The Message
Twilight fell to her bed, all her work taken care of and duties fulfilled. She could only rest her head and look at her crystal ceiling while thinking of all the events that had transpired that day. She had killed a beast that was, in her defense, trying to kill her. Even so, she still couldn't get past the fact that she had stolen the life of another sentient creature away. It tore her up inside that she couldn't have thought of a better solution, even now wondering if there was any other way she could have handled the situation. She sighed and put her hooves on her chest.
"What is happening." she softly said.
She turned to look through the window, seeing the yellow barrier protecting the town from the dangers that lurked outside it's safety.
"Why did everything go downhill so fast. How did everything go downhill so fast."
She couldn't believe the events that transpired that afternoon. Violence, pain, grief, sadness, you name it, it happened. Applejack was most likely still getting treated at the hospital and Pinkie was most likely grieving at Sugarcube Corner. Regarding the former, Twilight pondered what was happening to her friend. The slightly more pointed ears, the fangs, her fur.
"What could it mean? It had to have something to do with that claw mark, I know it! But what kind of creature can disable my magic and transform my friend with a single claw strike?" She couldn't think of anything. Nothing that fit it's physical features and abilities.
"Twilight, are you okay?" asked the small dragon who poked his head through the door.
"I'm fine Spike. Just...resting." Twilight assured her number one assistant.
"Then, uh, why are you...crying?"
"What?" Twilight hadn't noticed until that moment that tears were dripping from her eyes, and she was crying.
"I-I didn't realise I w-was crying. It's probably just the stress of the situation and....and..."
She couldn't keep going, her words were now starting to get muffled by her small sobs. She now knew that even as a Princess of Equestria, even as the Element of Magic, even as Twilight Sparkle, she couldn't handle this. She just couldn't do it.
"T-twilight! What's wrong. I..." Spike started as he went up to Twilight to comfort her by putting his claw on her back.
"Spike, I don't know what to do. I don't know how to fix this. Heck, I don't even know if we can fix this. This is more than me and my friends. Ponies aren't just being enslaved or taken over. Ponies are DYING. Ponies are being KILLED and I don't think we, or anyone else in Equestria for that matter can stop this."
Spike had no words of encouragement or kindness. He didn't know what to say or do. He just stood there next to Twilight, speechless.
Then, a single voice broke the silence. A kind, warm, and familiar voice rang throughout the two's ears and forces them to quickly turn around to see if their ears deceived them.
"I believe you are correct Twilight. That is why I have come up with a plan, and I will need the help of you and your friends."
Twilight turned around and looked in glee and happiness, at the pony before her.
Princess Celestia smiled and looked upon her fellow princess with happiness.
-------
After Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's arrival, the rest of the available element bearers headed to the castle after Spike sent them all letters, written by Twilight, to meet there. The ponies entered the castle one by one, and soon all had arrived except for Pinkie
"Do you think Pinkie is going to come?" asked Fluttershy.
"I don't know. She has been through a lot today. I think she needs some more time to herself." answered Twilight who wasn't expecting Pinkie to show.
"I can imagine I would do the same if I was in her position." said Rarity, who could only guess as to how Pinkie was feeling.
"Just give her some space and she could come around soon...hopefully." said Twilight , hoping Pinkie wouldn't seclude herself in her room forever.
"Does soon mean right now, because..." asked Rainbow pointing at the door to the throne room they were in. More specifically, the pony who had just entered the room.
"Pinkie!" they all shouted as they ran to their friend and hugged her. She had a warm smile on her face that wasn't nearly as big as her usual smiles, but still was genuine. Her mane had returned to normal size and fluffiness as well.
"Hey everypony." she said in a soft but still happy voice. "I got your letter Twilight. So where is Celestia?'
"O-oh, she's in the large guest room, unpacking her things. Luna is as well. But Pinkie, what about you! Are you ok?" asked Twilight in a concerned voice.
"I'm...I'm fine. Really! I just need to take my mind off it right now."
"That's great to hear." Twilight stated putting on a warm smile with tears forming in her eyes.
