Pessimism and Sarcasm

by Jerec the Ascendant

Chapter 10: Games With a Shadow

Author's Note:

Take a guess at who I meet. Oh, prepare yourself for daww.

Thus begins my re-watching of episodes 3 through 26 of season 4. To paraphrase HK-47 "Statement: Ah yes, these again, wonderful."

Pessimism and Sarcasm

Chapter 10

A Game With Shadows

It's Saturday morning and I'm thumbing through a book. Leaned up against one of the walls of the library, I’m scanning page after page trying to help Twilight find information on this lockbox. She had insisted that it might help in my return to Earth, so I agreed to help read through her books, thinking one time was enough. But after we finished the last book, she started looking through the first again. I think we’re on the sixth read-through, now.

I started working at the Spa on Wednesday. Aloe and Lotus figured out the schedule they wanted me to work and started teaching me the ins and outs of the job. They taught me all the body’s pressure points and gave me tips on massaging each of them. The job pays well, I think. I’m not exactly familiar with their monetary system, yet, but I don’t think they’re ripping me off. I earn about five or six "bits" an hour, and my schedule is six to seven hours a day: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

The issue for me is the awkwardness of it all. Some ponies really love massages, and I guess I’m good at giving them. I can't tell you how many times ponies have asked for time extensions. The most awkward experience of the week though actually ended up with me not having to give the pony a massage at all. It was Lyra, she'd come into the spa and ordered a massage. The first moment she walked through the door she had some confident look, but then as soon as she saw me that confidence disappeared and she froze in place. We spent the thirty minutes in a staring contest, and when her time was up, Aloe showed her to the door.

Twilight groans loudly and throws the book she was reading, knocking to the floor and killing the feather duster Spike was holding.

"What's wrong Twilight?" Spike asks, his voice trembling.

“I've gone through every book in Ponyville, Spike!” Six times. “And there isn't a single mention of the mysterious chest that came from the Tree of Harmony, not to mention anything about keys to unlock it! But something tells me that opening it is pretty important. I hope Princess Celestia has some ideas. If the library in Canterlot doesn't have anything, I don't know where else to look!" She stretches out her wings and zooms to the top of a large stack of books, clenching her teeth striking the top book with her hoof before flying off again.

The stack totters and collapses, and I watch as poor Spike gets caught under the falling books. As Spike claws his way out from under the wreckage, he belches up some green fire which materializes a scroll. He'll celebrate the day they create e-mail.

His short legs wobble as he finds his balance on the pile. Then he reads, "My dearest Twilight, while it would be perfectly lovely to have you in Canterlot once more, I have another option in mind, much closer to Ponyville. As you know, the ancient castle that Princess Luna and I once shared lies mostly in ruins, deep in the Everfree Forest. But if you look carefully, you may find a book that could prove helpful to your research, hidden somewhere in what's left of the castle library. Sincerely, Princess-”

Twilight dive bombs Spike before he can finish, and the little dragon drops the scroll as she lifts him into the air. “Why are we still here?” she cries. “Let’s go!”

We set off, after I grab some supplies for myself - namely, my PS Vita, a zippo lighter, and my smartphone.

We make our way to the castle and then up the crumbling steps to the library, where Twilight basically goes to heaven. With an otherworldly gasp, she exclaims, "Wow! Look at all these ancient books! It's a veritable goldmine of information! I can't believe it! Woo-hoo!" She flies around the entire library eagerly, looking at all the dusty tomes.

Spike wanders carefully into the library, and still manages to trip, ending up under a spider web covered bust of a horse. "So, uh, Twilight,” he stutters. “Uh, ready to head home?"

Twilight was meanwhile swimming in a pile of books. "Are you kidding? This place is perfect!" Spike shudders and curls up on the floor, eyes wide as spiders crawl around him. I’m tempted to pull out my phone and play the theme from Psycho.

Even with the new material, two hours into reading, I’m getting incredibly bored. "Hey Twilight, I'm going to go wandering around for a bit. I'll be back."

"Aren't you going to help look? What if that chest is the key to getting you back home?"

"Somehow I think that would be all too convenient.” I kick one of the broken bricks at my feet. “Besides, we've been looking for a couple of hours already, and I need a break. See ya later."

Out in the hallway, I take one of the torches off the wall and use my lighter to set it on fire, then I head down one of the dark corridors. "I am Gulstaff, the sorcerer of light!" To make sure I don’t get lost, I pick up a rock and begin scraping it against the wall as I walk, leaving a white line on it. I feel cool, exploring like this. It’s not too often one gets to wander castle ruins back home. I almost feel like I'm in D&D.

