The Shadow of Equestria

by Eruedraieth

Chapter 1 - A story worth telling

"Ow.... Why was it necessary to land on my head..."

I tried to stand up, but somebody, or somepony was on my back.

"Whoever is on my back, mind moving? I'd like to stand up." I said.

"Oh, haha. You do make quite a good pillow, though" I heard a voice say from on top of me.

"Twilight, come on. Even though I'm a good pillow, my back is not a good place to languish on."

"Yeah yeah okay, grumpy man." she said as she got off my back, after which I stood up and stretched my back, looking around at the others that crash-landed in the field of mana-generating flowers. Everyone was on the ground, dazed.

We were not the only ones around, however.

"There you guys are! How did you get outside all of a sudden?" a young voice asked.

"Oh hi, Cutie mark Crusaders. You followed us, didn't you?" I asked back.

"Um.. yeah we did kind of follow you inside after a few minutes... Promise you won't get mad?" Sweetie Belle said.

"Of course not. Curiousity is a healthy thing to have, even if it killed the cat. Any idea how long we were gone for?" I asked.

"I think it was, um, about 10 minutes? We went inside after we stopped hearing you talk about a minute later. All we found was that odd frame with things beside it, and the stone on the pedestal. The stone looked a bit weird too.""Scootaloo said.

"Weird? How so?" Twilight asked, having joined our conversation.

"Well, there were these strange markings on it, and it glowed slightly." Sweetie Belle said.

"Hm, curious. I'll check out that stone later." Twilight said.

"As for your earlier question of how we got outside, the "odd frame" inside is a teleporter, powered by liquid magic. We just got back here, along with 2 friends of mine." I said, pointing over to Shervin and Robin. "I think we owe you an explanation about all of this, though, so I suggest going to Twilight's home to continue this conversation."

I turned my attention to the others. "Everyone, I'm going to Twilight's home with these young fillies here to give them an explanation of how and why, with the portal and all. Other than Shervin and Robin, the rest are free to do as they please." I said.

"I think I will return to my sister. She would want to hear about our trip." Luna said, flying off towards Canterlot Castle.

Just now, the young ones noticed Nightmare moon, and screamed. "It's Nightmare Moon! Run!"

I quickly created an electric stasis field in front of them to prevent them from running away. "Relax, you three, she won't harm you. Right, Night?"

"That is correct, Primal. I realize I made some grave mistakes in the past, and I wish to do everything I can to right that wrong, starting with you three. How can I prove myself to thee?" Night said.

I dispelled the stasis field, certain they wouldn't attempt to run again.

The three fillies had a long, good think. Eventually, Apple Bloom spoke up.

"Could you do a trick for us?"

"Why certainly, what would you like to see?" Night answered.

"Just anything, really. Show us something cool!" Scootaloo said.

"Alright, here goes."

She created a shadowy tendril, which started flowing through the air. It stopped shortly after, and the tendril disconnected from herself. It then started to curl around, creating shapes in the air. It first created an earth pony, then a pegasus, and then an unicorn. It then split itself up, creating those three shapes around a shield, and they started gaining colour. The colours of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

"Cool!"
"Awesome!"
"Amazing!"

"I am glad you three are liking it. As for what I wanted to do, you do not mind me joining you in the library to listen to your story?" Night said.

" 'Course not, you're more than welcome." I said.

"I think I will go to Canterlot aswell, see if Celestia or Luna want an extra explanation for things." Michelle said, turning herself into water vapour and flew off.

"I'll just come along to my own house after I gather the rest of my friends from town. You don't mind waiting for me and the others, right?" Twilight said.

"It's fine. Just be quick, it's gonna be a long story which may or may not take the entire day." I said.

"Luckily it's sunday!" Twilight said, before teleporting off to gather her friends.

"Even though their work schedules are hardly standard." I muttered under my breath. " Let's go girls. Night, I'll assume you will teleport there? "

"I will indeed. "

" Good. See you there. "

"I sincerely hope you were wondering where I was. " I heard someone say.

