The Shadow of Equestria

Chapter 11

An Unexpected Turn of Events

So there we stood, at the top of that damned mountain looking into the dragon's den. Though, it did sound like a bad idea, it seemed like a good one at the same time. I had heard stories about dragons during my time spent in the night club. These stories described them as ruthless killing machines unable of being stopped. If I were somehow able to push this dragon into Ponyville, the whole town would probably be burnt down.

I sighed and began to walk forward, leaving Poison Spectre at the mouth of the cave, she being too scared to enter. About ten steps in, I heard her wings flap and saw her land by my side. I knew she would follow me. We went in deeper into the cave, the smell of smoke getting stronger and stronger. Eventually, we came upon a sight that astounded me. Piles of gold lay unprotected by even a single dragon. Jewels and expensive jewelry gleamed in the light admitting from the mouth of the cave. Small chests, with locks made of shiny silver, littered the pile every now and then.

"Wow." said Spectre. "If I didn't know a dragon lived here, I would have already gotten some of that treasure."

"Dragons are supposed to be very protective over their horde." I said. "I wonder why it isn't guarding it."

"Well, since he isn't here, I say we leave." said Spectre as she turned to leave the cave. She was stopped with the sound of something snorting loudly. She turned to see smoke bellowing from the dark ceiling of the cave. Two massive yellow eyes staring down at us.

"Looks like we found the dragon." I said as I looked up.

"I thought I could finally rest in peace." said a deep voice that I assumed was the dragon. "But a corrupted being, a human no less had to interrupt me. I thought your kind was long dead but I was wrong, you still come back to torment us so."

I rolled my eyes, a hulking beast afraid of a tiny human, how pathetic.

"We're here to ask a favor of you." I yelled up to the ceiling.

"And what's keeping me from burning you two alive?" asked the dragon as a small flame shot from his mouth.

"You could do that but it would be the last time use used that ability." I bluffed as I stared at the dragon with a serious face. There was no way in hell I would be able to take a beast like that down.

The dragon snorted one last time before lowering himself down to the ground, in front of us.

"What is this favor you ask?" he said as his head got close to mine. His teeth quite visible.

"My friend and I would find it in best interest if you would move your den to the mountain next to Ponyville." I said.

"Why would I do that?" he asked. "The last time I check, that cave was already inhabited."

"It's not now, that cave is 100% empty. I can assure of that." I said.

The dragon snorted and turned towards his massive gold pile. He then began to scoop up the gold into chests and wagons that were scattered about. Once all the gold was collected, he turned back to us.

"I will move in the hopes of not being bothered by you humans again. However, if you interrupt my sleep again, I will burn you to a crisp and eat your remains."

"Don't worry; I won't be bothering you again." I said with a smile.

The dragon then grabbed all of his gold and jewels and left the cave, flying towards the Ponyville Mountain I had mentioned to him. I gave a sigh of relief; if that dragon wasn't so afraid of humans then I would have probably died.

"Powerful, skilled in combat, fought the Royal Guard and lived, and successfully convinced a dragon to move from its den. You have impressed me once again Zhane." said Poison Spectre.

"Well, now that it is done, we only have one more problem to deal with." I said.

"What would that be?" asked Spectre.

"How am I going to get down this mountain?" I said looking over the edge of the cliff. The fall was an easy 100 foot drop to the trail we had used to get up there. I had climbed up from that point but climbing down seemed impossible. I looked over to Spectre and smiled.

"See as how you have wings, I have the prefect idea on how to get down."

She looked at me with a confused look before shaking her head.

"No, I don't think so. You find your own way down this mountain."

Needless to say, I had a nice flight down to the path.

"There's... there's no way." said Celestia as she stared in awe at the sight before her. "We haven't seen you two in 2000 years and here you stand as young as ever.

"But here we stand." said the figure as it knelt along with the other one. "Captain Agliss and Captain Yamato reporting for duty."

Celestia just stood there, not sure what to do. She hadn't seen those two in 2000 years and there they stand as young as the last time they saw each other.

"How did you two survive for this long? What... What happened to the other humans?"

Agliss stood and approached the two princesses, stepping through the fountain and standing before them. He wore the ceremonial armor that belonged to the human's most elite unit, The Valkyries. His short brown hair and beard still looked vibrant with youth. A scar ran down his face ending at the base of his neck, indicating a grievous injury.

Yamato approached the two shortly after Agliss did. He wore the same armor as Agliss, even wielded the same weapon. His facial features were quite different. He had black hair which he grew out longer than Agliss' hair. His face was free of any facial hair and scars. Clearly making a difference between the two Captains.

"We have survived merely because the will of our souls Tia." said Agliss.

"So you two actually used Soul Magic?" asked Celestia.

"Yes we did, we bound ourselves to those statues before leaving for battle. Little did we know it would be our last." said Agliss.

"Who were you fighting?" asked Luna.

"We were in a long war against the combined powers of the Diamond Dog, Dragons, and several humans that betrayed us and went over to the enemy's side. We never informed Equestria because we did not want to pull your peaceful country into a bloody war."

