Cry Havoc

After walking for four days without rest, Penny came upon a destroyed town. Braeburn didn't tell her any towns were destroyed, and since she couldn't read the sign, she didn't know which town it was. She looked around with a confused frown on her face, when suddenly a black shadow bursted from the surroundings. It settled it’s sudden movements to land in front of Penny. Sombra rose out of the shadow, looking at Penny with disdain.

“I should have known a pitiful human like you wouldn't know how to use the powers I gave her. Well, this place is as good as any to learn how to use them. Welcome to Tailton Springs!” Sombra said with a sarcastically happy smile, his own disdain for what had happened to Penny practically dripping from his tone.

Penny looked around, never having seen this kind of destruction in real life. She recalled a documentary about some Russian city in World War II that had pictures that looked just like this. All around her was evidence of lives disrupted. The smashed homes and ruined community. She walked slowly toward the center of town. She looked up and saw, in the distance, a murder of crows, circling. Her ears perked and she could hear the crowing.

She sniffed deeply and immediately covered her snout. She knew the stink was subtle and faint, but it hit her like a water balloon in the face. It smelled like garbage left in the hot sun for a week with a hint of pig. That was a smell that was hard to forget. She didn’t visit her uncle Dave’s farm very often, but that pig smell was unforgettable.

Penny stopped in mid step, about to tread on a child’s doll, torn, stuffing spilling out. It looked like her old stuffie, the one she’s had since, ‘Since as long as I can remember...’

Her voice was quite shocked, “What... what happened?” She turned to Sombra, her expression begging an answer

The dark unicorn in front of her laughed, “A couple of the other god’s pieces decided to fight here, and destroyed it in the process.”

Penny’s tail went between her legs at the thought of what the other players bodies must have been to cause a whole towns destruction. She simply stood there, too frozen by the sheer terror of what could be prowling about Equestria to talk. After a small while, she regained her nerve, and asked,  “So I’m supposed to learn how to use my powers here? Seems oddly convenient that I walked down that road to get away from the buffalo.”

“You could say that I scared them enough to stampede by appearing in front of them, so that you would get here. Now, its time for me to train you to use your powers I’ve given you. First things first, you can't go into shadow if you're in sunlight, you need to be in some type of shade. I do not have that limitation because they are my powers, but seeing that you don’t get to have all of my powers, you’ve got a few limitations that I, thankfully, don’t.” Sombra said plainly as he paced in a circle around Penny.

“You could have told me about my limitations before you almost got me killed by some buffalo.” Penny retorted as she followed the dark stallion’s movements with her eyes.

Sombra rolled his eyes, and came back with an air of carelessness. “It didn't matter, I knew that you would find the road to here. Now stop talking so I can train you on how to use your powers. Go to that rubble pile.” He pointed toward a pile of debris that still had some bits of wall intact.

“There is enough shade to work with there.”

Penny walked over to it and went into the pitiful amount of protection from the sun that the ruined building could provide. After she did, she turned to look at Sombra as he talked, Sombra was explaining her abilities, and how to use them.

“You can only travel from one shady place to another, and to do that you have to think about moving there. Now think about moving from the shade of the building to the shade of my shadow.”

Penny looked at Sombra’s shadow and thought about moving there, she closed her eyes when she started to go into shadow, when she started moving an ear piercing noise made her open her eyes and yell, her ears going little deaf in the process. She stopped thinking about moving and she went back to the normal world, she hadn't moved at all from where she was before.

“You didn't tell me about loud noises!” Penny yelled at Sombra as her hearing came back.

Sombra snorted with derision. “You get used to it, now try again!” He yelled with authority, prompting Penny to start anew.

Penny sighed and tried again, and, miraculously,  this time the noise was quieter and she moved toward Sombra’s shadow, very slowly.

This is so slow... Penny thought.

When she got to her patron god and came out of shadow she looked at Sombra. He looked extremely bored, looking at his hoof with great interest. With a heavy, theatrical sigh, Penny asked, “Oh, what now?”

Sombra looked at her, sniffing and placing his hoof to the ground yet again. “Seeing as that it took you an hour to get here, I guess I forgot to tell you about the time difference. There is a different dimension called the shadow dimension. While you are traveling within the shadows you are in that dimension, while you are in there, time will begin to distort. The shadow dimension’s own time is either faster or slower than the living world’s. Sometimes, when you think it has taken a couple seconds to get there, in the real world, it could have been longer. This also works the other way around, depending on just how the time distortion works itself out.”

Penny looked surprised. Lifting one of her eyebrows, she slightly turns her head to the side, before half heartedly responding, “That seems complicated, but if it makes sense to you...”

Sombra put up his hoof. “You seem to be more competent than I thought you would be, and you have learned shadowing rather fast. For the spreading of my influence part, thats easy. Stare into somepony’s eyes for a couple seconds, and you’ve done it.” Sombra said, absentmindedly.

Penny thought about that, then remembered something else. “You’ve said before that I could use fear as well, how do I do that?”  Penny asked as she tilted her head to the side.

Sombra sighed. “You go into shadow but you don't think about going anywhere, making you have a sort of outline because you're not completely in the shadow dimension. So you can talk and whisper in the dark to scare other ponies. A dark room or at night is a good time to do that around others, but you can learn and experiment on your own. Don't lose your collar, thats very important. If you lose it, you will have to get it back, you can't do anything without your collar.”

Penny sighed, bored with all of the talking that Sombra had been doing. “Fine, where should I go when I’m done here?”

“Anywhere.” Sombra said and he disappeared with a malicious grin.

