//------------------------------// // Skeletons // Story: Army Of Shadows // by lordcurly972 //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash continued to stare in horror at the devastation that lay beyond the doorway. She was set in a trance; she just couldn’t believe what had happened to Ponyville. The only thing that broke her out of it was suddenly being tugged back into the house. “What do you think you’re doing?” Curly Q asked throwing Rainbow back into the house and slamming the door behind him, “You trying to get yourself killed?” “What… what happened?” Rainbow stammered, “What happened to Ponyville?” “Shadow Dash’s army happened to Ponyville,” Curly responded peeking through a space in one of the boarded up windows, “You’re lucky nopony spotted you.” “Wait, army?” Rainbow Dash asked standing up, “The last I remembered it was only Shadow and Scootaloo. She has an army now?” Curly sighed, “You’ve been comatose for several weeks now. You suffered quite the head injury and the smoke inhalation didn’t do you any favors. We kept under constant watch and you finally pulled through. But, while you were out the mare you call ‘Shadow Dash’ wreaked havoc on Ponyville. Anyone she caught sight of she possessed and forced them to join her army. Many banded together to form a resistance, but we thought it better to try and stay out of sight and remain safe.” Rainbow Dash stared at the floor to let all this information soak in. “If you say a group of ponies got together and formed a resistance, my friends are most likely with them,” Rainbow Dash stated as she started for the door. “What makes you so sure,” Curly said as she intersected her at the door, “I know you care for them Rainbow, but you don’t know what it’s like out there. There’s a chance Shadow’s already gotten to them.” “They would do the same for me, they’ve never given up on me,” Rainbow stated sternly, “And I’m not about to give up on them.” “Okay, I’ll let you go,” Curly said finally stepping away from the door. As Rainbow Dash stepped forward, he grabbed her by the shoulder, “But I’m not letting you go alone. You’ve been out of it for so long. I imagine you could use some assistance.” Rainbow Dash smiled, “Thanks, but I don’t want to put you guys in any danger.” “I insist, we’ve been hiding away for so long, it’s time we finally took action and fought back against Shadow,” Curly responded, returning Rainbows smile. “Alright!” they heard Ellie shout from behind them, “It’s about time we go and kick some shadow mares ass!” Curly laughed, “Where’d you learn to talk like that?” “From you of course,” Eleanor responded, “You should hear him when company’s not over.” Rainbow Dash chuckled, “Thanks, I really appreciate your assistance. But are you completely certain this is something you want to do?” Curly pondered for a moment,” No, but life’s full of uncertainties, sometimes you’ve just got to go against your gut feeling.” “I’m glad, but I only have one question,” Rainbow stated. “Yeah, and what would that be?” Curly asked beginning to pack a saddlebag for their journey. “Does anypony know where this resistance is holding up?” Rainbow Dash responded. Curly didn’t say anything, but Ellie spoke up, “I do.” “How do you know where they are?” Curly asked quizzically. Ellie shrugged, “I get around.” “Shhh, get down,” Curly whispered and ducked down behind a water trough. They got down just in time to see three shadow possessed ponies walk by on patrol. Rainbow poked her head over the trough to see if she could figure out who they were before Shadow Dash got to them. One was a pegasus and the other two were earth ponies. She waited tell there cutie marks came into view and was shocked to find out who the pegasus was. It was Derpy, it nearly brought Rainbow to tears. Derpy was so innocent, and now she’s been transformed into some destructive monster. Rainbow continued to watch as the group passed by the muffin shop. Rainbow wanted to see if there was still any of Derpy left in her. Derpy paused in front of the muffin shops door and kind of cocked her head sideways like a dog. Then a fiendish grin spread across her face and she took off full speed into the shop. Rainbow could hear glass breaking and pots and pans being tossed around inside. Within a few minutes the shop suddenly burst into flames and out came Derpy. Not a single muffin in her mouth or hoof, she destroyed the shop for the mere sense of destruction. “Come on,” Rainbow said turning away, “Let’s find the resistance.” They continued to trudge through what was left of Ponyville for another fifteen minutes before finally stopping in front what Rainbow