//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: The Doom Comes 
// Story: A Shadow of the Past Revealed 
// by Ironskull 
//------------------------------//

"Miss Rainbow Dash?" asked Shadow Shroud, who was currently standing in the library under the watchful eye of the mare that he had addressed.

"What?" asked Rainbow, clearly annoyed.

"I can't help but wonder, what has become of the princess?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Rainbow Dash in a tone that suggested that Shadow wasn't in the right mind.  "I told you, Princess Celestia will be here tomorrow!"

"Not Princess Celestia," said Shadow Shroud.  "Princess Twilight Sparkle.  Why is she not here to ensure that I do not escape?"

Rainbow Dash glared at him.  "You can't escape from Twilight's containment spell," she said, indicating the floor around Shadow Shroud.  There was a dim but visible purple aura surrounding the skeletal pony in a perfect circle.

"She said so herself."  Rainbow continued.  "The only way that you are getting out is if she or I give you permission to leave.  And I'm not going to let you out unless there is an emergency of some sort.  Twilight is searching your... home for incriminating evidence.  I'm just here to make sure that you don't get any funny ideas."

"Wait, the princess is going through my things?" asked Shadow Shroud in sudden panic.  "But she doesn't know how dangerous some of the magical artifacts are!  You have to make her stop!"

"Uh huh," replied Rainbow Dash in accusation.  "Dangerous magical artifacts, huh?"

"Yes!" cried Shadow Shroud.  "From my days as a hunter of such things, plus all the other forbidden items that ponies have unknowingly dumped in there!  I'm keeping them safe from ponies who don't know how dangerous they are!"

"I think Twilight can handle it," said Rainbow Dash nonchalantly.  "So you admit that you are in possession of numerous evil and dangerous magical artifacts that could bring harm to ponies?"

"Yes," answered Shadow Shroud.  "But you don't understand!"  He stopped and shook his head.  "We don't have time for this!  You have to tell Twilight to stop!"

"I can't leave you here all alone!" shouted Rainbow Dash.  "Even if one of my friends might be in-"

Rainbow's eyes suddenly seemed to bulge.  "Fine!" she cried.  "You can come out, but you had better stay right in front of me where I can see you."





"Alright," said Scootaloo.  She indicated the stack of items in the corner of the clubhouse.  It was very dark outside and they fillies could only see because of the soft glow of Sweetie Belle's magic.  "This should provide the perfect distraction to let Mister Shadow get away!"

"But what about Miss Twilight and Rainbow Dash?" asked Apple Bloom.  "Aren't they going to be awful upset with us?"

"That's what the box of chocolates are for!" reminded Sweetie Belle.  "They can't be mad at us if we give them chocolates, right?"

"Are you sure about that?" asked Apple Bloom skeptically.

"Trust me, my sister would do anything to have one of these," said Sweetie Belle.  "That's why she put them all in this box that she can't open without fetching the key."  She hefted the ornate ceramic box in question.  "If she didn't lock them away, she wouldn't be able to control herself.  But I just happened to know where the key was!"

"So," asked Scootaloo excitedly, "let's make sure that we have everything!"  She lifted up a list and began to read aloud from it.

"Scooter.  Check.  Fireworks?"

"Check!" replied both of the other crusaders.

"One pail of water?"

"Check!"

Scootaloo yawned.  "Box of chocolates.  Check...  Trumpet?"

Apple Bloom let out a yawn too.  "Stop that, Scoot.  Don'cha know that yawning is contagious?  Yeah, ah got the trumpet..."

There was a few moments of silence.  "Well?" asked Sweetie Belle."  She let out a yawn too.  "What else is on the list?"

She looked at Scootaloo expectantly and watched as her eyes closed.

"Why do I feel so tired all of the sudden?" thought Sweetie Belle.





Twilight's eyes were drawn away from the curiosities that the strange room contained and toward one particular lectern.  It was no surprise that the book chained to it drew her attention so easily.  While there were other books on lecterns lining the wall, this particular book was very different from any other book she had seen before.

