The land has changed, been corrupted, and it's all my fault. Everything in Equestria has been taken by the Nightmare Energy, and I have to save it. I just don't think I can, even if I did find help.
"Half of the pony's pelt was dark white, the other pitch black. Her mane and tail were flowing in both directions, one liquid white, the other liquid purple. But when she opened her eyes I recoiled. One eye was fiery gold, the other slitted teal, and she spoke. She spoke with the voice of both Celestia and Luna. 'We are Nightmare Eclipse.' She yelled, her voice echoing through the castle. Nightmare Eclipse turned her head to me, and smirked. 'And you, must die.' " The princesses have been corrupted, turned into a monstrosity, and all of Equestria has been poisoned by the Nightmare Energy. Now everyone is darker, eviler, and much more powerful. All but those select few who avoided it, and all this done by one unicorn named ShadowBright. Now she must quest to save the world from the Nightmare'd princesses, but she couldn't defeat them on her own before, how could she defeat them now that they have the Nightmare Energy on their side, even with help?
I called upon the darkness of the sun and the moon and felt the power rushing into me, as Luna averted her eyes. I laughed, my eyes turning black, my horn growing long, and my mane and tail turning to flowing darkness. I aimed my horn at Celestia and started charging up a spell that will cast her into eternal darkness. Before I could release the spell, I felt a snap in my heart and collapsed. You can't control us, no one can control us. I heard the hissing voice from inside my head, and shook my head. “No, I have to, I will control you and release you when you have done as I command!” The voice, now turning into multiple voices, laugh. We will take you. We will own you and use you. You can not stop us, and those you call friend will suffer for your ignorance! The voices laughed, and I screamed. “No!” I pulled my hooves into my body and concentrated. My body returned to it's original form and the voices screamed. What are you doing? You can not contain us! I held the Nightmare Energy in for as long as I could, the voices screaming the whole time. I shuddered, not knowing how long I had held it in, and screamed. The Nightmare Energy radiated in a wave around me, hitting the princesses.
In place of Princess Luna stood Nightmare Moon, the embodiment of the darkness in the moon, liquid purple mane and tail flowing off her pitch black pelt, her slitted teal eyes staring at me. Next to her was something far worse. In place of Princess Celestia, the pony I was doing my best to dethrone, stood the most terrifying pony I had ever laid eyes on. Her pastel rainbow mane and tail had been replaced by a searing bright liquid white ones. Her normally amethyst eyes replaced with fiery gold ones, and her stark white pelt had darkened into a light gray, what you could call dark white. This must be Nightmare Sun, the embodiment of darkness from the sun.
But the worst was yet to come, as the two pure embodiments of the Nightmare Energy looked at each other, they joined each other. In a flash of magical energy, Nightmare Moon and Nightmare Sun had vanished, and in their place was the mix of the two. Half of the pony's pelt was dark white, the other pitch black. Her mane and tail were flowing in both directions, one liquid white, the other liquid purple. But when she opened her eyes I recoiled. One eye was fiery gold, the other slitted teal, and she spoke. She spoke with the voice of both Celestia and Luna. “We are Nightmare Eclipse.” She yelled, her voice echoing through the castle. Nightmare Eclipse turned her head to me, and smirked. “And you, must die.”
I fell backwards and shuffled away, Nightmare Eclipse matching me step for step, until I hit the wall of the throne room. Nightmare Eclipse stalked up to me and I screamed as she lowered her horn towards mine. I braced myself for death, but then I heard a pony blink, then heard it again, and Nightmare Eclipse vanished, her scream of rage on my ears as I was teleported away.
My white eyes shot open, my breath coming in quick bursts. It was just a dream. I thought to myself. No, not a dream, a memory. I groaned, the memory rushing through my mind again. I looked over at my black coat and black and white tail. Then up at my horn and black and white mane. I failed, and the Nightmare Energy corrupted the princesses. I went to sit up, but my vision started swimming, and I past out.
When I woke up, I was in a ramshackle house, and started to look around. Beside me was a black unicorn mare with a short gray mane and a gray tail that could be considered a stub. She had a red cat's paw as her cutie mark, but her eyes were closed, so I looked around. The house had only two rooms, the one we were standing in had a chair, bookcase, and a small counter across from me behind which there was a kitchen. Through the door to the other room I could see a single bed and a safe. From that door came a black cat with green eyes and no collar. The cat ran up to the black mare beside me and licked her a few times, before turning to me and hissing. I stepped back as the cat continued to lick the other pony, who was beginning to stir.
