Of Shadows, and Sunshine

by SeanofTheDead

Of Minor Villians, and Major Threats pt 3

Author's Note:

I am alive. That is all.

Major, Marjorie Threat was not a happy pony. That isn't to say she was an unhappy pony, more that at this point in time she wasn't as happy as she could be. She was younger than any other pony to rise to the position she had achieved within the royal guard. She made a good enough living to support herself with more than the occasional indulgence of things deemed unnecessary by the lifestyle she lived, or rather she would have been able to if she saw them as important enough. "Why would I want to eat a cake, when noodles and vegetables are cheaper, faster to cook, and provide far more for my body than a cake?" Most of her peers simply gave her strange looks for saying these things, and while a former friend of hers would laugh and then demand she at least try the confection, those thoughts weren't what was bothering he today. No, what was bothering her was that she had been assigned as the official personal guard of Princess Luna.... And the aforementioned princess had taken off rather suddenly for the small suburb she was currently approaching.

'If he was here right now he'd be laughing and saying "Princess Luna is more than capable of handling whatever dark evils lie within this mid, to upperclass neighbourhood. ....I need a sandwich. Let us go forth for the glory of mayo!!" '

She chuckled once at the addition to her thoughts on old friends and smiled sadly missing him. She shook her head slightly before those feelings could take firm hold and focused once more on the task at hoof. She had a princess to find. And as it so happens she did find her. Right then. Chasing a small black and light green blur that was screaming about needing its internal organs. The Princess however didn't appear to want to destroy the blur as she was attempting, and failing, to mollify it. Marjorie sighed and angled he flight path to intercept the blur and began to pump her leathery wings to the gain the speed necessary to do so, without dive bombing it.

She landed directly in front of the blur, now confirmed to be a pegasus dressed as a beat up ninja. The pegasus collided with Marjorie causing the larger pony to grunt slightly from the force of the collision. Marjorie skidded backwards slightly and the pegasus seemed to stop in mid air, then she dropped to the ground and began groaning loudly.

"Uuuuugggghhhhh, did anypony get the number of that truck? Ooooohhhhh, ow that hurt."

'You do realize I'm going to tease you with that later right?', Marjorie's friend said with a snicker as she sighed. 'Just going to be one of those days I suppose,' she thought morosely.

As the ninja mare groaned Princess Luna skidded to a halt next to the two of them before smiling sheepishly at Marjorie who was glaring at her. "Ahem. Um Hello Major, what brings you here to this particular.... Alright, I am sorry. I know I should have let you know where I was going but honestly I had no idea this would take nearly as long as it did. Certain events have transpired that require my ongoing attention for the foreseeable future. So... You may head back to Canterlot as soon as I am-"

Marjorie cut her off with a snort of derision and said, "I am tasked with being YOUR GUARD. Not your messenger. Especially when you are completely capable of sending a message to your sister faster than I can fly anyway. So, I will be staying here with you until you return to Canterlot," as she said it she sat back on her haunches and crossed her fetlocks with a humph.

"Miss... I mean Major Threat, you do not fully understand the circumstances surrounding my stay here. And more importantly I need to scan that box before miss Dust see's that you are a batpony. Who knows how scared she would be if she saw a pony with fangs looming inches away from her!......Oops."

As if on cue Lightning sat bolt upright and stared at Marjorie before cowering before her and whimpering pitifully. "Please don't eat my kidneys.....Or drink my blood."

Marjorie's face scrunched up in anger and she inhaled deeply to give a stern talking to to this seemingly ignorant pegasus pony, before she noticed the small smile she had. And that she was struggling rather hard to hold back laughter.

"Ohhhh. So, you are a comedian and a ninja. I see, I see," and with that Lightning burst into laughter, niether Marjorie, nor Luna could help but chuckle. When their laughter subsided, Lightning wiped her eyes of her tears of laughter and smiled at them. "A lot of Thestrels are in the mail business, she explained with a smile, " most of them handle deliveries that require the package to arrive the next day. I know it isn't as glorious as being a Royal Guard but they are treated more than fairly. Since most Solar pegasi don't like that kind of work with a few exceptions they get more pay, better benefits and they are treated just like any other pony."

"Now," Lightning said as a slightly fearful but stern look crossed her features, "Princess, I am not sure what Mr. Somber ordered or exactly why you want to "scan his package" but even for a princess, rules are rules. That means laws are laws as well. So, without probable cause and you telling me what it is, I can't let you. I am sorry but that's how it is." Lightning sat there and shook slightly as the full weight of what she had said sunk in. If Somber's package was nefarious on nature then she would have to tell them that she ran a small theft ring on the side in addition to her mailing duties. Of it was what he said she had nothing to fear.... Unless she already had scanned it. Hopefully, if it was bad, those she had stolen it from had anticipated such a scan in advance and had taken preventative measures. Also, hopefully she had stolen it AFTER such measures had been taken. Now, she had to pray that she was lucky. Also that such information as to why the Princess wanted to scan it was sensitive enough that she would never-

"Mr.Somber as you call him is not the pony you believe. His real name, is King Sombra."

