//------------------------------// // Looking Back // Story: Betwixt darkness // by Shadowsivice //------------------------------// “Nox is willing to give me 10 vesseled nightmares and 10 shades.” Dusk said as he was discussing their war plans on defeating the darkness in the area. “Also, the food and water in the town is infected. Convince the people to stockpile the food and water it so the shades can cleanse it.” Dusk continued. “What’s a shade again? Sorry, still can’t focus.” Kindrell said. “Shades are the basic forms of nightmares. You know, what a creature becomes after they become a nightmare. They have little comprehension of emotion and independence. It’s ok for your lack of focus now. This is your dream after all.” Dusk said in an understanding tone. “Ok. Get the people to gather all the food and water, help Pinkie Pie recover from darkness after-effects, anything else?” Kindrell said looking directly at Dusk. Dusk looked over to the mock ocean and thought for a while. “Not at the moment. Once I get my reinforcements, were taking Clouds Dale. The darkness is spreading through the water. We need to capture the clouds.” Dusk finished as he looked up at the clear skies, he was annoyed for a second, but then he made a few clouds appear to help express his point. “Your dreams need clouds.” Dusk barked at Kindrell who started to laugh. “Why does this remind me of when we first met?” Kindrell said with the front of his front hooves gently dangling over the cliff. “I don’t know. Insanity? They say it spreads from friends. Let me know when you figure out which one is crazy, I can straighten them out.” Dusk said as he formed more clouds and made random shapes. “I don’t know either…” Kindrell said as he trailed off. A year earlier, in the original Equestria It was a calm day in Canterlot. The breeze came through gently, setting loose fabric in the market areas swaying. Kindrell was here with his adoptive mother, trying to find a place of his own in the bustling city. Kindrell was waiting in his mother’s living room waiting for a friend who wanted to come over. Kindrell was always glad for Lightning Rod to come over. In the time Kindrell had come to live in Canterlot, he had few friends, so he often spent time with each of them, but Lightning Rod the most. Kindrell was glad to finally hear the knock on his door after waiting for awhile. Kindrell opened the door with a big smile, “Lightning.” “Dude, wait till you see what I got planned for today.” “What? Finally found a mare I might be interested in?” Kindrell said as he rolled his eyes. “You know it’d be so much easier if you weren’t so picky. But no, I got something better planned.” Lightning Rod said, but it seemed to lack his normal enthusiasm. “What?” Kindrell said while he wondered what his Pegasi friend was plotting. “C’mon, you’ll see.” Lightning Rod brought Kindrell out into the busy streets and near the edge of town. This was where the smaller, quieter activity was, but nothing scandalous. It didn’t seem right to Kindrell to see his friend near this part of town unless they were flying over it, but never the less, he followed his friend. Something… Seems off about him. He usually makes jokes and small talk with people as he goes places… Huh… Kindrell thought. “Almost here.” Lightning Rod said. “Hey S-, oh sorry sir.” A young voice called off in the distance after bumping into somepony. Kindrell looked behind him to see another friend of his, Flower Petal. The little unicorn walked up to Kindrell with her saddle baskets full of all sorts of flowers. “Aren’t they just lovely? Some nice business man said if I can grow more like these, he would try and get some in the palace!” the white filly said, squealed in excitement. “Wow, they are pretty. You must have put a lot of work into them. I bet when the next ones bloom, they’ll be prettier. Then they’d have to be in the palace.” “You think so? Oh, you’re the best!” She said as she gave Kindrell a big hug, her curly green mane almost landing in his eyes. Weird, by now Lightning would have given her a noogie and joined in with the encouragement. Flower Petal then just realized Lightning’s presence put a hoof to her mane to protect it. Lightning Rod just turned his orange head back to his intended path of travel. “What’s up with him?” Flower Petal asked lowering her hoof. “Well, gotta go.” Kindrell said to her as he trotted off after his friend. < Dusk POV > Ugh. Why did I have to get moved to the planes of imagination…? Why couldn’t they just keep me on the front lines