believed used to be Berry Punch’s drink shop. “Is this it?” Rainbow asked Ellie. Ellie nodded and motioned for them to approach the door. Curly and Rainbow got on either side of the door and prepared for somepony to attack. Curly signaled Ellie to open the door. Ellie pushed it open and peered inside. “All clear,” she told her protectors. The group proceeded inside and began to look around. “It appears to be empty, are you sure this is where they’re supposed to be hiding out?” Curly asked. “Yeah, how’d you find out they were supposed to be here anyways?” Rainbow Dash chimed in as she continued to search the room. All she could find were several broken wine bottles and a few bills of sale. “I heard some ponies talking outside my window one night about the resistance. They said they were heading back to the safe house, so I followed them. They went in here but I didn’t come inside. One turned to the window I was looking and I ducked down to avoid her sight. When I looked back inside they were gone,” Ellie explained. “You followed strangers to an abandoned building when you knew that ‘thing’ could’ve snatched you up?!” Curly said in a loud whisper, “She could’ve taken you away and I wouldn’t have known what happened to you.” “I’m sorry, but we needed to know where this place was. We needed to stop hiding and take action,” Ellie responded beginning to raise her voice. “But there is nopony here!” Curly shouted. He immediately realized what he had done. Everypony stopped breathing and listened intently for any signs of danger. After what felt like an eternity, Ellie finally spoke up. “I know they’re here, they couldn’t have just vanished into thin air,” she said, her voice returned to a whisper, “There’s got to be a secret compartment or hideaway in here somewhere. Suddenly, Rainbow remembered seeing something odd. Only one wine bottle on a shelf on the left side of the shop was not broken and still had its label. And in every Daring Do movie meant that it was a lever that opened a secret entrance. She walked over to the bottle and tried to pull it off the shelf. It didn’t budge, so she pulled it downwards. There was a click and the sound of cogs turning. There was a sliding noise from behind her, she turned around and sure enough, a shelf was sliding out of the way to reveal a hidden door. Meanwhile, Ellie and Curly were still arguing about anypony actually being here or not, “Um, guys.” Ellie and Curly turned towards Rainbow. “I think I found the entrance,” she said with a smug look on her face. Curly turned towards Ellie and gave her a weak smile. She stuck her tongue out as if to say I told you so. Rainbow pressed herself up against the door and held a hoof to her mouth, signaling the others to keep quite. She turned the knob a slowly opened the door, she peered inside. Torches lined a hallway, illuminating it. She motioned for the others to follow her. They crept through the hallway until finally coming to a large open room. A large round table sat in the center and at least eight chairs sat around it. Rainbow was just about to walk into the room to get a closer look when somepony grabbed her from behind and held a knife to her throat. “What do y’all think yer doing in here?” a voice called out from behind her as the knife pressed harder against her throat. “We’re sorry, we were just looking for the resistance. We don’t mean any harm we just…,” Rainbow trailed off, “Wait, I know that voice. Applejack?” “Rainbow Dash? Is it really you?” Applejack asked as she lowered the knife from her throat, “You’re alive!” Rainbow Dash turned around to get a better look at her friend and noticed two other ponies had Curly and Ellie in a head lock. “Uh, Applejack, could you tell your friends to release my friends?” Rainbow asked pointing behind Applejack. “Oh, right,” She said signaling for them to release Ellie and Curly, “Sorry ‘bout that.” “I couldn’t believe you couldn’t recognize me,” Rainbow Dash said, “I’m like the only pony with a rainbow mane, kind of hard to miss.” “Oh yeah, about that,” Applejack said as she stepped out of the shadows. She had an eye patch covering her left eye, “I can’t see as well as I used too on account of this eye patch.” “Oh man, what happened?” Rainbow Dash asked. “When that shadow menace attacked Scootaloos and set it ablaze, I suffered third degree burns to the left side of my face,” Applejack said as she lifted her eye patch, revealing several layers of scar tissue that cover the majority of the left side of her face. “Sweet Celestia!” Rainbow Dash shouted. Applejack laughed and quickly covered her eye back up. Curly and Ellie returned to