//------------------------------// // Shadow // Story: Timeless // by Hybrid-Dreamin //------------------------------// Octavia awoke to find herself being flung through the air. Panicking, she tried to activate her magic as fast as possible. Much to her distress, her magic did not appear. Before she had any time to think further, she crashed into one of the hedge walls before falling a short way to the grass below. It wasn't the most comfortable landing, but she was thankful that it was at least plant life and not stones. Attempting to regain her vertical base, one of her front legs gave out on her. She fell back to the grass beneath her, now beginning to notice a stinging pain in the same leg. Looking down, she was shocked to see that her bracelet was missing from its usual place. Instead, an almost gash-like wound circled around her leg where her bracelet had been previously. Blood was dripping from the wound, staining the ground and her hoof below. Despite its harsh look, it wasn't bleeding as much as it seemed it should have been. That did little to allay her fear. "That means it's deep... this isn't good... calm down. Calm down. Deep breaths..." she thought to herself, attempting to regain her cool, unsuccessfully. Her attention was pulled away from her wound when she heard a shout followed shortly by a crash. Looking up, her eyes widened. In the center of the clearing she apparently found herself in, was a massive shadow beast, reeling back after being struck by something. Before she could make sense of what was going on, a disc made of blue light was flung at the creature. Instead of exploding on contact, the disc sliced cleanly through the creature before lodging itself in the hedge wall on the other side and dissipating soon after. A second later, the event repeated itself. Another disc sliced clean through the monster and lodged itself into the wall before disappearing. Turning her head to the source of the discs, she saw none other than Vinyl standing atop a pillar made of blue light. She was clad in her "battle dress" summoned by her bracelet and was in the process of launching disc after disc of blue light at her enemy. Her face sported a glare the likes of which Octavia had never seen on her before. Just as the monster launched a blast of shadows at her, Vinyl leapt from her perch atop the pillar. As her hooves left it, the pillar instantly disappeared before reappearing at her destination, effectively allowing her to dodge the monster whilst also keeping her vertical base intact. As soon as she landed, Vinyl summoned up two more discs at her sides. Unlike the previous ones though, the edges of these two were both sharpened and spiked. They began to rotate at high speeds, getting faster and faster by the second. After a moment to allow them to reach their full speed, they were launched at the creature, once again slicing clean through it. Instead of lodging themselves in the wall though, they switched course and came back. Slicing through a second time, they took their place back at Vinyl's sides. They continued to spin so fast that they simply looked like circle shaped blurs though. Dodging another attack, Vinyl sent the discs out once again, knocking the monster back but not off its feet. Frustration was beginning to show on her face. Though her attacks seemed to hurt the monster, it just seemed to regenerate any parts that she cut away from it. Finally regaining her senses and fully understanding the situation, Octavia attempted to get back up again. Clenching her teeth in pain, she managed to stand up but was forced to pick her hoof off the ground slightly as putting pressure on that leg caused her far too much pain. She knew that in her current state she'd only be a hindrance, but she still felt she needed to do something. She considered the idea of attracting the monsters attention to herself so that Vinyl could execute a full on assault without having to stop and dodge. She discarded this idea shortly after thinking of it though. Her current state meant she'd be unable to effectively dodge any attacks launched her way. As Octavia continued to try and think of a strategy, Vinyl continued her assault. She hadn't yet noticed that her ally had regained her bearings, her attention completely absorbed in her battle. As the fight wore on, the shadows attacks came faster and faster, allowing little time for any counterattacks. Eventually the only thing Vinyl could do was dodge its attacks with barely a second in between. Vinyl knew if things kept up like this then she'd soon run out of magical power and would be rendered helpless in the face of her foe. Dodging another attack, she was caught off guard in mid air by a second attack before she could reform her pillar. Just barely managing to catch herself with her magic before she hit the ground, she shook her head in frustration before noticing the presence next to her. "Octavia!" she gasped, attempting to hug the other pony without thinking. "Look out!" Octavia yelled as she pushed Vinyl to the ground, falling on top of her. Half a second later a blast hit the wall behind them, traveling just barely over their heads. Quickly getting back to their feet, Octavia grunted in pain. "Let's leave such things for another time. UGH!" she groaned in pain and frustration. "What happened to my bracelet... AND my leg for that matter?!" Vinyl pointed towards the core of the monster, directing Octavia' s gaze. The gray pony gasped upon seeing her bracelet, stuck floating inside the center of the monsters body. "What happened?!" she asked desperately. Instead of an answer, she found herself teleported to the other side of the monster, dodging another blast. Vinyl was still beside her. "You were floating above a big shadowy crystal