//------------------------------//
// Castle: Friendship 
// Story: Phantasmare 
// by Emperor 
//------------------------------//

A ribbon of green wound through the dark sky, its majesty left undenied by the canopy of the Evergreen Forest. The stars beyond dotted the rest of the darkness, reminding Trixie rather much of the star bear she had once encountered in Ponyville in a time past that was now ancient. She was finally over that incident now, and thus could appreciate the beauty of a million billion stars twinkling in unison.

“The aurora is nice tonight, isn’t it, Red?”

Red Wings nodded from beside her. “Yeah.” He seemed oddly contemplative. Trixie was content to let him think, but the red-furred pegasus spoke up again. “When I was younger...when I was a colt, before I lost a wing, I would occasionally get to see an aurora. It didn’t happen very often where I lived down south.”

“Yeah?”

“Every time I always saw one though, I always thought that one day I could just take a running leap, fly as high as I could, and touch the lights in the sky.” Red Wings sighed, sounding whimsical. “It didn’t work, obviously. When I tried it once, I quickly learned how cold it got when you went too high up, and had to ground myself. Then when I grew up I learned the boring stuff about how the aurora worked, but especially that it was even farther away than the sun and the moon.”

“The sun and the moon aren’t that far away,” Trixie said.

“But far enough away that you would never be able to touch them with your hoof. Well, unless you’re Nightmare Moon I suppose, but that’s cheating to count her.”

After leaving Colt Springs, the six had detoured down south to visit Las Pegasus, grabbing a few supplies. Though there were few limitations to what Trixie’s power over the forces of creation could do, the idea of eating food conjured out of nothing was unappealing. That, and the want for several other things made by craftspony hooves warranted the side-trip. Following that, it was off in a nor’easterly direction towards the centre of Equestria. The Everfree Forest, sprawled out over a large mass of land to the west of both Ponyville and Canterlot, beckoned them.

It was mid-afternoon when they entered the Everfree from the west, intending to make it to the Castle of the Two Sisters by early evening. Under other circumstances, six ponies going through the Everfree Forest would have been best off going in the morning, if not going around it altogether. After all, maximising the daylight hours possible was most advisable when heading into the dense treetops of the forest. However, most ponies had not just spend six months of training under multiple changelings with training in battles and skirmishing. Most ponies also did not have the Living Wind with them to help detect potential threats in the Everfree well in advance, or to scope out the easiest path through. By now, the sun had fallen, and the moon had arose in the sky, dancing with the aurora.

It was with his head held high that Windspeaker was leading them all through the forest, confident stride after confident stride taking the ponies closer and closer to the Castle. Each of them was an invaluable part of the team, and though Windspeaker had suffered in building up physical mass on his once-lanky frame, the unicorn was glad he would not have to stay in the back lines when their inevitable confrontation with Equestria came to pass.

Despite all the rumours and hearsay about the Everfree, however, Trixie found the place oddly gentle. There was always sound, whether it was the chirping of birdsong, the distance rumbling of running water, or the braying of a wild animal. It wasn’t quite like the Equestria of the tame and passive that Trixie knew, but it was something with charm and rusticness of its own.

“How odd,” Iceheart said, taking a look around. “A thousand years has passed, and yet this place seems no different.”

“You did say you used to come here before, didn’t you?” Noire asked, sweeping her gaze around for any potential threats. The batpony didn’t wish to rely on the Living Wind too much, seeing it as a crux in the making. “I’ve had to come through here several times on tour, but that always was with at least a dozen other ponies at a time.”

“Yes. I couriered messages to the Castle for the former rulers of the Crystal Empire before King Sombra rose to power. Though I had to watch out for a few of the monsters that I was told wandered through the forest, I never had any true worry. It seems so quiet now. I wonder why it is that ponies now seem to ascribe so much nebulousness to this place,” Iceheart opined.

“Ponies have grown more timid, I think,” Noire said. “The last thousand years has been an era largely of peace. Maybe our ancestors had to be vicious and vile to survive, but most of us today haven’t.”

“Even me and my friends were docile once, waking up with the sun and farming until nightfall,” Stonehenge mused as he brought the rear of the sextet. “In a village with a hundred able bodies, twenty joined The Wall, and a mere six formed its core. But when the monsters appeared from the Black Forest, we answered the calling without hesitation.”

