Monster

by Wings of Chaos

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Alternate Universe, Romance, Adventure, Human
Length: 9073

"The monsters that deserve the most fear, are the ones we carry inside of us. The ones that make us human. Anger. Hate. Fear." God, I wish I knew how true that was.

Takes place in humanized Equestria, years before the events of season one.
"The monsters that deserve the most fear, are the ones we carry inside of us. The ones that make us human. Anger. Hate. Fear."
Shining Armor is dead in spirit. The carefree teenager has become Umbra, a Shadow/Light wielding Monster, Hell-bent on the destruction of Celestia and Luna, and everything they love.
This is his story.
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Rated T for EXCESSIVE SWEARING. Seriously, if swears bother you, don't read. Also, gore. (Later.)
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Also I can't draw. Cover art is only to be there 'till I find someone who can.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-02-25 17:21:00 UTC

Chapter One: I Didn't Want This

Prologue

Monster.

Prologue.

I was fighting back to back with the clans. For every one of our soldiers dropped, I dropped five.

But it wasn’t enough.

I blinked the sweat out of my eyes, and turned on a new batch of soldiers. Without pausing, I flew at them. A resounding *CRACK* was heard as I punched one in the nose. As another swung a sword, I sent a blast of magic right through him, vaporizing him and his sword. I pulled my swords out of the void and really started to fight.

I jumped over an enemy’s slash that went low, slashing at him in return, and stabbing a soldier behind me with my other sword, I then raised both swords to block answering attacks. I slashed at a soldier to my left, whilst ducking under his wild attack. I blocked an attack coming from behind me, and plunged my sword deep into his body. When I tried pulling my sword out, it was stuck. I slashed at one of the last two enemies, and removed his head from his body. I left my sword in the other guy’s body, and walked toward the remaining enemy. He threw a clumsy slash at me, and I just batted the sword out of his hand.

“You chose the wrong side, Disciple.” I said to him, summoning my other sword.

“You are wrong, monster. The Sun will rule.” He spat at me, wiping a spot of blood from the corner of is mouth.

I stopped and stared into the future. “Yes,” I mused, “She will. For six thousand long years. But,” I glared at him, “When she finally falls it shall be celebrated across the lands, and let me tell you,” I took a step closer. “It will be by my hand. She will suffer a horrifying death.” I lifted my swords, and started sending an electrical current through them. “But, we’ve been standing around too long. Goodbye.” I shoved the swords into his body, where I knew a defibrillator would go, not that these technology inept people had defibrillators, and watched as he died, and came back to life, before dying again, the cycle repeating until his heart exploded. I watched impassively. ‘What a bitch.’ I thought. I pulled my swords out of his body, before running off to find another group.

I have heard war described as awful. True, I have seen some awful things on the battlefield, hell, I’ve done some awful things on the battlefield. In spite of all that, i was having the time of my life.

It was pure Chaos surrounding me, an orgy of violence. I was in my element, and the enemy knew it. Which is why I found myself directly under a beam of pure Sunfire. The attack spanned nearly the entire battlefield across. That crazy bitch would destroy her entire army just to kill me. Talk about OP. Of course, I had super OP attacks too.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to use them, because Luna, our general, put a disc of Moonwater directly above my head. “MOVE!” She screamed at me, and I flew out from under the fire.

Most of the soldiers got out from under the fire before the disk gave way, but some didn’t... They were vaporized immediately. The Sunfire didn’t even pause at the ground. It just shot through, right to the center of the earth. In one attack, Celestia had created what would be known as ‘Spartan Ravine’ for thousands of years.

I flew to Luna’s tent. “We can’t win this, Luna. You must know that.” I told her, trying to get her to see reason.

She glared at me. “We can, and it’s Princess Luna to you, pleb.”

“SHE JUST DESTROYED THE ENTIRE FUCKING BATTLEFIELD!” I screamed at her. We heard two sickening *schlicks* coming from outside, and Celestia herself walked in, sword in hand.

“Yes,” She spoke calmly, “I did.” ‘Oh fuck.’ I thought. “Sister, put down your weapons. I have won. Your soldiers are demoralized, and I’ve captured their General, and their best fighter. You have lost.”

“No.” Spoke Luna. “I challenge you. I CHALLENGE YOU!” Luna screamed.

“I accept your challenge. I set the weapons to blades, and the time to, oh... Six thousand years from now. You better start preparing.” Luna had time to look surprised, before she disappeared in a flash of light. “I hear the moon is nice this time of year.” She said, nonchalantly. She turned her gaze to me. “Well, Strife,” She put extra emphasis on my name. “Will you come peacefully, or will you decorate my garden?”

I shed my mortal skin. “Celestia, I’m shocked you didn’t recognize me before! You must be slipping!”

“You!” She hissed. “Why do you persist? You have nothing left! You lost your world, the one you love, your sanity, and even your human form! Why?!” She screamed at me.

“Because spite.” I spat out. “Because you took everything from me, and I hate you for it. You pulled me out of my world on a whim, murdered my wife, stole my sanity, and once my sanity was gone, my mortality soon followed. I hold onto the only thing I have left.” At her questioning look, I continued. “Hate. I. Hate. You. You stole everything from me, and I will spend the rest of my hellishly long life in plain defiance of you. My pure hatred of you is the only reason I am still alive. Until you die, I will be the biggest enemy you have. And trust me, you will die first, you bitch.”

She pulled six orbs out of the space-time continuum.

I started getting nervous. “Are those the Ele-” I was cut off by a rainbow flash, and felt all of the matter in my body shift, becoming stone, A look of horror, pain, and anger, frozen on my face. It was excruciating.

