//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 // Story: Light's Shadow // by Jorofrarie //------------------------------// Quick note, I will sometimes use non-pony expression. Don't worry, this is just because they get the message across better than inserting hoof- and pony-based prefixes into absolutely everything. Also, I have more than one story now, and they're not crap! Head over to my user page if you're interested. Luna and I have lived for a very long time, and we both are extremely powerful, but that does not make us immortal... -Celestia Chapter 14 Merry Meetings... Celestia Things could have gone better from that confrontation. Then again, by the looks of it things could have gone a lot worse in the long run. Luckily they had managed to 'subdue' the hostile force with only one injury and, while that was relatively severe, it was easy to heal. Sometimes it does help to be an alicorn. The ragtag group was nervously shuffling in the room, hesitant to be the first to approach for fear of waking him. The one casualty from the earlier fight had been hastily patched up and was now pacing along one corner of the slightly cramped room, wincing on every second step. Her cyan blue coat was still stained a deep dirty red, and it would stay that way for a while by the looks of things. The other six mares were coping from the stress in their own ways. Twilight? Naming the periodic table of magical elementals. Rarity? Categorising every single dress in her shop from memory. Applejack? Calculating the proposed income for her cider. Fluttershy? Crying. A lot. Pinkie? Thinking of the best way to cheer everyone up. Rainbow? Wondering why she hadn't stopped him. Celestia? Well, Celestia was different. You don't live for very long without seeing some bloody times, and Celestia had been alive for a long, long time. She had been around all those eons ago to know, and later fight Discord. She had been there when the Republic formed, and she had brought the crushing blow down on her own sister's head, crumbling the resistance and watching as she fell from glory. She had waited all those long years, biding her time, ruling the land as best as she could, waiting for her rebellious sister to return, ready to fight at the slightest sign of hostility. She had been there for all of the battles. She had killed more than she could count. But it never got any easier. She had only ever fought in the best interest of her subject. What was a Princess without anyone to help? With that in mind, Celestia had always made a point of never fighting from hostility, only ever in defence. Equestria had lived in unparalleled harmony and peace for centuries, and this was mostly due to these views. Past the borders however, there was still the occasional skirmish, but they were mainly due to misunderstandings, and a death in one of these was extremely rare, and when there was one the offender was punished. Even when there was fighting, it was minor. This, thing however. It had tried to murder the element of Loyalty in cold blood, not even hesitating to think about the consequences that this would have in the long run. There was no doubt in its eyes. It had wanted her dead, and only that last minute correction had saved the speedy pegasus mare from a hasty death. This thing was a killer, and didn't care for what would come afterwards. This led The Princess to two final conclusions of why he would do this. One, he must be extremely dim witted to not see the repercussions of his actions, or two, he must have killed so many before, and be so powerful, that he truly did not fear any of these ponies that surrounded him even now, his fate held in their hooves while he remained unconscious. She hated to think of what would happen if it turned out that it was the latter option, but she could only let her eyes widen in apprehension as everything pointed towards that. Because after all of that, Light did not seem stupid. And that could only leave one option... And if that was the case, it meant that he could probably take over the whole of Equestria, in a similar fashion to Discord. Except this time he wouldn't just sit there making silly remarks and pranking with ineffectual materials. No, Light would destroy everything. Twilight There was nothing more aggravating to the purple librarian than a disorganised day, and this one had been the worst so far. In the span of about eight hours, she had gone from excitedly preparing the Summer Sun Celebration, to fighting a powerful enemy, to Ponyville, and then to Fluttershy's, to fight the exact same enemy as before. There was no way that she could have known that he was here either. Yes, she knew that he had escaped his prison, but the combined power of the two Princesses was surely enough to weaken him severely, and even though Luna had stayed behind to oversee repairs and organisation, Celestia by herself was still enough to take down practically any creature, no matter who, or what, they were. She hadn't even been very worried on the way home either. The train was an isolated haven, cut off from the rest of the world, and even if Celestia had had any trouble, she would have received some sort of notification and just gathered