The Kings Shadow

by Zandar13


The Magic To Heal A Poisoned Soul

Darkness, everlasting darkness that knew no bounds stretched out forever before his eyes. No matter where he looked, no matter how far he ran, no matter what he did all he found for him was darkness that enveloped his whole body and left nothing to be seen. Even though he knew his body ran, he could not see it run or see where he tried running to. He had lived this feeling before when his sanity had left and gave way to madness.

But he still felt his mind as his own yet since he knew of this feeling he began to worry that he was about to fall into insanity once more. His fear overwhelmed him as he felt bile begin to rise in his throat but he willed himself not to heave as he knew that he could not give into this darkness. But as time wore on he felt himself begin to slip as he started to lose hope as to how to escape this void.

He did not know how long he had been in this darkness for, time seemed to stand still as the entirety of nothingness consumed everything as his mind wandered. Before he awoke to this new nightmare he had just escaped his prison that King Sombra had tricked him into, all thanks to Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight. As soon as he thought of those two, the darkness seemed to grow lighter into a dark gray before a lighter gray and all the while his vision of objects seemed to return as he could now make out the faint outline of his own body.

But just as quickly as the new light came it vanished into the unseen horizon before even that disappeared and as soon as it did his fears swelled up and his breathing became erratic and short as his eyes darted the familiar darkness once more. In his mind he was about to ask what was happening but much to his horror a familiar voice echoed out of the darkness to answer his unasked question.

“Oh my dear, dear Greymane. Did you honestly think you could get rid of me? My darkness has tainted your soul, body, and mind and no matter how many times you purge my precious darkness, it shall return and ruin you. You may have escaped one prison but you shall always be enslaved. Enslaved.....FOREVER” just as the voice had said those last words his head emerged out of nowhere and shouted into his face, imprinting his vile and evil face into his mind once more.

“No, no, no, no, no” he repeated these words out loud again and again and did not stop as his mind was aflame in horror at his words. He felt his bile rising again as his mind spun and his eyes darted back and forth as his fear overwhelmed all senses and state of mind and being. Behind him in the unseen space dark blue smoke started to form out of a small hole that appeared to have punctured the darkness from the outside and began to roll over him and spread.

From that same out small white glowing dots bursted forth and enveloped the dark void and soon the dark blue smoke started to form into clouds as the white dots transformed the darkness into the night sky and glowed as the newly formed stars shined. Soon his vision returned and he could see his form once more but now he could see that his fear had him shaking as if he were in the an earthquake.

Though his vision had returned, he was still blind to his new surroundings as fear still consumed his senses, but that would soon change. From the hole that gave birth to this night, came a new figure that spewed forth and began to gently glide behind Greymane before landing right behind him. His fear slightly gave way and allowed him to turn and see this new thing that had snuck up on him but unfortunately his eyes were still adjusting and all he could see was a dark pony figure.

The vision was a dark as the night and he could see a pronounced unicorn horn and mighty wings spread out beside the bodies form but his fear gripped him before his mind could react. His fear told him it was King Sombra come to torment him again and before his mind could correct the fact that the King did not possess wings his body shot up and began to ran opposite of the new being. His mouth continued to utter the words “No” over and over again as he ran.

The nightly beings wings began to beat in the air and its form rose and started to chase after him before a concerned voice cried out “Wait! Stop! We did not mean to frighten thee! We only wish to help calm thy nightmares! We want to help!” but the voice fell upon deaf ears as the fear stricken stallion continued to run for his life from an imaginary enemy.

“We did not wish to hurt thou but we must act before thou hurts thyself!” with those words the nightly shades horn began to glow with blue as its magic slowly enveloped his form and caused him to stop dead in his tracks. The being flew over him and landed gently in front of him before speaking again “We are sorry but we needed thou to stop so we could help thee!” the voice cried out in concern.

But the beings eyes fell upon a fear stricken face and before it could ask a question Greymane answered with “No! NO! NO! Get away from me King Sombra! Please! No more! Stop! PLEASE! STOP! No, no-”

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“-NO!” Greymanes body shot up from the hospital bed suddenly without warning as his voice continued to shout out his last words, while his body was drenched in sweat and his eyes darted around as to find King Sombra again but to no avail. His body started to move to run but he fell out of his bed and landed on the ground with a loud THUD but this did not stall him for long as he shakily got up and began to move his body while searching for the King, his face frozen in fear.

