Shadow Sky In a New World

by Shadow Skysito

Sunny Town. (¿Does it Sound Familiar to You?)

This tranquility is most pleasant, summer is getting closer and closer, we are in the middle of May and the heat is beginning to feel, during the last weeks I have been investigating with much more calm, it has given me time to enjoy my time free with the Cute Mark Crusaders, I still don't know how they don't run out of ideas to get their Cute Marks, I still don't care much about my Cute Mark, if I ever get one I guess I'll be happy, but it's not something that excites me to achieve.

"And well?" Ask the filly.

"... well what?" Shadow asked confused.

"Don't you have some fun activity to do?"

"...I guess not, I was planning to relax and read a book."

Sweetie Belle and Shadow were in the main room of the house, Shadow was taking advantage of the quiet to read a book, while Sweetie Belle was relaxing in the other chair.

"I don't know, I'm bored, I would like to do something fun to kill the boredom." The overwhelmed filly sighed.

"Well, I guess it would be nice to have some fun... but I honestly don't know what to do."

"Mmhh... how about... going to investigate the EverFree Forest."

"...didn't you say that place gave you the creeps?" Shadow turned to see her confused.

"Maybe but, I think if I'm accompanied I won't be so afraid, besides, maybe we can find some cave that we can investigate, don't you think?"

Sweetie Belle's enthusiasm was quite high, she seemed to be desperate to do something fun.

"Well I haven't been to the EverFree Forest in a while, I guess if something bad happens I'll be there to get us out quickly."

It seemed like a tempting idea, I hadn't been able to investigate the wonders of this world because of the "investigation", now that Discord is gone I can see the differences between this dimension and mine more calmly.

"...Okay, okay, let's do it, it'll be fun." Shadow said as he closed his book.

The idea seemed simple, enter the EverFree forest, look for interesting things and get out quickly, it seemed like a simple adventure... it seemed...

"Okay, we're already inside, do you feel alright?" asked Shadow.

"Y-yes, it's n-not for so much." Sweetie Belle replied with a bit of a stutter.

"Yeah... sure, if you feel bad just let me know, okay?"

"T-thank you."

It seems that these two no longer blush for any nonsense.
To make it more interesting, they entered the forest by a path that they had not explored before, the path was quite calm, until they ran into a rather large obstacle.

"A tree? Wow, it's huge." The foal said astonished.

"Now how are we going to cross?" Sweetie Belle asked concerned.

A giant tree stands in our way, it didn't seem like a big deal, but Sweetie Belle had caught her attention something in the distance.

"Mmhh... good question, if only we had magic to be able to lift the giant tree and be able to continue on the path... or we could just circle the tree, or even fly over it, because we would have to formulate absurd strategies as if from a horror video game is it?... Sweetie Belle?..."

Shadow Sky turned quickly, but Sweetie Belle was no longer there.

"...¡¿SWEETIE BELLE?!" Shouted the worried little foal.

Sweetie Belle had disappeared, Shadow got upset and began to circle around to try to find her.

"¡Hey!, ¡wait!" Sweetie Belle was yelling to try to get the attention of what appeared to be a pony.

Perhaps because of the excitement and adrenaline of the moment or simply because of Sweetie's idiocy impulse, separated from Shadow Sky and began to chase a mysterious mare that was moving away from her, through the thick and dark forest... maybe if it was an impulse of idiocy.

"Through the trees can see a light, but PonyVille is in the opposite direction..." the filly thought, very confused.

The mare had disappeared, but in front of Sweetie Belle you could see the sunlight, Sweetie Belle was very confused, but since it was the only source of light, she didn't hesitate to get closer, when she realized what was happening she took a big surprise, a beautiful ville was in front of his eyes.

"... What the hell?... has this always been here?... a ville inside the EverFree forest... what the hell is happening?..." The little filly wondered to herself, very disoriented.

"¡HA HA! Hello little filly, ¡welcome to Sunny Town!" Happily greet the unknown pony.

"Oh...thank you, who are you?" asked Sweetie Belle confused.

"Grey Hoof at your service, party planner extraordinaire." Answer with great joy.

