//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Failed Ideas // Story: The Shadow Within // by Alcatraz //------------------------------// "Spectra, care to do the naming honors?" "Hmmm, Spike could mean..." The new dark dragon growled at the mention of his old name. "Woah, calm down there big fella! What about Black Thorn?" "Hm" he said with a deep rumble in his voice "I like that, although Thorn sounds preferrable." Getting fried with black lightning, all eyes turn to Celestia with the scent of ozone richly permeating the air. Her mouth agape with pain and an inaudible scream as the lightning wraps around her body. "If you try casting magic or flying again then you'll be dealt with!" Screamed Spectra, whapping the goddess around the head with a wing. Celestia says nothing but laying on the floor breathing heavily. XXXXXXXXX "H-how could she do that to Spike? HER Spike! The Spike that means so much to me and the rest of us!" Rarity is fuming, and shaking with sadness and pure anger. "Calm down Sugarcube, we'll figure this out somehow. First we need t' make sure that we're not gonna fall for another one of her dirty tricks." "Well..." came a timid voice. "technically it wasn't a trick as much of a set-up. Twilight took advantage of our invitation to trick us so she turn rainbow into a shadow pony to take advantage of Rainbow for her loyalty, she was waiting for Spike to open his mouth so the flame could jump down his throat." "Sorry to burst your bubble Fluttershy, darling. But by definition that is a dirty trick. What we really need to do is figure out what our evil counterparts would act like." Rarity said will a shudder. "As much as I hate to admit it, that way we can figure out if we would be of any use to her that way." Pinkie however, remained quiet this whole time, which is rather unusual for her. "Pinkie..." ventured Fluttershy "You're quiet. Too quiet. What are you thinking?" "Well,you're right. We do need to figure out what our shadowy selves would do. I would throw shadow parties, which doesnt sound like fun because nopony could see each other! Fluttershy would heal all the injured shadow ponies, Rarity would make barding and clothing for the ponies in the castle, and Applejack would... grow apples as usual?" See let out a giggle at the idea of the farm pony not doing anything overly spectacular when turned to shadow. "Uh, thanks Pinkie. Ah think. Well, you're on the right track, but going in the wrong direction. With Luna, the shadow amplified her desires, much like it's doing t' Twilight. So if it made the Princess want to cast an eternal night, what would it make Twi do?" "Run a kindgom like a massively over the top super duper crazy control freak who wants everything neat and tidy?" interjected Pinkie. "Well, yes..." hesitated Rarity "but when I got taken, the shadow tried to make me take over Equestria! But that still begs the question of why Twilight is, and not Rainbow." "Rarity, if you were going to create minions would you want them t' have the capability for them t' surpass you?" "Point taken, Applejack. I think we surmise that the shadows are using Twilight as a conduit to spread their kind." "Remember, my little ponies, the mind can be corrupted but not the heart. It will take an act of true kindness or love to revert Twilight back." "Did... did ya'll just hear that?" "Yupparoonie!" exclaimed Pinkie. "The princess just told us how to turn Twilight back to normal!" "Fat lot of good that will do!" spat the angry farm pony "That's basically what we've been trying to figure out!" Right now, everything had come to a stalemate; nopony knew what to do. Rarity offered to fetch tea and biscuits for the other three while they looked through a few more books. *CRASH!!!* "Rarity!?" screamed the yellow pegasus. Rarity came running into the main room with heavy hoof steps, wearing a look of realization accompanied by an excited grin akin to having come up with a solution. After all, you wouldn't drop a tray of tea and biscuits without a good reason! "The Shadow Pony!" she shouted, almost rupturing her friends eardrum. "Have you completely gone loco in the coco!?" asked Pinkie. "Don't you remember, you thought I was the shadow pony, you silly!" "Just hear me out! You girls remember when we all met and turned Nightmare Moon back into Luna?" Everypony nodded in agreement. "And whom here noticed the 'pieces' that fell off of Luna?" Applejack, Pinkie, and Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. "Ah noticed them, but just brushed them off. Didn't think they were impor-" Applejack's sentence got cut off by a moment of clarity. Knowing what Rarity was getting at. "But they weren't there when we revisited the castle! But it's still up for debate as t' what happened t' those... fragments?" "Right you are Applejack, but what I'm thinking what if those fragments of what remained of Nightmare Moon were, in a word, sentient?" "Now you've lost me." "Oh, me me me!" "Yes, Pinkie?" "The pieces of what fell off Nightmare Moon were still part of the nightmare energy! They turned back into shadow and lived in the shadows of the castle!" "Exactly what I was thinking, Pinkie!" Beamed Rarity. "The shadow fragments lived in the confines of the castle giving rise to the legend of the Shadow Pony! Other pony explorers ventured into the castle and saw the Shadow Pony, but because it is recent, attributed it to other surrounding stories and assimilated it into other legends! It dates back thousands of years but only saw rise recently!" "Oh, I get it!" squeaked Fluttershy. "So when we went to the castle on our seperate explorations, it somehow followed her home and, for whatever reason, chose this point to get at her." "WAHA! Yes again! But now that I think about it, there's one thing that we're missing." "And what would that be? Haven't we exhausted all leads at this stage?" "Applejack darling, don't be such a salt sphere! If we stripped the shadow away from Luna, it means it's already weak! The powers that Twilight has from it, even though it has 'body' shall we say, is, in a word, hollow." "So it has form and body, but is hollow? I'm beginning to get a picture here..." added Fluttershy, rubbing a hoof under her chin to think. "Applejack, Pinkie, you get where she's coming from, right?" "Yuppers! If the shadow is already weak we should be able to hold it off but not completely destroy