"Great to have you back Pinkie." said Rainbow Dash
"Thanks Rainb...Thanks Dashie." Pinkie said followed by her proceeding to wipe away the tears currently filling her eyes. Everypony looked at her and inside it felt refreshing to see Pinkie smile in this dire situation, if only a little.
They all turned to the door when they heard a pair of hoofsteps to see the two princesses enter the room.
"Ah, Pinkie Pie. It is good to see you in good spirits. I've been informed of your...situation and I am very sorry." Celestia stated somberly.
"Th-thank you...princess."
"Now then, I believe it's time we begin." Luna said, walking out past her sister.
"Begin what, Princess?" asked Twilight, who still wasn't entirely sure of the purpose of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna visit to Ponyville."
"We need to discuss what course of action Equestria will take and how we will respond to this threat." said Celestia calmly, yet sternly.
The five ponies looked at each other, then looked back at Princess Celestia and nodded simultaneously.
"Alright then...First..." started the Princess. However she was cut off by...
"Yah think you can go and have a meeting about the fate of Equestria without me?!"
The seven ponies turned and beamed at the farm pony in front of them.
"Applejack!"
The orange earth pony smiled and allowed her five friends to trot over and give her the biggest hug she has ever been apart of in her life. The embrace went on for quite sometime until a slight cringe from the recently injured friend made them all step back.
"Sorry, it's still a little sore."
"Applejack, you're ok!" exclaimed Twilight with tears of joy forming in her eyes.
"Yep." Applejack replied, with a satisfied grin on her face. "The doc fixed me up real good, take a look."
She then gestured down to where the scar previously resided to reveal a barely visible stitched scar. The group didn't really know how to feel. They were happy that their friend was feeling better, but were still torn that she got so injured and had to get that scar that would most likely resonate on her side for the rest of her life. Applejack picked up on their split emotions, sighed, and told them...
"Listen y'all, I feel fine. I know you girls are worrying about me, but don't think that I can't handle a couple of scratches and bruises. We are all in this together. We all need to trust each other and have trust that we can all handle everything and get through this, because crying and complaining over spilt milk never helped anypony." All the ponies nodded, gave reassuring smiles, or mulled the farm pony's words over in their heads. Twilight then looked up and said...
"Applejack is right. If we are going to fix this, we are gonna have to do this together."
After a couple of "yeah"s and "ok"s, the six friends gathered around for one more hug.
"Besides..." started Applejack with a sarcastic smirk on her face. "Did y'all really think ah'd get beat by a silly ol' wolf?"
Then, from behind the embraced friends, a serious, yet familiar voice grabbed the mares attention, having them all turn to see an equally familiar pony, especially to AJ
"Those things that attacked you were most certainly not regular wolves."
All of them turned around to see a stallion wearing a doctor's coat, a stethoscope around his neck, and a look of intrigue on his face. The reason that he had looked so familiar to the six ponies, is because this was the same doctor that had taken care of Applejack.
"Oh, Doc, it's you. I didn't know you were following me." said Applejack, happy to see the pony who saved her life, but was questioning in her mind what the doctor needed so badly that he had to follow her.
The doctor could sense the pony's fear and anxiety due to his presence and to reassure her, he said to Applejack...
"Don't worry Miss Applejack, your health and condition are stable. In other words you are perfectly fine. The only reason I am here is to fill you all in as to what those "wolves" can do. Princess if I may, I would like to intervene for a few minutes and report what I found while operating on this mare."
"Of course. Please Continue." The Princess said
The Doctor nodded and then looked over to AJ.
"When your friends, as well as the mayor, brought you in to the hospital, I will be entirely honest with you, I didn't know if we had the time, resources, and...the methods to fix you."
"The...methods?" asked Twilight, confused as to what the doctor meant."
"What I mean is...before I examined more thoroughly, I didn't know how or if you could be saved. I had never seen anything so severe and...strange."
"What? Yah mean...yah thought that I would..." Applejack was hanging on the last word in disbelief.
"...die"
The doctor was ashamed. Although he knew that being honest and informing the princesses of the danger was the best solution, but he still felt terrible inside informing this mare of her possible demise that would have been on his hooves.
