//------------------------------//
// To Live Or to Die 
// Story: A Shy Pegasi's Wing 
// by Dark Tempest 
//------------------------------//

	Right after Twilight gave her motivational speech, a dark shade emerged from the tree-line which surrounded the plunge pool and clearing. The inky blackness that followed it began to cover the entirety of the treetops, all the way to the cliffside. This created a great, ebony dome in which plunged the ponies' surroundings into darkness.
"It's here!" Twilight shouted this as each of the Elements sprinted to their sigils. Glows of each of the Elements' colours appeared to fill in their respective sigil's lines to form that Element's shape.
As soon as the last pony entered their sigil, a great wave of pure light filtered down from the outer awnings of the gazebo, creating a surrounding wall meant to temporarily keep out the Shadow and its corruption.
Great comfort washed over the fearful ponies, as well as their energy restored. Twilight Sparkle began to feel an urge to speak, the feeling building in her chest, and she let it out, her words coming out without real forethought.
"My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I-" Twilight's speech was cut short as she felt her entire jaw clench as a heavy pressure quickly eased itself into her head. She began to feel a grand urge to bite into her tongue, but she resisted as she looked around desperately. Her friends watched her in confusion, exchanging awkward glances between one another.
"Twi? Are you alright?" Applejack raised an eyebrow at the struggling alicorn. As Twilight mumbled incoherently, the light wall surrounding the gazebo in which the ponies stood flashed brightly, causing the darkness in the immediate to burn away slightly, and Twilight's urges faded away, and she was able to finish her sentence. "...and I draw upon the energies of all the friendships of Equestria to retain and strengthen my powers, for I am a princess."
The sigil of Magic grew brighter, and Twilight's irises began to glow. The alicorn closed her eyes, a white trail followed the marked indentation that led towards the symbol of Honesty, just as it had done when the original Seven had done the holy ritual.
Just as Twilight had, Applejack next spoke her 'incantation'. "Ah'm the Element of Honesty, and Ah draw upon the truths told and the work done by all ponies in Equestria to earn mah strength." An orange beam of light transported itself clockwise about the circle to the next Element: Kindness.
Fluttershy gulped as her sigil grew brighter, and then she spoke: "I am the Element of Kindness, and I draw upon the friendly, caring acts of everypony in Equestria to fuel my caring nature." A pink trail of light continued the clockwise trail to the next Element in line: Laughter.
Pinkie Pie spoke as quickly as she normally did, but even then she still managed to sound clear and serious. "I am the Element of Laughter, and I draw upon the happiness and giggles of jokes shared all around to assist me in my powers." Yet another trail of light, this one light blue, traced into the indentation leading to the Element of Genorosity.
Rarity flipped her mane as she spoke in the accented voice in which her friends knew so well: "I am the Element of Genorosity, and I draw upon the selfless, giving deeds of others to perfect my magics." Again, another trail of light (this one purple) blazed to the sixth Element, Loyalty.
Rainbow Dash stood tall, for she knew what was coming next. She let the words spill from her lips as her sigil grew brighter. "I am the Element of Loyalty, and I draw upon the bravery of Equestrians, those who would never fall prey to cowardice, that would assist any in need, to increase my speed and agility." Another line of light, this time red, traced it's way to the final sigil: Hope.
Matrixwing nervously shifted his weight left and right, the words coming to mind quickly, and sitting on the edge of his tongue as they forced themselves out. "I am the Element of Hope, once lost, now found and renewed. I draw upon the desires and wishes of all who believe in a greater future to aid me in my endurance." A final trail of gold sealed the circle of Harmony.
A bright flash of white light blinded each pony momentarily, everypony feeling some sort of odd metals and padding encasing the weakest points of their bodies.
The metals felt warm to Fluttershy, warm and calming. She felt her Element unclasp from her neck, and she knew nothing of where it went. Fluttershy began to panic, her heart leaping to her throat. A low hum began to be heard as she began to regain her sight.
She saw what had happened to her Element almost immediately: the necklace and the Element both had transformed into a pair of large but light battle daggers that were able to be held in her hooves.
As she inspected them closely, she saw that the blades were made from a metal that seemed closely related to silver, judging from the colour, and that the handles were padded with yellow cloth that seemed to be a velvety material.
She also noticed that her Element was set into each of the butterfly-shaped pommels, both were glowing brightly.
She looked around her, and was startled to see each pony in nearly-full combat armour. The armours that each Element wore were the exact armours in which each pony had worn in the attack before they were brought to the forest, only the armour seemed... enchanted.
Fluttershy realized her mouth was gaping open, and she closed it again as the rest of the Elements of Harmony gained their composure.
Each pony looked at their own weapons in turn, noticing the variance and brilliance of each one. Rainbow Dash held a shortbow, with a matching winged spear strapped across her back. Applejack had horseshoes strapped to her hooves, each one made of some unknown metal.
Fluttershy noticed that Rarity and Twilight did not have weapons, but instead that their horns were glowing even brighter than she had ever seen. Another odd thing that the quiet mare saw that Pinkie Pie was holding two small -what seemed like mini cannons with handles and triggers- in each of her forehooves, and she somehow balanced on her hind legs. The pink pony had an eyebrow raised in question.