At the entrance of the ville there was a pony named Gray Hoof, it seems that he is the Pinkie Pie of this ville, his joy and behavior is similar, Sweetie Belle on the other hand was very confused and disoriented, she could not believe that there was a ville in the depths of the EverFree Forest.

"The party has just started, please help yourself to something to eat and drink."

"...T-thank you." Sweetie Belle answered as she slowly walked away.

Why would that pony be so excited?, Sweetie Belle wondered anxiously, after all, a party is not a party without guests, the ponys that were there could be counted with the hooves of only one pony, walking backwards she bumped into a mare, she didn't want to take her eyes off Gray Hoof, she didn't have a good feeling.

"Oh, I-I'm so sorry." The filly apologized.

"He hasn't said a single word to me since last night. *Sigh*"

"...okay...?"

They looked like NPCS from some 8-bit video game; Sweetie Belle walked a little further, slowly entering the ville, running into a pony that was covering the entrance of a house.

"... oh, hello..." The pony said sadly.

"What happen?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Oh, nothing..."

"...Okay...?, in that case I'm going to-"

"Okay, I'll tell you."

"... What?" Thought the confused filly.

"The mare that is there is called Starlet, I was going to give her a gift last night, but I lost it!, I couldn't find it!, It's a very nice gift..."

"Talk about the mare I just spoke to." Sweetie Belle thought.

"I see... I'll see what I can do..." Sweetie Belle said offering her help.

The ville was beautiful, no doubt about it, but that didn't stop Sweetie Belle from having a strange tickle in her stomach.
Sweetie Belle kept walking slowly along the village path, but there was something strange, no pony had a cute mark, everyone was already of legal age, but no one had their cute mark, so she plucked up her courage and went to ask the first pony what saw.

"G-good afternoon, I have a question, why doesn't anyone in ville have a cute mark?" Ask the filly.

"Forgive me little filly, I don't know what you're talking about."

"You know, the mark on the side that ponies get when they discover their special talent." Sweetie Belle answered confused.

"Forgive me little filly, I don't know what you're talking about."

"How come they don't know it's a-" The filly asked before being interrupted.

"Forgive me little filly, I don't know what you're talking about."

Sweetie Belle walked away quickly, pretending not to be scared, that pony's face was strange, as if there was nothing in her head, just a pattern of words that she has to repeat; Even further into that ville they call "Sunny Town" Sweetie Belle met the fifth pony that was in the ville, there didn't seem to be anyone else, it seemed like a ghost village.

"I didn't know there were so many ponies living in the EverFree forest." She said the filly hoping she didn't just say a few words on repeat.

"You're not the first visitor to say that."

At least this mare seems to say more than one text.

"We all have what it takes to live in peace, so no one has had the need to leave this place."

"T-thank you..."

Sweetie Belle felt strange, but she wasn't so scared anymore, at least there was daylight, but to the filly's surprise she had seen her again, that mare that was entering the forest again.

"¡Hey! ¡Wait! ¡Don't go again!" She screamed the filly as she ran away from the place to enter the forest again, leaving Three Leaf alone.

Chasing that mare she found a house, a house in the middle of that dark and leafy forest, the darkness did not let Sweetie Belle see, but thanks to the windows of the house she could see that the light was on.

"¡¿Is there someone at home?!" asked the desperate filly.

"The door is closed..."

There seemed to be no way to enter, but a small metal sound caught his attention, a key was tied to the rope of a well, the filly ran after her to reach it, but the rope went down before reaching it to be able to grab it, in that moment he regretted not being able to use magic yet, he thought he could recover the key with the crank, but look what a surprise, the crank is missing.

"Well…I guess I'll have to find the crank…"

With no other option, the filly returned to the town in search of a crank; With more calm since the place was illuminated, she walked for a while looking for the lost crank, without paying attention to the floor.

"¡Ouch!... what is this?" She exclaimed in pain, the filly had buried something sharp in her right hoof.

"Is... a red gem?" she asked herself.

A red gem lying on the ground, it didn't seem important at the time, but he decided to keep it after remembering that millennia ago there was talk about a romantic legend, the pony that gives away a red gem would be eternally happy with his forever couple, the design of the town is somewhat... old, maybe they still live with that custom, at that moment Sweetie Belle had an idea.

"I think I know who this could be of use to...how lucky that Teacher Cheerilee told us about the customs of more than five thousand years ago." thought the filly.

