The Many Shaped One

The Dark Beast

   A monotone sound was the only thing that could be heard in that darkness. A breathing, from something which was sleeping.

   The door opened a bit, allowing a shy ray of light to enter in the dark room. Fortunately, it didn’t hit the face of the sleeping creature, so it didn’t woke up. Good. In silence, two little intruders approached the bed, following the snores.

   Then, they jumped on it.

   “Ugh!”

   Mrs. Cake turned the lights on, illuminating the room and revealing that the ones who were jumping on Francisco’s tummy were none others than Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake.

   “Kids, don’t do that!” said Mrs. Cake, taking the foals away. “Oh, I’m so sorry! Are you ok, Francisco?”

   “I don’t have stomach anymore...” whispered the black stallion, embracing his belly.

***

   Pinkie had convinced the Cakes to give Francisco a job at Sugarcube Corner, as well as one small room. His tasks included: cleaning the store, taking the deliveries to their destination, and occasionally, taking care of the twins. The Cakes only could paid him in a few bits and some cupcakes, but it was ok.

   Francisco looked at his cutie mark. It had been four days, and the yellow eyes were still closed. His powers hadn’t came back yet. Who would have thought that a multi-injection of self-confidence would drain so much energy? Well, paraphrasing Morgan Freeman in certain movie: Transforming into a cotton candy monster is not a miracle, just a cheap magic trick. Now, giving strength to dozens of ponies and helping them to overcome their fears? That is a miracle.

   Francisco sighed and entered in the kitchen.

   “Good morning!” said Pinkie Pie. “Today I’m in charge of the breakfast! Take your seat, and we’ll eat in no time!”

   “I don’t know if I will be able to digest anything...” moaned Francisco, rubbing his tummy with a hoof. “Your little stepsiblings used me as a trampoline. Again.”

   “Don’t be mad. They do that because they like you!”

   “Does that mean they jump over you, too?”

   Pinkie’s eyes shrank, suddenly.

   “No!” she screamed. “They don’t jump over me! That means they don’t like me! Oh, no, I must do something! I know, I’ll make them the best breakfast ever!” and she started to bake frantically.

   The Cakes also entered in the kitchen, putting the twins in their baby chairs. Pound and Pumpkin rotated their heads very slowly to look directly at Francisco with their shiny happy round eyes, and gave him two big, joyful, and yet very uncomfortable grins.

   ‘They can smell my fear...’, thought the black stallion, while gulping.

   “Today we have to take these two to the Pediatrician,” explained Mr. Cake. “I’m afraid we will be out all the morning.”

   “What a coincidence!” said Pinkie Pie, who had somehow managed to bake an entire breakfast in twenty seconds, and now she was serving it. “I have to go help Fluttershy with some of her animals, and I will be out all morning and all afternoon.”

   “It seems that Sugarcube Corner is yours, Francisco,” smiled Mrs. Cake. “We’ll open it in the afternoon, once we come back. You can use this free morning to rest, you have worked a lot these past four days.”

   “Certainly,” nodded Mr. Cake. “We thank you for all your help.”

   “I do my best,” Francisco looked at his breakfast, but his stomach complaint. He could still feel the twins, jumping and jumping... “I think I’m not very hungry this morning, I’ll wait till lunch time. Here you have it, foals,” and he passed his breakfast to Pound and Pumpkin, who had already started to eat solid food.

***

   Pinkie and the Cakes left after the breakfast. Francisco did a basic cleaning of the place, and then returned to his room, to sleep a bit. Eventually, though, he became bored and decided to do something else...

   Francisco moved his pawn. On the other side of the chessboard, a little alligator was looking at the two edges of infinity at the same time.

   “Your turn, Gummy,” said the black stallion.

   The alligator blinked. Then, he picked a tower with his toothless mouth and moved it.

   “Checkmate again?!” shouted Francisco. “How do you do that?”

   Gummy blinked.

   “Well, I guess I’ve had enough chess for today.”

   Francisco was thinking about trying with the Monopony, when he heard the sound of the door’s bell.

   “Sorry, we’re closed this morning,” he said, leaving the games and going to see who had come. “Oh, it’s you, Twilight.”

   “Hi, Francisco,” smiled the unicorn. “I was searching for you. Do you have a moment?”

   “Of course. I have the entire morning free.”

   “Good! I need you to come to the Library. I think I’ve found a spell that will restore your powers!”

