The King of Chaos
Chapter 9:
The Nightmares
I woke up the next morning feeling like I was missing something, then I realized that my watch was gone.
"I just hope she doesn't do anything crazy" I said to myself as I remembered how that Midnight had dragged me into Cayon, the capital of the underground Kingdom of Chaos.
I walked downstairs and found Twilight reading a book. I saw the title was something about Equestria's history but I didn't get to finish reading the title because Twilight hastily put it away.
"Good morning Black Sword, did you sleep well?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah. I feel like a king" I said with a grin.
She smiled and said, "Don't forget, your job isn't gonna be any easier when you're finally declared a co-ruler of Equestria. I've been a princess for a month now and let me tell you, its not all fun and games"
"Nonsense! They'll love me! I'm the only male ruler!" I replied.
"I know a spell that can temporarily change that" Twilight said with a devilish grin.
"Umm...no thanks! I'd rather not do anything like that!" I said and she laughed.
"Anyway, what are we gonna do today?" I asked.
Twilight facehooved and said, "Celestia and Luna want you to go to Canterlot and receive your next mission"
"Ugh, do I have to?"
"Unless you'd rather be filing papers and dealing with civil disobedience"
"No thank you! I prefer action" I said.
"I'll see you later, and don't forget to visit!" Twilight said as I walked over to the door.
"See who later?"
Twilight threw a book and I laughed as I close the door and the book thumped against it.
"That stallion is crazy" Twilight muttered as she watched Black Sword walk towards the train station.
When I got to Canterlot, the first thing I noticed was how quiet it was. Normally, this place is filled with ponies, but it looks like a ghost town right now.
I walked to the castle while keeping out an eye for any pony, but I saw absolutely no pony anywhere in the city.
When I reached the castle, there wasn't even guards outside the doors. I walked through almost every main room in the castle, the throne room, the kitchens, the war room, but I found not a single pony.
"Is it me or does this look really weird?" I said out loud to myself.
Then, I heard a small sniff from somewhere nearby and I looked around for the source. I finally found a small filly under a table crying softly.
"I don't suppose something happened here?" I asked the filly and she looked up at me.
"It's okay, you can come out" I said and I backed up.
The fully came out and I saw that she's a white Pegasus filly with a silver mane that covered the right side of her face
"What's your name?" I asked.
"My name is Silver. Who are you?" She asked.
"My name is Black Sword" I replied.
"Wait, aren't you the new Captain of the Royal Guard?" She asked.
"Yes, that's me. Now, can you possibly tell me what happened to Canterlot?" I asked.
"I'm not quite sure. All I know is that every pony was hear about an hour ago, then in a blinding flash of light, they all disappeared. I came here looking for help but everypony is gone" she explained.
"Hmmm...this is troubling. I'd better get back and see if Twilight is okay" I mumbled.
"The Princess of Magic?! Can I come?!"
"Actually, I would prefer to have you come with me anyway. I can't leave you alone in an empty city" I said.
"Yay! Thank you mister Black Sword!" She said as she hopped around in excitement.
"No need to say mister" I said as I laughed at her enthusiasm.
"Okay! So how are we getting to PonyVille?" She asked.
"Have to teleport. I was the only one on the train and they left as soon as I got off"
"Yay! I get to meet a Princess and travel by magic!"
I smiled at her insane amount of enthusiasm and cast the teleportation spell on the both of us.
"Ugh...I don't think I like teleporting" Silver mumbled as we appeared in PonyVille.
I looked around in horror as I saw that PonyVille was deserted.
"Stay right here!" I said to Silver as I began running through town looking for somepony.
Silver followed at a distance because she couldn't keep up, but she knew that I was deeply concerned.
"No! No no no no no! Where the hell is everypony!" I yelled into the sky as I fell to my knees in frustration.
Silver came up behind me and hugged me, which made me feel a bit better but I was still a bit frustrated.
"Is there any place that might still have somepony?" She asked.
"The Crystal Empire! Sorry Silver but we have to teleport again!" I said as I cast the spell on us again.
"Uhhhh...please don't do that again for a while" she said as we appeared just outside the empire.
I looked down the road and saw that there were still ponies here and I was almost ready to shout out in joy.
"Come on Silver! We have to find Cadence and Shining Armor!" I said and we ran down the road.
The crystal ponies seemed to remember me and stepped out of the way as they saw us coming.
I ran up to the castle in the center of the Empire and the guards looked at me with worried but stern looks.
