Unleashing the Shadowbornes

by Golden Scrolls

Chapter 13

As a light breeze blows through town, my eyes fall upon an alicorn that is as pink as Pinkie Pie herself. The mare’s deep purple eyes fall upon me and I smile softly at her. Yet, my smile falters as I see the pain behind her gaze, as if my very presence hurted her. The mare trots to me and hugs me rather gently, giving my ear a soft nibble. It takes her a little while to gather her thoughts, her tail flicking as she works on what to say.

“Hello,” She says softly. “I… don't really know what to say. I told myself it would be easy to strike up a conversation with you. I guess I was wrong.” She shrugs, letting go and motioning for me to follow her. She leads me through town, sitting herself down on a bench near a few shops. Her softening gaze falls on the ponies walking down the street. It then turns to me when I sit next to her. She opens up a wing and I shift in behind it. She turns her gaze back to the street.

We sit in silence for a few more moments. She then glances back at me. “So, you're getting married,” She says. “To a mare that loves you deeply. If it isn't too much of a bother, I would like to be the one to lead it. You're my brother after all and I'd like to make things right.”

Make things right? I think. But she… didn’t wrong me? The thought bothers me enough such that her ear flicks and she tightens the wing around me, as if she was sensing it. Her gaze softens slightly and she continues to speak.

“Look, Golden… I need to tell you something,” She says bluntly, causing me to turn to look at her. “It’s serious, and I don’t expect forgiveness, even from someone as forgiving as you. Or… so I’ve heard. A-anyway, this is about your past.” Upon hearing that, I tense up and a jolt of panic runs through me. Before I can say anything, she places a forehoof on my head and rubs it gently, before moving it to my mane. “I-I know, but this weighs heavily on my heart, as you can likely sense. L-look, throughout your life, I was watching you. I saw what she did to you, and it pained me far more than everything else I ever had to deal with. I wanted to go there. I wanted to save you so badly.” She explains as her gaze softens.

It takes me a moment to take that in. I lean my back harder against the bench and the wood creaks in protest. I look away, trying to search for any appropriate emotions inside me, but finding none. “Why didn’t you?” I ask softly. She sighs softly and shakes her head.

“My damn brothers and sisters stopped me. Said that I shouldn’t interfere and that I’d paint a target on my back. They didn’t want Silver to go after the divine order. In retrospect, I don’t blame them for that.” She sighs softly. “They had to lock me in my own dimension, Golden. If they didn’t, I would have scooped you up and took you home to a family that would have cared about you. N-not only that, but I… blamed myself-” She is cut off by a hoof being placed over her mouth. My eyes stare right at hers for a long moment before I remove the hoof from her mouth.

“No, don’t blame yourself. Don’t blame them either,” I say with a somewhat shaky tone. “Please. You thought about doing what was right, and so did they. Throwing around blame won’t solve anything. I can feel the sadness inside you.” When I move to hug her, she collapses into my forehooves and buries her face in my chest. I am met with the familiar warmth of tears, my gaze softening when I realize how bottled up her emotions were. Gently, I run a forehoof through her pink mane, a part of me marveling at how well groomed it is. I shake those thoughts away, focusing back on my current situation. “To be honest, I’m honored that someone out there cared for me. Would you guys have rescued me if I got closer to death?” I shudder softly and look away.

The mare presses tighter against me as she nods against my chest. It takes her a fair while for the sobbing to calm down, and even longer before she looks up at me. “G-Golden?” She asks softly. “I… w-we need to take you somewhere, but I’m aware that you have another obligation here. W-why don’t you get it done before I show you and b-before it’s too late?”

“Too late?” I ask, only then realizing what she meant. A-Ah yes, the rift thingy? The… thing Solacia told me about. Anxiously, I give her cheek a little nuzzle. She nods at me, teleporting away only to be replaced with a very exhausted looking Cyrus. He’s standing on the ground, pawing at it tiredly. I look down at him in confusion.

“What do you want Cy?” I ask, curiosity overtaking the confusion. He hops onto the bench and looks at me.

“It’s time, Golden. Everything is established and everyone below me agrees that the induction should happen,” He shifts a bit, extending a hoof to my side, then withdrawing it quickly as if the air around me was burning hot. He grimaces but shakes his head and hops off the bench. He motions for me to follow him, so I do. As he trots, he reflects on exactly what happened back there. The air was burning around him, He thinks. The air was… burning. I’ll have to warn the others.

Cyrus silently conjures up a paper, using his telekinesis to scribble a short warning on it as he trots. With a thought, he seals the envelope and teleports it away. Some part of that felt wrong to him, but he shakes it off when he notes that I would do the same for him. The safety of his race is paramount to both himself and I, after all.

