Shadows of Friendship

by Codex

Challenged

From what she could see of the deep, dark woods, the Everfree was full of gnarled and twisted free with long, warped roots and low hanging, jagged branches. Very little light from the stars above passed through the thick, dark leaved foliage, leaving the forest beneath dark and difficult to see through and the roiling mist wasn’t helping.

“Deep breath, Twilight.” The unicorn told herself as she stepped forward, putting her hoof into the shadow cast by the huge, creepy old trees, “You can do this.”

“Can you?” Twilight froze momentarily at the sound of someone speaking from above her, surprise making her react too slowly to the voice. The speaker swooped out of the trees and sent her tumbling to the ground at the feet of Applejack and Rainbow Dash, both of whom had come up behind her.

The dazed student looked up at what had hit her, only to see a form in the darkness, It was an odd, almost copy of Nightmare Moon. Close to fool a casual observer but different enough that Twilight could see straight away that it was not her. The thing in the Shadows was a stallion for a start, but not like she knew one. It was more a beast of darkness, literally. It had the rough, basic shape of a unicorn stallion, not much different in form in fact from Sir Art Nouveau. However it looked like it was made of the same thing as the mist and parts of its ‘coat’ of solid purple and black rolled off of it and either vanished into the ether or joined that which was already coating the ground.

“You think you can traverse my forest, little Princess?” The stallion of darkness smirked at her, speaking with Nightmare Moon’s voice as it bared its sharp incisors and took a threatening snap at the group, “And win my game?”

“Game?” Twilight frowned as she got to her feet, glaring at the shadow born stallion. This had to be a trick, she was certain of it, “What kind of game?” She demanded as she stepped into the thicker mists beneath the trees and faced down the creepy, ghoulish pony.

The creature’s smirk grew at that, causing Twilight to realise that she was being reeled in. “There are five tasks. Just five simple things for you to overcome. If you pass, I might let you see your precious Princess Celestia again. If you lose, however,” The thing, for it no longer looked like a pony as it moved, its shape contorting and extending far beyond what it should. It shredded more of its coat of Shadows and loosed a dark and amused chuckle as its face stopped in front of the Guardian of Shadows and they locked eyes. “But if you lose, you will lose much more than just your chance to bring back the sun, little pony.”

“I’m not afraid of you.” Twilight lied, refusing to back down from both the creature before her and the one hiding behind of it, “Come out and face me.”

“I don’t think so. Why make this easy? Besides the game has already begun.” The formerly pony shaped monster started dissolving into wisps, “You accepted my challenge the moment you stepped under the trees and into my domain. And so did they.”

“What?” Twilight gasped, glancing over her shoulder to find the other ponies had already joined her under the trees.

“If you lose, little Princess,” The creature whispered as it faded to almost nothing, “You and your little friends will never make it out of the Everfree alive. My Shadows will devour your souls.”

“You fillies should go...” Twilight tried to push Applejack back, only to find that when the earth pony filly reached the edge of the trees, an invisible wall flared up. It shimmered with a purple light for a few milliseconds and prevented the pony from leaving the forest.

“Too late, little Princess.” The air itself seemed to shake with the dark cackle that followed, “The game has begun. The only way out now is victory. For any of you.” The voice got quieter and quieter as it vanished further into the forest, “Good luck, little Princess, you’ll need it...”

“What the hey was that about?” Applejack demanded of Twilight as she turned to look at the unicorn, “I thought you wanted our help?”

“I do but...” Twilight trembled slightly as she realised they were trapped and she did not know what they were supposed to do to get back out again. ‘Victory’ was such a poorly defined concept when they did not know what the rules were for each task, or what would count as cheating, she did not know enough to be comfortable in leading the other ponies into danger. At least when they had agreed to come with her she had had some idea of what was going on and what to expect. Now there was an entire game to worry about with poorly defined rules and a huge ultimatum hanging over their heads.

“Hey, at least if we win we get to see Princess Celestia.” Rainbow Dash offered with a grin, “And really, five little tasks? How hard can it be?”

“Might. We might get to see the Princess.” Rarity reminded Rainbow, “She didn’t promise but I do agree with you. There’s six of us, we should be able to handle her nasty little tasks. As long as there’s nothing sticky and gross.” Rarity shuddered in overly dramatic horror at the idea, making the other ponies smile slightly.

