First impressions are always important, and the best are the ones where they suspect nothing...
-NightShade
Chapter 13
Way-layed Wanderers
Light
"Hello Fluttershy."
The small form of the pegasus peeked around the corner, barely visible and mostly hidden by the flickering lights that jumped crazily around the room. My 'Reset' had worked, and almost perfectly too. There was only a momentary struggle to get back in balance before I had settled my form again. But honestly, I was just glad that I hadn't blown down the whole house and killed my new friends in the process, but I had instead managed to actually focus the concussion wave further away, reducing the strain on the house and shooting it everywhere else.
Although it probably destroyed absolutely everything outside, the town included...
But that can be dealt with later. In the meantime, I've got a frightened pony to deal with.
I walked across the room slowly, so as to not frighten her any more than I already had, and knelt down, reaching out a hand in an attempt to display friendship. It probably wasn't helped by the whole 'glowing outline evil looking devil ra-ra-ra nom' thing, but that would clear up in a few seconds anyway.
But I don't think it'll make that much of a difference, because at the moment I think that this pegasus might just collapse from fright, and of course I'll get the blame again.
Just like always.
Yeah, I am getting kinda annoyed at these stupid ponies walking in when I'm in a compromising position, and the last time that happened I had to deal with a stupid fucking imprisonment in stone. I mean, who the hell puts someone in stone?! That's just fucked...
I shook my head slightly to jump out of my thoughts and looked back to Fluttershy. She had buried her face in her mane and was quivering on the floor, a small whimpering noise coming from her general direction.
The sight of it practically tore my heart out. I was sick of everything being scared of me just because of what I am and what I can do. They never seem to realise that I have had a harder life than any of them would ever realise. I've seen death and destruction, every sort of malady and disease. And the only other people that ever understood me are dead, all dead.
I stopped my train of thought again before I got too depressed. I always had to stop myself from thinking about... them. I don't think that I've ever gotten over losing them.
But anyway, this was about Fluttershy, not me.
This strange creature, no, pony had shown me the first signs of compassion that I had seen in a very, very long time. And I just had to repay her.
I reached down, trying to stroke her in an attempt to give some sort of relaxation. In the back of my mind a small voice was talking to me, just like always, but I shut it out. I couldn't let either of those voices convince me, had to stay in tune. They'd been around for as long as I could remember, but listening to them never worked out. Never did.
That in mind, I squashed them down and continued reaching for the cowering mare, my hand almost touching her...
And then the door opened.
Now, when I say opened, I mean it really opened. It flew to the other side of the room and crashed against the wall with a massive BANG! I barely had time to react before I was hit by a massive ball of energy that clammed into me, crushing me against the wall. I could feel the tiniest traces of heat touching me, and in that state it meant that whatever it was must have been incredibly hot.
The only thing that stopped me from being killed instantly was my current state of existence, but even that wouldn't last very long. I had to do something.
I had just started to push back against the force when I heard a tiny voice:
"Stop!"
Instantly the force relented against me, and I fell to the floor gasping slightly. The sound of hooves clopping against the wooden floor was drifting in through my hazy mind. It took me a moment to realise what was happening, but that was already too late as I felt the force press down on my back, keeping me pinned to the floor.
There was a murmuring going on, and I didn't like where it was going. The conversation seemed pretty one sided from the snippets that I could hear.
"-Dangerous creature............. Should still be imprisoned...."
"But-"
"Fluttershy........Can't stop it"
{Come on, get those stupid creatures...}
"But-"
"No......Need to stop him..........Could end...."
"Agree.......Call Twilight to........ Harmony....."
[Yes, get them! Think of all the things that they've done to you]
"I think...... Right now....."
{While you still can. Kill them all...}
My face blanched. The conversation had been all but blocked from my ears by the two voices. The voices that had been around since I was trapped in that stone prison.
I guess that was another thing that I hated about it, the stone prison I mean. I had to hear those two voices in my head. The whole time.
And they were getting worse...
Celestia
The 'Eternal' Princess was desperate.
The blast had shocked her, and the fact that it was of such a magnitude, and that it emanated from the Element of Kindness' house, only furthered her fear of something bad happening.
Loyalty followed on her heels, trying to constantly brush past. She only succeeded in the last 100m leading up to Fluttershy's cottage, a testament to the Princess' speed. But then, before Celestia could offer a warning, she burst in...
