The Elements of Virtue

by Rakoon1

The Pony of Shadows

The arrival of the Pony of Shadows had caused a major fuss to those who were at the party, causing many guests to run away. Twilight, Blue and Star adopted a defensive position, as the Pony of Shadows gave a few steps forward.

“So, this is where the reincarnation of the great Princess Aurora is…” he said. “I have to say I’m disappointed.”

“It would appear your hunch was right, Twily” Blue commented. “What do we do?”

“We need to secure the safety everyone here” she said. “Blue, take care of that with Shadow Claw.”

“Okay…” Blue replied, despite not liking to leave his wife deal with that villain alone, teleporting away.

“You should go too, Star” Twilight said.

“But, mom…” Star started.

“Don’t worry, I can handle this” Twilight said. “But I need you ready in case and don’t.”

Star, much like Blue, didn’t want to let his mother deal with the Pony of Shadows, but he didn’t dare to challenge her orders and so he also teleported away. Making a sneering sound, the Pony of Shadows asked Twilight:

“Do you really thing you can handle me all by yourself? You really think highly of yourself, Princess Twilight.”

“I seem to be in disadvantage” she said. “You know who I am, but I don’t know who you are… Besides you must be another one of the Lord of Chaos’ followers.”

“I am much more than just another follower. I am the Pony of Shadows!”

“The Pony of Shadows? You mean, like in the foal tales?”

“I don’t know what you ponies say about me nowadays, but I can assure you of one thing: no light will stand as long I’m nearby!” the Pony of Shadows exclaimed, making shadow wings appear and casting his shadow web on Twilight. “And your light is the brightest of them all in this reality!”

Twilight struggled against his shadow web and so she released some energy through her body to form a barrier that destroyed the shadow webs. Seeing that, the Pony of Shadows casted a dark beam, with Twilight doing the same. The shock of both beams caused a big shock that affected both casters.

“I have to say… you’re almost as strong as Star Swirl, if not more” the Pony of Shadows said. “But you’re nothing compared to the original princess of the Light Kingdom. Even in my weakened state, you cannot stop the might of shadows.”

He casted the beam again and Twilight did the same. They started to measure their strengths, but it would appear he was winning. But before his beam could hit her, Rainbow Dash intervened, tackling against him, causing him to lose focus. Hoovering above Twilight, she told him:

“Lucky for her, she’s not alone.”

And Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rarity also appeared beside Twilight, who smiled with delight to the fact that her friends were by her side. Turning to the Pony of Shadows, she told him:

“It would appear you made a grave mistake for coming here, Pony of Shadows. As long we stand tall, no threat shall prevail in this world.”

Having said that, Twilight summoned the chest that contained the Elements of Harmony, opened it and took them out, giving them to their respective owners.

“Wait, those are…” Star started, seeing that beside his father at the entrance of the library, where many have taken shelter. “Yes, it’s the Elements of Harmony!”

“Wow, really?!” Dusk asked, while appearing beside Star. “Where?!”

“Oh, I always wanted to see them in action” Gleaming Shield said, appearing next to Dusk.

And she wasn’t the only one, as both Jonagold, Gunter, Moonlight and Galena decided to join them to watch it.

“Kids, go inside” Blue said. “This is no place to be an audience.”

“Relax, dad” Dusk said. “Mom and the others are about to kick that bunch of shadows’ ass.”

The Pony of Shadows laughed and replied:

“Fouls! Do you really think you can defeat me?! I’m the Pony of Shadows, the Bringer of Darkness. This world will be wrapped in shadows and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”

“You’re wrong about that” Twilight told. “The shadows will never cover the world. Not as long we have… the magic of friendship!”

She then activated the power of her element that started to shine, releasing then a stream of rainbow that connected all the others that started charging the Twilight’s. It released a strong light as it casted a powerful rainbow that rose up to the sky.

“So this is the legendary power of the Elements of Harmony…” the Pony of Shadows said, as he saw the rainbow starting to head down towards him. “Pathetic…”

The rainbow hit him, while creating a ferocious tornado around him.

“And that’s how it’s done!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, as she and the others started celebrating.

The others were also exhibiting big smiles. Blue made a relieved sighed, while making a smile. But suddenly we sensed something unusual. It was a power similar to the one of the Elements of Harmony, but full darkness.

“Twily, watch out!” he shouted.

There was an explosion of energy that, much to everypony’s shock and surprise, dissipated the rainbow and the Pony of Shadows emerged, completely unharmed.

“It can’t be…” Twilight said.

“He resisted to the power of the Elements!” Rarity exclaimed.

“How dah hay did he manag’d to resist dah power of dah Elements?!” Applejack asked.

“How did he do it?” Star asked. “I thought no dark force from this world could handle the power of the Elements.”

“Unless they were countered by an equally powerful opposite force” Blue said. “But the only kind of magic that can do that is… Oh no! Twily, he’s using the power of the Elements of Chaos!”

Hearing her husband, Twilight found herself filling herself with a little of fear. She had already dealt with the Elements of Chaos and she knew how terrifying they could be.

“It would appear you have with you ponies with some intuition, but it serves you no good” the Pony of Shadows said.

From his body he made the Elements of Chaos appear, while laughing.

“Wow, I didn’t know there were more than a set of Elements of Harmony” Pinkie Pie said. “However, I think those should get better tendered. They look… a little off.”

“Pinkie, those are the Elements of Chaos” Twilight said. “They are the dark counterparts of the Elements of Harmony.”

But Pinkie Pie made a confused look.

“You know, back when we faced Sky…” Rainbow Dash said.

“Oh, you mean Cherry’s ex-boyfriend that let himself be corrupted by the Lord of Chaos and we had to use our elements to uncorrupt him…” Pinkie Pie said.