" In fact, I just was. You just have a tendency of coming and going, Sabrina. " I said.

" I am hardly the one to be blamed for that. Your friends still do not completely like having a panther around, I can tell. " Sabrina said. " Let alone a talking one. "

"They'll come around eventually, just give them some time. " I said.

Meanwhile, the Crusaders had just been staring at the two of us conversing, as were Shervin and Robin.

" Come now, all of you. It's not polite to stare. "

" My sincerest apologies Sabrina. I have simply never seen a talking black panther before. " Robin said in a courteous manner.

"My my, such manners. What is your name again?" Sabrina said.

"The name's Robin, pleasure to meet you." Robin responded.

"And the other human?"

"Name's Shervin."

"Okay. Nice to meet more humans, we obviously do not see them often here other than Primal and Michelle." Sabrina said.

" Alright, enough waiting. Let's go to Twilight's home. I'm quite interested to see what all of you think about the story. " I said.

The others nodded, and we went to the Royal oak library.

WWWWW

"Ah, I missed this tree. Even though it was just a single day. " I said.

" Count me in on that one. " Twilight said, appearing next to us. "

"Where's the others? " I asked.

" Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie are at sugarcube corner. Rainbow and Fluttershy should be flying here together. " Twilight responded.

"...And who be those ponies?" Shervin asked.

" Very close friends of mine, and wielders of the Elements of Harmony, along with me. "

"Are those some kind of ancient relics? " Robin asked.

" Yes, and no. It's physical form is a relic, but in reality the relic is just a focus for the power inside of us. " Twilight explained. " There's six of them: Magic, which I hold, Honesty from Applejack, Generosity from Rarity, Laughter from Pinkie, Kindness from Fluttershy and Loyalty from Rainbow. They're used to keep harmony in Equestria. "

" There's more elements than just those six, but they are the most important ones. The Elements of day and night, held by Celestia and Luna, Darkness held by Nightmare moon, and Assassin held by me. We've yet to see Michelle have an element, or to see Celestia's counterpart, Daydream Sun, the probable holder of the Element of Light." I said.

" Well that explains some things. But how about-"

CRASH!

Twilight, me and the crusader fillies were used to the dramatic entrances of Rainbow Dash, but both Shervin and Robin jumped up in surprise.

" Quite the entrance there, Rainbow. " I said sarcastically.

" Good, eh? I perfected it since last time, and timed it to land at a perfect moment!" she said, responding in the same sarcasm.

" You're not hurt, right? " Robin asked.

" Me? No way. Takes more than a crash landing to take me down. "

"Your looks say otherwise, though. You got quite a big cut there, possibly from a loose stone you scraped against. Mind if I check it? " Robin added.

Rainbow nodded, and Robin stepped closer to inspect the wound on her front hoof. " Could someone give me a piece of fabric, if there's any around? "

I quickly shadowstepped inside to grab the bandages I had seen before, and gave them to Robin.

" Thanks. Maybe got some water or disinfectant too? It's quite a deep cut by the looks."

This time, Twilight teleported back and forth and came back with an odd looking potion.

Robin gave Twilight a confused look. " Throw the contents over the wound. It works similarly to disinfectant. " Twilight said reassuringly.

Robin did his work cleaning and bandaging the cut and Rainbow stood up after, albeit shakily, looking perplexed at the stranger that had taken such care for her.

" Thanks dude. What's your name?I haven't seen ya around before. " Rainbow said.

" My name is Robin. Pleasure to be of service to you. "

"I didn't know you were so good with first aid. Where'd you learn it?" I asked.

" I did a course for it back at high school, and kept repeating it every year to keep it mastered. I knew it would be useful someday. "

Fluttershy came flying in not too long after, slowly landing next to Rainbow. " Umm.... hi." She said, shyly hiding behind her mane.

" You must be Fluttershy, correct? " Robin asked.

" y-yes..." she responded.

" Well, don't be afraid. I saved your friend there by bandaging her wound. "

" Hey, I wasn't hurt that badly! " Rainbow retorted.