“Which is good. We might be peaceful, but there are those of us who will fight back when our backs are pressed against the wall,” said Noire. “Like Red Wings.”

“Hey!” Red Wings retorted in indignity, eliciting several laughs. He blushed, though it was barely visible through his red coat. “Well, I’m still honestly not certain myself how I managed to beat up two guards. All I could see was my freedom to wander being slammed shut, and then the rest was a blur.”

“You do possess a degree of wanderlust, don’t you?” Windspeaker asked, empathising with the other stallion. “Spending six months in Colt Springs must have been tough.”

“Yeah. Me and Trixie both,” Red Wings concurred, eying her up from the periphery of his sight. “I’m just glad we weren’t stuck down there the entire time and could come up to the surface and stay there. Otherwise I really might have been driven stir-crazy.”

Having a few beach episodes certainly helped Red Wings. Though he only had one eyes for one mare, he had to admit seeing her playing in the water had lifted his spirits more than once in the six months that they had worked under the hard changeling trainers. He was certain Trixie had noticed and flashed him a few curves during those nice days off.

“I spent two years in Whinnychester. Though I was feeling a little claustrophobic near the end in Colt Springs, it’s not like I haven’t been stuck in one place for several months before in recent times. But yes, it was tough. It is good to finally hit the road again and explore once more.”

“It took you a little while to get over that mental wall of yours, didn’t it?”

“Yeah, it did,” Trixie replied to Noire. She wanted to say thank you to her batpony friend, but Trixie held her tongue. It wasn’t on Noire’s own initiative that the other mare had come to Whinnychester. In a way, it was the death of Noire’s father that had set this whole adventure in motion, and it would be tactless for Trixie to say ‘thank you’ for that.

Noire seemed to know what was going through Trixie’s mind, and passed her fillyhood friend an appreciate smile.

“Fillies, gentlecolts, we’re almost there,” Windspeaker announced. “It should only be a few more minutes and we’ll finally be able to see the castle.” He was doing an excellent job as their guide. They had not run into a single mishaps thus far in the Everfree.

Good thing for that. I may be over the Ursa Minor incident, but I certainly don’t want to see any of them or Ursa Majors! Trixie thought.

After making their way through a particularly dense underbrush, four out of six of them jumped over a small stream while Noire and Red Wings flapped their way over. None of them looked particularly clean. Iceheart was missing a small tuft of her purple fur on her withers where a sharp vine had gotten caught on her coat. Stonehenge, being as tall as he was, had a cut on his ear from the same thing. Red Wings had stubbed his frog against a particularly sharp rock, leaving him hopping for a few seconds and his hoof burning for several minutes after. Windspeaker, though he had avoided any harm, had started out with a white coat: every little bit of dirt that got into his fur or greenery that had rubbed up against him had left little specks of colour, making him look a mish-mash of white, brown and green. Trixie and Noire weren’t any better.

The only thing that helped was that the actual journey was not physically tough. Any rugged climbing up hills or through particularly muggy areas was mitigated by the fact the six ponies had just spent a half-year in more gruelling conditions than that. A mere uphill walk was not going to make anypony break out in a sweat.

At last, Windspeaker rounded a river bend into a small clearing, and stopped. “We’re here,” he announced.

Iceheart was right behind him, followed by both Red Wings and Trixie, then Noire and Stonehenge from the rear. As they rounded up into the grassy meadow with Windspeaker, they appreciated the site of the fortress castle that had once been inhabited by the two royal alicorn sisters, having approached the building from the back side.

Although it was dark out, and had been for some time, the light show in the sky easily managed to illuminate the castle's stone walls.

“So it really is as run down as I was expecting,” Iceheart noted. Though the foundation was still secure, the ramparts on the top of the castle had not aged well, with the stone railings having crumbled, making the roof an obvious hazard. Many of the windows had no glass to speak of. Time, wind and water had beaten away at the back, wearing what were once arrowholes into larger gaping maws. The ground around the castle was littered with stone blocks and other assorted materials that had fallen off the castle. It was quite sad what had happened to what had once been a shining beacon of light in Iceheart’s day.

Trixie scrunched her muzzle. The romantic in her was screaming out in anguish. Had she not told a thousand tales on the road in her role as a showmare, of castles and fortresses and palaces and observatories and many other grand, majestic buildings? To see the star of many an old faerie tale be relegated to a decrepit state was shattering to that romanticism of hers.

