Take the Pain Awayby All of the AboveChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 1Author's Note I've said it once, I'll say it once more. This is my first attempt at a romance fic. I would really appreciate some critique. Also feel free to tell me if I'm doing this right or if I'm doing this wrong. This has been edited slightly so that some of the dialogue doesn't feel awkward. Though, I can't fix it entirely. The damage has been done and there's not much I can do. If I try to edit it in any further, I may damage something that's near being completely destroy. I wrote this story when I had a poor grip on writing and not a really good way of telling a story. I can only hope that I improve as this story progresses. If you don't like it, I completely understand. I barely like it, and I wrote it. So, let's see how good of a writer I can become, shall we? Have a good one. -All of the Above Chapter 1 The nightly ritual had begun. Celestia lowered the sun once again to make way for the night. The sunset was a sight that nopony could had enough of. It was just... beautiful. But not everypony had the time to admire it. Some were running for their lives. The pair of ponies were running as fast as they could down a path in the Everfree. One of them was carrying an oil lamp. The Doctor was running alongside a grey pegasus mare with a blonde mane. They shared the same look of fear on their faces. "Ditzy, is he still behind us?" the stallion yelled. "I don't know, and I don't care to look behind me!" They continued to run, not saying anything else. Ditzy tripped on a rock, knocking into The Doctor. The Doctor stumbled and dropped the lamp. The glass broke into several pieces, but the flame was still burning. Ditzy cursed to herself. "Doctor I'm sorry. I'll get the lamp." "Leave it! It'll provide a distraction. Now let's go!" The Doctor got up. Ditzy turned around and ran after him. Soon after the two ponies were gone, the fire caught some shrubbery nearby, setting it ablaze. The smell of smoke carried throughout the entire forest. Ponyville quickly found out about the fire. Those willing to help out had already reached the flames, in hopes that they could subdue them. All efforts, of course, had failed. The fire was getting closer to Ponyville. Pegasi were gathering rain clouds so they could try and subdue them. This seemed to be the best method. Twilight Sparkle arrived on the scene quickly. "Was anypony in the forest when the fire started?" she asked Raindrops, who was gathering up rain clouds. "I don't know. I just barely got here." She quickly flew towards the forest. Twilight asked around, but nopony paid her any heed. 'I guess I'll have go in alone. Wings, don't fail me now.' Twilight thought. She spread her wings, took a running start toward the Everfree, and jumped up in the air... only to fall flat on her face. She lifted her head off the ground to make sure nopony saw her failure. Sadly, a great number of ponies were staring at her, trying to hide their smiles. Twilight stood up in a hurry. She trotted backwards, away from the residence. 'I guess I'll have to go on hoof.' Twilight ran to where there weren't any flames in the forest. A straight and narrow path was what was not on fire just yet. On this path, two familiar looking ponies were running towards her. Lightning Dust was still fast asleep. She was buried underneath her blanket, trying to shut out the noise from the outside world. It worked for her. It wasn't until Dust smelled the strange scent in the air. It didn't matter to her what the smell was, she just wanted some sleep. After the tornado fiasco at the Wonderbolt Academy, Lightning Dust had no where else to go. Or, that's what she believed. She could've gone back to the family and friends that loved her and would understand her situation, but she didn't. She knew that they would have some disappointment bottled up inside, just aching to be opened by a thirsty pony. She couldn't bear to disappoint anypony else. On several occasions Lightning Dust would fly from her apartment in Manehatten to the Everfree Forest. She would sit in the Everfree, contemplating whether she should go apologize to Rainbow Dash or never see her again. The thought always made her cry and she slept in a tree until it was morning. Then she would fly back to Manehattan. She shifted her position, getting more and more comfortable the more she moved. It was surprising that she could get this much comfort from a tree branch. Her eyes were still shut. Tight. She must have been trying to force herself to sleep. Something was bothering her. Was is the sudden heat that she felt on her stomach? 'I guess I'm not gonna get much sleep after all. Maybe a quick little exercise. That'll make me tired.' She reluctantly got up from the branch, throwing her blanket off of her. She opened her eyes just in time to see her blanket reduced to ashes. The fire that surrounded her nearly gave her a heart attack. She nearly fell off the branch. 'What the hay happened?' She thought. Lightning didn't have time to wonder how this happened. She had to get out of there. She flew up into the air, going above the trees. She noticed Ponyville over in the distance. A dozen other pegasi were already doing their part to stop the fire. Lightning thought she might as well help out in the effort. As she was going to assist in their efforts, something caught her eye. A lone stallion with a hat walking down the path, looking like he was in great pain. The stallion didn't seem to care that flames were blazing right next to him. 'What's he doing?' Lightning thought to herself. She dove towards him. The stallion seemed pretty content on continuing down the path when Lightning shouted at him. She was pretty sure he heard her. He even shifted his head towards her to acknowledge her existence and yet he continued down his path, acting like he was even deterred in the first place. Lightning sped up, reaching the ground in a matter of seconds. She ran towards him and tackled him, making the both of them fumble to the part of the forest that wasn't burning. "What the hay are you doing?" she asked. The stallion got up, looking angry. He tore off his hat, and threw it to the ground. He was about to say something, but he stopped himself. A little smile appeared on his face. "Lightning Dust. An entire country of ponies and I happen to run into you." "How did you know my name?" "That doesn't matter. My name is Arkane Vander." Lightning looked over the stallion. He had a head of black and red hair, his body was white with the a subtle hint of red. But the thing that caught her eye was his broken horn. This wasn't unheard of, but she hadn't seen anypony with an actual severed horn before. She couldn't help but stare, knowing full well it was very rude. "I can't help but notice that you're ogling at my missing appendage." The stallion said. Lightning said nothing. She just stared. The stallion kept his smile. "My horn." "What about it?" "Stop looking at it." Lightning awkwardly let out a little laugh. In her mind, every memory of her doing something stupid in her younger years somehow felt like professional aerial maneuvers compard to that. Lightning remembered the current situation. "You need to get out of here. You might-" In a matter of seconds, a tree fell to the ground. Lightning had years of aerial acrobatics under her belt, and yet she was defeated by a tree. The tree pinned her foreleg under it. The tree separated Arkane from Lightning, which made him have to jump over the log to do what he had to do. Arkane wasn't a very strong stallion, and he couldn't do magic without his horn. At least, not very well. Lightning's screams persisted as Arkane tried to figure out what to do. He tried lifting the tree up with his own strength, but he couldn't manage to lift it one inch. He tried to push the idea of using his weak magic. It wouldn't work, and it would probably end up with tragic consequences. But what else could he do? Arkane walked over to the pegasus. "Lightning!" "Arkane! It hurts. It hurts." She struggled to speak as her cries of pain were constantly interrupting her. "I know it does. But right now, you have to listen to me. I'm going to try and use magic on this tree." "How? Your horn is broken!" "My magic is very weak. If I do this right, I can lift the tree off of your leg and we can go get help." "No! No, we can't do that!" "And why not?" He raised an eyebrow. "We just can't." "Listen, help is what you need most. Something bad could happen to you if we don't do that." "I don't care! You can't make me go there." Arkane growled in frustration. "I want to help you, but I can't do it if you won't cooperate." Lightning's persisted crying, sounding even worse than before. She must've done something to damage her leg even more. Arkane walked over to her. "You need to calm down." "I can't calm down!" "Please, you have to try." Lightning's cries got louder and louder, as well as Arkane's shouting. He couldn't handle anymore shouting from either of them, so he stepped in front of her, holding her head with a firm grip. "Let me go!" She tried her best to get away from him. She threw several kicks to his body, a failed attempt at a headbutt, biting, and a plethora of physical infliction, but he stood as stoic as a royal guard. "Look at me," he politely asked of her. As Arkane expected, Lightning looked away from him, fighting back another wave of tears. "Look at me. Please." "Why?" "I need you to trust me on this." "Trust you?! I barely know you!" She started to thrash around. Her eyes shut tight. "Look at me!" Arkane shouted. Lightning nearly jumped at his sudden force. She opened her eyes and turned to him, ever so slowly. She took a gander at his beaming, beige eyes. "I want you to hold me. I want you to hold onto me until you feel your fear, your anger, your sadness, every emotion that you have, slip away from you. Until you feel safe in my grasp. Will you do that?" Lightning felt her tears vanish. She didn't know why she held onto him, but she did nonetheless. She put her hooves around his body. Arkane felt warm. She seemed to fit in his grip perfectly. She closed her eyes once more. Along with the sound of magic in her ear, there was also the sound Arkane's voice. "Sleep," he said in a whisper. Lightning could feel the tree lift from her leg. Arkane repeatedly said sleep as each moment passed by. Lightning started to feel tired. His charms were working. Lightning drifted into sleep. Lightning slowly awoke. The first thing she did was examine her smashed hoof. Luckily for her, she didn't have to see the damage that the tree did. It was bandaged up and hanging from a little string. A few minutes passed, and Lightning wasn't exactly enjoying the experience. She didn't have a roommate on the other side of the curtain, so she didn't have anypony to talk to. Until her door opened. "I see you're doing well." It was the stallion from last night. Lightning wasn't sure how to react. A part of her wanted to give him a big hug, but the other part wanted him to leave. She decided to ask him a question. "How did you know my name?" "Pardon?" Arkane asked. "My name, how did you know it?” “Like I said. It doesn’t matter.” "You don't just know my name and act like it's not a big deal. I want a straight answer. How did you know my name?" Arkane got closer to her bed. "There are some things in this world that are better left unknown. That question is one of them." Lightning scoffed. She had the feeling that she would find out sooner or later. 'Maybe it was because of the tornado incident. Maybe it got spread around.' "Now I have to go. There are some things that I have to do," he said. "Get well soon." He walked outside the door. "Wait!" Lightning called. Arkane walked back inside. "Am I going to see you again?" He didn't say anything. He walked back outside. His hoofsteps eventually faded away, but were replaced by others. Except these were lighter and a tad bit faster. 'Must be a doctor,' she thought to herself. She fell back to her bed, only to come right back up when she realized who was standing in the doorway. "Rainbow Dash!” Chapter 2Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Chapter 3Lightning Dust backed away slowly. She felt the eyes of the worried bypassers. Eyes. Digging into her back, like needles. Large, uncleansed needles. She wanted to get out of there as fast as she could before somebody who recognized her would speak up. Arkane Vander- the one who she met outside of the Seren- stood up slowly. He looked over her, dirt smothering his face. “You really need to stay away from trees.” He walked closer to her for some reason, maybe to hold onto her because he was hurt or walking was difficult for him. Before he got a hold of her shoulder, she stepped back. He fell to the ground, groaning when he hit the ground. Lightning almost felt sorry for him. "Well, that was rude." He started to stand. Lightning looked up, seeing the other Arkane quickly sizing her up, with a face that was a mix of emotions. Happy, angry, distraught. His hands were clenched together like there was about to be a very big fight. As he got closer and closer, Lightning felt as if he was going to strike her for some reason. She nearly stepped back, but then he suddenly calmed himself down. “I’m sorry about what you just saw,” he said with a straight face. “I have this... problem. I have some trouble controlling my emotions. So...” Lightning cocked her head, still a little afraid that he was going to do something to her. Lightning felt someone touching her shoulder. She turned around to see the Arkane that she met in the forest. “Hey, I’m-” His mouth instantly snapped shut and his eyes went wide. Like an attacker was approaching his hiding place and he was holding in his breath. The earth pony stared strangely at... Lightning didn’t even know if either of them were telling the truth at this point. The unicorn's surprised remained on his face. "Something wrong?" the earth pony asked the unicorn. The unicorn shook his head, clearing up any surprise that he still had on his face. "No... just... startled. That tree came out of nowhere." he softly chuckled to himself. "Indeed it did, mr..." The unicorn was caught off guard by the question. "...Word. Spoken Word." The two bumped hooves. While the earth pony sported a calm, collected look, "Spoken Word" looked nervous. He looked like he was about to fall over and pass out. "Well," Lightning interrupted the silence, "Word, thanks for saving me from that tree. And... Arkane. Nice meeting you. