private Land of Shadows

[Umbral Noir 1,556]

(OOC: And so... it begins...)

 

After several attempts at waking up Vinyl, he finally shook her awake. "Whatsh going on?" she cried suddenly, before realising she was still at the wedding. "Why'd you wake me up, DJ? I wash having a nice dream!" DJ sighed as his marefriend still hadn't quite recovered after the cider. "What is IN that stuff?" he thought to himself.

 

As his mind wandered, he looked out over the vast stretch of Manehattan... and stopped. Something was wrong. Something was DEFINITELY wrong. He could see the tall buildings full of light on the skyline slowly growing dark, one by one. The lights were disappearing. Suddenly, he began to hear noises in the distance; cries of surprise, and some of blind panic. "...What...is going on?" Then his eyes widened as a sudden realisation hit him. Whatever was happening, it was coming straight for the party.

Edited August 8, 2013 by DJ-BRONI3

[Budding Night 1,043]

(Shorting.)

 

The two had been standing side by side, overlooking a butterfly bush, watching fantails gracefully and playfully dance above it. A soft, warm breeze had embraced them alongside with the static air between them, it was comforting, to the very least. The fantails continuously swooped up and down over and over again, their tails and wings fanning out beautifully as they flew around together.

 

After a minute or three of this, Cryptic turned to Evening and opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. A scream came from the distance, they both whipped their heads to the direction of it and jumped in sync. Like as on a cue, straight after the scream it came rushing through her head

 

'Running, Always Running'

 

It came sharp, like a bullet to the mares head, she cried out in pain and desperation and collapsed to the ground. Her eyes starting wavering and vision becoming blurry, spots of black covered random spots in the span of her vision and seemed to hiss at her, mock her cruelly.

 

Cryptic gasped and fell to her knees beside Evening, she put her hooves on either side of Evenings head which set her skull on a spine-chilling fire. Everything started to fade to normal in her sight again as a result of a few seconds of Cryptic touching, grasping her fragile face. 

 

Evening stared up at her, complete distress and worry sat in her eyes, gleaming behind her lens, standing out from the soft glow of a street lantern shining in her eyes, making them honey coloured.

"This is why I wanted to wait" she said desperately "I didn't think this would happen to soon. I just wanted to give you time, I.. I..". Evening could see her choking on her tears.

 

(To be continued. Sorry)

[Commander Bubbles 1,343]

Red turned to face whatever was heading towards them. He had no idea what it was, just like everyone else.

Looks like your ass is saved from that awkward talk with Neon Red thought to himself. But he still had more pressing matters to deal with. He knew that whatever was heading towards them was not any good. Suddenly, Red was knocked to the ground, tossed about, and hit his head on something awfully hard, turning his vision black...

[lincolnshirepony 527]

Blue Note was confused. Everything was getting suddenly darker, and something was going on within the audience. Something was coming for them. All she could do was keep up her performance facade. "Things are just destined to go wrong in Equestria..." What was going on and who was behind it? Blue Note felt frozen as she tried to decide her best course of action. 

[Umbral Noir 1,556]

As the noises of panic and confusion grew louder, the city continued to grow darker. DJ got out of his seat, bracing himself for what was coming. Vinyl had sobered herself from the brush with danger, and rose quickly to stand by his side. “Wh… What’s going on, DJ?” she asked.

 

“I’m not sure Vinyl.” DJ replied. Some of the guests had gotten out of their seats and were running about in a panic. Red had been knocked over by several of them and seemed to be unconscious. DJ was about to dash over to help him when he heard another noise. Not any noise made by a pony, but a strange rushing sound, like a strong breeze, getting louder as the chaos neared them. He turned to face it, looking straight at where the sound was coming from.

 

The shadows crept towards him, as the lights flickered out one by one in the street next to them. When the darkness reached the party, the lights began to go out. In spite of this, DJ could see what was coming towards them. As ponies dashed left and right, this way and that, the pitch black forms of strange shadows rushed towards them. DJ squinted, trying to work out what they looked like. They seemed familiar. “They…” he said slowly to himself. “They almost look like… ponies…”

[Inactive01 5,299]

Sterling was still sitting comfortably on his chair as he continued to wait for Evening to come back from her private chat. As he was sitting in his chair, he could see darkness ascending over the land. It was unlike anything he had ever seen, not even the days of Raven! Plus, it was still dusk, so it wasn't supposed to be this dark! He could hear ponies screaming left and right as the world descended into a perpetual world of nothing. The lights around him also began to darken. However, Sterling just remembered something. His crimson jewel! It would still be shining brightly by now!

 

Sterling then took out his crimson jewel that he grabbed from Pelopponysia and shone it around him. He could see ponies getting trampled by the looming darkness, and he had to do something with it! He ran over in the direction of Evening, scared that she was hurt by these shadows of darkness...

