Not having ANY of this S###

Chapters

Chapter 2- I think, therefore I am...right?
Chapter 3- The Universe Hates Me.
Chapter 4- My "Secret Weapon"
Chapter 5- Alone With Myself
Chapter 7- Contrivances and Coincidences
Chapter 8- Things Go Down
Chapter 9- Two Meetings
Chapter 11- Discord
Chapter 12- You probably saw this coming.
Chapter 1- The heck just happened..?
Chapter 6- Spectacular Stories and Very Vague Plans
Chapter 10- Situational irony prevails throughout the land.

Chapter 2- I think, therefore I am...right?

So I had just seen a yellow Pegasus and what looked like a mad science experiment in crossing a lion and a Black Panther run away from me like their tails were on fire. Granted, I was twice the pegasus’s height, and my body and clothes had apparently turned black, but I wasn’t that scary.

It took all of around five seconds for it to click that if the pegasus came here and could speak, there was a chance it lived somewhere nearby. A chance I could reason with it, ask it for help, or maybe a ride home.

I took off into the forest after it, hoping I wouldn’t lose it in the dark undergrowth. Which, in all honesty, wasn’t much of an issue. All I had to do was follow the drawn-out, uninterrupted shrill screaming. Geez, does she ever breathe? I thought, hopping over a gnarled root threatening to trip me up.

It didn’t take very long until I made it out of the forest. I took a look at where I had ended up. I had tailed her to a field with a very large tree, and a chicken coop with wooden fencing. I heard a door slam, and turned to notice that there was a door of all things on the tree. My focus broadened, and I noticed it sported windows with drapes to boot. Good God, it’s a freaking house.I realized.

Okay. A pegasus that lives in a literal tree house. And has chickens, apparently. And birdhouses. Not the weirdest thing I’d seen all evening.

I suddenly realized just how tired I was. I had been through heck today, and I just wanted to crash. Sleep. Must sleep.

I considered going up and knocking on the door, asking the pegasus for a place to sleep, just for the night. I mentally slapped myself once I realized how stupid that idea was. If she had run screaming at the sight of me, what made me think she was going to willingly let me sleep in her house, perhaps after an explanation of myself and a lively discussion over a cup of tea.

No, I’m going to have to find another way to approach her. I realized, Some way that won’t result in gratuitous amounts of screaming.

I looked around. That leaves me two options: the coop or the forest. I stole a backwards glance at the forest, and thought of the lion-panther and God-knows-what-else waiting for me within its walls. I shuddered. No way in hell.

That left the chicken coop. Ugh. Well, beggars can’t be choosers. I strode over to the coop, my legs kind of wobbly. I easily stepped over the picket fence, and dove into the tiny doorway. It was a tight squeeze. Very tight, as a matter of fact, but I managed somehow, after a couple of minutes of flailing around like an idiot. Stupid fat hips.

I was greeted by terrified squawking and a flash of white feathers. An impossible amount of feathers filled the tiny cramped room, blocking my view. Maybe it’s molting season. As soon as the wall of fluffy white settled, I spat out a few feathers that had made their way into my mouth. Blech. Chicken didn’t taste nearly as appetizing raw.

I had a clearer view of the room. There were two neat little rows of nests inside, made up of feathers and loose bits of straw. At the back end of the room were the chickens, huddled together, clucking and shaking as though they were terrified of something.

Why shouldn’t they be?

I got to work making a suitable place to crash for the night. I picked all the eggs out of the nests on the left and set them down in the nests to the right, then bunched the mass of nests into a makeshift bed. Not an easy task when you have to crouch just to fit in the tiny coop.

I carefully set myself down on the bed, and curled up until I could just barely fit on it. It was itchy and barely comfortable at all, but it was a place to sleep. Suddenly my rickety old bed from the house was looking a lot more appealing. Finally, exhaustion prevailed and I fell into a deep sleep.

*******************************************************

I woke up to the crow of a rooster, bright and early, which is a statement I thought I’d never say without gratuitous amounts of sarcasm or metaphor. I turned onto my back, grumbling sleepily. My back was aching something fierce, and the dim, early morning light shined into the coop.

I hate mornings. I glared up through my eyelids at the roof as the rooster crowed a second time. Stupid chickens. Shut up and let me sleep some more! By God, I deserved it after the night I had been through.

I lied there grumpily, unable to go back to sleep, but like heck was I gonna get up. My defiant thoughts were cut short by a clatter just outside the coop.

I sat up, suddenly alert. Who would come here at this ungodly hour? I listened carefully to my surroundings, and soon got my answer.

“Good morning, little chickens. It’s time for breakfast!” called a small, quiet little voice.I froze. The pegasus. Of course she would be up at this hour, she’s part bird, right?

I felt a knot of fear form in my stomach. This was bad. Very bad. I hadn’t prepared for a confrontation with anyone just yet, a way for me to let me calmly explain myself. As bad as my first impression had been, this would be an even worse impression. She had screamed and ran when I just stood and said “Hi,”; how badly would a person- no, horse- like that react when she realized I’d followed her home and spent the night in her chicken coop?

“What’s wrong, little chickens?” the pegasus called, sounding closer. “Is something wrong?”

I pressed myself against the wall, squeezing my eyes shut. She was going to see me. I was going to lose what slim chance I had to have a rational discussion, to ask for help to get back home. If I could just disappear, just for a moment… Just so no one could see me…

As I thought that, I felt something… change. I can’t really explain it; it was like, one instant I was there, flesh and blood. And then, slowly I just wasn’t anymore. Like I had sunk out of existence yet again.

I opened my eyes, trying to see myself. I couldn’t feel my arms, my legs, it was like everything had been wadded up and spread flat against every inch of the wall. By all rights, I should have been questioning my sanity at this point, or at the very least panicking, but I wasn’t. It was freaky, yet, at the same time, it felt almost natural. I was completely, unnaturally calm. I wasn’t physically there anymore, and that was perfectly fine.

But then, if I wasn’t physically there, where was I? I still have my thoughts. I think, therefore I exist, right? Something had happened, but what?

I am one with the shadow, of course.

I blinked. Or whatever equated to blinking in this state. Where did that notion come from? Something wasn’t quite right here. It was like-

Sometime during that moment of thought, the pegasus’s head poked into the coop. “There’s my sweet chikkies,” she cooed lovingly, “Come on out now, it’s time to eat.”

The chickens, who had been huddled up in the dark against the back wall until that point (geez, had they spent the entire night like that? I almost felt kind of bad. Almost. ), looked at each other and decided that the promise food was more important than acting chicken (Heh.) Obediently, they trailed out of the room and into the light in an orderly, single file line.

In that instant, I felt myself grow, in a sense, into the line of shadows trailing behind them. I was a part of that line of shadows. No, I was the shadows. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks.

Oh.

Oh this is so COOL!

The reveling in my newfound power was set aside for the moment, once I realized that the chickens were almost all out of the coop. Not wanting to be spotted just yet nor get left in the coop, I tried compressing myself into a single chicken’s shadow. To my surprise, it worked. I followed behind the next-to-last chicken to leave the coop, and watched it peck at the various seeds that were being scattered on the ground. I relaxed a little, musing on how exactly a horse was able to hold a bag.

I noticed that the pegasus had bags that rested on the sides of her back. Saddlebags, perhaps? That can’t be very healthy for her wings. She exited through the gate and tied the bag to one of the posts, a seemingly impossible feat that I watched in utter fascination. She then turned to a small white bunny rabbit, which was thumping its foot on the ground impatiently.

“I’m sorry you had to wait to go get some more carrots, Angel,” she said, “But I think all the chores are done now. Let’s go.” The bunny, Angel, looked pouty for a moment before giving a begrudging nod.

Waitwaitwait. Hold up? There’s a town? Within walking distance? This was too good of a chance to pass up. Whatever crazy town this was, there was a good chance there was someone who could help me get home. An actual bed I could sleep in. Food too, by the sound of things. I mentally clutched at my empty stomach. I hadn’t eaten since lunch yesterday.

The promise of food was just as tempting to me as it was for the chickens. As soon as the pegasus had turned away, I zipped into her shadow as fast as I could.

I heard an indignant squeak. Both I and the pegasus glanced at the little bunny, who was thumping its foot and pointing. Directly at me. Crap. I’ve been spotted. I scolded myself for not being more cautious. The pegasus glanced at me, and I froze, waiting for her to notice me.

Then, finally she shook her head. “Don’t be silly, Angel. It’s just my shadow.” The bunny’s mouth fell open, disbelieving in the utter naivety of its owner.

Ha ha! Take that you little snitch!

The bunny pouted and hopped along, keeping an eye on me while I took it easy riding in the pegasus’ shadow. I swear, if I knew how to make her shadow look at the bunny and smile smugly, I da@# well would have.

Chapter 3- The Universe Hates Me.

My first reaction was ‘What.’

It was colorful, blindingly so. Everywhere you looked were pastel-colored miniature horses in various shapes and sizes, all within an equally bright and colorful town that was apparently named “Ponyville.” There weren’t just pegasi, either; there were several dozen regular ponies and unicorns too. Unicorns. What the hell?

It was surreal. An entire civilization of pastel ponies, and each with their own little picture plastered on their hindquarters. It all looked like something out of a fairytale book or a Lisa Frank picture. Perhaps the creation of some mad scientist’s five-year-old daughter.

I was safe and secure in the yellow pegasus’ shadow, though. I took my sweet time observing this bizzaro civilization. I picked up on a few things while I rode. Firstly, that this was indeed a civilization in its own right. They had everything: stores of all kinds, their own monetary system (“bits” I think they were called), a written language (strangely identical to English), and FOOD. OH GOOD GOD THE FOOD. Even from within the shadow, I could smell the tantalizing scents of various baked goods, sweets and vegetables. So many wonderful smells, each like a siren song to my empty stomach. I could feel my stomach doing flips like a little puppy trying to win itself a treat. Down, boy. Sit. I told it.

Secondly, I noticed that… Actually, that first thing was the only thing I noticed, because my stomach started eating itself from the inside out. Oh MAN was I hungry.

‘Feed me.’ Whimpered my stomach. ‘Feed me, Seymour, feed me!’

I gazed longingly at one of the stands the pony passed by, selling some fresh, juicy apples by the barrel load. I mentally licked my lips. Oh how I wanted those apples.

'Just eat them,' whined my stomach. I shook myself. No. Stealing was wrong, and I knew it.

'Food...' My stomach complained. No. Bad stomach.

'Hungry,' my stomach argued. I sighed. It did have a valid point, there...

I gave up. Apparently my stomach was stronger than my moral compass. I slipped over to the apple stand, into the shadow of the barrel, this time making EXTRA SURE no one else was watching. I didn’t need anyone freaking out about a moving shadow, especially given how skittish the first one was. Then I ran into my first problem: figuring out how to get the freaking apples.

I pondered this for a minute or so. I managed to pull myself into a shadow… why couldn’t I do the same with the apples? It sounded as logical as anything else around here. What the heck, I’ll give it a shot.

I spent the next half- hour trying to coax the little red morsels down into their shadows. It was infuriating work, but I finally managed to snag about five apples. I sped off giggling internally at my success. I slipped into an alleyway that seemed sufficiently vacant; there was nothing there but me and an old dusty mirror that was facing the wall. Ha ha, I bet they don't suspect a thing! I thought.

I then ran into my second problem: how to get back out of a shadow. This time, it only took a few minutes of struggling before I was finally able to pull myself and the five tantalizing apples out. I held up the first apple victoriously, and took my first tender bite...

It was delicious. Sweet juice ran down my cheeks as I bit into the apple. I almost gave a little sigh of satisfaction. It tasted just like... like-!

Like guilt. I finished, swallowing hard, my smile fading. I had stolen-

I shook myself hard. No. There's no use in feeling sorry for myself. I did what I had to. I paused, then shrugged. besides, it's not like I could pay for them anyways... No, I was going to have to get by without money for now. If that means stealing food in the meantime... I thought, hardening my resolve, Then so be it.

I quickly finished off every bit of the apples except the seeds. It was a trick I'd learned in my first few weeks of college: you can actually eat the core of an apple; it’s the seeds and stem you’re not supposed to eat. The seeds actually contain small amounts of cyanide, a poison. (1) I wonder if those ponies know there’s poison in their apples, I thought, munching on a core, I’d like to see the looks on their faces- muzzles- whatever- when they find out.

I took a sudden interest in the mirror. I hadn’t gotten a good look at my face since I had fallen into the forest. I bet my face is covered in mud and scratches, I thought dryly. Still, I was curious. I walked over to the mirror and turned it around until the reflecting side was facing me.

I gazed into the mirror, and...

**************************************************

It was a quiet, peaceful day in Ponyville. The birds were chirping, the pegasi had scheduled a full day of sun. Life was good for everypony.

That tranquility was shattered by a loud scream.

“HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!!”

Every pony jumped at the unexpected noise. A few neighborly ponies tracked down the origin of the scream. But when they peeked into the alleyway, they found nothing but a bunch of apple seeds and a mirror. This puzzled many residents, but many shrugged and simply went about their business, figuring it was a couple of foals playing a prank.

Or the Cutie Mark Crusaders

Again.

*************************************************

I stayed hidden in the shadows, while internally freaking out.

My reflection was... well, "startling" was putting it lightly. I knew I looked bad, after all, I had spent the night in a freaking chicken coop. I didn’t expect to look like a beauty queen, but HOLY SHIT! Was THAT my FACE!?!?

I rose my head out of the shadows again, getting a second look at my face. I flinched.

My face was as dark grey as the rest of me, blending in with my black hair that seemed to flow with an unseen power. My eyes were blank white slates, and seemed to glow with an unearthly light. My nose was just barely visible. My cheeks looked thin, hollow. When I opened my mouth, it looked like a barren void, like a vacuum ready to consume in anything in my way. When I breathed out, a black mist seeped out, like how you see your breath on a cold day. My teeth were four rows of razor-sharp fangs, one at the front and one row just behind. I ran my tongue across them. Yep, those are real.

I now understood why everything I’d come across had reacted with fear. I looked like something out of damn horror movie.

Okay. So that’s a thing… I thought.

I’m not gonna lie, I wasn’t too fond of looking like something that could, and very likely would, eat you. On the other hand, just think of all the scare pranks I could pull…

There was nothing I could really do about it though. I scowled. I didn’t like feeling like I was unable to control my life. I had no choice but to accept it. For now. I made a mental note to myself to rip whomever was responsible for my “extreme makeover” a new asshole. Or five. Yeah, five sounds like a good number. I thought.

I felt a little surer of myself, now that I had a full stomach. I decided to explore my newfound abilities a bit more, play around with them to figure out how they worked. Up until now, I had been running on instinct, which was a bit strange, given I had no prior experience with shadow-walking. Oh, yes, that’s what I’m calling it from now on. Dibs. I’m calling it first.

I slipped effortlessly from shadow to shadow in total secret, every pony totally unaware of my presence. I feel like a freaking ninja master. I mused with a sly grin.

I soon figured out that shadow-walking was kind of like swimming, while being kind of “one with the water.” It sounded like something out of a bad Kung-fu movie, but I’m being completely serious here. Every time I moved out of one shadow, it was like inertia kept me moving in the same direction I had started until I reached another shadow. I then kinda… “blorped” into the other shadow, for lack of a better description. When I tried to change course mid-jump, I found it took more effort and concentration than just sliding around. Within a few minutes, I had mastered the basics.

I began experimenting a little more. I slid over to an out-of-the-way little corner and tried just partially jumping out of the shadow I was in.

No dice.

Stubborn as I was, I tried again, this time just extending out a hand from the shadow I was in. I was met with some resistance, but the shadow soon bent to my will and my hand broke free of the surface. I gave a little wave to a few birds nearby, who squawked in terror and flew away as fast as their little wings could carry them. I huffed. How rude.

I found I could slide through gaps in walls, too, but I kept the use of that trick to a minimum. No telling what you’ll walk in on. Still, it was a useful trick, so I filed it away in my mind for future reference.

After a while I got bored of just messing around and watching the ponies go about their daily lives. I kind of admired them. From what I had seen so far, they seemed to get along. By which I mean they didn't just work together as needed, barely tolerating each other’s presence while hatred, contempt, or apathy bubbled beneath the surface (which seemed to be a very common theme throughout human societies…). No they actually seemed to get along, and genuinely enjoy each other’s help and company. I never thought I’d see anything like it outside of a kid’s movie. Which, actually, would explain just about everything I’d seen until now.

College teenager found comatose after seeing kid’s movie, I thought, imagining the headlines, Officials say it was diabetes, with no prior symptoms of the condition.

It must be a herbivore thing, I guessed.

I spotted the yellow, pink-haired pegasus from before, and decided I might as well follow her. It's not like I have anything better to do. I zipped into her shadow and relaxed a little, letting her unwittingly carry me.

************************************************

Fluttershy knocked on the door of the big oak library and stepped back. “Coming!” called a familiar voice from within. Within a few minutes, the doorknob glowed with a purple aura, swung inward. In the doorway was a lavender alicorn, Ponyville’s resident Princess Twilight Sparkle. She greeted Fluttershy with a smile. “Oh, hi Fluttershy! What brings you here?”

Fluttershy dug into her saddlebags and pulled out a cereulean hardcover book that had the word “COOKBOOK” written in large white letters. In the front, it sported a picture of many yummy vegetarian recipes. “I’m here to return this book you lent me, Twilight.”

The alicorn’s smile widened as she took the book in hoof. “Ah, yes, this is right on time. And in good condition too!” She stepped inside, set the book down on the table in the center of the room, and then came back to the door.

Phew. She was still on time. Fluttershy thought back to the last time somepony had turned in a book late and in poor condition…

A solitary mare stood alone, then slowly, ever so gradually, turned. The rage in her eyes pierced through one's soul-

Fluttershy shuddered. That poor mare had no idea the wrath she'd unleashed when she brought back that tattered mess of a book.

“Anything else?” Twilight asked, interrupting Fluttershy’s thoughts.

The Pegasus’s reply came quickly, “Oh, no! I’m just fine!” She paused a moment. “Well, actually, there is one thing I’d like to find out, if that’s okay with you.” She paused, before continuing. “I saw something in the forest last night; I kind of had a bad feeling about it…”

“The Everfree forest?” Twilight exclaimed in surprise, “I thought you didn’t like going there, especially with all the dangerous things lurking there…”

“I know,” Fluttershy replied, “but there was an animal in trouble, and…”

Twilight cut her off. “Look, nevermind. I’ll help you find what you’re looking for. Why don’t you come inside and I’ll see what we can find, okay?”

Fluttershy nodded and stepped inside, shutting the door behind her.

**********************************

I had learned a lot in that quick exchange. Apparently the pegasus I had tailed before was named “Fluttershy,” and the purple one with wings AND a horn was called “Twilight.” I really hope she has no connection to that book… I thought. Of course, I was in a library, so it wasn’t totally out of the question.

