Shadows and Liesby WitcheryChaptersChapter 1: FarewellChapter 2: ArrivalChapter 3: Wake up callChapter 4: OriginsChapter 5: Escape!Chapter 6: Resurgence Chapter 7: The Elements of HarmonyChapter 1: Farewell“Damn it!” I yell as I fell out of my chair. I look over at the thing and the leg was broken “Knew I should have fixed that leg.” “What was that Damon? You break another chair?” Romello, my best friend from Buffalo, asks me over Xbox live. We had been in the middle of a capture the flag match on Halo 4 when my chair fell apart. “Yeah I broke another one. I’ve really got to start buying sturdier chairs. Can’t really help it that I’m so harsh things when I'm not being careful.” “Dude that’s the second one this month. You’ve really got to start taking better care of your things.” Romello chuckles. “Anyways, you ready to finish this match?” “Nah we've been playing all day and I'm pretty hungry now so I’m gonna go eat for a bit. Probably going to go to Subway or something. I’ll call you in a few hours so see you then Rom” “Hey wait before you go did you get that thing I sent you?” Romello asked. “Yeah I got it. It's a great birthday present but where the hell did you get the money to buy me an 18' sub? I know your job doesn’t pay enough for you to have just gotten this recently.” “Hey you’re like a brother and to be honest I've actually been saving for a while to get you it. It’s the least I can do especially considering what you got me for my last birthday. Do you know how many times they've gotten me out of a bad situation? Not to mention the time that guy broke into my house. If anything it’s not enough.” Romello lives just outside of a bad ghetto in Buffalo so for his last birthday I got him a tracker knife for protection. “Still Rom, thanks man. Well I’ll talk to you later I’m getting really hungry over here so I’m going to start my way over to Subway.” “Okay see ya later man. Headhunters peace!” Romello says with much enthusiasm as I sit there laughing. About 7 years ago I met Romello over Xbox live and we hit things off immediately. We formed a clan in halo called Headhunters and even with the clan long gone we still call each other Headhunters as a reminder of those great couple of years. I take my headset off, turn off my Xbox then grab my wallet, phone, keys, and iPod and since it's raining outside I grab my hoodie and go to Subway. I leave my apartment and after a few minutes of walking I check the time on my phone. 3:32. ‘Hey that new episode of D-gray man should be available at 6 .’ I decide to take the quickest route to Subway since it's raining which involves going down several back alleys and through the part of town where a lot of people sell mystical items, most of which are fake, try to tell your future, and similar things. I don't really believe in any of that stuff like magic except for a few things such as the power of a persons soul, and auras. Since the time I was 6 years old I have been able to see a colored glow or outline around people and when I told my mom about it she said it was probably the I was seeing. My mother is the kind of person that believes in all that mystical crap so the day after I tell her that, she takes me to the part of town where she wants to have my palm read. We walk through the collection of street vendors and shops and soon arrive at a peculiar little shop called Madame Fatum's. Inside the shop it's dark and smoke filled the air with the scent of incense. Out of the shadows a mysterious woman asks "Would you like me to fortell your fate?" As I nod my head yes she takes me into a backroom where the majority of the room is taken up by a large table and two chairs. She motions for me to sit down in a chair that is much to large for me. "Give me your hands child." she asks and as soon as I lift my hands onto the table she reaches out and grabs them roughly. She closes her eyes and after several minutes of silence I meekly ask her "Ummmmm....do they say anything bad?" Her eyes snap open and she looks at me strangely and with a look of and pity on her face. "Your time with us is limited. Before you are a score of years old you shall depart and almost all that you hold dear now you will lose" I begin to shake as she tells me her prediction and she escorts me back to my mother. "Enjoy your time with your spawn for his time is limited." I hear her say. She whispers something else into my mothers ear that I can't hear as a look of shock and horror slowly grows on my mothers face. When I get home that day my mother tells my father about the trip to the palm reader and he quickly grows angry and looks at me with a mix of horror and disgust. As my thoughts turn to my father, I was quickly consumed with unbridled rage and a scowl grew on my face. All those things he did to my mother, my sisters, and me all because of some stupid thing that a fortune teller said. I was clenching my fists so hard that my palms started to bleed and I was shaken from my musings by the pain. As the thoughts of my father faded from my mind so too did the rage I had inside of me. As my thoughts of my father fade I begin to think about the rest of my family. Most didn't ever suspect what was going on but one did and found out. My uncle Jack came over for a surprise visit one day and walked in on what my father was doing. He got so angry that he tackled my father. My father fought to escape but being in the military my uncle had the advantage. Ever since that day my uncle tried to get legal repercussions for what my father was doing but he always managed to avoid them somehow. My uncle made sure to be reachable at any time of the day or night if I ever needed help and he was more of a dad to me than my father ever was. Like all things in my childhood however, all the good things came to an end. During one of his many visits to check up on me and try to keep my father away from me as much as possible, he told me that he was selected for a secret military project and that I wouldn't be able to reach him for about a month. Before he left he gave me a necklace with a strange creature on it and described the different parts of its body and what it was. It had the head of a horse with a deer antler and goat horn, the arms of a lion and an eagle, the legs of a lizard and a goat, a serpentine body, and the wings of a bat and a pegasus. "It's a draconequus. It represents unity even through differences." He told me after I asked what it was. "Keep it to remember me by and by keeping it, even if I'm not here you will be safe." He gave me a quick hug and left but I never saw him again. I quickly push those unpleasant memories from my head thinking that my father got what he deserved. As I walk I think back to all the things me and Romello have done together. I remember the time almost 5 years ago, soon after I went to Buffalo to meet him for the first time, when we were rock climbing and my harness broke but Romello caught me before I fell and got us down. I think to more recent events of how he helped me through a particularly bad breakup with my longtime girlfriend after she stole my car, credit card, and breaks my heart. He even got a second job so he could help support as much as he could after I lost mine due to downsizing. 'Damn I don’t think I could have found a better person to have a friend as. I’m broken out of my thoughts by the sudden realization that I’m lost. As I look around I realize that there are no cars on the street and most of the buildings are abandoned. All the streetlights are broken except for one down the street that keeps flickering. ‘Wait why would the streetlight even be on? It’s three in the afternoon.’ I think to myself. I then realize that it’s unusually dark outside. I look up and realize that the moon is gigantic and has a weird pattern on it 'What the fuck is up with the moon?'. I look around to ask someone if they know whats going on but the only people on the street are me and some stranger leaning against the building to my left. “Hey you! Why is it so dark and where am I?” I warily ask from across the street. “……” ‘Maybe he didn’t hear me’ I start to walk closer to him and begin to realize that he has strange clothing on and has a rather odd shape. His body seems very serpentine and the large black hood that is covering his entire face rises higher than normal. He has a dark red cloak and a strange set of gloves on and his shirt and pants are also black and seem to suck in what little illumination remains. “Hey buddy where am I and why is it so dark out?” I warily ask the stranger. “……” “Uhhhhhh…. are you okay?” I ask as I reach for his shoulder. When I touch his shoulder it seems to draw the warmth right from my hand and I recoil in shock. I then realize that his cloak is dripping something. I stand there for a minute in silence holding my hand before speaking to him again. “Are you...okay.….dude….…” As the stranger turns towards me I realize that where a face would normally be all I see is a black void. “Uhh...ummm” I stammer as I back away but before I can run the stranger reaches out and grabs me by the shoulders with both hands as a chill runs up my spine. “…...You are ready......” He says before he reaches over and places a hand over my heart and laughs maniacally as a sharp pain goes through my head. Sometime later I groggily wake up with a splitting headache. “Goddamn it….. what the fuck was that…” I say to no one in particular as I use my phone to check the time. It says 3:50 and I decide that the pain in my head is too great and I was going to go home instead of getting food. ten minutes later I arrive at my apartment and open the door and head straight for my bedroom. “Screw it I’m gonna take a nap” I think out loud. A couple hours later I wake up and the headache has died down to a dull throb. I check the clock and it says 5:50. ‘Sweet. Woke up in time to watch that new episode’ I roll out of my bed and walk over to the broken chair in my living room. ‘Crap kinda forgot about that’ I think as I sigh. ‘Oh well guess I’ll just have to sit on the floor’ I grab the remote to turn on the TV but all it shows is static. “You gotta be kidding me” I mumble. I change between channels for a few minutes but they all show static and then the TV promptly goes dead. “Great now I have to get someone to look at my TV. Well guess I’ll just turn in early" I say as I grab my phone. "Maybe this damn headache will be gone by then." As I head towards my bedroom I look out the window but it is far darker than it should be at this time. “What the hell? Wait a minute wasn’t it kinda like that earlier today?” As I back away from the window and turn around I suddenly realize that the shadows in my apartment are moving. “ WHAT. THE. FUCK” I yell loudly. As soon as I say that however the shadows leap towards me and wrap around my legs pulling me into them up to my knees. “SHIIIIIIIIIIIT” I scream as drop my phone and desperately try to escape the shadows that have pulled me in up to my waist by now trying to pull myself out by grabbing whatever I can. I reach for where I dropped my phone and promptly dial Romello while holding it above my head because the shadows are at my chest. He picks up the phone but before I get the chance to say anything the shadows reach my mouth and I drop the phone again. As the darkness envelops me, I scream for help but by then the shadows have swallowed me whole. “Damon? Damon are you there? Are you okay? I thought I heard a scream. Damon?” Romello asks from over the phone but all that he gets in response is silence. Author's Note Just to be clear 'words' denotes thoughts and "words" denotes speech. Chapter 2: ArrivalDamon: Emptiness. That's all that I feel inside of me; A great emptiness where my emotions used to be. After what feels like hours of drifting through the darkness I hear something start whispering in my mind to give in and let myself be taken by the surrounding darkness. It whispers promises of quiet slumber and eternal peace. To just drift away into sweet nothingness. 'Maybe I should do it and give in to the void...' After several more seconds of persuasion by the voice, what little resistance I had left is gone and I am about to give in to its desires but I hear a beautiful voice as sweet as an angels, ring out pure and clear screaming at me to stop and that the voice I was hearing was trying to hurt me. When I hear this voice I push the foreign thoughts out of my head fill up the gaping hole inside me with pure rage. 'This voice wanted take away who I was! It wanted me to give up! HELL NO.' I roared out in anger and thrashed wildly. Moments later felt myself start to speed up. Not long after, a small grey dot of light quickly grows closer but before I reach it, I jerk to a stop and hear the same voice as before 'Heh...heh...heh.... so you think you can escape me do you? We shall see about that...' it slowly says before my back explodes in excruciating pain as something is forces itself between my shoulder blades. The pain quickly overshadows my rage and before it subsides, I am thrust forth and thrown out of the void. I'm blinded by the sudden brightness of the moon after having spent so long in darkness. I breath a sigh of relief but my elation was cut short by the realization that I was moving through the air and was high above ground. "Oh shit!" I yell loudly as tendrils of panic begin to claw their way into my heart. I look around and see a large storm brewing to the east with dark and ominous clouds that shoot out lightning every few seconds illuminating vague shapes around it. To the north is a large castle that I am flying towards. As I get closer to the castle more details begin to stand out. It's white with several large, spiraling, golden capped towers, it has large walls with a few guards on them, and large stain glassed windows, one of which I notice I'm rapidly approaching. My eyes widen in shock as the windows get closer and I put my arms in front of my head to protect it in anticipation of the coming impact. "OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU--" I scream but am interrupted by crashing headfirst through the window and hit the floor, sliding across it and feeling bones break. I hit the far wall and finally come to a stop, but when I try to stand up my legs collapse under me in mind numbing agony and I let out a small whimper as I barely catch myself when I fall. I look up from my hands and knees a few minutes later when the pain dies down some and only just notice that there was a long smear of blood from where I first hit the ground. I look down at myself and only realize then that I had pieces of glass covering my arms and a large shard through my chest and that it is covered in blood. I cough up blood and fall to my side as it grows harder to breath. I hear a faint popping sound which is quickly followed by a gasp, and then a voice. As my vision darkens I hear the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps, and.... flapping wings? After what seems like an eternity I see two beings enter my vision as I weakly grasp for them and faintly utter "Help...me...please..." and then for the second time that day the darkness takes me. Luna: She sat in her room arranging new constellations in my night sky that nopony would ever appreciate the beauty of. I sigh as I think about how lonely I am. Being alone on the moon for a thousand years left me with very few friends primarily my sister and the friends I had before my imprisonment that had long lives. That is to say very few. 'I just wish someone out there could understand what I feel'. I finish another and as I gaze upon its beauty, I hear a voice in my head "Maybe I should let myself go to the void..." As I look around for the source of this voice I close my eyes and focus on it to try and locate it. Before I can find it however, I get a feeling of overwhelming despair and sadness. 'Where is this creature that it is surrounded by such horrid thoughts?' I hear another voice that sounds oddly familiar and incredibly menacing, trying to persuade the first to let itself go to something called The Void but I yell out "Stop! Don't listen to it! Whatever is speaking to you is trying to harm you!." Moments after as I say this, I get a feeling of primal rage and hear a terrifying roar, followed by excruciating pain and a loud pop. A sudden sense of dread grows over me and I get up to roam the castle and make sure everything is alright. I motion for my guards to follow me but then think better of it. "Stay here. There is no need for you to follow me while I walk tonight" I say to my guards after they start to follow me during my foray through the empty castle halls. After wandering through the lonely hallways for several minutes I soon find myself in one of the castles many towers. As I step out onto the balcony I hear something very faintly say "Oh shit!". I look around, searching for whatever could have said but disregard it after several minutes of silence. As I am about to walk down the steps to leave the tower I hear a loud whistling sound, soon followed by somepony screaming "OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU--" before I hear the sounds of glass breaking and something hitting a wall. I run back outside to the balcony and see that one of the stained glass windows in the room above the throne room is broken. I teleport to the entrance of the room thinking out loud "Now what could that have possib--" but am cut off mid sentence by what I saw when I opened the door. A strange creature is lying against the wall at the end of a trail of broken glass and blood. I watch as the creature gets up but falls down after uttering a small cry. It stays in that position for several minutes before it looks up and coughs blood. It then falls over and as I rush over to where it's lying on its side. As I rush to it, I hear the sound of somepony entering the room through the window. I look over I am surprised to see the Element of Loyalty. "Hey Princess Luna did yo--" Rainbow Dash starts before noticing the trail of blood and visibly turns paler. She quickly rushes over to my side as I run over to the creature. As we get it to where it is I feel the same feeling of familiarity but my thoughts are interrupted as it slowly crawls forward a little bit and says "Help...me...please..." then passes out. Rainbow Dash: "Oh ponyfeathers" Rainbow Dash exclaims. "Why the hay did Cloudsdale give us orders to have a big rainstorm tonight only after everyone went home for the day?" As the captain of the weather team I have to stay later at work each day to see if Cloudsdale sends down any last minute orders which unfortunately, they do today. This leaves me to set up the rainstorm by myself late that night. I start gathering clouds and mashing them together and eventually I have a decently sized storm ready that only needs a few more clouds before I can go to sleep. As I move to grab the last few clouds I hear somepony yell "Oh shit!" I look around and see something moving swiftly across the night sky. As I rush to catch up with it I hit the cloud I was going to use for the storm, After several minutes of struggling I manage to free myself from the cloud but by then whatever was flying is gone. I shrug and move to finish my job but I hear another scream this one filled with panic "OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU--" When it gets cut off in the middle of its screaming I get worried. What on Equestria would scream like that? It sounded scared. As I fly to where I last heard the screams I see that one of the windows in the Canterlot Castle is shattered to pieces. I quicken my pace and when I get to the broken window I see Princess Luna running to the other side of the hall. "Hey Princess Luna did yo--" I start to ask her but when I see where she is running to the blood drains from my face. Over by the wall is an odd looking creature but leading to it is a trail of smashed glass and blood. I sprint over to Luna's side and as soon but as we get closer I realize just how bad shape this thing is in. Its hind legs were bent in weird angles and one had bone sticking out of it while his forelegs were covered in tiny shards of glass. The part that makes me throw up in my mouth a little though is a piece of glass the length of my foreleg going thorough his chest and out his back. When we finally make it over to it, it reaches for us and I take a small step back as it splashes blood on my hooves. "Help...me...please..." it quietly moans but passes out. The Princess and I give each other a look of worry mixed with horror and move to help the strange being. Damon: Beep...beep...beep... 'What the hell is that beeping?' As I open my eyes I start panicking. I am in a strange bed and room. I try to remember what happened but when I try to think about it, my head starts throbbing. "Okay no more of that" I say to no one in particular. As I sit up and try to get more comfortable, the doors at the end of the bed open up and a nurse walks in. 'Finally maybe I can get some answers about what happened' After a moment however I realize something. The nurse that walked in was 4 feet tall. And a pony... "...." A low rumbling chuckle forms in my throat that soon turns into full blown laughter. "Oh man this one one crazy fucking dream. Time to wake up though cause this is really freaking me out." I do the cliche thing and pinch myself but when I can actually feel the pain, the laughter is quickly replaced by panic. "Oh god...oh god oh god oh god...OH GOD!" I start yelling in fear and jump out of the bed I was in, scaring the nurse. The door flies open and a tall dark blue horse with a dark blue mane and tail filled with what looks to be lights walks in followed by a smaller sky blue winged horse with a rainbow mane and tail. "Nurse, what is going on in here?!" The tall one asks. Before the nurse can reply though I start freaking out even more. "What. The. Hell. A winged and horned horse wasn't freaky enough? It has to be able to fucking TALK too!?" By this point my heart is hammering in my chest and I am hyperventilating. I look for a way to escape this house of horrors and spot a large window. As I move towards it the tall one speaks again. "What art thou doing? Move away from that window immediately." It demands. "HELL.NO. I don't know what the fuck is going on here, and I don't intend to find out." As I prepare to defenestrate myself, I feel something grab me from all sides and lift me up. I notice a blue aura around the tall ones horn but as soon as it appeared it disappeared and a look of confusion is splayed on the tall ones face. An instant later a throbbing pain emanates from my back. "Oh man that hurts. What the hell did you do to me?" I ask but the tall... thing just looks at me in confusion. "That was just a simple levitation spell. What do you mean what did I do to you?" Before I can yell at her however, the pain in my back increases as I feel something under my skin squirm. I let out a grunt of pain and move to lie down on the bed but I trip and reach for the nearest thing to keep from falling but only succeed in pulling the bed sheets off. As I hit the ground, my back explodes in pure agony. It feels as if molten lead is being forced through my veins while my bones turn to jelly. By this point, I am close to blacking out from the sheer amount of pain I am in. But just when I think that the pain can't get any worse, it is multiplied a hundred fold as I feel something try to force it's way out of my back. As much as I mentally beg anything that could answer me I do not fall unconscious. When my arms and legs collapse under me, and I fall to my stomach I am able to get a perfect view of these strange creatures. All three of them have a look of horror on their face and seem to look a bit green as the look at me. The pain continues for several more seconds but with a loud squelch, a wet pop, and a small spurt of blood, the pain immediately disappears. I let out a small moan from the relief of the pain being gone but as I move to get up, I see something out of the corner of my eye. It is black and seems to be made of pure shadow and is right behind me. 'Is there something behind me?' I whip around to try and get a look at it but when I do I feel something move along with me. A sudden dread comes over me when I begin to realize what this shadow thing is. I slowly turn my head and sure enough, the shadow is right behind me. When I get a better look at it, I notice with great horror that the shadow looks like a pair of wings and is....connected to me. "...ha...haha...HAHAHAHA!" As I stood there in shock, laughter began to escape my throat from the sheer absurdity of my situation and after several seconds of this my brain can't handle the mental overload so it shuts down and I black out for the second time that day. Author's Note What was that strange voice that Damon heard in The Void? What caused that shadow to erupt from his back? Can he ever live a normal life again? Find out more next time in Shadows and Lies. Chapter 3: Wake up call"Ohhhh god damn it that hurts" I loudly moan as I regain consciousness. The first thing I notice when I open my eyes is that it's very dark in the room I'm in and everything is blurry. I reach for the table next to me and put on my glasses. "That's better." As I start to regain my senses I feel a peculiar sensation from my back. 