Smolder and the Black Mirror

by Blue Sphere Writing

The Legend of the Shadowdwellers

You don’t need them, they don’t want you. All they’re doing is using you. They’re jealous of your abilities, they hate you. I can help you, many see me as a curse, but I could be your wish come true. I can help you get revenge.

“They crossed the line this time, I’ll make sure they pay!” The dragon growled. His eyes were glowing a deep purple, constantly darting around in an almost paranoid fashion. “Where are they? I’m ready to tear them to pieces for crossing me!” He continued to snarl.

Lets go find out.

Smolder awoke to the rising sun. She knew she needed to get up before Ocellus came back from the library and made her. She slumped out of the bed and stretched, opening the door to see Ocellus holding a large stack of books, as she normally does.

“What books did you get this time? More Daring Do, textbooks, ancient legends?” Smolder yawned.

“Actually yes, I did get some books about ancient legends about well, dragons. There was this one book about creatures resting in gems, and when the gem was eaten by a dragon, the creature could enter the dragon’s mind. After that I guess I got a little carried away,” she shyly stated.

“Yeah, that’s nice, Ocellus. When you’re done with them can I see some of those books?” The orange dragon asked. The blue and pink changeling simply nodded and set the stack of books on a desk. Smolder walked out the door, closing it behind her.

Are you just not going to consider what your friend just said? There's a book which tells a story that seems eerily similar to my species? This would probably be the perfect time to tell at least one of your friends of what happened.

“No, we aren’t doing that, besides, it’s only been a week and nothing's happened. I see no reason to tell them,” Smolder smugly chuckled.

When something does eventually happen, will you tell them?

"Probably not, unless something convinces me otherwise, and I'm ridiculously stubborn." The dragon stated.

Whatever you wish mast- I mean Smolder. Suddenly a pain shot through her head like an arrow, only to suddenly disappear just as quickly as it came.

"What was that? Was that you, or was that just my head acting funny?" Smolder questioned.

I don't have the faintest idea of what that was. If I did I would've warned you already.

"Alright, I'm just gonna keep going as if that didn't happen."

I warn you of this, that might have been our warning of being detected.

"So you mean to tell me that, we could've just been targeted and won't know until something happens?"

Most likely.

"Okay then, I hope it doesn't get too serious. As long as it doesn't hurt my friends I think I'll be fine."

————————————————————

There she is. I'll find my way to her. Wait what's this? Someone has claimed my new toy already? Well then, this game just got a whole lot more interesting. Hey! I think I found someone who knows about you're friends, look at the orange marshmallow up there.

"What are we waiting for? Lets go squeeze the info we need from her! I have plenty of ways to get information from anyone!" The dragon cackled.

Get down before someone sees you! We can't just run in a torture the info out of her! There are too many creatures, if we were found out so quickly, word would spread like wildfire, and before you know it we're caught, and there's no revenge for you once you're stuck in Tarturas. Growling the dragon stood down, glaring at the orange dragon now looking around the room confused. After a minute or two she composed herself and left. I know, your mad because she's getting away and you want your revenge now. You can't rush it, if you do you get caught, and if you get caught, your targets get to run free, and you wouldn't want that would you? Lets go find a place to hide.

————————————————————

After acing another few test, finishing her extremely easy homework, and tutoring Gallus, Ocellus finally had time to sit down and read her new book before Smolder finished her classes and came to her begging for help. Grabbing the top book from the pile on the desk, she stared at the cover. It depicted some kind of battle between two dragons, one with eyes completely purple. They were both standing on a huge mound of gems, all of them having a smal, black inky substance inside. There was no title, only some ancient letters encircling the image. Some were smudged, but from what Occelus could make out, it spelled Legen-O-he-Sha-ow-ell-. Trying to fill in the blanks, Ocellus came up with her own title.

"Legend of the Shadowdwellers, that sounds about right," She said to herself. She opened the book, thankfully not many other words in the book were messed up beyond comprehension. "In ancient times, there was a race that could destroy Equestria if left unchecked. They has been unnamed since their discovery, but folktales dub them the shadowdwellers. The species had the unique ability to directly control dragons through a magic link between the two minds. Most aren't powerful enough to stay outside of a magic container without a host body, so they opt to use gems as an easy way to get into a dragon's mind. Some use their gem as a sort of projector and use another magical device, mostly made of glass, as a screen. They often take the form of a shadow copy of the one who awakened them. When the gem is broken, mainly through consumption, the Shadowdweller travels through the host body making its way to the brain. It is said to be a painless process, once in the brain, it is up to the individual shadow to decide what happens next. Some are honorable warriors who serve their host, some use their host to advance their own personal agendas leaving the dragon once their done, and a small but loud minority use their host to cause as much carnage as possible, jumping from host to host until they finally settle on one they deem powerful enough. The origins of this species are still unknown, but records have been well kept on how the species went into hiding. When a Shadowdweller known as Ozul had gained enough power-" She was stopped by a knock on her door.

