From Darkness

/Data corruption resolved

/Rebooting...

/Reboot successful

/User is now enlightened

/Resuming normal data flow...

Operation: Resonating Hope

Location: BLACK HQ

Date and Time: September 24, 2037. 8:03 Hours

Subject: Shadows

Objective: Give the Elites...hope...

No fucking way...

I never thought it would be possible, but I am admitting that the Elites are not our enemy. The real enemy here, is a lack of communication. How I was able to reason that to myself is beyond me. Maybe Rosa gave me the knowledge from beyond the beyond? Maybe I'm just going crazy? Maybe Celestia's unstable magic is having some sort of effect on me? I don't know.

But, the Elites are evil. Celestia had reports of crime all throughout Illesia. Then again, a large portion of the Elites were the corrupt military, maybe that had something to do with it. Either way, I needed to tell Celestia of my findings. Then, we could work together to solve this problem. I blamed her for the incident, when it really was my fault. It was my fault, but I didn't do it on purpose, and there was no way I could have known it what would have happened, so in a manner of speaking, it also wasn't my fault. Wow, that makes even less sense now that I've said it to myself. Either way, I am at least partially responsible for this war. Even if I never intended for it to start, then I still had to find a way to stop it before things got out of hand.

I came out of my flashback, sweating and breathing heavily. Celestia watched me with worry, waiting for me to say something. I simply looked at the table, it no longer scared me. That table used to stir memories of Rosa's death, and the pain along with it. I now know that Rosa killed herself because she thought that her husband had betrayed her own wishes. When in reality, I didn't know her wishes were to save the Elites in the first place. Rosa probably had documents about her intentions stashed away somewhere. Shit, maybe the Elites weren't even here to take over Equestria. Maybe one of our guys shot first and asked questions later, causing an all out conflict. A simple lack of communication, similar to what me and Rosa had, both with dire consequences. When one of our guys killed one of theirs, then they had to kill one of ours to get back, then we killed one in return, then back and forth. An eye for an eye...makes the world go blind...shit.

"Shadows?" Celestia snapped me out of my reverie

I shook my head, and calmed my breathing, which became more furious during my thoughts. I was still sweating.

"Shadows?" she repeated, a little louder

"Y-yeah?" I mumbled

"Are you okay?" she stated awkwardly

Are you okay? HA! The simple stupidity of that question made me start laughing out loud. Of course I wasn't okay! I had just relived the experience of my wife dying! Oh shit, just after I had some...daydreams about...another woman! Rosa was right! I was a monster! But I was gonna fix that! But first I had to stop laughing.

"Um, I'll take that as a no?" Celestia continued

"Oh...no...no, I...I think I'll be alright..." I managed to say

"Are you certain?"

"Well, not really." I stated truthfully, "Frankly, for all I know, I've been insane for the past few years!" I chuckled

Celestia obviously didn't find it funny, as her expression grew more stern, "Have you come to terms?"

"You know what? I have!"

Celestia appeared a little shocked, "Well, what do you think now?"

"Well before I say anything like that, I want to say sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"Sorry for blaming you. It wasn't your fault what happened to Rosa." I noticed Celestia snapped back a little at the mention at my wife's name. I snapped back a little too, that was the first time I'd said her name out loud for ten years.

"Are you implying it was yours?" Celestia asked me

"In a manner of speaking, yes. But also, in another manner of speaking, no."

This confused her more, so I went on to explain my feelings of how it sort of was my fault. Also, I told her about the Elites, that they deserve a fighting chance, her face turned sour at that part in the conversation.

"The Elites need help, and we can give it to them!" I told her

Celestia's face turned angry at my words, "NO!" she yelled

"What?"

"No! They took my kingdom and soiled my land with violence! It will take ages to clean Equestria of their filth, and even longer to earn the great reputation that my land once held!"

"How can you just turn your back on them!"

"How can you be certain that your words are true?"

I couldn't be, I had told myself this in my flashback.I wasn't even sure if it was true. Should I even be trying to help the Elites?

"What would Rosa do?"

"I can't be, but we should at least try!" I boldly responded

"This is ludicrous! I need your help Shadows! Don't side with the enemy now!"

