The Adventures of a Dark Duelistby SHMANDERChaptersChapter 1: A New BeginningChapter 2ChapterChapter 1: A New Beginning "What the fuck, where the hell am I?!" I shouted at the flying hallucinogenic tapeworm in front of me. We were just floating above the ground in a forest. He started to chuckle for a moment, I just scowled. "Alright, it took me a thousand years to build up this much energy. Basically, I summoned you to this world to mix things up a little, it's boring. In return I can give you any two things or abilities you want." He said in an odd voice... 'Anything?' He must read minds. "Yes anything." "I want my yugioh cards, and I want to be able to actually summon the monsters and use the spells and traps." He chuckled and nodded. "I also want the ability to pull slim-Jim's out of any container whenever I want." He laughed and snapped his fingers. On my arm appeared a black duel disk, shaped to match my darkness and fiend deck. I decided to reach into my pocket, and to my surprise, I pulled out a slim-jim. My jaw dropped and I stared at him. "Are you god?" I asked. "No, by the way, there are some differences between the rules of that card game, and the cards you currently wield. First of all, unless it says so in the cards effect, tributes are not required, however if you don't tribute it will absorb your energy and breaking the rule continuously will result in falling unconscious or death." I gulped. "Secondly, as you guessed there are no turns, you just gotta put the cards down fast enough." Before I could ask any more questions, he snapped his fing- talon and vanished. I was curious as to what would happen. So I drew my cards and proceeded to do the following: I set down magic jammer, sakuretsu armor, and magical cylinder. I then placed scarab swarm face down. I looked and saw hundreds of scarabs appear, they quickly faded into the ground, and I decided I would follow this path I saw. I looked around the seemingly haunted forest, with the constant feeling that I was being watched. I spun around quickly hoping to get a look at what was watching me. I saw... Nothing. "HELP!" I heard a voice in the distance shout. I sprinted through the foliage and came across a clearing, I saw a small orange horse with a freaking cowboy hat, being cornered by a huge as lion-bat-thing. I wanted to rush out and help, but I decided to stay hidden, I reached for my duel disk and grabbed the scarab card and flipped it face up. The countless pests started flooding from the nearby plants, I didn't say anything. I just pointed at the beast, and to my pleasure the bugs obeyed. 'Scarab Swarm, when this card is flip summoned destroy one monster.' I watched as the horse screamed again, this time at the bugs enveloping the creature. When the swarm was done, there was nothing left but bones. 'Once per turn you may flip this card into face down defense position.' I did so and the scarabs began sinking back into the grass. I could hear her hyperventilating from where I was hiding. After about thirty seconds of watching her freak out she started to bolt down a path, I chased after her, but stayed hidden (night time is really dark here). As we were running I took a look at my hand: Beligge vanguard of dark world, Dark Horus, and mystic plasma zone. 'Perfect.' To say AJ was freaked out was an understatement. She was running faster than she had at the running of the leaves. She sprinted into Twilight's Library, no she didn't use the door, she used the wall. As soon as she felt safe, she collapsed and took a deep breath in. By this time, Twilight had come down to see what happened "Applejack!" Twilight shouted as she ran over to her exhausted friend. "What happened?" She asked as her friend calmed down. "Ah-Ah was headin' back from Zecora's, and Ah was about halfway home. A manticore came outta nowhere and cornered me, it was about to eat me when-" she stopped as she shivered. "When what?" Twilight asked, concerned. "When... These bugs, hundreds o' the things, each a little smaller than mah hoof. They came up and and... And they ate the manticore, cut it down to bone. Then they just, vanished, they just disappeared. So Ah ran all the way here." Applejack looked up at her friend, who was horrified. Twilight was about to open her mouth to ask more, but there was a knock at the door. Twilight nervously opened the door, and in front of her, stood a tall bipedal figure with a black overcoat and a strange device on it's arm. It knelt down and smiled. "Hi, sorry about waking you up so late, but I noticed that the orange horse got really scared of my scarabs and I wanted to make sure she was okay." It was smiling sincerely. While Twilight was speechless. "Sc- scarabs, that means you control the things that... Oh no, please don't hurt us." Whatever it was, it was taken aback by this. "Hurt you? If I wanted to hurt you why would I have had my scarabs help your friend then return to the ground?" It asked, showing Twilight reason not to be COMPLETELY scared of it. They stared at eachother for a few moments before it spoke again. "May I come in? It's cold out here." Twilight broke out of her trance. "Yes of course. Please, come in." She said as she let her guest into the house. He then stared at the hole in the wall. He looked at it for a few seconds, then back at AJ. "Did they really scare you that much?" He asked the orange farm pony. She had returned to her normal state of mind. "Well- those bugs uh yers are vicious little things." She said in her defense, he chuckled for a second. "They're actually really disorganized and easy to beat if they don't get the jump on their target, not to mention weak compared to my other friends." Their jaws dropped, not only was he revealing the weakness of one of his creatures, he called them weak. He noticed their reactions and added. "Also, if you ever hear me mention the name 'Dark Horus'" he said as he showed them the card, "leave the area." Twilight's mind started racing. 'Leave the area? That must be his strongest then. What is that device though? And why does he display the picture and information of his summons on his cards? It had eight stars on it, could that show some sign of significance? What about ATK and DEF, why is one higher than the other? What did it mean return one monster from the graveyard to the field. And why is he warning us about such a creature? Is he extending some information in return for trust?' She looked back to see him withdrawing another card from the holdster within the device. He smiled and placed it on the machine, to her surprise, an orb of darkness appeared in front of him, morphing in shape before it faded. Revealing... A wombat? The small creature looked around the room, before settling it's eyes on the one that summoned it. "Um, what is that?" Twilight asked. "This is des Wombat, while he's around, only physical attacks can harm me. But he's also a really good pet." He answered as he scratched the creature behind he ear. He then walked over to the couch and laid down. "I'm really tired, so I'm gonna go to sleep. Warning, not threat, if anyone attempts to harm me in my sleep, the scarabs will protect me at any cost." He then laid back and quickly drifted into unconsciousness. The two mares simply stared at him for a good five minutes, niether one of them knew what to do, until Twilight did what she always does. She wrote a letter to the princess. 'Dear Princess Celestia We have encountered a form of bipedal creature, he is far smarter and more polite than a diamond dog. He wears a long black overcoat and has some odd device on his left foreleg. The device holds a large amount of strange cards, with pictures of creatures on them. I thought they were just info cards, but when he placed them on a different part of the device it appeared in front of us. These creatures would apparently do anything to defend him, and while he appears to like us, Applejack told me that one of his cards contained a swarm of scarabs. They apparently defended her from a manticore, but in doing so, they consumed it. This being is a potential threat, but he does not seem to have any form of hostile or aggressive attitude toward ponies. I await your reply. Your faithful student Twilight Sparkle' Her horn glowed, and she cast the spell to send the note, instead of giving it to Spike first, it was a lot more difficult, but she could do it. Shortly after she sent AJ home, she then fell asleep in her bed after a lot of reflection on the situation. "TWILIGHT!!!" Shouted a frightened and confused Spike as he stared at the creature on their couch. He heard a groan from upstairs and looked up as a very tired Twilight walked down the stairs. The shout also seemed to wake up the guy on the couch. He was rubbing his head in slight annoyance. "Hell of a wake up call little guy. You got some powerful lungs." He then stared at the now alert wombat, it was growling at Spike. "Des Wombat, defense mode." To his surprise, not only did the things posture change, the position of the card rotated. 'Wait can I control it with my voice? Interesting.' He then reexamined his duel disk, he found a holding port on the bottom of it for the cards in his hand, freeing up his actual hand. "As a show of gratitude, and a return of good faith, I'll return my scarabs to the deck. Thank you for letting me stay here miss..." "Sparkle, Twilight Sparkle." I then looked at the mark on her flank and put two and two together. 'Their names reflect something about them, well, since my real name doesn't have use here...' "Well, Twilight, my name is Shadow Strike." 'Most of my monsters are dark, it works.' I then looked down at the lizard. "And you might be?" He seemed nervous, but hid it well. "Uh, I'm Spike." He quickly shook my hand with his claw. Before we head out, I reached into my pocket and pulled out some thing gloves. I then reached in again when they weren't looking and nommed on a slim jim. I then turned back to them with a smile. "So when can I head out?" I asked politely. "We can go now, I could give you a tour of Ponyville." With that we stepped outside, many of the ponies hid, others stared. One green unicorn looked mildly psychotic. As we walked around though, not much happened. Twilight was walking along the road with Shadow to SweetApple Acres as they walked they didn't exactly speak much, to her displeasure. As hey were about to arrive they saw an orange figure charging them from in front, and a shout from behind. Twilight looked behind and saw Rainbow on a collision course with Shadow. "Rainbow NO! Shadow look out!" He didn't move, instead he smiled. Right when she was a mere few meters from him he hold out a hand towards her. "Magic Cylinder." A large cylinder appeared in front of each of his hands, one aimed toward Rainbow, one towards AJ. She waited for the impact and the loud smack. But it never came, she was shocked to see Rainbow go straight into one cylinder and out the other, she smacked straight into AJ, sending them both to the ground. The wombat then rushed between them, and put up a defensive stance. The two hotheads got up and were ready to charge again, but they were held down by a lavender aura. "What the BUCK were you two doing!?" She shouted at her friends. Rainbow shot up first. "I was gonna stop that monster from eating you!" She shouted as she struggled against Twilight's magic. "Ah was tryin' tah stop Rainbow from ending up like the manticore." AJ responded. Dash looked worried. "What happened to a manticore?" She asked. "My Scarabs ate it." Shadow said bluntly. "But if I wanted you hurt, I would have used Sakuretsu Armor instead of magic Cylinder." He said as the card in question flew into his graveyard. "My name is Shadow Strike what is your-" he stopped himself as he remembered exactly who this was, he had about thirty friends that were bronies. He knew exactly where he was, and who this was. Though he was not a brony he had a favorite, and he just used a trap card on her. "OhMyGodI'mSorryIfIKnewItWasYouIWouldntHaveUsedIt!" He shouted at a barely understandable speed. "I still can't believe I'm here and I met YOU, oh my friends are gonna be so jealous." He stopped his rant and smiled sheepishly at how weird this must be. "How do you know who I am?" She asked while slightly frightened. "Are you KIDDING?! You're THE Rainbow Dash! Fastest Flier in Equestria, master of the sonic rainboom, element of loyalty, and a shooin for captain of the wonderbolts." Twilight was surprised at how her ego didn't pop from being overinflated by the praise. "Well, I'm just that awesome aren't I?" She had completely forgotten the urge to attack the creature. "Well, maybe not quite as awesome as Dark Horus, but you're definitely a close second." This pushed one of her buttons she broke out of Twilight's magical grip and flew straight up to him. "Oh yeah, I'd like to see this Horus guy!" He cracked a grin and quietly chuckled. "Okay." He then placed his Scarab card on the device again, scaring the ever living crap out of Applejack. He then removed both his scarab, and Des Wombat (much to their confusion) and placed down Dark Horus, a massive metallic dragon with a bird head emerged from darkness. Before it stopped moving and awaited a command. "Woah." Was all Rainbow could muster. Shadow wasn't done yet. "Twilight, would you mind casting two spells, any two?" He asked, she was going to question him. But figured it best not to. She teleported to another spot then back. Horus began to glow. "What's going on?" Twilight asked. "I activate Dark Horus' ability, when someone other than myself casts a spell, I can ressurect any low level dark monster from the graveyard." Twilight understood his meaning, he sacrificed his friends in order to play a creature that would surely bring them back. "Come on back, Swarm of Scarabs and Des Wombat." Two more dark glows appeared and they formed into the two previously departed creatures. He looked back at Dash with a smug grin before removing all of the cards, and their forms followed. "Don't want to terrify the locals." Shadow Strike said casually as he walked back into town, when they entered they heard a lot of commotion. The most common was one about the princesses, but he couldn't understand exactly what. However once they reached the Library it was clear what had happened. Standing inside the Library. Were the rest of the bearers. The Princesses. And the captain of both of the guards. "Well I guess my rep proceeds