A guard reached through a hole in the wall, exchanging the torch inside a circular prison chamber at the scheduled interval. He stole a quick glance at the prisoner inside, noting with slight pity that she had barely moved since the torches had last been changed. They hadn’t been told much about their ward, only that she was extremely dangerous, and should never be left in the dark. Strict instructions were given about how often to change the torches, how to feed her, how to chain her (she had one chain attached to each limb, each mounting point equally distant from the next), how often to change the guard, how and when you should talk to her, etc. The list went of things to do and not to do on and on. And yet for all the drastic security measures, not a single one of them was told what it was they were dealing with. She was a unicorn, that much was obvious. Was she a dark wizard? That would explain her pitch-black color. What horrible crime did she commit to have an entire prison built for her, high up in the mountains?
“Nice weather today,” said the second guard, sidling up to the first. They had to work in pairs, with four guards to a shift. Each shift had two teams of two; both teams constantly patrolling around the cell of the prisoner.
“Sure is. Wish I could have the outdoor guard duty slot today. I’d throw so many snowballs.”
“All I want is my leave request to go through. I want to make sure I get home to the wife and kids for Hearth’s Warming Eve.”
“Lucky bastard. I wish I had a wife and kid I could use an excuse to get out of this cold, grey prison. It’s as much of a prison for us as it is for her.”
“Just focus on the positive. We get relieved in an hour.”
“Yeah, but the other team gets relieved now. Why focus on the positive when I can focus on the negative?” he said with a half-joking laugh. The main door opened into the snowy mountaintop as the new team traded places with the old. A frigid gust of the mountain air blew strongly into the cell.
“Shut the damn door!”
“Sweet Celestia that’s freezing cold!” The door boomed shut, and iron locks clicked shut from the outside.
“Well, damn. The wind blew out the torches.” One of the guards strode up to the cell, casting a quick ignition spell, relighting the torches one by one. The first guard did a double take.
“Hey, uh, where did the prisoner go?”
“She can’t have gotten out of the cell that quickly,” the first said. The two poked their heads inside, looking around for the prisoner. The two jumped as they heard a half strangled shout, abruptly ending with a cracking sound.
“Oh s-” The two cringed at the sound of a second snap. They galloped full speed for the second team, stopping after doing a half circuit without finding a soul.
“Hello? Hello? This isn’t funny, Blaze!” they called out to their backup. “Seriously guys, where are you?”
“What did I trip ov-Celestia!” The guard shouted in alarm, pointing to two bodies laying on the floor, their heads lolling about at angles impossible for an intact spine.
“What have we here, you,”
“Scared, afraid, terrified,”
“Vermin!” A voice spoke to them from the darkness. It changed its inflection and tone every few seconds. In the span of one sentence, it had gone from inquisitive, to mocking, to disgusted.
“You need not fear me, I don’t want, to kill you,”
“I just want your soul.”
“Dude, what did we get ourselves into?” One guard whispered.
“Speak not unless spoken to!” A rage filled voice quieted the others temporarily. “Insolent scum, I will devour you first!”
“But I thought we agreed no eating…”
“Shut up! This wretch deserves it!”
“No, we are correct. We did agree not to eat them this time.”
“Fine.”
“I think this is our cue to leave,” the other guard whispered back, and the two slowly began edging towards the door.
“Heh heh heh heh heh.”
“Ha ha ha ha ha!”
“Where are you going?”
“Come back, the fun is just beginning!”
“Stop them.”
“Eat them.”
“No eating!”
“Death!”
“Silence!”
“Yes… silencing is good. We’ll silence them.”
“It will be just like old times!”
“Back in my day, we didn’t need to reasons to kill, we just did.”
“That’s what we did to ma and pa!” The guards took off at a dead sprint for the door, and began pounding on it.
“Help! Let us out!”
“We?”
“Look around you, Mr. Guard.”
“There is no we.”
“There’s only you.”
“Your friend is silent.”
