Dark visitors

Darkness consumes everything, true… but...

In the presence of light the darkness retreats.

Chapter 4

Black Energy

The Hailer approached to Twilight walking calmly and extended one of its grotesque claws at her. Twilight was still paralyzed, as if there was some sort of spell on the eyes of the creature.

The creature was about to catch Twilight with its claw, but something hit him in the side knocking him to the ground, something that leaves a trail of color of the rainbow. Twilight saw Rainbow Dash hitting the creature as soon he rose again and again.

"You're not so tough now, right?" Rainbow Dash bragging shouted at the creature, which wasn’t a good idea. The creature took advantage of the carelessness of the pegasus to hit her with his claw leaving four scratch marks on her side. Rainbow Dash fell to the ground being completely immersed in the mist.

Then the creature turned his attention to Twilight, but when he was a few steps of her he turned her gaze to where Rainbow Dash had fallen, as if something important happened there. Twilight did the same and saw nothing, but a few seconds later she look with joy her friend rising from the mist. But his joy faded a bit when she sees that there was something wrong with her.

The right front leg and the right side of the face and chest of Rainbow Dash were covered by strange black marks that emanate a thin layer of black mist.

"I will tear you into pieces." Rainbow Dash's voice sounded different, it was charged with a hate more intense than Twilight had ever known.

Rainbow Dash flew and lunged at the creature, but this fell to the ground before she could reach him. Everypony thought that the creature had crouched to avoid the attack of Rainbow Dash, but when they heard the screams of agony and saw him writhing in pain on the floor, they realized that this wasn’t the case.

Twilight looked around and saw Lonesoul staring at the creature and realized that what was happening to the creature was caused by him. But she was the only one who noticed this. Actually she don’t even know why she was so sure it was him, she just knew it.

Suddenly the screams of agony from the creature stopped and it stood up and one of his claws goes quickly toward Lonesoul. In response he shook his head from right to left and in less than a blink a shadow, like the one that had cut the city hall of ponyville when the mysterious ponies attacked, cut the arm of the Hailer, which fell to the ground sinking into the mist. At that time the other ponies realized that it was he who had attacked the creature.

"Hey! I was taking care of him." Rainbow Dash cries being ignored by Lonesoul and his opponent.

The Hailer covers the bleeding wound on where his arm used to join his torso with his remaining claw in a vague attempt to stop the bleeding. With blood pouring from his wound the wounded being looked at Lonesoul and took a few steps in the opposite direction and ran away, just like had made the creatures like wolves.

Lonesoul did the same nod and a shadow cuts creature's legs. This fell to the ground, but did not sink in completely darkness, his head sticking out the mist and could be see that he used the only arm that was left to drag himself away from Lonesoul.

"Too late to flee." Lonesoul said coldly as usual, but with a hint of malice.

While the creature drag himself away he terrified glanced up and saw a large floating rock surrounded by a thin layer of black energy over his head. Twilight glanced horrified toward Lonesoul, who was standing as if nothing in the same place where he had been since the fight began, then looked back at the creature and saw with even more horror how the aura that made levitate the great rock disappear and this fell on what was left of the creature.

The rock sank Hailer’s head into the mist and the sound of bones and flesh being crushed echoed through the forest. To finish the dreadful spectacle, although fortunately they couldn’t see the skull being crushed by the mist, they could see pieces of flesh, bone and blood splattering everywhere.

Lonesoul look at the ponies, and enjoy their looks of terror, except in one pony.

"Why did you interfere?!" Rainbow Dash Cry furious. "I had it! You said you'd let me take care of the next enemy." The cyan fierce pegasus with those black marks was too busy arguing to notice how her friends watched in horror. They could not believe that after such a horrible show all she cared was not had defeated the creature herself.

"I really would have liked to see it tearing you alive ..." Said Lonesoul pausing to savor the furious glare of Rainbow Dash. "...and believe me when I tell you than that was what I had planned, but that was before you were corrupted by dark energy. You resulted be very weak."