me." Celestia gave a small smile, Luna was simply curious, Shining Armor looked like he was going to kill him, and the cloaked captain wearing Luna's crest was smiling like something was absolutely hilarious. The other three bowed to the Princess and Twilight glared at Shadow. He just grinned. Luna started to get irritated. "What are thou doing creature bow before thy princess." She commanded, he got an annoyed look on his face, and before anyone could interfere he answered. "No." He said with a small amount of venom. They were all shocked. "HOW DARE THY SPEAKETH TO US WITH SUCH INSOLENCE! WE ARE THY PRINCESS!" She shouted at a billion decibels. Everyone in the room held their head in pain, save for Celestia and the Night captain. Shadow stood up in annoyance and stared down the dark princess. "YOU ARE NOT MY PRINCESS, I DO NOT COME FROM THIS WORLD AND THEREFORE HAVE NO OBLIGATION TO PRAISE YOU!" He then calmed himself. "I hold no respect for titles alone Luna, until you show me a reason to respect you I will not call you by your title nor will I respect you as such." Celestia enjoyed his words, it was refreshing to meet a being that would not coddle them simply because of their position. Luna would have, had he not spoken with a clearly insulting tone. Before Celestia could even see what she was about to do, she loosed a stream of black lightning from her horn, straight towards the human. He made no effort to stop it. When it made contact he didn't even feel it. "How art thou still standing?!" She roared. Shadow just smirked. "As I told Twilight earlier." He pointed to the wombat. "While Des here is around I can only be harmed by physical attacks. Try to hurt him and I will slit your throat open where you stand." His last words struck fear and disgust into each one of the main six, and this time it was Celestia's turn to attack, she cast a levitation spell on him and was about to throw him through a wall when he spoke again. "Magic Jammer." He became surrounded in a purple glow and the golden aura dispelled. A card from his hand flew onto the field. "Come on out, Beiige Vanguard of Darkworld." The shadows faded in, leaving behind a skeletal fiend, wielding a spear in it's forelimbs. "What is that repulsive creature?!" He heart Rarity shout. "The Princesses brought their guards, I brought mine. Time for a field trip. I activate Mystic Plasma Zone." The entire room shifted around and faded until the entire group found themselves in a dark realm with a Maelstrom overhead. "Here all dark monsters are five hundred points stronger." He then gripped one card in his hand. "I release Swarm of Scarabs, and Beiige in order to advance summon Dark Horus." Three of the six spectators' eyes went wide at the name, while there were a couple gasps of fear when the enormous creature formed. "Bottomless Trap Hole." He turned his head to the new voice, but not before gaping at his card falling through a sudden expanse in the ground, all eyes were now on the night captain, all of them shocked except for Luna. On the Night Captain's left hoof was another dark duel disk. "Now that I have your attention, let's duel." Both Duelists were grinning like morons as they moved all of their cards into their decks and shuffled. "What is going on here Captain Night-Shade?" Asked Celestia, and Shining Armor in unison. He didn't respond. "You want me to go easy on you?" Shadow asked. "It wouldn't be fun if you did." Nightshade responded. "Then I'll go first." Stated Shadow. "I set one card and place two face downs and end my turn." Three cards appeared on the field. "Alright, I summon Ally of Justice Nullifier." "I activate my trap card, hidden soldiers. When you summon a monster I can summon a level four or lower dark monster from my hand. I play Des Wombat in attack mode." "I place four cards face down and activate the continuous spell Veil of Darkness, your move." The group was worried, non of them wanted to interfere out of fear and curiosity, while Celestia didn't because she saw her sister with a smug grin on her face as she watched. "I play D.D. Trainer in defense mode. Next I tribute all three of my monsters in order to summon Arcana Force Ex. The Light Ruler." An enormous Creature appeared in a flash of bright light, it seemed to have two serpent heads portruding from it's back. "When this card is summoned I can flip a coin and it's special ability will vary." He pulled a coin and a slim-jim out of his pocket, before putting the latter back. Shadow flipped it and it landed on tails. "When this card is targetted by a card effect it is negated, destroyed, and this card loses 1000 attack points. Arcana, attack Ally of Justice." The two serpent heads released a blast of energy destroying the odd machine, then a large shockwave headed straight for Nightshade. Shadow Strike 4000 Nightshade 1600 "When Nullfier is destroyed by a light monster it's effect is negated." The grunting guard said. "Whatever, your move." Nightshade draws and grins "I activate the effect of Veil of Darkness. When I draw a dark monster I can show it to you, send it to the graveyard, and draw again. I sent Mad Dog of Darkness to the graveyard." He draws again. "Rare Metal Dragon to the graveyard." He draws again. "I activate my facedown, card of sanctity. Both players draw until they have six cards in their hands. Next I activate card destruction, we discard our hands and draw completely new ones." Both players placed their hands in their graveyards and drew six more. Nightshade flashed a huge grin. "I activate two facedowns, Shadowspell, this card binds your Light Ruler to his spot and reduces his attack points by 700. Next I activate Chaos Contract. I pay half my life points, and any card that requires banishing cards, the tributes can now be your monsters as well. I remove seven of the dark monsters in my graveyard from play in order to Special Summon, Rainbow Dark Dragon!" An enormous black winged serpent appears from a shadow, it's back covered with dark gems. Rainbow Dark Dragon ATK 4000 DEF 0 Arcana Force Ex- The Light Ruler ATK 3300 DEF 4000 Shadow Strike 4000 Nightshade 800 "Now I remove the eight dark monsters in your graveyard from play in order to increase his attack points by 4000." Rainbow Dark Dragon ATK 8000 DEF 0 All of the spectators were on edge, three of them more than any others. Twilight was amazed by the sheer amount of power coming from the field, Spike was in awe of the beautiful dragon he was watching, and Celestia just didn't know what the hell was going on. "Next I summon Pitch Black Warwolf in attack mode." Shadows smile instantly faded, followed by a calm look of acceptance. "I see you recognize it's effect." "Yeah, while he's on the field, during the battle phase I can't activate traps. My Magic Cylinder won't do anything." "Correct. Rainbow Dark Dragon, attack the Light Ruler and end this." The mighty beast roared before letting loose a torrent of color straight at the other colossus. Everypony stared at the outcome shocked, they may have been in the dark about a lot, but it was clear that Nightshade was losing at first. Nightshade 800 Shadow 0 Shadow's vision started fading as he collapsed, the only voice he heard was that of the one that beat him. He spoke almost nostalgically. "Oh Sammy, are you in for a surprise." Chapter 2 Shadow's vision faded in and he looked around slowly, holding his head in pain and attempting to clear his blurry vision. "Ugh, where in the circles of hell am I?" He asked to no one in particular. His vision slowly cleared up, and he noticed he was in some form of cavern. Then he noticed something else, something he should have noticed before, he had hooves. "What the fuck?" He took a look in one of the crystals and saw both what he was expecting, and what he was not expecting. In his reflection he saw a dark coated pony with a red and white mane. He also saw a horn and wings. "I'm an alicorn, holy shit." "Hello? Who's there?" He heard a voice call out from down the cave. He quickly ran through it to see a very malnourished pink alicorn. The weak looking pony stared at him with wide eyes. "Who are you?" She asked. "My name is Nightshade." 'Might as well take the name of the bastard that did this to me.' He looked around for a second. "Where the hell are we." "I don't know, but I think we're in the crystal mines under Canterlot." She responded, still weak. "Any idea how we get out of here?" As if on cue a large explosion tore a hole in one of the cavern walls, revealing a purple unicorn. A very familiar purple unicorn. "You!" Before I could even process what happened, she was on top of the pink alicorn. Again, he was get groggy from just waking up, so he didn't catch any of what happened next. But they were suddenly running through the caverns, the pink one was singing, and in no time they were flying down the track of a minecart. Then they were literally flying, Twilight was holding onto the alicorn, and his wings spread on instinct so he was gliding. They were stopped in front of a large gate and niether of his companions could open it. "Do you think you could try to open it?" He heard Twilight ask. "Huh?" He asked. "Niether of us can open t with our magic, but since you're an alicorn and you're not hurt maybe you could try." "Uh, I'll try." He said, he channeled the same energy he felt when playing his cards into his horn, and quickly found himself on the other side of the door, how, he did not know. He quickly slid the barricade off and opened it. "Can either of you tell me what just happened?" He asked the gaping mares. "Uhhh, you used your magic, then you turned into a shadow, then you slipped under the door." Said the pink one. "Alright then, by the way, I never got your name." He told her. "My name is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but you can call me Cadence." He smiled at her. "Well, a modest princess, haven't seen one of those ever. Pleasure to meet you." After that they continued out the cavern, after Cadence tricked a couple of green eyed brides maids... Which was hilarious. We finally made it outside and Cadence turned to me. "I want you to find my Aunt, Princess Luna, somepony needs to make sure she's alright." 'Nightshade' sighed before reluctantly agreeing. "Alright, but this is your wedding present Cadence." He said before breaking off in a run for the palace, which wasn't hard to find. He got to the front and one of the guards hesitantly blocked his path. "I need to speak with Princess Luna, I was sent by Princess Cadence." Shadow said in a rush. The guard eyed him curiously. "You used her nickname, does this mean you are close to her?" He asked and Shadow facehoofed. "Considering I woke up next to her in an abandoned mine while she was sobbing about how her fiancée was going to marry an imposter AND she was starving to death, not to mention the fact that I helped her escape. Yeah, I'd say we became fast friends. NOW TAKE ME TO LUNA!" He shouted at a volume that rivaled the Royal Canterlot voice. The guard took in all the information and at the seriousness of the situation complied. "Understood." He turned to his partner. "Go, alert the rest of the guard." Back to me. "Let's go-" just before we moved the large dome around the city started to shatter. "Oh Buck, we need to hurry!" They started sprinting through the halls and reached the throne room. Where Luna was fighting at least two dozen changelings. "Get away from the Princess!" The guard shouted as he charged in, Shadow followed shortly. Contrary to his usual self, He acted on instinct, not moral code or strategy. One changeling rushed him, he used the momentum to grapple it, turn it around, and throw it back into a few of its friends. He continued fighting like a human for several minutes until they were down to a dozen changelings, and he was utterly exhausted. His reflexes slowed and he got a changeling hoof to the chin, and a horn to the back. Another came up, and the three proceeded to beat him into submission. That was of course before all four of them were struck with a pillar of black energy. The three changelings were sent flying, and he should have too. He didn't though, he absorbed it, and he started channeling his own magic, this time it was much easier. His horn took in the light around him and he focused the shadow out of his horn and threw it. It started to shift and form before finally fading, revealing a familiar figure to the exhausted duelist. Standing. In the middle of the room. Drawing a sword. Was Archfiend Soldier. The duelist was only able to form one sentence before collapsing. "Archfiend Soldier, attack the changeling swarm." The last thing he saw before fainting, was changelings running for their lives. Luna watched in both horror and awe as the creature of nightmares formed before her eyes. She watched it draw its demonic blade, but it did not attack, not until it was given a command by it's alicorn summoner. The Princess was shocked further that it did exactly what it was told, it did not do so much as hesitate to cleave the bugs in two. The changelings however, did not get the picture. As they continued to try and fight it. However, it simply breezed through them as though they were made of butter. However, when the carnage stopped and there was no sound left but the sound of changeling blood dripping from the blade. It sheathed its weapon, stood next to the collapsed alicorn, and motioned for Luna to come over. She was hesitant, but figured complying was the best choice of action. "Yes? What dost thou need?" She asked as she slowly inched towards the unusual pair. The fiend patted the fallen pony on the back. "I- I don't understand." It facepalmed, which made her smile, before pointing to her horn then pointing to him. "Oh, thou asketh us to heal him." She said before touching her horn to his and channeling magic through. Slowly, the midnight alicorn's wound healed and his eyes slowly opened. "Huh- wha- Luna!" He shouted, before recoiling as he expected pain. "Huh, I'm healed. Uhhhh thanks. What about your guard, and what about yourself. You're kinda beaten up too." He asked. "We must tend to our civilians before ourself or our guard." She said with a small smile, which he returned. "Well then, we need to go get Cadence, she might be in trouble." Luna went to run off but the guard spoke up. "What about this... Mess?" He asked. "Uhhhhh, Archfiend Soldier, clean up here. I don't want the maids to hate me, then come find