Shadow Bandit
Stay quiet Shadow, Shadow Bandit thought to herself as she crept into the castle, one wrong move, it'll be your head.
Shadow had stolen a number of things. Between artifacts from the Crystal Empire to Star Swirl the Bearded's spell books. But that night she was about to pull one of the greatest, and most dangerous heist that any thief would dream up. Shadow Bandit was about to rob the palace of The Lord of chaos himself, Discord.
There's nothing to worry about, she thought, If I'm good enough to be given the opportunity to be an Alicorn, I'm good enough to do this!
Shadow Bandit was given the offer of being an Alicorn when King Sombra recognized her for her power over shadows when she was just a filly. With his immense power, he ordained her as princess of the Crystal Empire. Sombra originally thought that Shadow bandit would help him keep control over the Crystal Ponies, and maybe the entire world, training her to use the magic he could so he could take over all of Equestria. But instead she stole the onyx and black diamond mask that she wears all the time, which gives her more power and helps keep her powers under control, and a few of his magic books on Shadow Bending and got far away from the Crystal Empire as possible.
Though that time was now considered an old ponies tale, she remembered every day at the Crystal Empire like it was yesterday as well as when she ran away, but it seemed like a dream. She remembered the first things she stole outside the Crystal Empire, the pirate hat with the gold trim and a black vest with gold buttons and sued wings on the back. The vest was necessary; the first magic she succeeded in doing was making her shadow work to her advantage. Be it spiking out at monsters or ponies she mugged. But the main thing she learned was to make her shadow turn into a set of all black wings. So the all black vest helped induce the power of the wings. The mask was not just memorabilia to the Crystal Empire, she had a slightly faded scare going down her left eye. If not for the mask, she would have stuck out like a sore hoof. This choice was smart on her part, because King Sombra later sent out missionaries and bounty hunters to find her, with the definition "a young dark Unicorn with a scar on her eye". The hat wasn't needed, but she figured it would help hide her better.
She still wore the mask, even after the Crystal Empire fell. And she never the shadow wings spell unless she had to.
Later she wished that she would have stayed a little longer than she did, her coronation was the day after she ran. And she failed to know that King Sombra put a curse on the mask, whoever wore it was doomed to bear the curse of Immortality, even if the wearer took the mask off.
Shadow used her magic to create a set of beautiful, all black wings, crafted carefully from both her shadow, and the looming shadows of the night setting. She then flew around the perimeter of the castle, carefully shrouded in the shadows of the night. She saw one window open, and decided to use that entrance. Shadow saw that it was a bedroom. Still cover by the shadows, she kept moving and opened the door quietly. The mare looked over to see who's bedroom it was and almost screamed.
Out of all the rooms I break into, it had to be HIS room! Shadow Bandit thought ruefully as she saw the sleeping figure of The Lord of Chaos. So she carefully kept flying, still keeping her eye on the sleeping figure as she left the master bedroom. As soon as Shadow left, she quickly, and quietly, flew to the downstairs corridor near the main entrance. When she saw that she was long out of ear shot of the sleeping ruler, she let out a shaky, terrified sounding sigh, then started hyperventilating in fear for a moment or two.
"That went better than I expected!" Shadow said out loud while lifting a gold crown from the table into her all black saddle bag. "Fortune forbid if I actually woke up that sleeping chimera... Or draconequus... Whatever he is!"
And with that, Shadow went on stealing objects that looked like they were worth value. She made sure that she didn't make any noise that would wake Discord. She grabbed what could fit in the saddle back that she had brought and nothing more, it was risky enough going in there at all. But it was easier than she had expected. There were no guards, no guard dogs, no booby traps, no nothing. And Shadow knew enough to know that the creature wasn't married.
"Hate to meet the pony who would marry that abomination..." Shadow said to herself lowly, then stopped dead in her tracks when she turned around, and the lights suddenly turned on, "Or the pony who bears him a filly."
Shadow turned around to be face to face to a small filly who looked no older then three. She had swirly, hypnotizing white and light purple eyes, wild purple and white hair, and a pink coat.
"Who are you?" The filly asked in a sweet sounding voice.
"Ummmm..." Shadow stuttered, the one time she didn't have an answer up her sleeve. The filly then looked at her saddle bag,slightly overflowing with some of the houses possessions.
"Are you stealing from us!?" She asked slowly backing up.
"No?" Shadow answered shakily.
"Daddy!" The mare then yelled.
