//------------------------------// // Legacy of Darkness // Story: Arcane Night, Book 1: Blackthorn Asylum // by Shadowed Rainbow //------------------------------// "Suddenly, Daring Do heard a voice in the echoing chamber, the glow in the center of the room looking even brighter..." It was the day before the holiday known as Nightmare Night, and Rainbow Dash was partaking in one of her favorite activities—reading about the brave adventurer known as Daring Do. She was reading Daring Do and the House on Haunted Hill, the cover adorned with an illustration of the titular character entering a large stone house, the surroundings dusty and worn with age. This was about the fifth time she had read the story, though it was both for the sake of the upcoming holiday and the fact that the next book in the series was due to be out the following week. "Hey, you want to go to some place really like that?" Rainbow Dash looked up from her book to see a cream-colored earth pony with a dark blue and pink mane standing in front of her. Sweetie Drops, known to most ponies by the nickname Bon Bon, wore an expression that seemed rather curious. "Hey Bon Bon, I thought you had your voice-acting classes to go to today." She gestured to the bag at the earth pony's side, where a folded script could be seen sticking out. Bon Bon shook her head. "The director was sick today." Her voice changed to a tone that was considered 'high-class'. "So I figured I'd do a bit of practicing on my own." Smiling, her voice returned to her normal dialect. "Anyway, I just saw the cover of the book you're reading and remembering the legends of an old cursed asylum that's said to be around here. It looks kind of like that." She pointed at the book cover. "A cursed asylum?" Rainbow's ears perked up in interest, the earth pony now having her full attention. That prospect sounded like an adventure waiting to happen. "Yup," Bon Bon turned her head in the direction of the Everfree Forest, just on the outskirts of Ponyville. "It's called Blackthorn Asylum. They say that a bunch of ponies used to be tormented there because they were insane, but that was centuries ago. I've even heard some ponies say that the place was cursed." "Cool!" The pegasus placed her bookmark into the spot she had been reading and turned the cover upright. "So it really looks kind of like this?" The cream-colored pony nodded. "I thought that was Blackthorn Asylum at first until I got a closer look at the cover." She paused, a hoof to her chin, before a small smile lit up her face. "Hey, how about you and I make a bet?" An arch of the pegasus's brow. Now things were getting interesting. "What kind of bet?" Bon Bon smirked. "Go to Blackthorn Asylum on Nightmare Night, stay there all night, and come back the next morning and describe the experience in detail." Bon Bon moved her head closer, her eyes narrowed. "And I mean a lot of detail. Enough to prove without a doubt that you were there." Rainbow Dash was prepared to meet this challenge head on. "What do I get if I win?" "30 bits. And if you lose, you have to give me 30." The eager pegasus let out a small but excited squeak. "That means if I win, I'll have just enough bits to go get a signed copy of the next Daring Doo book!" Grinning widely, she accepted the challenge with a hoof bump. "You're on!" Before Rainbow could take off, the earth pony held up a hoof to stop her. "Hold it. There's a few rules for this." "Aw man..." The pegasus looked disappointed, but she put all four hooves firmly on the ground and listened anyway, despite her mind already wandering concerning what she'd do with the money. "Rule number one, you can't leave the asylum for any reason, so if you plan to bring anything, stock up. Rule number two, you have to bring somepony with you." "Why?" "So I can trust somepony that you actually went there and didn't fake it." Rainbow lifted into the air again and crossed her forehooves in defiance. "Are you saying you don't trust me?" She attempted to make as innocent a face as she could. The deadpan expression on Bon Bon's face made it clear that the answer to that question was, "No, I don't". A sigh of exasperation. "Okay, okay, fine. I'll bring somepony with me." "And rule three—bring a souvenir." Bon Bon's narrowed eyes matched Rainbow's in a challenging stare, knowing that Rainbow never backed down from a challenge. "Bring some relic back from the asylum as absolute proof." The thought of bringing back an object from the asylum, probably rumored to be cursed, was causing Rainbow Dash to feel more and more like Daring Do with each passing second. "What kind of souvenir?" "Anything," said Bon Bon. "A scythe, a list of tortures, living shadows, a map, a magically cursed notebook that kills whoever's name you write in it, I don't know, just something as proof of your visit." The pegasus's magenta eyes narrowed, and she extended her hoof downward to meet Bon Bon's in a hoof bump. "Challenge accepted." Finding