Equestria's Dark Shadow

by InTheStands

Explanations and Arrivals

Chapter 14: Explanations and Arrivals

"Good bye! Bye! See you tomorrow! And you! Oh, and you definitely!"

"She's been bidding the guests farewell for quite some time. Should we-"

"No, we shouldn't."

Barnabas simply shrugged at Rainbow Dash's answer before looking at the empty plates and floating balloons. Any loose streamers, crumbs and stains were currently being cleaned by Twilight and Spike. Pinkie Pie stood at the door of the library, waving to the departing ponies. The only ones remaining were Barnabas, Twilight, Pinkie, Rainbow, Applejack, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Spike, and...

"Rarity?" The vampire suddenly took notice of the familiar faces. "Fluttershy?"

"Oh, um...hello," The timid Pegasus replied.

Barnabas asked, "How long have you been here? Did you miss the party?"

"Oh, goodness, no!" Rarity immediately answered. "But we only just found out after you left the boutique. Poor Pinkie ran herself ragged setting it up for you that she must have skipped a few names for invitations without realizing it." The dressmaker then gasped. "And you won't believe this! That package from the Princesses? There was a check inside, at the very bottom! They paid for your outfit, Barnabas!"

"The Princesses?" Barnabas knelt down to their level, as he did earlier for Pinkie. "But how did they know?"

"Didn't you tell Princess Luna?" Fluttershy asked.

"Ah...and she undoubtedly told her sister. I see." It didn't explain how they were willing to pay his debts for him, though.

"Alright," Twilight sighed, looking at the room. "I think we can stop now, Spike. We can take care of the rest later."

The dragon walked up the unicorn, who suggested that the eleven of them sit in a circle so as they all could better see what she had to show them. As they took their spots, Barnabas suddenly spoke up. "For what it may be worth, young dragon...I apologize for my rather forceful interrogation upon my arrival."

"Huh?" Spike raised his eyebrows. "Oh. That. I, uh...guess it's okay. I just...didn't know if you were going to hurt Twilight or the others."

Barnabas was silent. "A rather justifiable fear. Just as I didn't know whether or not you were affiliated with one Angelique Bouchard."

"Who is Angelique, Barnabas?" Twilight asked, this being her second time hearing the name he seemed to dread.

The vampire looked around at the inquiring faces. Now seemed to be as good a time as ever. He sighed, closed his eyes, and opened them as he responded. "A witch. A witch I foolishly had become intimate with. After rejecting her, she swore revenge upon me and my family, damning them with entire generations of curses. Taking way my mother and father. My siblings." He began to struggle with his words. "My love, Josette." The ponies and dragon looked on in awe, shock, and concern.

"How...atrocious..." Rarity held a hoof to her mouth, tears welling in her eyes.

Twilight suddenly put the pieces together. "Angelique...is why you're a vampire, isn't she Barnabas?"

His silence was the only answer she needed. She shook her head in shock and disbelief. Barnabas continued. "She had bewitched Josette. Driven her to fall off of Widow's Peak, into the rocks below. I tried to stop her." He closed his eyes and looked down. "I couldn't. So...I had jumped. To join her."

Rainbow Dash interrupted. "But I thought vampires needed to be staked to die. Why did you...Oh." The realization crept on the pegasus. "Oh holy horseapples."

Barnabas felt his eyes aching. "That was how I...had realized what she had done. The rocks. Josette. Looking up at the cliff...only to see her staring down at me."

Pinkie usually didn't let anything bother her. But this was unavoidable. Her mane began to deflate again as she tried to cheer him up. "But...that was it, right? Angelique stopped, didn't she?"

The vampire simply glared at the part pony. "Far from it. She had sent the townspeople after me. Commanded them to bury me alive. To forget me. To live on as my family suffered at her hands." He sighed again. "I had remained in my prison for nearly two centuries."

The group collectively began to mentally kick themselves. This was no monster. It was merely a soul who had offended the wrong person, and suffered greatly.

They suddenly all turned to Sweetie Belle, who began to cry uncontrollably. Rarity immediately went to comfort her younger sister. "Why?!" Sweetie sobbed out. "Doesn't it get any better?!"

Barnabas stammered before approaching the filly. "Child, of course it does! My resting place was disturbed by several workmen. After...appeasing my hunger..."

"You drank their blood?!" Sweetie began to cry harder.

Fluttershy responded with a timid, "He had no choice, did he? As much as he didn't want to...he NEEDED to."

