Shadow Men: Where Light Can't Touch

by DragonsHeart

Chapter 11 - Two Sides of a Coin

“Stop you whimpering cries and be quiet!!” Sorrow screams, her voice carrying across maybe the entire town, sounding sad but it makes you think she’s angry.

No pony makes a sound, all staring horrified at the large figure. Ponies start backing off quickly, leaving the alley as quickly as possible, and the mane six is no exception. No pony wants to be near the terrifying figure. Sorrow face while looking sad, actually make you think she’s angry, since while her sad mouth is static, there’s movement in the sad upturned eyes and that tear drop, as they thin and turn slightly making the illusion that she’s scowling.

“You cry, you whine!” Sorrow yells, stepping slowly after them, “You make so much noise!!”

Sorrow suddenly falls to her hands and knees, seeming to transform again, but not back into the more welcome form of Joy, but of a huge wolf, if you would take away all the warmth and familiarity from a wolf and replace it with fear and death. It has no eyes and her teeth look sharper than razors, instead of fur it just has sharp spikes, while multiple tentacles thrash around above it. It lets out a low and terrifying growl before walking towards the crowd of ponies.

Ponies are simple and non violent creatures, and when faced with a problem or threat they cannot deal with, they panic…

Like chicken with their heads cut off, ponies start to run around, screaming their heads off and making a huge racket. The only ones staying still and quiet are the mane six.

“What should we do Twilight!?!” Rarity asks, fearfully watching the steadily approaching Sorrow.

“I don’t know!!” Twilight says, doing the same.

“We can’t fight it can we?!” Rainbow Dash asks, trying to act brave in the face of fear.

“Look what happened to last people who tried, we don’t stand a chance!!” Applejack states, scared but standing her ground.

Pinkie is mentally panicking, will Sorrow hurt anypony? This does not feel like the Sorrow she met before, where’s the strange kindness and wish to help Joy…

“Tell everyone to be quiet and stay still if you wish to calm down Sorrow...”

“Huh?” Pinkie says, looking around for the voice.

“Tell everyone to be quiet and to stay still, it is your only option...”

‘Who is that?’ Pinkie thinks, unable to locate the source of the voice.

“Pinkie do you any idea what to do?!” Twilight asks Pinkie, breaking her out of her thoughts, only to see that Sorrow is mere metres away.

“Tell everypony to be quiet and to stop moving!!” Pinkie says, deciding to follow the strange voice’s directions, “We all have to be absolutely quiet and not to move a inch!!”

Pinkie’s friends are confused but decide to follow her instruction.

“OK EVERYPONY!! Be still and be quiet!” yells Twilight, causing everypony to stop like statues and to stop screaming. The ponies look confused but stay still, unsure why they are doing this. The mane six also stay still, Rainbow Dash even landing on the ground to stop her wings flapping.

Sorrow halts in her movement, like the sudden stillness and quiet confuses her. But then she starts moving again, heading straight for Pinkie. Pinkie watches fearfully as Sorrow walks right in front of her, her fangs a bare inch from her face.

“Clever…” Sorrow hisses.

Suddenly Sorrow shifts, returning to her true form, the towering black figure.

“How did you know Shadow Men hate noise and are attracted to movement?” Sorrow asks, talking in a sad monotone.

“It just came to me…” Pinkie says, weakly.

Pinkie feels like anypony would crumble if faced with Sorrow, the sadness that Pinkie feels from her is overwhelming, and it’s like being surrounded by a whole entire city of sad and depressed ponies and animals. It’s overwhelming for the usually cheerful pony.

“Liar,” Sorrow simply says, her eyes narrowing, “You were helped…”

“Pinkie can we move now?” Rainbow Dash interrupts, shifting slightly.

Sorrow makes a terrifying hissing noise that makes Rainbow Dash flinch.

“Sorrow please, can everypony go?” Pinkie asks, slightly scared of Sorrow might do, “They’ll promise to do it quietly, so can you let them live?”

Sorrow stays very still, but everypony feels like she is somehow looking over them all, judging their worth and holding their lives in her clawed hands.

“Leave, now!” Sorrow hisses, flexing her claws.

Everypony pony, beside the mane six, leave as quickly and quietly as possible, disappearing down streets and into houses where they close their curtains.

“Sorrow would you have killed anypony?” Pinkie asks, softly.

“No,” Sorrow answers instantly.

“You weren’t?” Applejack says, surprised, “But you looked like you were about to!”

“If I wanted to kill you all, I wouldn’t of given you the chance to run away,” Sorrow says, ominously, “No, I was just trying to scare you all away from us, to protect Joy.”

“To protect Joy?” Twilight asks, confused.

