//------------------------------// // Chapter Ten: Night Stalker // Story: Heart of Shadow: Passing the Torch // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// Passing the Torch Chapter Ten: Night Stalker Written by TheCrimsonDM The night was unusually still, and too cold for this time of year. It didn’t help that Amber could sense something was watching her, she looked around nervously. Twilight Sparkle smiled at her kindly. “Amber, are you alright?” Twilight asked. The shadows were deep, and everything felt dangerous. Although Amber couldn’t put her hoof down on what was wrong, she could sense that something was amiss. The quiet night air left her listening to Twilight’s soft breathing, which was comforting to hear. After not being able to pinpoint what was wrong, Amber let out a frustrated sigh. “No, I’m not alright. Maud is home for good, and my mom began telling her egregious lies again. Alicorn of darkness, what the hay is that anyway?” Twilight giggled, the sound made the cold night feel a bit warmer. “Oh, that... Well I can tell you that she was never an alicorn of darkness, nor did she ever ‘take out’ Celestia. She’s just telling stories again, but after what I heard Pinkie saying, I can’t really blame her.” “Yeah and about that, did Pinkie Pie really go into another dimension and fight an evil Celestia?” Twilight looked away and smiled softly. “It’s a little more complicated than that…” “Ok, wow…” Amber said. You know on second thought, maybe I don’t actually want to know what all Pinkie was up too. “Can I ask you a personal question?” Twilight asked. Amber nodded and Twilight continued. “You don’t like Maud, that much is obvious even to me. But why?” Amber looked away. “She’s never home. If she wanted to be part of this family, she would’ve been here more often, right?” Twilight’s movements slowed down a little and she lost pace with Amber. Amber was forced to slow down to match her pace. There was a sadness in Twilight’s eyes, one that Amber had rarely seen. “Amber,” Twilight said softly, her voice just above a whisper. “You do know that Maud loves you, right?” Why is she acting like she was the one hurt by this. It’s Maud who should be sad, not Twilight. Ugh, I didn’t want to make her upset. “If she loved me she’d show it,” Amber grumbled. Twilight made a croaking noise, and Amber stopped dead in her tracks. Twilight looked back at her with wet, glossy eyes. “You know she has a hard time showing emotions, she’s never really gotten past it.” Amber looked away. So what if she can’t show emotions. She could at least pretend too. “Amber.” Amber closed her eyes. Her heart was beginning to ache, and she couldn’t bare to look into Twilight’s eyes any longer. A gentle hoof rested against Amber’s shoulder, and for a moment Amber froze, but then she gave in and rested against it. Twilight leaned in and embraced Amber, it was a little awkward considering Amber’s height. “I hope she’s not crying right now, it’s always so hard to watch.” “My mom cries all the time, especially when she misses Maud.” “I wasn’t talking about Trixie…” Amber pulled away. “Maud can cry?” Twilight stared at her with those sad purple eyes and nodded. “And she’s always so quiet, it’s… it’s heart wrenching.” Shame, guilt, and pain built up in Amber’s heart. She couldn’t help but to look away. It was too late to go home, if she wanted to be taken seriously, she’d need to stay away for the night at least, but she knew that tomorrow would be another day… and considering how much Maud meant to Trixie, it would only be right to make things up to Maud. It’s hard being the adult sometimes. *** It didn’t take long before the pair arrived at the Golden Oaks Library, and went inside. It was dark inside and Amber stood patiently by the front door as Twilight made her way deeper inside, using the light from her horn to see by. It didn’t take long for Twilight to find some candles and light them. With the interior lit up by the flickering orange light, Twilight got to work on pulling books off of the shelves, she floated a few of them over to Amber, they landed with a dull thud at her hooves. “So,” Amber asked feeling a little confused, “What are we doing?” “Research and you get to help me,” Twilight said excitedly. Amber let out a sigh and laid down. Why did I think that I’d get to do anything more? “And after we do our research, when we discover what this threat is, we can defeat it. Together.” Amber looked up at her teacher and stared in disbelief. Did she really just offer to let me help defeat a monster? A monster? Twilight smiled back at her before pulling open one of the books and focusing on it. “Remember, we don’t know when this thing will strike again. It could even be in Ponyville tonight… we need to stop it.” Amber nodded curtly and began reading the top most book at her hooves. This