That was another thing. I was in a library, with a mildly impressive collection of books stacked on shelves that rose much taller than the ponies themselves, which was in a tree. Which begged two questions: Is living in trees a common thing? And how the hell do they reach the tops of those shelves?

I soon found my answer when the wingy-horned one’s horn glowed. The same glow enveloped a book on the top shelf and pulled it out.

Oh, so the unicorns have telekinesis. I had to admit, it was kinda cool, for multicolored ponies. Not quite as girly as they first appeared. Still kinda girly, though.

Fluttershy gave a quick, and slightly unflattering, description of me. When she was done, the unicorn-pegasus --seriously, what exactly was she?— nodded and flipped to a page. She walked over to Fluttershy (and another thing: are they all named like this or do their parents just hate them?) and showed her the page. I rose up over their heads to get a better look.

“It says here that what you’re describing sounds a lot like a creature known as Shadow Ponies,” explained Twilight, pointing to a picture of a pony who looked somewhat similar to me (barring the fact that it was a horse and I was a human, of course), which is to say it looked like something out of a bad horror flick.

Twilight continued, “It says here that these creatures were normal ponies once, but a dark force turned them evil and granted them something known as shadow magic, a rare form of magic used almost exclusively by these ponies.”

Magic? I questioned whether they were actually being serious here. They didn't show any signs of kidding. Of course, I thought, Ponies that can use magic. I hereby retract my previous impression of them not being girly.

She set the book down on the table in the middle of the room and turned to Fluttershy, tapping her chin (or whatever equated to a chin for horses), while I sunk into the table’s shadow.

“I’ve never heard of any bipedal versions of them, though. I’ll have to do some more research. The last known sighting of them was around 500 years ago, so I might take a while.” Her expression turned deadly serious. “Still, if this really is what you saw, we’ll have to deal with it soon. Shadow ponies were known to be extremely dangerous, and terrorized Equestia for nearly half a century before they vanished.”

Yikes. I’d better stay out of sight, or suddenly develop some expert diplomacy skills. Not that that was likely.

The yellow pegasus seemed to be just as shaken as I was. The lavender one smiled and invited the yellow pegasus to her kitchen for some Chamomile tea, and within minutes I was alone in the room.

I could have just sat there, waiting, hid until I could find a way to not make myself look like a bad guy. I mean, I was a jerk, I’ll admit it. But calling me evil? That was just…

Unacceptable! An insult of the highest order that must be met with-

I shook myself. No, no, no. It’s excessive, true, and more than a little racist, but I don’t think I’d call it insulting. No. I needed to just stay there until I could figure a way out of this mess.

Then again… there was a book that could tell me something more about the state I was in.

Just… lying there…

…Oh, like you could have resisted in the same situation.

I quickly rose out of the shadows and seized the book. I began reading:

The shadow ponies were adept at the use of shadows, forming their own form of magic. This form of magic is commonly referred to as shadow magic. There have been many attempts at recreating this magic form, but to no avail. It has been labeled a form of dark magic.

The diverse use of shadow magic was in part what made them so formidable, along with their ruthless, violent dispositions. Attempts at reasoning with shadow ponies were often met with failure.

I scowled at this, but kept reading.

Shadow ponies are also reported to have been average ponies that have been turned into this state. There is no known reason as to why this is so, but it has been a subject of interest for many researchers.

Shadow ponies have been known to use shadow magic for non-wing based flight, turning themselves and other objects into shadows, defense-

I was so caught up with reading, I almost jumped when I heard the sound of something shatter. I looked towards the source of the noise and my eyes widened. Twilight and Fluttershy had returned from the kitchen, and at the pegasus’s feet was a shattered cup of liquid. Twilight’s horn was pointed at me, glowing so brightly I had to shield my eyes.

Her horn let loose a massive yellow beam of light. I didn’t have time to react. I felt the scalding beam wash over me, and I screamed as everything faded to white.

Author's Note

This is a Lisa Frank picture. You know. For reference.

THUMBS UP TO WHOMEVER GETS THE REFERENCES.

(1) This is a fact. The seeds do contain cyanide, but only very trace amounts. It would take thousands of seeds for it to actually kill you.
Either way...

Chapter 4- My "Secret Weapon"

Author's Note

A word of caution: I'll be using stronger swears from here on out, but I still won't use the two I consider the strongest swears, which would be the F word, in any uncensored form, and the N word I won't use at all, because it is derogatory and offensive in ways I can't even begin to describe.

Chapter 4- My "Secret Weapon"

It was dark all around me, but dimly lit at the same time when I awoke. It was a strange feeling, drifting between consciousness and unconsciousness. There were voices all around me as I half-dreamt, voices that slipped in and out of focus.

Shut up, it’s Saturday. Five more minutes, Mommy. I thought groggily.

“…did you have to be so mean, though?” The darkness faded, and a slightly fuzzy moving blob of yellow came into view, then just as gradually faded away. I couldn’t tell what it was.

I fought to stay asleep. I was still tired. I wanted to sleep just a little longer.

Purple. There was purple there now, a lighter shade with a few blobs of lighter and darker areas. It came through clearer now; I could just barely make out a shape before it faded back into darkness.

“… just a harmless sleep spell…buy some time…figure out…harmless…… diplomatic approach…whether or not… potentially dangerous… Shadow ponies…”

Wait, shadow ponies? Dangerous? In a split second, I remembered where I was, what had happened just before I was conked out.

That realization jarred me awake. Everything snapped into focus. I could see the room around me. I was still in the library; I guess they hadn’t been quite strong enough to move me. Around me, facing away, were the two multicolored ponies from earlier, plus four more.

There was a pink one with curly hair and a big smile that never seemed to vanish, who was bouncing up and down non-stop. The next one was a white unicorn with curly purple hair and way too much makeup for a horse. The third one was orange and sported a brown Stetson and a blond mane tied up at the end. The last one was a pegasus; sky blue with a short, spiky, rainbow–colored mane. I wondered how long it took that pony to dye it every morning.

They were all standing in a group, apparently in a discussion, their attention away from me. "Look, Fluttershy," Said the blue one, "All I've been saying is that it was the best thing to do to stop this thing before it could do any harm. I mean, without the elements of harmony on our side, who knows what this thing could have done! These shadow ponies are supposed to be evil!"

The purple one gave her a look. "While Rainbow's right that we do need to be cautious, I believe we need to think this through rationally, which is why I cast that spell to put it to sleep. We just need to keep it unconsious until the princess replies to the letter I sent her" She looked down at the floor sheepishly, "Though I'll admit I did act a bit on impulse when seeing it, especially after reading about some of the evil things shadow ponies did in the past..."

Oh, so they magically drugged me. How pleasant.

The orange pony with a cowboy hat spoke up. “Ah know this critter’s s’posed t’ be dangerous an’ all, but don’t you think that’s a little… excessive? Ah mean, all it really did was meet Fluttershy in the forest and come into this here library to read a book,” She looked at the purple one seriously, “Last time ah checked, those things don’t necs’sarily make somethin’ ‘Evil.’”

Yes, listen to the orange one. She sounds like she’s got a good head on her shoulders. I urged. The purple one and the blue one looked amongst each other, not looking entirely convinced.

I opened my mouth to say something, but all that came out was “Ihmnharglagurfmhgah.” What I had actually meant to say was “I’m not evil, you morons,” but when I started to move my lips and tongue, they responded sluggishly and only made half the movements I intended them to. They felt like they were made out of lead.

No, scratch that, my entire BODY felt like it was made of lead. I could barely move my index fingers; it was like some invisible force was keeping me pinned down. Couldn’t move, and I couldn’t talk. Well this was turning out just perfect.

What's more, my half-gurgled response only succeeded in bringing everyone's gaze uncomfortably on me. Suddenly I was at the center of attention, which wasn't a very nice thing, as their looks did not seem very flattering.

“You’re all being so silly!” the pink one said, zipping up to me at a near-impossible speed, “Why don’t you just ask her? She’s awake now, and it’d be much simpler than just sitting around arguing like this! After all, you said that this shadow pony said something to you in the forest, right Fluttershy?" She looked at the yellow one with a big grin, who nodded in response.

The purple one looked at me inquisitively. “Uh, Pinkie, I’m not quite sure she’s able to right now… the immobilization spell is rather thorough when it comes to voluntary movement...”

The yellow one pitched in. “We should at least give it a chance, like we did with Discord…”

The purple one paused, putting its hoof against its muzzle as though thinking. “Well, the spell I cast on it SHOULD keep it immobile so it can’t hurt anypony… I’d just have to make some alterations to the existing spell and reinforce it before it wears off…” she trailed off.

“And besides!” Piped in the pink one cheerfully, “You can always just zap her to sleep again if she gives us any trouble!”

The white one looked at the pink one inquisitively, “Darling, what makes you so sure this is a girl?”

The pink one paused and looked at the white one. “I dunno. It’s just a feeling I get.”

The purple one stepped forward. “All right, I’ll trust your judgment. But if it looks like it-she- is going to try anything, I’m putting her back to sleep, got it?” All the ponies nodded in response. The blue one, who had looked like she was about to protest, frowned, but gave a begrudging nod.

The purple one stepped forward, her face scrunched up in concentration, and lowered her horn against my forehead. It glowed a soft purple. It was much less blinding than the laser beam of death she had shot at me before, but I still ended up flinching as much as my immobilized body would allow. After a few moments the horn’s light cut off and she stepped back. I worked my jaw, getting used to the freedom of being able to move it.

Then I spoke up.

“It’s about freaking time, you sack of shit!”

Oh yes, I was making an excellent first impression. Or second impression. Whatever, you get the idea. The sad fact was, being blatantly rude to my captors was the first in a long, long, long string of very poor decisions.

In my defense, I didn't exactly have the best impression of them either. I had been blasted and screamed at on sight, and the way I saw it, they were basically judging me based on my appearance. Just like every other human I've ever met, I scoffed bitterly, And I actually let myself believe for a moment that you ponies might be any different.

In case it wasn’t blatantly obvious by now, I was not a very happy girl. I had been called evil at least fifty times now, magically bound, gagged, drugged, blasted, and had to listen to them talk about what a ‘big bad dangerous bad guy’ I was. So, yeah, I was kinda taking it out on them.

The ponies flinched back, and the white one with too much makeup gasped dramatically, threw her hoof to her forehead, and outright fainted on a fancy red couch that appeared out of nowhere. The orange and yellow ones cried out her name and rushed to her aid, and the blue one glared at me furiously. The ponies had obviously not been expecting that kind of reaction. Or perhaps it was my foul mouth they were reacting to. Either way, the blue one flew up to me, getting right in my face. “What’d you just say, you punk?”

Oh, how cute, little miss rainbow butt is trying to act all tough and intimidate me! I thought. How utterly naive and pathetic.

“You heard me, you blue bitch.” I spat with a sneer, making extra sure some spittle landed on her face.

The blue one’s face contorted in anger, “Why you-!” She was cut off when a purple hoof came to rest on her shoulder, or whatever the heck equated for a shoulder on a flying blue horse.

The purple pony shook her head. “Rainbow, stop. I’m sure there’s some reason for her animosity towards us.”

“Oh, like you’re one to talk! Getting blasted by a purple death beam isn’t exactly fun you know.” I glared at the purple pony.

The purple pony grimaced, obviously not happy with my badmouthing.“With all due respect, the book on shadow ponies says…”

“Oh pthhhb!” I spat a razzberry for emphasis. “I know what the freaking book says! Don’t you think I could hear you yammering on about it when I came here? How I'll have to be 'dealt with soon'?”

Had I been less peeved about being held captive by a bunch of ponies for simply existing, I would have noticed that I had just openly revealed that I had, in a way, been spying on them and how suspicious that made me. I would have noticed that the purple one (oh, yeah, now I remember-her name was Twilight) narrowed her eyes at me in response to my remark. I was really digging my own grave with this conversation.

"Uh huh..." remarked Twilight. She looked like she was about to say something else when a green and purple lizard walking on its hind legs came downstairs. "Hey Twilight!" it called in a decidedly male voice, albeit kind of childlike. He flew down the stairs as fast as his little legs could carry him, waving around a rolled up piece of paper with a ribbon tied around it.

I just stared at the spectacle. You know what? I'm not even going to say anything on this one. I conceded.

The over-sized lizard froze upon seeing me, but handed the piece of paper to Twilight. “I just got the reply from Princess Celestia…” he continued.

"Thank you, Spike," she replied, to which the lizard nodded. She picked it up with her telekinesis and unrolled it.

“Ooh, what’s it say, what’s it say!?” cried the pink pony, zipping up to the letter before I could blink. Damn that pink one is FAST.

Twilight nodded at the pink one and began reading aloud.

“Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,” I snorted, but she continued, ignoring me.

“I was honestly rather surprised when you wrote me about your predicament. As you know, Shadow ponies are reportedly dangerous, but I have no idea what to think of this strange new offshoot. Nevertheless, I think it’s best if I let you handle this situation. I trust your judgment and ability to resolve this without a crisis. You’ve proven yourself capable many times already.

Regardless, if you think you need my assistance at any time, feel free to send me a letter, and I’ll be happy to help.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia.”

Twilight rolled up the yellowed parchment and floated it over to the big round table, where she left it sitting. The lizard went back upstairs, muttering something about lost sleep. “What on earth do ya think that was all about?” asked the orange one.

Princess Twilight Sparkle (ha ha, I can't believe how ridiculously, stereotypically girly that sounds) looked around the room, making eye contact with every pony in the room. “I believe this means it is our duty to ascertain whether or not this creature is evil.”

“And dole out some flank-kicking if she tries anything,” added the blue one, bucking into the air for emphasis.

"F%^* you." I spat at the blue one.

Twilight shot both me and her a look, as though not sure who to be more frustrated with, but remarked, “Yes, I suppose, but only if it comes to that.”

"So Princes Sparkle-butt, what normally constitutes as a bad guy for you people?” I grinned, adding a mocking, sarcastic tone, “Oh no! Badboy McSparkebutt just littered! Right after he jaywalked! To the candy cane jail with him for a stern talk and a time-out!”

Princess Twilight Sparkle shot me a look, but gave what I assumed was her very best dignified reply. “I don’t know what kind of idea of evil you have, but anything that threatens to shatter the peace and harmony of Equestria will be dealt with harshly.”

The blue one stared at me sternly, her words a very thinly veiled threat. Obviously these ponies knew nothing of subtlety. “Discord was trapped in stone for a thousand years for his evil. Nightmare Moon was banished to the moon for hers. If you try anything…”

That successfully shut me up. I gulped. Yeek. I didn’t expect that kind of hardcore punishment. I was getting less and less confident with my situation by the minute. It didn’t help that their description of what evil was incredibly vague. For all I knew, being a bit grouchy one morning could be a capital offense. They had been pretty quick to blast me for entering this home unannounced.

This is bullshit! They’re going to judge me unfairly… I thought, realizing the desperation of my situation. They’re insane. They’ll trap me in stone forever. I can’t let this happen, won’t allow this happen, I’ll destroy them all before they get the chance-!

I had to stop myself right there. Panicking wouldn’t do me any good. I wasn’t about to be trapped as a lawn ornament for ten times longer than I ever expected to live for. I had to get out of here, and fast. I began working my brain overtime to formulate an escape plan.

Step one: I needed to buy myself some time. The best way to do that, I decided, is to act compliant. Play along with their little game. Answer some questions; ask a few if I needed to.

“Okay then…” I said, carefully withholding all curse words. “I guess we should start with introductions then..?”

“But, um, first, let me sit up so we can talk face to face!” I added quickly. I tried moving a little, carefully veiling my actions as an attempt to sit upright. I still couldn’t move, so there was no way I would be able to just jump and bolt, plus I had no idea as to the upper weight limits of their telekinesis. I’m going to need a way to distract them. “Uh, a little help here please?”

Twilight smiled, obviously pleased with my sudden display of civility. “Of course. Here, give me a moment...” Her horn glowed purple for a moment, and a whole row of books on the shelf was enveloped in the same purple aura. They turned over into a vertical stack, and I felt my torso being lifted upright as the books settled down behind me. I fell back against the books, which, surprisingly, held my weight. Note to self: unicorn telekinesis is really strong, or at the very least Twilight’s is.

“Now, as I’m sure you already know, I am Twilight Sparkle. These are my friends: Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash.” She gestured to the pink, orange, white, yellow, and blue one, respectively. She turned to me. “Now, I’m sure you understand that I’ll have to ask you some questions…”

“I’ll be happy to answer them!” I piped, with a cheeriness that anyone who knew me would know was very unusual for me. “By the way, you can call me…” I trailed off. Should I stick with my real name, or go with something else? Some stories with magic in them had ways of controlling others if you knew their real name. For all I knew, they could have a Death Note. No, I needed an alias…

I took a long moment to think before finishing. “...Abyss. Call me Abyss.” Yes that sounds sufficiently badass, I mused with a grin.

The orange pony, Applejack as I now knew her, nodded with satisfaction. “Seems like y’all’ve got a handle on this. If ya don’t mind, Twi, I’ve got some chores left to do back on the farm, so if y’all will excuse me…”

“Goodness!” Rarity, I think she was called, exclaimed, “I just remembered, I’ve got a new shipment of fabrics coming in! Oh, Twilight, I hope you don’t mind, I’ve been simply dying to try out some new designs…”

Fluttershy added, “I need to go home and feed Angel…”

“Ooh! And I’ve got to go plan out a ‘Welcome to Ponyville and yay for not being totally evil’ party for Abyss!” cried Pinkie, dashing out the door before any of the others could stop her or say anything in response. She doesn’t even realize I’m not going to be staying here too much longer with you crazy ponies… I mused. Too bad, might’ve actually been a pretty killer party.

Twilight nodded. “It’s fine. I think I can handle it, but I’ll call you if you if I need you.” I almost laughed out loud right then and there. Unbelievable! How trusting and naive these ponies are!

And with that, the other three left, leaving only me, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash in the room. She looked at Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow, are you planning on leaving too?”

Rainbow snorted. “Nah, I think I‘ll hang around here a bit longer. I still don’t quite trust Abyss,” she said, giving me the stinkeye. Oh I really wished I could have flipped her off right then. Still, I’ve gotta hand it to her, she’s got a lot more sense than the others…

Twilight nodded. “All right, then. So to start,” she said, turning to me with a piece of parchment and an old quill pen floating in midair in front of her, “How exactly do you feel about the state of Equestria, and ponies in general? What are you, and is it true that shadow ponies were once average ponies corrupted by a dark force?” Her eyes held a look about them, much like those of a curious young child.