“Hey Bast.” She muttered, her voice sounding like that of a teenagers. Her eyes fluttered open, showing they were a blood red. She saw me and groaned. “Oh right, you. What were you thinking, challenging the princesses directly like that? Speaking of which, what happened to them? And who was that pony who was trying to kill you?” Her voice was confident and clipped as well, and she was glaring at me from the ground. “Well? I did just save your life so you should probably answer me.” I sighed and started to explain what had happened.
“I've been hunting Celestia for years, for reasons I will keep to myself. This most recent time I had those representing the Elements of Harmony on my side, but I left them behind to fight Celestia myself. I failed, so I tried to summon the Nightmare Energy, the darkness of the sun and moon, to gain the power to kill her. But I couldn't control it, and it was sent out in a wave, corrupting the two princesses. Luna became Nightmare Moon, and Celestia became Nightmare Sun, but they combined themselves, somehow, and became Nightmare Eclipse, who was the pony in the throne room.
When I finished she nodded. “That still doesn't explain what you were doing challenging them head on.”
“Well, I thought I was more powerful than them, that I could use the Nightmare Energy to beat them.” The black mare was still lying on the ground, and she snorted.
“There isn't a pony alive stronger than the princesses, especially now they are empowered by this Nightmare Energy.” She stood up and looked at me. “You never told me your name.” I laughed, a tight, quick laugh.
“And you never told me yours.” She rose an eyebrow, and I cracked. “ShadowBright”
“Hm, you looked a bit like Dark Hoof, the traitor who Celestia was training to be the new princess of the moon soon after Nightmare Moon rose to power yet who turned against her teacher, but I must have been mistaken.” My mouth dropped, confused.
“How do you know about Dark Hoof? Who, well, I was.” The mare looked at me confused, before sighing and shaking her head.
“Not even gonna ask about that, but I've broken into the castle multiple times, and I've read the history books Celestia hid away in her chambers and might I say they were very interesting.” She strode over to the chair in the corner and sat. “Sorry, but I don't usually have guests.” I nodded and sat down on the floor across from her. “My name's SwiftShade, but you can call me Swift.” I stared at her, then saw a small black cat statuette in the bedroom, which the cat, apparently named Bast, had just strode into.
“That's The Shadow Thief's mark! She's the most prolific thief in all Equestria!” I stared at Swift before I realized why she was smirking at me. “Are you her?” Swift laughed and nodded. “But you're what, sixteen?” Swift's laugh stopped short and her expression soured. She was about to make a harsh comment, but we saw something out the window that caused us to both spring up. The moon, which had been moving across the sky, stopped and moved backwards to the center of the sky. The sun rose from the east and passed behind the moon before stopping. What was left was a black circle with a bright yellow aura around it that wouldn't move.
“What is that?” Swift spoke, her eyes wide, as Bast stepped onto the windowsill. I responded with a disgusted look on my face.
“An eclipse.” Swift turned to me, confused.
“A what?” I laughed before responding.
“Turns out Celestia burned the books explaining that. It's when the sun and moon occupy the same space at the same time. It's only ever happened once before, when Luna refused to lower the moon.” Swift nodded, and looked like she was going to finish my sentence, so I started before her. “Which means it can only happen when the princess's are fighting, or controlled by something else.” Swift closed her mouth and glared at me before speaking.
“Fine, then what are we going to do?” I laughed, barely able to hold myself up and Swift's eyes narrowed at me. “What's so funny?”
“We?” I spoke with a barely suppressed laugh in my throat. “You're a thief and I'm a traitor. Not only are we just any thief and traitor though, we are the most famous thief and traitor in Equestria! There's nothing we can do.” Swift was once again about to speak, but I sensed a strong magical energy from the castle. “Get down!” I shouted, throwing a shield around me and Swift as we both dived to the ground. A wave of Nightmare Energy passed over the shield and tested my magic to it's limits, but it left as quickly as it came.
