To whoever finds this book, I entreat you: heed my words, and do not let them fall on deaf ears. A great evil will one day return to the plains of Equestria, and if he is not stopped, the sun will cease to be, and the world will be plunged into eternal darkness. This enemy is wise beyond belief, and ageless, older than any know. He must be stopped.
My name is Silent Shade, a unicorn under the rule of Princess Celestia. It is the fourth year of the Fifth Era of Equestria, or the Age of Celestia, as it will come to be known. It has been four years since Nightmare Moon attempted her takeover of Equestria, and was banished to the moon she so loved. Four years since my foe disappeared into the depths of Tartarus, taking his ilk with him. It’s been four years since my weapon has tasted the cold blood of my enemies. Four long years.
I will not bore you with a description of what I look like. It matters not, as nopony will remember me for that. Nopony should. The only thing I need to be remembered for is this information in this book. There will be those who will toss this aside, but I know that there will be those who will read this and know of his influence. The foe I fight is mighty, but he must be stopped.
This is the last thing I shall ever write. The light is fading from my eyes, and I know that soon, The Void Beyond will claim me for its own. I write this so that others may know of the threat that will one day come back to Equestria. I write so that you may know how to fight back against them. Against the vamponies.
You’ve probably heard of the vamponies before. An old mare’s tale, made to scare the young ones into doing their chores or some such nonsense. And, when you read this, they will have been gone for so long that most will assume that they are nothing but legends. But they are very real, and very dangerous. But none are more dangerous, more lethal, and more cunning than their leader.
Little is known about this being. Even my own knowledge is limited. From what I understand, he was one of the first alicorns to be created, but he loved dark magic, eventually finding the secret to life eternal, albeit at a terrible cost. He is a twisted, dark mutilation of what alicorns are meant to be. And because of the darkness in his heart, he seeks the destruction of light.
There is one other thing about our foe. His name. His true name, his birth name, has been lost to time. There is no record of it. I have only faced him once, and he is terrible to behold. But even then, I did not learn much about him. His is as mysterious and baffling as he is dangerous. But his name, the one he goes by, the one he was cursed with ages ago, is Insidious. A fitting name for a beast such as him.
It is this beast that I have hunted for most of my life. That’s my special talent. Killing vamponies - your career options are rather limited when your cutie mark is a wooden stake - is all I know. It’s all I’ve ever known. I’ve perfected the art. And this is what I mean for this to convey to you. Not only the techniques I’ve developed over the years, but also everything I know about the vamponies. Weakness, strengths, and even some interesting prophecies relating to them. That’s what I mean to convey to you.
I don’t know who will find this. I can hope that my son will one day pick up this book, or the son of my son, or the son of his son. But to whoever picks up my book, do not cast it aside as some old fable. That mistake will be the death of you.
I have done many things I regret over my years. Among them are events that must be recorded; ten events to be specific. I will understand if your opinion of me lessens because of them, but they were necessary evils. I don’t like the fact that they happened either. Know that not a day goes by where I don’t see them in my mind, hear the screams and cries of ponies that I failed. It haunts me to no end. It has been so long since I’ve had a proper night’s sleep. Mostly because I sleep during the day, but that is of little consequence.
And to the one who finds this book, there is something you must find. My weapon. Defiance. I will describe it later, but I have hidden it away where nopony can touch it. In my final chapter, the location will be revealed. Find it. Use it. It will help you, as it has helped me. And know this about it: because of the magic poured into the weapon, it has become somewhat alive. Just treat it well, and it will treat you well.
A final warning before I begin: watch the eyes. The eyes of vamponies are a dead giveaway - please forgive that pun - to the keen observer. A normal pony’s pupils are large and black. Solid black. A vampony will often have streaks of color running through their pupils. The color tends to be in the range of gold to red, but I have seen green and blue as well. It tends to vary with the ranks of the vampony, but I’m not positive as to which rank is which. I have classified some of them, which I will go through at a later point. Just know that the cooler the color - blue, green, purple, and the like - the more experienced and dangerous.
Now, the story must begin. Of course, the best place to begin is at the beginning, so let me start with the day I got my cutie mark. The day that my entire world began to collapse around me.