It was floating above the lectern.  It appeared that the purpose of the chain was not to prevent ponies from stealing the book, but rather to keep it from floating away.  The book also was surrounded by a strange deep purple aura, a sure sign of terrible dark power.  The book itself was a simple brown color, but showed strong signs of age, despite being presumably untouched for a very long time.

Of course, it would be reasonable to assume that Shadow Shroud had indeed made use of the terrible book.  She would have to investigate.

She read the title and discovered that her fears were justified.  The book was entitled The Book of Doom.

Twilight readied her magic in preparation to combat whatever horrors the book might conjure, and then, slowly and carefully, flipped the cover and opened to the first page.

Nothing seemed to happened.

Feeling assured that it was reasonably safe, but still keeping her magic at the ready, Twilight began to read.


You must stop reading this book, right now, or you will be doomed.  I'm SERIOUS, stop reading this sentence right now.  Not another WORD.

Twilight did stop reading, having already stiffened in fear.  Apparently, something terrible lied further into the words of the book and the author was courteous enough to warn her of it.  It would be so easy to follow the book's advice and avoid whatever terrible things it held.  And yet...

A part of Twilight doubted the strange book.  This part of her mind forced her to continue reading.

... You're still reading aren't you?  What part of 'not another word' do you not understand?  It's almost as though you WANT to be doomed!  Well, don't say I didn't warn you, because here it comes.  The doom is almost upon you.  Its in the very next sentence, so STOP right now before you are doomed forever!  Alright, this is it, you're doomed!  I told you to stop reading, but you didn't listen to me, did you?  I hope you are happy with yourself!  You never should have read this!  ...And, come to think of it, I never should have wrote it.

All of the other pages in the book were blank.  The cogs in Twilight's head whirled as she tried to make sense of the insane book.  She read it again.

"Princess Twilight!" cried out the voice of Shadow Shroud.  Twilight didn't even turn her head to acknowledge the hasty arrival of the skeletal pony.  "What are you doing?" he continued.  "What is that?  Is that the Book of Doom?  Please tell me that you didn't read the Book of Doom!"  The cover of the book lit with magic and slammed shut.

"So what?" demanded the voice of Rainbow Dash.  "Reading never hurt anypony.  Even if it usually is kind of boring."

"Did you read it?" asked Shadow Shroud urgently, ignoring Rainbow Dash.

"Well, yes, I did," Twilight admitted.  "It... wasn't what I expected."

"And..." Shadow Shroud began in a quieter voice, but still worried.  "Do you feel alright?  Is everything alright?  There's nothing wrong?"

"No.  I feel fine."

"I see," said Shadow Shroud, relieved.  "Well, you seem to be alright then...  You must have a remarkably strong will.  The last pony to read that book lost his mind."

"He did?" asked Twilight as she turned to face Shadow Shroud, conveying both surprise and skepticism.  "Who was this pony?"

"It was a very long time ago, from back when I used to be a magical artifact hunter.  Nopony ever found out what the pony's name was.  He just appeared out of nowhere one day and started proclaiming to everypony he met that their doom was near.  When anypony asked for his name, he refused to give it, claiming that his name no longer mattered, and that nothing at all mattered, for the doom was coming!  He just called himself 'The Messenger of Doom'.

"One day somepony somehow found out that the source of this madness was the very book in front of you.  Clearly, it has great power over the minds of those who read it, so I was given the job of securing the book.  The pony was insane, but he was right about at least one thing: he met swiftly met his doom.  After I managed to get the book away from him, he spent the rest of his days in an asylum."

"But..." began Twilight, unwilling to believe it.  "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!  How could anypony lose their mind by reading this?  All it says is-"

"NO!" bellowed Shadow Shroud in a voice so loud that Twilight stopped talking.  "You may be resistant to the curse of the book, but the same may not be true of myself or Rainbow Dash!  Keep the secrets of the book to yourself until the day you die!"

