Tales From Blackwood Forest

by Robobrony

327 Years, 41 Days Ago

327 Years, 41 Days

“So how far is it to this temple again?” I asked the Pegasus adventurer calling herself Daring Do.

“I don’t know, I just know we need to head north from the center of this forest.”

It was late in the morning as we made our trek through the forest, after revealing my wings, we took to flying through it to make better time. I rolled my eyes at Daring’s response to my question. “Well sorry to burst your bubble about this, but I don’t recall ever even seeing a temple of some kind around here, are you sure your right about this?”

“Hey, you’re talking to Equestria’s number one adventurer here, if I say that a temple is somewhere around here, then there is a temple around here.”

I veered down and came in for a landing on the ground. Daring followed and landed next to me with a quizzical look. “I warned you before that you better not try anything funny. If I find out that this is some sort of trick, I will kill you, in case you forgot, I don’t like you ponies.”

Daring gave me a worried look, it soon faded and she just looked at me. “Nightshade, I promised I would help you and I meant it, this isn’t a trick. Maybe the temple is in a part of the forest you haven’t been to yet.”

I looked away from her and just started walking, she followed. “I suppose that is possible, there are distant parts of this forest even I haven’t ventured to because it was so far away from where I made a home for myself.” As we walked a little further, I heard a rustle in a nearby bush.

“What was that, did you hear something?” Daring asked from behind me.

I turned to face her. “Stay close to me if you want to stay alive.” Daring came right up to my side and looked around with narrowed eyes. A pack of timberwolves emerged from the surrounding bushes, it looked like there was at least twelve of them. I sneered at them. “Haven’t you bark heads learned your lesson yet, how many times do I have to beat you before you learn that you can’t beat me?”

Daring looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “You know what these are?”

I answered with annoyance clear in my voice. “I live here remember, I know everything about this place.”

She turned to face the pack that had us surrounded. “So what are they?”

“Timberwolves, pretty much immortal, they shatter easily, but can reform in seconds.” After my explanation, one lunged for Daring. She managed to buck it quickly and knocked it back and into two other wolves. The three shattered to twigs and reassembled in seconds. I was a little impressed that she showed little fear at these things and was able to strike like she did.

“So then how do we beat them?” A pair of timberwolves lunged at me, I quickly formed a shadow circle under me, moved it forward and created a pair of spikes that shot up quickly, piercing the wolves in mid-air, then I made more spines quickly shoot out from the first, breaking the wolves into pieces.

I decided to make quick work of them, I focused my magic and my horns lit up with my black aura, I formed a large ball of fire above my head. Daring watched in awe as I did this. The timberwolves seemed to cringe at the sight of fire. I fired a fireball at a group in front of me, a few jumped out of the way but I managed to hit one and turned it into a pile of ash.

The timberwolves nearby looked at the space that held their pack mate with fear, they turned to me as I formed another fireball. They got the message as all the surrounding timberwolves cringed. They dispersed and ran off. With that minor annoyance out of the way, I dismissed the fireball I formed and continued walking. “Let’s go, that little encounter wasted our time.”

Daring trotted up to my side. “Nightshade that was awesome, how did you do that?”

I just rolled my eyes. “Magic, it was a fire spell. I thought you ponies had magic?”

“Well, we do…..I just never seen a spell like that before.”

“Let’s just keep moving.” I took to the air with Daring following.

We flew for hours till we finally reached an area of the forest I was not familiar with, the trees seemed the same but it just didn’t feel familiar. We finally stopped to rest for lunch in a small clearing. Daring took the initiative in getting food by collecting a few fruits from the nearby trees. She tossed a pear to me and I caught it. “Here ya go, eat up.”

I held the fruit in my hoof as I took a bit out while sitting on my haunches. I decided to try and converse with this mare. “So, you didn’t seem all that afraid of those timberwolves we ran into earlier.”

She just waved a hoof at me. “Nah, I’ve faced worse believe me.”

I kept a straight face as I responded. “Well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, there are worse things out there than those timberwolves.”

“You mean like these trolls you mentioned?”