“Just like old times.”
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Open the door!” He pleaded again.
“Shush-sh-sh-sh.”
“Hush now.”
“No cause for alarm.”
“He does look delicious.”
“Mmm, so well toned,” He felt something prod his stomach.
“Just this once.” He could hear the locks on the gate starting to open.
“Ok.” The guard’s cry for help disintegrated into garbled noises as teeth tore at his throat, dragging him coughing and wheezing from the doorway. The outdoor guards poked their heads in.
“Hello? Are you ok? Holy hell, where did this blood come from?” Hoofs reached in from the darkness, snapping the neck of the guard. The second guard drew his nightstick, swinging it into the viciously towards the dark figure.
“What the hell is wrong with you, get back here, and fight me like a man!” The unicorn dodged the swing, sending a savage kick upwards, knocking the nightstick from the guard’s grip. The next blow crushed his skull against the door. The momentum from the killing blow carried the prisoner outside, into the sunlight. She recoiled in surprise from the sunlight. She threw up a leg, trying to shade her eyes. She blinked her eyes a few times in surprise.
“What the-, how did I get out here?” She turned around slowly, for the first time seeing some of the carnage. “Oh no, no no no no! I did it again! Those damn voices! I told them they have to keep me in the light, I can’t control them when I’m in the dark! I broke free and killed everypony! They’ll kill me for sure this time! What do I do, what do I do? I have to run, I have to leave! And stay in the light. I have to have a fire going or stay in the sunlight.” Murderer. Nopony likes you. You are a horrible pony. Kill yourself. “Shut up, shut up! Gotta keep moving. I have got to get out of here.”
*** *** *** *** ***
Ugh. Did nopony know proper library etiquette? I mean seriously, while the library is always open, if you’re going to come in at 3AM looking for a book, couldn’t you at least not slam the door? Twilight rolled over in her bed, opting to let the obnoxiously loud book-seeker below struggle to find the desired tome on their own. A few more crashes and thumps could be heard below; Twilight winced at each one, pulling the covers tighter over her head. After the fourth or fifth smash, Twilight could have sworn she heard a binding break on one of her precious books. There were some lines you just don’t cross, and rampant book desecration was one of them. Whoever was below was about to face the full wrath of an angry Twilight, woken from her slumber. And it wasn’t going to be pretty.
Twilight jumped from her bed, sprinting downstairs at lightning speeds, trailing blankets behind her in her mad rush to apprehend those who dare trash her library. She tore down the stairs, stopping abruptly, using her hooves to shield her eyes.
“Augh! Who turned on the lights?” Twilight rubbed her painful eyes, the brilliant lights shooting daggers into her skull. She stumbled across the floor, trying to shut her eyes against the brilliant onslaught. After a few seconds, she was able to crack one of them open wide enough to see what was going on. Somepony was standing on a heap of books, staring intently at a lamp fixture. “What the hay are you doing?”
“Nope. Can still hear them. Keep staring.”
“Hello! Strange black pony. Yoohoo. Over here.”
“Keep looking, they’ll go away.” Twilight put her hoof on the back of the intruder. The intruder fairly jumped to the ceiling.
“You’re real! You’re what I was hearing!”
“Um, yeah, what else were you hearing?”
“What? Oh, nothing. Nothing at all. It’s just been a strange day,” the intruder said edging towards the door.
“Are you ok? What’s your name?”
“I’m fine, nothing wrong with me.”
“Well, why are you trying to escape then? It’s not like you are being sneaky about trying to leave.”
“Oh, I, uh, am not trying to leave.”
“You sure look like it.”
“I can’t leave.”
“Why can’t you?”
“It’s dark outside.”
“So?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me,” Twilight was still very confused by everything that was going on. She was grasping for something—anything to make sense at this point.
“Bad things happen at night.”
“You’re scared of the dark.”
“No! Just of what happens in the dark.”
“So yeah, you’re scared of the dark.” Twilight looked this strange pony up and down. “You look like you’re my age. How old are you?”