“What was that?” Swift asked, standing up as I stared at her.
“That,” I headed towards the door, gesturing at Swift to follow. “was Nightmare Energy. I imagine it was Nightmare Eclipse corrupting Equestria. However,” Swift starts trotting after me as I open the door. “It bounced off my shield, likely giving her a location. Meaning we need to leave, now.” I stepped outside and galloped down the alley, coming out on a side street before gaping at the castle. The castle which was all the way across Canterlot from me. “You teleported us all the way here?” I asked, glancing back at Swift, who was panting behind me. She nodded, smirking as Bast padded silently next to her.
“As you said, I'm the Shadow Thief. However that much of a long-range teleport drained all my energy. That means any magic that needs to be done, has to be done by you.” I groaned and nodded, heading to the train station. Just before we got to the train station, we heard guards shout behind us.
“Stop, traitor!” I looked behind me to see a dark version of Celestia's guards chasing me and Swift, and the station closed down ahead of us. I noticed that their were no airships in the port and that a small black circle was spreading from the castle.
“We need to go, NOW!” Swift and I galloped to the edge of Canterlot and looked over the side.
“But I can't use magic, and that's a really long teleport. I'm not sure if I could do that, let alone you.” I grinned and cast a spell, hovering me into the air, and Swift's eyes widened. “What? No no no, we are not jumping.” I laughed, wrapping my hooves around her as Bast jumped onto my back, and plunged off the side of the city. “I hate heights!” The wind took Swift's words all the way up to Canterlot so I could barely hear them as I struggled to float us gently towards the ground.
It turned out that floating hundreds of feet to the ground with only your magic was much harder than it seems, especially with a screaming unicorn wrapped in your hooves, and a cat with his claws latched into you. Despite Swift's constant screams and Bast's claws in my back, we made it to the ground safely. I released Swift, who stumbled away, trembling. “That,” she paused, gasping for air, “was awful. Don't ever make me do that again.” My face was flushed and I had a huge smile on my face. I was about to comment about her fear of heights, until I realized where we were. I gaped at the mountainside underneath Canterlot. “What is it?” Swift barked at me, but I only pointed towards the mountainside. Swift followed my hoof, and her mouth dropped open.
In the mountain was a large cave opening, leading to a multitude of dark passageways and areas the limited light from the eclipse couldn't reach. I closed my mouth and grinned, speaking with a high note in my voice. “We can rest here, maybe weather the storm of Nightmare Eclipse's wrath, gather our energy. I mean, that spell drained my magical energy, and maybe by then I'll have a plan.” Swift raised her eyebrow first at the cave, then at me, and I laughed. “Come on Swift, any pony could get lost in those caves and never be found.” Swift joined my laugh, speaking in the same teenage tone I heard when she first spoke.
“Especially two black ponies like us, right?” She nudged my shoulder and I nudged hers before treading into the cave, giggling.
We stayed in the cave for three months, grazing on the grass outside and using the springs we found in the cave for water. We only left when the Nightmare versions, as I had taken to calling the ponies corrupted by the Nightmare Energy, of the Solar and Lunar Guard stopped heading off in search of us. “So what's the plan Shadow?” I heard Swift's voice from behind me and jumped. These past three months we learned a lot about each other, and I'd almost forgotten she was a thief. She learned a bit more of my history, for instance that the way I looked now was not the same as how I looked when I was training to be the princess of the moon, and how I came to know Twilight and her friends, and I learned that she really is sixteen, but doesn't remember anything before four years ago, not even how she got her cutie mark.
“The only thing I can think of is that if my friends got corrupted, then maybe their Elements of Harmony got corrupted as well. I think,” I paused, gazing outside the cave. “I think we have to go to, or in my case return to, Ponyville, and figure out a way to uncorrupt the six of them. Maybe then we can either use the Elements of Harmony or the Nightmare versions of them.” Swift nodded, and we strode out of the cave together, galloping towards Ponyville.
“Was this forest here before?” Swift spoke as we traveled into a dark forest between Canterlot and Ponyville.
“Not that I know of...how weird.” I responded, lighting my horn to cast light, and Swift snorted, drawing my eyes. “What?”