Always like the alicorns to play with a toy and then leave it, Trixie thought, before she scolded herself. No, they are reasonable beings, ponies just as much as I am. I cannot begrudge Princess Celestia for wanting to move out after having to banish her sister to the moon. Better to live somewhere else than fix up and have to continue living at the site of my greatest shame.

There was work to be done. Still, Trixie had no intention of doing much work today. “So, camp-out, anypony?”





In the end, they had chosen to camp out in the main throne room of the castle, where the two old thrones were, and the master organ on top of the stairs. There was enough stone that had fallen from the walls and ceiling over the ages to build a makeshift firepit. With some wood that had been quickly gathered from outdoors, Noire was able to coax out a fire, using a spell of flame to preheat the wood to the point it finally lit on its own. Though there was no natural exhaust stack for the smoke to leave through, the room was large enough for the smoke to rise and not bother their eyes, and several open or broken windows provided enough ventilation to keep the smoke from concentrating.

It was a surreal scene. Six ponies had travelled a long way, and now, inside of the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters, sat around a temporary fire. Night had only just begin when Trixie and Red Wings had observed the aurora earlier, meaning they still had many more hours to wait out until the day. Although Trixie, Noire and Windspeaker had taken to lighting the lanterns in the great throne room, they had gathered next to the fire. The crackling noise of the fire and the occasional sparks flying off its untameable tendrils were all the ambience they needed.

Trixie found herself at peace, lying her head up against Red Wing’s barrel. Theirs still wasn’t a full-blown relationship, but six months had led to a lot of talks. The pegasus was certainly more than a mere friend now, and the steady thump of his heartbeat was something reassuring.

Across from her, Windspeaker and Iceheart were similarly paired together. Iceheart was sprawled out over the floor, eyes closed in a serene rest, while Windspeaker held a limb around her own barrel. Though Stonehenge and Noire still didn’t scream a couple, being the two remaining ponies left in their group had brought the large stallion and the wiry batpony together in their own way.

“Tomorrow, we clean up, don’t we?” Windspeaker asked. His nose twitched as he looked around the great chamber.

“You mean I clean up,” Trixie corrected. A talented unicorn could sweep up all the debris in mere seconds. It was the finer repair work that would be more time-consuming, as gouged flooring, rotting stairs and shattered windows dotted the palace. An earth pony or a pegasus would have to have materials to be able to fix these things. A unicorn with the correct spellwork might be able to reconstitute the broken fragments into a whole piece. Trixie, with her power of illusion to reject the current framework of the world, would be able to make anew anything that was falling apart.

“If that is how you see it, then yes,” Windspeaker said, shifting in his position laying down. Trixie decided to drop the subject. The other unicorn had a hang-up about always wanting to be useful. Though Windspeaker had been helpful with getting through the Forest, not being able to contribute as much inside the castle itself was making him antsy.

“Tomorrow, huh?” Red Wings asked softly, his wings gently fluttering. A few of his feathers lightly ruffled Trixie’s muzzle, and she had to hold in a sneeze. “You know...I wonder how my friends and family are doing in Steeds right now.”

“Would you like me to tell you?” Windspeaker asked, entirely unironically.

Red Wings shook his head no. “No, that was more rhetorical than anything else. I suppose I would like to go back to visit them. Just, well…” He trailed off, looking at his left wing, the one that was partially wrapped around Trixie. “It’d be a little bit awkward to explain this. Once all this is done and over with, I suppose I could return home for a bit. If a pony can turn herself into an alicorn, healing a wing doesn’t seem so preposterous anymore, does it?”

“I suppose it doesn’t,” Windspeaker agreed.

“Perhaps you’ll have to take me with you when you do,” Trixie murmured. “I would much like to meet your parents.”

It was fortunate everypony already knew of the fate of Trixie’s own parents, as Red Wings dodged asking what would have been an awkward question.

“I don’t think it’ll be right away, though,” the red-eyed pegasus continued. “I mean, I’ve gotten over it, thanks to you, Trix. But still, I felt so awkward at home before I ran away after my accident. Maybe it really was me more than them, but I felt like such an outcast at times.”

“An outcast?” Iceheart suddenly spoke up, her snout still lying against the floor, ears hanging low, eyes closed as before. “Yes. I can appreciate that feeling of being ostracised. You should return when you have the chance. Settle your accounts if you think you cannot stay, but simply do it. Otherwise, you will beat yourself up with regrets later in life.”

