When the World is Against You (Private)

Rain and thunder filled the night in the small town of Hollow Shades and a cloaked pony that went by the name Indicus walked through seeking a place to rest. He entered a old wooden tavern named The Drunken Woodspony and greeted the bar tender with a nod. "How much is a room?" Indicus asked.

"That would be five bits sir." came the reply.

Indicus gave the stallion the bits and grabbed the key before fishing out some more bits for a drink. It was there he heard about the legend of The Pony of Shadows, the legend told of how the pony could use dark magic to manipulate darkness around her some even thought that she was Nightmare Moons lost apprentice or even a reincarnation of Nightmare Moon herself. As the various legends were told Indicus became more curious.

The next day Indicus got up early in the morning and continued his walk towards his home in ponyville, time passed fast enough and it was about noon when he decided to stop to eat.

"Heart, get back here!"

A phoenix zoomed through the air in a gold-and-red blur, maneuvering through the trees and twirling through the branches. She was holding a rather large piece of parchment in her beak, which kept getting snagged and torn.

Close behind the phoenix, a pony flew after her. The pony was dark grey, with a solid black mane. Her wings were larger than the average pegasus's, as was her horn longer than the average unicorn's. Altogether, she was larger than the average pony.

"Heart, give me back that map! You're going to tear it up and I don't have the bits to buy another one!"

The two zoomed right past Indicus, both oblivious to him, both oblivious that he could've easily seen Nox outside of her disguise.

Indicus was on the side of the road eating a lunch of dried meat, fruits and water when he watched a alicorn fly after a phoenix. As he watched he started to recognize her from the description of the alicorn of the legends told in Hollow Shades. Looking at the pony he really wondered why the legend depicted her as evil, even if looks were deceiving it was not common that a evil being would be running after a phoenix.

Thinking to the legend the dark magic described even sounded like Shadow Magic something he was very proficient in. With his curiosity nagging at him, Indicus decided to follow the alicorn.

Eventually, after a lot of maneuvering and three turns around a big, knarled oak tree, Nox grabbed the phoenix in her magic and yanked the map out of her beak.

"Great." Nox said, holding up a now very torn and slightly burnt map. "Look what you've done to Ponyville. And you've torn the South Luna Sea right down the middle! By Celestia, I can barely make out the entire Frozen North! Heart..." Nox facehoofed; Heart squirmed awkwardly in her magic grip, looking rather guilty and not meeting her eye. "Why did you do this? And how am I going to buy another map with no bits?"

Indicus heard the Alicorn's issue with her torn map and decided to offer assistance, doubting the truth of the legends he heard as he watched her. "Ma'am you need help getting around? Just tell me your destination and I'll see if I can guide you there myself."