I was struck by the sheer bluntness of her statements. “I, um, uh…” I stuttered, before regaining my composure. “Look, I’ve never heard of Equestria before now. Is this some new country way off the map? Where I’m from, I’ve never heard of any nation with talking technicolor ponies.”

She stopped, and looked at me in surprise. “You mean you’re not from Equestria?”

“No. Could you explain this whole pony and magic business to me?” I asked.

I regretted asking almost instantly. I ended up getting an hour-and-a-half lecture about the intricacies of pony society that would have given most of my college professors a run for their money. When it was over, I notice Rainbow conked out on the floor, snoring loudly. I did manage to figure out a few things: I wasn’t exactly in America anymore, and I had my doubts whether this was even Earth I was on. Equestria was where ponies of three kinds lived under the rule of a diarchy, with two alicorns (which was apparently what Twilight was). How the hell was I supposed to get back home now?

I sighed. “Geez, people back home would never believe this crazy story… the part abut magic alone would get me laughed out of the state.”

“There are more of your kind?” Twilight exclaimed in surprise and more than a little worry.

“Yeah,” I said quickly, realizing I had said something wrong, “but, uh, not exactly in this state, I mean! We’re called ‘humans,’ and… I guess it would make sense that you’ve never heard of us before. I’m not even sure where home is anymore. I don’t know about any ‘dark force’ but that would kind of explain my situation a bit… especially this whole 'new magic' part...”

I frowned. I was forgetting something… What was it? It suddenly clicked in my head. I had been so caught up in this whole pony craziness, I’d forgotten what I’d started this conversation for. Distraction. I still had to get out of here.

“If you don’t mind, could you tell me what you ‘humans’ are like? What do you think about them?” Twilight asked, scratching something down on her parchment.

My expression darkened. I twitched. War, famine, racism, I recalled with a scowl, I have nothing nice to say about humanity. Always cheating you, always looking down on you... I’m sick of it! Sick of them all! The more I thought about my dealings with people, the angrier I became. Perhaps it was, in part, because of my mood just before I was thrown into Equestria. Humanity hadn’t exactly left a very nice last impression.

My earlier fears of whether I could get home or not were washed away. I didn’t care if I never went back or not. I’ll be just fine without them! “I don’t care about them…” I muttered.

“Pardon? Could you please repeat that?” Twilight asked, straining to hear me over Rainbow's loud snoring.

I exploded. “I said I want nothing more to do with them! They can all just go to hell!!!” I screamed at the peak of my rage. Looking back on it, the sudden burst of anger seems almost unnatural. Like my usual frustration was being amplified. Normally the way others acted never wound me up so much; I would just scoff or curse under my breath and hole myself up somewhere quiet for a while.

Something happened in that instant. I don’t know whether it was instinct or anger that activated it, or the fact that I snapped. But somehow, in that instant, every shadow in the room leapt up and slammed themselves against the ground at once. Nothing was damaged, but it still shook the entire room with tremendous force. Rainbow’s eyed shot open “Wha- Who? What’s going on?!” she screamed.

That shocked me enough to partially snap me out of my rage. I realized what I had just done. The shadows retracted back to their original states. Rainbow eyed me suspiciously. I gathered up every last ounce of the shits I had to give about civility and, as politely and sheepishly as I could manage, squeaked out “I-I’m sorry, I’m still not sure how to control that…” I finished it off with an apologetic look at the floor.

Terror sunk in. I had just made a huge mistake. I had no idea how my little fit was going to go over. I really hadn’t meant to, and I hadn’t even had any idea that was something I could do. Was I going to get turned into a statue?

Finally, after a long pause, Twilight nodded. “I understand. It took me a long time to learn to control my magic, and from what I understand, magic is relatively new to you.”

I smiled. Ha ha! Look at me, I’m a master actress! I thought, pleased with how easily they had bought into my performance. What’s more, my little stunt from before had given me an idea. It might work, but I still need a way to keep them busy…

“Okay, I think I’ve heard enough!” Twilight said suddenly, finishing whatever she was writing down on her parchment. “I think I can trust that you don’t intend any harm to anypony.”

“What? But how do you know this isn’t some trick? She could have been acting this entire time! And what about that shadow magic, huh? You saw what she did earlier!” protested Rainbow.

“That’s why she’s going to be kept under close observation until she both learns how to control her powers and knows how to adapt to pony society. And when that happens, she might be able to help with Equestria’s defense in the element’s absence,” Twilight said with finality.

For a brief second, hope filled my chest, and I almost considered letting this happen. Join a new society and never have to deal with people again. Then realization hit me:But that would mean being like a lab animal. Being used by them like a tool, by the sound of things, a SLAVE. They would never accept me as their equal, look how the blue one looks at me even now. They’ll never accept me.

“Besides,” Twilight smiled, turning to me, “You won’t want to miss one of Pinkie Pie’s parties. There’s sweets, games, music…”

Suddenly, I smiled. A very, dark, toothy smile that probably looked fifty times scarier than normal due to my new facial features. “I’m sorry, Twilight,” I said slowly, my voice low.

Twilight regarded me cautiously. “For what?” she asked.

There were two things I had figured out that Twilight was unaware of in that instant. The first was that I still had control of my powers, even if not my body. I had tested it out a little while no one was looking and found that I could still sink into shadows I was touching. Which, in this case, was the shadow of the stack of books I was leaning against. The second part concerned my voice.

You see, some girls were blessed with the melodious singing voice of an angel. They could match any tone you could throw at them and still make it sound, at the very least mildly marvelous.

There were people who had average voices. They were sometimes a bit tone-deaf, but could still manage to make the noises they made sound at least somewhat like a song.

There were people who were bad at singing, completely tone deaf in every way imaginable, and could never, ever ever ever EVER make it into any organized choir worth its salt.

And then... there was me.

I had the disharmonious singing voice of a thousand screeching demons from the pits of hell screaming directly in your ear. I was so bad, that I was blacklisted from every karaoke bar around town to the point that I wasn't allowed to come within five feet from any of them. This, my friend, was my secret weapon: my God-awful singing voice.

The third thing was that, if I remembered correctly, Equines had much, much better hearing than humans, which would make any horrible noise they heard that much more painful. All this added up into my escape plan.

I smiled sickly. “I’m afraid that becoming part of your little pony society isn’t on my agenda.” And with that, I took a deep breath and began to sing.

“TWIIIIINKLE TWIIIIIIINNNNNKLEEEE LIIIIIIIIIIIIIITLE STAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!” I shrieked at the top of my lungs.

Twilight and Rainbow fell to the ground and pressed their forehooves to their ears, quivering in pain. “DEAR SWEET CELESTIA, MAKE IT STOP!” Rainbow shrieked.

I sunk into the shadows. Twilight saw me, and weakly reached out with her forehoof, “W-Wait!”

“HOOOOOOW IIIIIIIIIII WOOOOONDEEEEER WHAAAAAAAAAT YOOOOOOUUUUU AAAAAAAAREEEEEE!!!” I continued my song of pain, and she clenched he hooves harder against her ears, trying in vain to drown out the horrible noise.

I zipped under the door and sped off as fast as I could go, and only stopped singing once I was sure I was out of earshot.

Chapter 5- Alone With Myself

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 7- Contrivances and Coincidences

I munched on a cookie as I quietly crept through the city. It was one of many I had in my possession, along with a few other sugary morsels I had sealed up in plastic bags and was saving for later, courtesy of one of the Canterlot bakeries. Sure it was stealing, but I had to eat somehow, and I didn’t exactly have any money. Besides, they were oatmeal raisin. If you wanted to get fat off cookies, most people would just choose the good stuff like chocolate chip. At least in my opinion.

The cookies had been ridiculously easy to steal. None of the shops were guarded and had shut down for the night, so one slip under the door and the cookies were all mine. There was hardly anyone- or anypony- on the streets that night, and anyone I had come across had been too busy to notice me, or… I thought back to my rather enlightening encounter…

Two ponies- stallions, I think- came stumbling down the street, giggling like a pair of middle-schoolers who’d just heard someone say “dick.” Their speech was slurred, and they couldn’t seem to walk in a straight line. I stared at the spectacle from the shadows, before my eyes widened in realization. Holy crap, they’re drunk.

Nocturne piped up. Of course they are. Why would this fact surprise you?

Well, I thought, It’s just… It’s not really something I thought I’d see. I mean this whole world kinda seems like it was meant for kids… Intoxication and substance abuse seems kind of mature…

And any part of our story is “for kids” how, exactly?

…Touché.

They were impeccably dressed for a pair of drunkards. Each had on a tuxedo that was so new they still had the tags on them. That was something that struck me about Canterlot, even in the dark of night where hardly anyone was awake: everything was insanely high-class and expensive-looking. The buildings looked like they were either marble or ivory (and if it was ivory, that held some very disturbing implications about these ponies) and were decorated with gold and silver. It seemed so very gaudy compared to the simple town from before-

-I stopped myself. This was no time for flashbacks, I had stuff I needed to do. I finished of the last of the cookie, and dusted off the crumbs. Alright, first order of business: find a library, and look up anything we can find about Shadow ponies.

I stole a glance up at the large, gleaming castle that stood towering over the city, and felt a sense of unease. I was unsure if it was my own emotions, or Nocturne’s. Something clicked in my memory, back from Twilight’s lecture of doom. That’s right, I recalled, that’s the castle where those diarchs live. The ones that are supposed to be insanely powerful, as well as over a thousand years old… They, or at least one of them, if the memory of the lecture of doom served correctly, would have been around during the time of the Shadow ponies. In other words, the top two on the ‘list of people to avoid’.

And with that, I sped off in search of a library. There was no way in hell I was going to meet with them anytime soon. I liked my butt un-fried, thank you very much.

****************

After about an hour of searching, I came across the library. It was a large building made out of what looked like marble (it was hard to tell in the dark), with roman-style columns decorating the entrance. A wide staircase led up to two red double doors, and at either end of the base of the staircase were large statues of books sitting wide open. How… fitting.

I easily shadow-walked under the door, and was met by rows and rows of insanely high shelves, towering nearly two stories high. “Funny. It didn’t look this tall from the outside.” I thought aloud. Realizing my mistake, I clamped my hand over my mouth and frantically looked around, praying that no one was around to hear. After a few tense minutes, I relaxed, realizing the place was just as vacant as the rest of the city.

Wasting no time, I sped over to the nonfiction section, glancing over the books and pulling out a few “Defense against the dark arts” spellbooks here and a few “Creatures of Equestria” sorts of books there. I pulled out one of those rolling ladders really tall libraries have over and grabbed a few books off of the higher shelves, carelessly dropping them to the floor with a thud. I could pick them up later.

Finally, satisfied I had picked the shelves clean of all I was going to find, I started to carefully climb down from the top of the ladder. “I wonder if we should take the books back with us to the caves,” I said, trying to spark a conversation with Nocturne, “Of course, it’d be difficult to read in the dark-”

I was cut short when I felt my feet slide out from under me, and I didn’t have time to make a grab for the railing of the ladder. The world turned sideways and I found myself falling fast. This it gonna hurt. I realized, shutting my eyes tight.

Seconds passed… then a minute… I realized I didn’t feel the air rush pat me as I fell, and opened my eyes and looked down.

I wasn’t falling. Rather, I hung several feet in the air, as though suspended by some invisible force. I could almost hear my brain break.

“Nocturne, I’m flying. Why am I flying?” I asked, wobbling around in midair.

Because you’re a clumsy idiot and someone has to keep you from killing us both. Nocturne replied indignantly.

“You- but… I can fly…?”

This is not flight. This is making use of the power you displayed in your- or rather, our- anger before the ponies that entrapped you. This is controlling the shadows themselves. It merely appears to be flight due to the fact the shadows were stretched thin in my haste.

I hung there in the air for a moment, processing this new information. Then: “Nocturne?”

What is it?

“I don’t know how to get down from here.”

I don’t know how I knew this, but I could almost feel Nocturne face-palm in my head. Oh, for the love of… It’s not that hard! It’s just a matter of willpower.

Willpower, eh? I put my hands out before me, concentrating all of my thoughts on sinking towards the ground, and barked loudly “Let me down!”

No sooner than I said that, the force holding me up suddenly gave out. I plummeted to the ground and fell flat on my face, hitting the ground with an audible SMACK! I could hear a sound almost like muffled laughter in the back of my head.

“Not. One. Word.” I growled, scrambling back to my feet.

I quickly gathered up the books and spread them out on a table. I sat down, preparing for a long night of studying. If there was one thing I had learned in college, it was how to pull an all-nighter for research or what have you. I cracked open a book and began to read.

**********

I grumbled loudly, returning to the large central chamber of my little cave hideaway for the seventh day in a row. I slumped onto the cave floor in defeat. Seven days of research had turned up nothing. Seven days of sneaking around the city at night, snagging food from local shops, pouring over every book that might contain even a shred of information, and retreating to the caves before daybreak like a vampire. The kind that burn in the sun, rather than sparkle in it. A whole blasted week of frustration.

The most we had found in that stupid library was almost identical to the information at Twilight’s library. I said I’d learned how to research in college, but I never said I was good at it. But that’s not what I was upset about just then. If it was that alone, I would have been happy. Despite hours of research, I had come up with nothing that pertained to that light spell from Nocturne’s memory. On the other hand, I now knew more about equestrian zoology than I ever cared to know. That was a good thing: it meant that either the chance of finding the kind of information I was worried about was slim to none, or no one had thought to record any of it.

No, what I was upset about was the note I had very conveniently found in one of the spellbooks. A note that just happened to be right next to some small magical tidbits about Shadow ponies:

~~~~~~~~~

Further information on Shadow ponies

can be found in the defense section of the royal

archives. They have been placed there for safekeeping.

~~~~~~~~~

I growled loudly. This did not bode well on at least ten different levels. A note I just happen to come across saying I can find the vey information I just happen to be looking for in the very castle that just happens to have guards, serving two ponies that just happen to be ultra-powerful and over a thousand years old, one of which just happens to be old enough to know the light spell herself. This doesn’t seem like a trap at all! There were too many contrivances for this to be a coincidence. Then again, I had come across almost Deus-Ex-Machina level strokes of luck before…

I glanced around my “lair,” now furnished with a fancy bed, a magically powered refrigerator, and several lanterns. They were some of the few good things about my situation. I recalled the second night, when I first acquired them:

I was exploring the city a little bit, grumpier than usual. When I had gotten back to the cave, as it seemed to be a decent place to hide in during the day, I had to sleep on the cave floor. I had slept within a shadow, mind you, but that didn’t change the fact that I still felt stiff and sore all over. “What I wouldn’t give for an actual bed to sleep in…” It was around then that I stumbled upon the residential area. True to the ornate theme of Canterlot, the houses were more like mansions.

I wasn’t really paying attention to much else, and before I knew it, I found myself inside one of the mansions, in a bedroom. I must have slipped inside.

I heard voices coming my way, and hid in the shadows underneath one of the beds. I heard the door open and felt the shadows recede as light flooded into the room.

“All I’m saying is that he really doesn’t need all of these guest beds. He never even uses them, and it only makes it harder for us to keep them clean!” said the first voice.

“True,” said the second voice, moving quickly about the room, “I heard his wife is planning on throwing them away, along with some old lanterns and a one year old refrigerator, just like that!” I heard sweeping noises around the room. “‘Only the best,’ she says! As if rich ponies weren’t wasteful enough.”

“If that’s the case, I wish she’d hurry up and get rid of them, then. Really! We’ve got enough work as is!”

I just sat there gawking. “There’s… no way we’d get this lucky. No one would actually tempt fate like this. This has to be some sort of joke, right?” I whispered to Nocturne.

Only in a cosmic sense, Nocturne said, just as confused.

I felt a broom sweep over me several times, and I had to strain myself to keep from sneezing. The voices flitted about the room gossiping about this and that. I wasn’t really listening. I was a little too dumbfounded. I barely noticed that they’d left.

Nocturne and I sat in silence for a while. Then…

Well, are we going to take those things or not?

That night, I slept like a freaking queen.

The memory faded. I sighed. Yes, that was insanely contrived. But this was far too… suspicious. Still, if the note had been planted there to set up a trap, wouldn’t the ponies have had a chance to spy on us by now? Follow us back to the cave? I turned off the lanterns and flopped onto the bed. “What do you think, Nocturne? Think we should give it a shot?”

I could feel Nocturne’s silence as he/she/it mulled it over. It does pose an extreme risk, but we believe the opportunities outweigh the risks.

“I’m kinda surprised to hear that from you. You’re the one most at risk if something goes wrong.” I shifted, burying myself under the covers, “Me, they’d probably assume I was under your control or something, accept me once the ‘evil’ is gone. Like that Night-Whatsherface character. Heck, they might even try and get me home.” I paused. “Don’t get me wrong, though, I’d never intentionally screw anything up just for that. I made a promise.”

I could feel Nocturne considering this. …Is that what you want? To go back to your world?

I stopped and thought on this. Did I want to go home? Yeah, some people were jerks, and I had no delusions about me not being one of them at times, but I had good memories of home too. I had people I liked and cared about. But there were some nice parts about this world too, and the time I had spent here had been… interesting to say the least.

“…I can’t really say just yet. I’m not entirely sure myself…” I thought aloud. “Then again, if we could go to my world, there’s a chance you’d be safer since humans normally can’t use magic except in fiction stories, though there’s no guarantee people wouldn’t find another way, and I’d stand out like a sore thumb given my current appearance…” I stopped. “Say, you didn’t answer my question.”

You never asked a question.

I waved that off. “Irrelevant. I expressed curiosity as to why you’re so willing to jump into what very well may be a trap. S’plain, Losie.”

Nocturne shifted a little. Well… We have reason to believe that, perhaps, if we survived all these years…

“…Oh. You might be able to find a spell that can track others down.” I finished. I blinked. “Sure, why not?”

I could tell Nocturne was confused. What?

“Let’s try it. Tomorrow night, we’ll go for it. Think you can cover my back?” I asked with a grin.

I could feel Nocturne’s bizarre mix of anticipation and relief welling up. We believe our understanding of Shadow magic can assist you where you are lacking.

“Well, that’s a blunt way to put it. Say, can we get someone else in on this? My head’s cramped enough with you sharing it. Maybe you could try possessing, say, a baseball or a matryoshka doll or …”

I could almost feel a slam when Nocturne shut me out in response

I chuckled softly as I drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 8- Things Go Down

I woke up the next afternoon, desperately in need of coffee that I didn’t have. Reluctantly, I threw off the warm, cozy covers and stumbled around in the dark. I ran into the walls a few times before I remembered I could sense the shadows around me. Feeling like an idiot, I turned on a lantern, grabbed a few snacks out of the fridge, and shut the light off before leaving my sanctuary. I had to conserve lantern oil, after all.