The conversation grew quiet again. Though each of them had had rough points in their life, Iceheart’s was perhaps the worst with King Sombra.

Stonehenge was the first to revive the chat. “That makes me think. Aren’t we all outcasts, after a fashion?”

“What do you mean?” Trixie asked, curious to know what Stonehenge meant.

“Hmm, well, let me see. Ah, Iceheart was not much liked by the other ponies of the Empire for getting out of Sombra’s enslavement. Red Wings was more a social outcast, due to the loss of his wing. Not many would feel comfortable associating with somepony with such an obvious disability. I cannot really call myself an outcast, but being displaced by fifty years...it hurt. Hadrian, Antonine and Offa were right, I could not remain there for the rest of my life in Manechester. Windspeaker is not really an outcast from anything, but he had a secret magic that sets him out from every pony alive, that he could never talk to anypony about. You and Noire both have changeling fathers, which would at the very least be a social stigma if it were known, and I suppose Noire is still a runaway herself.” The large stallion had started haltingly, but picked up speed as he went on.

Trixie blinked. That...wasn’t a bad assessment, she mentally conceded. She said as much verbally.

“Being able to talk about the Living Wind was liberating,” Windspeaker admitted. “My parents know bits and pieces of it from when I was young and didn’t realise not everypony was connected to the wind. They brushed it off as a young colt’s imaginary friend. You five were the first who I ever revealed its true existence to...and I suppose the Empress was able to find out so easily.” The white-coated unicorn shuddered. Even now, the stallion felt a little sensitive to how the Empress had been able to read him, when usually it was Windspeaker who could know everything there was about a pony.

“I never did truly fit in as well as I would have liked in the corps,” said Noire. “Not that they were mean or anything, just that I felt out of place. I had drinks with them after work and got along with them in the barracks, but nothing like you mares and stallions. And certainly, I could never tell them what my father truly was.”

“Hmmm...so our hearts are alike in yet another manner, it would seem,” Iceheart remarked.

There were murmurs of agreement. This was the first night in a long time they had been able to talk freely like this, away from the Colt Springs and the Hive, outside of Las Pegasus, off the main highways that travelled through western Equestria, and all by themselves. There was an unspoken feeling that this would be able to last at least until they went forward with the plan to retrieve the Alicorn Amulet. Each hoped it would be able to continue past that moment.

Trixie let her head droop forward until she felt her horn press against the stone floor. It was cold. Though the fire heated the air, it was not enough to warm the floor around her. Trixie knew she could change that in a few moments, but she let it pass. Though the unicorn had come a long way in mastering her arcane talents, tonight, Trixie merely wished to sit among friends and while away the night.

There was still something she needed to bring up, and Trixie hated to do so, for it could yet again spark an argument. “Do you remember, everypony,” Trixie started as she lifted her horn off the floor, tilting her head up and getting their attention, “The first day we met Anfang?”

“How could we not,” Red Wings muttered. “I still can’t forgive the way she went about to teach us a lesson.”

“Yes, and I cannot disagree,” Trixie hurriedly said, only to move the topic along. “But near the end of our meeting, she refused the offer I was thinking. Do you remember that?”

Stonehenge blinked. “You are talking...of the offer to make her young again?”

“Yes,” said Trixie. “I was just thinking of it earlier. My power ideally holds no limits to what changes it can make to a pony’s body. It already cured Red Wings of his lost wing and severed the connection between Windspeaker and the Living Wind that would have caused him to die soon. I know it would be within the limits of my illusions to renew one’s youth.”

“You would have us be immortal?” Iceheart asked.

“No, not immortal,” Trixie rushed to defend herself. “Merely live for a long time. I think each of us would get tired eventually of living, and choose to pass away and go on to the endless pastures. Even if I became an alicorn, I too would meet my end.” There had been a couple of alicorns recorded in the histories of the past. Though they were not immortal as Princess Celestia and Luna were, they had lived longer than average. “Still, it would be lonely. I want to spend as much time as I can with all of you, my closest friends.”

Trixie swallowed a lump. She supposed even in the afterlife, they would still be able to meet. But her father had never explained just how the world of the dead would work. Trixie felt guilty, as if she were trying to suppress a natural force for her own selfishness. But Trixie had not lied: she really did want to spend forever with the five ponies gathered around the firepit.