thing, unconscious. I managed to destroy the crystal but then this guy appeared and tried to hold you inside of it. I managed to knock you back out of it but somehow it kept the bracelet. Watch out!" She explained, forced to finish quickly as she used her magic to keep herself and Octavia safe. "So it was literally ripped from me..." Octavia mumbled, flinching at the sudden pain as her hoof touched the ground. "I'm sorry, I wish I could be more help but..." "Don't worry about it, this guy's nothin'!" Vinyl said confidently. "I'll have 'em licked in no time!" she stated as she took off into the air towards the monster. "Vinyl wait!" Octavia shouted, a second too late for Vinyl to hear. The ensuing scene happened so fast that she could barely make out what happened. Just before Vinyl made contact with the creature she rolled into a sideways spin. Upon crashing into the monster she was absorbed into it, but she continued to spin faster and faster. Upon reaching her max speed a second later she stopped herself suddenly, returning to an upright position. Just as she stopped herself, a massive blue shockwave launched itself out horizontally in every direction around her, slicing the monster into two halves from the inside out. Seeing her chance, Vinyl grabbed the bracelet in her mouth and used her magic to launch herself backwards, smashing into the hedge wall behind Octavia. Embedded into the hedges, she tossed the bracelet to Octavia with a "think fast!". Catching the bracelet, Octavia quickly sat on the grass and put the bracelet on her uninjured leg. After a moment of focusing on the item she became confused when nothing happened. Noticing that the bracelet didn't regain its magic glow, Octavia looked hesitantly at her injury. The gash that circled around her leg still looked and felt extremely painful. "This may very well be the dumbest thing I've done in recent memory..." Octavia said to herself, muttering a curse under her breath afterwards. Pulling the bracelet off her leg with her teeth as she held up her other hoof, she tightly closed her eyes as she began to carefully slip the accessory on. She had assumed that the anticipation would be worse than the actual pain. She was wrong. The very instant the bracelet connected with the wound an awful feeling shot through her. It felt like a million needles were stabbing themselves into her injured skin. Holding in her screams, her eyes quickly began to tear up from the intense agony. Gathering her courage, she made one final push, finally letting out a scream as she did so. She wanted to pass out from it all, but she willed herself on. Vinyl needed her help. If she could just activate the bracelet then... Just as she started regaining her composure she looked up and saw a massive, shadowed claw reaching for her. Moving completely on instinct, she jumped to the left just in time to avoid it. However, because of her injured leg she lost her balance and fell to the ground with a yelp. As the claw moved to attack again it was sliced off with a lightning quick flash of light. Octavia looked up to see Vinyl dash by riding on a disc of blue light. Telling herself to thank the other mare later, Octavia stood up. The bracelet had regained its purple glow despite the small streams of blood leaking out from beneath it. Hoping beyond hope that her plan would work, Octavia closed her eyes. Using all of her willpower, she focused all her attention on the bracelet. A moment later she was engulfed in a purple light. After a few seconds the light faded, Octavia emerging in her own battle dress. Though it still hurt, the pain was slowly fading, her magic healing her wound with every second that passed by. Looking up, she saw Vinyl distracting the shadow by flying circles around it with her magic, periodically launching discs at its center section. She was trying to impede its progress in regenerating itself, but she couldn't keep up. It was healing too quickly. "Can't let that crazy pony outdo us now can we?" Octavia spoke to the inanimate accessory around her leg. Summoning up her magic, she launched herself high into the air. Once she was at what she deemed an acceptable height she threw up her uninjured leg as if she were punching the sky. As soon as she did so a large orb of purple light began to form. Landing safely back on the ground, she quickly checked on Vinyl's status. Just as before, she was distracting the monster by flying about on her disc, throwing out attacks every now and then. It was clear she wasn't making any progress in actually defeating the creature though, and she looked to be getting more tired by the minute. With a deep breath, Octavia looked up at the orb of magic she'd left in the sky. It had begun reshaping itself while quickly expanding.. Unable to keep up her attacks any longer, Vinyl landed on the ground, her dress disappearing into light as she breathed heavily. Looking up at the sky her mouth fell agape in awe. The orb had restructured itself so that it floated a few yards above the shadow. Its shape had changed as well, now resembling a giant purple cello. Octavia turned her gaze back to the monster. "Now!" she shouted as she tightly shut her eyes. The giant cello immediately began falling from the sky. As it collided with the creature it continued to descend, crushing the monster into the ground. No matter how much it struggled, the shadow was still rooted to the ground and therefore unable to escape as it was crushed into nothingness. With a final, defiant roar, the last of the monster was crushed under the magic. After a moment to make sure it was gone, Octavia released her magic. Her wound seemed to have healed, but her leg was still sore. Hearing her name, she looked up just in time to see Vinyl launching herself towards her. As