Dragonfire Flash rolled over on a fluffy, red-tinted cloud, cracking her eyes open slightly to see the black sun lazily sinking over the horizon as the silver moon raised itself over the mountain range behind her.
Yawning, she stretched her long dragon wings and flicked her tail, the fluffy tuft of fur on the end of it tickling her back as she did so.
She looked around. This strangely colored world with blue grass, purple trees, and blood-colored skies was the place Dragon called home. A pocket realm of sorts given to her by her parents when she was a young filly.
She Hissed gently at the thought.
Her parents magic brought together to give a present to their first born. To their heir. The next in line for the throne of the Socoltian islands.
Dragon rolled over again. They couldn't take away what they'd given her, even when she ran away from home. And so, she not only had the world bestowed upon her, she also had the responsibility that came with it.
Dragon's eyes slid over the sprawling forest below her, finally resting on a certain clearing at the base of the mountain.
This clearing was special. It was in front of a huge black door made of steel.
This door held the purest form of fear behind it's enormous doors.
A being called the Shade. It was nothing but a writhing mass of black that could separate and become whatever and how many ever it wants to be.
Dragon stood and leapt off of the cloud she laid on, gliding down over the trees and to the door, hovering in front of it.
She glared at it.
"Responsibility over you. Just what I need. I left Socoltia because that was what I wanted to avoid, but no. I have you now. Why can't I just be a normal mare with a normal life?" She snarled, doing a frustrated roll in the air.
She then looked over to her wings, tail, and claws.
She would never be normal. Not after her "accident".
Dragon began once more to flap, her wings carrying her up past the golden-yellow rocks of the mountain until she came to a dark cave, and stepped in.
It was warm of course, just like the rest of the little pocket dimension. It had to be warm, for she was cold-blooded.
She walked further until she came to a dark blue door imbedded in the rock. Opening it, she stepped into her room.
Trotting over to her large bed, she grabbed the familiar black cloak that she wore whenever she left her realm.
Her green magic glowed in the darkness as she lifted it.
She turned to leave, but before she could, Dragon heard a quiet roar behind her, and she turned to see a handsome black lion with glowing red feathers and blue markings along his body, slink out of the darkness.
He padded up to Dragon, putting his head under her wing, and grabbing her leg with his large paw.
Dragon smiled, her sharp teeth glinting red from the glow of his feathers.
"Oh Shadow. Calm down. I won't abandon you my sweet little lion cub. I'm just going out to hunt my child." She purred to the distressed animal.
Shadow looked up at Dragon with determination in his gold eyes as he shrunk down to barely the size of a filly's hoof, then jumped into a pocket of dragon's cloak.
"Oh no you don't you goofy little lion you. I need you to stay here and guard the door. You know that." She said gently as she reached in and pulled the tiny Sphinx out by the scruff of his neck, careful not to bite too hard.
She put him down on the bed where he turned back to his normal size and growled indignantly, looking away from the dragon mare.
Dragon chuckled and threw on the cloak, using her magic to secure it.
"I'll be back Shadow. Stay. Or your gonna be eating some cockatrice meat instead of manticore meat like me."
In response, Shadow gave a growl of surprise and flapped his wings in distress, gnashing his teeth and shaking his head, his fluffy mane going everywhere as he did so.
Dragon laughed once more and left the den, and dived off the edge of the cliff that she'd carved it out of, straight into the forest, whose glow was magical in the moonlight.
She flew through the thick trees with amazing precision, an accuracy that only someone who knew these trees by heart could accomplish.
She landed in a clearing with nothing but a beautiful silver door.
The white necklace around her neck glowed dimly as she stepped through it into another familiar place. The Everfree Forest.
It was true, she did indeed live deep in the Everfree, but for a good reason. It was the only place she could really go where she could hunt freely and get the meat she needed for her and Shadow.
She would just hunt normally, but sadly, ponies were afraid of her, as to them, she was a shadow pony in the Everfree who would kill you if she saw you.
Dragon stood in the doorway, lost in thought for a moment before kicking the door behind her closed and walking off into the dense forest.
?
I walked through the glowing forest smiling to myself.
I managed to slip inside just as Dragon slammed the door behind her. Had I wasted any time getting in, the door would have been closed on me and I would be locked out completely until she'd returned.
I eyed the sky cautiously. Though I was under an invisibility spell, I'd watched dragon a lot lately, and that Sphinx she has might be a problem. He is very sensitive to magic that does not belong to his master.
I spread my wings and flapped gently, barely gliding over the ground.
I went through the trees as efficiently as I could, however it was very difficult as the glowing trees were tightly packed together in an odd pattern, which made it quite difficult to reach my destination, which happened to be that large black door in the base of the mountain.
Behind that is my goal. My future. I will finally be noticed and respected in my status.
I opened my saddlebag and pulled out a large, intricately detailed stone and a book.
I smiled at the sight of the cover, which read "Myths and Legends: A Guide to the Lore"
Flipping through the book, I stopped at a certain page which had a large detailed door identical to the one in front of me.