I made my way to the mouth of the cave, and stepped out into the waning daylight. The sun was setting, and I didn’t feel like going to the castle yet. Best to wait until nightfall. Still half asleep, I sat down and munched on a slice of cake and a doughnut. Hopefully the sugar rush would kick start my brain.

After finishing the food, I felt significantly more alert. Bored, I decided to strike up a conversation. “So, Nocturne, are you ready to play Mission Impossible?”

We don’t understand. It’s improbable, yes, but why on our right minds would we try anything impossible?

I facepalmed. “I…just… Nevermind…” I said, exasperated. Should have known cultural references wouldn’t be understood.

I decided to change the subject. “Hey, why do you say ‘We’ instead of ‘I’? Is it ‘cuz you’re old, or are you some sort of brain-melded legion or whatever?”

This is the way we have always spoken. Nocturne replied.

“…Right. Option A. Got it.”

We made small talk like that until nightfall. It was then that I stood up, dusting off the seat of my pants (note to self: wash pants). I felt invigorated as I stepped into the night sky. Perhaps it was a side effect of being bonded with Nocturne; maybe I was more nocturnal now. Then again, I was a college age teenager… Strange sleep patterns sorta come with the territory.

With that, I made my way to the castle, steeling myself for the most difficult attempt to stay out of sight I’d ever faced.

~~~~~~~~~~

I’m not even going to mention the trip into the castle. I went in there expecting the sort of security systems you’d see in a spy movie, complete with death lasers, security cameras, and robot dogs. All I got were a bunch of dumb, half-asleep guards, who barely noticed the gnats flying around their heads, much less me shadow walking past. It was so mind-numbingly easy, I almost felt cheated, until Nocturne reminded me that it was a good thing we didn’t run into much resistance on the way in. That I should keep my guard up in case this was just a way to lure me into a false sense of security. This might still be a trap, after all...

After some wandering, I found the defense section mentioned in the note. Slipping in through the open doorway, I glanced around the room.

It was noticeably smaller that the last library I’d been in. The bookshelves came up to about my height, maybe a little shorter, and the room was only about as big as Twilight’s library.

I glanced over the shelves and the titles of the books. There were dozens of books detailing defensive measures against all kinds of enemies. I quickly spotted one book whose title referred to shadow ponies. I eagerly pulled out the book and glanced at the cover. A Comprehensive Guide to Shadow Ponies by Yasahiro. Huh. Strange name. Maybe it’s an alias. I gave the shelves a once-over before concluding that there was probably nothing else of interest. I cracked open the book and began flipping through the pages.

I grew more concerned the more I read. Biology, movement patterns, powers, origins…Even that light spell and tracking spell you mentioned! Geez, this book has everything!

Take the book. Everything but the tracking spell must be destroyed. Nocturne said anxiously. I understood why he’d want to destroy it but… Maybe it was my human thirst for knowledge, but that seemed kind of a shameful waste. Besides it could still prove useful. So I did the next best thing.

I gripped the cover in one hand and the pages in the other and pulled them away from each other as hard as I could. I was rewarded by a satisfying rip as the pages tore away from the covers.

