Shadow in the Dark

by Thestoryteller

Chapter twenty four. The return of the three Sins

Ah Canterlot...literally nothing special about it anymore. Moving on! In the castle of Canterlot a royal day guard walked through the double door with a crescent moon insignia on the door. Once the guard had walked through he was greeted with the sight of a room with three large windows, a round table in the center of the room with eight chairs, and three ponies who's names were Flash Sentry, Lightning Strike, and Princess Luna.

On instinct the guard bowed before the princess then rose. "Forgive me if I interrupted your conversation your highness." The guard apologized. "But I bring news from the scout team you sent to the lab for retrieval of the vampire Batponies."

"Proceed with your repot, subject." Luna said.

"As you wish. The scouts found the lab and entered it easily." The guard began. "However, when they entered the whole lab had been cleaned out. There was nothing there, it was all...empty."

Flash rubbed his chin. "How could someone have moved all that stuff in under a day?" Flash asked.

"And how did they get it out?" Lightning asked. "Ranger and I made sure that no one got in or out."

"About that." The guard said, entering the conversation. "The scouts report that they found multiple passage ways that led out of the lab. However none that we've found so far shows any evidence that the equipment was moved through there."

"Is that all?" Luna asked.

"Yes your grace." The guard responded.

"Thank you for your report." Luna bowed her head. "You may return to your post."

"Thank you, your highness." The guard bowed once more before leaving the room.

Once the guard had left the room Luna sighed as she walked to one of the chairs at the table and sat down.

"Is something wrong princess?" Lightning asked.

"I'm afraid so Lightning Strike." Luna sighed. "I fear of what might become of my student after all of this has happened."

"Nightwing took the death of that vampire mare pretty hard." Flash added.

"Our student hasn't been to found of death." Luna admitted sadly. "He was far to young to experience such a traumatic thing."

"You mean the death of his family?"

"I mean the death of his race." Luna sat up from the chair and approached one of the Windows that gave her a view of the town Ponyville. "We have searched over all of the entire earth and moon. But it seems that Nightwing may very well be the last vampire batpony in existence." Luna looked down sadly. "And I have only myself to blame."

Flash knew how the princess felt. After hearing from Shadow about how he had access to the memories of the past users of the Element of Shadow he started having dreams about the memories. Including the one where Nightmare moon slaughtered most of the Shadowknights, Sentinel's, and the Order. Flash Approached the princess and said, "That wasn't you princess. That was Nightmare Moon, your not her. Your the princess of the night."

Luna smiled at that. But in the pit of her stomach she still felt that what had been done was her fault.

"Soooo..." Lightning strike cut in on the conversation. "How are we gonna tell Nightwing?"

"It's best if he does not know." Luna sighed. "I do not think he could bear that kind of heartbreak."

"I agree princess." Flash said. "Nightwing is my friend, but I don't know if he can handle that kind of thing."

"Are you sure we can't tell him anything?" Lightning asked almost desperately.

"No." Flash said flatly. "And why are so worried, it's not like he's gonna beat the information out of you."

"I don't think he's gonna beat it out of me." Lightning scoffed. "I thing he's gonna break my legs, cut off my mane and tail, rip out some of my teeth, dangle me over a pit of of lava acid, all while reading me that, and forgive me for I phrase this, God forbidden, acid trip, suicidal wishing, washed up piece of dragon turd book that princess Twilight wrote."

"Hey now." Flash said, immediately defending his princess. "I know it's bad, but I wouldn't say it's 'suicidal wishing'."

"Yeah maybe I went a bit to far, but that's not the point." Lightning shook his head. "The point is Nightwing will go to whatever lengths to get the information out of me."

"You think to dark of our student." Luna said. "He may be a little hostile when angry, but I don't think he would go that far."

"Oh you'd be surprised Lu'lu." An annoying and somewhat demonic voice chuckled.

"Discord, I'm not in the mood for your jokes. Show yourself." Luna demanded. Only to receive silence.

"Hang on, I know how to get Discord to come out of hiding." Lightning Strike said. "*ahem* hey Discord bet you can't beat me in a banana coconut pie eating contest while reciting every word in the godfather in Norwegian!" Lightning bet.

In a flash of white light Discord appeared out of nowhere with a plastic foldable chair with two chairs scooted into it, on both sides of the table were three stacks of yellow pies with whip cream on top, and two name plates where one said 'worlds greatest chaotic being' where the other one had the words 'worlds biggest mistake' carved into them.

"Your on!" Discord shouted excited as he slammed his claw against the table.