“Joy’s remains and I are one, I feel want she feels, and whenever I feel her become sad I feel desire to protect her,” Sorrow explains, holding a hand to where her heart would be, if she had one.

“But we were sure you’d kill ponies, like at the university,” Rarity says, confused as well.

“That was…” Sorrow starts to say but stops, she seems to think for a while for answering, “An unfortunate accident.”

“An unfortunate accident!?” Applejack yells, shocked and horrified, “Tons of ponies died at your hands, and it’s just an unfortunate accident!!”

Sorrow turns to stare at Applejack, making her flinch back.

“If I say it was an unfortunate accident, then it was an unfortunate accident,” Sorrow hisses, her eyes and tear narrowing.

“Sorrow, can you please explain to us how it’s an unfortunate accident?” Twilight asks, as friendly as possible.

“Why? What would I gain by telling you mortals anyway?” Sorrow hisses, clicking her claws together.

“Because…” Twilight says, trying to think of a reason, but surprisingly Fluttershy speaks up.

“Because we’ll understand you and Joy better,” Fluttershy says, trying to be brave.

Sorrow seems to ponder this before saying, “Do you know what it is like to be sentient?”

“Huh, well of course, I mean we are sentient,” Twilight says, confused.

“But what if you weren’t and suddenly became sentient, suddenly you were aware of things that were not necessary to you before?” Sorrow continues to ask.

“I… I would have to no idea, I guess it’ll be very confusing,” Twilight says, even more confused, “Are you saying that you were…?”

“Shadow Men are not sentient, we exist to wander the Shadow Realm for all eternity, or until we are absorbed, to just follower after creature’s shadows that are being cast into the our realm, taking away the negative emotions that burden their souls,” Sorrow explains, looking upward to the sky.

Sorrow walks passed the girls, and places her hand onto a tree.

“I was the same, I had a name but I wasn’t sentient, until that night at the university, when Joy’s sentient became mine as well. I thought I was going insane!” Sorrow hisses, her claws digging into the tree, “I was suddenly aware of thoughts and feeling Shadow Men aren’t supposed to have, and the only thing that remained clear in my new mind was my mission, to avenge Joy and her family!! In this blind rage, the ponies that needed to be punish escaped and I took out my confusion and fury on anyone in my way… that included innocent ponies!”

“Are you saying you had no control over yourself at the time?” Pinkie asks, trying to make sense of Sorrow.

“Yes, my actions were not my own,” Sorrow states, angrily, “I was like a baby at the time, unable to control myself or able to define right or wrong! If you wish for someone to blame, blame those who did the ritual!”

“Are you saying you won’t kill ponies?” Twilight asks, hopeful.

“I would not kill ponies who have nothing to do with my mission, and have doing nothing worst than bully Joy, I’ll scare them maybe at worst,” Sorrow states, before saying ominously, “But if they are responsible for what happened at the university, then I’ll kill them!”

“But why? Violence only begets more violence!” Rarity says, unhappily.

“But death is a very sudden end,” Sorrow counters, hissing, shutting Rarity up with her own cold logic.

“Wait, you said before that the ponies responsible escaped,” Twilight asks, curious, “Who were they?”

“I cannot tell you,” Sorrow states.

“Why not?!” Twilight whines, always tired of questions not being answered.

“Because only Joy can tell you, they are her memories, not mine,” Sorrow answers.

This surprises the girl, Sorrow has a point, they are Joy’s memories and no other creature, and even if they are sharing a body, she shouldn’t tell others them with Joy’s permission.

“Also…” Sorrow says, leaning over while her eyes and tear narrow, “I wouldn’t tell you even if I could.”

“What, why?” Twilight asks, suddenly confused by this.

“Since you’ll try and stop me from killing them,” Sorrow hisses, her eyes narrowing further, “They’ll die, I promised Joy I would kill them… and I’ll kill you if you get in my way, since you’ll become my enemies, and we both wouldn’t want that, would we?”

The girls shiver at that threat, they could tell she would too.

“Stay out of my way,” Sorrow warns, walking away, “Help Joy all you want, but keep out of my way!”

Sorrow disappears, like she was never there, leaving the girls to look confused and scared at each other. They’ve now heard Sorrow’s side of the story, they just need to hear Joy’s.

---

Catalyst sits behind his new desk, looking over papers until his two right hoof ponies walk in.

“Ah, Surgical Edge and Evening Brush,” Catalyst says, greeting them.