“A light spell, that's all you can do?” I nodded slowly, drawing another snort. “Put that pitiful thing out Shadow, and let me handle this.” I glared, and canceled the spell, waiting for whatever Swift was planning. I stared into the darkness of the forest until it seemed to light up as though the sun were shining in it. I looked over at Swift, who had a black glow fading from her horn. She looked at my shocked face and laughed. “I didn't light up the whole forest, I only used a night-vision spell on the two of us.” I stepped forward before hearing a grunt behind me. I looked at Swift, who was gesturing at me with a hoof, pretending to be fine. However, I saw her legs shaking and she was having trouble moving forward.
“Are you okay?” She nodded and stepped forward, but let out a huge breath and her knees buckled, dropping her to the forest floor. “You don't look fine, we can rest if we need to.” Swift shook her head
“Nah, by the time I get to the point where I'm perfectly fine the spell will have worn off.” She stood and walked forward slowly, barely able to hold herself. “I've been in Canterlot for so long, I forgot how little magical energy I actually have.” I rose my eyebrows at her as she slowly sped up.
“What do you mean?” Swift laughed again before speaking.
“Canterlot is a magical nexus, allowing me to use much more magic than I would be normally capable of, and the castle is an even greater nexus, so breaking in there is pitifully easy as I have almost unlimited access to my magic. Now that we're out of Canterlot my magical ability has been...” She pursed her lips before continuing. “lowered from what I'm used to. I'm sure I can handle this, I just need to get used to my stunted energy pool.” I nodded and we went ahead slowly, Swift's pace quickened as we walked ahead, and the forest slowly started to darken around me.
“Swift, what's wrong with the night-vision spell?” Swift's head cocked as she stared at me in confusion.
“Nothing, why?” She asked me, but before I could say anything, everything got completely dark around us, and Swift went into a fighting stance. “What in Equestria is going on here?” I heard her horn start to glow, and she gasped. “The night-vision spell's still fine, this darkness is magical. I think it's an ambush, or a trap, Shadow. Bast, go back to Canterlot, now!” I stared in the direction from which I heard her voice and heard a light pawing across the ground which I assumed was Bast running back to Canterlot. I was about to speak before I heard a new voice.
“Well what have we here? Some Nightmare spy's?” I stepped away from the voice, only to feel a heat behind me. I screamed and blinked, appearing back where I started. The magical darkness had lifted, at least up to the point where black flames were sprouting from the ground. I heard that voice laugh before speaking once again. “What's wrong spy, never felt a flame before?” I saw Swift with her eyes closed tilting her head as the voice spoke, a single bead of sweat trailing down her face, before growling.
“I can't find her, she's not making enough noise, and she's moving around.” I sigh before staring into the dark flames and speaking.
“This is ridiculous, show yourself!” I shouted into the flames, blinking out of the flames. I bounced back from the edge of them, the flames singing my snout. “These flames are magical, the heat radiating off them is intense and I can't blink through them.” Again the voice laughed, a long and loud laugh, before speaking.
“Well that's unexpected.” I could hear a bemused smirk in her voice, and could see Swift trying to pinpoint her voice again as she spoke. “Your a powerful mage. Tell me mage, what are you called?” I glared around, Swift gesturing in a circular motion with her hoof.
“ShadowBright.” I spat out my name like venom, and the voice kept talking causing Swift to smile and focus at the ground again.
“Well then ShadowBright, I would be very interested to learn the story of how you became so powerful, and also the strange brightness of your hair, but unfortunately I don't enjoy Nightmare spies, so I'll just kill you here.” The voice sighed and spoke once more. “It truly saddens me that it must end like this, but once again, Nightmare spies just rub me the wrong-” Swift's eyes shot up and her horn started glowing
“There!” A bolt of magic shot from her horn and I heard the voice cry out from beyond the flames, which proceeded to lower to a couple black embers, flames sometimes shooting up from one of the embers. The magic darkness lifted and beyond it I saw a red unicorn mare with swirling black flames as a cutie mark. I heard a thud behind me and turned to see Swift collapsed on the ground before she broke into a coughing fit.
A magic attack like that must have drained what little magic she had left. I'll handle this myself I stepped over to the red mare, who's blue hair was spiked behind her head, and her tail was the same color and splayed back. A white streak was in the top of her hair and the end of her tail was the same color of white. She was clutching a bruise on her left side, and her eyes were closed. She opened those eyes, which were a fiery orange, and her left eye had a scar through it.
