The Shadow Within

by Alcatraz

Chapter 4: What about Spikey-Wikey?

Rarity, Fluttershy, a teary Applejack and a still-deflated-maned Pinkie had only just made their way back into Pony ville when they heard the announcement.

"Fillies and Gentlecolts everywhere, I am your new ruler, Queen Malevolent Spell, and I have an announcement for you all. Tomorrow, dawns in Darkness!!!"

"Who in the hay does Twilight think she is; taking Rainbow away from us like that! Why I oughtta..."

"Applejack dear, we need to figure out how we're going to deal with and solve this crisis. For all we know the princesses could have dealt with her."

"Uhm, Rarity, are you sure? Think about that. Would Twilight have made that announcement if she had been stopped?" commented Fluttershy

In response, Rarity just sat on her haunches, slightly ashamed at her statement. "When you put it that way..."

Everypony noticed Pinkie hadn't said a word since arriving back home. "Pinkie, are you doing alright?" asked Fluttershy, sitting next to her depressed friend and wrapping a comforting wing around her.

"Celestia and Luna aren't going to be able to help us. Twilight got to them too, but not like Rainbow. My Pinkie sense tells me that she did something awful to them."

Rarity's eyes went wide with realization. Putting a hoof under her chin and tilting her head skyward to contemplate, before speaking up. "Say, now that you mention it, why did Twilight convert Rainbow anyway?"

"Ah reckon Ah can fill in that answer. As much as ya'll hate to hear it, I think she took Rainbow because of her loyalty. When you think about it, converting somepony as loyal as Rainbow is going to work hugely in your favour because she'll rat out any traitors, conspirators, and everything like that. Say, does anypony know if Twilight has any books on that shadowy stuff anyway?"

None of them knew for absolute certainty, but something else entirely dawned on them as if a collective consciousness passed through the four, imbuing them with the same thought. "Spike..." came Rarity's voice. "Oh the poor dear. I wander how he's going to react to the news."

"Ah think we're about t' find out..." said Applejack, pointing a hoof at the ajar door leading into the Golden Oaks Library. "Ah just hope he'll be able to help us sort this whole thing out."

"Spike, are you here?" came Fluttershy's oh so soothing voice. "We... got some bad news."

When they opened the door, they were surprised to find the library spotless. Not a book was out of place, nor was there a big mess everywhere as expected, as goes the whole gets-word-of-bad-news-so-everything-will-be-a-big-mess axiom. "Spike?" came the angelic voice one again. "Applejack, can you look after Pinkie and see if you can't find anything about the Shadows while Rarity and I go talk to Spike?"

"Seems like a good idea, take yer time with him too."

Each gave a nod, then Rarity and Fluttershy headed up to the antechamber of a bedroom which Twilight uses to keep some of her more used books, to say the least. When the duo got to the bedroom door, all that could be heard is soft sniffling.

"Spike, darling, how are you holding up?"

"N- not good. Twilight, she was, is, like my m-, my mo..."

"Oh you poor thing!" When she wanted to, Fluttershy could fly exceedingly fast. The faster you can give someone a hug, it feels so much more comforting. Wrapping the baby dragon in her wings, Rarity put a hoof around Fluttershy and pulled her close with spike to join in on the hug. Several minutes was spent consoling Spike with hugs and little kisses. After what seemed like an eternity he stopped crying, although you could see where the tears had stained around his eyes. Now is an appropriate moment to break the hug.

"Thanks you guys, that means alot. What are we going to do now?"

"Well, Spike, we were hoping that there is a book that would be of help to us?" questioned Rarity. "After all, Twilight has books on all but everything in here!"

"I'm not quite sure, honestly. There's a couple about Nightmare Moon but nothing specifically about that Shadowy stuff, now lets go downstairs and have a look."

"Applejack and Pinkie are already downstairs looking for anything that might be of assistance while Fluttershy and I came up to see how you were doing."

Rarity levitated Spike onto her back and the trio made their way downstairs where they saw Applejack and Pinkie with several books around them. Applejack looked up from a book that simply had a picture of a white crescent moon on a black cover, to see Spike, Rarity and Fluttershy come down the stairs.

"Hey, Applejack?" asked Spike

"Ah haven't found anything yet, but this book seems to be promising but Ah can't guarantee anything just yet."

