Shadow of Equestria

by Igris

Incarnation of Terror

“Hey Twilight? Is it just me or the Everfree Forest is darker than usual.” Said Rainbow Dash after she noticed that not only did the forest had a shade of purple now, but it felt darker and more uncomfortable than usual.

“No, you’re right something is wrong with the Everfree Forest.” Twilight stated before being as cautious as her brother on his guard duties.

“Blergh! The air is nasty.” Pinkie Pie said before blocking the incoming vomit.

“Ew, Pinkie dear be careful!” Exclaimed the fashionista while backing away from the sick Pink Pony.

“Pinkie are you alright?” Asked the worried yellow pegasus as she tried to comfort the Pink Pony who nearly threw up just from breathing.

“There’s something’ wrong with the Everfree Forest.” Stated the cow-pony before coughing.

They were all starting to feel sick but they didn’t know what was the cause of their illness. The one the most affected was Pinkie Pie who needed help to walk. The magic wielders too noticed that their magic were somehow weaker in the forest.

Overall they were not feeling well and they didn’t even walk for 5 minutes into the forest. They didn’t even know where to look, but they at least decided to go to the Castle of the Two Sisters so they could rest. There was no way they would go back on their track from just a little sickness after all.

After a while, they could finally see the ruins between the trees. But at the same time they felt uncomfortable, their primal instincts screamed at them to run but as to why? They didn’t know.

That is until a Manticore blocked their way.

“Girls!” Shouted the purple alicorn before preparing a spell.

They were all ready to fight, even those who were sick as their illness went away for some reason. But they were ready to fight now.

To say they were ready would even be an understatement as they fought worse than a Manticore.

Twilight and Rarity were restraining it while AppleJack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash went to give it a good beat up. Fluttershy stayed behind because she couldn’t bear to see the poor Manticore getting beaten up, that is until she decided to intervene to stop the fight. The reason being that the Manticore froze in place and looked like it was in pain.

“What’s happening to it?” Asked a surprised Rainbow Dash.

It was the first time they saw a Manticore hold its head like it was in extreme agony, it was growling and even screaming in pain. This of course hurt the heart of the kind Fluttershy who now tried to approach the Manticore to comfort it.

But she didn’t even get to it that the Manticore exploded, its flesh and blood blown away, tainting the Main 6 with a very dark bloody red. They couldn’t even react as the blood and flesh turned dark purple before evaporating. Yes, the remain of the Manticore evaporated, leaving not a single trace that it even existed.

The Main 6 were of course too shocked by what happened before them, never in their quite eventful lives did they see such a gruesome act unfold before them.

Their frozen body stood there for what felt like centuries.

Until an enormous shadow covered them, from their point of view, the shadow seemed to belong to a hydra, even if the hydra itself would look a little too big to be a simple hydra.

But even if the shadow of what looked like a deadly predator covered them, they didn’t move as they were still in their shock states. That is until a low growl could be heard from behind them with two stomps that literally shook the ground under them.

They were brought back to reality and the first one to look behind was Rarity, who immediately fainted at the sight of the being standing behind them.

When they saw the unconscious body of their fashionista friend, all of them turned around to see what caused her to faint so dramatically. And they immediately understood why she fainted like that. If they were a few years younger, they would instantly faint like Rarity, but they didn’t.

What’s the most surprising was that Fluttershy didn’t felt fear from the being before her, well just a bit because of her instincts. She could see from its face and stature that it didn’t intend on hunting her and her friend. She just saw a curious animal before her, but even if her mind told her that the being was harmless, her instincts said otherwise so she still trembled in fear.

To Twilight, the tall being before her couldn’t be described with anything but the word “Ancient”, as to why? Well she was taught by and Ancient her entire life, but what stood before her looked more Ancient than even the oldest legend in existence.

Standing before them was a true monster, it didn’t have eyes on what looked like its face but it did have fangs sharper than the sharpest weapon that exists. It seemed to have an exoskeleton-like body but even with that, it looked extremely muscular. Its arms looked like they could shatter a mountain and its claws looked like they could slice through anything. With only that it already looked too deadly for Equestria, but it was covered by a dark aura that looked like it came from the end of its wings, wings that were clawed.

In short, it was in their eyes something not even the worst of their nightmares could make. No evil could match the dark and malicious aura that this dragon-like entity emitted.

But even so, one of them had the courage to speak.

“H-hello…” It was Fluttershy who spoke, but it took her everything she had to mutter this single word before she went back into shaking.