She didn't take long to arrive with the pony that she lost the gift to Starlet.

"...Oh, You found it!" exclaimed the relieved pony.

"The gem? Sure, take it."

"Thank you! Thank you very much! You're my best friend for a reason!" exclaimed the pony with joy.

The pony quickly backed away from the door he was blocking.

"Oh Roneo! You shouldn't have, your love is more than enough!" Starlet exclaimed very happily.

"I really appreciate it Sun Dash, definitely you are my best friend!" Roneo exclaimed happily.

"But my name is Sweetie...Belle...?"

This was already too strange for Sweetie Belle to care about.

"Very well, if my instincts are right, the crank has to be inside this house." thought the filly.

Instinct or rather experience in the world of videogames, maybe the videogames of this world are not so technologically advanced, but they are enough to project small stories in which 16bits make an appearance, not compared to videogames of my dimension , Sweetie Belle used to play arcade games after school from time to time, something that not many know, so her experience with puzzle stories helped her formulate such a theory... and she was not mistaken for more ridiculous let it be heard

"There are no switches to turn on the light... I think... I can see something on the floor, it's dark but not enough to hide... ¡the crank!, I was right." thought the geek filly.

Sweetie Belle walked directly to pick up the crank that was lying on the ground, it was a straight road in which darkness ruled, you couldn't see anything around, only the crank that glowed as if it were an item from some 8-bit video game; Picking up the crank Sweetie Belle was preparing to get out of there as quickly as possible, after picking up the crank she turned around but there was already someone behind her.

"AH!...Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know there was someone else in the house, I just came for this crank." The filly exclaimed, very scared and embarrassed because she thought that she had entered a stranger's house without her permission.

"... this is not right... everything happens over and over again, over and over again, over and over again, over and over again-"

"Okay...? I think I'm going to get out... of here." Said the filly as she fearfully circled the mare who kept repeating the same thing over and over again.

Leaving the house unharmed, she ran towards the house in the woods, all the ponies seemed to be in the same place as when she arrived at the village, no one moved an inch in all the time the filly had been there; Upon reaching the well and placing the crank, he was finally able to remove the key, it was very worn and old, he went to the door of the house to open it, the whole house was empty and dark, except for the fireplace that was on.

"... where is she?" the filly wondered.

It was strange, the mare was not there, but the strangest thing was a smell that caught Sweetie Belle's attention, it came from the fireplace, so she approached slowly, standing in front of the fireplace, it went out by itself, revealing what that was burning.

"..."

Sweetie Belle was observing the corpse of a mare, the body was very deteriorated and it was not possible to identify it, since some parts of the body lacked meat, revealing its bones.

"... no... no no no NO NO NO!!!"

With that image in his mind, he decided to escape from that place as quickly as possible, it was no longer safe at all, he ran as fast as possible towards the ville, but something was wrong, it was no longer possible to see daylight, he crossed the last trees to enter the ville but everything turned dark, that happy ville called Sunny Town was now in ruins, was everything she had seen false? Sweetie Belle wondered with fear and adrenaline, she felt like she could run for days and not she would get tired, with fear she began to run through the rubble of the ville, the path was full of obstacles, until a
familiar voice resounded in the filly's ears.

"There was no other way...she was going to crash the party..." Gray Hoof said from the shadows, where her Sweetie Belle couldn't see him.

The filly began to run with more intensity, until upon reaching a corner Three Leaf appeared emerging from the ground with a black appearance with red eyes and mouth.

"The curse fell on her this night...she had her mark...¡¡¡she had to go!!!"

Sweetie Belle kept running ignoring Three Leaf, after continuing to dodge the wheelbarrows and barrels that were on the way, she found an even bigger obstacle, a closed path that was obstructed by a rock bigger than her, with all her strength she began to push the rock that was in the way of her escape, but the filly began to hear someone's footsteps behind her.

"Please... stay with us..."

As she listened to Gladstone behind her she kept pushing the rock with all her might.

"We won't let the same thing happen to you!" Gladstone exclaimed euphorically.

With tears in her eyes, the filly began to hear how that thing was approaching her quickly, so she pushed the rock with more force to get out of there quickly, as soon as she did, she ran towards the entrance of the ville, where two other ponies were waiting for her.

