Shadow Seeds

by Orsuros

Chapter 5

Somepony shouting at her door woke Luna up. It was a little earlier than the time she usually got up in the late afternoon, so she rolled lazily out of bed and fixed her mane with a bit of magic.

“I’m here. You may enter.”

She opened the door with a wave of her hoof and went over to the mirror on the side of her room. She watched in the mirror as Twilight approached. Luna rubbed her eyes and turned to speak with her.

Twilight unrolled a letter. “Luna! Look what Spike sent!”

The first part explained that Pinkie Pie was doing a party for a pegasus that was new to town by the name of Cirrus. That didn’t seem important to Luna, but her eyes widened as she read the lower part. A dragon by the name of Orsuros had arranged a meeting with Spike and was hoping to find a place to stay in Ponyville.

“We need to meet this dragon immediately. Thank you, Twilight.”

Twilight seemed a little embarrassed by Luna’s thanks. Luna took the letter and looked it over again as she made her way to the main throne room. Celestia was there finishing up the business for the day and excused everyone as soon as Luna arrived.

“Sister, I’m going to need to go to Ponyville tonight.”

Celestia nodded. “I knew from the moment I got that letter that you’d want to look into that.”

“I can take care of my normal duties there in Ponyville. With Twilight and Starlight helping, I should be able to see who this dragon really is and find out his part in the recent attacks.”

“Good. I’ll leave that in your hooves. I’ve also prepared a better squad of scouts and guards to try to find those beasts again. I do hope we can prevent any further disappearances.”

“Tell them to be very careful. We don’t really know what we’re dealing with. I barely escaped.”

“But that was just you alone. The guards know how to look out for each other. I wish I could have done the same for you.” Celestia reached out and put a hoof on Luna’s shoulder.

“It’s fine. I refuse to be pampered and coddled. As a princess, I want to show everyone I can handle things on my own!”

“Luna.” Celestia’s eyes only held love and concern as she fixed them on Luna.

“Sorry, Celestia. My frustration got the better of me.”

“It’s okay. You’ve done nothing wrong.” Celestia pulled Luna close for a hug. “We really need a nice relaxing vacation together or something, but I suppose that will have to wait for when there isn’t a crisis.”

Luna laughed. “As if there ever isn’t one.”

“If only I could schedule them like these meetings, we’d be fine. But at least we can have dinner together before you go.”

Celestia called the attendants to prepare a quick dinner. After eating, Celestia went to oversee the final preparations of the guards while Luna began to prepare for her trip. There wasn’t much to pack because Luna didn’t expect to spend long in Ponyville, but it never hurt to have what she’d need to stay a little longer. Celestia brought the sun gently down, and Luna gritted her teeth and put the moon up in its place. Her heart was beating fast, but she controlled her breathing. Celestia was already overly concerned about her, so Luna didn’t want her to see how difficult it was becoming to do her most important chores.

Celestia stood watching at the door of the balcony. “Try not to work too hard in Ponyville. Let Twilight and her friends help you. And if you need anything, have Spike send a message. The chariot is waiting in the courtyard.”

With one final hug, the sisters parted. Luna flew down to the courtyard. Twilight and Starlight were packed and ready to go. The pegasi guards lifted them into the night sky. It was a cloudy night and a distant storm seemed to be hovering over Ponyville. The clouds below hid the farms from sight, but Luna tried to glance through gaps in them to see if she could spot the farm where she had been attacked. The clouds were too thick for her to see anything below. The winds got worse as they approached Ponyville. Twilight put up a little barrier to keep the rain off them. The pegasi circled around and dove below the storm. They made a quick, rough landing to avoid any lightning and skidded to a halt in front of Twilight’s Castle.

Twilight took the lead. “Follow me. I know the place. I just hope the party isn’t over yet.”

Luna ordered the guards to take the chariot back home then followed Twilight.

Twilight trotted through town and stopped at a door with the letter B above it. The laughter and conversation inside could be heard faintly. “Should we knock? What do you want to do?”

Luna looked in the front window. “Your friends are here. That’s good. If anything happens, we’ll have some of the best ponies to help.”

Starlight rolled her eyes and knocked loudly on the door.

“Let’s just go in and get out of the rain and mud.”

A green pegasus opened the door.

“Hello?” he asked.

Pinkie Pie suddenly jumped out the door. “Twilight, Starlight! You made it! And you even brought Princess Luna! Luna, I must say I’m very surprised you came with them all the way from Canterlot. You haven’t really been the party type in the past. We were just cleaning up, but there are still a few desserts left. Come on in.”

The green pegasus looked like he wanted to object, but he said nothing as Pinkie Pie pulled Starlight in out of the rain. Luna walked in slowly behind Twilight. The small room was a little crowded with so many ponies.

Finally, the green pegasus spoke. “It’s an honor to meet two princesses. I’m glad you came to this little party for me.”

