The Shadow of Equestria
Chapter 12
Controlling the Darkness
There I sat, not a thing to do, watching as the storm outside wreaked havoc on the surrounding plant life. Luckily enough, the cabin was seemingly untouched by the horde of wind uprooting trees from their resting places.
As I sat there, I couldn't help but think about my future in pony land. How was this all going to end up? I feared that my only outcome will be the same as my one on Earth, but hell, only time would tell.
Listening to the rain hitting the window I was sitting next to was soothing. A word I haven't had the fortune to use in the past few weeks. Slowly but surely, the sound of rain put me to sleep, as my eyes closed, welcoming the deep embrace of sleep.
My dream was that of abysmal darkness, one attributed to that of space only without the stars to shine their light. I felt lost again, this way probably due to my association of the darkness as a symbol of lost hope. However, darkness was now my ally; I had Umbra to guide me. It took just that to overcome my fear of this darkness for a short time.
"You're not scared of the darkness, are you Zhane?" asked the spirit now manifested as a cloud of black fog somehow illuminated in that pitch black darkness.
"The darkness is your ally now, you must learn to control. You must be fully reliant on your skills to manipulate it to your will."
The cloud quickly swung to my side, floating closely to my head.
"But first, you must allow yourself to become lost in the darkness. Lose that fear of being lost forever, which will not happen to you. For you are so deeply enveloped by your own darkness, there is no way you can be lost."
With that, the cloud was gone, leaving me stand there thinking about what he had said. Ultimately, I decided to take a step forward. If what Umbra said is true, I would be forever lost in that darkness. I trusted his words.
Once my foot had hit the ground, there was a loud echo as if I had stomped my foot as hard as possible. At first, the echo scared me but I soon realized that the echo meant I was walking on solid ground. Gathering my courage, I lifted my other foot and took another step. A loud echo followed shortly after. Soon, I was taking step after step listening to the barrage of sounds coming from every direction, like something was following me, closing me in.
I paused.
With that, the echos stopped as well. Only reassuring me that the sounds I was listening to were my own and no one else. With this knowledge, I continued on and on until I felt I needed to go no further. That's when the cloud appeared before me once again.
"With the sense of being lost out of your mind, it can now focus on accepting where the darkness would take it. The destination being power. Your mind controls what the darkness will do and only those with enough want and desire can control it.
Again, the mist vanished, leaving me to figure out what it had told me. I remembered back to how I escaped the castle. Umbra told me that I had to want his power to use it to my whim. I already had enough reason to wield such a power. I wanted to destroy the Elements, make them weak and frail, to make them watch as Ponyville burns to the ground. I swore my loyalty to Nightmare Moon and it would stay that way. I would retrieve the Elements and use them to continue Nightmare's agenda. I knew why I needed the powers.
Suddenly, my hands started to give a faint glow as a darkish aura flowed around them. My hands felt weird, they felt as if they were flowing with power causing them to shake from the pure amazement of such power.
"With want and desire now accomplished, one must know how the darkness can be manipulated. There are many spells which use the darkness as a catalyst. The ones you used in the castle were only useable due to my help. Those spells are far beyond that of anybody starting to learn to control this type of magic. However, you should be able to learn the basics quite quickly and expand from there. I want you to start by drawing your blade you acquired from the blacksmith."
I complied and pulled one of the combat blades from its holster and holding it in front of myself.
"Now I want you to force the darkness onto that blade. Let the energy covering your hands flow into the blade, allowing it to receive power as well."
I looked at the blade, now gripped tightly in my glowing hand. It sounded simple, pushing the energy from my body and onto the blade of the knife. I focused as I mentally began to push the energy from my hand. The only problem was that the process was draining me of strength. I had felt as if I had just ran a marathon and back. However, I kept pushing in hopes that the aura would pass over to the blade.
After a few more moments, I saw the aura on my hands start to slowly fade away until it was no longer visible. As I started to wonder where it went, I began to notice how the knife had acquired such a weird glow. That's when I realized that the energy had successfully transferred.
"You may stop now." said Umbra
Glad, I let myself relax as the blade stopped glowing. I holstered the weapon before looking back at Umbra.