"See?" Lightning Strike asked to both Luna and Flash. "Told you it would work."

It was at that moment that Discord realized that he, the master trickster, had been tricked into being summoned. By the mistake none the less. Discord chuckled. "You will rue the day you tricked me, Lightning." Discord muttered.

"What did you say?" Lightning asked.

"I said, shoe bill to a hay zoo picked key lighting." Discord answered, rhyming every word that he used in the two sentences.

"Enough." Luna said in a firm tone, cleansing away the subject before it became out of control. "Why have you come here Discord?"

"Can't a guy pop in once in a while to see his friends?" He asked playfully. The three ponies stared at Discord with 'are you serious' faces. Discord frowned. "Wow, some friends you are." He sighed. "Very well." He paused, snapping his talons the four vanished from the room and reappeared in another room with a five foot glass window on the side of the room giving a view to multiple green hills. A long steel rectangular table sat in the middle of the room that had three chairs scooted into the right side of it, three chairs scooted into the left side, one at the top, and one at the bottom. Luna reappeared in the seat at the front of the table, Lightning reappeared in the left seat to Luna, and Flash reappeared in the right.

The three then noticed that they were wearing clothing. Luna wore a black business dress that hugged her entire body, minus her neck, a pair of cherry red side oval glasses rested on her muzzle, and the back of her mane had been pinned into a bun. Both Flash and Lightning wore black business suits except Flash wore a red tie where Lightning wore an orange one.

Discord appeared at the back of the table in front of the three wearing a black business suit that was tucked into his black dress pants that were held up by his leather belt with a silver buckle. A pair of grey rectangular glasses rested on his muzzle and he held a pointing stick in both of his hands.

"Thank you for coming here today you mr. Flash Sentry, mr. Lightning Strike, and miss Luna, I have a special presentation for you today." Discord smiled, pulling out a white remote out of his pant pocket. Pressing one of the buttons, black shades began to descend from out of the wall and over the long window. Pressing another button, a white screen began to descend behind him.

Once the white screen had fully descended the room had become dark. Is cord pressed other button and a small pocket behind and a little bit above her opened up and a light came out of the pocket and an image appeared on the white screen. The image was a picture of a fiery object that was coming towards earth.

"Now then, about eight hours ago an unidentifiable object entered earths atmosphere. The reason that this is so important is because once it crashed the unidentified object became identified by yours truly." Discord pointed to himself proudly. "Anywho, I found the object and get this...it was a star."

Luna became shocked. "Are you sure?" She asked.

"Does this answer you question?" Discord asked pressing another button on the remote causing the image to switch to a picture of Discord and Celestia.

Both in the same bed. Covered in what everyone hoped was white pudding.

Luna's jaw came unhinged. Lightning covered his eyes and wondered if there was any bleach around for his eyes. And Flash leaned back against his chair and burst out laughing. Discord raised an eyebrow in confusion, then looking to the screen he saw the embarrassing image. His cheeks instantly flushed red from embarrassment. His mind drew nothing blanks and relied on his instincts. Which told him to press more buttons. And so Discord frantically pressed buttons after buttons.

Only for more embarrassing photos to appear on the screen.

Luna felt nauseous and ready to faint, Flash had his head against the table, still laughing, and Lightning was slightly laughing as well.

Frustrated, and very humiliated, Discord did probably the most logical corse of action and threw the remote at the projector. The remote crashed into the projector and destroyed it.

Discord sighed as he picked up a cardboard box that he had sat on the ground. Taking off the cardboard boxes lid he pulled out a picture, sat it on the table, and slid it to the three. The picture stopped in front of Luna, who remained motionless but her eyes fell on the picture. The picture was an image of a crater with a five sided star in the center of the crater. Only strange thing was that the star was horizontally split in have.

*clapclapclapclap* Discord appeared next to Luna clapped his claw and paw in front of Luna, getting her attention. "Hey, focus. This is important."

"Are you sure that's a star?" Lightning asked. "It doesn't look like one to me."

"That's because it's been cut in half." Discord retorted. "Now Lu'lu." Discord turned his attention to Luna. "Could you please educate these two on the stars please?"

"Umm...yes...of course." Luna said uneasy. "Long ago...many millennia ago in fact...there was nothing but the stars. The stars are...well..." Luna began to trail off.

"The stars are objects of purely concentrated energy." Flash answered, wiping away a tear in his eye.

Discord and Lightning turned to Flash in surprise. "How do you know that?" Discord asked.

"When your the guard of princess Twilight sparkle you tend to learn a few things." Flash answered.

