Return the Shadows

[Just switch out the reapers with quincies, the main cast with the mane six, and Ichigo with Night Shadow]

Two fingers were smacked on the top of Celestia's head. "OW!!" She rubbed her head in pain.

"How many times do I have to tell you? Call me 'Shiro'! Now, mind telling me why you seem to have a grudge with Chrysalis, Nulo?" Night Shadow asked while berating her.

Celestia was a little peeved that he was calling her that old name he always called her and her sister in the past, but she was more happy to have her old teacher back.

"Um, I can answer that uncle." He turned to the changeling in question. "Some time ago, I tried to take over Canterlot to harvest all the love for my subjects. We were desperate, we had no other-" She was cut off by a loud slap across her face and a deep scowl on Night's, making it look like a fierce glare. She cupped her cheek as it became red while her eyes teared up in shock. But she knew that look. This was the first time she ever got it, but she had seen it before.

Night wasn't pleased, not one bit.

"I'm disappointed in you. Have you forgotten EVERYTHING I taught you?!?! Diplomacy first, THEN last resorts!!!" Steam was puffing out of his nostrils, making him look much like a dragon.

Chrysalis was hurt, not her face, but her heart. She had never made him this angry before. She was about to break down again, but a pair of arms wrapping around her stopped that. "W-what?"

Night Shadow was dying inside. He had never struck his little Chrissy before, so it killed him when he did. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have hit you like that. While you still shouldn't have done what you did, I understand why you did it. You were scared. Without me to guide you, you felt like you were trapped and did what you thought was best for your subjects. I'm not happy that you tried to take over Canterlot, but I am proud that you thought of the well-being of your fellow changelings."

That truly broke the damn. Chrysalis just cried into his shoulder while choking out apologies, not just to Night Shadow, but to Celestia, Luna, and her changelings. Said changelings were confused as to why their queen was acting like this, but they were outraged when the strange stallion struck her. The second-in-command after their queen took matters into his ow hands. "That inferior creature's manipulating our queen!! Kill it and we can conquer Canterlot, then Equestria!!!"

OST

That snapped everypony out of their reunion, which pissed Night Shadow off to no end. "Just one fucking moment, is that too much to ask?!" He screamed to nopony in particular. He intercepted the attacking changelings, intent on teaching life's lesson number one; Don't piss off Night Shadow.

Each drone had a halberd and a short sword, but none of that concerned Night. In truth, he just saw them as a warm-up.

He caught the first by the halberd's staff, just below the blade, and ripped it out of it's owners grip. He slammed the flat side of the blade on the chest of the changeling, breaking it off and turning the weapon into a normal bo-staff. Night used his new weapon to knock out any changeling that got to close, giving the impression of a small herd a rabbits against a hungry wolf.

Twilight and her friends were still dumbstruck, wondering how a powerful enemy just became their greatest ally. Celestia cleared her throat, braking them out of their trance. "I can assume that you all have questions, right?" They all just nodded.

Twilight was the first to ask her questions. "Princess, just who is that and why did you call him 'Master'?!" Her eye was twitching and her mane was frizzed like she hadn't slept in days.

Rainbow was next. "And how come he's so strong?!"

Rarity spoke up. "And why did he protect Chrysalis?!"

Pinkie shot off. "And how come he was a meanie mcmean pants before, but now he's super coolieo?!"

"And why d-did he try to k...kill...Discord?" Fluttershy squeaked.

And finally, Applejack asked. "And why did my element float to him?!"

Celestia sweat-dropped. She loved her subjects, Twilight and her friends even more so, but sometimes they can be a little overwhelming. "In order? His name is Night Shadow, but his friends just call him Shadow. He was mine and Luna's sword instructor a thousand and fifty years ago. The reason he so strong is because he's a member of a near extinct race called Devil Ponies. They're masters of combat and tactical geniuses, often receiving general ranks in our military. They love to fight and can live for at least five hundred years before age sets in, then they have a hundred years left before they pass on. The reason why he protected her is a bit of a mystery to me. He was a 'meanie mcmean pants' before because of something Discord did, and he's 'super coolieo' now because he just mad. I cannot stress this enough my little ponies; DO NOT MAKE HIM MAD. I don't know why he tried to kill Discord. And the reason why your element of honesty floated to him is because he was the bearer of honesty before you, Applejack." She said in one breath.