[Love*Potion 575]

North had just finished talking when a huge shout came from the reception area in the park. Kismet whipped her head around and scanned the horizon to see what was going on.

 

"Probably just a silly pony knocked something expensive over.." she told herself, but she wasn't quite convinced. She slowly got up and began treading towards the sound, inviting North to either come with her or stay for protection. He was a bit of a small pony, after all.

 

Her slow walk soon became a gallop as she saw more and more ponies freaking out. This was no ordinary accident; something really bad was happening! The darkness grew and soon enveloped the whole park. Kismet could barely see, and she was desperate for help. Though she was scared, she wasn't thinking of her own safety, but rather the safety of a close friend.

 

"EVENING! EVENING GLORY!" Kismet shouted, galloping through the screaming crowds, "WHERE ARE YOU?"

[Umbral Noir 1,556]

As the shadows swept over the park, DJ closed his eyes and braced himself to be swept away in the torrent of dark hooves... but nothing happened. As he opened his eyes, he saw the ghostly shapes of the shadowy ponies pass right by (or some right through) himself and Vinyl. He then realised that they were actually harming anypony. Instead, they swept through the park, enveloping it in darkness. The real damage was being caused by the ponies rushing around in fear and panic, desperate to escape this strange shadowy mass. It would certainly be safer if he and the others were inside during this chaos.

 

"Vinyl!" he called to her over the loud rushing sound of the shadowy ponies. "We should get inside! It's not safe out here, even if these things don't seem to be harming us!" Seeing a nod of agreement from his marefriend, the two galloped through the blackness in the hope of finding the hotel. DJ knew his way around the city well, so well that his Manehattan friends used to joke that he could get through it with his eyes closed. As the two of them dashed through the pitch black streets, DJ hoped that they had been right...

[PinkieShyFlutterPie 408]

@, 

 

Neon sat alone. She drank some of her cider and was getting real bored. She was surprised to see Red come up and talk to her "Uh, hey Red...Yea, i'm having a wonderful time!" Neon said sarcastically  "Well, i do like the wedding and the food is great but i was just getting a bit-" Neon was saying but stopped as she looked out at Manehatten...It was getting darker and darker, and something wasn't right. She saw there were now ponies starting to notice also. There were ponies panicking now, Neon was beginning to panic but calmed herself, when she went to look at Red she saw he had got knocked out, probably by the panicking ponies "Red! Are you alright?" Neon tried to ask. She looked back out at Manehatten and noticed the shadows looked like...ponies. When they came closer Neon closed her eyes hoping they wouldn't do anything, when she opened her eyes she noticed they didn't do a thing...

[Commander Bubbles 1,343]

@, 

 

Neon sat alone. She drank some of her cider and was getting real bored. She was surprised to see Red come up and talk to her "Uh, hey Red...Yea, i'm having a wonderful time!" Neon said sarcastically  "Well, i do like the wedding and the food is great but i was just getting a bit-" Neon was saying but stopped as she looked out at Manehatten...It was getting darker and darker, and something wasn't right. She saw there were now ponies starting to notice also. There were ponies panicking now, Neon was beginning to panic but calmed herself, when she went to look at Red she saw he had got knocked out, probably by the panicking ponies "Red! Are you alright?" Neon tried to ask. She looked back out at Manehatten and noticed the shadows looked like...ponies. When they came closer Neon closed her eyes hoping they wouldn't do anything, when she opened her eyes she noticed they didn't do a thing...

(time for a really cliche not-so-postmortem flashback!)

 

(flashback music)

 

"Neon, remember that time we just sat on the deck of the boat and watched the sunset together?" Red asked Neon as they checked into a Baltimare hotel. The two had quite an adventure ready to be shared to their friends and family. But with all they've been through, the two just wanted to spend time unwinding with each other. Red took her out to a nice dinner during their stay in Baltimare, along with the rest of his friends.

 

Red continued to lay there, unconscious, and appearing to be lifeless as the shadows engulfed the park.

Edited August 8, 2013 by Joey Slowgano

[Umbral Noir 1,556]

After a while of dashing through the dark streets (and bumping into a lot of very confused and frightened ponies) DJ and Vinyl made it back to the hotel. Once inside, they both went to DJ's room to see if they could work out what was going on from the window. When they entered however, Vinyl sat down heavily and sighed with relief. "I'm glad to be away from whatever THAT was!" she said, exhausted. "I was sure we'd get lost or hurt!"

 

DJ however wasn't listening. His eyes were fixed on his gem, sitting across the room from them. It was glowing again, but this time there was no bright white light emanating from it. Instead, the gem had turned an inky dark purple, almost black, which could just be seen in the dark room. "What... in Equestria...?" he said slowy. Cautiously, DJ trotted over to it, and touched it. Suddenly, he cried out, as he felt a sharp pain his head. He staggered backwards, feeling suddenly very dizzy. His legs turned to jelly and he collapsed on the floor. As his vision faded, he could just see Vinyl's face looking over him, and just make out the faint voice of his marefriend, anxiously calling his name...