at the human worlds…? And why is this place full of small horses? You’d think a place conjured from imagination would be a little more diverse… It’s taking too long for my energy to adjust. I feel weak, like the shades. It’s so annoying…. Dusk thought to himself. He hadn’t achieved his solid looking state, and was slightly lucid while he was adjusting to the difference of energy flow in this world. He had been floating about Canterlot castle, trying to kill time. He was careful not be seen, considering this world didn’t properly know of nightmares. He decided to float up to the clouds and look down at the bustling city while he hid in one of the fluffy white shapes. Nox, this world better be important. Dusk said as he watched the ponies go about their business. Rippling waves smashed against Dusk, immediately sending him into battle mode. He scoured the city and noticed an orange pony seemed to be filling to the brim with darkness. Dusk slowly moved his cloud over head. Thank goodness no one bothers looking up. < General POV > Lightning Rod had brought Kindrell to a small open space area. It was rather close to the walls of the city, and was unusually quiet. Kindrell found it odd that there were no ponies moving around this area at all. The sun was high in the sky, and the clouds were gently rolling along. Lightning Rod stopped here; Kindrell just thought he was taking a break. Is something troubling him? He’s always been so care free… I wonder what it could be. His friend turned to him to say something, but something caught his eye, and Kindrell couldn’t focus on what he was saying. “Is… Your tongue black?” Kindrell asked hesitantly. His friend had a terrified look in his eyes and mouthed “help” when his teeth erupted with bone-like claws that slashed at the opposing side of his muzzle. The claws tore the skin that clung to Lightning Rod’s face apart sending pieces of skins and blood to go everywhere. Suddenly, a pair of large boney spikes thrusted from the dead pony’s eyes and split into narrower spikes and rapped themselves around his entire muzzle, leaving his once exposed skull covered. His spine immediately burst outward, now several feet longer. His red-speckled rump lay feet away connected by an elongated spine. His rear section picked itself up and laid itself on its side as its legs exploded and more boney structure began to form around the corpse’s remains. Kindrell was absolutely terrified. No bad dream could equate to what was happening in front of him. He pushed himself up against and imaginary wall and was stuck there, paralyzed with something beyond horror. The abomination that continued to tear apart his best friend continued to evolve, adding rippling red fleshy tubes down its newly formed appendages. Suddenly a dark dome appeared around the creature and the stunned pony, and a ghastly form phased through its membrane. Dusk didn’t notice the small pony at first, and just had his sights on the Phage infectee. “Phage? In Nox’s world? He’s gonna be pissed.” Dusk said as he tried to flare up his energy. Dusk threw several concentrations of his nightmare energy at the monster that was preparing to hit something with its long bone-stilt legs. Dusk now noticed the blue statue can something clicked instinctively. His combat mode mentality switched to a more defensive purpose as he shot his entity between the Phage and the pony. Dusk opened his mouth and a black orb appeared in front of it, within a split second of its appearance a stream of black lightning left the orb and charged into the Phage, causing it to rear back and topple over. This is gonna suck, but here we go. Dusk thought as he charged into its ribcage area. The bone monstrosity laid knocked over, motionless, for a minute before blood exploded from it and Dusk walked out with a strange tear shaped black creature struggling between his teeth. The blank minded Kindrell suddenly lost all feeling in his legs as he fainted. Dusk lifted the dome, which made its contents invisible to the outside world, and flew it the peak of the mountain that Canterlot sat perched upon. Kindrell slowly woke, his entire body felt like a statue as his vision began to paint a circular room that was well lit. Some tall black Pegasus stood over him. Are his eyes entirely white? Kindrell thought as his blurry eyes tried to make sense of things. Kindrell eyes filled with horror as memories of what happened moments ago. “Where’s… Lightning Rod?” Kindrell managed to croak even through the protest of his dry throat. “Dead. He died