My Little Pony: Darkness Rising

by CJ Esmerio

A Watchful Protector

Author's Note:

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic belongs to Hasbro and DHX Media. I just own the story.

In the land of Equestria and beyond, there are as many stories as there are these incredible creatures who inhabit it... some remain secret to all those but a select few, while others have become the stuff of legend, and there are those who were born of our dreams.

Like the Equestrians themselves, these tales have survived the test of time, and with each passing day, countless adventures unfold from the top of the world to the bottom of the sea.

In the main part of Equestria itself, there are four powerful princesses. One for the day, one for the night, one for family, and then, there's the most important princess of all: Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, who makes sure that everyone feels like they belong, enjoying their lives in a magical world of friendship.

And she doesn't do it alone... helping her along the way on this amazing journey are Twilight's closest friends, who along with the princess herself, all represent the Elements of Harmony - generosity, honesty, laughter, kindness, loyalty, and magic.

But there are those who seek to rule all of Equestria with wrongful intentions, and although the Mane 6 have been able to help several realize the error of their ways, there are others that remain in the darkness, waiting for the perfect moment to deliver a fatal blow... which is where our story will soon begin, with a relentless being that wants to put Twilight's story of friendship to a tragic end.

But until that time comes, remember what I said earlier about some stories choosing to remain secret? Well, one of them is about to be revealed, and it's up to Twilight and her friends to decide on if that was the right choice to make, or have it remain secluded forever...

############

"Looks like this year's off to a great start, Blazer."

A pair of criminal ponies were currently sitting around in an abandoned warehouse, counting all of the money meant for a children's hospital that they had stolen from a jewelry outlet store.

"You alright? Why aren't you saying anything?"

Blazer nodded his head, but he had a nervous facial expression. "I'm fine, Frost… but I just think that we should've robbed the store the old-fashioned way instead of using the weapon you brought from that pegasus."

The pony was referring to the mechanical weapon that was laying nearby Frost's hooves, and a smile appeared on his partner's face as he grabbed ahold of it, then proceeding with activating the weapon.

It began shooting out blasts of deadly electricity, which lightened up the warehouse, and once he stopped, Frost said, "Why bother when this makes things so much easier? Not even the cops could-"

"It's not the cops that worry me," interrupted Blazer, who was also taking an occasional look around their surroundings. "What if… you know… he shows up?"

A slight frown appeared on Frost's face after hearing what his friend had said. "Who in the hell are you talking about?"

Blazer gulped, and he put a stop to his money-counting before saying, "You know… the vigilante that ponies say only comes out when the daylight has almost gone, but it's not completely dark… he put a stop to that one operation over in Klugetown…"

Once Frost realized who his partner was talking about, he surprised Blazer by erupting into laughter. "You can't be freaking serious right now… that pony doesn't even exist! And even if he did, the last sighting of him was out in Saddle Arabia a few days ago, so there's no way in hell that he'd be able to get all the way over here to Abyssnia in that time frame."

There were still signs of fear in Blazer's eyes, especially because of the position that the sun was in right now, so Frost added, "Just finish countin' up the money, and we'll get outta here."

"You ain't got to tell me twice," replied Blazer, and the two of them continued on with going through the bags filled up with stolen money, but just as they were about to finish…

CRRREEEAAAAKK!

"Um… w-what was that?"

Frost shook his head, and gestured over to the doorway, saying, "Will you relax, pal? It was probably just the wind blowin' open the door… hurry up and close it, yeah?"

Not wanting to run into the rumoured vigilante, Blazer hurried over to the front door while Frost kept on counting his bag of money, and a few minutes later, he closed up the bag while having a smile on his face.

"Alright, Johnny, now you just got to finish up with… counting up… Johnny?"

WHAM!

Suddenly, the door was slammed shut, and Frost quickly flinched before yelling out, "What the fu… Blazer, this is no time to be messin' around!"

No response was given, so Frost quickly grabbed ahold of his weapon, and exclaimed, "Blazer, you'd better get your damn bag, or I'm just gonna leave without you!"

"Ugggh… F-Frost..." To his surprise, Frost turned around to find his partner, but for some reason, he looked like he'd gotten in a losing fight with someone.

"Blazer? What in Equestria happened to you?"

