Shadow Men: Where Light Can't Touch

by DragonsHeart


Chapter 10 - Arise Sorrow

Two days, it has been two days since Sorrow disappeared after the disaster at the party. Ponies of course wanted answers, but the mane six kept quiet and made up a story to cover it up. It upset Applejack to have to tell lies to everypony, but the girls knew that telling them who Sorrow is will just cause a greater problem.

And Sorrow has not been seen since then, not in the house, anywhere in town or even in the forests, until on the second day of her disappearance…

“I’ve seen her!!” Applejack yells, bursting into Twilight’s palace.

“Seen who?” Twilight asks, who had seated all her friends around a table, to help her decide if they should tell Princess Celestia what happened.

“Sorrow! I was checking up on the old house and I saw her in one of the windows!” Applejack says, catching her breath, since she’d run the whole way.

“We need to get there quickly!” Twilight exclaims, standing up and rushing out of door, everyone else following her.


The girls soon reach the old house, but even after they search house they cannot find Sorrow, until…

“There she is!” Pinkie yells, pointing up to the roof where Sorrow’s sitting and looking down at her.

“You’ve found me,” Sorrow says, in her usual sad monotone.

“Sorrow we were so worried,” Rarity says, coming beside Pinkie.

“I know,” Sorrow answers, “I saw… sorry.”

“We thought you’d ran away,” Fluttershy says, also arriving.

“I did... but the master made me come back,” Sorrow says, looking beside her like someone is there….

“Your master?” Applejack says, confused, walking up to group.

“I think she means either Time, Space or Darkness,” Twilight explains, joining the group, “In the book it mention that there are three masters of the Shadowmen, Time, Space, or Darkness.”

“You're wrong...” Sorrow says, tilting her head, “There’s only one master.”

“But the book said…” Twilight tries to say, confused.

“Twilight, it’s not the time to ask these questions,” interrupts Rainbow Dash, frowning.

“I guess you're right,” Twilight says, frowning slightly as well, “Where have you been, we’ve looked everywhere for you?”

“The Shadow Realm,” Sorrow states.

“I guess that’s why we couldn’t find her,” Applejack sighs, shaking her head.

“Can you come down please?” Pinkie asks, giving a comforting smile.

“.... alright…” Sorrow says, literary walking down the wall and then standing in front of them.

Suddenly Pinkie unable to hold herself now that Sorrow’s in front of her, hugs her.

“We were so worried!” Pinkie says, squeezing Sorrow between her hooves.

“I’m really sorry for knocking off your mask!” Twilight says, joining the hug, “It was an accident.”

Soon everypony else joins the hug, surrounding Sorrow in a warm embrace. Sorrow is confused, but lets herself be embraced, enjoying their warmth on her cold body. They cannot explain when, but sometime after hanging out with Sorrow/Joy for only a short time, they’ve grown fond of her. I guess it’s hard not to hang out with somepony for a while without becoming friends, even if she is a Shadowman, but I guess she was a pony once.

“Sorry…” Sorrow finally says.

“It’s ok Sorrow, we know it’s hard for you,” Rarity says, smiling, “I know it sounds strange, but we’re here for you.”

Sorrow doesn’t know what did it, maybe it is the acts of kindness or maybe the warmth and the kind feelings, but for once, behind the mask, inside the turbulent being which is Sorrow, the remains of Joy surfaces properly.

“Thank you!” Sorrow sobs through her mask, her monotone breaking.

The six are surprised by her crying but continue to hug her, waiting for her to calm down before talking to her.

“Better?” Fluttershy asks, patting her back.

“No, it’ll never feels better…” Sorrow whimpers, shaking her head, “But I feel a lot less worse.”

“Well it’s better than nothing,” sighs Rarity, a sad smile on her face.

“Sorrow, do you think you can tell us what happened at University now?” Twilight asks, hoping that she may be ready.

Sorrow is quiet for a very long time, until...

“No, not now…” sounding like her monotone is returning.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset…” Twilight quickly tries to say, fearing that she upset her, as well as done something stupid.

“But maybe tomorrow, I feel like I’ll be ready by then,” Sorrow interrupts.

“What, Really?” Rainbow Dash says, surprised.

“Yes…” Sorrow says, breaking away from the hug, “But can I be left alone for now? I need to ready myself.”

“Ok,” Twilight says, smiling, “We understand, should we meet back here tomorrow?”

“No, I’ll meet you, tomorrow morning,” Sorrow says, tilting her head like she’s listening to something they can’t hear.

The girls start leaving, getting that Sorrow now want to be left alone. They wave goodbye to the Shadowman, who watches them until they are out of sight.