" The cut was deep. You would have definitely got an infection if it was left untreated. And trust me, infections are painful and annoying. " Robin said.

" Okay okay maybe just a little bit. "

"Y-You did that for her? You didn't know about her, right? " Fluttershy asked.

" Other than her being a pegasus named Rainbow Dash, and her being a carrier for the Element of Loyalty, I don't know anything.

" That must mean you have a kind and protective heart! Who is the other stranger, though? " Fluttershy said.

" I'm Shervin. I usually just keep to myself. " he said.

" So..y-you are a bit like me then?" Fluttershy asked.

" I ain't shy, if that's what ye mean. I just stay quiet most of the time. " Shervin said.

" But when needed, he's nowhere to be found. " I said, chuckling.

Robin chuckled aswell, knowing what I was implying. The others were just looking at me with odd expressions.

" Nevermind, I'll explain later. "

Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie arrived at that moment, and Twilight ushered everyone inside towards the living room. Spike, who was woken up by all of the ruckus, came walking out of his room rubbing his eyes.

" What's the emergen - 'yawn' - cy? He asked.

" We've got some new guests, and Primal is going to tell his story about coming here and what he did. " Twilight said. " Could you get some snacks and drinks for everyone? "

" On it! " he said, shooting off towards the kitchen.

" Well, you heard Twilight. Make yourself comfortable and prepare. Prepare for a story about a scientist, landing on a colourful, alien world, which still looked quite familiar somehow. "

Night teleported in at that moment, and noticing everyone was taking a seat, she sat down herself on a nearby chair.

Everyone got settled : Twilight had moved some extra chairs in, and a beanbag for the crusader fillies to sit on. Spike placed some food and drinks on the table, and took his spot next to Twilight. I walked over to a spot where everyone could see me.

I gulped once, before starting my story. I never liked being the center of attention.

"I landed on this colourful, alien world after an experiment which I heard of had the ability to allow world travel. Michelle, the girl who transformed into water vapour, was my assistant on Earth in the lab I owned. She got sent here accidentally when she thought I had been caused harm by drinking the solution for world travel. "

I took a sip of water before continuing.

" Unlike me, Michelle's welcome on this world was not so inviting. She told me she saw a monster that looked frightening. According to some others, the monster had no evil intentions to begin with and only wanted to warn her for unforeseen dangers. Ironic, really, because the panic reaction caused by the monster led her straight into a haunted cave. "

" Why was the cave haunted? " Sweetie Belle asked.

" There was a dark and evil presence in it, that whispered evil things to Michelle. It manipulated her, tortured her, and eventually morphed her into something evil. Were it not for the Mane six and me, we would've had a whole lot more to deal with by now."

I took another sip of water and a small bite of a sandwich before continuing.

"Ofcourse, the fight inside of that cave was not the end of the tragedy. Princess Luna eventually found out that Michelle was still tainted by the corruption's presence, and Celestia sought out a ritual to purge her from it completely. It did require a few... exquisite materials."

"We found them together, and brought all of them to Princess Celestia!" Rainbow Dash said.

"Quite. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy claimed the All-consuming Branch, used to siphon the corruption out of Michelle. A focus was needed too, for the corruption was volatile and could easily escape. Myself and Twilight ventured to the Crystal Empire to obtain it. The corruption had to be put into something, which the Rock of the phoenix served it's purpose for, embalmed with Death Lotus to keep the corruption inside. These were also gathered by me and Twilight. Finally, we needed a way to burn away residual corruption from Michelle's soul, so we used Lunar wood, gathered by Rarity and Spike, and set it alight with the Everburning Torch, gathered by Applejack and Pinkie Pie."

"What happened to the rock with the corruption, though? Sounds like you don't want that anywhere near you to me." Scootaloo asked.

