Shadows of Darkness

by BloodHive1998

Darkness

The ponies were busy getting ready for something none of them (short of the four princesses, crystal ponies, and Discord) had seen in their lives, a solar eclipse. Everypony around the town known as Ponyville was preparing, though in an odd way. All around the village, decorations were being hung, flowers that only bloomed in darkness were being potted, banners were being hung, and special lights that only provided enough illumination to see were being hung, That's where the normalcy ended though. Traps were being strung all around the village's borders, protective wards were being placed, weather was being strategically placed to keep things out, medical teams were all over the place, and guards were stationed everywhere. One would have thought that the townsponies were preparing for an attack, which was pretty much exactly what the town was doing. After all, they seemed to have a disaster every month and they didn't want such a thing for an event such as this.

A group of Pegasi maneuvered a super charged storm cloud in place, making sure not to let the lightning hit them in the process. Some Earth Ponies carefully finished off complex traps that, like the lightning, wouldn't kill, but would detain. Unicorns worked together with the local princess to weave insanely powerful ward and shield spells around the borders. The guards helped out and worked to properly establish a temporary base in the town. A few Changelings from a hive bellow the town added in sensor spells. Countless teleportation relays were scattered around the place to ensure the main six could get to the castle on the outskirts and retrieve some of the weapons the castle provided should the need arise. The reason for all of this was obvious, after all, anypony could recognize the deadly Everfree Forest right next to the village. Of course, the Everfree wasn't the only problem the Chaos capital (as nicknamed by both the God of Chaos and the local princess) had to face, there was endless possibilities for threats, which was why the security for this event was bordering on (or maybe past) insanity.

Twilight smiled as she saw the preparations going well. While she really didn't plan to attend this event, she wasn't going to keep the town from witnessing it. As to just why the pony that loved new information wasn't planning to attend, well, time travel spells came in handy.

"Hope this is as good as I expect." said a voice right next to the princess, the voice came from an almost exact replica of Twilight, with the black suit being the only difference. Twilight, in the future, had apparently gotten permission to alter and study the time travel spell she had used a few years ago. Her future self had then continued a loop by showing up and frightening her.

"I wouldn't know, the only time I, I mean we, saw one was during Luna's transformation. I wasn't even aware that it was an actual event until recently. Of course, you know all this already." The current Twilight said.

The current time's Twilight was excited, after all, with this event distracting the population, that meant she'd be able to study something that she's been meaning to return to, without her duties getting in the way. Of course, her friends had insisted on coming, even though it meant missing out on the solar eclipse.

Twilight was in her lab a few minutes later (her castle had been generous enough to provide her with one), she was gathering a variety of objects including test-tubes, flasks, burners, and several chemicals. She also grabbed some custom-made necklaces that had the cutie marks of the main six on them (A form of identification). Twilight smiled and she finished preparing and headed out, stopping to thank her future self in the process, before going to the borders.

At the town's borders, Twilight met up with her friends. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were in the middle of another of their fights, Fluttershy was trying to calm them down, Rarity was worrying about getting dirty, and Pinkie was being Pinkie.

"Hey girls." Twilight said as she came up.

"Hey Twilight." was the collected response.

The group talked for only a few minutes before heading to their destination, the Mirror Pool. Finely, after nearly three years, Twilight could study it.

---

Canterlot Castle

Luna sat on the balcony of her room. She was looking up at the sun and her moon, which were getting ever closer, looking as if they were about to battle or something. The Princess of the Night shivered in fear.

"What's wrong Luna?" Celestia asked from Luna's side, causing the younger princess to jump. Luna spun around in a defensive position with her horn alight, she calmed down when she realized that it was only her sister.

"Tia, you know not to sneak up on me like that!" Luna complained.

"Sorry Luna, I was just wondering what was wrong."

Luna's face fell suddenly. "It's just" a pause; "I'm scared... w-what if the Nightmare Takes me again, or worse, takes somepony else?" Luna shivered again.

Celestia just hugged her sister, both of those were real possibilities now and two of her own fears as well. Luna returned her sister's hug without a second thought. After a moment, the Lunar Princess went to her chambers and decided to do a little dream walking, even though not many ponies would be asleep just yet.

The Dream Realm

The Dream Realm was basically a huge, near endless, realm of stars filled with light-blue light and billions of doors leading to each dream. Some of the doors had marks on them while others didn't, it really depended on weather the pony in question had a cutie mark or not.

A few of the doors had a dark-blue mist flowing out of them. Princess Luna used her power to isolate these doors in particular, the mist an indication of a Nightmare. Luna decided to go to a door that was lacking a cutie mark, no doubt a young filly or colt. The nightmare, though, wasn't much and she easily took care of it before leaving the Dream Realm.