the elements again. So naturally, being summoned to Fluttershy's cottage of all places, along with the rest of her friends, was quite a surprise. But even so, Twilight was confident in their friendship. After all, they had defeated him before without too much trouble, and he hadn't even tried to sabotage their bonds like Discord had either. So really, what was there to worry about? For one, Rainbow Dash. Now, due to the peace that had reigned over Equestria for so long, an injury was a very rare occurrence, and it was always, always on accident. No pony would even harm another with malicious intent, and murder probably wasn't even in the dictionary anymore. But then Rainbow had flown at him. This action should have stopped before it even began. Light looked almost completely different to what he had before. There was almost something demonic about him compared to the last time they had confronted him. He looked like he had dragged himself out of the deepest sections of Tartarus and past Cerberus. And honestly? She wouldn't be too surprised if he actually had. He looked like he could for sure. And the speed that she had seen him move with was ridiculous. It was clear that the intent of his attack hadn't been to injure and incapacitate; it had been to kill. A general rule of thumb here was: if it can single-handedly take out a fully-grown Ursa Major, then it probably wasn't a good idea to buck with it. Ursa Majors are a lot, lot bigger than your average pony. And if one of the largest creatures on the planet didn't stand a chance, then what did one pony? But try telling that to Rainbow Dash. She wouldn't stop trying to defend her friends even if it killed her. And that is exactly what Twilight feared would happen... Fluttershy 'Ohh, what did I do to anger him...?' Those were the only thoughts on the worried mare's mind at the moment. Curiously enough, out of all of her friends she was the least affected by the sight of blood (excluding Celestia), calmly bandaging the cyan speedster as the others slowly overcame their shock. It was mostly due to the way she dealt with the animals that came to see her in her daily life. Death was a natural thing in nature, and not every sick creature that came to her survived. And then of course there were the carnivores. They would need to kill to survive, which in itself seemed like a bit of a paradox. But it was necessary. And that was precisely why Fluttershy was worried about Light. An animal will only attack fiercely in desperation when it is cornered. And really, Light was about as cornered as he could get, having both the being that controlled the Sun and the elements of Harmony breathing down his neck. Although there was something different about him when he had attacked Rainbow, and it wasn't just the colour scheme. No, something inside of him had changed. When she looked into those eyes, during his final moments of consciousness, she had seen something else, like a parasite attaching itself to a host. And she had seen a lot of parasites. When she had looked into those eyes, she had seen a culmination of all of the bad memories that Light had ever seen being forced to the forefront of his mind. He was remembering everything. All of the unfair moments, the hopelessness. It was like the real him was being suppressed. And when she looked into those eyes, it had made her scared. It had brought out all of her bad memories too. And they scared her. It was like looking into a nightmare. And yet, she couldn't bring herself to blame him. Then again, she could never blame anyone, and that was probably why she was the element of Kindness, but that didn't change anything. Light was the victim of circumstance. He had proven to her when he first met her that he was capable of being a caring and loving pony-thing, and even the fight afterwards wouldn't change that. But her friends had ignored her when she tried to convince them that he was innocent, putting it all down to stress and anger, but she knew what had happened. And then he was here, and he hadn't even tried to attack her when she met him again. What kind of 'killer' would have an emotional breakdown and take comfort in the presence of one of the ponies that had helped to seal him away in the first place? It didn't matter that he had attacked them, they had attacked first. It didn't matter that he had resisted, they hadn't listened to him. It didn't even matter that much when he had turned on her after attacking Rainbow; he had stopped himself and gotten rid of that dark presence lurking behind his eyes. He knew the importance of friendship, and he seemed to truly care about her. No, she couldn't bring herself to hate him, even if he did fight. After all, when it really came down to it, he was just a cornered animal... But try telling that to her friends. They looked at him, and all they saw was a violent murderer. That was understandable, considering the first time that they had seen him had been when he was standing over her unconscious form, but that didn't mean that they shouldn't even give him a chance. She would just have to stand up for him in the hopes of having them get over their differences. But that all depended on the impression Light would