The Bond

by GhostWriter

Chapter Three - Darkness Discovered

- Chapter Three -

Darkness Discovered

Thousands upon thousands of years ago, back to a time before the alicorn princesses, back before even the three pony races formed Equestria, there came tales of magic that no pony, griffon, or dragon had ever encountered before. Stories of a unicorn with strange abilities began to spread across the land; like any story, the re-telling would be changed a little, but the description was always the same. A unicorn stallion with a white coat, sometimes claimed to be wearing a cloak so black, it was like he was shrouded by sheer darkness. His shadow, if one ever looked close enough at it, was said to move on its own, like a creature's breathing. Those who were said to have touched the shadow went mad only a day or less afterwards, if they didn't kill themselves in the most appalling of ways.

There were those who sought after this unicorn, some to kill him, some to learn this strange magic he seemed to posses. Of both, few ponies were seen again, and those who were found were not the same.

The blinding glare of sunlight slowly began to come to Night’s attention, it’s warmth covering her entire face. She moved her left hoof around, trying to see where it was, then lifted it up from where it lay to cover her eyes. Meanwhile, Night’s other senses had begun to wake up as well, and she quickly processed that she was lying in bed. The pegasus wiggled herself up into a position with her back against the headboard of the bed, gave her legs and wings a good stretch, then sank back down a little to a more comfortable position while her eyes adjusted to the light. Though most of the things in the room were still blurs, Night was able to make out the bed she was in, which was significantly larger than any bed she had been in before, not to mention much more comfortable.

The bed was somewhat circular in shape, with four wooden posts that held a small cover above the bed. The bed’s covers were a lovely purple with golden trim, and a golden sun was stitched into the center. Night found herself recognizing the symbol, but since she was not yet fully awake, she couldn’t place what it was, nor did she want to bother trying. Lifting the covers away by one of its corners, the grey mare scooted over to the bed’s edge and slid off. Her vision having improved some, she now saw that not only was the bed large, but the room looked much larger than your average bedroom. The bed was placed with the headboard on the wall opposite of twin doors, just left from the center.The right side of the room appeared to be some kind of study, the entire wall being covered by shelves filled with dozens of books, along with a couple of desks placed in front of the shelves. On the left wall to Night was a pair of large windows with purple and gold-trimmed cloth curtains, and from these windows she found herself looking out over what seemed to be all of Equestria.

Stepping away from the windows, Night turned and quietly trotted toward the twin doors, careful to not alert anypony outside that she was awake. That is, if there was anypony to hear her. She still had no clue where she was, after all, but she could tell from the windows’ views that it was high up. She would have guessed Cloudsdale, but everything there was made of clouds, though it could sometimes be hard to tell. But the granite floor she stood on didn’t feel very much like a cloud, but instead hard and cold, like normal granite. Shrugging off the thought, the pegasus leaned forward and slowly pushed one of the doors open, only a crack, to see if she could learn about her location. She couldn’t see very much, however, because there was an armored, buff-looking royal guard standing just outside the door.

Night Wisp froze, hoping to Celestia that the guard didn’t notice the door’s movement, miniscule as it was, as she slowly shut the door again. She then waited a moment, listening for a low voice to call her name, or for somepony to open the door, but nothing came. Breathing a sigh of relief, Night quietly backed away from the door, then sat down in the center of the room.

Well, she thought, I guess I won’t be able to explore as long as those guards are there. I doubt they’re standing there for looks... With not much else to do, Night decided to give the study a closer look, hoping that maybe some information could be found there.

"Studies are often where ponies read and write letters," she told herself aloud, though in a low voice. "If I can find a scroll or a letter, maybe it will have a name on it that will tell me where I am." This was, of course, a sensible statement. Looking around the study area, Night noticed many things, from books of spells and Equestrian history to maps and charts of both Equestria and beyond, but nowhere did she see a single scroll or letter that might give her any information. Not ready to give up just yet, the pegasus opened her wings and gently flew upwards, scanning the rows of books for anything even looking like a scroll.

During her search, many books caught Night Wisp’s eye. There were biographies about many of history’s greatest ponies, like Starswirl the Bearded. There were a few books that discussed mythical creatures known as humans, which Night found a little odd compared to all of the other factual books that were on the shelves. Everypony knew such creatures didn’t exist, after all.

Almanacs, history records, books written in different languages, a few history books about times that nopony but the Princesses themselves could possibly remember...all of these, but not one single scroll. With a soft flutter of wings, the pegasus flew down to the floor, a little dismayed at her lack of findings. She turned, walking in the direction of the bed, ready to just lie down and give up, when she noticed something glint in the light from the windows opposite of the study.

