Sombra: The Shadow Over Ponyville

by Blaster Master

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

As a businesspony, Applejack knew better than almost anypony when somepony was trying to con her. She was at Ponyville’s bustling market area, doing her best to sell her hard-bucked wares. While Applebloom minded the stall itself (in turn carefully minded by Granny Smith), Applejack was busy negotiating with a caravan trader pony. Selling apples at the local level was good business, but Sweet Apple Acres made its bread and butter selling large quantities to other sellers. And this particular seller from Hoofington was being quite a tough cookie.

“Look, you give me ten crates and I can pay you twenty bits per crate, but any more than that and I might as well get them from Appleloosa!”

AJ pursed her lips. She knew that wasn’t true, that her apples were worth more, and sure wasn’t going to let anypony try to scam her out of her livelihood.

“Now y’all listen hear, ah understand y’all are tryin’ to get a good deal, but you ain’t getting’ those ten crates for less than thirty bits a pop!”

“Those prices are highway robbery!”

“Considerin’ the Apple Family is a dependable brand no matter where in Equestria ya’are, and the fact that every other orchard’d charge ya thirty five, I think y’all are being a mite unreason-!”

But suddenly, Applejack’s words died in her throat as a piercing scream rang through the market, followed by a lot more screams, and the sound of smashing wood.

“What in tarnation is all the ruckus!?” AJ cried aloud as she spied other seller ponies fleeing for their lives. Her question was answered as a melon stall was turned to splinters by a trio of Timberwolves smashing through it. Rearing up to their full height, with their teeth and claws gleaming, the wolves let out a trio of titanic roars. “Timberwolves!?” Applejack exclaimed “What are they doin’ this far into town!? Doesn’t much matter, somepony’s gotta stop’em before somepony gets hurt!” Leaving the terrified Hoofingtonian behind, Applejack headed for the wolves.

Applejack was no stranger to Timberwolves, having fought packs of them off from her cropland before. But then she had Big McIntosh, her big brother, to help her. And she wasn’t fighting them in a town market full of screaming ponies. She got right in front of them, her hooves spread, and her body low and tense.

“Alright ya varmints! Y’all are-!” before she could finish her threat, the three wolves coiled their legs and leapt over Applejack in a single mighty bound. She watched as they sailed a good fifteen feet through the air over her head, landed, and continued on their warpath through the market.

What the hay!? Applejack thought Where are they goin’? They didn’t even seem ta notice ah was there!

Taking off at a gallop, she followed after them. The wolves were tearing through town, scattering tables, smashing wagons, and generally carving a path straight through town. As Applejack caught up to them, one jumped onto a wagon full of barrels and used it as a springboard to leap further. He never hit the ground in one piece.

Suddenly a rainbow streak bolted from the sky like Zeus’ thunderbolt and slammed into the mid-air Timberwolf with nearly terminal velocity. The wolf exploded into kindling, showering Applejack with bits of wood and leaves.

“Applejack!” Rainbow Dash called as she flew into position next to the galloping Earth pony, “You want to explain why a bunch of Timberwolves are tearing through the middle of Ponyville?”

“No idea! Let’s just worry about stoppin’em fer now!”

“GOT IT!” and with a salute, RD put on another burst of speed, intent on slamming straight through the next one. Before she could, the wolf she was targeting suddenly jumped onto the roof of a single story house. Rainbow was, however, not paying attention to what was beyond the wolf and realized, too late, she didn’t have nearly enough time to stop. Living up to her hurtful nickname ‘Rainbow Crash’ the Pegasus slammed through the first wall, a second interior wall, and finally came to a halt in a crater on the opposite wall. Covered in bits of debris, and her body partially embedded into the wall, Rainbow Dash took a moment to lazily count the stars circling her head.

Just outside the Carousel Boutique, Rarity and Fluttershy were heading back inside carrying a several boxes each. While Rarity used her magic to carry the boxes with grace, Fluttershy had one in her mouth, four on her back, and a pair balanced on each wing.

“I say, Fluttershy, you’re quite sure you’re not overtaxed helping me carry these?” Rarity asked sweetly.

A negatory “Mm mmm” was the best the yellow Pegasus could manage with her mouth full.

“Oh thank you so much again, I absolutely needed these fabrics if I was going to get all my orders done this week. And that new scarf will look just divine once I combine it with my new-”

“RARITY! FLUTTERSHY! INCOMIN’!!!”

The shout caused them both to whirl around, just in time to see the Timberwolves nearly on top of them, less than twenty feet and closing fast. Rarity froze, completely nonplussed, her eyes growing wide with terror. Applejack was too far away to do anything, even if she had time to whip out her lasso. One of them was going to trample Rarity unless somepony did something. And somepony did.