~~~~

Elsewhere, Twilight woke up in a cold sweat, screaming something about the desecration of ancient texts. Spike covered his ears with his pillow, just wishing she’d be quiet so he could go back to sleep.

~~~~

I stashed the pages, which still had a little glue and clung together, away in my shadow to retrieve and read later. I glanced over the books once more, taking care to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I repeated the process with another book that caught my fancy, titled Interdimensional Travel and You by Divine Path and Zman. I took care to replace each cover back in the shelf in such a way that it no one would be able to tell what I’d done at first glance.

After that, I wandered around the room, until something shiny caught my interest. I glanced over and noticed a small, open display case with some decorative glass on it hanging on the wall. It was filled with dozens of jewelry and fancy trinkets, but my eyes gravitated towards one object in particular: a necklace. It had a light blue, iridescent sun encased in glass that seemed to glow ever so slightly. It was almost a perfect match for the pendant of my own necklace.

I reached out and took the sun pendant out of the case, turning it over in my hands, clutching at my moon pendant, which grew warm in my palm. Yep, it was definitely made of the same material as my moon pendant. This seemed to be of great significance to me for no reason in particular. I couldn’t leave it here. Draping the necklace around my neck and feeling strangely satisfied, I glanced over the rest of the trinkets.

One other object caught my eye: a simple soapstone. Don’t ask me how I knew it was soapstone; I took a lot of different courses in my first semester of college and I’ll leave it at that. And I say ‘simple,’ because all of the other junk in the case were shiny trinkets or fancy baubles, so it looked a bit out of place. I reached out and grabbed it to get a closer look.

As soon as my fingers brushed the cool surface of the stone, a voice called out in my mind. “I am Solaire of Astora! Adherent to the Lord of Sunlight! Those who walk in the path of danger may call upon me! Through the will of the sun I shall protect all who need it!”

I didn’t have time to ponder the significance of this. “Halt, creature!” a voice called out from behind me.

Shit! I thought. Stashing the soapstone away in my shadow, I whirled around. Standing in the doorway was a guard and his buddy, pointing their spears at me and putting on their best angry faces. They jumped upon seeing my face, but quickly regained composure.

“By the authority of the princess, I order you to come with us!” Generic Guard #1 jabbed the air with his spear for emphasis.
My mind was a whirlwind of thoughts, both mine and Nocturne’s, as we both strained to come up with a way out of this. My path was cut off, I wasn’t sure how to

Nocturne reacted first, calling up shadows around me, waving about like a bunch of tentacles. The guards tensed, prepared to defend themselves. Just as Nocturne was about to attack, I cut him (I’m going with ‘him’ as his pronoun now) off. No, don’t attack just yet. Let me try something first. Reluctantly, he complied, and the shadows receded.

I only had a vague idea of what to do. I needed to get them to move somehow…

So, naturally, I opened up my big fat mouth and started talking.

“Aw, come on, that’s it? No ‘What are you doing here?’ or ‘You’re under arrest for blah blah blah [insert crime here]’ or even the word ‘please’? Oh no, you’re on a room looking scary! To jail with you!” I said in a condescending, mocking tone. I could be very mean when I wanted to. I flashed a smile, rolling my eyes. “At the very least you have to read me my Miranda rights before arresting me. It’s the law, idiots.”

They looked at each other, surprised, perhaps at the fact I could talk, or perhaps at what I said. Then they glared back at me. I kept talking.

“Of course, it doesn’t surprise me that you’re utterly incompetent. Really, if you were any good at your jobs you would have noticed me before I got this far!” I smirked, crossing my arms and shaking my head. “What makes it even worse is that you actually seem to be trying to do a decent job. Really, you should just give up. You’ll do everyone involved a huge favor. You’re just embarrassing yourselves at this point.”

They growled at me and advanced menacingly. I watched as they stepped closer to me, and further away from the door.

What kind of plan is this? You’re just going to provoke them into attacking! Nocturne said. Just let us attack! They’ll hurt us. We must knock them out at the least.

Getting them to attack first is kind of the point. I replied. Get ready to help me dodge to the side. I could feel his frustration at this.

“Just come with us. Don’t give us any trouble or we will use force,” said Guard #2.

“Oh how cute. The little babies are gonna try to fight me if I give them any twouble” I sneered, narrowing my eyes. “What are you gonna do if I don’t, huh? Gonna run home crying to your mommies? As if those bitches could do anything. They’re each dumber that both of you combined!”

Oh yes, I went there. I played the “Yo mama” card.

And it worked.

‘No one talks about my mother that way!” they both cried at once. They charged at me, brandishing their weapons. I leapt to the left, Nocturne using the shadows to stabilize my movements, and made a mad dash for the door. I heard a loud crash and some shattered glass behind me, but didn’t stop to look back. I wasn’t going to lose my head start just to see a couple of stallions crashed into a bunch of display cases. That’d be stupid.

I dashed through the halls as fast as my legs could carry me. It didn’t do me much good, though. Within minutes, I heard the clop of hooves hitting the stone floor. They were a good distance away, but gaining fast. Angry voices yelled at me to halt.

Great plan, Abyss. Nocturne deadpanned. They’re still on our tail! If you had just let us knock those ponies out, the two of us would not be in this mess!

I ignored him, and the hoofsteps drew closer. I redoubled my speed. Chases. I thought bitterly. Always with the chases. First the panther, now this. God, I hope I don’t get my leg torn open this time.

Stop this aimless running! The two of us are getting nowhere and if we run into more guards we’re both DEAD! Nocturne yelled frantically. He was terrified and very, very angry and I could feel his emotions becoming muddled with mine. Unfortunately, his emotions didn’t make for very rational decisions.

“Oh, if you’re so smart, you got any BETTER ideas?” I screamed at him aloud.

As a matter of fact, I DO! I could handle this situation FAR better than YOU ever could! He screamed, anger boiling over.

My jaw clenched and I became very, very quiet. That tends to happen when I get REALLY angry: I just seem calm. Inside I’m seething, but on the outside I appear more or less calm. “Fine,” I seethed, my voice soft, yet cold as ice. “Show me.”

And then I stopped dead in my tracks, unmoving. Nocturne froze. Wait, what are you doing?

I could hear the guards gaining on us. By my estimate, they would be on us in less than thirty seconds. “You said you could handle it,” I replied coldly.

Wait, no, that’s not what we- Damn it, this is not the time to try and prove a point! Keep running!

They were much closer now. I could feel Nocturne’s panic rising with every second, seeping into my own emotions. A sense of dread and horror crept up my spine like ice. I wanted to flee, run as fast as I could, but I stood my ground, folding my arms across my chest. “I’m waiting. We haven’t got forever.” I replied.

Less than five seconds left. A sense of doom washed over us. We- you- I… Nocturne wrestled with hesitation. Then…

“I REFUSE TO DIE LIKE THIS!” Nocturne exclaimed in a burst of willpower.

In that moment of desperation, fury, and determination is when Nocturne wrenched the controls away from me. And I just sat back and let him.

Not being in control of your own body is a very strange feeling, to say the least. It’s almost, but not exactly like being in a ride. It’s frightening yet kinda cool at the same time. I was left to ponder this while Nocturne took the reins. I figured my body was in good hands; he did know how to use the shadow magic far better than I did.

Boy, was I right about that.

The moment he wrenched control, the shadows burst from the walls, reacting to Nocturne’s will to survive. Quick as a flash, he spun around glaring at the two guards, who stopped dead in their tracks with a look on their faces that said “Oh, shit, we’re gonna die now.”

The shadows in front of the guards freaking exploded, blocking their path and creating a critical moment of confusion. A moment that Nocturne used very efficiently. Using a violent shove from the shadows below for propulsion, he rocketed straight for the guards at speeds I didn’t even know I was capable of. And I had lived in my body for over eighteen years. I had NEVER gone that fast.

Growling viciously Nocturne leapt into the air, ready to pounce on them. The guards panicked, doing that whinnying motion horses do with their front legs on TV. They raised their spears, right in Noctune’s path as he fell. Oh God, he’s gonna get me impaled. I thought in horror.

Nocturne knew what he was doing, however. Using the shadows, he jerked himself to the right, just before a very sudden introduction between my chest and the business end of the spears. Just before reaching the floor, he twisted in the air and was pulled to the left by another shadow.

Things seemed to slow down after that moment. As he tore past the guards like a bat out of hell, mere centimeters away from the floor, he reached out and sunk his fingers into the shadows of the guards. I could feel him wearing a grim smile. As he was pulled past by a shadow, the shadows in his grip ripped away from the feet of the stallions. They screamed like little girls as their shadows were separated from them, and Nocturne zipped past. The whole process took only a second.

Nocturne landed against the other wall, using the shadows to cushion the impact before returning them to their usual states. He looked down at his hands, my hands, at the shadows he held. They looked like sheets of paper, hanging limply from my palms. He flicked my head a little, and the shadows curled up into little spheres.

Everything seemed to snap back into place, and I suddenly found myself in control again, holding two small shadow-balls in my hand. I stood there, dazed for a moment, before shaking it off and focusing on reality.

I glanced over at the guards, who were frozen in place. Their eyes were glazed over, unblinking, and their mouths hung ever so slightly agape. They looked, for all intents and purposes, possessed. They certainly didn’t look like they were going to move anytime soon.

Realizing more guards might have heard the commotion and might be coming, I hid in the nearest shadow. Strangely, I could still feel the presence of the two balls of shadow even within the safety of the shade. I took a breather, trying to collect my thoughts.

You can be a real asshole, you know that? Nocturne said finally. While it was good he was at least on speaking terms with me, the fact still stood that he was seriously pissed at me for what I did back there.

I was holding you to your word. You said you’d cover for me, didn’t you? I was simply putting my trust in your abilities.

That does NOT necessitate letting them catch you! Nocturne screeched.

I flinched. He had a point. I sighed. Okay, yeah. I was being an idiot. I’m sorry. I admitted.

Nocturne was silent.

If it’s any consolation, you WERE pretty badass back there. I offered.

That seemed to soften him up a little. I suppose…

I glanced over at the guards, who hadn’t moved an inch since I last looked at them. What the heck did you do to them? I asked.

They’re under the effects of overshadowing. Nocturne explained. They will not act so long as you hold their spheres of influence. Unfortunately, you must touch the shadow yourself and stay close by for it to work.

“The hell is that supposed to-” I stopped short when I noticed the guards whirl around in unison and mimic the facial expression that would have been on my face had I been out of the shade. I paused, then exerted the willpower I would normally use when shaking my head. In response, the guards shook their heads side to side.

There was another pause.

Nocturne? Is this… Mind control, by any chance?” I asked cautiously.

In a sense. Why? Nocturne replied.

…Holy shit! The book in Twilight’s library was right. No wonder this was considered dark magic. This just screamed "evil superpowers."

Then the gears in my head started to turn. I could use this to my advantage, I realized. I could use this to get out of here safely, none the wiser. This could work.

Checking around to make sure no one was coming, I slid over to where the shadow of one of the guardsponies would be, taking great care not to look up, and released the orb of the other’s shadow. The shadow snapped back into place, and the guard’s consciousness with it. He gazed around, confused, before realization hit him.

“Ponyfeathers!” He cried. “That creature trespassing in the castle got away! It must have done something to stun us while it made a break for it!”

I willed myself to make an angry face, hoping the guard under my control would do the same. To my relief, he did.

“Who knows what it might do? I’ve got it: I’ll go run and warn the other guards. You run and tell the princess.” The other guard declared, pointing back the way we came. “You remember where, right, rookie? Down the hall and to the left, first door on the right.” I froze. Going to the ultra powerful princesses was the last thing I wanted to do. I paused. Then again, I didn’t have to talk to them directly, did I? No…this might just give me just what I needed for some low-risk diplomacy…

The other guard looked at the guard under my control with concern. “Hey, you’ve been acting a little funny. Are you okay?” With some effort, I managed to make the guardspony nod in response.

This seemed to satisfy the other guard. “Okay. Just don’t overexert yourself. Take a breather if you need to.” And with that, he trotted off. With a little experimentation, I got the guard to break into a trot, following the directions the other guard had given me.

After a little more experimentation when no one was looking, I discovered this new power was extremely limited, as it only worked from a certain distance away. Imagine a sort of rubber band connecting a pony to their shadow. Sure, after you rip it away you can "stretch" the bond farther, BUT you can only stretch it so far. Useful to know, I suppose, at least this power has limits. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, after all.

After a while, I puppeted the guard into the throne room. I took care to hide myself in a shadow just outside of the room. There was no way I was going to let myself get spotted at this point.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Luna’s POV, Canterlot Castle throne room.)

Luna was on her throne, handling the night shift as usual. As her sister took the throne during the day, the land was hers to handle during the night. Hers to guard.

This is why it was her duty to address the guard who trotted in, looking rather dazed, yet full of purpose.
“Guard, what purpose do you have here?” Luna had been practicing the more modern speech practices, and she fancied herself rather adept at it now. “Is there something wrong?”

The guard stared blankly, unresponsive.

Luna tried to get him to speak again, this time raising her voice a little louder. “Please, state your business here.” She noted with concern that he appeared to lack his shadow, a most disturbing revelation.

Suddenly the guard spoke, his voice… strangely feminine. “–turne, how do I- Oh. Okay then.” He blinked, glancing around in confusion. “Wo-hoah, that is trippy. I think I’m seeing things from his point of view. Weird. But kinda cool too, I guess.”

Luna looked at the spectacle in confusion. “What is the meaning of this nonsense?”

The guardspony stared at her and blinked. “Oh, so you must be Luna. Hi. Kinda though I might meet Little Miss Sunshine, but whatever.” He shrugged. “Well, let me introduce myself. Maybe you’ve heard of me, or maybe not. I don’t know how much your sister tells you.” He smiled brightly. “You can call me Abyss.”

Luna’s face scrunched up. “I was told that Abyss is female, and stands on her hind legs. She is most certainly not a pony.”
The guard looked pleased. “Oh, so you know about me, then! Good, good! That makes things slightly easier.” The guard looked himself over. “And, yes, you’re right, but what you see before you isn’t really me. It’s kinda a long story, but it starts with an attack and me being stupid, and ended up with mind controlling a pair of guardsponies…”

Luna looked at the guard in horror. She lowered her horn, gathering power until it emanated a soft glow. She was ready to take action if need be. The other guardsponies in the room took their cue, brandishing their various weapons. “If you plan to harm any of my little ponies, Abyss, I will-”

The guard, unfettered by this, lifted a hoof, cutting her short. "Relax, sweetie. I don't plan to kill your little guard. My... associate, however, is not as... forgiving of transgressions at the hands of ponies from long ago.”

Luna’s horn stopped glowing, but kept vigil. She watched carefully as the guard shrugged. “I don't blame him, though. What Nocturne went through is downright horrible. Nocturne, however, is willing to let me play the diplomat." The guard smiled, a sickly, almost taunting grin. "Aren't you a lucky one?"

The guard trotted to the side and gazed absentmindedly at a tapestry hanging on the wall. "I apologize for the rather... unorthodox method of contacting you, but I see no other way of contacting you without a rather extensive swapping of letters, which would be a pain in the ass, or seeing you in person, which I have no intention of doing."

The guard pony's eyes narrowed, glancing sideways at Luna. "I've heard the kind of physics-screwing powers you princesses have, so I'm sure you understand why I don't want to meet you face-to-muzzle."
Luna's eyes narrowed. "So you are a coward who hides behind others," she remarked.

That prompted a laugh. "No; I simply know my limits, and take precautions accordingly. See, I got my ass handed to me by the last alicorn I came across. I highly doubt I could come out on top if we were to fight, and I don't particularly want that situation to arise. So I stay away from you."

Luna had to admit, this creature did appear to have a decent head on its shoulders. There was no sense beating around the bush, so she decided to be direct. “What is it you have come here for, Abyss?”

The guard smiled. “Now we’re getting to the meat of things!” He blinked, “Err, pardon the expression. Not used to a non-omnivorous society.”

The guard stood up straight and looked her dead in the eyes. “You see, I really just came here to talk. State my intentions, if you will. I’m gonna call myself a…” the guard looked up at the ceiling and waved his hoof in a circle, trying to find the right word. “…representative of sorts. For two groups of sentient beings in particular. One of which being my species, though I highly doubt you’ll encounter another of my kind. Which is good for you; humans can be crazy. Sometimes good crazy, sometimes really bad crazy.” He rolled his eyes at that last statement with a grimace.

“And what, pray tell, is this other group you claim to represent?” Luna asked warily.

“Ah, that would be the Shadowborn.” He said matter-of-factly. “See, Shadow ponies weren’t one sentient organism, they were two: ponies and Shadowborn. Shadowborn live in the shadows and may form either a parasitic or symbiotic bond with another organism, in order to survive in sunlight. Relatively passive creatures; they were content to live out their days in the shadows at first. Five hundred years ago they were dying out, and accidentally formed bonds with ponies in an effort to save themselves. The parasitic kind, where they controlled their hosts. Fast forward to the present, and I am the first to achieve a bond of the symbiotic variety. At least, that I know of.” He blinked in realization. “Sorry, I tend to prattle.”

Luna was interested. “And why did these creatures not simply try to speak with the ponies? Surely, if it were not their intention to possess ponies…”

“That’s the thing, your highness: they couldn’t. They can only speak through or to a host, or to each other. So I am the Lorax, I speak for these… creatures once known as the shadow ponies. Or something. Dr Seuss. Anyways…”

The guardspony cocked his head to the side. “My terms are simple: you and your ponies leave me and mine alone, and you have my word I won’t kill, torture, or maim any of your precious ponies. In fact, I really don't want anything to do with them, which makes my part of the deal rather redundant, but I'm sure the promise will have some calming effect on your worries for your people. TL;DR, we'll mutually ignore each other's existence.” The guard pony grinned. “Do we have a deal?”

Luna thought this over. “T’would be more encouraging if I were to make such an agreement, as you say, face to muzzle. If you would come out of hiding and release your hold on this guard, I would be most willing to cooperate. I must ensure the safety of my ponies above all else.”

The guardspony smiled a little sadly. "I hope you’ll forgive me if I say I don’t exactly trust you, given what happened to the Shadowborn in the end. Granted, it may have been a small faction or some bumbling village idiots, but you WERE in the seat of power at the time… Oh, wait, that was your sister, wasn’t it? You were in the moon at that time." The guardspony chuckled. “My bad. Ah, well; the mistrust still stands.”

“How perplexing this impasse is. Granted, I’m true to my word, as I have little else but my word, but you have no way of knowing that. Just like I have no way of knowing you won’t blast me on sight like Miss Twilight Sparkle did. I suppose we could sit here and glare at each other until one of us drops dead.” The guardspony paced. “Hmm… how about I add that I’ll release this guard after the deal is made, and attempt to prevent other Shadowborn from harming ponies to the list of terms? Or is it the mind control you’re worried about? I don’t like it either, really, and I don’t plan to use it again unless there’s a dire emergency. Nocturne’s the one who used it.”

Luna pondered this. This “Abyss” creature appeared to be genuine in her attempts to find compromise. And it was obvious Abyss considered her and the other alicorns a threat. However, she had no way of guaranteeing the safety of her ponies, no way of ensuring the truth of her words. Moreover, the prospect of this nocturne character was… troublesome. She had made no attempt to disguise the fact that he bore a grudge for some unmentioned slight, and may bring harm should he decide to use this parasitic bond she spoke of… She also seemed rather scattered in the way she spoke. Was there something important she was neglecting to mention? Luna wasn’t sure.

Finally, Luna came to the conclusion that, should Abyss be telling the truth, the potential rewards were well worth it. And should she be attempting to deceive her, she and her sister would be free to deal with her.

“Very well. I accept your proposal, Abyss. But bear in mind, should you break your end of this deal-“

The guard waved her off. “Yeah, yeah, you’ll smite my ass with lightning or something. I’d expect no less.”

The guard nodded. “It’s been fun. I don’t plan to come back.” And with that, the guard grew slack, and a dark shape raced up to him, becoming his shadow. He collapsed on the ground the moment his shadow snapped back into place. The other guards rushed to his aid, helping him up. He opened his eyes and looked around, dazed and confused.

Luna, meanwhile, left the room, headed to where her sister slumbered. There was much to discuss.

Author's Note

So Tired. And a little dissapointed. 5 k words seems like a lot more when you're writing it...
Oh, well.
I like Luna.
Can you guess what's coming up neeeext~?

Also, In case you were unaware, the Miranda rights are one of the rights of citizens of the United States.You know on TV where police say "You have the right to remain silent..."? Well, they have to say the rights you have while arrested, known as the Miranda rights after a historic Supreme Court case, or you can sue them big-time.

Chapter 9- Two Meetings

I stumbled into the central cavern, my humble abode, and slumped against the nearest wall. The adrenaline had long worn off, but my heart was still pounding as I tried to calm myself down from that little encounter. I’m not going to lie, how I, the disagreeable and crass Katherine, ended up actually not getting my ass smote by magic death blaster, let alone successfully managing an agreement between us was beyond me. Bunch of damn miracles, that was.

Yeah, sure, I acted all brave and tough back there, but I was nervous as hell, if the way I babbled nonstop was any indicator. Still, things will be a little safer now that Luna had said the ponies would leave me alone. I mean sure, I might have stolen from her and the town citizens, somewhat threatened them, showed I can use mind control, mentioned I had ties with creatures that hated pony guts and are kinda parasitic sometimes, sorta-kinda attacked some guards, insulted a few ponies, never really got the agreement in writing so they could go back on their word at anytime and ohGodIreallyscrewedthisup… What the hell was I thinking?

I sighed. That didn’t matter now, except as a slight reassurance that I might not get myself in quite as bad a pile of shit later on. Especially with the princesses that can exhibit enough force to lift the sun and moon (which, if my high school physics lessons and common sense served, would be more than enough force to crush my head like a grape).

I took some deep breaths. Now that I was safe-ish in my little hideout, it was thinky-time again. I had gotten what I was after, plus a few extra things. Now was a perfect time to get a little studying and practice in. Focusing, and probably looking like an idiot trying to use psychic powers with the way I had my fingers to my temples and my face scrunched up in concentration, I imagined an arm. My arm, reaching up from the floor, and I just barely managed to call up the shadows in the room to rise in kind. Slowly, carefully, I twisted the shadows until they finally turned a lone lantern on.

I relaxed, letting the shadows return to their natural state, and scooted closer to the lantern’s soft glow. Not too terribly bad for a first attempt at practicing this shadow-manipulation. Maybe one day, I might actually be able to use this power to do something more useful, eventually. It’d be really cool if I could pull off that maneuvering stunt Nocturne had pulled before.