us okay." It nodded and began to drag the dead bodies away, to where? None of them wanted to know. "Well, now let us go." As soon as they got to the door we stopped again. There were waaaaay too many changelings outside. "How do we get passed this." Luna asked. Shadow put a hoof on his chin for a second. "I might be able to turn us into shadows." He said as he charged up his horn, this time he kept his eyes open, and he noticed that he and Luna, slowly faded into darkness. They melded into one mind, and Luna guided their shade straight towards the church before seperating and reforming. Luna was about to rush through the doors, but she was stopped by Shadow. "Stop. Tell me you don't feel that as well, it feels... warm" Before Luna could even answer a sudden explosion of pure, condensed, love shot out from the structure and sent the two a few feet back with the force alone. Though, that wasn't all that happened, the changelings were sent flying like bats out of hell. Once they regained their footing, Shadow went to open the door, this time he was stopped by Luna. "Take this." A cloak materialized, wrapping itself around him and concieling his wings. "A new alicorn this soon after such a dramatic event could cause problems, especially with your 'unique' abilities." She said with a smile, they both walked into the church. they were greeted by six excited and confused faces, along with two familiar ones. "Auntie, Nightshade! You're alright!" Cadence shouted as she ran up to hug Luna. "Yes. It seems I have reattained some of my dark magic while helping her out." The words came out of his mouth before he even thought about it. This seemed to make the onlookers nervous for a second. "Anyway Cadence, helping your aunt was my wedding gift to you. So I still owe you for getting me out of those caves." Shining armor approached and warily put a hoof on his fiancee. "Uh, Cadence, who is this guy?" He asked as he eyed Shadow. "Shiny, this is Nightshade, he helped me and Twilight escape the caves." She answered whole-heartedly. "Oh please, all I did was open a door." This time it was Twilight that spoke up. "By turning yourself into a living shadow! How did you do that? Not even Starswirl the Bearded created a spell like that." In the wise thoughts of Shadow Strike 'She's having a total nerdgasm.' "As I spoke before, that was an example of my dark magic. It's difficult to explain-" They were interrupted as a loud crash behind them sounded, the terrified looks on all of the ponies in front of him meant that it could only be one thing. Without turning around he spoke. "Ah, Archfiend Soldier, I was wondering when you were going to show up. No matter, you're released." The demon walked up beside him then faded into a three dimensional shadow, before slipping into a stream of darkness and flowing into Shadow's horn. He then refocused his attention on the speechless ponies in front of him. "Wh-wh-what was that beast." Cadence asked, stuttering over herself. "I must apologize for not warning you about that Cadence. Also, the correct term is fiend. I can summon many creatures and abilities from the dark realm. Now, since I have revealed to you all one of my abilities, and how the majority of them actually work, I ask for the purple unicorn to show me the events of the past few days. I would rather see it than hear it." The group still shell shocked, parted so that a previously note-taking Twilight could approach the onyx alicorn. She touched her horn to his and in a split second, hundreds of memories over the past few days flashed through his head. As soon as the spell stopped, mere moments after it began, Nightshade had a look a pure hatred on his face. Before anypony could react, he dug a hoof straight into Shining Armor's face. The sound of the impact made everypony stagger, and sent Shining spiralling. Shadow found himself restrained by a silver aura. "What art thou doing Nightshade!?" She asked, even though he couldn't move, he spat at Shining. "'IF I WERE YOU I WOULDN'T SHOW UP TO T HE WEDDING AT ALL!!!'" This sentence caused all but Luna and Cadence's eyes to go wide. "YOUR SISTER WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG, YOU HADN'T EVEN BEEN FULLY ENSLAVED YET, AND YOU FUCKING SAID THAT TO YOUR OWN SISTER! NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, NO MATTER WHAT THEY HAVE DONE, AS LONG AS YOUR FAMILY'S HEART IS IN THE RIGHT PLACE YOU SHOULD NEVER FUCKING SAY ANYTHING LIKE THAT TO THEM!!!" His eyes then turned to the other elements. "AND YOU FIVE! DID YOU FORSAKE ALL OF YOUR ELEMENTS!" His words were laced with venom, He pointed his now free hoof at Rarity. "ELEMENT OF GENEROSITY MY ASS! IF YOU'RE SO GENEROUS, THEN WHY COULDN'T YOU GIVE YOUR FRIEND THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT!" Next was Applejack. "ELEMENT OF HONESTY! YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TELL THAT TWILIGHT FULLY BELIEVED IN WHAT SHE WAS TRYING TO WARN YOU ABOUT!" Next he moved the hoof to Pinkie. "ELEMENT OF LAUGHTER?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH DESPAIR YOU PUT YOUR 'FRIEND' THROUGH!?" He calmed himself, but kept his scornful hatred, as he moved to Fluttershy. "Element of Kindness. Do I really even need to explain it? You couldn't even show a comforting smile when Twilight had been driven into the deepest pit of depression." Finally somepony spoke up, unfortunately it was the wrong one. "HEY LEAVE HER ALONE!" Rainbow shouted, causing Shadow to scoff. "AND YOU! Up until this point I respected and admired you, Rainbow Dash, but now I see just how much of a hypocrite you are. You call yourself the Element of Loyalty, when you would prove yourself more loyal to a Princess you had probably never even heard of before that event and the brother of the very friend you betrayed, PATHETIC!" Finally he broke free of Luna's magical grip entirely. "YOU!!!" He yelled as he pointed at Celestia. "'YOU HAVE A LOT TO THINK ABOUT!' YOU GODDAMN BITCH, YOU COULDN'T EVEN LISTEN TO YOUR STUDENT, THE PONY WHO LOOKS UP TO YOU AND CHERISHES YOUR WORD MORE THAN ANYPONY ELSE, AND YOU COULDN'T EVEN ALLOW HER TO EXPLAIN EVERYTHING! SOME BENEVOLENT RULER YOU ARE!" Shadow stomped his hoof, leaving crack marks in the floor. "None of that, NONE OF THAT MAKES ME AS MAD AS THE FACT THAT NONE OF YOU HAVE APOLOGIZED YET! UP UNTIL THIS POINT IT PROBABLY HASN'T EVEN CROSSED ANY OF YOUR MINDS!" He then spoke quietly. "I will still show up to the wedding, to show support for Cadence, and to clean up the aftermath of the invasion, but I could never live here. YOU'RE EVEN WORSE THAN THE CHANGELINGS! THEY FEED ON LOVE, THEY USE IT AS A LIFE SOURCE! YOU JUST TOOK IT AND THREW IT AWAY LIKE IT WAS TRASH!" His horn started channeling power and slowly he broke apart the fabric of space in front of him. "Dimension Hole." Before it shut behind him, they could see a glimpse of the royal throne room, those that weren't blinded by the tears in their eyes. Luna did not know how to react, on one hoof, a strange alicorn with dark, evil looking powers just assaulted the captain of the guard, and verbally assaulted the elements of harmony, and her sister. On the other, they all deserved a severe talking to at the least for what they had apparently done, not to mention the fact that they did not even apologize for it. She couldn't make a decision on the matter, and it looked like while Cadence wasn't going to let that interfere with her love for Shining Armor. He would definitely be sleeping on the couch for a few weeks. Celestia herself looked destroyed, she had been beating herself up for what she had said the moment she realized she was wrong, and she knew she had to apologize, but her pride simply would not allow it. That speech however, drove her over the edge, and now she was breaking down in tears. She couldn't bare to look any of them in the eye. "How the hell could they possibly have acted like that?!" Shadow shouted at no one in particular. "Love and tolerate my ass." He slowly found himself reeling at the amount of power that was required for the dimension hole. Not even having the strength to call out for help, he collapsed on the palace floor. Welcoming, the all too familiar darkness. Shadow looked around, seeing that he was surrounded by the creatures he so dearly plays. "Great, so what am I in the duel spirits world now?" Rainbow Dark Dragon responded. "No Sam, you are unconscious. We are here to help you use the new abilities you have attained. You now control darkness, just as Celestia controls the sun and Luna the moon, you wield what they cannot. At the moment you merely have control over shadows, we will assist you in using it to its full potential." A room faded in, full of items. "You're shadow puppeteer skill, you may link your shadow with the shadow of any inanimate object. If it may bend you can make it do so, you may also use this to replicate the unicorns telekinesis." The Dark Dragon paused. "You must go now, it is time to wake up, time spent unconscious goes by much faster than sleep, in our future sessions, we shall go further." The space around him started to fade, and as he woke up he heard himself shout. "What the hell?! That was like thirty seconds!" "Actually Nightshade, thou were unconscious for at least three hours." He turned his head to the left to see the princess of the night. "Oh, Luna! Look I'm sorry about the... Scene I caused at the church, I've gone through a lot in the last couple days. I-I couldn't stand to see someone's ideas so hatefully disregarded without even listening to what they had to say. I don't regret what I said to any of them, I meant every word. I regret how and when I said it. I also don't regret clocking the groom in the face, I stand by that, and now I have an interesting story." He chuckled. "But... I'd like to apologize to the elements, Celestia too." "As far as I'm concerned, we all have things to apologize for. Though, your hateful words, while brash, were needed to make them see that." It was at this time he noticed that he wasn't in the throne room anymore. "Uh, Luna, where are we?" He asked. "I moved you to my chambers, I needed to ask you something." It was at this moment he finally noticed she wasn't using the royal 'we'. "Ask away." "Up until today, there has only been three alicorns in Equestria. Not only that, you hold very unique abilities, summon creatures I have never even heard of. Who are you?" Shadow looked back and forth before swallowing and answering. "I will answer as long as you do not disclose this information to anyone else." She hesitantly nodded. "My real name is Samuel Stratos, I was originally a species known as human." Her eyes widened, obviously they were heard of here. "When I was little, I was skilled in a card game called YuGiOh. In this game there were three main types of cards, trap cards, spell cards, and monster cards. In my world they were nothing more than pieces of paper, here, they are powerful beasts and dangerous abilities. I'm not sure how I got here why I'm a pony now or why I have control over shadows. Have I answered your questions?" "Yes. Now I shall take you to the throne room, this time, leave your cloak here. The only ponies there will be ones I trust." He drew a blank for a second. "Uh, won't I raise a commotion if we walk there?" Nightshade asked. "Who said anything about walking?" She asked with a smile and he sighed. "You want to use shadow step again don't you?" Her smile turned into a huge grin. "Yes! It's so much fun!" "Alright, here we go." A familiar feeling overtook them both. They melded together and flowed across the hallway floor moving at an immense speed towards the dining hall. Sitting at the end of the table was Celestia, on each side of her was as follows: Cadence and Shining, Fluttershy and Rarity, AJ and RD, then Pinkie and Twilight. They all had clearly been crying recently, this was more than enough to break Nightshade's concentration. He and Luna materialized in front of the exit, all eyes were on him, all but two pairs of them were hate filled. Night shrank at their gazes. "Everypony, Nightshade has something to say." Luna put him on the spotlight even more. "I-I-I-I'm sorry!" He shouted, everypony sitting at the table was surprised. "I'm sorry, what I yelled at you about. It not only wasn't my business, but the timing was unacceptable, how I said what I said even more so. I apologize, not for what I said make no mistake of that, but how I said it and when I said it. I just, I just don't understand." He turned away and prepared a dimension hole. "I understand if you don't want me here anymore." Silence hung. It was excruciating for both sides of the situation. "Sit the buck down, this is way too sappy." He was surprised to see Rainbow Dash. "Wha- but... you were the one that I insulted the hardest." He started tearing up involuntarily. "Why would any of you even look at me after that, when I was little I was beaten up for far less." The memories of bullies throughout his school life flashed through his mind. Luna was just staring at the creature before her. 