//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6- Spectacular Stories and Very Vague Plans 
// Story: Not having ANY of this S### 
// by Technopathic 
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	Long, long ago-

"In a galaxy far far away," I added. The creature ignored me and went on.

We know not how we were born; only from whence we came: the darkest of shadows in a deep forest. Our days were not spent alone, many Shadowborn, as we called ourselves, danced among the darkness with us. We felt no hunger or fatigue, knew no strife nor hatred. Those were the days of peace.

Then they came. The ponies, with their magic and strength, destroying our home. The great trees we knew so well were felled, gathered, and toted off. Our shadows were slowly disappearing, and they did not notice our suffering. We knew we could not stand by idly. The shadows were our home, and we knew not how to traverse anything else. One of our kind, one of the most brilliant, found a way for us to traverse the land of light. It said it caused great pain for us to leap from the shadows, but that we could use this newfound power to find a new home. A place of safety.

A plan was hatched. These new creatures that invaded our home and cut down our trees would be our salvation rather than our destruction. Though several of our kind were angry at these creatures for destroying our home, the shadowborn had no way of contacting them, no way of fighting back. So, it was decided that our kind would use our newfound ability to jump from the darkness, and latch onto the shadows of the ponies. There was hope they would carry we shadowborn somewhere safe, somewhere we could live in peace. 

“Wait, wait, wait, why do you keep rambling on about bad it was about your home being taken away?” I interrupted, rather confused, “I mean, even if the ponies had cut down all the trees, there’s still the darkness of night. Could’ve slipped away during that, found this safe haven you were hoping for.” 

Well that’s because-

“There’s also the fact you explicitly mentioned you have to have a host to survive. Or were you just lying to me? And what about those kickass shadowbending powers, hm? Cold have used that, chased them away. Or used the shadow-walking power to just slide into another as a shadow yourself like I was doing back in that pony town for about two hours,” I continued, pointing out fallacy after fallacy.

Well, we- I could feel I was really starting to ruffle its feathers, but I kept talking.

“And furthermore, there’s also the fact that I, as a power granted by you, can jump partially out of the shadows, so you could have tried THAT to get the ponies attention, perhaps they would have listened to you if you told ‘em ‘hey, would you stop destroying our home? We’re kinda getting worried, here!’”

We knew nothing of their language, there was no way to- There was a pause, then a feeling of embarrassment. We suppose… we could have tried that to show them of our existence… that might have been better…

I smirked a little. Clearly these “shadowborn” as it kept calling itself weren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed. I could feel the creature fuming in my head, a mix of anger and embarrassment as it worked for some sort of retort.

Well-! We were kind of panicking-! We didn’t think to-! 

I could feel its anger boiling over, like an explosion waiting to happen. I realized I needed to calm it down, as much fun as taunting it a little had been. I wasn’t going to get anywhere if it got angry with me and refused to talk to me. 

I held up my hand. “Hey, stop it. If those memories are any indicator, you were either a very young species, or weren’t the most rational. Everything is clearer in retrospect,” I paused, nodding. “It’s actually kind of impressive you guys managed to figure out how to jump into shadows like that. Still, I’d like an explanation about those other things. Was there something preventing you from doing all that?”

My small compliment seemed to not only calm it down, but make its mood do a complete one-eighty. I could feel its pride welling up as it beamed. It seemed not to notice that I had also stealthily added small insults. It was definitely not the brightest creature ever. 

Yes, well, of course! Naturally! …And to answer your questions, the host is correct, we knew little of our potentials; we were a young race. We knew only that we lived in the shadows and of the things that lived among us in the forest; we knew not of travelling in the night, we had not tried. It could be possible… however… I felt a wave of sorrow wash over me.…Our only attempts to move outside of our darkness, to “shadow walk,” as you tend to call it into the light without jumping out… 

Visions flashed in my mind. Briefly, very briefly, I saw what was like a faded movie clip. In it, a small blob of darkness seeped out along the ground from a shadow into broad daylight. I felt the horror from the past as I watched it begin to smoke and steam, shriveling up until there was nothing left. Images giving a sense of frantic searches, only to turn up in failure, followed quickly after. Then the visions faded. There was a somber silence for about a minute.