The pegasus started to bow a little but Twilight stopped him. “Oh please. You can just call me Twilight.”

Luna smiled a little. She didn’t mind ponies using her proper title more often. She looked around. There really was next to nothing in this apartment besides the leftover treats and a few scraps of things from the party. The pegasus sat on his bed and looked them over.

Twilight stomped a hoof to get everypony’s attention. “As the princess of friendship, I’d like to officially welcome you to Ponyville myself. It looks like you already have a job and a place to stay, so you’re doing great. If you need anything more, just ask me. I'll see what I can do. But there’s also some important business. You and Spike know something important.”

Luna stood tall and assumed her commanding posture. “You both know a dragon named Orsuros. We must find him. There are some unusual events happening near Canterlot, and I think he knows more about them. Tell me where I can find him.”

Luna watched the pegasus carefully. She hadn’t noticed before, but he also had the same sort of eyes as the dragon from the dream. Behind his friendly front, she could sense he was being very cautious.

The pegasus sighed. “I’ll get him, even if this wasn’t really where he was planning to reveal himself. But you must promise that he can stay here in Ponyville.”

“I don’t care if he wants to stay here or the royal palace in Canterlot. Just get him!” Luna stamped her hoof.

“Stand back then. He’s already been here this entire time.”

In a flash of light, the pegasus vanished. A dragon stood in his place. He was a bit taller and larger than Luna, but not by much. His scales were green except for his cream-colored belly. Blue lines started at his eyes and ran down his sides. They glowed faintly but dimmed as whatever magic the dragon used started to fade. He shook his red crest and looked around. Everypony stared at him.

“You were a dragon this entire time?” Rainbow Dash yelled.

“But that magic… what was it?” Starlight asked.

“Soul magic,” the dragon explained. “It’s the magic from my world.”

Luna stomped the floor again. “Quiet. We have more important questions to ask. We already know you are a visitor from some other world. What matters now is what you have done since coming to Equestria or what you brought here.”

Orsuros seemed mostly curious now. “Well, if you’ve gone to so much trouble to find me, it must be important. What do you need to know?”

Luna tried to look a little less threatening as she stepped up closer to the dragon. “Please. Just hear me out. I need your help. Equestria needs your help. Those creatures I saw in your dream have come to Equestria. We are trying to stop them but can’t even find them most the time.”

“That should be impossible. My spell to come to this world would have prevented anything like that from coming with me. The spell was made to bring only me to this world.”

“Your spell must have failed somehow. I was the first to see you in the skies of our world, but another thing broke off. I followed it and saw those creatures for the first time. Another dragon like you leads them, but it was also made out of shadow and disappeared when I fought it.”

Orsuros growled. “Another dragon couldn’t have come either, but that… it does match exactly with the shadow beasts and the things that lead them. If they are here, we have very little time to waste. We must fight them as soon as possible.”

“But how? Anypony who is touched by them has their cutie mark taken. We need a way to stop that and get the stolen pieces of ourselves back.” Luna glanced back at the fake mark on her own flank.

“You ponies would be especially vulnerable to these creatures. You saw what they can do when you watched my dream. They tear away pieces of the soul from the victims. There’s some core part of each soul they can’t take, but they strip a soul down until it’s only that disembodied fragment. They steal aspects of the soul, like talents, potential, memories, and identity. They use these pieces to grow stronger and grow in number, but if you defeat them, the stolen pieces that created them will return back to the soul they belong to.”

Luna frowned. “That still tells us little about how to fight them.”

“I’ve fought them many times with my little group of friends. The dragons also take care of infestations, but they use more extreme methods. We’ll need magic that can add to, change, or protect a soul to have some defense against them. I have some small amounts of such magic, but I couldn’t protect more than one or two of you.”

“So magic that changes souls?” Starlight asked. “I might have something like that.”

“That does also sound a lot like changeling magic,” Twilight added. “There just might be some ways that we can fight against this. We’d need to go see Thorax as soon as possible.”

Luna stood and listened to the ideas. She could feel the dragon’s deep hatred for the shadow creatures. It felt good to have him offer to help, but she’d keep an eye on him to be sure he was sincere. She looked into the dragon’s golden eyes.

“So you’ll help us hunt these new enemies down? Are you willing to give me your word?”

“I promised myself that I’d stop them from doing what they did to me to anyone else. You have my promise that I’ll do all I can to fight them.”

The dragon pressed on of his front paws to his chest and bowed to Luna as he made the promise. She stretched her wing and pushed his chin up with her wingtip.

“Very well. I accept your service. How should we prepare to fight them?”

Twilight teleported in a stack of papers to take notes as Luna turned the party into a strategy and planning session.

Author's Note:

If I had time to do a more involved rewrite of this story, this chapter feels like it's one that would need more work than a lot of the other ones. It feels like I have a lot happening too quickly, but I hope that didn't make it less enjoyable even if it could be better.