“To live a long time, huh,” said Red Wings, feeling torn about it. On the one hoof, time felt something even more sacred than one’s species. In the case of alicornisation, at least two ponies in living memory had done it. There was a precedent for a third to do it, in order to surpass her limits. There was no precedent for artificially living. Still, the idea was intoxicating, if it meant he had more time to spend with Trixie.

Red Wings wouldn’t make his mind up right away. Instead, he leaned over and gave the blue-furred mare’s ear a nip, before rolling over onto his back, exposing his stomach to the warm air from the fireplace and the cool breeze coming in through a broken window.

“Hey!” Trixie squawked, rubbing her ear where she had just been nipped.

“Relax, Trix,” said Red Wings. “It’s not something to discuss about tonight. Sure, you brought it up, and I’ll sleep on it, certainly. I don’t want to think about things like aging and dying tonight though. I’d rather enjoy what I have, and if it means a pretty mare sitting next to me I’ll take it.

Trixie let out a sharp ‘hmmph’. “And I have to take having a great big red lump next to me.”

“Oh, how ye wound me with your words. Avast, you have keeled me body!”

“Amusing as this is,” Stonehenge interrupted, “I agree with Red Wings, Trixie. There is merit to your idea, but it is not without ethics for each of us to think over. I cannot say yes or no right away. I am certain Iceheart will especially have words to say about it, as the Witch King also sought immortality.”

“I do,” Iceheart muttered.

“So yes, your idea is out in the open now. Not tonight, though. I am content now. I will not trouble myself thinking about and debating it.”

Trixie deflated. It wasn’t a repudiation, and none of them seemed hostile to the idea of turning young again for decades or centuries more than biology would have allowed them. Still, she didn’t like putting it on the backburner. It gave her paranoia too much time to entertain possibilities of the others rejecting her and choosing to die after a regular lifetime, leaving Trixie all alone.

“Yes. We’ll talk about it later, then,” said Trixie. She forced herself to cheer up and not fall into the doldrums. Even if they all chose to die without renewing their youth, Trixie would still be satisfied with the many decades she knew she had with all of them.

The place fell into silence again, only the crackling of the fire and the soft breeze whooshing through the windows making noise. Occasionally, crickets could be heard off in the distance. Noire or Stonehenge would get up every so often to feed more wood into the fire.

Just as she was about to drift off to sleep in Red Wing’s embrace, Trixie frowned.

She stood up from the firepit. A few pairs of eyes followed her, before drifting back to the fire, assuming Trixie needed to stretch.

Trixie didn't need to stretch.

"Who are you?" she asked.

Those three words were enough to wake the remaining five ponies up from their relaxed state. Alert, Windspeaker cast his eyes and his elemental sense around the castle. He frowned. "What are you talking about, Trixie? There's nopony or nobody else here."

Trixie opened her mouth to refute him, only to be cut off.

"Huhuhohohohahaha!"

All six ponies tensed up as a voice unfamiliar to them laughed, the creepy sound almost seeming to echo in the large space.

"How amusing. The Living Wind cannot detect me, yet you, a half-trained mutt, can. Oh, I'm going to enjoy this far more than I should."

Each of the three stallions and three mares stood up, taking a formation around the campfire as they had rehearsed a hundred times. Though they did not even know if the unseen feminine voice was a threat, the sheer obnoxiousness of its words were no show of goodwill.

“Where is she?” Trixie asked, muttering to herself more than out loud. For a brief second, she wondered if the voice was hiding itself through an illusion much like Trixie herself could. With that thought in mind, Trixie attempted to dispel any potential spells in the area, only to stop.

There was music playing. What was more, it sounded like it was from a keyboard-style instrument, almost like a piano, or an—

“Up there!” Red Wings said, pointing his hoof up the stairs. Everypony else quickly followed the direction of his hoof, to where the organ was located.

Sitting at the organ, playing an oddly haunting tune, was a figure wearing a brown cloak. Candles lit with green flames on either side cast it in a sinister light. Despite having been discovered, whoever it was continued to play. The music felt majestic, but it inspired simultaneous awe and foreboding in the six ponies who were witness to it.