“Do you think she can really steal souls?” Fluttershy asked, her whisper of a voice carrying well in the worryingly silent forest.

“Yeah and what was that thing?” Dash demanded, swooping overhead as best she could but finding flying difficult amongst the branches. On occasions she had to come within millimetres of the ground to avoid them and Twilight found herself wishing that Dash would just walk for a little bit, for her own safety.

“M...My dam-sire,” Twilight licked her lips and tried to pull her focus back onto the facts when she caught herself stammering, “Treasure Trove, he used to tell me stories about things he had learned on his many excursions to the part of Saddle Arabia that used to be Equigypt. He told me horror stories about what happened to others who tried to complete my puzzle, some were driven crazy, others saw things, strange creatures of mist and shadows, yet another fell into a coma from which they never woke up...supposedly they thought it was the Princess’s Curse, but I’m wondering if it was the Shadows rather than the Princess. After all ghosts don’t exist.”

“Hold up, you knew all of that and you were still working on it?” Dash looked impressed, “Pretty brave.”

“What are the Shadows anyway, sugar?” Applejack asked, glancing over at the unicorn who seemed to know so much. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Neither have I.” Twilight admitted, disliking the fact and already planning to write down everything so she had some sort of reference for the next time this happened. If it something went wrong again, which she had an odd feeling it would, she wanted to be ready for it. “But my teacher left me a letter and...”

As Twilight explained the contents of the letter, they continued walking, heading further and further into the gloom. It was cold and Twilight had a slight headache as she told them everything that Celestia had told her, figuring that forewarned was forearmed. The silence around them was oppressive too, the weight of it weighing on their minds as they slowly slipped into a rather fearful and wary march.

It was far too quiet for their peace of mind. The Everfree Forest was supposed to be full of creatures, both friendly and less so. That they could not hear anything amongst the trees except for the sound of their own hooves was distressing. There was not even the sound of the wind whistling through the trees to break the sound of their hooves stomping the hard, dry mud on the floor and it was getting to all of them as they entered a copse of gnarled and twisted trees.

“I can’t take it anymore!” Dash was the first to break the silence. Her frustrated cry echoed through the trees and seemed to bounce off of the roof of foliage over their heads, “The quiet is driving me nuts!”

“Easy Rainbow.” Applejack, who had seen this coming from the explosive pegasus sighed, “We’re all gettin’ wound up, but yelling won’ help no pony.”

“It makes me feel better.” Rainbow grumbled, actually landing for the first time since they had entered the forest, surprising Twilight who had begun to doubt that Rainbow actually knew how to use her hooves since she spent so much time up in the air. “And...” Rainbow trailed off as the nearby bushes rustled, causing the first sound that wasn’t caused by them in what felt like hours.

“Hello?” Twilight asked nervously, her voice trembling slightly as the bushes rustled again, “Anypony there?”

A low, threatening growl was the reply as a group of creatures with fur not unlike the stallion who had met them at the entrance and white, almost glowing teeth, stalked towards them out of the bushes. They were canine in shape, at least vaguely and the shadows rolled off of them as they moved forward.

“A...Are those timber wolves?” Rarity asked with a frightened squeak as she backed up, crashing into Fluttershy, who shook her head.

“N...No, th...they’re not...” The pale yellow pegasus pony shook her head, taking a few steps back. “The...they’re different.”

“Whatever they are they ain’ gettin’ past me.” Applejack promised as she got between Fluttershy and the advancing beasts.

“Or me.” Rainbow Dash swore, taking to the air for a second, her wing tips just brushing the canopy before she swooped down and launched herself at the wolves, scattering the pack. One of the shadowy wolves tried to attack Fluttershy but Applejack dove into the fray knocking it aside as Rainbow’s second swoop sent another tumbling back into the underbrush.

Twilight launched an offensive blast of magic, the purple beam striking the nearest one, knocking it away but not seeming to hurt it. The dazed creature crashed into another one, sending them sprawling like dominos. Pinkie Pie could not help herself and started laughing at the ridiculousness of it.

