Legends of Equestria: Rocky Road to Hayseed Swamp

by The Blue EM2

Ballad of the Pony of Shadows

But still that voice continued. "They left their artefacts so that others would find them, and stop me. Well, I can't let that happen, I'm afraid. You're my backup plan, you see. Time to say goodbye!"

With that, dark energies clawed at my mind, forcing my consciousness back. I screamed inside, and tried to hold them off as best I could, but my weakened mental state and broken soul made it impossible. The shadow could not be stopped. My mind was its prey, and took what it wanted. I was wreathed in darkness, in pain, the very thing that was to end reality itself.

I... had become one... with the darkness.

Have you ever felt, or witnessed, a situation where your body is no longer yours and won't obey you? This was what this set of circumstances was like. The entity that was now running my body had mercilessly shoved me aside, and cloaked my form in the shadows of darkness, creating a creature not disimilar to an alicorn. They awoke from the table and smashed their way onto the floor, firing a blast of energy at one of the ponies and sending her flying.

"Ma!" Meadbowbrook cried, and ran over to her.

"Rich pickings," the entity said, smiling on its dark, demonic face. "Without the other Pillars here, destroying this place and removing you will be a doddle!"

Stop! I screamed inside this creature's head. Can't you see the damage you're causing?!

"Oh, I am fully aware of this damage I am inflicting, though I consider it a blessing to this place," the entity said, in response to my question. "But I don't just see it... I revel in it. Bring about the end of the times!"

He was now outdoors, his giant wings spreading and dragging through the walls of the building, bringing down the front facade. He stepped forward, and laughed loudly.

"Citizens of Hayseed Swamp, heed my words!" he boomed, his voice echoing and very distorted. "Your pitiful attempt to imprison me has failed, 'Pillars of Old Equestria'! Now, I have returned to this world, and you are powerless to stop me!"

"Ah'll never give up!" Meadowbrook shouted, sprinting at the entity, mask on and energy spewing from something or other. The entity just responded by firing an energy tendril at her, which pinned her in place.

Meadowbrook, get back! I attempted to call psychically, but it was no use. The entity had total control, and had shut me out. There was no way I could get them to hear me now. I was a prisoner in my own body, hijacked by an evil being from ancient past.

"Where was I? Ah, yes, I remember," the entity went on. "It is time to start my conquest of this pathetic planet called 'Earth', starting with this little town and neighbouring swamps! A most fitting appetiser for what will be an incredible meal, I reckon!"

Meadowbrook had succeeded in freeing herself from the tendril, and charged around. "Does this guy ever shut up?" she asked, firing a beam from her mask. Did the mask have enough innate magical energy to allow the wearer to do such a marvellous feat, when a unicorn such as myself failed at levitation?"

"Close, but no cigar," The entity said. "Without the other Pillars here and without their artefacts, I'm afraid that your little banishing spell is useless." He fired another beam, which destroyed several sections of pathway and left places innacessible. "This world is replete in magic and power, and I WANT IT ALL!"

Safe to say, we were all in deep trouble. But I tried to fight him myself, as I had no control over what was nominally my body. Don't do this! I begged. You have nothing to gain from trying to destroy everything!

"Silence, you pathetic worm!" the entity bellowed, clearly annoyed by my prescence. "I only have a set time limit in which I can control the body of another, thanks to those developments that Project 722 cooked up. But this one in my head is almost as... strong as the legendary, Starswirl. But even in my weakened state, you cannot stop the might of shadows! Don't fret. When I extinguish the light and hope of this miserable world, you won't remember any of this."

He continued firing erratically, clearly not used to having a definite physical form. This gave me an idea. I could possibly disrupt what he was doing by influencing him with my own nervous system. As he lined up a shot on a building, I pulled my neck up as hard as I could (spiritually speaking, being a blob at the back of what used to be my own mind). The entity's own head pulled upwards and the shot flew into the air, going upwards eternally into the sky.

"What?!" the entity demanded. "How is this possible?!"

This is my body you're occupying, I said, And that means I am still connected to it in some way or form. Since I don't take kindly to things hijacking it, I'm afraid you'll just have to put up with it.

"No more excuses!" the entity shouted, the world only hearing one half of our conversation. "No more misdirection! I'll be taking this place with me!" He charged his horn up one last time to obliterate Hayseed Swamp. But luckily, one individual who wasn't too keen on seeing that happen was now back on her feet.