Even Pinkie Pie who normally only scream and run in this situation didn’t. Her randomness was overwhelmed by her instincts as a prey. Rainbow Dash was no better than her as even her pride was crushed by fear.

Then, it growled. No it didn’t growl to threaten them, the growl didn’t even sounded like a growl, it sounded gentle and even friendly. Fluttershy was the first to stop trembling as her thought of it being harmless was proven by this simple growl.

Now, for some reason they started to feel better. The feeling of uneasiness slowly faded away, even the ominous purple fog that suffocated them started to go away. Now the forest was back to its original state, well at least the area they were went back into being the Everfree Forest they knew as they could still see the fog from far away.

Then, Fluttershy continued to speak.

“Um… Are you the one that made this fog sir?” She asked while still being cautious around the thing before her.

The being itself looked like it was thinking about the question, like it tried to answer it. Then it nodded to them. This of course shocked the other five ponies who didn’t even think that it was intelligent, they were more shocked when they realised that the pressure they felt from when they entered the forest was made by what stood before them.

This little interrogation would continue if not for the enormous pack of Timberwolves that surrounded them.

---

‘This is going better than I expected.’

He couldn’t believe what was happening to him. Just a moment ago he feared that the defenseless beings before him would start to flee but no, one of them even started to talk to him, not only that but they spoke the same language as the humans he knew.

‘Are they the descendant of the humans? No, equines are not the same as the humans. Ah but why should I care about how they can speak the human language? All that I need to know is that they can speak and that’s all I need.’

The one that started to talk to him asked if he was the one that made the fog. Of course, he knew that it was him but he still thought about what fog it asked about because when he first came in the forest, there was already a fog-like aura around the Forest. But he nodded anyway.

For some reason, they had a look of shock on their faces, well more shocked than they already were.

He also started to clear some of his scales as he noticed that they were bothered by them. And he was right, lifting away the “fog” made them relax a little bit but they were still on guard.

Then, he sensed something coming towards his him, multiple things. Because he could sense them thanks to his scales, he could see that they were just some wolves who seemed to have sensed the sent of these ponies.

The ponies themselves didn’t look like they noticed the wolves, the one he was talking to was about to ask him another question until the wolves started to howl.

‘Dogs… How troublesome.’

He thought. He could see that the ponies were scared and they were shaking in fear. He didn’t blame them as they were preys in this forest after all. But he himself didn’t care about the wolves as stayed as calm as he was when he talked with the yellow pony.

‘Well I can’t let them feast on my precious source of informations.’

He thought before infecting all of the wolves in the area. He was just about to kill them all with the virus but then he thought about something.

‘Let’s see, if I kill them all right now the ponies wouldn’t have time to register what is happening. So what if I kill them just in front of the ponies?’

What he was planning was to impress and make the ponies see that he was no threat. He knew that saving them would gain him quite the reputation, a reputation he could use to create bonds with these ponies and their rulers.

Of course he knew they had some kind of a leader, anything that showed signs of intelligence must have a leader. And the more intelligent the species, the more powerful and influential would be their rulers.

His plan was set and it was ready to be set in action.

---

‘What do we do?’ Was the Main 6 collective thought.

As soon as they heard the howls of the Timberwolves, they instantly regrouped and form a circle so they could see all around them. The one who looked to the direction of the huge being was Fluttershy of course, and she was surprised to see it didn’t even react to the howls, like they didn’t even existed.

That’s when she saw that it didn’t have ears, and she feared that it didn’t hear the howls of the Timberwolves.

She tried to warn it to be on guard. In truth she knew it could defend itself but she couldn’t help but worry about the new friend she made. But she couldn’t even utter a single sound because the fear she felt formed a lump in her throat that blocked her from making a single sound.

And then, her eyes widen and her pupils shrank when she saw a Timberwolf jump on her new friend from behind it, she wanted to scream and run to its rescue but she couldn’t even move from her spot.

Then, the wolf exploded in mid-air without her new friend even turning to look at what happened. That’s when she knew that it made the Timberwolf explode, as to how she didn’t know.

Then she heard Twilight yelp so she turned to see what happened, only to see her giant friend on top of a crushed Timberwolf just in front of Twilight.

Then she saw all of the Timberwolves that were hiding jump towards them. That’s when she closed her eyes and waited for her inevitable demise. She could hear that wood was being crushed, she could also hear what sounded like the whimpers of Timberwolves.

‘Timberwolves whimpers?’

She was confused as Timberwolves were known to be one of the top predators inside the Everfree Forest, so to hear their whimpers shocked her.

Then, after a moment she slowly opened her eyes only to see something unbelievable.