'What the hell is...oh yeah....THAT. When I feel that I have the strength to start moving again I try to sit up but something is holding me in place. As I squirm to get a better view of what's restraining me I realize I am not the only person in the room. Sitting next to the side of my bed is the talking dark blue horse from before with a gentle smile on its face. "Oh good you're finally awake. Now don't try to escape again. You might make your injuries worse." It says in a decidedly female voice. "Uhhh...okay...wait where am I? How did I even get here? What Injuries? Why am I tied down? Who the hell are you? Why do I feel like I just went a few rounds with a prizefighter? HOLY SHIT A TALKING HORSE?!" I ask in rapid succession. "Well to answer your first question, you are in the Canterlot Castle in the hospital wing, yes of course I can talk, and I am not a horse, I am a pony. My name is Princess Luna" She replies as she undoes my bindings. "May I ask your name?" As I sit up and rub my wrists I look at her, confused "Names Damon. Damon Flame. Where did you say I was? Canterlot? I've never heard of it." "Canterlot is our nations capitol." "What nation?" "Equestria" "Never heard of it." "The continent of Equus?" "Nope." "....Terra?" She asked quietly. "You mean earth?" She had a strange look on her face that began to worry me. "Damon what-" She cleared her throat "What do remember before waking up here?" "Well, I remember being in my room and turning on the TV to watch D-gray man but it was only showing static so I got up to go to bed because I had a really bad headache from earlier. I was walking to my room but I looked out the window and it was pitch black outside so I walked up to the window to look around and couldn't see anything so I turned around to go to my room but then...." "Then....what?" She asked withholding her questions of what a 'tee-vee' were. "Okay what I'm about to say is probably gonna sound pretty crazy but I swear I'm not. When I turned around the shadows in my room were...moving." "Moving?" Luna said doubtfully. "Yeah but that's not the really weird part. The weird part is that when I noticed they were moving they shot forward and grabbed me and pulled me into them. I tried to call my best friend for help but before I could say anything I was gone." "Is that it?" Luna asked, hoping for more details. "Yeah that-- no wait! There's one more thing! After the shadows took me I remember a feeling of emptiness. Then a voice telling me to do something but I can't remember what. I think I almost listened to it but I heard another voice, the voice of an angel, telling me not to. And that's about it." "Are you sure? You haven't forgotten any more details? None whatsoever?" "Uhhhh yeah? Why? What does this have to do with where I am?" "Damon I'm not really sure how to tell you this but you are very far from home. Very VERY far" Luna says with a small sigh. "Just how far are we talking about?" "You are on an entirely different planet." "Oh.....OH....well fuck" I say simply "That's it? You seem to be taking this quite well" Luna says impressed. "Well how the fuck am I supposed to take it? Oh hi there! My names Luna! By the way YOU'RE ON AN ENTIRELY NEW FUCKING PLANET!" I bellow loudly. "What this means that I'm the only human on this entire planet. I'll never see my friends again, my whole life is gone, and in the short time I've been here, I'VE GOTTEN NEW FUCKING LIMBS." I continue screaming She takes a step back and looks at me with fear. I immediately calm down when I realize I'm scaring her. "Sorry. I'm sorry Luna it's just--" I sigh and grab my forehead with my hand "It's just that my entire life has been turned upside down. One minute I'm at home the next I'm in a hospital. Alone.... again.... She comes over and looks at me with a soft smile. "It's okay. I understand that this is a lot to take in all at once. It's completely understandable given the situation." "Yeah oh yeah I somehow almost forgot to ask. Whats with these...things on my back? All I can remember is my back exploding in pain." "Well Damon," She replies in a neutral tone "Earlier when you woke up and tried to escape. I used my magic to levitate you but after a few seconds the spell failed. When you fell to the ground you started screaming in pain and then those..." She had pensive look on her face "Shadow Wings, appeared. You started laughing like a madpony and then collapsed." "Wait did you just say magic?" "Yes why?" "Luna where I come from magic is only in fairy tales and works of fiction. To have it actually exist is...incredible." "That raises even more questions about how you were able to survive getting those etheral wings which are technically pure magic. When they were forming there was an intense magical aura radiating from your body. The amount of magic being release would have killed a normal unicorn so how, you a being with no prior exposure to magic, did you survive the energies being released?" "I've always been a survivor Luna. My body has endured a lot of punishment before....." I get very quiet and get a far off look in my eyes. "Are you okay Damon?" Luna asked. " Yeah I'm fine. I was just remembering something. Anyways, that doesn't really answer anything but on to the next question. Why am I in a hospital?" "Well...when we found you you weren't in the best of shape since you crashed through a window at near lethal speeds..." She started getting very quiet. "How bad was it?" "...Both your hind legs were broken and one had your bone sticking out of the skin. You had glass embedded all throughout your forelegs and..." "....aaaaand what?" I asked with a small amount of trepidation. She sighed loudly. "You had a rather large shard of glass in your torso. It damaged both your lungs and your heart beyond repair. The doctors said that even with my magic aiding in your healing that the chances of your survival were slim to none." "Oh...wait if my lungs are heart were damaged beyond repair how am I alive then?" I asked with a quizzical look on my face. "We recently had an unfortunate accident where a young pegasus was killed after having a building collapse on him." she said with a sad look in her eyes. "Wait wait wait. Pegasus? Those are real? And more importantly why did you use the heart and lungs from a freaking pegasus? "Well we tried to save your old ones but they quite literally....fell apart.... we then magic to analyze your organs and after several tries, we found that pegasus organs were the most similar to yours." She looked at me nervously. "...What?" "There may be some...side effects from your new organs" "Great. Just fucking great. Get kidnapped by god damn SHADOWS, wind up in a new fucking world, get new organs, and to top it all off there are gonna be fucking SIDE EFFECTS!" "I never said they were entirely bad ones" She stated simply. I began to excited at the thought of getting positive side effects from a race that can FLY. "Oooooh what kind of side effects? Will I be able to fly?" "Even without the pegasus organs you would be able to fly. You have wings remember? No the side effect that we are unsure if you will get or not is the ability to manipulate the weather and a pegasi's natural bond with the atmosphere." "What pegasi can control the weather? Like clouds and stuff? And what do you mean natural bond?" I asked skeptically. "Yes pegasi control the weather, and yes clouds are tangible for them. The natural bond I speak of though is a pegasi's ability to control the air around them that enables them to fly among other things. You didn't think that they flew with the small wings they have did you?" She laughed. "Well SOOO-REE!" I've never even SEEN a pegasus before!" I said frustrated with her assuming I knew that their wings were too small. "Sorry I forgot that you are not from this world" "Don't know how you could forget something like that." I muttered. "What was that?" "Didn't say anything." She eyed me disbelievingly. "...Yeah. Nothing. Back to the topic at hand though. Side effects from your new organs. There are some ones that you with without a doubt recieve such as increased resistance to blacking out from intense G-forces. You will have far more endurance than you previously did, you can go up very high with no trouble breathing and can go higher than a normal pony could, and you have a larger lung capacity so you can hold your breath for longer. However at lower altitudes you will most likely get tired easily when your heart is resting because of the increase in the amount of oxygen in your blood." "Wait I thought that I was the first and only human in Equestria? How do you know that it's any different from my old heart and lungs?" I asked skeptically. "Well earlier when we used magic to find what species organs was the closest to yours, we found out that pegasi were the closest and we also found out the differences between them were." "Fine. I don't even care anymore. This whole day has been filled with questions and the laws of physics being completely fucked up. I said angrily but softened a moment later. "Wait you said earlier that WE, found you. Who else was there?" "Well I found you at the same time somepony else did. Rainbow Dash the Element of Loyalty and she is the one that actually transported you to this room. I tried to teleport you here but the spell kept failing so you had to be carried here." "Couple of questions. Does Rainbow Dash have a rainbow colored mane and tail and what do you mean by element of loyalty?" "To answer the first part yes she is. How do you know what she looks like though?" "I dunno I remember the feeling of being carried by something really colorful. Makes sense considering what you just told me." "Ah, back to the second part of your question though. That requires a more in depth explanation." "I'm all ears" "There are these pieces of regalia called the Elements of Harmony. They represent the 7 unifying factors of harmony. that can be used to purge evil from a pony among other things but can only be used by ponies embody that virtue. Rainbow Dash embodies the element of loyalty which means that she is endlessly loyal to her friends." Luna explained. "Oh okay. So what are the other elements and who has them?" "The other elements are Rarity; the bearer of the Element of Generosity. Fluttershy; bearer of the Element of Kindness. Applejack; bearer of the Element of Honest. Pinkie Pie; bearer of the Element of Laughter. And finally Twilight Sparkle; bearer of the Element of Magic." "Wait you said that there were SEVEN factors. What's the seventh?" "Ah, the seventh is something that all of them have. The seventh factor is friendship." Luna said proudly. "...You're joking right? You're kidding. You can't truly believe that" I deadpanned. "No. Why would I be and why wouldn't I?" Luna questioned. "Friendship is an able 'purge the evil from a person'. Really? I scoffed. "That's the biggest load of shit I've ever heard." Luna's face turned into an angry scowl before replying "You would do well to watch your tongue Damon I have experienced first hand what the Elements can do to you." "Whoa, whoa. Sorry there. It's just that on my world anyone that would say something like that would get laughed at and be seen as naive." "Why would they do that? Do the people there value friendship so little that they laugh at it?" Luna asked with a bemused look. "Before I could answer though, a nurse walked through the door carrying a platter of food. "Dinner time! On the menu today is mushroom and vegetable soup." She said as she uncovered the dish. "Oh man that smells good." I said. "Well let me just change your IV bag and I'll bring it over to you." The nurse said. "Oh man I'm unbelievable hungry right now" I said as my mouth started watering in anticipation of the food. "Hey Luna do you think you could go get it for me? Luna?" She had a look of shock on her face. "Whats wrong luna?" "Damon... did you do that? Luna asked in shock and pointed at my lap. "Did I do what?" I turned around to see what she was pointing at and in my lap was the soup being held by the tips of my wings. "Huh? How the hell did that get there?" "Damon...your wings..." "What about them?" I turned around and gaped in awe. My wings were easily 3 times larger than they were before and were radiating a dark mist that looked like a black nighttime fog with a large dark blue aura around it. The light coming from the lamps scattered around the room seemed to be absorbed into the mist. "Whoa that's cool. I didn't mean to do that though." "Try to grab this with them." She said as she levitated the the spoon for the soup. I close my eyes and focused solely on grasping the spoon. I felt for the new muscles that I'm sure formed for me to be able to use the wings and slowly, ever so slowly, I could feel my new muscles start to expand and contract and move forward. I opened my eyes and saw the wings moving to grasp the spoon. As soon as they made contact with it, the aura surrounding the spoon disappeared and instead of wrapping around it and grasping it, my wings flowed all around it and grasped the spoon from every side. "Whoa that feels really weird. It's like they're a liquid and they just completely cover what they grasp instead of twisting to hold it." Luna took a step back from me with a look horror on her face looked away No it can't be. He's not from this world! Not to mention his world doesn't have magic. There hasn't even been on in 200 thousand years! Not since me and my sister banished him to Tartarus... Luna muttered to herself. "Luna you're scaring me. Whats wrong?" She visibly gulped. "Damon...you're a Dweller of the Twilight." Chapter 4: OriginsDamon: "A....Dweller of the Twilight?" I ask, holding my hand over my mouth to keep myself from laughing at the ridiculousness of the name. "Yes" Luna nods gravely while glaring at me clearly seeing I was holding back laughter "two hundred thousand years ago many new kinds of magic were being discovered and you could say it was a golden age for magic. A group of ponies were experimenting with a form of light magic that could only be cast safely by individuals with pure intentions in their hearts and were performing an experiment on a volunteer griffin. We are unsure as to what happened but what we assume happened is that one of the unicorns casting the spell must have been having impure intentions when casting the spell. This caused magical feedback when it came into contact with the pure intentions of the other unicorns resulting in an explosion that destroyed most of the lab but nopony was injured thankfully." Her word choice struck me as odd. "Luna, what do you mean by nopony?" She paused and took a deep breath. Her eyes got a far off look in them before a brief look of pain crossed her features. "I mean exactly that. Everypony made it out fine but the griffin did not. His wings and talons were covered in a black substance that we could not identify. He was unconscious for several weeks afterwards and every day his condition worsened. Just as we were sure he was going to die, he made a miraculous recovery and the black substance disappeared." "So what happened to the griffin and how does any of this relate to me and the Dweller's of the Twilight?" I asked with sarcastic emphasis on the last words. "Let me finish and I'll tell you!" She snarled at me. I looked at her with shock on my face at the sudden change in her demeanor. "We let him go after several more days of observation and for several months everything was fine. But we began to get reports of ponies disappearing in the middle of the night and never being heard from again. It was at this time that we also began to get reports of a strange group of people amassing in the mountains between Tartarus and the griffin city Schlafplatz which was their capitol at that time. By the next week the other races started to report they were having citizens disappear too." She closed her eyes and looked down while a single tear rolled down her cheek. I let out a nervous laugh "Luna...Luna what's wrong. You're scaring me." She took a deep breath before continuing "Little did we know that by that time next month, every nation would be at war with the group that had taken to calling themselves the Dwellers of the Twilight." "Every nation in the world against a single group? That's incredible! Back on my world you could barely get two nations to ally against a common threat." "Is your world truly in such disharmony that not even when the same enemy threatens countries that they cannot work together to stop them?" "Yeah it's not really that bad though" I said with a dismissive wave of my hand "Lets get back to your story though" "Very well then. For several months every nation in the world was in open conflict with the Dwellers. Nothing we could do could even come close to stopping them though. Out of four hundred thousand soldiers that we sent out during the course of the war only forty thousand returned." My jaw dropped "Only forty...THOUSAND!? That's an incredibly high rate of mortality" "Yes it was. But that isn't even the worst part of it. All the people that had been stolen? They were turned into the army of the Dwellers using shadow magic. So each soldier had the possibility of fighting their own family. The fighting continued for several years and the Dwellers were winning. The nations had come together one day to form a special task group to capture the leader of the Dwellers." "Did it work?" "Yes....it did. But at a disturbing revelation. The task group found him and captured him but when he was brought before us we realized that this was the same griffin from several years ago that was involved in that magical accident." "But what happened to him that he would do something like this or even have the power to do so?" I asked. "We later found out that the black substance that was on him was liquid shadows. Formed whe--" "Liquid...shadows?" I asked with a hint of disbelief in my voice. "Yes liquid shadows. Now can we continue or are you going to interrupt us once more?" Luna asked with anger in her voice. "Sorry..." "As I was saying, Liquid shadows are formed when the amount of magic being cast on something is so great, that the normally intangible forces of magic cast off a shadow, that is normally harmless, is itself exposed to even greater amounts of magic than what created it. We are not sure as to how but this gives the shadow mass and a tangible form. What was created when the spell that the group of ponies were casting all those years ago was even worse than that though. They had created a spirit of pure evil that would come to be known as Nightmare Moon millenia later." "This spirit possessed the griffin and influenced his thoughts turning him evil when the griffin was in a weakened mental state from the explosion. When the Nightmare took over his body though it absorbed the liquid shadows that were covering his body and used them to form the basis for what is known today as shadow magic." Luna took a deep breath before continuing "Shadow magic is the most dangerous kind of magic there is and is therefore prohibited without direct supervision from either Celestia or myself. If you do not believe that the shadow magic will work then it will not and can have dangerous backlash for the caster. If you cast it while unsure the spell can either go awry and do something completely random or it can cause the caster to experience a magical backlash." "Why can you only cast it when you have complete certainty what you want it to do?" "That requires a brief explanation of how magic itself works. Magic at its core works by the caster willing something to happen. Each kind of magic can only perform certain types of actions no matter what the intention. Only four kinds of magic can perform any intention and those are Solar, Lunar, Light, and Shadow magic. What makes shadow magic especially dangerous is that it is so sensitive to the intent of a person that it detects what kind of person you are and your strength of character and the spell changes accordingly. If you have conviction in what you want the magic to do then it will always go as you intend. If you are unsure in what you want the magic to do however yourself then the magic will always end up twisting the original intent into something wicked. A persons soul is what defines them. It is the essence of who they are and it is what their character is. Therefore, if you are very strong of character and have conviction in the intent of the spell, then it will cast correctly" "Shadow magic is also the magic with the most potential." Luna stated simply. I cocked my head quizzically "Potential? I don't quite understand." "Each of the four types of willful magics, that is what Solar, Lunar, light and shadow are called, have a base strength to any spell cast with them and then a potential for power based on the strength of intent, how much your soul resonates with the type of magic, experience with the type, and physical ability of the caster. Solar and Lunar magic are made from the combination of both shadow and light magic. Solar magic has the capacity to create shadow magic but mostly creates light magic. The opposite is true of Lunar magic. Solar and Lunar magic has an incredibly high base power but not nearly the same potential for power as light or shadow magic. Lunar and Solar magic also have a higher base power than light and shadow magic but light and shadow magic have even higher potential than Lunar or Solar. This is because they are more sensitive to the strength of intent of the caster and the strength of character the caster has." "Shadow magic has the weakest base of all the types of magic but has the highest potential. If someone were to have complete utter conviction in who they were and in the intent of the spell I do believe that they could change the very fabric of reality." "Huh...well that was....in depth." I said after having my brain overloaded from all the new knowledge. "So what ever happened to the griffin?" "The leader of the Dwellers eventually gave my sister an ultimatum to either let him go free and continue slaughtering innocent people, or to kill him and in the process kill everyone that he had captured so far with shadow magic." She said with a regretful tone in her voice. "So what happened? What did your sister decide?" She sighed "My sister decided that even at the incredible cost of innocent lives, that even more would be lost if he was allowed to continue the war. Even with that at stake she could not just go and kill someone so she instead banished him to Tartarus, which is an interdimensional prison for the worst criminals from every dimension. As soon as he disappeared the captured people were set free and everything was good for a time." "What do you mean for a time?" "Well many of the citizens of what was known as Caballio Terram at the time, were upset that Celestia said that she killed the leader, she didn't want the common ponies to think he was still alive, and they rose against her and seceded from Caballio Terram. The few ponies that stayed a part of our country were not enough to constitute a nation so we disbanded. Eventually the three races went their separate ways but came back together to form a new nation called Equestria and asked us to be their rulers again." "Wait so they left your country just because you said you killed an evil dude? That's a bit unfair to you guys considering you saved em and that if you didn't kill him the loss of life would have been even worse." Luna sighed "Ponies were different then. Their intellects weren't developed as much and they were far more sensitive to death than they are today." "Well I guess that explains what a Dweller of the Twilight is, and a bit more, but it leaves me with a few questions." "Yes Damon?" "You said that your sister and you were actually THERE two hundred thousand years ago but that's not possible. No mortal being can live for that long." "You are correct Damon in saying that no mortal being can live that long. You are incorrect however in assuming that we are mortals. I was born seven million years ago and my sister has been alive for even longer." I sat there in disbelief "Did I hear that right? seven....MILLION...years?" "Yes you did." Luna said with a flat stare. "That's.....unthinkable.I mean, I would probably go insane from watching everything and everyone around me crumble and die. And trust me, I should know insanity better than anyone..." Luna gazed at me with a curious look "What do you mea-- nevermind. I will ask you about this more later. The fact remains. You are a shadow magic user and thus are a Dweller of the Twilight." "Wait what? That makes no sense. Just because I can use something doesn't mean I'm a part of a militant group." "We have no reason to believe that. Only the Dwellers could ever use shadow magic and all the Dwellers of the Twilight were either evildoers, or people under the control of that griffin and were a major threat to our kingdom. Please come with me peacefully so we can ascertain whether you have good or bad intentions." "Sorry but that just isn't going to happen. I DESPISE being captive and will not tolerate it for any amount of time no matter the intention behind it." Luna gave me a wary look "Well then I shall have to restrain you by force" "Fuck that noise!" I said as I leaped out of bed with a gasp as pain exploded in my chest. "Damn that hurts" I said but at the risk of being captured I kept moving. Luna flared her wings and charged her horn "Guards seize him! Do not use physical force however! Stun him with magic or lightning!" she commanded. "Oh shit!" I said as I leaped over a guard that tried to grab my legs. 'Shit, shit, shit. Luna has the doors blocked and I'm surrounded.' I looked around my quickly, turning my head from side to side, before noticing the same window that I had tried to escape from before. 'Well here's hoping that I can somehow figure out how to fly' I thought with slight dread as I charged towards the window. I jumped through the window with my arms crossed over my head as Luna tried to grasp me in her magic but failed. "Ha ha! Yeah! I ain't no ones prisoner!" I screamed at the top of my lungs before I looked down and realized just how far up I was. 'THIS ROOM WAS ON A A FUCKING MOUNTAIN?!' I flailed my arms and legs and shut my eyes tight against the wind as I picked up speed. The wind was deafening in my ears 'Damn it I wish I knew how to fly!' I screamed in my head. Several pegasi gave chase but soon lost me at the speeds I was going. Suddenly I felt myself slow down and I felt a strange sensation on my back and....to my sides? I opened my eyes and saw that I was gliding down the mountain towards a dark forest. 'How the hell am I flying? How the hell do I actually know how to fly?!' I thought about flying and realized that I had basic knowledge of it and wing positions. 'Hmmmm...what if I think about wanting to learn weather manipulation?' I thought about it but nothing happened 'Well damn. Was worth a shot though' As I drew closer to the forest I realized just how badly I had messed up back there. 'Oh man I ran away from the cops and the ruler of this country. Am I a criminal now? Great. First day in a new world and not even a few hours here and I'm already a criminal.' As I thought about Luna I was struck with another realization with even worse implications. 'I'm all alone again...it's even worse this time though because I'm the only one of my entire species here too.....no friends.....no one to help me....' Depression grew in my chest and I was struck with a feeling of dread. I reached the entrance to the forest but as I was about to enter it I was blinded and it felt as if there were hot railroad spikes being driven into my eyes. I gasped and tried to scream out but the pain was too much. After a few minutes it faded though. "Dear....fucking....god..... what the hell" I ground my palm into my forehead "was THAT?" I rubbed my eyes and opened them. I was confused at first because everything was blurry and brighter. 'The hell is going on here?' I took off my glasses and cleaned them but before I put them back on I realized that I could see perfectly fine. "Whoa....." I put my glasses in my pocket and looked around. Even though my glasses were off I could see perfectly fine but the sunlight was hurting my eyes. "Damn that's bright" I raised my hand to shield my eyes from the sun. "It hasn't gotten any brighter so wh--" "And just what the hay are you?" Said a voice from behind me. My body went rigid and I began sweating bullets. I slowly turned around laying eyes on the owner of the voice. It was the same rainbow maned pegasus, Rainbow Dash, that Luna said helped me in the castle. 'Huh. fitting name.' "Hey wait a minute, I know you! You're that thing that I carried to the hospital!" She yelled and pointed at me with a hoof. "Didn't you get an organ transplant? Why aren't you in the hospital right now? Where the hay did you get those wings?" She glared at me with suspicion. Almost every fiber of my being was telling me not to trust her but I chose to listen to the small part saying different. 'What have I got to lose?' I thought to myself. "Hey! Are you gonna tell me what you're doing here or do I have to kick your flank to get some answers!" She lowered her front legs and got into a fighting stance. I rubbed the back of my neck "Well you see, that's a bit of a long story." Luna: Luna was pacing with worry. "How could I have let this happen? It was his first day in Equestria and already his life is in jeopardy because of my inability to keep him restrained and explain everything, She continued to think out loud "I hope that we can find him before he figures out how to use magic. Otherwise there may be no saving him..." Author's Note Things start getting really interesting from here on out. And yeah I know. The end there was pretty weak. Chapter 5: Escape!Rainbow Dash: "Ughhh that. SUCKED." Dash complained to Thunderlane, as they were flying back from a meeting with her boss in Cloudsdale. "Well it's your fault that you didn't finish the storm that you were supposed to last night and got in trouble with Cloudsdale." "I TOLD you! I couldn't finish it because I was helping carry this weird thing to the hospital!" Dash said with an angry glare. "Yeah. Ri-i-ight. Sure you did. Just what did this 'thing' look like again?" He said mockingly. Dash hoofed him in the shoulder "Yeah you're right! I sure DID see it. It stood on two legs, had no fur on it and no tail, a short black mane on it's head and face, was like 2 feet taller than me, had weird claws, and was wearing weird clothes." "Wow that's....surprisingly accurate for you Dash." Thunderlane said incredulously. "And just what is THAT, supposed to mean?" Dash stopped in the air and said angrily. He was sweating bullets "Uhhhhh......ummm....I like your mane?" He said tensely. "Huh?" Thunderlane flew off as fast as he could "HEY! Get back here Thunderlane!" "Not a chance!" He said as he flew away from the cerulean terror. "When I get my hoo--" "Ha ha! Yeah! I ain't no ones prisoner!" Dash jerked to a stop "....That sounds like that thing from last night." Dash was about to go chase Thunderlane again but she realized what the creature had said 'Wait he's noponies prisoner? He better not have hurt anypony!' She flew around for several minutes searching for the creature but saw something else land near the edge of the Everfree forest. As she got closer to it she realized that it looked similar to the thing from last night but it didn't have wings and this did. She landed behind it and spoke up "And just what the hay are you?" It visibly tensed up and slowly turned around to face her. "Hey wait a minute, I know you! You're that thing that I carried to the hospital!" She yelled in surprise and pointed a hoof at it "Didn't you get an organ transplant? Why aren't you in the hospital right now? Where the hay did you get those wings?" She instantly grew suspicious of it. She waited a good minute for it to speak up but it seemed lost in thought "Hey! Are you gonna tell me what you're doing here or do I have to kick your flank to get some answers!" She crouched down to fly at it if it made any funny moves. It rubbed the back of its neck and looked at me nervously "Well you see, that's a bit of a long story." Damon: "WHAT?! YOU'RE RUNNING FROM THE PRINCESS?!" Dash screamed. I ran over and clamped a hand over her mouth "Keep it down!" I sighed and took my hand off her mouth "I woke up, got a crash course history lesson on the 'Dwellers of the Twilight' and then almost got arrested for no reason other than I'm something Luna claims I am." Dash was silent for a minute before she went into a hover and crossed her arms "Yeah...well...I guess I can see why you did that." I breathed a sigh of relief "I'm still watching you though! The princess probably had a good reason to suspect you." "Yeah, cause fear is SUCH a good reason." I said sarcastically "Now can I get moving or do you want something else? I REALLY don't wanna get caught by the guards" He said as he went into the entrance of the Everfree. She flew over and stopped in front of him "What are you doing! Don't you know that's the Everfree forest!? It's really weird and has all kinds of dangerous plants and animals in it." "How is it weird? From what I can see it's just a normal forest" "Normal?! The Everfree forest is anything BUT normal. The weather works on its own, the animals care for themselves, the seasons change on their own, and there are some really strange and dangerous creatures in there that are nowhere else in Equestria! It is NOT normal!" She huffed. "Uhhhh hate to break it to ya Dashie but where I'm from, all that's normal" "Where exactly ARE you from then. And don't call me Dashie you....you...what is your name anyways?" "My name's Damon dashie" "I said don't call me that! Only my friends can call me that and you are definitely NOT my friend. Now stop avoiding the question. Where are you from?" "Look it will take way more time to explain that than we have so can we FINALLY go, or are you going to keep me here till the damned guards arrive?" "Fine" She said with a defeated tone "Lets get going." I then realized what she said "Wait wait wait. Lets? As in plural? As in me and you?" "Of course. What? You thought I was just gonna let you go unwatched when you're being hunted by the princess? Just cause I think you were right in running does NOT mean that she didn't have a good reason. Not to mention that if you go into the Everfree alone then you'll probably end up killing yourself" "Uhhhhh yeah. Firstly, if you're caught with me you'll probably be thought of as a criminal or something and I don't really trust you. Seco--" As soon as those last words left my mouth, she became furious "You. Don't. TRUST ME?! I'M THE MOST TRUSTWORTHY PERSON THERE IS! I'M THE FREAKING ELEMENT OF LOYALTY FOR CELESTIA'S SAKE!" I saw the pegasi guards in the distance turn in our direction and rush towards us. "Okay, okay I trust you" I quickly lied to placate her "I've been through a lot recently and it's hard for me to trust people." Her fury abated and we started moving again "Hmph. I'm sorry for blowing up like that. I just really really don't like it when people say I'm untrustworthy." She was slightly ashamed of how she just blew up at him "I really like your wings. It's cool how they have that glowing around them and have that mist falling off them." "Thanks. It's kinda odd though because they weren't like that until I used them to grab a bowl of soup in the hospital" My nose had the decency to wait until my sentence was finished before it unleashed a torrent of blood. "Damn it!" I blurted out as I tried to cover my nose with his hands. Dash rushed over to me "What's wrong?" She then noticed my blood covered hands and shirt "Are you going to be alright?" She sounded genuinely concerned. 