//------------------------------// // It lurks in the dark // Story: My last shadow // by The Psychopath //------------------------------// Deep below Canterlot sat a cavern of crystals. Long had it been abandoned before the changeling queen's failed attempts at conquering the pony world. The hoof prints of the previous occupant were still decorating the ground. The soggy spots wet by tears had become dry and crusty, and the caverns had once again become quiet, dark, and hollow. Even after the invasion, no pony came to the mines because of rumors about a monstrous beast living there. This had become something of legend throughout the ages, and only a brave few would dare trot into the abandoned mines for some of the precious, rare minerals. Strangely though, despite all the exploration and mining that had been performed in the crystal caverns, there was almost no knowledge of its true size. It went far deeper than anypony currently knew and its sheer girth dwarfed Canterot's a hundred-fold. The deeper the tunnels went , the darker the crystals became, but the bigger and more valuable they became as well. Unfortunately, none who ever entered the deeper sections were heard from again, further enforcing the probability that the rumors were true. Even in the darkness, the thin veil of shadows could be seen moving along the surface of this cavern. They bent and twisted with the surfaces, creating a weird landscape of blacked bodies. The grinning shadow was amongst its faceless brethren, and its smile was as large as ever. It reached what seemed to be a blackened pit that had never seen the light of the sun. Now all that was left was to wait for whatever was to happen, but a booming voice stop the shadows' swirling around the area and caused them to freeze almost immediately. The grinning shadow even lost its grin as two white lights illuminated in the darkness. They were bright in the middle but seemed to fade the further out they went from their center. "What do you have to say to me?" "I--" the shadow stuttered. "I have been waiting a thousand years for you to return to me with news of your endeavors." "Well--" "What I hear best be of good news, and remove yourself from the shadows. It is most unbefitting of our encounter." "That's the problem, y-your greatness. I was defeated a long time ago and outright blown up. I lost--" "Your body. Through what magic was my own defeated?" "The crystal heart." "Hmm. Yes. That could be possible, but I have grown since it was carved. I do not find it likely that you could have been defeated by it." The shadow did not reply. "Hmph. I was a fool to believe a mere pony could handle such magic. I'll simply take back my magic and--" "Wait! Please! I have a plan to retake the kingdom from the current usurpers. I simply need to continue with it and I'll have it back under control. My own magic seems to be returning while I enforce my authority over the crystal ponies." "This is not an excuse. However, because you used my magic for this plan, I shall grant you a second chance to revive him and keep to your initial mission. If you fail again, however, I will be forced to put an end to our contract." "I understand." "The Crystal Kingdom is to become my foothold for my plans. You will, of course, be rewarded upon your success with control of the Crystal Kingdom once my plans go into motion. Are we understood?" "Y-yes, my lord." "Good. Now remove yourself from this place. I must continue nurturing the crystals and my magic." The grinning shadow and its brethren quickly scampered away along the walls. While Stellar's 'friend' still had much to enact, it didn't need to actually worry about time. The one it served did not put much emphasis upon that concept and, surprisingly, had much patience. "I still need several years for my plan to take effect. I can't rush this. I only have one chance whether or not that creature wants to hurry this along. He'll become HIS subordinate once this is all over and his constantly calm tone will become that of a pleading foal." "Ow. My head," Stellar struggled to say. She put a hoof to her head and slowly rose into a sitting position. She was in extreme pain. She felt like somepony had clobbered her on the head with a gigantic metal hammer. Even her body ached and every breath she took made her whole body ache and her bones creak in agony at the pressure. Whatever happened to her, it wasn't very nice. Blinking several times to bring her view back into its clear, non-drunkard state allowed Stellar to see that she was no longer in the streets. In fact, she wasn't even in the sewers, although the place did smell the part. This place had no lights in it. In fact, it seemed like Stellar was deep underground somewhere. There were, quite literally, no windows at all and no lights running along the ceiling. The only bit of illumination present came from white, luminescent crystals growing out of the walls. There was a hallway outside of wherever Stellar was and it was huge, as far as she could tell. The wall opposite her own was filled with cells locked behind metal bars. Squinting, she could see that there was someone occupying the cell just opposite her room. "Wait..If that's a locked room, then that means...Oh no!" Stellar thought. The young mare quickly scampered up to her hooves and tried to gallop away, but her head met with her own cell bars, leading to a painful encounter with her head, once again. Stellar fell on her rear and rubbed her head to soothe the pain. "Ow. Huh. That didn't hurt as much as I was expecting. I guess my head is getting sturdier and sturdier," she said to herself while get back on her four hooves. Shadowrette hugged the bars of her cell and looked around in curiosity. To the left, there was along, darkening corridor. And to the right, there was also a long, darkening corridor. Stellar was half expecting one to be right above her, but to her disappointment, there was only a leaky ceiling of humid stone. Thinking she could escape by bucking the bars with her hind legs, the mare reared back and gave it her best effort. The only thing that happened was the resonating clang of her hooves hitting steel. Hitting those bars was a bad idea because the sound deafened Stellar, forcing her ears against her head and causing her to grit her teeth while the sound travelled about the halls to explore its place of birth. When the sound stopped, Stellar looked up, then suddenly had a terrifying realization: She could not escape this time. Countless times she had escaped merchants angry at her and her...comrades for stealing their wares, but conjoined efforts allowed her and the others to always escape under the merchants' muzzles. This time, she wasn't as lucky. She didn't know why the others didn't come to help her when the guards came to attack her, but they didn't. They weren't even there. She was all alone and trapped. For the first time of her life, there was no pony there to help her out of her problems, and because she couldn't use her magic, she was doomed. "Hey! What do you think you're doing, kicking the bars like that? Some of us just want to decay in peace!" Stellar's ears perked up when she heard the voice. It sounded...decrepit. The mare went back to the bars of her cell and asked: "Who said that?" "I did. Are you deaf AND blind?" A stallion walked into the dim lighting of a crystal growing right next to his cell. His coat was blackened with streaks of orange crackling along its surface. He was extremely thin and looked very, very tired. Every time he spoke, he would be interrupted by a quiet, dry cough, too. "Who are you?" "I'm...Ahhhh. Another one. One of us, eh?" "What?" "Yes. You're a foal that corrupted by the powers of Sombra." The stallion keeled back in sudden shock. "You look exactly like him, too, but...Ehm...Much prettier," the stallion blushed. "What?" "N-nothing. What were you asking again?" Stellar frowned. "Where. Am. I?" "In dungeons somewhere in the Crystal Kingdom, I think." "What? This can't be the Crystal Kingdom! I've never seen crystals like these before. Even the sewer walls were made of grainy crystals." "Sewer walls? Ew. Gross. No wonder I can smell you." Stellar remained apathetic. "What the guards have bothered to tell me is that the kingdom was built over these ruins. No pony knows who made them are when they were made as they haven't found anything. The guards have even had us looking around for artifacts during our 'spare time'." "What kind of artifacts?" "PIPE DOWN IN THERE, MUTANTS! You can talk when you're digging for artifacts," a guard yelled at the top of his lungs. Outside in the city, shadows were 'flying' everywhere along surfaces in search of something. Grinning was wondering where Stellar was and was waiting on the wall of a tall apartment building, a pensive grin over its two-dimensional face. "Where could she be? She isn't in the sewers, in her old home, or the prison. I haven't even found her outside the kingdom in the tundra nor as a limp body anywhere else. Hmmm. I once ruled this place. Maybe he knows...Yes. His memories and instructions are most excellent. My first lord knows much. I'll need to get there quickly." The shadow's eyes curved. "Or maybe some of them have already found her? Ha."