'Is this really a being that can bring for creatures of destruction at a moments notice?' As these thoughts crossed her mind, niether of the two noticed the elements surrounding Nightshade and hugged him. He wasn't ready for the embrace, as he almost summoned another monster out of reflex, but he quickly melted into it. The embrace ended quicker than he would have wanted, when Celestia cleared her throat. "I would like you to live with the elements while we figure out your living arrangements, okay?" Night nodded. "I just need to get my cloak." He charged up some magic in his horn, a very creepy blue chest appeared in front of him and he started hitting the top of it with his hoof. "Come on cough it up!" To the mares surprise and disgust the box opened, and out came a long cloak, it was untattered by the hundreds of teeth inside and completely dry. "Sorry about how creepy they all look, they're just really helpful." He said as he strung the cloak around his neck. "So how do I look?" "Creepy. Why do you need that cloak anyway?" Dash asked. Nightshade put on his best 'you serious?' face, then realized the problem. "Is my coat really that dark that you couldn't see my wings?" He asked as he extended them. "Woah, um, there's another alicorn here. And he's going to be living in ponyville. I MUST GET A NEW FASHION LINE UP!" Squealed an ecstatic Rarity before she galloped out of the room. Nightshade sighed and rubbed his temple. "She isn't going to treat me like a prince is she?" The silence was all the answer he needed. "FUCK!" Chapter After about an hour of freaking out and avoiding Rarity, half an hour of anxiety, and considering hiding inside the dark mimic, Shadow had relieved enough stress to compensate for all of the things that have happened over the last few days. He was ready to start really helping out with rebuilding Canterlot. It was insanely difficult at first, because Rarity and Pinkie Pie almost blew his cover on the first day. Then there was the fact that the only ability he could use to move and rebuild things was Shadow Puppet. THEN there was the fact that Twilight wouldn't stop asking how his magic works. After about three hours straight of questions, he got tired of it. "TWILIGHT!" He stopped her mid sentence. "Look, I know you're having a lot of fun with your nerdgasm, but I have work to do and in all seriousness, I have no fucking clue how my abilities work." He said as he continued walking, his head turned toward her. "When I can answer your questions I will, but please leave me alone for now." She had a sheepish smile and a light blush. "Eheheh, yeah sorry about that. It's just that you're so uni-" she was interrupted by her bumping into someone, standing in front of them was an alabaster unicorn, wearing a white suit and had a girly ass mane. "Ugh, you filthy peasant! Watch where you're going, you clumsy oaf." Twilight could have sword she heard something snap next to her. Nightshade looked up, his horn faintly dimming the area around it. "Shut the fuck up and go cry about it, you self absorbed cross-dresser." Now she heard something snap in front of her, but she was too busy giggling to notice. "Why you insolent little wretch, do you know who I am?" Blueblood yelled. "No, and I don't care. So why is it you are talking and dressing like a colt, bitch?" Nightshade was really good at pushing the prince's buttons. "I am Prince Blueblood you miserable little cretin. I could have you arrested for merely looking at me like you are." He attempted to shout. "It's a good thing I don't give a fuck about titles. Anyway, Blueballs, you gave me enough time to perfect a cross between shadow possession and shadow puppetree." He gestured towards the floor, where Blueblood saw their shadows connected, he tried to move, but he couldn't. Twilight could only stare at the ability. "What have you done to me demon?!" The spoiled brat screamed. The cloaked alicorn began to smirk. "I used shadow possession in order to take control of a living target. Normally this technique would require me to do what I want you to do myself, buuuut..." He forced the Prince to drop to a bow. "Using shadow puppetree, I don't need to." "Release me monster!" The royal douche commanded. "Oh I will... After you apologize to Twilight for bumping into her and yelling at her." Both the Prince's and Twilight's jaws dropped, Blueblood gave a grunt of defiance and struggled. "Wow you're a wimp, anyway, I'm in no rush we can just stay here until you apologize. Should I force you into more degrading positions to speed up the process, maybe make you kiss her hooves. Or maybe I should make you mess up your mare's mane and rip your suit." He then got a mischievous grin. "Or maybe have you do the pony pokee with Pinkie Pie in public." Twilight was now laughing hysterically at the thought of the self-absorbed Prince looking like or doing those things. The Prince, scared for his dignity, started apologizing frantically, and Nightshade released the possession. "I'll have you thrown in the dungeons for what you've done, GUARD!" Blueblood shrieked, a guard came running. "Arrest this peasant for assaulting me!" He shouted like a bitch. The guard looked at the concealed alicorn and removed his helmet. "Hey Nightshade, how ya doing?" It was the guard from the invasion. "Pretty good, the royal cocksucker is being a bitch." Night casually said. "Why you! I will have all three of you incarcerated!" Nightshade's attitude flipped, his horn glowed this time and all nearby shadows flowed into it, causing a pulse of darkness. Shadows started to form around all sides of him. Chains flowed from the shadows and wrapped around Blueblood, completely stopping his ability to move and speak. The guard and Twilight both stared at him in shock, the chains tightened to the point that muffled screams could be heard. Twilight ran in front of Nightshade, trying to break his concentration. She saw something. His eyes were a darker shade of black than his mane, energy flowed from them as the gaze less eyes stared blankly forward. She grabbed him by the shoulders and started shaking him. "Stop it! Stop please!" She shouted, and the chains stopped tightening, the darkness faded from his eyes. He looked at her for a second, before collapsing yet again. In Nightshade's unconsciousness a large dragon looked over him and sighed. "Really? Really Sam? Three times in two days. Whatever we can get to your training now. You discovered one of your abilities on your own." Rainbow Dark said. "Oh, you mean shadow possession?" The dragon face-clawed. "No. The royal sisters have an ability known as royal fury. Twilight is the key to elemental fury. And you wield Dark Fury. Unlike the others, you will be exhausted by using it at first. But it will enhance your other abilities to near god-like levels. I suggest you avoid using it unless necessary." "God-like? But I barely even started hurting that Prince." "That's because you only absorbed a few shadows. If you were to absorb a large amount, then release it later you would release enough strengh to rotate the sun or moon yourself." The dragon paused. "Would you like to practice your shadow puppet skill." "Yeah, let's get started." His shadow streamed in all directions. "Sentry, I need you to go get one of the Princesses. I'm not sure if he should be moved." She said as she gestured to the passed out alicorn and the still chained prince. "Right, I will be right back." He said before galloping off. Twilight stared at the alicorn and asked aloud. "What was that, I've never seen anypony's eyes do that but mine." Before long, Celestia and Luna, along with the elements arrived at the scene. Luna, Rarity, and Rainbow couldn't help but laugh at the stuck up snob. "What in Tartarus happened here?!" Celestia bellowed. "Why is my nephew chained up and what happened to Nightshade?" She asked as they removed the cloak, revealing the wings and which seemed to be burnt a the tip. Her mind raced and she immediately attempted to unravel the binds on Blueblood, but to no avail. "Twilight start explaining now!" Twilight was scared, Celestia had never raised her voice to anypony before. "We, we were walking down the hall. We were talking and I didn't watch where I was going. Blueblood and I ran into eachother, he started yelling at me, and when Nightshade defended me they got into a verbal fight. That was a distraction though, Nightshade was linking their shadows as it progressed, taking control of Blueblood's physical body. Nightshade made him bow to me and told him that if he didn't apologize he would force him to do... A few funny things." It was difficult to surpress a giggle. "Finally Blueblood apologized and Nightshade let him go, he called his guard and told him to arrest Night. They seemed to have known eachother because they started talking, that made your nephew mad. He said he was going to have all three of us incarcerated, Night... He just snapped." She paused for a second. "He seemed to absorb the darkness then summoned these chains, they bound Blueblood as you see now, only they started out mug looser. They kept tightening so I jumped in front of Night to get him to stop, I succeeded but... Princess, his eyes when he summoned the chains, they were like mine at the exam. Only..." "Only what Twilight?" Rarity asked, stepping into the conversations. "His eyes were black, they were glowing black. As if somepony had taken away the moon and all the stars from the night sky." Twilight shuddered a little bit and all of them gasped as Nightshade started to stir. "Huh, what?" The waking Alicorn asked before staring at Blueblood. "He's still chained up? I should probably take care of that, but if he even talks I'm putting one back on his mouth." His horn glowed and the chains turned into shadows and proceeded back into his horn. This Prince opened his mouth but quickly shut it. He ran off before his pride would escalate the scene any further. "What was that?" Twilight asked, trying to make sense of the situation "That was Dark Fury. It is my technique, and in all seriousness, I'm still angry so I'm going to go for a walk." Before anypony could object he faded and slipstreamed through the darkness. Twilight was too busy wondering what he meant, she looked up to Celestia, she and Luna had gone wide eyed. "He has a fury?" She spoke barely audible. "Princess what's wrong?" Asked the unicorn. "I'm sorry my student, but my sister and I must discuss this in private." She spoke quickly before walking off. "But- ugh! Girls, what do you think?" Twilight asked the group of mix-emotioned mares. "Uh, Ah don't know Twi. Ah can't believe he would assault royalty. Then again, we didn't quite learn anythin' 'bout 'em other than those things he summons." AJ pointed out. "I don't think he's a meany, but he was acting kinda mean." Pinkie stated. "Are you two nuts! Night was completely calm up until Blueblood threatened Twilight, we should be thanking him for saving her." Rainbow shouted. "And that moral less prince should be thankin Twilight for saving him. That self absorbed pompous egotistical UGH! I just wish I could've seen it." Rarity added. Fluttershy stayed quiet. "Do ya think we should go after 'im?" AJ asked, even Rainbow shook her head. "He needs some space." Nightshade was walking through Canterlot, it was evidently clear that he was angry, even though his body language didn't show it. He was just radiating it, until he started hearing music nearby. "Get your camera, come on zoom in! Cuz your favorite mare's a human, ME!" He could see the singer now, a mint green unicorn he had seen various times online. "That is whoooooooo I'll BEEEEEEEEEEEE! Anthropology shhh." He seemed to be the only one nearby "So, a pony that knows about humans huh?" He asked, which startled the mare and she turned to greet him. "Oh great, you aren't going to make fun of my for believing in humans too are you?" She asked with clear annoyance, until something clicked. "Wait you said knows, not believes in." "Yes, anyway you are crazy for believing in them without evidence, but not crazy for believing in them. I've met a few of them and I control one that use o be human." Her eyes widened and she started speaking at an impossible speed, he stopped her by shoving a hoof in her mouth. "Before you drive me even further up the wall than I already am, let me show you something." He absorbed the nearby shadows but used their energy directly, so as to not trigger another fury. An orb of darkness formed in front of the two. "Do not get scared by his name, but I introduce you to one of my oldest friends, the Vampire Lord." Her eyes widened in fear, then excitement as she saw the cloaked biped with seafoam colored hair. Her jaw completely dropped when she saw the biped kneel to the strange black pony. "Master Nightshade." It spoke to the cloaked alicorn. Nightshade had a playful grin. "Rise old friend." He spoke with as much authority as he could, to Lyra he sounded like a kind Blueblood. "I want you to answer any and all questions this young mare has. I also hope to be meeting her again, so I wish for you to look after her. If you are in the presence of strangers I want you to fade into the shadows, understood?" "Yes master. Rainbow Dark Dragon told me as much." He then looked to the unicorn for a moment. "If you are going to be spending more time with her then it should be fine for you to remove your cloak around her." Nightshade facehoofed as he realized he still had it on, he took it off and tosses it to the vampire, who put it in a pocket of his own. "You're an ALICORN?!" She screamed louder than he would have liked. "Yeah." He said as he regained his hearing. "If Celestia and Luna are the masters of night and day, then I am the master of all that resides in the dark, but you can call my Nightshade." "Any more surprises you have for me?" She asked with a grin. "Actually yes, he's-" the vampire was cut off by a quick glare. "Got a few, but none that he would like to disclose at this moment." He stopped for a second. "Master are you sure you wouldn't like my wife to watch over and associate with the mare, it would seem like the right decision." Nightshade just chuckled for a second. "Keep this up and I'm gonna have to make you my advisor." He said before drawing in a breath. 'I need to try summoning without using the shadows, otherwise I'll never get stronger. He focused more of his own darkness and directed it outwards. In mere moments another biped stood similar yet softer facial features to the first one and a long purple dress. "Master Nightshade, I know what to do, Rainbow Dark Dragon instructed me moments before I was summoned." She said before walking beside the unicorn. "Uh sorry but who's this Rainbow Dark Dragon?" She asked. "Oh I'm Lyra by the way." "He's my strongest subject, at the moment he is more powerful than me, maybe he has always been." Nightshade said philosophically. "Anyway Lyra, I must get going make sure she stays out of trouble okay." "I won't get in any trouble!" The mare shouted. "I wasn't talkin abou you." He said just before he and the vampire lord faded into darkness and streamed back towards the palace. "Sister what are we going to do?!" Shouted Luna. "I don't know Lulu, we know he is good as he protected you and my student. But he is clearly short tempered, and with a fury that he could trigger so effortlessly...." She trailed off. "Sister, he entrusted to us a secret that he trusted to us completely. He put this much faith in us and-" "What was the secret?!" Celestia asked a little too forcefully. "Sister, if we told you we would be violating the sanctity of-" she was cut off again. "He is a threat he cannot be holding secrets from us, please, I must know if I am to let him live here." There was a strong silence. "Tia, he- he is not of this world." "What?" She asked. "He was human, turned pony."