that an acceptable answer, she started to fly off and immediately prepare for her nighttime excursion. "Wait!" Bon Bon called after her, "I forgot rule number four." Rainbow suppressed an irritated roll of her eyes before looking downward. "What?" The smile on Bon Bon's face looked almost too cheerful, and Rainbow Dash had to admit that if the mare would be going for a villain role, she could be pretty darn good at it with her expression and voice. "Don't die." "W-Why did you bring me here?" Fluttershy asked quietly, attempting to control her trembling. "You know I really, really don't like scary things." "Because this'll be like a Daring Do adventure we're going on together!" Rainbow grinned. "No way should something like this be passed up!" Fluttershy only seemed more afraid than before. "But why'd you have to bring me here? Wouldn't it be better to bring somepony along who's a little bit, um," she paused, eyes darting around, "braver?"" Rainbow tried not to look as exasperated as she felt. "You're my best friend, and Bon Bon knows that you wouldn't lie about our adventure when we come back." Fluttershy squeaked in reply, attempting to focus her thoughts away from replacing "when we come back" with "if we come back". The two pegasai walked through the concealing mist which was ever-present in this part of the forest. The bare trees on either side of them only served to give that section of the wilderness a more mysterious allure, Fluttershy drawing closer to Rainbow in unease. As the fog began to clear, the two ponies finally beheld their destination—a large stone building that resided in the center of the forest. No noise from inside resounded, no opening and shutting of doors. No distant ghosts or the screams of those who had once inhabited the edifice in question... "Ha, I knew we'd find it around here!" The gazes of the two visitors rose to the top of the building's gate, where faded, engraved words were visible, enduring over the centuries since it had first been built: Blackthorn Asylum The pair stared upward, the foreboding structure appearing to leer down at them, as if daring them to inter the decrepit halls at their own risk. Both members of the party carried small bags over their shoulders, packed with the provisions for the night ahead that they planned to spend in this forbidden sector of the forest. As they looked at the towering asylum, the ponies wore opposing expressions—Fluttershy bore a gaze that expressed she would rather be anywhere but there, while Rainbow hovered eagerly in the air. "Wow, it really is like that one abandoned house in Daring Do and the House on Haunted Hill..." A grin spread across Rainbow's face, her rainbow-hued mane standing out in the sinister lighting. She nudged her companion. "Come on, Fluttershy, time for us to take our nighttime trip inside! Sounds like it could be fun, right?" Fluttershy cringed and stepped back, wide teal eyes gazing upward at the imposing building. This definitely did not look like the kind of friendly place she was used to back in Ponyville, and she wanted nothing more than to get as far away from the creepy old asylum as possible. "Um...I'm really not sure, Rainbow Dash." She gulped, the dark building seeming to cast a shadow over them. "I've heard some grim stories about Blackthorn Asylum." The words got Rainbow's attention. "Like what?" Though she recalled Bon Bon mentioning the asylum was centuries old, she hadn't elaborated on any particular stories. Fluttershy whimpered slightly, averting her eyes from the asylum in question as her long pink mane hid her face. "When I mentioned I was going there with you tonight, Roseluck told me that the Shadow King and Crystal Princess were rumored to run the asylum a long time ago." "Shadow King? Crystal Princess?" Magenta eyes bright, Rainbow lowered herself to the ground, curiosity overcoming her. "Who are they?" Fluttershy took a deep breath. "You've heard of the Crystal Empire, haven't you?" "Sure," Rainbow said nonchalantly, turning back to the other pegasus. "That's the country just north of Equestria that we established a trade route with last month, right? I heard a few of the townsponies here have friends up there." Fluttershy nodded, clearly hesitant to continue. "Roseluck told me that the Shadow King and the Crystal Princess were ponies who lived there in a large manor. The Shadow King wanted nothing but power, and he became so consumed by the dark magic that he turned into a living shadow himself. When he was hiding in his manor, he used his magic to form a pony from crystal who he saw as his daughter, who was just as corrupted as he was. Eventually, the crystal ponies of the Empire used their own form of magic to overthrow them and drive them out." Though Rainbow had only a rough idea of what the two ponies in question looked like, the images of Fluttershy's story began to fill her mind. The two ponies reigning sovereign over the Crystal Empire, the crystal