as soon as the Phage infected him.” Dusk turned his head to pitch black tear shaped creature writhing in a cage. “Here, drink this, it’s just water.” Dusk said as he slid a small glass towards the pony that drank it all almost choking on the life sustaining liquid. “What do you mean he died? What is the ‘Phage’? Who are you? What are you? Wh-?” “The Phage is a parasite of pure darkness that enters a living creature’s body and kills it by doing so. But the Phage takes time building energy before it destroys the living creature entirely, and while it’s building power the infected creature is conscious throughout the process. The darkness doesn’t discriminate either, its infected things and twisted their being to worse than what you have witnessed.” “But you said the creature dies? That doesn’t make sense!” “No, it doesn’t. That’s why we nightmares hunt Phage and other forms of darkness that threaten living creatures.” Dusk said smoothly. “Nightmares? Nightmares are bad dreams! Why would you help me!?” Kindrell shouted. “We got that name from the bad dreams we use to track darkness. Ever wondered why you wake up in the middle of them? Nightmares are creatures that once belonged to the darkness, but we left it and now work for the light, or everything right in the world. My eyes are pure white because the core of my energy is made of light energy. My name is Dusk. For now, I will call you Kindrell. You’ve witnessed some of the horror of the darkness, as soon you will have the chance to work against it.” “…What do you mean? Work against… Like a super hero or something?” “No, as a vessel. A vessel is a living creature that allows a nightmare to inhabit their body to give them power. You will have the option to make sure nothing like what happened to your best friend ever happens to anybody.” “Me? But…” “But you haven’t tried to run. Something in me tells me you’re not going to either, even if you’re not some strong-pony.” Kindrell sat their speechless. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to stand up against something like what he saw… “So what happens if I become a vessel or whatever? Do I have control over who ‘inhabits’ me?” “Of course, your body, your rules. Besides, you can only be paired with one nightmare.” “Who would I be paired with?” “Me. I am the one who saved you, Nox thinks its fitting.” “Who’s Nox?” “A powerful nightmare, he’s my boss of sorts.” “Of sorts?” Kindrell said now not sure of what to say. “I’m stronger, older, and smarter than him, but I’m a frontlines kind of guy. I never cared for the big time leadership positions.” “So, you have your own kind of personalities?” “Of course, why wouldn’t we?” “I don’t know….” “Come, you’re going to be given you option to decide soon.” Dusk said as a spiral stair case going down appeared to Kindrell’s left. “How do I know I can trust you?” “I work for the light, I can’t lie unless under very specific circumstances, and this isn’t one of them.” Dusk said as he began to walk down the spiral stair case. The walk down the stair case was a long one. Kindrell got bored waiting for it to end and just when he was about to complain, it stopped. Kindrell entered a large dark room. The ceiling was impossible to see and walls stretched so far out the place looked endless from the inside. Even though the expansive room was dark, Kindrell could see clearly. This boggled Kindrell as he looked around and saw dozens of normal ponies and what he assumed were nightmares as if they were outside. “Hey, it’s a new guy.” One of two ponies said as the pair walked over to Dusk and Kindrell. “You must be the famous Dusk, who’s this?” A brown unicorn said as she sat down in front of the two. “His name is Kindrell” Dusk said. “Actually, my real name is-” “Everyone who comes into contact with the nightmares is given a second name to be referred to by.” Dusk interrupted. “Yeah, my second name is Erivic, his is Tolvr.” The brown mare said gesturing to Tolvr, a green earth stallion, who nodded. “Were after Nox, have you seen him?” Dusk said casually. “Yeah, he’s at his platform. He went ballistic when you brought in that Phage parasite.” Tolvr said. “I could imagine, even I didn’t know it was there until I saw it. Kindrell, were going to fly to the center of the cavern,” turning to the blue Pegasus. “Uh, ok…” Kindrell said as he outstretched his wings. Kindrell and Dusk flew up, and then forward for a small period of time before reaching a large floating platform in the darkness. On the platform was a desk that was a few feet from the