"Weak?! I think you missed the part when I kicked the ass of that thing. And that was just beginning, just before you interfere..."

"You felt as if you had suddenly much more strength than before, your tiredness disappeared as the pain for your injuries."

"Yes. How did you know?"

"Like I said, you were contaminated by dark energy. Weak creatures are the first to be affected. I hoped that you last longer. Now hold there while I remove the excess." Lonesoul extended his foreleg to Rainbow Dash but she dodged this with a jump.

"No way. I will not let you take off this power. It's the coolest thing that has happened to me."

"Rainbow Dash, what are you doing?" Twilight felt she had to make her friend to reason, anything that had to do with dark energy couldn’t be good. "You have to let him help you, that energy is making you..."

"NO! I know what’s happening to you, you’re jealous because you're no longer the most powerful of the group. Well, now I am the strongest of all and I will be even more." The black marks on the body of Rainbow Dash began to spread slowly in her body. "I'll get more of this black energy and makes me the strongest pony of all Equestria! No! I better be ... The World's strongest pony! And I won’t let anyone get into my way, not even you."

"Typical." Lonesoul said. The ponies looked to where he was but he was not there. They looked around looking for him until they found him lying on the branch of a tree looking at them with disdain, as if they look like insects or something like that. "That's what makes the dark energy to those who are not ready to receive its power. Give them power, yes... But not enough, never enough. They always need more and more, and do whatever is necessary to get more. They do not care who or how many die in the process."

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Everypony's attention turned to Rainbow Dash. The marks had stopped spreading and a tear ran down her cheek. "I'm not a monster!"! It was clear that Lonesoul’s words had affected her deeply.

"No? Just look at you. Black energy has almost completely controlled you. You even see your friends as your enemy, right?" Rainbow Dash look with regret her friends who look her with terror. What happened to her? Certainly Lonesoul was right. She couldn’t believe what she had just said, Twilight was her friend and, indeed, the idea of attack her had crossed his mind. She was turning into a monster, she couldn’t allow it, had to fight with the sudden desire of power. The marks on his body began to slowly fade until there was none.

"I'm really sorry, girls, I don’t know what happened to me. Lonesoul, take out of me the black energy. I don’t want this thing in me anymore."

"I'm afraid that's impossible."

" What?!" Shouted all ponies at the same time.

"I said I would take out the excess, not everything. That's not possible, unless you want to die, of course. The dark energy is within all of you for the rest of your lives. Don’t worry; you will not go crazy as your friend. While you not make contact with a lot of dark energy won’t be problems."

"So ..." Twilight looked and sounded worried. At that very moment they were surrounded by that energy, the longer they spend time there more likely was that some of them lost control. "We'd better ... Lets go, I think we will follow your advice and leave it to you."

"Do you surrender? After the far you've come? It look to me that you are already too close like that retreat don’t look as something stupid."

"What?! What are you up to? First you tell us that we should go and now you tell us that we should accompany you. What are you up to?"

"Nothing." Lonesoul jump from the tree and fell continuing the march. "I just thought that a good chess game always needs a few sacrificeable pieces. Are you coming or not?"

Twilight didn’t trust him at all, but that was just another reason to go, now that they could no longer trust the mysterious being they had to ensure for themselves that the mission was completed. Twilight glanced at her friends and only that was enough to realize that her friends thought the same. One by one her friends nodded, even Fluttershy, who couldn’t hide his fear. The ponies go quick to reach Lonesoul to continue his mission. At least now she could count with that Lonesoul would not let them die, but she couldn’t say exactly why.

However, Twilight suspicions were right about something. Lonesoul had not been completely honest in why he wanted them to accompany him. The truth was that it was not normal for someone, or somepony in this case, almost completely consumed by black energy to recover just like that. Black energy was consuming her and suddenly not only stopped when almost completely consumed her, when it was less likely to recover, it completely retreated. That Rainbow Dash was not like the other creatures he had known, she had something different, something special, and he would find out what was that something... at any cost.