Celestia looked down in sadness.

"So we sat idly while the humans were wiped out because of this war?"

"No Tia, the war did not end us, our own curiosity did."

"What do you mean?" asked Celestia.

"I'll start by saying that Yamato and myself died in the last battle of the war. The betrayers were a powerful bunch but not a match for us. We fought bravely and died from our injuries. I received a nasty cut on my face from one of the betrayers. Little did I know that his sword was coated in a deadly poison. I died after the battle was won. Yamato died when his squad was mowed down by the betrayers, leaving him to fend for himself against six at once. He fought bravely but received a death blow to the neck."

Yamato pulled his armor down slightly to reveal a large scar at the base of his neck.

"This cut his vocal cords and has rendered him mute." Agliss stopped to catch a breath before continuing. "Before the battle, we had found out a way to store someone's soul in an object so that they may live on in that object. Knowing that we would probably perish in the war, Yamato and I tweaked the spell so that our souls would be released from those statues when we were needed most. Sadly, that time wasn't when our race was wiped out."

"What happened that caused the death of one of the greatest empires in the world?" asked Celestia.

"We were stupid and decided to dwell into Soul Magic after the war. Though we were trapped in those statues, we saw and heard everything that happened. Our lead alchemists and spell weavers delved too deeply into the Soul and found something horrifying. They found the darkness inside man, the kind of darkness far more gruesome than one could imagine. Interested in this darkness, the alchemists developed a potion that would bring this darkness out, believing it would increase our magical prowess. Instead of doing that, it brought out horrible things that should never be released. We saw men slaughtering their families in pure day light. Women throwing their babies off bridges into the rushing water below. We saw our leaders squabble over power and wipe each other out. This went on and on until no one was left. We caused our own destruction because of our curiosity." Agliss paused. "But now we're here and out of those statues. What has happened that made you two decide that you need us the most?"

"We weren't looking for you two specifically, we were looking for something that could help us and I guess we found it." said Celestia with a smile.

"What has happened?" asked Agliss.

"His name is Zhane Black. He first appeared helping the dark entity known as Nightmare Moon. The first thing he did for her was kill several of our guards. After that, he searched for the Elements of Harmony with Nightmare Moon but was injured when rubble fall and pinned him down as Nightmare Moon was hit with the Elements. We quickly retrieved him and took him to Canterlot to heal him and place him under arrest. Upon doing so, I learned some unsettling facts. I learned that he was a murder before helping Nightmare Moon. He escaped shortly after using the same type of magic that Nightmare Moon had wielded.

"I was distraught on what to do, how could I let somepony like him wonder free in Equestria? So I sent my guards to search for him and we couldn't find him. I thought he was just hiding and trying to let everything die down but that didn't happen. Two ponies were murdered very gruesomely by Zhane. I sent the guards after him and even confronted him myself but he managed to get away and made it out of the city. I fear for what he would do to the citizens of Equestria and Luna decided that we should come here to find something to stop him."

"But why come here?" asked Agliss. "Is one pony that hard to handle?"

"That's the problem, he not a pony. He's a human."

Agliss' eyes widened as he looked over to Yamato who simply nodded. He looked back towards Celestia.

"We will do the best we can Celestia. We will find him and bring him back."

Luna jumped with joy.

"Most excellent, let us return to the castle at once."

Two days have passed since I was able to convince the dragon to take up residency near Ponyville and Spectre is still mad at me. Oh well, she would get over it, it was the only way off the mountain. If she decided to stay pissy at me that her own fault.

This particular day we were sitting around Red's house waiting for him to return with news of the dragon in Ponyville. After an hour or two of waiting, Red burst through the door frowning.

"I have some bad news." he said. "The Elements were able to convince the dragon to leave this morning. So how, they intimidated the dragon to leave and before leaving he mentioned a creature of frightening power that made him leave his original den. On top of that, our plans are put on hold for the rest of the day, a bad storm has been scheduled for today and we must stay indoors.

"So you're telling me that six little ponies were able to make a dragon leave its den?" I questioned.

"I have no idea how they did it. I guess we'll have to find other way to continue forward."

I rolled my eyes and made myself comfortable for the oncoming storm.

Here's Chapter 11 for everypony, enjoy!

Alright, I have a few thing to say before you all finish reading this chapter. The first is that Agliss and Yamato will serve as the primary antagonist for Zhane along with Celestia, Luna, Shining Armor, and the Mane 6. However, I did say that this story would back away from the plot of the show and show several more aspects of the MLP: FiM universe. Although Zhane might run into the Mane 6 every now and then on a chapter having to do with an episode, no way will it follow the show directly. With this story, I intend to show how everything happens if Zhane were in MLP: FiM. A good example being how the dragon became a threat to Ponyville with its smoke. I plan to answer several of those questions along with posing new ones.

With that out of the way, I will not be posting a chapter next Monday due to the holidays.

I wish everypony a happy Thanksgivng and see you afterwards.