Chapter 1: A New Beginning "What the fuck, where the hell am I?!" I shouted at the flying hallucinogenic tapeworm in front of me. We were just floating above the ground in a forest. He started to chuckle for a moment, I just scowled. "Alright, it took me a thousand years to build up this much energy. Basically, I summoned you to this world to mix things up a little, it's boring. In return I can give you any two things or abilities you want." He said in an odd voice... 'Anything?' He must read minds. "Yes anything." "I want my yugioh cards, and I want to be able to actually summon the monsters and use the spells and traps." He chuckled and nodded. "I also want the ability to pull slim-Jim's out of any container whenever I want." He laughed and snapped his fingers. On my arm appeared a black duel disk, shaped to match my darkness and fiend deck. I decided to reach into my pocket, and to my surprise, I pulled out a slim-jim. My jaw dropped and I stared at him. "Are you god?" I asked. "No, by the way, there are some differences between the rules of that card game, and the cards you currently wield. First of all, unless it says so in the cards effect, tributes are not required, however if you don't tribute it will absorb your energy and breaking the rule continuously will result in falling unconscious or death." I gulped. "Secondly, as you guessed there are no turns, you just gotta put the cards down fast enough." Before I could ask any more questions, he snapped his fing- talon and vanished. I was curious as to what would happen. So I drew my cards and proceeded to do the following: I set down magic jammer, sakuretsu armor, and magical cylinder. I then placed scarab swarm face down. I looked and saw hundreds of scarabs appear, they quickly faded into the ground, and I decided I would follow this path I saw. I looked around the seemingly haunted forest, with the constant feeling that I was being watched. I spun around quickly hoping to get a look at what was watching me. I saw... Nothing. "HELP!" I heard a voice in the distance shout. I sprinted through the foliage and came across a clearing, I saw a small orange horse with a freaking cowboy hat, being cornered by a huge as lion-bat-thing. I wanted to rush out and help, but I decided to stay hidden, I reached for my duel disk and grabbed the scarab card and flipped it face up. The countless pests started flooding from the nearby plants, I didn't say anything. I just pointed at the beast, and to my pleasure the bugs obeyed. 'Scarab Swarm, when this card is flip summoned destroy one monster.' I watched as the horse screamed again, this time at the bugs enveloping the creature. When the swarm was done, there was nothing left but bones. 'Once per turn you may flip this card into face down defense position.' I did so and the scarabs began sinking back into the grass. I could hear her hyperventilating from where I was hiding. After about thirty seconds of watching her freak out she started to bolt down a path, I chased after her, but stayed hidden (night time is really dark here). As we were running I took a look at my hand: Beligge vanguard of dark world, Dark Horus, and mystic plasma zone. 'Perfect.' To say AJ was freaked out was an understatement. She was running faster than she had at the running of the leaves. She sprinted into Twilight's Library, no she didn't use the door, she used the wall. As soon as she felt safe, she collapsed and took a deep breath in. By this time, Twilight had come down to see what happened "Applejack!" Twilight shouted as she ran over to her exhausted friend. "What happened?" She asked as her friend calmed down. "Ah-Ah was headin' back from Zecora's, and Ah was about halfway home. A manticore came outta nowhere and cornered me, it was about to eat me when-" she stopped as she shivered. "When what?" Twilight asked, concerned. "When... These bugs, hundreds o' the things, each a little smaller than mah hoof. They came up and and... And they ate the manticore, cut it down to bone. Then they just, vanished, they just disappeared. So Ah ran all the way here." Applejack looked up at her friend, who was horrified. Twilight was about to open her mouth to ask more, but there was a knock at the door. Twilight nervously opened the door, and in front of her, stood a tall bipedal figure with a black overcoat and a strange device on it's arm. It knelt down and smiled. "Hi, sorry about waking you up so late, but I noticed that the orange horse got really scared of my scarabs and I wanted to make sure she was okay." It was smiling sincerely. While Twilight was speechless. "Sc- scarabs, that means you control the things that... Oh no, please don't hurt us." Whatever it was, it was taken aback by this. "Hurt you? If I wanted to hurt you why would I have had my scarabs help your friend then return to the ground?" It asked, showing Twilight reason not to be COMPLETELY scared of it. They stared at eachother for a few moments before it spoke again. "May I come in? It's cold out here." Twilight broke out of her trance. "Yes of course. Please, come in." She said as she let her guest into the house. He then stared at the hole in the wall. He looked at it for a few seconds, then back at AJ. "Did they really scare you that much?" He asked the orange farm pony. She had returned to her normal state of mind. "Well- those bugs uh yers are vicious little things." She said in her defense, he chuckled for a second. "They're actually really disorganized and easy to beat if they don't get the jump on their target, not to mention weak compared to my other friends." Their jaws dropped, not only was he revealing the weakness of one of his creatures, he called them weak. He noticed their reactions and added. "Also, if you ever hear me mention the name 'Dark Horus'" he said as he showed them the card, "leave the area." Twilight's mind started racing. 'Leave the area? That must be his strongest then. What is that device though? And why does he display the picture and information of his summons on his cards? It had eight stars on it, could that show some sign of significance? What about ATK and DEF, why is one higher than the other? What did it mean return one monster from the graveyard to the field. And why is he warning us about such a creature? Is he extending some information in return for trust?' She looked back to see him withdrawing another card from the holdster within the device. He smiled and placed it on the machine, to her surprise, an orb of darkness appeared in front of him, morphing in shape before it faded. Revealing... A wombat? The small creature looked around the room, before settling it's eyes on the one that summoned it. "Um, what is that?" Twilight asked. "This is des Wombat, while he's around, only physical attacks can harm me. But he's also a really good pet." He answered as he scratched the creature behind he ear. He then walked over to the couch and laid down. "I'm really tired, so I'm gonna go to sleep. Warning, not threat, if anyone attempts to harm me in my sleep, the scarabs will protect me at any cost." He then laid back and quickly drifted into unconsciousness. The two mares simply stared at him for a good five minutes, niether one of them knew what to do, until Twilight did what she always does. She wrote a letter to the princess. 'Dear Princess Celestia We have encountered a form of bipedal creature, he is far smarter and more polite than a diamond dog. He wears a long black overcoat and has some odd device on his left foreleg. The device holds a large amount of strange cards, with pictures of creatures on them. I thought they were just info cards, but when he placed them on a different part of the device it appeared in front of us. These creatures would apparently do anything to defend him, and while he appears to like us, Applejack told me that one of his cards contained a swarm of scarabs. They apparently defended her from a manticore, but in doing so, they consumed it. This being is a potential threat, but he does not seem to have any form of hostile or aggressive attitude toward ponies. I await your reply. Your faithful student Twilight Sparkle' Her horn glowed, and she cast the spell to send the note, instead of giving it to Spike first, it was a lot more difficult, but she could do it. Shortly after she sent AJ home, she then fell asleep in her bed after a lot of reflection on the situation. "TWILIGHT!!!" Shouted a frightened and confused Spike as he stared at the creature on their couch. He heard a groan from upstairs and looked up as a very tired Twilight walked down the stairs. The shout also seemed to wake up the guy on the couch. He was rubbing his head in slight annoyance. "Hell of a wake up call little guy. You got some powerful lungs." He then stared at the now alert wombat, it was growling at Spike. "Des Wombat, defense mode." To his surprise, not only did the things posture change, the position of the card rotated. 'Wait can I control it with my voice? Interesting.' He then reexamined his duel disk, he found a holding port on the bottom of it for the cards in his hand, freeing up his actual hand. "As a show of gratitude, and a return of good faith, I'll return my scarabs to the deck. Thank you for letting me stay here miss..." "Sparkle, Twilight Sparkle." I then looked at the mark on her flank and put two and two together. 'Their names reflect something about them, well, since my real name doesn't have use here...' "Well, Twilight, my name is Shadow Strike." 'Most of my monsters are dark, it works.' I then looked down at the lizard. "And you might be?" He seemed nervous, but hid it well. "Uh, I'm Spike." He quickly shook my hand with his claw. Before we head out, I reached into my pocket and pulled out some thing gloves. I then reached in again when they weren't looking and nommed on a slim jim. I then turned back to them with a smile. "So when can I head out?" I asked politely. "We can go now, I could give you a tour of Ponyville." With that we stepped outside, many of the ponies hid, others stared. One green unicorn looked mildly psychotic. As we walked around though, not much happened. Twilight was walking along the road with Shadow to SweetApple Acres as they walked they didn't exactly speak much, to her displeasure. As hey were about to arrive they saw an orange figure charging them from in front, and a shout from behind. Twilight looked behind and saw Rainbow on a collision course with Shadow. "Rainbow NO! Shadow look out!" He didn't move, instead he smiled. Right when she was a mere few meters from him he hold out a hand towards her. "Magic Cylinder." A large cylinder appeared in front of each of his hands, one aimed toward Rainbow, one towards AJ. She waited for the impact and the loud smack. But it never came, she was shocked to see Rainbow go straight into one cylinder and out the other, she smacked straight into AJ, sending them both to the ground. The wombat then rushed between them, and put up a defensive stance. The two hotheads got up and were ready to charge again, but they were held down by a lavender aura. "What the BUCK were you two doing!?" She shouted at her friends. Rainbow shot up first. "I was gonna stop that monster from eating you!" She shouted as she struggled against Twilight's magic. "Ah was tryin' tah stop Rainbow from ending up like the manticore." AJ responded. Dash looked worried. "What happened to a manticore?" She asked. "My Scarabs ate it." Shadow said bluntly. "But if I wanted you hurt, I would have used Sakuretsu Armor instead of magic Cylinder." He said as the card in question flew into his graveyard. "My name is Shadow Strike what is your-" he stopped himself as he remembered exactly who this was, he had about thirty friends that were bronies. He knew exactly where he was, and who this was. Though he was not a brony he had a favorite, and he just used a trap card on her. "OhMyGodI'mSorryIfIKnewItWasYouIWouldntHaveUsedIt!" He shouted at a barely understandable speed. "I still can't believe I'm here and I met YOU, oh my friends are gonna be so jealous." He stopped his rant and smiled sheepishly at how weird this must be. "How do you know who I am?" She asked while slightly frightened. "Are you KIDDING?! You're THE Rainbow Dash! Fastest Flier in Equestria, master of the sonic rainboom, element of loyalty, and a shooin for captain of the wonderbolts." Twilight was surprised at how her ego didn't pop from being overinflated by the praise. "Well, I'm just that awesome aren't I?" She had completely forgotten the urge to attack the creature. "Well, maybe not quite as awesome as Dark Horus, but you're definitely a close second." This pushed one of her buttons she broke out of Twilight's magical grip and flew straight up to him. "Oh yeah, I'd like to see this Horus guy!" He cracked a grin and quietly chuckled. "Okay." He then placed his Scarab card on the device again, scaring the ever living crap out of Applejack. He then removed both his scarab, and Des Wombat (much to their confusion) and placed down Dark Horus, a massive metallic dragon with a bird head emerged from darkness. Before it stopped moving and awaited a command. "Woah." Was all Rainbow could muster. Shadow wasn't done yet. "Twilight, would you mind casting two spells, any two?" He asked, she was going to question him. But figured it best not to. She teleported to another spot then back. Horus began to glow. "What's going on?" Twilight asked. "I activate Dark Horus' ability, when someone other than myself casts a spell, I can ressurect any low level dark monster from the graveyard." Twilight understood his meaning, he sacrificed his friends in order to play a creature that would surely bring them back. "Come on back, Swarm of Scarabs and Des Wombat." Two more dark glows appeared and they formed into the two previously departed creatures. He looked back at Dash with a smug grin before removing all of the cards, and their forms followed. "Don't want to terrify the locals." Shadow Strike said casually as he walked back into town, when they entered they heard a lot of commotion. The most common was one about the princesses, but he couldn't understand exactly what. However once they reached the Library it was clear what had happened. Standing inside the Library. Were the rest of the bearers. The Princesses. And the captain of both of the guards. "Well I guess my rep proceeds me." Celestia gave a small smile, Luna was simply