I glared down at Ahuizotl. "Explain."
Ahuizotl tried to push himself up, but my glowing red eyes and the very gravity of the place pushed him down. "Teridax, I can exp-"
I mentally increased the pressure slightly. "I don't want your excuses, I want the truth. Now."
When I'd met him, I'd assumed that he would have the Orb itself in his hands. Unfortunately, he didn't, and was acting pitifully. I didn't really like failure all that much, so I now had him pinned to the ground under his own weight.
Ahuizotl looked up at me. "I- I swear, I had the Orb, and I was coming, but-"
My right eye turned blue, the equivalent of raising an eyebrow. "But?"
Ahuizotl panted for a bit. "As I was saying, I almost had it, but then, it was taken from me by..." He growled, hands balling up into fists.
"A.K Yearling."
I let up on the pressure- only five times the planet's gravity rather than ten. "Who, exactly, is this 'A.K. Yearling?' Speak, and hopefully you're telling the truth."
Ahuizotl nodded, shakily standing up with a lot of effort. "She's a pony archaeologist, and she's often stopped my schemes to do with ancient artifacts. She's impossible to keep tied up, and she always escapes all of my deathtraps!"
My right eye went blue again. "If that's the case, then why don't you just shoot her?"
Ahuizotl glared at me. "I tried that, actually. That's how she got the Orb, as a matter of fact. I aimed and fired, but she dodged and then took the Orb from my other hand." I stroked my chin and pondered. This would be a minor inconvenience, but I would work around it. "Where would she take the Orb?"
Ahuizotl snorted. "Into a, ugh, museum." He spat the word out with a surprising amount of venom. With that, I had a plan.
"Tell me, Ahuizotl. How long do you give her until she reaches a major town?"
Two days later...
I was annoyed. The Orb of Vision had, indeed, made it to a museum. The problem? It was Canterlot Museum. Where the Diarchs lived. I was loathe to simply go in and take the artifact, but on the other hand, I didn't trust Ahuizotl not to screw it up. After all, he'd failed me once, and I didn't want to risk another failure. That's not to say that I didn't consider him useful up to a point- it was just that his skills were more in line with a forceful break-in of ancient temples, not exactly a museum with more modern, maintained security measures that wouldn't be easily beaten by simply rolling underneath a falling door.
That was why I was being exceedingly cautious. I'd used my shapeshifting abilities to shrink down to the form of an earth pony foal. It'd taken me a while to decide on a nice colour palette. Red body, grey mane, blue eyes. It wasn't perfect, but it would do for now. I then looked over the rail maps and the trains scheduled to be there. When none really came to mind for convenience or speed, I mentally growled. This was going to suck. Unless...
I walked back to the hiding place and withdrew a simple mask- the Kanohi Kakama. The Great Mask of Speed might have been simple, but it would be useful. I placed the mask on my head and then focused. According to the map, it was a considerable journey from here to Canterlot mountain. With that in mind, I snuck around the outside of the town, focused on the small mountain in the distance and then activated the masks' power. Hopefully, the way there would be clear, lest I accidentally run into something.
Speed. Ludicrous speed. The landscape blurred as exceedingly green. I tore through the jungle around me at such high speeds that branches and vines were utterly destroyed by my passage. After a while, it changed to being brighter and a lighter shade of green under my feet, and then I saw grey rock. I deactivated the mask and instinctively used my chameleon ability to blend in with the environment around me.
I was right at the base of the mountain. What luck. Now, all I had to do was sneak into a heavily fortified town, go around the guards who were likely on high alert, and then steal an ancient artifact from a museum and make it out without being detected. I was going to have a lot of fun attempting to infiltrate here.
Of course, this would have been much harder had I just been starting out with my new powers...
Ah, there's a story to that.
Four thousand years ago, before I came to Equestria, I'd just been an ordinary guy. Nothing weird about me, no desire to go to anywhere else. Just somebody who enjoyed a couple of things that most people are either neutral or just don't care about, like classical music and literature. I'd also been a fan of BIONICLE when I'd been younger. Just one of those things. It had been more than a toy, it had been a phenomenon that had really made my childhood. But I'd grown out of such childish pleasures; or so I thought.
It had happened in a fairly simple way. I'd been walking home from work, when I'd spotted something gleaming dully in an alley. Being curious about what it was, I cautiously walked in, prepared to beat the shit out of any person who tried to abduct me or similar. Rather than finding a mugger, I'd found a rather large, elongated black mask, made of some kind of metal. Like a fool, I'd picked the mask up, and then I'd taken it home. I vaguely remembered that this was a BIONICLE thing, and one quick trip online later, I'd found that it was, supposedly, a replica of the Kraahkan, the Great Mask of Shadows, worn by Teridax.