“Fouls!” the Pony of Shadows exclaimed. “Speaking nonsense when you’re about facing your doom? And here I thought you were great heroes. Well, not anymore!”

He placed the Elements of Chaos in position, with the Element of Black Magic being surrounded by the others, and casted a dark beam to the former that then connected with the others and, together, they casted a dark rainbow that spiraled against Twilight and the others who were incapable of reacting to it and were hit by it.

“Twily!” Blue called.

“Mom!” both Star, Dusk and Moonlight called, worried about what could have happened to their mothers.

After the light of the dark rainbow cleared, they could see that Twilight and the others, as well the Elements of Harmony, had been turned into stone.

“NO!” the witnesses shouted, while the Pony of Shadows laughed.

“YES!” the Lord of Chaos shouted, victorious, as he watched everything through his mirror. “Finally somepony does something right! Oh, how good it felt seeing that annoying princess and her despicable friends being defeated… They have been a pain in my neck for years! Actually, it’s ironic as they were turned to stone when that was the punishment they gave to Discord. Now, the only one standing in my way to conquer the Pony Reality is that little fox prince that dared to imprison me in my own realm. If I got lucky, maybe the Pony of Shadows will be able to get rid of him too.”

After seeing what happened to Twilight and the others, Blue started to get extremely mad. But he knew he couldn’t succumb to what he was feeling. He need to prioritize the security of everypony that was there.

Turning to the kids, he told them:

“Go inside. I can try to use my powers to at least drive him away…”

But it was then that he noticed Star and saw that he looked very upset. He could see his face contorting in a way that he was very familiar with: he was very angry. But it was not an everyday anger, it was something much deeper, similar to the times when he lost control of his power.

“Star… whatever you’re thinking… or feeling… don’t do it” he tried to tell his son.

But he wasn’t listening to him anymore, as he was more focusing in charging his rage and redirect it against the one that turned his mother into stone. All that anger started to cause some damages to the seal inside of him, causing it to crack, allowing some of Kurama’s energy to slip out, mixed as well with the curse. Seeing that, Kurama said:

“No… No, Star!

Kurama wanted to do something, but he couldn’t do anything, as he was caged.

“Don’t do it!” he said. “Calm down!”

However, there was nothing he could say to stop Star’s anger from growing even more. Suddenly, the energy from Kurama that was leaking started to manifest itself in his bubbling cloak. Seeing that, Star’s friends started to get worry.

“Oh no…” Jonagold said.

“Isn’t that…?” Gunter asked.

“No, Star!” Moonlight said.

But before any of them could do anything, Star moved fast against the Pony of Shadows and prepared to attack him with energy claws. However, due to the shadowy body of the villain, Star just passed through him.

“What… just happened?” Dusk asked.

“It’s Star… he’s losing control” Moonlight said.

“This is bad” Jonagold said. “Nothing good happens when that happens.”

The Pony of Shadows got curious regarding that colt that just attacked him. He then noticed the bubbling energy surrounding him and the red eyes.

“Interesting…” he said. “That energy… It belongs to Nine-Tails. So, you’re his jinchuriki. But even if you are, there’s no way you can defeat me.”

And he casted a powerful dark beam against him, but Star replied with another one. The two beams clashed and started to measure their power. However, it would appear the Pony of Shadows was overpowering Star.

“Star!” Moonlight and Blue called.

“Come on, bro, you can do it!” Dusk exclaimed.

“Pathetic…” the Pony of Shadows said. “I have to admit, kid, you have some skills, but you cannot defeat me. Pretty much, you’re like that weak princess.”

Hearing him talking about his mother like that caused Star’s anger to grow even more. Not only that, but the intensity of his power also grew, causing his beam to get stronger and starting to push back the Pony of Shadows’.

“What?!” he asked, not believing what he was seeing. “No!”

Star’s beam got too close of the Pony of Shadows’ horn, with the latter struggling to battle the young jinchuriki. He could sense his power weakening before his power and realized he had to do something before it was too late. Noticing Blue and the others, he had an idea and, with a thrust, he redirected the two beams to them. Seeing that, made Star get out of his rage spree, as he saw his own attack and the Pony of Shadows’ about to hit his father, brother, marefriend and friends.

“No!” he shouted.

The combined attacks seemed to have hit them, but then he noticed that Blue had used his magic to nullify them, much to Star’s relief. He jumped to their side and asked:

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, son” Blue replied, while panting. “I was able to undo the attacks.”

“You and your friends got lucky this time, boy” the Pony of Shadows replied. “You’re in luck I’m not at my full power. But mark my words: you and everycreature will taste the power of darkness.”

Having said that, he turned himself into shadow and disappeared, taking with him the darkness that had devoured the dusk sky, recovering it. Star, letting go of his anger and anxiety, was able to disperse his energy cloak. Dusk went to congratulate him, saying:

“That was awesome, big bro! Honestly, I didn’t know you have that in you.”

“Well, you haven’t seen…” Star started to say, when something interrupted him.

It was his heart, which had come to suffer the consequences of the leaks on his seal. The pain was so big that he fell on the ground, taking his hooves to the chest.

“Star!” everypony called.

“What is happening?” Dusk asked.

Blue quickly realized what was happening and told Dusk:

“Dusk, get away from your brother!”

“What… Why?”

“It’s the curse” he replied. “Go inside, now.”

Dusk took no time to follow that order. Once Dusk was away, Star started to feel a lot of relief.

“Don’t worry, son, everything will be fine” Blue said.

“Star, I’m here with you” Moonlight told.

However, after everything that happened, Star couldn’t help but feeling completely exhausted, especially after experiencing the effects of the Curse of the Poisoned Heart. The image of everypony around him started to get blurry, as their voices started to get distanced. A few seconds later, Star lost his senses.