“I don’t know, how old are you?”
“Of course you know, everypony knows. Fine, I’ll tell you mine then you tell me yours. Deal?”
“I don’t know,” she said, backing up a little. Seriously, who was this purple unicorn, and what was with all the questions? All she wanted was a place to sleep for the night… a place that was lit.
“Fine, I’m 22. How old are you?”
“I don’t know!”
“Where are you from?”
“I can’t remember.”
“What’s your name?”
“I don’t know!”
“Do you have amnesia?”
“What’s that?”
“It’s something that happens to make you forget everything. Something traumatic, usually.”
“Well, no, I remember. It’s just been so long since anyone has called me by name, I don’t remember.”
“Where have you been?”
“I can’t say.”
“You don’t remember?”
“No, I remember. I just need to stay somewhere lit until morning when I’ll move off on my own. But if I tell you, you’ll kick me out. And I just need to sleep somewhere very well lit tonight.”
“Well, ok I guess. Why come in here at 3 in the morning?”
“My lantern was running out. This was the closest building.”
“Fair enough. What should I call you?”
“I dunno. Nothing, I guess. I don’t plan on staying long.”
“Well, you’re all black… so how about Shadow?”
“Sure,” Shadow shrugged.
“See you in the morning, Shadow. You seem nice enough, I’ll have to introduce you to my friends,” Twilight trudged upstairs, almost flicking the lights off but remembering at the last second.
“Yeah, whatever.” Shadow glanced around the room, finding a couch in the corner. How long had it been since she had lay down on something soft? Oh. My. Celestia. This surely must be what heaven feels like. She was sound asleep before she could count to five.
*** *** *** *** ***
The door to the library opened ever so cautiously, making the tiniest creak is it slowly opened. A second or two later, a yellow head engulfed by a pink mane peeked into the room.
“Hello? Twilight? Are you awake? I don’t want to wake you…”
“Yeah, Fluttershy, I’m upstairs. Be quiet though, I have a guest who’s still asleep,” Twilight spoke in a low voice, just loud enough for Fluttershy to hear. Fluttershy closed the door silently and flew slowly across the room—the quietest mode of transport she knew of. Spotting the Shadow asleep on the couch, she lowered herself to the floor gently in front of the couch, looking at the sleeping pony.
“Who is she?”
“I honestly have no idea, she literally showed up this morning without warning.”
“What’s she doing here?”
“She said she just needed a place to sleep. But she didn’t want the lights off. Kind of odd, but if it helps her sleep well… I guess too each their own.” Fluttershy noted that the pony was balled up a little, looking a little cold. A rapid glance around the room revealed a blanket rack nearby. She quickly returned to the couch, holding a blanket in her mouth. She pulled the blanket forward, and over Shadow’s sleeping body.
“Sleep wel—Eep!” Shadow’s eyes shot open.
“What’s going on? What are you doing?”
“You looked cold, I’m sorry,” Fluttershy continued to express apologies, but her words trailed off into indistinguishable mumblings. Fortunately, Twilight intervened.
“Woah, relax Shadow. Fluttershy wasn’t doing anything to you, she just wanted to help.”
“That’s fine, I just thought…” Shadow eyed the blanket. “I’m just going to go back to sleep, now.”
“Are you sure? It’s Hearth’s Warming Day, and a bunch of friends are going to come over, and we’re going to give each other gifts to show how much our friendship means to each other! Don’t you want to get a gift?” Shadow looked at her strangely.
“We are not friends. Never will be.”
“Never say never. Besides, I think we are friends. At least, I consider you a friend.”
“You don’t know me,” Shadow said simply. “I could be a mass-murderer, for all you know,” Shadow blurted out, hoping that Twilight would dismiss it as ridiculous.
“I don’t need to. You’re nice enough. Come on, Shadow, the rest of the gang is upstairs. Why don’t you come join us?”