"And after that, I had returned to my family. What was left of it. I had helped regain the Collins' fortune, their business. Until I had learned Angelique was still alive and still tormenting my family. After one final fight with her, I was rid of the witch...and reunited with my love Josette, having been reincarnated." He paused. "Reincarnation exists in this land, does it not?"

"Only in theory," Twilight answered. "Though some cases show that souls beginning a life after seeing another to the end may be possible."

Barnabas nodded, and continued. "The fight with Angelique left our grand mansion in charred ruins, leaving us to retreat to an older dwelling on the Collinwood property. We've been living there while our home was under construction. We have been for some time, until..." He gestured to the library. "All of this."

It was silent for a moment, the only sound being Sweetie Belle's sniffling as she calmed down. Suddenly, Applejack chimed in with, "You poor, miserable thing."

"Wow..." Scootaloo whispered, feeling bad for lashing out at him earlier; Now she understood why Barnabas was so violent to Rainbow Dash.

Seeing her sister was now fully relaxed, Rarity walked back to her sitting spot. "That was simply dreadful! And after how we just hunted you like some animal!"

"There were many misgivings on both sides," Barnabas simply shook his head. "I was just as much at fault as you all were. I had underestimated the kindness you ponies are capable of giving. For that, I apologize."

The others collectively gave their apologies as well. A moment of silence passed before Twilight cleared her throat. "I'm...really sorry for what happened to you, Barnabas. And sorry for making it look like we were threatening you. But...maybe what I have to show you might cheer you up."

"Celestia knows a good pick-me-up is what we all need," Dash agreed. Spike, at Twilight's request, quickly picked up a large, thick book sticking out of a shelf. He carried it over his head before placing it in the center of the circle the group made by their seating arrangements.

Barnabas leaned in to better see the gold lettering on the dark green book. "Strange. Your written language is exactly like my world's English." He then silently read the title:

EQUESTRIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

"I've been staying up for the better half of the week looking for something to help," Twilight confessed. "I almost shrugged this one off until I came across a very interesting chapter." She then stood over the book, looking directly at Barnabas. "This question may sound strange, but I need to answer it to make sure I actually got somewhere in my research." She leaned in. "Are you...a human?"

Barnabas furrowed his brow. "I would certainly say so. A human inflicted with a curse unlike any other, but a human nonetheless."

Twilight sighed, her tone of breath revealing her relief. "Alright. Good." She laid down, allowing her horn to glow with magic. The book began to glow as well before the cover and several pages flipped open. Immediately, Twilight found what she was looking for. "Ah. See this?" She levitated the book, showing the ponies and Spike before showing Barnabas. She spoke more to her friends than she did to the vampire. "This is a general depiction of an ancient being known as a 'human'. Humans were...well...if I had to make a comparison, they were like monkeys, but they also weren't. They walked on two legs, had hands with five fingers each, had very little hair with most of it on their heads, and so on. At one point, they were all over what would eventually be known as Equestria; Several archaeological digs in isolated areas still yield tools and artwork."

"So what happened to 'em?" Applebloom asked.

Twilight gave a confused look to her friends. "That's...just it. Bizarrely enough, though tools were found, no remains of any human ever were. Any attempt at translating anything has up until now failed. But dig sites near the coastlines show paintings depicting several humans on ships. Scholars theorize that at some point, they left Equestria either to migrate or explore. Some even believe that humans still live on today, living in parts of the world ponies haven't even heard of."

She let them digest this information before noticing Rainbow Dash raising a hoof. "Okay, I admit this beats the hay out of your tree moss book. But what, aside from him being a human, does this all mean?"

"I was getting to that," Twilight patiently said. "You see, nopony has been able to pinpoint exactly how long humans have been in Equestria. For that reason, several researchers have suggested that at some point, humans and ponies lived alongside each other. To what extent is unknown, but this might mean that there was contact between humans and unicorns. Which means that maybe - just maybe - we can find a spell that can help you, Barnabas." She turned to him, only to watch as he stood up to tower over her. Twilight grew nervous. "I know it's not much, but at least now we know that there's a possibility we've found a -"

"Miss Twilight Sparkle," Barnabas began to bow, "You've helped tremendously. The Princesses...have told me of a possibility that I may never return home. But at least now I know that there is a sliver of hope. Thank you."

Twilight felt a slight surge in pride, bowing to the human in kind. "I still need to do more research. Humans might not have had a decipherable language, but ancient unicorns do." She looked up as she heard one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders speak up - Sweetie Belle.

