CHAPTER 4
It Was A Trap
//???\\
The white purple maned unicorn breathed heavily. Near her, she could tell there was somepony else... watching.
"...Stay away!" the mare croaked. It was Rarity, and she was currently wearing her element of generosity.
"Hm?" She looked down at it, and rubbed the necklace with her hoof.
"How..." she thought, "I never put this on...!"
She was in a small jungle like room, with weeds growing in between each stone as if they were originally woven together. The roof was an etched stone, Though a few crystals lined around the whole place.
"Finally awake are we?" A menacing voice filled the place.
"Who-Who`s there?!" Rarity called out, getting only a laugh in return.
"Hmph. Does that really matter?" The clearly male pony snickered.
"..."Rarity kept silent. suddenly a dark figure began to walk towards her, and eventually came close enough to make out a few distinct features.
The eyes glowed a blood red, and Rarity wondered why she hadn`t noticed those before. The coat had to be grey, or that was just the shadows of the dark room she stood in. The horn seemed to be red at the tip and fade down to grey as it reached the face.
The main thing that threw her eyes into horror were the fact a purple mist waved from the eyelids back.
"No... It can`t be... We- We-"
"Killed me. Yes." the dark stallion sighed and walked into the lighter area, where Rarity stood frozen, confirming her horrors.
"you see, not everypony thinks i`m a monster, a TYRANT" he snickered again.
"A nice unicorn mare, she helped- bring me back" now smiling, he levitated something to him.
Rarity saw that it had to be a crystal of some sort, just in the shape and color of her own element, a purple diamond.
"What, do y-you want?!" She attempted to back up, but noticed she up against a wall within a second.
"Well, you CAN make the conclusion, right? I`m in need of a small favor." The stallion walked closer to her and, with an iron clad hoof, held his crystal near rarity.
"You see... I`m a little low on power, and in order to complete my goal, I just need to, em... Borrow some." And with that, he stuck the replicated gem of Rarity`s amulet on her necklace. It began to glow faintly.
"Eek! Stop!" Rarity yelped at the feeling of her magic being drained away from her. As the gem began to glow even further, her own amulet started to fade, color and all.
"Heh, your magic is all mine now..." the stallion grinned, baring fangs. Once the last of Rarity`s element had become a dull grey, he took the now bright glowing gem and placed it in a pocket in his cloak.
"You-you w-won`t get away with, with this... S-sombra" Rarity croaked, and with all her magic gone, fainted of exhaustion.
//alternate equestria\\
Stargleam prod up to a small cherry tree in blossom. She inspected it, but noticed it had no strange markings, and was- overall, completely real. Small blossoms began to fall to the ground. The mare stopped abruptly.
"How in the hay is there a freaking-" She stopped as she noticed a rather large building in front of her.
"Live tree..."
"Wow... Is this-... A castle?!" Stargleam wandered past the tree, now realizing that it was planted.
In front of the unicorn, A large white castle gleamed with gold trim. It had Egyptian etchings and small statues of ponies dressed in what looked like dresses and masks.
Stargleam walked along one of the marble walls- which, oddly enough, had no dirt or scratches-
"yet"she giggled. Some of the areas along the wall had simple pictures of Egyptian symbols, most reading out to say "sunshine and moonlight" or "welcome to light".
"Meh... Ooh!" She had caught sight of one unusual picture.
It was detailed- unlike the others, and shown two alicorns oddly similar to Luna and Celestia,
wearing more Egyptian type-clothes. Celestia was bringing up the sun, and wore a Fearows head-dress with a striped dress.
Luna had curly hair and a ponytail, along with a necklace bearing a picture of a crescent moon. Connected to the necklace was a fleece, see through cloak-like attire, based on the outline of Luna`s body underneath the clothing.
"What in Equestria- how are YOU guys freaking EGYPTIAN princesses too?!" Stargleam yelled aloud, and then thought for a second,
noting that she HAD come across Sombra earlier...
She decided to continue on until she could get some further evidence.
Meanwhile, Twilight was currently chewing out Rainbow dash.
"Great- JUST GREAT!!!" she face-hoofed herself in annoyance.
"w-what?!" Rainbow asked and in return got:
"What!? What! Somepony must have somehow obtained the alicorn amulet and used it!"
"Um, so?"
"That means there`s another `trixie` so to say!" while Twilight was getting so many wrong ideas in her head, Rainbow dash took this time to sneak away from Twilight, who then levitated the pegasus to her.
The unicorn was breathing calmer now.
"Um, twi?" Rainbow squeaked.
"Okay... Okay... you said you saw the mirror shard, correct?" Twilight asked, breathing a little too deeply.
"Um, yeah."
"definitely?"
"definitely."
"We need to get a hold of that shard, and in doing so we can catch the crook who stole the amulet."
"So, You need me to fly up and look for her, right!?"
"Yep! Looks like you`ll get to have your action after all" Twilight released the magic on Rainbow dash.
Rainbow then flew up into the sky to start her scout, and in the distance could see a white-gold castle.
"Hey, Twi! think our `crook` would want to steal from a rich castle?"
"...why?"
"`Cause... I found one!"
//our equestria\\
Apple Jack wandered through town as the sun finally began to sleep beyond the mountains.