“Nightmare spies!” The red mare shouted at me, her eyes narrowed. “Just kill me, don't have your weak, slave throw sparks at me!” Swift stood up, glaring at the red mare before dropping back to the ground.
“Not only am I not weak, I'm also not her slave! That wasn't meant to kill you as we aren't Nightmare spies!” Swift shouted at her and crawled closer to me. The red mare's eyes widened before narrowing at Swift instead. I spoke before the mare could.
“Listen, you wanted the reason of my, as you said, 'bright hair', I'll give it to you.” I put a hoof onto the mare's side, ignoring the gasp it elicited from her. “However,” I ground the hoof into the skin it was in contact with causing a short yelp from the mare and a snort from Swift, who was still on the ground. “if you try anything while I am telling you this story, I swear I will end you.” With a small glare and a curt nod I launched into my tale. When I finished the red mare was wide-eyed, and she spoke in an awestruck voice.
“If what you say is true, then I must ask you, will you help me with my quest?” Swift's head cocked and I rose an eyebrow. The mare had a confused look in her eyes before she laughed, obviously realizing what was going on. “Pardon me, I didn't explain what I meant. My quest is to eliminate the Nightmare from this world, particularly Nightmare Eclipse. So I ask again, will you join me?” I laughed before speaking
“As it happens, that is our quest as well. We would be happy to join you.” The mare's eyes lit as she smiled, and her cutie mark's flame changed from black to white, and the embers on the ground as well as the flames shooting up from them changed to white as well. “My friend is named SwiftShade, and as I told you our story, and names, allow us to hear yours.” The mare smiled and nodded happily. I lifted the hoof from her side, and she stood up before speaking.
“My name is FireShard.” Swift giggled, before bursting out into a full blown laugh. FireShard's eyes rose. “Pardon, but what is so humorous?” Swift looked at her again and laughed.
“FireShard, as in The Great Flame, leader of the Circus of Flames, greatest pyrotechnic circus in all of Equestria?” Swift was staring at FireShard, who nodded, with a bemused look on her face. “Sorry, you just look so young.” FireShard glared at Swift as her cutie mark and flames darkened ever so slightly.
“Coming from the thief who looks sixteen?” Swift's bemused look changed to a glare and FireShard just kept going. “Anyway, as your thief said, I am, or was,” Her look soured, and her cutie mark darkened just a little more. “the leader of the Circus of Flames. That is until that wave of Nightmare Energy. I was putting up a wave of fire around me when it hit, and the wave hit my flames and surrounded me with them, sparing me from the effects. My flames however were not spared, and now they change color based on my mood. I passed out and when I came too, I was in this forest and I ran back to the remains of my circus.” A tear rolled down her face and she turned away from us. “My tent had burned down, which wasn't possible as it had been fireproofed, but there was too much ash for just the tent. Every pony in there died, so I decided I would destroy the Nightmare for what it did to me and my circus.”
I nodded and smiled at FireShard and gestured for her to follow me. Swift bumped into her and smirked. “We're going to Ponyville Wildfire, we need to get Shadow's old friends.” FireShard glared at Swift, but walked by her and flicked her small tail in Swift's face.
“At least I have something other than a stump as a tail, slave.” Swift glared back at FireShard, and I just laughed and continued walking, tuning out their insults and bickering, focusing instead on Ponyville, which I could see through a gap in the forest, signaling that they were reaching the end of it.
“And here we are, Ponyville. It's in such a sad state, being corrupted by the Nightmare Energy.” I frowned at the town, which was much darker than it was during my last visit, but I didn't see any guards around it. Swift stepped up on my right and FireShard stepped up on my left. “We have to get the Elements of Harmony back on our side. Otherwise we don't stand a chance against Eclipse.” FireShard gaped at me.
“You mean the Elements of Harmony. How are we going to fight them, especially with the Nightmare Energy on their side.” FireShard spoke with an almost defeated sound in her voice before Swift scoffed. FireShard glared at her when she spoke.