Vinyl collided with her and knocked her down back onto her hindquarters, she pulled the gray mare into a huge hug, refusing to relinquish her grip the slightest bit. "Vinyl! It's alright, I'm fine. You can let go." Octavia said, trying to remove the other pony from her. Vinyl just shook her head, mumbling something indistinct. Though Octavia couldn't see her face, she could tell Vinyl was crying ever so quietly. Octavia figured they were just tears of relief but it made her uncomfortable to just leave it like that. "What's wrong with you? I'm fine, see? My leg is even healed. Everything shipshape." she attempted to lighten the mood, holding up her leg to show that it was indeed alright. After a few more moments Vinyl finally loosened her grip and pulled back. With her eyes still tearing up a bit, she stared directly at Octavia for a few seconds before knocking her roughly on the noggin. "OUCH!" the gray mare exclaimed. "What was that for?!" "Because you're stupid!" Vinyl replied immediately. "How could you think you're a failure like that? How could you say that there's nopony who needs you?!" she raised her voice in frustration. "That nopony cares..." At first Octavia didn't understand. After a moment though it came back to her. The dream. She'd been traversing the maze for a while before she finally made it to the center and found the large, shadowed crystal. She'd attempted to activate her magic but before she could the crystal had somehow used its own magic to grab hold of her. After that her memory cut out until the dream or... wherever it was she had found herself. "You... you saw that?" She asked timidly, embarrassed by the idea that Vinyl saw her breakdown. "Of course I did! I'm the one who had to save you!" Vinyl responded, raising her voice a bit again. She gave Octavia another knock across the head. "Stop hitting me!" Octavia exclaimed, swatting at the other mare in response. "I'd be inclined to be more sympathetic if I'd just seen the theatre and nothing else, but I saw your memories of your band mates too, your friends! How could you let yourself think that nopony cared about you when you held those memories so close?!" "Excuse me?! How could you say that?! And how did you end up seeing things like that?! For that matter, how did you see anything at all? Who gave you permission to go rooting around in my head?!" Octavia fired back. "I found you floating above that thing and when I activated my magic to save you something threw me into the crystal. Next thing I knew I was watching what I figured were your memories or something. Once I pulled you out of that stupid theatre the crystal broke open and that shadow thing appeared." Vinyl explained the series of events leading to their current situation. "And how dare I say that? I'll say whatever I want! They obviously care so much about you but there you were thinking that you were all alone! You almost gave up on yourself! You almost gave up on them! I don't know which is worse!" Octavia scoffed. "You don't know anything! You have no idea what kinds of things I've had to endure! What it's like to have your own parents throw you out as if you were just some garbage. To have rebuild your life with nothing to your name except the few things you just happened to be good at!" her eyes were beginning to tear up. "I owe my band more than they'll ever know, but they all act like I'm some sort of super pony who can handle anything. I'm nothing like that. I'm just a weak fool who got lucky. Even now in this stupid world I-" she was cut off by Vinyl pulling her into another overly strong embrace. "Stop it." Vinyl said calmly. "I hate it when you do that. You're not weak and you certainly aren't a fool. You're one of the strongest ponies I've ever known... and I've known a lot of ponies. You're smarter than I could ever hope to be. You have your rough edges but we all do. You're a pony who will do whatever it takes to get the job done while helping out those around you. I don't need to look into your mind to know that." Vinyl pulled back. "When I look at you I see a strong, intelligent, determined, beautiful pony who doesn't give herself enough credit." Vinyl smiled. "Emphasis on beautiful." she said with a small laugh as a slight blush appeared on her face. Octavia just stared at her with her mouth slightly agape, dumbstruck. "Vinyl..." she spoke quietly, to which Vinyl just looked back with a tender smile in response. She was about to say more but they were interrupted by the sound of hooves clapping together off to their right side. Quickly jumping apart and turning to the source of the noise in the same motion, the two took up battle positions but their stances faltered when they caught sight of the source. A few yards away, floating a bit above the ground, was the shadowy form of a pony. Despite having the shape of a pony though, it completely lacked any kind of features. It was as if a pony's shadow had taken on a three dimensional form and a will of its own. It lounged back as if it were reclining in a seat that wasn't there. It finished clapping it's hooves together and simply began to stare at the two ponies, as if it were waiting for something. Vinyl took this as a sign for her to speak up. "Who are you?! Are you one of them?! You wanna go too?!" she shouted as she aggressively walked forward a bit before being stopped by Octavia. "Vinyl stop." Octavia ordered before addressing the shadow. "Are you the one who brought us here? What do you want?" she demanded, staring the shadow down... if it had any eyes to stare down. The shadow simply stared back, unmoving. This apparent battle of wills continued for a few minutes more until the shadow pony lurched forward as if in pain. Vinyl and Octavia both took a step backwards and readied