Tale of the Shadow Pony

by AtomicShockwave

[Chapter Fourteen: Silent Realm In The Sky]

Within moments I found myself waking up on the ground of Cloudsdale. Or at least, it's dark and twisted brother.

The paths seemed barricaded all around. There was only one open path that lead to a enormous building. I started to head down it, looking around a bit at the horrible state of the realm. The grim blood red skies. The gloomy looking clouds and even strange dark anomalies floating about. I headed over to the edge and looked down. I couldn't see the ground at all, just a pitch black void.

I looked back at the large building and began to head towards it. Something was attracting me there, but I couldn't put my hoof on what it was.

I continued down the path and finally made it to the front doors of the building. The doors were large enough to push a small house into, and there was a neon sign above them flickering on and off. Dispersing some sparks from time to time.

The sign read 'Rainbow Factory'.

"Well isn't that comforting..." I said as I began to push open the large doors. They creaked loudly and were incredibly heavy. I opened them a bit and slipped through the small space that I managed to make between the doors. Before me there was a large corridor with a door at the end. It was open a crack. I began to make my way down the corridor. It seemed like something that would be in a castle. A tattered rug upon the ground at it's center. I walked around it as I looked over it and kept heading towards the open door.

As I approached the large door I slowly peaked through, seeing a large room covered with strange machinery. Nopony, or should I say no monsters, were in site. I slipped through the crack in the door and began to look around. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first. Some conveyor belts, gear and pistons along with many other mechanical things. Until I noticed the beginning of the assembly line. A crane with an empty cage on the end, with four holes on the bottom and two slits on the sides. It was meant to hold a pony's body it seemed. Letting the wings, legs and even the head hang free.

Blades coated in blood attached to some strange mechanical arm were staying motionless by the cage.

"It looks alot better with a pony inside." A familiar voice said behind me. I quickly turned around. It was Surprise.

"Surprise! Literally." She said with a menacing laugh.

"You're not her. Not even close." I said before swiftly swinging at her. My hoof being stopped, not by her, but somepony else.

"It's not classy to hit a mare you know." Said a pale blue stallion with a darker blue mane. He quickly twisted my hoof and struck me once before throwing me back.

"NOW B!" The stallion said before I looked up to see one of the mechanical knives coming down at me. I quickly grabbed it with my hooves and it began to push harder and harder against me. Inches away from me as there was a large screech and one of the joints shot some sparks out. Soon I felt no pressure against me and I was able to move it away from me.

"The little rat managed to jam it!" I heard a mare yell out from above. I quickly looked around and saw a bright yellow mare with fiery orange hair atop a ledge in front of a strange looking control panel.

I ran from the stallion and grabbed him. I headbutted him and then quickly tossed him at Surprise, or at least her impostor.

With the small window of opportunity I decided for fly straight towards the last mare. Before I could even react I was struck with something and everything went black.

I later found myself waking up on a freezing cold metal floor. I began to slowly get up. I noticed several other ponies were in the cage with me. About 20 of them. Unfortunately there was only one more alive besides myself. The door to the cage swung open and I quickly got down and went limp. It seemed the other pony didn't notice I moved at all. It was a bit stocky, brown coat with a dark blue mane.

The cage door opened and a mechanical hand quickly reached in and grabbed him. He screamed out.

"LET ME GO!!" He said over and over before you could hear what sounded like him struggling for air.

The cage door began to slowly close. I quickly dashed for it and hopped out. It was 10 meters off the ground and I quickly softened my landing with help of my wings.

"Looks like you're still kicking..." Said the mare with a bright yellow coat.

I quickly flew for her before being grabbed my one of the machines arms. I began to struggle. I put in all of my strength that I could to push the claws of the machine open before falling. Before I could even react I was grabbed again, but not by the mechanical arm. But my the strange cage. I felt my wings get grabbed by their tips and pulled so they were fully stretched out.

I began to struggle, but my hooves could reach anything for leverage.

"Don't move so much, it'll only cause more pain." The mare said with a toothy... devilish smile.

I soon became bombarded with more small mechanical claws. They began to pluck the feathers from my wings one by one brutally. I grit my teeth through most of it until there was nothing but pinkish white flesh for my wings.

"You see the feathers have many uses, plus removing them makes the next process alot cleaner." The mare said before hitting a couple of switches and gaining another evil smirk.

