Book 1 The Darkness: with the darkest of ponies

by Penelope Anne Ink

Chapter One

Captain Celaeno’s most recent shipment of goods and merchandise was a success. She ticked off the crates she received while the dockworker checked off his own list. Taking a long look at her crew at work, she felt a bit bittersweet. Her crew used to be the most amazing swashbuckling adventurers in the sky, but now they have to try to find some small solace in at least getting their job done. Most of the time, it was just silly stuff in the crates, like bobble heads and engraved tiny spoons, but today, and in the recent months, she’s been delivering what seemed to be more like weaponry.

She knew this meant trouble, and especially with the sheer amount of crates being sent to the Storm King’s strongholds. What she didn’t know is who would be the next target for the Storm King’s mad desire for magic.

With a shake of her head, she went back aboard her ship.

Meanwhile, in the dark hold of the westernmost encampment, three of the storm guards were chuckling and pushing a fourth one toward the inventory room. He wasn’t too thrilled to count inventory, even less thrilled to do it in the room that all the guards knew had the creepy broken light.

The lamp dangled on strings that swung on a ceiling that they couldn’t even find. An endless vaulted ceiling existed there that didn’t even make sense with the structure of their castle. The lamp itself was large, and had ominous cracks in the glass that cast eerie shapes where the light did manage to reach. They did have to change the oil in it on occasion, but nothing seemed to take away from the feeling of death that hung around it.

There were, thankfully, torches all along the side of the inventory room that they could light. However, it wouldn’t be the first time a guard had been set on fire with an accidental brush against one.

He stepped up to the heavy wooden door and peered back to his companions. The other three had changed from their chuckle to a stony silence, and all four felt their fur stand on end as the first one began to slowly creak the wooden door open.

The inventory had to be counted, and occasionally carted in and out, every week, but the storm guards were in no way comfortable going in there. Besides the eerie lighting, the stuff the light shone on was equally terrifying. The Storm King enjoyed collecting rare magical items, or really all magical items, and they could be sure they had every chance at setting one of them off.

“Hah! The only monsters you fools have to worry about are your own ugly mugs!” a harsh voice ran out.

A look behind them confirmed that there were two menacing ponies standing behind them. The one, a dark orchid colored unicorn with rose colored hair and a deep scar down her face. But most intimidatingly a broken horn on her forehead. The other, an earth pony with a grey coat and a dingy white crop of hair. Along the edge of his front right hoof were scars twisted into the most bizarre shapes. These scars were the most attention getting, but the storm guards were more scared of it than anything else. It didn’t take long for the storm guards to fling the door open the rest of the way and troop in with a bit more haste than necessary.

The two ponies supervised as the storm guards did their routine inventory check and then went back to their headquarters.

Grubber was sitting in the corner with a piece of what looked like cherry pie, which wasn’t as sweet as what he normally would eat. Still, Grubber was Grubber, he’d eat just about anything that you’d find on the dessert menu.

“Alright, we have one more task to take care of and we’re heading out. I need you,” the purple one said as she turned toward the grey pony, “to see to it that it gets done. You’re really the only one here capable enough for it.”

“Oh, no let me do it!” Grubber jumped into the air while holding tight to the pie, “I got this!” And he crammed the rest of the pie into his mouth, so that little bits of crust crumbs flew out toward the purple one, whose name was Tempest Shadow.

Both of the ponies weren’t amused, and the grey one nodded his head at Tempest before she departed from the room.

For a brief moment, Grubber waited until Tempest’s hoofsteps could be heard down the stairs. And when, finally, it was too far away to make a sound, he made his way closer to the remaining pony. The grey pony had been sitting at the desk looking over the new attack plans, which Grubber was too short and too far away to read for himself.

The grey pony had not been with the Storm King for very long. He was a new one, picked up from the village at the foot of the Himaneighin Mountains, and he thought he was such a big shot. He was only going to be used for information at first, but Tempest must have seen something more in him because she was willing to take him under her hooves and make him her personal apprentice.

He must have had a name, but it seemed to be on a more need to know basis because everyone just referred to him as the other pony. He was one of the only two ponies they had in their group, so it wasn’t hard to figure out which one they were referring to.

Grubber would have rather gagged than see this upstart in his old office. But after seeing the papers in his hooves, he had an idea.

“You know, Tempest doesn’t tell you everything. Yeah, she told me she has a huge job that even she doesn’t think she can handle. So she threw it into the trash already,” Grubber claimed, pointing at a balled up scrap in the waste basket.

The grey pony pretended to ignore Grubber, he was already fed up with the little guy and wanted nothing to do with his foolishness.

Grubber hopped up onto the desk and put his face between the paper and the grey pony so that the grey pony had to look directly at him. The intense stare Grubber met with slightly took him off guard and he started shrinking back before he regained himself and continued.

“You might not believe me, but it’s true! She thought maybe you two could do it together, but the Storm King said it was too dangerous and...”

The grey pony lifted a hoof for silence and continued looking at the map, but he couldn’t help but get excited at the thought that there might be a way to prove himself one more time to Tempest.

He couldn’t help but shift his eyes down toward the badge he always kept proudly displayed on his front. A reminder that he was the trusted and appreciated apprentice.

“How do you know about this plan anyway?” the grey pony inquired.

“Ha! I’m always handling their correspondence, duh,” Grubber said and took out another pie, this time pumpkin.

The grey pony stopped looking at the plans he had been given and turned toward the papers piled up in the basket. Maybe Grubber was right? He wasn’t a very smart henchman and wasn’t likely to lie unless it was to get out of trouble. Maybe the grey pony could take a chance on this project. If it even existed.

The grey pony started muttering an incantation under his breath. A glow started running through the scars on his hoof.

A dark form that looked like some sort of minipony appeared from the shadows and walked over to the basket to pull out the paper Grubber had pointed out. It trotted back to the grey pony. Grubber cringed a little as it walked. He knew this grey pony could manipulate darkness, but it never stopped being unsettling to him.

When the grey pony got a hold of the paper, he uncrumpled it and began examining the writing on it. Sure enough, Tempest had written out some plans, but she stopped halfway through as if something big had come up that stopped her. So far, it looked like Grubber had been telling the truth. He rolled up the paper and gave Grubber a quizzing look. But Grubber was already making his way out of the room and only stopped to give his own knowing look back at the grey pony before slipping into the hallway.