The Shadow of the Night

Open, Gore

Equestria, a peaceful nation ran by the Princesses Celestia, Luna and Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic.

Yet in some places there are ponies who devote their lives to crime, attacking the innocent, smuggling and whatever else they can do.

But over the last few months somepony has been keeping watch over Equestria. A shadow kills these criminals. He's the most wanted assassin and the most mysterious vigilante.

He is the nightmare of every threat.

He is... Night Shadow.


Ponyville, Equestria
3:30 PM
___________________________________________________________________________________________

A shadowy figure watches Ponyville from atop the Clock Tower. He spots three crooks ganging up on a pony.
Time to get to work He thinks to himself.

The shadowy figure jumps from building to building and then picks off each and everyone of the crooks and then disappears into the night and leaves the crooks hanging from a lamp post, really beaten up and unconscious.

When the royal guards show up they notice the tied up crooks, one of them has a sneer and a really pissed off look,
"Night Shadow, he struck again."

____________________________________________________________________________________

Night Shadow goes through the window in the clock tower and then the shadows surrounding him go down his body and form into his shadow,
"Another night, another filthy criminal gang try to steal from the innocent."

"And another rogue vigilante with an ever growing price on his head to catch them, hehehe," another voice called out from within the bell tower as well, from seemingly multiple directions at once. "Tell me," the voice started but left the statement hanging so it's speaker could make himself known.

In front of Night, the tip of a curved blade appeared seemingly just floating in the open air before moving downwards along the cutting edge. At the tip of the blade descended, more of the curved metal became exposed as it cut a bigger opening in the open air. When the blade reached the end of it's swing, a roughly pony sized line was left in the air before the edges bowed outwards making the opening wide enough to show a grinning pegasi.

The pegasi was wearing a long red trench coat with several repaired parts and pieces, and a wide brimmed floppily pointed red hat that was almost as torn up. In the crock of his hooves was a large scythe with an edge of both sides of the curved blade, runic writing along the flat of the blade, and a spiked tip on the bottom end. The pegasi's golden hourglass eyes gleamed in the dark as he hovered out on abnormally shaped wings into the tower through the hole he opened. As he passed through the threshold, the opening closed with the sound of fabric ripping, but almost in reverse.

"What do you think the reward for such a vigilante would be if he were dropped off on the Princess's door step?" he asked, finally finishing his statement and while hefting the scythe onto his shoulder.

Zen wrote:

"And another rogue vigilante with an ever growing price on his head to catch them, hehehe," another voice called out from within the bell tower as well, from seemingly multiple directions at once. "Tell me," the voice started but left the statement hanging so it's speaker could make himself known.

In front of Night, the tip of a curved blade appeared seemingly just floating in the open air before moving downwards along the cutting edge. At the tip of the blade descended, more of the curved metal became exposed as it cut a bigger opening in the open air. When the blade reached the end of it's swing, a roughly pony sized line was left in the air before the edges bowed outwards making the opening wide enough to show a grinning pegasi.

The pegasi was wearing a long red trench coat with several repaired parts and pieces, and a wide brimmed floppily pointed red hat that was almost as torn up. In the crock of his hooves was a large scythe with an edge of both sides of the curved blade, runic writing along the flat of the blade, and a spiked tip on the bottom end. The pegasi's golden hourglass eyes gleamed in the dark as he hovered out on abnormally shaped wings into the tower through the hole he opened. As he passed through the threshold, the opening closed with the sound of fabric ripping, but almost in reverse.

"What do you think the reward for such a vigilante would be if he were dropped off on the Princess's door step?" he asked, finally finishing his statement and while hefting the scythe onto his shoulder.

Night remained silent with a cold stare. He preferred to keep quiet as he was staring at the madman in front of him.

"Hehehe, answer or no I aim to collect, balance the scales on my antics and such. So how about you come along quietly, and we'll avoid happy hour at shenanigan town," the pegasi finished with a smile that revealed a set of pointed teeth.

Zen wrote:

"Hehehe, answer or no I aim to collect, balance the scales on my antics and such. So how about you come along quietly, and we'll avoid happy hour at shenanigan town," the pegasi finished with a smile that revealed a set of pointed teeth.

Shadow however had no intention of coming along quietly. He lit up his horn and brought over his cane and revealed the blade and covered himself in his shadow again,
"If you want me... Come and get me."

Suddenly the entire hideout became pitch black and the vigilante blended right into the darkness.

"You two better have a good explanation for what's going on here before I lose patience and just decide it's not worth my time, beat you both unconscious and drop you for the nearest guard outpost."

The thestral mare perched above them was wearing the traditional nightguard armor with her long purple mane long and unkempt; her amber, slitted eyes were more narrowed even than usual in annoyance at two ponies just having to choose her one day patrol to pick a fight on.