“I- I’m sorry for your loss…” I said. The words felt hollow and forced, but they seemed to cheer the creature up a little bit.

…We were there when the first jump into pony shadows occurred. Our kind had gathered at the edge of the tree shadows, where a large divide of light would cut through the shade. This was where the ponies came by every day. We waited, then finally…

I watched the memory play out. A sky blue pony with a white mane and tail trotted by, followed by at least twenty or thirty others, all carrying various equipment designed for chopping down trees. There was a moment of tense hesitation, then one brave, or stupidly reckless, creature jumped out of the shadows, in full view of the ponies. There were shouts of surprise from the ponies as the first shadowborn arced, sizzling in the sunlight, into the shadow of the blue pony. 

As though they had gathered their bravery, the trees’ shadows exploded all at once with shadowborn, each jumping into the shadows of the now-frantic ponies. I watched some sizzle and evaporate in the sunlight, some missing their targets and suffering the same fate. But the vast majority made their targets. My viewpoint was of one who made it alone, into the shadow of a tan young pony half the size of the others.

Then, everything started spiraling far out of control. By some unseen consequence, upon entering the shadows of the ponies, the shadowborn underwent a drastic metamorphosis. My viewpoint bore witness to the first transformation halfway through its jump. Without warning, and to the surprise of all involved, the sky blue pony’s shadow shot up from the ground, cocooning him much like mine had. There was a terrified masculine yell before his shadow swallowed him whole. Then the pony began changing. The cocoon tightened around it, like it was becoming a second skin, perhaps merging with the pony. I saw the briefest of glimpses of the Shadow pony’s final form before my viewpoint fell into the young one’s shadow.  

There was a vague sense of pain and terror connected to the memory for a brief few seconds before the world came into focus again. There was a sense of feeling different. There was a flurry of confusion; ponies ran screaming for their lives while the shadow ponies panicked about what had happened. Then there was a voice, a voice that shook the shadowborn to its very core. 

“Who… who are you?” The memory faded.

It took a long time for our kind to understand what had happened. We managed to come to the understanding that, somehow, we had come to possess the ponies whose shadows we had entered, becoming something else entirely in the process. We were lucky; we did not have to share the host with many of the others, while many found themselves crammed in with many others uncomfortably.

We were among those of the mindset that this was a good thing; now that we were in control of these hosts, our kind could seek out a new home unimpeded by the burning light. We would find a new home as quickly as possible, then abandon the hosts in favor of the shadows. None would be harmed.

Yet for others, resentment boiled within. They wanted to make the ponies pay for the destruction of our home. After much debate, we separated: those who sought revenge, and those who simply sought a home. We set out together into the great unknown. 

By the time our group reached the first town, the renegade group had attacked a nearby town, using new abilities they had discovered: this “shadowbending” as you call it. They had split up and taken many new hosts, and now each renegade had one of their own, so we heard. This news had reached the other ponies before we did, and they greeted us with fear and hostility. We tried to explain that we were not like the others, that we simply sought a new home, but our words could not soothe the fear of our kind. We collectively fled, while some were captures by the ponies. We made up our minds to avoid the ponies at all costs until we had found our safe haven.

We managed to avoid the ponies for a long time, developing new skills to hide and defend ourselves. But then one day…

A new memory surged. This time it was in a field. The nomadic shadow ponies were staring down a group of unicorns, their horns flaring. One of the unicorns stepped forward, bellowing loudly. “In the name of Princess Celestia,” he barked, lowering his horn menacingly, “We will defeat this scourge upon our land! The evils of the Shadow Ponies!” Many masculine voices roared in loud battle cries. 

The shadow ponies huddled together, surrounded by the ponies on all sides. They were all tired, exhausted from running from the ponies so long. They were on their last legs.

Beams shot forth from the horns of the unicorns, blasting the shadow ponies with light. The light peeled away the darkness, expelling the shadowborn from their hosts.

In a desperate attempt to save itself, the shadowborn leapt from is host, aiming for the shadow of a nearby bush. As it arced through the air, it could feel itself burning away. It was shrinking, disappearing. ‘I’m not going to make it-!’ it thought. Suddenly the pain stopped burning quite so intensely, dwindling to almost nothing. It was a moment of relief that turned to panic once it realized it was no longer falling towards its target.

