Shadow of Equestria

by Igris

Worse than The Plague

The poor little wolf that is supposed to be one of the most feared predators of the Everfree Forest is now reduced to be the guinea pig of something that even Death fears, sort of.

‘The Virus has more effects than expected.’

Indeed, the deadly virus was deadlier now. The wolf was surrounded by it and now it was standing up, its eyes normally glowing green was now glowing red with fury, you could tell it was extremely furious just by looking at it and yet it didn’t move and just stood there like waiting his orders.

‘It certainly looks like it’s under my control, let’s see.’

Willing the virus to move another body certainly isn’t an easy task. So the wolf would sometimes fall or move somewhere unintentionally before fully taking control over it.

‘It’s hard to control two body at the same time.’

Of course it took more time to control the wooden wolf and himself at the same time but he did it anyways. Now he had something like a slave that he doesn’t even know what to do with.

‘Let’s go see what are the other beings inside this forest.’

---

“Princess!” The main six exclaimed in unisson. They were all in the throne room except Luna who was taking care of the guards that reported the situation.

In response, Celestia only raised her hoof to calm her subjects down. All of them of course calmed down besides Twilight who can’t calm down.

“What happened!” Twilight nearly shouted before putting her hooves on her mouth.

“I do not know, the dark cloud that appeared is of unknown origins even for me.” Celestia explained with a hint of stress that was of course not caught by them. The face they made was enough to tell that they were panicking.

“I have a mission for you.” Celestia said making them stand like soldiers waiting for orders.

“You will investigate on this matter, normally I would go but I need to help my sister calm the ponies heart.” She explained gaining a nod from them.

“Of course Princess!” They exclaimed with determination before quickly galloping to the train.

‘I hope that whatever that was we don’t need to use the Elements.’

---

Using the little wolf to catch anything that came across them is unbelievably useful. Due to the Frenzy Virus, the Timberwolf is as strong as a hydra and is so enraged that it would even kill its own kin.

‘How useful, it seems like when I’m not controlling it it will guard me from anything, interesting.’

He was fascinated by the powers of his own virus but he was at the same time quite disappointed by what he saw from the current inhabitants of this Forest.

The one that looked like a Teostra had his hopes up, but it was easily killed by the Frenzied Wolf, too easily.

Now he was wandering around the unbelievably peaceful forest, trying to find the slightest sign of familiarity. But nothing here was familiar to him, too many things were different. It was like he was in another world entirely.

Even the air was filled with something unknown to him and everytime he inhaled, the strange matter would flow in his entire body. Not only did it felt weird to him, but it also made him stronger somehow.

He felt like he could manipulate this strange matter, much like the Frenzy Virus. He shaped the matter he inhaled, morphing it to be hotter and more opaque and then.

*FWAAA*

Purple flames came out of his mouth without even harming him. And the weird feeling wasn’t here anymore, until he inhaled again making it flow through his entire body again.

The feeling itself felt like a breeze caressing your skin, but now not only was it blowing instead of caressing, but it was inside of your body not on your skin. He honestly can tell that it tickled him.

Of course he didn’t stop with the Infected Fire Breathing, he also started to change how it should come out as. The result being that now he could spit a liquid like matter that was of course infected with the Frenzy Virus. He could also spit a more opaque matter, being more rock-like infected matter coming out of his mouth.

With all of these breathing attack, his mouth felt numb so he then decided to use the weird matter differently.

---

“So? What do you girls think that was?” Asked a very energetic rainbow pegasus who started to punch in the air.

“Hm, at first I thought it was one of Discord tricks but…” Said a purple Alicorn who tried to explain the phenomenon that covered the sun.

“Well, it looked like a cloud…” Said the shy yellow mare who honestly didn’t want to go check on what that was.

“If it was a cloud, it didn’t look tasty at all!” Exclaimed a bouncing Pink Pony.

“And it looked awful!” Continued a white unicorn.

“Whatever that was, ‘am sure we can solve it!” Cheered the smiling orange mare.

The Main 6 were in Ponyville and were currently going towards the Everfree Forest as it was the first place that came to mind when unknown things happened, besides Discord.

They all talked about how terrifying that was, a black fog so dense that even the sun rays were stopped from shining on Equestria. This would normally be impossible and unrealistic and yet it just happened not too long ago.

Not only that but when they arrived in Ponyville train station, many if not all of Fluttershy animal friend came to her, all of them frightened to their cores.

Fluttershy of course tried to calm them down and even asked them what was wrong, but for the first time in her whole life, she could not understand what the animals were saying. She could only pick the words ‘Disaster’ and ‘Calamity’ from the shower of panicked voices that the animals threw her.

This of course did not help them as they were quickly on guard, tensing up more and more as time passes.

And now they were in front of the Everfree Forest and they couldn’t even recognise it. They went inside the Forest many many times and it didn’t even frightened them, but now for some reason they felt just like the first time they entered the forest long ago. Fearful and terrorised.

The two magic wielders immediately sensed that something was wrong inside the forest, well more wrong that it usual is. Not only that but the Pink Pony was twitching madly and was literally a moving jackhammer.

Even the cow-pony felt something was wrong in here. The connection she had with the earth by being an earth pony made it so that she could feel the earth, and it felt wrong to her. The earth felt sick to her, like there was an illness infecting the land inside the forest.

But those who felt the wrongness the most were the two pegasus. Being creatures of the sky, they naturally were familiar with the air around them, and they could feel that something Plagued the air.

“Girls? Is it me or the Everfree Forest is more purple than green?” Stated the Rainbow Pony who couldn’t help but feel a shiver down her spine as soon as she said that.

