//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: The Raiders and The Princess // by FIRE FLASH 3 //------------------------------// The Raiders and the Alicorn Prologue It was another normal day in Pony Ville, Equestria. Ponies were out and about, shopping for the necessary items to continue the daily routine of life. But for one pony, things could not be more precarious. Twilight Sparkle, newly crowned princess of Magic, was in the midst of one of her projects. This one however, was one that could revolutionize the way ponies saw the Universe. As Twilight had explained to her friends, this new machine would allow ponies to see different dimensions, even the Human realm where she would sometimes go and visit her friends at Canterlot High. Princess Celestia herself, granted Twilight permission to conduct this... experiment. And now it was finally ready, the last few checks had to be made before she would activate the device. After having checked the last few things; including the installment of a Mirror, brought to the Library from Canterlot. She carefully levitated the Mirror into place, Spike stood to the side giving her instructions to where the Mirror had to go. Celestia had not explained much about the object, she had only said that she had found it, locked away deep within the Canterlot archives. Twilight did not pursue Celestia into the details of why the Mirror was in such a secure location. A question for another time. For now, Twilight was to busy concentrating on getting the precious artifact into the correct position to allow the magical connecters to connect with the Mirror, thus allowing a magical flow of energy to show whatever dimensions that were on the other side. As the Mirror was set into place, Twilight took a few steps back, while Spike hurried to join her. They both took a second to contemplate their new machine. Twilight, sighing happily, then looked down at Spike. "Well Spike, it's finally finished" She said, as if she had just rid herself of a burden. Spike was about to reply, but was interrupted by a low growling. "I'm guessing that's your way of telling me that we should go and have lunch?" She said with a small laugh. "Sorry Twilight it's just that... I haven't eaten since breakfast" He said, lowering his head in embarrassment. Twilight laughed and proceeded to pat Spike on the head "Well come on then, I'm sure Pinkie would be happy to make you a Jem-stone smoothie" Twilight lowered herself to allow Spike to hop on to her back, and they both headed back up the stairs to the main Library and locked the door. XXXXXXXXX All the while, unknown to both of them, something was watching them from it's hiding place. A creature, its name lost within the length of time, watched as the Young alicorn and the small dragon left the room and locked the door. As the door clicked shut, the pony locked within the Mirror tried franticly to activate the machine, but to no avail. He or she's mental powers weren't yet strong enough to brake through the magical barrier holding its power from escaping. It didn't matter how much it tried to brake through, each attempt ended in failure. To long had it been trapped within this prison of space. So long in fact, it had even forgotten its name, gender, birthdate and even what species he or she was. But no longer. Soon, the lavender Alicorn would return and activate the device, then .... Freedom. As time passed, awaiting the return of the Young princess, its mind pondered on its imprisonment. The reason why HE was there. HE? He'd finally remembered he's gender. He could only remember a few things. being imprisoned was one of them. The princess who had imprisoned him, Celestia and Luna's mother. What was her name? He couldn't remember. But that was no longer important, the princess's mother was long dead, he was the one who took her life before an unknown Brown pony had sealed him within this Mirror. The Brown pony, now what was his name? It began with a D, but he couldn't remember. Not that it mattered anyway. That was about Four thousand years ago now. Even Celestia wouldn't remember, she was only young at the time. She was supposed to be he's next victim if only that Brown pony hadn't intervened. But for now, freedom was near. All there was left, was to wait for the Alicorn to come and free him. He'd had a few thousand years to plan what he was going to do after his release. One of the things he needed to do was get rid of this ... Twilight Sparkle. She would be one of the only ones who could trap him again. Not forgetting that she was one of the elements of Harmony, she could pose a threat to future plans and offensives, though his power to wield Time and manipulate it would allow him to change History to suit his needs. Twilight was just an obstacle that can be pushed aside. He could just drop her in some other Dimension where she would be stranded with no help. Then attack Equestria's social and economic heart to prevent any resistance, then take his place upon the throne of Equestria. As he continued to rummage through his mind in the darkness of emptiness. The door clicked, as somepony unlocked the door. A silhouette appeared in the door way, clearly recognizable as Twilight. Only one word came through The Shadow's mind. ........."Freedom" XXXXXXXXX Twilight clicked the basement light on, its yellowy glow illuminated the objects within the room itself. She slowly made her way down the stairs, a bit of excitement building up as she approached the machine she had spent months working on. She had