center, behind the desk was a large black Minotaur, beside the desk was another tall Pegasi who was swaying their tail like a cat. Now that Kindrell thought about it, the cat-nightmare looked a lot like Dusk. When Dusk and Kindrell landed the Minotaur immediately began talking in a very deep voice. “This is the one who saw the Phage? He’s lucky you got there before that thing had a chance to use his flesh to make more.” “He is, isn’t he Nox?” Dusk said casually. “Yes, yes. Now what will be your decision?” “What? Already? I just got here…!” Kindrell said worriedly. “What? Dusk, how much of the cavern did you show him?” Dusk simply lowered his head a little. “Oh, I see. He’s just a little excited. Dusk you should have shown him more, it would be like a look in to what he’s facing.” “I know…” Dusk said sadly. Kindrell found it odd that Nox was almost scolding Dusk as if he were a child. Isn’t he older and stuff? Kindrell thought as he now paid a little more attention to the tail-swaying statue. “Who’s he?” “Him? He’s Auss.” Dusk said coolly. “Hello.” He said, causing Nox to near jump as he twisted his head to look at him. “You’re supposed to be at Ponyville doing surveillance!” Nox yelled. “Oh, right.” He said before he disappeared. “What the-!? Where did he go!?” Kindrell almost shouted. “He faded into shadows for a moment. Nightmares remember?” Dusk explained. “Oh right….” “Now, about your decision.” Nox said bringing the subject back up. “Oh, uh… I honestly don’t know.” “That’s ok. You’ve been a little rushed into this, perhaps you would like some time to think about it. Does a week sound good?” “What- a week? I’m supposed to wait a week here?” “What? No, of course not. You can leave and think about it, Dusk will accompany you, think of it like a preview.” Nox’s voice said in its deep growl. “Come home? But I barely know him! Besides, what if my mom sees him? Oh gosh, tell me this is a dream.” Kindrell couldn’t help but start sinking to the floor. “Am I really that bad?” Dusk chimed in. “What? Oh, well, I don’t know, but how would my mother react?” something slammed into Kindrell’s’ thoughts, and it seemed brilliant, “If you can look that much like a pony, can you look more like me?” Kindrell turned his head to look at Dusk. “No, that’s why I need a vessel. If it were that easy, I would have done it by now. I can be rather sneaky though, does that help at all?” “How sneaky?” Dusk slowly turned transparent, and then disappeared entirely. “H-how long can you do that?” Kindrell asked looking all around as if Dusk were going to surprise attack him. “As long as I need, the only problem is I’m technically all around and not in one specific area.” Dusk said, his voice ringing all around Kindrell’s head. “Okay okay! Please stop that, it’s creepy.” Dusk then gathered his energy into the form he had previously. “You know what; I think I’ll leave now.” “Okay, Dusk show him the door.” Nox said calmly as he turned around from his desk and shouted words in an unfamiliar language. Kindrell turned around, looking to where they had flew from, and for a second, he thought he heard a sniffle from somewhere. The two flew the duration back to the stairs, and Kindrell decided to fly up them and save time. “Okay, how do I get out of here now?” Kindrell questioned as he looked at Dusk. Dusk’s face devoid of any emotion, and he sat silent and still as a part of the wall slowly opened up. The two flew out of the peak of the mountain and Dusk turned invisible to conceal himself. Kindrell flew directly to his house, mind dazed and filled to the brim with talk with the nightmares. When Kindrell opened the door to his house, he was greeted with his mother; she had a light green colored coat and a straight-down olive mane with a spyglass for a cutie mark, “Oh honey, how did things go with Lightning?” “Uh, he…” Kindrell just trailed off and looked down. “What happened?” “I... don’t know…” “What happened, he’s not hurt, is he?” she asked as came up and stroked Kindrell’s back gently. “I-I don’t know what happened. He’s……. he’s… dead.” Kindrell said as his breath became strained. His mind was too busy earlier making sense of things to remember the loss of his best friend, and now it finally hit him; his friend was dead, gone, never to be seen again. Kindrell met Lightning Rod only a few years after his mother, and Kindrell had always gotten along with the energetic colt, so now the loss of his friend just superseded all other concerns. His mother sat next to him, gently stroking him, and then when his