".....I'm sorry what?"

"There you see? A perfectly good.... Actually yes. What?!"

Luna sighed. 'Its just going to be one of those days I suppose.'

Marjorie's friend applauded, making the fur on the back of her neck rise as Luna began to explain. 'There it is. Wondered when you'd realize something is up. No, I don't know how I'm here, but I don't think saying anything is the right move. At least not right now. I don't want anypony thinking you are crazy and niether do you. Just stay calm and I'll think about this focus soldier.'

A single tear slipped past Marjorie's eyelids and, thinking quickly, she faked a sneeze and rubbed her snoot also quickly wiping away the evidence. 'How? You died, I watched you die, I felt your blood on my hooves, the light faded from your eyes..... how?'

'....I don't know.'

---

Sunset awoke to the feeling of a pony nibbling on her ear and their fetlocks around her neck. She smiled lightly wondering what stallion she had brought home with her, or if everything before had all been part of some horrible dream and she was in fact laying with her hus- no, that couldn't be it. The pony lying behind her was definitely female. She blushed slightly at the realisation of what that meant she had done the night before and she decided she should probably move and blame whatever substance she had had such large quantities of the night before for the night before. But.... This mare, whoever she was was rather warm, and the nibbling wasn't bad either. She decided that it really didn't matter what gender they were, just that she liked that feeling of warmth. ...Until a distinct voice that was obviously Twilight Sparkle said," just a few more minutes then I'll get up honey."

This caused Sunset to exclaim "WHAT THE HECK?!" As she tumbled off the seat of the carriage and tumble to its floor with an audible "OOF!" Which in turn caused Twilight to sit upright and open her eyes wide, rather aware of the mare whose ear she had been nibbling on previously. "Uhhh, good morning?"

Sunset righted herself, and sighed. "We tell no one. Not a soul. Understand?"

Twilight sighed in relief, "Deal, but we do need to have a quick talk. First, I am glad to see you, but.... I am curious as to why. That can wait for now if you'd like, but I do have to tell you that if you try anything funny, I will make sure you are a smoking crater faster than you can you can say, 'whoops', got it?" As she finished he speech Sunset nodded quickly to assure Twilight that she had no such intentions. "Good, glad that's all straightened out. Can't be too careful right now. You coming back, Sombra returning, the whole world seemingly ready to fall apart. But I am sorry for the harshness. Also, sorry for rainbow trying to drop you out a window."

"No, no I understand.... Wait she tried to do what?"

"Ummm...."

At this point Twilight was saved by the sheer happenstance of her father deciding to check on her. He walked into the room under that pretended anyway. And he promptly slammed the door behind him. They were now in a kind of airship by Twilight's observations. And that did mean more rooms. Though she was curious where they had procured one so quickly. Her father looked into her eyes and chuckled recognising the face of Twilight as she thought about something. "If you are wondering why I am here it's too check up on you two. You were both passed out, and while adorable," his eyes took a far more serious look than what Twilight was used to seeing and it unnerved her more than a little, " it could have been Sombra. You can not be too careful with dark magic users. So, we kept you apart in case one of you awoke as a puppet of his, or some other thing happened.... Sorry in advance. But you may have exploded."

Twilight looked at her father. Looked and didn't see "daddy", no she saw a black cloak wrapped around the withers of a soldier. A pony that had been tasked with keeping their world secure. She kept looking and the more she looked the sorrier she became. What parent wouldn't keep a side themself like this one, cold hard and unfeeling, away from their children? She decided to apologize later for her yelling at the two of them. For now, she had to be a princess, like her father had decided to be soldier.

"It's okay dad. I'm fine, Sunset is.... Well we are both who we are supposed to be. Now, in regards to our mission," she spoke as she stretched and walked past her father, who turned to follow "I will need to be briefed on everything you know about dark magic users, strengths, weaknesses, whether or not they usually establish a cult, what kinds need to work as a cult and everything else you can think of."

Night Light smiled as he walked side by side with Twilight, his daughter, a Princess of Equestria. "Yes of course. Going into such a situation with only two ponies knowing what they are doing, would likely be a bad idea after all." 'seems this trait of protecting others is hereditary after all.'