Now that I had a reading light, I plunged my hand into my shadow and dug around until my fingers brushed against the coverless shadow ponies book. I yanked it out, and skimmed through the index.

I turned to the entry that seemed more pressing at the time: defense measures. I picked a paragraph and started skimming:

Long ago, the shadow ponies were a scourge upon the land… Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard this all before. I thought, skimming through the page. Blah blah attack yak yak yak shadow magic yada yada yada spell created bleh blah blur… Wait… Go back to that last part. I skimmed around for the part in question, and began to read, seriously this time:

In response to the attacking shadow ponies, which fled after every attack to places unknown, the greatest spellsmiths of the towns gathered together in a single, unnamed town that had either the fortune or misfortune of capturing one of their attackers. Utilizing this opportunity, the spellsmiths crafted a threefold spell, one that would ensure the continued safety of Equestria.

Utilizing this spell, one would be able to discover the whereabouts of the shadow ponies, release a pony from the bonds of the darkness, and capture the parasitic darkness.

I reeled back. Further down the book spelled out in intricate detail how to perform the spell, including magic circles and arrays that made little sense to me. Both Nocturne and I began to grow very, very worried. A pony only needed this one spell. One single spell and nothing could stop someone from finding me and stripping me of this magic, and maybe killing off Nocturne for good. God help us if this wasn’t the only edition.

I took a deep breath. Calm. I needed to calm down. I can’t figure anything out if I can’t stay calm and rational. Peering down at the book, I noticed a page seemed to be slightly unaligned with the other pages. Curious, I flipped to the page in question. To my surprise, a page fell from the book and fluttered to the ground.

I glanced at the pages in the book. 75…76… they’re still in numerical order. I thought, stealing a glance at the page on the floor. …Meaning that’s an extra page. Or maybe another little message. God, what kind of news could this thing be? Please be good news.

Carefully, I picked up the musty old piece of paper and flipped it over. A large squiggly shape seemed outlined in the center, with a few red Xs inside with little notes beside them. The remainder was divided into several other shapes, and names were scrawled all about the page, often next to small drawings. It took me a moment to realize I was staring at a crude map.

I could feel Nocturne’s excitement growing. Do you think this might lead us to the other Shadowborn? He asked hopefully, his urgency growing. We have to go see! We must check to see what others remain!

Now hold on just one second. I’m not going to head out on some presumably cross-country trip just on some hunch. Not yet, at least. I’m tired, and the sisters will undoubtedly be watching like hawks for the slightest sign of trouble. We’ll need to stock up for a trip like this, too, as well as get our bearings in relation to this map… I thought, trying to shut out his frenzied emotions.

Nocturne seemed to settle down just a little, disappointed, but I could sense he understood. In the back of my mind, I could still feel his sense of urgency. Almost like he was tapping his foot impatiently in my head. I couldn’t blame him. This was his species we were dealing with, here.

I set the book and the map off to the side, and opted to dig around in my shadow again for that weird stone from earlier. I felt my fingers wrap around the smooth shape, and dragged it out of the darkness.

I turned the soapstone over in my hand and eyed it carefully. When I had touched this thing, someone or something had spoken to me. In my head, like telepathy or something. Maybe the stone had some sort of magic message tied to it or something. But looking at it now, it didn’t seem all that strange. I brushed my fingers across the cool surface, hoping I would hear this “Solaire” person’s message again. But nothing happened. It seemed to be nothing more than a rock now.

I huffed in frustration, hitting the back of my head against the wall. What use was this thing if I couldn’t get it to do anything? I almost threw it across the room in disgust, but thought better of it.

I shifted a bit. “Hey Nocturne, you heard that Solaire guy’s message too, right? That whole thing about ‘calling upon me’ and ‘protect yada yada yada’?” I looked up at the ceiling. “You know about any of this stuff? Or any ideas on what this ‘calling’ junk is about?”

Yes and no. Nocturne replied. We did hear the message. But we have no knowledge of this object or what it is for.

I rolled my eyes. Of course he doesn’t know anything about it. He was trapped in a glass orb for years; what was I expecting?

“Hey, maybe it’s like a cell phone!” I quipped sarcastically, pulling the stone up to my ear in mockery, “Hi, Solaire? It’s your old pal Abyss, here! I could really use your help, please! I’ve got some magic troubles!”

I could feel Nocturne doing some weird internal eye-rolling thing. Being me, I took the joke further. Hey, I was frustrated; I needed some way to relieve the tension. “Or maybe, I have to call him forth like in a demon summoning ritual!” I said, waving my hands about.

Exaggeratedly, I drew a circle on the cave floor, and wrote this “Solaire” guy’s name in the middle just for kicks and scribbled in a few squiggles here and there. Nocturne was double-facepalming in my head. Taking my little pretend ritual even further, I set the stone down in the center of the circle and touched it with two fingers.

At this point, Nocturne spoke up, genuinely nervous. Okay, stop, that’s enough. If you’re not careful you might actually summon something.

I scoffed. “Come on, Nocturne, It’s just a bit of silliness. What could possibly happen?” I chided. Oh, if only I knew how badly I was about to eat those words. Wriggling the fingers of my free hand spookily and grinning manically, I called out, “Oh, Solaire, I call ye forth from the depths! I need to do some things with magic, but totally stink at it!”

My face fell as a golden light began to emanate from the circle. I stumbled back and pressed myself against the wall, watching as a yellow figure rose like a ghost from the grave and extended his arms skyward in a V formation. “Praise the Sun!” said the figure, which appeared almost like a knight. A human knight, not one of those pony-guard knights. My jaw dropped. “And.... I’m in a cave.” It looked about, it’s head tilted. “Huh. Didn’t put a mark here....”

Carefully, I reached over and picked up the soapstone, watching the figure’s movements closely. “Do you mean this thing?” I asked.

It looked down at me. “Ah,” it pointed at the soapstone. “I do mean that yes.” It looked around again, taking notice of the bed. “This your cave?”

Okay. I had half a mind at this moment that somehow, demon summoning wasn’t total bull in this world and somehow, Nocturne had known this. I really need to ask his opinion more often. That, anyways, would make what stood before me right now an actual demon, or a ghost or something. Damn, I had no idea how to deal with this.

If this was a demon, it seemed nice enough. At least it didn’t demand my soul right away. Maybe there was some way of talking my way out of this potential mess. “Yeah,” I replied, still not taking my eyes of it, “Technically, it’s a mine. It’s not much, but at least it’s dry, and the tunnels are dark and twisted enough that any ponies would be hard-pressed to find their way down here.” I looked at the ground. “Though it won’t matter much if there’s another copy of this tracking spell I found somewhere they can use to find me.” I glanced back at the figure. “I don’t believe I caught your name…?”

“Oh!” It rubbed the side of its head. “Apologies, I just got out of a hospital.” Holding out a ghostly hand, he spoke. “I am Solaire.”

I glanced at his outstretched hand, mentally weighing in what information I had. “Right. Call me Abyss.” Deciding that this was, in fact, probably not a demon, I stood up, reached out, and shook his hand in kind, surprised to find it actually felt solid.

“Nice to meet you.” He nodded. “It’s been about... A thousand years since I saw a human... That wasn’t in a costume... Or formerly a pony... Or an alternate me.”

“A thousand years?” I blinked, retracting my hand. Okay, maybe he was a demon, but there was one question a bit more pressing among the several hundred that statement alone had brought up. “There are more humans in this place? Why the hell haven’t I come across any?”

“Well,” He placed a hand on his chest. “I am from an alternate timeline, or world. Whichever this is.” Solaire made a small hum. “I don’t know, but the point is that the reason you haven’t met any, is because they exist in other planes. Not this one.”

“Like… alternate realities and junk?” I asked in surprise, pinching my chin between my thumb and finger. “Damn. That doesn’t leave me the option of just going home if I want to very plausible.” I glanced sideways at Solaire, the gears turning in my head. “But you were able to come here… Which means it’s not impossible...”

“Precisely.” Solaire turned to regard his staff. “I’m in the process of trying to make a way back to my world, but through fine tuning and the staff I think I can change the channel.” He tapped the side of his head. “Of course I need a few... Ingredients.”

Okay, that did it. I’d heard enough. I was still very much on edge, and that comment and the way he was very creepily vague about what he needed set off all the alarms in my head. I backed the hell away from him as fast as I could, pointing straight at him. “Okay, I don’t know what the hell you’re getting at, but if you want my soul, it’s not for sale, damn it!”

Nocturne tried calming me. Wait, Abyss. This apparition may be able to grant us the immunity we desire. The counterspell you mentioned.

“I don’t care if this guy can make a counterspell, MY SOUL IS MINE, NOCTURNE.” I snapped. I probably looked like a raving lunatic with the way I was behaving.

It didn't seem to faze Solaire much, though. “Soul?” Solaire shook his head. “No. Nonononono. I hate dabbling with souls. Tirek was bad enough.” He shuddered a little. “I do not need a soul. I don’t need any souls. I just need random things from across the multiverse, and I’m hoping you have one of the things I need.”

I relaxed a bit, mentally slapping myself for overreacting like that. I climbed down off of the fridge that I had ended up scaling in my panic. “Okay, then. Like a sidequest or something in videogames. So whaddya need from me?” I asked. If this guy could help me out in any way, I might be able to negotiate a trade of sorts, if his price was reasonable.

“Ahem...” He cleared his throat. “I need: The shard of a magic pan, a part of the lost tooth of Discord, the hair of a planeswalker’s servant, the chest hair from the muscle wizard, a drop of the Heir of Breath’s blood, and shadow essence.” Solaire paused and counted them off. “Yep. That’s everything.”

I blinked. “Muscle… Wizard…?” I shook my head, “Know what? Never mind. I’m guessing you need me for the shadow essence stuff. Fine. You got it.” I stared directly at Solaire where I assumed his eyes were. Kinda hard to tell with a helmet on his face. “But I’ll need some help in return.”

“Of course!” He sounded excited. “What is it you need, and I shall try to provide.” He did a small flourish and bow. “As best I can.”

Hm. A bow. How gentlemanly. “Well, if you managed to get here, you used either some form of magic in the most general sense of the word, as in a way of manipulating miscellaneous aspects of reality or just generally screwing with the laws of physics. Or you used a form of technology, though I doubt that’s the case given your getup. Therefore, you have some understanding and ability to use magic, correct?”

Solaire nodded. “Yes I know of magic. I didn’t learn nothing from Starswirl’s rants.”

“Can you at least place enchantments to block or negate a certain spell?” I asked.

“Yes.” He nodded yet again. “I’ve done it before.”

I nodded in return. Good. This was good. I dug around in my pockets, which I had hardly used since I got here. The whole shadow-storage thing was a lot more useful, after all. Can’t stuff a book in your pants pockets.

Finally, I felt my fingers brush the edge of that stupid little metal keyring that had been caught on the insides of my pocket for about a year now. It was annoying, but I’d never had the heart to remove it before, since it was caught on several of the strings at the bottom that tied the pocked to the sides of my jeans. Removing it would have meant ruining the pocket.

Now, though, I didn’t care, so I ripped the ring out with a swift yank, ripping out a bit of fabric in the process. I held it out to Solaire. “I think this’ll work. If you can enchant this to counter a spell in a book I have, I’ll try and come up with that essence you need.” I scurried over and picked up the coverless book, turning it to the right page. I handed him the keyring and the book, pointing to the spell in question.

“Hmm.” He grabbed the book and keyring, grunting a little as he took off his helmet and set it down. “There. I can see better now.” He turned to the page. “Okay... What’s the spell do?”

“Well, if I read it correctly, it’s a spell targeted towards a certain symbiotic species.” I waved a hand, gesturing at my appearance. “I didn’t always look like this. This shadow-powers stuff isn’t mine alone. The spell has three purposes: track, remove from the host, then contain. I kinda made a promise to a friend that I wouldn’t let that happen.”

Nocturne stirred at these words. You… think of us as a friend..? he asked, almost in disbelief.

Well, yeah. What else would you be? I asked mentally. Nocturne didn’t have an answer for that.

“Ah....” He set the keyring on the ground and looked at the book. “A bit tricky, and I say a bit cause this looks like a madman wrote it, but I can still make a counterspell.” Reaching behind him, he pulled out a small black crystal and set in next to the keyring. “Since I need to figure out the spell before I dare start making the counter, I can answer any questions you may have.”

“Hm. Well, for starters, You are human, right? How’s the thousand-year thing work?” I paused, pondering. “And how did the whole ‘you coming here’ thing work? You mentioned a marker...”

He looked at me and gave a smile past his filthy blond hair. “Human, and yet... Not.” He winced. “That’s another question though. The ‘thousand year thing’ is because I was turned to stone by the princesses.” Solaire shook his head. “As for coming here, it’s the soapstone.” He looked back to the book. “It acts like the chalk from Beetlejuice, the one that made the door.” He looked at me again. “You’ve seen that movie right?”

“Yeah, I’ve seen it. Strange, but funny.” I replied. “So it’s a gateway. How’s it work? And while I’m still asking questions, you mentioned wanting to ‘change the channel,’ which I assume is a metaphor for interplanar travel, so where is it you hope to go. And, this is the last one, anything I should look out for?”

“The gateway... I’m not sure how it works.” He shrugged. “I think it has something to do with timelines, but that was in the game....” Muttering to himself he turned the book sideways. “When I said changing the channel I did mean interplanar travel, and as to where I want to go.” He looked at me. “Not sure, but I do know that I want to find out why I was brought here....” Solaire frowned and sighed deeply. “As for things to look out for... If you see a thing like I am now, but dark blue. Run, or kill it as fast as you can.”

Well, that was ominous. “I, uh… I think I’m gonna go get that shadow essence thing up. I think I’ve got some plastic bags in the fridge; you could try taking it with you that way.”

“Thanks.” He smiled. “Also, little tip. Don’t worry too much ‘bout the blue phantoms. They’re very rare, and only appear if you commit a sin. Like murder.”

I pondered that for a moment. “Does being a general asshole count as a sin?” I asked.

“No.” He replied. “Otherwise I’d be hunted like mad.”

“M’kay.” I turned and walked over to the fridge, calling to Nocturne inside my head.

Hey, Nocturne. I’m assuming you hear all of that, so do you think you can manage this shadow essence thing? I don’t think I’m adept enough at this manipulation thing on my own. I thought to him, opening up the fridge and pulling out a plastic ziploc bag with only a few leftover cookie crumbs inside. I opened it up and dumped out the crumbs, wondering how the hell ponies managed to use these things without fingers.

We believe that this is well within our power, however… Noctune shifted uncomfortably. You’ll need to forfeit control for a bit…

Fine with me, I thought, surprising him. I trust you to not do anything we’ll both regret. You’ve shown how well you can control yourself and act civil back at the castle. Even when attacking people.

I sank back, experiencing that odd feeling of not being in control of yourself. Nocturne took a deep breath, and focused his energy. Like a drop of water falling upside down, the shadows flowed upward. The ‘drop’ at the end began growing darker and darker, until finally it matched even the deepest of voids in shade. This liquid void strained harder against Nocturne’s mental commands, and made short, jerky movements as it flowed into the plastic bag, as though fighting like a stubborn mule. Finally, every drop was forced into the bag, and in the blink of an eye, I was myself again.

I sloshed the stuff in the bag, poking it for good measure. It didn’t lash out at me or melt through the bag, so I assumed it was relatively safe. Wouldn’t want to accidentally kill the guy by giving him something unsafe. I zipped up the bag and trudged over to see how Solaire was holding up.

He chanted something under his breath as he held his hand over the keyring, a small strand of darkness and light fused together and embedded themselves in the keyring. He pulled his hand away and grinned. “There. One counterspell, with bonus effect. Free of charge.”

I snatched up the keyring, and flicked it. It hummed and glowed with ethereal light. Satisfied, I clutched it my hand and smiled at him. “Thanks a lot, Solaire.” I remembered the plastic bag in my hand, and held it out to him. “And, uh, here’s your shadow essence stuff. I can give you some cookies for the road, if you want.” I offered awkwardly. I mean, geez, he was giving me something extra. Generally one should give something extra in return, right? Who doesn’t like sweets?

He smiled and pocketed the bag, shaking his head. “Thank you, and I’m fine without cookies.” He leaned down to grab his helmet, placing it back on his head. “Oh, bonus gift.” He gestured to the ring. “One time blast of humanity, turn a pesky unicorn or annoying pegasus into a confused human.”

“Sounds good for self-defense, though I’m kinda honor-bound to not touch the ponies. If I want to keep my bones intact, at least. Does it work on other creatures as well?”

“Anything sentient, so don’t use it on a cockatrice.” He turned away. “Trust me don’t use it on a cockatrice.”

Struggling with it a bit, I managed to clip the keyring around my moon amulet. The glass and metal clinked against each other softly. “I’ll take your word for it.” I looked back at him with a smile, taking him turning away as his cue that he was about to leave. “Well, I guess it was nice meeting you.”

“Same.” He turned back and held out his hand again. “A pleasure working with you, Abyss.”

I shook his hand in turn, nodding in affirmation. “I guess it was nice talking with someone not in my head or walking on four legs for a change.”

“Of course.” His body began to fade out, his presence disappearing. “Keep the soapstone, and use it to write your name in times of need. All nearby may see and come to aid you.”

“Hm. Might just do that if I find myself in a pickle.” I nodded, glancing at the stone. “Might be useful having allies not in my head.”

He nodded one last time, and vanished from sight. And with that, I was left standing, rubbing at the keyring. I felt just a bit safer now that I had this. It wouldn’t solve all of my problems, but I would at least not have to worry about the light spell.

Well, no, actually. I realized. This only means we’ll have, at the very least, a one-time immunity to the spell before they figure out it doesn’t work. Then, if I learned anything from that week-long study session, they’ll be able to adapt the spell to make it work. If they don’t use another one or new one right off the bat.

“He was a nice fellow, wasn’t he, Nocturne?” I said at last.

He was helpful, at least. Nocturne said. Though we must admit, we are rather concerned about the prospect of the ponies utilizing another spell. Retrospectively, it would have been better to ask for a magic-absorption enchantment of some kind, but little can be done about that now. We have been formulating ideas on how we might be able to adapt this gift to better defend us both.

I grinned, and strutted over to my bed, flicking my hand towards the lantern light. The shadows responded, shutting the light off and enveloping the cavern in total darkness. “Good, good,” I yawned, “That means you’re honing your contingency planning skills. Thinking ahead. We may need that later.” I collapsed into the covers, exhausted from my rather interesting day.

Good night... friend. Nocturne said, just before I fell into a deep, peaceful slumber.

**********

Celestia had been understandably drowsy when her sister had burst into her room in the middle of the night. Now, however, she was wide awake as she contemplated what Luna was telling her.

“… And then, the guard’s shadow returned to him as promised, and the remaining guards were unable to find a trace of Abyss. The guard, thankfully, was unharmed, and seemed only a little dazed, but it seems that Abyss has taken some of the resources within the archives,” Luna finished.

Celestia calmly levitated her teacup down to its saucer, and set them both on the side table beside her. She was comfortably seated on her queen-sized bed, with her sister lying beside her. “It is good to hear everypony is alright. May I ask what was stolen?” Celestia asked.

“The entirety of the pages of two books, it seems, a soapstone that may or may not have been imbued with supernatural properties, as well as the amulet we suspect may have come from that.” Luna replied, “The covers were left behind, however, so we were able to discover she stole the only detailed book of information we had available about Shadow Ponies we found, as well as something about interdimensional travel. I am uncertain as to what this implies.”

“Hm,” mused Celestia, pouring a cup of tea, which she offered to Luna, “There are much more powerful and useful artifacts in the castle that she could have stolen. In the past, nopony unlocked the secrets of the soapstone, and the amulet is little more than a night-light on its own. It seems to me her main target was information, and perhaps the rest a mere afterthought. Perhaps she is attempting to keep something hidden…”

Luna accepted the tea, and sipped from the cup before replying. “Mayhap this implies a connection to the Shadowborn and this unspecified travesty that befell their kind that our ponies may have played a part in?”

Celestia took another sip of her tea, staring into the distance. “I cannot help but feel responsible for this travesty she mentioned. I do not know what transpired beyond that my ponies were being attacked and my own attempts to resolve the issue. What occurred was completely beyond my knowledge. Had I known whatever occurred to incur their wrath beforehand, I would have attempted to resolve the crisis. From what you have described from the interview with the guard, it must have been something dreadful indeed to have brought forth such wrath. If the offer is genuine, I appreciate her efforts to prevent further conflict between the Shadowborn and my little ponies.”

Luna looked uneasy for a moment, as though trying to find a way to gently break bad news. “There is… one other thing…” she began carefully. “One of the guards that saw her mentioned a similar amulet to the one that was stolen, one with an inscription of the moon…”

Celestia’s eyes shot wide open. “That is… rather disturbing news.” She remarked, her tone troubled. “Did she..?”

“She did not appear to have any understanding of their powers. She seemed more content to flee than use them, despite how they could have assisted her.” Luna replied. Celestia seemed content. This was something else to be grateful for.

Luna looked down at the floor, deeply troubled. “I should have done something more. I fear I may have failed in my duty to protect Equestria, that we may be blindsided to an attack by a false treaty. The fact that we did not get this treaty in writing makes it all the more dubious.”

“Nonsense, Luna. You did the best anypony could have done, given the circumstances. In fact, you may have just left us a way, should Abyss end up a threat to the safety and stability of Equestria, to resolve what crisis may come.”

“You see, sister…” Celestia regarded Luna with a twinkle in her eye and a sly smile. “Treaties tend to have loopholes, whether intentional or not.”

Luna looked surprised at this, and then put a hoof to her chin. “Does this not make the situation more dire? Surely by this logic, she could feasibly, for example, destroy entire cities so long as no ponies were harmed in the process. Or raise an army by utilizing this ability to gain control over others she exhibited.” She asked with growing concern, her face growing serious.

“Yes, that is true. But that does not mean our hoofs are tied should she choose to do such things. If I recall correctly, she stated ‘you and your ponies.’ This leaves quite a number of other options. Not all inhabitants of Equestria are ponies, after all.”

Luna’s eyes grew wide. “Surely you don’t mean to ask… Discord of all creatures?”

“Perhaps, perhaps not. Though it would certainly be rather easy for him, given his ability to sense magic outside of the norm. I don’t know if he is reformed enough to ask directly, despite his closeness with Fluttershy.” Celestia mused. “He has often tended to take an interest in the unusual, or that which does not conform to our society. It is in his nature, after all.”

Luna paused, trying to understand what her sister was grasping at. Then, finally, it clicked, and a small smile crept across her face. “I do believe we should report this incident to Twilight Sparkle, and her friends as well. Certainly, as the former bearers of the elements of harmony, they might appreciate being informed on this matter. And should someone just happen to read the letter and gain interest in the matter of Abyss…”