The glint came from under the edge of one of the desks, a little speck of reflecting, golden light. Upon closer inspection, Night saw that the reflection came from a small latch, almost hidden from view. The latch was so small, though, only a unicorn’s magic could open it...that, or one of Night Wisp’s shadow arms. Though she was still afraid of her abilities, especially after the recent events, a small, wispy arm of black reached up from Night’s shadow and opened the latch. The top of the desk opened up almost immediately, startling the pegasus. The inside of the desk appeared deep, though it showed no signs of the inner size on the outside, an obvious sign of unicorn magic. And inside of the deep cavity were dozens of scrolls, stacked in an organized manner, each one tied with a red strip of ribbon.

“Jackpot!” Night whispered to herself. She reached in, picking up the top scroll by the ribbon around it using her teeth, then set it on the second desk behind her. Pulling the ribbon’s end, the scroll unfurled before her to reveal the first real piece of information she had come across since waking up.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I learned it's not good to jump to conclusions. You have to find out all the facts before saying somepony did something. If you don't, you could end up blaming somepony for something they never did. This could hurt their feelings. And it could make you feel really foalish. So from now on, I will make sure to always get all the facts.
Sincerely,
Pinkie Pie

Night Wisp stepped back, her mind filled with bewilderment as everything began to make sense. At one point, Applejack had explained to Night how she and the five other ponies, who made up the Elements of Harmony, were given the task to write to Princess Celestia herself each week about the virtues of friendship. And by reading this letter from Pinkie Pie, Night could tell that was what this letter was.

It was so clear now, it was a wonder how she hadn't noticed it. The mile-high window view, the large room, the fabulous bed with the design of a golden sun stitched into the purple covers, the books of history older than anypony except for the princesses. Night Wisp knew where she was, but the mere fact didn’t make sense. The room she was standing in, if she was not mistaken, was Princess Celestia’s personal bedchamber.

“Ah, I see you found my letters,” came a voice from behind, one that, despite its calming nature, made Night nearly jump out of her skin. Turning around, the young pegasus found herself standing before none other than Princess Celestia, her colorful, aura-like mane gently floating in a non-existent breeze. The alicorn looked the same as she always did, a golden necklace hanging around her neck, a shoe of gold on each hoof, her golden crown sitting on her head just in front of her horn, and her white coat seeming to give off light, just like the sun that she controlled. To sum it up, the grey mare felt quite small and embarrassed to be standing before one of Equestria’s two rulers with the said ruler’s mail lying open on a desk beside her.

“U-Um...I-I..” Night stammered, unsure what she could say to make the scene look a little less nosy. “Y-Yes, your highness, I d-did...” Celestia’s eyes glanced over to the table, where Pinkie’s letter still lay open, and, to Night Wisp’s surprise, the alicorn smiled.

“There’s no need to be nervous, young one,” she said in her soothing voice. “I certainly can understand how strange it is to wake up somewhere unknown to you, especially after what you’ve been through. But let’s not discuss that here; my royal chefs have a nice dinner being prepared, and I would love to have you join me...” The princess paused, then lowered her head down to Night’s level. “...that is, if you are feeling any better than before? If not, I can-”

“Um, actually your highness, dinner sounds really good right now..” Night interrupted, giving a semi-nervous smile as she felt her stomach groan a little. The prospect of food seemed to be in its interest, especially if it was dinner time already; she had only been at the carpentry shop that morning, making the mare wonder how long she had been out. Meanwhile, the alicorn princess smiled at Night’s response and straightened up again.

“Well then, it’s settled. I’ll answer any questions you have over dinner,” she spoke as she turned, heading towards the twin doors where the two royal guards still stood.

“Like what happened to Elmwood?” Night asked, her curiosity over the disturbing death of her friend getting the better of her. She saw Celestia pause again, then turn to the guard on her right.

“On second though...guard, could you go to the kitchens and ask the chef to bring dinner to my private lounge? I think our guest is a little...overwhelmed as it is, and the dining hall would not help her get over the feeling very well.” The guard nodded silently, then trotted off down the hall to the right. Night shuffled her wings, a small bit of worry growing in her mind; whatever the answer to her question was, she didn’t think she was going to like it.