"I would have informed you about this sooner, but...I felt that your family needed to see you in a happier state, and after asking around, learned that you were heading here to see your friends. Takes out two birds with one stone really." The doctor said, trying to change the subject.
"I see." said Applejack in a dull tone whilst putting her head down.
"Wait, what do you mean by 'taking out two birds with one stone?'" Rainbow Dash questioned to the doctor.
"You see, The information I have about the procedure is...interesting, to say the least. I was planning on sharing this information with Princess Twilight at a different time, but I guess that I can inform you both, as well as the Royal Sisters."
"Thank you Dr... Um, it seems that we have not inquired your name, What would it happen to be good sir." asked Luna, embarrassed of her of overlooking that detail.
"My name? Dr. Blue Cross Your Highness."
"Dr. Blue Cross, If you have something of importance regarding Applejack's condition or those monsters, please, we are all ears." asked Twilight, wanting to hear the doctor's findings.
"Anything would help, Dr. Blue Cross. Your findings just might be key in stopping this." said Celestia.
"I wouldn't go that far, but, regardless here is what we found."
Dr. Blue Cross closed his eyed and prepared to reveal his findings to the eight ponies in front of him. Standing up straight and gathering the courage to show these innocent mares how dangerous these beasts are, he began.
"As I said before, when I first laid eyes on the patient in front of me, I had...little hope for a successful operation. Especially when I heard that healing spells were ineffective. However, my interest then began to peak as I asked myself the pivotal question, 'Why?' There had to be a reason why these physical changes were taking place, why Miss Applejack felt extreme pain in her heart, and why magic wasn't working on the injury. That, besides saving you, Miss Applejack, was my primary objective. To do that, I would have to more thoroughly examine the claw mark. Opening the mark wasn't the tricky part, as our nurses had already rendered you unconscious and were keeping you that way with their magic. However, when we fully opened and examined the cut, we found something....unexpected. The inside of the mark seemed to be...smoking. Black smoke was rising from inside the injury.
"Wait...What?!" Applejack exclaimed, fear clearly present in her voice. "There was...smoke coming from that cut on my side!" Applejack was flabbergasted. No one in the room had ever heard of such an ailment.
"Yes. I admit that it sounds ridiculous and hard to believe..." started the doctor before a certain multi-colored pegasus cut in with her smart-alec nature.
"Um, Doc, I don't know if you noticed but in the past couple hours, we've ran from multiple ferocious shadow wolves into a force field surrounding the town created by the Princess followed by AJ growing fangs and wolf ears. So excuse me if I'm not blown away by this."
"Hmph, Touché." said the Doctor with a small, friendly smile plastered on his face.
"Please continue Dr. Blue Cross." Celestia said calmly.
"Yeah, did you find out where the smoke came from?" asked Pinkie with genuine intrigued coating her voice.
"I believe you all already know where it came from."
"...Oh, the wolf."
"Precisely Ms. Sparkle" said the doctor with a nod. "The wolves claws undoubtedly caused this puzzling phenomenon."
"Ok, but...how?" asked Applejack, was just trying to take it all in.
"Yes, that is the million bit question, isn't it." said the doctor with his eyes closed, thinking to himself, possibly mulling something over in the depths of his mind.
"So...you don't know?" asked Twilight, currently losing hope in the situation.
"Hmm. It seems "how" is one of the many other questions I can't answer at this moment."
"'One of the many?'"
"Who, for example." replied the doctor . "No one but him or herself/selves could tell you who is responsible for all of this."
"You think someone was behind these beasts and their outbreak." asked Rarity who, like the others, hadn't considered the possibility of someone puling the strings.
"It would explain the "what" of the situation quite nicely." continued Dr. Blue Cross.
"What do you mean by the "what"?" asked Fluttershy, curious about the doctor's logic.
"I mean what caused Miss Applejack's ailment."
"Well, yeah, it was the claw from that wolf, right?" asked Rainbow.
"Well, yes, but subsequently that caused the reason behind Applejack's...unique condition." answered Dr. Blue Cross, giving a side glance to AJ with a sad look on his face, causing the mare to sigh and gaze down at the cold, smooth, crystal floor.
