Epic Quest

by dorianator

The First Encounter

I could just barely hear a voice through the thick curtain of unconsciousness that surrounded me...

"...Hello? You okay, mister..?"

"Ugh..." I sat up and rubbed my face, which was now slightly bruised. I eventually opened my eyes. Everything was a bright blur, but it cleared up in a few seconds. "What...what happened?" I muttered.

"I only wanted to say hello." said a voice from behind me. "And you were asleep for sooo long! You missed my entire song!"

This pony was unfamiliar to me. Her coat was pink and so was her mane. The only difference between the two was that her mane was a darker shade of pink than her coat, more of a magenta, really. Suddenly, she was right in my face, so close her's was almost touching mine. I jumped a little at her sudden presence. "Oh, did I scare you?" she asked cheerfully. "Sorry!"

"Um, you're fine..." I guess this was the Earth pony Twilight was telling me about: Pinkie Pie.

"Oh, that's good! I wouldn't want to hurt a soon-to-be friend." Just as sudden as she popped in front of my face, she grabbed my hoof in her's. "Hi! My name's Pinkie Pie!" the pink pony announced, rapidly shaking my hoof up and down. "You're Nathan, aren't you? Twilight has told me so much about you, but you were asleep and she was always checking up on you, so she never really knew you knew you. You were all she ever talked about, though. It was kinda weird, almost like-"

"Alright Pinkie!" Twilight cut her off.

"Oh, sorry Twi!" Pinkie apologized with a giggle. "I'm just so excited to meet a new pony, I guess I got a little overwhelmed!"

"AHEM!" uttered an intensely annoyed waiter. "Are you going to order drinks or continue to waste my time?"

Rainbow Dash didn't seem to like this, and her face scrunched up with anger as she began to answer his question. "Actually, I think we-" Applejack stuffed a hoof in her mouth before she said something uncalled for.

"Yes," Applejack replied for her, "we will." Applejack removed her hoof from Rainbow's mouth, receiving a defeated glance from the cyan mare.

Everypony returned to their rightful seats as the waiter rolled his eyes. After browsing the menus, Rainbow Dash was the first to order. "I'll have an orange soda..." Rainbow mumbled.

"I'll have a glass of punch please!" Pinkie sang. The waiter continued to scribble in the orders.

"And what will you have?" the waiter asked, pointing his pen at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy shrank back in her chair a little, hiding her face behind the menu. "Um...I'll have a... raspberry tea...please..." she whispered, setting her menu back on the table.

"Very well," he announced, his pad disappearing with a flash of magic, "your drinks should be out in no time. Are you all ready to order?" The waiter summoned his pad once again.