Slack-jaws were the theme for the ponies, as all of them were blown back by the information given to them. They looked back to the one-sided fight to see the changelings were already beaten, groaning in pain, showing they were all still alive.

Standing there without a bead of sweat, Night huffed in annoyance. "As stress relieving as that was, I still have one more thing to take care of." He dropped the staff and disappeared again. Everypony heard a loud crash, but when they turn to the source, they were surprised and, at the same time, not surprised to see Discord on the floor with Night Shadow's claw around his throat, the other posed to strike. "I still have to make you pay."

Celestia and Luna were on him, trying to pry him off. "Shiro, please don't do it!! He's changed, I swear!!" Luna pleaded.

Before he could reply, Night felt a murderous aura in front of him. He raised his head to meet with one of Equestria's natural forces; Fluttershy's 'Stare'.

"How DARE you!! Just because he messed up in the past, doesn't mean you can kill him!!" She stared deep into Night's eyes, intent on making him back down.

"The Stare?! Fluttershy, isn't that a little extreme?!" Rarity pleaded with Fluttershy, knowing it was useless. But then something happened that, aside from Discord, they thought couldn't happen.

'The Stare' didn't work.

Night glared back with eyes promising death to all who stood in his way. "You can drop the act. My little brother was the last Element of Kindness and his glare was far more terrifying than what you're doing, and I was immune to that. What makes you think your little 'Stare' is going to do anything?" Fluttershy's rage died like a flame in water at that, causing her to cower under his gaze.

Night Shadow returned his attention back to Discord, who was trying, and failing, to get out of his grasp. "It's no use. When you sent me into that pit of pain, some of your chaos magic rubbed off on me. That's what stopping you from using any of your magic." To prove his point, he tightened his grip around Discord's throat.

"Wait!!! I've changed, honest!!! I've been reformed, I only use my magic for good now!!! And I've been trying to remember what I did all those years ago, but when you mentioned back then, it came back to me!!! Please, you have to believe me!!!" At this point, Discord did something nopony thought would ever happen till the end of time; he was crying in fear.

With Celestia and Luna still trying to pull him off, Night Shadow pondered Discord's words while keeping his gaze. "You're a deceiver, a trickster, and a manipulator of innocents." Everypony believed this was when he would kill him. "But the one thing you are not, is a liar." That is, until he said that.

Night got off Discord to let him stand. He turn his back to him. "But know this. Because of you, I've lost seven wives and a child. Eight wives and two children if you count my family from before you tore me from my home." A few gasps could be heard. He looked to the still groaning changelings. He walked to the one that gave the order and lifted him up by the collar of his armor.

"Going to kill me now? Do it then, prove that changelings won't surrender before death!" The commander taunted. It was to everypony's shock that he set the changeling down and dusted him off.

"You were only concerned for your queen, that why you attacked. You showed courage in attacking me, even knowing what I can do. You also showed valor in charging with your fellow changelings, not wanting to sit on the sidelines while your brothers and sisters fight. I would've been honored if you were in my army." The commander was in awe. No creature, outside of his fellow changelings, ever show this kind of respect to him, and then say they wanted him in their army.

"Shiro!! Are seriously thinking of letting changelings into the military?!?! Celestia demanded. When Night Shadow slowly turned his head to her, it sent shivers up her spine.

"Do you honestly think that I only had ponies in my army? I had changelings, griffons, minotaurs, zebras, and even a few dragons in my services!! I will not overlook valuable allies just because of their species!!!" Celestia look down in shame, knowing that's the reason why Equestria has been weak in their few centuries of peace. "Now." Celestia looked back up."I think it's about time we catch up on what I've missed while I've been gone." Now it was Luna's turn to look away in shame, not looking to explaining her little tantrum.

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Everpony, and changeling, moved to the dinning room for more space. Night Shadow was not happy with what he heard.

The Nightmare Moon incident, Discords escape, his reforment, the Canterlot wedding invasion. Before they could continue, he stopped them to process what he heard.

