I stared at the Nightmare version of my friend, who was still smirking at me. Her rainbow hair had darkened, her pink eyes had darkened into more of a dark rose color, almost like Swift's, and her coat had gone from a cyan to a dark blue. My telekinesis faltered for just a second, and RainbowDash was off, only a blue streak flying through the air. “Dammit!” I shouted to no one in particular, before seeing FireShard hurl a white fireball at the blue streak flying quickly away from us. “Careful! We still need her alive, you know.” Swift laughed and I glared at her, trying to dissuade her from speaking, but failing miserably.
“Yeah Wildfire, watch where your flinging your fireballs.” FireShard glared past me at Swift, and I sighed and stepped backwards, out from between them.
“Well slave, you should work on getting the proper accent, I thought you were a Canterlot thief.” Swift couldn't make a proper retort to that one, and I saw FireShard about to press on, but there were more important things than their pointless bickering.
“Shut it, both of you!” I snapped, and they both turned to look at me as I glared at both of them. “We have more important things than your petty feud. That was RainbowDash, holder of the Element of Loyalty.” Both their annoyed faces turned to looks of shock and surprise. “Hopefully she will be the easiest to uncorrupt, as she will be loyal to the end. Let's move on, before we lose the ability to.” Unfortunately, we didn't move fast enough, and a dark purple sphere appeared around Ponyville right as we hit the edge of town. I ran up to it and slammed my hoof against the sphere. “No!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, right as the six ponies who represent the Elements of Harmony approached, wearing just those.
The Elements looked different though, they were all darker, and turned upside-down. I was staring at Twilight's inverted star crown when she spoke. “Dearest Shadow, how kind of you to come to us. Eclipse gave us explicit orders to make sure you couldn't get into the town.” Twilight stared at me with a fake pitiful look on her face. “You see, you alone are no threat to any of us, and not even a washed up thief and a circus freak can give you enough power to fight us.” Both Swift and FireShard bristled but I gestured at both of them to remain silent before speaking myself.
“I have more power than you or Eclipse know, as do these two.” Twilight laughed at my words and FireShard summoned a fireball and chucked it at the barrier, which deflected the fireball and turned it into wisps of dark white flames. I jumped backwards, hearing Pinkie let out a high pitched laugh, and I turned to FireShard. “Watch it!” I shouted at her, “Twilight's the most powerful mage I know of, we aren't going to be able to break through this shield, particularly with her newfound power.”
“You know, I really think you should follow your orders, you know, be good to your mistress.” I heard Fluttershy coo, a smirk on her face. “After all, it's like Twilight said, a washed up thief and a circus freak can't do much.” I went to silence the two bristling mares beside me, but before I could even move, they both snapped. FireShard's cutie mark changed to black and flames rose from the ground around her. SwiftShade narrowed her eyes and pulled two small blades out of invisible pouches behind each of her ears. The both of them started speaking at the same time.
“I am not washed up!”
“Freak? Coming from the corrupted ones?”
“I'm the most prolific thief in all Equestria!”
“My circus was known across all the lands!”
“I have enough power to kill each and every one of you!” They both spoke the last sentence at the same time. But Twilight just laughed at them and walked away, waving.
“I don't know how you follow Shadow, circus freak. After all, she summoned the Nightmare Energy to Equestria.” Twilight tossed this over her shoulder before continuing to walk away. I shot forward, lighting my horn and pressing it against the shield, and saw cracks starting to form across it. Twilight spun around and sent a pulse through the shield, sending me flying backwards, landing on my back. “Impressive, but I've gotten really good at detecting intrusions into the shield, what with that pitiful Blaze trying every other day.” I went to stand up, but before I could, felt a tug and was pulled through shadows into a dark void.
“What's going on, where am I?” I spoke into the nothing, and heard a laugh from the darkness. “Eclipse.” I glared in a random direction, as the laugh came from all around me.