asked Spike to send a letter of to princess Celestia about it finally being finished. Twilight did want to try it out first before the princess replied or came to visit. She didn't want to disappoint Celestia because the device didn't work. So testing it, was the most important thing on her list. Unknown to Twilight, the creature, that would soon become known as "The Shadow", watched as she ran through her thoughts. Rereading over a few calculations and other mathematics, Twilight spun around to face the Mirror. Her heart was racing like mad, she slowly approached the lever allowing the magical current to activate the machine and then.... the unknown! A purple colored aura appeared around Twilight's horn, a similar aura appeared around the lever. Slowly, the handle was pulled down, finally making contact with the other end. Pumps on the side of the machine slowly began pumping away. A magical flow of power ran through the tubes and pipes leading to the Mirror. Finally, the flow of energy reached the Mirror, it slowly took a purple color with a low humming sound. Images of what she guessed to be different dimensions, flew across the Mirror. It suddenly stopped with the image of some sort of other worldly jungle. Twilight sighed happily, glad that the machine hadn't blown up, taking half of Pony Ville with it. But to her shock, the Mirror began to violently vibrate. Ripples began appearing on the Mirror. Twilight slowly approached the Mirror, she extended a hoof, getting ready to touch it. Suddenly, a black hoof jetted out with the rest of a black pony's form, Twilight fell back in shock, as she slowly got to her hooves she was lifted into the air by a silver aura. She yelped in shock as she was brought closer to the new pony. He was clearly a stallion, thought his coat was so black that none of the features were visible: such as the form in general, muzzle, horn.... As the strange pony floated Twilight over to itself, it took its time to look at Twilight properly. Clearly a bit nervous, Twilight decided to brake the silence. "Um... Hello, m-my name i-i-is Twilight S-Sparkle" she said putting on a nervous smile. The Shadow smiled menacingly at her. its teeth sharp. Twilight was now terrified. "Oh miss Sparkle, I already know your name, age, title and a lot more." He said slowly walking around her floating form. "I thank you princess, for having freed me. To long have I been trapped in that blasted Mirror, but no longer, thanks to you Equestria will fall." "W-What do you mean?" She struggled to escape, in vain. "It's quite simple really, I'm hear to take revenge on the ones who had imprisoned me in that.......cage" He said, taking a glance at the Mirror. "Who a-a-are y-you?" she said, fear gaining hold of her heart. "You can call me......The Shadow, now what to do with you" He said thoughtfully, while tapping his muzzle. His mind went back into the ideas he had while in the Mirror. Another dimension wouldn't be to bad. "Please, let me go" She pleaded, tears beginning to fall from her eyes. What had she done. "Normally I would let you go, but I find myself faced with one of the Element bearers. Surely you know that I can't let you go since you would call upon the other Elements to try and stop me. But the Elements won't do more than scratch me, or bring a drop of Harmony in an Ocean of pure evil." "What do you want with me?" she said as she floated in mid air. "Nothing, my dear. Nothing at all, I only require that you don't stand in my way, and I have the perfect solution for that." He said, an invisible, evil smile spreading across his muzzle. "And I think I've just found the perfect way to achieve this." Walking slowly towards the machine, Twilight suddenly realized what the Shadow was planning on doing with her. She fought desperately to escape, yelling, hoping that someone would hear her. "HELP!! SOMEPONY.....HEEEEELLLLPPPPP!!!!!!" The Shadow chuckled to himself, finding her pleas quite amusing. "It's no use princess, no one can hear you, but don't worry, at least you'll be alive and not dead." He said to her, Twilight was now in tears, trying to get away from the Shadow's magical grasp. "Please......." She pleaded The Shadow slowly approached the Mirror, Twilight getting closer to its rippling surface. Tears streamed down her face, but as she was about to be sent through the portal, the Shadow stepped towards her. Indescribable pain flared through her entire body, such agonizing pain, she screamed from the top of her lungs, so hard in fact that she broke her voice, rendering her vocal communication impossible. All of this happening while her magical abilities were being sucked out of her, into the creature's body "You won't be needing much magical energy, just enough for you to survive whatever you may face." He said, slowly sending Twilight through the portal. Twilight was unable to say anything, her voice was broken and she'd cried out all her tears. The last thing she saw before entering the Mirror, was The Shadow looking down at her with evil smile. As the light slowly faded, twilight found herself falling towards another light. Around her, images began to appear, each one showing images of Equestria. Images showing the towns as she knew them, only to be replaced by scenes of destruction. Pony Ville lay in a pile of debris, Canterlot, the capital of Equestria, rested in a black shroud. The final image she saw before blacking out was that of the Shadow sitting on Celestia throne, smiling at the crowd of bowing ponies. After that, everything went black.