curious, Shining Armor looked like he was going to kill him, and the cloaked captain wearing Luna's crest was smiling like something was absolutely hilarious. The other three bowed to the Princess and Twilight glared at Shadow. He just grinned. Luna started to get irritated. "What are thou doing creature bow before thy princess." She commanded, he got an annoyed look on his face, and before anyone could interfere he answered. "No." He said with a small amount of venom. They were all shocked. "HOW DARE THY SPEAKETH TO US WITH SUCH INSOLENCE! WE ARE THY PRINCESS!" She shouted at a billion decibels. Everyone in the room held their head in pain, save for Celestia and the Night captain. Shadow stood up in annoyance and stared down the dark princess. "YOU ARE NOT MY PRINCESS, I DO NOT COME FROM THIS WORLD AND THEREFORE HAVE NO OBLIGATION TO PRAISE YOU!" He then calmed himself. "I hold no respect for titles alone Luna, until you show me a reason to respect you I will not call you by your title nor will I respect you as such." Celestia enjoyed his words, it was refreshing to meet a being that would not coddle them simply because of their position. Luna would have, had he not spoken with a clearly insulting tone. Before Celestia could even see what she was about to do, she loosed a stream of black lightning from her horn, straight towards the human. He made no effort to stop it. When it made contact he didn't even feel it. "How art thou still standing?!" She roared. Shadow just smirked. "As I told Twilight earlier." He pointed to the wombat. "While Des here is around I can only be harmed by physical attacks. Try to hurt him and I will slit your throat open where you stand." His last words struck fear and disgust into each one of the main six, and this time it was Celestia's turn to attack, she cast a levitation spell on him and was about to throw him through a wall when he spoke again. "Magic Jammer." He became surrounded in a purple glow and the golden aura dispelled. A card from his hand flew onto the field. "Come on out, Beiige Vanguard of Darkworld." The shadows faded in, leaving behind a skeletal fiend, wielding a spear in it's forelimbs. "What is that repulsive creature?!" He heart Rarity shout. "The Princesses brought their guards, I brought mine. Time for a field trip. I activate Mystic Plasma Zone." The entire room shifted around and faded until the entire group found themselves in a dark realm with a Maelstrom overhead. "Here all dark monsters are five hundred points stronger." He then gripped one card in his hand. "I release Swarm of Scarabs, and Beiige in order to advance summon Dark Horus." Three of the six spectators' eyes went wide at the name, while there were a couple gasps of fear when the enormous creature formed. "Bottomless Trap Hole." He turned his head to the new voice, but not before gaping at his card falling through a sudden expanse in the ground, all eyes were now on the night captain, all of them shocked except for Luna. On the Night Captain's left hoof was another dark duel disk. "Now that I have your attention, let's duel." Both Duelists were grinning like morons as they moved all of their cards into their decks and shuffled. "What is going on here Captain Night-Shade?" Asked Celestia, and Shining Armor in unison. He didn't respond. "You want me to go easy on you?" Shadow asked. "It wouldn't be fun if you did." Nightshade responded. "Then I'll go first." Stated Shadow. "I set one card and place two face downs and end my turn." Three cards appeared on the field. "Alright, I summon Ally of Justice Nullifier." "I activate my trap card, hidden soldiers. When you summon a monster I can summon a level four or lower dark monster from my hand. I play Des Wombat in attack mode." "I place four cards face down and activate the continuous spell Veil of Darkness, your move." The group was worried, non of them wanted to interfere out of fear and curiosity, while Celestia didn't because she saw her sister with a smug grin on her face as she watched. "I play D.D. Trainer in defense mode. Next I tribute all three of my monsters in order to summon Arcana Force Ex. The Light Ruler." An enormous Creature appeared in a flash of bright light, it seemed to have two serpent heads portruding from it's back. "When this card is summoned I can flip a coin and it's special ability will vary." He pulled a coin and a slim-jim out of his pocket, before putting the latter back. Shadow flipped it and it landed on tails. "When this card is targetted by a card effect it is negated, destroyed, and this card loses 1000 attack points. Arcana, attack Ally of Justice." The two serpent heads released a blast of energy destroying the odd machine, then a large shockwave headed straight for Nightshade. Shadow Strike 4000 Nightshade 1600 "When Nullfier is destroyed by a light monster it's effect is negated." The grunting guard said. "Whatever, your move." Nightshade draws and grins "I activate the effect of Veil of Darkness. When I draw a dark monster I can show it to you, send it to the graveyard, and draw again. I sent Mad Dog of Darkness to the graveyard." He draws again. "Rare Metal Dragon to the graveyard." He draws again. "I activate my facedown, card of sanctity. Both players draw until they have six cards in their hands. Next I activate card destruction, we discard our hands and draw completely new ones." Both players placed their hands in their graveyards and drew six more. Nightshade flashed a huge grin. "I activate two facedowns, Shadowspell, this card binds your Light Ruler to his spot and reduces his attack points by 700. Next I activate Chaos Contract. I pay half my life points, and any card that requires banishing cards, the tributes can now be your monsters as well. I remove seven of the dark monsters in my graveyard from play in order to Special Summon, Rainbow Dark Dragon!" An enormous black winged serpent appears from a shadow, it's back covered with dark gems. Rainbow Dark Dragon ATK 4000 DEF 0 Arcana Force Ex- The Light Ruler ATK 3300 DEF 4000 Shadow Strike 4000 Nightshade 800 "Now I remove the eight dark monsters in your graveyard from play in order to increase his attack points by 4000." Rainbow Dark Dragon ATK 8000 DEF 0 All of the spectators were on edge, three of them more than any others. Twilight was amazed by the sheer amount of power coming from the field, Spike was in awe of the beautiful dragon he was watching, and Celestia just didn't know what the hell was going on. "Next I summon Pitch Black Warwolf in attack mode." Shadows smile instantly faded, followed by a calm look of acceptance. "I see you recognize it's effect." "Yeah, while he's on the field, during the battle phase I can't activate traps. My Magic Cylinder won't do anything." "Correct. Rainbow Dark Dragon, attack the Light Ruler and end this." The mighty beast roared before letting loose a torrent of color straight at the other colossus. Everypony stared at the outcome shocked, they may have been in the dark about a lot, but it was clear that Nightshade was losing at first. Nightshade 800 Shadow 0 Shadow's vision started fading as he collapsed, the only voice he heard was that of the one that beat him. He spoke almost nostalgically. "Oh Sammy, are you in for a surprise."
Chapter 2 Shadow's vision faded in and he looked around slowly, holding his head in pain and attempting to clear his blurry vision. "Ugh, where in the circles of hell am I?" He asked to no one in particular. His vision slowly cleared up, and he noticed he was in some form of cavern. Then he noticed something else, something he should have noticed before, he had hooves. "What the fuck?" He took a look in one of the crystals and saw both what he was expecting, and what he was not expecting. In his reflection he saw a dark coated pony with a red and white mane. He also saw a horn and wings. "I'm an alicorn, holy shit." "Hello? Who's there?" He heard a voice call out from down the cave. He quickly ran through it to see a very malnourished pink alicorn. The weak looking pony stared at him with wide eyes. "Who are you?" She asked. "My name is Nightshade." 'Might as well take the name of the bastard that did this to me.' He looked around for a second. "Where the hell are we." "I don't know, but I think we're in the crystal mines under Canterlot." She responded, still weak. "Any idea how we get out of here?" As if on cue a large explosion tore a hole in one of the cavern walls, revealing a purple unicorn. A very familiar purple unicorn. "You!" Before I could even process what happened, she was on top of the pink alicorn. Again, he was get groggy from just waking up, so he didn't catch any of what happened next. But they were suddenly running through the caverns, the pink one was singing, and in no time they were flying down the track of a minecart. Then they were literally flying, Twilight was holding onto the alicorn, and his wings spread on instinct so he was gliding. They were stopped in front of a large gate and niether of his companions could open it. "Do you think you could try to open it?" He heard Twilight ask. "Huh?" He asked. "Niether of us can open t with our magic, but since you're an alicorn and you're not hurt maybe you could try." "Uh, I'll try." He said, he channeled the same energy he felt when playing his cards into his horn, and quickly found himself on the other side of the door, how, he did not know. He quickly slid the barricade off and opened it. "Can either of you tell me what just happened?" He asked the gaping mares. "Uhhh, you used your magic, then you turned into a shadow, then you slipped under the door." Said the pink one. "Alright then, by the way, I never got your name." He told her. "My name is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but you can call me Cadence." He smiled at her. "Well, a modest princess, haven't seen one of those ever. Pleasure to meet you." After that they continued out the cavern, after Cadence tricked a couple of green eyed brides maids... Which was hilarious. We finally made it outside and Cadence turned to me. "I want you to find my Aunt, Princess Luna, somepony needs to make sure she's alright." 'Nightshade' sighed before reluctantly agreeing. "Alright, but this is your wedding present Cadence." He said before breaking off in a run for the palace, which wasn't hard to find. He got to the front and one of the guards hesitantly blocked his path. "I need to speak with Princess Luna, I was sent by Princess Cadence." Shadow said in a rush. The guard eyed him curiously. "You used her nickname, does this mean you are close to her?" He asked and Shadow facehoofed. "Considering I woke up next to her in an abandoned mine while she was sobbing about how her fiancée was going to marry an imposter AND she was starving to death, not to mention the fact that I helped her escape. Yeah, I'd say we became fast friends. NOW TAKE ME TO LUNA!" He shouted at a volume that rivaled the Royal Canterlot voice. The guard took in all the information and at the seriousness of the situation complied. "Understood." He turned to his partner. "Go, alert the rest of the guard." Back to me. "Let's go-" just before we moved the large dome around the city started to shatter. "Oh Buck, we need to hurry!" They started sprinting through the halls and reached the throne room. Where Luna was fighting at least two dozen changelings. "Get away from the Princess!" The guard shouted as he charged in, Shadow followed shortly. Contrary to his usual self, He acted on instinct, not moral code or strategy. One changeling rushed him, he used the momentum to grapple it, turn it around, and throw it back into a few of its friends. He continued fighting like a human for several minutes until they were down to a dozen changelings, and he was utterly exhausted. His reflexes slowed and he got a changeling hoof to the chin, and a horn to the back. Another came up, and the three proceeded to beat him into submission. That was of course before all four of them were struck with a pillar of black energy. The three changelings were sent flying, and he should have too. He didn't though, he absorbed it, and he started channeling his own magic, this time it was much easier. His horn took in the light around him and he focused the shadow out of his horn and threw it. It started to shift and form before finally fading, revealing a familiar figure to the exhausted duelist. Standing. In the middle of the room. Drawing a sword. Was Archfiend Soldier. The duelist was only able to form one sentence before collapsing. "Archfiend Soldier, attack the changeling swarm." The last thing he saw before fainting, was changelings running for their lives. Luna watched in both horror and awe as the creature of nightmares formed before her eyes. She watched it draw its demonic blade, but it did not attack, not until it was given a command by it's alicorn summoner. The Princess was shocked further that it did exactly what it was told, it did not do so much as hesitate to cleave the bugs in two. The changelings however, did not get the picture. As they continued to try and fight it. However, it simply breezed through them as though they were made of butter. However, when the carnage stopped and there was no sound left but the sound of changeling blood dripping from the blade. It sheathed its weapon, stood next to the collapsed alicorn, and motioned for Luna to come over. She was hesitant, but figured complying was the best choice of action. "Yes? What dost thou need?" She asked as she slowly inched towards the unusual pair. The fiend patted the fallen pony on the back. "I- I don't understand." It facepalmed, which made her smile, before pointing to her horn then pointing to him. "Oh, thou asketh us to heal him." She said before touching her horn to his and channeling magic through. Slowly, the midnight alicorn's wound healed and his eyes slowly opened. "Huh- wha- Luna!" He shouted, before recoiling as he expected pain. "Huh, I'm healed. Uhhhh thanks. What about your guard, and what about yourself. You're kinda beaten up too." He asked. "We must tend to our civilians before ourself or our guard." She said with a small smile, which he returned. "Well then, we need to go get Cadence, she might be in trouble." Luna went to run off but the guard spoke up. "What about this... Mess?" He asked. "Uhhhhh, Archfiend Soldier, clean up here. I don't want the maids to hate me, then come find us okay." It nodded and began to drag the dead