//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: foreshadowing 
// Story: And they shall know no fear 
// by Naroe_Clan 
//------------------------------//

	After that comment the princess flies off towards the everfree forest, Probably to deal with some meddlesome heroines. I quickly finish my stretching and start walking towards a nearby pond to wash off some of the dust coating my armor.

Looking down at the perfectly smooth water, I gaze at my reflection for a while. In the light of the full moon I see my pitch black armor, trimmed with tarnished silver along the edges. I stare into my own reflected eyes, the red glow coming from the white skull-helm’s eye sockets is disturbing to see even after so long.

Shaking off the mix of emotions I get from seeing my reflection, I reach down and wash some of my armor with several splashes from strong swipes of my hand through the water. I stand up and turn my gaze towards the nearby palace, debating just how to go about causing minimal actual damage while still keeping my word.

I start walking towards the nearest door into the castle while I think. I'm thankful for just how over-sized the place is as I only have to duck down a little in order to enter into the interior of the castle.

I carefully close the door behind me before looking around at what appears to be just a plain hallway through the palace. I continue walking, not even trying to be stealthy since I've found it to be almost impossible due to the mass of my armor.





Shining Armor is worried. He heard only a few minutes ago that princess Celestia had vanished from behind the stage in Ponyville, and that his sister is recklessly leading a group of civilians into the one of the most dangerous places that she could find without even asking one of the royal guards present to accompany them.

However, despite his worries, Shining Armor is a pony of the royal guard and he has his duties to attend to before allowing himself to panic and chase after his sibling. His duty at the moment is to patrol the halls of the royal palace, and he is trying his very hardest to focus on that instead of his worrying.

Perhaps because of that, or perhaps because patrolling the halls is one of the most obscenely boring things that anypony has ever had to do ever (at least according to Shining and several other guards), Shining Armor takes quite a while to notice the floor beneath him shaking slightly every couple of seconds.

Upon noticing this, he stops his marching and looks around for the source of the shaking. As he looks towards the far end of the hallway he's standing in he spots a figure moving past from the left side of the T intersection.

Its head is almost scraping the ceiling as it walks, and its massive foot stomps down and causes another tremor through the stone floor. It seems to suck color from the world around it and spread darkness as it moves. As Shining Armor lets out an unwilling whimper its head slowly turns towards him and his attention fixes upon the pits of fire from tartarus within the visage of bleached bone. That fire fills his vision until the creature finally passes from view as it continues its march.

It takes Shining Armor almost a minute to recover enough to recognize what he saw and to gallop as fast as he can to find his superior officer, leaving behind his spear and a small puddle.





I think about stopping and saying hi to Shining as I pass him and recognize him, but I remember what I'm technically here for and figure that just walking by him partially fulfills my end of the bargain. Also seeing him piss himself makes me remember that I'm still projecting out my fear aura, so I need to spend some time to fix that before moving on.

I open a side door and squeeze into a needlessly fancy storage area. Nodding in satisfaction that I shouldn't be disturbed I close the door and sit down on the floor to meditate.

After a few moments of preparation I breathe in deeply and expand my mind out into the area around me. As I breathe out I look at my physical self from inside the immaterium.

I sense the lines of power that I have attached to myself and spot the one made of fear. I carefully disconnect it and with even greater care dissipate it into nothingness, letting none of its negative form escape into the aether around me.

Before returning to myself, I look around and marvel at the calmness and serenity surrounding me. I look towards the boundaries around the world I am on, glad that they are still holding strong. I look even further out, hoping that the object of my worries is still far away.

As I reach my mind out to the limits of the bubble of calm, I feel it stronger than I hoped it would ever be. I quickly return to my body, fleeing not from the laughter I expected upon first entering the immaterium so long ago, but from the shadow growing ever closer.