The world slowly began to warp, looking more and more crystallized and distorted, until finally it and the thing surrounding it hit the ground with a solid thunk. Through its distorted vision, it could see that there were several crystalline globes scattered among the grass with dark shapes moving about frantically within.

Somewhere, a muffled voice cheered loudly. “We did it! We stopped them!” The vision faded.

We were scattered. We were trapped in our prison, hidden in the cave atop that pyramid in hopes we would be trapped there. Our prison was not the perfect solace we sought; though we did not burn as quickly as before, we still burned, slowly smoldering in the light. Living in dull pain. We recall anger and resentment building as we slowly faded into oblivion. We asked ourselves over and over why the ponies would do this to us; we, who merely sought a new home. We slowly gave up hope.

But everything will be fine now! The host saved us recognizes us, accepts us! The host has promised to protect us from the ponies! It added excitedly.

I froze. “Woah, woah, WOAH, hold up, when did I agree to that?” I shouted indignantly. I felt a memory being brought up:

There was a long pause. …And in return…You will let us stay? The creature asked hopefully. Protect us?

“Yeah, sure…” The memory faded out.

Oh… right. Crap. Well, there’s nothing I can do about it now… I thought. I wasn’t about to go back on my word.

Nevertheless, at least I had more answers than before. It was an interesting tale to say the least. A lot more descriptive than the vague “shadow ponies are bad and they used their powers to do bad things” tidbit I’d gotten at the library in the pony town.

A thought dawned on me. That book hadn’t been particularly descriptive (though, admittedly, I hadn’t had much of a chance to read very far), but could those ponies from long ago have transcribed the spells that tore away and trapped the shadowborn like the one in my head? For all I know, they probably did, just in case. It could be common knowledge for all I know. Heck for all I know, they could have a way to track me down. I mean, this is magic we’re talking about here. Magic is basically screwing with logic and physics, right? 

This thought troubled me. Did I want to be found, after the mistake I’d made back at the library? I don’t think any society would be forgiving to anyone lashing out at one of their princesses… but do I even want to try to reconcile with them?

To be honest, I had no idea what I wanted. The only thing I had going for me right now was the desire for survival and the compulsion to keep the promise I had made to the shadowborn. And that meant eliminating any threats to it, making sure what happened all those years ago didn’t happen again.

I knew what I didn’t want, and what I didn’t care about. I didn’t want to do anything that might get me killed or locked up forever, and right now, ticking off the ponies any more seemed to be one of the easiest ways to do that. I didn’t particularly care if I ever got home or not, nor did I, I decided after some introspection, care about becoming a part of that pony society. I was content with being left alone. And that meant I didn’t want to be found. Which means in order to keep myself hidden, and keep my promise, I’ll have to lay low, avoid direct contact as much as safely possible.

I told the creature what I was thinking. We know. We’ve been listening. it replied, as though it was completely obvious and normal, and not at all like a whole new level of stalkeryness. Yes, that’s a real word… well not really, but I’m making it one right now. 

I froze. Okay, this is taking on all new levels of creepy… I thought. “Uh… could you, like not totally invade my privacy, please?” I asked. 

I felt a sense of resignation, then: Perhaps, in order to stop the past from repeating, we could destroy all the magic users. it offered.

“Wha-? No!!! Have you been listening to a word I’ve said? I do not want those ponies out for my head to avenge all those unicorns!”

I felt a sense of smugness well up on its end. Technically, you didn’t say  it, you thought it-

“Shut, it!” I retorted. Great, now the shadow thing is getting smart with me. Where did it learn that from? I fumed. But as I thought about what it had said, an idea dawned upon me. There was another way to solve this conundrum without bloodshed.

I grinned to myself. Sensing my pleasure, the creature paused. What is the host so happy about? It asked cautiously, slightly concerned about my sudden change of mood. 

“I just realized: if we can’t get rid of those who can use magic…” I gave a small chuckle, a small gleam in my eye, making the creature even more nervous, “I just have to make sure the magic can’t be used against us.”

I could feel the creature giving consideration to this idea, then lighting up at the prospect.  But how will the host make this possible? it asked, excited.

I frowned. “Okay, first off, that whole ‘host’ thing is getting kind of old. Call me Abyss, and I’ll call you… I dunno, Bob or something.”