“The Elements of Harmony?” She asked, mockingly. “Why, yes. I’m shocked you didn’t recognize them before! You must be slipping!” She spat at my feet.

“I refuse to have disharmony in my kingdom. You shall be their only warning, a way to show them that I have defeated Strife itself!”

Since I was stone, I couldn’t tell her the difference between disharmony and disloyalty. I still regret that...

She started floating, and raised me high above the clashing armies. Her voice thundered outward.

“I HAVE CONQUERED DISCORD!”

Chapter Two: Training. Also, Girls!

Chapter One: I Didn't Want This

Monster

Chapter 1: I didn’t want this.

(1 Year in the future.)

Equestria. Land of Peace and Equality.

What a fucking joke.

I have an... ability, shall we say. Some humans would call it magic. To some, it’s science. Me? I called it Twilikinesis. For two reasons. The first? I could control  Twilight Matter. What is Twilight Matter? Light. Shadows. I can make them solid. Weapons. Silverware. Tools. Hell, I can make wings of Darkness. I can store them, brand them into my body like tattoos, for later use.

The second? I think you’ll understand that soon.

Twilight Matter. Ironic, since my greatest enemy controlled the Sun and Moon, Light and Dark, but didn’t have a fraction of the control I did.

This made me an enemy in her eyes. My family and I’s heads were put on the chopping block, because I had an ability I had no idea how to control, and never asked for.

I still hear my sister’s cries for help, as she was killed first. So I believed.

My real name is forgotten, dead. Slaughtered with my sister and father.

I am Umbra. In latin, ‘Shadow’.

I WILL bring Celestia to her knees. I will crush Equestria.

This is my story.

(Present) (14 Years Old)

“Dad, I’m home.” I called through our three-bedroom Canterlot house. As usual, I didn’t get an answer, because he had gone to pick up my sister from magic kindergarten. She seemed to be terrified of the place, but her magic was really picking up.

I think the reason that she’s terrified is because they actually make you do something there, instead of faking smiles and letting you run around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Magic makes me wish I was a Mage instead of a Terran. Hell, I’d even take Aviate. Sure, Terrans may be stronger and better at hand-to-hand combat then most, but Aviates as a rule were faster, and could fly. Aviates also had better eyesight due to their hawk eyes. Mages could just do some voodoo shit and make your guts explode through your mouth. Damn. Mages also had better hearing than the others because they had bigger ears, with pointed tips.

I shook my head to clear it, and grabbed a soda from the magic-powered fridge. I plopped down on the couch, popped open the can of soda, and grabbed the book I was reading.

It was a really interesting read, Diaries of a Madman, written by a real imaginative guy. He re-wrote the entire human species as ponies, gave them the same abilities we have, and then dropped a magic-less, futuristic human right in the middle. It was one of my favorite books. No-one knew who the author was though, the cover just said ‘Written by Anonymous’. Weird.

Anyway, I was interrupted from reading by a knock on the door. I looked at the clock. Dad and Twi shouldn’t be home for another 10 minutes. ‘Wonder who it is?’ I thought.

I opened the door to see a fully decked out royal guard Terran -who looked a few years older than me- standing on my front porch. “Nope.” I said, and closed the door. I stood there for a few seconds. The knocking started again. “Shit!” I whispered. I put on my best poker face, and opened the door.

“Yes?” I asked, in what I was hoping was a neutral tone.

To his credit, he didn’t miss a beat. “Shining Armor? He asked, already knowing the answer.

“That’s me.” Two words, that changed my life forever.

“Your presence has been requested at Canterlot palace.”

“...Can I ask why?” Dreading the answer.

“Princess Celestia has chosen your sister to be Her personal student.” He replied neutrally.

I blinked in surprise. I expected it to be something much more drastic. But I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. “...Okay. Let’s go.”

It was his turn to blink. “You don’t want to get ready?” He asked, with no small amount of shock.

I looked down at my outfit. “Why? Is something wrong with my outfit?” White T-shirt, with a darkish blue shield, surrounded by six pointed stars, with a big star in the middle, faded blue jeans, and black sports shoes. I felt my hair. “I mean, I could probably brush my hair...”

He was too busy gaping at me to say anything.

I chuckled. “I knew I was sexy, but you don’t need to stare.”

That snapped him out of it. “I don’t think you understand. You are going to meet the Princess.”

“Ugh, fine.” A few minutes later, I was downstairs. I was wearing a suit. A tux. Dammit, I hate this thing. My dark-blue/light-blue colored hair combination was streaming down my back, and I looked fancy. Like a Noble. I hate Nobles.

“Now you look ready to meet the Princess.” The Terran said with a nod.

“Hey, what’s your name? I’m sick of thinking of you as ‘Terran’ or ‘Guard’.” I said to him, annoyance clear in my tone.

“I’m Blade.” He said impatiently.

“Alright, now can we fucking go?” I sounded like a major asshole, and that wasn’t fair to Blade.

His face hardened. “Yeah. Let’s go.” Great. Now he’s pissed.

On the way there, I sighed. “I’m sorry I’m being such an ass, I just hate this gods-damn suit.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I hear ya. I hated them too when I was your age.”

“How old are you, anyway?”

“Pssh, I’m nineteen. I enrolled on my eighteenth birthday.”

“Really? That’s what I’m planning on doing!”

And so our conversation went.

We walked into Canterlot Castle laughing.

“You’re pretty cool, for a guard.” I said.

“You’re pretty cool, for a young punk.” He replied.

