//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: A Tale of Shadows and Chaos // by cuddlyluna //------------------------------// It has been two months since Princess Twilight Sparkle has started ruling over Equestria. Twilight has sent many letters to the other alicorns asking for their opinions on decisions, though over the weeks she has slowly started to trust her own judgment. Things were going fairly steadily, until one day Raven Inkwell interrupted breakfast. "Your Highness, a mysterious letter has arrived for you," Raven said as she entered the room. Spike would currently be finishing a pancake. "More spam mail I'm guessing." He said, rolling his eyes after nobly having experience as the royal mail sorter. "I don't believe so, it's only seven words. I must comment that it is the neatest writing I have ever seen, and it doesn't appear to be from a typewriter." Raven responded. Twilight set aside her food as she levitated the letter over to her. Twilight Sparkle, Assemble your friends, go to Hollow Shades. - an Acquaintance of a Friend Twilight was baffled as she read it allowed. "Why would anypony want to meet in Hollow Shades?" Spike would fly over next to Twilight to look at the letter himself. "This sounds fishy Twilight, should we just wait and see if they show up to the castle to talk?" Twilight would remove herself from her chair and paced around the room for a minute. "Spike, can you think of any villains still on the loose?" Spike rubbed his chin as he thought. "Depends if you count Flim and Flam." Twilight whirled around to give Spike an unamused look. "This is serious, what if the pony of shadows escaped from Limbo?" Spike took a breath. "Twilight, I'm not a master wizard but I believe it takes some serious magic to open up Limbo. I think the pony of shadows will stay locked up for a while." Twilight figured that Spike made a fair point, she levitated the letter over to herself once again. "This pony didn't even provide a date or time, it must be urgent." "Should I inform Kibitz to put today's duties on hold, your highness?" Raven asked the princess. Twilight would pause and look away. "I'm not sure, I don't want Equestria to think their new princess is abandoning her people to go on friendship adventures." Raven paused for a moment, she then approached Twilight to put her hoof on her shoulder. "Twilight, it is the job of Equestria's ruler to ensure the wellbeing of its citizens. If you feel that going to Hollow Shades to meet this pony will protect our nation, then, by all means, you should go." A smile formed on Twilight's face as she nodded to her loyal adviser. "Thank you, Raven." "Spike, let's get to Ponyville," Twilight said as Spike hopped off the table edge towards Twilight. When he was standing next to her, she teleported both of them out of Canterlot Castle's dining room and to the town of Ponyville. Each of her friends were eager to drop what they were doing for another mission. The group decided to take the train to the closest destination, a small village next to Foal Mountain which acted as the place to stay for all the mountain's visitors and sightseers. As they sat on the train, they discussed the letter and who they might find waiting for them in the dark ghost town. "Well, an acquaintance of a friend can mean practically anypony, they shouldn't have bothered to address themselves at all." Rarity spoke her opinion allowed. "Maybe they are just nervous?" Fluttershy suggested before Rainbowdash jumped in. "Or what if they are some time traveling pony who talks with Discord and doesn't want to reveal their name to the public?" The group didn't take Rainbow's suggestion seriously, except for Pinkie, who gawked at her considering a time travel organization. "That would have been my eleventh guess," Pinke said, with Applejack leaning in. "And your first guess?" She said with an eyebrow raised. "Cranky Doodle in a trench coat with top-secret plans for Gummy's birthday next month," Pinkie responded with the notion that what she said was entirely possible. Applejack just rolled her eyes and leaned back into her seat. Before long, the train stopped at the mountain village. It was getting late in the afternoon, so most of the visitors were either eating dinner or checking in for the night. The Mane Six plus Spike did not waste time and traveled on an overgrown off-path that lead to Hollow Shades. When the group finally arrived, they found the town as deserted as ever. They examined large crack in the ground leading to what archeologists have referred to as The Well of Shade. Fortunately, an organization that was there before them had left some makeshift stairs down to the halls that lie bellow. Twilight would be roaming the main hallway as she called out. "Hello? Anypony there?" A grey pony wearing a suit jacket and a fedora would be walking towards them as soon as they called out. "I appreciate you coming, heroes of Equestria. I have been observing all of you for quite some time now." Twilight would look at him and slowly turn to face him. "I don't know where or how, but I have seen you before." The grey pony would give the princess an emotionless look. "You may call me September, you have been called here for a task of great urgency." Applejack would step forward next to Twilight to speak. "Answer this first, who is the acquaintance you mentioned in the letter?" September fixed his coat, not wanting to waste too much time chatting. He did, however, predict the group would have some questions that wanted answering. "Discord and I encounter each other every so often, he does not find me particularly entertaining so he rarely addresses me. He did ask a favor of me recently though, and since it concerned the wellbeing of existence as we know it, I accepted." "Discord has been acting a little fishy lately." Pinkie stated. "I just assumed it was the tea making him jumpy, I started adding two sugar cubes instead of one." Fluttershy innocently added. Twilight was motionless, she had only been ruling Equestria for two months and existence was already at risk. Applejack patted her side, attempting to keep her together. She went on to speak in Twilight's place. "What's the situation?" September pulled out a shard of what looked like a very colorful piece of broken glass. "Time itself is shattering, and your friend believes you are the best hope of stopping it." A thousand questions hit Twilight's brain all at once, most of them being incomprehensible confusion. "Time!?" she spattered out. September just looked at her as blank as ever. "Using the process of elimination, I can make an educated assumption that this is the work of shadows." Twilight would fall down into a panicked state, Pinkie and Spike would attempt to comfort her as Rarity stepped up. "We banished the entity that is the pony of shadows to Limbo, how could shadows still be an issue?" September would hand the time fragment to Applejack, who was successfully able to hold herself together despite the news. "You may have saved Stygian and Princess Luna from the shadows grasp, but there are many dimensions out there where more have succumbed to the dark influence. They have been gaining power for quite some time now, I would suggest you find help from creatures who have lived long ago." September said, before turning around and walking. Rainbow Dash shot in front of him to stop him from walking off. "Wait, you aren't going to help us? You know more than any of us do!" September would calmly start to walk around her. "I am just an observer, also I have my own agenda that involves other points of space-time affected by this crisis. I wish you luck." September would walk behind a pillar. When Rainbow chased after him, it was only an empty hallway ahead. The group would look amongst each other having trouble grasping the situation. Twilight would take a long, deep breath; get up; step forward; and turn to face her friends. "Spike, take a letter."