Mage Meadowbrook was back in action, and sprinted in front of the creature. Raising her mask, she shouted something- I couldn't tell what it was, as her voice was muffled by the mask- and the charged energy from the entity's spell was pulled into the mask itself, directing it safely away from the village and into the mask, saving it!

"What sorcery is this? Earth Ponies have no magic!"

Yes, I said, But they have a power you will never understand. Friendship!

The entity sounded as though it was about to growl out some sort of reply, but a loud ringing and beeping interrupted both of our thought processes. The entity looked around, annoyed. "Well, it looks like the time limit has expired," he said, sounding annoyed. "But this isn't the end of this. I will return, more powerful than before, and this world will be bathed in shadow! This land will embrace the darkness, just as it embraced so many others!" With a blinding flash, the entity and all its construct of shadow vanished, and I was back in control.

Back in control of my own body. I looked around at the devastation, and looked down at the ground as Meadowbrook galloped over.

"Are y'all alright?" she called to the villagers. The purple pony I referred to earlier seemed to be fine as well, as she stepped forward to help with cleaning up the mess.

Meadowbrook reached me, and quickly checked me over. "No lastin' injuries or scarrin'," she said. "Ah think yer in the clear."

I continued to look at the ground. "I'm so sorry," I said quietly. "I should take responsibility for this."

"Now whatever would cause ya to think somethin' like that, huh?" Meadowbrook asked me. "That weren't yer fault none. Ah think Ah know what that device we found stuck in you was. It were some sorta dark magic device that allowed a bein' of darkness to take control of another body fer a short time. And if he cannot yet adopt a full form without possessin' somepony else, that buys us time."

"Who?" I asked. "Who was that being of darkness?"

Meadowbrook produced a book from nowhere and laid it down. "Ancient writin' makes reference to a bein' called the Evil One, who had to be sealed away by a great sacrifice made by six individuals a lon' time ago. This creature must have ended up here alon'side artefacts of those heroes and is now tryin' ta cause havoc."

This story was sounding familiar. "The ones who sacrificed themselves were the Pillars!" I exclaimed. "But instead of being trapped in limbo, they were hurled across dimensions to this world! This is proving to be quite the headache."

"However, the Pillars thought ahead and left artefacts of themselves to allow others ta continue the fight," Meadowbrook went on. "Myself bein' one of them. But writin' from this world talks of creatures made entirely of shadow. Ah originally suspected that it were just drunken reports of innocous thin's. But after havin' seen that, Ah realise that the bein' we saw today, the Evil One of the books, and the creatures made of shadow all refer to the same bein'."

I didn't like where this was going one bit. "I think I know what you're going to say," I said glumly, looking at the ground again.

Meadowbrook looked equally concerned. "The entity we are fightin' against is the Pony of Shadows, who has returned to get his revenge! We never truly sealed him away! All we did was put another world in danger!"

Author's Note:

One of my big issues with the Stygian/PoS thing was that Stygian had no proper motivation for turning evil (especially given how much fun the PoS could easily have been), given he stole the artefacts from the Pillars and never told them why he did it. If he'd proposed it to the Pillars, they may have agreed on it, but heaven forbid anybody act logically!

As a result, the decision was made for this setting to split Stygian and the Pony of Shadows into two separate entities, so we could have both the introspected scholar and the 'evil because evil is fun' villain the show desperately needed.

Meadowbrook is from this story;

TLegends of Equestria: South Swamp Rag

• MLP: FiM
• Equestria Girls
• Adventure
• Comedy
• Random

Join us now for a tale of the Bayou...

• Sex
• Human
• Rockhoof
• Meadowbrook

JimmyHook19 · 13k words  ·  29  21 · 1.2k views

Comments

[JimmyHook19]

"Ah'll never give up!" Meadowbrook shouted, sprinting at the entity, mask on and energy spewing from something or other. The entity just responded by firing an energy tendril at her, which pinned her in place.

-Happy sigh- Man.... where would MLP FIM be without Mage Meadowbrook though? (Even if she still didn't get any major roles after her debut season though. ^^'). <3

[The Blue EM2]

10628078
Indeed. From memory, her only speaking appearance after season 7 was Rockhoof and a Hard Place.