"What is so urgent Captain?" One of the two guards asked.
"Canterlot and PonyVille are ponyless. The other Princesses have disappeared. We have to fortify the Empire and ensure Cadence and Shining Armor's protection" I informed them quickly.
"Understood. We will have forces patrol the perimeter of the Empire and search for trouble immediately" the guard said and he quickly trotted away leaving the other guard alone.
Silver and I quickly entered the castle and quickly found the throne room where we found a very surprised Cadence and Shining Armor.
"Black Sword, what are you doing here?" Shining asked.
"Everypony's gone. Canterlot, PonyVille, they're all empty" I said breathlessly.
"Are you sure? It doesn't sound like something my aunts would do" Cadence said.
"Trust me, everywhere is deserted. I searched everywhere that could hold that many ponies" I said.
"Well, what do you suggest we do Captain?" Shining asked.
"Way ahead of you. I already gave the guards orders to do perimeter searches and run higher security" I informed him.
"Who is this young filly with you?" Cadence asked.
"I'm Silver" she replied shyly.
"I found her all alone in Canterlot so I brought her with me" I explained.
"How come you didn't disappear?" Cadence asked Silver.
"I don't know. All I know is that I was scared and all alone until Mr. Black Sword found me" Silver replied.
"Hmm... I wonder if there's any possible reason as to why she wasn't taken" Shining said.
"That isn't a concern at the moment. My top priority right now is protecting The Crystal Empire until we figure out what happened" I said sternly.
"Agreed, but how do we fight whatever did this?" Shining asked.
I heard screens in the distance and we all turned our heads towards the balcony.
"I guess were about to find out. Silver, stay here with the princess and Shining" I said as I flew off the balcony towards the border where I saw crystal ponies fleeing in terror.
I landed next to a guard pointing everypony away from the chaos.
"Do you know what is happening? I asked him.
"Somewhat. There were believed to be sightings of black smoke similar to Sombra's so every pony is fleeing in terror" he replied.
I stared down at my shadow and it nodded its head no. I looked into the distance and indeed saw some sort of black mist, but it wasn't quite the same color as Sombra's, it appeared to have a purple tinges around the edges.
"Thank you. Now if you would can you get everypony to a safe place and have about half the guards keep tabs on them?" I asked.
"Sure, but what about the attack?" He asked.
"I will take care of that" and with that I flew off towards the darkness.
I dropped to the ground and slowly approached the dark mass. I drew out my sword that had been my guitar the previous night and the darkness seemed to stop moving for a moment.
"I know not what you are or where you are from, but you will taste my blade unless you tell me what happened to my friends" I said with a growl.
The mass swirled and shifted and began to take form. After about thirty seconds, three pitch black mares with red eyes that had the purple color of dark magic around the edges stepped forward and the mist disappeared.
"You dare challenge us?!" The first one screeched.
"We have not lost a single fight in more than a thousand years!" The middle one said proudly.
"We will defeat anyone who stands in are way, even some guard with more guts than are good for him" the third one stated.
I lifted my sword up to the throat of the middle one and said, "Try me. Warning: extremely lethal and dangerous. Will kill if necessary"
"You may joke but we do not! What chance does a mere guard stand against us?" The middle one asked.
I was about to reply when the other two pounced from the side wielding black swords made of their weird mist. I countered their attacks and whirled around for an attempt at wounding them but they deflected just as well.
We kept a back and forth motion of two against one while the middle made merely stood there observing me like a newfound species of some sort of bug.
We kept at it for ten minutes, ten minutes of thrusts, parries, lunges, and dodging before the two mares backed up, panting like two dogs sitting in the sun.
"You *pant* fight well for a mere guard. Who could possibly have trained you?" The first one asked.
"Nobody what-so-ever. I was born with my gift at swordplay" I replied.
"I did not detect any kind of magic while he fought. That was pure skill" the middle one said.
"Now that that is over! Maybe you cod tell me a few things" I said with a dark look.
"We are the Nightmares. The mares of the night" the middle one replied.
"So why are you ponynapping everypony? And what is your goal?" I asked.
"We are on the hunt for a lost ally. We only ponynapped them because we couldn't have ponies informing one another of our arrival"
"I suggest you release those ponies and give up your hunt. There are no ponies here that are your allies" I said threateningly.
"We followed the traces of his magic here. We know he resides here somewhere" the muddle mare stated.