“When you are done, can I come back here and sleep some more?” This couch was amazingly comfortable. Shadow had forgotten about cushions during her stay in solitude.
“Yes,” Twilight said with a nod.
“Alright, deal.” Shadow had no idea what she had just agreed to. Pinkie had been chomping at the bit the whole time to say ‘hello’ to her new friend. And now she could. Twilight could have sworn she heard the Doppler Effect as Pinkie screamed from quiet upstairs celebration down to the couch where Shadow stood, unsuspecting.
“Welcome to Ponyville!” The pair skid a few feet on the floor, Shadow flat on her back, Pinkie wrapped up in enthusiastic embrace.
“Urk,” Shadow grunted in surprise.
“IsawthatyouwerehereandTwilightsaid“don’twakeher,sheneedssleep”andIwantedtosay“hi” soverymuchbutIdidn’tthenIrealizedthatyouwerenewandprobablynoponygotyouanypresentssoIsaid “Imustgetherpresents!”andIboughtyoupresentsbecauseIwanttobeyourfriend!” Pinkie produced a pair of perfectly wrapped gifts from seemingly nowhere, offering them with an extended hoof, a ridiculously large grin plastered on her face. Shadow stared at her for a few seconds, gears slowly clunking along in her head, trying to process the barrage of words after almost a lifetime of no contact with the outside world, let alone anypony to talk to. Thankfully, Twilight translated.
“She wants to give you gifts in hope that you would be friends with her,” she said with a roll of her eyes. Sometimes Pinkie’s ‘Pinkie-ness’ could be a little overbearing.
“Those are for me?” Shadow said, looking at the brightly colored boxes entangled in a complicated series of ribbons, all ending in one intricate knot.
“Yup! I picked it out just for you! I didn’t know what you wanted, but then I thought ‘Everypony likes cupcakes, so I bought you—Darn it! I ruined the surprise!” Pinkie said, looking distraught.
“No, no, it’s fine. What’s a cupcake?”
“You’ve never had one?”
“Should I have?” Shadow looked perplexed.
“Well, duh! How can you not have had a cupcake? It’s a tapestry!”
“You mean tragedy?” Twilight interrupted.
“Right. Trapeze-y.” Shadow reached out slowly for the parcel, expecting at any moment, Pinkie would withdraw the offer.
“Yo! What the hay is taking so long? We’ve got presents to unwrap! Get your flanks up here!” A cross Rainbow Dash called from upstairs.
“C’mon Shadow, why don’t you unwrap it upstairs with the rest of us?” Twilight offered.
“Rest of us?”
“Yeah, a couple of my friends are over for Hearth’s Warming Day.”
“Hearth’s What now?”
“You don’t know about Hearth’s Warming Day?” Pinkie said in horror.
“No, sorry. I have kind of been in away from everypony for the last,” Shadow paused, realizing she had no idea how much time had passed. “Since I was a filly.”
“Why?” Twilight asked. Shadow’s mind raced.
“I uh… the doctors said I was sleeping or something.”
“You were in a coma?”
“…Yes,” Shadow fibbed.
“Wow, that explains your blank flank.”
“My what?”
“Are you silly fillies coming or not?” Rainbow Dash called from upstairs.
“We’re on our way!” Pinkie bounced upstairs.
“I’ll tell you about it later. You should meet my friends now,” Twilight said, leading Shadow up the stairs.
Shadow crested the stairs behind Pinkie and Twilight, slumped down slightly as if she was trying to shrink away and hide from the gathering of ponies. She saw four sets of eyes looking eagerly at her the landing above. Last time anypony had given her this much attention she had hung a guard by the entrails. But that was when she was first imprisoned. Needless to say, she was still unnerved by the sudden attention.
“Everypony, this is Shadow. She’ll be joining us for Hearth’s Warming Day.”
“Howdy!”
“What’s up?”
“Hello.”
“Greetings and salutations, Shadow dear.”