"So if humans left...does that mean they might come back?"

"It's only a theory," Twilight answered. "Some even say they may have all died at sea, unprepared for the conditions. But it's not like we're not defended. And it's certainly not like more humans are just going to drop in out of nowhere."

§§§

The Everfree Forest was thick with trees. Just as little light entered the forest, somepony looking in would find it impossible to notice any light without traveling deep within.

As such, only the forest dwelling animals noticed the abrupt, brilliant explosion of light, and swiftly fled as a result, not bothering to look back as long as they were escaping the apparent danger.

In a small clearing of the dark forest, laying in the center of a circle made of burnt grass, were three humanoid figures. Two were identical twins, sporting blue overcoats and backpacks. One wore a plaid shirt under a dark brown coat. Grunting, the three of them sat, then finally stood up.

One of the men in blue looked around. "Oh my Lord..."

"I know," The other coated man said. "Everything looks...kind of cartoony. In fact, WE look kind of-"

"The ground!" The first twin declared, arms open to the singed earth. "I thought you did the math, Bill! Take our positions and raise them slightly higher! You know we're not supposed to leave such a blatant trace!"

"Alright," Bill raised his hands. "Calm down, Rick. We can fix this. We have before."

"Oddly enough, that's not the first time you said that," Rick sighed. "We go over this every renewal period. I don't care how safe the ride is for us, something else is always worse for wear when you make the calculations!"

"When I make them?!" Bill grew frustrated. "That's not what you said when I had to crunch the numbers for the company back home!"

"There's a difference between inter-universal travel, and keeping track of how many pounds of dry cat food is produced in a day, Bill," Rick argued. "Bottom line, next time we go over the math: Pay. Attention. There is no margin for error here."

The third man looked behind him. "Uh, fellas-"

"A moment, Willie," Rick waved the third one off. "The whole point is NOT to leave something that can be found."

"Look around you Rick," Bill's tone took on the tone of someone growing impatient with an oblivious friend. "Does it look like there's anyone around to see? Tree falling in the forest and such?" He paused. "Wait a minute..."

"Guys-" Willie spoke again.

Rick placed his fisted hands on his sides. "There's no one NOW. But what about later? A hunter, maybe?"

Willie pointed in a seemingly random direction. "What about the zebra?"

"Hunter, zebra, anyone who needs to travel into - wait, zebra?" Rick and Bill finally looked to where Willie was pointing.

In a short distance away stood a hut that seemed to have been made entirely in the trunk of a still-standing tree. Wooden masks decorated the front, and jars on strings hung from the branches. But the three's attention was primarily drawn to a round, open window, where a small zebra stood. It sported earrings, neck rings, a Mohawk and blue eyes. Blue eyes that were open wide and aimed directly at them, along with a mouth slightly hung open in surprise.

With the animals having fled, the air was dead silent for a moment, until Bill spoke up with a, "Uh...hi? Don't, uh, mind us, we're just...hunters. Making a campfire. That's this...burnt grass you see."

Rick placed a hand to his face. Willie just looked confused at the zebra.

The equine closed its mouth before speaking, emitting a clearly feminine voice. "Any young foal can see that you lie. So may you stop trying to be so sly?"

"...Damn it," Bill lowered his head.

"You can understand us?" Rick asked. "Look, we're not here to hurt you."

"We don't even know where the hell 'here' is," Willie added to no one in particular.

"In the Everfree Forest is where you stand," the zebra explained, "Though by your tones, it's not what you planned."

"No, no," Bill waved a hand. "This was good. No one to see...until...zebra."

"As I said before," Rick said, "We're not going to hurt you. We just...need to get our bearings. What is your name?"

"Zecora is by which I am known. Here in this hut, I live alone, until of course you three appeared in the forest full of creatures feared."

"Why's she rhyming?" Willie whispered to Bill.

"Who cares? If she's throwing rhymes instead of anything else, we're good." Bill looked to Zecora. "You don't suppose we can come in, do you? I mean, would there be enough room? We have our own supplies and I'm starting to worry about that 'creatures feared' line."

The zebra disappeared from her window. A moment passed before the wooden door of the tree hut creaked open, and Zecora revealed herself once more. "I always ensure guests are safe and warm. Even those who are not of Equestria's norm."

The three humans approached the hut, wondering whether it would be wise or not to explain to their hostess what she had seen or was seeing. Zecora checked for any more unusual sights before closing the door.