"No, not that. Where did you get that book?"

"What do ya mean?"

"Well, I've seen almost every single book in this library except that one; where did you find it? Twilight and I have been in this library for a few years since moving to Ponyville but not once have my eyes seen that particular book."

"Well, has Twilight ever asked you for it?" commented AJ, with a sneaky little grin on her face.

"Well, not really. I don't even know what it's called! How am I supposed to know what book to look for if I don't even know the title, hmm?" Spike crossed his arms, staring back at AJ with the whole 'gotcha' look.

"Suoopse you're right with that much. It's called Lunar Occurrences. It just basically about the effect the moon has on the land, which, now that Ah think about it, would be helpful in maximizing productivity in the Orchard. Pinkie on the other hand is just..." Applejack pointed a hoof at the flat-maned mare, idly flipping through pages of the original Elements of Harmony book that had told Twilight about Nightmare Moon.

"I, uhm, Pinkie? Found anything yet?" came a sheepish voice.

Without word, she simply got off her haunches and grabbed the book from AJ, put it on the floor and flipped to a seemingly random page, then making her way back to her own book. The other three ponies plus dragon gathered around the book to stare at the chapter title.

Shadows

The effect that moon shadows have is not widely known but are visible in the right circumstances, but due to speculation and trivial nature of them are subject to different interpretations from the viewing source. Lunar shadow activity has been in decline over the last few centuries, but records back before then are scarce and are difficult to interpret. However what we do know is in extreme cases sentient shadow creatures are known to "escape" from the moon every so often, although how often is up for debate. When they do however, they invade dreams and cause night terrors, nightmares and so on. One noteable account of this happening is in the case of Nightmare Moon. It isn't entirely known what happened, but they 'consumed' Princess Luna and turned her to the Shadows.

"That's it?" said Fluttershy with a disappointed tone.

"Now hold up there sugarcube, let's look at this sensibly. From reading the page, Ah've thought that 1000 years ago from the whole Nightmare Moon incident, the activity from these so-called sentient shadow beings had declined because they had a ruler, for lack of a better word."

"I see where you're coming from, dear. After the princess got banished to the moon the activity decreased for the reason you said, but when we stripped the shadows from Luna they've come back to claim another... Queen..." said Rarity with blatant bitterness on that last word. "Fluttershy, what do you think?"

"Well, you're both right and both wrong. They wanted somepony yes, but not to rule. I think. It could be possible that they're just wanting to have a physical conduit from the moon to the planet's surface? You saw what Twilight did to Rainbow. My guess would be that it's difficult to outright overtake somepony, so they choose somepony that has fears, weaknesses and so on to be exploited. They latch onto those and build on them. Everyone has a shadow in themselves, and I don't mean to be a meanie Rarity, but you should know that all too well.

"They make that shadow grow and grow until it it becomes something they can use to enter you. In another way, like inching open a door until you can fully step through. Anyway, my best guess would be that they simply want to build a population of shadow ponies since they don't have a physical form themselves."

Everypony is staring at Fluttershy by this point. "That... makes sense. But how do we get Twilight back?"

Rarity let a little giggle escape before stating; "Why darlings, the same way you did with me of course! By reminding me what I meant to you all! To put it like Fluttershy said, you closed the door on the shadow. We simply need to remind Twilight what she means to each of us!"

"But what about Rainbow..." You could detect the sadness in Applejack's voice.

"Cut the head off the snake and the body dies."

"SPIKE!! Why would you say that!?" gasped Fluttershy.

"He does have a point, you know." Pinkie finally spoke up. "Think about it, if you get the head off the snake, or in this case if we turn Twilight back to normal, the body will die; that meaning Rainbow will simply turn back to normal. It's the hold Twilight has over her."

With that, her mane poofs back up. "We should throw a party for her!!!"

"Pinkie, that's your answer for everything! A party celebrating two weeks after a holiday, a party on the day nopony has a birthday, even an after party for Gummy's birthday for Celestias sake!"

"Applejack! Pinkie has a point though, although misguided. Maybe if we can find the letters Twilight sent Princess Celestia and show them to her it'll rekindle the memories of us."

"Fluttershy is right. But how would we get into the castle and have enough time to snoop around to find them? The princess would no doubt keep them in her private quarters, but where?"