I chuckled again, before going serious face. “Oh. We’re here.” I stated, my voice lacking enthusiasm.

“Yeah. Your life gets better from here on out.” He told me, As he led me to a set of doors.

“If you say so...” I pushed the doors open, and walk into... the wrong room. More specifically, a broom closet. ‘Why the fuck would a broom closet have big double doors?’ I hear laughter coming from behind me. I turn around, and say, “Yeah yeah, asshole. Where’s the room I’m looking for?” He was laughing too hard to answer, and just points down the hall a bit. I see giant doors, probably leading to a giant room.

I push the doors open. ‘Yep, that’s a pretty big room.’ I think. It seems that I walked into a sparring match between Twilight and Celestia, because they are both throwing magic at each other. If I wasn’t trained to recognize harmless magic I might have lost it. I mean, a Goddess throwing magic blasts at a kindergartener? Come on now.

Even though they were going through the motions, the magic that was flying lacked a certain shine. Also, when each hit landed, they’d each just shrug it of and keep going. I wasn’t gonna step in. Hell, I don’t know how she picks her students. This may be normal.

In due time Twi lost, but she kept up far longer than most would have. I mean, Celestia was sweating. The Goddess was sweating. That’s how immensely powerful my six year old sister is. Huh.

Celestia turned her attention to me. I bowed, much as I hated her, I’m not suicidal. “Ah, you must be Shining Armor, so nice to meet you.” She said.

...How the hell are you supposed to answer royalty? “It is an honor to meet you, Your Majesty.”

“I’m sure.” She answered with a smug grin.

I felt like fucking punching her. I looked around the room we were in. It could easily house a hundred homeless people, while her kitchens could probably feed a thousand. But no. People starve to death outside her gates, while she sits here on her somewhat fat ass, thinking about how great she is and of better ways to manipulate people. Just like she had over the past six thousand years.

She was a real bitch in my book.

“Well, now that you’re here, we can start the ceremony.” She told me, before she turned around and walked to her throne. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I just stood there, before I noticed my dad and sis waving me over.

When I got to them, my dad looked at me, and said, “What took so long? Celestia was getting impatient.”

“Uhh, I don’t know what you mean. I put a tux on, and came to the castle.” He looked at me like I was an idiot, but before he could say anything, Celestia’s voice rang through the room.

“Would the family of Twilight Sparkle please step forward?” She asked, in a way that made it seem like a choice. We looked at each other, and started walking. We stopped about ten feet from the throne, and bowed. “Twilight Sparkle, please, step forward.” I grabbed my sister’s hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze, before she stood and walked toward Celestia.

“Twilight,” She started, “you are special. You have a proficiency in magic that I haven’t seen since Starswirl the Bearded himself was alive. I would like to take you in as my personal student. You will learn magics that most people will likely never hear of. If you accept, it will change your life forever. Do you accept?”

Twilight was literally shaking in excitement. “Yes, yes, yes!” She says, loudly.

Celestia gives her a warm smile. “Congratulations, you are now my personal student.” She looks to me and my father. “Please, step forward you two. It is my tradition, after selecting a new student, to award a large sum of bits to the family that raised such a remarkable child. That being said, Twilight is the most remarkable I’ve come across in several hundred years. I am going to give you a quarter of a million bits. Objections? No?” Me and dad were just too stunned to speak. “I didn’t think so. Well, thanks to a mysterious benefactor, you now have enough money to join Canterlot’s elite. In other words, you are now nobles.”

Goddamn it! I don’t want to be a noble! She’s obviously doing this so she has an excuse to watch us. On the other hand, it’s suicide to turn down one of the Princess’s gifts.

My father hastily bowed. “Thank you Princess!” Looks like he found his voice. “We won’t betray your trust!” Yes I will.

“And you, Shining Armor? Do you have nothing to say?” Shit. Caught in a trap.

“...Thank you, Princess.” I force out, not bothering to hide the displeasure in my voice.

She studied me for a few seconds, probably trying to figure out what strings she’d need to pull to make this puppet jump. “...You know, I have an opening in my guard, if you need a job.” I really didn’t need the job, she made sure of that, but learning to fight would be a plus.

“Yes, thank you Princess. I would like that very much.” No I wouldn’t. It will make me more dependent on her than I already am. But again, when the Princess is handing out gifts, it’s take them, or face the consequences. I like life, thank you very much.

“Perfect! Be here at noon tomorrow, and I will have my Captain,  get you outfitted for the guard.”

“Of course, Princess.” I said, before bowing and walking out. I began the twenty minute walk home, thinking. ‘Where the fuck does she get off telling me how to live my life? The only reason I can think of is to keep a closer eye on me, but I’m nothing special. I know it’s said that the Princess can see the future... Maybe I’ll become something special? ...Nah. That’s ridiculous, I’m a city peasant. We’re a bit a dozen, especially Terrans. There must be some reason...’

I racked my brains, trying to think of her reasoning, before I realized I was standing in front of my house, and probably had been for the past few minutes.

I went to go inside, but was stopped by a, “Yo, Shiny!” Shit. I know that voice... Trixter. My Aviate best friend. I wasn’t looking forward to this conversation...

I turned around, with a fake smile plastered on my face. “What’s up, Trix?”

He hovered toward me, but faltered a little when he saw my smile. “Uh, Vinyl said she saw you leaving the Castle. Said you looked pissed. What’s wrong bro?”

“...What was Scratch doing in the Upper District?” I asked, kinda surprised that his DJ girlfriend was up where the nobles lived.

“Ah, you know her.” He said, waving the question away. “I’m worried bro. What were you doing in the Castle?”