As I come to a turn in the hall I notice something in the torchlight on one of the walls in front of me. A large shadow crosses the wall, stopping to look at me with glowing yellow eyes. I quickly pull out my phone and blind the shadow with the flashlight app. It lets out a slight scream and rushes down the hallway. I turn in the same direction and see it again, this time on the floor, still staring at me. I flash the light in its eyes again, and again it takes off. This time I rush after it; not my brightest idea.

As I chase the shadow, I hear a childish giggle. Is it enjoying this? The shadow turns a corner and I follow it, suddenly being confronted by a wall. It’s a dead end. The doors at the end of the hallway slam shut, and the shadow stands on the wall next to the door. This time however, it steps off of the wall, taking on a three dimensional form. In this form, I recognize the shadow as an alicorn mare. It looks just like Nightmare Moon, especially with its glowing eyes. It looks like I’m too low a level for this dungeon.

It approaches me, crossing the floor in an eerie silence. I decide that maybe if I can get it distracted for just a moment, I can escape. I swing the torch, attempting to hit its face. However, the torch only passes through the shadow-flesh, with no effect. It lets out a chuckle, sounding exactly like Nightmare Moon had in the first two episodes.

She continues her slow approach, and I begin backpedaling to lengthen the distance. Suddenly, though she leaps forward and pins me to the ground, putting her front hooves on my chest and sneering down at me. I close my eyes and wait for whatever is coming next. I hear her evil chuckle once again, though it quickly changes into more maniacal laughter, and then surprisingly into the giggles of a young filly. I open my eyes to witness the shadow Nightmare Moon consumed by giggles. Then the shadow starts to morph, changing in size and shape until she becomes a much smaller version of herself. As she keeps laughing, I sit up. She begins prancing around me, squealing, "I win, I win!” Then, stopping in front of me, "Let's play another game!" I just sit there, growing angry with myself for fearing for my life.

"Come on, let's play another! I have a chess board, or we could play checkers! Or we could play tag, or hide and go seek..." I stop listening, mostly because I can’t understand her rapid fire speech. The shadow filly can barely contain her excitement and darts around the room grabbing different games or toys. I realize that what I thought was another hallway is actually her room. She must have led me here for the specific purpose of playing games with her. She runs right up to me, teeth grasping the end of a rope. "Res ‘ave a ‘ug oh ‘ar!”

"I'm sorry, what was that?" As annoyed as I was, she was still rather cute. She reminded me of Sassami from Tenchi Muyo in general age, the sound of her voice, the happy enthusiasm, along with a little bit of Ayama and Sussume from Rurouni Kenshin regarding her sheer playfulness and innocence.

At the question, she spits out the rope and giggles. "I said let's have a tug of war!" She hums joyfully as she draws a line in the dusty floor and grabs the rope again.

“Why not?” I pick up the other end of the rope and stand. "Weddy, het, ‘OH!" I brace myself for her tug. It’s a little startling how much strength she has, and I stumble forward, though far from crossing the line. Regaining my balance, I pull back, making her trip over her forelegs. I tug again, and she falls across the line. She has to spread her wings to keep herself from landing on her face.

Fluttering above me, she laughs. “I was taking it easy on you. Best two out of three, okay?"

"Fine by me." She flies back to her position, picking up the rope. As she lowers herself to the ground, she begins her countdown again. She gets to the “go”, and suddenly transforms into an older version of herself, resembling Luna. Her much larger feet crash to the ground, creating clouds of dust around her. The increase in her strength catches me completely off-guard, and it only takes her one large tug to pull me right over the line.

"Yay! It’s tied!” Her voice is deeper, and she glares at me with her teeth bared in an evil grin as she says, “Last round."

I gulp and stand up again. Back in position, I tighten my grip on the rope and look her in her glowing eyes. I nod, and she counts down. “Go!” Though she’s much bigger, I’m strong enough to stay in place. The rope burns my hands as it slips through them, though, and I look back at her. She notices that I’m failing, and a deep laugh echoes through the room. But she’s lowered her guard, and I quickly reposition my hands and pull the rope past my body.

Her eyes grow wide, and she trips over her feet once again, crashing onto the floor in a tangle. I pull a little more to drag her over the line. Defeated, she returns to her filly size, and giggles again. “Now you get to pick the next game!"

A little worn out from that match, I suggest chess. A nice, calm game. Maybe I can get her to relax enough to tell me more about herself, and maybe even get out of here.

"Yes! Wait a minute.” She bites her lip and rubs at her hoof. “I might not be good. I've never played it with anyone else - just by myself."