“Um… Hi,” Shadow seemed more abash then Fluttershy. Shadow stopped at the top of the stairs, unwilling to go any further.
“C’mon Shadow, you need to meet everypony up here.”
“No, I think I should go,” Shadow started backing down the stairs.
“Nonsense!” Twilight said, trying to stop her with another offer. “If you come on up, you can stay here with the lights on for as long as you like.” Shadow halted, that was actually pretty tempting. Without a place to stay, eventually she would run out of oil for her lantern or something on the road, and her sanity and any chance of not being put in the electric chair would go straight out the window.
“As long as I want?”
“Yes.”
“Lights on?”
“Yes.”
“Well…,” Shadow paused, trying to figure out the best outcome of the two options before her. “Okay,” she relented.
“Great! Well, you already met Pinkie,” Shadow nodded timidly, still a little overwhelmed by the pink, energetic, greeting she had just received. “This here’s Applejack, she’s more or less in charge of the local apple orchard, and the most honest pony around.”
“Pleased t’ meetcha.” Shadow had to spend a few seconds processing Applejack’s southern drawl.
“Hi, I’m Shadow… I guess.”
“Ya guess?” AJ sounded slightly puzzled.
“Well, I don’t really remember my name. Sorry.”
“Why don’t you remember your name?” Rainbow Dash asked obtusely.
“Ya couldn’t have a little more tact?” AJ shot a glare at Dash.
“No, it’s fine,” Shadow said with soothing hoof gesture. “I just woke up from…” Shadow glanced up at the ceiling trying to remember the term Twilight had just used. “…a coma.”
“That sucks. I was laid up in a hospital for a week, and I thought I was going to die. How long were you out?”
“I… I dunno. Don’t remember. Don’t remember much of anything.”
“Well, where’s your family?” AJ shot another glare at Dash.
“Dash!” Rainbow Dash returned AJs glare with a ‘what?’ expression.
“They’re dead. That much I remember. Whoever murdered my family is responsible for my memory loss.” That technically wasn’t a lie.
“Oh… I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” Rainbow Dash said apologetically. She shot a sheepish smile to AJ who was still giving her a ‘are ya happy now’ stare.
“Well, now you know Applejack and Rainbow Dash, heh heh,” Twilight said, trying to break the awkward silence. This is Fluttershy.
“Hello, Shadow.”
“Fluttershy.” The two cautiously extended hooves for a shake.
“Never thought I’d meet someone who’s as much of a scaredypony as Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash muttered to AJ. AJ responded with a sharp elbow jab.
“And last but not least, the illustrious Rarity.”
“Hello Rarity, it’s a pleas-” Shadow extended her hoof needlessly as Rarity lunged past the extended courtesy, going straight for Shadow’s mane.
“Darling, your mane is fantastic!”
“Um, thanks? What’s special about it?”
“You don’t know?”
“Not really.”
“Well, you have an all black mane with white specks all throughout. It’s almost like it sparkles with white starlight in the light. But,” she said with a note of sadness in her voice. “But it appears when in the shadows the white specks aren’t visible. How sad, something this magnificent should never be hidden.” She waved her hoof over Shadow’s mane, noting the difference in her mane between the shadow-covered portions and those in the brilliant light.
“Well, thanks? What can I do with that?”
“Dear, when we’re done here come back to my boutique, and I will make you some dresses. I just simply can’t resist working on something to compliment that mane.”
“Ok…” Man, the ponies here sure were… overbearing. They were certainly open about their feelings and opinions.
“Well Shadow, you’ve now meet all my friends. Time to open presents,” Twilight added. Shadow opened her mouth to protest, but Pinkie’s squealing drowned out anything she might have had to say. Before she knew it, Pinkie had divided up the pile of presents, with each pony in possession of a small pile of colorfully wrapped packages. Even Shadow had some, undoubtedly all from Pinkie Pie and her uncanny ability to produce presents from thin air.