“Pretty much, they’re only slightly more dangerous because of their size and strength, and because they’re a little smarter. Not too much smarter though, pretty much dumb as mud as far as I’m concerned.”

She gigled at my quip. “He ha, that’s pretty funny.” I just looked at her oddly. “I think I like you Nightshade.”

This surprised me a little. I just narrowed my eyes. “Well don’t get any funny ideas, I still don’t like you. I’m just putting up with you because of this thing that can give me back my family.”

She smirked at me. “I figured as much. Come on, let’s get going.” We continued on our way.

It was another few hours later till we finally reached a large clearing where the ruins of a stone city rested. I was frozen in place as I looked over it, it reminded me of my home village, only there was no tree coverage over the place, and in the back was a large stone structure with a flat roof and stone carvings of animal heads surrounding it. Daring Do smiled as she looked it over. “HA HA, we found it, this is it Night shade, I told you there was a temple here.”

I finally shook myself out of my daze to respond. “Ok so you were right, big deal, consider yourself lucky so far.”

She turned and faced me with another quizzical look. “Why?”

“One less reason for me to kill you.” I responded simply.

“Are you ever going to stop with the death threats?”

“Are you ever going to stop being a pony? Let’s go, the sooner we get this artifact of yours, the sooner I can get my family back and you can be on your merry way.”

“Aren’t you the charmer?” I heard her say under her breath.

As we, made our way through the city, we saw many skeletons of ponies scattered about, some were whole while others were just skuls or ribs or legs, it was rather ugly, but it didn’t bother me.

Daring seemed a little disgusted by this. “Eh, Nightshade, aren’t you bothered by all this? I’ve seen bones before, but not so many in one place.”

“This is nothing to me, I’ve seen worse than this……MUCH worse.”

“Really, like what?”

I stopped and turned my head to face her. “Let me put it this way, have you ever seen your entire clan slaughtered by an army of angry ponies, only to have to bury them all yourself and see the carnage that was brought upon them close up?” She looked horrified by this as she shook her head. “I was just a young colt when it happened, and I buried my entire clan on my own. So yeah, I’ve seen worse than this.” I turned my head forward again. “Come one, we’re wasting time.” I heard as she slowly started to follow.

We made it through to the other side of the city and up to the entrance of the temple. Daring came up to my side as I was about to step through, but she stopped me with a hoof to my chest. “Hold on Nightshade, you can’t just go barging into an ancient temple.”

I turned to her. “Why not? Let’s just go in there and grab the thing.”

“You see those holes in the floor?” She pointed a hoof to the floor of the hallway into the temple. “And the ones in the walls.” She also gestured to the walls.

I looked along the floor and saw a series of holes in the floor like she said, then to the walls and saw a series of holes in the walls as well. I turned back to her. “What about them?”

She rolled her eyes at me. She then picked up a rock and tossed it into the hallway. As soon as the rock was in, darts started shooting out of the holes in the walls at high speeds. The rock landed on a tile with a hole and a sharp metal spike shot up from the floor. “Booby traps, I’ve encountered plenty of them in my line of work. That is why you don’t just go barging in a temple like this. Now we need to find out what the trigger is and find a way to disable it.”

As she thought, I came up with a quick solution, I formed my shadow under both of us and sucked us in using my shadow sneak ability. Daring gave out a shriek of surprise when she felt herself sink quickly. “WHOA!” I zipped us across the floor with ease slinking between the holes in the floor and got us through.

Once safely on the other side of the hall and past the spikes and darts, I had us re-emerge from my shadow. Daring looked at me with a smile. “Or we could just do that. Nice work Nightshade, wish I had you with me all the time when I go exploring, you make getting past booby traps easy.”

“Don’t get used to it, this is a one-time thing.” I was about to take a step when she stopped me again.

“Hold it!” She put a hoof to my barrel again.

“What now?” I asked in annoyance. She simply pointed down at the floor and I saw a hint of a glimmer, I leaned down closer for a better look and saw a wire. I looked back up to her with a glare. “It’s just a piece of string.” I deadpanned.
She smirked then pointed a hoof to the left of me, revealing three long slots in the side of the wall just in front of me. I looked back down at the wire and stepped on it. Three large axes came flying out of the slots and imbedding themselves in the wall across from the slots.