"Alright, fine," said Twilight.  "I promise I won't tell anypony what the book says.  It's stupid anyway..."  Suddenly she scowled.  "What are you doing in here?"  She turned to Rainbow Dash.  "Why did you let him out?" she asked.

"Look," said Rainbow Dash defensively, "even though I know he's just trying to keep secrets from us, Shadow did make a good point.  This stuff is dangerous, Twilight!  I can't believe you would mess with this stuff without anypony else here to look out for you!"

Twilight began to reply to Rainbow, but Shadow Shroud had stopped listening.  An unexpected movement accompanied by a popping sound drew his attention to the floor near the entryway to the room.  Twilight and Rainbow Dash appeared to be too busy talking to pay attention to him.  He moved toward the entrance to investigate.

As soon as he was close enough to see what it was, he stopped in surprise.  It was his figurine of Sweetie Belle.

But far stranger was the fact that the stone representation of the filly was undeniably and inexplicably posed in terrified panic.  He had not even created a mouth on the filly, yet it was now wide open and in full color.

The figurine's front right hoof was outstretched toward the portal leading to the library.

Shadow Shroud struggled to comprehend the strange phenomenon.  He turned back to Twilight and Rainbow Dash.  They still had not noticed.

Careful to move so as to not draw attention to himself, Shadow Shroud carefully picked up the figurine in his magic and left the room.  As soon as the other ponies were out of sight, he dashed through the portal.

As soon as he stepped hoof into the library, he spotted the figurine of Scootaloo in a pose similar to Sweetie Belle's.  It was pointing toward the library door.

Shadow Shroud picked this figurine up as well and opened the library door without hesitation.

He was not in the least bit surprised to find Apple Bloom's figurine on the doorstep.  It was pointing too, but Shadow did not know what lay in that direction, or almost any direction at all, even if it were not almost the middle of the night.

He picked up the final figurine and hesitated, thinking to himself.

He was certain that there had been nothing special about the stone he had used to carve the figurines out.  While it was perfectly possible that somepony could move them in order to confuse him, it was next to impossible for them to have been able to manipulate their pose in such a way.

Yet the alternative was completely impossible.

In Shadow Shroud's experience, the impossible was more credible than the next to impossible.

Suddenly he heard the voices of Twilight and Rainbow Dash.  He couldn't make out what they were saying, but, based on their angry tone, he felt fairly certain he could guess what they were saying.

He turned to look back into the library once more.  He was determined to cooperate with Twilight and prove to her that he was not a pony to be feared.

But he felt certain that, for a reason yet unknown, the three fillies needed help, very much indeed.

He quickly summoned his shield from the inside of the library (Twilight had been unable to place any kind of magical restrictions on it) and then began running in the direction that the Apple Bloom figurine had been pointing, rapidly accelerating.





Rainbow Dash flew out of the window of the library and visually scanned the area.  Failing to find her target, she immediately soared into the sky.  When she was sufficiently high enough, she began to hover and search the area below her once again, now with a much greater range of vision.  It was difficult to see in the dark of the night, but fortunately the light of the moon was sufficient for her to see the black streak of Shadow Shroud's cloak racing away from Ponyville.

Rainbow Dash was certain that she would be incapable of forcing an evil magical skeleton to return to the library without Twilight's help.  But she could follow him and tell Twilight where he went.  She took off until she was flying almost directly above Shadow Shroud, and he seemed to be too busy running for its life to notice her.

Suddenly it occurred to Rainbow Dash where exactly the pony was going.  She ceased her chase and watched in shock as Shadow Shroud finally ran straight into the Everfree Forest without even slowing down.  It would be impossible to follow him from above the trees.





Sweetie Belle awoke with a start.  This caused her to bump into somepony with her head.

"Ow!" cried a familiar voice from the pitch black darkness.  "Sweetie Belle, I'm so glad you're awake!  But what did you do that for?"

"Scootaloo?" replied Sweetie Belle.  "Where are we?  What's going on?"

"I don't know!" said Scootaloo.  "I think we're in a room, but I can't find a way out!"

"Where's Apple Bloom?" asked Sweetie Belle, suddenly beginning to panic.