'What the hell? I just met her and she's already concerned about me? "Yeah I'm fine, I'm fine. It's just a bad nosebleed" After a few minutes of pinching my nose it stopped bleeding. "Lets start moving again." An hour later we were fairly deep into the forest and with each passing minute Dash was growing increasingly distressed. "Hey Damon? Aren't we getting kinda deep into the forest?" "Yeah what of it?" "Well, the really dangerous animals tend to live farther into the forest." "Yeah well I don't really care. I mean, I'm more worried about the guards than anything. Unless there's wolves or something in this forest I doubt there's anything that can harm us." "Yeah I doubt that. I mean, it doesn't look like you could hurt much with those claws or teeth." "Dash a couple of things. First off these aren't claws they're called hands. Second off I don't fight with my teeth or hands, I fight with my intellect and weapons. Where I'm from we made sure that all the animals that could hunt us, are nowhere near our cities except for in zoo's." "What's a zoo?" I immediately tensed up when I remembered that Dash was a pony "Uhhhhh.....fuck it. I'm just gonna say it. Zoo's are where we ke--" Dash tackled me to the ground and put a hoof over my mouth "Hey! What the--" She put her hoof IN my mouth "Quiet! Listen. Can you hear that?" I stopped moving and after several seconds heard a low deep growl. I looked around and saw something moving in the bushes off the path and pulled her hoof out of my mouth, leaving an earthy aftertaste. "Dash we need to move NOW." "Yeah I--" A gigantic lion with wings and a tail leaped at me "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING!?" I screamed at the same time Dash yelled "MANTICORE!" I ran back the way we came while Dash flew above the treetops. I shook my fist at her "HEY! Get the fuck back here!" I tripped over an exposed tree root and fell on my face causing my nose to bleed again. The manticores claws ripped 3 long gashes along my back, with the middle one extending to the top of my neck, instead of taking off my head. I was about to scream in pain but it vanished and was replaced with cold and then numbness. I didn't realize it at the time but my wings had moved to cover the wound keeping me from bleeding. I stood up but was frozen in place 'Fuck, fuck, fuck. What do I do, what do I do, what do I do?' I looked around and noticed that everything was frozen in place. 'Well, well, well. We're in quite the situation aren't we?' a female voice said slowly. My eyes darted around looking for the voice that I could swear I had heard before 'Who and where the hell are you?' 'Oh come now. You haven't forgotten about little 'ol me have you?' 'Forgotten? I can't forget someone I haven't ever met. And besides, I don't have voices in my head. At least not since.....' My eyes narrowed in thought 'Since.....' My eyes widened in horror and my pulse quickened 'Oh no..... A black fog creeped in front of my vision. Its had large black pupils and where they wold normally be white, they were purple. It smiled evilly and showed off its mouth full of sharp looking teeth.'Ding ding Ding! We have a winner!' I grimaced 'I got rid of you. You can't exist! I DON'T NEED YOU ANYMORE! The fog danced in the air and it laughed with pure joy Hahaha! You DO need me though! 'No I don't! I've been fine for YEARS. I haven't needed you ever since I got out of that house' 'Ah, ah, ah. I can do SO much more now. And with the situation the situation you're in right now? You know, the one with the manticore? I'd say you could use some help with that.' The fog leaned in close to my ear 'And I'm the only one that can help you with that' 'Yeah how? Last time I checked you can't do much except speak' 'Well check again my dear Damon. Ever since you came here I've been able to do so many new and wonderful things! Did you know, I can speed up your reaction time so much that it seems like time is standing still? Or that I can connect your mind to your soul so you can use magic?' My eyes narrowed 'Why are you telling me this.....' 'I'm so glad you asked! You see, if you die then I die and that's just no good!' She says with a cheery voice 'So the way I see it, if I help you survive then I get to live and so do you! It's a win win! Make your choice quickly though. I can't hold us frozen here forever and once I stop doing that, that manticore will rip you apart.' 'I guess I have no choice then. But before you do it I have one question. How much is this gonna hurt? Connecting my mind and my soul doesn't sound.....pleasant' Even though she was a moving black cloud her face darkened and she frowned 'Oh it is going to be quite possibly the most painful thing you have ever felt. You thought that you knew pain as a child? Well this is going to hurt your mind. Physical pain is nothing like feeling your mind burning which is exactly what you are going to feel. It's going to feel like it's lasting for hours yet in reality, it will only be a second. I hope you're ready because if your mind breaks during this then you're dead even if you survive the manticore.' 'Just one more thing. What's your name? You never told it to me back then' 'I guess there's no harm in letting you know. It's Tenebris. Now are you ready? Too bad here we go' It felt as if there were a million suns burning in my thoughts. An instant later it was accompanied by the immeasurable weight of 15 million years of being alone and depressed. My mind was near its breaking point but the torture was just beginning. For what seemed like an eternity my mind went through the most painful thing imaginable. Cold so horrible it froze my thoughts, lightning burning out my nerve endings. Every one of the very few happy moments in my life I was forced to relive to the point they were sickeningly sweet. This was quickly followed by the numerous memories of hate, depression, sadness, tragedy, and the same crushing feelings of 15 million years of loneliness. The whole experience felt like it had lasted for days when it had really only lasted for a second. My sanity was questionable and my mind was being held together by a single shred of lucidity. My ability to think was shut down completely and I was reduced to animalistic hate and rage. Time unfroze and I instictually stepped into the wonderful embrace of the shadows and sank into them. Where there was previously light, there was now a void and where there were shadows there was now light that looked oversaturated. I saw the shadow that was the manticore and I felt something within me start throbbing, asking for me to use it. I gave in and felt my extremities start to tingle and burn. I reached out to the manticore and wrapped its body in shadows. I squeezed the life out of it and before it knew what was happening, it was little more than a compressed ball of flesh and bone. I rose out of the shadows and back into the real world and picked up the ball of flesh that used to be a manticore. In my damaged state of mind I thought it would be a good idea to take a bite of it. As I bit into it, I heard a sharp intake of breath. I whipped around to face the new attackers and I saw several guards, Rainbow Dash, and princess Luna. When I stepped into the light they all recoiled at the sight of me. My eyes were bloodshot and my shirt was tattered and soaked in blood. I was panting heavily and my wings were at spread out at their full span of 8 feet with me in a fighting stance and an ominous, crimson red liquid falling off of them that disappeared as it reached the ground. The left side of my face was covered in a black fluid that was liquified shadows and my face was contorted into a snarl of hate and fury and was dripping blood. "Damon....you....you used shadow magic.....didn't you?" She was horrified at what had happened to me. When I heard her soothing voice, memories of who I was came rushing back to me and I grabbed my head in both hands and stumbled around. "UNGHHH I just.....you.....it's too much" I sprinted into the tree line towards a mountain that I had seen during my flight from Canterlot, breaking branches and getting cuts all over my arms and legs in the process. 'See you later' Tenebris giggled. After hours of running I finally reached the mountain. I looked around for a possible path up and found only one but it was a steep incline with few handholds. The sharp rocks that made up the majority of the mountainside cut deep into my hands and shoes, shredding my shoes and cutting up my feet. Halfway up the mountain the toll of using magic for the first time, running away from the guards twice, and being attacked by a manticore finally caught up with me and I could barely cling to the mountainside anymore. Luckily I I found a cave and climbed inside of it with one last burst of energy. After several minutes of sitting there and catching my breath I saw that the sun outside was setting and I decided to move farther into the cave for the night. After 10 minutes of walking I came to a fork in the road. One path was connected to the one I was currently on and continued on until I couldn't see the end of it. The other path had a dim golden light coming from it. By that time I had regained some of my faculties and as such, my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to go down the path with the golden glow and I soon found myself in a gigantic room that must have taken up the entire center of the mountain. The first thing I noticed about the room was that it was completely FILLED, with gold and gems. The second thing that I noticed was that it was nearly unbearably hot in the room. I walked into the center of the room which had a large fountain in it that was spitting out.....lava? The shadows that made up my wings moved with a gentle breeze but something wasn't right. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and something told me that I was no longer alone in this room I started backpedaling from the fountain and ran into something behind me. I froze because whatever was behind me was BIG. 'I know I'm gonna regret this but...' I turned my head around and only saw a red scaled leg so I slowly turned my head upwards and there was a black scaled dragon that surprisingly was only 12 feet tall and lacked wings. I stared at it blinking with my mouth slightly agape. "What are you little one?" It's voice was deep and low. Not unlike the sound of rocks grating together. I continued to stare at it while I responded "I'm....uh....I'm....a human...." "I have never heard of 'hue-mans'. Then again I have not left this cave in millenia. Do tell me hue-man what are the current state of affairs in the world? His eyes glanced towards my wings, which were still much larger than normal and dripping crimson, and his eyes narrowed and locked on with mine with an unmatchable intensity "Hue-man tell me quickly. Are you a shadow magic practicioner? And if so, did you recently learn to use magic? He said with a low growl. The dragons gaze was forcing me to tell the truth and keeping me rooted in place. "I-I-I think so. I just arrived in this world and woke up with these wings. Then princess Luna told me I was a Dweller of the Twilight and then tried to arrest me. I flew away and ran into this forest where I was attacked by a weird lion thing but a voice in my head said it was going to connect my mind to my soul. It did that and then I just kind of, melted into the shadows and crushed the lion thing into a ball." The dragon's gaze softened and I collapsed to the floor "You impress me hue-man. In all my eons I have seen few achieve the blood form and even fewer retain their lives when they did. "Blood form? What are you--" He place a claw on my forehead and over my heart and everything went black. Luna: "Come! The tracks lead this way!" I commanded. We had lost Damon in the forest but after flying above the canopy we saw him climbing a mountain and enter a cave which was where we were now. I had sent one of the Lunar guards with me to report back to Celestia about the entire incident of Damon arriving and escaping while the rest of us continued our search for him. I knew that if we did not find him soon we would most likely lose him to his anger and hate from when he connected to his magic. We had gone far enough into the cave that we could no longer see so I cast a light spell so we could continue. 'If we don't find him in time we will have to kill him. Or worse, imprison him like me.' She shuddered at the thought. "The tracks end here princess. Which path do we take?" One of the guards asked. I looked at our two choices. The path that connected to this one was incredibly dark while the one on the right had a dull glow coming from it. "Take the path on the right. He would most likely head for the lit area." After a minute, we came upon a room filled with jewels and gold. Some of the guards eyes shined with greed and one reached out to take some. "Touch nothing! This is most likely a dragon's hoard" The guard retracted his hoof quickly and we all heard the sound of someone falling to the ground. We looked to where the sound originated from and saw a tall black land dragon standing over Damon. "AETERNIUM?!" I shouted. He looked over at our group and his jaw hit the ground "LUNA?! "What are you doing here?!" They both shouted in unison. Luna shook her head "I am looking for the human called Damon. He is the first shadow magic user in 200 thousand years and I fear that his mind cannot handle the shock of using magic for the first time" Luna said. "I believe this is the one you are looking for" He pointed to Damon. "Please relinquish him so I can--" "No" Luna was taken aback "No? What do you mean no? Aeternium you know what happens to beings that connect to their magic for the first time. And you know it's worse for shadow magic users. Let him go so I can help him" "Luna you of all people should know I cannot do that. You can clearly see he has achieved the blood form and retained his mind. It is my duty to instruct him on his new responsibilities." His eyes narrowed "As is yours" Luna blanched and started pacing "B-b-blood form? HE is the one that achieved it? This is not good. This is not good at all" Aeternium furrowed his scales in confusion "How is this not good Luna? The time has finally come for us to fufill our duty once again and you think that this is bad? I must know why" She stopped pacing "Aeternium...you remember what Celestia's feelings on that are though. And she is the current ruler of Equestria. If she finds out about him..." She then remembered that she had sent off a messenger to inform Celestia of Damon. "Oh no. I sent a messenger to my sister to inform her of Damon" Aeternium's face darkened "We must convince her to see otherwise, or do what you know better than ANYONE knows what must be done... A tear escaped Luna's eye "No....I can't....she's my sister...." "We do what we must for the greater good...." Luna's face was streaming tears "Y-yes. For the greater good..." "Do what princess?! Princess? Princess!?" Rainbow dash screamed. "If we cannot convince my sister to not kill Damon, we must imprison her on the sun..." Luna said in between sobs. Rainbow dash was taken aback "Imprison her on the sun? Princess just what the hay is going on here?!" Author's Note So who was that voice in his head really? And what in his past is so horrible that he is terrified of a simple voice in his head? Just how do Luna and Aeternium know each other? And what the hell is worth so much that they need to imprison Celestia on the sun to keep it safe? Keep on reading and find out. P.S. I think you guys deserved a slightly longer chapter this time around. Chapter 6: Resurgence Chapter 6: Resurgence Damon: "Hey Damon! Are you excited for our trip?" "Sure am!" I said with a beaming smile. I was riding in the backseat of the car with my brother, staring out the window as the plains flew by us. There was nothing in any direction for miles around. My brother had made plans to take me on a camping trip at the start of summer vacation to spend some time with me. Since he didn't have a car however, he asked his friend Marcus if he could drive us to the camp site. My brother almost decided not to go today because it had started raining an hour earlier but reasoned that it should stop soon. The real reason that my brother wanted to go on this trip was to keep me away from home as much as possible. Since I had no school during the day I had to be home all day with our father who was out of a job and my brother knew what happened when I was with our father. This was the reason that my brother moved out when I was 6 years old. So he could find a job and a place to live so he could one day take care of me. "Hey Damon. Damon!" My brother was snapping his fingers in front of my face. "Huh? What?" "You were kinda zoned out there little man" "Sorry I was just thinking" "What were you thinking about?" "Ummmm...you know.....this and that" My brother smiled gently "Cmon little man. Don't think of that. In just a few more months I'll turn 18 and can get you outta that place" I gasped "Really!? You'll take care of me?" I was overjoyed at the mere prospect of getting out of that house. But the possibility of that, coupled with the possibility of my brother taking care of me left me feeling ecstatic. "Yeah little man. I'll take you somewhere nice to live" "Hate to break up this touching moment, but I could use an extra pair of eyes on the road here. I can barely see to drive." Marcus said with worry evident in his voice. We drove like that for another hour and with each passing minute the weather grew fouler. "Ryan I'm gonna pull over for now. I can hardly see at all and this lightning is getting really close to us" Marcus informed my brother as he stopped on the side of the road. Ryan sighed. "Yeah okay. Lets just wait a li--" He furrowed his brow. "What's wrong dude?" Marcus asked. ".....I don't know.....It...kinda looks like somethings coming this way but..." He squints his eyes "It looks like a truck but it can't be. This side of the highway is one waGET OUTTA THE CAR!" An 18 wheeler was bearing down on us at a breakneck speed. The driver must have seen us because he started frantically honking his horn and slammed on his brakes. The truck was slowing down but because the roads were soaked, it's tires couldn't get a grip on it. The driver struggled to maintain control of the truck, but it began to slide sideways. It was at this point that we were finally able to see what the semi's payload way. It was a tanker truck with a large stencil on the side saying FLAMMABLE. I was frozen in terror and barely even registered the fact that Marcus was pulling me out of the backseat. Ryan was struggling with his seat belt as the tanker drew closer. Marcus moved to help Ryan and as he opened the door the tanker finally flipped onto its side. There must have been something on the road because the tank on the truck ripped open and started spewing a black substance all over the road and the car. The tanker slid by the car, thankfully not crushing it, but the cab did impact it and knock it off the shoulder of the road. Marcus had tried to dodge the vehicle and almost made it, but got clipped at the last moment by it. The car began to roll down the incline on the side of the road and came to a rest at the bottom on its side. I ran over to where the car was, terrified for my brother who was still trapped inside the car. I didn't register it at the time but Marcus, who had been right beside the car when it got hit, was lying on the ground with a few broken ribs and a broken leg. I ran to the front of the car and looked through the cracked windshield at my brother. His leg was being crushed by the passenger door which, incidentally, was where the truck had hit the car. Ryan was struggling to get his legs unpinned but to no avail. The black sludge was coming down the incline and I heard a whooshing sound behind me then felt the temperature spike. There was a line of flames coming down to the car. I started to pound on the windshield "Ryan! Get out of there! There's a fire! Cmon get out!" The fire was close enough now that Ryan could see the light from it. "Get back Damon! Get back!" I obeyed my brother and scrambled backwards as the flames reached the car. The car was quickly engulfed in flames and began to consume it. Then, the screaming started. My brother was being burned alive. It sounded as if a banshee was trapped in the car instead of my brother as the conflagration completely burned away his legs and pelvis. His chest and face caught fire and he began pounding away at the windshield, leaving bloody hand prints as his skin bubbled, popped, and bled, screaming the entire time. His hair began to burn away and cook his brains while his eyeballs melted and ran down his face like a river of tears. Even after his eyes were gone he kept pounding on the windshield and kept, screaming. I just sat there in abject horror, being unable to tear my eyes away from the burning car as my brother screams died out. The area was completely silent except for the soft sound of the rain, and the crackling sound of the fire that slowly ate away at my brothers flesh. I sat there, slowly rocking back and forth while my brothers now empty eye sockets stared at me, accusingly. Why? Why did you have to go on this camping trip Damon? Why did you have to have Marcus pull you out of the car? Why couldn't you stand up to our father? Why did I have to die? "It wasn't my fault! It wasn't my fault! It wasn't my fault" I kept repeating this over and over again as I continued to stare into my brothers eye sockets. What happened next, however, was even more terrifying than the screams. I watched as my brothers charred skeleton began to move and its eyes glowed a hellish red. It broke through the windshield and began crawling towards me, its legs having been burned and crushed beyond use. As it got closer I started rapidly backing away until I tripped over a rock. The skeleton caught up to me and grabbed my wrists in its bony grasp. "Your fault! This is your fault! I'm dead and it's YOUR. FAULT! "No, no, no, no, no! It wasn't my fault!" Tears were streaming down my face "I tried to get out of the car on my own but I couldn't! I was too scared!" Your fault! You will suffer as I have! It screamed at me before it opened its maw and began bathing me in fire. I screamed as I felt my blood boil and cook me from the inside out. My hair burned away as my brains cooked and my eyes melted away. My flesh became ash like and just blew away. 'Damon? Damon! Damon what's wrong!?' I heard something in my mind but it was drowned out by my screaming. Wake up Damon! Wake up! I felt something hit me across the face and the my surroundings began to blur and disappear. I was surrounded by blackness and the accusing eyes of my brother. "AHHHHHHHHHHH! IT'S NOT MY FAULT! IT'S NOT MY FAULT! SOMEBODY HELP ME! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!" I woke up screaming, sweating, and falling off whatever I was laying on to roll on the ground in an attempt to put out the flames that I was certain covered my body. "Damon calm down!" A voice said before a feeling of weightlessness came over me. My eyes snapped open and I was afflicted with tunnel vision. I could hear my pulse pounding in my head and my heart was actually hurting from how fast it was beating. In a burst of clarity it occurred to me that having my pulse that high after a heart transplant, even if it was a big improvement from my old heart, was not good. I quickly realized that I was not on fire and I was in the same cave as before. I grabbed my chest as my heart rate and breathing slowly settled back to normal. As memories long buried began to surface in my mind, I started shaking and began rocking back and forth as tears threatened to escape. I felt something soft pull me into a tight embrace and speak to me in a kind voice. "Shhhhhhhhh. Shhhhhhh. Shhhhh. It's okay. It's all okay. It was just a dream" After several minutes of this, I felt calm enough to stop rocking and looked up at who was comforting me. "Luna!" I scrambled out of her embrace and backed up against the wall. My eyes darted around the room, looking for a way out but unfortunately, the only exit was being blocked by Luna. "What ever is the matter Damon?" "You're trying to arrest me!" Luna stared at me blankly before she smiled sheepishly and blushed slightly with embarrassment "Ah. Yes. That. Well....you see......I was just trying to keep you from attempting to use magic, or connect your mind to your soul. People with the capacity to use magic, but without the connection to their souls, that attempt to use it have always ended up either mad and causing wanton destruction, or simply dead. Even worse are the people that connect their minds to their soul so they could use magic safely. Almost everyone that has attempted that has had their mind burned out by the pain. I could sense that you had a great deal of power and if you attempted to use magic then it could have ended with negative results for Equestria" I gave Luna my best what the fuck face that I could before speaking "So....you mean to tell me......that instead of calmly explaining the reasons behind you wanting me apprehended....you instead chose to have the guards attack me....to arrest me? What the actual fuck Luna. Aren't you supposed to be like a few million years old and super wise or something?" She rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof "Well you see, four years ago I was released from my thousand year imprisonment on the moon and when I was reintroduced to society in Equestria I was somewhat behind the times. While my mannerisms and speech have been mostly fixed since then, in extreme situation I tend to revert to my more....archaic ways. A thousand years ago we took more far direct approaches to possible threats to the kingdom and it was not uncommon for brute force to be the primary method used. I do apologize for this whole ordeal, although it has not come without its own benefits has it not?" I pinched the bridge of my nose "What you did was exceedingly stupid Luna. In fact it's almost as stupid as something I would do and I jumped out a window. Without knowing how to fly. And, although I am reluctant to admit it, you are correct. This ordeal has had some benefits" Luna clapped her hooves together "Wonderful! Now with that issue resolved we need to talk about some of the things that happened to you" "Yeah about that. What exactly DID happen? I remember somehow crushing the manticore into a ball, then ending up wherever here is, but after that I only remember vague shapes and colors" "After you crushed the manticore, you ran to this mountain where you met a dragon named Aeternium who used magic to force your mind into unconsciousness. Your heart and head would have been raging with emotion after your soul and mind connecting, not to mention the rage, hate, and bloodlust that you would have been feeling from having been in the Blood form" "Aeterium knew this because he was around during the rise and fall of shadow magic and when the Blood form was first made know to Equestria. He forced you into unconsciousness so your mind could piece itself back together and the Blood form could wear off. It was moments after he did this that we arrived and have been waiting for you to wake up for the past five hours. An hour ago you started whimpering, then thrashing and screaming 'it's not my fault'. A chill went down my spine "Yeah. That" "Damon. What exactly were you dreaming about?" "Something I thought I had locked away long, long ago..." I quietly said. Luna gave me an analyzing stare before continuing "Let us forget of this subject and talk about the most noticeable of your changes" I frowned in worry "What kind of changes?" "Well your wings for instance. Among other things they turned solid after you fell unconscious" My face lightened "Really?" I spread my wings out, still felt weird being able to control them like that, and sure enough, they were flesh, bone, and feather. They were still the same deep black they been before but now they had a border of dark crimson red along the leading edge of the wing" "The color looks a bit different. What's with the red here?" "That is a side effect of the Blood form. Anyone with wings that has achieved it has always had that band of red across the front edge of their feathers" Luna leaned in to look more closely at my wings "Although none have had it quite as.....dark as you do" I cocked my head quizzically "Luna, just how exactly do you know so much about this 'Blood form'?" She pondered the question for a moment before answering "Well to answer your question I suppose I should start at the very beginning with how my sister and I obtained the Elements of Harmony..." Author's Note Yeah I know it's a short chapter. I plan to make that up to you guys in the next one though. Edit: So someone messaged me saying that Damon was a bit too accepting of everything but there's an explanation behind that. His brain is still reeling from the shock of so many unbelievable things happening at once and with him having to escape and everything, the situation hasn't quite struck home (among other things!) with him yet but don't worry, that will all change very soon. Chapter 7: The Elements of HarmonyLuna: Five hundred thousand years prior "Watch it!" Exclaimed a stallion mercenary as I ran into him. "Apologies!" I said before galloping off to the tent she shared with her sister. "Sister, sister, sister!" I burst into the tent, bouncing up and down before sitting down. Celestia had been writing on a scroll as I burst into the tent we shared. Celestia sighed and turned towards me with a warm smile. "Yes Luna? What is it?" I clapped my hooves together in excitement. "In one of the tunnels that the pegacorn's and I were mining, a miner broke though the wall and found another cave system!" Celestia raised an eyebrow. "That's what has you so excited? A cave system? Luna, we're digging into a MOUNTAIN. There's bound to be some cave systems." "But do cave systems have strange metal walls?" I said with a smirk. This grabbed Celestia's attention. "What are you going on about? No one has enough spare metal to waste it on making walls out of them." "You mean no one today that is!" Celestia sighed and rolled her eyes. I silently huffed at her reaction. Ever since it had been brought to my attention that many strange artifacts made of even stranger materials were being found in the mines we had constructed, I had been completely obsessed with them, believing that whatever or whomever had built them was incredibly powerful. "Luna, you have an unhealthy obsession with this you know." "Yes isn't it glorious?" Celestia just shook her head and left the tent. I walked outside of the tent and quickly caught up with my sister. My thoughts were focused on imagining all the different possibilities of what we would find in the cave. 'Maybe it's gemstones! Or more gold! Or maybe ancient technology!' I happily mused. We had been here for several weeks after one of the pegasus prospectors from our recently formed nation had discovered a gold rich vein in a mountain. The vein was so vast that Celestia estimated it being worth more than their nation was. As we approached the mine entrance a half hour later, I furrowed my brow in confusion and worry. Celestia noticed this and spoke up "Luna, what is the matter?" "There were supposed to be guards at the entrance. In fact the guards that were supposed to be here were from the Eclipse guard so they most assuredly wouldn't abandon their post without a good reason...this is worrying." Celestia nodded her head. "Yes, this is troubling. Let us hurry inside." The farther we traveled into the mine, the dimmer the lanterns that had been strung overhead got until, finally, they went out completely where the mine ended, and the strange cave began. We paused for a moment at the entrance before Celestia spoke up "This metal is most strange. It looks brand new in some spots while it's rusted in others." "I'm not going to even bother saying it." Luna said smugly. As soon as they had all four hooves on the metal floor, an electrical charge ran the length of their bodies, followed by a strange voice coming from above them. "sEc--ur-r-r-r-........l-l-llllloc...." "What on Terra was that?" Luna asked as a dull, pulsing red glow illuminated the corridor. Celestia grimaced. "I don't know but I have a very bad feeling about this." After five minutes of walking down the featureless corridor, I spotted a sickly green glow at the end of the corridor accompanied by the sounds of someone fighting. I stopped moving. "Celestia...do you hear that?" She tilted her head in the direction I indicated. ".....Yes...it sounds like....fighting?" I looked at Celestia as a silent agreement passed between us. We galloped towards the sounds and came upon a grisly scene. On the other side of a clear barrier, surrounding a large tank with a strange creature floating in it, were the bodies of the guards and the miners. It seemed as if the miners attacked the guards and overwhelmed them. The guards had empty sockets where their eyes would normally be and their ears were bleeding. Most seemed to have been felled by injury to major arteries. My face paled. "What....happened...." No matter what gruesome atrocities we witnessed throughout our innumerable years, they continued to repulse us. "Look...over there..." Celestia pointed to the remaining guard who was fighting a miner. The miner had several deep wounds along the side of his barrel. His right pupil was the size of a pinhead and where the other eye would be was a bleeding hole. The guard that he was attacking was guarding a large green disc next to the strange tank. He had small cuts covering his muzzle and he was limping. One of his wings was a bloody, tattered mess while the other was missing entirely and all that remained of his horn was a jagged stump. The miner had a twisted grimace and a wild look in his eyes while stabbed at the guard with a jagged piece of metal "Release the past to awaken the future. Blood paid will be a debt collected in time. Anarchy shall be our eternal salvation." He kept repeating this saying, as if it were a I tried to use my magic to stop the crazed pegacorn from harming the guard any further but something was preventing my magic from affecting him. "What manner of trick is this!?" I exclaimed while scrunching my face in concentration and increasing my magical output. "Luna stop!" I opened my eyes to look at what she was pointing at and saw a thin stream of blue being drawn towards the tank in the room. I tried to look for where the stream was coming from but every time I moved my head, the stream would move too. It was at that moment I realized that my magic was being drawn to the tank, causing several lights on it to grow brighter. We could do nothing but sit there and watch as the guard's movements slowed because of blood loss, and the deranged pegacorn cut his throat. The pegacorn calmly walked over to the strange disc by the tank and pressed it. "Shed the past to awaken the future. Blood paid will be a debt collected in time. Anarchy shall be our eternal salvation." He said before he collapsed. The tank hissed steam as the front of it lifted away to glowing, sickly green liquid with a dark shape in the center as the clear barrier was raised. My sister rushed over to each of the guards to see if there was a chance to save any of them while I warily approached the tank. 'Is that creature.....alive?!' My eyes widened in shock as the creature began to move. All the light in the chamber disappeared including the glow in the tank. "hahahahahah..." A deep, low, evil chuckle rumbled through the chamber. My sister and I cast an illumination spell and I looked around the chamber for the source of the laughter, noticing the creature in the tank was missing. "Show yourself!" I demanded. "Now where's the fun in that? I think a game is in order instead. I do hope you can be more entertaining than the last group though." A light appeared, indicating the dead guards and miners. "The last group?" Celestia 's eyes widened in shock before her right eye began to twitch. "WHAT DID YOU DO!" Her illumination spell became blinding and I raised a hoof to cover my eyes. A slow clap was heard behind us "Ooooh! You will be far more fun then the last group!" We whipped around to see who our enemy was but what stood before us perplexed me. It looked like many creatures smashed together, wearing a black top hat, monocle, and a black cane. "I simply exerted a small bit of influence on their weak minds. Pity I can't do the same to you. But where are my manners? Discord, at your service!" He took the hat off his head and bowed before snapping, making them disappear. "Now, since you were so rude as to watch me while I slept, I think I deserve a head start don't you hmmm?" I was taken aback, my mouth open in shock. How could this....thing, be so casual about corrupting the minds of others? "Any arguments? No? Good! I'm SO happy you agree!" He snapped his fingers and I was stricken with extreme fatigue. Moments before unconsciousness claimed me, I saw Discord's smile fade as he looked at something behind me. He snapped his fingers and after a strange flash of light, I fell asleep. I woke up to a pounding headache and a ringing in my ears. I grabbed my head in between my hooves and shut my eyes tight as I attempted to remember what happened. 'There was a strange voice...then a red light...the dead guards, then--' A low growl formed in my throat. Discord... I said with as much venom in my voice as I could possibly muster. As the headache went away and my hearing returned, I rose to my hooves and opened my eyes. I looked around for my sister and saw her up ahead by the entrance. 'Wait entrance?' "Sister, are you alright?" "..." "Sister?" I moved next to her and what I saw took my breath away. Where the camp had been, only dirt remained. Twenty years later A dark miasma permeated the air. I looked over the battlefield, staring at the corpses of both friend and foe, a hollow and defeated look reflected in my eyes as the moon slowly arced across the sky. 'So much death...and for what? No matter how many battles we win, we are no closer to defeating him than when we first met.' I thought dejectedly. Twenty years ago when Discord was released, chaos, the likes of which no one had ever seen, was released into the world. In a matter of days, Discord had created an army of monsters. They quickly took the border towns of the nations of the world. It was quickly discovered that no one nations army could defeat them. Only by working together were we able to win battles. "Such great losses and still no closer to defeating Discord." Celestia had walked up next to me while I was deep in thought. "That's exactly what I was thinking Celestia." I sighed and looked up at the night sky "No matter what we do, nothing seems to work." "Your highness!" A pony was running up the hill towards us. "Yes?" Celestia asked as he reached us, out of breath. "A message for you from the medical tent!" She grabbed the letter with her magic and opened it. As her eyes scanned over it, a spark that I hadn't seen in almost fifteen years shone in her eyes. A glimmer of hope. "Celestia what is it!?" I said, my excitement rising. "Dusk Keeper has returned. He succeeded in his mission..." Her voice trailed off. My eyes widened slightly and I could not speak for several seconds. "You y-you mean then--" "Yes. He found them." We galloped off to meet Dusk Keeper. "But wait, why is he in the medical tent?" "It doesn't matter. All that does is that he finally found them." Dusk Keeper was a strange stallion that Celestia and I had met fifteen years ago during our search for a way to beat Discord. We had been exploring more of the strange, abandoned caves, similar to the one that Discord was housed in, in the hopes that if we found Discord in one of these caves then we may also be able to find the means to stop him in one as well. Celestia had lay down to rest for a few minutes and urged me to not wait go on ahead of her to investigate the cave up ahead. I entered the cave and inside resided a zebra. It was immediately obvious that he was not what he seemed. In addition to the aura that surrounded him, the walls were made of a reflective crystal, creating a thousand different images, surrounding a large pool of water in the room that softly glowed, the center of which he sat at. There was a pressure in the air that compelled me to step into the pool of water and reach out a hoof to touch him. As soon as I did however, I was frozen in place and his eyes snapped open, shining a blinding white. He turned and looked at me, my eyes locked with his and images and feelings began to flash inside my mind. Images of a forest, a pony, six golden orbs encrusted with jewels, a sense of direction an hope. Energy was dancing on and above the surface of the water. Magical power arced between me and this strange being that was very clearly not a zebra. The images and feelings kept playing in my head over and over again until they were permanently burned into my mind. I fell to the ground, my nerves dancing with energy and a strange force in my mind gently nudging me towards something. I don't know how much time passed until my sister came into the cave. I heard her asking me what was wrong and I tried to answer, but my body was no longer responding to my commands. After several minutes of her trying and failing to cast spells, I was finally able to move my body again. I inhaled sharply, finally able to take a full breath after several minutes. "Luna you're okay!" Celestia happily exclaimed, hugging me. "What happened?" She asked, her voice full of worry. "There was a...." "A what?" "I..can't really remember. I remember coming into the cave, then walking into a pool of water, then..." "...Then what?" "I think I know where we need to go Celestia. I know where to go to find a way to stop Discord." I said with a hopeful smile. Celestia's eyes widened, then she returned my smile. "Lead the way." We traveled for three days, eventually coming upon a forest. We walked through the forest for a week, always following the ever present nudge in my mind. After three days, we found a cave with light spilling out the front. Inside we found a pegasus stallion sleeping by a fire. He had a red coat, a green mane and tail with a streak of red in each, and a dark blue band on his front right leg. I took a step forwards and tripped over a rock, the sound reverberating in the large cave. His eyes snapped open in an instant, him snapping to his feet and his entire body tensing. He had a snarl on his face, but it was quickly replaced with a smile. "Who goes there? Friend or foe?" "We come in peace. We are but two travelers, seeking a tool against chaos." Celestia said. His posture relaxed slightly and he beckoned us closer. "If you speak truthfully come and sit with me. Tell me as to why you have visited me." "We have been searching for many weeks for a way to defeat the Lord of Chaos, Discord." "Ah yes. Discord. My master warned of a creature named Discord five years ago. He said that he would bring ruin upon the world if not stopped." Celesta's eyes narrowed in confusion. "How could your master possibly know of Discord though? He hadn't publicly declared himself to the world until three years ago." He smiled warmly before responding. "He was a very powerful seer. But not just any seer! He was a dragon." "A dragon? Why would a dragon ever take on a student outside of his own species?" His face darkened and a small scowl replaced his smile. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath "Normally I would not tell you but... my master said that if anypony were to ever come to me, asking for help to stop evil then I should answer any questions they may have." He took a deep breath before continuing, speaking in a low monotone. "Six years ago, I was....less than stable. I would seek out fights and would brutally kill any that challenged me. I would bask in murder and begged for people to fight me so I would have a reason to kill them. One day, I got too cocky and challenged a dragon to a fight. I quickly lost, for the first time ever. I waited for him to finish me but instead he offered to take me under his tutelage and teach me to control my more violent urges. He helped me learn to control the rage and bloodlust I inherited." He looked at his wings sadly. I then noticed the coloration on the leading edge looked off. "What do you mean--" "That is personal and does NOT concern you. I may not be able to lie but I can still conceal the truth. What does concern you, however, is the reason as to why you are here. You need something from me do you not?" He clearly did not want to talk about this. "Yes. The past three years, the world has been waging wars against Discord in an effort to stop him." "And how, pray tell, can I assist?" I shifted uncomfortably on my hooves, which he took notice of and narrowed his eyes. "We are unsure as to how you may be able to help us But several days ago, something strange happened to me. I do not know what it was, but something started to guide me to you. I also received visions of six strange glowing, golden orbs, and what apparently was you. I do not know what these orbs are yet but I believe that they can stop Discord somehow and you are the key to finding them." "And just why do you think this?" "When I think of these orbs I am filled with a strange hope and conviction that they can defeat him. I have little reason to believe these visions, but I know that they can stop him. Also, anytime that I think of them, they are unwillingly followed by an image of you." He appeared to ponder his decision for a few moments before stiffening and nodding his head. As we exited the cave, a sudden realization dawned on me. "You never told us your name." I asked this strange stallion. He smirked at me "Dusk Keeper." We sent Dusk on many exploration missions from that day on. Finding clues to where the orbs were located and information on them. We discovered their names, the Elements of Harmony, and that they were indeed a source of magic that could rival and even surpass Discord in power. After fifteen years of looking, it seemed that he had finally found them, or at the least where to get them. The medical tent was a depressing thing. It was a dull gray and had a large blue cross on the side with a unicorns horn laying diagonally across it. The closer we drew towards the tent. the more the oppressive atmosphere increased, no doubt caused by the pain and suffering from physical wounds, and chaos magic. Wounded soldiers ringed the medical tent, some in beds while others forced to stand; the cries of the injured and dying was a constant reminder of the battle that had concluded only an hour prior. When we entered the tent, our attention was grabbed by a nearby doctor. "I assume you two are here for Dusk?" "Yes." Celestia curtly replied. "This way." We followed the doctor to the only part of the tent that was closed off by a door. The sight that greeted us when we entered the room took my breath away. Dusk lay in bed, his eye and rear left leg missing but sat up straight when he saw us. "Dusk...what happened." Celestia spoke slowly. He bit his lower lip before looking away. "I don't want to talk about it. Suffice to say, I found them." He tilted his head in the direction of a silver case with six, bright, shining orbs resting inside. Me and my sister walked over to it and I picked up one of them. "Such a small thing that embodies all of our hopes. Let's activate them!" I said, my voice full of hope. "Luna. You want to activate them already? We have no idea what might happen. They might mistakenly identify us as an enemy and attack us! I know this is your project but Luna, have some sense!" Celestia said angrily. The silence in the tent lasted for several seconds, broken only by the sound of my sister's angry breaths. "Celestia. You full well know that if this does not work, then we may as well give up against Discord. He has been toying with us for the past eighteen years. This is our last chance." Celestia's face became somber. "You're right. If this does not work, then I doubt we can find another way to stop Discord, should he start seriously attacking." We sat down and prepared ourselves to start. We started casting a simple levitation spell on the Elements but as soon as our magic touched them, they reacted violently. The case began to shake along with the ground, and the Elements were giving off a soft, multi hued light and began to slowly float towards my sister and I. The ground suddenly stopped shaking before resuming ten-fold, medical equipment falling over and cries of the wounded penetrated the tent. The tent darkened so that the only illumination was from the Elements. All at once, the ground stopped shaking and the tent grew pitch black before I felt three simultaneous impacts on my chest and heard my sister utter a small cry. Light slowly returned to the tent, and as it did, I could feel something within me grow. I could feel it affecting my very being, changing the very core of my magic. "Oh Tiiiiiiiaaaaaa, Looooooneeeeeey! Come out and plaaaaaaaaaay!" We heard a voice calling from outside. "I felt some positively strange energy coming from here and I thought to myself, I should pay Lulu and Tia a visit! So, here I am!" I glanced over at my sister top confirm my growing fears as to who this was and I noticed that she was softly glowing. "Celestia are you glowing?" "I could ask the same of you Luna." I looked down and, sure enough, I was glowing. "What? Why are we glowing and where are the Elements? I felt them hit us but "If you won't come out and play with me I might just have to have some fun with these strapping young stallions." We rushed outside of the tent and the sight that greeted us was horrifying. Discord was walking around, turning random ponies into different plants, animals, and inanimate objects. The worst part though was that he went around, turning any pegacorn into a unicorn and a pegasus. He split their being in half. Uncontrollable rage rose within me. "DIIIIIISCOOOOOORD!" I yelled. His head jerked up a the sound of my voice. "Luna! Celestia! How good to see you! Have you been well?" He cheerily responded, as if he had not a care in the world. I looked to Celestia and saw her glaring at Discord with death in her eyes, a low growl emanating from her throat and a grimace on her face. Celestia responded by firing a magical beam at his face. "Oh come now that won't do--" He was cut off as the beam hit him square in nose, causing it to bleed and his head to snap back. "That....hurt...HOW DID YOU DO THAT!" he snapped his fingers in a clear attempt to try and do something to us. "Why isn't it working!? How are you--" I interrupted him by firing my own attack at him. "THAT'S IT! PLAYTIME IS OVER!" He shouted, snapping his fingers and turning everyone in the camp to ash. Discord then went so far as to summon a gale that blew around the different pieces of the camp and the ashes that were once ponies. Realization of what that meant horrified us. They were essentially dead but they still lived on, their bodies and minds scattered across the world. It was a fate worse than death. I felt something well up inside of my that I hadn't felt in many years. Pure, unadulterated rage, hate, and malice, all directed towards Discord. The air began to spark with energy, and when I looked over at my sister, I saw that she shared my expression. The energy began to arc between my sister and me and we started to rise off of the ground. "Luna. Ready the weeping darkness." "Yes." I said, through clenched teeth. As we began to charge the magical energy in our horns, I noticed that Discord was smirking, but when he snapped his fingers in what was an obvious attempt to stop us, nothing happened. A moment later he tried to move but he was rooted in place. He noticed me staring at him and pointed a finger at me. "What did you do! Why can't I move?" "Luna are you ready?" Celestia asked. "Yes." We released the energy from our horns but where there would normally be a stream of darkness, was a shining rainbow. I tried to look at Celestia and ask her if she knew what was going on but my body was locked in position. As the beam drew closer to Discord, fear began to show in his eyes. "Where did you find them!? I DESTROYED them!" Were the last words that Discord would speak for over four hundred ninety thousand years. The forces holding us up vanished and we fell to the ground. We lay there for several minutes recovering our strength. Whatever had happened with the spell had drained every last ounce of our strength. After an hour of lying on the ground we had finally recovered enough to move and speak again. "Luna, what happened?" Celestia asked groggily. "I-I do not know. Celestia.....look." I pointed to Discord. She looked at what I was pointing at and her jaw dropped in shock. Discord had been turned into a statue. We had...won. "We...we won. We beat Discord." She said, awestruck. I large smile grew on my face. "We won. We won! WE WON, WE WON, WE WON!" I was leaping into the air jumping with joy. We had beat Discord! The world would know peace for the first time in almost two decades! Celestia's expression mirrored my own and she too began to jump with joy. My celebration was cut short, however, when I stepped onto a small metal ring. It was Dusk's bracelet. Celestia noticed my sudden somber expression. "Luna what's wrong? We won! No more lives have to be lost!" She said as she approached me. She looked down at what I was staring at and she recognized it. "That...that was Dusk's wasn't it?" I nodded my head slowly. "Yes. It was." I looked at her with tears in my eye's and a fiercely determined expression on my face. "Celestia." I took a deep breath. "We may have beaten Discord today but at a great cost. Thousands of lives were lost today along with all the lives lost in all the other battles. We must never forget that." Celestia slowly nodded her head, the air growing somber. We sat down, watching the ashen remains of the ponies scatter to the wind like so many butterflies... Author's Note Sorry for the delays! Took me a few days to get my glasses fixed and it was hard writing all that history. Hope you like it! Also, can anyone name and find the reference in here?