   “Really? That would be great!” Francisco rubbed his tummy again. “If I could transform again, those two little Horses of the Apocalypse could jump over me as much as they wanted, and I wouldn’t feel any pain.”

   “Then, let’s go. If everything goes as planned, you’ll have your powers back in less than an hour.”

   “Thanks a lot, Twilight. You didn’t have to...”

   “After all the things you did for us? Of course I had! Besides, it mustn't be nice to be four days without your powers, that would be like if I had to spent four days without my magic. “, she trembled at that thought. “That would be terrible! Also, I had thought that you should meet Princess Celestia soon, and that it would be better if you had your abilities back. But the main reason why I do this is because we are friends. Friends help each other.”

   “Friends...” mumbled Francisco.

   “Yes, we are friends,” said Twilight, thinking that the stallion had asked a question. “And Pinkie and the others are also your friends, and Ponyville is your new home. And the Cakes are almost your family now!”

   ‘Family...’ thought Francisco, without talking.

   He had had a family on Earth, and now he was trying to not to think about them, he didn’t want to think about the concept of family, in order to avoid sad memories. Francisco hadn’t planned on being adopted by a couple in Ponyville, or to marry, and much less, to have foals. Besides, he wasn’t a pony, he was a shapeshifting abomination. Could something like him have a family? And more important: did he want a family, to begin with?

   The answer to both questions was: maybe.

   “Let’s go,” he smiled.

***

   Some ponies said that Twilight Sparkle had brought the magic to Ponyville, and in certain sense, they were right. Since the arrival of the purple unicorn, lots of strange events had happened in the town, most of them related with magic. So, when that morning the windows of the Library opened violently and a black wind flew through them, everypony assumed it was just another of Twilight’s experiments.

   However, when they saw the unicorn being dragged out of the building by a nervous Spike, they immediately knew that something was wrong. At the same time, in other point of the town, the knee of a pink pony was pinching.

   The black wind gathered in the center of the town, creating a figure, a body. It was something big, even more than the Ursa Minor, to the point that everypony in the town could see it, no matter how far they were. The creature was completely covered by shadows, like a black mist, so its real shape couldn’t be seen. Only three things were visible in that curtain of darkness:

   Two claws, each one as big as a building.

   Three long horns, like obsidian columns.

   A face. Two eyes and a mouth, the three of them glowing with an orange fiery light, like if they were the pits of Hell.

   “Twilight!” said Rainbow Dash, landing near her friend. “What’s happening?”

   “Something went wrong!” coughed the unicorn. “The spell... I must have committed errors...”

   “What are you talking about? What is that thing?”

   “It is... Francisco...”

   The blue pegasus looked at the entity. Honestly, she had already imagined that Francisco had something to do with that, after all, the black wind was his trademark, more or less. However, when she looked at those hellish eyes, Rainbow Dash didn’t see that shy black stallion, the one that had saved her from the kelpies, the one that was terrible at playing Pin the Tail on the Pony.

   There was no kindness or shyness in those eyes, in that creature. Only rage, darkness and violence, all of them united under the command of a mindless soul. Rainbow Dash was looking at a Beast, and the Beast was looking at Ponyville.

Buildings, living creatures... colours, sounds, shapes... That place was full of life, and he had to destroy it.

   The monster raised one of his claws, prepared to annihilate everything on his path. Some ponies foresaw his intentions, and ran away. However, when the beast was about to start his rampage, he saw something on the streets.

   A couple. A yellow stallion and a blue mare, with two foals. The babies weren’t scared, they were too little to understand what was that gigantic mass of darkness that had appeared out of nowhere. But they were worried, because they were old enough to see that something was very, very wrong.

   The Beast stopped, and groaned a word:

   “Family...”

   Then, two colossal wings of shadows opened on his back, and he flew to the skies. For a moment, his gigantic body blocked the light of the sun.

   “Call the others...”, whispered Twilight.

***

   The Beast looked down. For some reason he couldn’t understand, Ponyville had to be spared. He wasn’t allowed to destroy that town.

   He looked at the distance, and saw a beautiful white fortress in a mountain not so far away.

   The monster roared. He had just found his next objective.

***

   Francisco realized he wasn’t in the Library anymore. He tried to stand on his four hooves, only to discover that he had no legs. No mane, no tail... not even eyes. He had become a disembodied conscience, floating in a very strange place.