"All we want is friendship, don't go, ¡the others won't like it!" Roneo exclaimed with a gloomy and menacing look.

Everyone in the village had turned into black ponies, and they all had red eyes and mouths, Sweetie Belle dodged Roneo and Starlet, making it to the entrance, but another pony emerged before her, Sweetie Belle thought it was his end, with tears in his eyes he began to remember the happiest moments he had ever had, but something surprising happened.

"¡¡¡IDIOTS!!!, ¡even in death they don't understand!" Mitta exclaimed furiously.

It was the mare that was inside the house, where Sweetie Belle found the crank, but she didn't seem to want to hurt the filly, she was furious with the ville ponies.

"¡I should have protected her!, ¡But I made my decision!, ¡This is our eternal punishment!, ¡This is what we deserve!... young lady, run... ¡¡¡RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!"

With those words Sweetie Belle knew that she had an opportunity to escape, she began to run as fast as possible, the forest was completely dark, but suddenly it began to light up red, as if the whole place was stained with blood, suddenly the ponies began to emerge from the ground, Sweetie Belle dodged them as best she could, but the ponies began to chase her, the filly just ran aimlessly seeing how the ponies continued to emerge from the ground, in her head she thought that thousands of ponies were coming behind her with the appearance of the village ponies.

"¡¡¡STOP!!!" exclaimed the terrified filly.

Through tears, the filly demanded that they leave her alone, luckily for her, her cry for help had reached familiar ears; she ran until he couldn't anymore, the environment was completely black, the trees for some reason were no longer visible, just an infinite darkness, the only thing that could be observed were the red footprints that were on the ground, when she followed them she ran into a mare, the mare he was chasing from the start.

"..." Sweetie Belle watched quietly.

"...I'm so sorry...I didn't want to bring you into this, I was just curious." The little filly apologized for everything that had happened.

"A filly... just like me... but wasn't she a full grown mare?" Sweetie Belle wondered.

"D-don't worry... I don't blame you for anything..." Sweetie Belle answered.

For some reason Sweetie Belle wasn't able to get mad at her, even being with her was more relaxing than being completely alone, even if she sees that the ponies of the ville are standing there staring at them.

"Your cute mark, it's a magnifying glass, right?" Sweetie Belle asked calmly.

"Yeah!, ¡I'm really good at finding things!, ¡I finally know what it means." the filly exclaimed happily.

A full-grown mare doesn't fit in that chimney, the chimney was very small, so it makes more sense for her to be a filly, although it's even sadder this way.

"Don't worry, I'll find you a way out of this." The filly exclaimed with determination and innocence.

"Before that... what's your name? Mine is Sweetie Belle." Sweetie Belle asked with serenity and compassion, it seems that she already understood the story behind the ville and that poor filly.

"What a beautiful name Sweetie Belle, my name is Ruby." Ruby answered cheerfully.

The two fillies were calm, despite the fact that the ponies of the ville were slowly approaching Sweetie Belle, she resigned herself and stayed where she was with Ruby, thinking that the worst would happen, she was surprised by a small light that was flying over their heads. , suddenly that little light began to shine more intensely, until its brightness blinded Sweetie Belle, the little light was illuminating everything around her, until it went out, revealing the sky again, daylight had returned .

"¡Oh my Celestia!, ¡Sweetie Belle!, ¡¿Are you alright?!" Shadow asked very upset.

"¡¿Uh?!, ¡¿what happened?!" Sweetie Belle asked, very stunned.

"¡You got lost in the forest and I couldn't find you anywhere, even flying over the forest I couldn't find you anywhere!"

"...Didn't you search the ruined ville?"

"... ruined... ville?" Ask the foal very confused.

"You said you flew over the forest, didn't you? The ville isn't very far from here." Sweetie Belle said calmly.

"Ville... what ville?!" Shadow asked very angrily.

"The one who is-" Try to explain the filly before being interrupted.

"I flew over the forest thousands of times, I checked every corner of the forest, ¡and I didn't see any ville!"

Shadow Sky was very angry at Sweetie Belle's recklessness, on the other hand the filly seemed to be still stunned by everything that had happened.