I was afraid to answer him. We both hated Celestia, but now I was one of her guards... “I... Twilight is Celestia’s new student.” He looked like he was going to say something, but I held a hand up to stop him. It would be easier to tell him all at once. “We’re nobles now.” I saw a flicker of betrayal cross his face, but he kept his silence. “And... I’ve been drafted into the guard.” That’s more than a flicker. I winced, and said, “I’m so sorry Trix, I-”

“You what, Shiny? Betrayed almost everything that our friendship is based on? Sold your soul for a bit of money?”

“I still hate her Trix!” I cut him off. “She’s a manipulative b-”

“Obviously you don’t hate her enough to become one of her personal lapdogs! You know what, Shining Armor, you can go fuck yourself! Or better yet, why don’t you go fuck your precious Princess! I’m sure that cunt will take you in, because apparently she accepts anybody! Have fun being her bitch, you fucking groundie!” He yelled before speeding away, and leaving me in the street, stunned.

‘Did... did that just happen?’ I couldn’t even think straight. My best friend since childhood, just abandoned me in the street? All the emotions inside, going wild, condensed into one. Rage.

(FIGHT MUSIC!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLrxT8Vu978

“Well well, what do we have here, boys?” I heard the voice behind me.

“Not an easy target, Blaze. Not today.” I responded in a cold tone, turning around to study him and his lackeys. Blaze was standing in the middle, with his red hair down his back, in the same style as mine, and his buddies, two I didn’t recognize. They both looked like Terrans though, which would make it easier on me if it came down to a fight.

...Which with my mood, it would.

“Woah, what crawled up your ass and died? Did your boyfriend leave you?” He closed his eyes during that little rant.

Which made it that much easier to slug him in the face. I think his nose broke. I know he went down hard. I stepped back, to avoid getting blood on my shoes. I had just enough time to take my suit jacket off, before the other two were on me.

I ducked under their blows, before throwing one of my own. I smashed the one on the left in the gut, but the one on the right punched me straight across the face. I was to angry to even feel it. I mentally assessed the damage. ‘Split lip, blinding pain I can barely feel. Nothing debilitating. If he expected me to go down, he got a big surprise when he got a punch in return. To the face, of course. He went down.

And as a finisher, I clapped a hand on both of the last guy’s ears. He definitely went down.

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t a finisher, as more of Blaze’s friends came running down the street. “Aw, SHIT!” I started to back away.

At least, until I heard, “Yo, Shining: preemptive self-defense!” I looked behind me, just in time to see Blade throw a sword my way. Of course, that’s a fucking numbskull move, so instead of catching it, I jumped out of the way, and scooped it up when it stopped moving.

I looked at Blaze’s friends. “Seems a bit more even now, eh?” Needless to say, they backed the fuck down. They booked it.

Blade walked over. “You looked like you could use some help.”

“Dude, why in Tartarus did you think throwing a sword would be a good fucking idea?”

He looked at me in shock for a second, before saying, “I forgot you weren’t in the guard yet. Guards are trained to switch weapons and fighting styles frequently during a battle, so the opponents can’t form a strategy.”

I stared at him, before shaking my head and saying, “Fuckin’... Whatever. I’m sick of today. I’m going to bed.” I walk inside the house, leaving Blade and three unconscious bodies in the road. I grabbed a soda, downed that shit, walked into my room, and fell into bed. I had two thoughts before I drifted away.

‘One: ‘Fuckin... I hate Celestia.

Two: I didn’t want this...’

Prologue

Chapter Two: Training. Also, Girls!

Monster

Chapter Two: Training. Also, Girls!

“Shiny...” Said a voice, as if far away, and I felt my shoulder move.

“Uhhh.” I tried to swat the hand away from my shoulder.

“Shiny.” The voice was clearer, and my whole body started shaking.

“UHHH.” Go away! I’m trying to sleep.

“SHINING ARMOR GET THE FUCK OUT OF BED YOU HAVE PLACES TO BE!”

“AHHHH!” I screamed as I fell off of the bed, after my dad shouted into my ear. I stared at him for a full second before shouting, “What the hell, dude? I was sleeping! I got into a bad fight yesterday, as I’m sure you saw the bodies in the street!”

He looked at me for a second before replying, “...Go take a shower. You have an hour to get to the castle.”

The castle? Why would I... OH SHIT. I shoved past dad and ran down the hallway. ‘Why did I have to get stuck doing this? Well, I won’t jump through that bitch’s hoops. The only reason I’m going is to learn to fight better.’ I thought, as I rushed to the shower.

One considerably short shower later, I was clean, semi-refreshed, and off to learn how to guard a tyrant.

At exactly 11:57 A.M, I walked through the gates.

At exactly 12:02 P.M, I walked into the guard training area.

I watched a Mage officer pull out a watch, and mouth, ’12:02?’

At exactly 12:03, the same officer came over, and floored me.

“What the fuck?” I yelled from the ground, whilst rubbing my chin. Nothing seemed to be broken, but by Discord, it hurt!

“You’re late.” He said, with an expressionless voice.

“By three minutes! THREE!” I screamed.

“Look you pussy, if this is how you react to a hit, we have more work than I had originally thought.” He said, while shooting me a smirk that said, ‘I’m better than you, and you can’t do shit about it. (You know the one.)’

“You wanna fight? Let’s do it then.” I said, while pushing myself off of the ground.

He looked at me like I was stupid. “...Do you even know who I am?” He asked, sounding surprised. I opened my mouth to reply that I didn’t give a shit, but he cut me off. “I’m Midnight Strike. The royal guard captain,” he said slowly, as if talking to a child.