“Do you think I can do this?” Sorrow asks, this question directed at the giant black eyeless dragon, who’s looking at Sorrow from over the building. It’s surprising that the mane six didn’t notice him.

Only you can answer this,” the dragon says, in a calm voice, “Your future is always in your own hands.

“But I feel something bad is going to happen soon…” Sorrow says, worried.

I would call that a gut feeling, but you have to have a gut first,” he jokes, before shaking his head, “No, the future is often a cruel place, but one people must weather, since not everyone can see it like I can.

“What does my future look like?” Sorrow asks, curious.

Hard, it’s always hard, but it is up to you to decide how hard it is, and nothing will be gained by running away.

There is a silence between them, until the dragon lowers his head until it’s level with Sorrow.

Do you have the answer to my question yet?

“No, I still don’t know,” Sorrow says, sadder than usual.

No need to rush, you’ll have all eternity to find out.

And just like that, the dragon is gone, like he was never there to begin with.

“That’s what I’m scared of…”


Twilight’s Castle

Applejack paces back and forth while Rainbow Dash flies above her doing the same, waiting impatiently for Sorrow to turn up.

“How long until she shows up?” Applejack asks, looking out the window.

“It should be soon,” Twilight says, as she continues to try and translate the books, “Fascinating, did you know that Shadowmen are completely indestructible, with no known force able to destroy one?”

“So really nothing can hurt them?” Rainbow Dash asks, curious.

“Apparently the best you can do is send them back to their own realm, and this can only be done by himself or by severing a part of their body off, like a finger, arm, leg or something, and this only works on lesser Shadowmen,” Twilight explains, totally fascinated by what she’s reading.

“I can’t believe we are finally getting some answers from Joy,” Rarity says, changing the subject.

“Yes, maybe at last we’ll be finally able to solve the entire mystery,” Pinkie says, putting on detective hat and putting her pipe into her mouth, before blowing bubbles, “Also it means that Joy actually trusts us now, maybe she even sees us as friends?”

“We can hope,” Fluttershy says, hopefully.

“I’m just glad everything worked out after the disaster at the party…” Spike tries to say, but instead belches and a letter comes out.

“Oh a letter from Celestia,” Twilight says, picking it up and reading it. Her eyes widen, “Oh sweet Celestia, this is very bad!”

“What’s wrong?” asks Spike, as he and everypony reads over Twilight’s shoulder.

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
I wish I was writing about more pleasant tidings, but a emergency has a occurred in Canterlot. A reporter has broken into the ward where Flickering Shadows is being treated…

“Flickering Shadows? Ain’t she the survivor from the University?” Applejack asks, confused.

“Yes, the only survivor,” Twilight answers, before they returning to the letter.

... They managed to get information off her about the incident, while further traumatizing her and damaging her treatment. As if this wasn’t enough, an unknown member of homicide leaked all the information from the case, including everything you’ve told them about Sorrow and Joy…

“I bet it was the horrible officer, Jack Ripper,” Rarity huffs, glaring at the letter.

“We don’t know that, Rarity,” Fluttershy says, frowning.

... They released the all the information in the morning paper, all across Equestria. Everypony now knows about what happened at the massacre, and about Sorrow. Luna and I are right now trying to deal with the political fallout, while the Guards and Homicide are trying to find the reporter and the leak. You should be prepared and also, keep Sorrow hidden. We don’t want Ponyville to panic. If you haven’t read the newspaper, I suggest you do.
Celestia

Twilight places down the letter, before turning to her friends, “Have any of you girls read the newspaper?” Twilight asks, panicking.

“I didn’t, I rushed over here as soon as I got up,” Rainbow Dash says, worried as well by what she’d read.

“I didn’t too,” Applejack says, her eyes wide, “I wanted to know as soon as possible what happened.”

The rest of girls nod, agreeing that this was the case for them as well.

“Spike, get our newspaper,” Twilight orders hurriedly. Spike nods and hurries off, quickly returning with the paper.

Twilight grabs it and holds it out. Everypony gasps, since on the front cover is a sketch of Sorrow’s mask, next to is a picture of her mask drawn in blood at the university. Above it all is the title, ‘The Secrets behind Starswirl the Bearded University, Revealed!’, with smaller titles like, ‘Mass Murder found but allowed to walk free?!’, and ‘Murder is missing girl from Unicorn Range!’, as well as ‘Dark Rituals at the University!’, and finally, ‘Murder is roaming free in Ponyville!!’