"Shut up kid!" Shadow yelled back, freaking out over the idea of Discord waking up.
"Da-" the pony was about to yell again before Shadow Bandit tied her up in her own shadow.
"Oh hell! I gotta get out of here!" Shadow yelled to herself in fear. As she turned to run to the door she ran face first into something. Please be the wall. Please be the wall. PLEASE BE THE WALL! Shadow thought to herself. Though she didn't know that the fillys father woke up immediately when his daughter cried for help, so when she backed away and looked up she saw The Lord of Disarray himself, Discord. The unicorn then let out a blood curdling scream.
"And what is it do you think you're doing in my palace?" Discord asked with his arms crossed. He talked in a calm manner, but there was a twinge of annoyance in his voice.
"Nothing?" Shadow said uneasily. Discord looked over Shadow and saw the filly that ratted Shadow out in the first place tied up and gagged with her shadow. His eyes opened wide when he saw her, then looked at Shadow with simmering hate and revenge in his eyes. But while he was processing that Shadow quickly tried to find ways to escape, there where no chairs, sofas, bookcases or anything she could get to, tip over, and use the shadow to escape with, for some reason Discord didn't have a shadow, like he knew what she was capable of, and the only thing the Unicorn couldn't do was escape with her shadow, there was a limit to what she could do. Right when she was accepting her fate, she looked up and saw a gigantic crystal chandelier hanging right above them. With that a plan formulated in her mind.
"What did you do?!" Discord yelled, he then teleported over to the small pony and knelt next to her.
"You should teach her not to be a blabber mouth, then!" Shadow yelled back quickly. She them shot a beam of energy up at the chandelier, and as it was falling, she then used that opportunity to use the shadow as her escape. She then transported herself from that point, to directly outside the castle. Shadow then did the only sensible thing; She ran.
Shadow woke up when the sunlight hit her face. She then immediately opened her eyes.
"Why did I just dream about that?" Shadow asked herself out loud. Thinking back on that escapade now kinda made her feel like an idiot. If there was one thing Shadow was good at, it was talking her way out of a bad situation. But, she's a heat-of-the-moment type of pony, which sometimes made life a bit more difficult than it ought to be.
She then got out of bed and stretched, then shadow traveled into Screwballs room. She used her artificial wings to stay of the ground when she landed. When she saw that the spawn of Discord was still sound asleep, she quickly left. She then went to Discords room to see if he was up, which he wasn't. Then she transported into a lawn chair on the outside patio and started looking at the sky.
"Why am I always the first one awake?" Shadow asked herself ruefully. She remembered when she first arrived at the castle. When she and Screwball started to get along, Screwball was always the first one up, and hen woke her up. Though that was a year and a half ago. Nowadays it usually alternated between the small family, sometimes Discord and sometimes Screwball. But most of the time it was Discord who woke up after Shadow did.
"You're more sensitive to light than me or daddy." A small voice said behind her.
"Still, it gets annoying." Shadow said, turning towards the small earth pony, who was rubbing her eye with her hoof.
"Is daddy up yet?" Screwball asked, stifling a yawn.
"Not yet, but he will be soon." She answered. "You okay?"
"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" She asked, shaking her head until she looked like she was well rested.
"You seemed to be pretty worked up yesterday." Shadow stood up to face the little filly. "Just making sure you're heads on strait. Considering the way you were talking yesterday. Where on earth did you get to thinking like that?"
"It's nothing, really." Screwball said, a forced smile was on her face.
"Screwy, do you really think you could lie to me, of all ponies?"
"Don't you always say 'it never hurts to try'?"
"Using my philosophy against me," Shadow said with a fake hurt expression, "that's cold Screwball, just cold."
The little filly smiled and giggled. The sound of her laugh brought a smile to Shadows face.
"I just feel like sometimes Daddy regrets having me..." Screwball said sorrowfully.
"What makes you think that?"
"Well... Like yesterday." Screwball be gain to explain, "Daddy can make thousands of Cotten Candy, chocolate milk storm clouds without really thinking about it. You can do the same thing, as well as make shadows do whatever you want them to do. You can even make wings for yourself and fly! All I can do is try to make things and have them blow up!"
"Kid, I had the same problem when I was your age. Though I'm a unicorn, not an earth pony, so it was a little easier for me to keep control over my powers." Shadow explained. Doing her best to try to comfort the little pony.