   He was in a gray, very long corridor that seemed to extend to the infinite. The walls were made of thousands of stacked glass cages, and inside each one of them, there was a body frozen in time. Francisco saw a white angel, an embryo, a black stallion, a cotton candy monster... and many, many others.

   His avatars. Those were the things trapped inside the cages.

   “Hello, boss,” said a voice.

   Francisco tried to turn back, but he couldn’t. He didn’t need to, either, since he was able to see in all directions in his new bodyless state, he just had to focus in one of them.

   The entity who had talked was a broom. A living broom with arms, like those in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. It was holding another broom in its hands, a normal one, and it was using it to sweep the floor. Kinda redundant.

   “Where am I?” asked Francisco.

   “I would say that this is the metaphysical equivalent of a storehouse.”, explained the broom. The one with arms, not the normal one.

   The shapeshifter didn’t recall going to that place. The last thing he could remember was that he was in Twilight’s Library, the unicorn had explained to him that his powers hadn’t gone, they just had ran out of batteries, and that she was going to try an energy transfusion. After that, he remembered nothing.

   “Why am I here?” he asked.

   “Well, I would say that one of your bodies has taken control of your being, banishing you to this place in your subconscious.”

   “What? That’s impossible! I mean... I am the mind, the others are just avatars! How can they act on their own?”

   “Don’t you remember? Mind and body are connected, I think Willy told you that. Besides, the body we’re talking about is a special one.”

   “What do you mean...?” asked Francisco, but then he shaked his head (or at least, he tried) and decided that it was no time for questions. He had to return to Ponyville. “How do I get out of here?”

   The broom shrugged.

   “No idea, boss,” it said, still sweeping.

   “Damn it... I think this is going to take a while. I hope that body is not causing troubles out there.”

   “He was about to destroy Ponyville, but for some reason he decided to crush Canterlot instead.”

   “What?! I have to stop him!”

   “Good luck, boss, you’ll need it. Like I said, this is a special body.”

   Francisco decided to obtain all the information he could about his rebel avatar.

   “What do you mean by ‘special’?” he asked.

   The creature broom left the object broom in the floor, and then started to walk towards the end of that long, long corridor.

   “Follow me,” it said.

***

   The streets of Canterlot were empty. Fortunately, the Beast was big and loud enough to see him coming from miles of distance, so Princess Celestia had ordered the immediate evacuation of all the citizens. She wasn’t willing to have any civilian loss. Actually, she would prefer to not have any loss at all.

   The monster was almost above the city. The army of royal pegasi took off like a swarm of killer bees. Their job was to stop the advance of the creature, and if it was possible, to make him retreat. However, the Beast flapped his dark wings, and a hurricane of black wind hit all the pegasi, making them fall over the streets of Canterlot like rain. At a sign of Celestia, the army of royal unicorns, stationed on the battlements of the castle, fired magic beams all at once, but it was futile, since the attacks were absorbed by the shadowy body of the monster. It seemed that nothing could stop him.

   A bit far from there, but gradually coming closer to the city, an emergency train was rushing his way to Canterlot, with six very important ponies on the inside.

   “Why would Francisco do this?” asked Fluttershy.

   “It was my fault,” explained Twilight. “My magic must have caused him to transform that way.”

   Pinkie didn’t say anything. She was on the window, silently looking at Canterlot.

   “You don’t know that, Twilight,” said Rarity trying to comfort her friend. “Maybe it was just an accident.”

   “Thank Celestia, he didn’t do anything to Ponyville,” said Applejack. “But I wonder why.”

   “I know why,” said Pinkie Pie. “Didn’t you hear what he said?”

***

   “Here it is,” said the broom.

   They had reached a strange cage, much bigger than the others, made of black glass and covered in chains. It was broken.

   “What was in there?” asked Francisco.

   “You tell me, boss,” shrugged the broom. “As soon as the drooling god gave you your powers, you unconsciously sealed that body in this prison, so I guess it must be something serious.”

   Francisco approached. The broken cage was surrounded by a frightening aura, even though it was empty.

   “Twilight’s spell must have freed him,” he said. “But how? She didn’t know it was here, neither did I!”

   “When we don’t know that something is there, it is much easier for that something to move and act at our backs.”

   “But what is it? I don’t have any more nightmares!”