Dropping all the bags, Fluttershy let her instincts take over; she dived in front of Rarity, stood her ground, and used her Stare. The Timberwolf whose path they were directly in screeched to a halt as semi-visible waves emanated out of Fluttershy’s eyes.

“STOOOOP!!” she yelled at the Timberwolf twice her height and weight.

The Timberwolf was momentarily cowed by the little Pegasus, but snapped out of it when Applejack suddenly tackled it over with enough force to send it sprawling. As the Timberwolf started to get its feet under it again, AJ reacted first and delivered one of her world-renown bucks straight to its face. It staggered back, dazed and hurt. It sounded off a piercing roar, unleashing its foul breath on the trio of present ponies.

“That’s quite enough out of you!” Rarity yelled back at it. She fired four magical blasts from her horn in quick succession. Each one hit a vital joint of the Timberwolf on each of its limbs and blew them clean off. The Timberwolf, bereft of legs, had no choice but to succumb to gravity and slam into the ground, exploding into branches as it did.

“Are y’all aright?” Applejack asked her friends.

“I’m quite alright” Rarity said, then turned to Fluttershy “I don’t know what I’d have done if you hadn’t stepped in the way Fluttershy. You saved my life!”

“It was nothing” Fluttershy said with a blush as she looked at the ground.

“It most certainly wasn’t ‘nothing’! I’ll have to get you a whole new ensemble!” Rarity exclaimed, accenting the last letter as she occasionally did “I think the least I can do is making you a new pair of boots with those-”

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash zipped onto the scene “Can we talk frou-frou fashion later? We still have one more of those things loose! It was heading that way!” Rainbow Dash pointed down a road.

“That’s Almond Avenue!” Applejack exclaimed “That heads towards the-!”

***

“Library,” Twilight Sparkle said, layers of annoyance thick in her voice, “Noun: a place in which literary, musical, artistic, or reference materials are kept for rental. RENTAL. Implying you have to bring it back Pinkie!”

“But I DID bring it back!” Pinkie responded with a smile.

“True, but I would have preferred it without all the stains on it!” Twilight nearly yelled as she held up the library’s copy of “Curiously Congenial Confection Concoctions”, which was splattered with colorful splotches. Pinkie’s mane deflated somewhat and her smile dropped.

“I’m sorry Twilight. I wasn’t paying attention and I got the book covered in frosting. I promise to be better next time, please don’t be mad…”

Twilight sighed “It’s alright Pinkie Pie… I accept your apology. Besides, we have more copies of this one. However, I expect you to pay for the replacing of this copy!”

Color and frizz immediately returned to Pinkie’s happy self and her face split into a big smile as she went back to talking a mile a minute “Thank you Twilight! I knew you’d understand, but I also knew you’d probably be mad about the book! You get pretty spazzy pants over books. Like that time I dog-eared all the reference books so I could double check them later and didn’t tell you about it.”

“YOU WHAT!?” Twilight Sparkle screamed in horror “Those are vital to the library’s collection! How could-!?” But she stopped herself half way into whirling around to go check the reference books when Pinkie Pie burst into laughter. In a few seconds, Twilight was laughing along with her, Pinkie was infectious like that. But Pinkie stopped in mid-laugh at a sudden ‘pinchiness’ in her knee. Pinkie Pie’s eyes dilated. “TWILIGHT!” the pink Earth Pony cried. But it was too late.

As Twilight was still in the middle of her laughing fit, it turned into a scream as the nearby wall of the library exploded. The gleaming eyes of the Timberwolf glared at Twilight through the dust, smoke, and debris. With a roar, the Timberwolf lunged at Twilight with its mighty jaws. Still dumbstruck by the sudden appearance of the wolf, Twilight would have never avoided the deadly jaws on her own. But fortunately, with Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie Sense, the cotton candy pony was alert and ready. She grabbed her Unicorn friend’s tail in her mouth and pulled her back, barely avoiding the gnashing teeth in time.

“TWILIGHT! RUN!” Pinkie yelled. Twilight tried to comply, heading towards the door to her basement, but a paw from the Timberwolf caught her across the flank, sending her sprawling into a bookshelf. Her head spun, she was totally vulnerable as the Timberwolf closed in for the kill. Pinkie jumped on top of the creature’s snout, then jumped off with a simultaneous kick, getting the monster’s attention for a moment. Pinkie Pie hit the ground, ready to be chased by the wolf, but was dismayed to see it kept its attention focused squarely on the stunned unicorn. She tried the trick again, but was kicked out of the air for her trouble and landed hard on the ground.