“Indeed ShadowBright.” The voice was so loud I had to cover my ears, and it seemed to come from every direction at once. “I have pulled you here because I may have underestimated you. You where almost able to break the barrier around Ponyville, which would not have been very good for anypony. I had planned to kill you, but you have an annoying habit of coming back.” I shot a bolt of magic into the darkness, but I never heard it collide with anything. Eclipse laughed once more before speaking. “But then I got to thinking, you don't deserve your power? You have no reason to have magic, so you should most assuredly not look the part of a mage.” The monstrosity of a pony appeared before me, lighting her horn as she spoke. “I strip you of the gifts that have been wrongly given.”
I screamed as I felt a pain in my horn, before all the pain, as well as every other feeling, faded from it. “I see no possibility of threat from you now, but even so, try to make your attempts at least interesting. Now LEAVE!” I felt another pull and saw Ponyville appear in my vision. I fell immediately, and the newly focused world faded once again.
“Shadow? Shadow!” I heard Swift's voice, and the world slowly came back into focus. Swift was shaking me, but FireShard was standing further back, staring at the top of my head. I groaned and brought a hoof up to my head, feeling for my horn. Swift grabbed my hoof before I could get to it and stared at me sadly. “Listen, Shadow. You vanished after being blasted back by that Twilight, and when you came back, well,” She sighed and pulled my hoof up to my horn. My hoof hit the top of my head, completely missing my horn.“you had no horn.”
“What?” I put both my fore-hooves to my head, feeling around but finding nothing. I tried to charge magic but couldn't focus it into anything.“Oh no. What are we going to do now? What am I going to do? I've lived my whole life with magic.” I reached back into my memory, trying to think. “We just, we just need to defeat Eclipse, that will return my horn, right? So, so we stick with the original plan.” Swift smiled and nodded, but FireShard continued to just stare at me, and I remembered what Twilight said. “I told you that I summoned the Nightmare Energy, and you know that it was a mistake. Please, I'm beating myself up about it, I don't need you targeting me to.” FireShard, nodded, but her cutie mark remained black, showing she was still angry.
“Twilight said a pony named Blaze was trying to get into Ponyville. We should find her.” FireShard spoke, and I nodded, standing. “She would have a camp, somewhere she rests after making her attempts at getting into Ponyville. That's what we need to find.” Swift glared at FireShard, but spoke anyway.
“If it were me, I'd set up a camp close to Ponyville, but not close enough to it that I can be hit by magic.” She looked away from me when she said that before continuing. “It wouldn't be in the forest behind us, as it's much too dark.” Swift looked around. A few moments later her gaze focused on a slightly less dark forest on the other side of Ponyville. “I'd say somewhere in there.” FireShard laughed, causing Swift to glare at her. “What is it, Wildfire?”
“Well slave, that's the Everfree Forest. It's one of the most notoriously dangerous forests in all of Equestria. I highly doubt anypony would make camp in that accursed forest.” Swift glared at FireShard, but before she could retort back, I stepped between them.
“Now's not the time, quiet.” They both glared at me, and I gestured at Swift. “I think Swift's right, we should at least look in the Everfree Forest. After all, this Blaze pony is the best chance we have to get into Ponyville. Now, let's go. I'd say it's easiest to find her in daylight, but,” I gestured at the unmoving eclipse in the sky. “daylight isn't exactly a thing anymore. So I'll just say that time's ticking away.” I trotted towards the forest, Swift trotting next to me, while FireShard followed behind.
“Listen, Shadow,” Swift put a hoof on my side. “no matter what Wildfire thinks, I certainly don't blame you. Everypony makes mistakes, I know I've made my fair share.” I nodded, pulling away, acutely aware that it truly was my fault.
“Let's just find Blaze. Then we can worry about my mistakes.” Swift nodded, pulling ahead of me. The Everfree Forest surrounded us, and I spoke slowly. “Come on, I don't want to spend any more time without magic than I can.” FireShard and Swift flanked me as we traveled deeper into the forest.