“Then I guess it’s gonna be that much more embarrassing when I kick your ass,” I told him cockily. He just shook his head, and motioned to one of the fighting circles imprinted into the grass.

Long story short, he kicked my ass.

I walked into the circle and cracked my knuckles. He walked into the circle and immediately went into a fighting stance. I followed suit. He had a stance I had never seen before. His hands disappeared behind a veil of shadows. Magic. My mind instantly felt... off.

‘Oh shit.’ I forgot everything I knew about fighting, and rushed him. He did a jump kick, and shattered my nose. I stood back up in time to catch a spin kick to the face. This time I didn’t go down, but tried to punch him. He leaned back, and watched my fist go by. (A technique he later called ‘Dodging the Bullet.’)

Not pausing to let me correct myself, he completely broke my nose with a punch of his own. I went down hard. His hands stopped glowing, and my mind cleared.

He walked over to me, “Give up yet?” He asked while offering a hand to help me up.

“You fight well, for a Mage,” I said whilst grabbing his hand, “but you should’ve kept up the magic.” I finished, as I pulled him toward me and planted my feet in his stomach. Feet firmly planted, I kicked as hard as I could, and launched him across the circle.

I immediately sprang to my feet and rushed toward him, trying to press the advantage. Of course, I forgot he was a Mage. He just threw his hands in my general direction, and a way over-powered gust of wind launched me about thirty feet out of the circle. I landed on a sharp rock, which had pierced one of my lungs. I laid there and started to drown in my own blood. Strike came over and waved his hands, healing me instantly.

That was it. I had lost. I only got one damn hit in.

We spent the rest of the day going through hand-to-hand combat techniques. At the end of the day, he asked me what guard regiment I wanted to join. I chose the night guard, because I didn’t feel like dealing with stuffy assholes during the day.

I started walking home, wondering once again how this had happened. I never asked for this. I never wanted this, as I’ve said multiple times. I mean, sure, my life wasn’t perfect, but at least I could make sense of it. This? I’m alone now. My only friend, my brother, -Not by Blood, but by Bond- had abandoned me. I only had Twi left. I couldn’t include my father in that, because he was a Princess loving jackass.

And of course, there was Blade, for whatever that was worth.

They say hindsight is 20/20. Well, looking back, it was worth quite a lot, actually.

The next day, Saturday, at around noon, Twi and I were just sitting around the house, reading. Out of complete boredom, I put my book down, and looked at her.

“...Wanna learn how to fly a kite?” I asked, somewhat hesitantly, because I knew how she loved reading.

She stared at me for a second, before a sunny smile broke out across her face. “Okay!” She said, with more cheer than I could ever muster up. It was absolutely infectious.

I felt a small smile form on my face in return. She was quite literally the only light in my world at this point in time. I would give everything to protect her. “I’ll be right back,” I told her, running upstairs to grab my kite. I suppose I should get on with describing the damn place.

The front door opened into a kitchen, with light blue walls, and small little designs that Twi and I had scribbled while growing up. The kitchen broke off into dad’s room if you turned left, and the living room if you chose the right door. The living room was simple: two recliners, a couch, a small table in betwixt all of these things, and a bean bag in the corner, Twi’s little ‘reading area’. There were stairs in the living room leading upstairs, where there was my room, Twi’s room, and a bathroom. There was also a door leading to a bathroom off of the living room.

Twi’s room was a light magenta, with a bunch of magical stuff scattered on her floor, her bed being the only solace, an island among a sea of paraphernalia.

My room was much simpler. It was black. I had a bed, I had a desk, I had a dartboard. I had a closet, which contained clothes, my kite, and a few other miscellaneous items that aren’t really important enough to mention.

But that’s a hell of a lot of buildup to say I ran upstairs and grabbed my kite. Then, without stopping I ran through the living room and threw Twi over one shoulder, the aforementioned party giggling like mad. I made it all the way to the door before I saw the gap in my planning. I knelt at the door and turned my back to it.

“Would you kindly?” I playfully asked over my shoulder, in a faux polite accent.

“Of course, dear sir!” She said in a fake posh accent, before breaking into giggles again. I grinned, knowing this would be a good day.

The walk to the park only took about ten minutes. At least, it would have, were we walking. But I still had Twi over my shoulder, so I moved at a pretty fast clip to keep her entertained. We made it in about five.

When we got there, I explained how to fly a kite to Twi, and got it in the air to demonstrate. Of course, flying it means running around. In a park. It was just my luck that I accidentally ran into one of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen in my life. Ran into in a literal way. Yeah, we both went down. Fuck. Twi ran over to see if I was okay, but I was busy checking on the girl I knocked over.

She was holding her hand to a cut on her forehead, which was bleeding a lot. “Wha- what happened?” She asked, in an extremely dazed voice. I stopped and actually looked at her. Her hair had yellow, purple, and magenta in it. She also had pointy ears. ‘Pointy ears. Okay, she’s a Mage.’

I looked at my sister. “Have you learned how to heal yet, Twi?” She nodded. “Awesome.” I went back to looking at the girl I knocked over. Her eyes were locked onto my face, and as my mind registered something I hadn’t noticed before, I looked at her in fear. I looked at her ears, then back to her eyes. “Oh sh-.” I cut myself short and looked at Twi. “Crap.” I corrected myself. Twi’s hands were surrounded by a purple aura, and the wounds on the Archon slowly started to close.

Archon of course being the fourth sub-race of human, combining Terran, Aviate, and Mage into one. Just being an Archon means being Royalty.