"Spikey-Wikey is right you guys, any guess is as good as the next. Not to sound repetitive, but our best chance is to remind her of all the good she's done." commented Rarity.

"Well, we can't risk bringing her to Sugarcube Corner for the typical party venue," said Fluttershy "she could turn everypony in Ponyville into Shadow Ponies."

"Ah hate t' burst ya bubble Fluttershy, but there's nothing stopping her from doing that to the whole of Canterlot. Heck, for all we know she could have done so already."

Everypony is out of ideas, and there's silence for several minutes as they all hopelessly re-read the passage from the book or idly draw imaginary lines on the floor with their hooves. What are they to do? Marching into the castle could result in them all being turned as well. Spike broke the silence, finally. "I think our best choice, although however silly, would be simply to request an audience and try talking some sense into her. It will also give us a chance to see what happened to the princesses."

"Spike, take a letter!" chirped Pinkie, and he somehow pulls out a quill and parchment from behind him. "Dear Queen Meanie..."

"Pinkie Pie!" snapped Fluttershy, shocked at the poor choice of words. Hey what can you do, she said the same thing to Chrysalis so it wouldn't be entirely out of the question for her to belittle a queen. Why is it every queen they've heard of so far is a bad one anyway? "How could you say that about Twilight?!"

"Because she's a mean queen?" came the ever so cheeky reply.

"While that might be the case, darling, it's still Twilight and we should still treat her with some semblance of respect. Now, about that letter. Dear... Queen..." began Rarity with all due bitterness at use of the word queen. "Uh, what did she call herself?"

"Malevolent Spell, as Ah recall from that booming announcement." added Applejack.

"Yes, thank you. Now, as I was saying. Dear Queen Malevolent Spell. We request an audience at your earliest convenience. Signed; Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity and Spike. Ok Spike, how does it look?"

"It'll do the job." With a deep inhale and green fiery exhale, he sent the letter.

Back in the newly dubbed Castle of Shadow, a scroll appeared in front of Malevolent in a burst of green fire. With a darker purple aura, she unfurled the scroll and began to read, all the while getting a curious stare from Spectra and a not so subtle look from the corner of Celestia's eye, with her chain still fixed to Spectra's armor.

After finishing and re-reading the letter, she let out a humored chuckle. "So, Twilight's old friends are requesting an audience with me? Fine, I'll give them their cake." and with a sly smile she added, "but I won't let them eat it. In fact, I'll take it from out under their noses when they think they've got it!"

"Uhm, Queen Spell?" asked Spectra with a curiously raised eyebrow. "What on earth are you talking about?"

"You'll see, Princess Storm. You'll see very soon enough."

After quickly writing down her response and sending it off in a puff of smoke, she turned to her princess and told her to take her pet to the throne room and that she'd be there momentarily. Turning to the former princess of the moon she said to her quietly, "You'll love what I'm going to do..."

In Golden Oaks, not three minutes after Spike sent the letter, he found himself belching out the anticipated response. "Wow," he began "such fancy writing, even more so than Twilight's. Ahem... it says; Friends of Twilight Sparkle. We grant your request for an audience and I am sending a carriage pulled by some of my new guard. When you arrive at the main castle entrance, make your way into the throne room. All of us will be waiting for your arrival. Yours, Queen Malevolent spell."

"Who in the hay is 'all of us'?" questioned the farm pony. "Who else did she get her dirty hooves on?"

"As much as I hate to think about it, I suppose we'll find out when we get there." said Rarity.

Soon after receiving the letter, there came a knock on the door. "Anypony home? We're the Queen's guard sent to retrieve the ponies whom requested an audience with her."

Rarity opened the door and her jaw instantly dropped at the sight of the new guard ponies. Swallowing her humility to be polite in not saying anything at the sight of the two. "Erm, yes. Girls, right this way into the carriage." she floats Spike onto her back and the five of them made their way into the ghastly looking carriage. The ride was rather pleasant and smooth, although no one said on the 45 minute ride making the atmosphere very tense. Eventually they arrived at the entrance to the castle and made their way into the throne room to be greeted by a highly unusual sight.