"Flash Sentry is correct." Luna entered the conversation once more. "However the reason as to what they can is unknown even to me."

"But not me." Discord smiled. "Much like how Luna was imprisoned on the moon, many dark forces were imprisoned in the stars." Discord explained, pointing to the cut open star.

"You thing that something was imprisoned inside this and now it's free?" Lightning asked.

"Hard to say." Discord stroked his strand of white fur on his chin. "If something has happened I would've known. But I haven't felt a single presence shine that thing fell from the sky."

"Well that doesn't mean we should let our guard down." Flash said. "We should inform all other nations about this, maybe they can help?"

Discord reappeared next to Flash and wrapped his eagle arm around Flash's neck."I like the way you think." Discord grinned like villain at Flash, making him a bit uneasy. "We'll summon the subj-I mean friendly nations, and have a nice talk about this."

---

The charred wood slowly turned into nothing more than ashes as the fire ate away at its dry mean. The surrounding room was dark as the blinds blocked any sunlight from entering the room. A leather chair sat a few feet from the brick fireplace. In it, a vampire batpony sat on the chair and did nothing but stare at the dancing flames that consumed the charred wood. His enter self felt like a void of darkness as the memory kept flashing inside his head over and over again.

He could remember every detail that took place that day. The smell of hatred and fear casted among all of the towns ponies. He could still hear the sound of the vampire mares racing heart, to the town people's eyes she was nothing more than a wild animal that would kill anything on sight. But Nightwing knew the truth, she wasn't a wild animal that would kill. She was scared. She was scared of everything, she was brought into this world as a newborn and was struck down almost instantly. Just because she wasn't a pony she was killed on the spot.

But Nightwing didn't blame the townsfolk. They were scared and afraid, just like the vampire mare. He didn't blame the townsfolk, the vampire mare, not even the lab ponies who turned the vampire mare into what she was. No, the only one to be blamed for anything was him. Everything that had happened he had blamed himself for it. The experiments on turning ponies into vampire Batponies, the attacks and havoc caused by the experiments, and the death of the mare. To him, everything that had happened was all Nightwing's fault.

Nightwing turned his head slowly to his left. There, the vampire mare's baby had curled up into a ball on her side. Only thing was that she had been turned to stone. Nightwing hated himself for doing such a thing to her, but he had no choice. He didn't know the first thing about caring for a child, but as long as she was caught in the stone spell, she would never age, never get hungry or thirsty, and would never die.

Tears began to form on his eyes as he recalled the memory.

---

Nightwing and Flash sat in silence across from one another. It wasn't to long ago that Nightwing had tried to stop the death of the mare and failed. In his attempt to save the mare the townsfolk tried to capture him. But he used his crystal to fend them all off unharmed. After a while Nightwing called in a transport for him and Flash, and an airship came and picked them up.

Flash and Nightwing sat in the room they were assigned to. The room had two bunk beds and a dresser. Sleeping silently in Nightwing's lap was the vampire mare's baby. Nightwing rubbed the young ones back gently.

"We're gonna have to give you a name now." Nightwing tried to smile but his mind refused to do such a thing. "Let me think....ah. I know exactly what to name you." Nightwing said, rubbing the baby's mane. "Shade. Your name will be Shade. It's a very nice name actually. It was the name of someone very close to me."

---

Tears began to flow uncontrollably down Nightwing's cheeks. He felt a pain in his chest, his heart was beating incredibly fast and his breathing matched the speed.

---

"Shade." Nightwing repeated once more. "It was the name of my sister."

---

Meanwhile in the place I don't want you to know about but belongs to the main villain of this story.

The hooded pony sat in her chair, awaiting three very special guests that were late.

Then a yellow light, red light, and a orange light appeared in front of the hooded pony. The three lights faded and three shadowy figures appeared before the hooded pony.

"Your late." The hooded pony grumbled.

"Forgive us." The yellow figure bowed for forgiveness. "But we had be extra careful not to tip that draconequus, Discord."

"Which you wouldn't know about if it wasn't because of me." The hooded pony retorted.

The red figure growled. "Why should we take orders from you?" He demanded. "We are more powerful than you so you have no right to be telling us what we can and cannot do." The red figure spat. "We are not your dogs."

"Enough Odium!" The yellow figure shouted, halting the red figure. "This hooded pony gave us valuable information, for that we should be grateful."

"I agree with you Timor." The orange figure spoke up. "But if you want my opinion, I don't care what I have to do, just as long as I get more stuff than you."