No lucidity filtered into her eyes, and that is when I started to think I may have fucked up big time. I lifted the Archon up, and told Twi to grab the kite. When she had it, we started the walk to the nearest hospital. It took us about twenty minutes to get there, and only about five for them to tell me what was wrong.

“She has a concussion,” The doc told me. “It will affect her thought process, her balance, and basically all of her motor functions. She honestly is in a state very similar to comatose, but for some reason she is hanging on to consciousness. We beleive it’s because she’s an Archon, but not one I’ve ever seen or heard of. We don’t know anything about her, and she’s in no shape to tell us anything, so she will either have to stay here or stay at your place.”

“She can stay at my place. It’s the least I can do for giving her a concussion.” I said, hoping dad would understand.

The doctor nodded. “In that case, I’ll go get her.” He walked away to get her.

I fell onto a chair and put my face in my hands. Nursing her back to health was the only way I could see for not getting charged with assaulting royalty. ‘Maybe when she snaps out of it, I’ll have enough time to explain that it was an accident, and that I’m really all that Twi has.’ I can only hope.

The doctor came back out, and I looked up. “She’s all yours.” He said. I nodded and thanked him or his help before departing. I carried her back to my house, and laid her down in my bed. I closed the blinds, and turned to leave. I could feel myself finally start to tear up in fear. Not for me, but for Twi if I were taken away.

Something grabbed my arm. I turned around, and the girl was looking at me in sadness. “I’m so sorry,” I told her, while brushing away tears. “I never meant for any of this to happen.” I saw a tear start to form at the corner of one of her hawk-like eyes.

She opened her mouth, possibly to try to comfort me, but nothing came out. I nodded and felt the tears start in earnest. Great, racking sobs that put me on my knees on my own floor. Thankfully, the Archon’s hand was still on my arm, and she pulled me onto the bed and held me while I cried, her hand stroking the back of my head. At some point, I started talking. I told her everything, more than I had ever told another living being. I told her about Trix, I told her how I disliked Celestia, I told her about Blaze, about Blade. I talked about Twi, how I was worried for her. Finally, I told her about my fears of jail because of assaulting her. She was an excellent listener.

Might’ve had something to do with the fact that she was unable to talk. But, I digress.

Finally, when I felt like I couldn’t cry anymore without dying of dehydration, I stopped. And still she held me. I just sat there in her arms, feeling better at getting that all off of my chest. Of course, I had to ruin it by looking at the clock.

“Oh gods I’m late for training Strike’s gonna kill me!” I yelled in one giant breath, while rushing out of the room.

The Archon just shook her head. ‘Boys.’ She thought.

*THUD* “AW FUCK, MAN!” I yelled, pained. Strike’s fist was moving so fast. It was as though his fist was leaving a slipstream of blood behind. Mine, in case you were wondering. I threw up a hasty block at his kick, but he just kept the motion going and hit me with his other foot. In the face. I went flying back, and slammed into a wall. ‘What is this, a Bruce Lee movie?’ I thought. And then I thought, ‘Wait, what? Who the hell is Bruce Lee?’

Shaking my head at my own ridiculousness, I got back to my feet just in time to catch a punch straight to the face. I don’t mean a hook, I mean he hit me square in the nose. Now, I don’t know you’ve ever had your head against a wall, and then be punched into it, but I can tell you that I went down fast. Just, out like a light, you know?

I was jolted back to consciousness by a bucket of ice water directly impacting my slightly fucked up face. “So, you gonna be late again?” He asked in a polite tone, as though he had asked something as ordinary as, ‘pass the butter, please.’

“Sir no sir!” I yelled, still in a shitload of pain.

“Good.” He waved his hands and the pain slowly disappeared. “Now get up, we still have training to do.” The training was basically the same as the punishment for being late, except for the fact that he used magic to soften our blows.

When I got home from training, it was about 6:15 in the morning. I immediately went to check on the Archon. She was sleeping. She looked absolutely adorable. I resolved to check on her tomorrow, after I woke up. I walked downstairs, and fell onto the couch. I then pulled out my mp3 and chose my ‘sleep’ playlist. It’s amazing what magic can do, huh?

Anyway, I started drifting off, as the opening bars of Monster by Aviators and Omnivore filtered through the headphones. I fell asleep right as the lyrics started.

Too bad I had to ruin it by dreaming.

(These lyrics are all done by ear, and I apologize if some of them are wrong. Also, I suggest pausing the song between each verse, if you choose to listen to the song while reading.)

‘So beautiful,

And more than I could ever dream,

So how I thought you’d see that I,

Wasn’t what I seemed.’

I could see the Archon. She seemed to be waiting for me. But... she couldn’t see me. At least, she couldn’t see the real me. She couldn’t see what I was.

‘Time went by,

And I fell so in love with you,

Leading myself to believe,

What wasn’t the truth.’

The scene shifted, and I could tell that time had passed. We were both older, and I was carrying around a darkness she still couldn’t see. I told myself it wasn’t there, that I was imagining things. ...I started to believe myself.

‘It feels like I fell asleep,

And woke up in a nightmare,

Fighting through, A world of Chaos,

You’re the reason that I’m here.’

Another shift, and I felt... different. Angry. She had discovered my Heart of Darkness. I... I was fighting an unwinnable war... Alone.

‘And you’re the only one I’ve dreamed of,

You turned me away,

Turning me into,

The monster,

I am today.’

I saw myself confronting her. Celestia was there as well. Something about this scene just felt innately... right.

‘I abandoned Order when you broke my heart that day,

It then occurred to me,

Chaos

Is the only way.’