Led by Red Wings, the six ponies crept up to the bottom of the stairs, wondering to a one just who this mysterious figure was, be it pony or otherwise. Finally, Stonehenge asked the obvious question. “Who are you?” His deep, loud voice reverberated, but even it was not enough to overcome the music.

“Who am I?” The figure asked rhetorically, continuing to play on. The words it spoke were soft enough to identify it as almost certainly female. “An interesting question. I suppose you could call me an old mare’s tale…” She said cryptically, trailing off.

“Move!”

Trixie didn’t even feel herself move, but move her hooves did, ducking away from her previous position. A second later, she saw what Iceheart’s warning had been for. Something dark had slithered across the floor before jumping up shy of where Trixie’s position had just been, making an attempt at swatting her. It wasn’t just Trixie, either: similar dark slithering objects, almost like tentacles, had attempted to attack all six of them. They hadn’t succeeded, but had Iceheart not warned them in time, at least one of them might have.

No, not tentacles. They’re almost…

“Well,” said the cloaked figure, abruptly stopping the music. The silence was short-lived as she suddenly slammed her front appendages into the organ keys, creating a long moment’s worth of loud, chaotic sounds that jumbled together. The ponies gathered around all winced at the high-pitched cacophony, not liking it one bit. “I’m a little bit surprised, not disappointed mind you, but surprised that none of you fell for that.”

Then the figure at last turned around that. Trixie’s breath caught in her lungs. Though she could not see the other figure’s face, she could see two glowing eyes the colour of gold. They glowed not like the Empress’ single eye or Altrix’ red eyes, but with a wild fervour that almost seemed to take on a manic life of its own. Strangest of all, they almost seemed to rotate in place. “Though I am disappointed you didn’t bring four more of you, even if you were able to succeed in bringing all five that you could have. I would have appreciated reciting Ten Little Ponies. It wouldn’t do for me to start almost half-way through.”

Trixie’s eyes widened. Thus far, the figure had attacked them once, and had appeared out of nowhere, but now she was talking about a poem in a manner that implied more than just malice. “Who are you?!” Trixie asked again, biting her tongue to chase back the fear that was creeping up.

“Oh, really? You still don’t—”

“I know who you are!” Noire suddenly declared, piping up, her brown eyes defiant. “I thought you were just, just an old mare’s tale, but you’re really not, are you? You’re the Pony of Shadows!”

Noire’s declaration managed to silence the figure under the cloak for a brief moment. In that time, Trixie’s head snapped back. She knew the tale Noire was talking of. Supposedly, when Princess Luna was banished to the moon for a thousand years as Nightmare Moon, not all of her evil magic was banished with her. Some of it remained behind, coalescing and forming a phantom pony, who would sometimes appear in…

The Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree Forest, Trixie thought as her eyes widened. The very same place they were now.

“Huuhuuhuuhmmhmmhohohohomwahahaha!”

The Pony of Shadows, now so identified, threw her head back and laughed. “Ah, how long I have waited for some foolish mongrel to be able to see me for what I truly am! Truly, it’s been so long. Glory be, perhaps you can finally make me alive tonight!”

“Enough,” Stonehenge shouted, rebalancing his body to prepare himself for fighting or fleeing again at a moment’s notice. “Why did you attack us? What are your motives?!”

The Pony of Shadows sneered. The six may not have been able to see her face past her rotating golden eyes, but it was obvious that the Pony of Shadows was sneering. “I would have thought it obvious. Or do I need to be less subtle? But no, I suppose I’ve been rude. After all, I’ve failed to answer one of your questions so far, one you’ve even asked twice.”

"I'm the Pony of Shadows. But you, my little ponies..."

The Pony of Shadows suddenly tossed off her cloak, the garment flying through the air for a long second before making a soft thud against the floor. It took Trixie a second to break away from the mysterious mare's hypnotic golden eyes, and look at the rest of her face. Had Trixie walked past this pony in the past on the road, she was unlikely to have given the other mare a second glance. Her purple coat was a shade off from a unicorn Trixie had met in the past, and her mane was a slightly richer shade of violet.

Trixie's eyes wandered, only for her body to lock up. She thought the Pony of Shadows had been a unicorn, and sure enough, she had a horn. But what the old pony's tale had hidden with her cloak, and the purple mare didn't reveal her hoof until now about, was the set of wings at her side.

The Pony of Shadows was an alicorn.

"You can call me Deinos."