It was still a little busy, though mainly because the merchants were either taking down their stall or setting up a new one for tomorrow.
The orange pony had not given up her search yet, but fatigue and hunger were beginning to take her over.
She could handle staying up late all right, that didn`t bother her. It was the aching of her fore and hind legs that screamed to rest from a never-ending gallop.
"Rarity!!! where are you!" Apple jack cried.
No answer. Most of the ponies had gone in by now.
A light rain even set in, most likely let in to water the plants while everypony else slept.
She felt so alone, so lost. What would she tell Twilight?
What in Celestia was she going to do now, even? She could go to a tavern or inn and sleep, she could try one last round...
But she just sat there. She didn`t feel like she had enough energy to find the nearest inn, normally there wouldn`t be one near the outdoor marketplace.
The rain was cold and flattened any poof in Apple jack`s mane. Her normally bright emerald eyes carried a mix of a sad blue.
She dropped her already soggy damp hat onto the cold crystal ground.
She was officially out of hope, had replaced all of that with either despair or a feeling of loss, like something had been stolen.
By now there was nopony out at all.
"A little late to be out and alone, eh?" A stallions voice echoed in the orange mare`s head suddenly.
"What the-" She started.
"looking for that prissy mare, I suppose. I`m afraid she`s a bit to frail to move right now."
"How `r you- who are you!" Apple jack yelled at herself.
A mint-blue mare caught sight of the raging earth pony.
"Easy now, farm-animal. I just need a favor... I can`t stay in a truly solid form if i`m in THIS horrid place-"
"Horrid?!"
"Yes... now stop yelling-Please!"
"..."
"Good, now. Look down to your left, see that small alleyway?"
"Yeah... bum, I ain`t goi`n down there!"
"Just- do it. now, there`s something in there I need you to get"
"...I guess..." Apple jack walked over to the alleyway, and sneakingly, so did the emerald haired mare.
"Now what?"
"Go in and... Over to the farthest wall, ahead of you, the right corner" The oddly familiar voice ordered.
"Hey! don`t get pushy now!" Apple jack growled as she trotted over to the wall. She had a simple suspicion of a trap.
She paused. Emptiness filled
"Nope, no trap" she noted to herself.
"Good, Good. I needed you to get somewhere dark... I found what I needed".
"Wait, what-" Apple jack stopped short as she was almost pounced on by a shadowy figure.
"Ack!" it hit the wall but quickly, shot up and bared it`s sharp fangs, of which stood to the sides of it`s mouth.
It had menacing eyes, that were a glowing white, no iris or pupil. Just white. A white mist flowed to sides of the eyes.
Overall the pony was completely shadow, yet the forehead had a small purple oval on it, like a tiny gem.
It`s, or his hooves due to the mussel had flowing black fur on the backs, the hind legs pretty much surrounded by this shadowy hair.
The shadow pony jumped at AJ, but she was prepared. She back kicked the beast, somehow damaging it. Damaging what seemed to be pure shadow.
She noticed the voice in her head was gone, like it just vanished, the being of it gone without a trace.
The figure side-stepped towards Aj, and she swiped her right hind-leg at him. She missed and the shadow took it`s silver fangs and bit into her air-swept leg.
"OW!" AJ cried as she bucked the vampire-like thing in the face, with her left hind-leg, ultimately allowing gravity to sweep in and throw her flank on the floor. Now in a more defenseless position, the beast attacked her by pouncing on her and levitating a gem, without a horn though, to her. Aj struggled, a useless effort at freedom.
"Thiissss iss your END" the figure snaked a voice out.
"Eh..."AJ was completely frozen as the gem, shaped like her own element, came towards her. Now that she thought, it was her element.
Necklace and all. But with that was an orange topaz crystal replica of her apple of honesty.
"...?" Was all Apple jack had, until the necklace was levitated and clicked on her neck.
"Ssssay goodnighttt" the gem was placed right beside apple jack`s necklace`s main attraction, and with a small glow, began to sap the magic out of her element. Apple winced, she could feel some power, being swept up and vacuumed out of her.
Her truth. Her truth of being, of reason was leaving her and that was destroying her color, crippling her consciousness.
"...how..." Apple jack whispered as she finally drifted away into a deep sleep, her muscles relaxed.
During this time her vibrant orange body had dulled and her freckles were gone.
Her hair lost the mustard yellow that had before sat brightly and cheerfully. She also lost the ponytail, her hair strewn across her face and neck. Her cutie mark was- gone.
The spying emerald mare sat in awe. Scared she would be caught, she backed up and stayed down, crouching.
Finally, the stallion smiling as if he had won a war over kingdoms, vanished in a shadowy swirl.
The mare got up and rushed over to the the unconsciousness Apple jack.
"How did it..." The mare mumbled, then noticed Apple`s leg was bleeding.
"Oh Celestia. um..." The mare grabbed a nearby cart with her teeth, and with a flap of her wings sped up to stop near the sleeping pony.
She then picked up the, oddly very heavy load, and half dropped half put her in the cart.
"I should get her to Celestia..." the mare then strapped the cart to her and ran off, using her larger than normal wings to propel herself faster.