 

((OOC: When everypony's had enough of the chaos, just make your character fall asleep/ unconscious somewhere, as the next part of the story will begin the next morning...))

Edited August 9, 2013 by DJ-BRONI3

[Zhooves 843]

@@Love*Potion,

He too begun to notice how everything grew darker. His ears perked a bit up as the other ponies begun panicking, he watched as Kismet went off somewhere, shouting out Evening's name. As the shadows got closer to him, he cowered, almost closing his eyes before he realized they did him no harm. One thing did surprise him more then that though.

"It is... Dark? Too dark for me? W-what is this?" he said, shivering a little as he stood there.

 

Realising it would do him no good to just stay there, he begun running. Far from used with it being as dark as it was, his balance was even more off, as he did not get far before he managed to trip and knock his head into something - he might even have been stepped once or twice, before everything everything faded to black...

[Commander Bubbles 1,343]

Red Talon's body remained in the park, unconscious, and presumably dead. However, he still was alive, barely, and flashing back to his days with Neon Strobe. Of course, if found the next day, somepony might have the understandable assumption that the young colt had died during the chaos that arose from the shadows.

[Inactive01 5,299]

Everything was going wrong... so quickly... It was going to be the perfect wedding, without any problems, without any strife, without any fear... And now, Sterling was surrounded by what looked like shadow ponies to him. They looked like they came from real ponies... it could have been the evil shadow forms of the ponies he saw in every day life... Either way, Sterling didn't think about the shadows. He only thought about his dear Evie. Was she ok? Was she safe? Where was she?! Sterling's crystal continued to glow, but it was no use. The darkness continued to grow ever so strongly, leaving Sterling wandering like a drunkard.

 

The air became mistier and mistier. The darkness engulfed Sterling so much that not even his crystal's glow was bright enough. The fog thickened more and more as Sterling's eyes began to droop slowly... slowly they closed... as Sterling fell into a deep sleep... 

[PinkieShyFlutterPie 408]

@,

 

When Neon saw that Red wasn't waking up and that he was still unconscious she wasn't sure what to do. She grabbed her purse to get her phone and call somepony when she noticed her gem was glowing, she had brought her gem so she could show DJ or somepony that it was glowing and to ask if theirs did too. When she looked at the gem she saw that it was glowing differently this time, a darker glow, more eerie. She went to grab it but as soon as she touched it her head started to hurt and she passed out. 

 

------------

 

"Yeah" Neon replied then thought about her and Red watching the sunset, she smiled "Never knew a sunset could be so beautiful. And, you being with me made it even better"

[lincolnshirepony 527]

Blue Note grew terrified as she saw the shadowy ponies. What were they? It was like one of her more horrific nightmares, where her darkest fears became phantoms that were determined to consume her. This wasn't a dream though, was it? There was no waking up in a dreary apartment and no princess to save her from her nightmares. 

 

Her normal composure was decimated as panic filled her mind. She could deal with thugs on the street, but she always knew to avoid the shadows. Her only thought was to hide, and the piano the first thing she saw. She ducked under it, but the shadows persisted somehow. Her consciousness blurred, and the nightmares took over.

Edited August 9, 2013 by lincolnshirepony

[Budding Night 1,043]

"W-what do you-" Evening was cut off by more screams and chaos rising in front her, Evening gasped, the sight terrified her. Shadows. Shadows were taking over. Her eyes filled up with tears, of what, she didn't know. She heard Kismet's voice yelling her name, screaming of her whereabouts, the sound of it troubled her heart. 

"Whats happening? We have to go help them!"

"Evening, look, it-" Cryptic started, Evening turned her head back to her, tears streaming down her face

"I can't just leave them! My friends, my family and Sterling.."

"Evening, plea-"

"My newly wedded husband! Something could happen to him!"

"Evening"

"All my happiness is in today! This was supposed to be the best day of my life!"

"EVE-NING"

"I couldn't bear if something happened to anyone attending the wedding, I'd-"

 

"Evening."

She stopped rambling, she could hear every ounce of the earth ponies emotion go into the word. The unicorn stood silently, staring at her with depressing eyes. Cryptic stared back at her, her eyes telling her stories. Depressing stories, of how other ponies would always tease her, be mean to her, harm her. They told how no one every listened to her, how she was always ignored and the only thing that was ever heard was her screams of pain.

 

They told her how important this was, how she needed to listen with everything she could. She obeyed. Looking slightly downwards towards the tall filly, she nodded slowly.

 

"Its your memory Evening." her voice said softly "Its returning"

 

(Dun dun DUNN....)

 

(To be continued.)