Another quick Google search later, and I was reaquainted with the villain to end all villains. He had achieved so much that he made other villains look like complete and utter sissies. And as I was turning the mask over, I got the somewhat foolish compulsion to wear the mask. Seeing no harm in putting it on, I placed it on my head. As soon as that happened, the damn thing had started glowing, and before I could take it off it pulled me into some sort of whirlpool.
When I'd awoken, it was to discover that I was in a forest, and that there was a giant lion trying to eat me. I'd naturally fled, until the Kraahkan itself had spoken to me, telling me to fight back with my new powers. I hadn't understood what that meant, until I wanted the giant manticore to be gone and put my hand behind me like a bit of a moron.
A sizzling bolt of liquid plasma had shot out of my hand, completely obliterating the beast and a couple of trees behind it. The power had gone a bit... haywire. As in, I melted damn near everything around me with searing waves of plasma. After that, I'd tried to shut it off, which I succeeded at doing after a truly monumental effort. I remembered panting as I looked at all the destruction around me, and I remember thinking, did I just do all of this?
It had taken me a lot of time and effort to master plasma. I damn near broke down when the Kraahkan informed me that I had forty-four other powers to master. Fortunately, it was willing to help me understand them some more... and there, I suppose, was my first step down the path of villainy. Mastering my myriad powers often resulted in a lot of collateral damage, and that meant that the ponies saw me as a dark and destructive god. Then, the alicorns came.
I remembered out first meeting. I'd greeted them cordially, and tried to explain matters. Unfortunately, they didn't buy my explanation all that well, believing me to be lying. Celestia and Luna had been exceedingly angry to discover that something was attacking their citizens, however unintentionally, and after the meeting, they basically threatened me with imprisonment if I so much as tried to go to a pony settlement.
That had enraged me, more than it should have. The Kraahkan at that point had control over my baser emotions, and manipulated me into taking things further. That night, after I'd told myself that I would try to explain things, I terrorised a town, driving many of its inhabitants into fear or anger with each other. The next day, I assembled the start of the Forty-Two Centuries.
One hundred Rhakshi in each Century, one century for each type. We spread terror, along with the other shadows on the borders of Equestria. The Kings of the Dead, wielding their black necromancy, the Dragon Barons, the Minotaur coalition, the Changelings... they were all the shadows which were on the borders of the Equestrian empire.
Or at least, that was what Celestia and Luna believed.
In actuality, the 'shadows' were even greater than those ones. Not even the Kings of the Dead regarded Equestria as a place to take over. Rather, it was the downtrodden and misplaced who fought against the Empire. The zebra had often been regarded as dark and shady, and thus, a couple of misplaced comments later and they were fighting. The Griffin Republic were natural warmongers, fighting everything they could. That just happened to include Equestria. The Diamond Dog packs weren't too great a player in the game, but they were important in their own right, and they felt that Equestria was repressing their rights.
All of them regarded me as the person who would readdress the balance in their favour. And I have to say, I certainly did. In my fights against Celestia and Luna, I had demonstrated that I held the upper hand almost every single battle. Only a couple of battles weren't really according to plan, but by the time of the Shadow War, my powers were at their strongest... until now. Before, I had been the pupil. Now, I was the master. And right now, here I was, about to infiltrate a museum and steal a magical orb. I shook my head. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
My shapeshifted form, this time of a unicorn foal in bright white and blue (surprisingly hard colours to mimic), trotted through the place without so much as being questioned. I stared around in disbelief. This was where the Diarchs lived now? Where were the fortifications, the heavily armed patrols, all the things that made the old castle so strong? Where were they? Unless- no. No way would they be this stupid as to not inform the populace that ancient monsters from Tartarus had escaped. No freaking way. I shook my head. This had to be an error, or not the right place. Still, I had to find out where I was, to confirm whether or not my suspicions were correct.
I walked up to the nearest pony, a white stallion with blue hair and a monocle, and cleared my throat. "Excuse me, sir, but where am I, exactly?"
He smiled. "Well, you're in Canterlot, of course. Capital city of Equestria."
I was genuinely speechless. I eventually managed to pull myself together. "Really? I guess... I was a bit confused. Thank you."
I skulked off towards the nearest alleyway, while my mind blazed. This... this wasn't helping anyone. This was just neglecting their kingdom. Tirek was a serious threat, and as for me, from their perspective there was a good reason I was erased from history.
Eventually, I found the museum. I cracked my joints, and set up a powerful illusion hiding my activities. I then activated a couple of my powers. First, I used elasticity to stretch my tiny hooves upwards, latching onto the roof. I then pulled myself upwards and then landed on there. I waited for an alarm to sound, but none came. That surprised me. Still, I had an Orb to steal, so I didn't contemplate it for too long. I simply turned intangible and phased through the rooftop, lowering my density to the point where I floated and then cancelling it out. No security spells activated on my entry. I scowled, floating through the ancient history museum. Now that I was free, I might as well learn about the world as it was now.