I saw the statue of Discord offering me power, and he said something about a... a price? I shook my head, the price was too high. The eyes of the statue glowed, and I was hit with an intense feeling of grief.

‘When all you thought of me,

“He’s a beast that can’t be tamed”

The monster that you saw me for,

Is the monster I became.’

I was standing on a hill overlooking a plain. the plain was scattered with bodies of Celestia’s soldiers. I laughed.

‘It feels like I fell asleep,

And woke up in a nightmare,

Fighting through, A world of Chaos,

You’re the reason that I’m here.’

I was being... chased? But... there was nothing behind me...

‘And you’re the only one I’ve dreamed of,

You turned me away,

Turning me into,

The monster,

I am today.’

Whatever was after me, I could feel it getting closer...

(Dubstep)

I turned around, magic crackling in one hand to obliterate whatever was behind me, and saw... a mirror. But I looked barely human. I looked... Demonic. I fell to my knees in shock, and... horror at what I had become.

‘I’m not the same,

Because of what you did to me,

Well I’ll show you that,

I’ve become what you thought me to be.’

I was once again in front of Celestia and the other Archon. I gave them an evil smile, and threw a bolt of magic.

‘If I can’t have you,

Then,

I’ll throw the world away,

Oh you are to blame,

For turning me into the monster I am today’

I saw the Discord statue again, but this time it was different. I destroyed the statue. I saw a dark form slither out among the dust, before the scene shifted.

(Sick Beats)

I was in a forest, and there was a small Zebrican child. Daddy, she called me. We were... In a forest?

‘It feels like I fell asleep,

And woke up in a nightmare,

Fighting through, A world of Chaos,

You’re the reason that I’m here.’

I saw Midnight Strike, kneeling before the Discord statue, praying. It was telling him of the price that I was told of. He nodded, and drew a knife.

‘And you’re the only one I’ve dreamed of,

You turned me away,

Turning me into,

The monster,

I am today.’

I felt... Alive. I was tearing my way through Celestia’s army with almost no effort, and a power I had never seen before.

(Dubstep)

I felt... Awful. I was watching Canterlot burn... I asked myself if this was all worth it.

I couldn’t answer myself.

(End song)

“AHHH” I was jolted awake by someone grabbing my shoulder. Without thinking, I grabbed the person’s arm, and rolled of the couch, in a way that made them end up in the spot I was just in. I calmed down as soon as I saw it was the Archon.

I had the distinct feeling that I was having a nightmare, but I couldn’t remember anything I had dreamed.

“You know, you didn’t have to sweep me off my feet. A simple ‘thank you’ would have worked just fine.” She said, somewhat irritated. Even her voice was adorable.

I scratched the back of my head sheepishly, and blushed. “Sorry. But you shouldn’t even be moving yet, let alone wandering around the house!”

“Well, Archons heal fast.” She said nonchalantly. “So anyway, you told me your whole life story, but you forgot the most important thing!” She paused. “Your name! I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours first.” She finished.

“Oh, that’s easy. My name’s Shining Armor. And you?”

“Well Shiny, my name’s Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but you can call me Cadence.”

Chapter Three: Forging Bonds

Monster

Chapter Three: Forging Bonds

(A/N: This story is not supposed to be dark for at least another ten thousand words, so I decided to lighten it up a bit. This is basically the same chapter as before, just with a different ending and some minor editing. Hope you enjoy, Onimott! (And whoever else might be reading this. (You could leave a bloody comment you know!)))

Sure, Cadance and I bonded, we played with Twi, and I kept up training with Strike, (I wasn’t late again) but the next article of note happened a few days later.

Listener, I speak of the day I started rebuilding my life.

It started with my normal routine, spend some time with Cadence, spend some time with Twi, and get my ass kicked by Strike. But, as I was walking home, I ran into Blade. I could instantly tell from the mischievous glint in his eye that he was up to something.

Before he could say anything, I held up my hand. “I want in,” I told him. He grinned, and told me to follow him.

“Alright, we’re gonna prank my friends, Eagle and Rune.” He detailed the plan, which honestly sounded pretty weak. He wanted to remove the doors from their rooms.

“No, that’s fucking stupid. Let’s do something better.” I told him, kinda disappointed.

He held up a hand. “No, you don’t understand. They each value their privacy above anything else. And their rooms are right across the hall from each other. They’ll immediately blame each other, and think up increasingly ridiculous ways to get each other back. Sometimes you gotta use a lame prank to start a prank war.”

I just rolled my eyes and said, “Whatever.” We walked in silence. It took about ten minutes to get there, and I was quite disappointed when we did. A simple three bedroom apartment. He said that they’d be home in about twenty minutes, so we needed to hurry.

Long story short, the doors ended up at my place. Short story long, we took about three minutes getting the doors out of their frames. One of the doors was painted light blue, and had a big ‘E’ on it, appearing to be written in blood. This door also had... straps, attached to the inside. The other door was scorched black. ‘Magic burns!’ I realized. ‘Yer a wizard, Harry.’ No, brain, shut the fuck up. The door had an ‘R’ carved out of it. I carried Eagle’s door to my place, while Blade carried Rune’s. Call me paranoid, but if you have a Mage called ‘Rune’, and he wants his privacy more than anything else, I want to have as little contact with that Discord-damned thing as possible.

We stashed the doors in my closet, then went back to his place to watch the fallout. We were just chilling in the living room when they got home.

They walked through the door laughing, not realizing what was about to go down. Blade got up, introduced them to me, we shook hands, blah blah blah, I don’t feel like going over the formalities.