“Yep Wildfire, the one and only Elements of Harmony. We're definitely going to be able to get the Elements on our side, after all we have ShadowBright here to help-oof!” She grunted as a blue streak appeared out of the sky and tackled Swift into the ground, rainbow, blue, black, and gray tumbling across the ground. “Get the hell off me you bloody pegasus!” Swift shouted, a Trottingham accent bleeding through for a moment. I stared for a moment before telekineticlly lifting the pony from Swift, who was panting, a bruise on the back of her head. I gaped at the struggling dark blue mare in front of me, not sure if I was really facing who I thought I was. I spoke, and the mare stopped struggling in my telekinetic grasp.
“RainbowDash?” The mare put a smirk on her face before speaking.
I stared at the Nightmare version of my friend, who was still smirking at me. Her rainbow hair had darkened, her pink eyes had darkened into more of a dark rose color, almost like Swift's, and her coat had gone from a cyan to a dark blue. My telekinesis faltered for just a second, and RainbowDash was off, only a blue streak flying through the air. “Dammit!” I shouted to no one in particular, before seeing FireShard hurl a white fireball at the blue streak flying quickly away from us. “Careful! We still need her alive, you know.” Swift laughed and I glared at her, trying to dissuade her from speaking, but failing miserably.
“Yeah Wildfire, watch where your flinging your fireballs.” FireShard glared past me at Swift, and I sighed and stepped backwards, out from between them.
“Well slave, you should work on getting the proper accent, I thought you were a Canterlot thief.” Swift couldn't make a proper retort to that one, and I saw FireShard about to press on, but there were more important things than their pointless bickering.
“Shut it, both of you!” I snapped, and they both turned to look at me as I glared at both of them. “We have more important things than your petty feud. That was RainbowDash, holder of the Element of Loyalty.” Both their annoyed faces turned to looks of shock and surprise. “Hopefully she will be the easiest to uncorrupt, as she will be loyal to the end. Let's move on, before we lose the ability to.” Unfortunately, we didn't move fast enough, and a dark purple sphere appeared around Ponyville right as we hit the edge of town. I ran up to it and slammed my hoof against the sphere. “No!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, right as the six ponies who represent the Elements of Harmony approached, wearing just those.
The Elements looked different though, they were all darker, and turned upside-down. I was staring at Twilight's inverted star crown when she spoke. “Dearest Shadow, how kind of you to come to us. Eclipse gave us explicit orders to make sure you couldn't get into the town.” Twilight stared at me with a fake pitiful look on her face. “You see, you alone are no threat to any of us, and not even a washed up thief and a circus freak can give you enough power to fight us.” Both Swift and FireShard bristled but I gestured at both of them to remain silent before speaking myself.
“I have more power than you or Eclipse know, as do these two.” Twilight laughed at my words and FireShard summoned a fireball and chucked it at the barrier, which deflected the fireball and turned it into wisps of dark white flames. I jumped backwards, hearing Pinkie let out a high pitched laugh, and I turned to FireShard. “Watch it!” I shouted at her, “Twilight's the most powerful mage I know of, we aren't going to be able to break through this shield, particularly with her newfound power.”
“You know, I really think you should follow your orders, you know, be good to your mistress.” I heard Fluttershy coo, a smirk on her face. “After all, it's like Twilight said, a washed up thief and a circus freak can't do much.” I went to silence the two bristling mares beside me, but before I could even move, they both snapped. FireShard's cutie mark changed to black and flames rose from the ground around her. SwiftShade narrowed her eyes and pulled two small blades out of invisible pouches behind each of her ears. The both of them started speaking at the same time.
“I am not washed up!”
“Freak? Coming from the corrupted ones?”
“I'm the most prolific thief in all Equestria!”
“My circus was known across all the lands!”
“I have enough power to kill each and every one of you!” They both spoke the last sentence at the same time. But Twilight just laughed at them and walked away, waving.
“I don't know how you follow Shadow, circus freak. After all, she summoned the Nightmare Energy to Equestria.” Twilight tossed this over her shoulder before continuing to walk away. I shot forward, lighting my horn and pressing it against the shield, and saw cracks starting to form across it. Twilight spun around and sent a pulse through the shield, sending me flying backwards, landing on my back. “Impressive, but I've gotten really good at detecting intrusions into the shield, what with that pitiful Blaze trying every other day.” I went to stand up, but before I could, felt a tug and was pulled through shadows into a dark void.