Looking back on it, I have little idea where this train of thought came from. Perhaps I was annoyed at mentally referring to the creature as "the creature," and sick of being referred to as "the host," which in all honesty, kind of creeped me out. Perhaps it was the human desire to name everything we come across. Perhaps all this craziness had finally gotten to me and I was breaking down into insanity. Who knows?

…Bob? It repeated, obviously confused by my rapid change of topic.

“Nonono! You call me ‘Abyss,’ and I’ll call you something like Bob,” I corrected. “It’s not that hard to figure out.”

The ho- Abyss… will now call us… Bob? it asked slowly, getting more confused by the minute.

“Meh. It’s a work in progress,” I admitted. I have to think of something cooler to call it, something other than “the shadowborn,” or “the creature”… something like “Noir” or “Shade”…

I held off on that thought, stashing it in the back of my mind; I was getting way off track. “Nevermind that for now. I’ll figure that mess out later. Anyways… the way I see it,” I prattled on, grinning, “There’s only two ways we can make sure those spells aren’t used again without turning entire armies against us.” 

I raised my index finger. “Number one: we prevent their magic from being effective against us. Not sure how easy that will be, but maybe there’s an artifact of doom somewhere or ancient forbidden enchantment that acts as a magic shield or magic sponge or something, preferably whatever we use will also prevent us from being tracked. Either way, it’s worth looking into.”

I held out my middle finger as well, so that now there were two fingers being held up (in case, I dunno, that wasn’t blatantly obvious). “Idea Neumero Dos: We destroy or at least make completely unavailable to ponies ANY information pertaining to the removal and capture of shadow ponies. I don’t know how viable that one is, because for all I know, that kind of info could be everywhere; but if the book back at the tree-library is any indication, and I really hope it is, because that would make my life so much easier, then that means that that kind of knowledge is considered outdated in usefulness and that it would only be found in a select few places. Maybe just one place, but I’m not counting on that. There’s also the possibility of creating a counterspell, because from what I’ve learned about this place in the past twenty-four hours, that is exactly the kind of bullcrap logic this place runs on.”

“Now, the problem with both of these ideas, obviously, is that we, or at least I, don’t know done-diddly-SQUAT about any of it. I don’t know about magic, and I only learned about this world today, and I’m still kinda trying to process it all. In other words, if we want to know anything I want to know right now, we have to go find it somewhere.”

I tried standing up, bracing myself against the wall. I was stiff, and my movement was sluggish and shaky, but I managed to take a few tentative steps forward.

“So, we need to get out of here,” I declared, grinning, feeling the creature’s approval, “And go find out what we can.” 

I dusted myself off, a wide, sharp-toothed smile upon my lips, gazing upwards into the darkness, “We’ve been in here a while. I’d say it’s about night time by now. All those ponies should all be nestled in their beds, sound asleep. Perfect time to go visit the local library, wouldn’t you say?”

My stomach gurgled, aching from emptiness, doing a couple of backflips for good measure. “…After I go snatch something to eat!” I added, clutching my protesting belly.

I began sinking into the shadows again. Suddenly, halfway in, I snapped my fingers, “I got it!” I exclaimed in delight. …What, you thought I couldn’t be happy? 

The creature regarded me, questioningly. I pointed at my head. “Nocturne!” I declared proudly.

You wish us to call Abyss Nocturne now? It asked, confused again.

“No! That’s what I’ll call you! Nocturne!” 

Nocturne considered the name I had given it. After a brief pause, I could feel its approval. Nocturne. We are Nocturne. it thought trying out its new name.

I shadow-walked to one of the exits of the mine. I found one that opened up a more than a few dozen meters away from Canterlot. A bit of a trek, but I didn’t mind; it just meant they were less likely to find the entrance to the mine.

I rose up and stepped out into the crisp night air. The moon hung silvery in the sky, the stars illuminating the sky unlike anything back home. Crickets chirped it the grass, and the air was pleasantly warm. The city before me shone, but was darker now as the city slept peacefully, blissfully unaware of my presence. I took a deep gulp of the night air before shadow-walking as fast as I could towards the city.

Little did they know Abyss and Nocturne were coming for a visit.