Oh no, she thinks that I'm siding with the enemy. I need to get out of here before things get hairy!"I'm not! The Elites aren't the enemy! Corruption and a lack of communication is the real enemy!"

"Corruption!? Is that your best retaliation?"

"YES! AND IT SEEMS YOU ARE CORRUPTED AS WELL!" I stormed away, bashing the door as hard as I could. Thank god it wasn't locked, because if it was then I couldn't have broken it in. When the door fell off of it's hinges, alarms instantly sprung up around me. A cyborg down the hall faced me and his eyes turned red.

"SHADOWS! STOP!" Celestia yelled to me

I ignored her. She wasn't going to help me, she was as corrupt as the leaders of the Elites. I had to escape, again, and do something about all of this. The cyborg advanced towards me, eyes still red, and pulled an M9 sub-machine gun out of his jacket. I dove to cover as the robot opened fire and more alarms went off. I turned and bolted down the hallway to my back, running as fast as I could. A cyborg rounded the corner and pulled out a Glock 19. I snatched the gun and slipped the legs out from underneath the mechanical monster. I planted two rounds in the spell matrix of the cyborg, located where the brain should be, and trudged forward. Thank god Gear Head never shuts up about his inventions, I know just how to kill these things. The M9 wielding cyborg reached the end of the hall, so I carefully aimed and landed two shots in his robo-brain, sending him to the floor. Celestia rounded the corner, and nearly got two herself.

"STOP AT ONCE!" Celestia screamed

I looked around, and located a fire alarm switch. I pulled it and the sprinklers instantly turned on, shrouding the hallways in humidity. When Celestia disappeared from view, I bolted down the hallway to my left, where the exit was. I bashed the door in to the indoor heli-pad, and bolted for the chopper. Two guys tried to stop me, so I shot them in the legs. I would have killed them, but Rosa's voice rang in my head, "Love and tolerance, Shadows. Love and Tolerance." She used to always tell me that when I got road rage.

I jumped in the chopper and started it up. I pushed the blades to max speed, so they would spin up faster. I jumped out and found the lever to open the roof to escape. I had done this all before, but this time I wasn't killing anybody while I did it. I ran into the helicopter and started making adjustments for takeoff. The roof opened up, revealing a long tunnel that led to a bright light at the surface. Just then, three cyborgs came out of the agency, guns ablaze. I returned fire with the Glock, reaching out the passenger door, downing two of them, but the third got me in the leg. Most of the windows were bulletproof, but I guess for only so many shots. Plus, the cyborgs were pinpoint accurate, so they shot the same place a few times. I winced in pain, and was able to put the last one in his place. I set the Glock in the passenger seat and made final adjustments, then I slowly began my ascent. The helicopter entered the tunnel, and everything went silent. Sure, the blades were still running, but I felt so quiet. Why did it seem so quiet?

I began thinking, was it because something bad was gonna happen? Maybe, I can't say. Wait, I know what it is! I'm thinking clearly! For the first time in ten years, I'm at peace with my thoughts! Wow, maybe I was crazy! Either way, I needed to get home and fix all of this. There was a lot of work to be done. Shit, Spitfire hates work.

Then, I realized something else. For the first time in ten years, I had thought of something my wife had said to me, that didn't involve that incident. What was it? "Love and Tolerance" was what she said. Maybe that had more meaning than she meant it to? I'm not sure, I can't say, but it was amazing that it took me this long to think of something nice she had said to me. No, wait. The Shadows she had come to love died that day on the battlefield. That is what broke her. The Rosa that killed herself wasn't the Rosa I had come to love either. That wasn't Rosa, that was a hollow shell. I made a vow then and there to never consider that...person that killed herself to be Rosa. That wasn't Rosa, I loved Rosa, and that wasn't her. Rosa was strong, she just wasn't strong enough. If only she was here to see me now, then she would know that the Shadows that she loved was back, and she would be back too. It was sad, yes, but I knew that she was in a better place, looking at me and knowing I had finally found my way again.

As the helicopter broke the surface, I turned on the built in MP3 player in the helmet I had put on at some point. The song Silent Night began to play. Rosa loved this song...