“What's going on, where am I?” I spoke into the nothing, and heard a laugh from the darkness. “Eclipse.” I glared in a random direction, as the laugh came from all around me.
“Indeed ShadowBright.” The voice was so loud I had to cover my ears, and it seemed to come from every direction at once. “I have pulled you here because I may have underestimated you. You where almost able to break the barrier around Ponyville, which would not have been very good for anypony. I had planned to kill you, but you have an annoying habit of coming back.” I shot a bolt of magic into the darkness, but I never heard it collide with anything. Eclipse laughed once more before speaking. “But then I got to thinking, you don't deserve your power? You have no reason to have magic, so you should most assuredly not look the part of a mage.” The monstrosity of a pony appeared before me, lighting her horn as she spoke. “I strip you of the gifts that have been wrongly given.”
I screamed as I felt a pain in my horn, before all the pain, as well as every other feeling, faded from it. “I see no possibility of threat from you now, but even so, try to make your attempts at least interesting. Now LEAVE!” I felt another pull and saw Ponyville appear in my vision. I fell immediately, and the newly focused world faded once again.
“Shadow? Shadow!” I heard Swift's voice, and the world slowly came back into focus. Swift was shaking me, but FireShard was standing further back, staring at the top of my head. I groaned and brought a hoof up to my head, feeling for my horn. Swift grabbed my hoof before I could get to it and stared at me sadly. “Listen, Shadow. You vanished after being blasted back by that Twilight, and when you came back, well,” She sighed and pulled my hoof up to my horn. My hoof hit the top of my head, completely missing my horn.“you had no horn.”
“What?” I put both my fore-hooves to my head, feeling around but finding nothing. I tried to charge magic but couldn't focus it into anything.“Oh no. What are we going to do now? What am I going to do? I've lived my whole life with magic.” I reached back into my memory, trying to think. “We just, we just need to defeat Eclipse, that will return my horn, right? So, so we stick with the original plan.” Swift smiled and nodded, but FireShard continued to just stare at me, and I remembered what Twilight said. “I told you that I summoned the Nightmare Energy, and you know that it was a mistake. Please, I'm beating myself up about it, I don't need you targeting me to.” FireShard, nodded, but her cutie mark remained black, showing she was still angry.
“Twilight said a pony named Blaze was trying to get into Ponyville. We should find her.” FireShard spoke, and I nodded, standing. “She would have a camp, somewhere she rests after making her attempts at getting into Ponyville. That's what we need to find.” Swift glared at FireShard, but spoke anyway.
“If it were me, I'd set up a camp close to Ponyville, but not close enough to it that I can be hit by magic.” She looked away from me when she said that before continuing. “It wouldn't be in the forest behind us, as it's much too dark.” Swift looked around. A few moments later her gaze focused on a slightly less dark forest on the other side of Ponyville. “I'd say somewhere in there.” FireShard laughed, causing Swift to glare at her. “What is it, Wildfire?”
“Well slave, that's the Everfree Forest. It's one of the most notoriously dangerous forests in all of Equestria. I highly doubt anypony would make camp in that accursed forest.” Swift glared at FireShard, but before she could retort back, I stepped between them.
“Now's not the time, quiet.” They both glared at me, and I gestured at Swift. “I think Swift's right, we should at least look in the Everfree Forest. After all, this Blaze pony is the best chance we have to get into Ponyville. Now, let's go. I'd say it's easiest to find her in daylight, but,” I gestured at the unmoving eclipse in the sky. “daylight isn't exactly a thing anymore. So I'll just say that time's ticking away.” I trotted towards the forest, Swift trotting next to me, while FireShard followed behind.
“Listen, Shadow,” Swift put a hoof on my side. “no matter what Wildfire thinks, I certainly don't blame you. Everypony makes mistakes, I know I've made my fair share.” I nodded, pulling away, acutely aware that it truly was my fault.
“Let's just find Blaze. Then we can worry about my mistakes.” Swift nodded, pulling ahead of me. The Everfree Forest surrounded us, and I spoke slowly. “Come on, I don't want to spend any more time without magic than I can.” FireShard and Swift flanked me as we traveled deeper into the forest.