Twilight refocused, looked up and saw the Timberwolf looking right in her eyes. Not past her, or at some vulnerable point on her body to bite, but right into her eyes. There was something wrong in those eyes, something evil. There was murder in them, cold and calculated. She started shaking, trembling uncontrollably. And somehow she knew. She didn’t (and wouldn’t for a while) understand how she knew, but she knew in the back of her mind. The Timberwolf didn’t want to kill her for food, or because she threatened her home, or for any reason an animal would have.

It just wanted to kill her.

She was Twilight Sparkle, Celestia’s prized student, a leader of the Elements of Harmony, and a wise and capable young mare. She knew a variety of magic and had a genius-level intellect. She had been instrumental in defeating Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, and King Sombra. But none of that meant anything.

Because this Timberwolf just wanted to kill her and she was too afraid to stop it.

The Timberwolf lunged at her with its powerful jaws, aiming to sink them into her neck, when its teeth stopped a few inches short of her. Suddenly it was yanked back a little, and Twilight could see the rope lasso looped around its neck. Applejack held the rope in her teeth and pulled with all her considerable strength. The wolf strained against its restraints and went to swipe its claws at Twilight. A blue glow enveloped its left paw, stopping it cold, and a pair of Pegasi grabbed its right paw, holding it at bay. Rarity struggled, her powers at their maximum keeping the powerful beast off of Twilight. And Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy weren’t faring much better. At the sight of her friends, Twilight snapped out of her fear induced trance and her horn glowed with magenta energy.

“LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!!”

With a devastating blast, Twilight struck the Timberwolf square in the chest with a magical beam. The explosion blew the beast apart in a tremendous explosion as it gave one last howl.

When the smoke cleared, the six friends were scattered throughout the library along with bits of branches, leaves, and books. Twilight stood up first, coughing.

“Is everypony alright?”

“I’m fine! Not a scratch!” Rainbow Dash said confidently as she picked herself out from under some debris.

“Me too” Fluttershy said as she flew down from the rafters to help Rainbow.

“My coat!” Rarity cried in dismay as she tried to dust her coat off with one hoof, “I’ll need to get myself re-groomed after this!”

“I’m here, sugar cube!” Applejack said as she replaced her hat back on her head.

“Where’s Pinkie Pie!?” Twilight cried.

“Does anypony else feel a sense of déjà vu?” Pinkie Pie asked, “Wait… Nevermind, that’s my head injury.” With that, she fell face first to the ground.

“She got hit by that Timberwolf pretty hard,” Twilight told her friends as she lifted Pinkie with her magic “I think she may have a concussion. We need to get her to a hospital!”

“We can’t just leave!” Rainbow Dash interjected, “Don’t Timberwolves put themselves back together after a while? Aren’t we all still in danger?”

“Oh, no,” Fluttershy assured, “That’s only in or near forests. They use the energy from the trees to fix themselves.”

“And since we’re this far away from the forest,” Applejack continued, stepping on a loose branch with a dry snap, “These critters sure ain’t comin’ back. Look, y’all take Pinkie to the hospital without me; I gotta double back to the market and see to Applebloom and Granny Smith. I’ll catch up with y’all!”

“Alright! Catch you later AJ!” Rainbow Dash said as the cowgirl trotted off. The four remaining friends worked together to get Pinkie to the hospital, saving their questions for when they had more time.

***

Sombra reviewed what he had seen. He had put a little bit of himself into the three Timberwolves and taken control of their primitive thoughts. He barely felt anything when they were destroyed, but he did see and hear everything they saw and heard. He had followed Her aura deep into the nearby town, had faced resistance, but ultimately, succeeded. He now had a name to put to the aura.

Twilight.

She was the one to blame. She was the one who had to be an example. She was the one who had to suffer. But she wasn’t alone. She had called the others who had opposed his pets her ‘friends’, and now that Sombra thought about it, had seen their faces again, he remembered them. They were all in the city as well that day; hosting the Crystal Fair and keeping the spirit of the Crystal Ponies high against his return. They would all be made to pay for their contribution to his suffering.

But more important than their suffering was Twilight’s suffering. Sombra had the mind to understand that to bring Twilight down; she must have no one to support her. If her friends fall, so too does she.

For the first time in a long time, King Sombra made a sound. It came from his horn, and it was long, and low, and deadly as snake venom.

“TWIIIIILIIIIIIGHT…”

***

From elsewhere within the Everfree Forest, Zecora meditated, letting her mind be free. But as she did, she sensed a dark presence. Her eyes snapped open and she rose to all fours.
“This feeling that I had just now,” Zecora intoned, “Feels very, very bad somehow. A foul presence in the air… And soon, it will be… Everywhere…”

Comments

[Summer Dancer]

Oh my...