"Oh really? What is his name?" I asked.
"His name is Sombra" they all said together.
"Oh, well I can help you find him" I said simply.
"Tell us where he is!" They demanded in harsh tones.
"I don't have to tell you. He's right here" I said as I pointed my horn at my shadow and it changed back I to Sombra.
"Long time no see" Sombra said.
"We've been looking for you a long time. Now we can band together to fight against our new enemy" the middle made said.
"And who would this new enemy be?" Sombra asked.
"The new King of Chaos of course. We can't have chaos under control by a single pony. Chaos has to reign alone" the mare said.
"Well, I hate to tell you this, but I can't help you" Sombra said.
"What?! You traitor! You dare reject us and hide as this guard's shadow!" The mares screeched.
"I hate to break it to you idiots, but this isn't any old guard" Sombra said.
"What difference does that make?!" They screeched.
"It makes all the difference. Especially consider I AM The King of Chaos" I said with a piercing glare at the mares.
"And having been on the receiving end of about half of his power, I suggest you do as he says" Sombra said.
The mares growled at me and Sombra for a few moments before one of them lunged at Sombra but I stepped in front of him and deflect the sword blows easily. The other two joined in the attack but they were more than evenly matched as I deflect attack after attack and managed to deal several gashes to them as they continued to try and weaken me.
After ten minutes of continuously fighting me and gaining nothing but chunks of missing flesh they backed away a short distance. They continued to snarl at me but I stood there defiantly.
"Release the ponies or you will suffer my full rage" I said as I hefted my sword.
"Fine! We will tease them! But beware King of Chaos, we will have our revenge" they yelled and disappeared in a flash of black.
I walked back to the castle with Sombra at my side which startled a good portion of the crystal ponies while the rest cheered their heads off and I couldn't help but grin at their simple assumptions.
When we reached the castle we went inside and I found the room where Cadence and Shining Armor were waiting out the attack.
"You brought him here?!" Shining said as he stood in front of Cadence.
"He wasn't the attacker" I stated as I sat down.
"But then how come he's with you?" Cadence asked.
"Because he's been my traveling companion for quite some time" I said.
"Well then what was attacking?" Shindig asked.
"Some dark forces who were trying to recruit him to help defeat me" I replied.
"I still don't understand. Why is he with you?" Cadence asked.
"Does it matter? He has been quite obedient since I met him and he is loyal and I don't intent to betray him anytime soon" I said.
"Fine. Fine. But what of everypony that was captured?" Shining asked.
"They have been returned to where they were and if so much as one pony is missing there will be hell to pay" I said.
"That's good. I'm glad we have you around Black Sword" Cadence said.
"Not a problem. By the way, where did Silver run off to?" I asked.
"She said she had to go to the bathroom. She should be coming out any minute now" Cadence said pointing to a door in the corner of the room.
Right at that moment Silver burst out of the bathroom with a smile on her face.
"That was so cool! They were all like 'We want Sombra' and you were all like 'it ain't gonna happen'. That was awesome!" She rambled excitedly.
"And how did you know what happened?" I asked.
"Well...I uhhh...noticed a window in the bathroom and I kinda flew outside and watched..." She stammered.
I laughed out loud and she smiled up at me hopefully.
"This filly is just like me. Fun, bit of a dare devil, and isn't afraid of danger" I said.
"Don't encourage her Black Sword. A filly shouldn't be doing things like that" Cadence stated angrily.
"And shouldn't you return her to her parents now?" Shining asked.
"Yeah, probably. Where do your parents live in Canterlot?" I asked Silver.
"My parents? Heck if I know. I've never met 'em" she said.
"You're an orphan?" I asked.
"Yeah, but I don't live in that crummy orphanage though. I live by myself on the streets. I ran away from that orphanage as soon as possible" she replied proudly.
"Hmmm...well I'm not gonna make you go back to living in an orphanage and I'm sure as sugar not gonna let you keep living on the streets" I said while I co templates what else I could do.
"Does that mean you're gonna adopt me?!" She asked excitedly.
"I suppose I could if you want me to" I said and she jumped up and hugged me.
"Oh thank you mister Black Sword! I can't wait to make all sorts of friends and play on the playground in PonyVille and figure out what my cutie mark is!" She said excitedly.
"Hmmm...I seem to recall that my sister knows a small group of fillies that ud dedicated to getting their cutie marks" Shining said and Silver got a look of pure joy on her face.