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to leave." She walked away, her pacing growing in speed the farther away she was from the two stallions. Her goal to find Rainbow Dash was replaced by a sense of dread. I need to get away from those two. What did she just say? Arkane Vander, the real Arkane, stared at the earth pony who claimed that he was Arkane Vander. The earth pony was tall. A little taller than other earth ponies. His skin was a sickly yellow, his mane brown like the bark of an oak-tree. It was different than how the earh pony used to style. It had yellow streaks in it and looked like he had spent all morning getting it ready. But... it was still him. It was Arkane Vander’s older brother. Gild Vander. After all these years, he didn’t look any different. Like he didn’t age at all. Arkane wanted to strangle him. But he kept his calm. If he wanted to kill him, he would have, but this wasn't the time, nor place. But where is a good place and when is a good time to commit fratricide? “Pleasure meeting you.” Arkane turned around and walked away. He knew not where he was going to go next, but it had to be somewhere other than Alcrep. How could she get away just like that!? Gild nearly screamed as he stormed away. He mumbled obscenities to himself as he bumped into pony after pony. In his anger, he found himself in the outskirts of town. There was a part of the Everfree Forest that was burnt to a crisp. People were looking over the remains of the forest, too busy to watch as ponies snuck off into the other part of the Everfree. Luckily for him, his cave wasn’t in that area. He made sure that he was free of gazing eyes and slinked into the forest. Gild entered the cave, muttering to himself. He punched and kicked the rock walls and yelled. As he began calming down, he heard a quiet buzzing in his ear. It was dark, so he couldn’t see the small fly land on his shoulder. “Is this what you've been driven to? Throwing tantrums like a child?" the fly said. "I found her. I found Lightning." The fly didn't say anything more. "And she got away! I could have taken her right then and right there, but she got away!" "Well, why didn't you take her?" "I can't just take somebody in broad daylight! I don't need people following me." The fly sighed. It flew off of him and landed on a nearby wall. "Do you remember the first day we met each other?" Gild grunted. "You were much like you are now. A child at the ripe age of twenty-five, thrust into a world of pain and loss. You were lost. And then we met each other." Gild let out several deep breaths to calm himself down. "You were strong. You had so much potential. And now look at you." Gild was suddenly thrown to the ground. He yelped in pain like a dog. "Instead of fulfilling your promise to me, you spend your time... defiling mares." "No need to slap such nice words onto the word 'rape.'" he suddenly screamed out in pain. "Lucky for you, that's my breaking point for my powers. If I were stronger, you would be experiencing neverending pain." "You have the power to kill me. Why don't you just use it, you coward!?" "I need somebody to get me the Didec. I can't do it on my own." "We've searched for years, and we have found nothing. Do you even know if the Didec exists. You're just like my brother, obsessing over that stupid myth!" "It's much, much more than just a petty bedtime story. I've seen it for myself. And it's much more real than you can ever hope to imagine." "I'll believe it when I see it! Now let me go!" The pain alleviated from Gild. He stood up and brushed himself off. "I can kill, you know." "That may be true, but I can keep coming back. You couldn't get away from me if you tried." Gild growled. He was almost tempted to kill him without a moments notice just so that he could get a few days without him. He would be able to get some time to himself for a while. Find some girls, have his... fun time with them. "Sickening." The fly commented. "Stop doing that." Gild had fogotten that the fly could read his mind. "...We can't keep doing nothing. We have to get the Didec!" "If we haven't found it by now, what makes you think that we can ever find it?" "I can feel it-" "Oh, you can feel it? That feeling of yours has been about as effective as an axe without its blade!" Gild felt that pain again. Only this time it was within his head. The pain grew larger and larger until it felt like somebody was cutting through it. He cluthced his head and screamed. Falling to the ground, he cradled his head. Among his screams and cries, he managed to croak out barely comprehensible words. "W-when did y-y-you learn how to do t-that?" "All of these powers I have in my possession, and they're all useless. I will be killed again and again, and I'll never fulfill my plans. My plan will never work." Gild, still huddled up in a ball, had no other choice than to listen to the fly. "It's near. And-" the fly moaned with pleasure, laughing all the while, "You're going to like this." "What?" "Your brother bears it." Gild raised an eyebrow. "You can't be serious. I haven't seen that bastard in years." Gild almost smiled. Oh the things he was going to do to him when he saw him. He still fantasized about the slow and painful torture he had in mind for him. "On the contrary, Gild, I have never been more serious in my entire life. And trust me, I've lived a long life." Disbelief flashed across Gild's face. He almost scoffed. It explained the brute force and anger Arkane had shown all of those years ago. It explained how he burned down his old house with just a single step, how he brought his parents to their knees. How he killed them without showing a single emotion. He should have made the connection long ago, but when you have a fly making most of the decisions for you for a good portion of your life, most of what you think of is how many different ways you can kill him. "Then we should get a move on." "Good." Before Gild could leave the cave, the fly called out to him once again. "Go ahead and bring a girl home with you." Gild flashed a smile. "Thank you, Ortiz." At last, it was found. Ilidan's house loomed over Lightning like an abusive father. The house cast a large shadow over her, encasing her in an invisible cage of fear and insecurity. Lighting had trouble letting her wings out. She was afraid the house would shoot her down the moment she lifted herself off of the ground. They quivered along with the rest of her body. It took a little while, but they were extended, but not prepped for flight. They were as stiff as a board. Their weight became almost unbearable to carry as she got in her pre-flight stance. Her legs refused to jump into the air. Come on, Lightning. You have to do this, Lightning thought. If you don't do it now, when will you? A small feeling of courage came upon her. She jumped in the air, flapping her wings. Once she flapped. Then twice. Then three times. She was high enough to see Ilidan's front door. Despite the look of the house on the ground, the front door looked inviting. Like it was begging for people to come knocking. It looked so inviting, that the door seemed to possess a type of magic that attracted her to the door. Lightning's hoof landed on Rainbow's front porch. She examined the cloud floor beneath her foot. Even when she was but a little girl, the fact that Pegasi could walk on the clouds and look down upon the earth was magical to her. She felt it was something that most Pegasi took for granted. It was something unique about their race, it was something special. She took the time to appreciate the magic that was standing on a cloud. Putting one hoof in front of the other, she walked to Rainbow's front door. Without so much as thinking of what she was going to say, Lightning knocked on the door. Lightning froze. She was as cold as freshly fallen snow, as stiff as a bone, and as scared as a child of what unholy creature might lurk within its closet. Seconds passed. No answer. More seconds passed. Still no answer. Lightning tried to convinced herself that Ilidan wasn't home. But her body wouldn't move. Her muscles were locked in that position, not able to move until the lock is removed by somebody. The door opened slowly. Rainbow Dash stood at the door, drying her wet body with a towel. Lightning stepped back slightly. "What, do you have a problem with a mare dryin' herself after a shower?" Lightning blushed a little. "I'll come back later. I can see that you're busy." "Oh no, it's perfectly fine. Come on in, make yourself at home!" Rainbow Dash grabbed Lightning by the hoof, dragging her inside her abode. She could feel her wings beginning grow. Her heart was beating faster than a hummingbird's wings. Her wings haven't done that in some time. Lightning thought that those feelings were pushed away a long time ago. And for the first time since the training camp, she felt those feelings creep across her like a shiver in her back. And she didn't know if she should push them away like she did whenever those feelings showed up, or if she should let it control her. No! she screamed at herself. I am not that pony anymore. I am straight, straight as a board! Rainbow Dash threw Lightning onto a couch. As Lightning sat herself up, Rainbow Dash began unwrapping her towel. "I'm going to put this away, then we'll talk." Rainbow left the room. Lightning could feel her face changing color from its usual green, to red hot. As she stared at Rainbow's wet body, she tried not to show signs of arrousel on her face. No no no no no no! With a war of emotions happening inside of Lightning's head, she managed to keep herself level-headed and as tranquil as a lake at night. She breathed in, holding it in for two seconds, then let it out. She repeated this process for several minutes until Rainbow Dash finally appeared. And she wasn’t helping. Rainbow's rainbow mane was wet, and it made her look even better than she normally did. Lighting felt her eyes start to fly south from her head. Her hooves started shaking, her heart was racing faster than she could comprehend. Lust was becoming her only priority. Stop! Stop it, that's not who you are anymore! "So, what's up?" Lightning shook her head. She had to get this over with, and she had to do it now. "I came by because I... I-" "You want to apologize." Lightning looked up. "How did you-" "It doesn't take a detective to find out that wings are used for flying. I mean, come on, we've only met each other twice, including now, and on that day you happened to screw up and nearly hurt my friends. We never saw each other after that. Until today." Lightning smiled slightly. "Does that mean I can skip all the "I'm sorry" junk?" Rainbow Dash only smiled. In an instant, Lightning felt like tearing up. The weight that had been pressed onto her shoulders was finally alleviated. Lightning felt alive again. She felt that she could fly forever. Lightning threw her hooves around Rainbow Dash, giving Rainbow a very tight hug. Ranbow returned the hug, but struggled in doing so. "Thank you." Lightning said, tears streaming down her face. "No. It should be me thanking you." Lyra and Bon-Bon walked into the night, laughing. They could be heard from all of the corners of Equestria with their noise. "No, the funniest thing was when Derpy accidentily shouted that she had a huge crush on Time Turner. And then everything just went quiet, Time Turner started turning red, and then she just took the muffin she was eating and straight up walked out!" Bon-Bon said loudly. "Or what about when Octavia started laughing like a maniac when Vinyl had to fold. Vinyl and Octavia take that game too seriously!" Lyra said. "I guess we can just agree that it was a hilarious night altogether." Lyra and Bon-Bon sighed as they left the apartment of Octavia and Vinyl, going back to their own. It was only a couple blocks away, not more than ten minutes away. Too Bon-Bon it felt too long. To Lyra, it felt too short. "So... Do you think Time Turner and Derpy will start going steady?" Lyra asked. "I don't know. It could happen." "I think they should, they'd make a great couple. Kind of like... we were." "Would you stop bringing that up!" Bon-Bon shouted. Lyra backed away, shocked by her sudden expression of rage. "Bo-" "Quit acting like we're going to get back together, like it was just a fight! There's more to it than that!" Lyra, feeling her tears beginning to surface, said nothing as Bon-Bon calmed herself down. "I'm sorry." Lyra dashed off into the night, leaving behind the mare that broke her heart. She suddenly stopped, finding herself in a spot of town that she didn't go to as often. The more shady part of Alcrep. While the town had almost no crime at all, this part looked like where crime would happen if it was to take place. Lyra put a little more caution into each of her steps from then on. Every strange noise not coming from her made her jump. The shadows coming from the streetlights surrounded her like a cobra, preparing to strike her at a moments notice, without hesitation. Lyra illuminated the path before her with her magic, still being cautious to every nook and cranny that she happened upon. Then from out of nowhere, a loud crash erupted from an alley-way, making Lyra scream. She looked into the alley-way, expecting a cat coming out of a trash can. But instead, she saw a stallion on the ground clutching his hoof and letting out groans of pain. "Oh my Celestia, are you okay?" "Get me to a hospital! Somebody stabbed me!" Lyra rushed to the downed stallion. "Let me see where you're hurt." The stallion stood up, letting her see his chest. She saw no sign of injury, not even a scar. "You're not hurt." "But you will be." In a split second, the stallion hit Lyra on the head with a trash lid. She fell to the ground, unconcious before she even hit the ground. That's what the man thought of her as a doll. A doll he'll play with until she breaks. "Time to take you home and show you to Ortiz! He'll love you!" Chapter 4Red. Everything was blood red. The color was everywhere, almost completely clouding his vision. All he could see was red, no matter which direction he pointed his eyes. He couldn't move nor even speak. It was like he had a gag in his mouth and a blindfold over his eyes. Arkane could feel something cold on both of his wrists. It felt metallic and heavy. He also took notice that he was knelt down in a puddle of... something. He felt like his entire body was being restrained by chains of an unbreakable metal that locked his muscles in place. His entire body felt like he had spent hours trying to break free of the chains, maybe even days trying to escape. There were noises. Above him, noises, loud noises were ringing. They sounded like sound would if he was the bottom of a pool. A shallow, red colored pool. The noises were loud, loud enough to cloud what they really were. None of the noises sounded familiar. Is it alarms? Is it screaming? Machinery? He thought. The only word he could think of to describe them was loud. The cloudy red vision and the noises never ceased. They only seemed to intensify as the seconds grew into minutes, with the minutes growing into hours, and the hours growing into days. Years seemed to pass as the noises grew so loud, he could barely