A Trick in the Shadows

by Soad24k

Dark Creatures

Luna gasped as she was dragged out of Trixie’s dream and back into the real world. She stumbled to regain her footing and to stable herself. She shook her head, getting the dizziness out her head. Her body was aching slightly from the blast that ejected her out. Once she finally balanced herself she turned to the tent. There a groan coming from the show pony as she starts to stir from her sleep. Luna acted fast and set off into the sky and flies back to Canterlot.

Trixie then woke up, rubbing her eye with her hoof as she sat up on the bed. “Uhhg,” She groaned. “What a strange dream. I got to stop having one of Berry’s ‘special’ Night drinks before bed. I could have sworn Princess Luna was in my dream.” She groggily got out of her bed and sluggishly walked to the tent curtains. She stepped out and sees that it’s still dark out and the moon was still high in the sky. “Well, since I can’t get to sleep again, I guess I’ll take a walk.” She said to herself and walked out into the woods.

Trixie strolled through the woods many times, so she knew where she was going. She’s been going this way the time the “dreams” began happening. She called her “Midnight Wander Path” whenever she can’t sleep from the “dreams”. The path heads up to a river and circles a few rocks then straight back to her campsite. The show mare usually takes a short break by the river, to help clear her mind.

Trixie reached the river and walked towards the water’s edge. She then sat down and stared in to the water, seeing the reflection of the moon on the surface. She let out a sigh as she thinks about the dreams she’s been having lately. She doesn’t know why it’s the same dream in the same place, a foreign graveyard that was outside of Equestria. It puzzled her from the day it started, months ago, when Twilight and her friends went to the Crystal Empire. A few days later she read the news article about Twilight now being a princess and returning from another. She doesn’t really pay attention to the news very often, but the fact that Twilight is now an alicorn completely shocked her.

“Why am I having these dreams? What does it all mean?” She asked herself then a voice replied. “It means it is time for to finally know.”

Trixie jumped as her looked around the dim lit area, trying to find whoever said that. She turned and stared into the dark woods, and then a small blue light lit up and moved towards the clearing. It was tall, almost at Celestias height. It had very slim legs but it hovered mostly. Its body was pure black all except around its collar and hair. The collar was red and resembled spikes. The hair was gray like smoke waving in the wind, which there wasn’t. The only thing the most caught Trixie’s attention was the glowing blue eye.

“Who…who are you?” She asked the dark figure.

“Please, have nothing to fear Lulamoon.” It said.

Trixie glared at the creature with anger and stood up to face it. “Hey, who do you know my uh, Trixie’s last name?” She asked in a more authorized tone.

“Please, you can drop the whole three-person routine Lulamoon.” Saying as it rolled its one eye.

“It’s Trixie to you.” She said. “Now, tell Trixie who you are and how do you know her.”

With a sigh the dark figure looked down at the pony. “Fine, my name is Darkrai, the Pitch Black Pokémon and we’ve been watching you for some time now.”

“Pokémon, what are Pokemon doing here?” She asked. “And what do you mean you’ve been watching Trixie?”

“That, I can’t explain to you, but I can tell you why. My associate and I have been looking for someone that process the power of our previous master.” Darkrai said.

“You associate? Who are you talking about?” Trixie asked.

Darkrai looked over her wide shoulders and coming out the shadows was another pony, a purple mare.

“B-Berry, What are you doing out here!?” Trixie said in shock as she seen the mare look at her. Berry grinned wickedly and let out some kind of animal cry as her body in a black mist and shifted in a dark furred bipedal fox. Trixie gasp and took a step as she watched. “Who are you, what have you done to Berry?” She said in a demanding voice.

“Relax Lulamoon, your pony friend is fine. She’s probably at home or in a bar.” The fox said.

“That’s Trixie to you!” She snapped at the fox.

“Geez alright, Trixie,” The fox creature defended itself as it waved its arms up.

“Anyway, who are you?” She asked the dark fox.

“You need to look back on your post Trixie. You’ve seen me before.“ It said with slight cocky smirk.

Trixie thought about what the fox meant by “to look back”. She remembers scrolling through the pictures she’s taken for a site call Tumblr. Then it finally hit her in one of her post. She let out a gasp in surprise. “Now I seen you, you were in-“

“Yep, the outfox question,” He cut her off. “Names Zoroark, the Illusion Fox Pokémon.”

“So, why are you two doing here anyway?” Trixie asked looked at the two Dark-types.

“Well, like my tall shadowy friend here said, you have something our last master had.” Zoroark spoke out.

“So what would that be exactly? You never told Trixie what she has that of your last owner.”

“You have his Dark Energy. It’s has been growing inside you for a long time.” Darkrai said.

“Dark Energy?” Trixie repeated. “But Trixie doesn’t know any dark magic spells.”

“Not dark magic, dark energy. Dark magic is just a projection of dark energy. It has the same effects, but both are far from the same.” Darkrai explained.

“So, you think Trixie processes this ‘Dark Energy’? Puh-lease, Trixie is the purest pony of all of Equestria.” She said boastfully as tossing her head up.

Both Darkrai and Zoroark gave incredulous to each other then looked back at Trixie. “You really don’t look back on your post do ya?” Zoroark said blankly.

“What do you mean by that?” Trixie retorted back.

“Haven’t you been feeling some kind of, I don’t know ‘dark’ presence inside you whenever you get a message?” Zoroark said making quotes with his claws.

“Well, now that you mentioned it. Trixie has been feeling a bit odd as of late and does somehow feel this ‘dark’ presence.” She said, placing a hoof on her chest.

“It means the dark energy is ready to be let loose.” Darkrai said

“But, how did Trixie get this energy in the first place?” She looked at the two Pokémon.

“Well, there is one possible way it could have happened. It could been when you saw the news about uh….what was that one pony’s name?” Zoroark scratched his chin.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Darkrai answered.

Trixie’s eyes widen at the words as she remembered seeing the picture from the newspaper.

“Yeah, that’s the one. It could have sensed your anger and rage and merged with you and settled inside until you fully unleash it.” Zoroark continued.

“So, what would happen if Trixie doesn’t unleash it?” She asked them.

“It will eventually take over your body and kill you.” Darkrai replied coldly.

Trixie gulped nervously. “Uh, okay. So, how does Trixie unleash it?”

Zoroark smirked as he looked over to Darkrai. “To do that, you will put to a test. You will have to unleash, maintain and control the dark energy to pass and defeat your opponent.”

“Test eh? This sounds easy enough.” Trixie said with a cocky smile.

“Oh, you think you are going to pass it with ease?”

“Of course, Trixie can pass any test.”

“Well, we’ll see about that.” Darkrai raised one arm and snapped his fingers and all of them sank into a black portal. The then vanished, leaving any trace of them gone. Hidden in the shadows was a pair of dark violet eyes, which was watching everything that happened near the river. It steps out the bushes and goes area and looks at the ground where the three were then looks up at the moon.