I looked back at Daring who was wearing a smug look. I just narrowed my eyes again. “So how many of these booby traps are there in this place?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“I thought you were an expert here?”

“I am, it’s just the number of booby traps and what kinds vary from temple to temple.”

I looked straight ahead again. “Great. Well miss expert, go ahead and take the lead then.” She happily did so. After passing the axes, Daring found an unlit torch and took it out of the brace that was holding it.

She turned to me. “Say Nightshade, would you mind lighting this, we’re going to need it, it’ll get dark in there.” I figured I could tell her I could provide light with an illumination spell, but then this torch would let me save up my magic in case it was needed. So I lit up my horns and used my magic to light the torch in Daring’s hoof. She gave me a smile. “Thanks. Come on, let’s go.” She then continued to lead the way.

We soon came to a large open chamber with a section off to the left was raised and had steps leading up to a stone table. There were old looking pots lying around, some were still standing while others were shattered and broken. “Wow, look at this place. This must be the main chamber of the temple.”

We walked in a little further. “So is the artifact in here or what?”

“I don’t think so, something as important as that would have its own chamber and will be well protected.”

“So how do we find it then.”

“There must be a clue on the walls, look at these inscriptions.” She went over to the wall on the right and lifted the torch for me to get a better look. I could see funny writings on the wall accompanied by pictures of other ponies. I couldn’t make out what the words said. “Nightshade, see if you can find a clue in these, there should be a picture of these ponies looking like their worshipping something.”

“You do know I can’t read this right?”

“I can, but you don’t have to, just find a picture of what I described.”

“Fine.”

“Wait, let’s find a torch for you.” She stopped me before I could take a step.

“I don’t need one, I have night vision. I can see just fine in the dark.”

“Oh, ok then.” She went right while I went left.

I scanned the carvings and saw images of the ponies with what looked like crops, another of them wearing funny looking clothes and seemed to be dancing around a fire, another where……..no…….it can’t be. I froze as my eyes came to rest on a depiction of a horrible looking beast with red eyes and sharp fangs looking right at me. An image flashed in my mind of the night my parents carried me away from our burning home, I chanced a look back and saw a horrid beast with red eyes and his sharp teeth glinted in the light of the fire. I was afraid, truly afraid for the first time in a long time. I was sweating as a look of horror was plastered on my face.

I fell back on my haunches. “No, no it can’t be, It just can’t.” I said quietly to myself. I was shaking.

I heard Daring call out to me. “Nightshade, did you find anything yet?” I didn’t respond. She called again. “Nightshade?” My eyes were locked on to the red eyes looking at me, glaring at me like the beast would jump out from the wall at me and try to gobble me up. I think I heard Daring gallop over to me, for soon I felt a hoof touch my shoulder. “Nightshade, what is it, what’s wrong?”

The sudden contact made me jump, I quickly looked to my side with a raised hoof and saw a worried expression plastered on Daring’s face. She asked again. “Nightshade, what is it?”

I recomposed myself as I responded. “It’s……It’s nothing, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure, you looked terrified there for a moment.”

I responded to affirm my previous statement. “I said I’m fine.”

She looked to the wall and raised her torch. “What is that?” She asked as she looked at the beast on the wall, now that I had gotten over my fear I got a better look at it. The figure in the picture did indeed seem to match the monster I saw that horrible night. But it was in more detail in this image. It looked to be a mix up of all kinds of animals.

I answered Daring’s question. “A monster.”

She began to read the inscriptions that were with the image. “We have learned of a terrible monster we have come to call the beast king, for he is made of many different parts of animals. This monster currently rules over a neighboring country and uses his powers to bring misery to all those under his rule. The beast king is a creature of power and chaos that is said to be unstoppable. Our sage has foreseen that the beast king will come for us for our sage knows how he can be defeated. A power will rise that will imprison him in stone, but will not truly rid the world of his evil. Only a creature of the shadows has the power to truly slay this monster. It is said that one will rise from the darkness of a dark and dangerous forest and stand against the beast king and rid the world of his tyranny once and for all.”