Too weak to speak, Blazer lifted up his front hoof to point at something - or someone - behind Frost, who turned around to find himself looking at the individual that his partner had been talking about.

After blinking his eyes a few times, Frost started to let out a chuckle, and he said, "This is the pony that I'm supposed to be so afraid of?"

"No… that's just a decoy."

Before Frost could respond to whoever had spoken, he felt someone knock the weapon out of his hooves, followed by getting attacked from behind, and the pony groaned after landing hard on the floor.

"Who… the hell… do you think you are?" growled Frost, as he tried to stand up, but his sentence was cut-off after getting a solid and powerful kick to his chest, causing him to fly back a few feet into a stack of empty cardboard boxes.

Then, the criminal pony felt a pair of hooves grab ahold of him, and soon found himself looking into the face of the feared vigilante.

"You and your friend over there know exactly who the hell I am… now, tell me who gave you that weapon, or you'll end up starting the new year in the emergency ward."

A frown appeared on Frost's face, and he replied, "I don't have to tell you nothing… except that you'd better let me go before I - owww!"

"You were saying?" asked the vigilante, raising a single eyebrow.

"Ow-ow-ow-ow… alright, alright, I'll talk, I'll talk," cried Frost, wanting the pain that he was receiving to stop. "It was from a pegasus in a cloak, but he never showed his face… all that he asked for us to do in return was-"

KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK!

On the other side of the door was a group of the city's police officer ponies, and one of them was knocking very hard on the door.

"This is the police! We know you're in there!"

No one gave him a response, so the officer raised his gun, as well as everypony else, and they barged their way into the warehouse, searching for any signs of the two ponies that had robbed the jewelry store.

"Sweet Celestia… what the Tartatus happened to them?"

To their surprise, they found one of them lying near the bags of stolen money while the other was buried in a pile of empty cardboard boxes.

However, as the officers began to apprehend the criminals, none of them realized that the weapon that Frost had used was gone.

###########

You certainly have a way with words, Jack.

The young vigilante scoffed as he placed the acquired mechanical device on a nearby table, once he had returned to his home.

"Eh, what else can I say? Now, if you'll excuse me, Starswirl, I - gah, damn it!"

He had been trying to remove his cloak so that he could then hang it up, but part of the fabric accidentally brushed up against one of his recently-gained scars that had not healed completely just yet.

You really should be wearing more protective material whenever you're out there doing stuff like this.

"And slow myself down because I have on unneccesary stuff? No way… besides, it's not as bad as the other ones."

Oh, well, doesn't that just make everything better?

Ignoring the sarcastic tone in his mentor's voice, the vigilante made his way over to a bulletin board, which contained a list of all the heroic things that he'd done to help others over the years, and he began to add in today's events.

It would also be more better in many ways if you didn't do these things alone, Jack… maybe some friends that-

The vigilante shook his head, knowing where this conversation was headed. "I already told you, Starswirl, I don't need to have any friends in my life. I didn't have any when I first arrived almost eight years ago - technically - and I've done pretty well so far with not having any."

You also didn't recieve as many scars and bruises back then as you have now, correct?

Rolling his eyes, the young pony started walking back over to the weapon to take another look, and he muttered, "You already know what my decision is on this particular subject."

Yes, I do, unfortunately… which is I must apologize right now for what's about to happen.

Confusion appeared on the vigilante's face after hearing what his mentor had said, but before he could ask him about it, he suddenly had a feeling that he wasn't the only one inside of the house.

"Starswirl, what's going on?"

…

I hate it when he does that, thought the vigilante, knowing that he wasn't going to be recieving any kind of help whatsoever from the elderly spirit. Alright, so who in the hell decided to-

Suddenly, the mysterious pony lowered his head, as if to avoid getting hit by something, and then, he saw that there was a dart stuck right into his bulletin board.

"Wow, like I've never had to avoid those before," he said in a dry tone, followed by knocking the dart away with his hoof. "So, what do you-"

Wham!

After getting struck in the back of a head by what felt like a large frying pan, the vigilante started to feel a little woozy, and he muttered, "This… is different…"

Turning his head to see who it was that whacked him, his eyes widened in surprise. "How in the hell did you-"

Wham!

Before falling down into a state of unconciousness, the young pony said, "Right… I forgot… don't question it."