Her giant friend was moving at unbelievable speed around them, he was crushing and even destroying any Timberwolf that tried to get close to her and her friends. Not only that but what previously looked like the purple fog that covered the forest now looked like a wild purple storm cloud that flew to the Timberwolves and entering inside them only to make them explode.

She wasn’t the only one to see that as her friends too could see that. All of them had the same look of shock and even admiration at the being that destroyed anything that approached them.

The strange teamwork between a monster and a seemingly sentient deadly purple cloud only accentuated their shock.

And after what felt like hours of non-stop chaos and destruction, peace slowly came in the atmosphere. Then, the giant monster finally roared to the sky, its clawed wings gripping in the ground, its roar was so loud that if it was directed at them they would die from the sheer force of the sound it made. Also, while it roared, the storm cloud flew in circle all around it and then just at the end of the roar, it transformed into purple flame that flew to the sky, changing the color of the sky into a dark purple for a moment before disappearing and turning the sky back to its comforting light blue.

Then, their guardian shook around much like a little puppy trying to dry itself after bathing. Then it turned around to look at them, sort of as it did not have eyes. The sudden ‘eye’ contact made them flinch.

Then something unexpected happen, Fluttershy flew to hug him. This of course made her friends dead worried about her, but because he didn’t seem like he was bothered by the sudden contact, they calmed down a little but they were still worried about her.

“Oh you’re okay, you’re okay…” Repeated the normally shy pegasus while petting him on the head.

“Woah… This was so awesome!” Exclaimed Rainbow Dash who started to fly around him.

“I tell ya, this was one giant apple worth of a fight.” Said Applejack who was still shaken from this one-sided fight.

“Now that I look closer, your scales are quite beautiful.” Said Rarity while admiring the scales that covered him.

“Yeah! And this deserves a Party!!!!” Exclaimed Pinkie Pie before exploding into confetti and then reappearing on top of him.

The only one that didn’t say anything was Twilight who was still a little cautious around him, but this quickly changed after a while when she saw that her friends were in no danger around him. But she did a little scan just in case.

Scan was the name of a spell she made, a spell that can show the heart of anything, well metaphorically as it was only to show if the being itself was evil or not.

She was relieved when the scan showed no sign of evil in his heart, well even if there was a little bit of it but everything had an evil side to them and the evil side to him was small enough to be left aside.

She then smiled and came closer to him.

“Well. Why don’t you come with us, we still need to ask some questions and here is not really a safe enough place.” She said before looking at him for an answer.

He replied with a nod before standing up and walking, the sudden movement made Pinkie fall but she was still caught by him before touching the ground. The Pink pony smiled and said her thanks to him.

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash too started to back away so to let him some space.

Twilight then started to walk towards the outskirt of the forest before being stopped by Fluttershy.

“Um… Why don’t we go to my house? I don’t think the other ponies will react well if they see him.” She suggested.

“You’re right, let’s go to your house.” Twilight said.

“But where is it?” Asked Rainbow Dash who clearly didn’t know where they were.

“Well we’re lucky that we aren’t to far, I kind of know where my house is from here.” Fluttershy said before walking to her home.

Her friends didn’t complain and followed her. Of course after a while they turned around to see if their new friends was following them, and he was which put a small smile on their faces.

---

‘So predictable.’

His plan worked perfectly, he instantly gained their trust after the little exercise he put on. This made for a good work out for him and he honestly thought about doing it again because it was fun to him.

Also, when the ponies started to climb on him, he could feel that the purple one used magic on him. As to what was used he didn’t know but from the face the little pony made he guessed it was to make sure he wasn’t dangerous or something like that.

His plan went so well that they even invited him to their home, until the yellow one suggested to go to her home as to not alarm the other ponies.

‘Other ponies… It seems like ponies replaced the humans. No matter, they act the same way so it doesn’t matter.’

He was satisfied with the result, and soon he would learn about the new world he is in.

‘I can’t wait!’

Author's Note:

Here's the chapter hope you like it.

Comments

[Notrab M]

This is a pretty interesting story. Are you planning for a more heroic character, a wronged villain, or something else?

[Igris]

10219499
Hm, I'm still working on the character personality, but for now I think he will stay the same curious but still quite dangeroud being. Maybe I will make him grow as his bonds with the MLP cast grows.

For now he stays neutral and only act if it benefits him.

[fnafdragon]

This is soo cool making allies and going to betray them keep it up, dude.

[Igris]

10219893
Not exactly as far as betray. Let's just say that for now, they are "useful" to him. And remember, he is not necessarily "evil", just curious.