The doctor looked back toward the main group and continued his story.
"After finding the cut wasn't infected or cut anything too important, we moved our operation to the second point of interest."
"Wait. The cut didn't do...anything?" asked a confused and concerned Twilight.
"There was nothing magical about it beside the smoke. But it didn't have any magical properties. Especially not any magic disabling abilities."
"But...that doesn't make any sense! You said that the claw mark caused all of those things to happen to Applejack. If there was nothing out of the ordinary with it, then what happened?" Twilight said now even more confused.
"Everything will make sense once I tell you that all the things that caused these things to happen to your friend in our next point of interest."
"What could possibly be more vital and interesting than the claw mark?" asked Luna, who was now getting curious and confused herself.
"Remember what Miss Applejack told you before you came to the hospital." asked the doctor.
The ponies then began to think back to a couple hours ago. Trying to remember the exact words of their friend. Even AJ herself thought back to that painful time, much to her dismay, wondering what she said that the doctor was so interested in.
"Oh, she said that her heart was in good deal of pain, correct?" Rarity remembered, looking with concern at her dear friend after recollecting the pain she had to go through.
"Oh yeah. That was...mighty painful." Applejack added.
"Precisely. Mayor Mare came back at my request to fill me in with some of the more particulars of the incident in a less...intense atmosphere. There she told me about the pain you felt in your heart, Miss Applejack."
"Okaaaay. So you checked my...heart. What did you...find." Applejack's words began to present a more prominent sense of fear in her voice, not knowing what the doctor had found and what he could have possibly figured out by searching there.
The doctor, who was gathering thoughts before telling the ponies of his findings, began to speak.
"When we dug deeper and discovered the heart, much like any other operation, we found something...disturbing."
Everypony in room looked worried after hearing this news. AJ, however, held a look of dread, as if she was being surrounded by all of her greatest fears with no escape. No one dared speak or ask what he found, not wanting to be the one to pile on the shock and fear any higher. Instead, the ponies allowed the doctor to carry on with his report naturally.
"When examining the heart, we needed no closer look, as the damage was...obvious beyond belief."
Letting his words settle, he soon continued.
"The heart was...it appeared to be...black." The doctor said solemnly, letting the ponies in the room take it in.
Everypony in the room gasp, save Celestia, who closed her eyes and pondered something in her head.
"B-b-black!" Applejack stuttered. Although she felt fine after the operation and she didn't know whether or not she was still in some kind of danger from this, she still was as scared and frazzled as if she knew she was.
"H-how is that possible! That ain't natural!"
"But the monster didn't even come close to her heart." Twilight stated hastily.
"Most likely, the magic migrated from the cut to her heart. That would explain why it took so long for the heart to be affected."
"So it was magic?" asked Celestia curiously
"Yes. The heart itself didn't turn black. It was coated with a black magic that seemed to be attempting to etch itself into the heart. That was where the pain most likely originated from. Luckily, the magic didn't fully surround the heart yet, allowing us to remove the magic from underneath through an opening. We found that the magic disabling power came from there."
Applejack didn't know what to say. Earlier in the day, everything was perfectly normal, even mundane. And even when tragedy struck, Applejack tried to be the level headed one, being there for her friends. Now, fear dominated her logic and reason. Thoughts in shambles she asked the question that still dominated her mind.
"Will I be...okay?"
"To be frank...yes."
A massive weight lifted weighted from the depths of her mind, AJ wiped her brow as the doctor smiled to ease her fear even further.
"All the magic was removed and all we had to do was mend your wound. As for the magic..."
"Do you happen to know what kind of magic it was?"
` Everypony turned to the Princess and gave a look of either intrigue or surprise at her interruption.
"Oh ho! Does the Princess have an idea already." the doctor rang out.
"Well upon first analysis we could not find out what find it was, only that it wasn't any ordinary kind of magic. We then proceeded to start a new test to see if this was some sort of Chaos Magic."
Fluttershy was shocked that the doctor would bring that up. Thinking that the doctor was accusing her friend, she spoke up.
