//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: The Dark Bringer // Story: Seeking Redemption: Rising Darkness // by ShadowRazer2121 //------------------------------// There are many stories of The Dark Bringer, Bringer of Darkness, or the King of Darkness. That his power was limitless and unmatched by any known being in all of the universe. The real Dark Bringer was a Demon named Eclipse, but he always goes by the name of Shadow Demon. Shadow Demon was a powerful warrior before life had ever existed. Until a darkness known as the Ather attacked. Devastating everything in its path and killing millions. Shadow Demon did the only thing he knew how to. It was to sacrifice middle ground. Middle Ground was a world between worlds where every inter dimensional being lived, but for many generations it had been inhabited by many other beings. That is, until that one fateful day. The Great Falling. The Great Falling was a dark day. Middle Ground had fallen and at the center of its ruined state was the Demon of shadows himself. He look around at the surrounding area. He noticed the metallic bodies mixed with the fleshy ones. He saw the fortress that had been his home. Now it payed in ruin. He walked up the stair case limboing while he did so. Time had been his ally until today. He had walked inside the fortress and saw a throne at the end of the room. He approached it and sat on the throne. He pulled a necklace from around his neck and held it in his claws. As he spoke softly almost sounding like a breath of air. The necklace had a been craft to have the dragon shaped figures that had both the heads touching one another that had their tails wrapped around each other’s which had then wrapped around a heart shaped ruby. “Who...who will protect you now....now that I’m gone? I’m sorry.” Before his eyes closed one last time as his body started to become invaded in stone the become a reminder of what had befallen this once life filled place. Andrews could feel the freezing temperatures around him drop even more. When his suit told him that the temperatures were -43 Degrees below freezing. Messing with dark arts was not an easy feat by far, but he had to fight fire with fire. “Darkness is an ally and your enemy. You never trust it as it doesn’t trust you. You must coexist with it for it will be with you till death.” The giant figure that was the pony of shadows as he pace in a circle as Andrews was encased in red colored Ice. Andrews concentrated even harder as his face contorting into one of determination as he let out a shout of rage and shattered the ice he was encased in. Hearing the clapping of hooves from the pony of shadows that was off to the side. “Evil must exist where ever it can to prevent Chaos from entering this world. Harmony is an enemy and an evil in itself. I shall explain more, when you are ready.” The pony of shadows said as he had get him self come around and soon he opted to just sleep. Shadow demon had been walking for quite some time. After killing the Timberwolf and snagging its kill it saved him an explanation and what could only be explained as pure enjoyment. He continued forward until he felt eyes on him as he let out a loud chuckle as to try and make his pursuer paranoid. Most times it worked and others well, not so much. He continued until he came to a town at the edge of the forest, but he didn’t continue any further. He thought on how to approach this. He was in Equestria after the legion had awoken and King had been murdered he saw the 6 mates he very much wanted to meet. As he watched them one named rainbow dash spotted him and looked at him as he returned her stare with a glare of death. Shadow turned and walked back into the forest as he entered he smirked to himself. “That should get their attention.” Shadow said as he walked in a random direction. Twilight and her friends were not happy with Their friend Rainbow Dash. Due to her constant pranks and made up stories they had it hard to believe a dragon the size and a young colt was in the Everfree Forest. “Guys I’m telling you I’m not lying this time. It’s scales were dark red and black with his horns looking like this.” She said as she gestured her hooves trying to mimic horns on her head. “You no what Twi, I think she may be tellin’ the truth.” AppleJack said as she looked over to Twilight sparkle. “Okay okay, we will search for whatever it was rainbow saw tomorrow the sun is starting to set and I still have to do research on this Legion issue.” Twilight said as everypony walked to their respective homes Shadow walked through the forest coming to a stop in a clearing. He sat on his back legs putting a claw to his chin in thought. ‘I wonder if they will even come looking for me?’ He thought thinking that his approach may not have been enough to warrant their attention. He outstretched his right foreleg as demonic symbols on his arm started glowing as a portal appeared in front of him. The portal was about the size of the Princess Sun butt. He walked through the portal and came out into a bright color filled dimension as he looked around he saw many different orbs with different colors. He approached one of the orbs that had a yellow color and saw a orange filly flying next to a pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail. He felt like he had seen her before. He unfurled his wings and began to float up to the orb which was the dream of this filly. He let out a demonic chuckle as he let the orb float between his talons as the dream began to grow dark and black. The orb was completely black not even able to see what is going on in side. Shadow chuckled as he let the orb float back to it original position and started looking for the dream of a certain sparkle butt. “Hmm...now where is she?” He said to himself as he looked at the many orbs of pony’s who were fast asleep. He soon found a vibrant glowing purple orb that had other colored orbs next to it. One of the orbs had the color orange with a red outline, the next was a pure white one with a nice bright purple outline, The next one was a pure rainbow which he found odd but didn’t question it. He noticed the rest being pink, yellow, and one even being green. The green one confused him somewhat due to the dream belonging to a baby dragon. Ignoring the green orb he walked over to the orb that had the vibrant purple and put his talons around it as he closed his eyes and entered the dream of the purple one. Twilight was sitting at a desk reading a book on magical theory that had been written by Star Swirl the Bearded. As she read about the concepts of teleportation she turned the page and started to read it. As she read the page she started to hear voices coming from behind her and quickly turned around and saw nothing was there. Letting out a sigh of relief she turned to go back to reading, but when she went to go look the desk was gone. She now sat in a void of darkness as voices began whispering and murmuring to one another as if secretly judging her. Her ears flattened against her head as the voice got louder and louder almost like they were yelling at her. She brought her hooves over her ears trying to silence the voices, but they only got louder. Her ears started to ring as she started to feel cold as she started to shed tears as she laid down on the floor and curled up into a ball as she pushed her hooves harder against her ears and squeezed her eyes shut, the voices suddenly stopped. She stayed in her current position until she noticed the voices had stopped. She uncurled herself and slowly opened her eyes to see she was still in the darkness of the void. She slowly yet cautiously came to a sitting position. She looked around at her surroundings and noticed that there was nothing. She started to stand up as her legs were trembling in fear of what had just occurred. As she came to stand a headache slowly overcame her as she fell back onto her haunches, clutching the sides of her head as the sound of two voices started talking in her head again. She fell over onto her side as she looked up she saw a figure slowly walk towards her. Taking slow and steady steps towards her. Soon she was able to make out what it was and gasped. It was the figure that Rainbow dash had seen at the edge of the Everfree forest. The figure had four horns two on each side of its head, with a pair of large leathery wings that were folded on its back. It scales were a onyx black as its underbelly and the webbing of its wings and horns had a maroon color to them. It’s tail ended with a spear tip as the tail swayed side to side. The height was what she found the strangest. The dragon was about a couple inches short than Celestia, but what scared her the most were the two empty eye sockets stared her down. She was horrified with this dragon. Two blood red orbs appeared where it’s eyes should be. After what felt like an eternity the Dragon reached out its talon in a jester of aid. Twilight with a trembling foreleg had slowly reached out to take the jester. As her foreleg was suddenly grasped in the dragons talon as she was aided back a top her hooves she turned to thank the dragon, but saw that the stranger was gone. She tilted her head in confusion until a voice was heard in the never ending darkness. She saw a door a couple of inches away from her. She looked at it in both fascination and in fear. She reach out a foreleg to touch it the. A beep was heard as the door opened. As she walked in her eyes widened in both fear and fascination. There were chambers filled with some kind of liquid. She approached one and brushed some of the frost off of the glass and peaked in. As soon as she looked she let out a scream and back peddled rapidly as far away as possible. After catching her breath and calming her nerves she took one last peak as she looked she got a clear view. Half of a dragon was in the chamber as wires and tubes were place up inside where the bottom half of its body should be. She decided not to look in the others, but decided to proceed forward against her better judgment she pushed forwards anyway. She came upon another door like the one that brought her here. She repeated what she had done to open the other one and it opened. She walked in now able to look at her surroundings she noticed the walls were made of metal and steel. The lights were dim and soft. At times she would pass by on that had either been flickering or destroyed. She looked at the walls noticing scorch marks as well as claw marks that dug into the metal walls. She let out a gulping noise as the claw marks were so deep she saw the outer metal