.

She pulled out another quill, reinforced the quill, and tried to write the name.  The quill caught on fire.  She pulled out another quill, cast a spell to prevent fire, and tried to write.  The paper tore.  She tried again, and held the paper so that it couldn’t tear.  Her handwriting was completely illegible, and what she wrote might as well have said “Pinkie Pie is watching you”.

“Wait, what?”  She turned around to see Pinkie Pie watching her.  “Pinkie, what are you doing?!”

“Well, I was reading this journal that you dropped!”

“You can read those letters?!”

“Well, duh!  This is kinda weird.  Twilight, what have you been up to?  I didn’t know you were researching some kind of evil spirit that’s sealed somewhere in the Everfree Forest!  You really should tell us more!”

“A what?”

“Yeah, this thing called Shinkiro.”