The forest is tranquil. Animals are scurrying around the foliage, whilst the distant sound of a running stream can be heard. Sunlight filters through the leaves, gracing the grass and moss with its gentle touch. In the middle of it all, one could barely notice the incandescent thorn poking out the ground.
Well, that's until I can along.
A huge explosion rocks the earth beneath me, as the dark flames create a vortex around me, black matter leaves my horn downwards, shaping a rough mannequin of my features. I raise my head and roar my pain, causing a group of sparrows to flee their nests. Or maybe it was the fiery explosion that followed the completetion of myself. It's really hard to tell when your body is taken by the unimaginable pain of being still half intangible.
...
I wake up. I blink, a futile effort to keep the light from annoying me. Craning my neck upwards, a series of unpleasant cracks through the length of my spine help me rid of some of the pain that haunts me. I inspect my body, finding it mostly intact, too intact. It is unnatural for a stallion of my age to look like he has never been outdoors. Perhaps a bit of exercise is in order.
I try to get up to my hooves, but a sudden pain in my left foreleg causes me to fall once more. I look upon it, but find nothing wrong. Maybe my rebirth was not as flawless as I initially assumed.
It's then that I noticed something very, very wrong.
I was I. Not us.
I can't... This isn't possible. How can it... Perhaps it was the light. Yes, that retched light. I silently curse that shiny goddess of the sun as I try once more to get up.
No such luck.
From what small medical knowledge I possess, I can assume that, fortunately enough, the problem was an unsafe landing, so it's only fractured, rather than missing the bone altogether.
Unfortunately, I'm also in the middle of a forest.
Bummer.
The blackness would certainly have had an idea. No matter how much it corrupted me, I must admit it was quite helpful. But now I am all on my lonesome, and I need to get out of here before some bear or diamond dog or Discord knows what finds me.
My third attempt to get up is slightly more successful, allowing me to walk three hooves before falling to my knees yet again.
This is getting tedious.
My ears flick at the sound of a dog bark. Ponies! Yes! Perhaps they'll be able to help me.
No. No, by what I can tell, the Crystal Empire incident happened a few days ago, word of my evil-doing will have probably spread like wildfire. My best chance is to hide myself and follow whatever pony is the owner of that dog so that he or she may lead me to civilisation. As I painfully hop behind a nearby rock, I can see the dog enter my field of vision. It is certainly a beast of swiftness, what with its keen and slender body, though its stupefied smile worried me it wouldn't be able to handle an obstacle course. It seems to be trying to sniff the air in order to find anything unusual, but I know very well rebirth is a flawless process. No smell whatsoever. If anything, I probably now had the scent of the grass itself. I can't relax yet, though, because its owner soon shows himself.
"Winona! Winona, git back here!"
The stallion trots in my clearing with heavy stomps, indicating either great strength or need of rest. Or both. Now that I think about it, the sun was infact quite far in its path.
"Winona, here girl."
He is a strong, burly thing, a red earth stallion with an orange mane and lazy emerald eyes. A peculiar harness sits around his neck.
Unfortunately, my luck turned before I could tell if he is friendly or not.
I hear a growl just to my left and see the pet bearing its teeth, before it pounces at me. As I scream and beg the stallion for assistance, I helplessly try to wrestle the blood hound. Well, it's really more of a terrier, but a ferocious terrier!
We roll on the ground, the beast tearing at me with its sharp fangs, which I at least manage to dodge, if not counter. Suddenly, the dog abandons its quest to devour me, and I notice something is amiss.
Sight? Check.
Hearing? Check.
Breathing? Check.
Walki-- wait, where did the ground go?
My question is soon answered as I fall on my back, a gruesome crack followed by my screams of pain filling the air around me, my spine bending in ways it shouldn't.
Then, deadly silence.
Once again, the blackness takes me.
...
I join the waking world once more, coughing up blood and silently screaming out my pain, since my breath is seemingly gone. I don't understand, the fall should've forced me to rejoin the darkness, why am I still here?
My body is being rebuilt by the black flames, which only furthers my confusion. Why, although I am still connected to the shadows, could I not rebirth properly this noon?
Noon.
Noon!
My eyes shoot upwards and the catch the fleeting image of the shining moon, before the pain forces me to lower my gaze again. It was the night! The night had brought me back the wonderful black! Oh, praise the stars! We are complete once more! But... The day... Yes, day will keep tormenting us. Unless...
Unless we kill the Goddess.
Our body is no longer one of flesh. We are one with the flames, indistinguishable from the darkness around us. Only our eyes, veiled with nightmares to protect us from the lies of dreams, shine bright.
We move for the kill.
We do not know where we are, nor do we know where we are going. The night will guide us. The shadows know all, feel all, for all sin is done in the shadows. Finding our prey will not be difficult, though it may be enduring.
No matter. Whilst our mistress finds our kill, we will hunt. Our hooves leave no prints, for we are only blackness. I am a dark rider of flames, smoke of sin our only trace. We hunt to find sinners to cleanse them.