Later I would learn more about them, but I feel it would be prudent to tell you about them now, so you can better understand the following events, and why they didn’t react the way Blade expected them to. Fucking numbskull...

Eagle was an Aviate assassin for the Princess, usually seen wearing shades and a leather duster, and carrying about ten knives strapped various places around his body. Also known for being a crack-shot with his dual flintlock pistols.

And Rune was a battle Mage, who was exceptional at combat and strangely healing, usually seen wearing a long black robe, and known for defeating an entire colony of Harpies himself. (Albeit a small one.)

Each of them had very short tempers, which I learned very quickly.

Anyway, Eagle excused himself to go upstairs, claiming that he had work to do. The three of us had barely sat down when we heard yelling coming from upstairs. We looked at each other, before rushing upstairs. Just in time to see Eagle put his fist through a wall. He removed his fist, leaving a sizable hole in the wall. There were a few others just like it. I apologize for not giving you an exact number, but I can’t be expected to remember everything, can I?

Well, Blade was right in one sense, about them blaming each other, but he was wrong about them pranking each other back. Eagle pulled out a fucking gun and demanded his door back, but Rune didn’t like that, and launched Eagle through the wall using magic.

Eagle landed just before a crowd walked by, obscuring our view of him. By the time the crowd was gone, so was Eagle. Rune was slowly going white.

“Uh, Rune?” Blade asked quietly, and Rune turned to face him. “Why would you even do that!?” Blade fucking screamed at him, while also going very white. They seemed to forget that I was even here.

“I’m just gonna, uh, go...” I muttered very quietly. They continued yelling at each other, so I figured I’d just slip away. I then proceeded to calm myself, think clearly about the dignified exit I wanted to make, and booked it right the fuck out of that house. As I was running, I got a peculiar feeling to turn around and look at the house. I did so, just in time to see a very pissed off looking Aviate slam directly through the fucking house, and exit the other side with a very scared looking Rune.

‘I am so very glad I got out of there.’ I thought to myself, shellshocked. ‘Holy hell, that could’ve been bad.’ I just kept running. When I got to the house, I booked it up the stairs, and Cadance peeked out of my room.

“Wha-” Was all she managed to get out, before I hug-tackled her.

“Hide me.” I whimpered, managing to worry her thoroughly.

She tried again. “Shiny, what happe-” This time she was cut off by a polite knock at the door. I started shaking. I looked out my window very quickly, and Eagle waved at me. In his other hand he held a pistol. ‘Well, at least he didn’t use that first.’ I thought, regaining a little hope. I walked downstairs, being constantly bombarded by Cadence with nonstop questions. I took a deep breath, and opened the door.

And immediately stared down the barrel of a flintlock, held in a steady grip.

“I’d prefer if you pointed that at a place that I don’t need to survive.” I told him, with a fake-as-all-hell brave voice.

He scowled at me. “Shining Armor, you have exactly no time to tell me where my door is, before I shove this pistol up your ass and pull the trigger.” I believed him too. I just watched him literally rip apart a house.

I held up my hands in a placating gesture. “Take a right out of this room, go up the stairs, first door to the left, in the closet.” I said, fast enough that I sounded like a rapper. ‘They call me M.C. Shadows.’ My brain said.

BRAIN, WHAT DID I TELL YOU?!

Eagle nodded and went upstairs. When he came back downstairs, he had both doors. He put his door down on the floor, ‘And he walked the dinosaur!’ My brain threw out there. ‘No,’ I scolded my brain. ‘He didn’t walk the fucking dinosaur.’ He put his feet into the straps, and started hovering.

At my questioning look, he explained. “I always figured that Blade would do something really stupid, so I planned for everything.” I nodded. Hey, it made sense to me. I opened the front door wide, and he used his door like a hoverboard. He flew out of the house, and shot down the street like a bullet.

Cadance pursed her lips at me. “And just what was that, Shiny?” I looked at her in fear.

“Uh... non parley anglais.” I stuttered in absolutely horrid french.

“Ah! Parlez’ vous Francois!” She said flawlessly.

I stared at her for a second, before a new plan hatched in my brain. “You know Cadance, you’re like the perfect girl.” I said in an awe-filled voice. She blushed and looked away.

Which made it that much easier to bolt out the door.

“Shining Armor!” I think I turned Cadance into a rage beast.

I turned and looked behind me. Cadance’s hair had taken on the ethereal form of the Archons, and she literally had fire spilling from the corners of her eyes. ‘Nope.’ I thought, and just kept running. ‘I have no blatantly obvious and ill-timed references for this situation.’ My brain told me. ‘Would I call an exorcist for you, or do I need a lobotomy?.’ I snarled at it.

I dove over an ill-placed cabbage cart, and heard Cadance go through it, as well as a horrified, “MY CABBAGES!” ‘Holy shit!’ I thought, before trying to run faster.

Unfortunately, one of my steps hit the ground out of rhythm, making me stumble. As the laws of physics dictate, I slammed down hard onto the cobblestone streets. I rolled for about five feet before stopping.

I woke up to Strike shining a really bright beam of sunlight into my eye, courtesy of a magnifying glass. I pushed his hand away and sat up.

“Why th- you know what? I don’t care. What happened?” I asked him, rubbing my head.

“Well, you learned what happens when you piss of a goddess.” At my questioning look, he smiled. It was a predatory smile, one suited for the battlefield. “In other words,” He continued, “You got all kinds of fucked up.” His smile grew deeper. “And I have been ordered to make your punishment as horrible as possible." At my horrified look he chuckled. "You get to hang out with me and my squad for the next week."