bodies away, to where? None of them wanted to know. "Well, now let us go." As soon as they got to the door we stopped again. There were waaaaay too many changelings outside. "How do we get passed this." Luna asked. Shadow put a hoof on his chin for a second. "I might be able to turn us into shadows." He said as he charged up his horn, this time he kept his eyes open, and he noticed that he and Luna, slowly faded into darkness. They melded into one mind, and Luna guided their shade straight towards the church before seperating and reforming. Luna was about to rush through the doors, but she was stopped by Shadow. "Stop. Tell me you don't feel that as well, it feels... warm" Before Luna could even answer a sudden explosion of pure, condensed, love shot out from the structure and sent the two a few feet back with the force alone. Though, that wasn't all that happened, the changelings were sent flying like bats out of hell. Once they regained their footing, Shadow went to open the door, this time he was stopped by Luna. "Take this." A cloak materialized, wrapping itself around him and concieling his wings. "A new alicorn this soon after such a dramatic event could cause problems, especially with your 'unique' abilities." She said with a smile, they both walked into the church. they were greeted by six excited and confused faces, along with two familiar ones. "Auntie, Nightshade! You're alright!" Cadence shouted as she ran up to hug Luna. "Yes. It seems I have reattained some of my dark magic while helping her out." The words came out of his mouth before he even thought about it. This seemed to make the onlookers nervous for a second. "Anyway Cadence, helping your aunt was my wedding gift to you. So I still owe you for getting me out of those caves." Shining armor approached and warily put a hoof on his fiancee. "Uh, Cadence, who is this guy?" He asked as he eyed Shadow. "Shiny, this is Nightshade, he helped me and Twilight escape the caves." She answered whole-heartedly. "Oh please, all I did was open a door." This time it was Twilight that spoke up. "By turning yourself into a living shadow! How did you do that? Not even Starswirl the Bearded created a spell like that." In the wise thoughts of Shadow Strike 'She's having a total nerdgasm.' "As I spoke before, that was an example of my dark magic. It's difficult to explain-" They were interrupted as a loud crash behind them sounded, the terrified looks on all of the ponies in front of him meant that it could only be one thing. Without turning around he spoke. "Ah, Archfiend Soldier, I was wondering when you were going to show up. No matter, you're released." The demon walked up beside him then faded into a three dimensional shadow, before slipping into a stream of darkness and flowing into Shadow's horn. He then refocused his attention on the speechless ponies in front of him. "Wh-wh-what was that beast." Cadence asked, stuttering over herself. "I must apologize for not warning you about that Cadence. Also, the correct term is fiend. I can summon many creatures and abilities from the dark realm. Now, since I have revealed to you all one of my abilities, and how the majority of them actually work, I ask for the purple unicorn to show me the events of the past few days. I would rather see it than hear it." The group still shell shocked, parted so that a previously note-taking Twilight could approach the onyx alicorn. She touched her horn to his and in a split second, hundreds of memories over the past few days flashed through his head. As soon as the spell stopped, mere moments after it began, Nightshade had a look a pure hatred on his face. Before anypony could react, he dug a hoof straight into Shining Armor's face. The sound of the impact made everypony stagger, and sent Shining spiralling. Shadow found himself restrained by a silver aura. "What art thou doing Nightshade!?" She asked, even though he couldn't move, he spat at Shining. "'IF I WERE YOU I WOULDN'T SHOW UP TO T HE WEDDING AT ALL!!!'" This sentence caused all but Luna and Cadence's eyes to go wide. "YOUR SISTER WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG, YOU HADN'T EVEN BEEN FULLY ENSLAVED YET, AND YOU FUCKING SAID THAT TO YOUR OWN SISTER! NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, NO MATTER WHAT THEY HAVE DONE, AS LONG AS YOUR FAMILY'S HEART IS IN THE RIGHT PLACE YOU SHOULD NEVER FUCKING SAY ANYTHING LIKE THAT TO THEM!!!" His eyes then turned to the other elements. "AND YOU FIVE! DID YOU FORSAKE ALL OF YOUR ELEMENTS!" His words were laced with venom, He pointed his now free hoof at Rarity. "ELEMENT OF GENEROSITY MY ASS! IF YOU'RE SO GENEROUS, THEN WHY COULDN'T YOU GIVE YOUR FRIEND THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT!" Next was Applejack. "ELEMENT OF HONESTY! YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TELL THAT TWILIGHT FULLY BELIEVED IN WHAT SHE WAS TRYING TO WARN YOU ABOUT!" Next he moved the hoof to Pinkie. "ELEMENT OF LAUGHTER?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH DESPAIR YOU PUT YOUR 'FRIEND' THROUGH!?" He calmed himself, but kept his scornful hatred, as he moved to Fluttershy. "Element of Kindness. Do I really even need to explain it? You couldn't even show a comforting smile when Twilight had been driven into the deepest pit of depression." Finally somepony spoke up, unfortunately it was the wrong one. "HEY LEAVE HER ALONE!" Rainbow shouted, causing Shadow to scoff. "AND YOU! Up until this point I respected and admired you, Rainbow Dash, but now I see just how much of a hypocrite you are. You call yourself the Element of Loyalty, when you would prove yourself more loyal to a Princess you had probably never even heard of before that event and the brother of the very friend you betrayed, PATHETIC!" Finally he broke free of Luna's magical grip entirely. "YOU!!!" He yelled as he pointed at Celestia. "'YOU HAVE A LOT TO THINK ABOUT!' YOU GODDAMN BITCH, YOU COULDN'T EVEN LISTEN TO YOUR STUDENT, THE PONY WHO LOOKS UP TO YOU AND CHERISHES YOUR WORD MORE THAN ANYPONY ELSE, AND YOU COULDN'T EVEN ALLOW HER TO EXPLAIN EVERYTHING! SOME BENEVOLENT RULER YOU ARE!" Shadow stomped his hoof, leaving crack marks in the floor. "None of that, NONE OF THAT MAKES ME AS MAD AS THE FACT THAT NONE OF YOU HAVE APOLOGIZED YET! UP UNTIL THIS POINT IT PROBABLY HASN'T EVEN CROSSED ANY OF YOUR MINDS!" He then spoke quietly. "I will still show up to the wedding, to show support for Cadence, and to clean up the aftermath of the invasion, but I could never live here. YOU'RE EVEN WORSE THAN THE CHANGELINGS! THEY FEED ON LOVE, THEY USE IT AS A LIFE SOURCE! YOU JUST TOOK IT AND THREW IT AWAY LIKE IT WAS TRASH!" His horn started channeling power and slowly he broke apart the fabric of space in front of him. "Dimension Hole." Before it shut behind him, they could see a glimpse of the royal throne room, those that weren't blinded by the tears in their eyes. Luna did not know how to react, on one hoof, a strange alicorn with dark, evil looking powers just assaulted the captain of the guard, and verbally assaulted the elements of harmony, and her sister. On the other, they all deserved a severe talking to at the least for what they had apparently done, not to mention the fact that they did not even apologize for it. She couldn't make a decision on the matter, and it looked like while Cadence wasn't going to let that interfere with her love for Shining Armor. He would definitely be sleeping on the couch for a few weeks. Celestia herself looked destroyed, she had been beating herself up for what she had said the moment she realized she was wrong, and she knew she had to apologize, but her pride simply would not allow it. That speech however, drove her over the edge, and now she was breaking down in tears. She couldn't bare to look any of them in the eye. "How the hell could they possibly have acted like that?!" Shadow shouted at no one in particular. "Love and tolerate my ass." He slowly found himself reeling at the amount of power that was required for the dimension hole. Not even having the strength to call out for help, he collapsed on the palace floor. Welcoming, the all too familiar darkness. Shadow looked around, seeing that he was surrounded by the creatures he so dearly plays. "Great, so what am I in the duel spirits world now?" Rainbow Dark Dragon responded. "No Sam, you are unconscious. We are here to help you use the new abilities you have attained. You now control darkness, just as Celestia controls the sun and Luna the moon, you wield what they cannot. At the moment you merely have control over shadows, we will assist you in using it to its full potential." A room faded in, full of items. "You're shadow puppeteer skill, you may link your shadow with the shadow of any inanimate object. If it may bend you can make it do so, you may also use this to replicate the unicorns telekinesis." The Dark Dragon paused. "You must go now, it is time to wake up, time spent unconscious goes by much faster than sleep, in our future sessions, we shall go further." The space around him started to fade, and as he woke up he heard himself shout. "What the hell?! That was like thirty seconds!" "Actually Nightshade, thou were unconscious for at least three hours." He turned his head to the left to see the princess of the night. "Oh, Luna! Look I'm sorry about the... Scene I caused at the church, I've gone through a lot in the last couple days. I-I couldn't stand to see someone's ideas so hatefully disregarded without even listening to what they had to say. I don't regret what I said to any of them, I meant every word. I regret how and when I said it. I also don't regret clocking the groom in the face, I stand by that, and now I have an interesting story." He chuckled. "But... I'd like to apologize to the elements, Celestia too." "As far as I'm concerned, we all have things to apologize for. Though, your hateful words, while brash, were needed to make them see that." It was at this time he noticed that he wasn't in the throne room anymore. "Uh, Luna, where are we?" He asked. "I moved you to my chambers, I needed to ask you something." It was at this moment he finally noticed she wasn't using the royal 'we'. "Ask away." "Up until today, there has only been three alicorns in Equestria. Not only that, you hold very unique abilities, summon creatures I have never even heard of. Who are you?" Shadow looked back and forth before swallowing and answering. "I will answer as long as you do not disclose this information to anyone else." She hesitantly nodded. "My real name is Samuel Stratos, I was originally a species known as human." Her eyes widened, obviously they were heard of here. "When I was little, I was skilled in a card game called YuGiOh. In this game there were three main types of cards, trap cards, spell cards, and monster cards. In my world they were nothing more than pieces of paper, here, they are powerful beasts and dangerous abilities. I'm not sure how I got here why I'm a pony now or why I have control over shadows. Have I answered your questions?" "Yes. Now I shall take you to the throne room, this time, leave your cloak here. The only ponies there will be ones I trust." He drew a blank for a second. "Uh, won't I raise a commotion if we walk there?" Nightshade asked. "Who said anything about walking?" She asked with a smile and he sighed. "You want to use shadow step again don't you?" Her smile turned into a huge grin. "Yes! It's so much fun!" "Alright, here we go." A familiar feeling overtook them both. They melded together and flowed across the hallway floor moving at an immense speed towards the dining hall. Sitting at the end of the table was Celestia, on each side of her was as follows: Cadence and Shining, Fluttershy and Rarity, AJ and RD, then Pinkie and Twilight. They all had clearly been crying recently, this was more than enough to break Nightshade's concentration. He and Luna materialized in front of the exit, all eyes were on him, all but two pairs of them were hate filled. Night shrank at their gazes. "Everypony, Nightshade has something to say." Luna put him on the spotlight even more. "I-I-I-I'm sorry!" He shouted, everypony sitting at the table was surprised. "I'm sorry, what I yelled at you about. It not only wasn't my business, but the timing was unacceptable, how I said what I said even more so. I apologize, not for what I said make no mistake of that, but how I said it and when I said it. I just, I just don't understand." He turned away and prepared a dimension hole. "I understand if you don't want me here anymore." Silence hung. It was excruciating for both sides of the situation. "Sit the buck down, this is way too sappy." He was surprised to see Rainbow Dash. "Wha- but... you were the one that I insulted the hardest." He started tearing up involuntarily. "Why would any of you even look at me after that, when I was little I was beaten up for far less." The memories of bullies throughout his school life flashed through his mind. Luna was just staring at the creature before her. 'Is this really a being that can bring for creatures of destruction at a moments notice?' As these thoughts crossed her mind, niether of the two noticed the elements surrounding Nightshade and hugged him. He wasn't ready for the embrace, as he almost summoned another monster out of reflex, but he quickly melted into it. The embrace ended quicker than he would have wanted, when Celestia cleared her throat. "I would like you to live with the elements while we figure out your living arrangements, okay?" Night nodded. "I just need to get my cloak." He charged up some magic in his horn, a very creepy blue chest appeared in front of him and he started hitting the top of it with his hoof. "Come on cough it up!" To the mares surprise and disgust the box opened, and out came a long cloak, it was untattered by the hundreds of teeth inside and completely dry. "Sorry about how creepy they all look, they're just really helpful." He said as he strung the cloak around his neck. "So how do I look?" "Creepy. Why do you need that cloak anyway?" Dash asked. Nightshade put on his best 'you serious?' face, then realized the problem. "Is my coat really that dark that you couldn't see my wings?" He asked as he extended them. "Woah, um, there's another alicorn here. And he's going to be living in ponyville. I MUST GET A NEW FASHION LINE UP!" Squealed an ecstatic Rarity before she galloped out of the room. Nightshade sighed and rubbed his temple. "She isn't going to treat me like a prince is she?" The silence was all the answer he needed. "FUCK!"