The walking distance to Princess Celestia’s private lounge was decent compared to the known size of the castle. Although, it must be understood that, like all castles, only a small percent of it is used as a home; the rest is used either as soldiers’ living quarters or for grand parties. The castle of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna is hardly any different; the base floor consists of most of the castle’s largest rooms, such as the banquet hall used for the famous Grand Galloping Gala. From the first floor up, the rooms tend to get smaller, the highest levels usually being guest rooms, but the family that owns the castle is often placed towards the castle’s heart, for both protection and convenience.

Celestia’s lounge was not far from the center, being a personal room, whereas the dining hall would have required that Night Wisp and Celestia travel down a few flights of stairs to reach it. Such was the assumed reason that the alicorn chose her personal room instead of the dining hall, but Night sensed something else. She had sensed it from the moment Celestia had changed her mind, as if things had suddenly taken a step up from calm to serious the moment the young pegasus brought up Elmwood. As sure as this feeling felt, though, it was small, and so Night was able to ignore it during most of the dinner (which had mysteriously arrived before them) with the princess.

To further distract herself from the disturbed feelings, Night Wisp took time to observe the private lounge Celestia had brought her to. Like the bedroom, the lounge had many shades of purple and gold, amongst many other soft colors, along with a couple of windows that provided a magnificent view of Equestria, but the lounge was perhaps half the size of the room Night awoke in. It was a cozy room, like the kind of coziness one gets when they visit their grandparents’ house.

Aside from the small size, the lounge had many places for ponies to sit or lie down comfortably, for the granite floor here was covered by a nice, plush rug of purple with the golden sun, Celestia’s own cutie mark, emblazoned upon it just like the bed covers. Surrounding the rug were large, round pillows, two of which Celestia brought to the wooden table in the room’s center for she and Night to sit on as they ate dinner. The rest of the room reminded the grey pegasus of the study in Celestia’s bedchamber, for there was also a bookshelf overflowing with books on the wall opposite of the windows. Overall, it was a pleasant room; an ideal place for somepony to come when they wished to be alone and curl up with a good book.

Her observations complete, Night reached over to her drink, a crystal chalice of cranberry juice (her favorite, coincidentally), and took a drink from it. Her silver eyes glanced over to Princess Celestia, who was levitating her own chalice for a drink with her magic, her horn glowing with a golden aura. They had both been silent while eating, despite Celestia’s offer to answer questions, seeing as Night had not yet asked anything. This, however, was about to change; as soon as the pegasus set her chalice down, she heard the princess clear her throat.

“Well then,” she began. “As much as I’d like to avoid it, you asked in my bedchamber what happened to your employer, Elmwood...” The alicorn looked straight at Night Wisp, her expression quite serious. “I understand you both were close, so I will ask this, for your own sake: are you sure you want to know?” Night opened her mouth to respond with a generic ‘yes’, but stopped herself to give Celestia’s question some thought. "Why did she bring up the fact that we were close? How did she even know we were close? And what does she mean by, ‘for my own sake’?" she wondered. Feeling less certain than before but still wanting to answer, the mare quietly nodded her head in reply. Celestia remained silent at first, but with a sigh, her expression relaxed to one depicting defeat. Her horn began to glow, and a book from the shelf sitting to her left slowly slid out from one of the rows and floated over to Night.

It turned, revealing to her the book’s cover title: Black Magic: Spells of Destruction, by Starswirl the Bearded. The letters were written in silver upon the book’s black surface, with no kind of artistic designs on it. The pegasus remained quiet, feeling unsettled that the princess would show her this in response to her question, but not sure if it was the answer. She looked up at the alicorn, whom she found was watching her quietly.

“Um..your highness, I don’t understand...” The book floated away from Night and over to Celestia, who looked at it and sighed again.

“The spells that schools and universities teach all throughout Equestria are built up together so that a unicorn can use his or her magic for creating and building, for doing and helping. They are taught to use their magic for good. Starswirl called it ‘white magic’, or ‘spells of creation’. But like all things, there is always an opposite.” The princess turned from the book and looked at Night Wisp, who was still as confused as before. “Black magic is that opposite. It is a kind of magic that is prohibited to be taught in average universities, save for high-level military academies, but even then nopony is ever taught any of the spells, but instead how to defend against them. The only results that came from those using black magic was corruption, war, and death. Sadly, the last of those brings us to your friend.”

There was a brief silence as Celestia let the seriousness sink in before she finished. “Elmwood was killed by black magic. My mages told me they found a magical ‘bug’ inside of him, one that made Elmwood feel like he was living his worst nightmares. This 'bug', called a Fear Sliver, is a form of black magic that was once used for torture and interrogation, but was later banned from all Equestrian magical military training. It was, and still is, a horrible thing for anypony to live through...the trauma it causes can last a lifetime, and the penalty of using the spell is death.”