ponies combining their own magic to drive the two away, the King and Princess traveling through Equestria, remaining hidden... "The two wanted to take revenge against ponykind for having overthrown them, but they knew that they couldn't just take over someplace like they did with the Empire after word got out. Eventually, they found the Everfree Forest and decided to stay here." She looked up, the reality of where they were truly setting in as she watched some wispy clouds pass over the moon. "I don't know why they'd want to stay here instead of any other forest though. I mean, the animals take care of themselves, the clouds move on their—" "I get it Fluttershy, we're here," Rainbow said, waving a hoof toward the building in front of them but looking more intrigued than irritated. "So how'd this asylum get here?" "Sorry," Fluttershy muttered. "Anyway, after they were able to observe some of the ponies that lived there for a while, they found out only the really brave or foolish went into the forest. So the Shadow King and Crystal Princess built the asylum and led some ponies there to trap them, putting them through terrible tortures until the 'patients' tore each other apart." Fluttershy swallowed hard, the thought of such torments happening to ponies visibly frightening her, as if she saw the scenarios playing out in her mind. "They'd transform the inmates into crystal and shatter their bodies if a patient resisted long enough, and then they'd become part of the building and..." Fluttershy closed her eyes and shuddered at the thought, stepping back and looking like she was going to fly back home any second. "I don't like the idea of being turned to crystal." While some ponies might have been terrified of Fluttershy's story, it only seemed to make Rainbow Dash more eager to go in. "Wow, a place with a cursed history like that? Sounds awesome!" Fluttershy stammered, eyes wide. "But Rainbow Dash... what if the stories are true?" "Relax," Rainbow assured her friend, putting a hoof around her shoulders. "This place has been abandoned for centuries. We'll probably just see a few of the cells and a skeleton or two—" Fluttershy squeaked. "—but that doesn't mean that we'll run into anypony. Even if that story is true, they're long gone." "I hope you're right..." Fluttershy trailed off, her fears still not entirely eased by Rainbow's attempt at consoling. It was clear that the stories of this being a terrible legacy to the power of shadow magic was still nagging at her mind. Unbeknownst to the pair, a lone figure watched them from a window in the asylum's higher towers, the windowpane dusty with age from the outside. Their onlooker was a pink alicorn, her gradient, purple-tipped wings folded at her sides. The crystal heart on her flank briefly flashed, as if it were a signal in response to new visitors. "Well, well, well..." The expression on the alicorn's face brightened, her pink eyes housing a rekindled spark. "Hmm, about time some others showed up. It was starting to get a little dull around here with the same old inmates to torment." She turned behind her, peering into the darkness behind her. At first, it seemed that no one was there, only the darkness keeping the mare company. But soon enough, the shadows condensed into a more solidified form. From out of the gloom, two bright red eyes materialized, gazing at the alicorn curiously. "Father, I-I mean," the alicorn cleared her throat, adopting a more professional air. "Doctor." The pair of eyes moved up, then down, a slight nod urging the alicorn to continue. "I see we have some new guests arriving, I'll have to get everything ready for them." The grin on the alicorn's face grew, looking much more malicious than kind. The shadow-like stallion stepped out of the darkness to stand beside her, letting out a slight huff of irritation. "Not right away. Come now, Cadenza, they're our guests. You know it's been a while since we've had any. Let us make their last moments nice for the time being..." The mare bowed in respect, a smirk on her face that she was relieved her guests couldn't see. Though there were times where they wanted to see their "guests" on edge right away, they did like to have a little fun pretending every now and then. "Yes, of course, Doctor Sombra." With a mixture of curiosity and fear, the pair of pegasai below stepped forward through the heavy iron gates of the asylum, all sound around them appearing to be muted. There was no blowing of the wind against their coats, no crinkle of dry leaves under their hooves, no creaking branches reaching out to grab them. There was only the faint sounds of their steps as their hooves propelled them forward. Reaching the door and pushing it open with a creak, the two of them stepped inside. Neither noticed that in that same moment, the rusted gates of the asylum closed, and an ethereal shield briefly flashed above. Cadenza smiled from the upper floor. It was time to go greet the new visitors.