[Love*Potion 575]

@@Budding Night,

 

Kismet ran up and up the tall, winding staircase, up to where the private garden dinner table was. Kismet knew the newly weds had gone up there for their private dinner, so logically this would be the first place to look for her dear friend.

 

"Evening?? Where are you? Are you okay? Please say something! I - I need you!"

 

Kismet could feel her eyes starting to water and her heart swelled with fear. What's going on? Why is this happening? Tonight of all nights!?!

 

Suddenly Kismet stopped, for in front of her was Evening. But she was not alone. She was talking to this strange earth pony, and they both had a morbid look on their face. This was not good.

 

Kismet desperately tried calling out to her friend, but no sound came out. The shadow ponies were getting heavier and heavier, and like a thick fog, the shadows engulfed her. Even opening her mouth, the shadows would seal the opening and fill her lungs with inky blackness. Kismet was terrified, but there was nothing she could do. It was useless. She tried to fight off the feeling of feint, for Evening's sake, but to no avail.

 

She felt herself drifting; drifting a long ways away.

[Inactive01 5,299]

Sterling was in the darkness. Everything was a sea of black. It was a complete repeat of the coma he experienced after becoming nearly fatally wounded by the tyrannical Raven. Why did it have to happen on his wedding? Could his life get any worse? In fact, was this finally the end of his life? And where was Evie? Would she be ok? These thoughts dominated and pounded his mind as his heart slowed and his mind drifted into a state of unconsciousness.

 

 

 

 

 

[Pripyat Pony 2,608]

Clover was horrified by the rushing pony shadows; she tried to keep by @@Steel Accord, but it was impossible. The other guests squeezed past them, pushing her further away. She used her magic to save ponies from being killed or seriously hurt; levitating a young filly in the air in the nick of time to stop her being trampled underhoof; lifting a falling light fixture and placing it down on the floor before it could hit two elderly grandponies: nothing spectacular, just random acts of magic to try and stop ponies from being hurt. Clover ran outside, wondering if her friends were alright. She was feeling exhausted from using so much magic, yet she still used it for the good of other ponies. Eventually, however, exhaustion engulfed Clover and she sank down on the grass, passing out. Her last thoughts, before darkness took her, were of Steel...

[Commander Bubbles 1,343]

@,

 

When Neon saw that Red wasn't waking up and that he was still unconscious she wasn't sure what to do. She grabbed her purse to get her phone and call somepony when she noticed her gem was glowing, she had brought her gem so she could show DJ or somepony that it was glowing and to ask if theirs did too. When she looked at the gem she saw that it was glowing differently this time, a darker glow, more eerie. She went to grab it but as soon as she touched it her head started to hurt and she passed out. 

 

------------

 

"Yeah" Neon replied then thought about her and Red watching the sunset, she smiled "Never knew a sunset could be so beautiful. And, you being with me made it even better"

Red kissed Neon on the cheek.

"Who knew," Red responded, "If it weren't for that shipwreck, we probably would never of had this happen, and we would be a couple of lonely ponies. I guess it was fated to happen."

Red led Neon into the lounge, where there were all sorts of couches, loveseats, coffee tables, and a  small bar. Red took a seat in a soft, plushy sofa, along with his marefriend.

[Steel Accord 6,660]

Steel saw the shadowy herd surging forth, out of instinct, he drew Donkey Jote and lunged at the nearest shadow. His weapon passed harmlessly through it.

 

Steel turned back to see his marefriend.

 

"Clover!" Steel cried and swept her up as he flew. The shadowy wave was encroaching upon them and not even the Wonderbolts could fly fast enough to escape it. "What do we do?" Steel asked her, completely out of his element.

[Umbral Noir 1,556]

Darkness. Darkness all around. DJ couldn't see or hear anything. Then, he felt a presence behind him, as if there was somepony watching him. Turning slowly, his eyes widened, as he came face to face with a pair of deep crimson eyes. They burned like dragon fire, boring into him and striking fear into his very heart. In the darkness, near the eyes, DJ thought he could just make out another shape. It looked quite like an alicorn...

 

Suddenly, the eyes disappeared, as if the fire in them had been blown out, and the shadowy alicorn figure also disappeared. DJ was alone again, in the darkness... in the silence...

[PinkieShyFlutterPie 408]

@,

 

"Yep, who would of know something good would come out of getting shipwrecked!  Not only did i make some friends but i met my Coltfriend too" Neon smiled at Red then took a seat next to him. She looked around then back at Red "Nice place, not to crowded but not to boring"

[Pripyat Pony 2,608]

@@Steel Accord, Clover was fainting even as Steel swept her up. "I don't know," she murmured. "I can't stay awake any longer... I used up all my magic helping other ponies escape..." As she spoke the last words, Clover's eyes closed and she finally fell into unconsciousness. At least she knew that Steel was with her.