   “A mind is made of many elements, and not only the nightmares can turn against us. Forbidden desires, emotions that we repress... dark feelings...”

   “I have to stop him!” repeated Francisco.

   “Try it, boss.”

***

   A clash of two titans was taking place in the skies of Canterlot. The Dark Beast, a mindless monster of shadows and destruction; against the Princess of the Sun, the powerful white alicorn who ruled that land. Celestia’s body was surrounded in a heavenly light, and an incredible accumulation of magic was glowing in her horn.

   The Beast roared, and his orange mouth spitted a river of flames. With her light, Celestia managed to stop and deflect the attack. Then, she fired a powerful energy beam that managed to harm the monster, but only a bit. The Beast flapped his wings again, creating a violent dark wind that could have left Canterlot in ruins. However, Celestia summoned her own wind, white as her skin, and the two tornados clashed in the air and disappeared without causing any damage to the city.

   The Beast tried to catch Celestia with his claws, but the alicorn, agile as a pegasus, avoided his attacks and shot more energy beams. Then, a powerful blast of blue-colored energy descended from the sky and hit the Beast right in the head.

   “I’m here, sister!” said Luna, flying near Celestia. “What is this creature?”

   “I don’t know. Be careful, it is a powerful foe!”

   The monster roared in anger, causing the entire mountain to tremble. He spitted his flames again, but the two princesses combined their powers and blocked the attack. Then, the shadows that covered the creature’s body became tentacles of darkness, and tried to catch the alicorns. Celestia and Luna avoided them as they could, but there were too many.

   The alicorn of the moon was brutally hit and launched against the walls of the castle.

   “Luna!” shouted Celestia. She got distracted by a second, and another tentacle caught her, wrapping around her body and squeezing it like an anaconda.

   The white alicorn summoned all of her powers and zapped the Beast with a magic discharge. The monster roared in pain, but he was stronger, and Celestia soon ran out of her powers. The Beast freed the princess from his tentacle, and she fell to the streets of Canterlot.

   Injured, Celestia looked up. The creature was over her beloved city, prepared to start a devastating rampage. It seemed that everything was lost....

   “Leave it to us, Princess!” said a familiar voice.

***

   Francisco approached the cage even more, decided to stop his rebel body. He wasn’t sure about how to do that, but he had to try. He didn’t want to think about how much destruction his avatar would cause for each second he wasted in that place.

   “You!” he said, shouting at the broken black glass. “You are one of my bodies! By the power granted to me by the drooling god, I command you to return to your prison!”

   Two seconds passed, and nothing happened. However, at the third second, a wave of darkness came out of the cage, and engulfed both Francisco and the broom. It was like a river, a whitewater made of shadows. The shapeshifter tried to resist, but in his bodyless state, he couldn’t do much. He tried to reach the other cages, maybe his other avatars could help, but the darkness didn’t let him.

   Then, Francisco sensed it. There was something in that blackness, a conscience, but very simple and primitive, not the mind of a human or a pony. He felt rage, bloodthirst, and desire for destruction The darkness was alive, and it wanted to devour him. It wanted the absolute control.

   Francisco couldn’t do anything. Feeling hopeless, he let himself be swallowed by the  dark wave. There was no salvation...

   Then, he saw a tiny light in the distance.

   No, he saw six tiny lights in the distance .

   “My, my...” said the broom, who had been almost devoured by the shadows. “It seems you’ve made powerful friends out there, boss.”

***

   The rainbow of the Elements of Harmony hit the Dark Beast right in the face. The monster roared, louder than a thunder or a volcano, and the land trembled again. He tried to flee, but Celestia and Luna, using their last strengths, chained him with magic, so he couldn’t escape the purification.

   “Hold on, my dear student!” said the Princess of the Sun. Near her, the six ponies, each one wielding her Element, were attacking with all the strenght they were capable of.

   The Beast tried to flap his wings once more, but they banished. His dark body began to shrink, and his roar became a whisper, until it dissipated on the wind. The shadows were compacted in a much smaller body, which laid on the streets of Canterlot, unconscious.

   It was a black stallion. His cutie marks were yellow eyes. They were opened.

   Twilight and the others stopped the attack and approached Francisco, carefully. The shapeshifter opened his eyes and stood up slowly, horrified by what he had almost done. The purple unicorn was going to say something, when she noticed that Princess Celestia was behind her, also looking at the mysterious black stallion.