Chapter 1: Farewell“Damn it!” I yell as I fell out of my chair. I look over at the thing and the leg was broken “Knew I should have fixed that leg.” “What was that Damon? You break another chair?” Romello, my best friend from Buffalo, asks me over Xbox live. We had been in the middle of a capture the flag match on Halo 4 when my chair fell apart. “Yeah I broke another one. I’ve really got to start buying sturdier chairs. Can’t really help it that I’m so harsh things when I'm not being careful.” “Dude that’s the second one this month. You’ve really got to start taking better care of your things.” Romello chuckles. “Anyways, you ready to finish this match?” “Nah we've been playing all day and I'm pretty hungry now so I’m gonna go eat for a bit. Probably going to go to Subway or something. I’ll call you in a few hours so see you then Rom” “Hey wait before you go did you get that thing I sent you?” Romello asked. “Yeah I got it. It's a great birthday present but where the hell did you get the money to buy me an 18' sub? I know your job doesn’t pay enough for you to have just gotten this recently.” “Hey you’re like a brother and to be honest I've actually been saving for a while to get you it. It’s the least I can do especially considering what you got me for my last birthday. Do you know how many times they've gotten me out of a bad situation? Not to mention the time that guy broke into my house. If anything it’s not enough.” Romello lives just outside of a bad ghetto in Buffalo so for his last birthday I got him a tracker knife for protection. “Still Rom, thanks man. Well I’ll talk to you later I’m getting really hungry over here so I’m going to start my way over to Subway.” “Okay see ya later man. Headhunters peace!” Romello says with much enthusiasm as I sit there laughing. About 7 years ago I met Romello over Xbox live and we hit things off immediately. We formed a clan in halo called Headhunters and even with the clan long gone we still call each other Headhunters as a reminder of those great couple of years. I take my headset off, turn off my Xbox then grab my wallet, phone, keys, and iPod and since it's raining outside I grab my hoodie and go to Subway. I leave my apartment and after a few minutes of walking I check the time on my phone. 3:32. ‘Hey that new episode of D-gray man should be available at 6 .’ I decide to take the quickest route to Subway since it's raining which involves going down several back alleys and through the part of town where a lot of people sell mystical items, most of which are fake, try to tell your future, and similar things. I don't really believe in any of that stuff like magic except for a few things such as the power of a persons soul, and auras. Since the time I was 6 years old I have been able to see a colored glow or outline around people and when I told my mom about it she said it was probably the I was seeing. My mother is the kind of person that believes in all that mystical crap so the day after I tell her that, she takes me to the part of town where she wants to have my palm read. We walk through the collection of street vendors and shops and soon arrive at a peculiar little shop called Madame Fatum's. Inside the shop it's dark and smoke filled the air with the scent of incense. Out of the shadows a mysterious woman asks "Would you like me to fortell your fate?" As I nod my head yes she takes me into a backroom where the majority of the room is taken up by a large table and two chairs. She motions for me to sit down in a chair that is much to large for me. "Give me your hands child." she asks and as soon as I lift my hands onto the table she reaches out and grabs them roughly. She closes her eyes and after several minutes of silence I meekly ask her "Ummmmm....do they say anything bad?" Her eyes snap open and she looks at me strangely and with a look of and pity on her face. "Your time with us is limited. Before you are a score of years old you shall depart and almost all that you hold dear now you will lose" I begin to shake as she tells me her prediction and she escorts me back to my mother. "Enjoy your time with your spawn for his time is limited." I hear her say. She whispers something else into my mothers ear that I can't hear as a look of shock and horror slowly grows on my mothers face. When I get home that day my mother tells my father about the trip to the palm reader and he quickly grows angry and looks at me with a mix of horror and disgust. As my thoughts turn to my father, I was quickly consumed with unbridled rage and a scowl grew on my face. All those things he did to my mother, my sisters, and me all because of some stupid thing that a fortune teller said. I was clenching my fists so hard that my palms started to bleed and I was shaken from my musings by the pain. As the thoughts of my father faded from my mind so too did the rage I had inside of me. As my thoughts of my father fade I begin to think about the rest of my family. Most didn't ever suspect what was going on but one did and found out. My uncle Jack came over for a surprise visit one day and walked in on what my father was doing. He got so angry that he tackled my father. My father fought to escape but being in the military my uncle had the advantage. Ever since that day my uncle tried to get legal repercussions for what my father was doing but he always managed to avoid them somehow. My uncle made sure to be reachable at any time of the day or night if I ever needed help and he was more of a dad to me than my father ever was. Like all things in my childhood however, all the good things came to an end. During one of his many visits to check up on me and try to keep my father away from me as much as possible, he told me that he was selected for a secret military project and that I wouldn't be able to reach him for about a month. Before he left he gave me a necklace with a strange creature on it and described the different parts of its body and what it was. It had the head of a horse with a deer antler and goat horn, the arms of a lion and an eagle, the legs of a lizard and a goat, a serpentine body, and the wings of a bat and a pegasus. "It's a draconequus. It represents unity even through differences." He told me after I asked what it was. "Keep it to remember me by and by keeping it, even if I'm not here you will be safe." He gave me a quick hug and left but I never saw him again. I quickly push those unpleasant memories from my head thinking that my father got what he deserved. As I walk I think back to all the things me and Romello have done together. I remember the time almost 5 years ago, soon after I went to Buffalo to meet him for the first time, when we were rock climbing and my harness broke but Romello caught me before I fell and got us down. I think to more recent events of how he helped me through a particularly bad breakup with my longtime girlfriend after she stole my car, credit card, and breaks my heart. He even got a second job so he could help support as much as he could after I lost mine due to downsizing. 'Damn I don’t think I could have found a better person to have a friend as. I’m broken out of my thoughts by the sudden realization that I’m lost. As I look around I realize that there are no cars on the street and most of the buildings are abandoned. All the streetlights are broken except for one down the street that keeps flickering. ‘Wait why would the streetlight even be on? It’s three in the afternoon.’ I think to myself. I then realize that it’s unusually dark outside. I look up and realize that the moon is gigantic and has a weird pattern on it 'What the fuck is up with the moon?'. I look around to ask someone if they know whats going on but the only people on the street are me and some stranger leaning against the building to my left. “Hey you! Why is it so dark and where am I?” I warily ask from across the street. “……” ‘Maybe he didn’t hear me’ I start to walk closer to him and begin to realize that he has strange clothing on and has a rather odd shape. His body seems very serpentine and the large black hood that is covering his entire face rises higher than normal. He has a dark red cloak and a strange set of gloves on and his shirt and pants are also black and seem to suck in what little illumination remains. “Hey buddy where am I and why is it so dark out?” I warily ask the stranger. “……” “Uhhhhhh…. are you okay?” I ask as I reach for his shoulder. When I touch his shoulder it seems to draw the warmth right from my hand and I recoil in shock. I then realize that his cloak is dripping something. I stand there for a minute in silence holding my hand before speaking to him again. “Are you...okay.….dude….…” As the stranger turns towards me I realize that where a face would normally be all I see is a black void. “Uhh...ummm” I stammer as I back away but before I can run the stranger reaches out and grabs me by the shoulders with both hands as a chill runs up my spine. “…...You are ready......” He says before he reaches over and places a hand over my heart and laughs maniacally as a sharp pain goes through my head. Sometime later I groggily wake up with a splitting headache. “Goddamn it….. what the fuck was that…” I say to no one in particular as I use my phone to check the time. It says 3:50 and I decide that the pain in my head is too great and I was going to go home instead of getting food. ten minutes later I arrive at my apartment and open the door and head straight for my bedroom. “Screw it I’m gonna take a nap” I think out loud. A couple hours later I wake up and the headache has died down to a dull throb. I check the clock and it says 5:50. ‘Sweet. Woke up in time to watch that new episode’ I roll out of my bed and walk over to the broken chair in my living room. ‘Crap kinda forgot about that’ I think as I sigh. ‘Oh well guess I’ll just have to sit on the floor’ I grab the remote to turn on the TV but all it shows is static. “You gotta be kidding me” I mumble. I change between channels for a few minutes but they all show static and then the TV promptly goes dead. “Great now I have to get someone to look at my TV. Well guess I’ll just turn in early" I say as I grab my phone. "Maybe this damn headache will be gone by then." As I head towards my bedroom I look out the window but it is far darker than it should be at this time. “What the hell? Wait a minute wasn’t it kinda like that earlier today?” As I back away from the window and turn around I suddenly realize that the shadows in my apartment are moving. “ WHAT. THE. FUCK” I yell loudly. As soon as I say that however the shadows leap towards me and wrap around my legs pulling me into them up to my knees. “SHIIIIIIIIIIIT” I scream as drop my phone and desperately try to escape the shadows that have pulled me in up to my waist by now trying to pull myself out by grabbing whatever I can. I reach for where I dropped my phone and promptly dial Romello while holding it above my head because the shadows are at my chest. He picks up the phone but before I get the chance to say anything the shadows reach my mouth and I drop the phone again. As the darkness envelops me, I scream for help but by then the shadows have swallowed me whole. “Damon? Damon are you there? Are you okay? I thought I heard a scream. Damon?” Romello asks from over the phone but all that he gets in response is silence. Author's Note Just to be clear 'words' denotes thoughts and "words" denotes speech.
Chapter 2: ArrivalDamon: Emptiness. That's all that I feel inside of me; A great emptiness where my emotions used to be. After what feels like hours of drifting through the darkness I hear something start whispering in my mind to give in and let myself be taken by the surrounding darkness. It whispers promises of quiet slumber and eternal peace. To just drift away into sweet nothingness. 'Maybe I should do it and give in to the void...' After several more seconds of persuasion by the voice, what little resistance I had left is gone and I am about to give in to its desires but I hear a beautiful voice as sweet as an angels, ring out pure and clear screaming at me to stop and that the voice I was hearing was trying to hurt me. When I hear this voice I push the foreign thoughts out of my head fill up the gaping hole inside me with pure rage. 'This voice wanted take away who I was! It wanted me to give up! HELL NO.' I roared out in anger and thrashed wildly. Moments later felt myself start to speed up. Not long after, a small grey dot of light quickly grows closer but before I reach it, I jerk to a stop and hear the same voice as before 'Heh...heh...heh.... so you think you can escape me do you? We shall see about that...' it slowly says before my back explodes in excruciating pain as something is forces itself between my shoulder blades. The pain quickly overshadows my rage and before it subsides, I am thrust forth and thrown out of the void. I'm blinded by the sudden brightness of the moon after having spent so long in darkness. I breath a sigh of relief but my elation was cut short by the realization that I was moving through the air and was high above ground. "Oh shit!" I yell loudly as tendrils of panic begin to claw their way into my heart. I look around and see a large storm brewing to the east with dark and ominous clouds that shoot out lightning every few seconds illuminating vague shapes around it. To the north is a large castle that I am flying towards. As I get closer to the castle more details begin to stand out. It's white with several large, spiraling, golden capped towers, it has large walls with a few guards on them, and large stain glassed windows, one of which I notice I'm rapidly approaching. My eyes widen in shock as the windows get closer and I put my arms in front of my head to protect it in anticipation of the coming impact. "OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU--" I scream but am interrupted by crashing headfirst through the window and hit the floor, sliding across it and feeling bones break. I hit the far wall and finally come to a stop, but when I try to stand up my legs collapse under me in mind numbing agony and I let out a small whimper as I barely catch myself when I fall. I look up from my hands and knees a few minutes later when the pain dies down some and only just notice that there was a long smear of blood from where I first hit the ground. I look down at myself and only realize then that I had pieces of glass covering my arms and a large shard through my chest and that it is covered in blood. I cough up blood and fall to my side as it grows harder to breath. I hear a faint popping sound which is quickly followed by a gasp, and then a voice. As my vision darkens I hear the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps, and.... flapping wings? After what seems like an eternity I see two beings enter my vision as I weakly grasp for them and faintly utter "Help...me...please..." and then for the second time that day the darkness takes me. Luna: She sat in her room arranging new constellations in my night sky that nopony would ever appreciate the beauty of. I sigh as I think about how lonely I am. Being alone on the moon for a thousand years left me with very few friends primarily my sister and the friends I had before my imprisonment that had long lives. That is to say very few. 'I just wish someone out there could understand what I feel'. I finish another and as I gaze upon its beauty, I hear a voice in my head "Maybe I should let myself go to the void..." As I look around for the source of this voice I close my eyes and focus on it to try and locate it. Before I can find it however, I get a feeling of overwhelming despair and sadness. 'Where is this creature that it is surrounded by such horrid thoughts?' I hear another voice that sounds oddly familiar and incredibly menacing, trying to persuade the first to let itself go to something called The Void but I yell out "Stop! Don't listen to it! Whatever is speaking to you is trying to harm you!." Moments after as I say this, I get a feeling of primal rage and hear a terrifying roar, followed by excruciating pain and a loud pop. A sudden sense of dread grows over me and I get up to roam the castle and make sure everything is alright. I motion for my guards to follow me but then think better of it. "Stay here. There is no need for you to follow me while I walk tonight" I say to my guards after they start to follow me during my foray through the empty castle halls. After wandering through the lonely hallways for several minutes I soon find myself in one of the castles many towers. As I step out onto the balcony I hear something very faintly say "Oh shit!". I look around, searching for whatever could have said but disregard it after several minutes of silence. As I am about to walk down the steps to leave the tower I hear a loud whistling sound, soon followed by somepony screaming "OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU--" before I hear the sounds of glass breaking and something hitting a wall. I run back outside to the balcony and see that one of the stained glass windows in the room above the throne room is broken. I teleport to the entrance of the room thinking out loud "Now what could that have possib--" but am cut off mid sentence by what I saw when I opened the door. A strange creature is lying against the wall at the end of a trail of broken glass and blood. I watch as the creature gets up but falls down after uttering a small cry. It stays in that position for several minutes before it looks up and coughs blood. It then falls over and as I rush over to where it's lying on its side. As I rush to it, I hear the sound of somepony entering the room through the window. I look over I am surprised to see the Element of Loyalty. "Hey Princess Luna did yo--" Rainbow Dash starts before noticing the trail of blood and visibly turns paler. She quickly rushes over to my side as I run over to the creature. As we get it to where it is I feel the same feeling of familiarity but my thoughts are interrupted as it slowly crawls forward a little bit and says "Help...me...please..." then passes out. Rainbow Dash: "Oh ponyfeathers" Rainbow Dash exclaims. "Why the hay did Cloudsdale give us orders to have a big rainstorm tonight only after everyone went home for the day?" As the captain of the weather team I have to stay later at work each day to see if Cloudsdale sends down any last minute orders which unfortunately, they do today. This leaves me to set up the rainstorm by myself late that night. I start gathering clouds and mashing them together and eventually I have a decently sized storm ready that only needs a few more clouds before I can go to sleep. As I move to grab the last few clouds I hear somepony yell "Oh shit!" I look around and see something moving swiftly across the night sky. As I rush to catch up with it I hit the cloud I was going to use for the storm, After several minutes of struggling I manage to free myself from the cloud but by then whatever was flying is gone. I shrug and move to finish my job but I hear another scream this one filled with panic "OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU--" When it gets cut off in the middle of its screaming I get worried. What on Equestria would scream like that? It sounded scared. As I fly to where I last heard the screams I see that one of the windows in the Canterlot Castle is shattered to pieces. I quicken my pace and when I get to the broken window I see Princess Luna running to the other side of the hall. "Hey Princess Luna did yo--" I start to ask her but when I see where she is running to the blood drains from my face. Over by the wall is an odd looking creature but leading to it is a trail of smashed glass and blood. I sprint over to Luna's side and as soon but as we get closer I realize just how bad shape this thing is in. Its hind legs were bent in weird angles and one had bone sticking out of it while his forelegs were covered in tiny shards of glass. The part that makes me throw up in my mouth a little though is a piece of glass the length of my foreleg going thorough his chest and out his back. When we finally make it over to it, it reaches for us and I take a small step back as it splashes blood on my hooves. "Help...me...please..." it quietly moans but passes out. The Princess and I give each other a look of worry mixed with horror and move to help the strange being. Damon: Beep...beep...beep... 'What the hell is that beeping?' As I open my eyes I start panicking. I am in a strange bed and room. I try to remember what happened but when I try to think about it, my head starts throbbing. "Okay no more of that" I say to no one in particular. As I sit up and try to get more comfortable, the doors at the end of the bed open up and a nurse walks in. 'Finally maybe I can get some answers about what happened' After a moment however I realize something. The nurse that walked in was 4 feet tall. And a pony... "...." A low rumbling chuckle forms in my throat that soon turns into full blown laughter. "Oh man this one one crazy fucking dream. Time to wake up though cause this is really freaking me out." I do the cliche thing and pinch myself but when I can actually feel the pain, the laughter is quickly replaced by panic. "Oh god...oh god oh god oh god...OH GOD!" I start yelling in fear and jump out of the bed I was in, scaring the nurse. The door flies open and a tall dark blue horse with a dark blue mane and tail filled with what looks to be lights walks in followed by a smaller sky blue winged horse with a rainbow mane and tail. "Nurse, what is going on in here?!" The tall one asks. Before the nurse can reply though I start freaking out even more. "What. The. Hell. A winged and horned horse wasn't freaky enough? It has to be able to fucking TALK too!?" By this point my heart is hammering in my chest and I am hyperventilating. I look for a way to escape this house of horrors and spot a large window. As I move towards it the tall one speaks again. "What art thou doing? Move away from that window immediately." It demands. "HELL.NO. I don't know what the fuck is going on here, and I don't intend to find out." As I prepare to defenestrate myself, I feel something grab me from all sides and lift me up. I notice a blue aura around the tall ones horn but as soon as it appeared it disappeared and a look of confusion is splayed on the tall ones face. An instant later a throbbing pain emanates from my back. "Oh man that hurts. What the hell did you do to me?" I ask but the tall... thing just looks at me in confusion. "That was just a simple levitation spell. What do you mean what did I do to you?" Before I can yell at her however, the pain in my back increases as I feel something under my skin squirm. I let out a grunt of pain and move to lie down on the bed but I trip and reach for the nearest thing to keep from falling but only succeed in pulling the bed sheets off. As I hit the ground, my back explodes in pure agony. It feels as if molten lead is being forced through my veins while my bones turn to jelly. By this point, I am close to blacking out from the sheer amount of pain I am in. But just when I think that the pain can't get any worse, it is multiplied a hundred fold as I feel something try to force it's way out of my back. As much as I mentally beg anything that could answer me I do not fall unconscious. When my arms and legs collapse under me, and I fall to my stomach I am able to get a perfect view of these strange creatures. All three of them have a look of horror on their face and seem to look a bit green as the look at me. The pain continues for several more seconds but with a loud squelch, a wet pop, and a small spurt of blood, the pain immediately disappears. I let out a small moan from the relief of the pain being gone but as I move to get up, I see something out of the corner of my eye. It is black and seems to be made of pure shadow and is right behind me. 'Is there something behind me?' I whip around to try and get a look at it but when I do I feel something move along with me. A sudden dread comes over me when I begin to realize what this shadow thing is. I slowly turn my head and sure enough, the shadow is right behind me. When I get a better look at it, I notice with great horror that the shadow looks like a pair of wings and is....connected to me. "...ha...haha...HAHAHAHA!" As I stood there in shock, laughter began to escape my throat from the sheer absurdity of my situation and after several seconds of this my brain can't handle the mental overload so it shuts down and I black out for the second time that day. Author's Note What was that strange voice that Damon heard in The Void? What caused that shadow to erupt from his back? Can he ever live a normal life again? Find out more next time in Shadows and Lies.