Surgical Edge is the most insane pony Catalyst has ever had the displeasure to meet or work with, originally a successful and famous surgeon until something drove him off the deep end and now has a obsession with understanding things, he loves to dissect things usually while they are still alive, so he can find out how they work. He also likes trying out strange and often horrible medicine on sick ponies, that often result in a painful and horrible death. He’s on Equestria’s most wanted list for a reason. But he’s useful for many things, he’s very good at getting rid of ponies and keeping the disciples in line, and payment he wanted was simple, he wants to dissect all of the alicorns in Equestria, a simple but gruesome price.

Evening Brush is totally sane, but a coward. He was originally a teacher in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorn, as a art teacher, but felt he was missing something in his life, he thought he found it in Catalyst’s work. It was easy to convince him to join up, and the only reason he’s not a disciple is that he was very good at getting ponies to join their cause, he has a strange charisma with the garbage of society and is able to get them to do things, which properly made him a great teacher with delinquent. Although now he seem to have started to have doubts about everything, and properly wants out. Catalyst will have to get rid of him later after his uses run out, but for now he lives.

“Have you dealt with the reporter?” Catalyst asks Surgical Edge, putting down his papers.

“Yes, soon he’ll have a very tragic accident,” Surgical Edge giggles, showing once again how insane he is.

“Do we really have to kill him, I mean he did help us,” Evening Brush says, unhappy at the thought of another pony dying.

“Are you doubting me Evening?” Catalyst asks, glaring at him.

“No, I am just saying.. ahhh…” Evening Brush babbles, scared.

“We can’t have him telling the Guards who our informant is in Homicide, so he must die before the Guards find him,” Catalyst sighs, looking over a paper.

“Why the newspaper thing anyway?” Surgical Edge asks, not at all scared by Catalyst, “It seems like a lot of bother and also it just tells the world what are weapon is.”

“The binding ritual didn’t work, so we have to find another way to bind her,” Catalyst says, smiling slightly, “Shadow Men are emotion driven creatures, so we need emotional attachments to control it. Once we control its emotions, we control it.”

“But how does this do it?” Surgical Edge asks, curious.

“We’ll have to find out, won’t we,” Catalytic smirks, looking back his paper, “You are dismissed.”

Seeing that they are no longer wanted the two leave.

---

‘I gotta get out of this mess!’ Evening Brush thinks, scared, ‘This is all going to far. Either we win and lot of ponies die, or we lose and we all die. I don’t want to be responsible for more innocent deaths.’

Evening Brush is still terrified, and feels very guilty, by what happened at the university, if wasn’t for the fact that Catalyst planned for it, they could've died like the disciples and all the other ponies there. Evening Brush never wanted any pony to die but he was naive to think that Catalyst wouldn't though, now he’s stuck with no way out...

Suddenly a blade is forced against his neck.

“What treacherous thoughts are going through your head Evening?” comes the scarily familiar voice of Surgical Edge.

“Oh Celestia, nothing I swear!” Evening Brush whimpers, terrified of the blade that the insane surgeon is wielding.

“Lair, I know you want to jump ship, and it won’t be long until Catalyst asks me to get rid of you,” Surgical Edge says, happily, “But I got a favor to ask, and if you do this, well, when I get the order I’ll let you get away from me, isn’t that better than dying?”

“What do you want me to do?” Evening Brush whimpers, accepting his fate.

“You see, Catalyst always talks about this Shadow Men like it’s the most unstoppable force in the universe,” Surgical Edge says, removing the blade from Evening Brush’s neck, “I want to see how strong it is!”

“But it killed the entire university, isn’t that proof enough,” Evening Brush asks, confused.

“Bah, anypony can kill a pony, I want to see it kill something greater!” Surgical Edge whispers, happily grinning like, well, like a insane pony.

“Like a dragon?” Evening Brush asks, nervously.

“Bah, I’ve killed dragons before, it’s not that hard,” Surgical Edge dismisses, shaking his head, “I got a much more dangerous creature!” he places a hoof over Evening Brush shoulder, “And you are going to help, since we are really friends aren’t we, and friends help each other, right?”

“Yeah, sure,” Evening Brush says, scared out of his wits.

“Good, now come with me,” Surgical Edge says, grinning like a mad thing and leading Evening Brush away.

Author's Note:

Oh, something is happening! What is going to befall Ponyville?!
Also like and comment if enjoyed.... plz

Comments

[Randomizer77]

Good thing that the situation was defused before anyone else was killed... but I can't guess what Surgical Edge has in mind.

[The oracle]

Please continue. Need more sorrow.

[terrycloth]

7677475 Ursa Major?

[XYZDreadnought]

7677475
7678314

No point in guessing I'm afraid, the creature you are about to witness has no presence in the MLP cannon.

[Boxy mr boxx]

Aye yo dis pretty good