it with the elements we have! And if it's a shell of shadow, we should be able to join all our element powers and Rarity can use her magic to peel it off of Twilight!" "Oh this sounds like a plan gals! Now all we need is a more in-depth plan!" beamed Aj Rarity sat down and anxiously rubbed the back of her neck with her hoof. "I can do that, but I'm just worried about..." "Now listen here; Pinkie, Fluttershy and myself couldn't live with ourselves if that happened again." "You girls are the best!" beamed Rarity as she pulled the other three ponies into a hug. "Alright, lets do it!" "Uhm, I hate to be a bother... But what about what Celestia told us?" "That's just it! It's just her mind that's corrupt, not her heart. If we can show Twilight how much we love her by risking ourselves to save her then we can pull this off!" With all four friends wearing ear-to-ear smiles, Rarity went over to the glass case housing the Elements, with a giggle she says "I'm just glad we managed to take these back without Twilight noticing. Bit caught up in the moment don't you think?" She dons her own, then attatches the other three to their respective owners, and put the diadem and Rainbow's element in her saddlebags. "Uhm, Rarity..." began Fluttershy. "We got booted out of the castle a few hours ago, how are we going to get back in?" Rarity mentally facehoofed and internally screamed. Celestia's flaming mareheat! "I don't suppose we could simply break in, could we?" "Did you even see her new guards!? They look the kind t' bite your head off! What we need is some sort of protection t' get us in there." "Iiidddeeeaaaa!" sing-songed Rarity. "It just slipped our minds that the remaining magic left in our elements is enough to nullify, or cancel out her magic! We can simply walk right in and her horrid shadow pony guards can't go near us!" "Uhm, that's nice and all, but, you're forgetting they can still toss us in the dungeon." "That's where you're wrong Fluttershy! The magic she used on them is just basically an outer shell of shadow enveloping the guards! If we kept together tightly enough their touch would just glance off the ambient magical shield surrounding us! The next part is just figuring out how to get to... Can... ter..." Rarity trailed off not immediately aware of her surroundings. Fixated on talking to Fluttershy when they were still in the library she only turned away briefly to ask Pinkie how they would get to the capital city only to find that, you guessed it, they were already there! "Pinkie, just.... just... HOW!? You do this all the time! You appear out of nowhere, you can hide under rocks that are physically smaller than you, you somehow know what ponies are going to do ahead of time, but GETTING ALL FOUR OF US TO CANTERLOT IN A MATTER OF SECONDS!? HOW!?" screeched Rarity into the face of physics defying pony. "Sometimes I swear you could be the daughter of Discord the way you carry on!" "Don't be silly, how could be his daughter?" she says as she starts hopping pass the three stunned mares. "I just took you here, it's that simple! But I do like the idea of being Discord's apprentice!" The four of them started making their way through the city. In their walk through the town the new 'royal' banners already getting hung from every other lamp post along the streets. Alot of the ponies were muttering hushed whispers when they went by. "They can't stop the Queen!", "They don't have all the elements!". With a smug grin on her face, the alabaster unicorn simply knew they were wrong. When they approached the main castle door there's two shadow ponies guarding the door. Hushed, she turns to the three following closely behind and says, "You know what to do girls!" With a unanimous nod they all began boldly walking up the stairs with grins of confidence. "Halt!" Ordered the guard. "The Queen has ordered that you remain at home!" Simply walking on by, the guard makes a grab at them but they simply get tossed back with a short bzzt of white electricity. Pushing open the doors they were all greeted with a shock. The interior as a whole had changed, while the outside itself remained relatively the same everything inside was a darker , shades of blues and purples. Rarity was thinking that it did look particulary lovely, who would have thought that Malevolent had a taste for interior decor? A voice pierced the clop of hooves on the stone floor of the foyer. "So, you think you can peel the shadow off of me? You of all ponies should know better, Rarity! You've already tried winning me over and it didn't work; cut your losses and admit defeat!" "You took Rainbow, you took our Twilight and most importantly; YOU TOOK SPIKEY WIKEY!!!" screamed Rarity at the top of her lungs. The others hadn't seen her that angry before! She levitated out Twilight's diadem and Rainbow's element necklace and hovered them in front of her. 'I really hope this works...' thought the mare. She shot a split energy beam that coalesced from the power of the other four at the two in front of her, hoping the ray would collect their power when fired through the gems. The dragon curled up around the throne began rising up, towering over the four mares. IT WORKED! One beam split and went for Rainbow's and Black Thorn's forehead, and the other hit Malevolent's horn, making all three of them convulse in place. The shadows on Spike and Rainbow literally melted off of them and visibly snaked their ways back over to the Queen where it picked itself up and lunged in front of the beam hitting Malevolent's horn. The inky blob exploded and splattered against the wall melting into the shadows, dissipating Rarity's beam sending the four mares flying back. Malevolent stumbled to her feet, beginning with her evil laugh. "You almost had me. Almost! But since Rainbow and Thorn are down for the count, one of you will have to replace them!" "Uh, Rarity." whispered the stetson-wearing pony. "Yes, Applejack?" "Grab Rainbow and Spike and lets vamoose before she nightmareifies one of us." "Quite right." she calmly replied with her faux Canterlot accent. The four calmly got to their feet, clearing their throats; then Rarity opened her mouth. "I uhh..." she enveloped the unconcious Spike and Rainbow in her aura and making a beeline for the exit with the others in tow galloping as fast as their hooves would allow. "Just you wait..." muttered the Queen. "Just. You. Wait..."