The text underneath them are somehow worse, blaming the Princesses for keeping all this covered up, giving up personal information about Joy, worst is that most of this seems to be just speculation. The reporter just making up the parts that the mane six and homicide haven’t worked out yet, as well as just making entire parts that they had worked out, with him making out Joy and Sorrow to be total monsters, even stating that she could be worst than Trek.

“This is madness!” Twilight says, looking over it. The story spans multiple pages.

“Ponies are going to lose their heads over this,” Applejack states, frowning.

“It isn’t fair either, Joy isn’t a monster! She’s just a victim like everypony else,” Pinkie says, sadly.

“Celestia, how many ponies in Ponyville do you think has read this?” Rainbow Dash asks, staring through the paper.

“I don’t know many ponies who doesn’t read it,” Applejack says, shaking her head, “And those who don’t will get it by word of mouth.”

“Oh no!” Fluttershy says, covering her mouth in shock.

“What’s wrong Flutters?” Rainbow Dash says, looking at the shocked pony.

“Sorrow is going to be coming here soon, what if ponies see her?!” Fluttershy says, starting panic.

Everyponies eyes widen, she’s right.

“We got to find her now!” Twilight says, throwing the newspaper away and rushing to the door.

“I’ll fly to the house, to see if she hasn’t left and hopefully stop her,” Rainbow Dash says, zooming out of the door and towards where Sorrow stays.

“Come on! We got to stop Sorrow from coming to town!” Twilight yells, as they all leave the house as well, splitting up to look for Sorrow.


Sorrow walks through town, as she usually does, with her head hung low and her steps short, but if somepony who knew her well would also say that she walking with a purpose, of course that list of ponies would probably only include Pinkie… oh and of course her master, but he knows everyone very well…

Sorrow thinks she sees Rainbow Dash fly overhead, but she doesn’t see Sorrow back. Sorrow seems to have skill of being unnoticed that’ll make Fluttershy jealous, but today it doesn’t seem to be working that well. Ponies keep staring at her making her want to run away, but she can’t, she said today that she’ll will tell them what happened at the university…

She’s so deep in thought that she doesn’t see the group of ponies form in front of her, and nearly runs into them, they're staring at her harshly.

“Excuse me…” Sorrow says, trying to walk around them, only to find a group of ponies there.

She tries to back back the way she came, only to find another group blocking her way.

“Ummm, can I pass?” Sorrow asks, looking around at the large crowd that has gathered around her.

“Not until you explain this Sorrow,” says a light greyish amber pony, holding up a newspaper, “Or should we call you Joy?”

If Sorrow was capable of gasping she would, in life Joy was a fast reader making Sorrow one too, so she quickly reads through the titles and everything else before suddenly backing off nervously down her only route of escape, an alleyway.

“But… but… how?” Sorrow whimpers, scared.

“The truth is out Joy, and we want answers!” says a dark grey pony, as the closes in on Sorrow as she walks down the alley.

“NO! Go away!! Stop calling me Joy!!” Sorrow cries, soon realizing that this alley way is a dead end. She could just normally just smash through or jump over it, but she feels too overwhelmed by everything to even think about it.

“We want answers!” says a light green elderly pony, “Since Applejack and her friends are telling us squat!”

“Eeyup!” agrees a big red pony.

“NO!!! Leave me alone!!” screams Sorrow, curling up into the ball, trying to block out the noise.

But the ponies ignore her pleas, crowding around her and demanded answers, while Sorrow shakes and whimpers the remains of Joy retreating deep within herself, but instead of leaving herself empty something else raises…

Black starts spreading over Sorrow’s mask…


The mane six met in town square, which is surprisingly empty.

“Did you find her?” Twilight asks, slightly out of breath.

“No, she wasn’t at the house,” Rainbow Dash says, shaking her head sadly.

“Where could she be?” Pinkie asks, nervously.

“What if she saw the newspaper and ran away again?” Rarity says, worried.

“I wouldn’t blame her if she did…” Applejack states, sighing.

“We are going to get a lot of trouble about this aren’t we?” Fluttershy says, sadly.

But before anypony can answer Fluttershy, Spike final arrives, running towards them totally out of breath.

“I think *pant*I *pant*found her…” Spike pants, leaning against the fountain, “There’s a large group of ponies in alley down that street…” he points down the street he came, “You can’t miss it, I think Sorrow is in the middle of it…”

“We better hurry!” Twilight says, dashing off while her friends following her.

“Thanks Spike,” Fluttershy says, when she passes the pooped dragon.

“Your welcome…” pants Spike, slumping on the ground, “I’ll catch up with you girls later…

“I hope we are not too late to stop something terrible…” Twilight says, as they rush to help Sorrow.


They find the crowd quite quickly, gathered into the alley like sardines all crying out questions.