Much to the surprise to everypony else in the room to see him spring from his sleep suddenly then start shouting and moving violently made them step back in concern and worry. Before any of the five other ponies could react to help Princess Luna, who had been standing beside him as to enter his dreams directly before being knocked down and away, Princess Celestia had taken a step forward and her magic began to radiate towards him to calm him down, which worked for after a few moments his breathing began to regulate and he stopped moving but had backed into the corner of the room.

His eyes began to focus on Princess Celestia who was smiling warmly at him but her eyes stared at him worryingly and his mind began to refocus on his surroundings. He finally remembered that she was bringing him to a hospital to check up on him after his soul gained possession of his body once more after eight years and he began to calm down but that was before he heard a voice that was almost equally as terrifying to him as King Sombras.

“HEY! Watch it pal! You could of hurt somepony!” the voice belong to a cyan colored pegaus with a rainbow mane who floated above him with an angry looking scowl but just as quickly he heard a voice he recognized.

“Rainbow Dash! Darling, please get back here at once! Before you....scare....him” the white unicorns voice slowly died down as she looked into his eyes which screamed in horror and began to water.

“NO! Please! Don't hurt me!” Greymane shouted as he slumped to the ground and covered his head with his two front hooves, he also kept his eyes open but stared at the ground “Please, just leave me alone.”

All he heard were seven gasps before an eerie silence fell upon the room, he heard a few different voices try to speak up before going silent once more. It was broken with a long groan and the sound of hooves standing as Princess Luna finally recovered and spoke to the group “You were right sister, this ones dreams were indeed infected by the last of King Sombras magic. I had finally broken through before his mistaken fear of me being the vile King overtook him and forced him awake.” the Princess of the Night said while rubbing her sore jaw.

Before Princess Celestia could respond she heard the slightest whimper and the sound of crying and immediately turned to him and saw that a his body was trembling with fear and her heart grew heavy and her mind was crying for him. The others saw this as well and their faces grew sad and some began to tear up as well while others looked away in shame and sadness. This continued for a while before Twilight finally decided to hopefully stop his suffering.

She slowly trotted forward with delicate steps to him and turned around to face the others before sitting next to him and draping a wing over him to try and comfort him “Shh, shh, shh. It is alright Greymane. I....I know that you are scared but you do not have to be anymore. They will do nothing to harm you, they are my friends and I trust them with my life. It is all going to be alright, ok?” Twilight said in a soft tone to try easing his tensions.

It slowly worked as his body stopped trembling as his tears stopped and began to take deep breaths to calm his nerves and gather his wits. He felt her wing on him and felt the small bit of warmth spread over his back which also greatly calmed his mind, finally he allowed himself to sit up straight to look at the lavender Alicorn “Th-thank you Princess Twilight. I....I am sorry. The nightmare I woke from had me in a panic then hearing their voices again after all this time” his voice gave way as he grew silent and hung his head.

Twilight looked at him with a frown and pulled him closer with her wing, which surprised him, before speaking “It is alright, we were worried about you when you started to groan and mumble in your sleep and started to thrash about and you spoke a few words in your sleep. Princess Celestia had asked Princess Luna to calm your dreams when we heard you speak of King Sombra” when she said his name he slightly flinched and looked down again.

“She fought for a long time to break through the last remnant of his dark magic in you and during that time I had decided to gather the girls to let them know we found you. We all felt terrible about you and wanted to apologize and explain why we all said and did what we did. But only when you are ready, ok?” Twilight said in a soft tone.

After mulling her words over a bit in his mind, he took a few deep breaths before he nodded his head and raised his head. When he did he saw once again the four main ponies who had said those terrible words to him all those years ago, the four that made him question himself for the first time, the four that made him believe the dark Kings words to allow him to access to his body. His eyes momentarily shrank when he saw them but he now noticed that they had color to them now instead of being gray.

“Let me introduce you to my friends, the rainbow maned one is Rainbow Dash” Twilight said.

“Yo! Sorry about yelling dude, we were all kinda on edge and you really sca-*cough* surprised me when you woke up out of the blue! Um, I don't think you saw me during the Discord invasion. Glad you ok now though!” Rainbow said with a grin on her face as she quickly did a backflip in the air before landing.

Twilight rolled her eyes but smiled before moving on “The orange mare with the stetson hat is Applejack!” she said and presented with her hoof.

Said mare stepped forward as she grabbed her hat and lowered it over her heart “Howdy Greymane. I jus wanna say that I'm awefully sorry 'bout the way we treated ya all those years ago. While I'm normally very truthful with ma words, Discord had turned me into a liar and every time I spoke I lied. But as soon as we all got ourselves back ta normal and such, we tried to find ya but couldn’t.”