"A-are you sure you're alright?" Shadow asked worried.

"...Yeah, you're right, we better get out of here." Answer Sweetie Belle, it seems that all her senses are coming back.

After that, Shadow picked up Sweetie Belle and flew her directly to PonyVille, Shadow had heard a cry for help a few moments ago, the darkness of the forest did not allow him to see anything, except for a filly that was standing looking at nothing. , she seemed to be talking to someone, but there was no one, Shadow believed that the filly needed light to stop being afraid, so he landed near the area where the filly was and turned into a unicorn, he executed a lighting spell to illuminate the area completely, that filly was Sweetie Belle, Shadow landed a little far from where she was so she wouldn't see him turn into a unicorn and she would discover it, with the spell cast Shadow transformed back into pegasus and went after Sweetie Belle , but before arriving he managed to see someone else in the distance, it seemed like the silhouette of another filly, but it was very blurry, but when he arrived with Sweetie Belle there was no one else but Sweetie Belle, Shadow sensed that it was not the time to ask him questions related to ghosts, so he omitted the filly that disappeared, or so it seemed.

"... Are you feeling better?" Shadow asked as he held onto Sweetie Belle.

"Yes, much better." Sweetie Belle answered as she turned to see the forest from above, trying to find that ville, but she didn't find it, Shadow was right, the ville is nowhere.

After a few moments they managed to reach the entrance of the forest, where they descended to land and continue walking to PonyVille.

"Ready, solid ground, time to go home Sweetie Belle." Shadow said.

"Yeah..." Sweetie Belle replied as she stared at the entrance to the forest.

"...How about we go eat pizza? That will definitely put you on the good side." Shadow said cheerfully.

"...hehe, you know very well how to put me on good terms." The filly said a little calmer.

For the moment he just tried to forget it, it was an extremely terrifying experience, it took him time to forget it.

"... see you soon... friend..." Ruby said.

With the innocence of a little filly Ruby said goodbye to Sweetie Belle from the entrance of the forest, disappearing in that same place, maybe everything had gone horribly wrong, but at least something good had come out of all this, Sweetie Belle had made a new friend.

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Extra:

Shadow and Sweetie Belle were walking back to PonyVille, until they ran into two of their friends.

"Hi kids."

"Hello Twilight." Shadow greet happily.

"Hello AppleBloom." Sweetie Belle greet happily.

"Hello Sweetie Belle, what are you doing here?" AppleBloom asked curiously.

"We come from the EverFree Forest." Sweetie Belle answered.

"Really?, Twilight and I are going with Zecora right now." AppleBloom said.

"She convinced you didn't she Twilight?" asked Shadow.

"Yes, she was very insistent." Twilight answered.

It seems that Twilight had promised Zecora to bring her some books for her potions.

"It's been a long time since she went to the EverFree forest, there's always something interesting in that forest." AppleBloom exclaimed with excitement.

"You know something AppleBloom, how about we better get our cute marks in beekeeping, this time I think we'll get our cute marks." Sweetie Belle said.

"But I want to go to the forest." AppleBloom said confused.

"Come on, think about it, don't you think some bees on your flank would look great?" Sweetie Belle exclaimed trying to persuade AppleBloom.

"Well... ¡you convinced me!, ¡Let's go for Scootaloo!" exclaimed AppleBloom happily.

"Haha, some things don't change." Shadow said.

"In that case I'll go alone, bye Shadow."

"Bye Twilight."

It seems that her determination to get the cute marks from her is bigger than that kind of scary experiences, while Shadow think this, Sweetie Belle is glad that she prevented AppleBloom from entering the forest, for her own good.
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Author's Note:

This chapter is inspired by the story and video game called "Story of the Blanks" by the creator "Donitz", despite the fact that this chapter is Canonical in the world of Shadow Sky, credits must also be given to the original creator of the "main idea" of the chapter.
This is just a chapter that seeks to pay homage to one of the most famous stories created by the brony fandom more than 11 years ago, just as I did with Story of the Blanks, I would also like to do it with other stories, always giving credit to their clearly original creator.

Donitz's NewGrounds page, (Where you can also play "Story of the Blanks"):
https://donitz.newgrounds.com/

Video of the 8bit game that Donitz made:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfA42w5nK8g