"You'll get your horde Cupiditas." The yellow figure said. "But just so we're clear." The yellow figure turned to the hooded pony. "The three weapons are no more correct?"

"Yes." The hooded pony answered. "They have not been seen for quite some time now. I doubt that they will suddenly appear."

"Do not underestimate those weapons." The red figure spoke. "They were powerful enough to seal us away in a star, I don't want to go back into that space ever again."

"We won't." The yellow figure spoke before turning back to the hooded pony. "Knowing you, you probably have a plan that involves us don't you?"

"I do." The hooded pony answered. "I want you cause havoc and destruction all over Equestria. However, I want you to stay clear of the crystal empire."

"I love this plan already." The red figure chuckled.

"But, there's a Shadow knight by the name of Nightwing that lives in Canterlot." The hooded pony added. "I need you to pacify him for now. And be sure you don't kill him, understood?"

"Perfectly." The yellow figure smiled.

"Good. Now go, and do what you will." The hooded pony ordered as the three figures vanished.

---

Back in Canterlot, Luna had ordered a immediate meeting with the many leaders of the other nations. Of these leaders were the Griffons, Yaks, Mermares, Deer, And Ponies. For each nation there stood a king that represented them. You already know the griffon and yak King, but you do not know the others. Representing the Mermares was a mare fish pony with a reflective mane that floated in her water tank, her pony fur was light green and her fish tail's scales were light purple like her mane, and here eyes were as green as emeralds. Representing the deer was none other than the Arbor suserro herself, Fluttershy. And of course representing the ponies at the time was Luna, accompanied by Flash and Lightning.

Each leader sat in their assigned seat of the round table. Except for their body guards, who stood behind them. For the griffons, three male griffons protected their king, two stood by his side while the third stood behind him. For the Yaks, two yak bodyguards stood at the side of their king. For the Mermare leader two pony size crabs stood at the Mermares side. For the Arbor suserro two guards stood by her side, one was a doe, and the other a buck by the name of Thorn. Each guard wore their own type of armor.

The griffons wore a type of armor made of a rare metal known as black steel. The Yak bodyguards wore only a silver helmet that covered the to of their heads and nothing more. Both Thorn and the doe guard wore a light green armor that provided great mobility. Both Flash and Lightning wore normal day guard armor.

Luna cleared her throat before speaking. "Thank you all for attending this meeting." She started.

"Well you sent out a immediate meeting, it's not something to be easily ignored." The griffon leader said.

"Yes, of course." Luna said mentally kicking herself.

"Well then tell us." The Yak leader said. "Why have you called us here?"

"I'm so glad you asked." Discord said, popping above the table with his body curved like a frown as he faced the yak leader. Discord molded back into his self body as he still hovered above the table. Then he noticed Fluttershy. "Oh Fluttershy, I mean almighty blessed Arbor suserro." Discord said humbly as he bowed before the Arbor suserro.

Fluttershy giggled. "You don't need to call me such names Discord."

To Discord's surprise, everyone in the room didn't seem to show any surprise or fear at Discord's sudden appearance. He assumed that he must've been loosing his touch, but that wasn't important at the moment.

"Right then." Discord said cracking his knuckles. "About...what was it ten? Nine? Whatever it doesn't matter, the point is a star fell from the sky and crashed onto our surface."

Now the entire table became shocked, minus Fluttershy and her two guards.

"Your sure it was a star?" The Mermare asked.

"You betcha. And apparently something was trapped inside this crystal here. Because of this we fear that something powerful and dangerous might've escaped from the star and could very well threaten Equestria." Discord explained.

"I remember my father telling me stories about the falling stars. About those who caught them, were given riches and power beyond their wildest dreams." The griffon King said.

"True." Discord said. "As to what the Stars truly do is unknown. Some say they grant wishes, some say they give others incredible power, some say that they gained infinite knowledge, but in this case the star contained something inside it, and now it's out and we have no idea what it is. And that's what makes it very dangerous."

"Then what will you have us do?" The Mermare asked.

"The answer is simple." Discord smiled. "We simply force you to remove that disguise and show yourself."

The shock multipled.

The Mermare stuttered. "Wh-what?"

"Come now, you really didn't think I won't sense you at this distance did you?" Discord asked before his tone turned more dark. "Now show yourself or I'll beat it out of you."

The Mermare stared at Discord in disbelief. Then a smile formed on her face. "Very well, you got me." The Mermare said as her eyes glowed orange.