hear himself try to form a coherent thought. Somehow, someway, the red was becoming as black as the night itself. His vision slowly became clearer. He could detect shapes, patterns, movement. And even different colors. There was now orange, yellow, green, grey, and even white. More complicated colors came into the fray, but red was still the main color he could see. Ceaseless red. Unforgiving red. The sounds were becoming clearer as well. There was the crackle, snap, and the pop of fire all around him, the shaking of the earth around him, the voice in the back of his head, congratulating him. The slow drip of liquid falling to the floor right in front of him. Screams coming from all around him He knew not where he was. The place was alien to him, like a new smell, a new face even. Rocks were everywhere, vibrating slightly. The entire room was shaking. He could feel himself shaking with the earth. The only movement he could make, and he couldn't even control it. He almost started crying. Movement would have been like a delicious meal. If only the waiter would bring it to him instead of just stand in front of him. He quickly took notice of the sudden waiter standing before him. The waiter stood in front of Arkane with the meal on a pan, four feet in front of him. Each of hi bodily functions was being the devoured by the waiter, who laughed over his full mouth. With each bite he inhaled, the more stone like Arkane felt he was becoming. Stone. Meant to stay in one formation, never allowed to move, never allowed to change unless it was crushed. Stone. There stone spires stabbing through the waiter. Arkane realized that there was not a waiter standing in front of him. There was no waiter eating away his movement. That would have been preferable to what he saw before him. Instead of a figure wearing nice attire, Arkane was greeted by a dark figure who was wearing torn up rags that nopony would even think about calling clothes. The dark figure merely stood there. He was looking down at the floor, his arms positioned in a way to make him look like he was playing an instrument in his hooves. There were three stone spires through his body. Arkane could see them for a brief moment before, but now they were there to stay. There was one going through the middle of his chest, one stabbing his ribcage, and the last one going through his stomach. His left hoof looked like it was holding the neckboard of the cello and his right hoof was holding the bow. He was stuck like that. Forever. There was blood everywhere. On the ground, on the rocks, on the figure before him, even on himself. Without any say in the matter, his head looked to his arms. There were two rusty chains holding him down, but they were loose enough to let him moves his arms around a little bit. They seemed looser than before. There was something clutched in each hoof. In one hoof, there were entrails. They were squishy like a dog once you've squeezed it hard enough. He played with them in his hoof like it was clay or putty. In his other hoof, there was a knife. A knife with a wooden handle and a resplendent red jewel on the tip of the handle. The blade was beaming like it was a child who learned something new. It was stained with blood. He couldn't help but smile as he raised the knife up to his mouth and licked the delicious liquid off of the blade. He couldn't help but moan as the liquid entered his mouth. He stroked the knife with so much ferocity he might as well have been a dog licking himself. The knife was licked clean. He could see himself in the blade's reflection. His black and red hair wet with the blood of the figure before him, his white skin stained with lacerations and specs of blood. His eyes were closed in the reflection. How can I see myself when my eyes are closed? He thought to himself. His eyes opened, revealing piercing, yellow eyes. His skin was turning a pallid grey. A pony that he didn't recognize looked directly to him. "Tasty." Arkane Vander screamed as he awoke. The moonlit sky shone through the cracks in the cave, shining soft light into his eyes. He sat up, throwing his hooves around like they were stuck in a hurricane. He realized that he was almost completely alone in the damp cave. The key word being "almost." "You know, if you had only told me that you would get that scared, I would have gone just a bit easier on you." Arkane didn't say a word. Lying down, he adjusted the torn blanket into a more comfortable position. Assuming that the blanket was more comforting than it really was. He turned over and close his eyes tightly. He shut his ears with his hooves, almost crushing his brain with them. "Like that will do you any good." The other presence laughed at him with a sickly smooth laugh that would break a broken heart even more. Arkane took several deep breaths. As loudly as he could, he let a breath out of his mouth. What he would give for a timber wolf or a bear, even a hydra would be perfectly welcome to come by and kill him. They would have been a much better fate than having to listen to this psychopath. "Oh come on, big brother, I wanna go out and play. You can sleep when you're dead. Or when Gild is dead." "Shut up! Just shut up already." "You have gone zero days without speaking to me. And you were doing so well, to. You almost broke your previous record of five months!" Arkane stood up. He walked around the cave, kicking around a stone. This thing in his head was his other personality. It showed up two years ago after he lost his horn at... the cave. Even thinking about that cave was hard for him. Normally on any other occasion, sleeping anywhere near a cave would be way beyond the question. But tonight, he was desperate for a place to sleep. He had no bits to rent a hotel room for the night, so a cave and the blanket he always carried with him would be good enough. He slept close to the entrance. Just in case. Just in case it devoured him. "Let's go outside. Gild has to be around somewhere, I just know it." His other personality begged. "We're not going anywhere. So long as I'm in control, we're staying right here in this cave.” “That can be easily rectified.” Arkane looked at his body. Instead of the white hue he was so used of seeing, there was the same pallid grey that he saw in his dream. It creeped its way up Arkane’s legs, surfing across his entire body. Arkane focused everything he had into stopping the other one from taking over. Pretty soon, the grey faded off of his body, reverting back to his white skin. “Unfair. You’re stronger than I am.” Arkane fell back to the ground, tired from the mental battle he just fought. He shut his eyes and threw the blanket back over him. “If you won’t let me take over, then the least you could do for me is give me a name.” Arkane shut his eyes, cracking them open every now and again. “Come on, a name is the most powerful thing an Equestrian, or any species, can give.” “That’s why I’m not going to give it to you.” “Please. We can’t keep referring to me as the other presence. There has to be some kind of name out there for me." "Ask me again when you're out of my head." "But you can't get me out of your head. You tried. A lot." "Don't remind me. And you're not getting a name." "But daaaaad." "Do you ever shut up?" "I will never shut up. At least, not until I get my name." "How about no name. It's quite fitting if you ask me." "That's not a really name. I want something cool, like the name you came up with to hide yourself from Gild. Leider. Yeah, Leider, I want that!" "How about we call you nothing, and stick with it." "I wanna be Leider, I wanna be Leider, I wanna be Leider!" "Fine, fine! From now on, I will call you Leider." Leider didn't say anything else. By the sound of his silence, he could tell that Leider was smiling. Chapter 5The sun rose over the mountains, casting its rays of light on the world below it. It cast its watchful eye over the populace, making sure that nopony would be harmed under its watch. It was like a peaceful guardian and a beautiful caretaker. The gentle light shone on Lightning's face, stirring her awake from her slumber. The blankets she wore and the pillow that she wore a top her head fell to the ground as she rolled around on the couch like a dog rolling around on the ground for no particular reason. And like a dog, she stretched off the sleep in her eyes. To truly make her ready to face the day ahead of her, she did a couple excercizes to top it all off. Lightning stood back up in breathed in that refreshing smell of a clean conscious like it was a cigarette. The only difference being that a clean conscious won't kill you. Lightning felt great. She finally had a good nights rest, the first one in a very, very long time. Finally she could lay her head on a pillow and not have to worry about the night terrors invading her dreams like they were a pack of UFO's. The days in the future felt brighter than they ever had. And for the first time in her life, there was nothing stopping them. When Lightning scanned the walls for a clock, she jolted when she saw just what time it was. Just about a quarter after twelve. Lightning had slept longer than she thought she was going to. If she didn't get going soon, then there was going to be quite the brujaja at home. “You’re up early,” Rainbow Dash said from the shadows of a corridor. She had a bad case of bed-head and bags were forming under her eyes. “It's noon,” Lightning said, furling her eyebrows. “I’m guessing you didn’t sleep well?” “Not really. A bad case of insomnia.” “That sucks.” Lightning stepped closer, pulling her into a friendly embrace. Rainbow put one hoof around her, resting her chin on Lightning's shoulder. “You know, you don't have to go so soon. At least stay for breakfast..." Rainbow stared up at the clock." Or lunch. Maybe a quick flying session?" That almost tempted her. "No, I'd hate to be more of a bother than I already am. Besides, I have to head back to Manehattan by tomorrow. I have some things I have take care of." "Alright," Rainbow said dejectedly. "But if you're ever in this part of Equestria again, just know you have a friend here." Lightning smiled. "I'll see you some other time." The two shared another embrace. Rainbow's cyan colored fur rubbed up against her turquoise fur, creating a welcomed feeling of acceptance and warmth. When she realized the hug went on for longer than it needed to, Lightning hurriedly broke it off. She barely managed to break it off before it got awkward. And luckily for her, her wings weren't as stiff as a board. "Whelp... I guess I'll see ya... later." "See ya on the flipside!" Rainbow shouted as Lightning stepped out of her front door. As the door shut behind her, the noise evaded Lightning's ears. There were so many things she didn't register, that she almost walked straight off the cloud. Oggling down at the ground, Lightning felt something new in her bones. Describing it was difficult to do, but the word that felt like it fit perfectly into the description came through the front door like an old friend. "Freedom." In a flurry of movements that didn’t remember doing, she found herself flying through the clouds like a Phoenix. She performed moves in the sky that had lost their magic over the past year-and-a-half. The faster she flew through the clouds, the farther her smile stretched across her face. She found words forming in her throat. Triumphant words, words of encouragement that had been long forgotten by her tongue. Words that once held some meaning to her in a deep, excitable way but had become dry and saline, caught in her epiglottis like bad food refusing to go down. As the cool, refreshing drink of forgiveness had been opened, its content began flowing out of the bottle and into a hungry pony’s mouth as she ecstatically drank after days without water. “WOOOOOOOOHHHH!” But with every glorious moment, it must end at some point. Sometimes by need to do what is more important, sometimes because of the rude intervention of somebody important- “Hayburger for a miss Lightning Dust!” Or sometimes by hunger. Lightning paid with the few bits that she had on her and began diving into the burger like it was her civic duty to devour it and its brethren until they were all memories of a fine and delicious past. The burger satisfied the monster in her stomach that was making that awful growling sound that pestered her since she left Rainbow Dash's house. Finally it would be silenced by a daily sacrifice. A moment of bliss passed through the area as she chewed on her food. Lightning could feel the world around her forget about all of its problems. Wars became talk of the past, petty rivalry between species turned into a constant stream of friendly compliments from random ponies everyday, violence turned into hoofshakes and friendly conversation, and the hungry had plenty enough to eat at all times. Her father was a kind soul instead of a faceless man she hardly knew anymore, and her mother wasn't afraid of her own shadow. She forgot about the specific time she had to be home by. She sat back in her chair, flipping the bird to her father who was miles away. Only a world like this existed when Lightning was merely a little filly. As she grew up, the world became rougher and rougher, never seeming to realize its own mistakes, or even bothering to make up for them. It only looked at those mistakes and lightly kicked them under the couch. "Lightning!" The temporary bliss suddenly disappeared when a voice she didn't recognize erupted from out of nowhere. As she was suddenly shaken out of her utopia, she nearly fell out of her chair. She regained her composure after a second and took back her grasp on the cold reality. "Hey, Lightning!" Lightning groaned quietly when she recognized the voice. Arkane Vander. The earth pony Arkane Vander. Was Arkane Vander really that good of a name? Lightning found herself thinking. It sounds ridiculous. It's like somepony thought of the name while drunk and didn't even give it a second thought. An earth pony suddenly sat himself on the spare chair that the table had. As he sat, Lightning felt the earth around her shake and tremble. The earth pony had quite the muscle build and rugged body shape that seemed to take up space and air. Veins popped through his greenish-brown fur. Lightning felt like she would be sucked into mouth if he just breathed a little too deeply. The parts of him that tried to be handsome, were tripping over themselves trying to show-off. She didn't seem to notice all of this the first time she met him because it was awfully clouded by his strange behavior and... interesting social strategies. She looked at his face, seeing this look of anger covered up by a sorrowful smile that made him seem like he was hiding his real emotions. Perhaps it was the “unable-to-control-emotions” illness he was trying to tell her about. If there was such an illness. It seemed more like “a-thing-that-I-made-up-so-that-ponies-will-feel-sorry-for-me" kind of illness. "How are you?" he said as if he was asking for the second time. "Um... good. A bit shaken up by the... incident earlier. But, other than that... I'm doin' good." "Okay. Good to know that you're fine." "Thanks... Arkane?" "Oh, no. I'm really sorry about that. I was actually just thinking of a guy I met when I came here. And I guess that came out instead. I hope you've gathered that I'm not exactly, "right" in the head." He tapped his head with his hoof and gave a small laugh. "Not very much going on up there." Lightning uncomfortably laughed. She was unsure of if she was supposed to say something or just say nothing. As much as she wanted to say nothing, a nagging feeling in the back of her head told her not to be rude. Gild seemed to notice this, and decided to try and change the subject. "No, my actual name is Gild. For real, this time." "Alright. Nice to... meet you... for the first time." Take her! Take her right now! It doesn't matter that there are ponies around, just grab her by the mane and drag her to the cave. If you don't take the opportunity right now, you'll never get another one! Gild shoved away the temptation. As badly as he wanted to take her at that exact moment, he knew that there had to be a connection first. Some casual conversation. Something, anything, to make her have an excuse to go away with him. Then, when she least expects it, he would go for the neck. "I see that you're not too much of an upperclass gal." Lightning wiped whatever was on her face. It was a ketchup stain, smeared across her face like she had just devoured a squirrel. Gild felt something rising in his southern area of his personal body map. Just the look of Lightning licking her own blood off of her body made his mind run wild. Gild resisted the urge to lick his lips. "Professional as well." "Ha ha," Lightning laughed weekly. It was like she was giving up the more and more she laughed. Gild felt a nice silence overcome them. Lightning's eyes darted to and fro, trying to look for a way out of this situation. When he finally gets his dirty hooves on her, there would be no way out for her. Carefully, he slipped his hoof under the table as Lightning tried her damnedest to try and avoid eye contact with him. The table was the perfect length. He could move his legs around under there and not have to bend over to touch her. Gild could feel the warmth of her flesh as he drew nearer and nearer. If he could just touch her in such a way that she'd feel like she had a bug on her leg or just an inch, it would have been perfect. Her tender skin was right in his reach. It could have been his if not for the castrated shout of the little dreck he was supposed to be focusing on. "Hey, do you mind if I join you two?" Gild's muscles clenched, and his teeth instinctively began to grind. Suddenly, the voice he didn't recognize became all too familiar to him. Like an annoying child in his school class whose voice could be heard in a crowded Manehattan city street. "Lightning," he greeted. "...Arkane." Gild threw away his previous intentions to obtain Lightning. All he wanted to do was smash this little dreck's face into some glass for endless hours. He wanted to lick his blood and cut open his body with the bloodied glass. Ortiz better give me something great for killing him. Made it just in time. Arkane grabbed an extra chair from an empty table. He sat himself down as close to Lightning as he could, placing both of his elbows on the table and put both of his hooves under his chin in a lovestruck ten-year-old kind of way. "Actually, my name is Gild. Sometimes, words come out without my... permission," Gild said, clearly cross about Arkane's interruption. Arkane felt those words strike him in the gut. Go figure. He's still angry about that. "Ms. Dust, how are you?" "Good," she said, slowly scooting her chair farther from the both of them. "Welp, I think I made this a bit more awkward." Gild nodded his head slowly. Arkane could almost feel Gild's muscles tearing as he tensed them up. "Excuse me," said the waiter, bringing two more menus for the unexpected customers. "Would you two like something to eat as well?" the waiter asked. "Sure. Get me a stack of hay-fries," Gild said. "...I'm sorry, you'll have to wait for a little while for that order." Gild let out a long, angry sigh. "How about a hayburger?" "Alright, what kind?" "Surprise me." "Sir, you're going to have to be specific. We can't-" "Just get me the damn burger." "Could you please be a little civilized, sir? This is a family establishment." As Gild and the restaurant shared an argument like an old married couple, Arkane turned to face Lightning. She tapped the table, looking around and staring at the ponies watching Gild make a ruckus. Arkane felt like she was trying to find the perfect opportunity to bolt it out of there and leave this place. At least, that's what Arkane assumed she was doing. It would've made his job a lot easier. Then again, she might have been trying to think of some kind of icebreaker so this wouldn’t be as awkward as it she made it out to be. As much as he wanted it to be some kind of awkward meeting between three ponies, he had something important he needed to do, and he wasn't going to let the space of confusion hinder him from his goal. "Lightning, listen to me," Arkane said suddenly. He managed to startle Lightning Dust. "Gild is very dangerous. As soon as you get the chance, I need you to get out of here and leave this town." "Why?" "Did you not hear me? He's dangerous, and he's going to hurt you. I don't know what he's going to do, but he's going to hurt you. I just know it." Lightning furled her brow. "I think you're thinking a bit too much about this. He's weird, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't mean he's a psychopath.” If only you knew. "Look, do you have anything?" Gild asked the waiter. "We have some meat and potatoes. Would you like that?" Gild said, angered yet controlled. "...Sure. I'll take the meat and potatoes." "Any sides?" Gild sighed. “He might be a bit weird, but it’s not like he was born that way.” That made Arkane stop to think. For as long as he knew Gild, he couldn’t remember a time in his life when Gild was ever... nice. He never even thought that that word could be associated with him. It sounded so foreign and tasted so weird in his mouth. To even say that word in the same sentence as Gild made Arkane feel uncomfortable. Even saying “Gild isn’t nice,” felt wrong in a way. It was almost as strange as that pink mare he met yesterday. I can’t believe this. After all these years, he's still got me like putty in his hooves. “You don’t know him like I know him.” “And how do you know him? Did you meet him one day and think he was some kind of rapist?” “No, I-” “As far as I know, you could have met him yesterday, you judgemental prick!” Arkane slouched over a little more in his chair. He growled. Maybe I should let Gild have her... "I am dead serious. He's going to hurt a lot of ponies, and you can be sure that he'll hurt you to. Get as far away from this place as you can and don't come back." "Calm down. It's not like-" "Sir, you're going to need to calm down." The waiter was still having a quarrel with Gild. "I am calm. If you would just get me what the buck I want, then I'll have a reason to calm down." "Sir, please. You're causing a-" Gild grabbed him by the neck and pulled him in, up close and personal. "Causing a what?! A commotion?! If a commotion is what you want, a commotion is what you'll get!" Gild hurled the waiter at Arkane. The waiter was painfully close to striking Arkane, but the waiter whizzed passed and struck a nearby wall. The waiter struggled to get back on his hooves, straining and grunting in pain as his feet slipped on nothing. When he did, the waiter hobbled away as fast as he could. Gild slammed his hoof against the table. The glass shattered into several hundred pieces. Lightning got up from her seat and started backing away. Arkane put his guard up as Gild picked up a shard of glass from the ground. “You’re coming with me!” Gild shouted at Lightning. Gild lunged at Lightning, grabbing her by the mane and sticking the make-shift knife into Lightning's front leg. Lightning fruitlessly tried to strike his hoof away, but the more she struggled the more fun he decided to have with her. Along with her other front leg, he also stabbed her hind leg. Moving the glass up towards her hips, he stroked the other leg with his bloodied hooves. Lightning screamed in horrifying agony, but was cut short when Gild put his other hoof over her mouth. He licked his lips, breathing in that fresh smell of blood. Gild leaned in and kissed Lightning on the cheek. Her skin was soft, and tasted so good. The fun was over. Gild put her up on all fours and drug her away. Arkane barreled toward him with a hint of hesitation. He barreled into Gild, but only managed to make him take a step back. He dropped the glass and picked up Arkane. Tossing him as far as he could, Gild bent back down and picked up the knife. He shoved Lightning into the wall, pinning up a wing up against the wall and stuck the glass in her wing. Before Lightning could even scream, Gild stuck a hoof over her mouth. "Don't you go anywhere," Gild said, shaking a finger in front of her face. Arkane threw pointless punch after pointless punch at Gild. Gild was a hulking tower made of iron and Arkane was just a sledge hammer. “You’re just as weak as I remember you!” Gild swung his first punch. Arkane managed to slip by it by some miracle. Arkane could see an image of his head smashed into small bits and pieces in his mind. Arkane only had one chance to subdue him. That’s all he needed to do. But... Without even thinking, Arkane’s fist struck Gild in the gut. Though he felt like it had the same force as Arkane turning a page, Gild bent over, opening another opportunity to hit him again. Arkane uppercutted Gild, successfully making him stumble back and fall over. You’re going to slow. Let me take over from here... Arkane watched as his skin began slowly rotting away into a decaying gray. He couldn’t stop himself. All of his self control was thrown across the room, and he could feel himself transforming. He felt something growing on top of his head. With his last few moments of self-control, he felt where his horn used to be. Leider's horn stuck out like a needle in a thread. It was smooth, curved and felt brand new. “Your mind is disgusting. I’m going to take a little walk.” Lightning was losing consciousness. It hurt too much to crawl, walk, or to even move. The only thing she could do was flap her wing in the vain hope that the glass would dislodge from wall. Her body was in no shape to tug at something practically buried inside of a wall. That wasn't going to stop her, even though it hurt her more than anything she had ever experienced in her life. Her father's cold stare was suddenly looking pretty forgiving. What was that? Gild asked himself as he stood up. There’s no way... Suddenly, Arkane’s fur wasn’t white anymore. Instead, it was dark grey. It was as if Arkane was killed and left rotting in a coffin for months in a matter of seconds. Now Arkane was back as some kind of zombified version of himself. And just like a zombie, he could still be easily taken down by a crushing blow to the brain. However, this wasn't a zombie. It was just wearing Arkane's weak, skinny body like a coat. The body that cowered in fear when Gild's name was casually mentioned. Gild just knew that there was some leftover fear of him left in Arkane. There had to be. He could clearly see that while Arkane tried to fight him. "Just like old times, dreck. Me wailing on you, and you taking every punch like a slut taking a giant dick." Gild charged, his body ready for a classic beat down. He loaded up the cannon and gleefully let loose the cannon ball. Arkane caught Gild’s hoof. “My turn.” Gild watched in shock and awe as Arkane bent Gild's fist back. The crack of bone rang out, making itself be heard for miles in all directions. Arkane lifted Gild’s leg into the air and twisted it to the point where Gild was down on his knees. Before Gild could retaliate, Arkane lifted Gild off the ground, opening Gild up to a whole new idea of pain. Arkane went for the center of Gild's under-belly. The blackened hoof was like a swift sword sliding right through Gild like Gild was a piece of paper. Gild fell over, and his head hit the cement. Clutching his chest as the pain began taking its course, Gild writhed as Arkane lifted his hooves up to finish the job. Arkane picked him up with his telekinesis first. As Gild struggled against the invisible force, Arkane's horn lit up. Gray aura swirled around his horn. He put it up close to Gild's mouth and willed it open. Gild could feel something tugging at the inside of his mouth. Gild grimaced as Arkane yanked out two teeth without hesitating. "The reason you're bleeding is because you don't floss," Arkane said. Gild, trying to bite down, could only mutter and clench his jaw. Arkane's telekinesis held him still, but was faltering the longer Arkane used it. You can't be serious. "I'm not letting you control me." I am yanking out his teeth, can't you stay silent fo- AAHH! Arkane backed away, releasing Gild. Gild spat out blood and wiped some away from his mouth. Gild watched in amusement and disgust as Arkane clawed at his face and screamed. "AAAAHHHH!!" AAAAHHHH!! Gild saw the advantage. As if the battle was served to him on a silver platter, Gild ran to Arkane, arms outstretched and ready to swing at any time. Gild knew that Arkane could see him, but he was far too distracted by whatever was going on inside of his head. Gild punched his head so hard that some teeth of his own more than likely flew out of his own mouth. Gild didn't even see Arkane's skin turning back into its normal color. Gild stood over him, triumphant. Heavy breaths escaped his mouth and a smile found its way across Gild's mouth. "You put up a fight, little brother. But you'll never beat me." Gild spat on Arkane. He laughed as he walked away from him and towards Lightning. Arkane had failed to protect her. Gild still managed to get his sinful hooves on her, even though Arkane did everything he could against both Leider and Gild. Gravity was crushing him. Arkane struggled to even look up. But he managed to do so, even though he was in massive pain. He stared in terror as Gild picked up Lightning, squeezing her throat and smiling through lost teeth and blood. He grabbed the glass and yanked it out of the wall. Lightning's wing might have had that momentary release of pain, but the worse was yet to come. “Don't worry," Gild said. "I'll take you home where he can't hurt you." Gild shoved her up against the wall. Lightning only had a moment to look up into the sky. The sun. The sun had betrayed her. She blacked out as Gild was suddenly hurled back four yards.