I scream out in pain as I felt my wings being slowly torn off of my body. It stung, it burned, it felt horrid. My nerves at the base of my wings were in shock and caused the pain to be tremendous. The sound added to the horror, the ripping of cloth is all that could be heard along with my screams. As it was over, I groaned with pain as I watched the crimson red liquid from my wounds begin to drip down.

I soon felt something surging through my veins. I began to breathe heavily and I stretched out, causing the cage to open up enough to drop me down. After I landed, I looked up at the mare as she looked back in horror. She ran off as I quickly chased after her. She had gotten a head start considering the flight of stairs up to the control panel I had to climb.

There was a door in the back and I quickly rushed into it. It was full of shelves with clothes, jumpsuits and accessories alike. These must belong to the victims. I decided to start looking for my bag. After looking through about 50 shelves I found my bag and through it onto my back.

I quickly began looking around the rest of the room until I came across a small door. I opened it and found the mare cowering within it. I smiled and quickly grabbed her before slamming her head into the wall, knocking her unconscious. I began to laugh as I grabbed her and began to drag her back to the control panel area. Along the way I came across a cracked mirror on the wall. I looked into it. I seemed exhausted, but worst of all my pupils seemed to be blood red. I shrugged this off and dragged the mare to the control panel.

I looked over the control panel a bit and smirked. After a few switched and the move of a level I had one of the blades come towards me. I stopped it right in front of me and reached for it before getting attacked from behind. My head was grabbed and I was slammed into the control panel. I quickly reached for the lever controlling the mechanical blade and pushed it forward before ducking down. Causing the blade to be stabbed into the pony behind me.

I quickly turned around to see that it was the pale blue stallion. The knife caused him to start bleeding a mysterious black liquid before fading away, leaving a mysterious pale blue crystal on the ground. It was shaped like a diamond as the other ones. I broke the blade off the machinery and leaned down to pick up the crystal. I placed it in my bag and looked over at the yellow mare, unconscious on the ground.

Without hesitation I stabbed down into her and twisted the blade. In the same manner, she bled a mysterious black liquid and faded away. Like mysterious black dust. She left another strange crystal on the ground. This one was bright yellow. I picked it up and placed it in my bag.

I looked to my sides and at the ground, I've been losing a decent amount of blood and I need to act quickly.

I placed the blade in my teeth and began to descend down to the main area of the factory. I looked around for a bit, seeing the large door I entered through before, now closed and locked. And another door on the other side of the room.

I headed to the door and slowly pushed it open. It opened up to a small metal bridge between two parts of the factory. As I walked across the bridge I looked around at the horrible state everything was in. The worst part being it was absolutely silent, all that could be heard was my own heavy breathing and the occasional drip of blood that would hit the metallic surface of the bridge floor.

I looked to my right to see the open blood red sky and I looked to my left to see the factory. The factory seemed to be in a C shape.

I was about halfway across the bridge when I felt the bridge shake a bit along with a loud metallic crash. I quickly turned around to see that the bridge was collapsing. I turned back around to burst into a sprint as the collapsing bridge began to catch up with me in a domino-like effect. I made it to the door at the other end not a second too late and pushed it open. I entered the room and dropped the blade out of my teeth to began taking deep breaths.

I looked up to see Surprise sitting there in shock next to a control panel. I looked around to see a factory room in the same manner as the last. Blades and cages connected to similar machinery.

"Sorry, going to have act a bit faster than that..." I said with a smirk as I quickly picked up the blade and lunged at her. She dodged and flew up, she began to laugh.

"Too bad you can't chase me up here." She said with a smirk. I smiled right back and went over to the control panel.

"No need." I said as I flipped a switch and controlled one of the blades. I had it slice right at her, but instead of hitting her. I managed to cleanly slice her wing off. She screamed in pain and crashed down, landing on her other wing.

I went over to her with blade in hand, she began to scoot backwards.

"Pathetic." I said before quickly stabbing down into her and twisting the blade. She screamed out in pain once more before slowly fading away, leaving behind another crystal. A white one that I picked up and placed into my bag. I then placed my bag down and looked through it. I pulled out the three crystals that I had collected along with the tablet that I had used in the previous Silent Realm. Except something about it was different. There were only 4 indentations instead of 6. I placed the crystals in each of the spots and there was one spot left, one a bit bigger from all the others.