Twilight looked around the table, receiving a nod from all of us. "I think we are." she said at last. "I'm going to have..."

~~~~~~~

We were having a pretty good time. At first, I thought I wouldn't fit in that well, but Twilight's friends seemed to take a liking to me very quickly.

After quite a long while, our food arrived, and we all ate like pigs. I've never been to a restaurant, at least one that I can remember, that takes such a long time to prepare food. Not to mention, the portions were undersized, in my opinion. Nevertheless, I remained as gracious as possible and enjoyed my meal. That is, until Rainbow started commenting on on it.

"Hey, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Can I borrow a pair of reading glasses? I can't seem to see my meal." Laughter broke out among us while a waiter within earshot simply rolled his eyes.

Nearly the rest of that night included bonding and story-telling. I was amazed when I heard everything these ponies had been through together. After all, not many ponies escape a Hydra.

One by one, everypony went on, retelling everything they'd learned about friendship together. Then, something interesting happened. More terrifying than interesting really.

The restaurant was starting to thin out, but it was nowhere near closing time, so only our group and a handful of couples remained. "Man," Rainbow sighed, "was that a crazy day."

"I know!" Pinkie added. "Those Parasprites were devouring everything! Good thing I stepped in to save the day!"

"Now Pinkie," Rarity started, "stop that. You're beginning to sound like Rainbow Dash!" Laughter erupted once again, attracting the attention of nearby ponies.

As the laughter died down, I decided to speak. "Hey guys?" Everypony at the table looked my way, at the ready with listening ears.

"Yes, darling? What is it?" Rarity asked.

"Princess Celestia," I started, "she told me about some sort of ancient evil. Some sort of 'shadow monster'. Apparently, it's rising again, and I'm the only one who can stop it."

There wasn't much of a reaction, except one out of Fluttershy. "That sounds, um, scary..." Fluttershy trailed off. Aside from her, all I earned were blank stares.

"What?" I asked, astonished. "Does that not sound dangerous to all of you?"

"Well, it does sound a little fishy." Rarity responded.

"Yeah." Rainbow agreed. "Celestia just loves to prank newcomers."

"To Equestria?" I asked.

"Yeah, pretty much." she replied, nonchalantly. "Both the princesses are trolls. I'd bet that it's their favorite hobby."

"Besides, why wouldn't she tell us?" Applejack added. "After all, we were the ones who defeated Nightmare Moon."

"Don't forget Discord!" Pinkie Pie shouted.

"Exactly." Applejack concluded, confidently. "I'm sure we could bring down some silly old shadow."

"Well then," I said picking up my drink, "I guess I have nothing to worry about!" I paused to take a few sips of my lemon water. I cringed a little at the bland taste. Perhaps I'll get punch next time. "Just remind me to get back at her someday!"

We all shared a laugh, albeit short lived. There was a sudden sound of glass shattering outside the restaurant, followed by a deafening scream.

Everypony turned toward the door, listening to the slowly culminating chaos outside the building. A light murmur arose within the establishment as we all looked at each other in surprise.

"Wh-what was that?" Fluttershy whimpered, hiding under the table.

"I've got a bad feelin' about this." Applejack said, adjusting her hat.

"Come on," Twilight motioned toward the windows, "let's have a look."

All of us but Fluttershy trotted up to the window to see what was causing the uproar. It appeared to be absolutely nothing. Things were flying this way and that, windows and shops were simply exploding without a cause.

"What..." I said in confusion. I squinted my eyes, trying to make sense of the spectacle before us. Suddenly, something clicked in my head as I caught a small detail under one of the street lamps. A streak of darkness, some kind of source-less shadow, was visible as it slithered beneath the light of the lamp, but disappeared once more as it entered the darkness of the street.

I was gripped with terror. I was either seeing things or Celestia wasn't joking around. I almost backed away from the window when I heard a very quiet whisper.

I pressed my ear up against the window to hear better, and a sinister voice spoke to me: "Hello, Hero..."

Suddenly, the glass pane started to vibrate. Acting on sudden impulse, I ducked to the ground.

"Get down!" I yelled. Everypony gave me a confused look. "I said GET DOWN!" The window started to shake more and more until a buzzing sound could be heard. Eventually, small cracks became visible, and the girls noticed. Everypony ducked just in time, avoiding the shower of glass shards that used to be a whole window.

"What was THAT?!" Rarity cried, shaking bits of glass out of her mane.

"Precisely what Princess Celestia warned me about." I replied, frantically scanning the floor. Tables were being flung around the restaurant like some little foal's stuffed doll. The ponies that remained fled the building in terror.

I finally spotted a a dark blur zig-zagging across the ground, heading straight toward our group.

"Fluttershy, get out from under that table!" I shouted. "We need to get out now!" There was no reply from Fluttershy. The poor mare was too terrified to do anything. Without warning, the table concealing Fluttershy was launched across the room, smashing to pieces on contact with the opposite wall.

Slowly, the yellow Pegasus looked up as the shadow seemingly peeled itself off the ground, rearing back like a cobra. Fluttershy's eyes widened in terror as a mouth lined with razor sharp teeth opened, along with two glowing, yellow eyes. Fluttershy screamed as it prepared it's strike, but not before I galloped full speed into the beast.

"NO!" I cried as I spread my wings and jumped into the shadow's body. To my surprise, I was actually able to touch the creature. Ramming into it's side at full-force, I ended up tackling the shadow to the ground, promptly falling to the ground in pain. Attacking it with my head wasn't the best idea, but it seemed to succeed in momentarily stunning it.

"Fluttershy!" Twilight beckoned. "Quick get out of there!"

Fluttershy glanced at me, then Twilight, then at me one last time before running after her friends.

"Nathan! Get up!" Rainbow yelled. "You gotta get out of there!"

I rose to my hooves once again, everything swirling before me. After I regained my senses, I made a mad dash for the exit. Just as I began to spread my wings, I felt something wrap around my leg, and I ended up falling back to the ground. The shadow monster had me by my back leg, holding me with the tip of it's tail, and had started dragging me away from my friends. I tried everything I could to escape it's grasp, but to no avail. Eventually, It lifted me off the ground. I was at it's mercy as it spun me around and proceeded to slam me into a nearby wall. I cried out in agony while the beast smiled deviously. He then slammed me into another wall, producing a sickening crack from my wing. It stopped for a moment and brought me up to it's face.

Menacingly, it spoke to me. "Tonight is where this ends. Tonight is when I end you for good, Hero." The beast lifted me high above the ground. Then, with a flick of its tail, sent me speeding downward.

As the ground came closer, I noticed my descent start to slow. Eventually, I was surrounded by a warm and rather soft feeling. Suddenly, a bright flash of light lit up my vision, and before I knew it, I was back at Canterlot Castle.

~~~~~~~

"So, that was a shadow that attacked us." Rainbow said, disappointed. "A SHADOW?! You've got to be kidding me!

