Cardcaptor Twilight

by Yukito

The Shadow

“Come on, Twilight! You’re the only one who can do this!” Kero pleaded, carrying a small key in his paws as he hovered around Twilight.

Twilight kept her back to Kero, turning around whenever he circled her. “No way! I’ve got way too much reading planned to be going around collecting these “Clow Cards”! Find somepony else!”

“There isn’t anypony else! You’re the only one!”

“Why me?” Twilight asked, turning around to glare at Kero. “I’m just a regular old Unicorn! Surely there’re plenty of others you can ask.”

“No, Twilight,” Kero said. “There aren't. Somehow, you were able to open the Book of the Clow. This is proof that only you can collect the Clow Cards. And you have to, otherwise, terrible things will happen.”

Twilight calmed down a bit, and looked at Kero with a worried face. “You mentioned that before. What exactly do you mean by “terrible things”?”

“I dunno, but trust me, you do not want to find out.”

The conversation was interrupted by a loud scream from outside. Twilight and Kero both rushed to the nearest window to see what was going on. Outside, the two could see a huge black figure towering over a group of ponies, along with plants, chairs, and other various objects being thrown about.

“W-What’s that!?” Twilight asked, levitating a book on animals over to her and skimming through it. “It’s not in here!”

“Of course not,” Kero said. “That’s a Clow Card! Shadow!”

---

After Shadow caused a ruckus in the town, it fled into the fields surrounding Ponyville. The citizens of Ponyville were freaked out by the sudden attack, and many were scared that it would come back. Twilight managed to convince them that it was a spell gone wrong, and that it wouldn’t happen again. She didn’t like apologizing for things she didn’t do, but Kero asked her not to reveal that it was a Clow Card.

“Clow Reed had many enemies. If they discover that the Clow Cards have resurfaced, and that you’re collecting them, then they’ll surely target you and your friends,” is what he said.

Twilight still hadn’t committed herself to collecting the Clow Cards, but she couldn’t just sit by and do nothing while one was on the loose, and could attack Ponyville at any second. That’s why, after things had calmed down a bit, she and Kero entered the fields surrounding the small town to try and find Shadow.

Twilight and Kero spent about 20 minutes searching the area where Shadow had fled to, and Twilight was just about ready to give up. They had no way of finding Shadow, and Kero admitted that Shadow was always a bit of mystery, so he had no idea how to lure it out.

Before they left, however, a strange feeling passed over Twilight and Kero. Twilight assumed it was just the cold wind brushing against her body, but Kero knew better. “It’s here!” he shouted, floating over to Twilight.

A tall shadowy figure emerged from the ground, and towered over both Twilight and Kero. The two stared up at it, Twilight with fear in her eyes, and Kero with a serious look on his face. Shadow picked up a nearby rock, one large enough to easily crush Twilight, and threw it down towards the two. Kero flew away while Twilight teleported, both managing to get away with relative ease.

“Twilight! Summon the staff!” Kero shouted. He predicted Twilight’s next question, and answered before she could ask it. “Repeat after me: Key that hides the power of the dark!”

Twilight looked at Kero, and then at the key that she had given her earlier. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “…Key that hides the power of the dark…”

“Show you true form before me!”

“Show your true form before me…”

“I, Twilight, command you under our contract: Release!”

“I, Twilight, command you under our contract…Release!”

The key levitated in front of Twilight, and as she recited the incantation that Kero told her, a bright glow emitted from it, filling the area with a bright light. Once she was finished, the key began to transform, once again becoming the staff that Twilight received earlier that night.

“Now, Twilight, hold down Shadow!” Kero shouted, floating in front of Shadow to distract it from Twilight.

“How!? How can you hold down a shadow?” Twilight asked, grabbing the staff in her magic before it hit the ground.

“Shadow’s main body is hidden within the shadows! You can hold him down using Windy!” Kero avoided a few attacks from Shadow, and flew down close to Twilight. “Just tell Windy what to do and hit it with your staff. Windy’s a gentle creature, so she’ll hold Shadow down without harming him.”

Twilight pulled out the Windy card from her saddlebag, and then looked up at Shadow, who was preparing to attack the two.