"Ah'm right here!" replied the voice of Apple Bloom.  "Where are you two?  It's so dark!"

"Hold on!" said Sweetie Belle.

A light sparked to life in the darkness.  While ordinarily too dim to be of much use, the dim light that Sweetie Belle was capable of conjuring was still infinitely more enlightening than the pitch black darkness, allowing the fillies to behold the empty stone cell that they were trapped in.

Standing in plain view beyond the iron bars of the door was a shadowy figure of a very tall pony.  Red eyes suddenly flames to life on its face.

The shrill cries of the three fillies was painful to their ears, but this did not deter them from screaming even louder when the shadow seemed to evaporate before their eyes, turning into a cloud of darkness that proceeded to expand and fill the entire room, enshrouding Sweetie Belle's magical light and returning their surroundings to pitch black.

It took a long time for the fillies to stop screaming.





"He went into the Everfree Forest?" cried Twilight in frustration.  She and Rainbow Dash were standing in front of the front door to the library.

"Yes, that's what I just said!" replied Rainbow Dash urgently.  "Now what are we going to do about it?"

"I think that we should-" began Twilight angrily, but caught herself.  She did a quick breathing exercise.

"We're going to ask for advice from Princess Celestia."

"What?" asked Rainbow Dash in surprise.  "But he's getting away!  Shouldn't we go after him right now?"

"We can't go charging into the forest blind!  It could be a trap!"

"Uh, Twilight," said a new voice.  "Is this a bad time?"

Twilight turned toward Applejack, who had apparently snuck up on her in the short time that she was arguing with Rainbow Dash.  To her surprise, she was accompanied by Rarity.

"I'm afraid that this really isn't a great time," confirmed Twilight in despair.  "Is it really important?"

"Well," began Applejack, who was temporarily concealing her concern for her two friends, "It is awfully late, and Apple Bloom was supposed to be back home by now.  I tried asking Rarity if the crusaders were staying at her place, but-"

"Oh no!" screamed Twilight.  "He has them!  Come on everypony, we haven't a moment to lose!"  Twilight burst into sprint toward the forest.

Rainbow Dash was the first to catch up, as she had taken advantage of her wings and landed beside Twilight less than gracefully, although she managed to continue at a run.  "Twilight!  I thought you said you wanted to get the Princess's advice first!"

"Rainbow!  He has taken hostages!" exclaimed Twilight as they ran.  "It would be irresponsible for us to not take action immediately!"

"Maybe we should slow down?" suggested Rainbow Dash.  "Applejack and Rarity can't keep up!"

"Oh!  Alright, but only a little!"

Applejack and Rarity both caught up to Twilight and Rainbow Dash at about the same time.  "Twilight!" cried Rarity.  "What in Equestria has gotten into your head now?"

"We know where Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo are!" shouted Twilight, refusing to slow down.  "I'll explain on the way!"





Shadow Shroud finally came to a halt deep in the Everfree Forest.  He had ran in the correct direction as accurately as he could manage, but the unfamiliar surroundings of the forest were filling him with doubts.  He might run past wherever he was supposed to be going and not even realize it.  And, of course, he was lost.

It was also very dark under the roof of the forest in the middle of the night.  Shadow Shroud had solved this problem by casting a spell that allowed him to see in the dark, although it only allowed him to see shades of grey.  Even though this was much more taxing than a simple light spell, he had opted to not use cast a light spell in case he needed to stay hidden.

He gasped in surprise as he heard a loud popping noise and his levitation magic died away.  This was because the figurines of the fillies that he had carried all this way had vanished into thin air.

Judging from the additional weight he suddenly felt in his back, he suspected he knew where they might be.  He turned his head around to look.  The filly figurines were indeed on his back, still inanimate and yet now laying on their stomachs on his shield with their front hoofs clinging to the front of it in order to keep from falling off.  They were all looking into the distance in the same direction with looks of worry on their face.

Feeling even more certain that something was terribly wrong, Shadow Shroud began to gallop through the forest once again in the new direction.