"You, drop the weapon." She ordered the pony with the scythe. "You move I'll break your legs then make you jog behind me to the guard house." She threatened the other.

ObsidianPony wrote:

"You two better have a good explanation for what's going on here before I lose patience and just decide it's not worth my time, beat you both unconscious and drop you for the nearest guard outpost."

The thestral mare perched above them was wearing the traditional nightguard armor with her long purple mane long and unkempt; her amber, slitted eyes were more narrowed even than usual in annoyance at two ponies just having to choose her one day patrol to pick a fight on.

"You, drop the weapon." She ordered the pony with the scythe. "You move I'll break your legs then make you jog behind me to the guard house." She threatened the other.

"Perfect. The night guard." Shadow groaned,
"I have no time nor patience to deal with you."

He lit up his horn and suddenly the entire room became completely bright blinding the two assailants for enough time for Night to get away into the shadows.

Standing right in front of the metal behemoth that was the Nightmare Knight, a cloaked, tall framed figure staring up at it from under the blue robes it wore began to address it, it's voice sounding elderly. "Hm... Interesting... What's a weapon like you doing in a place like this...? Has a calamity struck the town when I wasn't looking?"

"Oh you'll have to do better than that," Zen replied to both while cutting open a new portal to shield his eyes from the bright light, along with pulling his hat down over his eyes, and then flying into the opening to escape the tower. Above the clock tower, the pegasi emerged from a new portal giving him an aerial view of the area. While he did notice the retreating Night, there was also the terrifying concern of the hulk of metal that was approaching.

"Well that's going to be troublesome, now the only question is how to deal with it," he said to himself. With a shrug, Zen flew after Night, but for now he kept his distance in hopes of keeping the illusion that Night had managed to escape him back in the tower.

Whilst The Nightmare Knight walked towards the clocktower, someone else was following it, attempting to remain unseen. This someone was a beige earth pony who was well dressed, wearing a grey suit with matching overcoat and a flat-cap.

He was Falcone, a Caporegime for the manehatten mafia. He was sent to ponyville to try to spread his families influence, as well as monitor some wise-guys who were sent there before him.

Said wise guys were found beaten up one day. They all claimed it was some vigilante who did it. That theory was confirmed when he asked the guards what happened, and they replied by blaming Night Shadow for the attack.

So he put it upon himself to find Night Shadow, and get him to stop attacking his guys; either through persuasion, or force.

He didn't quite know what Shadow looked like, however, and had no leads as to his location. This is why when the golem landed in town, and started walking towards the clock-tower, he opted to follow it and see if it led him to Shadow, as an act of blind hopefulness.

He watched as the cloaked figure in front of the golem spoke, wondering who he was, and what he thought he was doing.

Night Shadow quickly went into the sewers and then ran through the tunnels until he got into another one of his hideouts.

Damn it! How'd those ponies find my hideout? He thought to himself,
First the royal guard and most of the crime lords in Ponyville now I have bounty hunters on my tail.

"Are we going to need to do this little runaround all night?"

Razor's voice sounded distinctly bored from the doorway of Night's hideout. "Thestrals have more than one sense, you'd do well to remember that and use your own once in a while." She growled at him as she kicked the door shut behind her.

"You can cease with this little game; you are not some big threat, master thief or escape artist. You're a common thug, and neither me nor the tin can up there will have trouble following you."

Wandering around the streets was a blue pegasus mare. She wore a maid's uniform that clearly identified her as a palace maid. She seemed lost and was talking to herself. "I don't care if you say it's this way. We're lost. Deal with it. No I can't-Oh right. I can fly. Silly me. I just like walking more though." She wandered through a few back alleys. "Are you sure it's here? I can't see anything. Yes, I have perfect night vision. I'm just saying it isn't here. Gah, I'm so lost..."

"Aaaaand, I've lost him," the pegasi said to himself and stopping his flight so he was just hovering in the air. "Now where could he have gone," he continued flying back a little bit and trying to picture where he'd last seen the retreating pony. He'd gone down this street, then the ally, and then maybe another street? Either way, that was roughly where he'd lost sight of Night. "Well, best see what we can make of the situation," the pegasi said flying back towards the clock tower to see if the thestral was still there.

Finding nothing though, he gulped as his sight went back down to the massive golem. "Welp, it was nice knowing me," the pegasi said as he flew down to the golem and the pony talking to it. "Hey's, what's going on?" he asked with the scythe resting across his shoulders.

ObsidianPony wrote:

"Are we going to need to do this little runaround all night?"

Razor's voice sounded distinctly bored from the doorway of Night's hideout. "Thestrals have more than one sense, you'd do well to remember that and use your own once in a while." She growled at him as she kicked the door shut behind her.

"You can cease with this little game; you are not some big threat, master thief or escape artist. You're a common thug, and neither me nor the tin can up there will have trouble following you."