sobbing increased a little, she pulled him close. “The look on his face when it happened… It’s going to haunt me…” Kindrell managed to sputter out resting his head against his mother. His mother just sat there, holding him, letting him vent. It had been an hour since Kindrell broke down in the living room, and he was just lying in bed staring at the ceiling. He couldn’t believe it. He didn’t know if he could ever come to terms with Lightning’s death. “Is there anything I can do?” a voice said. It was Dusk, who was standing in the corner of the room facing Kindrell. “I don’t know.” “This is the sort of stuff we nightmares try to prevent.” “And how can I help stop that? How am I supposed to fight those ‘things’?” “A nightmare is stronger when their energy bonds with a living creature, if you became my vessel, I could lend you some of my power. If you learned to control it to an extent, you could fight dark creatures. Besides, what you saw was some of the most dangerous of their numbers.” “Learn how to manipulate dark energy? What do I look like, a unicorn?” “You’re more than you realize, if only you could see it. And besides, my energy works nothing like magic. You would be directing its flow, not commanding it, it’d be different.” “Whatever…” Kindrell said as he lost interest. “You need to get out of this house. Moping isn’t doing you any good.” “Not if any more of those ‘things’ are out there.” “There aren’t.” Dusk as he squinted his eyes slightly. Kindrell was still looking up at the ceiling and took no notice. “You didn’t know there was one last time. Not sure if I’m willing to take the gamble.” Dusk was now shooting daggers at the Pegasus. His gaze never locked with Kindrell’s, but his left wing twitched at his side. “Dinner…!” Kindrell’s mother called out. Kindrell was glad to escape this conversation after he dug a hole for himself. Dusk had been formal, but he felt panic wash over himself earlier. Dinner was simple, a salad with a few spice and nuts in it. Dusk stood near the doorway of the dining area, but wasn’t looking at the two as they ate. “Maybe we could go out and get desert?” Kindrell’s mother chimed in after he finished his food. “Uh, no. I’m going out in a bit.” His mother gave a smile of relief after hearing this. “Good. Hey, maybe we can go to the beach tomorrow.” The idea of visiting the sea slammed into Kindrell’s thoughts. He had forgotten about on the things he adored, and now he had to go out and invite friends. A big smile made itself onto Kindrell’s face. Kindrell told as many of his friends as ho could find, and was looking for more to invite. Dusk became a shadow that trailed him. As soon as Dusk saw the opportunity he whispered to Kindrell “You should buy a jar.” “Why should I buy a jar?” he whispered back. “You’re going to the ocean, and I can tell you love the ocean. Take a jar of sea water and sand as a memento.” “Good idea…” Kindrell smile grew slightly at the thought of this. If he ever got depressed, he'd look at his jar of sea water… Kindrell ended up buying 6 fairly sized jars. That sales lady was too good… Kindrell decided he would give a jar to his mother to remember him by when he finally left the house, give one to Flower Petal, and leave one for Lightning Rod’s funeral. He decided to etch “May the sea remember you.” Into it, and Lightning Rod’s parents decided to have a special area on the tomb stone for the jar. Kindrell was still debating on what to do with the other two jars until he heard another whisper, “Could I have one?” Dusk said, his white eyes appearing in Kindrell’s shadow that hung directly in front of him. “Why would you want a jar of sea water? You’re a nightmare.” Kindrell could make out the faint outline of his shadow’s head drooping. “Well… Just don’t get it broken. Glass is hard and dangerous to clean.” With that comment the shadow’s head and ears perked up. Tomorrow was going to be amazing. He invited his 5 friends to come with him, some of their parents were coming, no biggy, and everyone was going to play some games, swim, picnic, it was going to be the best time in a long time. “I’ll make sure of it.” Dusk said, startling Kindrell. “Okay, how?” “I’ll make the perfect weather, I already know the perfect spot, and I’ll alter the wave height to your desired outcome.” “Cool, but I’m a Pegasus, I got the weather part down.” “No, I insist. This whole thing to cheer you up, no need to make you work considering what’ve you’ve been through. Besides, this will be cake compared to what I normally deal with.” “…Thanks.”