We exit the woods. Our mind distractedly notes we are now in an orchard, but we are not interested. To us, it only means that the farmer must be nearby. We look amongst the trees, and we see a glow. Magical Light, shield of the weak. We can see the ponies, of number three, from our hiding in this tree. Ha! We rhymed.
The stallion of our time of weakness is among them, accompanied by an orange earth mare and another purple unicorn female. The orange one shares a similar mark with the stallion. Relatives, perhaps?
It does not matter. We are about to pounce on our pray. What? Wait? Why wait, they are th-- yes, you are right! It IS the heart thief. Somepony able to pass our defences is surely a worthy foe.
Our form takes that of a cloud, just outside of the light, so that they may not see us.
We will listen to what they are saying, and judge accordingly.
The orange one is the first to speak.
"Big Mac, are ya sure it was him?"
"Eenope." the stallion replies. He is of few words. "Ah already told ya, sis. Ah only saw him for a second."
"Well, what did he look like?" Asks the thief. They are talking of us.
"Grey coat, wavy black mane." They are talking of us. "Red eyes, an' a really strange horn." It is not strange!
"How strange?" The thief asks. What a whiny voice. "Did it look like it was made of incandescent iron?"
"Eeyup."
"Twilight, are ya sure we shouldn't have brought the rest of the girls with us?" Others? There are other thieves?
"Applejack, there's no need to worry." Oh, but there is. "As Big Mac said, he isn't even sure it was him. At this time, we are still technically on a rescue mission."
We do not listen anymore. We know everything we need to know. We depart for the farm house, up the hill, where we are sure to find prey. The door is unlocked. Not very wise. We enter a room with a fireplace. We are not interested, but we can hear snores from the next floor. We retake our shape and silently, we walk up the stairs.
Doors. Closed doors. Damn it all! If we get the wrong room, the noise might wake our prey. We must trust our ears now. We silently walk up to the first door on our right... Step... By... Step... A sudden flutter. We smirk. Bats. Our friends of the night.
Nevertheless, this is not the room.
We continue creeping, our shadow taking life and scouting the walls before us. The second door is not right either. We lift our eyes to the shadow. It is motioning for the fifth door. Silently, we creak it open, finding a filly resting in her bed. Our shadowy form flows up to her, as we examine her. She is no older than nine. She will sleep well in the womb.
My dramatic swoop for the foal is cut short when something hard hits my head and I fall to the floor. I quickly snap backwards with a growl, noting that the object was a chair, now smashed. Before me is standing an elderly green mare, boring her stare into my skull.
"Don't defy me, old mare, or you will pay."
She grabs a lamp and attempts to hit me with it. Needless to say, my current agility gives me a great deal of an upper hand, allowing me to easily dodge her blow and grab her leg.
"You have chosen unwisely, granny. The child would have slept peacefully for the rest of her life."
Suddenly, in a feat of incredible strength, the old mare overpowers me and causes me to fall out her window, screaming in a totally manly way.
"No grandchild of mine'll be sleepin' after seven!" I hear her scream, before I roll down the hill and into a bush. I lift my gaze, full of rage, but I then notice that the sun had already risen for a while, which was probably the cause of my defeat. I then realise two things: one, that the old mare would probably try to find me and two, this was probably the same home of that horrible dog. So I run, run towards the nearest town I can see, the home town of the thief and her friends.
...
By the time I arrive, the town is bustling with ponies of all shapes and sizes. Going about inconspicuously will be easy.
My first thoughts are that I need to find something to eat, if I am to survive. My second, survive for what? I have no purpose here, undeserving of another chance. What am I hoping to achieve? The blackness seeks to kill the Sun Goddess, and is very capable of doing so. The best way I can help this world is by ridding it of me.
No, that won't be possible. I should be dead already, but the night has brought me back. Perhaps a bit of studying is in order. Oh, I do love studying! I only hope the local library has what I need. It won't be as knowledgable as my own, of course, but I can only hope.
First things first, I need a disguise. Not too difficult, a disguise spell should be child's play. But I am not sure if my magic still works. I walk into a hidden alleyway and start concentrating, closing my eyes and focusing my magic into my horn, vessel of power. I feel the wave of energy ascending through my body, morphing my bones, forming my features, green flame burning my skin to replace it with a new kind up to the tip of my horn. Finally, I open my eyes. I'm not as tall, for one. My fur is a plum purple, as opposed to my old ash grey. My tail is now a blonde gold with lighter highlights, and I can only assume my mane is the same. My mark is very much the same, though the colour is switched. Which is boring. As I final touch, I summon myself a regal white uniform with a red, silky cape. Orange motifs are on the puffy shoulder things I never bothered to learn the name of, and I allow myself to indulge in the delight of creating for myself a white bard hat, with a golden feather sprouting out of it. If I had the time, I would giggle myself silly for wearing this outfit, but I do not. I need to reach the library, so I may find a way of killing myself successfully.