Ponywatching

by ThunderTempest

Prompt #515-Return Visit

Twilight Sparkle wandered through the Everfree forest, her empty saddlebags gently flapping with her movements, as she made her way back to the Castle of the Two Sisters. While she hadn’t been able to find anything about the box the Tree of Harmony had produced when she’d returned the Elements, there were a great many books there, ancient and valuable, and while they had been remarkably well preserved to this point, Twilight was worried that soon enough, the rest of the castle would collapse, and take the library with it, and she wanted to preserve as many as she could.

Entering the castle again, she almost called out for Spike to keep up, but then remembered that he had declined to come, choosing instead to stay back at the Ponyville library, in order to keep that running, and his assistance was not needed. As Twilight walked through the castle, bathed in the patches of the light of day coming through the broken and shattered roof, she giggled as she remembered the antics of her friends a few days prior.

“Pony of Shadows,” she laughed, “What a ridiculous ponytale.” But as Twilight headed to the library, she missed the oddly darker shadow around the base of one of the columns.

****

It was several hours later when Twilight finally looked up from her work in selecting and preserving the books, and saw the setting sun out of the window of the study in the library.

“Well, I best get going. It’s a pity I can’t take all of these with me,” said Twilight, beginning to magic the books she’d been working on into her saddlebags, as the sun finally sank all the way below the horizon. Through a hole in the wall, she could, if she cared to look back up, see the moon rising over the other horizon. Out in the courtyard, shadows deepened, with only the pale, sinister light of the waning half-moon to give them form, and when she wasn’t looking, some of them began to move and slither across the ground, up the walls, and across what little ceiling that remained.

They coalesced into the rough form of a cloaked pony, and climbed around the walls, heading to the library where Twilight was finishing stuffing the last of the books into her overpacked saddlebags. The shadows abandoned their pony form, separating into thin, almost unnoticeable tendrils, and like this, the shadows crept into the room, blending with the actual shadows and the cracks in the ancient stone. The shadows observed Twilight as she finished her work, and magically levitated the saddlebags full of books onto her.

[Time]

As one, they then rushed past Twilight, along the walls and out across to the opposite wall, where they gathered and formed the image of the cloaked pony once again. Now sure that it had Twilight’s attention, the shadow twisted and morphed again, this time into words.

‘Thank You’ was all it said, and after Twilight had read it, they dissipated, creeping back into the cracks and shadows of the castle.

Author's Note:

Written for Prompt #515: “From The Shadows...”
The Prompt: the Pony of Shadows

Ehh...I don't like how this one turned out.

Comments

[Themaskedferret]

I think you did pretty well. This trope tends to need more buildup to really have an impact. Kudos for making the attempt.

[Starlight Nova]

I don't get it.

[ThunderTempest]

5066385
The general idea was that the 'Pony of Shadows' is a protective spirit of the Castle of Two sisters, and it was thanking Twilight for taking care of the castle. It wasn't as well executed as I would have liked, though.