Celestia chuckled. “You catch on well, sister.”

Author's Note

I tried to add a healthy blend of story-forwarding and crossover-indulging.
This was done with the cooperative authorship of Jimmy the Grape. You can read his chapter here. Go read it. It's in another Point of view. And it's funny.

Chapter 11- Discord

Fluttershy and Discord were having tea. Delightful time for the both of them, really, especially for Discord. He took delight in showing his friend little tricks to keep the conversation going, and she was one of the few ponies who ever let him really let loose with his chaos magic.

Really, one would be surprised at how much fun for all a few flying numbers making “meep” noises could be. Or adding in a brand new color to the spectrum for a few moments. Perfectly harmless, he could assure you. Still, most of his meaner tricks were directed towards the rabbit. He 'accidentally' spilled a cup of tea that had quite literally danced a little too close to the edge of the table. He hated that bunny. It always occupied so much of dear Fluttershy's time with its annoying persistence, demanding attitude, and all around rotten temperament. He was certain it was more evil than he was. Or used to be.

The now-drenched bunny squealed in protest, catching Fluttershy's attention in the middle of a particularly invigorating conversation. "Oh, Angel, you're soaked! I hope you don't mind, Discord, I just have to wash out Angel's fur before it dries all sticky. I'll only be a minute," she promised apologetically.

Discord chuckled softly at the idea. "Go ahead. I'll just have to amuse myself with the tea set," he said. On cue, the tea set leapt up and began performing a little trapeze act. This elicited a smile from Fluttershy.

Fluttershy carefully scooped up the tea-soaked bunny and carried him to the washroom. Discord's eyes narrowed at the rabbit, who in turn stuck out its tongue at him as it vanished into the next room. You win this time, bunny. Insert shaking fist here.

As he sat and made the teacups hold a boxing match for his amusement, a piece of paper suddenly burst into existence in a flash of green fire.

It was letter, it seemed, from the princesses themselves, if the royal wax seal was any indication. In all likelihood it wasn't meant for him. What business would the princesses have with him? Aside from sealing him in a lawn ornament, of course. That left either Fluttershy or the rabbit, and he sincerely hoped it wasn't for the rabbit. It didn't deserve such special treatment.

Oh, what mysteries and secrets could be inscribed on that parchment? Discord couldn't tell, but he did know he wanted to know what the paper knew. Not that paper could know anything. So he did what any sane person would have done then. He looked left, right...

Then eagerly tore open the seal and read the letter.

Come now, like you wouldn't have done the exact same thing in such a situation.

The letter was addressed to Fluttershy, as he’d expected. It seemed to be about some manner of creature, Discord noted, that called itself Abyss. No, scratch that: She called herself Abyss.

Anyways, this creature apparently had some command over shadows, had used them to confront the princesses in a rather crass manner, and that she had some distrust for the princesses (a valid notion, he could assure you. A thousand years could give you such a crick in the neck) as well as how she had stolen some things from the castle under their very noses.

Furthermore, it noted she had a sort of dual nature: two creatures within the same body.

It seemed to stress how abusive and temperamental, and therefore dangerous, she could be.

As he skimmed the letter, the truth of the letter stood out like a sore thumb. He was no fool; he could see precisely what the princesses were really attempting with this letter. Though the letter was addressed to Fluttershy, it was really intended for none other than himself. It was a rather transparent ploy to direct his attention towards this “Abyss” creature, to indirectly ask for assistance. Perhaps they wanted him to remove any threat she posed, or gather intelligence.

However, it was not directly stated what they wanted him to do, so really he could do anything he wanted in light of this information. It certainly didn’t give any instructions on what not to do.

A big, twisted grin spread across his face.

This is going to be quite the spot of fun.

With a snap of his fingers, Discord winked out of existence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a silent trek back to the central cave room. To be honest, Nocturne and I were rather pleased with ourselves about how that had turned out. Nocturne more so than I, as the little victory parade he was doing in my head seemed to suggest. Hours after we got back, he had stopped, but there was still that feeling of smug self-congratulation that echoed in the corners of my cranium.

I, meanwhile, was practicing shadow manipulation once again. We were preparing to leave our hidey-hole and set off beyond Equestrian borders in search of the remaining Shadowborn, after all.

I needed to work on offensive and defensive skills while I could. I had no illusions that it wasn’t going to be dangerous out there; there was no telling if other creatures out there were quite as “friendly” as the ponies. And considering they blasted me on sight…

Yeah, I definitely needed practice. I did not want to end up as something’s dinner or prisoner on the first day out there.

Summoning up my willpower, I called upon the shadows that danced and flickered in the lantern light. A small stream of shadow trickled upward steadily, slowly. I frowned. It wasn’t nearly enough.

Faster, I urged, More shadows.

The shadow seemed to surge at my request, distorting in the air as though it was being strangled by invisible hands. It wobbled violently in the air, and fell apart. Drops of shadow splashed down against the cave floor, receding back into their normal state.

I sighed with a deep frown, burying my face in my hand. No good.

One hour. I had put up with one whole hour of this bull-crap by that point. Over thirty consecutive failures. Sure, I could summon up a basic shadow tendril just fine. But when it came to summoning actually useable sizes and speeds, it was like the shadow outright rejected me.

Memories of Nocturne’s effortless command of the shadows when he was in control taunted me. I could clearly picture how he’d zipped about the room at neck break speeds, and despite all my effort, I was no closer to that level than an hour ago. It was absolutely infuriating. Why can’t I do this?

Centering myself, I called out as calmly as I could. “Nocturne, could you please help me out now?”

I already told you, Nocturne said for the umpteenth time, It’s a matter of willpower. The shadows will only move faster and expand if you will it to.

“I’ve tried that. It keeps breaking or whatever,” I countered with a hint of disgust.

Look, it’s not that hard. The shadows will obey if you accept them as an extension of yourself. Be part of the shadow, rather than apart from it. Openness is critical. He spoke as though it was obvious.

I rolled my eyes with a groan. “Stupid cryptic advice,” I muttered under my breath. Give me something that will actually help me figure this out instead of a bunch of riddles.

“Ah, but cryptic advice is the best kind. I use it all the time!” replied a voice from within the cave.

My heart skipped a beat as I jolted up in alarm. I tensed, eyes darting around to find the source of the voice. There was an intruder here. There was no telling what they were going to do.

There was a flash right in front of me, leaving behind a… creature floating in midair with an amused grin and confetti fluttering everywhere.

Seriously, what the heck was I supposed to call this thing? It looked like someone had mashed together at least five different species of animals to get this. It had a snake tail, two different kinds of horns, a lion paw, an eagle claw… I don’t really feel like mentioning all of it.

My mind went blank, trying to process this, and Nocturne seemed just as dumbfounded as I was. I stared, opening and closing my mouth awkwardly as though trying to say something. It just stared at me in amusement, its yellow eyes fixated on me.

Finally, I found my voice. “Who and what the hell are you?” I asked.

“Oh, where are my manners?” it said in a decidedly male voice with a slight accent I couldn’t quite place. He gave a bow with a flourish. “Discord, Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, at your service.” As he said it, little fireworks shot up and burst over his head, spelling out his name in bold colors. He certainly didn’t seem one for subtlety.

Something clicked in my mind. I’d heard about him in the lecture of doom before. Discord was a draconequus that had caused trouble and spread chaos, and was sealed in stone for it. If memory served, he was supposed to be reformed right now for the side of good.

What the heck was he doing here? And how did he find me?

He eyed me expectantly. “And you are..?”

I looked at him warily, returning his gaze. “I call myself Abyss,” I replied flatly.

Discord hovered in the air, his paw on his chin. “Well that may be, but that’s not really who you are, is it Katherine? Or do you prefer Kate?” He gave a sly look.

I stiffened. He knew my name. I hadn’t uttered my name since I got here, at least not that I knew of. How the hell did he know what my name was?

Your real name is Katherine? Nocturne asked in surprise.

I ignored Nocturne, choosing instead to glare at Discord. I didn’t like him, coming in here while acting so nonchalant, revealing information about me as though he knew me.

I didn’t like where this was going at all.

“Get out,” I growled in a low, menacing tone.

Discord just laughed at me. “Well, you’re a dangerous one, aren’t you?” He remarked with amusement, ruffling my hair with a clawed hand. I swiped at him, but he vanished before I made contact. He reappeared situated a few feet away.

“Why, you’ve practically got me shaking in my boots.” A pair of boots appeared on his feet, and he vibrated violently.

I folded my arms across my chest, not amused.

His face fell as he saw I wasn’t playing along with his little joke. “There’s no need to be like that,” he said grumpily, twisting in the air, returning a stern look with exaggerated features. "I was just poking a little bit of fun at you. Old habits."

He melted to the ground, then sprang up with a businesslike desk with a tuxedo on. He scooped up papers, and eyed me seriously. “Seriously, though, I’ve come to talk seriously with you about something serious.”

“And from what I understand, you’re anything but serious,” I replied.

He sprang up in the air with his arms spread wide, “Guilty as charged!” The tux and desk literally danced off. He teleported nearby dressed as a mail carrier. “Though really, you might find what I have here quite interesting.”

He dangled a piece of parchment inches from my face. Annoyed, I snatched it out of his paw and began reading.

It was a letter, addressed to Fluttershy. About me. How “dangerous” I was. The further I read, the more furious Nocturne and I became. My teeth clenched, grimacing, and my fingernails tore into the parchment.

“This creature..? Take caution..?” I hissed through my teeth as the letter crumpled in my hands. “Why..?” I growled. We had done nothing. We had done nothing and this vile piece of paper… Nocturne’s fury and mine were in perfect stereo, feeding off of each other’s anger. It churned and boiled inside me. I shook with rage, blood boiling, teeth gnashing in this unending stream of disgust at the sisters, at the ponies, at Discord, this letter that reeked of betrayal to the treaty I had honored in spirit and law. I was ready to erupt, explode; I wished I could set fire to the room around me and charbroil everything within. The shadows churned in tune with my sea of emotion, dancing about the room in a frantic flame-like fury, poised to strike and slash and crush and destroy everything around them.

“Oh, it was probably to get me to find you,” Discord replied cheerfully.

Nocturne, the shadows, and I grew unnaturally calm.

“What?” I asked flatly.

“Oh, well, they probably thought that I could do some damage if I was informed about you. I’m not a pony, so technically I could do their dirty work according to that little agreement of yours.” He replied cheerfully, slicing his finger across his neck as his head fell of his neck into his waiting tail. “At the very least, cause you enough trouble that you wouldn’t have time to be ‘evil’,” the disembodied head replied, “Actually rather clever, if you think about it.”

The room was completely still for the briefest of moments.

Nothing existed, not a noise, not the slightest quiver.

Not even a single, solitary thought.

There was nothing but quietness.

Absolute silence.

Nothing else.

Nothing.

“… Are you quite alright?” Discord asked, replacing his head on his neck with a confused glance.

No response.

Then…

I released a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. I slowly, very slowly, painfully, excruciatingly slowly, turned to Discord with a bright, polite smile on my face. I remarked cheerfully, "Oh, no, don't mind me. I'm just a little bit-"

My tone was suddenly deadpan, and my gaze hardened into a cold neutrality born of incomprehensible rage, my eyes blazing violently, “-absolutely livid.”

“Ooh, such temper!” Discord exclaimed gleefully, pinching my chin. “I bet you want to get back at them, don’t you? Take justice into your own hands, give them their just deserts and all that. I can help you scheme, too. I’m thinking small pranks working up into massive chaos. Oh, this’ll be fun!” A long scroll of paper unrolled onto the floor, and a quill pen appeared in his hand. “First, we’ll need skin cream, a few flamingos in flamenco outfits, several thousand gallons of ice cream-”

“No.”

Discord stopped cold. He put his hand to his ear, which grew impossibly large. “Come again?” he asked.

“I. Said. No,” I repeated.

Nocturne exploded. What do you mean “No”? Nocturne yelled in my head. The two of us trusted them to keep their end, and they blatantly abuse a loophole to send an assassin-!

“I agree with the little screaming shadowhawhosit. Nocturne, I think it’s called,” said Discord. His voice turned deep. “Search your feelings, Kate, you know it to be true.”

I didn’t even glance at Discord, but quietly noted that he had been able to hear Nocturne. “Don’t let your rage get the best of you, Nocturne.” I said calmly, “Think.”

But we should get back at them! Strike before-

“Think,” I repeated, more forcefully this time. “You’ve been here since that day in the cave. You’ve heard everything I have. There’s something off here. Find it, Nocturne. Use your head.”

We… But… Nocturne gave up, realizing I wasn’t going to budge on this. I could feel the gears turning in his head. Then, an epiphany as two and two finally added up. Discord wanted us to get angry.

I nodded. “Exactly. Isn’t that right, Discord?”

Discord pursed his lips, avoiding my gaze while tapping his index fingers together.

I eyed Discord carefully. “You’re a manipulator who enjoys it when others don’t get along. A creature of, as you put it, ‘Chaos and Disharmony.’”

He put on a false smile. “Whatever do you mean?” He asked, feigning innocence.

“I mean that, in some way, you’re just as bound to be good as we are. You were hoping you could convince us to spread chaos for you by making us angry at the sisters.” I remarked pointedly, not taking my eyes off him.

He squirmed a bit under my scrutinizing glare, before sighing and drooping. “All right, fine.” He folded his arms and pouted defensively. “So what if I was? You can’t blame me; I haven’t had a good dose of chaos in ages.”

He put his hand to his forehead and wilted dramatically. “I’m going into withdrawal! Oh, woe is me!” He slumped on the ground miserably. A headstone and a few flowers sprung up.

I regarded him apathetically, and then shrugged.

“I don’t, actually. You’re following your nature, balancing things out. I understand,” I stated as though it was completely obvious.

Discord stopped pretending like he was being gagged by ‘the Man’ (quite literally with a ribbon labeled “THE MAN”) and stared at me in shock. “You do? Really?”

I nodded. “The way I see it, chaos and disharmony are actually necessary in certain amounts. Just like order and harmony, things turn out badly if they’re too extreme. Chaos and disharmony are actually good things, if you think about it.”

Discord was speechless. I had to admit, he looked pretty funny with the way his jaw hit the floor with a loud ‘clang.’ It was even funnier when he bent over to pick it up off the ground.

“I’ve always thought that both order and chaos were elements of progress. Chaos is good for instigating change and making things a little more fun. But order makes sure that that the positive progress chaos works towards becomes routine and protected. Likewise, disharmony can manifest as differing opinions, which result in better ideas and concepts arising through debate when they finally harmonize. In other words, you represent concepts that keep things in balance.”

Discord found his voice right then. “You think I’m a… good thing..?” He mumbled.

“You’re the spirit of concepts which are good things when working together with their antitheses, Imagine if everything was perfectly harmonious. It’d be like a hive mind. So… yeah,” I replied with a shrug. “You’re cool, so long as you don’t go too nuts with it.”

Discord paused. Then he smiled. “That’s certainly an interesting thought,” he mused, curling up in midair. “I don’t recall ever hearing such an opinion of me before.”

Just then, a silent thought crept into my mind. A small, mischievous, evil little idea. I smiled darkly. “Actually, now that I think about it… you were right, Nocturne. We should take revenge.”

“WHAT?!” Discord and Nocturne exclaimed in unison, making my ears feel like they were ringing both inside and out.

“Don’t get me wrong; I’m not thinking anything like large scale chaos or violence, but I’m still very angry. And this letter is a really underhanded move, so I'm going to hold a grudge for a long while. Both of us are going to need a little payback to stay grounded. So…” My face twisted into a sly grin. “Let’s say they knew I found out about the letter and that Nocturne and I were quite livid. And we did nothing.”

Nothing?

I nodded. “Absolutely nothing. And that’s the beauty of it. They’ll worry over nothing. And they can’t do anything direct to us, so long as we do nothing, or else they’ll lose their political credibility as ‘peaceful, benevolent rulers.’ Let ‘em work themselves into a frenzy for about ...a day or so, then tell ‘em we’ll do nothing.”

Nocturne paused. Do you think it will work?

“If they’re paranoid enough to send these in a far-fetched effort to play off a technicality… Yeah, I think this prank of ours will work,” I replied with a devious grin. "I'll forgive 'em after."

Discord’s face twisted into a smile so wide it threatened to split his face in half. “You’re rather interesting, aren’t you?” He chuckled. “I think I like the way you think.”

I studied his face. Was that a glint of respect I saw in his eyes just then? He coughed, averting his gaze. “Well, I suppose I might be capable of assistance. Play the part of the messenger boy, so to speak. After all, I’m rather curious as to how this will play out.”

He glanced sideways at me, and I saw a strange look cross his face. His smile fell. He quickly turned away from me, muttering to himself. Maybe it was just me, but he seemed almost conflicted about something. His eyes appeared on the back of his head, glancing at me, then popped back into place.

Suddenly, his mutterings were over with, and he whirled around to face me again. “To be frank, I’m supposed to be a good boy now. Use my magic for good, or whatever,” He waved his claw about, “So I might be willing to help. Perhaps.”

I stiffened.

Something seemed off about how he said that last part. He almost seemed like he was being nice just moments ago but now…

“Though, I must ask, don’t you find it hard to trust anyone? Especially Miss Katherine in your case, Nocturne, considering… Well, she’s never really been open with you, has she? Never quite let you get close?”

And there’s the other shoe.

Damn it, I actually thought things were going to go smoothly there!

Why can't things be simple?

“What do you mean?” I asked defensively, “I talk to him, share what I’m thinking when I have to. Hell, I even share a dang brain with him!”

Discord smiled at me maliciously, pulling out a mask that looked like my face from thin air. “True, but there’s something you keep hiding from him and from yourself, isn’t there? You’re not really, showing the true you, now are you? Something you’re shutting him out from. Friends don’t do that now, do they Nocturne? Especially ones so close as you two are. So to speak.”

They… don’t..? Nocturne asked uneasily.

“Nocturne, don’t listen to him. He’s just trying to get under your skin. Create tension between us,” I warned.

“Oh, but you should, for there’s so much to tell!” Discord exclaimed, pulling out a book with my face on the cover and tapping a page. “For starters, what about her past? Surely she’s shared something about her past with you. After all, you told her your whole life story…”

Nocturne was silent, feeling uneasy. I hadn’t shared much of anything, had I?

Discord looked at me in mock sympathy, shaking his head. “Oh she hasn’t? How sad.” The book changed into a little booklet labeled “Healthy Friendship Scoring.” He marked something in the book. “Minus 3 friendship points. Really teetering on the edge, there…”

“Stop picking on us.” I hissed.

Discord ignored me and continued speaking to Nocturne.

“Let’s be blunt, here: has she told you anything about herself beyond what she expects of you?”

Nocturne perked up at this. She’s told us she does not know much about magic. He offered hopefully. She’s said we’re her friend, that she’ll keep her promise to protect us. That she’s not from this world, and that she’s not sure if she wants to go back to her own. He listed off proudly. I smiled.

“Yes, but has she ever told you why?” Discord countered, stroking a mustache that had suddenly appeared on his face, “Or anything personal for that matter. Her home, her friends, her family?”

If hearts could really sink, Nocturne’s would have been at the planet’s core just then.

If looks could really kill, the glare I gave Discord right then would have made him erupt into a giant fireball of doom. I bit back at my anger, forcing myself to remain calm and neutral. Wearing the mask once again.

But that didn’t stop Nocturne from noticing. He noticed, all right, and reeled in realization. Distrust began welling up within him, a deep wariness of the person he thought he knew.

Me.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Your friendship scores aren’t looking too good,” Discord remarked, marking in the booklet once more. “I’m not even sure you even qualify as friends at this point.”

I growled, averting my gaze.

Come on! Am I the only one here who can see the kind of crap he’s pulling here?

I lashed out at Discord. “How would you know anything about us, huh?” I yelled with an accusatory glare.

The booklet vanished in a puff of smoke and a crooked grin. “I’m Discord, spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, of course!” He announced with a loud fanfare.

With a wave of his hand, a cup appeared out of thin air. “And the best kind of chaos comes from when someone is in discord with themselves!”

He reached the cup towards where my heart was, and a vile-smelling green liquid began pouring out from it. I took a swing at Discord, barely nicking him, but he vanished before it connected. He reappeared across the room, calmly taking a sip from his glowing teacup. “Mmm. Denial and doubt. Absolutely delicious.”

He snapped his fingers. “Ah! That reminds me. I need to get back to tea with Fluttershy.” He glanced at his wrist, which now had a watch spinning wildly out of control. “Before I leave, though, one last question for you, Kate: Who are you, really?”

“What kind of bullshit question is that? I’m me!” I yelled back defensively.

Discord gave a sly smile. “Are you really? Are you really just who you say you are?” He waggled a clawed finger. “You’ll never get anywhere now without that silly little thing ponies call trust.”

Then he winked out of existence, and I was left alone with Nocturne and horrible, deafening silence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fluttershy flew back from the washroom with a shivering damp puffball that had once resembled a rabbit cradled in her hooves.

Discord was sitting quietly in his seat, entertaining himself with a pillow that was now more gelatinous than fluffy.

"I'm sorry that I took so long," Fluttershy apologized, "I hope you weren't too bored."

"Not at all!' Discord replied cheerfully. "I was on my absolute best behavior."

Author's Note

I have such plans for these two... Draconequus is hard to spell.
Discord is surprisingly hard to write for.
This will start making more sense later.

Chapter 12- You probably saw this coming.

It was late in the afternoon when Celestia and Luna’s dinner alone was interrupted. “Well, hello there, Celestia! I certainly hope you’re doing well,” Discord called, appearing in the air with a poof of pink smoke.

Celestia regarded him with a carefully neutral expression. “Discord. Might I ask what you’re doing here?” she said calmly.

Discord arched an eyebrow. “Oh come now, Celestia, did you really think I wouldn’t notice?” A scroll appeared in his claw, and he dangled it in the air. “Your little plan?”

The scroll vanished, and he shrugged, tapping his noggin. “I’ll admit, it was rather clever, sending me that letter through Fluttershy. You didn’t really expect that I’d just play along, now did you?”

Luna stood up from her seat. “Discord, if you have done something, speak now.”

Discord grinned. “Oh, what a choice of words. I’ve done a great many things today: I had a lovely tea party with Fluttershy, played around in a tesseract, spent a few hours contemplating existence; why I’m even doing something right now: speaking with you!” He laughed at his own joke.

Luna and Celestia stared.

“But that’s not quite what you wanted to know, is it?” He waved a clawed hand. “Yes, I did speak with that ‘Abyss’ girl. We had a rather lovely chat, she and I. She was particularly interested in the letter you sent to Fluttershy.”

Luna and Celestia paled visibly. “You showed her..?”

Discord pinched Celestia’s cheek. “Oh, come now, Celestia, did you really expect any less of me? She was quite angry. “Absolutely livid,” in fact. What was that old saying about a ‘woman scorned’..?”

“It was not our intention to- those letters were sent by mistake,” Luna argued.