Silently, Cyrus leads me to the Everfree. I was more concerned with my surroundings than I was with him, as they were far more interesting. Just before we get to a clearing, the pony from my dreams steps out from the brush. She looks at me and indicates for me to stop. I stop, glancing at Cyrus when he stops as well. He stares at the pony and tilts his head, taking a step toward her as she trots to me.

“Golden, I suggest you… wait for this, okay? You’re temporally unstable, and Cyrus senses this. This is not only a dangerous move to you, but it’s likely temporary. I don’t know what will carry over when the event happens. If they do this, then this will be for absolutely nothing.” This gets Cyrus’ attention, so he turns to face her.

“What are you talking about? What event?” He asks.

“Did you not sense it? Do you want an explanation, or something? Soon, Golden, and a number of other ponies will disappear. Why? I don’t know even though this is more or less my domain.” Solacia sighs in frustration. “My best guess is that some higher power decided that certain ponies didn’t belong here.”

Cyrus narrows his eyes at her, and I then frown. “Cyrus, she tells the truth,” I say with a sigh of defeat. “There’s distortion around me. If you have to do it, then make it quick and out here, okay? I don’t want any of them to worry about me, and I certainly don’t want to cause any discomfort.”

Cyrus turns back to me and sits down as he tries to find an argument against it. “They’ll feel bad about it.”

“And? They’ll feel worse if I came. They will absolutely worry about what they are feeling. You think that I didn’t feel the shock and suspicion when you withdrew your hoof from my side? I felt a vague feeling of wrongness too a moment ago, Cyrus. Imagine the suspicion, but amplified twenty times. That would not only be stressful for me, but it would interfere with the induction ceremony. If… if I were you, I would do it here.”

Cyrus pauses a bit, then looks toward the clearing. He sighs softly, then nods. “O-okay… okay fine.” Cyrus looks a little shaken, so I hug him gently.

“I’m sorry. I… I didn’t mean to be that firm with you. I j-just want what’s best for the race,” I look over at Solacia, whose gaze has softened a bit when I said that. She nods and steps back, which causes Cyrus to break the hug and stand up.

“First off, I’m sorry,” Cyrus places his hoof on my chest and I immediately yell out, a sharp pain coursing through it. The pain heads straight for my head, and the last thing I see is Cyrus’ face twisting into a look of horror before the world around me goes black.

---

Natalia’s wolf ears perk up as she hears the sound of a distant yell. She then giggles. Looks like the forest got another one. The forest does not like the weak. After a moment of elated thoughts, she focuses back on why she was actually here. She turns her nose back to the ground and sniffs. There was a strong scent of something foreign in the great number of tracks on the ground. With a smirk, she follows the main trail, only branching off to a much less utilized trail when she notes that the scent disappeared off the main trail. Her tail flicks as the scent becomes stronger the more she follows it. A few moments later, she halts when she hears faint movement to her right. She pads over behind a tree and lays in the dirt, slowly poking her head around the trunk. Her eyes widen as she sees a dark blue and blue-green tail disappear behind a tree.

Slowly, the wolf emerges from behind the tree and pads toward where the dragon is. She crouches down before poking her head around it. There was nobody. Her gaze turns to the ground and she looks at the flattened grass and snapped twigs. She follows the trail until it stops just past the tree. Confused, she sniffs for the scent, but does not find it after the trail stops. She tilts her head and sits down, any urge to attack or kill the target fading away.

“What? What the hell was that about? Teleportation?” Natalia stands, starting to pace. “No, that can’t be? As far as I know, dragons can’t teleport.” She sighs and shakes her head, finding it pointless to think about this further. Silently she pads back toward the clan encampment, trying to stifle the thoughts of the dragon. Why is this bothering me? She thinks. This shouldn't bug me. Stop it. Natalia growls and shakes her head, anger building up. The wolf turns to a tree and slashes at it with her sharpened claws. A scar an inch across and two inches deep is cut across the trunk. She snarls at it, then pads onto the main path. She shifts back to her pony form. Natalia starts to gallop down the main path after shaking off the feeling of cold dirt on her hooves.

When she nears the campsite, she slows down and stops when her ears perk up. Natalia immediately picks up on something strange. She trots into the campground and it is completely silent. The ponies that were taking care of the fire, guarding valuable ponies in the clan, and other nameless and faceless ponies are gone. Her gaze hardens as she trots around the clearing. Who did this? She thinks. Who DID THIS!? She stops and growls, slamming a hoof onto the ground. Angrily, she whirls around to face the one being that still existed in the clearing: Moonlight.