“Especially after all the nasty things we said, after what I said” she stopped for a moment to catch her breath “I'm happy that Twilight was able to find ya and I hope that we can be friends in the future” Applejack finished with a sincere smile before putting her hat back on and stepping back in line.

“Thank you Applejack, next we have my good friend Rarity! She is the white unicorn and curled mane” Twilight introduced.

Once again said mare stepped forward but with a long face “Hello deary. As she said, I am Rarity and I would like to formally apologize for my uncouth behavior to you! When Discord invaded, he used his magic to turn my normally generous self into a greedy, ill-tempered brute! I shudder at my actions and am highly disgusted that I would use such foul language at any pony! When I came to and we all realized what we had done, we desperately searched for you to apologize be like Applejack said, we could not find you high or low.”

“So once again, I am so sorry that we treated you like that and I do hope to be friends with you. Oh! I know! Once all this is over, come over to my shop and I will make you a few new outfits for you free of charge!” Rarity said with a slight spring in her step as she began to imagine all the kinda outfits that would work with his color and build.

Twilight smiled and giggled at her friends new found inspiration “One step at at time Rarity, one step at a time” she said as the unicorn finally calmed down and blushed slightly and nervously giggled before stepping back in line. “Next we have-”

“Hi there! My name is Pinkie Pie! And I wanna say I am SOOOOOOOO sorry for being all groody and snoody and gray and stuff! Not that being gray is bad! Just when we were gray and stuff we were all opposites and instead of throwing you a 'WELCOME TO PONYVILLE PARTY' I huffed you off and spoke all those mean and nasty words! I really didn't mean to say those thing! I would never say something that did not make a pony smile! Especially one who I have not met yet! And when I became my pink self once again and remembered you I....I...”

Pinkie finally calmed down a bit and her poofy mane started to deflate and flatten and her demeanor grew slightly dark “I am so sorry Greymane. When I remembered how sad and rejected you looked as you ran while we all laughed. I got so sad and I really wanted to find you and say I'm sorry. I really hope you can forgive me and one day I want to be your friend and make you smile” she finally said and when she finished she gave a smile which made her hair slightly poofy again but not all the way yet as she stepped back.

Twilight gave a nod to Pinkie for mostly controlling her normally wild and unstable self before continuing with her introductions “And finally we have Fluttershy, the yellow Pegasus currently hiding behind Princess Celestia” she leaned in closer to whisper “She is very shy and timid and usually speak very softly, so this might take a while. Sorry”.

The pink haired Pegasus was still hiding and shaking behind the Princess of the Sun before purple magic slowly enveloped her body and slowly floated her to the middle of the room where everypony else stood to speak before dropping her gently. Fluttershy squeaked a bit when she realized she was front and center and kneeled down while her body was shaking. Her timid voice finally broke through “He-he-hello there. M-m-my name is Fl-flut-fluter-*Gulp* Fluttershy”

He could barely hear her and without thinking took two steps forward to try and hear her better to which she immediately flopped to the ground and started covering her head. But after a few shakes she stopped and took a deep breath and through wobbly legs she stood and gave her best to speak normally.

“I-I wanted to say that I....I-I” she started to say before her eyes started to burst with tears “I am so sorry! I-I am so ashamed that I said anything to nasty and terrible to anypony! I would never, ever, ever say that to anypony, but when I was under Discords spell I became something awful and drove you away. I desperately wanted to find you and say how sorry I am!” she finished with tears in her eyes.

After she was done speaking she took a few steps forward and nuzzled under his chin for a second or two before backing up “I really am sorry Greymane. I hope you can forgive me for everything I did. I would also really like to be friends with you and make it up to you anyway I can” she quickly added before drying her tears and stepping back in the line.

Before Twilight could speak, Princess Luna stepped forward “Hail Greymaine, tis I, Princess Luna and I would also like to apologize to you as well. Eight years ago I had noticed your nightmares after your experience in Ponyville and I tried my best to break through and encourage you not to give up” she had spoken before Greymane gasped and interrupted.

“Were you the voice I always heard when I had a Nightmare?” he had asked to which she nodded and gave a small smile.

“Indeed twas I who tried to give you pleasant dreams. Even though I could of forced my way in, I prefer to gently help my subjects overcome their fears but you were at times beyond my help and could not interfere without causing further confusion. But today I had to force my way in to help vanquish the last of King Sombras dark magic that held sway in thy mind.”