"The spell you just preformed was a simple energy transfer. Dark energy is notorious for causing massive wounds unable of being healed naturally. Only a skilled healer can heal the damage done by that spell. However, the damage is not the only thing. The strain that is put on the user's body during this spell is intense. To overcome this, you must continue to practice this spell until its effects hardly you."
Umbra floated silently before continuing his lesson.
"The last thing you need to learn is how to project the magic in the form of a bolt. This magic bolt will be vital to you if you happen to run out of arrows or lose your knifes in a fight. It's as simple as forcing the magic out of your body, through your hands. The best part is that there are no side effects to this spell like the other one but use magic in general will cause you to tire. Now do as I have instructed and see if you can fire a magic bolt."
Just like the last spell, I started to force the magic back into my hands as I raised them up. At this point, my right hand straight in front of me. I did the same as the last spell and tried to force the magic out of my hands and into the air in front of me. After a few moments, the aura around my hand started to glow before launching a blast that sent me reeling back.
As I recovered, Umbra was already back.
I'm surprised that you are able to learn this all so quickly but I expect nothing less from a human. Now that you have the means to use this magic, it is up to you how you use it. There are many ways for you to apply it in everyday situations. All you have to do is be creative."
And as quick as the dream had come, it left in a blink of an eyes, jolting me awake. I sat up and stretched while looking around my surroundings. I noticed that the storm had stopped, leaving littered pieces of branches and wood all over the place. I stood up and walked into the main room of the cabin.
"Ah, just in time Zhane." said Red as he carried a large cage over to the floor near his feet. "Now that the storm is over, we can continue as planned. I have here a pesky little creature that is sure to cause some mayhem around Ponyville. All you have to do is release it."
"Where at?" I asked as I looked at the cage as it rattled violently.
"If you follow the tree line to the south you will find an open meadow that is frequented by a well-known animal caretaker in Ponyville. No doubt she'll find this creature, take it with her, and allow the trouble to start there."
I looked at Red and then back down to the cage before grabbing it.
"I'll be back in a ten minutes." I said as I walked out the door.
Sure enough, the flapping of wings filled my right ear, letting me know that Poison Spectre was tagging along. Without saying anything, I continued onwards.
Princess Celestia thought that the last two days would have been spent catching up on old times with her old friends. Boy was she wrong.
Ever since the two humans had returned to the castle, the only thing they, as in Agliss, have talked about was Zhane. They asked about his appearance, how he escaped, how he carried himself, how powerful he was. They basically interrogated Celestia as if she knew Zhane personally.
Only being able to answer some many questions brought a final conclusion to Agliss and Yamato. With which they brought up with Celestia.
"Wait, what!?" yelled Celestia as the two Oasis Captain stood before her. "You want to do what?"
"We believe that we could convince Zhane to return to Canterlot. We need only to speak with him, tell him that he is not alone anymore. That Yamato and myself are there to help."
"You don't understand." began Celestia. "He kills for the fun of it. When I looked into his eyes, I saw a monster on the rampage. I don't think that talking to him would help one bit."
"I guess we'll find out." said Agliss as Yamato placed a hand on his shoulder. "Did you find him?" asked Agliss.
Yamato replied with a firm nod allowing Agliss to turn back to Celestia.
"We have spent the last two days trying to track down his magical energy and we finally have been able to find him. We will deal with him Tia but I would not like to kill him. Although he may be a murderer, he is still a human and that makes him a blood brother."
Celestia sighed and nodded slightly.
"Just please be careful, I know you two can handle it but I have no idea what power he wields. Please be wary."
"We'll be fine." said Agliss as Yamato cast a circle around the two before the slowly disappeared in a blinding white flash.
I hope that everypony had a good Thanksgiving and is ready to delve back into Zhane's story. So here I present, CHAPTER 12. Enjoy!
Alright, so I'll my upcoming release schedule with those reading this. I will release Chapters 13 and 14 on the designated Monday. After chapter 14 is release. I will stop posting till the 13th of January. This is because of a combination of school work, work work, and other things I must do. I will type over the Christmas Holidays but will not post. This is so that you may enjoy time with your family as well as myself.
I'll close this out by saying that I have now been writing for one solid year and posting one this site. The only thing I can say is thank you to those who have helped me and those who read my stories. Thank everyone for good first year and may the next be better.
See everypony next Monday.