Chapter 1Author's Note I've said it once, I'll say it once more. This is my first attempt at a romance fic. I would really appreciate some critique. Also feel free to tell me if I'm doing this right or if I'm doing this wrong. This has been edited slightly so that some of the dialogue doesn't feel awkward. Though, I can't fix it entirely. The damage has been done and there's not much I can do. If I try to edit it in any further, I may damage something that's near being completely destroy. I wrote this story when I had a poor grip on writing and not a really good way of telling a story. I can only hope that I improve as this story progresses. If you don't like it, I completely understand. I barely like it, and I wrote it. So, let's see how good of a writer I can become, shall we? Have a good one. -All of the Above Chapter 1 The nightly ritual had begun. Celestia lowered the sun once again to make way for the night. The sunset was a sight that nopony could had enough of. It was just... beautiful. But not everypony had the time to admire it. Some were running for their lives. The pair of ponies were running as fast as they could down a path in the Everfree. One of them was carrying an oil lamp. The Doctor was running alongside a grey pegasus mare with a blonde mane. They shared the same look of fear on their faces. "Ditzy, is he still behind us?" the stallion yelled. "I don't know, and I don't care to look behind me!" They continued to run, not saying anything else. Ditzy tripped on a rock, knocking into The Doctor. The Doctor stumbled and dropped the lamp. The glass broke into several pieces, but the flame was still burning. Ditzy cursed to herself. "Doctor I'm sorry. I'll get the lamp." "Leave it! It'll provide a distraction. Now let's go!" The Doctor got up. Ditzy turned around and ran after him. Soon after the two ponies were gone, the fire caught some shrubbery nearby, setting it ablaze. The smell of smoke carried throughout the entire forest. Ponyville quickly found out about the fire. Those willing to help out had already reached the flames, in hopes that they could subdue them. All efforts, of course, had failed. The fire was getting closer to Ponyville. Pegasi were gathering rain clouds so they could try and subdue them. This seemed to be the best method. Twilight Sparkle arrived on the scene quickly. "Was anypony in the forest when the fire started?" she asked Raindrops, who was gathering up rain clouds. "I don't know. I just barely got here." She quickly flew towards the forest. Twilight asked around, but nopony paid her any heed. 'I guess I'll have go in alone. Wings, don't fail me now.' Twilight thought. She spread her wings, took a running start toward the Everfree, and jumped up in the air... only to fall flat on her face. She lifted her head off the ground to make sure nopony saw her failure. Sadly, a great number of ponies were staring at her, trying to hide their smiles. Twilight stood up in a hurry. She trotted backwards, away from the residence. 'I guess I'll have to go on hoof.' Twilight ran to where there weren't any flames in the forest. A straight and narrow path was what was not on fire just yet. On this path, two familiar looking ponies were running towards her. Lightning Dust was still fast asleep. She was buried underneath her blanket, trying to shut out the noise from the outside world. It worked for her. It wasn't until Dust smelled the strange scent in the air. It didn't matter to her what the smell was, she just wanted some sleep. After the tornado fiasco at the Wonderbolt Academy, Lightning Dust had no where else to go. Or, that's what she believed. She could've gone back to the family and friends that loved her and would understand her situation, but she didn't. She knew that they would have some disappointment bottled up inside, just aching to be opened by a thirsty pony. She couldn't bear to disappoint anypony else. On several occasions Lightning Dust would fly from her apartment in Manehatten to the Everfree Forest. She would sit in the Everfree, contemplating whether she should go apologize to Rainbow Dash or never see her again. The thought always made her cry and she slept in a tree until it was morning. Then she would fly back to Manehattan. She shifted her position, getting more and more comfortable the more she moved. It was surprising that she could get this much comfort from a tree branch. Her eyes were still shut. Tight. She must have been trying to force herself to sleep. Something was bothering her. Was is the sudden heat that she felt on her stomach? 'I guess I'm not gonna get much sleep after all. Maybe a quick little exercise. That'll make me tired.' She reluctantly got up from the branch, throwing her blanket off of her. She opened her eyes just in time to see her blanket reduced to ashes. The fire that surrounded her nearly gave her a heart attack. She nearly fell off the branch. 'What the hay happened?' She thought. Lightning didn't have time to wonder how this happened. She had to get out of there. She flew up into the air, going above the trees. She noticed Ponyville over in the distance. A dozen other pegasi were already doing their part to stop the fire. Lightning thought she might as well help out in the effort. As she was going to assist in their efforts, something caught her eye. A lone stallion with a hat walking down the path, looking like he was in great pain. The stallion didn't seem to care that flames were blazing right next to him. 'What's he doing?' Lightning thought to herself. She dove towards him. The stallion seemed pretty content on continuing down the path when Lightning shouted at him. She was pretty sure he heard her. He even shifted his head towards her to acknowledge her existence and yet he continued down his path, acting like he was even deterred in the first place. Lightning sped up, reaching the ground in a matter of seconds. She ran towards him and tackled him, making the both of them fumble to the part of the forest that wasn't burning. "What the hay are you doing?" she asked. The stallion got up, looking angry. He tore off his hat, and threw it to the ground. He was about to say something, but he stopped himself. A little smile appeared on his face. "Lightning Dust. An entire country of ponies and I happen to run into you." "How did you know my name?" "That doesn't matter. My name is Arkane Vander." Lightning looked over the stallion. He had a head of black and red hair, his body was white with the a subtle hint of red. But the thing that caught her eye was his broken horn. This wasn't unheard of, but she hadn't seen anypony with an actual severed horn before. She couldn't help but stare, knowing full well it was very rude. "I can't help but notice that you're ogling at my missing appendage." The stallion said. Lightning said nothing. She just stared. The stallion kept his smile. "My horn." "What about it?" "Stop looking at it." Lightning awkwardly let out a little laugh. In her mind, every memory of her doing something stupid in her younger years somehow felt like professional aerial maneuvers compard to that. Lightning remembered the current situation. "You need to get out of here. You might-" In a matter of seconds, a tree fell to the ground. Lightning had years of aerial acrobatics under her belt, and yet she was defeated by a tree. The tree pinned her foreleg under it. The tree separated Arkane from Lightning, which made him have to jump over the log to do what he had to do. Arkane wasn't a very strong stallion, and he couldn't do magic without his horn. At least, not very well. Lightning's screams persisted as Arkane tried to figure out what to do. He tried lifting the tree up with his own strength, but he couldn't manage to lift it one inch. He tried to push the idea of using his weak magic. It wouldn't work, and it would probably end up with tragic consequences. But what else could he do? Arkane walked over to the pegasus. "Lightning!" "Arkane! It hurts. It hurts." She struggled to speak as her cries of pain were constantly interrupting her. "I know it does. But right now, you have to listen to me. I'm going to try and use magic on this tree." "How? Your horn is broken!" "My magic is very weak. If I do this right, I can lift the tree off of your leg and we can go get help." "No! No, we can't do that!" "And why not?" He raised an eyebrow. "We just can't." "Listen, help is what you need most. Something bad could happen to you if we don't do that." "I don't care! You can't make me go there." Arkane growled in frustration. "I want to help you, but I can't do it if you won't cooperate." Lightning's persisted crying, sounding even worse than before. She must've done something to damage her leg even more. Arkane walked over to her. "You need to calm down." "I can't calm down!" "Please, you have to try." Lightning's cries got louder and louder, as well as Arkane's shouting. He couldn't handle anymore shouting from either of them, so he stepped in front of her, holding her head with a firm grip. "Let me go!" She tried her best to get away from him. She threw several kicks to his body, a failed attempt at a headbutt, biting, and a plethora of physical infliction, but he stood as stoic as a royal guard. "Look at me," he politely asked of her. As Arkane expected, Lightning looked away from him, fighting back another wave of tears. "Look at me. Please." "Why?" "I need you to trust me on this." "Trust you?! I barely know you!" She started to thrash around. Her eyes shut tight. "Look at me!" Arkane shouted. Lightning nearly jumped at his sudden force. She opened her eyes and turned to him, ever so slowly. She took a gander at his beaming, beige eyes. "I want you to hold me. I want you to hold onto me until you feel your fear, your anger, your sadness, every emotion that you have, slip away from you. Until you feel safe in my grasp. Will you do that?" Lightning felt her tears vanish. She didn't know why she held onto him, but she did nonetheless. She put her hooves around his body. Arkane felt warm. She seemed to fit in his grip perfectly. She closed her eyes once more. Along with the sound of magic in her ear, there was also the sound Arkane's voice. "Sleep," he said in a whisper. Lightning could feel the tree lift from her leg. Arkane repeatedly said sleep as each moment passed by. Lightning started to feel tired. His charms were working. Lightning drifted into sleep. Lightning slowly awoke. The first thing she did was examine her smashed hoof. Luckily for her, she didn't have to see the damage that the tree did. It was bandaged up and hanging from a little string. A few minutes passed, and Lightning wasn't exactly enjoying the experience. She didn't have a roommate on the other side of the curtain, so she didn't have anypony to talk to. Until her door opened. "I see you're doing well." It was the stallion from last night. Lightning wasn't sure how to react. A part of her wanted to give him a big hug, but the other part wanted him to leave. She decided to ask him a question. "How did you know my name?" "Pardon?" Arkane asked. "My name, how did you know it?” “Like I said. It doesn’t matter.” "You don't just know my name and act like it's not a big deal. I want a straight answer. How did you know my name?" Arkane got closer to her bed. "There are some things in this world that are better left unknown. That question is one of them." Lightning scoffed. She had the feeling that she would find out sooner or later. 'Maybe it was because of the tornado incident. Maybe it got spread around.' "Now I have to go. There are some things that I have to do," he said. "Get well soon." He walked outside the door. "Wait!" Lightning called. Arkane walked back inside. "Am I going to see you again?" He didn't say anything. He walked back outside. His hoofsteps eventually faded away, but were replaced by others. Except these were lighter and a tad bit faster. 'Must be a doctor,' she thought to herself. She fell back to her bed, only to come right back up when she realized who was standing in the doorway. "Rainbow Dash!”
Chapter 3Lightning Dust backed away slowly. She felt the eyes of the worried bypassers. Eyes. Digging into her back, like needles. Large, uncleansed needles. She wanted to get out of there as fast as she could before somebody who recognized her would speak up. Arkane Vander- the one who she met outside of the Seren- stood up slowly. He looked over her, dirt smothering his face. “You really need to stay away from trees.” He walked closer to her for some reason, maybe to hold onto her because he was hurt or walking was difficult for him. Before he got a hold of her shoulder, she stepped back. He fell to the ground, groaning when he hit the ground. Lightning almost felt sorry for him. "Well, that was rude." He started to stand. Lightning looked up, seeing the other Arkane quickly sizing her up, with a face that was a mix of emotions. Happy, angry, distraught. His hands were clenched together like there was about to be a very big fight. As he got closer and closer, Lightning felt as if he was going to strike her for some reason. She nearly stepped back, but then he suddenly calmed himself down. “I’m sorry about what you just saw,” he said with a straight face. “I have this... problem. I have some trouble controlling my emotions. So...” Lightning cocked her head, still a little afraid that he was going to do something to her. Lightning felt someone touching her shoulder. She turned around to see the Arkane that she met in the forest. “Hey, I’m-” His mouth instantly snapped shut and his eyes went wide. Like an attacker was approaching his hiding place and he was holding in his breath. The earth pony stared strangely at... Lightning didn’t even know if either of them were telling the truth at this point. The unicorn's surprised remained on his face. "Something wrong?" the earth pony asked the unicorn. The unicorn shook his head, clearing up any surprise that he still had on his face. "No... just... startled. That tree came out of nowhere." he softly chuckled to himself. "Indeed it did, mr..." The unicorn was caught off guard by the question. "...Word. Spoken Word." The two bumped hooves. While the earth pony sported a calm, collected look, "Spoken Word" looked nervous. He looked like he was about to fall over and pass out. "Well," Lightning interrupted the silence, "Word, thanks for saving me from that tree. And... Arkane. Nice meeting you. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to leave." She walked away, her pacing growing in speed the farther away she was from the two stallions. Her goal to find Rainbow Dash was replaced by a sense of dread. I need to get away from those two. What did she just say? Arkane Vander, the real Arkane, stared at the earth pony who claimed that he was Arkane Vander. The earth pony was tall. A little taller than other earth ponies. His skin was a sickly yellow, his mane brown like the bark of an oak-tree. It was different than how the earh pony used to style. It had yellow streaks in it and looked like he had spent all morning getting it ready. But... it was still him. It was Arkane Vander’s older brother. Gild Vander. After all these years, he didn’t look any different. Like he didn’t age at all. Arkane wanted to strangle him. But he kept his calm. If he wanted to kill him, he would have, but this wasn't the time, nor place. But where is a good place and when is a good time to commit fratricide? “Pleasure meeting you.” Arkane turned around and walked away. He knew not where he was going to go next, but it had to be somewhere other than Alcrep. How could she get away just like that!? Gild nearly screamed as he stormed away. He mumbled obscenities to himself as he bumped into pony after pony. In his anger, he found himself in the outskirts of town. There was a part of the Everfree Forest that was burnt to a crisp. People were looking over the remains of the forest, too busy to watch as ponies snuck off into the other part of the Everfree. Luckily for him, his cave wasn’t in that area. He made sure that he was free of gazing eyes and slinked into the forest. Gild entered the cave, muttering to himself. He punched and kicked the rock walls and yelled. As he began calming down, he heard a quiet buzzing in his ear. It was dark, so he couldn’t see the small fly land on his shoulder. “Is this what you've been driven to? Throwing tantrums like a child?" the fly said. "I found her. I found Lightning." The fly didn't say anything more. "And she got away! I could have taken her right then and right there, but she got away!" "Well, why didn't you take her?" "I can't just take somebody in broad daylight! I don't need people following me." The fly sighed. It flew off of him and landed on a nearby wall. "Do you remember the first day we met each other?" Gild grunted. "You were much like you are now. A child at the ripe age of twenty-five, thrust into a world of pain and loss. You were lost. And then we met each other." Gild let out several deep breaths to calm himself down. "You were strong. You had so much potential. And now look at you." Gild was suddenly thrown to the ground. He yelped in pain like a dog. "Instead of fulfilling your promise to me, you spend your time... defiling mares." "No need to slap such nice words onto the word 'rape.'" he suddenly screamed out in pain. "Lucky for you, that's my breaking point for my powers. If I were stronger, you would be experiencing neverending pain." "You have the power to kill me. Why don't you just use it, you coward!?" "I need somebody to get me the Didec. I can't do it on my own." "We've searched for years, and we have found nothing. Do you even know if the Didec exists. You're just like my brother, obsessing over that stupid myth!" "It's much, much more than just a petty bedtime story. I've seen it for myself. And it's much more real than you can ever hope to imagine." "I'll believe it when I see it! Now let me go!" The pain alleviated from Gild. He stood up and brushed himself off. "I can kill, you know." "That may be true, but I can keep coming back. You couldn't get away from me if you tried." Gild growled. He was almost tempted to kill him without a moments notice just so that he could get a few days without him. He would be able to get some time to himself for a while. Find some girls, have his... fun time with them. "Sickening." The fly commented. "Stop doing that." Gild had fogotten that the fly could read his mind. "...We can't keep doing nothing. We have to get the Didec!" "If we haven't found it by now, what makes you think that we can ever find it?" "I can feel it-" "Oh, you can feel it? That feeling of yours has been about as effective as an axe without its blade!" Gild felt that pain again. Only this time it was within his head. The pain grew larger and larger until it felt like somebody was cutting through it. He cluthced his head and screamed. Falling to the ground, he cradled his head. Among his screams and cries, he managed to croak out barely comprehensible words. "W-when did y-y-you learn how to do t-that?" "All of these powers I have in my possession, and they're all useless. I will be killed again and again, and I'll never fulfill my plans. My plan will never work." Gild, still huddled up in a ball, had no other choice than to listen to the fly. "It's near. And-" the fly moaned with pleasure, laughing all the while, "You're going to like this." "What?" "Your brother bears it." Gild raised an eyebrow. "You can't be serious. I haven't seen that bastard in years." Gild almost smiled. Oh the things he was going to do to him when he saw him. He still fantasized about the slow and painful torture he had in mind for him. "On the contrary, Gild, I have never been more serious in my entire life. And trust me, I've lived a long life." Disbelief flashed across Gild's face. He almost scoffed. It explained the brute force and anger Arkane had shown all of those years ago. It explained how he burned down his old house with just a single step, how he brought his parents to their knees. How he killed them without showing a single emotion. He should have made the connection long ago, but when you have a fly making most of the decisions for you for a good portion of your life, most of what you think of is how many different ways you can kill him. "Then we should get a move on." "Good." Before Gild could leave the cave, the fly called out to him once again. "Go ahead and bring a girl home with you." Gild flashed a smile. "Thank you, Ortiz." At last, it was found. Ilidan's house loomed over Lightning like an abusive father. The house cast a large shadow over her, encasing her in an invisible cage of fear and insecurity. Lighting had trouble letting her wings out. She was afraid the house would shoot her down the moment she lifted herself off of the ground. They quivered along with the rest of her body. It took a little while, but they were extended, but not prepped for flight. They were as stiff as a board. Their weight became almost unbearable to carry as she got in her pre-flight stance. Her legs refused to jump into the air. Come on, Lightning. You have to do this, Lightning thought. If you don't do it now, when will you? A small feeling of courage came upon her. She jumped in the air, flapping her wings. Once she flapped. Then twice. Then three times. She was high enough to see Ilidan's front door. Despite the look of the house on the ground, the front door looked inviting. Like it was begging for people to come knocking. It looked so inviting, that the door seemed to possess a type of magic that attracted her to the door. Lightning's hoof landed on Rainbow's front porch. She examined the cloud floor beneath her foot. Even when she was but a little girl, the fact that Pegasi could walk on the clouds and look down upon the earth was magical to her. She felt it was something that most Pegasi took for granted. It was something unique about their race, it was something special. She took the time to appreciate the magic that was standing on a cloud. Putting one hoof in front of the other, she walked to Rainbow's front door. Without so much as thinking of what she was going to say, Lightning knocked on the door. Lightning froze. She was as cold as freshly fallen snow, as stiff as a bone, and as scared as a child of what unholy creature might lurk within its closet. Seconds passed. No answer. More seconds passed. Still no answer. Lightning tried to convinced herself that Ilidan wasn't home. But her body wouldn't move. Her muscles were locked in that position, not able to move until the lock is removed by somebody. The door opened slowly. Rainbow Dash stood at the door, drying her wet body with a towel. Lightning stepped back slightly. "What, do you have a problem with a mare dryin' herself after a shower?" Lightning blushed a little. "I'll come back later. I can see that you're busy." "Oh no, it's perfectly fine. Come on in, make yourself at home!" Rainbow Dash grabbed Lightning by the hoof, dragging her inside her abode. She could feel her wings beginning grow. Her heart was beating faster than a hummingbird's wings. Her wings haven't done that in some time. Lightning thought that those feelings were pushed away a long time ago. And for the first time since the training camp, she felt those feelings creep across her like a shiver in her back. And she didn't know if she should push them away like she did whenever those feelings showed up, or if she should let it control her. No! she screamed at herself. I am not that pony anymore. I am straight, straight as a board! Rainbow Dash threw Lightning onto a couch. As Lightning sat herself up, Rainbow Dash began unwrapping her towel. "I'm going to put this away, then we'll talk." Rainbow left the room. Lightning could feel her face changing color from its usual green, to red hot. As she stared at Rainbow's wet body, she tried not to show signs of arrousel on her face. No no no no no no! With a war of emotions happening inside of Lightning's head, she managed to keep herself level-headed and as tranquil as a lake at night. She breathed in, holding it in for two seconds, then let it out. She repeated this process for several minutes until Rainbow Dash finally appeared. And she wasn’t helping. Rainbow's rainbow mane was wet, and it made her look even better than she normally did. Lighting felt her eyes start to fly south from her head. Her hooves started shaking, her heart was racing faster than she could comprehend. Lust was becoming her only priority. Stop! Stop it, that's not who you are anymore! "So, what's up?" Lightning shook her head. She had to get this over with, and she had to do it now. "I came by because I... I-" "You want to apologize." Lightning looked up. "How did you-" "It doesn't take a detective to find out that wings are used for flying. I mean, come on, we've only met each other twice, including now, and on that day you happened to screw up and nearly hurt my friends. We never saw each other after that. Until today." Lightning smiled slightly. "Does that mean I can skip all the "I'm sorry" junk?" Rainbow Dash only smiled. In an instant, Lightning felt like tearing up. The weight that had been pressed onto her shoulders was finally alleviated. Lightning felt alive again. She felt that she could fly forever. Lightning threw her hooves around Rainbow Dash, giving Rainbow a very tight hug. Ranbow returned the hug, but struggled in doing so. "Thank you." Lightning said, tears streaming down her face. "No. It should be me thanking you." Lyra and Bon-Bon walked into the night, laughing. They could be heard from all of the corners of Equestria with their noise. "No, the funniest thing was when Derpy accidentily shouted that she had a huge crush on Time Turner. And then everything just went quiet, Time Turner started turning red, and then she just took the muffin she was eating and straight up walked out!" Bon-Bon said loudly. "Or what about when Octavia started laughing like a maniac when Vinyl had to fold. Vinyl and Octavia take that game too seriously!" Lyra said. "I guess we can just agree that it was a hilarious night altogether." Lyra and Bon-Bon sighed as they left the apartment of Octavia and Vinyl, going back to their own. It was only a couple blocks away, not more than ten minutes away. Too Bon-Bon it felt too long. To Lyra, it felt too short. "So... Do you think Time Turner and Derpy will start going steady?" Lyra asked. "I don't know. It could happen." "I think they should, they'd make a great couple. Kind of like... we were." "Would you stop bringing that up!" Bon-Bon shouted. Lyra backed away, shocked by her sudden expression of rage. "Bo-" "Quit acting like we're going to get back together, like it was just a fight! There's more to it than that!" Lyra, feeling her tears beginning to surface, said nothing as Bon-Bon calmed herself down. "I'm sorry." Lyra dashed off into the night, leaving behind the mare that broke her heart. She suddenly stopped, finding herself in a spot of town that she didn't go to as often. The more shady part of Alcrep. While the town had almost no crime at all, this part looked like where crime would happen if it was to take place. Lyra put a little more caution into each of her steps from then on. Every strange noise not coming from her made her jump. The shadows coming from the streetlights surrounded her like a cobra, preparing to strike her at a moments notice, without hesitation. Lyra illuminated the path before her with her magic, still being cautious to every nook and cranny that she happened upon. Then from out of nowhere, a loud crash erupted from an alley-way, making Lyra scream. She looked into the alley-way, expecting a cat coming out of a trash can. But instead, she saw a stallion on the ground clutching his hoof and letting out groans of pain. "Oh my Celestia, are you okay?" "Get me to a hospital! Somebody stabbed me!" Lyra rushed to the downed stallion. "Let me see where you're hurt." The stallion stood up, letting her see his chest. She saw no sign of injury, not even a scar. "You're not hurt." "But you will be." In a split second, the stallion hit Lyra on the head with a trash lid. She fell to the ground, unconcious before she even hit the ground. That's what the man thought of her as a doll. A doll he'll play with until she breaks. "Time to take you home and show you to Ortiz! He'll love you!"