"Hey Ocellus, have you seen Smolder?" Gallus asked, "It's getting a little late, shouldn't she be back by now?"

"Gallus, you're doing it again."

"Doing what again?"

"Worrying over Smolder."

"Well, she's my friend and, uh, I-I'm worried about her."

"And we aren't your friends? You know I'm a Changeling right?"

"So?"

Ocellus put her book down and opened the door, letting the blue griffon into the room.

"It means I can sense love. Obviously I don't do it much because I don't need to, I have you guys, but there's a difference between love among friends, and love among, well. You know." Gallus shot Ocellus a glare before looking back down blushing.

"Still, you realize ever since we left the castle that night she's been acting a little weird right? Talking to herself as if someone was talking back to her, avoiding us, and just generally being more strange and awkward than she normally is."

"Sure, but hey, maybe she's going through something personal and it's private."

"I don't buy it."

"Well, you're going to either find someone else to help, or figure it out yourself. I can't help even if I wanted to." And with that Gallus rolled his eyes and left.

Smolder sat on the rooftop, staring at the night sky. This was the easiest way to get away from all her friends, and just a relaxing area in general. Nothing much had been happening in the past week, so she thought it would be fine to have some downtime. She was actually enjoying herself, being able to clear her thoughts, until she heard a sound all to familiar. It was the sound of a fireball, and it was coming straight for her head.

Author's Note:

I really wanted to end this chapter with another battle scene, but I honestly don't think I could make it flow well. This was mainly some exposition, and set up for chapters 3 & 4. Now I have the next few major story beats planned out, now it's just the execution, I'm just hoping none of this really feels dragged out. Anyways, I now have a Discord server
(Link here) https://discord.gg/VqhpBtC and there you can post your fanfics, make suggestions, and just generally hang out. Hope you guys enjoy, Bluey out!

Comments

[Scyphi]

I'm just hoping none of this really feels dragged out.

Quite the opposite--I could've seen this chapter going on for a bit longer still without too much trouble, especially when it comes to this new baddie, who's a bit of a complete and utter blank to us readers currently. We don't even know anything about its host other than it's "a dragon." Is he short? Is he tall? Is he purple? Is he red? What's his story? What was he doing to get himself into this position, and why? How is he related to Smolder in any way?

Obviously, you're saving some of that for later in the story, but again, trying to constructively give you tips on useful details the story could stand to have more of, and if nothing else, a bit more physical description couldn't hurt.

That said, pacing's a bit better in this chapter. There's spots where I would've fleshed it out more were it me writing it--for example, we've jumped ahead a week, so I would've explored how Smolder has had to adjust to a voice being in her head during that time--but at the same time, from a technical standpoint, you still cover all the major things this particular chapter set out to cover, so it's hard to suggest what else you could've added that either isn't already touched upon, or be questionable on how relevant it is to the chapter or the rest of the story on a whole (at least not without more context on where the story's planning to go), and if it's, strictly speaking, that essential to have. So there's that.

Premise remains intriguing.

[Blue Sphere Writing]

9753310
Thanks, I was planning on describing my new baddie with this chapter. I wanted to keep it vague, but I guess it wouldn’t have hurt to describe a little more of him. Chapter 3 picks up right after this, so I’m more excited to finally start fleshing the villain out. Good to know that you are still liking it! I wasn’t sure if I was doing to much exposition but I guess I put just the right amount. As of now I have the next 2 chapters planned out, so if all goes well, everything should turn out fine.

[jean17]

aye aye it’s getting good

[TigerCat111]

An entertaining story and my Young Six ship? Sign me UP

[HBMstories]

Did something go wrong?

[Scyphi]

9801220
I was wondering the same thing...last I heard, the author was still pretty gungho about this story and seemed eager to keep writing, so I wonder what happened for him to decide to cancel it instead...

[Yoshifan30]

This is a very interesting story but unfortunately it's canceled Is there any reason for this cancelation like no idea where the story going