I read over the exhibits, expecting at any time for a troop of guards to come and attack me in a futile way, but none came. Standards really were slipping nowadays. If my existence was ever officially revealed, it would destroy much of Celestia's credibility. I was the shadow that taught other shadows to fear me, after all. And in my new form? I would terrify every single pony that I was ever forced to fight. Still, I looked regal and intimidating, rather than skinny, gangly and awkward.
After a bit of a history brush-up, I continued onwards, looking for the storeroom. I eventually found it, floated through the door and scaring the crap out of the Curator, a grey unicorn with a magnifying glass on his butt. He tried to shout, but I forced him to go to sleep. He slumped on the table, out like a light. I eventually found the Orb of Vision, in the 'New Arrivals' section under the name 'Anonymous.' My new filly form raised an eyebrow, and I grabbed it. The result was that several security enchantments went off all at once.
I frowned, shapeshifting back to my more familiar form and ducking down to avoid bumping my head on the ceiling. "What a considerable stroke of luck that was."
I turned to leave, but paused when I saw one of the things just left there. A fairly karge, irregular block of stone, about half a foot long, with a crude face was carved into it. I took up the stone, weighing it in my hand. This was one of my Makuta stones, which I passed out to villages that I liked, which was few. Likely, they had forgotten what the true purpose of the stones was- to remind me of which towns I would ignore. It was an agreement between me and them. I paused, then decided to take it with me, for nostalgia's sake.
I fled the scene and quickly slipped my Kakama on. Bouncing on my heels, I triangulated myself in the vague direction of my home, magnetising my body and then using the magnetic currents of the planet itself to find my way back. As the guards started pouring in, I got a wicked idea. Activating my laser vision, I carved a quick message for the Alicorn Princesses. That done, I turned the Kakama on and sped towards home. I crashed through a couple of houses on my way there, but there were no fatalities.
Celestia looked at the message that had been left on the wall. Last night, something had broken in and stolen a recently found magical artifact, along with just 'a couple of lumps of rock.' Apparently, they'd taken the time to carve a rather crudely written message into the wall before they escaped. And now, this message had been seen by just about every single pony that walked past:
Tirek and Teridax are free.
She sighed. Though it hadn't sat well with either her or with Luna, Tirek's existence needed to be kept quiet, lest there be a mass panic. Tirek's absorption powers were even stronger when ponies were panicking, and as for Teridax... Teridax was likely the culprit, as apart from themselves and the guards, nopony knew of Tirek's existence... and the guards were unlikely to brag about their failure. Not only that, but Tirek would have been too weak magically to burn this message into the wall.
Teridax had stolen something, and since it had been stolen before it could be identified, they were going in blind. She shook her head in a tired fashion. She had other matters to deal with- such as asking the curator as to what kind of thief it was, though given Teridax's shapeshifting abilities, it might only muddy the issue.
Fortress of Shadows.
I looked at the Orb of Vision dully. What, I mused, was the point of it? Why was this Orb so important? I had heard of it and then sought it out, but for what possible reason? Ever since I'd thought of returning home, I'd found that everything just seemed... harder. I couldn't go home in this form, not even if I shapeshifted, and there wasn't much I could do here. I suppose, from a psychiatrist's point of view I would be clinically depressed.
It was then that an... automated message filtered through my sanctum.
I am Dullahan, the darkness, the shadow, the elemental wraith. They that would stand against the darkness that lurks in the hearts of us all, I call my allies!
"I am Auric Fulcrum, the light, the candle, the wielder of Alchemy! Reborn by the Golden Sun, I punish the wicked, no matter their form! You who would bring back balance and peace, I call friends to my cause!"
They that would call on us need only hold our tokens and invoke our names, and we shall answer your call if you are worthy!
And with that, a book and a coin dropped in front of me from who knows where. For a couple of moments, I just stood there, blinking stupidly. Then, had I a mouth I would have grinned. This... this was perfect! There were other humans out there, in the same situation as I was? This was too perfect!
I then looked at my Makuta stone. The thing had sentimental value for me. I picked it up, and carved a simple message into it, in order to test the mind of the one who would summon me.
That done, I put on the Kanohi Olmak, and for my own ego, I spoke.
"Those who have need of the shadows, who want to spread fear and desolation, who want a terror in the night, call on me, The Makuta, Emperor of the Shadows!" With that, I hurled my Makuta stone into the portal I had made and watched it close. I then leant back, waiting for somebody to respond. I pulled out the Orb of Vision, and started to toy with it.
I couldn't wait to get started.