I reached into my bag and pulled out one of the golden apples and looked over it. It had a mysterious glow to it. I went to take a bit out of it before getting struck from behind, causing me to fly forward and drop the apple.

I quickly got up to face my attacker and I dropped my jaw.

"What's the matter? Did expect to see me again?" Said Rainbow Dash right before my eyes.

She was wearing what seemed to be a white lab coat, along with several blood stains on it.

"You're not Rainbow Dash... Not even close." I said getting into a stance.

"Of course I am, after all I helped you get in here." She said before I charged at her.

I swung quickly, she jumped back and I quickly placed my items into their bag. I threw the bag onto my back and picked up the blade. Before I could turn to face her she struck me once more. She swung again and I moved my head back, barely dodging the hit. I swung at her, slicing into her chest. She jumped back and held her wound. I quickly charged at her and sliced at her a couple of times. I couldn't land a single hit, she was moving too swiftly. She gave a strong swing towards me once more, I dodged and quickly spun around. I stabbed straight into her chest.

She was looking into my eyes as some of the strange black liquid began to discrete from the corners of her mouth.

"Why... would you... kill your friend...?" She said as I looked back and pulled the blade from her.

"I have no friends..." I said before she collapsed to the floor, fading away like all of the others. Leaving behind a large sky blue crystal. And the lab coat she was wearing. I picked the crystal up and pulled the tablet out of my bag, placing it within its spot. I searched through the lab coat, finding a key that could let me out of here.

I searched around the room and soon found a door leading around and back to the first factory room. It was a large hallway, with doors labeled to what could only be inside. 'Spare Parts' , 'Janitorial' , 'Cadavers' .

I shook my head and kept moving forward, eventually finding myself upon the first factory room I was in. I quickly rushed to the door and placed the key in and turned it. The lock popping open as I pulled the chains out of the handles and dropped them to the floor. I pushed the heavy door open and entered the large corridor, and what I saw made my heart sink. It was the mane six, along with the pegasi that I had killed in this silent realm. Except all of their eyes were pitch black and running with the strange black liquid. They were on opposite sides of the wall, staring at me with large smiled. Carefully holding onto the blade I began to walk forward as their eyes were locked onto me.

In front of me was Rainbow Dash, or at least the twisted fake version. It's eyes pitch black and running with the liquid as well. She smiled and slowly stepped out of my way. As I walked past all of them I looked back and kept walking backwards as they did nothing but stare.

I turned around and rushed for the door, pushing it open and slowly squeezing out. I looked back in to see them all lined up right in front of the doorway before I quickly shut the door. I headed towards where I awoke in the Silent Realm, a large portal on the ground.

As I approached it I heard Arklida's voice.

"You did amazingly Leon." She said to me before the tablet rose out of my bag, giving off a mysterious glow before the it vanished.

"Now prepare yourself for I will bestow upon you a grand power." Arklida said as I began to glow. My wings soon returned and my wounds were healed, but the feeling of no pain did not last long as I felt as if my head was about to split.

I was screaming in pain as it felt like somepony was slowly and painfully drilling into my skull.

Soon most of the pain faded away and all that was left was a minor headache.

"There was no easy way of doing that, but still it will take some time to use it efficiently." Arklida said before I began to rub my head, feeling a hard object protruding out of it.

"I... have a horn...?" I asked out loud, poking at it a bit.

"Yes, but like I said it will take some time. Refrain from using it as best you can. Your mind has to adjust to it. Along with that, it's better if it stays hidden. Here, take this." Arklida said before I felt something upon my back. It was a black coat with a hood on it.

I placed my bag down and put the coat on. I put the hood over my head and it covered the horn perfectly.

"I like it." I said with a smirk before I threw my bags onto my bag. I went to dive into the portal before Arklida spoke to me once more.

"Leon... Do you feel, different at all?" Arklida said with a concerned tone in her voice.

I thought to myself a bit and shook my head.

"Not at all, I feel great!" I said before taking the dive into the portal.

A worse mission was ahead of me and I wasn't about to get distracted from it.

[End Of Chapter]

Author's Note:

I hope I put the right amount of "wtf" into this chapter. :3

Comments

[outerjay]

its an odd story but fun nonetheless

[AtomicShockwave]

7441524
Thank you! lol