Chapter After about an hour of freaking out and avoiding Rarity, half an hour of anxiety, and considering hiding inside the dark mimic, Shadow had relieved enough stress to compensate for all of the things that have happened over the last few days. He was ready to start really helping out with rebuilding Canterlot. It was insanely difficult at first, because Rarity and Pinkie Pie almost blew his cover on the first day. Then there was the fact that the only ability he could use to move and rebuild things was Shadow Puppet. THEN there was the fact that Twilight wouldn't stop asking how his magic works. After about three hours straight of questions, he got tired of it. "TWILIGHT!" He stopped her mid sentence. "Look, I know you're having a lot of fun with your nerdgasm, but I have work to do and in all seriousness, I have no fucking clue how my abilities work." He said as he continued walking, his head turned toward her. "When I can answer your questions I will, but please leave me alone for now." She had a sheepish smile and a light blush. "Eheheh, yeah sorry about that. It's just that you're so uni-" she was interrupted by her bumping into someone, standing in front of them was an alabaster unicorn, wearing a white suit and had a girly ass mane. "Ugh, you filthy peasant! Watch where you're going, you clumsy oaf." Twilight could have sword she heard something snap next to her. Nightshade looked up, his horn faintly dimming the area around it. "Shut the fuck up and go cry about it, you self absorbed cross-dresser." Now she heard something snap in front of her, but she was too busy giggling to notice. "Why you insolent little wretch, do you know who I am?" Blueblood yelled. "No, and I don't care. So why is it you are talking and dressing like a colt, bitch?" Nightshade was really good at pushing the prince's buttons. "I am Prince Blueblood you miserable little cretin. I could have you arrested for merely looking at me like you are." He attempted to shout. "It's a good thing I don't give a fuck about titles. Anyway, Blueballs, you gave me enough time to perfect a cross between shadow possession and shadow puppetree." He gestured towards the floor, where Blueblood saw their shadows connected, he tried to move, but he couldn't. Twilight could only stare at the ability. "What have you done to me demon?!" The spoiled brat screamed. The cloaked alicorn began to smirk. "I used shadow possession in order to take control of a living target. Normally this technique would require me to do what I want you to do myself, buuuut..." He forced the Prince to drop to a bow. "Using shadow puppetree, I don't need to." "Release me monster!" The royal douche commanded. "Oh I will... After you apologize to Twilight for bumping into her and yelling at her." Both the Prince's and Twilight's jaws dropped, Blueblood gave a grunt of defiance and struggled. "Wow you're a wimp, anyway, I'm in no rush we can just stay here until you apologize. Should I force you into more degrading positions to speed up the process, maybe make you kiss her hooves. Or maybe I should make you mess up your mare's mane and rip your suit." He then got a mischievous grin. "Or maybe have you do the pony pokee with Pinkie Pie in public." Twilight was now laughing hysterically at the thought of the self-absorbed Prince looking like or doing those things. The Prince, scared for his dignity, started apologizing frantically, and Nightshade released the possession. "I'll have you thrown in the dungeons for what you've done, GUARD!" Blueblood shrieked, a guard came running. "Arrest this peasant for assaulting me!" He shouted like a bitch. The guard looked at the concealed alicorn and removed his helmet. "Hey Nightshade, how ya doing?" It was the guard from the invasion. "Pretty good, the royal cocksucker is being a bitch." Night casually said. "Why you! I will have all three of you incarcerated!" Nightshade's attitude flipped, his horn glowed this time and all nearby shadows flowed into it, causing a pulse of darkness. Shadows started to form around all sides of him. Chains flowed from the shadows and wrapped around Blueblood, completely stopping his ability to move and speak. The guard and Twilight both stared at him in shock, the chains tightened to the point that muffled screams could be heard. Twilight ran in front of Nightshade, trying to break his concentration. She saw something. His eyes were a darker shade of black than his mane, energy flowed from them as the gaze less eyes stared blankly forward. She grabbed him by the shoulders and started shaking him. "Stop it! Stop please!" She shouted, and the chains stopped tightening, the darkness faded from his eyes. He looked at her for a second, before collapsing yet again. In Nightshade's unconsciousness a large dragon looked over him and sighed. "Really? Really Sam? Three times in two days. Whatever we can get to your training now. You discovered one of your abilities on your own." Rainbow Dark said. "Oh, you mean shadow possession?" The dragon face-clawed. "No. The royal sisters have an ability known as royal fury. Twilight is the key to elemental fury. And you wield Dark Fury. Unlike the others, you will be exhausted by using it at first. But it will enhance your other abilities to near god-like levels. I suggest you avoid using it unless necessary." "God-like? But I barely even started hurting that Prince." "That's because you only absorbed a few shadows. If you were to absorb a large amount, then release it later you would release enough strengh to rotate the sun or moon yourself." The dragon paused. "Would you like to practice your shadow puppet skill." "Yeah, let's get started." His shadow streamed in all directions. "Sentry, I need you to go get one of the Princesses. I'm not sure if he should be moved." She said as she gestured to the passed out alicorn and the still chained prince. "Right, I will be right back." He said before galloping off. Twilight stared at the alicorn and asked aloud. "What was that, I've never seen anypony's eyes do that but mine." Before long, Celestia and Luna, along with the elements arrived at the scene. Luna, Rarity, and Rainbow couldn't help but laugh at the stuck up snob. "What in Tartarus happened here?!" Celestia bellowed. "Why is my nephew chained up and what happened to Nightshade?" She asked as they removed the cloak, revealing the wings and which seemed to be burnt a the tip. Her mind raced and she immediately attempted to unravel the binds on Blueblood, but to no avail. "Twilight start explaining now!" Twilight was scared, Celestia had never raised her voice to anypony before. "We, we were walking down the hall. We were talking and I didn't watch where I was going. Blueblood and I ran into eachother, he started yelling at me, and when Nightshade defended me they got into a verbal fight. That was a distraction though, Nightshade was linking their shadows as it progressed, taking control of Blueblood's physical body. Nightshade made him bow to me and told him that if he didn't apologize he would force him to do... A few funny things." It was difficult to surpress a giggle. "Finally Blueblood apologized and Nightshade let him go, he called his guard and told him to arrest Night. They seemed to have known eachother because they started talking, that made your nephew mad. He said he was going to have all three of us incarcerated, Night... He just snapped." She paused for a second. "He seemed to absorb the darkness then summoned these chains, they bound Blueblood as you see now, only they started out mug looser. They kept tightening so I jumped in front of Night to get him to stop, I succeeded but... Princess, his eyes when he summoned the chains, they were like mine at the exam. Only..." "Only what Twilight?" Rarity asked, stepping into the conversations. "His eyes were black, they were glowing black. As if somepony had taken away the moon and all the stars from the night sky." Twilight shuddered a little bit and all of them gasped as Nightshade started to stir. "Huh, what?" The waking Alicorn asked before staring at Blueblood. "He's still chained up? I should probably take care of that, but if he even talks I'm putting one back on his mouth." His horn glowed and the chains turned into shadows and proceeded back into his horn. This Prince opened his mouth but quickly shut it. He ran off before his pride would escalate the scene any further. "What was that?" Twilight asked, trying to make sense of the situation "That was Dark Fury. It is my technique, and in all seriousness, I'm still angry so I'm going to go for a walk." Before anypony could object he faded and slipstreamed through the darkness. Twilight was too busy wondering what he meant, she looked up to Celestia, she and Luna had gone wide eyed. "He has a fury?" She spoke barely audible. "Princess what's wrong?" Asked the unicorn. "I'm sorry my student, but my sister and I must discuss this in private." She spoke quickly before walking off. "But- ugh! Girls, what do you think?" Twilight asked the group of mix-emotioned mares. "Uh, Ah don't know Twi. Ah can't believe he would assault royalty. Then again, we didn't quite learn anythin' 'bout 'em other than those things he summons." AJ pointed out. "I don't think he's a meany, but he was acting kinda mean." Pinkie stated. "Are you two nuts! Night was completely calm up until Blueblood threatened Twilight, we should be thanking him for saving her." Rainbow shouted. "And that moral less prince should be thankin Twilight for saving him. That self absorbed pompous egotistical UGH! I just wish I could've seen it." Rarity added. Fluttershy stayed quiet. "Do ya think we should go after 'im?" AJ asked, even Rainbow shook her head. "He needs some space." Nightshade was walking through Canterlot, it was evidently clear that he was angry, even though his body language didn't show it. He was just radiating it, until he started hearing music nearby. "Get your camera, come on zoom in! Cuz your favorite mare's a human, ME!" He could see the singer now, a mint green unicorn he had seen various times online. "That is whoooooooo I'll BEEEEEEEEEEEE! Anthropology shhh." He seemed to be the only one nearby "So, a pony that knows about humans huh?" He asked, which startled the mare and she turned to greet him. "Oh great, you aren't going to make fun of my for believing in humans too are you?" She asked with clear annoyance, until something clicked. "Wait you said knows, not believes in." "Yes, anyway you are crazy for believing in them without evidence, but not crazy for believing in them. I've met a few of them and I control one that use o be human." Her eyes widened and she started speaking at an impossible speed, he stopped her by shoving a hoof in her mouth. "Before you drive me even further up the wall than I already am, let me show you something." He absorbed the nearby shadows but used their energy directly, so as to not trigger another fury. An orb of darkness formed in front of the two. "Do not get scared by his name, but I introduce you to one of my oldest friends, the Vampire Lord." Her eyes widened in fear, then excitement as she saw the cloaked biped with seafoam colored hair. Her jaw completely dropped when she saw the biped kneel to the strange black pony. "Master Nightshade." It spoke to the cloaked alicorn. Nightshade had a playful grin. "Rise old friend." He spoke with as much authority as he could, to Lyra he sounded like a kind Blueblood. "I want you to answer any and all questions this young mare has. I also hope to be meeting her again, so I wish for you to look after her. If you are in the presence of strangers I want you to fade into the shadows, understood?" "Yes master. Rainbow Dark Dragon told me as much." He then looked to the unicorn for a moment. "If you are going to be spending more time with her then it should be fine for you to remove your cloak around her." Nightshade facehoofed as he realized he still had it on, he took it off and tosses it to the vampire, who put it in a pocket of his own. "You're an ALICORN?!" She screamed louder than he would have liked. "Yeah." He said as he regained his hearing. "If Celestia and Luna are the masters of night and day, then I am the master of all that resides in the dark, but you can call my Nightshade." "Any more surprises you have for me?" She asked with a grin. "Actually yes, he's-" the vampire was cut off by a quick glare. "Got a few, but none that he would like to disclose at this moment." He stopped for a second. "Master are you sure you wouldn't like my wife to watch over and associate with the mare, it would seem like the right decision." Nightshade just chuckled for a second. "Keep this up and I'm gonna have to make you my advisor." He said before drawing in a breath. 'I need to try summoning without using the shadows, otherwise I'll never get stronger. He focused more of his own darkness and directed it outwards. In mere moments another biped stood similar yet softer facial features to the first one and a long purple dress. "Master Nightshade, I know what to do, Rainbow Dark Dragon instructed me moments before I was summoned." She said before walking beside the unicorn. "Uh sorry but who's this Rainbow Dark Dragon?" She asked. "Oh I'm Lyra by the way." "He's my strongest subject, at the moment he is more powerful than me, maybe he has always been." Nightshade said philosophically. "Anyway Lyra, I must get going make sure she stays out of trouble okay." "I won't get in any trouble!" The mare shouted. "I wasn't talkin abou you." He said just before he and the vampire lord faded into darkness and streamed back towards the palace. "Sister what are we going to do?!" Shouted Luna. "I don't know Lulu, we know he is good as he protected you and my student. But he is clearly short tempered, and with a fury that he could trigger so effortlessly...." She trailed off. "Sister, he entrusted to us a secret that he trusted to us completely. He put this much faith in us and-" "What was the secret?!" Celestia asked a little too forcefully. "Sister, if we told you we would be violating the sanctity of-" she was cut off again. "He is a threat he cannot be holding secrets from us, please, I must know if I am to let him live here." There was a strong silence. "Tia, he- he is not of this world." "What?" She asked. "He was human, turned pony."