“We got to break it up!” Twilight yells, taking off, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy following her.

They fly over the crowd, quickly spotting Sorrow curled up into a ball against the alley’s wall while the crowd surround her. Three quickly fly down and land in between Sorrow and the crowd, surprising them and making them back off slightly.

“What’s going on here!?” Twilight says, in her best princess voice.

“That’s what we want to know,” Mayor Mare says, still holding out the newspaper.

The rest of Twilight’s friend push their way through the crowd except for Pinkie who hops across their heads. Pinkie quickly comes to Sorrow side.

“Are you ok?!” Pinkie asks her, but she gets no answer as she lays dead still. “She’s gone…” Pinkie says, sadly.

“Look what you’ve done!” Rainbow Dash says, angrily, “We were finally going to find out what happened at the university and you ruined it!!”

“Not to mentioned upset her to the point that she won’t talk anymore!” Applejack adds, angrily.

“Upset her?! What about us! You’ve been lying to us!” yells Thunderlane, angry as well, “We’ve had a mass murder wandering around us without us been able to know!!”

“It’s not like that!” Twilight says, defensively.

“Are you saying what’s in the newspaper is an lie?” Mayor Mare asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I won’t say that…” Twilight says, awkwardly, “But it’s not all true either!”

“Anyway if you all think she’s a mass murder, why have you all crowded into alley with her?” Rarity asks, frowning.

“Hmmm, I never thought about that…” Granny Smith says, rubbing her chin.

“Eeyup,” Big Mac agreees, slightly nervous.

Twilight once heard the theory that a mob’s intelligence is based on the dumbest member divided by the number of mobsters, and since she thinks she saw Snips and Snail in there and there’s also a lot of ponies here, so that would be pretty dumb…

“We want answers Twilight!” Mayor Mare says, stamping her hoof.

“I understand, but right now is not a good time…” Twilight tries to say.

“We want answers now!” somepony yells, over the crowd.

“You kept us in the dark for far too long!” somepony else yells.

More ponies start yelling demands, wanting to know things and overwhelming Twilight and her friends, until strangely Fluttershy speaks up.

“You should all be ashamed of yourselves!” Fluttershy says loudly, in her telling off voice, her soft voice somehow cutting through the other ponies yelling, “You’re all been very cruel and mean to Sorrow!”

“Yeah,” Pinkie chimes in, frowning as well, “She is just as much a victim as everypony else!”

The crowd backs off slightly again, getting told off by Pinkie and Fluttershy is nothing to laugh about or enjoying.

“But… but… the newspaper said…” somepony tries to say.

“The newspaper is wrong!” Fluttershy says, still frowning, stepping forward with backing off crowd, “It made Sorrow out to be a monster, but she’s not, she’s just a scared and confused pony!”

“Look at her! Does she look like a monster?” Pinkie says, pointing at the curled up Sorrow, her face saddening like she is about to cry, “She’s suffering so much… she feels so guilty about what happened and she doesn’t need ponies blaming her, she already feels bad enough.”

The unseen blackness around Sorrow’s mask seems to recede...

The mob of ponies seem to have calmed down, acting like a pack of dogs that were told off... but this is all ruined when somepony yells out…

“But she still killed ponies!!”

And acting like a mob should, starts yelling again, basically forgetting what Fluttershy and Pinkie said, pressing against the mane six, demanding answers…

The unseen blackness around Sorrow’s mask finishes spreading, it’s blue paint eyes flaring to life in a deep blue glow. Sorrow starts to stand up…

“Sorrow you’re back,” Pinkie says, happily while her friends do they best to hold back the crowd.

“I’m always here…” Sorrow says, in different but still familiar voice, causing Pinkie’s eyes to widen.

“You’re not Joy…” Pinkie says, realizing who this is.

Pinkie backs off, bumping into her friends.

“What’s wrong… Oh Celestia!” Twilight says, turning around and gasping in horror.

Black tentacles have spouted out of Sorrow’s back, and are waving menacingly above her as she stares deep on at the crowd with glowing blue eyes.

“All of you be SILENT!!!” Sorrow suddenly screams, silencing the crowd instantly with fright.

All eyes are on Sorrow as she begins to change, her clothes melting into her body as her torso and limbs extend, her hooves becoming clawed hands and feet before she suddenly stand up on her hind leg, making her tower over them like a giant, with her massively long and thin limbs, and her two hands with very long claw like fingers, her oval like head with Sorrow’s simple mask design on it continuing to stare dead at them, while her many black tentacles wave behind her.

Any of the girls could guess what they are now seeing, and one of them knows.

This is the real Sorrow!!