Chapter 3: Wake up call"Ohhhh god damn it that hurts" I loudly moan as I regain consciousness. The first thing I notice when I open my eyes is that it's very dark in the room I'm in and everything is blurry. I reach for the table next to me and put on my glasses. "That's better." As I start to regain my senses I feel a peculiar sensation from my back. 'What the hell is...oh yeah....THAT. When I feel that I have the strength to start moving again I try to sit up but something is holding me in place. As I squirm to get a better view of what's restraining me I realize I am not the only person in the room. Sitting next to the side of my bed is the talking dark blue horse from before with a gentle smile on its face. "Oh good you're finally awake. Now don't try to escape again. You might make your injuries worse." It says in a decidedly female voice. "Uhhh...okay...wait where am I? How did I even get here? What Injuries? Why am I tied down? Who the hell are you? Why do I feel like I just went a few rounds with a prizefighter? HOLY SHIT A TALKING HORSE?!" I ask in rapid succession. "Well to answer your first question, you are in the Canterlot Castle in the hospital wing, yes of course I can talk, and I am not a horse, I am a pony. My name is Princess Luna" She replies as she undoes my bindings. "May I ask your name?" As I sit up and rub my wrists I look at her, confused "Names Damon. Damon Flame. Where did you say I was? Canterlot? I've never heard of it." "Canterlot is our nations capitol." "What nation?" "Equestria" "Never heard of it." "The continent of Equus?" "Nope." "....Terra?" She asked quietly. "You mean earth?" She had a strange look on her face that began to worry me. "Damon what-" She cleared her throat "What do remember before waking up here?" "Well, I remember being in my room and turning on the TV to watch D-gray man but it was only showing static so I got up to go to bed because I had a really bad headache from earlier. I was walking to my room but I looked out the window and it was pitch black outside so I walked up to the window to look around and couldn't see anything so I turned around to go to my room but then...." "Then....what?" She asked withholding her questions of what a 'tee-vee' were. "Okay what I'm about to say is probably gonna sound pretty crazy but I swear I'm not. When I turned around the shadows in my room were...moving." "Moving?" Luna said doubtfully. "Yeah but that's not the really weird part. The weird part is that when I noticed they were moving they shot forward and grabbed me and pulled me into them. I tried to call my best friend for help but before I could say anything I was gone." "Is that it?" Luna asked, hoping for more details. "Yeah that-- no wait! There's one more thing! After the shadows took me I remember a feeling of emptiness. Then a voice telling me to do something but I can't remember what. I think I almost listened to it but I heard another voice, the voice of an angel, telling me not to. And that's about it." "Are you sure? You haven't forgotten any more details? None whatsoever?" "Uhhhh yeah? Why? What does this have to do with where I am?" "Damon I'm not really sure how to tell you this but you are very far from home. Very VERY far" Luna says with a small sigh. "Just how far are we talking about?" "You are on an entirely different planet." "Oh.....OH....well fuck" I say simply "That's it? You seem to be taking this quite well" Luna says impressed. "Well how the fuck am I supposed to take it? Oh hi there! My names Luna! By the way YOU'RE ON AN ENTIRELY NEW FUCKING PLANET!" I bellow loudly. "What this means that I'm the only human on this entire planet. I'll never see my friends again, my whole life is gone, and in the short time I've been here, I'VE GOTTEN NEW FUCKING LIMBS." I continue screaming She takes a step back and looks at me with fear. I immediately calm down when I realize I'm scaring her. "Sorry. I'm sorry Luna it's just--" I sigh and grab my forehead with my hand "It's just that my entire life has been turned upside down. One minute I'm at home the next I'm in a hospital. Alone.... again.... She comes over and looks at me with a soft smile. "It's okay. I understand that this is a lot to take in all at once. It's completely understandable given the situation." "Yeah oh yeah I somehow almost forgot to ask. Whats with these...things on my back? All I can remember is my back exploding in pain." "Well Damon," She replies in a neutral tone "Earlier when you woke up and tried to escape. I used my magic to levitate you but after a few seconds the spell failed. When you fell to the ground you started screaming in pain and then those..." She had pensive look on her face "Shadow Wings, appeared. You started laughing like a madpony and then collapsed." "Wait did you just say magic?" "Yes why?" "Luna where I come from magic is only in fairy tales and works of fiction. To have it actually exist is...incredible." "That raises even more questions about how you were able to survive getting those etheral wings which are technically pure magic. When they were forming there was an intense magical aura radiating from your body. The amount of magic being release would have killed a normal unicorn so how, you a being with no prior exposure to magic, did you survive the energies being released?" "I've always been a survivor Luna. My body has endured a lot of punishment before....." I get very quiet and get a far off look in my eyes. "Are you okay Damon?" Luna asked. " Yeah I'm fine. I was just remembering something. Anyways, that doesn't really answer anything but on to the next question. Why am I in a hospital?" "Well...when we found you you weren't in the best of shape since you crashed through a window at near lethal speeds..." She started getting very quiet. "How bad was it?" "...Both your hind legs were broken and one had your bone sticking out of the skin. You had glass embedded all throughout your forelegs and..." "....aaaaand what?" I asked with a small amount of trepidation. She sighed loudly. "You had a rather large shard of glass in your torso. It damaged both your lungs and your heart beyond repair. The doctors said that even with my magic aiding in your healing that the chances of your survival were slim to none." "Oh...wait if my lungs are heart were damaged beyond repair how am I alive then?" I asked with a quizzical look on my face. "We recently had an unfortunate accident where a young pegasus was killed after having a building collapse on him." she said with a sad look in her eyes. "Wait wait wait. Pegasus? Those are real? And more importantly why did you use the heart and lungs from a freaking pegasus? "Well we tried to save your old ones but they quite literally....fell apart.... we then magic to analyze your organs and after several tries, we found that pegasus organs were the most similar to yours." She looked at me nervously. "...What?" "There may be some...side effects from your new organs" "Great. Just fucking great. Get kidnapped by god damn SHADOWS, wind up in a new fucking world, get new organs, and to top it all off there are gonna be fucking SIDE EFFECTS!" "I never said they were entirely bad ones" She stated simply. I began to excited at the thought of getting positive side effects from a race that can FLY. "Oooooh what kind of side effects? Will I be able to fly?" "Even without the pegasus organs you would be able to fly. You have wings remember? No the side effect that we are unsure if you will get or not is the ability to manipulate the weather and a pegasi's natural bond with the atmosphere." "What pegasi can control the weather? Like clouds and stuff? And what do you mean natural bond?" I asked skeptically. "Yes pegasi control the weather, and yes clouds are tangible for them. The natural bond I speak of though is a pegasi's ability to control the air around them that enables them to fly among other things. You didn't think that they flew with the small wings they have did you?" She laughed. "Well SOOO-REE!" I've never even SEEN a pegasus before!" I said frustrated with her assuming I knew that their wings were too small. "Sorry I forgot that you are not from this world" "Don't know how you could forget something like that." I muttered. "What was that?" "Didn't say anything." She eyed me disbelievingly. "...Yeah. Nothing. Back to the topic at hand though. Side effects from your new organs. There are some ones that you with without a doubt recieve such as increased resistance to blacking out from intense G-forces. You will have far more endurance than you previously did, you can go up very high with no trouble breathing and can go higher than a normal pony could, and you have a larger lung capacity so you can hold your breath for longer. However at lower altitudes you will most likely get tired easily when your heart is resting because of the increase in the amount of oxygen in your blood." "Wait I thought that I was the first and only human in Equestria? How do you know that it's any different from my old heart and lungs?" I asked skeptically. "Well earlier when we used magic to find what species organs was the closest to yours, we found out that pegasi were the closest and we also found out the differences between them were." "Fine. I don't even care anymore. This whole day has been filled with questions and the laws of physics being completely fucked up. I said angrily but softened a moment later. "Wait you said earlier that WE, found you. Who else was there?" "Well I found you at the same time somepony else did. Rainbow Dash the Element of Loyalty and she is the one that actually transported you to this room. I tried to teleport you here but the spell kept failing so you had to be carried here." "Couple of questions. Does Rainbow Dash have a rainbow colored mane and tail and what do you mean by element of loyalty?" "To answer the first part yes she is. How do you know what she looks like though?" "I dunno I remember the feeling of being carried by something really colorful. Makes sense considering what you just told me." "Ah, back to the second part of your question though. That requires a more in depth explanation." "I'm all ears" "There are these pieces of regalia called the Elements of Harmony. They represent the 7 unifying factors of harmony. that can be used to purge evil from a pony among other things but can only be used by ponies embody that virtue. Rainbow Dash embodies the element of loyalty which means that she is endlessly loyal to her friends." Luna explained. "Oh okay. So what are the other elements and who has them?" "The other elements are Rarity; the bearer of the Element of Generosity. Fluttershy; bearer of the Element of Kindness. Applejack; bearer of the Element of Honest. Pinkie Pie; bearer of the Element of Laughter. And finally Twilight Sparkle; bearer of the Element of Magic." "Wait you said that there were SEVEN factors. What's the seventh?" "Ah, the seventh is something that all of them have. The seventh factor is friendship." Luna said proudly. "...You're joking right? You're kidding. You can't truly believe that" I deadpanned. "No. Why would I be and why wouldn't I?" Luna questioned. "Friendship is an able 'purge the evil from a person'. Really? I scoffed. "That's the biggest load of shit I've ever heard." Luna's face turned into an angry scowl before replying "You would do well to watch your tongue Damon I have experienced first hand what the Elements can do to you." "Whoa, whoa. Sorry there. It's just that on my world anyone that would say something like that would get laughed at and be seen as naive." "Why would they do that? Do the people there value friendship so little that they laugh at it?" Luna asked with a bemused look. "Before I could answer though, a nurse walked through the door carrying a platter of food. "Dinner time! On the menu today is mushroom and vegetable soup." She said as she uncovered the dish. "Oh man that smells good." I said. "Well let me just change your IV bag and I'll bring it over to you." The nurse said. "Oh man I'm unbelievable hungry right now" I said as my mouth started watering in anticipation of the food. "Hey Luna do you think you could go get it for me? Luna?" She had a look of shock on her face. "Whats wrong luna?" "Damon... did you do that? Luna asked in shock and pointed at my lap. "Did I do what?" I turned around to see what she was pointing at and in my lap was the soup being held by the tips of my wings. "Huh? How the hell did that get there?" "Damon...your wings..." "What about them?" I turned around and gaped in awe. My wings were easily 3 times larger than they were before and were radiating a dark mist that looked like a black nighttime fog with a large dark blue aura around it. The light coming from the lamps scattered around the room seemed to be absorbed into the mist. "Whoa that's cool. I didn't mean to do that though." "Try to grab this with them." She said as she levitated the the spoon for the soup. I close my eyes and focused solely on grasping the spoon. I felt for the new muscles that I'm sure formed for me to be able to use the wings and slowly, ever so slowly, I could feel my new muscles start to expand and contract and move forward. I opened my eyes and saw the wings moving to grasp the spoon. As soon as they made contact with it, the aura surrounding the spoon disappeared and instead of wrapping around it and grasping it, my wings flowed all around it and grasped the spoon from every side. "Whoa that feels really weird. It's like they're a liquid and they just completely cover what they grasp instead of twisting to hold it." Luna took a step back from me with a look horror on her face looked away No it can't be. He's not from this world! Not to mention his world doesn't have magic. There hasn't even been on in 200 thousand years! Not since me and my sister banished him to Tartarus... Luna muttered to herself. "Luna you're scaring me. Whats wrong?" She visibly gulped. "Damon...you're a Dweller of the Twilight."
Chapter 4: OriginsDamon: "A....Dweller of the Twilight?" I ask, holding my hand over my mouth to keep myself from laughing at the ridiculousness of the name. "Yes" Luna nods gravely while glaring at me clearly seeing I was holding back laughter "two hundred thousand years ago many new kinds of magic were being discovered and you could say it was a golden age for magic. A group of ponies were experimenting with a form of light magic that could only be cast safely by individuals with pure intentions in their hearts and were performing an experiment on a volunteer griffin. We are unsure as to what happened but what we assume happened is that one of the unicorns casting the spell must have been having impure intentions when casting the spell. This caused magical feedback when it came into contact with the pure intentions of the other unicorns resulting in an explosion that destroyed most of the lab but nopony was injured thankfully." Her word choice struck me as odd. "Luna, what do you mean by nopony?" She paused and took a deep breath. Her eyes got a far off look in them before a brief look of pain crossed her features. "I mean exactly that. Everypony made it out fine but the griffin did not. His wings and talons were covered in a black substance that we could not identify. He was unconscious for several weeks afterwards and every day his condition worsened. Just as we were sure he was going to die, he made a miraculous recovery and the black substance disappeared." "So what happened to the griffin and how does any of this relate to me and the Dweller's of the Twilight?" I asked with sarcastic emphasis on the last words. "Let me finish and I'll tell you!" She snarled at me. I looked at her with shock on my face at the sudden change in her demeanor. "We let him go after several more days of observation and for several months everything was fine. But we began to get reports of ponies disappearing in the middle of the night and never being heard from again. It was at this time that we also began to get reports of a strange group of people amassing in the mountains between Tartarus and the griffin city Schlafplatz which was their capitol at that time. By the next week the other races started to report they were having citizens disappear too." She closed her eyes and looked down while a single tear rolled down her cheek. I let out a nervous laugh "Luna...Luna what's wrong. You're scaring me." She took a deep breath before continuing "Little did we know that by that time next month, every nation would be at war with the group that had taken to calling themselves the Dwellers of the Twilight." "Every nation in the world against a single group? That's incredible! Back on my world you could barely get two nations to ally against a common threat." "Is your world truly in such disharmony that not even when the same enemy threatens countries that they cannot work together to stop them?" "Yeah it's not really that bad though" I said with a dismissive wave of my hand "Lets get back to your story though" "Very well then. For several months every nation in the world was in open conflict with the Dwellers. Nothing we could do could even come close to stopping them though. Out of four hundred thousand soldiers that we sent out during the course of the war only forty thousand returned." My jaw dropped "Only forty...THOUSAND!? That's an incredibly high rate of mortality" "Yes it was. But that isn't even the worst part of it. All the people that had been stolen? They were turned into the army of the Dwellers using shadow magic. So each soldier had the possibility of fighting their own family. The fighting continued for several years and the Dwellers were winning. The nations had come together one day to form a special task group to capture the leader of the Dwellers." "Did it work?" "Yes....it did. But at a disturbing revelation. The task group found him and captured him but when he was brought before us we realized that this was the same griffin from several years ago that was involved in that magical accident." "But what happened to him that he would do something like this or even have the power to do so?" I asked. "We later found out that the black substance that was on him was liquid shadows. Formed whe--" "Liquid...shadows?" I asked with a hint of disbelief in my voice. "Yes liquid shadows. Now can we continue or are you going to interrupt us once more?" Luna asked with anger in her voice. "Sorry..." "As I was saying, Liquid shadows are formed when the amount of magic being cast on something is so great, that the normally intangible forces of magic cast off a shadow, that is normally harmless, is itself exposed to even greater amounts of magic than what created it. We are not sure as to how but this gives the shadow mass and a tangible form. What was created when the spell that the group of ponies were casting all those years ago was even worse than that though. They had created a spirit of pure evil that would come to be known as Nightmare Moon millenia later." "This spirit possessed the griffin and influenced his thoughts turning him evil when the griffin was in a weakened mental state from the explosion. When the Nightmare took over his body though it absorbed the liquid shadows that were covering his body and used them to form the basis for what is known today as shadow magic." Luna took a deep breath before continuing "Shadow magic is the most dangerous kind of magic there is and is therefore prohibited without direct supervision from either Celestia or myself. If you do not believe that the shadow magic will work then it will not and can have dangerous backlash for the caster. If you cast it while unsure the spell can either go awry and do something completely random or it can cause the caster to experience a magical backlash." "Why can you only cast it when you have complete certainty what you want it to do?" "That requires a brief explanation of how magic itself works. Magic at its core works by the caster willing something to happen. Each kind of magic can only perform certain types of actions no matter what the intention. Only four kinds of magic can perform any intention and those are Solar, Lunar, Light, and Shadow magic. What makes shadow magic especially dangerous is that it is so sensitive to the intent of a person that it detects what kind of person you are and your strength of character and the spell changes accordingly. If you have conviction in what you want the magic to do then it will always go as you intend. If you are unsure in what you want the magic to do however yourself then the magic will always end up twisting the original intent into something wicked. A persons soul is what defines them. It is the essence of who they are and it is what their character is. Therefore, if you are very strong of character and have conviction in the intent of the spell, then it will cast correctly" "Shadow magic is also the magic with the most potential." Luna stated simply. I cocked my head quizzically "Potential? I don't quite understand." "Each of the four types of willful magics, that is what Solar, Lunar, light and shadow are called, have a base strength to any spell cast with them and then a potential for power based on the strength of intent, how much your soul resonates with the type of magic, experience with the type, and physical ability of the caster. Solar and Lunar magic are made from the combination of both shadow and light magic. Solar magic has the capacity to create shadow magic but mostly creates light magic. The opposite is true of Lunar magic. Solar and Lunar magic has an incredibly high base power but not nearly the same potential for power as light or shadow magic. Lunar and Solar magic also have a higher base power than light and shadow magic but light and shadow magic have even higher potential than Lunar or Solar. This is because they are more sensitive to the strength of intent of the caster and the strength of character the caster has." "Shadow magic has the weakest base of all the types of magic but has the highest potential. If someone were to have complete utter conviction in who they were and in the intent of the spell I do believe that they could change the very fabric of reality." "Huh...well that was....in depth." I said after having my brain overloaded from all the new knowledge. "So what ever happened to the griffin?" "The leader of the Dwellers eventually gave my sister an ultimatum to either let him go free and continue slaughtering innocent people, or to kill him and in the process kill everyone that he had captured so far with shadow magic." She said with a regretful tone in her voice. "So what happened? What did your sister decide?" She sighed "My sister decided that even at the incredible cost of innocent lives, that even more would be lost if he was allowed to continue the war. Even with that at stake she could not just go and kill someone so she instead banished him to Tartarus, which is an interdimensional prison for the worst criminals from every dimension. As soon as he disappeared the captured people were set free and everything was good for a time." "What do you mean for a time?" "Well many of the citizens of what was known as Caballio Terram at the time, were upset that Celestia said that she killed the leader, she didn't want the common ponies to think he was still alive, and they rose against her and seceded from Caballio Terram. The few ponies that stayed a part of our country were not enough to constitute a nation so we disbanded. Eventually the three races went their separate ways but came back together to form a new nation called Equestria and asked us to be their rulers again." "Wait so they left your country just because you said you killed an evil dude? That's a bit unfair to you guys considering you saved em and that if you didn't kill him the loss of life would have been even worse." Luna sighed "Ponies were different then. Their intellects weren't developed as much and they were far more sensitive to death than they are today." "Well I guess that explains what a Dweller of the Twilight is, and a bit more, but it leaves me with a few questions." "Yes Damon?" "You said that your sister and you were actually THERE two hundred thousand years ago but that's not possible. No mortal being can live for that long." "You are correct Damon in saying that no mortal being can live that long. You are incorrect however in assuming that we are mortals. I was born seven million years ago and my sister has been alive for even longer." I sat there in disbelief "Did I hear that right? seven....MILLION...years?" "Yes you did." Luna said with a flat stare. "That's.....unthinkable.I mean, I would probably go insane from watching everything and everyone around me crumble and die. And trust me, I should know insanity better than anyone..." Luna gazed at me with a curious look "What do you mea-- nevermind. I will ask you about this more later. The fact remains. You are a shadow magic user and thus are a Dweller of the Twilight." "Wait what? That makes no sense. Just because I can use something doesn't mean I'm a part of a militant group." "We have no reason to believe that. Only the Dwellers could ever use shadow magic and all the Dwellers of the Twilight were either evildoers, or people under the control of that griffin and were a major threat to our kingdom. Please come with me peacefully so we can ascertain whether you have good or bad intentions." "Sorry but that just isn't going to happen. I DESPISE being captive and will not tolerate it for any amount of time no matter the intention behind it." Luna gave me a wary look "Well then I shall have to restrain you by force" "Fuck that noise!" I said as I leaped out of bed with a gasp as pain exploded in my chest. "Damn that hurts" I said but at the risk of being captured I kept moving. Luna flared her wings and charged her horn "Guards seize him! Do not use physical force however! Stun him with magic or lightning!" she commanded. "Oh shit!" I said as I leaped over a guard that tried to grab my legs. 'Shit, shit, shit. Luna has the doors blocked and I'm surrounded.' I looked around my quickly, turning my head from side to side, before noticing the same window that I had tried to escape from before. 'Well here's hoping that I can somehow figure out how to fly' I thought with slight dread as I charged towards the window. I jumped through the window with my arms crossed over my head as Luna tried to grasp me in her magic but failed. "Ha ha! Yeah! I ain't no ones prisoner!" I screamed at the top of my lungs before I looked down and realized just how far up I was. 'THIS ROOM WAS ON A A FUCKING MOUNTAIN?!' I flailed my arms and legs and shut my eyes tight against the wind as I picked up speed. The wind was deafening in my ears 'Damn it I wish I knew how to fly!' I screamed in my head. Several pegasi gave chase but soon lost me at the speeds I was going. Suddenly I felt myself slow down and I felt a strange sensation on my back and....to my sides? I opened my eyes and saw that I was gliding down the mountain towards a dark forest. 'How the hell am I flying? How the hell do I actually know how to fly?!' I thought about flying and realized that I had basic knowledge of it and wing positions. 'Hmmmm...what if I think about wanting to learn weather manipulation?' I thought about it but nothing happened 'Well damn. Was worth a shot though' As I drew closer to the forest I realized just how badly I had messed up back there. 'Oh man I ran away from the cops and the ruler of this country. Am I a criminal now? Great. First day in a new world and not even a few hours here and I'm already a criminal.' As I thought about Luna I was struck with another realization with even worse implications. 'I'm all alone again...it's even worse this time though because I'm the only one of my entire species here too.....no friends.....no one to help me....' Depression grew in my chest and I was struck with a feeling of dread. I reached the entrance to the forest but as I was about to enter it I was blinded and it felt as if there were hot railroad spikes being driven into my eyes. I gasped and tried to scream out but the pain was too much. After a few minutes it faded though. "Dear....fucking....god..... what the hell" I ground my palm into my forehead "was THAT?" I rubbed my eyes and opened them. I was confused at first because everything was blurry and brighter. 'The hell is going on here?' I took off my glasses and cleaned them but before I put them back on I realized that I could see perfectly fine. "Whoa....." I put my glasses in my pocket and looked around. Even though my glasses were off I could see perfectly fine but the sunlight was hurting my eyes. "Damn that's bright" I raised my hand to shield my eyes from the sun. "It hasn't gotten any brighter so wh--" "And just what the hay are you?" Said a voice from behind me. My body went rigid and I began sweating bullets. I slowly turned around laying eyes on the owner of the voice. It was the same rainbow maned pegasus, Rainbow Dash, that Luna said helped me in the castle. 'Huh. fitting name.' "Hey wait a minute, I know you! You're that thing that I carried to the hospital!" She yelled and pointed at me with a hoof. "Didn't you get an organ transplant? Why aren't you in the hospital right now? Where the hay did you get those wings?" She glared at me with suspicion. Almost every fiber of my being was telling me not to trust her but I chose to listen to the small part saying different. 'What have I got to lose?' I thought to myself. "Hey! Are you gonna tell me what you're doing here or do I have to kick your flank to get some answers!" She lowered her front legs and got into a fighting stance. I rubbed the back of my neck "Well you see, that's a bit of a long story." Luna: Luna was pacing with worry. "How could I have let this happen? It was his first day in Equestria and already his life is in jeopardy because of my inability to keep him restrained and explain everything, She continued to think out loud "I hope that we can find him before he figures out how to use magic. Otherwise there may be no saving him..." Author's Note Things start getting really interesting from here on out. And yeah I know. The end there was pretty weak.