"After the ritual, the stone was brought to the moon by Princess Luna. Something went wrong however, and the corruption freed itself from the stone and possessed Princess Luna. Nightmare Moon herself came back to Terra to tell us, knowing that if Princess Luna would die, she would too. She teleported all of us to the moon, and we fought the corrupted Princess Luna. We won in the end, but it would take a while for everyone to return to daily life. Michelle was out for the count for a while, and I wasn't in much better shape after that fight, being tossed into rocks and absorbing a massive amount of energy casted by Princess Celestia and Nightmare moon, only to focus it at Princess Luna after."

"Wait, you absorbed energy? Why?" Apple Bloom asked.

"To purge Princess Luna of the corruption, Princess Celestia and Nightmare moon worked together to cast an extremely powerful spell. The spell went awry when Princess Luna struck Nightmare moon, causing it to become unstable. The massive vortex of energy was bound to explode, so in a rush of what I now think of as stupidity, I jumped into the vortex. Instead of tearing me apart however, it transferred into me. Nobody can hold those amounts of power however, so I channeled the power into a single, powerful blast aimed at Princess Luna."

"Princess Luna was alright, yes? I doubt my first aid would be of any use if a beam like you described injured her." Robin asked.

"Yeah she was fine, oddly enough. I was out cold for a day, however. That power took quite a lot out of me."

I emptied the glass of water I had, and sat down on a chair.

"Other than that adventure, we visited Earth yesterday. Just to check up on things really, and then we returned with Robin and Shervin here, and to you following us out of curiousity." I said, concluding my story. "Any questions?"

"Just one. How did you meet Sabrina?" Robin asked. "And how come she can talk?"

"She couldn't always talk, obviously. We met her near the edge of the swamps southeast of here. She approached us in a friendly manner, and after not simply walking away and staying with us, I made her my pet. Now though, she's much more. She's what me and her call a 'Spirit companion', since being called a pet is a bit demeaning on a creature with intelligence and the ability to speak. She got her speech through a rune I enchanted her with, and for some reason it didn't disappear when I lost my powers over the other elements."

"You had power over the other elements? So y'mean you could shoot fireballs 'n stuff?" Shervin asked.

"Yep. I slightly abused my powers though, come to think of it. I much prefer having just Air as my element. Such power is not meant for individuals."

Scootaloo, turning to Rainbow Dash, asked: "Tell us more about your adventure to get the branch!"

"Oh, that? That was nothing, really. The branch was at the Galloping Gorge, and after searching around for a little while we found a cave where it was in. All that stood against us was a miserable stallion who didn't realise I could do more than just deliver kicks and punches." Rainbow Dash said, humbly.

"More? Like what?" Apple Bloom asked.

"You'd best not do that inside, Rainbow. Neither Twilight nor the tree would like that. Me neither, come to think of it." I said.

The fillies looked confused and threw pleading looks at Rainbow Dash.

"C'mon, I can give them a simple demonstration outside, right?" Dash asked pleadingly.

"Fine. Maybe Twilight can create a few targets for you to aim at, so you don't burn down the entire town."

Everyone followed Rainbow Dash and the fillies outside, and Twilight created a set of three stone pillars for Rainbow to fire at.

Rainbow unleashed a bolt of fire, frost and lightning at the three statues respectively. Both the crusaders and Shervin and Robin watched in awe.

"Wait a sec', I know tha' sign on Rainbow Dash's front hoof! That's the constellation for Destruction, from Skyrim!" Shervin said, surprising the others.

Shervin, having noticed that, looked at the other Element bearers now, and called out the other signs aswell.

"How did all o' ya get those signs? Joshua's doing, I assume?" Shervin asked.

"Yeah. Another abuse of my powers back then, even though it worked out for the better. Also, please just call me Primal here. Don't want to pull too much attention to my real name on this world."

"Cool!" The crusader fillies shouted in unison.

"What can the others do, though?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"I say each of them shows you!" I suggested.

"Really? I'm not much for showing off." Twilight said.

"It's just a simple display, nothing more. Besides, the fillies will love it. You'll do it for them, right?" I encouraged.

"Ah fine, but just because you asked it." Twilight said.

She stepped forward, and cast a spell using her mark, creating an armour of rock around herself. She transformed the armour into water using her mark again, and then used her elemental abilities to create a stone bowl for the water. Then, using her own magic, levitated it back to the ground.