"You don't really think Discord is behind all of this, do you?"
"We had to be sure. Chaos Magic is unpredictable and would explain most of these strange happenings."
The doctor seemed reluctant but still stood his ground without questioning his own methods. Fluttershy, on the other hoof, gave a solemn look and directed toward the ground.
"However, upon the tests completion we found that the magic sample was not any form of Chaos Magic."
Fluttershy, upon hearing this news gained a look of relief and dawned a noble smile.
"Than what kind of magic was it?" Luna was confused, not seeing many other sources of magic with similar properties.
"Yeah. If it wasn't traditional Dark Magic and it wasn't Chaos Magic, then what else could it be?" Twilight asked with her head turned and a familiar confusion filled look.
"The result of the tests indicated that the kind of magic that had infected Ms. Applejack, was in fact..."
"Shadow Magic?"
A collection of gasps filled the room. The doctor turned toward the one who had interrupted him, finding it to be the Celestia herself, yet again. Twilight proceeded to gallop to her mentor and looked up to her, her voice full of angst and perplexity.
"But Princess, there haven't been any traces of Shadow Magic, since we defeated King Sombra. No one practices that kind of magic anymore. Especially not at this high a level. Surely it can't be..."
"No Princess Twilight, Celestia was right. The results were very clear. It distinctly had a frighteningly large amount of similarities to modified Shadow Magic."
Everypony in the room besides the doctor and Celestia had an astonished look. Twilight in particular was blown away by this revelation.
"But...how?"
"From this we can conclude that those beasts are entwined with this magic. As Twilight has said, Shadow Magic is almost nonexistent in present time. Finding any manuscripts or spell books about it is near impossible, especially since Sombra's last attack. The only place that might have some knowledge on the subject is the Crystal Empire, but..." Celestia stopped, not wanting to tell her pupil the dire news she had hidden from her since she had arrived. Now was not the time to inform her of the Empire's questionable condition since the incident. Instead, Celestia, quick to find a way out of her word choice, said...
"Since the incident last year, the Crystal Empire has had all knowledge on Shadow Magic and anything like it kept secret, out of public hands, and only available to ponies with high enough authority. In short, no normal pony could learn something like this, or become powerful enough to harness and master it."
The room became silent as everypony pondered a solution. With everypony in deep, enriched thought, almost everypony missed the sound of one timid pegasus, who had something she had to say.
"Um, what if the pony already knew how to do it?"
With her barely audible voice, no one turned to answer the frail pony. No one but a dark blue alicorn, who had happened to take intrigue with Fluttershy's question.
"What was that Miss Fluttershy?"
Now everypony turned to the shy mare, not realizing the nervousness they were invoking with all the eyes in the room fixated on her. Then she quietly and timidly spoke out.
"Oh, um, I just thought...what if the pony who did this knew how to do this kind of magic before Sombra invaded The Crystal Empire last year?"
Everypony in the room besides Celestia, who holding her head down with her eyes closed in deep thought, began to look at each other and think about what Fluttershy had suggested.
"I suppose that makes sense." Twilight admitted.
"Not possible."
All eyes turned to Celestia, awaiting her to continue with an explanation that they all knew was coming.
"Even before last year's incident, all information on Shadow Magic has been monitored, guarded, and kept secret, after Sombra's first attack over 1,000 years ago. Unless a pony lived that long and still had the power to pull this off, we are still faced with an unnameable culprit.
"But that's DEFINITELY not possible!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Only alicorns can live that long, and there are only four. A normal pony can't live that long, so...who did it?"
"Hmm" Celestia once again went into deep thought. All the evidence points to a certain pony, but she still contemplated if it was worth bringing up. Luna turned to her, apparently getting the same idea she was.
"Sister, you don't think...he is responsible, do you?" Luna said to her sister, questioning her idea.
"He...is gone. How could he possibly pull something like this off?"
The Element bearers looked at each other quizzically, not knowing who Celestia and Luna were talking about.
"Um...who is 'he'?" asked Rainbow Dash
The two immortal sisters looked at each other, followed by Celestia turning around, closing her eyes and sighing, then begin to expalin.