I just cocked an eyebrow when Daring finished. “A creature of shadows?” I looked to Daring. “Any idea what they’re talking about?”

“I have no idea, but this creature of the shadows must be you. Does that monster look familiar to you?”

I looked back at the image. “How could I forget, those red eyes are forever burned into my skull, they haunt my darkest nightmares. I will never forget that look he gave me the night me and my parents fled. So he’s known as the beast king?”

“That’s what the ponies here called him.”

I glared at the image. “Well I’m through being afraid, if this thing is still alive somewhere, he better hope he doesn’t meet me, because if we do meet….”

I charged up my shadow magic and formed a large shadow ball over head. “Nightshade, DON’T!”

I fired it right at the image of the beast king and destroyed the image of him, resulting in dust and rocks flying across the chamber. Daring just sat there in shock, she dropped the torch and just looked at the massive hole in the wall I made. I turned to her. “HEY, snap out of it and let’s go, we gotta find something remember?”

She stuttered. “Y….Y…..You didn’t just do that…..tell me you didn’t just do that.”

“What’s the big deal, it’s just a wall.”

She turned to me and glared. “Just a wall? Just a wall? That was ancient literature, thousands of years old, and you just blew it up!”

“So?”

“SO? Do you have any idea how big a find this is? This is ancient history.”

“Exactly, ancient history, as in stuff that happened a long time ago and doesn’t matter anymore.”

“We could have learned something from this! There might have been a clue to tell us where the artifact is!”

“The only thing I saw was images of ponies growing crops and having fun, I didn’t see anything on there that looked important.”

“But we still could have learned from it, we’re talking about long forgotten history!”

I glared back at her and pressed my nose to hers. “The only thing I care about is getting this artifact, getting out of here, and getting my family back, nothing else matters. If you can’t understand that, then I’m going to find this thing on my own, now you either help me find it like you promised or GET LOST!”

Daring backed off and took a deep breath. “*Sigh* Fine, I promised I’d help you and I meant it, I’m not about to go back on my word, just try not to destroy anything else in here please.”

I just snorted in response. She picked up the torch she dropped and we continued to scour the carvings and writing for clues as to where the artifact would be. After a while of searching, I heard Daring call over to me. “Nightshade, over here, I think I found something!”

I rushed over to her and came up next to her. “What is it?”

“Look.” I looked to the wall and saw an image of the ponies gathered around an idol that looked like a carving of a pony with wings and a horn. “The artifact is a statue of an alicorn, a creature with wings and a horn, like princess Celestia.”

I recalled hearing that name before from that unicorn scientist that came to my forest many years ago and died from quicksand. “Does it tell us where it is?”

“It says here, the item in question is called the alicorn heart. It has the power to grant a wish any pure heart desires.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “Pure heart? What does that mean?”

“I don’t know, let’s see, the alicorn heart is a sacred object granted to us ages ago by the gods, Only one who is pure of heart can make a wish and have it be granted. The alicorn heart resides within the chamber in the very back of the temple.”

“Well what are we waiting for, let’s go.”

“Wait, there’s more.”

“So, we know where it is, let’s just go and grab it and get the buck out of here.”

“But it says that it’s heavily guarded, only one who is strong of will and heart will be allowed to reach it.”

“It probably just means there’s more of those booby traps, let’s go already.” I started walking off to another door at the other end of the room to find this alicorn heart. I heard Daring start to gallop to catch up. This alicorn heart better give me what I want. And as for this beast king…..I swear by the stars if I ever get the chance, I will kill him.

Author's Note:

And there you have it, the next chapter of this exciting story, will Nightshade prove to be pure of heart and get his wish granted? Will Daring survive her encounter with this Shadow walker? And what could possibly be guarding the alicorn heart? Stay tuned for the next adventure of......DARING DO AND THE SHADOW WALKER!

OK, I couldn't resist doing that.