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// Chapter 46 
// Story: The Darkness in our Souls 
// by Black Light 
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Chapter 46

I was riding on top of one of the timberwolves that were taking us to the Shadow Servers hideouts. The girls and Prowler were discussing what to do when we got there. I was listening, but I wasn’t giving any input. They wanted to sneak into the hideout and find the book without disturbing any of the Shadow Servers. It took a lot of my willpower to not just shout and disagree with them, but I knew they were right. Chances are the hideout is heavily guarded and has a lot of Shadow Servers there, and being noticed would end up with complete and utter failure, possibly even death. Even though I knew they were right, I wish they weren’t. I wanted to go all out against the Shadow Servers and make them pay, it was their fault that Starry became a bearer of the darkness and it caused her so much pain. I wanted to make sure they all felt the pain they caused. I could feel the darkness wanting to do the same, for other more personally reasons though, he wanted to make them pay for almost killing him. Although, even he knew that with his power he could be overwhelmed and even he might be killed, or as killed as he can get. The two of us were silent for the duration of the ride, with me only talking when I was addressed directly. The girls seemed worried about me, they noticed that I was acting differently and wanted to make sure I was alright. I told them I was and then went back to my silence.

We arrived just outside of a small clearing near the edge of a cliff. From the brush inside the forest we could see a small cave carved out in the side of the cliff. We dismounted the timberwolves and Prowler told them to stay in the forest while we went inside. We peaked out from the forest and started towards the opening in the side of the rock. We stopped outside the opening and I peaked around the side and looked inside. I could tell that this tunnel was recently used by the hoof marks inside. We entered the cave and began our journey down into the tunnel system that ran through the cliff. Rarity was charging a cloaking spell she had learn for occasions just like this, while both Twilight and I were charging our horns to provide additional magic to sustain the spell after Rarity released it. 

The intricate tunnel system would’ve been impossible for us to get through if Prowler wasn’t with us to point us in the right direction, at least I hope it was the right direction we had been walking for a good long while, but we hadn’t seen any of the Shadow Servers yet. Prowler was still sure they were here though, and I trust Prowler’s judgment on these type of things.

As we approached a corner I peaked my head around the side, but immediately drew my head back. Around the corner were two of the Shadow Servers, they looked like lackeys though. If we attacked them they wouldn’t put up much of a fight. I shook my head. ‘No that isn’t the plan. I can’t let myself do something stupid.’ I told myself mentally. I turned to look at Rarity and nodded my head telling her to use the spell. As soon as Rarity’s spell began Twilight and I took over power management. The spell was very complex and only Rarity was able to use the spell to its fullest potential. She was able to create a small blanket of magic over all the ponies in our group that covered each of us individually making us invisible to everypony. It was only through another spell that Rarity was able to make us able to see each other, but those two spells came at a cost. She wasn’t able to do much besides make the framework for the spell and walk. That’s where Twilight and I came in. We were the batteries for the spell. Allowing Rarity to concentrate on making sure the spell was cast right, while it still was able to receive power from us. The spell took a lot of energy though, as soon as Rarity cast the spell I could tell that it was draining me pretty quickly, but this was definitely the most efficient way to use the spell.

I motioned my hoof to tell everypony to move forward. We moved quickly passed the two Shadow Servers so we didn’t waste any time, but still going slow enough to remain quiet. We didn’t need to make any unnecessary noise.

After we passed those two we began to find more and more Shadow Servers in the tunnels. The tunnels weren’t too cramp though and we were able to slip through a lot of the Shadow Servers undetected. As we reached a main nexus for all the tunnels I saw a few signs. The tunnel we just came from had a sign that marked it as an exit. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Twilight trying to get my attention. I looked at her and saw her pointing at a sign with a book on it. I shook my head. They wouldn’t keep a book as valuable as that in some library. I looked around and I saw the symbol they used to identify the Alpha. Chances are he kept the book in his personal quarters at all times unless they were going to use it. I pointed at the tunnel and all the rest nodded. I began to walk down the tunnel with the others close behind me. This tunnel wasn’t nearly as long as the last tunnel and we soon found ourselves in front of a rather large makeshift door. I looked around carefully and saw no guards in any of the holes or crevices. I walked up and opened the door a crack so I could look through I saw nopony inside so I opened the door fully and ushered the others in. After everypony was in the room I went in and shut the door behind me. I gave a signal to everypony to start searching for the book. Only Applejack and Rainbow didn’t look, they instead were standing guard at the door just in case somepony came in. We decided to keep the cloaking spell up as well for that same reason. I began opening drawers and boxes that were placed all around the room, everypony else was doing the same in some other part of the large room. The only thing I found though was random newspaper clippings and old tomes and scrolls that the Shadow Servers thought had something to do with the darkness. I looked around the room and saw that the others were having about as much luck as I was. I returned to my searching. Eventually I felt something poke me in the side. I looked and saw Twilight pointing over towards the makeshift bed in the room. Fluttershy was standing next to the bed with a small box that looked like she had pulled out from under the bed. I walked over and tried to open it, but it was locked. After we found the box both Applejack and Rainbow came over to look as well. I could see that Twilight was considering just taking the box. I got her attention and shook my head with a smile, I had a better way. I waved Skies over and pointed at the box. She looked it over for a while testing the lid before turning back to me and nodding. I turned my side to her so that the saddlebags I brought along were facing her. She walked over and opened the bag taking out a manepin with her teeth before she passed it to her wings where she caught it with expert precision. She walked over the box again and put the pin in the lock with her wings and began working on the lock. I wasn’t the only one that picked up a few skills while we were traveling. I could see both Rarity and Twilight giving me a disapproving glare, but I chose to remain ignorant and act like I didn’t notice. I heard a small click and I began to smile Skies removed the pin and opened the top of the box revealing the book inside. With an even bigger smile I reached in and lifted up the book with my hoof. I lifted the book above my head in celebration.

But my celebration was cut short when I heard a small smack against the floor. I turned and looked seeing that Rarity had finally lost her energy and fell to the floor in exhaustion. ‘Wait if Rarity isn’t casting the spell anymore, doesn’t that mean we’re-’ I started to think.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” A voice said from behind me interrupting my thought. I turned and was faced with a certain Alpha who also was sporting a new shiny metal hoof. “It’s been a long time. How have you been?”