Shockingly the noise seemed to hurt the creatures, all of whom let out a whining noise and cowered, backing up slightly, though the moment she stopped, confused, they started advancing again, snarling louder than before, this gaze firmly fixed on the pink pony who had caused them such discomfort.

“Laughter!” Twilight realised, “It’s an Element of Harmony! The Shadows were beaten by Unity! They’re the same thing!”

“These big scary dogs are frightened by a little laughter?” Dash questioned, wanting to make sure she had heard that right.

“Hey, don’t complain if it works…” Applejack shot back, knocking another canine monstrosity back. The Shadows coating it began to dissipate at the strike, revealing a shaggy silver fur that reminded Twilight of something she had seen earlier.

“If we just need to laugh…” Pinkie actually looked serious for all of about three seconds before she pulled out a huge cannon from Celestia only knew where and fired it, letting loose a mass of streamers and confetti that festooned the trees and wolves alike, Rarity and Rainbow could not help but burst into giggles at the sight of the shadowy silver creatures decorated with neon streamers and coated in multi-coloured confetti. The sound of caused the wolves to recoil again, shaking off the confetti but unable to strip themselves of the streamers.

Their attempts caused Fluttershy to let out a soft giggle that sounded embarrassed for the poor wolves and forced the monsters further back again.

With enough of the darkness gone from the creatures, Twilight recognised them as Silver Fang. A beast type duel monster with fourteen hundred attack points. The silver unicorn filly in town had used the creature in her duel earlier. The dark tainted Goddess had to have summoned them to attack the group of ponies traversing the woods.

“If Nightmare Moon can do it…why can’t I?” Twilight asked herself, drawing a card using her magic and becoming amused when it proved to be the Dark Magician, a card she had had in her deck for almost as long as she had played the game. “Alright,” She took a deep breath, knowing that if this did not work, she was going to look like a fool, “Dark Magician,” She called, putting a little of the magic she could pull from the Puzzle into the card, “I summon you, in attack mode!”

The unicorn stallion appeared in a swirl of darkness and glanced around. His eyes rested on Twilight for a moment and widened, before he bowed to her deeply, practically touching the floor with his muzzle.

“Um…hi.” Twilight knew the others were watching her and looked embarrassed as the stallion before her straightened, though he maintained a deferential pose, “Attack the Silver Fang, please?”

The Dark Magician nodded and threw his staff up into the air, catching it between his teeth before slamming it into the two members of the pack who had tried to sneak up behind Pinkie Pie. The pair loosed a pained howl and shattered into a million shards of an oddly brown light which temporarily flash blinded the ponies, causing them to miss the duel monster taking out another three, though Twilight sensed the magic he used to blow one of them away.

When their vision cleared, there was only one Silver Fang left and he had his teeth clamped around the magician’s staff, trying to tug it away from him.

Twilight forced out a peal of laughter and the beast let go, backing off with a howl of pain that vanished into the ether as the Dark Magician blasted it with a pulse of what was clearly Shadow magic. Once it had dissolved completely into the mist on the ground, the stallion turned to look at Twilight. She surprised the male unicorn by bowing back to him with a smile, “Thank you.” She told him softly, “You can go now, if you want.”

The unicorn seemed to take a moment to decide something, then nuzzled her gently but reassuringly, reminding her of her brother, Shining Armour. Then he bowed again and vanished in a swirl of black energy.

There was silence for a moment from the other fillies who had accompanied her, then Rainbow Dash swooped over, landed at her side and looked her in the eye as she told her, “You have to teach me that.”

“Yes, darling, that was simply marvellous.” Rarity agreed with an impressed look.

“It wasn’t…my idea first.” Twilight admitted, looking embarrassed, “Those wolves were duel monsters. Nightmare Moon must have summoned them as our first task. I just copied her.”

“Hey if it worked it worked.” Applejack laughed, budging her with a smile. Twilight nudged back, happy when she felt a little of the pressure that had been weighing down on them lift, as if her theory was right and they had passed their first trial.

“Oh yeah, one down, four to go!” Rainbow laughed, weaving between the branches with much more ease that she had before, while Pinkie Pie looked a little more bouncy and Fluttershy actually smiled, looking a little reassured.

Comments

[zachary12]

nice work