The view was one that would have been at home in a horror movie. Rainbow was sitting on her rear, her wings frozen where she had stopped in shock at the scene before her: the slowly reaching menace, scary in every respect, the shivering, innocent victim, and the seemingly tranquil surroundings. But the moment of shock was gone the moment Celestia blasted him off of his hooves, or whatever those things were.
The attack she had used on him was a literal wave of sun, concentrated to burn anything and everything in its way. This particular one had been focused to form a sort of barrier around Light, trapping him and preventing him from escaping.
And yet he didn't die.
Celestia was about to lose control and hurl him away, possibly off the face of Equuis, when a small voice stopped her.
Fluttershy.
The timid pegasus was sitting up and had raised a hoof in a futile attempt to stop the Princess of the Day from further harming this, abomination. But what else could be expected from the element of Kindness.
"Stop!"
The squeaky call was barely even heard over the roaring sound, but even that was loud enough for Celestia to hear. She dropped Light off the wall and instead pinned him against the ground so as to reduce the chance of any escape. Rainbow Dash was shaken out of her stunned state by the call and immediately jumped up into the air facing the trapped menace, ready to react to anything.
Celestia turned to Fluttershy, "My dear little pony, this matter is out of our hooves. This threat must be dealt with now!"
The yellow pegasus shook under the Princess' unrelenting gaze, but held firm. "No Princess, he's just misunderstood... We-"
"No Fluttershy, I know that you show Kindness to everything, but this is a dangerous creature and must be dealt with. I will attempt to send him away, or kill him. Whatever comes first," She said that with such venom that Fluttershy had no hard time in believing that she would do such a thing, "I don't even know how he got out of stone, he should still be imprisoned."
"But-"
Rainbow cut in this time, "Fluttershy! How can you defend this thing?! He tried to kill all of us!"
"It was only self-de-"
"No! We need to stop him before he can do any more damage than he already has! You two stay here; I'm gonna go get the rest of the Elements! He could end Equestria as we know it!"
Celestia nodded, "I agree. You should fly to Twilight to contact the rest of the Elements. Her magic could speed up the process tenfold. She should be back from Canterlot by now, so find her first." Before she could even finish the sentence Rainbow was gone, leaving only a small cloud in her wake, leaving only Celestia and Fluttershy.
And Light.
But the yellow pegasus was struggling to say something, "P-princess, stop it."
Celestia was taken aback, was this really the same timid pony that would practically faint at the sight of her own shadow? Celestia mumbled to herself quietly, "That's it, he must have infiltrated her mind in some way..."
Fluttershy continued, "You need to stop attacking Light right now..." She trailed off with a barely audible squeak at the end.
Celestia looked sadly at Fluttershy, and gently shook her head, her horn shining a bright gold as it kept the barrier attacking Light going. "I'm afraid that I can't do that Fluttershy. This creature is dangerous and has attacked all of us numerable times"
"No Prin-"
She was interrupted by a bright purple flash shooting through the window and landing in the middle of the room. Another flash, and five mares appeared in the middle of the room, piled on top of each other, groaning in discomfort as they struggled to untangle themselves.
The Princess waited patiently for a few moments until they were ready. Rainbow looked angry, Twilight concerned, while Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie all looked a little confused as to why they had suddenly been pulled out of their efforts to fill in a mysterious crater in the middle of Ponyville.
Twilight leaped to the Princess' side, "What did you want Princess?" she asked hurriedly, "Is there some-"
She trailed off as her eyes rested on the barrier of pure sun that was cocooning the shining entity on the floor. The rest of the Elements were looking too, confusion on their faces for only a few moments before shocked realisation dawned across their features.
Twilight didn't hesitate before she called out. "Girls, get in position! We've got to stop Light before he can hurt anyone like he did last time!"
The group of friends immediately gathered themselves and jumped together to form a small huddle. Celestia nodded once before removing the shield to let the Elements get to work without obstruction. Her magic would only get in the way, and they all needed this blast to be as powerful as possible to get rid of any chance of escape, or a lesser punishment.
She waited.
And waited.
No blast?
The Princess of the Day turned to look at the Elements, wondering why they hadn't worked. The jewellery, tied to each pony's life force? Check. Formation? Check. Threat? Check.
Fluttershy?
No, she was still sitting out of everyone's line of sight, to the left of the massive group, staring at Light who was, at this moment, on the floor.
With no sun-shield keeping him down.
And no Elements attacking him.
Was it just her, or was he starting to look a bit unstable in his composition...?