"By yourself? Why?"

"No pony has ever stayed here after the first game, and they usually win that one."

"You mean tug-of-war?"

"No, we always play run-from-the-pony-of-shadows first. At least, that's what they call it. The rules are that they run from me as I try to catch them. They win if they get away from me, I win if I catch them." Her ears fold back and her eyes dim. "They never come back for any more rounds though, or other games at all."

"So you usually lose?" I definitely shouldn’t have been afraid of this thing.

"Well, most players don’t chase after me. Actually, you’re the only one who ever has. Usually, as soon as they see me, ponies run away. Then I chase them. Pegasi can get away quickly, because of their wings. Earth ponies are a little slower, but they’re still fast enough. And unicorns-” she shudders. "They just teleport away. Which is fine with me! I don’t want to play with them, anyway!” She spits on an imaginary unicorn and flicks it away with her hoof.

“So, you don’t like unicorns?"

"No! Well..." she trots over to the chessboard and levitates it, encircling it with a dark blue aura. “I guess you can say I’m afraid of them. Other unicorns.”

She comes back and we sit down to play. From an old box in the corner of the room, she pulls the chess pieces, setting them into place with her magic.

"See, I'm...I'm a spell created by Nightmare Moon a thousand years ago. She needed me to continue to battle Celestia if she was banished, but she didn’t have time to use a more complex spell. Any unicorn could destroy me if they knew even simple dispelling magic." She cringes, and continues, “That's why I had to wait until you were separated from that alicorn before I appeared."

"I see. No wonder you were so excited when you caught me.” The filly looks down and bites her lip again, her eyes growing increasingly dark. Quickly, I say, “How about we start playing then?"

She looks up and her eyes glow a little brighter. “Okay!” As we played, she perked little by little until she returned to her normal self. Whenever she'd finish her turn she'd start prancing in a circle around the board, giggling ecstatically. She really wasn't very good at chess, but I was glad she was having fun.

During the game, she explained that she was created with a memory spell, making her a copy of Princess Luna as a filly. All of the other memories this copy had of being Luna were those written about in an ancient diary she had found in the castle. The rest were her own; she was her own self, capable of her own thoughts.

Just as I’m about to declare checkmate, we hear screams. She perks her ears and looks toward her door. "There's more ponies here. They sound familiar too."

"Do you want to go see who it is?"

"Uh-huh."

We leave the room and head in the direction of the screams. Eventually we make it a hallway that looks out onto a courtyard. And there is the scene of chaos. Rarity is crying under some torn cloth, Applejack and Rainbow Dash are running around, and Fluttershy is desperately removing a fallen column from a pile rocks. A little chuckle reminds me of the shadow alicorn at my side. She continues to laugh until she sees Twilight, who suddenly appeared to straighten things out. Quickly, she shrinks in size and leaps into my pocket.

The ponies talk amongst each other, and then the whole castle is shaken by the deep chords of an organ. They all rush together and anxiously start toward the source of the music. We follow behind them, only to discover that it was Pinkie Pie playing the organ. I rejoin them, and Twilight sighs in relief. Apparently something interesting went on while I was gone. We all returned to the library, ready to discuss Twilight’s findings.

"So, what have you been doing all this time?" Twilight asked me.

"Well, you know that ‘shadow pony’ you were all talking about? I met her. She's definitely something I didn't expect."

I feel a tiny horn stab into my thigh, but I grit my teeth and slap my pocket. The others look at me with raised eyebrows as a tiny squeal comes from my pocket.

"Yeah,” I continue. “She's not threatening at all. She's just a filly that likes to play."

Rarity set down her embroidery needle and asked, "So, where is she now?"

"She's hiding,” I answer. I point at her horn and say, “She scares easily whenever someone is around that can use magic."

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Rarity pout.

“I agree,” Twilight says. “Why is she afraid?”

"Well, she can explain it herself." I feel another jab, and I pat my pocket again. “It might take some work, though.”

After a little coaxing, we did get her to come out of my pocket, and the shadow filly shyly told them all about herself.

Thus ended yet another day in Equestria.

Comments

[thisistheusernameichose]

This could either be very very or very very

[guardian soul]

are you bringing out nyx?

[Jerec the Ascendant]

4653041 Who? Sorry, I'm not very well read in brony fiction.

[DJSkywalker]

Nyx?!

[guardian soul]

it seams to fit... nightmare moon as a filly is best described as nyx, even without twi as her mom

[Jerec the Ascendant]

4653350 Once again, I'm not all that knowledgeable about, well most fan-made characters, being a non-brony.