was actually one of Twilight’s bestiaries, one of the ones she had written during her years of living in Ponyville. Amber wondered why Twilight would give her this book if she had already known about all of these villains, but perhaps Twilight was worried she had missed something that another set of eyes could easily find. Inside the book she found many different types of monsters that could easily be dismissed, all of whom Twilight had fought at one point or another. As she skimmed through the book she found the likely target, but it made her uneasy. Staring at the picture of a dark mist, and reading the title made her cringe with memories of the scary stories that she had been told during her childhood. “Twilight,” Amber asked nervously. “What exactly do you know about the Tantabus?” The book Twilight was reading slipped free from her grasp and slammed against the wooden floor, she looked back at Amber, with wide eyes. For a moment there was not a peep from either of them. The darkness just out reach of the candles felt thick, like an inky blackness. Amber could scarcely believe that there was anything beyond the veil darkness in Twilight’s house. Finally Twilight broke the silence. “Amber, why are you asking about that?” “Because it says here its goal was to escape the dream world. Is it possible that maybe what we are dealing with is similar to it?” Amber asked, the previous silence making her words timid and quiet. Twilight looked around nervously, as though she didn’t trust the darkness of her own house. “We stopped the Tantabus, Luna killed it. There is no way that this could be the Tantabus… but something similar,” Twilight whispered more to herself than to Amber. “If this is true, we could be in a peril that even I couldn’t have guessed.” I really don’t like this. Twilight isn’t scared of anything, not really. She’s fought gods, demons, and even dragons! If this thing is so scary… Amber could feel herself beginning to shake. Her mind raced back and forth, trying to figure out what she should do. Her heart was beating so fast it would give Rainbow Dash a run for her money, and the thought of her home, her mothers came into her mind. She imagined Maud trying desperately to stop the darkness, but for all her brute strength, the intangible being got past her, and went straight for Trixie. It was becoming hard to breath. “Amber, calm down,” Twilight said. “We’ve dealt with this before, we can do it again.” Amber shook her head. She wanted nothing more than to check up on her parents, to make sure that they were okay. She knew that the only ponies with enough magic to safe guard them tonight, were both stuck inside a dark little library, shaking in their metaphorical boots. Despite her honor being damaged by this, she needed to return home anyway. “Twilight,” Amber said, her voice quivering. “Can you take me home?” Twilight’s worried eyes softened, and a smile grew on her lips. “Sure.” *** The darkness in Ponyville felt thicker, blacker, and more depressing than Amber had ever felt it before. Even with Twilight by her side, she could barely stand the oppressive dark. The moon was hidden behind the clouds tonight, and it took all of Amber’s strength to continue moving through the town. “Who put those clouds there?” Twilight asked herself bitterly. “I’m going to chew out Rainbow Dash if this is her fault.” Silence thick and heavy settled over the town. And no matter how far they walked, Amber could only worry about the darkness. It felt like something foul was watching them, just waiting for its time to strike. Was it possible that Twilight and Amber had angered the being, and now it was after them? A single pony stood in the darkness staring at them with purple eyes. The pair froze. The pony stepped forward and Twilight’s magical light magnified. Blackout stood in front of them, her eyes were half open and glazed over, she looked out of it, confused. Twilight took a step forward but then Blackout snarled at them like a beast. Twilight stepped back and Blackout returned to her dazed state. Amber smirked, “Well I’d like to say that she was acting like her usual self… but the fact she’s out here all alone in the darkness is a little strange.” Twilight frowned at her. “That’s not nice. You’re right though, this certainly is strange. We should get her home…” Twilight was right of course, no matter how much Amber might have disliked Blackout as a pony, she couldn’t simply leave her out here all alone. Something was wrong with Blackout, and considering the events of the previous night, Amber could only guess at how much this connected to the thing they were chasing. “What can we do?” Amber asked. “If we approach her she might just attack us.” “That is a problem. Maybe we can lead her safely to your house or something. After that I can take her home myself, and-“ Twilight explained, Amber had a better idea. Amber’s horn lit up and a golden orange aura surrounded Blackout. Pain started to throb inside Amber’s head as the pegasus lifted up slowly. After hovering a few inches off the ground, beads of sweat ran down Amber’s face as she slowly moved Blackout forward, and carefully walked just far enough to keep pace, but not close enough to anger the dazed pony. This reminded Amber of pushing a cart, only in this case it was a pony that she would’ve enjoyed soaking in the local stream. Twilight followed. “Well that… that’s one way to do it. Hopefully she won’t cause any trouble on our arrival.” “If she does I’ll just drop her. Besides you can stop her from moving, right,” Amber said with a wink. Of course Amber knew that Twilight easily capable of such a task, she’d used the spell on Amber once before. It was honestly one of the more terrifying moments of her training. Something moved in the shadows. Amber stopped and looked at the dark space between two buildings, Twilight followed her gaze. Although the blackness of the space was impenetrable, Amber knew that she had seen something, just a blur in the darkness, but it was still there. “I saw something in there.” “It might have been a cat,” Twilight suggested hopefully. “I don’t believe that anymore than you do,” Amber replied uneasily. The light from Twilight’s horn focused into a beam and she assaulted the darkness with it. A black inky tendril shot forward towards the pair. Amber ducked, in that instant she forgot her spell and Blackout crumpled to the ground. Twilight jumped to the side, her wings flapped once giving her jump more distance. The tendril lashed out, turned the corner and lashed out towards the collapsed pony. Amber shrieked as Blackout was grabbed by the tendril and lifted in the air. Twilight’s horn flashed brightly and several beams of red hot energy shot out. The tendril easily dodged them as it writhed in the air, swinging Blackout around with careless abandon. That’s when Blackout began screaming, and clawing at the tendril with her hooves in vain.   This wasn’t working, and Amber needed something to get the upper hand right away. She looked around, there was nothing to aid her. Some wooden planks, the open forge of a blacksmith’s workshop, a large hammer for forging, and a few chairs. She looked again at the hammer and an idea came to her. She lashed out with her magic and grabbed the hammer, the glow from Amber’s magic surrounded it, and gave it a holy glow as it flew towards her. her telekinetic grasp was one of her strongest and easiest to use spells, so when she brought the hammer to herself she only took one look at the tendril before reaching a conclusion; she was gonna smash it. With the strength that somepony could only expect from a full grown stallion, Amber swung the hammer at the base of the tendril. The hammer went through it as though it wasn’t even there. The area her hammer ran through turned to smoke and vanished. The rest of the tendril followed suit and disappeared in a poof of smoke. Blackout began falling from a height of at least twenty feet. Amber dropped the hammer and reached out with her telekinesis, praying that she could only reach Blackout in time. Blackout’s sudden plunge was halted by the light of a golden-orange, and red glow. Amber looked at Twilight and saw her horn glowing as well. Together they set Blackout down gently. The pegasus stared at them with wide, glossy eyes. “You, you saved me,” Blackout muttered weakly. Amber walked up and circled Blackout while examining her for any signs of damage. When it looked like Blackout was okay, Amber let out a sigh of relief. “You’re okay.” “Why did you save me?” Blackout asked, uncertainty filled her rough voice. “Because you in danger. What, did you think I’d let you get hurt?” Amber asked accusingly. Blackout stamped a hoof down hard. “But I bully you, I make fun of you, I beat up your friends, I… why me?” Amber shook her head. The answer was so simple to her, that it didn’t even occur to her how Blackout could not understand it. “Because it was the right thing to do.” Blackout tried to sit down, but her legs only allowed her to back up. Her entire body was shaking violently, and tears were now streaming down the sides of her face. Her purple eyes stared, confused, at Amber. “You should have let me fall. I didn’t earn your pity.” “You don’t earn things like that,” Amber said. “You just get saved. That’s all there is to it.” Amber fixed her gaze on Twilight who was for some odd reason smiling at the pair. “Can you take me home now? I…” Remembering the black tendril made Amber shiver. I just want to cuddle up to mom… and maybe Maud too. Twilight nodded. “I’ll take you home first, and I’ll take you home after that, Blackout.” Blackout took a few stiff and awkward steps. “Okay…”