make when he woke up. Fluttershy just hoped that he wouldn't still be angry... Light The darkness of my unconscious mind seemed to be getting a bit too familiar for comfort. This was probably the third time I had been knocked out by some means since my arrival here in Equestria, and frankly I hadn't spent much time out of my stone prison, so I had spent about a third of my free time lying around. Now, in the last couple of times I had been... indisposed, I had been in relatively safe places. This time however the last things I had seen were the ponies that had put me in the stone prison in the first bloody place. Needless to say it wasn't a very welcome idea. For all I knew I was going to wake up back in stone, flowery decorations and a moustache drawn on my face. But that wasn't the real problem, that wouldn't be that bad. The real problem would be that if I were placed back in stone, then there would only be me, and the voices. Somehow I doubt that Celestia would visit, although she didn't look like she tended to hold grudges. But even if she stayed with me for hours on end, the constant barrage of ideas and opinions from those two voices, constantly telling me to attack, would drive me insane. I barely made it out of the stone with my sanity intact the last time. And that had ended with me having a breakdown a few moments later, after attacking what seemed to be half of the population of Equestria in the span of about a minute. But I digress, the voices are the real matter at the moment, aren't they... To be honest, I'm not exactly sure when they started. All I know is that one day I was listening in to the thoughts of some of the others situated around the garden when I heard a few others. That didn't worry me at first, as I had no choice but to dimly hear the thoughts of the statues placed near me, but I did become worried when I realised that I couldn't just filter these new ones out. They were much louder than the others, and a lot more forceful. Also unlike the others they seemed to be directly targeting me, and only me. When I was in the garden, I couldn't directly talk to another, I would only catch the odd bit of chatter, and I can only assume that was the case for them too. But these particular voices would talk to me. They would try to convince me to see the world their way. And I almost did too. I think that the only thing that stopped me from going over the edge before I was released as the Princess. Even the small amount of conversation she would bring with her was enough to block out the voices for a little bit, and I enjoyed the times when she would arrive at my statue. Still, she liked to jump to conclusions. In fact, all of the inhabitants of this land seemed to do that a lot. Except for Fluttershy. I have no doubt in my mind that if it weren't for her, I would be dead. She had nursed me back to health and had given me a shoulder to lean on when I had my manly breakdown. Hell, she'd even given me a place to rest for a while. She is the one Those friends of hers don't realise how lucky they are to have her and to have had her around when they took over. If it weren't for that yellow mare, they'd all be dead. I hope I wake up soon, I can still hear them... Rainbow Dash 'Why hadn't I stopped him?!' The prismatic mare was worried. She had failed her friends. They had been in danger, and when it had counted the most she had failed to defend them. And now she had the injury to prove it. Rainbow reached one end of the room and turned around, not even stopping in her pacing. The stifled a groan as the pain in her side made her flinch. She was supposed to be infallible. She was Rainbow Dash! She was the best flyer in Equestria. Nothing could get away from her. But somehow he had. When she attacked him, he hadn't even tried to avoid her. And those claws had come from nowhere at all. That was just cheating. How did he even do that?! The cyan athlete altered from her course slightly to walk by the main attraction in the room. The unconscious body of Light was lying in the centre, completely alone amongst the furniture. None of the others mares in the room had gone near it, instead preferring to go to their own corners to think about whatever eggheads thought about. But Rainbow was way too cool for that. She wouldn't be caught dead sitting in a spot, moping around and thinking about her feelings. She let out a small shudder at that thought. Rainbow increased her deviation and moved closer to the still form. There was no movement from him, so really there was no need to worry either. And yet, the others still avoided him. In fact, the closest of her friends was Fluttershy, who was occasionally sneaking a glance at him. Rainbow shook her head. They were all too scared of him to do anything. And it was incredibly surprising for her that they hadn't locked him away yet, or even just used the elements of Harmony. But then again, it was probably due to Fluttershy. But Rainbow knew the truth, it was all Light's fault that all of this happened. She walked over slowly towards him, stopping just short of tripping over the body. He was still unmoving, out cold. The speedster looked at him with something approaching contempt. This was the