wall had been somewhat ripped off. Shadow watched from a distance as he observed in curiosity and also testing her to see if she was ready. He could tell she had never seen blood spilled before. She continued through the old facility which he had visited before as a reference point for his little test. After following sparkle butt for a bit she came to a stop with a path that went in all four different directions. That’s when Shadow decided to make his move. He made the symbols on his right talon, to glow and made an orb appear. It was an ball of energy that he kept locked away from any living thing unless he were to test him, her, or it. It was a piece of his past he literally ripped out of himself. He let the orb float in front of the lavender unicorn as it floated to the left as the sparkles began to follow it. Twilight had started to follow a strange purple orb that radiated life. As at some times it would let out a childish giggle as it floated up and down through the heavily damaged hallway. “H..hey w...w...wait for me!” Twilight shouted after it as she started after it at a full on sprint. When she turned the corner she was now in a grassy plain. There were pillars of ridges and rocky spires that stretched up into the sky. Multiple islands floated in the sky as birds and what looked like other dragons flew through the sky freely. When she turned around is what made her gasp at how what was happening even possible. Right in front of her was a volcanic; ash covered ground as blackened burnt up trees were scattered about. She took a cautious step and noticed that it wasn’t hot despite being made of hot volcanic ash. She pressed forward as the heat started to become noticeably more intense. As she turned around a large rock she saw three dragons lying on the scorching hot ground with an even bigger dragon standing over them. “Hahaha, you thought you could stop me Blood Bath, but I have grown stronger in your absence.” The big dragon said it’s appearance was unusual. It’s body mainly covered in black scales with purple underbelly, wings, and horns being purple. “You may have become stronger, but you always grow weaker.” The middle dragon said. His scales were a blood red with the webbing of his wings being black as well as his horns. “HA! Don’t make me laugh you don’t have the Light Crystals so what hope do you have?” The big dragon said. “You mean this?” A female robotic voice spoke as a dragon that appeared to be made of metal jumped up with a crystal that radiated light in her left talon raised up ready to strike. The big dragons eyes widened in fear. “NO!?” He shouted as the metal dragon was smacked to the side by his tail. The bigger dragon was soon tackled to the ground being held by Blood Bath and another dragon that had rainbow colors on the webbing of its wings. “No, I destroyed them all, I made sure of it. How did you find one?” The bigger dragon said. “Nightmare, my old friend don’t you remember they Light Crystal grows so it combat evil, there must always be an equal.” Blood bath said as the metal dragon came back over the the group with the crystal in its claws. “Cloud. Do it.” He said as Cloud raised the crystal and stabbed Nightmare right in the heart. Nightmare’s body began to glow as he started floating in the air. Cracks began to appear on his body as he claw and scratched at them. “No...no...NOOOOOOOOoo aaaaah!?” Nightmare screamed as an explosion of light knocked everyone present backwards. When the light began to grow dim in the place of nightmare was a similarly colored baby dragon. It float back to the ground as it fell on its side falling into unconsciousness. “Nightmare has finally been defeated.” The the multi colored dragon said. “Yes it would seem so.” Blood Bath said as he pick up the baby’s dragon the scruff of his neck. He made a jester for the others to follow him and the did so. Twilight had to keep up by trotting due to the height difference. They had walked for what felt like an hour, it was merely a couple of minutes. Twilight gasp in both shock and amazement at what was in front of her. There in the middle of a lake, a tree sat that radiated magic. The magical power this tree had was incredible, Twilight guessed it may be stronger than the Tree of Harmony. “Rainbow I intrust his safety with you.” Blood bath said as he sat the baby dragon down in front of her. “I will do my best.” The dragon known as Rainbow said. Soon everything began to dissolve into dust and soon found herself on one of the giant rocky spires overlooking the entire island. She gazed over the horizon and was speechless at the sight of the island and amazed. She saw an part of the island covered in snow and ice and she even saw the part that was covered in volcanic ash and magma. When she turned to look at more she saw the small baby dragon sitting in front of the one known as Blood bath. “Now Echo, I must go I....” he was cut off by the baby dragon known as Echo. “But Daddy you promised I could come with you.” Echo protested as he flared his wings trying to look intimidating. “I promise the next one and, if I don’t I will give you extras. Does that sound like a deal?” Blood bath said as he leaned down to become at eye level with Echo. His height only allowing Echo to be as tall as his horns barely touch his