Night Wisp sat in silence, not even listening to Celestia’s attempt of reassurance. She was too busy trying to comprehend the alicorn’s suggested conclusion that Elmwood, a harmless unicorn carpenter, was murdered by somepony using a forbidden kind of magic. Murder was a thing almost unheard of in Equestria, especially in Ponyville; there were the occasional cases of a stallion or mare who went insane due to a magical accident and consequently hurt somepony, but outright murder was something else.

To be told her friend was killed by somepony made Night terribly confused, but the only thing that outweighed this confusion was her anger. Elmwood was one of the most well-liked ponies in Ponyville, and nopony from the town seemed to have any reason to kill him.

"So does this mean that some random unicorn from who knows where just showed up and killed Elmwood without even thinking about who he was?" the pegasus asked herself. The mere thought of this only made her feel more angry and confused, until soon she couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Princess Celestia,” she finally said, looking across the table and right at the alicorn. The princess, who was still looking at the book levitating in front of her, glanced in the pegasi’s direction, then turned to meet the gaze with an expression of curiosity. Night almost cringed, realizing she had thrown the formalities her parents had taught her to the wind, but her anger pushed her onward. “You said Elmwood was killed by magic,” she continued, memories of a book on crime-solving coming to mind. “So you should have been able to trace the spell to the caster. I read somewhere that each unicorn and alicorn has a unique aura surrounding their magic abilities, and the book also said that the aura can be followed with a tracer spell.”

The alicorn nodded, her expression seemingly calm, but the smallest hint of concern could be seen in her violet eyes. “You are correct; a unicorn’s aura can be traced from a recent spell they have cast, and that is how most, if not all black magic practitioners have been caught in the past. And before you ask, my mages have traced the aura from the sliver to the owner.” She stopped there, as if that were enough information, but Night was too confused to simply take that as an answer.

“And?” the mare asked, leaning forward. “Who was it? Who killed Elmwood?”

There was a long silence. Princess Celestia opened her mouth once or twice like she was going to answer, but then hesitated and closed it. Her eyes glanced from the book on black magic to Night Wisp, as if trying to decide how she would answer the question. Finally, after three minutes of nothing, the alicorn sighed and closed her eyes. “You’d think that after a few thousand years, one would know how to avoid telling a secret...” she said, her voice soft, making it seem like she was speaking to herself. Then her eyes opened, and they were gazing right into Night’s own. “So tell me..how much do you know about your abilities?”

This question caught the grey pegasus completely off guard. Her anger, which once outweighed her confusion, was now crushed beneath the hundreds of questions that were running through her mind. But of all these questions, the one that stood out was, of course, the biggest, most important question: how in the wide world of Equestria did Princess Celestia know about her abilities? This was the first time she had ever met either of the alicorn princesses, and with how strict her parents were with using her shadow at home, it wouldn’t make any sense for them to tell anypony else about it. Then again, nothing was making sense to the mare at this point. In her confusion the pegasus simply remained silent, though her expression made it easy to see she was certainly surprised. Meanwhile, Celestia had stood up from her pillow and trotted past Night Wisp, taking a moment to gaze out from the windows.

“It’s called Shadowmancing,” she said, turning from the windows to give the grey pegasus a sideways glance. “It’s a branch of black magic, an ability that gives one control of darkness itself, to use it to their heart’s desire. Its maximum strength has the capability to even match Luna and I’s own magic...” She turned again with a gentle sigh, now facing the windows again. “...but unlike our magic, there are prices one must pay for gaining and performing Shadowmancing. Like any magic spell, using your shadow to do things will take energy from your mind and your body; the bigger the action is, the more your energy will be sapped. But when our energy runs down, we grow tired and can’t perform spells. With Shadowmancing, your shadows become stronger and more powerful as you use more energy. When you begin to grow tired, however, your shadows become unstable and harder to control; they will continue to take your energy until you are weak, and then they will betray you and consume your mind. It’s a fate far worse than death...you will be alive, but a hollow shell of who you were. Still, despite these risks, others-”

“What about gaining them,” Night Wisp interrupted, her tone low. “You said there was a risk in gaining them, and yet you’re skipping it.” Before even letting Celestia reply, the pegasus whirled around, wings flared, and her face bearing an expression of anger. “What is it that’s being kept hidden from me? First it was Elmwood’s death, then I wake up here, and now you’re talking about black magic and shadow-wielding, or whatever! Tell me, princess, since you seem to know more about me than I do, what else is there that somepony failed to tell me?!” Though she may not have looked it, the young pegasus was on the verge of tears. She didn’t like how the princess was bringing all of these secrets up when she asked who killed Elmwood, sensing there was a kind of unspoken implication, and she especially didn’t like who it was implying. Celestia, meanwhile, simply sat there, looking out the windows in silence, before her soft voice began to speak again.