The forest who naturally had a light fog inside it was now a shade of purple, making the forest look more purple than green. Of course, the trees and the nature itself was infected by the Frenzy Virus, but it didn’t cause them to die a quick death but a slow, very slow death, a death that will likely come in a year or two.

After a long moment of observing the Forest from afar, the Main 6 finally decided to enter the ever so fearful Everfree Forest.

---

‘Hm, this matter is very strange.’

He was studying, or more like toying with the matter that saturated the air around him. He found out that he could manipulate other objects filled with it if he concentrated really hard, and when they were ‘possessed’ they would start to glow a very dark purple with sparkles popping up all around it.

He also found out that he could levitate what he ‘possessed’ with the weird matter. And so he started his training in telekinesis, starting from a little rock all the way to a tree. When he lifted up the tree, he could feel that his own reserve of that weird matter would deplete quickly so the tree stood in the air for not even a minute.

He also learned that basic breathing, inhale and exhale, recharged his reserves very quickly. He also discovered that the more he use and recharge, the more he could stock inside his body. So after a while of training, he ended up having so much magic that, if something could see the flow of magic, he would be covered by a thick layer of it all around his body.

He was recharging himself right now to continue his experiments until he felt 6 new presences entering the Forest.

He quickly started to perceive what the Virus touched. Then he felt them, 6 lifeform entered the Forest and they were not very far from him.

His instincts told him that it was alright and that there was nothing to worry about, but his mind started to think of the wildest of scenarios, all ending with him getting killed, captured or lethally injured.

Normally he would listen to his instincts and go see the intruders without much care in what they were, but as I said and as I will continue to say, he isn’t normal.

But he couldn’t flee either as he didn’t know the threat was real or not, and for the first time in a long time, he went to see in the most discreet he could be. He let the Virus infect them but not harm them as his twisted human scientist mind didn’t allow him to ruin potential experiment subjects.

So he moved between the trees and even the leaves, not making a single sound. He used the fog of his scales and hairs to hide himself, he then slowly scattered more and more of his scales so the fog would grow thicker and thicker to lower his chance of being caught.

He came closer and closer to the 6 intruders, and then he stopped just behind some trees to observe them.

He soon saw that what was before him were of no threats and his mind slowly lost its guard, that is until he remembered the first time he encountered hunters and that his carelessness nearly cost him his life.

His guards were up again and he observed the beings in front of him, carefully going closer to them when they walked away.

He had them surrounded, but he would not attack them unlike his previous encounters. And the reason being that these six looked like ponies from the books he red during his isolation. Not only that but they were able to communicate with each other, they were speaking.

‘How? There shouldn’t be any physical way for these herbivores to speak so how?’

That’s when he thought about the only thing that could defy logic, the weird matter that saturated the air, or more likely known as magic.

This stalking continued until these beings came across these Teostra-like beings. And the yellow pony immediately screamed ‘Manticore’.

‘So that’s what they called it.’

A manticore, having the face of a lion, wings of a bat and the tail of a scorpion. The combination of weak animals to make something barely even stronger, at least in his point of view.

The fight that came after their encounter was quite interesting. He immediately saw that the two ponies that had horns used magic to attack, and when he saw that he immediately knew that he couldn’t let these ponies die. Also, when he saw the winged ponies, he couldn’t help but wonder how they could fly with such small wings, then he thought about it, magic.

‘These ponies have too much use to die here.’

And so, he willed the Virus to infect the Manticore, forcing it to inhale the infected air. And then, it stopped.

The sudden stop confused the ponies, but he didn’t care and so he enhanced the effects of the Virus as much as possible. He was ready to see the manticore fall and die, but he wasn’t ready to see it exploded and then literally evaporate leaving nothing behind, not even blood.

This released even more Virus infected matter and he was surprised to not see another one of his kind pop up in the place of the manticore.

Ah yes, how his species reproduce. You see, sometimes in very very very rare cases, like 1 in a millionth chances, one of the victims would carry a Virus that had reproductive genes. And so it would grow and grow until it formed an egg. The egg itself can be anywhere inside the victim, and the egg would feed on the victim until another Gore Magala bursts out of the corpse that was its previous host.

But now, it seems like this would be impossible now as he already infected more than a million beings in his entire life, meaning that in every beings he infected from the day he was born until now, none of them had the reproductive virus.

‘It doesn’t matter, now I must see what these are.’

The ponies, they looked shocked, traumatised even. Of course they would be as a manticore literally exploded in front of them.

‘What are they doing?’

He was curious, too curious. Because they didn’t move for a while now, he was worried the effect of the virus extended to them. So he foolishly came out of his hiding to approach the ponies from behind.

‘Are they alive?’

He asked this question because he couldn’t see them clearly, he could only see their bodies outline so to him it looks like they were frozen in place and he feared that he accidentally ordered the Virus to kill them.

He was proven wrong the moment he was close enough that he made a shadow over them, this shadow was of course caught by all of them who immediately turned around to look at what made it.

That’s when their eyes met a huge monster, covered by black scales and that had winged claws. To them, he was easily twice or even thrice their size completely covering the light that shone on them not a minute ago.

‘Hm, I guess it’s time for introduction?’

Author's Note:

Here you go, hope you like it.

Again if you got questions (related to the story), ask away.

This time, I wrote the story late at night so if there's a mess, well I was too tired to pay attention. Either that or I'm too bad at writting.

Also, if the story gets to four or five chapters I think I'll go get an editor and a proofreader because even now I'm not sure if I will continue the story.

Comments

[fnafdragon]

Keep going man I love this story and its chapters!!!!!!!!