Levitating the stone high above my head, I read out the words in the book.
"To the shade I pledge everything I have, Please, Accept my offering and allow me access to your power."
I stood, the stone floating there, encased in my magic.
I looked back down at the book, thinking I did something wrong. Suddenly, the door made a loud noise, a massive shriek of metal that forced me to cover my ears with my hooves.
Once it stopped, i looked up to see darkness. It was a deeper darkness, an impenetrable blackness that struck an irrational fear into my heart.
"Bow to me, pony." A loud and deep voice boomed from what felt like inside my own skull.
Immediately I did what the darkness asked, bowing so low that my nose almost touched the ground.
"Speak." The voice said.
I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn't. My voice was stuck in my throat. My legs shook, and cold fear gripped my heart.
"Speak pony, My patience is short." The voice repeated, the threatening undertone sending shivers down my spine.
"Please, I wish for us to work together. In return for your help, I will give you what you need the most. I will give you fear. Please."
The darkness roiled around me for a moment, seemingly considering my offer.
I trembled, a sinking feeling in my heart as I thought of the possible repercussions from angering the Shade.
"Total soul absorption. Being trapped forever in a perpetual nightmare." I thought to myself. It was a passage from the book. A passage detailing how the nightmare punishes those poor unfortunate souls who dare cross its path.
"What do you want from us pony?" The question broke through my whirling thoughts, bringing me back to the situation at hoof.
I stood, looking straight into the darkness as if I had no fear in my heart at all.
,"I need your power. All I want is power that could outshine even the princesses themselves."
"We cannot give you that power. We deny your request." The darkness responded immediately.
Suddenly I saw the Darkness begin to come closer, black tendrils of darkness reaching out to claim my soul. I felt the breath rush out of me as a crushing fear gripped me.
"No! Wait!" I screamed out in panic.
The closing darkness receded slightly in surprise and stopped, allowing me to talk.
"Ok, you don't have to give me that much. Just give me what you can. Please?"
"That is a rather large request pony. You will have to do more than just give us fear if you wish to have our power." The Shade said.
"I'll do anything." I said, dipping my head.
"We will give you more tasks as our alliance continues pony, but for now, you are tasked with either trapping or killing our keeper. Are you willing to do so?"
I thought about it, thinking about how dragon helped me on some of my research, and had helped me out once in a while with other things. I considered Dragon a close acquaintance, and for her the feeling was mutual. However, this was bigger than her. Bigger than us both.
"Yes. I am willing." I responded, bucking my head slightly
Immediately, the darkness around me began to swirl violently.
The shade closed in on me once more, but this time, not to steal away my soul, but to become one with me.
I could feel the collective fear of everypony in equestria brewing inside me, and suddenly I hungered for that fear. The terror that every foal, mare, and stallion feels when faced with something they were scared of.
That fear made me strong. I needed that fear. I wanted that fear.
,"No, the darkness wanted that fear." I thought to myself.
,"That is correct. To keep this power, you must get fear. We thrive on fear. You will get more power as we feed. Do you understand?" The shade said, It's voice powerful and louder than before in my head.
,"Yes I do." I said.
,"Good. We hope you do not break your promise. It would be a shame If you did."
,"It certainly would be." I muttered as I absorbed the final tendrils of darkness once again revealing the dark blue night sky in this realm.
I looked at myself. I looked different now. My legs were longer, my chest broad and strong, a form more becoming of an alicorn.
I looked around and saw the limp form of Dragon's pet laying unconscious on the ground.
"He tried to interrupt our conversation. I took care of him very quickly as you can see." The Shade said as I looked at the poor Sphinx.
"Indeed." I said simply as I used my magic to teleport out of this realm, a feat which would have been impossible without this new power.
As I did so, a small nagging voice in the back of my mind brought a question to my mind.
Is this really worth it?
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
Wassup errpone!
Heroes of Equestria is back baby, and it's coming in full force!
I decided to redo this story after reading it back to myself once again and realizing how god awful it was when I started it. I also changed up the content of the story, because for some unknown reason, I thought it would have a great idea to have it be a sequel to the original story, which really didn't even exist yet.
So now, here it is, Heroes of Equestria: Redux. So yeah. Hope you enjoy! And if you want to see the old version, go ahead and look on my Quotev. This link here ( story/7307442/Heroes-of-Equestria/1) will take you straight to the first page of the original Heroes of Equestria. Be warned however, it is baaaaaaaaaad.
So, yup, that's about all there is to it.
Cya L8tr errpone!
Notes:
For those wondering what dragon herself looks like, just go to the link, because that first chapter has a picture of dragon. I may put a few img links in the bottoms of chapters directing people to images of story characters for those who believe I didn't do an amazing job at describing them.
Shadow does not have a human face at the moment. He's more of just a winged lion to be honest. The only reason for this is because I can't draw human faces, and I don't want a lion with a somewhat human face until I can actually design it in a way I'm personally happy with.
? Is actually going to be revealed in a later chapter. This should be obvious, but I had a bit of difficulty with oblivious readers on this story, so just thought I might add this here.