Rainbows side and their two captors stepped out of the shadows. They were ponies Rainbow Dash had seen around Ponyville, but never really got to know. One was a unicorn with an aquamarine mane with white highlights and a light green coat. She had some sort of musical instrument as a cutie mark but Rainbow Dash didn’t know the name of it. The other was an earth pony with a purple and pink mane, a tan coat and three pieces of candy as her cutie mark. “Girls, I’d like ya tah meet Lyra and Bon Bon, my two best scouts,” Applejack said motioning towards the other two ponies. “Hey what’s up, I’m Lyra and this is Bon Bon,” Lyra said as she approached Rainbow Dash and the others, “Sorry we kind of held you captive.” “Yeah, what the hell was that about anyways?” Ellie shouted, “We don’t even remotely look like Shadow Dash’s goons.” “Just because most were possessed doesn’t mean that others didn’t just join her side out of fear of being possessed,” Bon Bon said, “You can never be to safe.” “Hold a knife to my throat again, and you’d wished I was possessed!” Ellie retorted. “Boy, does she have a mouth on her,” Curly said pushing Ellie behind him, “We’re sorry; we’re just a little high strung. I don’t know who we can trust right now, but you folks seem nice enough. So let’s start over, I’m Curly Q and this is Ellie.” “Nice to meet you two and we could use a brave kid like you in the resistance,” Lyra said, “That is what you guys are here for isn’t it, to join?” “You betcha!” Ellie shouted, jumping over her dad to be in front, “I wanna kick the living snot out of that no good son of a…” Curly cut her off, “Yeah, we’re here to join.” “Good, I’ll give ya the run down,” Applejack said motioning for them to leave the hallway, “And boy howdy the others are gonna be rip roarin happy to see you’re okay Rainbow.” “I knew they were alive!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed doing a flying backflip, “So where are they now?” “They’ve run over to Twilights to gather a few spell books we made need,” Applejack said sitting down at the table; she motioned for the others to join her. “Oh wow! This is so exciting,” Ellie piped up, “We’re like the knights of the round table, except we’re fighting a demon pony instead of a dragon.” The group sat around the table for several minutes just catching up and being briefed on what the resistance hoped to accomplish. Rainbow also informed Applejack at how Ellie and Curly save her and took care of her. Everypony was having a good time until they heard the front door of the shop open and close. Applejack shushed the room and walked to the secret door. She pressed her right ear against the door and held her knife high above her head. “What are you doing?” Ellie whispered. “Listening fer the secret knock, now shhh,” Applejack responded never removing her ear from the door. Everyponys heart stopped beating, no pony made a sound, no pony breathed. They could hear whoever was outside the door walking around. They walked over to where Applejack was and then there was five really fast knocks on the wall followed one last knock. Applejack opened the door, “Took you guys long enough, did ya bring the whole tree with ya or something?” “We would’ve been done faster if some of Shadow Dash’s goons hadn’t have shown up,” Twilight answered as she stepped inside, “Gave me a chance to use my freezing spell though, so I guess it wasn’t that bad.” “Yeah, I guess you could say Twilight had a hankering for…,” Pinkie began, everypony could tell she was about to crack a joke, “…shadow-cicles!” Twilight rolled her eyes and walked into the main room, she stopped dead when she caught a glimpse of Rainbow. “What, what is it Twilight?” Rarity asked as she and the others stepped in behind Twilight, her questions were soon answered. “What? Surprised to see me?” Rainbow asked as her friends all caught sight of her. And with that they all ran at each other and met with a big group hug. Applejack soon shut the door and joined them in their moment. “I’m so happy to finally see all you guys,” Rainbow said, tears beginning to form in her eyes. “Well isn’t this just a touching sentiment,” a voice shouted from behind them. Everypony turned towards the hallway, and assumed attack position. “I thought I froze you two?” Twilight said menacingly. “Well here’s a fact nimrod, ice thaws,” one of Shadow Dash’s minions responded, “Just because its magic ice doesn’t mean it doesn’t act like regular ice.” “What do you brutes want?” Rarity chimed in. “What we want is to remove the thorn in our masters side that is the resistance once and for all!” the front minion shouted, “FUCK ‘EM UP!”