Light
They were loud, oh so very loud, but at the same time as soft as the the best velvet, worming their ways into my ears. The two voices of terror were speaking, whispering so, so softly into my ears, urging me to do acts of evil. That time in stone, alone but for these voices, had given them a large hold over me in almost no time at all. There was only so much I could do to fight them, especially while under the barrage of their hissing, malevolent voices.
And my resolve was weakening.
[Come on... Those stupid beasts won't even realise until it's too late...]
{Do you think they have feelings? They don't. We should remember that...}
'No, the yellow one showed me kindness!'
[But that of the others?]
{They attack us...}
[Hurt us...]
{They rely on instinct alone, only wanting to destroy those that are more pure than them...}
[And what are we but the most pure of beings...]
{And that scares them...}
[So they attack us...]
{And we should fight back against the inferior creatures...}
'No... no... They're more than that. Celestia visited me every day. They're not animals.
[But that's exactly what they are, animals. They can't do anything but annoy you...]
'But... there's more than that... They have education... They're smart...
[They need to be taught the right lessons...]
{They need to be taught respect. They need to be taught laws...}
'They need to be taught to fear me...'
{Ooh, exactly what I was going to say...}
[I agree, you should show them the true ways of the world...]
'{[Maybe in death, they would all become one and realise their mistakes]}'
'I think I see what We are thinking.'
The pressure on our back lessened, before dissipating entirely, leaving us free to move. This made us slightly curious, but we shrugged that off as inconsequential in the long run of things. We knew what We had to do, and these, 'ponies', played a key role in it.
We were going to teach.
But it was going to be a very special kind of teaching, and they were going to be the advanced class.
Talking with Myself had given us a new insight, and the beasts needed to be taught respect.
We let a slight giggle escape from our mouth, a high pitched thing that drifted through the air like treacle, mixing together to freeze the blood of anything around. It was a favourite of ours, and it was reserved for special occasions where We were one.
The animals were nervous now, I could feel it. An undercurrent of shivers, making the hair stand up on the back of the neck, raising the hackles.
This was going to be fun.
Ooooh, there was the fear that We had so eagerly awaited. Delicious, sweet and tender. We wanted more. And We were going to get it.
The room suddenly became much darker as our body slammed down to one end of the spectrum to become a solid black, our eyes matching the scheme to make my darker than the night, a creature of the darkness. We rose to our feet, trench coat fluttering slightly. The iridescence that had surrounded our body earlier had faded away, leaving a corona of darkness around us. We started to walk towards them, chuckling slightly.
Abruptly, the multicoloured one tried to charge us. We simply raised a hand and let her run at us. This wouldn't normally have been a problem were it not for the long claws, fashioned from pure shadow, which had formed along our hand.
As it so happened, We did have claws, and the pony got a nice taste of them. It tried to dodge at the last moment, and almost succeeded. Almost.
It did avoid the worst of the blow, but it still clipped us, tearing a long, deep gash in its side.
The fight was interrupted as the tone theme changed. We slammed the slider down the other end, turning a startlingly bright white. Ordinarily, this wouldn't have looked that scary. Pure white is associated with good for some reason, and everything about us was white. Well, except for all the blood that covered my talons.
The big white pony looked ready to kill, while the others looked shocked and stunned, but mostly scared.
And We loved it.
The white one walked towards us...
"STOP!"
The cry came from that yellow one, the one that liked the animals. We tried to think of what We knew of he-
'Fluttershy.'
Yes, that was her name. And she dared to interrupt us. The large white one had stopped and was looking at her strangely, and a little scared too. We decided that the yellow one must be the first to die, so We stepped towards her.
She didn't even move a little, simply lying there cowering on the ground, shivering in a little ball of fur. Even as We stepped within reach, able to kill, she stayed still. The other beasts were ready to jump, even though they knew in their tiny little brains that it would be futile, but the small timid mare stayed there, shivering.
We raised a blood stained claw, our tone scheme changing every few seconds from white, to black, to white, at a moment's notice. Wisps trailing behind our appendage like smoke. We lazily held our arm in the air, enjoying the feeling of power that it gave us.
We waited.
And waited.
Silence...
And then we brought the claw down.
THUNK!
The terrible sound reverberated through the air like the undertaker's call. The feeling of broken wood beneath our claws satisfaction to us, filling us with glee at what we had just accomplished. Blood was oozing down our claw, and the splinters were scratching lightly. I looked at Fluttersh-
I looked at Fluttersh-
Why was she still alive?!