themselves for anything. The shadows body continued to turn and contort in pain as two wings began to form from its back. They pulled and stretched away from its body as if they were ripping right through its flesh from the inside. Even for Octavia and Vinyl, who thought they had gotten used to the horrific forms of the shadows by now, it was hard to watch. At the same time that this was happening, the ponies' bracelets began to shine a little brighter with every passing second. The ponies themselves however were too caught up in the horrific sight before them to notice. After the wings finally pushed all the way through and were fully formed, the shadow continued to act in an extremely pained manner, this time putting its hooves to its temples as a bump began to form in the middle of its forehead. As the bump slowly got bigger and rose up, the bracelets began to shine so bright that Vinyl and Octavia were knocked back to their senses. "I have a most... unpleasant feeling about this..." Octavia said as she looked toward the shadow and began to back away. Vinyl mimicked the other pony's actions. "You too huh? Maybe we should uh..." "I believe a tactical retreat may be in order..." Octavia responded lowly. Just as she finished her sentence, the shadow craned back and let out a loud roar. "RUN!" Octavia shouted as she quickly turned and ran out the only exit she could see, Vinyl close behind. As they galloped through the twisting pathways of the maze they could hear an almost constant roaring not far behind them. They dared not look back, both for fear of what they might see as well as the action slowing them down. As they came to a fork Vinyl shouted "this way!" while turning towards the left as Octavia followed, the two never slowing down. All the while their bracelets continued to shine more intensely than they ever had before. Realizing that they were now running through the side opposite the one she entered, Octavia let Vinyl take the lead. Thankfully the maze seemed to have stopped altering itself since the destruction of the crystal. Still, she knew it was taking them too long. The shadow was gaining on them little by little. Thinking quickly, Octavia came up with an idea that she could only pray worked. Using the magic that her bracelet had apparently been charging on its own, Octavia pulled up beside Vinyl. Closing her eyes and focusing, she jumped on top of the other mare and held her tightly as they both became engulfed in light and felt a pulling sensation. In the next moment, they were gone. ---------------------- Appearing above the ground in a flash of light, the two ponies fell with a thud. "What was that?!" Vinyl demanded as she quickly got back to her hooves, still surprised. "I teleported us. It was all I could think to do." Octavia responded as she brushed the dirt off herself. "A little warning would have been nice." Vinyl commented before proceeding to take a few steps around, trying to figure out where they were. "I'll be sure to remember that the next time we're running for our lives." Vinyl just sighed. "So were are we this time?" Octavia shook her head. "I'm not sure. I just kind of thought "anywhere but here" when I teleported us..." she answered as she too began to look around to confirm their location. She jumped in surprise as Vinyl suddenly raised her voice. "WOAH! Octavia, look! The sky!" She shouted hastily. Looking upwards, Octavia immediately noticed what Vinyl had meant. "The moon... it's gone." Up in the sky that had been permanently shifted to night ever since they arrived, all signs of the moon had disappeared. An uncomforting development considering what had happened the last time they'd been shocked by the moon. As the two were looking upwards, they were snapped to attention by a roar so loud it made the earth beneath them shake. Quickly turning around, Octavia pulled Vinyl to the ground with her just in time to avoid the massive creature that flew over their heads. Whatever flew over them was so big that seemed like an eternity before it had fully passed by them and they got up. Turning back around as they did so, the two ponies looked on in awe as a massive serpent-like creature flew into the distance. "Is that... a dragon?" Vinyl asked, still paralyzed in a combination of shock and fear. Octavia took a moment to come to her senses before responding. "That thing is far too big to be just a dragon." "Have you ever seen a dragon?" Vinyl asked, still shocked. "Well it's certainly not a dragon like the ones from our Equestria..." she responded as the two continued to look on. The monster flew about in the distance, letting out another roar so loud that the two ponies had to cover their ears as the ground shook once more. As the two observed the beast more, they found that Octavia was right. It certainly wasn't any kind of dragon ever seen in Equestria, or at least not one ever recorded in history. Its body was much longer and snake like than a normal dragon. It also had two pairs of wings instead of one, with the second pair on its back closer to its hind legs. Aside from the differences in shape, its size was much more massive than anything ever recorded in Equestria and a sort of black fog seemed to constantly fall from its equally dark scales. Octavia didn't doubt that it was big enough to engulf most, if not all, of Canterlot in shadow. "So..." Vinyl finally broke the silence. "What in Celestia's name is that thing?" Octavia began respond but she was cut off by a voice from a third party. "THAT is the reason behind your appearance in this world that shouldn't exist." a strong and commanding voice answered from behind them. Quickly turning around to see the source of the voice, nothing could have prepared the two ponies for what they would find.