“To gain the ability of Shadowmancing, one is required to sacrifice a living soul to a mysterious entity called only the Nightmare, the supposed creator of all things evil, but more importantly, the source of black magic. The soul can be one’s own, or they can sacrifice the soul of another. Years ago, an explosion of light was seen far down in Ponyville one night, and I received a rushed letter with hardly more than an address. Not sure what to think, I left the castle with four of my guards, traveling to the address in the letter. What we arrived to was what had once been a house, but had been destroyed by some kind of powerful blast. We found bodies...we thought nopony was alive. That is, until we heard a foal crying, along with a second, lower voice, muttering things in a language I am still unfamiliar with. Upon entering the remains, we found a unicorn wearing what was left of a black robe standing in front of a cradle, and above him was...”

She paused, as if finding the thing hard to describe. “...black. It was black and hazy, like smoke, but it didn’t move like smoke; it acted like it was alive. It floated down, sinking towards the cradle, at which we heard the cries of the foal grow louder. I had my guards cut the unicorn down, at which the blackness suddenly convulsed before rearing back from the cradle and disappeared. The foal, a pegasus, appeared to be unhurt; finding nopony else alive amongst the wreckage, I brought the foal back to the castle, just until I found it a new home in Ponyville. The explosion was later covered up, with some difficulty, and the bodies removed to lessen suspicion. The report was written up, the wreckage was cleaned, and the whole event soon faded from memory, its only remaining piece living with an earth pony couple in Ponyville.”

Another moment of silence passed, the alicorn unmoving from her position, until finally she stood and turned, her face devoid of any obvious expression. “The letter I received that night had many things written in it, most of it unreadable, except for the address and a name. That name was Night Wisp. It was a name I decided to give the foal we found in the destroyed home, the foal who had an unexplainable magical talent with shadows, the foal who has lived in Ponyville for sixteen years without anypony, not even her subordinate parents, knowing who she was. It was a plan I thought could last until you were older, able to maybe understand this a little better...but then I hear news of a pony’s death in Ponyville caused by black magic.”

There was no change in her tone throughout everything the alicorn said; in fact, her voice sounded quite calm for such matters. The princess had been alive for thousands of years, and she had learned that in a one-on-one conversation as serious as this, one of the participants had to sound calm, even if they weren’t. With a few steps forward, Celestia leaned her head down close to the grey pegasus, whose tears had begun to run down her muzzle, her jaw open in silent horror, knowing already what the princess was going to tell her but not wanting to believe it.

“Night Wisp,” Celestia whispered. “Elmwood’s death was not, by any means, your fault. If anypony’s, it is mine. It was wrong and has been wrong of me to not tell you this sooner, as I’m sure it would have made things better than they are now. But now that you’re here, it is my hope that together you and I can understand your abilities and find out why you have them.” In a brief break of her calmness, the princess leaned closer and lightly nuzzled the mare’s cheek, a simple gesture of reassurance but still a rare thing to see, much less receive. The mare, however, simply stared straight ahead, lips trembling just slightly as the river of tears continued to flow from her silvery eyes, each drop glistening like a pristine diamond before it hit the floor.

Princess Celestia stood up slowly, glancing over to the windows once again with a sigh before turning back the pegasus. “Night, I need to go lower the sun so that my sister may raise the moon,” she spoke softly. “I will leave you to yourself in here, though you may feel free to explore the castle; all I ask is that you don’t go outside for the evening. Not all of the guards are informed of you being here yet, and I don’t want you to get caught as a trespasser...” Standing up, the alicorn turned and quietly trotted towards the lounge’s door, opening it using her magic without even breaking her stride. She paused just outside, giving one final glance to the young mare who sat inside, still staring straight ahead. With a sigh, her horn glowed, and the door slowly shut with a faint *click*.

When she returned from her duties, however, Night Wisp had mysteriously vanished.

Author's Note:

Did some editing similar to Chapter one; just fixing long paragraphs, plus some mistakes that I hadn't recalled being in here before. Hope it looks better!

Comments

[Night Fire]

Finally managed to read it, so how am I first???
Great story, Chrome said you're grammar is english major, so maybe you should get a job as a writer? You have earned every good comment you shall ever receive!