---

Daring Do awoke to the sounds of yelling from what she could only describe as a small scared foal. She looked around and realised she was in some kind of solid crystal prison cell. There were semi transparent panels on every side and these were fitted with a large number of holes. As she looked around she saw King Sombra looking at a large crystal block that was being very slowly and carefully whittled away by numerous miniature crystal spiders as he mumbled to himself, likely about an evil plot he was just barely able to hold back unleashing on equestria. Daring held her fear down, it wouldn't do her any good to let it take control. She needed to figure out what he was up to and report it to the princesses as soon as she could. Assuming she could escape from whatever her prison was. She looked closer at it and found she was in cell made entirely of crystal. It shimmered in the dim lighting causing a rainbow to fill her vision and she noticed that as she looked through the rainbow she could see a similar, though not as bright, spectrum surrounding all of the small crystal creatures. And when she looked at Sombra it almost seemed as though she saw another pony standing next to him....no there was also a dark shadow directly above him as well. And as she looked at the shadow trying to make out what it was from it shifted suddenly and Sombra turned to face her as well.

"Well look who is awake. I do hope your amenities are adequate for a celebrity. They were meant for a princess after all. But enough of that. I am in the middle of something and quite frankly I don't have time to deal with you. Beyond this, Princess Luna knows I am here. She has found me. No I did not intend to have to capture you but I have plans in motion that-"

"Oh I'm sure you do! You are trying to conquer the Crystal Empire again!" Daring said cutting him off abruptly. Sombra sighed and walked to her cage. "No," he stated, "if I had wanted to do that why would I go through all the trouble to adopt a guise that allows me to walk among normal ponies and not cause fear with each step I take? I need fear to power the stronger of the magics I posses, remember?
Seems counter productive to me. Honestly, I want them to let me into it, without a fight. I have to continue my ancient research on the Crystal heart to fix.... something. This isn't a ruse. I want it to happen without bloody conflict, but at the same time Miss Do, I need to be there. I need to pick up where I left off. Yes. The dangerous artifact is for me. Because it too is ancient and will help with my research, and being the opposite polarity on the good and evil spectrum with provide contrast with the heart. Now, I will-"

Sombra was cut off by a sudden rather forceful knock on his front door. This time instead of sighing he growled angrily. "I swear if this a another prankster with six-hundred pizzas I'm going to kick somepony. I'll be right back I promise."

Sombra shut off the lights in the basement with his magic as he walked up the stairs the only illumination coming from the crystal golems as the continued their methodical carving of the crystal block. Small sparks of magic arced from them slicing through tiny pieces of it leaving tiny shards on the floor which were then picked up by the cleaning golems and brought to the trough to be consumed by the other golems. As she stared in at the endless cycle of crystal golem cannibalism with a sort of bemused horror, she felt a weak draft suddenly pick up and blow across her hooves. She sighed in anger and grumbled about has-been evil tyrants and their drafty basement lairs. With the short flickering lights happening near constantly Daring still had a decent amount of light with which to make out her surroundings and as she looked she saw what appeared to be half finished blueprints across the large room on a desk, for what appeared to be a crystal tower made only from criss-crossing beans of crystal. As she tried to look more closely however something caused a shadow to impede he vision, irritated by this she look for the source and found that nothing was between her and the light source in the room. She looked back towards the desk and saw what appeared to be a large bipedal shadow with glowing orange eyes standing inside her cell. Daring stood stock still with fear and watched as the figure raised an elongated limb from it's torso and put it to what she supposed was it's mouth as though signaling her to be quiet. Then the door to the basement opened and the figure vanished as she heard Sombra talking.

She was suddenly enveloped in a cloud of magic that she assumed would render her prison and her invisible to whomever Sombra was leading into this place. She also saw another prison cell larger than hers spring into existence next to her before disappearing. Daring turned to attempt to warn whoever was being led to join her fate, though when she saw them, her mouth dropped open from shock and she immediately facehoofed.

"No no, it's no trouble at all sir. I had no idea that the item I had purchased was so dangerous! I simply thought it would make for a spectacular gift for my ailing grandfather, perhaps help him to know that we are all hoping he will get better soon. He loved old trinkets you see, but I must be boring you, please, step into my parlor so to speak."

Ahuizotl walked down the stairs none to wiser to Sombra's plan and completely oblivious to the barely concealed threat from the former tyrant king. He appeared to be basking in the glow of victory.

'Must be celebrating winning against me for once,' Daring struggled slightly to hold in a chuckle, 'this should be kinda fun to see.' she thought as a small wry grin spread across her features.

A flash of scarlet magic and a single sad whine proved her correct. Daring Doo smiled widely, and a red light flashed through her eyes.

Comments

[Anar Isil]

It's been a whole two minutes since the last update. Is this story still alive?

[SeanofTheDead]

9422099
Probably not. Author is barely on here anymore. Probably just posted this to piss people off.

[Starlight Nova]

Will this story be as long as The Chase?

[SeanofTheDead]

9422306
If I can find more time to write, I want it to be a good length story but I don't have any intention of trying to outdo kudzuhaiku. I do have a definitive end in mind for this story.