underbelly. “Okay.” Echo said as he let out a sigh in defeat. “I will be back.” Blood bath said as he flew off into the sunset. Like before everything turned to dust and became another location entirely. This time Echo was being held by the neck over the side of the rocky spire they were on. She noticed that his wings were tied behind his up so he couldn’t fly. He constantly tried to struggle, but was just not strong enough. “You will pay for the ones you killed. You should have never been allowed to live.” The dragon said “P..p...please I d...d...didn’t do anything I s..swear.” Echo said frantically hoping they would put him down. “Don’t play dumb with me I can see through your lies. I will make sure you never hurt anyone again.” He said as he held Echo farther over the edge. “I won’t hurt anyone I swear p..please put me down.” Echo said in fear. “You want to be put down? Fine I will put you down.” The dragon said as he grew a smirk as he tossed Echo over the edge of the spires edge. He let out a scream as he was thrown off the edge as the group of dragons laughed and only watched. Twilight just sat there in shock as she watched to baby dragon fall to his death. As his body slammed hard into the hard rock covered ground at the bottom of the rock spire. Echos body laid there broken and his body bleed large amounts of blood. His eyes closed one last time as he was dying. He wanted to know why they killed him. He did nothing wrong. He felt himself grow weaker and weaker as darkness slowly engulfed his vision. Soon he could see nothing. He found him self in a void of darkness with a maroon orb with a black outline surrounding it. Echo approached it and reached for it. When he touched it his eyes turned black and as a dark liquid substance started washing over his body all the way to his tail. Cracks of light started to appear on his body as the cracks began to grow until there was an explosion of light and where there was a purple and black dragon, there was now a dragon with black scales with a maroon under belly the webbing of his wings and horns being the same color. With the two horns on his head. A pair of horns curved downwards to the sides of his face. When his eyes open they were filled with hatred as the broken body of the baby dragon began to grow to about half the size of a adult dragon. He extended his wings and opened his eyes and locked eyes with the top of the rocky spire. As he gave his wing one hard flap and scored through the air at high speeds after the one who had thrown him off the edge. Right before he reach the group of dragons that had fear plastered across their faces everything quickly faded to dust. Twilight now found herself in the middle of a snowy wasteland as she stood on frozen ice. As she saw a figure fall from a cliff slamming into the ice as suddenly the ice beneath her cracked and collapsed under her weight she quickly took in a breath of air as she frantically tried to swim up back to the surface. She turned around and saw the bloody and beaten body of King. As it sank lower and lower it hit the bottom of the lake. She saw his eyes were closed. She casted a spell that would give her time to breath under water, but not for too much longer. She approached Kings destroyed body and got close looking over him noticing the injuries he had sustained. When she came to look at his face. King’s only remaining eye shot open as a blood red orb appeared in the place where his other eye had been destroyed she yelped as she heard a voice that was deep and demonic sounding. ”Rhis is not your grave, It. Is. Mine!?” the voice said as it started letting out a sinister laugh. As a tentacle wrapped itself around her horn making her spell cancel has she struggled in its grip trying to break free from its grasp. She tried again and again until her vision started to go dark and soon she blacked out. When Twilight awoke she found herself in a clearing in the Everfree Forest. She turned around and saw the same dragon that had helped her floating a couple of inches off the ground with his wings stretched outwards with its eyes closed. “Twilight Sparkle! Time is running out, only you can cure my the disease in my mind that is doubt. Go back, back to where it all began, the go to where you meet a makers end. Revive the darkness that lies and waits, and hurry before it is too late.” The dragon said as Twilight’s mind was filled with visions. She saw the castle of the two sisters, the. Canterlot castle, she then saw the pony of Shadows standing over a pony coaxed in armor like which she had never seen. Finally she saw under water the body of a certain feline laying at the bottom of a frozen lake. “There is one more thing I must tell, before I leave and wish you well. Go to the place where life is bear, but you will find a beacon that once was a flare. Here you will find the alpha that slumbers and waits, receive him and behold what awaits.” The dragon said as cracks began to form in the sky as Twilight suddenly started falling into darkness. She then shot up gasping, eyes snapping open. She frantically looked around and found herself at her desk. She sat there in silence contemplating what to do next. She looked out the window into the night wondering what that dream meant. If it was even real or had a meaning to begin with.