Chapter 4Red. Everything was blood red. The color was everywhere, almost completely clouding his vision. All he could see was red, no matter which direction he pointed his eyes. He couldn't move nor even speak. It was like he had a gag in his mouth and a blindfold over his eyes. Arkane could feel something cold on both of his wrists. It felt metallic and heavy. He also took notice that he was knelt down in a puddle of... something. He felt like his entire body was being restrained by chains of an unbreakable metal that locked his muscles in place. His entire body felt like he had spent hours trying to break free of the chains, maybe even days trying to escape. There were noises. Above him, noises, loud noises were ringing. They sounded like sound would if he was the bottom of a pool. A shallow, red colored pool. The noises were loud, loud enough to cloud what they really were. None of the noises sounded familiar. Is it alarms? Is it screaming? Machinery? He thought. The only word he could think of to describe them was loud. The cloudy red vision and the noises never ceased. They only seemed to intensify as the seconds grew into minutes, with the minutes growing into hours, and the hours growing into days. Years seemed to pass as the noises grew so loud, he could barely hear himself try to form a coherent thought. Somehow, someway, the red was becoming as black as the night itself. His vision slowly became clearer. He could detect shapes, patterns, movement. And even different colors. There was now orange, yellow, green, grey, and even white. More complicated colors came into the fray, but red was still the main color he could see. Ceaseless red. Unforgiving red. The sounds were becoming clearer as well. There was the crackle, snap, and the pop of fire all around him, the shaking of the earth around him, the voice in the back of his head, congratulating him. The slow drip of liquid falling to the floor right in front of him. Screams coming from all around him He knew not where he was. The place was alien to him, like a new smell, a new face even. Rocks were everywhere, vibrating slightly. The entire room was shaking. He could feel himself shaking with the earth. The only movement he could make, and he couldn't even control it. He almost started crying. Movement would have been like a delicious meal. If only the waiter would bring it to him instead of just stand in front of him. He quickly took notice of the sudden waiter standing before him. The waiter stood in front of Arkane with the meal on a pan, four feet in front of him. Each of hi bodily functions was being the devoured by the waiter, who laughed over his full mouth. With each bite he inhaled, the more stone like Arkane felt he was becoming. Stone. Meant to stay in one formation, never allowed to move, never allowed to change unless it was crushed. Stone. There stone spires stabbing through the waiter. Arkane realized that there was not a waiter standing in front of him. There was no waiter eating away his movement. That would have been preferable to what he saw before him. Instead of a figure wearing nice attire, Arkane was greeted by a dark figure who was wearing torn up rags that nopony would even think about calling clothes. The dark figure merely stood there. He was looking down at the floor, his arms positioned in a way to make him look like he was playing an instrument in his hooves. There were three stone spires through his body. Arkane could see them for a brief moment before, but now they were there to stay. There was one going through the middle of his chest, one stabbing his ribcage, and the last one going through his stomach. His left hoof looked like it was holding the neckboard of the cello and his right hoof was holding the bow. He was stuck like that. Forever. There was blood everywhere. On the ground, on the rocks, on the figure before him, even on himself. Without any say in the matter, his head looked to his arms. There were two rusty chains holding him down, but they were loose enough to let him moves his arms around a little bit. They seemed looser than before. There was something clutched in each hoof. In one hoof, there were entrails. They were squishy like a dog once you've squeezed it hard enough. He played with them in his hoof like it was clay or putty. In his other hoof, there was a knife. A knife with a wooden handle and a resplendent red jewel on the tip of the handle. The blade was beaming like it was a child who learned something new. It was stained with blood. He couldn't help but smile as he raised the knife up to his mouth and licked the delicious liquid off of the blade. He couldn't help but moan as the liquid entered his mouth. He stroked the knife with so much ferocity he might as well have been a dog licking himself. The knife was licked clean. He could see himself in the blade's reflection. His black and red hair wet with the blood of the figure before him, his white skin stained with lacerations and specs of blood. His eyes were closed in the reflection. How can I see myself when my eyes are closed? He thought to himself. His eyes opened, revealing piercing, yellow eyes. His skin was turning a pallid grey. A pony that he didn't recognize looked directly to him. "Tasty." Arkane Vander screamed as he awoke. The moonlit sky shone through the cracks in the cave, shining soft light into his eyes. He sat up, throwing his hooves around like they were stuck in a hurricane. He realized that he was almost completely alone in the damp cave. The key word being "almost." "You know, if you had only told me that you would get that scared, I would have gone just a bit easier on you." Arkane didn't say a word. Lying down, he adjusted the torn blanket into a more comfortable position. Assuming that the blanket was more comforting than it really was. He turned over and close his eyes tightly. He shut his ears with his hooves, almost crushing his brain with them. "Like that will do you any good." The other presence laughed at him with a sickly smooth laugh that would break a broken heart even more. Arkane took several deep breaths. As loudly as he could, he let a breath out of his mouth. What he would give for a timber wolf or a bear, even a hydra would be perfectly welcome to come by and kill him. They would have been a much better fate than having to listen to this psychopath. "Oh come on, big brother, I wanna go out and play. You can sleep when you're dead. Or when Gild is dead." "Shut up! Just shut up already." "You have gone zero days without speaking to me. And you were doing so well, to. You almost broke your previous record of five months!" Arkane stood up. He walked around the cave, kicking around a stone. This thing in his head was his other personality. It showed up two years ago after he lost his horn at... the cave. Even thinking about that cave was hard for him. Normally on any other occasion, sleeping anywhere near a cave would be way beyond the question. But tonight, he was desperate for a place to sleep. He had no bits to rent a hotel room for the night, so a cave and the blanket he always carried with him would be good enough. He slept close to the entrance. Just in case. Just in case it devoured him. "Let's go outside. Gild has to be around somewhere, I just know it." His other personality begged. "We're not going anywhere. So long as I'm in control, we're staying right here in this cave.” “That can be easily rectified.” Arkane looked at his body. Instead of the white hue he was so used of seeing, there was the same pallid grey that he saw in his dream. It creeped its way up Arkane’s legs, surfing across his entire body. Arkane focused everything he had into stopping the other one from taking over. Pretty soon, the grey faded off of his body, reverting back to his white skin. “Unfair. You’re stronger than I am.” Arkane fell back to the ground, tired from the mental battle he just fought. He shut his eyes and threw the blanket back over him. “If you won’t let me take over, then the least you could do for me is give me a name.” Arkane shut his eyes, cracking them open every now and again. “Come on, a name is the most powerful thing an Equestrian, or any species, can give.” “That’s why I’m not going to give it to you.” “Please. We can’t keep referring to me as the other presence. There has to be some kind of name out there for me." "Ask me again when you're out of my head." "But you can't get me out of your head. You tried. A lot." "Don't remind me. And you're not getting a name." "But daaaaad." "Do you ever shut up?" "I will never shut up. At least, not until I get my name." "How about no name. It's quite fitting if you ask me." "That's not a really name. I want something cool, like the name you came up with to hide yourself from Gild. Leider. Yeah, Leider, I want that!" "How about we call you nothing, and stick with it." "I wanna be Leider, I wanna be Leider, I wanna be Leider!" "Fine, fine! From now on, I will call you Leider." Leider didn't say anything else. By the sound of his silence, he could tell that Leider was smiling.
Chapter 5The sun rose over the mountains, casting its rays of light on the world below it. It cast its watchful eye over the populace, making sure that nopony would be harmed under its watch. It was like a peaceful guardian and a beautiful caretaker. The gentle light shone on Lightning's face, stirring her awake from her slumber. The blankets she wore and the pillow that she wore a top her head fell to the ground as she rolled around on the couch like a dog rolling around on the ground for no particular reason. And like a dog, she stretched off the sleep in her eyes. To truly make her ready to face the day ahead of her, she did a couple excercizes to top it all off. Lightning stood back up in breathed in that refreshing smell of a clean conscious like it was a cigarette. The only difference being that a clean conscious won't kill you. Lightning felt great. She finally had a good nights rest, the first one in a very, very long time. Finally she could lay her head on a pillow and not have to worry about the night terrors invading her dreams like they were a pack of UFO's. The days in the future felt brighter than they ever had. And for the first time in her life, there was nothing stopping them. When Lightning scanned the walls for a clock, she jolted when she saw just what time it was. Just about a quarter after twelve. Lightning had slept longer than she thought she was going to. If she didn't get going soon, then there was going to be quite the brujaja at home. “You’re up early,” Rainbow Dash said from the shadows of a corridor. She had a bad case of bed-head and bags were forming under her eyes. “It's noon,” Lightning said, furling her eyebrows. “I’m guessing you didn’t sleep well?” “Not really. A bad case of insomnia.” “That sucks.” Lightning stepped closer, pulling her into a friendly embrace. Rainbow put one hoof around her, resting her chin on Lightning's shoulder. “You know, you don't have to go so soon. At least stay for breakfast..." Rainbow stared up at the clock." Or lunch. Maybe a quick flying session?" That almost tempted her. "No, I'd hate to be more of a bother than I already am. Besides, I have to head back to Manehattan by tomorrow. I have some things I have take care of." "Alright," Rainbow said dejectedly. "But if you're ever in this part of Equestria again, just know you have a friend here." Lightning smiled. "I'll see you some other time." The two shared another embrace. Rainbow's cyan colored fur rubbed up against her turquoise fur, creating a welcomed feeling of acceptance and warmth. When she realized the hug went on for longer than it needed to, Lightning hurriedly broke it off. She barely managed to break it off before it got awkward. And luckily for her, her wings weren't as stiff as a board. "Whelp... I guess I'll see ya... later." "See ya on the flipside!" Rainbow shouted as Lightning stepped out of her front door. As the door shut behind her, the noise evaded Lightning's ears. There were so many things she didn't register, that she almost walked straight off the cloud. Oggling down at the ground, Lightning felt something new in her bones. Describing it was difficult to do, but the word that felt like it fit perfectly into the description came through the front door like an old friend. "Freedom." In a flurry of movements that didn’t remember doing, she found herself flying through the clouds like a Phoenix. She performed moves in the sky that had lost their magic over the past year-and-a-half. The faster she flew through the clouds, the farther her smile stretched across her face. She found words forming in her throat. Triumphant words, words of encouragement that had been long forgotten by her tongue. Words that once held some meaning to her in a deep, excitable way but had become dry and saline, caught in her epiglottis like bad food refusing to go down. As the cool, refreshing drink of forgiveness had been opened, its content began flowing out of the bottle and into a hungry pony’s mouth as she ecstatically drank after days without water. “WOOOOOOOOHHHH!” But with every glorious moment, it must end at some point. Sometimes by need to do what is more important, sometimes because of the rude intervention of somebody important- “Hayburger for a miss Lightning Dust!” Or sometimes by hunger. Lightning paid with the few bits that she had on her and began diving into the burger like it was her civic duty to devour it and its brethren until they were all memories of a fine and delicious past. The burger satisfied the monster in her stomach that was making that awful growling sound that pestered her since she left Rainbow Dash's house. Finally it would be silenced by a daily sacrifice. A moment of bliss passed through the area as she chewed on her food. Lightning could feel the world around her forget about all of its problems. Wars became talk of the past, petty rivalry between species turned into a constant stream of friendly compliments from random ponies everyday, violence turned into hoofshakes and friendly conversation, and the hungry had plenty enough to eat at all times. Her father was a kind soul instead of a faceless man she hardly knew anymore, and her mother wasn't afraid of her own shadow. She forgot about the specific time she had to be home by. She sat back in her chair, flipping the bird to her father who was miles away. Only a world like this existed when Lightning was merely a little filly. As she grew up, the world became rougher and rougher, never seeming to realize its own mistakes, or even bothering to make up for them. It only looked at those mistakes and lightly kicked them under the couch. "Lightning!" The temporary bliss suddenly disappeared when a voice she didn't recognize erupted from out of nowhere. As she was suddenly shaken out of her utopia, she nearly fell out of her chair. She regained her composure after a second and took back her grasp on the cold reality. "Hey, Lightning!" Lightning groaned quietly when she recognized the voice. Arkane Vander. The earth pony Arkane Vander. Was Arkane Vander really that good of a name? Lightning found herself thinking. It sounds ridiculous. It's like somepony thought of the name while drunk and didn't even give it a second thought. An earth pony suddenly sat himself on the spare chair that the table had. As he sat, Lightning felt the earth around her shake and tremble. The earth pony had quite the muscle build and rugged body shape that seemed to take up space and air. Veins popped through his greenish-brown fur. Lightning felt like she would be sucked into mouth if he just breathed a little too deeply. The parts of him that tried to be handsome, were tripping over themselves trying to show-off. She didn't seem to notice all of this the first time she met him because it was awfully clouded by his strange behavior and... interesting social strategies. She looked at his face, seeing this look of anger covered up by a sorrowful smile that made him seem like he was hiding his real emotions. Perhaps it was the “unable-to-control-emotions” illness he was trying to tell her about. If there was such an illness. It seemed more like “a-thing-that-I-made-up-so-that-ponies-will-feel-sorry-for-me" kind of illness. "How