“All right everypony, open your first gift!” Shadow glanced around, noting that each pony was opening the top package of their pile. She did the same.
Shadow took the first present from the pile, noting a brilliant pink card attached to the front reading ‘From: Pinkie.’ Glancing up from the present, she saw Pinkie was watching Shadow intently, nodding her head slightly with a face of raucous glee planted firmly on her features. Shadow pulled the paper off, revealing a brown box. After a few seconds fidgeting with tape, the box opened to reveal a pink covered cylinder.
“Thanks, Pinkie…” She said, reaching for it, still trying to figure out what it was. Worthless. Pathetic. Shadow pushed the voices away from her mind, trying really hard not to mess up what was her first friendly encounter with another living soul for as long as she could remember. They hate you. They want to kill you. Kill them first.
“Don’t you like it?” Pinkie asked optimistically.
“I do, it’s a fantastic... um…”
“Cupcake,” Twilight whispered.
“Cupcake!” Shadow repeated.
“You at least know what a cupcake is, right?” Pinkie asked expectantly.
“Of course,” Shadow scoffed. “It’s, um, decorative?” She placed it on a nearby table, looking up with a hopeful smile.
From Pinkie’s reaction, you could have sworn she had just witnessed a gathering of infants being drawn and quartered. Which, Shadow had to admit, was something that she may have actually done while under their control.
Pinkie lunged across the room, shouting a whole lot of things at such a rapid velocity that Shadow could hardly understand a word. She heard the words ‘how, where, unimag-something, and horrible.’ At that point, Pinkie took a short break to catch her breath and must not have liked the blank stare she was getting in return, because Pinkie shouted ‘Open up, Sister,’ before yanking open Shadow’s jaw and cramming half of the cupcake in, forcing it to its closed position once again.
“Now, chew!” Shadow did as she was told, a little too scared by this obviously insane pony before her to really taste anything for the first two seconds. And then the years of prison rations realized that what she was eating had good flavor. And not a little bit of tastiness, a lot of deliciousness. Shadow stopped chewing, looked up towards the ceiling in a contemplative fashion. She started chewing again, a bit slower this time, savoring each bite. She finally swallowed, leaning forward for another bite of cupcake. She intended to take a smaller, more delicate, less obviously voracious bite, but ended up wolfing down the rest of it in a single chomp. She looked up towards Pinkie, raising her ears.
“Do you have any more cupcakes?” Shadow asked hopefully.
“So you like them?”
“Like them? They’re probably the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted!” Kill.
“I knew it!” Pinkie shouted again. Wouldn’t her head look great separated from her body?
“Argh!” Shadow exclaimed, clasping her hooves to her head.
“Are you ok?” Fluttershy asked, speaking for the first time since her cursory greeting.
“Uh, yeah, I’m fine. Just my head hurts.” Shadow scrambled for a reason why she was suddenly holding her head. “You know, headaches ‘n’ stuff. Must be a remainder from my stay with the doctor.”
“A headache? I can help you with that.”
“No, it’s quite alright, I don’t-”
“Nonsense, you come with me right now,” Fluttershy said, walking up to her, gesturing in a following motion.
“No seriously, I don’t—ok, I’ll come with you,” Shadow abruptly changed her mind after receiving a surprisingly stern look from somepony who otherwise seemed gentle and timid. Fluttershy led Shadow back to the couch she had been sleeping on earlier.
“Now lay down and get comfortable. I’ll be back with some tea in just a second.”
“You really don’t have to go to all this trouble. It’s not that big of a deal, just a headache.” Slit her throat.
“It’s all right, you need to get better. Here,” Fluttershy pulled a blanket over Shadow’s body, almost immediately after retrieving a cup of tea from nearby. Fluttershy pulled Shadow’s head up slightly, while tipping the teacup back, letting its warm nectar engulf Shadow in a fuzzy, sleepy sensation.
“Don’t turn off the lights…” The room became fuzzy, Shadow’s voice slurred, and the world fell into nothingness.