“It must of either been place on your soul when he banished you to your 'mirror world' or lingered on in your body when we expelled his soul. I know not what he said to you in your dream but I can say for certain that it was all false and only tried to drive fear back into your heart. For what purpose I cannot say but I needed to interfere before any more damage would be done.”

“I would like to apologize for the forceful entry into your mind, but mainly for not helping you sooner. If I had done so then maybe you would not of been swayed by the Kings deceitful words. I hope thou can forgive our sins” the Alicorn princess finished by bowing her head to Greymane before rising and taking her place by her sisters side.

Greymane sat there in silence mainly due to shock, for eight long years those four ponies had been a great nightmare to him, almost as big if not equal to King Sombra and now here they were, giving their apologies to him and even offering to be his friend. But before he considered their words he needed to ask a question first “Before I say anything else, there is something I need to clarify first. In all your stories you said that....Discord had made you become opposites of yourselves. What exactly do you mean by that and who is he?” Greymane asked.

Princess Celestia stepped forward to answer “Well, simply Discord is a draconequus and the god is chaos and disharmony. Though a few years ago, after the downfall of Lord Tirek he has officially been reformed but eight years ago he had escaped his stone prison and fell upon Ponyville and cause havok. The only things that could stop him were the Elements Of Harmony, the most powerful magic in existence. The bearers of the elements are Princess Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy here and as such he needed to make sure they would not use them against him.”

“To do this he had separated them and forced them to become the opposites of themselves and in doing so made them unable to use the elements against him. During that time is when you found yourself in Ponyville when they were their negative self’s and unfortunately were the object of their foulness. But it was not their fault as I know that they would never of done that normally. This is how they are and this is how I hope you will get to know them better as.” Celestia concluded.

Greymane now realized everything and was thinking on how to proceed, now knowing that those four were also tricked into doing something they would never do and though they had said things he could never forget, he was willing to forgive them. Taking a long breath he finally sat straight and looked at them and offered a small smile “I do forgive you. I forgive you all and I want to say thank you. I grew up mostly alone and have never had anypony else beside my mother give me the time of day or do anything for me out of kindness or otherwise.”

“But when you four and him said those things to me, it had made me realize maybe why I was alone and had broken my heart and weakened my mind. You were the objects of my nightmares and had continued to be these past eight nine years. But now hearing you all here today and knowing why it happened makes it easier to understand and accept. I also offer my apologies for not realizing the truth sooner and I sincerely hope that we all get along in the future.” he said and offered a full bodied bow.

They were all taken back by his words and the bow but before anything else Pinkie and Fluttershy had been the first to move. Fluttershy moved her hoof under his chin and raised him up “Oh, please don't bow to us! You should not do that. But are you sure you can forgive us? F-forgive me?” she finished by looking at him with heart filled eyes.

Greymane rose and nodded “Yes Fluttershy, I forgive you” before he could say anything else she quickly wrapped her hoofs around his neck and hugged him and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh thank goodness, I am so very happy. Thank you” she offered with much happiness in her voice and just as she released him from her hug Pinkie Pie stepped forward next.

“A-are you really, really, really sure you can forgive me for making you sad and frown?” Pinkie asked as her hair was in a mixture of slighty poof and straight down while she wore a sad face.

“Of course, I really, really, really forgive you Pinkie” Greymane looked away for a moment before putting on a smile and turning back to her “I-if you want, you can officially throw me that 'Welcome To Ponyville Party' you were talking about earlier” he offered with a nervous chuckle.

The second he had said those words Pinkies hair seemed to explode in poofiness and random streamers with confetti as her body seemed to hover in the air as her mouth grew wider and wider with a smile and she just seemed to radiate happiness and ever her tail was twitching. She landed with a solid THUNK as she moved around the hospital room with blinding speeds “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!ThisisamazingandsuperfuntabulousanddidIsayamazing!Icantwaittothrowyouapartywhenwegethome!YAY!” was all Greymane could hear before he lost her in her words as she continued to talk at speeds matching her movements.

But just as quickly she threw her arms around his neck and gave him a hug as a few tears trickled down her cheeks “Oh thank you Greymane, I am so happy!” she had exclaimed before forcing herself back into the line. As she did she hiccuped and a single piece of confetti came out of her mouth and landed on the floor. With that every pony in the room, including the Princesses, bursted out into laughter.