are you?" he said as if he was asking for the second time. "Um... good. A bit shaken up by the... incident earlier. But, other than that... I'm doin' good." "Okay. Good to know that you're fine." "Thanks... Arkane?" "Oh, no. I'm really sorry about that. I was actually just thinking of a guy I met when I came here. And I guess that came out instead. I hope you've gathered that I'm not exactly, "right" in the head." He tapped his head with his hoof and gave a small laugh. "Not very much going on up there." Lightning uncomfortably laughed. She was unsure of if she was supposed to say something or just say nothing. As much as she wanted to say nothing, a nagging feeling in the back of her head told her not to be rude. Gild seemed to notice this, and decided to try and change the subject. "No, my actual name is Gild. For real, this time." "Alright. Nice to... meet you... for the first time." Take her! Take her right now! It doesn't matter that there are ponies around, just grab her by the mane and drag her to the cave. If you don't take the opportunity right now, you'll never get another one! Gild shoved away the temptation. As badly as he wanted to take her at that exact moment, he knew that there had to be a connection first. Some casual conversation. Something, anything, to make her have an excuse to go away with him. Then, when she least expects it, he would go for the neck. "I see that you're not too much of an upperclass gal." Lightning wiped whatever was on her face. It was a ketchup stain, smeared across her face like she had just devoured a squirrel. Gild felt something rising in his southern area of his personal body map. Just the look of Lightning licking her own blood off of her body made his mind run wild. Gild resisted the urge to lick his lips. "Professional as well." "Ha ha," Lightning laughed weekly. It was like she was giving up the more and more she laughed. Gild felt a nice silence overcome them. Lightning's eyes darted to and fro, trying to look for a way out of this situation. When he finally gets his dirty hooves on her, there would be no way out for her. Carefully, he slipped his hoof under the table as Lightning tried her damnedest to try and avoid eye contact with him. The table was the perfect length. He could move his legs around under there and not have to bend over to touch her. Gild could feel the warmth of her flesh as he drew nearer and nearer. If he could just touch her in such a way that she'd feel like she had a bug on her leg or just an inch, it would have been perfect. Her tender skin was right in his reach. It could have been his if not for the castrated shout of the little dreck he was supposed to be focusing on. "Hey, do you mind if I join you two?" Gild's muscles clenched, and his teeth instinctively began to grind. Suddenly, the voice he didn't recognize became all too familiar to him. Like an annoying child in his school class whose voice could be heard in a crowded Manehattan city street. "Lightning," he greeted. "...Arkane." Gild threw away his previous intentions to obtain Lightning. All he wanted to do was smash this little dreck's face into some glass for endless hours. He wanted to lick his blood and cut open his body with the bloodied glass. Ortiz better give me something great for killing him. Made it just in time. Arkane grabbed an extra chair from an empty table. He sat himself down as close to Lightning as he could, placing both of his elbows on the table and put both of his hooves under his chin in a lovestruck ten-year-old kind of way. "Actually, my name is Gild. Sometimes, words come out without my... permission," Gild said, clearly cross about Arkane's interruption. Arkane felt those words strike him in the gut. Go figure. He's still angry about that. "Ms. Dust, how are you?" "Good," she said, slowly scooting her chair farther from the both of them. "Welp, I think I made this a bit more awkward." Gild nodded his head slowly. Arkane could almost feel Gild's muscles tearing as he tensed them up. "Excuse me," said the waiter, bringing two more menus for the unexpected customers. "Would you two like something to eat as well?" the waiter asked. "Sure. Get me a stack of hay-fries," Gild said. "...I'm sorry, you'll have to wait for a little while for that order." Gild let out a long, angry sigh. "How about a hayburger?" "Alright, what kind?" "Surprise me." "Sir, you're going to have to be specific. We can't-" "Just get me the damn burger." "Could you please be a little civilized, sir? This is a family establishment." As Gild and the restaurant shared an argument like an old married couple, Arkane turned to face Lightning. She tapped the table, looking around and staring at the ponies watching Gild make a ruckus. Arkane felt like she was trying to find the perfect opportunity to bolt it out of there and leave this place. At least, that's what Arkane assumed she was doing. It would've made his job a lot easier. Then again, she might have been trying to think of some kind of icebreaker so this wouldn’t be as awkward as it she made it out to be. As much as he wanted it to be some kind of awkward meeting between three ponies, he had something important he needed to do, and he wasn't going to let the space of confusion hinder him from his goal. "Lightning, listen to me," Arkane said suddenly. He managed to startle Lightning Dust. "Gild is very dangerous. As soon as you get the chance, I need you to get out of here and leave this town." "Why?" "Did you not hear me? He's dangerous, and he's going to hurt you. I don't know what he's going to do, but he's going to hurt you. I just know it." Lightning furled her brow. "I think you're thinking a bit too much about this. He's weird, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't mean he's a psychopath.” If only you knew. "Look, do you have anything?" Gild asked the waiter. "We have some meat and potatoes. Would you like that?" Gild said, angered yet controlled. "...Sure. I'll take the meat and potatoes." "Any sides?" Gild sighed. “He might be a bit weird, but it’s not like he was born that way.” That made Arkane stop to think. For as long as he knew Gild, he couldn’t remember a time in his life when Gild was ever... nice. He never even thought that that word could be associated with him. It sounded so foreign and tasted so weird in his mouth. To even say that word in the same sentence as Gild made Arkane feel uncomfortable. Even saying “Gild isn’t nice,” felt wrong in a way. It was almost as strange as that pink mare he met yesterday. I can’t believe this. After all these years, he's still got me like putty in his hooves. “You don’t know him like I know him.” “And how do you know him? Did you meet him one day and think he was some kind of rapist?” “No, I-” “As far as I know, you could have met him yesterday, you judgemental prick!” Arkane slouched over a little more in his chair. He growled. Maybe I should let Gild have her... "I am dead serious. He's going to hurt a lot of ponies, and you can be sure that he'll hurt you to. Get as far away from this place as you can and don't come back." "Calm down. It's not like-" "Sir, you're going to need to calm down." The waiter was still having a quarrel with Gild. "I am calm. If you would just get me what the buck I want, then I'll have a reason to calm down." "Sir, please. You're causing a-" Gild grabbed him by the neck and pulled him in, up close and personal. "Causing a what?! A commotion?! If a commotion is what you want, a commotion is what you'll get!" Gild hurled the waiter at Arkane. The waiter was painfully close to striking Arkane, but the waiter whizzed passed and struck a nearby wall. The waiter struggled to get back on his hooves, straining and grunting in pain as his feet slipped on nothing. When he did, the waiter hobbled away as fast as he could. Gild slammed his hoof against the table. The glass shattered into several hundred pieces. Lightning got up from her seat and started backing away. Arkane put his guard up as Gild picked up a shard of glass from the ground. “You’re coming with me!” Gild shouted at Lightning. Gild lunged at Lightning, grabbing her by the mane and sticking the make-shift knife into Lightning's front leg. Lightning fruitlessly tried to strike his hoof away, but the more she struggled the more fun he decided to have with her. Along with her other front leg, he also stabbed her hind leg. Moving the glass up towards her hips, he stroked the other leg with his bloodied hooves. Lightning screamed in horrifying agony, but was cut short when Gild put his other hoof over her mouth. He licked his lips, breathing in that fresh smell of blood. Gild leaned in and kissed Lightning on the cheek. Her skin was soft, and tasted so good. The fun was over. Gild put her up on all fours and drug her away. Arkane barreled toward him with a hint of hesitation. He barreled into Gild, but only managed to make him take a step back. He dropped the glass and picked up Arkane. Tossing him as far as he could, Gild bent back down and picked up the knife. He shoved Lightning into the wall, pinning up a wing up against the wall and stuck the glass in her wing. Before Lightning could even scream, Gild stuck a hoof over her mouth. "Don't you go anywhere," Gild said, shaking a finger in front of her face. Arkane threw pointless punch after pointless punch at Gild. Gild was a hulking tower made of iron and Arkane was just a sledge hammer. “You’re just as weak as I remember you!” Gild swung his first punch. Arkane managed to slip by it by some miracle. Arkane could see an image of his head smashed into small bits and pieces in his mind. Arkane only had one chance to subdue him. That’s all he needed to do. But... Without even thinking, Arkane’s fist struck Gild in the gut. Though he felt like it had the same force as Arkane turning a page, Gild bent over, opening another opportunity to hit him again. Arkane uppercutted Gild, successfully making him stumble back and fall over. You’re going to slow. Let me take over from here... Arkane watched as his skin began slowly rotting away into a decaying gray. He couldn’t stop himself. All of his self control was thrown across the room, and he could feel himself transforming. He felt something growing on top of his head. With his last few moments of self-control, he felt where his horn used to be. Leider's horn stuck out like a needle in a thread. It was smooth, curved and felt brand new. “Your mind is disgusting. I’m going to take a little walk.” Lightning was losing consciousness. It hurt too much to crawl, walk, or to even move. The only thing she could do was flap her wing in the vain hope that the glass would dislodge from wall. Her body was in no shape to tug at something practically buried inside of a wall. That wasn't going to stop her, even though it hurt her more than anything she had ever experienced in her life. Her father's cold stare was suddenly looking pretty forgiving. What was that? Gild asked himself as he stood up. There’s no way... Suddenly, Arkane’s fur wasn’t white anymore. Instead, it was dark grey. It was as if Arkane was killed and left rotting in a coffin for months in a matter of seconds. Now Arkane was back as some kind of zombified version of himself. And just like a zombie, he could still be easily taken down by a crushing blow to the brain. However, this wasn't a zombie. It was just wearing Arkane's weak, skinny body like a coat. The body that cowered in fear when Gild's name was casually mentioned. Gild just knew that there was some leftover fear of him left in Arkane. There had to be. He could clearly see that while Arkane tried to fight him. "Just like old times, dreck. Me wailing on you, and you taking every punch like a slut taking a giant dick." Gild charged, his body ready for a classic beat down. He loaded up the cannon and gleefully let loose the cannon ball. Arkane caught Gild’s hoof. “My turn.” Gild watched in shock and awe as Arkane bent Gild's fist back. The crack of bone rang out, making itself be heard for miles in all directions. Arkane lifted Gild’s leg into the air and twisted it to the point where Gild was down on his knees. Before Gild could retaliate, Arkane lifted Gild off the ground, opening Gild up to a whole new idea of pain. Arkane went for the center of Gild's under-belly. The blackened hoof was like a swift sword sliding right through Gild like Gild was a piece of paper. Gild fell over, and his head hit the cement. Clutching his chest as the pain began taking its course, Gild writhed as Arkane lifted his hooves up to finish the job. Arkane picked him up with his telekinesis first. As Gild struggled against the invisible force, Arkane's horn lit up. Gray aura swirled around his horn. He put it up close to Gild's mouth and willed it open. Gild could feel something tugging at the inside of his mouth. Gild grimaced as Arkane yanked out two teeth without hesitating. "The reason you're bleeding is because you don't floss," Arkane said. Gild, trying to bite down, could only mutter and clench his jaw. Arkane's telekinesis held him still, but was faltering the longer Arkane used it. You can't be serious. "I'm not letting you control me." I am yanking out his teeth, can't you stay silent fo- AAHH! Arkane backed away, releasing Gild. Gild spat out blood and wiped some away from his mouth. Gild watched in amusement and disgust as Arkane clawed at his face and screamed. "AAAAHHHH!!" AAAAHHHH!! Gild saw the advantage. As if the battle was served to him on a silver platter, Gild ran to Arkane, arms outstretched and ready to swing at any time. Gild knew that Arkane could see him, but he was far too distracted by whatever was going on inside of his head. Gild punched his head so hard that some teeth of his own more than likely flew out of his own mouth. Gild didn't even see Arkane's skin turning back into its normal color. Gild stood over him, triumphant. Heavy breaths escaped his mouth and a smile found its way across Gild's mouth. "You put up a fight, little brother. But you'll never beat me." Gild spat on Arkane. He laughed as he walked away from him and towards Lightning. Arkane had failed to protect her. Gild still managed to get his sinful hooves on her, even though Arkane did everything he could against both Leider and Gild. Gravity was crushing him. Arkane struggled to even look up. But he managed to do so, even though he was in massive pain. He stared in terror as Gild picked up Lightning, squeezing her throat and smiling through lost teeth and blood. He grabbed the glass and yanked it out of the wall. Lightning's wing might have had that momentary release of pain, but the worse was yet to come. “Don't worry," Gild said. "I'll take you home where he can't hurt you." Gild shoved her up against the wall. Lightning only had a moment to look up into the sky. The sun. The sun had betrayed her. She blacked out as Gild was suddenly hurled back four yards.