Chapter 5: Escape!Rainbow Dash: "Ughhh that. SUCKED." Dash complained to Thunderlane, as they were flying back from a meeting with her boss in Cloudsdale. "Well it's your fault that you didn't finish the storm that you were supposed to last night and got in trouble with Cloudsdale." "I TOLD you! I couldn't finish it because I was helping carry this weird thing to the hospital!" Dash said with an angry glare. "Yeah. Ri-i-ight. Sure you did. Just what did this 'thing' look like again?" He said mockingly. Dash hoofed him in the shoulder "Yeah you're right! I sure DID see it. It stood on two legs, had no fur on it and no tail, a short black mane on it's head and face, was like 2 feet taller than me, had weird claws, and was wearing weird clothes." "Wow that's....surprisingly accurate for you Dash." Thunderlane said incredulously. "And just what is THAT, supposed to mean?" Dash stopped in the air and said angrily. He was sweating bullets "Uhhhhh......ummm....I like your mane?" He said tensely. "Huh?" Thunderlane flew off as fast as he could "HEY! Get back here Thunderlane!" "Not a chance!" He said as he flew away from the cerulean terror. "When I get my hoo--" "Ha ha! Yeah! I ain't no ones prisoner!" Dash jerked to a stop "....That sounds like that thing from last night." Dash was about to go chase Thunderlane again but she realized what the creature had said 'Wait he's noponies prisoner? He better not have hurt anypony!' She flew around for several minutes searching for the creature but saw something else land near the edge of the Everfree forest. As she got closer to it she realized that it looked similar to the thing from last night but it didn't have wings and this did. She landed behind it and spoke up "And just what the hay are you?" It visibly tensed up and slowly turned around to face her. "Hey wait a minute, I know you! You're that thing that I carried to the hospital!" She yelled in surprise and pointed a hoof at it "Didn't you get an organ transplant? Why aren't you in the hospital right now? Where the hay did you get those wings?" She instantly grew suspicious of it. She waited a good minute for it to speak up but it seemed lost in thought "Hey! Are you gonna tell me what you're doing here or do I have to kick your flank to get some answers!" She crouched down to fly at it if it made any funny moves. It rubbed the back of its neck and looked at me nervously "Well you see, that's a bit of a long story." Damon: "WHAT?! YOU'RE RUNNING FROM THE PRINCESS?!" Dash screamed. I ran over and clamped a hand over her mouth "Keep it down!" I sighed and took my hand off her mouth "I woke up, got a crash course history lesson on the 'Dwellers of the Twilight' and then almost got arrested for no reason other than I'm something Luna claims I am." Dash was silent for a minute before she went into a hover and crossed her arms "Yeah...well...I guess I can see why you did that." I breathed a sigh of relief "I'm still watching you though! The princess probably had a good reason to suspect you." "Yeah, cause fear is SUCH a good reason." I said sarcastically "Now can I get moving or do you want something else? I REALLY don't wanna get caught by the guards" He said as he went into the entrance of the Everfree. She flew over and stopped in front of him "What are you doing! Don't you know that's the Everfree forest!? It's really weird and has all kinds of dangerous plants and animals in it." "How is it weird? From what I can see it's just a normal forest" "Normal?! The Everfree forest is anything BUT normal. The weather works on its own, the animals care for themselves, the seasons change on their own, and there are some really strange and dangerous creatures in there that are nowhere else in Equestria! It is NOT normal!" She huffed. "Uhhhh hate to break it to ya Dashie but where I'm from, all that's normal" "Where exactly ARE you from then. And don't call me Dashie you....you...what is your name anyways?" "My name's Damon dashie" "I said don't call me that! Only my friends can call me that and you are definitely NOT my friend. Now stop avoiding the question. Where are you from?" "Look it will take way more time to explain that than we have so can we FINALLY go, or are you going to keep me here till the damned guards arrive?" "Fine" She said with a defeated tone "Lets get going." I then realized what she said "Wait wait wait. Lets? As in plural? As in me and you?" "Of course. What? You thought I was just gonna let you go unwatched when you're being hunted by the princess? Just cause I think you were right in running does NOT mean that she didn't have a good reason. Not to mention that if you go into the Everfree alone then you'll probably end up killing yourself" "Uhhhhh yeah. Firstly, if you're caught with me you'll probably be thought of as a criminal or something and I don't really trust you. Seco--" As soon as those last words left my mouth, she became furious "You. Don't. TRUST ME?! I'M THE MOST TRUSTWORTHY PERSON THERE IS! I'M THE FREAKING ELEMENT OF LOYALTY FOR CELESTIA'S SAKE!" I saw the pegasi guards in the distance turn in our direction and rush towards us. "Okay, okay I trust you" I quickly lied to placate her "I've been through a lot recently and it's hard for me to trust people." Her fury abated and we started moving again "Hmph. I'm sorry for blowing up like that. I just really really don't like it when people say I'm untrustworthy." She was slightly ashamed of how she just blew up at him "I really like your wings. It's cool how they have that glowing around them and have that mist falling off them." "Thanks. It's kinda odd though because they weren't like that until I used them to grab a bowl of soup in the hospital" My nose had the decency to wait until my sentence was finished before it unleashed a torrent of blood. "Damn it!" I blurted out as I tried to cover my nose with his hands. Dash rushed over to me "What's wrong?" She then noticed my blood covered hands and shirt "Are you going to be alright?" She sounded genuinely concerned. 'What the hell? I just met her and she's already concerned about me? "Yeah I'm fine, I'm fine. It's just a bad nosebleed" After a few minutes of pinching my nose it stopped bleeding. "Lets start moving again." An hour later we were fairly deep into the forest and with each passing minute Dash was growing increasingly distressed. "Hey Damon? Aren't we getting kinda deep into the forest?" "Yeah what of it?" "Well, the really dangerous animals tend to live farther into the forest." "Yeah well I don't really care. I mean, I'm more worried about the guards than anything. Unless there's wolves or something in this forest I doubt there's anything that can harm us." "Yeah I doubt that. I mean, it doesn't look like you could hurt much with those claws or teeth." "Dash a couple of things. First off these aren't claws they're called hands. Second off I don't fight with my teeth or hands, I fight with my intellect and weapons. Where I'm from we made sure that all the animals that could hunt us, are nowhere near our cities except for in zoo's." "What's a zoo?" I immediately tensed up when I remembered that Dash was a pony "Uhhhhh.....fuck it. I'm just gonna say it. Zoo's are where we ke--" Dash tackled me to the ground and put a hoof over my mouth "Hey! What the--" She put her hoof IN my mouth "Quiet! Listen. Can you hear that?" I stopped moving and after several seconds heard a low deep growl. I looked around and saw something moving in the bushes off the path and pulled her hoof out of my mouth, leaving an earthy aftertaste. "Dash we need to move NOW." "Yeah I--" A gigantic lion with wings and a tail leaped at me "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING!?" I screamed at the same time Dash yelled "MANTICORE!" I ran back the way we came while Dash flew above the treetops. I shook my fist at her "HEY! Get the fuck back here!" I tripped over an exposed tree root and fell on my face causing my nose to bleed again. The manticores claws ripped 3 long gashes along my back, with the middle one extending to the top of my neck, instead of taking off my head. I was about to scream in pain but it vanished and was replaced with cold and then numbness. I didn't realize it at the time but my wings had moved to cover the wound keeping me from bleeding. I stood up but was frozen in place 'Fuck, fuck, fuck. What do I do, what do I do, what do I do?' I looked around and noticed that everything was frozen in place. 'Well, well, well. We're in quite the situation aren't we?' a female voice said slowly. My eyes darted around looking for the voice that I could swear I had heard before 'Who and where the hell are you?' 'Oh come now. You haven't forgotten about little 'ol me have you?' 'Forgotten? I can't forget someone I haven't ever met. And besides, I don't have voices in my head. At least not since.....' My eyes narrowed in thought 'Since.....' My eyes widened in horror and my pulse quickened 'Oh no..... A black fog creeped in front of my vision. Its had large black pupils and where they wold normally be white, they were purple. It smiled evilly and showed off its mouth full of sharp looking teeth.'Ding ding Ding! We have a winner!' I grimaced 'I got rid of you. You can't exist! I DON'T NEED YOU ANYMORE! The fog danced in the air and it laughed with pure joy Hahaha! You DO need me though! 'No I don't! I've been fine for YEARS. I haven't needed you ever since I got out of that house' 'Ah, ah, ah. I can do SO much more now. And with the situation the situation you're in right now? You know, the one with the manticore? I'd say you could use some help with that.' The fog leaned in close to my ear 'And I'm the only one that can help you with that' 'Yeah how? Last time I checked you can't do much except speak' 'Well check again my dear Damon. Ever since you came here I've been able to do so many new and wonderful things! Did you know, I can speed up your reaction time so much that it seems like time is standing still? Or that I can connect your mind to your soul so you can use magic?' My eyes narrowed 'Why are you telling me this.....' 'I'm so glad you asked! You see, if you die then I die and that's just no good!' She says with a cheery voice 'So the way I see it, if I help you survive then I get to live and so do you! It's a win win! Make your choice quickly though. I can't hold us frozen here forever and once I stop doing that, that manticore will rip you apart.' 'I guess I have no choice then. But before you do it I have one question. How much is this gonna hurt? Connecting my mind and my soul doesn't sound.....pleasant' Even though she was a moving black cloud her face darkened and she frowned 'Oh it is going to be quite possibly the most painful thing you have ever felt. You thought that you knew pain as a child? Well this is going to hurt your mind. Physical pain is nothing like feeling your mind burning which is exactly what you are going to feel. It's going to feel like it's lasting for hours yet in reality, it will only be a second. I hope you're ready because if your mind breaks during this then you're dead even if you survive the manticore.' 'Just one more thing. What's your name? You never told it to me back then' 'I guess there's no harm in letting you know. It's Tenebris. Now are you ready? Too bad here we go' It felt as if there were a million suns burning in my thoughts. An instant later it was accompanied by the immeasurable weight of 15 million years of being alone and depressed. My mind was near its breaking point but the torture was just beginning. For what seemed like an eternity my mind went through the most painful thing imaginable. Cold so horrible it froze my thoughts, lightning burning out my nerve endings. Every one of the very few happy moments in my life I was forced to relive to the point they were sickeningly sweet. This was quickly followed by the numerous memories of hate, depression, sadness, tragedy, and the same crushing feelings of 15 million years of loneliness. The whole experience felt like it had lasted for days when it had really only lasted for a second. My sanity was questionable and my mind was being held together by a single shred of lucidity. My ability to think was shut down completely and I was reduced to animalistic hate and rage. Time unfroze and I instictually stepped into the wonderful embrace of the shadows and sank into them. Where there was previously light, there was now a void and where there were shadows there was now light that looked oversaturated. I saw the shadow that was the manticore and I felt something within me start throbbing, asking for me to use it. I gave in and felt my extremities start to tingle and burn. I reached out to the manticore and wrapped its body in shadows. I squeezed the life out of it and before it knew what was happening, it was little more than a compressed ball of flesh and bone. I rose out of the shadows and back into the real world and picked up the ball of flesh that used to be a manticore. In my damaged state of mind I thought it would be a good idea to take a bite of it. As I bit into it, I heard a sharp intake of breath. I whipped around to face the new attackers and I saw several guards, Rainbow Dash, and princess Luna. When I stepped into the light they all recoiled at the sight of me. My eyes were bloodshot and my shirt was tattered and soaked in blood. I was panting heavily and my wings were at spread out at their full span of 8 feet with me in a fighting stance and an ominous, crimson red liquid falling off of them that disappeared as it reached the ground. The left side of my face was covered in a black fluid that was liquified shadows and my face was contorted into a snarl of hate and fury and was dripping blood. "Damon....you....you used shadow magic.....didn't you?" She was horrified at what had happened to me. When I heard her soothing voice, memories of who I was came rushing back to me and I grabbed my head in both hands and stumbled around. "UNGHHH I just.....you.....it's too much" I sprinted into the tree line towards a mountain that I had seen during my flight from Canterlot, breaking branches and getting cuts all over my arms and legs in the process. 'See you later' Tenebris giggled. After hours of running I finally reached the mountain. I looked around for a possible path up and found only one but it was a steep incline with few handholds. The sharp rocks that made up the majority of the mountainside cut deep into my hands and shoes, shredding my shoes and cutting up my feet. Halfway up the mountain the toll of using magic for the first time, running away from the guards twice, and being attacked by a manticore finally caught up with me and I could barely cling to the mountainside anymore. Luckily I I found a cave and climbed inside of it with one last burst of energy. After several minutes of sitting there and catching my breath I saw that the sun outside was setting and I decided to move farther into the cave for the night. After 10 minutes of walking I came to a fork in the road. One path was connected to the one I was currently on and continued on until I couldn't see the end of it. The other path had a dim golden light coming from it. By that time I had regained some of my faculties and as such, my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to go down the path with the golden glow and I soon found myself in a gigantic room that must have taken up the entire center of the mountain. The first thing I noticed about the room was that it was completely FILLED, with gold and gems. The second thing that I noticed was that it was nearly unbearably hot in the room. I walked into the center of the room which had a large fountain in it that was spitting out.....lava? The shadows that made up my wings moved with a gentle breeze but something wasn't right. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and something told me that I was no longer alone in this room I started backpedaling from the fountain and ran into something behind me. I froze because whatever was behind me was BIG. 'I know I'm gonna regret this but...' I turned my head around and only saw a red scaled leg so I slowly turned my head upwards and there was a black scaled dragon that surprisingly was only 12 feet tall and lacked wings. I stared at it blinking with my mouth slightly agape. "What are you little one?" It's voice was deep and low. Not unlike the sound of rocks grating together. I continued to stare at it while I responded "I'm....uh....I'm....a human...." "I have never heard of 'hue-mans'. Then again I have not left this cave in millenia. Do tell me hue-man what are the current state of affairs in the world? His eyes glanced towards my wings, which were still much larger than normal and dripping crimson, and his eyes narrowed and locked on with mine with an unmatchable intensity "Hue-man tell me quickly. Are you a shadow magic practicioner? And if so, did you recently learn to use magic? He said with a low growl. The dragons gaze was forcing me to tell the truth and keeping me rooted in place. "I-I-I think so. I just arrived in this world and woke up with these wings. Then princess Luna told me I was a Dweller of the Twilight and then tried to arrest me. I flew away and ran into this forest where I was attacked by a weird lion thing but a voice in my head said it was going to connect my mind to my soul. It did that and then I just kind of, melted into the shadows and crushed the lion thing into a ball." The dragon's gaze softened and I collapsed to the floor "You impress me hue-man. In all my eons I have seen few achieve the blood form and even fewer retain their lives when they did. "Blood form? What are you--" He place a claw on my forehead and over my heart and everything went black. Luna: "Come! The tracks lead this way!" I commanded. We had lost Damon in the forest but after flying above the canopy we saw him climbing a mountain and enter a cave which was where we were now. I had sent one of the Lunar guards with me to report back to Celestia about the entire incident of Damon arriving and escaping while the rest of us continued our search for him. I knew that if we did not find him soon we would most likely lose him to his anger and hate from when he connected to his magic. We had gone far enough into the cave that we could no longer see so I cast a light spell so we could continue. 'If we don't find him in time we will have to kill him. Or worse, imprison him like me.' She shuddered at the thought. "The tracks end here princess. Which path do we take?" One of the guards asked. I looked at our two choices. The path that connected to this one was incredibly dark while the one on the right had a dull glow coming from it. "Take the path on the right. He would most likely head for the lit area." After a minute, we came upon a room filled with jewels and gold. Some of the guards eyes shined with greed and one reached out to take some. "Touch nothing! This is most likely a dragon's hoard" The guard retracted his hoof quickly and we all heard the sound of someone falling to the ground. We looked to where the sound originated from and saw a tall black land dragon standing over Damon. "AETERNIUM?!" I shouted. He looked over at our group and his jaw hit the ground "LUNA?! "What are you doing here?!" They both shouted in unison. Luna shook her head "I am looking for the human called Damon. He is the first shadow magic user in 200 thousand years and I fear that his mind cannot handle the shock of using magic for the first time" Luna said. "I believe this is the one you are looking for" He pointed to Damon. "Please relinquish him so I can--" "No" Luna was taken aback "No? What do you mean no? Aeternium you know what happens to beings that connect to their magic for the first time. And you know it's worse for shadow magic users. Let him go so I can help him" "Luna you of all people should know I cannot do that. You can clearly see he has achieved the blood form and retained his mind. It is my duty to instruct him on his new responsibilities." His eyes narrowed "As is yours" Luna blanched and started pacing "B-b-blood form? HE is the one that achieved it? This is not good. This is not good at all" Aeternium furrowed his scales in confusion "How is this not good Luna? The time has finally come for us to fufill our duty once again and you think that this is bad? I must know why" She stopped pacing "Aeternium...you remember what Celestia's feelings on that are though. And she is the current ruler of Equestria. If she finds out about him..." She then remembered that she had sent off a messenger to inform Celestia of Damon. "Oh no. I sent a messenger to my sister to inform her of Damon" Aeternium's face darkened "We must convince her to see otherwise, or do what you know better than ANYONE knows what must be done... A tear escaped Luna's eye "No....I can't....she's my sister...." "We do what we must for the greater good...." Luna's face was streaming tears "Y-yes. For the greater good..." "Do what princess?! Princess? Princess!?" Rainbow dash screamed. "If we cannot convince my sister to not kill Damon, we must imprison her on the sun..." Luna said in between sobs. Rainbow dash was taken aback "Imprison her on the sun? Princess just what the hay is going on here?!" Author's Note So who was that voice in his head really? And what in his past is so horrible that he is terrified of a simple voice in his head? Just how do Luna and Aeternium know each other? And what the hell is worth so much that they need to imprison Celestia on the sun to keep it safe? Keep on reading and find out. P.S. I think you guys deserved a slightly longer chapter this time around.
Chapter 6: Resurgence Chapter 6: Resurgence Damon: "Hey Damon! Are you excited for our trip?" "Sure am!" I said with a beaming smile. I was riding in the backseat of the car with my brother, staring out the window as the plains flew by us. There was nothing in any direction for miles around. My brother had made plans to take me on a camping trip at the start of summer vacation to spend some time with me. Since he didn't have a car however, he asked his friend Marcus if he could drive us to the camp site. My brother almost decided not to go today because it had started raining an hour earlier but reasoned that it should stop soon. The real reason that my brother wanted to go on this trip was to keep me away from home as much as possible. Since I had no school during the day I had to be home all day with our father who was out of a job and my brother knew what happened when I was with our father. This was the reason that my brother moved out when I was 6 years old. So he could find a job and a place to live so he could one day take care of me. "Hey Damon. Damon!" My brother was snapping his fingers in front of my face. "Huh? What?" "You were kinda zoned out there little man" "Sorry I was just thinking" "What were you thinking about?" "Ummmm...you know.....this and that" My brother smiled gently "Cmon little man. Don't think of that. In just a few more months I'll turn 18 and can get you outta that place" I gasped "Really!? You'll take care of me?" I was overjoyed at the mere prospect of getting out of that house. But the possibility of that, coupled with the possibility of my brother taking care of me left me feeling ecstatic. "Yeah little man. I'll take you somewhere nice to live" "Hate to break up this touching moment, but I could use an extra pair of eyes on the road here. I can barely see to drive." Marcus said with worry evident in his voice. We drove like that for another hour and with each passing minute the weather grew fouler. "Ryan I'm gonna pull over for now. I can hardly see at all and this lightning is getting really close to us" Marcus informed my brother as he stopped on the side of the road. Ryan sighed. "Yeah okay. Lets just wait a li--" He furrowed his brow. "What's wrong dude?" Marcus asked. ".....I don't know.....It...kinda looks like somethings coming this way but..." He squints his eyes "It looks like a truck but it can't be. This side of the highway is one waGET OUTTA THE CAR!" An 18 wheeler was bearing down on us at a breakneck speed. The driver must have seen us because he started frantically honking his horn and slammed on his brakes. The truck was slowing down but because the roads were soaked, it's tires couldn't get a grip on it. The driver struggled to maintain control of the truck, but it began to slide sideways. It was at this point that we were finally able to see what the semi's payload way. It was a tanker truck with a large stencil on the side saying FLAMMABLE. I was frozen in terror and barely even registered the fact that Marcus was pulling me out of the backseat. Ryan was struggling with his seat belt as the tanker drew closer. Marcus moved to help Ryan and as he opened the door the tanker finally flipped onto its side. There must have been something on the road because the tank on the truck ripped open and started spewing a black substance all over the road and the car. The tanker slid by the car, thankfully not crushing it, but the cab did impact it and knock it off the shoulder of the road. Marcus had tried to dodge the vehicle and almost made it, but got clipped at the last moment by it. The car began to roll down the incline on the side of the road and came to a rest at the bottom on its side. I ran over to where the car was, terrified for my brother who was still trapped inside the car. I didn't register it at the time but Marcus, who had been right beside the car when it got hit, was lying on the ground with a few broken ribs and a broken leg. I ran to the front of the car and looked through the cracked windshield at my brother. His leg was being crushed by the passenger door which, incidentally, was where the truck had hit the car. Ryan was struggling to get his legs unpinned but to no avail. The black sludge was coming down the incline and I heard a whooshing sound behind me then felt the temperature spike. There was a line of flames coming down to the car. I started to pound on the windshield "Ryan! Get out of there! There's a fire! Cmon get out!" The fire was close enough now that Ryan could see the light from it. "Get back Damon! Get back!" I obeyed my brother and scrambled backwards as the flames reached the car. The car was quickly engulfed in flames and began to consume it. Then, the screaming started. My brother was being burned alive. It sounded as if a banshee was trapped in the car instead of my brother as the conflagration completely burned away his legs and pelvis. His chest and face caught fire and he began pounding away at the windshield, leaving bloody hand prints as his skin bubbled, popped, and bled, screaming the entire time. His hair began to burn away and cook his brains while his eyeballs melted and ran down his face like a river of tears. Even after his eyes were gone he kept pounding on the windshield and kept, screaming. I just sat there in abject horror, being unable to tear my eyes away from the burning car as my brother screams died out. The area was completely silent except for the soft sound of the rain, and the crackling sound of the fire that slowly ate away at my brothers flesh. I sat there, slowly rocking back and forth while my brothers now empty eye sockets stared at me, accusingly. Why? Why did you have to go on this camping trip Damon? Why did you have to have Marcus pull you out of the car? Why couldn't you stand up to our father? Why did I have to die? "It wasn't my fault! It wasn't my fault! It wasn't my fault" I kept repeating this over and over again as I continued to stare into my brothers eye sockets. What happened next, however, was even more terrifying than the screams. I watched as my brothers charred skeleton began to move and its eyes glowed a hellish red. It broke through the windshield and began crawling towards me, its legs having been burned and crushed beyond use. As it got closer I started rapidly backing away until I tripped over a rock. The skeleton caught up to me and grabbed my wrists in its bony grasp. "Your fault! This is your fault! I'm dead and it's YOUR. FAULT! "No, no, no, no, no! It wasn't my fault!" Tears were streaming down my face "I tried to get out of the car on my own but I couldn't! I was too scared!" Your fault! You will suffer as I have! It screamed at me before it opened its maw and began bathing me in fire. I screamed as I felt my blood boil and cook me from the inside out. My hair burned away as my brains cooked and my eyes melted away. My flesh became ash like and just blew away. 'Damon? Damon! Damon what's wrong!?' I heard something in my mind but it was drowned out by my screaming. Wake up Damon! Wake up! I felt something hit me across the face and the my surroundings began to blur and disappear. I was surrounded by blackness and the accusing eyes of my brother. "AHHHHHHHHHHH! IT'S NOT MY FAULT! IT'S NOT MY FAULT! SOMEBODY HELP ME! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!" I woke up screaming, sweating, and falling off whatever I was laying on to roll on the ground in an attempt to put out the flames that I was certain covered my body. "Damon calm down!" A voice said before a feeling of weightlessness came over me. My eyes snapped open and I was afflicted with tunnel vision. I could hear my pulse pounding in my head and my heart was actually hurting from how fast it was beating. In a burst of clarity it occurred to me that having my pulse that high after a heart transplant, even if it was a big improvement from my old heart, was not good. I quickly realized that I was not on fire and I was in the same cave as before. I grabbed my chest as my heart rate and breathing slowly settled back to normal. As memories long buried began to surface in my mind, I started shaking and began rocking back and forth as tears threatened to escape. I felt something soft pull me into a tight embrace and speak to me in a kind voice. "Shhhhhhhhh. Shhhhhhh. Shhhhh. It's okay. It's all okay. It was just a dream" After several minutes of this, I felt calm enough to stop rocking and looked up at who was comforting me. "Luna!" I scrambled out of her embrace and backed up against the wall. My eyes darted around the room, looking for a way out but unfortunately, the only exit was being blocked by Luna. "What ever is the matter Damon?" "You're trying to arrest me!" Luna stared at me blankly before she smiled sheepishly and blushed slightly with embarrassment "Ah. Yes. That. Well....you see......I was just trying to keep you from attempting to use magic, or connect your mind to your soul. People with the capacity to use magic, but without the connection to their souls, that attempt to use it have always ended up either mad and causing wanton destruction, or simply dead. Even worse are the people that connect their minds to their soul so they could use magic safely. Almost everyone that has attempted that has had their mind burned out by the pain. I could sense that you had a great deal of power and if you attempted to use magic then it could have ended with negative results for Equestria" I gave Luna my best what the fuck face that I could before speaking "So....you mean to tell me......that instead of calmly explaining the reasons behind you wanting me apprehended....you instead chose to have the guards attack me....to arrest me? What the actual fuck Luna. Aren't you supposed to be like a few million years old and super wise or something?" She rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof "Well you see, four years ago I was released from my thousand year imprisonment on the moon and when I was reintroduced to society in Equestria I was somewhat behind the times. While my mannerisms and speech have been mostly fixed since then, in extreme situation I tend to revert to my more....archaic ways. A thousand years ago we took more far direct approaches to possible threats to the kingdom and it was not uncommon for brute force to be the primary method used. I do apologize for this whole ordeal, although it has not come without its own benefits has it not?" I pinched the bridge of my nose "What you did was exceedingly stupid Luna. In fact it's almost as stupid as something I would do and I jumped out a window. Without knowing how to fly. And, although I am reluctant to admit it, you are correct. This ordeal has had some benefits" Luna clapped her hooves together "Wonderful! Now with that issue resolved we need to talk about some of the things that happened to you" "Yeah about that. What exactly DID happen? I remember somehow crushing the manticore into a ball, then ending up wherever here is, but after that I only remember vague shapes and colors" "After you crushed the manticore, you ran to this mountain where you met a dragon named Aeternium who used magic to force your mind into unconsciousness. Your heart and head would have been raging with emotion after your soul and mind connecting, not to mention the rage, hate, and bloodlust that you would have been feeling from having been in the Blood form" "Aeterium knew this because he was around during the rise and fall of shadow magic and when the Blood form was first made know to Equestria. He forced you into unconsciousness so your mind could piece itself back together and the Blood form could wear off. It was moments after he did this that we arrived and have been waiting for you to wake up for the past five hours. An hour ago you started whimpering, then thrashing and screaming 'it's not my fault'. A chill went down my spine "Yeah. That" "Damon. What exactly were you dreaming about?" "Something I thought I had locked away long, long ago..." I quietly said. Luna gave me an analyzing stare before continuing "Let us forget of this subject and talk about the most noticeable of your changes" I frowned in worry "What kind of changes?" "Well your wings for instance. Among other things they turned solid after you fell unconscious" My face lightened "Really?" I spread my wings out, still felt weird being able to control them like that, and sure enough, they were flesh, bone, and feather. They were still the same deep black they been before but now they had a border of dark crimson red along the leading edge of the wing" "The color looks a bit different. What's with the red here?" "That is a side effect of the Blood form. Anyone with wings that has achieved it has always had that band of red across the front edge of their feathers" Luna leaned in to look more closely at my wings "Although none have had it quite as.....dark as you do" I cocked my head quizzically "Luna, just how exactly do you know so much about this 'Blood form'?" She pondered the question for a moment before answering "Well to answer your question I suppose I should start at the very beginning with how my sister and I obtained the Elements of Harmony..." Author's Note Yeah I know it's a short chapter. I plan to make that up to you guys in the next one though. Edit: So someone messaged me saying that Damon was a bit too accepting of everything but there's an explanation behind that. His brain is still reeling from the shock of so many unbelievable things happening at once and with him having to escape and everything, the situation hasn't quite struck home (among other things!) with him yet but don't worry, that will all change very soon.