"Pure, clean water." Twilight said.

"The mark, her unicorn magic and her elemental magic all compliment each other." I added.

"It's nothing special." Twilight said humbly.

"Ofcourse it is! You did all of that flawlessly, and within a matter of seconds. You can't deny you are a unicorn gifted in the arts of the arcane." I said, complimenting her abilities.

Twilight didn't reply. Instead, a small blush formed on her cheeks, and she quickly stepped back to her friends.

Rarity took the liberty of encouraging Fluttershy to demonstrate her healing abilities. Rarity herself created a blade with which she made a small cut in her hoof. Fluttershy focused her mark, healing the cut almost instantly.

"You had the power to heal all this time? So it wasn't even necessary for me to patch Rainbow up!" Robin said angrily.

"You showed kindness with the gesture though, which did more than just mending the cut." Twilight said, having recollected her composure.

"Yeah, you're right. Sorry for that outburst." Robin said, apologising.

"It's alright, but you shouldn't apologise to me." Twilight said, motioning to Fluttershy.

"Right." he said, turning to Fluttershy. "Sorry for getting mad at you for hiding your healing abilities."

"It's okay. I don't like using these powers too much anyway, so seeing others who know how to apply first aid is a welcome sight!" Fluttershy responded.

"Darn right." Applejack said, who was now standing next to Fluttershy.

"Wait, the white unicorn was next to you just a sec' ago! Where'd she go?" Shervin asked.

"I am right here dear." Rarity said, still standing next to Pinkie Pie.

"How in da blazes did ya do them tricks?"

"I can disguise an' create illusions o' mahself." Applejack said.

"I made Rarity and Applejack invisible, and Applejack disguised as Rarity was standing next to Fluttershy after she had cast that spell!" Pinkie cheered.

"I created the dagger to create a cut, and after Pinkie turned me invisible, I quickly walked back to her." Rarity said.

The fillies gasped in amazement, hearing how they pulled of their little tricks.

"Well, now you've seen everything. It's about time you three head on home, your parents are bound to be worried about you." I said.

The fillies nodded, and headed off.

"I should go and continue practicing! And to get some rest before the fillies, me, Rarity and Applejack go camping tomorrow." Rainbow Dash said, flying off.

"She made a good point, we should get some rest before we go camping tomorrow." Rarity told Applejack, and both headed to their respective homes.

"I got some cakes to bake before tomorrow. See ya!" Pinkie said, and bounced off.

"My animals need feeding, so I will see you around." Fluttershy said, but before she could fly away, Robin stopped her.

"Sounds like you have quite the affinity with animals. Do you mind if I... stay with you? I quite like animals myself, and maybe I could help you." He asked.

"Sure! I'm certain you could be helpful somehow!" Fluttershy said, flying off with Robin following her.

"Well, that leaves just us then." I said, referring to Twilight, Spike, Shervin and Sabrina. "Michelle might not be back today, so I suppose you could use her bedroom."

"This place sure does look friendlier than Earth. Man, I hated that place. Got my certificate and everything, and nobody wants to offer me a job!" Shervin said. "Besides, them fancy powers o' yours intrigue me. Maybe I'd have my own powers sometime?"

"It took Michelle a little while to realize she had powers too, so maybe you already have yours, but you don't know how to use 'em yet. Twilight could help you discover them, if you'd like."

"Definitely! And maybe find out more about why your kind mysteriously gets powers the moment they get to Equestria." Twilight said, her studious voice appearing again.

"Let's get back inside, it's getting cold." I said.

We all headed back inside, and Spike prepared some tea for us.

We discussed today's events and drank our tea, before heading off to bed aswell, the time having reached near-midnight.

Author's Note:

This story is an alternate story to The Riftwalker. It will continue Primal dagger's adventures in Equestria, instead of beyond. The stories from the next chapter onward will be less and less related the further it goes.

This chapter will contain a summary of the events that happened in The Riftwalker, told by Primal in a storyteller-esque style.