Night leaned against a wall,
"Thug? You call me thug? Thugs are the ponies that have no morals, their crooks and criminals who have no souls and only care about hurting others. I am simply defending the innocent from these criminals."

"Uh huh? Last I checked I had the license to buck idiots in the head, not you." Razor reminded him. "So here's what's going to happen; you're going to calm down, stop running, and hand yourself over to me. And if you don't, I'll just drag you out of here unconscious and drooling from where your teeth used to be."

She took another step forward. "Got it?"

A lone pegasus flew across the night sky as he looked down at the ponies below. The Shadowbolt wore the standard uniform along with a few knives and a small rod strapped to his waist. He and the other Shadowbolts had been working no stop to find the viligante. There suits had been upgraded to help in their search though the grey pegasus had a feeling that his boss simply used the things happening now as an excuse to get the new stealth suits.

He sighed as looked down below. It was going to be his last flight around the city before he was off duty, but noticed a few ponies heading into a clock tower to shortly see a figure and later a guard go into the sewers. His vanished to anyone that looked at him as his suit made him invisible. Soon, he was near the entrance of the sewer and groaned. "I better get a raise for this." He said before he slid into the sewer though using his wings to keep him from splashing into the muck below, the flapping noise beign silenced by the suit.

Falcone gave a silent sigh at the appearance of the scythe wielding Pegasus. 'Great', he thought, 'something else I gotta worry about. And this one has a scythe... This just keeps getting better and better...'. He said as he tried to get within earshot without being detected.

ObsidianPony wrote:

"Uh huh? Last I checked I had the license to buck idiots in the head, not you." Razor reminded him. "So here's what's going to happen; you're going to calm down, stop running, and hand yourself over to me. And if you don't, I'll just drag you out of here unconscious and drooling from where your teeth used to be."

She took another step forward. "Got it?"

"Your challenging me?" Night asked and chuckled maliciously,
"You have absolutely no idea what your dealing with here?"

His eyes glowed darkly as his skin was covered in the shadows and he seeped into the floor and delivered an uppercut to the night guards chin sending her flying up into the air and hitting the ceiling and falling down hard on the ground.

"You may be trained by Luna but you still have much to learn." Night whispered into her ear.

He lit up his horn and tied Razor up left her hanging from a flag pole above the surface and taking off again.

Razor snarled as she countered his uppercut and was skidded backwards along the floor, her hoof bruised and sore but not broken thankfully; she propelled herself up to the ceiling and buckkicked off from it, propelling herself like a missile at him with her helmet angled for a flying headbutt.

ObsidianPony wrote:

Razor snarled as she countered his uppercut and was skidded backwards along the floor, her hoof bruised and sore but not broken thankfully; she propelled herself up to the ceiling and buckkicked off from it, propelling herself like a missile at him with her helmet angled for a flying headbutt.

Night quickly jumped high into the air dodging her attack and then slamming one of his mechanical hooves into Razor's head sending her to the ground hard.

Razor grunted as the crowd made contact but before she was flung she swung her wings out, trying to catch him with the sharpened spines and slice him. Her armor absorbed a lot of the impact from the hard ground but that didn't mean it didn't hurt her.

"Heh, you act like all Night Guards are trained by Luna personally. You're either delusional or just plain idiotic if you believe it." Razor remarked as she darted to the other side, keeping herself between Night and the door at all times.

((Also, watch the auto-hitting))

ObsidianPony wrote:

Razor grunted as the crowd made contact but before she was flung she swung her wings out, trying to catch him with the sharpened spines and slice him. Her armor absorbed a lot of the impact from the hard ground but that didn't mean it didn't hurt her.

"Heh, you act like all Night Guards are trained by Luna personally. You're either delusional or just plain idiotic if you believe it." Razor remarked as she darted to the other side, keeping herself between Night and the door at all times.

((Also, watch the auto-hitting))

Night tried to circle Razor and while the thestral's eyes soon got caught up following him she stayed on her balance enough to counter his attempt at an attack, sending them both to opposite sides of the room once again.

Darkmare wrote:

ObsidianPony wrote:

Razor grunted as the crowd made contact but before she was flung she swung her wings out, trying to catch him with the sharpened spines and slice him. Her armor absorbed a lot of the impact from the hard ground but that didn't mean it didn't hurt her.

"Heh, you act like all Night Guards are trained by Luna personally. You're either delusional or just plain idiotic if you believe it." Razor remarked as she darted to the other side, keeping herself between Night and the door at all times.

((Also, watch the auto-hitting))

Night smirked as he started going really fast around the area and around Razor making her extremely dizzy and then laying a sharp buck to her face sending her to the wall and a dark layer going over her preventing her from chasing him and he quickly ran out the door and up one of the covers and escaping.

((ObsidianPony here officially giving you a strike for blatant auto-hitting/winning))