Chapter 7: The Elements of HarmonyLuna: Five hundred thousand years prior "Watch it!" Exclaimed a stallion mercenary as I ran into him. "Apologies!" I said before galloping off to the tent she shared with her sister. "Sister, sister, sister!" I burst into the tent, bouncing up and down before sitting down. Celestia had been writing on a scroll as I burst into the tent we shared. Celestia sighed and turned towards me with a warm smile. "Yes Luna? What is it?" I clapped my hooves together in excitement. "In one of the tunnels that the pegacorn's and I were mining, a miner broke though the wall and found another cave system!" Celestia raised an eyebrow. "That's what has you so excited? A cave system? Luna, we're digging into a MOUNTAIN. There's bound to be some cave systems." "But do cave systems have strange metal walls?" I said with a smirk. This grabbed Celestia's attention. "What are you going on about? No one has enough spare metal to waste it on making walls out of them." "You mean no one today that is!" Celestia sighed and rolled her eyes. I silently huffed at her reaction. Ever since it had been brought to my attention that many strange artifacts made of even stranger materials were being found in the mines we had constructed, I had been completely obsessed with them, believing that whatever or whomever had built them was incredibly powerful. "Luna, you have an unhealthy obsession with this you know." "Yes isn't it glorious?" Celestia just shook her head and left the tent. I walked outside of the tent and quickly caught up with my sister. My thoughts were focused on imagining all the different possibilities of what we would find in the cave. 'Maybe it's gemstones! Or more gold! Or maybe ancient technology!' I happily mused. We had been here for several weeks after one of the pegasus prospectors from our recently formed nation had discovered a gold rich vein in a mountain. The vein was so vast that Celestia estimated it being worth more than their nation was. As we approached the mine entrance a half hour later, I furrowed my brow in confusion and worry. Celestia noticed this and spoke up "Luna, what is the matter?" "There were supposed to be guards at the entrance. In fact the guards that were supposed to be here were from the Eclipse guard so they most assuredly wouldn't abandon their post without a good reason...this is worrying." Celestia nodded her head. "Yes, this is troubling. Let us hurry inside." The farther we traveled into the mine, the dimmer the lanterns that had been strung overhead got until, finally, they went out completely where the mine ended, and the strange cave began. We paused for a moment at the entrance before Celestia spoke up "This metal is most strange. It looks brand new in some spots while it's rusted in others." "I'm not going to even bother saying it." Luna said smugly. As soon as they had all four hooves on the metal floor, an electrical charge ran the length of their bodies, followed by a strange voice coming from above them. "sEc--ur-r-r-r-........l-l-llllloc...." "What on Terra was that?" Luna asked as a dull, pulsing red glow illuminated the corridor. Celestia grimaced. "I don't know but I have a very bad feeling about this." After five minutes of walking down the featureless corridor, I spotted a sickly green glow at the end of the corridor accompanied by the sounds of someone fighting. I stopped moving. "Celestia...do you hear that?" She tilted her head in the direction I indicated. ".....Yes...it sounds like....fighting?" I looked at Celestia as a silent agreement passed between us. We galloped towards the sounds and came upon a grisly scene. On the other side of a clear barrier, surrounding a large tank with a strange creature floating in it, were the bodies of the guards and the miners. It seemed as if the miners attacked the guards and overwhelmed them. The guards had empty sockets where their eyes would normally be and their ears were bleeding. Most seemed to have been felled by injury to major arteries. My face paled. "What....happened...." No matter what gruesome atrocities we witnessed throughout our innumerable years, they continued to repulse us. "Look...over there..." Celestia pointed to the remaining guard who was fighting a miner. The miner had several deep wounds along the side of his barrel. His right pupil was the size of a pinhead and where the other eye would be was a bleeding hole. The guard that he was attacking was guarding a large green disc next to the strange tank. He had small cuts covering his muzzle and he was limping. One of his wings was a bloody, tattered mess while the other was missing entirely and all that remained of his horn was a jagged stump. The miner had a twisted grimace and a wild look in his eyes while stabbed at the guard with a jagged piece of metal "Release the past to awaken the future. Blood paid will be a debt collected in time. Anarchy shall be our eternal salvation." He kept repeating this saying, as if it were a I tried to use my magic to stop the crazed pegacorn from harming the guard any further but something was preventing my magic from affecting him. "What manner of trick is this!?" I exclaimed while scrunching my face in concentration and increasing my magical output. "Luna stop!" I opened my eyes to look at what she was pointing at and saw a thin stream of blue being drawn towards the tank in the room. I tried to look for where the stream was coming from but every time I moved my head, the stream would move too. It was at that moment I realized that my magic was being drawn to the tank, causing several lights on it to grow brighter. We could do nothing but sit there and watch as the guard's movements slowed because of blood loss, and the deranged pegacorn cut his throat. The pegacorn calmly walked over to the strange disc by the tank and pressed it. "Shed the past to awaken the future. Blood paid will be a debt collected in time. Anarchy shall be our eternal salvation." He said before he collapsed. The tank hissed steam as the front of it lifted away to glowing, sickly green liquid with a dark shape in the center as the clear barrier was raised. My sister rushed over to each of the guards to see if there was a chance to save any of them while I warily approached the tank. 'Is that creature.....alive?!' My eyes widened in shock as the creature began to move. All the light in the chamber disappeared including the glow in the tank. "hahahahahah..." A deep, low, evil chuckle rumbled through the chamber. My sister and I cast an illumination spell and I looked around the chamber for the source of the laughter, noticing the creature in the tank was missing. "Show yourself!" I demanded. "Now where's the fun in that? I think a game is in order instead. I do hope you can be more entertaining than the last group though." A light appeared, indicating the dead guards and miners. "The last group?" Celestia 's eyes widened in shock before her right eye began to twitch. "WHAT DID YOU DO!" Her illumination spell became blinding and I raised a hoof to cover my eyes. A slow clap was heard behind us "Ooooh! You will be far more fun then the last group!" We whipped around to see who our enemy was but what stood before us perplexed me. It looked like many creatures smashed together, wearing a black top hat, monocle, and a black cane. "I simply exerted a small bit of influence on their weak minds. Pity I can't do the same to you. But where are my manners? Discord, at your service!" He took the hat off his head and bowed before snapping, making them disappear. "Now, since you were so rude as to watch me while I slept, I think I deserve a head start don't you hmmm?" I was taken aback, my mouth open in shock. How could this....thing, be so casual about corrupting the minds of others? "Any arguments? No? Good! I'm SO happy you agree!" He snapped his fingers and I was stricken with extreme fatigue. Moments before unconsciousness claimed me, I saw Discord's smile fade as he looked at something behind me. He snapped his fingers and after a strange flash of light, I fell asleep. I woke up to a pounding headache and a ringing in my ears. I grabbed my head in between my hooves and shut my eyes tight as I attempted to remember what happened. 'There was a strange voice...then a red light...the dead guards, then--' A low growl formed in my throat. Discord... I said with as much venom in my voice as I could possibly muster. As the headache went away and my hearing returned, I rose to my hooves and opened my eyes. I looked around for my sister and saw her up ahead by the entrance. 'Wait entrance?' "Sister, are you alright?" "..." "Sister?" I moved next to her and what I saw took my breath away. Where the camp had been, only dirt remained. Twenty years later A dark miasma permeated the air. I looked over the battlefield, staring at the corpses of both friend and foe, a hollow and defeated look reflected in my eyes as the moon slowly arced across the sky. 'So much death...and for what? No matter how many battles we win, we are no closer to defeating him than when we first met.' I thought dejectedly. Twenty years ago when Discord was released, chaos, the likes of which no one had ever seen, was released into the world. In a matter of days, Discord had created an army of monsters. They quickly took the border towns of the nations of the world. It was quickly discovered that no one nations army could defeat them. Only by working together were we able to win battles. "Such great losses and still no closer to defeating Discord." Celestia had walked up next to me while I was deep in thought. "That's exactly what I was thinking Celestia." I sighed and looked up at the night sky "No matter what we do, nothing seems to work." "Your highness!" A pony was running up the hill towards us. "Yes?" Celestia asked as he reached us, out of breath. "A message for you from the medical tent!" She grabbed the letter with her magic and opened it. As her eyes scanned over it, a spark that I hadn't seen in almost fifteen years shone in her eyes. A glimmer of hope. "Celestia what is it!?" I said, my excitement rising. "Dusk Keeper has returned. He succeeded in his mission..." Her voice trailed off. My eyes widened slightly and I could not speak for several seconds. "You y-you mean then--" "Yes. He found them." We galloped off to meet Dusk Keeper. "But wait, why is he in the medical tent?" "It doesn't matter. All that does is that he finally found them." Dusk Keeper was a strange stallion that Celestia and I had met fifteen years ago during our search for a way to beat Discord. We had been exploring more of the strange, abandoned caves, similar to the one that Discord was housed in, in the hopes that if we found Discord in one of these caves then we may also be able to find the means to stop him in one as well. Celestia had lay down to rest for a few minutes and urged me to not wait go on ahead of her to investigate the cave up ahead. I entered the cave and inside resided a zebra. It was immediately obvious that he was not what he seemed. In addition to the aura that surrounded him, the walls were made of a reflective crystal, creating a thousand different images, surrounding a large pool of water in the room that softly glowed, the center of which he sat at. There was a pressure in the air that compelled me to step into the pool of water and reach out a hoof to touch him. As soon as I did however, I was frozen in place and his eyes snapped open, shining a blinding white. He turned and looked at me, my eyes locked with his and images and feelings began to flash inside my mind. Images of a forest, a pony, six golden orbs encrusted with jewels, a sense of direction an hope. Energy was dancing on and above the surface of the water. Magical power arced between me and this strange being that was very clearly not a zebra. The images and feelings kept playing in my head over and over again until they were permanently burned into my mind. I fell to the ground, my nerves dancing with energy and a strange force in my mind gently nudging me towards something. I don't know how much time passed until my sister came into the cave. I heard her asking me what was wrong and I tried to answer, but my body was no longer responding to my commands. After several minutes of her trying and failing to cast spells, I was finally able to move my body again. I inhaled sharply, finally able to take a full breath after several minutes. "Luna you're okay!" Celestia happily exclaimed, hugging me. "What happened?" She asked, her voice full of worry. "There was a...." "A what?" "I..can't really remember. I remember coming into the cave, then walking into a pool of water, then..." "...Then what?" "I think I know where we need to go Celestia. I know where to go to find a way to stop Discord." I said with a hopeful smile. Celestia's eyes widened, then she returned my smile. "Lead the way." We traveled for three days, eventually coming upon a forest. We walked through the forest for a week, always following the ever present nudge in my mind. After three days, we found a cave with light spilling out the front. Inside we found a pegasus stallion sleeping by a fire. He had a red coat, a green mane and tail with a streak of red in each, and a dark blue band on his front right leg. I took a step forwards and tripped over a rock, the sound reverberating in the large cave. His eyes snapped open in an instant, him snapping to his feet and his entire body tensing. He had a snarl on his face, but it was quickly replaced with a smile. "Who goes there? Friend or foe?" "We come in peace. We are but two travelers, seeking a tool against chaos." Celestia said. His posture relaxed slightly and he beckoned us closer. "If you speak truthfully come and sit with me. Tell me as to why you have visited me." "We have been searching for many weeks for a way to defeat the Lord of Chaos, Discord." "Ah yes. Discord. My master warned of a creature named Discord five years ago. He said that he would bring ruin upon the world if not stopped." Celesta's eyes narrowed in confusion. "How could your master possibly know of Discord though? He hadn't publicly declared himself to the world until three years ago." He smiled warmly before responding. "He was a very powerful seer. But not just any seer! He was a dragon." "A dragon? Why would a dragon ever take on a student outside of his own species?" His face darkened and a small scowl replaced his smile. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath "Normally I would not tell you but... my master said that if anypony were to ever come to me, asking for help to stop evil then I should answer any questions they may have." He took a deep breath before continuing, speaking in a low monotone. "Six years ago, I was....less than stable. I would seek out fights and would brutally kill any that challenged me. I would bask in murder and begged for people to fight me so I would have a reason to kill them. One day, I got too cocky and challenged a dragon to a fight. I quickly lost, for the first time ever. I waited for him to finish me but instead he offered to take me under his tutelage and teach me to control my more violent urges. He helped me learn to control the rage and bloodlust I inherited." He looked at his wings sadly. I then noticed the coloration on the leading edge looked off. "What do you mean--" "That is personal and does NOT concern you. I may not be able to lie but I can still conceal the truth. What does concern you, however, is the reason as to why you are here. You need something from me do you not?" He clearly did not want to talk about this. "Yes. The past three years, the world has been waging wars against Discord in an effort to stop him." "And how, pray tell, can I assist?" I shifted uncomfortably on my hooves, which he took notice of and narrowed his eyes. "We are unsure as to how you may be able to help us But several days ago, something strange happened to me. I do not know what it was, but something started to guide me to you. I also received visions of six strange glowing, golden orbs, and what apparently was you. I do not know what these orbs are yet but I believe that they can stop Discord somehow and you are the key to finding them." "And just why do you think this?" "When I think of these orbs I am filled with a strange hope and conviction that they can defeat him. I have little reason to believe these visions, but I know that they can stop him. Also, anytime that I think of them, they are unwillingly followed by an image of you." He appeared to ponder his decision for a few moments before stiffening and nodding his head. As we exited the cave, a sudden realization dawned on me. "You never told us your name." I asked this strange stallion. He smirked at me "Dusk Keeper." We sent Dusk on many exploration missions from that day on. Finding clues to where the orbs were located and information on them. We discovered their names, the Elements of Harmony, and that they were indeed a source of magic that could rival and even surpass Discord in power. After fifteen years of looking, it seemed that he had finally found them, or at the least where to get them. The medical tent was a depressing thing. It was a dull gray and had a large blue cross on the side with a unicorns horn laying diagonally across it. The closer we drew towards the tent. the more the oppressive atmosphere increased, no doubt caused by the pain and suffering from physical wounds, and chaos magic. Wounded soldiers ringed the medical tent, some in beds while others forced to stand; the cries of the injured and dying was a constant reminder of the battle that had concluded only an hour prior. When we entered the tent, our attention was grabbed by a nearby doctor. "I assume you two are here for Dusk?" "Yes." Celestia curtly replied. "This way." We followed the doctor to the only part of the tent that was closed off by a door. The sight that greeted us when we entered the room took my breath away. Dusk lay in bed, his eye and rear left leg missing but sat up straight when he saw us. "Dusk...what happened." Celestia spoke slowly. He bit his lower lip before looking away. "I don't want to talk about it. Suffice to say, I found them." He tilted his head in the direction of a silver case with six, bright, shining orbs resting inside. Me and my sister walked over to it and I picked up one of them. "Such a small thing that embodies all of our hopes. Let's activate them!" I said, my voice full of hope. "Luna. You want to activate them already? We have no idea what might happen. They might mistakenly identify us as an enemy and attack us! I know this is your project but Luna, have some sense!" Celestia said angrily. The silence in the tent lasted for several seconds, broken only by the sound of my sister's angry breaths. "Celestia. You full well know that if this does not work, then we may as well give up against Discord. He has been toying with us for the past eighteen years. This is our last chance." Celestia's face became somber. "You're right. If this does not work, then I doubt we can find another way to stop Discord, should he start seriously attacking." We sat down and prepared ourselves to start. We started casting a simple levitation spell on the Elements but as soon as our magic touched them, they reacted violently. The case began to shake along with the ground, and the Elements were giving off a soft, multi hued light and began to slowly float towards my sister and I. The ground suddenly stopped shaking before resuming ten-fold, medical equipment falling over and cries of the wounded penetrated the tent. The tent darkened so that the only illumination was from the Elements. All at once, the ground stopped shaking and the tent grew pitch black before I felt three simultaneous impacts on my chest and heard my sister utter a small cry. Light slowly returned to the tent, and as it did, I could feel something within me grow. I could feel it affecting my very being, changing the very core of my magic. "Oh Tiiiiiiiaaaaaa, Looooooneeeeeey! Come out and plaaaaaaaaaay!" We heard a voice calling from outside. "I felt some positively strange energy coming from here and I thought to myself, I should pay Lulu and Tia a visit! So, here I am!" I glanced over at my sister top confirm my growing fears as to who this was and I noticed that she was softly glowing. "Celestia are you glowing?" "I could ask the same of you Luna." I looked down and, sure enough, I was glowing. "What? Why are we glowing and where are the Elements? I felt them hit us but "If you won't come out and play with me I might just have to have some fun with these strapping young stallions." We rushed outside of the tent and the sight that greeted us was horrifying. Discord was walking around, turning random ponies into different plants, animals, and inanimate objects. The worst part though was that he went around, turning any pegacorn into a unicorn and a pegasus. He split their being in half. Uncontrollable rage rose within me. "DIIIIIISCOOOOOORD!" I yelled. His head jerked up a the sound of my voice. "Luna! Celestia! How good to see you! Have you been well?" He cheerily responded, as if he had not a care in the world. I looked to Celestia and saw her glaring at Discord with death in her eyes, a low growl emanating from her throat and a grimace on her face. Celestia responded by firing a magical beam at his face. "Oh come now that won't do--" He was cut off as the beam hit him square in nose, causing it to bleed and his head to snap back. "That....hurt...HOW DID YOU DO THAT!" he snapped his fingers in a clear attempt to try and do something to us. "Why isn't it working!? How are you--" I interrupted him by firing my own attack at him. "THAT'S IT! PLAYTIME IS OVER!" He shouted, snapping his fingers and turning everyone in the camp to ash. Discord then went so far as to summon a gale that blew around the different pieces of the camp and the ashes that were once ponies. Realization of what that meant horrified us. They were essentially dead but they still lived on, their bodies and minds scattered across the world. It was a fate worse than death. I felt something well up inside of my that I hadn't felt in many years. Pure, unadulterated rage, hate, and malice, all directed towards Discord. The air began to spark with energy, and when I looked over at my sister, I saw that she shared my expression. The energy began to arc between my sister and me and we started to rise off of the ground. "Luna. Ready the weeping darkness." "Yes." I said, through clenched teeth. As we began to charge the magical energy in our horns, I noticed that Discord was smirking, but when he snapped his fingers in what was an obvious attempt to stop us, nothing happened. A moment later he tried to move but he was rooted in place. He noticed me staring at him and pointed a finger at me. "What did you do! Why can't I move?" "Luna are you ready?" Celestia asked. "Yes." We released the energy from our horns but where there would normally be a stream of darkness, was a shining rainbow. I tried to look at Celestia and ask her if she knew what was going on but my body was locked in position. As the beam drew closer to Discord, fear began to show in his eyes. "Where did you find them!? I DESTROYED them!" Were the last words that Discord would speak for over four hundred ninety thousand years. The forces holding us up vanished and we fell to the ground. We lay there for several minutes recovering our strength. Whatever had happened with the spell had drained every last ounce of our strength. After an hour of lying on the ground we had finally recovered enough to move and speak again. "Luna, what happened?" Celestia asked groggily. "I-I do not know. Celestia.....look." I pointed to Discord. She looked at what I was pointing at and her jaw dropped in shock. Discord had been turned into a statue. We had...won. "We...we won. We beat Discord." She said, awestruck. I large smile grew on my face. "We won. We won! WE WON, WE WON, WE WON!" I was leaping into the air jumping with joy. We had beat Discord! The world would know peace for the first time in almost two decades! Celestia's expression mirrored my own and she too began to jump with joy. My celebration was cut short, however, when I stepped onto a small metal ring. It was Dusk's bracelet. Celestia noticed my sudden somber expression. "Luna what's wrong? We won! No more lives have to be lost!" She said as she approached me. She looked down at what I was staring at and she recognized it. "That...that was Dusk's wasn't it?" I nodded my head slowly. "Yes. It was." I looked at her with tears in my eye's and a fiercely determined expression on my face. "Celestia." I took a deep breath. "We may have beaten Discord today but at a great cost. Thousands of lives were lost today along with all the lives lost in all the other battles. We must never forget that." Celestia slowly nodded her head, the air growing somber. We sat down, watching the ashen remains of the ponies scatter to the wind like so many butterflies... Author's Note Sorry for the delays! Took me a few days to get my glasses fixed and it was hard writing all that history. Hope you like it! Also, can anyone name and find the reference in here?
