//------------------------------// // Awakening // Story: Sweetie Belle and the School of Shadows // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// The large group of fillies was led inside the School of Shadows, passing through the large metal gates that served as the entrance. Everywhere a pony could look was covered by guards, be they from the Light Realm or the Shadow Realm. Behind them the train rolled out of the station and vanished from sight not a few moments later, making it impossible for anypony to leave where they were. Now the only way for a pony to leave was for the Princesses, any of the three, to summon the train back. “The Great and Powerful Trixie welcomes all of you to the School of Shadows,” said a voice as the cape wearing showmare appeared in front of them, “and beckons you all to follow her to the main hall. Oh, and feel free to dispel any illusions that you might be hiding from those around you. Trixie knows she will do just that.” Sweetie Belle instantly noticed Trixie’s eye color change as she grew a small set of fangs, marking the mare as a vampony. All around her she noticed fillies becoming wereponies and some of the adults becoming older vamponies. She even spotted a couple dozen white colored Changelings, who seemed interested in seeing Mea and her guards. Sweetie kept her colors and hoped that none of the teachers, or the Princesses themselves, wanted to see her monstrous form. Even Pinkie Pie, a pony who was as chaotic as Discord himself, shifted into another form that closely resembled Discord’s own form. “It seems that there is one who doesn’t wish to reveal their inner monster,” Trixie said, her eyes turning to regard Sweetie with interest, “and I am surprised by who that is. I would think that the Shadow of Thrack, the monster of the night herself, would enjoy being around the same creatures that she was.” “Do not fear the change young one,” the vampony mare continued, a scythe appearing on her back, “but rather accept who you truly are.” Sweetie’s body convulsed yet again, which was seriously getting old for her. She could feel her body changing, turning into the form of the dreaded Thrack that everypony hated. Even the cape became a small necklace as the bat wings grew out of her back. Yet despite the pain Sweetie felt that she could control some portion of Thrack’s power in her untrained state. She wasn’t going to test it, but she was glad it was there none the less. “That was dangerous Trixie,” Twilight Sparkle said, flanked by her friends and their collective Shadows, “You know that the power of Thrack must be contained at all costs. We can’t have the seals suddenly shatter just because you want everypony to reveal their other sides.” Trixie grumbled something and turned to lead the group towards the main hall of the school, but not before passing a courtyard. Sweetie looked past the stone pillars and felt her breath turn cold as she noticed what was resting in a huge chunk of solid ice. Resting in suspended animation was a long sword with a handle that made it a two handed weapon and runes on the blade. The jagged edge of the blade and the designs caught she eye, though she couldn’t remember where the sword was from. I don’t believe it, Thrack whispered to Sweetie, I’ve been searching for that bloody weapon for all these years and it’s been here the entire time. Excuse me, who said you could talk to me? Sweetie mentally asked, and second, what the heck is that weapon? Frostmourne, Thrack replied, a weapon of untold power that can raise the dead from their slumber, no matter how old the corpses might be. It is said that the sword eats the soul of the wielder and marks the pony as the next ruler of the undead. With the matching set of armor the pony could become the Lich King or the Lich Queen, commander of legions. No, bad Thrack, Sweetie said, you will not have such a dangerous weapon under your control. Besides, you already have an army of the undead somewhere in the Everfree Forest ready to do whatever you command them to do. Party crasher, Thrack said before retreating into the shackles again. Sweetie took one last look at the frozen weapon, the sword called Frostmourne, and ran to join the group. She had a bad feeling about that Thrack was planning on doing something with that weapon, but as long as she stayed in control that wouldn’t happen. She was also glad that none of the other ponies were treating her like the monster that rested within her. “To put everything in the simplest of terms,” Nightmare Moon said, walking ahead of Trixie and her group, “all of you will learn to control the various sides of your nature, be they vampony, werepony, or even a hybrid. In addition you all will learn the various arts that are attuned to who you truly are. So say that you’re a unicorn, you’ll be taking lessons from the masters of magic and everything dealing with the art of magic itself. Or a pegasus learning to correctly fly off the ground and commanding the weather as they see fit. The five towers are where all of you will be staying for the entire school year. There is no division amongst houses if any of you are wondering, but maybe in a few more years we might have some houses. Inside the towers is a housing space that is designed to grow as needed and we have already