"There is only one pony in all of Equestria that is capable of all of this. One pony with this kind of control over shadows and darkness."
Everypony in the room began to realize who she was referring to and gasped, some seeming even scared.
"Princess, you don't mean?" Twilight began.
"King Sombra."
Everypony in the room gasped, the sound of their exasperations filling Twilght's crystal throne room. Even Luna, who usually was in the know about her sister's suspisions, was shocked by her sister's allegations.
"But...we defeated him. The Crystal Heart...it..." AJ sputtered when she spoke. Her fear of what was happening becoming more apparent in her voice.
"Applejack is right. Sombra was defeated by the Crystal Heart and the light and love of the empire. We...we...oh. We...did we...?" Twiilight was in a state of raw shock. She looked around her. She never considered the ramifications after Sombra's defeat, but now...
"Did we kill Sombra?"
Everypony turned to Celestia, and after she gathered her thoughts and collected her memeories...
"No, Sombra is technically still alive. His physical form was destroyed, but his spirit and magic were sent into a state of limbo. He is simply banished."
Everpony in the room, especially Twilight, were relieved at this news, loud, audible sighs escaping their mouths in turn. The room, however, soon became silent.
"Simply banished?"
The loud booming voiced reverberated around the crystal room and ending the previous silence, simultaneously making the ponies freeze in fear. They all knew that voice. That ominous, deep voice. The shadows in the room all seemed to move, dancing on the floor and walls, and shifting toward the center of the throne room. Soon nopony in the room had a shadow behind them. The shadows climbed up the map that lied in front of the ponies' eyes and once the remainder of the shadows crept up the side of the map, the shadows seemed to sink down into it. The map then suddenly lost its glow and the seemingly holographic map of Equestria sank as well.
The ponies waited for a few moments before doing or saying anything. The sound throughout the room might be at a record low for all of Ponyville. Until one mare asked the fateful question.
"Did they break it" asked a confused Rainbow Dash.
Suddenly, the map slowly changed into a blood red hue before their eyes. The ponies, minus Celestia, were shaking. Even Luna looked petrified. Meanwhile, Celestia was glaring at the map, knowing the underlying cause of these event.
The maps red color began to shine where the holographic image of Equestria use to reside, and something new began to rise slowly. The ponies' eyes followed the image as more of it was revealed, their faces gaining more fear as it appeared to be a pony, starting at the hoofs and moving up. And when the image finally became complete...
The ponies stared at the King of Shadows while he grinned a menacing grin.
"How naive you ponies are."
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It lives!!!!!
7116693 Yes, yes, I know it took forever. But now it indeed does live my friend.
7116714 Thank you. Hopefully I can keep your attention until the very end.
7116734 Believe me, I plan on keeping an eye on it, activating the tracking beacon now...
7116743 You haven't seen nothing yet.
It's back! Had to read back a bit to resume the situation.
It's nice to see that you didn't left AJ impair and make her have a quick recovery, but I had expected team RWBY to already interact with the main cast since you seem have already brought them to Equestria.
Oh well, maybe in your next chapter that I hope will come soon. But do take the time to write it till you're satisfied.
Also here are a couple of mistakes I witness.
stolen
I think you missed a word or two, depending on what you tried to say.
Luna is here as well.
Full stop missing
Need to be rephrased.
Needs an additional point.
an
have - your - heading
Missing full stop.
bit: stay in Equestrian currency for immersion. - Question mark at the end.
Missing full stop.
Missing full stop.
"Oh, she said that her heart was in a good deal of pain, correct?"
Missing full stop.
Missing full stop.
Missing full stop.
Missing full stop or exclamation mark.
Missing full stop.
Missing question mark.
7116983 Thank you for your feedback, and thank you for the help with all the typos. As you can tell, I'm not good at finding the smaller mistakes. I appreciate your help and I hope I can continue to entertain you.
7116983 And about your concern with Team RWBY, this chapter takes place before that part in Chapter 3. Next chapter is when we will see them get called to Equestria from the other world's point of view.
Can't wait till next chapter
I like the art can't wait to read the story