We had brought our deadly talon down with the greatest precision; there was no chance that We could miss! We would miss only if We wanted to!
'I did want you to.'
We don't know how that happened!
'Fluttershy helped us.'
{[This pony thing had escaped our judgment somehow, and we had no idea how this had happened!]}
'She deserved to live.'
[We should have killed her, not have her still alive!]
{We don't know why this happened!}
[These ponies must die!]
{They must serve punishment!}
[Face judgment in the harsh light of our body!]
'Go away!'
[What do we mean?!]
{We are one! There is no dispute!}
'No...'
'{[Yes]}'
'No...'
'No.'
'No!'
'I can't let this happen again! Not after what happened last time. I will not attack innocents!'
'Never again...'
'Get. Out. Of. My. HEAD!'
{[We may fight all we like, but don't worry, we'll always be watching...]}
{Don't think that we ever go away}
[For we are you now...]
{[And you are us...]}
I came back to my senses in time to rip my hand away from the floor, claws already vanished without my permission for them to exist. The crying ball of Fluttershy quivering at my feet as I unsteadily rose to my feet.
I looked around slowly for a moment, my hair and clothes drifting softly, the Darkness and Light that composed me back in their rightful positions and balanced enough for me to be stable...
For now.
The ponies were looking at me, some in anger, some in shock.
All in fear.
I maintained eye contact long enough to say two words.
"I'm sorry."
The floor decided then would be a good time to become business acquaintances and gave me a big hug.
?????
A blood red portal appeared over the serene landscape. The wildlife was disturbed only for a moment before resuming its normal routine. The gateway existed long enough to deposit one thing.
A man.
Grassland and barren landscape as far as the eye could see. The odd tree dotted the landscape, interspersing the land with just enough shade to survive the scorching midday sun. The object in question had just risen above the horizon, giving enough light to see by.
The observer standing on a plateau was doing just that, observing. He watched as strange creatures wandered in the distance.
They were strange things. Striped, from what he could see, with talismans and strange markings on their bodies. They would walk between their huts, usually with items and bottles filled with strange substances. And they would be perfect to slaughter.
Would they pose a threat? No.
Would they slow him down? No.
Did he need to destroy and/or enslave them to get to his goal? No.
Would it make things easier? Again, no.
But would he do it anyway?
Yes.
He had conquered one world already, bar one individual, and it was time to move on. This world looked perfect for the taking. And there was nothing that anyone could do to stop him.
He knew who he wanted to get to, but before that, he knew there were some opportunities for some fun.
The village down would be the start of it, and it was almost time to set off.
The Director moved to take his first steps towards the village, but then stopped. If he was going to take over this world with minimal resistance, then there were a few choice 'people' that he would have to take care of before he started on any of the natives...
Short and sweet.
Here's the new chapter. This is where things are going to start to get a lot more dark, whereas the first, 13-ish chapters have been a lot more lighthearted.
There will be two endings as a heads-up. A dark, and a Grimdark, so you have been warned as neither ending will have a 'happy' ending as you would have it.
You have been warned.
And please, no hating on the Dark tag.
A knocking at the door? The Author stood up for a moment, stretching, before walking towards the the door to his cramped door.
The knocking again? He sighed, still-
Wait, this came from the other door. The one used by...
Oh no...
Order must have picked up on the swearing thing from earlier. He was in trouble, lots of trouble.
The Author turned and walked towards the other door, but was interrupted when it blew open.
Yes, the door blew open. With Force. Literally.
The desecrated body of Force shot through the now open door, blood splatters going everywhere around the room. There were numerous cuts covering her body, and she was obviously dead.
And then he walked in. The one from the story. It was him.
Oddly enough, he wasn't even touched by any of the blood that had gone everywhere, positively covering the Author. He crossed the room in two short strides and grabbed the Author by the collar of his shirt.
The eyes bore into the Author's head like drills. He knew he was going to die. There was no escaping this man.
After all, the Author had created him.
But then Order appeared.
The force of nature barrelled through the door. He too was covered in blood, and his hair was ruffled. That never, ever, happened to Order. He drove into the attacker and forced him to let go of the Author. Order immediately put him in a choke hold and gave the Author a serious look and a single command.
"Run."
The Author didn't hesitate. He got out of there as fast as he could, jumping into the door to Order's world. Just before the door closed he heard a sickening Crunch!
He knew Order was dead, and he felt like he should have fought, but there was nothing that he could have done.
No one fights the Director and wins. No one.
And he knew this the best.
Because after all, the Author created him.