determined who is going to be in which tower. The teachers will be wearing a metal band around one of their front hooves and will be handing out class schedules once we reach the main hall.” “What’s the deal with that strange weapon frozen in ice,” a pony from the group called out, Sweetie sighing in relief that she didn’t have to ask the question. “Oh, Frostmourne?” Nightmare asked, “Over a thousand years ago it was wielded by a monster known only as the Lich King. Whoever he was before that we never knew, but he was somepony who crafted that dangerous weapon. He caused the first invasion of the undead scourge, consuming much of Equestria before turning towards Shadowlot. When Darkstar and I crushed him we banished him from the realm, hoping that he and his cursed sword would end up destroyed. From what Luna has told me the Lich King arrived in her version of Equestria and tried to build another army, but failed due to his weapon missing. He escaped again and went into hiding, but time passed before Luna and I switched realms. I found and destroyed him for the final time and then used some of his undead essence to power up the filly that became Thrack at the time. I don’t know if she found the armor or it was destroyed by time, but there is absolutely no chance of that weapon being used ever again.” Sweetie resisted the urge to sigh to herself as she wondered why Thrack was so interested in the weapon. She already commanded legions of the dead, as she claimed, without such a weapon. So why did the legendary monster need a dark weapon in the first place? Was there some other legendary monster that was killed and she wanted to bring it back? Sweetie didn’t know and she didn’t care either way; Thrack wasn’t getting control again. Then she heard the familiar beat of a stereo, which meant that Vinyl Scratch was in town. But there was a second set beating a very different beat, which Sweetie figured must have been Vinyl’s Shadow. And by the look on the Princesses faces they knew the two were there. “I sent them ahead to prepare the tables and everything,” Nightmare explained when the Light Princesses gave her a look, “I seriously didn’t think they’d start blasting music at each other. I didn’t think Vinyl and Bass would do that without an audience.” “Somepony call our names,” came two voices as soon as the group entered the main hall and two mares appeared. One the left stood the familiar white coated, light blue haired mare that wore sunglasses all the time. She was none other than Vinyl Scratch, DJ of the Light Equestria. To her left stood a dark haired, grey coated mare who wore silver sunglasses. She had to be Bass, DJ of the Shadow Equestria. “It’s time to get this party started,” the two shouted as the room exploded into a party. Music started to blare as the two popped on their stereos, receiving head shakes from the Princesses. All the ponies, be they Light or Shadow, began to party as the three Princesses left the main hall. They figured they could get everything dealt with in the morning and not waste their precious magic trying to fix the problem. -The Royal Cemetery, Shadowlot- It was silent during the nighttime of the Shadow Realm due to all the lights being off and all the ponies being asleep. None of them would know that a dark blue portal opened near the tomb of the tyrant Darkstar. Two ponies emerged from the portal, quickly closing it before entering the tomb. The unicorn of the group silently blasted the door into smoke and they passed through with ease. “Seems I was right,” the unicorn said, “Nightmare Moon put the most wicked of curses to prevent ponies from defacing her sister’s body.” “Quiet my brother,” the other, a pegasus, said, “We must be quick before Atar arrives to check on her again.” In little time the two approached the casket of the evil Princess and broke open the top, forcing it to the side with a loud thud. In front of them rested the nearly dried up form of a grey Celestia with pure black flame hair. The body was clearly the body of Darkstar, still dressed up with the royal jewelry. The unicorn smiled and pulled out a large spell book that radiated pure darkness. The book opened to a page somewhere in the center of the book and the runes started to glow as the unicorn began to recite the darkest of spells. It was a special spell developed by Thrack to create necromancers to raise the dead when she couldn’t do it herself. It chained the mind of the dead to the will of Thrack and made them follow her orders, even if they didn’t want to. And in her current form she needed somepony to run the army and resurrect more members for her. The ground shook and the magic that would have alarmed Nightmare Moon if somepony other than her and Atar opened the door to the tomb. Darkness erupted from out of nowhere around Darkstar’s body, almost as if her magic was alive and had a mind of its own. In a few minutes Nightmare Moon would be there and all they had done would be unraveled in an instant. Then the casket exploded in a fury of darkness and the body hit the ground, landing on its hooves hard enough to make a sound. “So I have returned,” came the very eerie voice of Princess Darkstar as her mane erupted to live yet again, “I have only one thing to say right now.” “I’m going to KILL REGINALD.”