Heat Death

by ScottTrek

The Darkest Hour (Part 4)

Suppressing her internal discomfort she instead politely took some of the offered tea and settled down to her explanation.

"You've been popping up here and there for as long as i can remember, which is a very long time indeed. Which is interesting as you don't seem to exist."

"Don't I?" He replied, "I'm sitting here right now am i not?"

"You are indeed." Twilight shrugged, "But I don't think that's been true for very long."

"And what exactly do you mean by that?"

"You seem to appear in countless historical events, always the ones where pony-kinds continued existence is one the line." Twilight mused for a moment, studying Shadows strangely familiar features. "The Spectre of our Darkest Hours."

"Oh ho..." Shadow cooed. "I like that."

"Indeed." Twilight continued, eyes flicking to the tip of the staff and the tiniest purple glow emanating from the crystal at the end. "But as often as you do seem to try to intervene nothing you do seems to have any material impact.

Shadow froze, composure cracked. "... What?"

"Well at first i assumed that you had some kind of magic that prevented you from being remembered. Plenty of people witnessed you over the years, especially given the importance of the times when you appear, but you are not recorded anywhere and nobody seem remembers you. Most of them would have no reason to lie"

"And this leads to your assumption because?" Shadow had mostly regained his composure, Twilights intense glare holding his attention.

" In addition to the lack of liars a not inconsiderable number of them would be hard pressed to be effected by memory magic. I think Luna would remember if another pony tried to stop her being freed from Nightmare Moon. And of course there's myself. I am, without much hyperbole, one of the most powerful beings. And even i can barely remember half the times you've shown up, I'm only sure there are more than i can remember because i found half a dozen hard-quantum locked data cores chronicling my previous encounters with you hidden behind a wall in the Valkyrie. Cores that apparently I created and which disintegrated within a couple of hours of being opened."

"And?"

"Well frankly Shadow that level of retroactive reality bending goes far beyond any form of memory magic that could possibly exist. And I assume you wouldn't put the effort into literally erasing your failures from existence. That would just be sad."

Shadow looked highly annoyed. Twilight smiled internally, she had guessed she could manipulate his ego this way a few seconds after entering the room. She just had to keep his attention a little while longer.

"So..." Twilight continued, "Once that occurred to me I also realised that what I could dig up on you became more solid as eons passed. Now the obvious explanation was the magic you were using was weakening. But looking at you right here, right now tells me my hunch was right. You haven't been there from the beginning, you've been projecting yourself back from the end of the universe." Twilight leaned forward eyes burning with intensity. "In fact I don't think you've truly existed all that long. Maybe you only truly began to live the moment i stepped into this room."

Shadow wasn't even pretending to stay aloof at this point. He hung hungrily on Twilights every word waiting to hear the words he wanted to hear. "So what does that make me Princess Twilight Sparkle?"

A moment like eternity passed while Twilight considered her words. "You are... incredible. Truly a you are... incredible. A life-form that not only lives at the end of the universe, you are probably a physical manifesting of the entire concept of the universe coming to an end. And since i'm the the last god standing... i guess i can't blame you for latching onto my form... my history. I guess you are really are my shadow... my lonely companion following me through time."

Shadow stared at Twilight before finally whispering "Thank you..." And for the briefest moment Twilight felt sorry for him.

Comments

[Lanigiro]

You haven't been there from the beginning, you've been projecting yourself back from the end of the universe.

Now that really wasn't what I was expecting from this Shadow. I seriously wonder why he inserts himself into the past, though. Is it curiosity? Boredom? Cruelty? Does he need to be acknowledged like Twilight is doing so right now in order to survive? Lots of interesting questions here...