Just as Fluttershy was about to ask the question that everypony in the group was dying to ask, Matrixwing asked the question for her, a buckler and shortsword in his hooves. "Pinkie... what are those?" Pinkie Pie blew a raspberry and held them up, their barrels pointing to the sky. "I'm not sure, never seen 'em before."
Fluttershy then noticed something odd about Pinkie's irises. In fact, now that she noticed it, everypony's irises had a noticeable glow in them. Their bright colours showed a sense of their inner spirit. Before she could point out the glows, however, the light surrounding the gazebo flickered, allowing the Shadow to attack the source, and damage the protective magic critically.
Where before, nothing could be heard other than the ponies' breathing and the hum of magical light, now there were screams of terror emanating from the new tears in the light wall. Voices from the Shadow's victims: helpless mares as they were literally torn apart, physically, mentally, and emotionally from the Shadow's long fingers and whispers, countless stallions being forced to watch their entire families become corrupted, and then being left to be slain by their own kin, young colts, fillies, and foals darkened to become something most terribly evil...
Then, as quickly as the voices began, they ended. So abrupt was the stop that Fluttershy almost felt her heart stop with the voices. Rarity began whimpering along with her, but even through their fear, they stood firm.
Directly in front of the gazebo, a large, dark mass began arising from the dirt ground, a twisted expression on its face, gleaming malice in its blood-red eyes.
The Shadow began to speak.
"Do you hear that? It is the sound of death... silence. It will be your silencing soon. Very soon." The Shadow laughed demonically, the sound chilling Fluttershy to the bone.
Twilight was the first to counter the Shadow's intimidation, taking a defiant stance. "That sound of silence will soon be the voice of peace, love, and Harmony! Face it, you will never be as strong as the combined strengths of the Elements!"
The Shadow did not waver. "Look, Twilight Sparkle. Do you see this?" In the midst of the writhing black mass that surrounded the small structure, visages of ponies faded in and out of view. Twilight immediately recognized the faces of the princesses of dawn and dusk. "This is their fate, your fate, the fate of all Equestria. We will eliminate all life from this planet."
Twilight leaned her head down, eyes still on the demon. "Not if we can help it." The purple alicorn then began to charge her magic through her horn, focusing on the spell to cast as she began its release.
As she fired her spell, the Shadow split seven times, each part of itself speeding towards an Element of Harmony.
Fluttershy instinctively dived out of the way of the duplicate that shot towards her. As she had dived, she had unknowingly brought up her own weapon into the darkness that flew by. The result was both terrifying and oddly satisfying: and ugly, shrill scream erupted from the darkness, and the duplicate pulled away from the weapon, leaving behind inky black blots on the ground.
The Shadow's duplicate then took on a shape: the likeness of a royal guard from one of Luna's court, but darker and with a horrifying, permanent grin on its face.
The "guard" then leaped upon Fluttershy, attempting to beat her into submission. Luckily, the pale yellow mare was able to stop the oncoming flurry of stomps after the second hoof slammed into her helmet by driving her knife into a chink of the dark armour near the Dark Part's chest. It recoiled, falling onto its back in its weakened and obviously painful state.
Almost immediately, whether out of desperation or hidden anger, Fluttershy renewed her attack. She countered the Dark Part's mauling maneuver by leaping onto the chest of it herself, impaling the "guard's" chest with both of her knives until she nicked herself on her foreleg in speedy carelessness. She felt her own blood oozing down her blade as she withdrew, now floating slightly with her wings extended and flapping, watching the Dark Part's body.
So quick were these movements that Fluttershy had not noticed just how quickly she had changed to combat these new experiences. Now that she did, everything she did everything she could to fight the waves of emotion trying to battle their way to her heart. The feeling of desparation, fear, pain, and anger had started to cloud her judgment, and she knew it.
The duplicate then disappeared, hovering away as an orb of dissipating blackness towards the centre of the gazebo. It then locked there from tendrils of pure light, the tendrils the same colour as that of Fluttershy's Element. Other sections of the Shadow morphed into hers as well, extra tendrils taking on the burden of holding the Shadow.
Fluttershy then felt a deep longing to return to her sigil in the gazebo, so she galloped for it, a few of her friends already reaching their spots. As she stepped onto her sigil, a small barrier began to form around the Shadow's orb, sealing it in the small circle of Harmony.
Even as the shy pegasus began to think the Elements were going to be successful in their endeavor, the Shadow, still trapped by the tendrils, burst through the shield with a flash of collapsing light, and swung a colossal, elongating arm in a wide arc, narrowly missing the ducking Elements.
It's voice was thunderous and deafening with rage: "Do you really believe you can defeat the Shadow? I will destroy everything you have ever thought about!"
All of a sudden, Matrixwing was in front of the Shadow, his lip busted and dripping blood, his teeth tainted with the same crimson colour. "Not if I can help it!" The seventh Element stomped his forehooves upon the stone of the gazebo.
The Shadow looked down upon his challenger, and laughed cruelly, and willed a long, blackened spear to appear. "Come face me then, pitiable pegasus."
Matrixwing blushed in deep anger, and to the rest of the ponies horror, threw down his shield, raised himself with his wings as he gripped his sword in both hooves.
The Element of Hope attacked the Shadow, scoring s few cuts at the enormous mass's eyes, but before he could come around for another attack, the enraged Shadow caught Matrixwing by the throat, shoving the spear straight through his chest.
Fluttershy could hardly understand the situation from the scream that now exited from her throat.