The Queen is sitting on the throne with a chain hooked through a loop in the arm of the throne itself, leading down to a collar which is attatched around the neck of an earth pony Luna whom is sitting on all fours with a bowed head. Spectra is sitting on a smaller throne in the same manner, with an earth pony Celestia chained to her chair. For whatever reason, there's a single candle lit flickering with a black flame sitting on the arm opposite the one with the chain

"Speak, and pick your words carefully." spoke Malevolent with a notable bitter tone in her voice.

Applejack spoke first. "Twi, I know you're in there. Somewhere. Maybe if you looked deep enough you would find who you were, and what you still mean to us."

Rarity took her turn, stepping forward. She has moist eyes, and looked like she's about to full-out cry. "Twilight, you helped me through the toughest part of my life when those horrid shadows took me. I owe you my life, just look at what they are doing to you, to us."

Fluttershy looked out from behind her long mane at the Dark Queen. "Uhm, Twilight, If you're still in there, please come back. Like Rarity said, we're all hurting inside and we'd all very much appreciate it if you came back so we can all give you and Rainbow a hug."

"Twilight, I was the first pony you ever met when you came to Ponyville and that means alot to the both of us. Come back to us, and I'll throw the biggest party we've ever thrown!" Pinkie had a sincere and solemn tone to her voice for a change.

"You guys are right." Everypony is amazed! Twilight has her normal voice back! "You all mean so very much to me."

Next to her, Spectra is just idly giggling throughout Malevolent's faux voice act.

"What in the hay are ya'll laughing at!?" spat the stetson wearing pony.

"You didn't think I was being serious did you?"

Spike had had enough of these games. He stormed to the front of the four ponies and outright screamed at the Queen. "GIVE MY TWILIGHT BACK!!!" but as soon as he opened his mouth, the black flame on the candle lept from the wick and down his throat. Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Applejack looked on in absolute horror as the dragon started coughing and spluttering, falling to his knees with his claws around his throat. "What... *cough* did you... *cough* do!?"

Malevolent looked on with the biggest grin, one that Pinkie would be proud of if it didn't terrify her at the same time.

"Just adding more to the 'family'."

Spike is laying on his side, clutching his stomach as if he was about to throw up, but suddenly he fell limp.

"Spike!? Spike, answer me, please!" cried Rarity, outright crying tears at this point. She lays him out on the floor, lowering her ear to his mouth. "He's not breathing! You're not my Twilight anymore if you're doing this to little Spikey Wikey!!!"

It happened. Shadows leeched out of his mouth and started wrapping around his head and body. You could hear the cracking as they stretched him out to grow into a more adolescent form, easily standing as tall as Celestia. The light purple and neon green of his colours simply got deeper; his light purple was almost the same shade as Malevolent's midnight purple, and the lime-green changed to a forest green.

"Sp- Spike?" squeaked Fluttershy.

Spike simply huffed a puff of black smoke, slinking over to Malevolent's throne and curling up at the base, looking at the group with a sly grin.

"There, you got your cake and I snatched it back from under you." Spectra broke down in a fit of laughter at the realization behind the Queen's analogy. "Now beat it out of MY castle. Guards!"

Two Shadow Guard ponies wasted no time in entering the room. "Yes, my Queen?" asked one, both of them taking a bow.

"Escort these four back to their homes, I'm done with them."

"Of course your majesty, right away."

The four heartbroken ponies left the room and the door closed.

Author's Note:

I have to credit The Ninja King for giving me the idea of writing Nightmare Spike into the story, and the image he gave me belongs to Sleepwalks on DeviantArt.
(greentext links for both people are avaliable)

I knocked this out in three days because I'm going away over New Years and didn't want to have a half finished chapter waiting for me when I got back which would mean I's be behind in my updates. Besides, it fits in with my aimed weekly update on this story.

Also, credit goes to Zero Soul for editing this story!

Comments

[Alcatraz]

3712032

I haven't played that game so it behooves me to tell you that's not where I got it from, sorry XD

[JumpingShinyFrogs]

You might want to consider getting a second editor. There are far too many errors and tense confusions. Other than that, keep it up.

[Alcatraz]

If there are errors then it would be helpful if you pointed them out. Having said that some words are spelt differently from one country to another. The tense confusion is my fault, I need to teach myself to use them correctly.

[Pleaseworkforonce]

The stories fine to add to the group but it's more badass nightmare then twilight

[Shard The Ice]

NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! My favourite character has been taken from me