With that any tension in the room had died out, of which Greymane was quite happy to be rid off. As his laughter died down he felt himself growing tired and his legs started to give way. But right before he fell to the ground his body was surrounded by blue magic that levitated him up to his bed and tucked him in. He gave a embarrassed chuckle and rubbed the back of his head “Th-thank you Princess Luna” Greymane said.

With her own little chuckle, she replied “No, thank you Sir Greymane for being so kind to not only the elements but to us as well. It does truly amaze me that after all that has befalling on you that you still hold a kind heart and open mind.”

Greymane slightly blushed “Y-you don't need to call me Sir. I don't think I have earned that title from the Princess yet.” he said as he rubbed his hoofs absentmindedly.

The six girls chuckled as well as the Alicorn sisters before Celestia spoke up “All right my little ponies, I believe it is time we depart and let him rest”, to which they all agreed with.

Rainbow fly up and ruffled his hair and wore a big grin “See you around Grey!” and she flew out of the open window and into town.

“Thanks again partner for forgiving us and all and if you ever have a need for some apples, then call me up and Ill give you the best darn apple feast ya ever done seen!” Applejack boasted but ended with a smile as she departed.

Rarity came up next and levitated a gray scarf up and around his neck “Here you go darling, I happened to have an extra scarf with me just in case and I do not want you getting cold! Be sure to stop by my shop when you get out for those outfits! I will be sure to have you looking splendid for your future here in Ponyville!” she waved her goodbye and left.

Pinkie Pie was still talking to herself about his party before coming up and giving one more hug “Oh! Here!” she dug into her mane and pulled out a chocolate cupcake with gray frosting “I also happened to have some cupcakes with me and this one matches your colors and so you should have it! I'll be sure to have your party ready to go and its going to be SUPER FUN TABULOUS!” she once again gave a mile wide smile and bounced out of the room giggling.

Fluttershy smiled at Pinkie Pie before hovering beside him with her wings and gave him a brief nuzzle and a hug “I really am thankful that you are ok and that you were able to forgive me...us. When you get out, maybe I can introduce you to my animal friends. That is if you want to and if your not busy or anything like that. Well if you don't want to that's fine also and.....umm.....oh dear” she nervously bumbled and blushed.

Greymane smiled and held her hoof in his “I would love to see your animal friends” he said.

Fluttershy squeaked as her smile returned and she gave a small bow and flied out the window and back to her home.

Twilight came up next “Take all the time you need to recover, I'll be coming back to check on you and updating the Princesses since we do not know the full extent of the magic used to bind your soul back into your body. So just in case anything goes wrong, the nurses have been told to let us know immediately if anything strange or abnormal happens. Oh!” she said before quickly teleporting back to the library for a moment and back “Here! Have you ever read Daring Do?” she asked before levitating the first book up to him.

He took it in his hoofs and looked at the cover and began to read the back description “Nope, cannot say that I have. But it sounds good, so when I wake up again I will give it a read” he offered with a smile as he set the book next to him on the stand.

She grinned as she did a small victory dance at converting another pony into a reader of Daring Do “Its a good read, both me and Rainbow love it! Well, have a good rest and hopefully we shall see you up and about soon enough!” she gave a final node before teleporting back to the library once more.

Celestia finally trotted over and stood next to him “Thank you again Greymane for finding it in your heart to forgive them. See, I told you that your kindness was strong within you” she said with a warm smile before leaning close to him to whisper “And from what I heard from one or two of the girls while you were sleeping, they liked how muscular you looked. So far that’s two for three!” she said as she once again gave a playful wink as he blushed.

She giggled before turning to her sister “I shall be returning to Canterlot. Hopefully things have not been too chaotic with me being gone for almost two days. I will see you at Sunset dear sister” she said before disappearing in a golden flash.

Finally only Luna was left as she trotted to his side “We wish not to give you ill news but we must warn thee that though we are most confident that all traces of King Sombras dark magic have been eradicated, there might be a small chance that he could still invade your dreams. But fear not! Now that we know you are here and what to look for, we shall make sure your dreams are a pleasant one! Now we must depart.” but before she did she leaned in and gave Greymane a quick kiss on the forehead “Just remember what we said all those years ago, be strong. Pleasant dreams my dear Sir Greymane” she said with a slight chuckle as her body disappeared in flash of blue.

With that he was finally all alone and the energy just seemed to drain from him as he laid back and slowly closed his eyes but a small smile found its way up as his senses finally left him and he hopefully was going to have his first real sleep with a pleasant dream.