"You did?" Screwball asked
"Yes! But it took me longer to fully control because when I was your age I was given even more control over shadows. So it was twice as hard for me to keep my powers under control." Shadow said, recalling her hard childhood as King Sombras apprentice, "but do you want to know the difference between you and me?"
"What?"
"I didn't have a totally awesome foal sitter to help me." Shadow said with a smile. "Or a completely loving father either. You dad loves you, he sometimes has a hard time showing it."
"You really think so?" Screwball asked meekly.
"I know so." Shadow answered. After that, Screwball hugged her foal-sitter and then went inside the big castle. Shadow was certain Discord loved Screwball, sure he might have been emotionally constipated, but he did love his daughter, and he would go through any means necessary to protect his little girl.
After all, Discord did almost kill the young mare for tying Screwball up with her own shadow.
Shadow always told herself she was not a quitter, that she never backed away from a challenge, though this challenge was worth quitting. The unicorn continued to run until her lungs were on fire. She then stopped for a minute to catch her breath.
"Why don't I ever listen to people?! 'Don't steal from The Lord of Chaos' they said. 'Its the worst idea in the world' they said!" She chastised herself. Shadow Bandit then looked around the area she was in, making sure she was alone.
"Just breath Shadow, just breathe." She was still shaking from the running, she then took off her hat and shook her hair all over the place. Just as she was about to think she was alone and far away from the castle, she felt a drop fall onto her snout.
"It's not suppose to rain tonight" Shadow said, looking up at the sky. "Or at all this week." Another drop landed on her nose, this time she licked the rain drop that was falling down her face.
"Is that... Chocolate milk?" She asked in surprise, "what the..."
Just then she was looking at a Cotten Candy cloud, as soon as she looked at it, a clap of thunder came from it. It then started to pour Chocolate milk all over the rouge pony. It took Shadow Bandit a few minutes before she put two and two together before she recognize the discordant weather.
"Not the worse your going to go through, my dear." A males voice said behind the mare. Once again, Shadow gave out a blood curdling scream. Suddenly something grabbed her tail and held her upside down, shadow was then face-to-face with Discord.
"Now stealing from my castle is one thing, I condone your bravery with that, but tying up my daughter?" He then glared at her with his claws looking sharper that they did at first, "that I cannot forgive."
"Daughter?" Shadow asked. More to herself then the draconequus.
"Why is that surprising?" Discord asked in a slightly dangerous tone.
"No reason." She was about to say well you're not exactly easy on the eyes, but she managed to keep her trap shut. The unicorn then looked down focusing on the darkness that surrounded her capture's feet. Trying to figure out how she could escape.
"Who are you exactly? I'm familiar to every pony in Equestria, but you," he started while walking around Shadow, she was still hanging in the sky. "You I've never seen before."
"I'm no pony special." She said quickly. Discord then put his paw on her forehead, she then started to see scenes from her past play out in front of her. From the day she was born, to her life in the Crystal Empire, to going under King Sombra's wing, to escaping her first home, to her immortal life afterwards, to sneaking into Discords castle, then finally to the moment when Discord caught her.
"An immortal pony who is not an Alicorn." He exclaimed while dropping the thieving mare to the ground. "That's interesting."
"It's not that interesting." Shadow mumbled.
"But the way you use shadows to your advantage," Discord then got face to face with Shadow, "that is."
"So are you gonna kill me or what? What are we doing?" Shadow asked, now getting impatient and bored.
"I could do that, though I do need an advisor..." He then trailed off in a persuasive tone.
"Cause if you are, could you do it in a way that's not pai- wait... Run that by me again?"
"Look, I'm going to give this to you straight, I need some pony to help me out running Equestria, and some one to keep an eye on my daughter." He explained.
"Okay... Let me wrap my head around this... You want me around as an advisor and a foal sitter? Even after I bound and gagged you beloved kid and tried to rob you?"
"Precisely." He answered.
"Umm... Okay... But why?" Shadow asked, still skeptical about his offer.
"Are we going to keep going around in circles or are you going to choose?"
"What happens if I refuse?" Shadow then asked, while mulling over the idea of agreeing.
"What do you think will happen?"
The offer was tempting, but Shadow did swear to herself that she wouldn't go with people like King Sombra after what she went through. But then again he would supply her with a home, food, and power. But she still had her integrity to think about, and there was the fact she could never keep a goldfish alive longer than a year, so she doubted her abilities as a foal-sitter. Yes, the idea was like a tennis match going through her brain. She then finally decided, a devious grin forming on her face.
"When do I start?"
Not much I can say about this chapter
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