"So let me get this straight. Luna gets jealous of Celestia, turns into this 'Nightmare Moon', gets banished to the moon, comes back a few years ago and is turned back to normal by the new element bearers. Then Discord escapes, turns said bearers to their opposite selves, gets resealed when they rediscover who they were, THEN gets released, by your order no less, Celestia, and is reformed by the element of kindness. Then FINALLY, Chrissy nearly takes over Canterlot, not by using force, but by using deceit. Before I continue, I just want to say that I'm still not happy that you did that, but I can't help, but be proud that you used some of my teachings in said invasion." Chrysalis blushed from the slight praise.

"Which brings me back to the subject at hand." He turned to the sisters that earned his ire. "ARE YOU BUCKING FOALS?!?!?! Not only did you give in to your emotions, LUNA, but YOU didn't think to make time to meet her when she came back, Nightmare or no, CELESTIA!!!! And a thousand years?!?! You're lucky she didn't lose her sanity!!!! Then you expect me to believe that you knew that Discord would escape, but didn't have precautions set in place because you thought you had TIME?!?!? THEN, you release him and place him into the care of one of the Elements?!?! Are you both idiots?!?! Do you have any idea how many ways that could have ended badly?!?! By my count, 1,482 different ways!!! Then FINALLY, the wedding!!! Not only did you receive word that somepony was about to invade the capital, but you couldn't tell that this princess of love was replaced by a changeling that acted the exact opposite of her the entire time?!?! And if I heard right, Twilight right?" Twilight nodded, a little intimidated by a pony who could yell at the princesses and make them scared of his wrath.

"Twilight here found out that she was an imposter, but not one of you thought to look into her claims?!?! Not even her own supposed friends?!?" The other elements sunk low into their seats. Night Shadow took deep breath to try and calm himself down. It worked, a little. "Celetsia, I thought I taught you enough about deception to spot this kind of problem before it could happen. And while we're on the subject of the wedding, WHERE IN TARTARUS WERE YOU LUNA?!?!" Luna flinched from the sudden raise in his voice, while the other ponies and changelings were covering their ears. His voice could put the Royal Canterlot Voice to shame. "Did you not think that maybe the well-being of your subjects was more important than your self pity?!?! This is exactly why you were the better student in that class, because you could spot things that Celestia would miss!!!" Luna started to tear up from the verbal lashing, until Rainbow Dash stepped up.

"Hey, what's your problem?! Maybe she had other things to worry about? Did you think about that?!" All that earned her was a bone chilling glare from the stallion, making the often brave and brash mare wilt like a dying plant.

"My PROBLEM, is that I train both of them in the arts of war and tactics, and what do they do? THEY GET SOFT!!!!" Both sisters flinched this time. "Celestia!!! What's lesson number one?!" He demanded while keeping his anger at an all time high.

"When you have peace, that just means you have to have a tighter guard." Celestia answered in shame, forgetting that particular lesson.

"Really? Cause from what I'm hearing, that's exactly what you didn't do!!!" He turned to Luna next. "Luna!!! What's lesson number two?!"

Luna was on the verge of tears again. "Swords first, hearts second." That only got her a snort of anger from her teacher.

"Is that so? Because, AGAIN, that's exactly what you DID! NOT! DO!" Night Shadow was livid, his two best students screwing up everything he did for them.

He took a deep breaths, calming himself greatly. "I'm so disappointed in both of you. The way I see it, the only ones to have any praise are Chrissy and Twilight. Chrysalis bested you, Celestia, in an art that I only thought her a little about, when you were an expert. What does that say about me? Am I a poor teacher who's students couldn't learn anything because he was a failure? The fact that she fooled you is a sign that you haven't been taking my lessons seriously."

He wasn't done yet. "And if I'm hearing this right, it sounds like you've been taking gambles on your own student and her friends. Counting on her to make friends and find the Elements of Harmony, returning Luna to normal, stopping Discord, reforming Discord. What's next? You're going to trust her to help save an empire?" Night Shadow rolled his when said that last part. But then he saw that Celetsia and Luna were eyeing away from him nervously. "Wait. What happened to the empire?" He ask with slight fear.

Celestia found her voice, though she wished she didn't. "After....after you disappeared.....Your brother....I'm sorry.....we had no choice.....He became a tyrant.....we banished him, but he place a curse and took the empire with them." An audible breaking sound like glass could be heard.