"Yay!" She yelled as she ran around in circles in anticipation.
Cadence gave me a smile and I winked back at her.
Sombra stood there looking like he was ready to puke from all the emotion and I laughed at his pale face and so did the others.
After saying goodbye to Shining Armor and Cadence we made our way towards the train station but but just before we reached the station Sombra turned back into a shadow and Silver gasped at his transformation.
As we got closer to PonyVille, I noticed that there was A LOT of ponies waiting at the train station and I figured that they're the welcoming committee.
"Silver, you're gonna have to get on my back" I informed the filly as the train pulled to a stop.
"Yay! Ponyback ride!" She said excitedly and fluttered her wings and landed on my back.
I slowly walked off the train and was greeted by everypony cheering and yelling me name. I saw faces I remembered from the crowd from back when I had done a concert in the middle of town and I also saw some faces I knew a bit more.
I saw Vinyl Scratch, Big Macintosh, Applejack, Apple bloom, Rarity, Sweetie Bell, Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Discord, Screw Ball, Black Star, and Twilight all standing there smiling and waving.
I smiled and waved at the crowd and they all cheered louder and some of them started yelling about a speech. The crowd pulled me forward and pushed from behind to get me all the way to the stage at town hall and I somehow managed to keep Silver on my back the whole time.
Once I was up in the stage the noise eventually quieted down and I began my 'speech' as they called it.
"Well, it's good to see everypony again. I felt like I was in a horror movie or something" A few ponies in the crowd laughed and I continued.
"Yeah, first I went to Canterlot to find the place deserted. I knew it couldn't have been a prank because all those high society ponies would never stoop to our level of fun" a few more laughs rang out as I continued.
"Cake back to PonyVille and found it empty as well. So I eventually ended up at The Crystal Empire and defeated the enemies there. I didn't even get a scratch" I said as I flexed my limbs and turned around slowly to show them that I had no injuries.
"So, does anypony have any questions?" I asked.
The crowd started rambling all at once and I stuck up my hoof for silence. "Seriously, one at a time ponies. And preferably raise your hooves" I said.
The crowd filled with hooves and I picked a random one in the middle.
"Just who exactly was the attacker?" The pony asked.
"It was a force of dark mares in search of making an alliance to fight against Equestria" I replied and received a collective gasp.
I picked another pony who asked, "Who exactly were these mares looking for?"
"They were searching for King Sombra" I replied and several hooves went down.
"Who is this young filly you have with you?" The next pony asked.
"This is Silver. I found her while I was searching for ponies in Canterlot" I said.
"Who are her parents and how come you haven't returned her to her home yet?" Another pony asked.
"Nopony knows who her parents are. She was an orphan who lived on the streets and I decided to take her in" I said and received a collective "awww".
"Okay, one more question" I said and I picked a pony in the back.
"What are you going to do if those mares or any other race tries to attack Equestria?" the pony asked and everypony leaned forward in anticipation for my answer.
"I'll tell you what I will do. I will fight for my country and defend it from whatever tries to attack. This is our land and I have dedicated myself to defending it!" I stated and the crowd cheered in happiness.
I walked off the stage and slowly walked towards the library while the main six, Discord, and Black Star caught up with me and began asking question.
Silver answered most of the questions for me and told the group a bit about herself.
When we finally reached the library most of the group walked away except for Twilight and we went inside.
"I take it you're exhausted?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah, I'll sleep on the couch and Silver can have the guest room" I said as I played on the couch.
Twilight told Silver where the guest room and the bathroom was and Silver went upstairs yawning the whole way.
"It really was nice of you to take her in. Most ponies would ignore a stray filly" Twilight said.
"Yeah, but I couldn't leave her all alone during that chaos. And I definitely wasn't going to let her live alone on the streets and I didn't want her to be miserable in an orphanage" I said.
"That just proves that you're a great stallion" Twilight said.
"Yeah, but I'll still try and be the best ever" I said with a smile.
"No pony is perfect" Twilight said as she walked over to me.
"So? Might as well try to prove that theory wrong" I argued and Twilight giggled.
She walked over and kissed me on the forehead.
"Goodnight Black Sword" she said as she went upstairs to her room.
(End chapter 9)
I hope everybrony enjoyed this chapter and will continue to read as I update.
I thank all my fans and followers as you all continue to read this story and my many others. If anyone wants to suggest a story to me I will gladly look into your ideas and give you full credit for the story development.