As the Lunar Princess left, a blue mist could be seen flowing silently through the realm. If the mist had eyes, they'd been looking sadly in the princess' direction.

---

Mirror Pool Cave

Twilight and her friends were in the cave. While her friends performed their own experiments with the waters of the pool, Twilight busied herself with directly examining the magic. The magic she tapped into was wild, every time she tried to grasp it, the energy just squirmed away. Unlike other magics, this energy seemed to have a mind of its own, showing defiance and even some anger. The energy seemed to match the magic in the Everfree perfectly and came shockingly close to Chaos magic. The Princess of Friendship cringed away as the magic seemed to lunge at her. This magic was definitely self-aware, It even seemed to try to control Twilight, but not in the same way as Black Magic. Black Magic simply filled her mind with dark thoughts (something she could easily ignore), but this magic attempted to warp her very mind, to turn her loyalties to the forest. It whispered that the forest had to be protected at all costs and that her resistance could harm it. There were a lot of mind control and body control spells in Equestria, but those could be fought back, this was different. Every-time Twilight attempted to understand the magic, it attacked and tried to control her. Unlike other magics that slowly dissipated when being fought back, this magic seemed to burrow deep into her mind and force her to either retreat from the magic's matrix, or be controlled by it. Twilight, however, was lucky, or unlucky, enough to get a glimpse of the form large concentrations of the magic took on. A huge wolf-like creature with bat wings and sharp fangs. She stopped examining the magic after that.

A short time later, the main six were putting the necklaces Twilight had brought on copies of them. The replicas were perfect, down to magical power and intellect. This struck as a little odd for Twilight since Pinkie's first time cloning herself led to several copies that didn't know anything about her.

"So, do you think you could tell me what you know about the pool?" Twilight asked her copy.

The copy looked down at the golden necklace with its blue gem and Twilight's cutie mark printed on it. She caught a faint glimpse of her reflection in the stone. While her eyes looked normal in pony, her reflection showed a swirling gold light in the pupil with her eyes shifting between the colors of the rainbow and the colors of an inverted rainbow, never staying a single color for more than a few moments. She looked back up at the original Twilight. "Sorry, I only know what you know, I wish I could be of more help." she said. The original Twilight nodded in understanding before suggesting they work together.

---

Elsewhere, on the balcony with her sister, Luna finally found the courage she was looking for and lit up her horn, pulling her moon in front of the sun. As this happened, the moon blocked out almost all of the sun's light, leaving a ring around blackness. The eclipse had begun. Luna waited for a moment, but when nothing other than the eclipse happened, she sighed with relief.

"See Luna, there was nothing to worry about." Celestia assured.

"Never say that Tia, it's like an invitation for disaster." Luna said, seeming worried again.

Hidden in the shadows, a pair of light-blue eyes watched Luna's worry with sadness. "I wish I could apologize, but I can't, not yet." a familiar yet different voice said before walking off in silence. as the pony walked away, it heard faint whispering and glanced at its shadow. The pony's shadow was several shades darker than it should have been. It was glaring at the pony, intentionally off step with the pony in question (This clearly indicated that the pony was a Nightmare, a nocturnal version of Earth Ponies with a different magic).

"I know, but I can't, not yet at least. I don't want Celestia their when I talk to her." the pony whispered, revealing it to be a mare. Her shadow growled in annoyance, it wasn't very patient. "I know, just let me do it on my own time." the mare's shadow grumbled, knowing full well that it couldn't really stop her.

---

Back at the Mirror Pool

Suddenly, one of Pinkie's countless hidden party cannons went off. The six original mares yelped as they jumped back, which, with them having swapped positions with their copies, led to the six falling in the pool. Strangely, the pool was more like sludge now, but they were still sinking fast.

"Face alone the shadows of thy past." the clones said in unison as the ponies went under, falling through sudden darkness. The clones all looked at each other, they could all see their true selves, which were still copies of the originals only with the unique eyes that the Twilight clone had. The group of six clones nodded to each other as their necklaces began glowing. The Twilight clone flared up her horn and in a flash, the group looked like completely different ponies (specifically ponies from the guard). With that done, they walked off.

"Five hours, three minutes, that's how long they have." the Twilight clone said to the others, who all nodded in understanding.

Author's Note:

I'm back, with another story. Hope you enjoy.
side notes on this story
- the necklaces of the other clones look exactly like the Twilight clone's, only with the cutie mark of the pony the clones were created from in place of Twilight's.

I'm going to be updating a little slower, most likely, than most previous visitors are use to. feel free to guess who the pony hiding in the shadows is.

I look forward to seeing why you like/dislike this story.

Comments

[Static_War]

Truly great job, can't wait to see where this leads.

[BloodHive1998]

5920343 thanks