Night Shadow's world was dying around him again. Tears began to form in his eyes. "And....what of my wife and daughter....how did they die....?" It took all his will power to hold back the tears.

It was Luna's turn to break the news. "When you....you know....your wife was devastated. She wouldn't eat or sleep. She died in a month from heartbreak." More tears formed. "Your daughter was stronger. She lived a good life and found a good pegasus who loved her, like her mother loved you. She brought her son into this world, by leaving it."

The damn broke. For the first time since his father died, Night Shadow cried in sorrow.

OST

But his weeping wasn't as passive as Chrysalis'. No, he broke the table in front of him in anger. Anger at Discord, anger at the sisters for keeping him alive, and anger at himself for not coming home sooner. He cried tears of blood. His wails, which sounded like a manticore mourning it's mate, could be heard by all in the castle. Everypony got out of his way just in time to avoid being thrashed. Twilight and Fluttershy went to try and calm him down, but they were stopped by Applejack of all ponies.

"Applejack, what are you doing?! We have to calm him down before he hurts somepony!!" Twilight tried to move past her friend, but the mare proved to be more stubborn than usual.

"I can't let you do that, Twi. He needs to let it out." Her face held a somber look, her eyes full of pain of her own.

"He can let it out without destroying the castle!!" Twilight pleaded with the apple farmer, but she wouldn't budge.

"Twi, if you found out that your brother, or your parents for that matter, died becaused they thought you were dead and you came back to find out it was, in a way, your fault, wouldn't you feel like breaking something." Twilight didn't have a comeback for that. She didn't know what she would feel like doing, but she knew she would be devastated.

As the stallion in question continued his rampage, Chrysalis, after whiping away her tears for her uncle's pain, chose this time to bring up something that has been nagging at her mind. "Celestia?" The solar monarch turned to the changeling queen. "I haven't seen any guards since we came here, my changelings and I were unopposed the entire treck through the castle. Where are they?"

In all the excitement, Celestia nearly forgotten about that. "I sent them away when Twilight and her friends brought Shiro in. At the time, we didn't know who he was, so I had my guards leave in case he was a threat and was too much for them. I'm really starting to think that was a good idea right now. If any of them saw this, they would no doubt try to stop him and risk getting killed." She shed a few tears for her old mentor and friend.

"I remember his filly, she was my best friend. We always played when I came over." The queen shed a few more tears for her late friend. At this point, Night Shadow was on his knees in the center of the room, blood tears pouring out of his eyes like waterfalls. He was dead inside. There was nopony left that he could hold and love. Sure, he had his students and Chrysalis, but they were immortal and they couldn't give him what he needed.

He felt a hand on his left shoulder. He turned to the one who broke him out of his depression to see Applejack staring at him with sympathetic eyes and a sad frown. "If it's any help, I know what your going through. I lost my parents a while back when they went out looking for me when I was just a filly." She already had tears flowing from her eyes.

Night Shadow dropped his head, slightly glad he had somepony to share his pain with. Applejack slowly wrapped her arms around his still form, trying to give whatever comfort she can. It was welcomed, but not returned.

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After a few minutes, which felt like hours, Night Shadow had regain his composure. A new table was brought in by the servants that stayed dispite their princess' order. Night sat in silence for a while, thinking on what to ask. "So, what's the progress on the empire? Has it been brought back?"

Celestia perked up, glad that her long time friend wasn't reduced to a hollow shell. "Yes. It came back a few months ago and now has a new ruler."

"I assume it's your niece, this 'Cadence', correct?" Celestia nodded. "And her husband is, or was, your captain of the guard? A 'Shining Armor'?" Again, she nodded. "The same shining Armor that Chrysalis fooled easily and had under her spell, literally?" She paused, but nodded just the same. She could tell, this wasn't going to end well for the unicorn.

The mane six all bolted up in shock and late realization. Rarity was the first to address the elephant in the room. "Hold on. You mean to tell us that the empire you're all talking about is the Crystal Empire?" The sisters both nodded. "Then that would mean...."

Night got up and turned to the mares. "That my brother is King Sombra, Wielder of Darkness and former bearer of the Element of Kindness."