“…Wind, become a binding chain. Windy!” Twilight threw the card into the air and hit it with her staff. The card lit up and emitted a strong gust of wind, which flew towards Shadow. The wind had no effect, bouncing off of the shadows and disappearing. “What!? Why didn’t it work?”

Kero put a paw to his chin in thought. “I guess Windy is too gentle. She can’t tear through those shadows. We need to find some other way to dispel them.”

Twilight stared at Shadow with a determined look on her face, thoughts racing through her mind as she devised a strategy. “Shadows…Shadows…I’ve got it!” Twilight’s horn lit up, and a bright purple orb shot up into the sky.

The orb emitted a bright light that illuminated the whole area beneath it. The shadows began to disappear, all expect one, which was draped in a white hooded cloak. “There! That’s Shadow’s main body! Hold it down, quick!”

Twilight used Windy again, this time successfully holding down Shadow before her could run away. She approached the subdued Shadow, and turned to Kero to ask what to do next.

“Repeat after me: Return to the guise you were meant to be in, Clow Card!”

Twilight nodded, and turned back towards Shadow. She raised her staff into air. “Return to the guise you were meant to be in…” She swung the staff down fast, and stopped it just short of Shadow. “Clow Card!”

A card appeared at the tip of the staff, which Shadow was sucked into. Once it was over, the card fell slowly to the ground. Twilight fell to her haunches, completely wiped out. “Phew…He’s safely subdued now, right?”

“Yep!” Kero said cheerfully, floating down to the card and picking it up. “Not bad for you first capture…I’d give you an A if you were still on your hooves!”

Twilight wanted to argue that she wasn’t committed to capturing the other cards, but she was too tired to argue at this point. Instead, she simply levitated the card up to her, and asked what would happen now.

“Well, with Shadow in card form, his power is yours to use as you wish,” Kero explained, floating up onto Twilight’s back. “Shadow was just one of many Clow Cards. And, believe it or not, but he was one of the less dangerous ones.”

Twilight turned to him a look of utter shock on her face. “What!? We were almost crushed to death, and he practically tore the town apart earlier!”

“I think he was trying to scare us. He probably thought you’d have no problem dodging his attacks,” Kero said. “Anyway, just thank yourself lucky we didn’t encounter one of the more rowdy Clow Cards. Otherwise, the town wouldn’t have gotten off so easily.”

Suddenly, a bad feeling passed through Twilight’s stomach. ‘There are more cards out there that are more troublesome than this one? Oh man, I’m never going to get through those books, am I?’

---

Trixie kicked a tin can as she walked down the streets of Filydelphia, mumbling to herself at how terrible today’s audience was. “Why are there so many neigh-sayers? Trixie’s just trying to do a show to earn some bread! Trixie’s even dropped the admittance fee and is relying on tips only!” She stopped when she realised that she was no longer kicking the can from earlier, and that the cold wind against her skin had disappeared.

She turned her head up, and noticed that she was inside some kind of building. “What? How did Trixie get here?” She guessed that she must have accidently walked in to some kind of shop while she wasn’t paying attention, and tried to leave, but her legs weren’t responding. “W-Why can’t Trixie move!?”

“Welcome!” two voices shouted in unison in front of Trixie. She saw two strange creatures appear from around the corner. She recognised them from her “Mythological Creatures of Ancient Societies” book. They were known as “humans”, if she remembered correctly. They were identical in terms of their faces, but their hair and clothes were different from one another. One had pink hair with white clothes, and the other had blue hair with black clothes. “Right this way! The mistress is waiting!” they said, in unison again.

“Um, actually, Trixie didn’t mean to come in he-” Before she could finished, she started to follow them deeper inside. “W-What!? Why is Trixie’s body moving on its own!?”

“Because this was inevitable,” a voice from behind a closed door in front of her spoke. The two girls opened the door, revealing inside a woman lying down on her side, smoke filling the room coming from her pipe. “It was inevitable that we would meet here today.”

Comments

[Morgie93]

Even though I personally have never seen CLAMP, reading this story is pretty interesting. Time to sleep no more!

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Hmm... sorry, but Kero's reason for keeping this a secret doesn't fly for me at all. Twilight has some powerful friends, and cooperation in Equestria has a powerful effect. She'd be a lot better off with help. A lot better off.

And Trixie, yay!