“MOONLIGHT! GET UP!” She yells, causing the Changeling to snap awake and stand up. He takes a few steps back.

“W-what?” He asks. “W-what do you want? W-what’s going on?”

“Just look around and then tell me what’s wrong.”

Moonlight looks around and thinks for a moment. “It… some branches are cutting into the clearing?” He nods to a few trees, their long branches poking into the clearing after not being pruned for a few months. This was unsatisfactory for Natalia. Her face contorts in rage and she shifts into a wolf. She slashes straight across Moonlight’s cheek, then tackles him and pins him to the ground.

“They. Are. All. Gone,” She says slowly and deliberately. “Do you understand? THEY ARE ALL GONE! WHY ARE THEY ALL GONE?”

“I-I don’t know, M-Mistress! I was asleep the whole time!” Moonlight shivers, fear coursing through him. Natalia stares straight into his eyes and searches for any deception. Finding none, she bites right at his other cheek. Moonlight tenses up and whimpers at that. Natalia then releases him from the pin.

“They were here when I was here. I was not gone for long,” Natalia drones, her angry emotions fading away to nothingness. “They had to go somewhere. Scour the forest for them, Moonlight. You are the only one that I have left and can trust. Go.”

Moonlight shakily stands and grimaces, turning and trotting away. “G-god damn,” He says softly. “S-she’s pissed.” When he glances back, he sees that Natalia is laying down on the ground. She looks somewhat exhausted now, so she decides to doze off. Undeterred by this, Moonlight presses on and heads to the west, unsure of what he will find.

---

Back at Ponyville, Marly trots out of Sugarcube Corner with the usual treats. She looks around, then shrugs and trots to the northern edge of town. Marly sits down and watches the townsfolk do their usual tasks. One pony that catches her eye is the pink mare that Golden talked to earlier. The mare turns around and looks straight at Marly. She whispers something to a nearby stallion, giggles, then trots over to her.

“Mind if I sit next to you?” She asks with a soft smile. She licks a hoof and smooths down a few unruly hairs in her mane. “I certainly hope you don’t.”

Marly eyes her and frowns. “An alicorn? Here? Uh… sure,” She says. “Why not?”

As the mare moves to sit down, her ear flicks and she momentarily feels a sinking feeling, as if something terrible just happened. The feeling surprises her, which causes her to sit down harder than usual. The mare grunts and rubs at her own flank. “The name’s Raikia. I’ll be the one to preside over the wedding. Two days, I assume?”

Marly nods. “And you are the one Golden met with?”

“Precisely. You’re a smart one,” Raikia smiles somewhat uneasily. “You know, I see ponies madly in love all the time. It never fails to make me happy. You two need to enjoy what time you have left. Treat each day with him as it’s your last. Do it for me… please?” Her gaze softens. “He’s my… brother, and it would suck if you two drifted apart.”

Marly tilts her head, then nods. “It’s a weird thing to request, but I’ll try my best to fulfil it. By the way, shouldn’t he have been back by now?”

Raikia’s gaze softens as she glances away. She knew something was wrong, and it involved Golden, but she wasn’t even sure what it was. Rai turns her gaze back to Marly. “He’s probably… preparing things for the wedding.” At least… I hope. The mare swallows nervously, then relaxes as she notices Marly relaxing. She seemed to have bought the excuse. Raikia could not bring herself to tell Marly that something terrible happened to the stallion that Marly loves. “Tell me, is the wedding date flexible?”

Marly shrugs, popping a muffin into her mouth. “It’s small and should be set up really quickly. Yeah, I guess. Why?”

“Just… wondering.” Raikia pats at Marly’s head. “It pays to be flexible. I won’t ask anything else.” She shakes her head softly and she stands.

“Hey, thanks for doing this,” Marly says. She only gets a nod before the pink alicorn trots away. Her body language suggests that the mare left relatively unhappy. Part of that does not sit well with Marly. She uneasily looks at her goodie basket.

What… what’s gotten into her? She thinks. The bad thoughts melt away when she bites into another muffin. Two more days, eh? Good. Marly glances towards the sky, pleased that Ponyville is free from the turmoil of the Everfree Forest, at least for now.

Author's Note:

Okay okay it's been way too long. The next one is the finale, so this one is going to wrap up relatively soon-ish. Sorry for the wait. A lot kinda happened here? Moreso than... most chapters haha. It's gonna be a bit painful to wrap up, at least for this installment, but it's worth it in the end.

Let's play the game of "How long will it take for the lazy-bum author to post the next chapter, and how long will the chapter be?"

Apologies for any spelling/grammatical/formatting issues too. It's almost midnight here hahaha :(