The two crabs, the water tank, and the Mermare disappeared. In their place stood a stallion with dark orange fur, orange eyes, and a light orange mane. He was about Flash's height but what caught the entire rooms attention was the fact he was an alicorn.

Flash and Lightning drew their two swords, the three griffon guards drew theirs as well, Thorn and the Doe drew their bows and knocked an arrow in the string, and the two yaks got into battle stance.

"Who are you?" Luna demanded in a calm tone. "And what have you done with the Mermare leader?"

"Oh her? She never received your request." The orange stallion laughed.

"How dare you. You will pay for doing such a thing." The griffon leader growled.

"Huh what do you know Timor was right." The orange stallion smiled. "You really are so stupid you never noticed Odium."

"Behind you Flash!" Shadow yelled.

"Get down!" Flash yelled, grabbing Princess Luna and pushing her down.

*BOOOOOM!* The entire castle shook as a large hole was blasted through the room's wall.

Chunks of dirt and stone fell from the ceiling as they bounce off the pink bubble shield that Discord had made. Snapping his talons, multiple support beams appeared and braced the room. Once he was sure that the room was stable the shield dispersed.

"Are you alright my dear?" A voice asked behind Discord.

Discord spun around to see that Thorn was by Fluttershy's side, giving her comfort and help.

"Yes...I'm fine Thorn." Fluttershy said weakly.

She tried to stand up but immediately fell back down as she yelped in pain.

"Fluttershy!" Thorn yelled as he took her hoof and held her up.

Discord's eyes fell upon the wound that Fluttershy had taken. A chunk of rock had fallen on her wing and had seriously injured her. Discord's eyes widen in shock and fear, he was about to rush to his friends side and help her. But Thorn was already doing that. Instead Discord gave birth to a face of hatred and anger.

"My, my." A deep voice came from the outside of the hole in the wall. "Someone seems very angry."

Discord turned to the wall to face another alicorn, this one with a dark red mane, dark red fur, and light red eyes. Discord growled the second he saw the one responsible for the attack.

"Hehe." The red Alicorn chuckled. "Forget angry, your seem to be full of rage."

"How dare you." Discord growled as he clenched his fists. "HOW DARE YOU!!" He shouted as he flew towards the red alicorn.

Groaning, Luna placed a hoof one the table so that she could help herself up. Lifting herself up she saw Discord racing towards the red alicorn. "Discord wait!" Luna shouted, trying to stop him. But it was no use as her words fell upon deaf ears.

Snapping his claw, a steel sword appeared in Discord's lion paw. "RAAAAAHHH!" He yelled, readying his blade to cut the alicorn in half.

The alicorn only smiled as his attacker charged forward. The alicorn's horn lit up with a red aura as two red aura battle axes floated next to him. The two axes lunged toward at Discord, who blocked it the two with his sword.

There'd alicorn teleported above Discord and raised his right hoof into the air where a red magical blast was created in his hoof. "Perish." He said darkly as he threw the blast down and struck Discord.

A loud boom echoed from the blast as Discord was sent downwards.

"Discord!" Fluttershy yelled as she saw her friend plummet to his doom.

"Hold on, I've got him." Thorn said, running to the edge of the hole. His eyes glowed light green as a long green vine stretched outwards from the hole and towards Discord. The green stalk wrapped itself around Discord and pulled him back into the room, setting him down gently.

The entire stood shocked at what just happened. But it was instantly gone as their attention was turned back to the two Alicorns.

This time however, the others were ready. But before anyone could do anything a third alicorn teleported in the room between both the two Alicorns and the others in the room.

"Woah, woah, time out." The other alicorn said. The third alicorn had a light yellow mane, dark yellow fur, and yellow eyes. "Cupiditas, Odium. Is that anyway to introduce yourself?" The yellow alicorn asked the three other Alicorns. "Forgive them, there not very good with others. Allow me to introduce ourselves. My name is Timor." The yellow one addressed himself. "This here is Odium." Timor addressed the red alicorn. "And this is Cupiditas." Timor addressed the orange alicorn. "No need to introduce yourselves, we already know who you all are."

"What do you want with us?" Lightning demanded.

"That's easy." Timor smiled. "We want control of all of Equestria. And your gonna help us."

"And why would we help you?"

"Simple." Timor smiled once more as his horn glowed a fearful yellow and a stone pony appeared next to him, hovering above the ground. The stone pony had a face of shock and surprise. The whole room gasped at the sight of the pony.

For the stone pony, was Nightwing.

Author's Note:

To those who are wondering,

Timor means fear

Odium means hate

And Cupiditas means greed

Have fun knowing that.