He seems to like the disappearing act. Penny thought as she sighed and looked around, observing her barren surroundings.

                                                 ^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

Penny had decided to walk around the town, but there was nothing there but rubble and dirt around the whole area. She had gone to a rubble pile and sniffed it, unable to identify the smell that came off it. She looked for another path to take that would lead her to somewhere else. After walking around the town for a few minutes, she found a path and started walking.

                                                          *****

Penny continued to walk down the path before her, the passage of time all but a blur. She heard growling and looked into the trees, suspecting some type of predator to jump out at her. When she saw nothing, she returned her attention to the road, until she heard it again. When she heard it that time, she could feel the ache in her abdomen, telling her that the growling was her stomach.

Deciding that food would be very good right about now, she walked into the forest and off the path to look for something edible. The forest was light and the sky was a light blue, the sunlight passed through the branches casting shadows and brightness, all while the branches sway gently in the breeze. The clouds in the sky where light and fluffy, unmoving before she noticed some chittering from a tree. When she looked to her left and saw a squirrel on the ground. She growled at it and chased it up the tree. Suddenly, she came to her senses and came to a full-stop.

What am I doing?

She looked up at a tree with purplish leaves and saw some small round red apples, excited, she walked over to it and jumped to try and get the apples. Her teeth closed just below the apple, and she fell back to the ground. She tried a few more times to just to get the apples, getting a little frustrated. Penny growled and decided to shadow, thinking about the branch but overshooting it by a couple of inches, and ended up being in the air and not on the branch. Gravity took effect and made her fall to the ground making apples fall on her head. Ow... Penny thought as she looked at the apples on the ground.

Penny wanted to just taste one, but her hunger was almost overpowering. She chewed and half swallowed one before she realized what a bitter flavor they had. She shook her head from side to side, trying to spit out the horrible taste. She started running, desperately looking for water, or even a dirty mud puddle. Anything to get that taste out. She was so consumed in disgust, she couldn't think logically and ran, not knowing where or which way she went. 'Yuck! Ugh! Ick! Blark!!' As she used some long grass to get the last of the taste out. She smelled something that hadn't  been there, until a moment ago, hidden by the aroma of bitter apple

Penny looked down the way she had come and saw a unicorn pony running towards her. When the pony got to her, he stopped and his blue eyes looked her up and down

“Hello, sweetie. Are you lost?” His voice was smooth. The kind of voice you knew you could trust. Still, there was something just the tiniest bit... off.

Penny started backing away nervously. There was something about this pony she didn’t like. She noticed his black swirl mark on his flank, and she had to it admit it was very beautiful, very deep, almost hypnotic. Hadn’t that cowboy pony said something about those pictures reflecting the individual?

The pony started to walk towards her “I’m Unique Star, mutt. I won't hurt you.” Star pets her neck and looked at her collar. He saw the black crystal and his eyes glowed greedily.

“You’re a stray, aren't you?” He laughed  “Ha ha! Good! This will be even easier.” Star laughed as he hit Penny and made her fall to the ground.

“Nopony will care if I steal from some mutt. And even if they do, I’ll just say you attacked me first. I can sell that crystal for a good few bits. Anyway, it’s always fun to steal.”

This pony is crazy. Penny thinks as she gets up and jumps on him, I’m not going to let him take what’s mine!. While on his back, she saw that the picture on his flank isn't a perfect swirl, it was jagged and went every which way.

Penny looked away from the picture and bit the unicorn, making him yell and throw her off. Star's horn glowed light gray, and a small cloud of sharp, jagged rocks lifted from the ground. As one they shot towards Penny, making painful little cuts all over her side. Before he could get another cloud of rocks ready, Penny got up and ran at Star, biting him in the leg.

Too frustrated with the dog to concentrate on manipulating all those small stones, he picked up Penny, throwing her against a tree and making her cry out in pain. Penny had felt a sharp spike of pain in her leg. Pen growled and decided not to speak in case it would make Star want to steal the crystal more, and attacked him, staying too close for him to throw stuff and moving too wildly for him to grab her. Sadly, her bites were doing nothing more than aggravating Star, and after a particularly lucky kick, Penny was slammed into yet another tree. Star walked over as she lay dazed and picked her up staring her in the eyes. “You little.. you’re going to pay for that.”

“You’re not dealing with some ordinary dog.” Penny growled

Star backed up for a second, not knowing what to make of this new development, but then a smile spread over his face as he realized the possibilities. “I’m gonna make some big money off you, you little mutt, but first it’s time to pay you back for all those nips.” An evil grin spread over his face as he glared right into Penny’s eyes. Penny had a mental smile, and remembered what Sombra said about his influence, she stared back and her eyes felt funny as the power went through them...

                                                               ***

Star was about to hit Penny when he suddenly stopped, unnerved by her stare. Her eyes suddenly changed and had black fire swirling around her eyes

                                                               ***

...Suddenly, Star dropped her and looked at the ground in despair. “Wait, what’s going on?” he said as he tried to shake the strange emotion. Anger flashed through his eyes as he realized she’d done something to him, then fear, then confusion. “I’ll make you pay for this.” He said as he stepped towards her. Their eyes met again and he dropped to his knees, suddenly fearing this strange creature. Well, discretion is the better part of valor. Star thought as he turned and half stumbled, half ran back the way he had come.

Worked better than I imagined but not what I thought would happen though, Penny thought as she got back up and started to walk, discovering that her back leg hurt with every step she took. She favored her back right leg and kept walking, hoping it would get better before she got to the next town.