"I wish I was, but this is no joke. It seems as if our worst fears are coming true, and even sooner than Luna and I could have imagined." Celestia explained.

For the past hour, everypony had been discussing the incident at the restaurant. Meanwhile, Princess Luna had called on a nurse to tend to my broken wing.

"So what're we gonna do now?" Applejack asked. "That thing's still wreakin' havoc down in Ponyville!"

"That's simple." Celestia replied. "Twilight, you and your friends will have to bring this shadow creature down using the Elements of Harmony."

"But Nathan told us that he's the only one who can handle these shadow thingies!" Rainbow protested.

"Yes, but," Celestia paused and looked at me, "he isn't quite 'ready' yet."

I lowered my head in disappointment. "She's right." I said, defeated. "Just look at my wing." After the nurse set my cast, she told me that most of the bones in my left wing had been completely shattered.

"I don't mean it that way." Celestia reassured me. "Your wing isn't the problem. All you need is a little field training and you'll be hero material in no time." I smiled a little, and Celestia smiled back, knowing she had lightened my mood.

"Well then," Rarity started, "I don't see the point in standing here. We've got a town to save!"

"YEAH!" everypony simultaneously cheered.

"Good luck, my little ponies!" Celestia said warmly. "I have the utmost faith in you!" Princess Celestia lowered her horn toward us as we were enveloped by the golden glow of her magic, and in a burst of light, teleported to Twilight's house.

"Alright everypony!" Twilight announced. "I have the Elements of Harmony right here!" Twilight levitated a book off one of the numerous shelves lining the walls. It opened to reveal all six Elements of Harmony, one for each of the ponies representing it. Each of them donned their designated gear and headed out the door, me trailing cautiously behind them.

They made their way to the center of Ponyville, where most of the chaos was now taking place. "Now, girls!" Twilight ordered. Her horn started to glow, illuminating everything nearby, and contrasting the dark monster against the cover of night. A purple aura of magic surrounded the mares, lifting them high above the ground as their Elements started to glow. However, nothing seemed to be happening. A few more seconds passed, but nothing was changing. The shadow beast began to grin slyly, chuckling as he did so. Even more time passed and Twilight seemed to be losing energy. Eventually, the Elements began to glow with an abnormally intense light.

"T-twilight!" Rainbow Dash stuttered through gritted teeth. "This thing's getting really, really hot!"

"J-just...wait...for it..." Twilight said, pausing for breath as she spoke.

Suddenly, the Elements flashed with a blinding, white light for a split second before completely shattering. The six ponies cried out as the energy from the exploding Elements scorched their fur. All six fell to the ground, completely unconscious.

Everypony in the vicinity stared in absolute horror as their only hope laid helplessly in a heap on the ground. The shadow beast started to snicker, quietly at first, but it slowly culminated to a booming laugh that rang throughout the streets of Ponyville.

There was no way I could let this happen! Glancing around my eyes fell upon a blacksmith's shop, currently in ruins. I galloped over to the site, jumping over countless piles of rubble, and came across the hilt of a blade sticking out of the mess. Without thinking, I grabbed at the handle, clamping my teeth down hard and pulling it out. The steel blade shone brilliantly in the moonlight. I took a moment to admire the craftsmanship, then galloped back to the looming shadow.

"HEH!" I yelled, still holding the sword in my mouth. It looked my way, a look mild of surprise on it's face. After observing me for a moment, it smiled once again, chuckling in a subtle manner. I spat out the sword. Now was definitely not the time to sound foolish. "You're going DOWN!" I picked up the sword once more, taking an impromptu battle stance.

"Hero..." the shadow boomed. "So you have returned. Long have I waited for this moment."

"You on't ahter ahn done wih YOU!" I threatened, not bothering to put down my sword this time.

"HehehehahahaHAHAHA!" the shadow laughed a deep, bellowing laugh. "You're going to defeat me? You can't even speak properly!" It paused to laugh at me once again. This only fueled my anger. "Not to mention you aren't even at your full potential yet." it grinned a hungry and unsettling grin.

"He will be so pleased when I inform him of your defeat and the fall of the Elements of Harmony! Oh, I'm going to enjoy this." Suddenly, he lunged at me. I took that as the start of our battle and accepted is challenge, leaping into the air and preparing to slash with my gleaming blade.

I would make sure to win this for my friends, no matter what the cost.

*******

Did you all enjoy this chapter? Be sure to let me know in the comments down below, and like if you, well, liked it. Be sure to give me your opinion on how the story's going AND REMEMBER, constructive criticism is ALWAYS appreciated. Also, Happy Belated Thanksgiving to all of you who are reading, and until next time, stay epic!

Comments

[ShadowBreeze]

WRITE THE NEXT CHAPTER ASAP!