thing that had injured not just her friends, but the Princess of the whole of Equestria as well. She knelt down to look closer at him. His face was screwed up in an expression of pain. Rainbow screwed her eyes up in suspicion. He could just be trying to trick her, but she wouldn't fall for it. He could try and make himself seen as tortured as he wanted, but Rainbow knew the truth. He really wanted to attack all of them. But she wouldn't fall for it. She leaned down further and scrutinised his face as closely as she could without touching him. His warm breath was pushing her hair back slightly with every exhale, and his eyes were flickering underneath their lids, as if trying to escape their positions. He was the source of all of their problems. If it wasn't for him then she wouldn't be injured, and the Princess wouldn't be here to help them defeat him. She drew back a hoof to strike at him, holding it momentarily in the air behind her. She prepared to bring it down on him, but stopped, her breath catching in her throat. She let out a small gasp. The others in the room all turned, wondering what the noise signaled. But Rainbow didn't notice, her attention was held by one thing. Light. His eyes were open. And he did not look amused. Light Have you ever had that feeling you get where you wake up and just instantly know that it's not going to be a good day? Yeah, that was the vibe that I was getting then. I woke up to the 'welcoming' view of that violent, blue pegasus standing over me, one of her hooves poised to slam into my face. Something about her didn't exactly scream 'hey, give me a hug'. And her slamming said hoof into my head a second later didn't help my outlook. The others let out a collective gasp, and Rainbow's eyes widened slightly. I just shifted slightly and drifted out from underneath her, forming again slightly to the right of her. I took a small step towards her and she jumped backwards, getting ready to attack me if necessary. Celestia had taken a notice of the tension, and her horn started glowing in response. A small glowing barrier formed between the two competitors. The others in the room were starting to get nervous. Tensions were getting to a breaking poi- "STOP IT!" Shock filled the room. No-one had expected this. Fluttershy was standing between the two would-be fighters, her eyes alight with righteous rage. The silence was broken only by the loud panting. She turned to her blue friends, who shrunk down under her furious gaze. "What exactly do you think you are doing missy? Huh?!" The chattering of her teeth could be easily heard around the whole room. She attempted to answer, but was cut off. "I don't even want to know. But this is going to stop! RIGHT! NOW! UNDERSTAND!" Hasty nods and murmurs of agreement were the only response, which oddly enough came from all of the ponies, even the Princess. Then she turned on me. Her eyes were terrifying. A sheer commanding force had jumped behind them and had aimed all of its gun right at me. If it weren't for the things that I had seen, I probably would have been quaking in my shoes. But she wasn't done yet. "And don't think that I've forgotten you mister! I don't want any more fighting! And that means no violence from you! GOT IT!" That was more of a statement than a question. I could do nothing but nod. She turned on all of us. "Now we are going to talk this out! PEACEFULLY! OKAY!" We nodded. The moment we did she seemed to shrink down in size and calm down. Fluttershy sat down quietly on the floor and hid behind her pink mane. "I mean, you don't have to. It's just a suggestion.Just think about it." This mare was crazy. What had I gotten myself into... ????? The conquest had gone perfectly. Or as near as didn't matter. The only one to escape had been the Author, and if any of the others were alive then they had been so badly injured that even if they did try to stop him it wouldn't matter. All in all, he was happy. The Zebra village was destroyed. Small huts were burning, and bodies lay on the ground, covered in blood. Some captives were huddled together, crying into each other's arms. They weren't even tied up, and yet none of them had tried to escape yet. Their hope had been destroyed. The village was only very small, and it was a tight knit community. Every citizen knew one another, and they would help whenever they could. And the captives had watched as everyone died. As they were brutally murdered, with absolutely no mercy. A footstep was the only warning the captives had before he arrived. A silhouette, framed from behind by the sun, leaving only a shadow as reference. Dust hung around him, and the disgusting stench of rotting corpses filled the air, making a few of the young children dry-retch. Nothing came out, already used up when watching the attack. It approached, incredibly slowly. One Zebra made a mad dash to escape, running in the opposite direction. A flicker, the silhouette disappearing for only a moment, and the only thing left was a corpse, a clean cut running along it's neck where blood oozed out lazily. It was over in less than a second. It was at that moment that the captives knew, with absolutely no doubt in their minds that they were all going to die.