Discord put his paw on his hip and held up a clawed finger. “Well it’s not like she knows-”

Discord stopped cold. “Did you just say ‘letters?’ More than one?”

“Yes,” Celesta replied. “We intended to send one to each of the former element bearers, but thought better of it.”

Discord’s eyebrows shot up. He blinked.

“Eh-herm,” he began, clearing his throat, “If you’ll excuse me, I have other important business to attend to. Ta ta!”

With a flash, he was gone, and the room was silent.

Luna was the first to speak. “Sister, we have made a huge error. We may face some form of retaliation from her…”

“We’ll have to double the guards throughout town, have them stand attentive and watch for any sign of trouble. We’ll be ready, should she choose to attack anypony.”

Luna stared thoughtfully at her plate. “Perhaps it would be wiser to plan for the worst, yet hope for the best. I agree, we must be ready to protect our people, but we must also hope that she can be reasoned with, and act accordingly.” Luna looked at Celestia. “If we could send her a message explaining things… perhaps offer her that which she requested as an apology, she might relent.”

Celestia tapped a hoof to her chin. “True. But how would we deliver said message? Nopony knows where she hides.”

Luna smiled. “Actually, there might be somepony who does…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Though I stood absolutely still in the absolute silence, not a single fiber of my being felt calm. There was nothing to hear but my own thoughts. And it was driving me crazy.

Stupid Discord.

Damn him, acting all nice one second then being an asshole the next. Talking about me all smug, as though he knew.

What did he know?

What did anyone f***ing know?!

I stopped, mentally slapping myself. Get a hold of yourself. This is exactly what he wanted to do. Get me riled up an angry. Create disharmony.

Well, it’s not going to work you smug bastard. I’m not giving in. Nothing can get under my skin.

Nothing.

I’m completely calm.

Completely f***ing calm!

I fumed silently, letting out a huff.

Feeling restless, I kicked at a black pebble at my feet, sending it flying across the room in a soft clatter. I dug my hands into my pockets and kicked at a more grayish one. Missing it, I resumed directing all my misplaced anger at the floor, which really didn’t deserve all that hatred directed towards it.

I gave it the evil eye anyways. Stupid floor.

It was at this time that Nocturne decided to speak up.

…Abyss, we wish to speak with you. We know you are… troubled.

I clenched my teeth. “I’m fine. Leave me alone.”

Nocturne shifted a bit, then tried again. There is no need to lie to us-

“I’m not lying,” I lied.

You may be open with us. We are friends, are we not? If it is that your life has been difficult, we are willing to listen. We know well the fires of anger.

I glowered, turning my scathing gaze to the floor. “You don’t have any idea what my life’s like,” I muttered.

That is precisely what we seek to learn! Nocturne responded. If you would just speak openly, like Discord said-

He just had to bring that up, didn't he?

My eye twitched. “Are you taking his side now..?” I asked, voice barely a whisper.

Nocturne hesitated. Discord made some valid points about-

“-Because that’s just great, you know?” I cut in, pacing the floor, “I thought you’d actually be smart enough to notice that he was just messing with you. To figure out that you shouldn't take what he said so seriously. Clearly I overestimated you. Wonderful.”

We meant to say he was right in that friends must communicate.

I glared. “Friends also respect personal boundaries and know when to shut their damn mouth. If he was so knowledgeable about friendship, why didn’t he mention that?”

We have no way of knowing what’s too personal with you! When were you going to tell us your real name is Katherine? Or is that too personal?

“I told you I don’t know shit about magic. For all I know, they could use my name to, I dunno, control me or something,” I growled.

Nocturne folded his imaginary arms across his metaphorical chest. So because you’re paranoid, you won’t tell us anything. Is that it? Can’t even trust us, even though there’s no way we could possibly tell anyone?

I sputtered, shocked. “You-! That- You’re one to talk! Who was it that said we should kill all the unicorns? Certainly wasn't me.”

Three. Things, was Nocturne’s retort, You’ve told us only three personal things about yourself. Perhaps five at best. We barely know who you are.

"What's with this sudden interest in my personal life? You never bothered to ask before now," I objected.

We never thought about it before now. And now that we are, you refuse to speak.

I huffed. “Excuse me if I don’t feel like talking about my past in excruciating detail right now.”

I could feel Nocturne becoming increasingly frustrated. It doesn’t. Have. To be. Your past! Dreams, aspirations, even how you’re really feeling; by Tartarus, we’d take anything at this point. You don’t tell us anything. You’re never honest with us!

“What are you talking about? I am honest,” I replied.

No you aren't. Think what you may, we are not an idiot. We can tell how you’re feeling, and we know when you’re lying about your emotions, when you cut them off and stuff them in a cage, how you act as though being just a little honest about how you’re doing would mean the end of the world, how you always put on a phony mask around everyone… You’re lying about being “fine” as we speak. You’re not fine- you’re livid and you’re trying to act like you’re not. We’re sick of it! Just talk to us. There’s no reason to treat us like we’re your enemy!

I refused to dignify him with a response.

Nocturne’s frustration reached its peak. Gods! It’s like trying to talk to a wall!

“You want honesty? Fine! You bicker like an old married lady!” I snapped, “Is that honest enough for you? Happy now?”

Wha-! Buh- ! We are not an old lady! Nocturne snapped back.

“Sure as hell act like one!” I countered, “And by the way, in case you haven’t noticed, no one’s used ‘we’ to refer to themselves in the first person in centuries! Relic.”

You-! Infuriating, selfish… childish asshole! Nocturne sputtered.

“Takes one to know one!”

Infantile brat!

“Arrogant prick!”

Lying scum!

“Batty old nag!”

F*** you.

“No, F*** you!”

Gah! Nocturne cried, Perhaps it’s a good thing you’ll never go home! No family could put up with you! In fact, they'd be glad to be rid of you!

I stopped cold.

My gaze hardened. My eyes narrowed.

That did it.

You reap what you sow.

“I should have left you in that stupid rock.”

Nocturne stopped cold.

His mind spun, processing what he'd heard. Playing it over and over again in his mind as though he couldn’t believe it. The words wounded him, like he'd been struck.

Good. I wanted him to hurt.

Y-You do not really mean that, do you? You’re angry. You don’t mean it, right? His voice wavered slightly, a spark of hope in his voice.

I scoffed. My voice was like ice. “Anything’s better than being stuck with you in my head forever,” I stated, crushing that spark of hope unceremoniously.

Nocturne felt… stiffer than before. Like his mind hardened.

Well. If that’s how you really feel… he said, his voice shaking, We’ll just leave you be, then. Have fun on your own.

“Fine!” I snapped.

And with that, he vanished, diving deep into the recesses of my mind. Within seconds, I couldn’t feel his presence anymore.

He was gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Golden Oaks library was in complete disarray. Scattered about the room were many dozens of books. Open books, towering stacks of books, and books with dozens of little bookmarks to different pages. Notes of all kinds and sizes were scattered about the room, many written in a rushed scrawl. Some held bulleted notes, others arcane circles. And at the center of the entire mess was Twilight, frantically scribbling something on one of the many sheets of paper scattered about her desk.

Normally, Twilight would have absolutely hated to see the library in such a state, and would have called Spike to help her clean up. Now, however, was an exceptional time and had special considerations.

Twilight was researching.

Truth be told, she was running herself ragged. Twilight was well aware of this. She had large bags under her eyes from limited hours of sleep for days on end, her head hurt from prolonged use of her magic, and the lines on the page were beginning to blur again.

Oh, but she had been able to uncover so much in the meantime. What were a few hours of sleep compared to all of the progress she’d made in her research? They were necessary sacrifices. Nothing a good cup of coffee wouldn’t fix. She’d go brew one just as soon as she was done writing. Just as soon as she’d finished this one last part.

After many long hours, Twilight sighed, and set the pen down, satisfied at last. She put a hoof to her aching head, wishing her headache away. Not that it did any good. She got up from her seat, trudging into the kitchen.

Before she knew it, she had a steaming cup of coffee clutched in her magic aura. She took a sip before trotting back to her desk. She looked over it, her eyes half-glazed at the mess before her.

No, this wouldn’t do at all.

After taking another sip, her horn glowed with a dull violet, and the books and notes scattered about began to organize themselves. Books took their proper places on the shelves, and the magic set the important documents square at the center of the desk. She was done now. She had to tidy the library up.

Twilight had to admit, despite the toll it took, research was fun. It always had been, in her eyes. There was something entrancing about uncovering so much knowledge. There were golden nuggets of wisdom out there, like a sparkling treasure trove waiting to be found. Research was an adventure in its own right.

It had been very hard uncovering information about Abyss, about Shadow Ponies and their history. The shelves were remarkably bare of any information on the subject. She’d had to order in books from other libraries.

Twilight hadn’t given up, though. She’d failed to stop Abyss before, failed princess Celestia. She had to make it right no matter what. It was her responsibility.

She’d learned many things, many of which had been reinforced or confirmed by the rather troubling letter the princesses had sent her recently. The most prominent and groundbreaking of which was the confirmation of the “Shadowborn,” as they seemed to be called.

The Shadowborn: A parasitic life form that was the source of shadow magic and was capable of wrenching control of the host body’s mind. Twilight theorized it might be something akin to the Nightmare that had possessed Luna long ago. There were many connections between the two: a connection to darkness, the alteration of the host’s personality, reported shadowy appearance…

Twilight had felt… ashamed when the letter had confirmed her theory. Abyss must not have been in control of her actions that day in the library. No, she was being controlled by something darker, something that held a hatred of ponies. The Shadowborn was the one who had attacked, stolen from, and insulted everypony. Twilight had misjudged her. As the element of magic, as a princess, she should have known. She should have saved her. She had failed in that regard as well.

But the only way she could think of had been to use the elements to purify Abyss. This wasn’t an option, of course. They were needed at the Tree of Harmony. There must have been another way. She'd been determined to find another way.

And she had found it. One of the most remarkable things she had found wasn’t a fact, or a bit of lost history: It was a spell. A spell she’d found only whispers of, a spell she’d had to piece together from dozens of sources like a jigsaw puzzle. A spell designed to locate, remove, and entrap the parasites. She’d spent many, many long hours working on this spell. But it had been worth it. She was sure she had it now.

But now she was done. She had everything she needed. All she had to do was just test the spell she’d rediscovered, and everything would be right with the world. She gave a final glance over her notes, readying herself.

Just one last test.

Twilight felt giddy as she poured her energy into her horn-

Only to be interrupted as a certain unwanted visitor flashed into existence before her, startling her into releasing her magic with a loud pop. She sat on the floor, rubbing her head and glaring at Discord.

“Well, Twilight, whatever are you glaring at me with such intensity for?” Discord asked with mock innocence.

“What do you want, Discord?” Twilight muttered. She didn’t have time for his antics right now.

Discord flitted through her notes absentmindedly. “Why, hardly anypony’s heard from you in nearly a week. Your friends are beginning to worry.” He stuck out his lower lip, making the poutiest face he could muster. “Is it really so strange that a friend would stop by to check on another?”

Twilight arched an eyebrow.

“After all, just look at yourself!” Discord proclaimed, shoving a hoofheld mirror in her face. Her reflection looked absolutely exhausted. Suddenly, the image in the mirror morphed into Discord’s face, popping out of the mirror’s surface and coming way too close for comfort. “You look positively ghastly!”

Chuckling, Discord snapped his fingers, and Twilight suddenly found herself covered up in a rather comfy chair with an ice bag on her horn and a thermometer in her mouth. Discord was wearing a doctor’s outfit, and staring at a clipboard. “Large-scale spells are highly unstable if the user has not had adequate rest. I prescribe at least, mmm… four days worth of rest. Preferably more, if at all possible.”

He wrote something on the clipboard, and handed her a slip of paper. Twilight took it in her hoof and glanced at it suspiciously.

It was just a picture of Discord laughing.

His face twisted into a wide grin. “But by all means, go ahead and try! It should prove rather amusing. To me, at least.”

Twilight threw off the cover and leapt off of the chair. “I don’t have time for this. I need to finish this spell.”

Discord gave a bit of an indignant huff. “All right, fine. I can tell when I’m not wanted. Though, a bit of fair warning: your other friends are on their way, and should be here right about…”

There was a knock at the door. Twilight looked away for a split second, and when she looked back, Discord was gone. She gave a long sigh. He was hard to deal with some days.

Twilight trotted over to the door and opened it, and was greeted by the sight of her five friends. She smiled. “It’s nice to see you all. Please come in. There’s something we need to discuss.”

Author's Note

You didn't really think Twilight was going to leave well enough alone, right?

Chapter 1- The heck just happened..?

It was all that stupid necklace’s fault. I should have just left it at that garage sale. I could have gotten mom something else for her birthday. A handmade card, for example. To mom, with love, from Katherine. Add a couple of hearts and stick figures and you’re golden. She’d have liked that something like that.

But no. I just had to buy it, didn’t I?

It had been late in the evening, and I was headed back to the house I was renting with about six other classmates. As a poor college student, I and many others couldn’t afford the on-campus housing options the university gave us. Living on the streets wasn’t an option, so I had decided to live with several other students in an old fixer-upper just off campus and split the rent evenly amongst ourselves. Sure, it was crowded, but it was affordable.

Anyways, as I was riding home on my bicycle, I spotted a garage sale at the side of the road. I had recently discovered that garage sale = cheap furnishings, so I jumped at the opportunity. I pulled my bike to the curb and started looking around.

As I said before (or maybe I didn’t, I dunno. Who am I talking to again? Oh, right. Myself.), my mom’s birthday was coming up, so I was on the lookout for something special. There was one trinket that stood out among the rest.

That d@#$ necklace.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a beautiful piece, and this is coming from a girl who has absolutely no taste in jewelry. It had a simple, thick black string, holding up a bluish, crystalline crescent moon that gleamed iridescently in the waning sunlight encased in a circular piece of glass. I looked around a bit more, before finally deciding that nothing else piqued my interest.

“How much for this?” I asked the man who was trying to stick a bunch of dollar bills in a gallon-sized plastic bag.

He gazed vacantly at it for a moment before saying, “I’ll give it to ya for two bucks.” I almost didn’t catch him as he muttered, “It’s not like my wife needs so much jewelry anyways…”

Selling off his wife’s jewelry. How very romantic. Still, not questioning the man’s choices (verbally, at least), I dug two bills out of my pocket, slapped them on the counter, and walked away with my prize, stuffing it in my backpack. I still secretly hoped his wife would find out about the jewelry selling, though. I grinned to myself. That would be worth a laugh.

I hopped on my bike, and a few minutes later, I was back at the house. I pushed in the door and was immediately greeted by loud teenage voices arguing over the TV. Home, sweet home.

Ignoring them, I pushed past the numerous backpacks scattered around the entryway, headed upstairs to my room. Actually, I and two other girls slept there, but only if you want to get technical about it.

Luckily, the other two weren’t there. Good. It wasn’t that I hated them… okay, yeah, I sorta did. Always giggling and gossiping amongst themselves like idiots, fussing over such imaginative, diverse topics like shoes, boys, and makeup when I was busy studying or trying to sleep… I was getting really tired of those two, and tired in general. The late night gossip sessions did nothing for my opinion of them. I called them the Barbie wannabies in my head as a form of personal revenge. And I knew what they were talking about. If they had something against me, they could just say it to my face like an actual adult, honestly I thought losers like that grew out of that crap at this age, and-!

I sighed. There was no use getting my jimmies rustled. It wasn’t anything I had the power to change anything like that. I had learned long ago that the world wasn’t the beautiful, happy place it seemed to be when you were a kid. The world is full of jerks, liars, and backstabbers, the worst of which will disguise themselves as one of your friends. I kept it simple: the world couldn’t be bothered to care about me, so I couldn't care less what anyone else thought of me. There was no sense in wasting time trying to please others, so I kept to myself.

I slung off my backpack and flopped onto my bed, burying my head in my pillow. The universe could just f%^* off for all I cared. I had had a long day of being screwed over by it. I had failed a test, had a crappy day at work, and had somehow gotten my research paper plagiarized off of, and now the teacher thought I was the one who copied someone else.

Not feeling like studying just yet, I dug out the necklace from my backpack. Its iridescent moon gleamed back at me in a happy little way that almost seemed to trying to cheer me up. How ridiculous, I thought with a cynical smile, An inanimate object trying to cheer me up. It would have been the first thing that had actually given a flying F-bomb about me for weeks.

I don’t know why, but I got the urge to try it on. It easily slipped around my head and hung around my neck. The little necklace almost seemed to be giving off its own warmth, and for an instant, I almost felt… happy.

Then the two Barbie wannabies barged into the room, and the warm, fuzzy feeling was gone, replaced with annoyance and contempt. Today, they were wailing over how they had gained two pounds, their high, whiny voices like fingernails on a chalkboard. Oh dear, the world must be coming to an end!

Yes, ladies, that’s right, you are getting fat and hideous. I almost told them, but wisely decided to keep my mouth shut. That would only earn me several hours of them ragging on how hideous and witch-like my long black hair was, how my clothes looked like they came from the thrift store (they actually did, by the way, I just didn’t want to give them that kind of satisfaction by telling them), or how I should really replace those old sneakers with a classy pair of high heels…

I buried my face in my pillow, trying my best to drown them out. Maybe if I just stay still they’ll go annoy someone else.

They didn’t.

It took only a few minutes of listening to their drivel before I snapped, lifting my head off the pillow, “Good God, could you two talk about something that actually effing matters for once?”

I let my head flop back down on the pillow, feeling their icy glares boring holes in my back, prepared for the onslaught of insults. Not that I cared. At that moment, I was fed up with everything. I just wish I could go somewhere I don’t have to deal with people.

Apparently the universe a) was listening to my thoughts at that time and b) has a sick sense of humor, because the moment I thought that, I felt myself falling through the covers into what seemed like an endless black void. Instead wasting my last few seconds on Earth screaming, which the Barbie wannabies certainly would have done in the same situation, I flipped over on my back and gave one last contempt-filled middle finger to the universe. The universe returned its usual apathetic silence as I plummeted out of existence.

I fell, arms folded and glaring at nothing, for a long time. Well, “fell” is the wrong word, it was more like I fluttered gently downward into nothingness. In retrospect, I should have found it odd that I wasn’t picking up speed, since that’s what’s supposed to happen because physics says so. But honestly, I was too busy being angry at everything to care about the consistency of gravity.

F%^* the universe, F%^* this, F%^* the Barbie wannabies… and so it went on as I listed everyone and everything on my personal hate list, which was rather extensive at the time.

I was reaching the end of my list when I suddenly fell out of the sky. The sky was painted in the multihued radiance of sunset, and the stars were just beginning to sparkle and shine. I had enough time to think Oh, hey, look. It’s evening. before I landed on something. Hard.

Whatever it was gave a loud, angry roar before throwing me off. By some miracle I managed to land on my feet, but I didn’t have time to admire that interesting twist of fate, because I was far too busy staring ahead at the large mass of fur I had landed on.

It looked kind of lion-like, with a long mane around its head. But it couldn't have been a lion, because it had the body of a black panther. I looked up toward its face, which towered at least three feet above my head. The whatever- it-was met my gaze, glaring at me murderously; he/she/it was obviously not happy with me having landed on him in the middle of… whatever it is mutant lion-things do in the evening.

This is not going to end well.

As soon as the initial shock wore off and I stopped gawking at it like an idiot, survival instinct kicked in, and I did what any sane person would do in that situation.

I turned and ran like hell.

I wasn’t exactly an athlete, but I sprinted faster than I have in my life right then. Like hell I was gonna get eaten by some freakish monster.

The first thing I noticed while running away from Simba the lab accident: I had landed in a forest. A very dark forest in the middle of the evening. The second thing I noticed: everything in a forest is designed specifically to trip you up or slow you down. I made the mistake of glancing backwards to see the giant cat barreling after me effortlessly, charging through roots and snapping off branches like they were nothing. I redoubled my speed.

Again, the universe saw fit to flip me off once again. I crashed into a clearing only to find myself cut off by a massive vertical cliff face of loose-looking soil. I cursed under my breath. I had two options: climb a nearly impossible cliff face and probably fall to my death, or become kitty kibble. The kitty on steroids roared not far behind.

I sprinted up to the cliff face.

The lion-panther, however, was faster than I gave it credit for. Not a second before I reached my only visible shot at safety, I felt a large weight tackle me from behind. My fingertips came maddeningly close to the wall of dirt, just barely brushing the soil before falling hard on my chest. I stole an upward glance, and was greeted by two feline eyes looming overhead, filled with rage, its hot breath blowing down my neck.

“Um… n-nice kitty?” I whimpered with a nervous smile.

The funny thing about when you’re about to die is that “bullet time,” when everything around you slows down for some unfathomable reason, actually does exist. That’s what happened to me right then: everything just slowed down for an instant. In that instant I realized a few things: I still hated everything, I was about to get eaten by something that technically shouldn’t exist, and hey, there’s a small hole in the wall I think I can squeeze through; how long has that been there?

That was my ticket out. Flipping over halfway, I reeled back and punched the mutant Mufasa square in the nose with all the strength I could muster. While it flinched backward in surprise with another roar, I flipped over and scrambled towards the hole on all fours as fast as I could.

There could have been a skunk in there. Venomous snakes. A porcupine, even. I didn’t care, I dove into the hole without a moment’s hesitation.

The lion-panther wasn’t about to let me go so easily. I was almost home free when I felt a sharp pain in my right leg as razor-sharp claws dig in. Yanking my leg in with me, I felt something slice deep into the muscle while I tore it free. I actually felt something grate against my bone. I felt hot blood spilling from the fresh claw marks, running down my leg and soaking my socks as I pulled safely away from the enormous paws that were swiping blindly at me. After taking a few seconds to catch my breath, I realized the small hidey-hole went deeper.

Gathering my courage, I pushed deeper into the hole, screaming internally, every movement feeling like four sharp stabs in my leg, and fighting back tears. It was agony unlike anything I had ever felt. After an eternity of crawling, crying, and cursing everything, the tunnel opened into what seemed like a large cavern. There was a small opening in the ceiling, partially illuminating the area in the moon’s silvery glow. Right underneath the opening was some sort of short pyramid with a glass-like orb at the top.

I scooted over to the pyramid, with much less energy than before, feeling dizzy and lightheaded. I rested against it, turning my right leg over in such a way that I could get a closer look at the wound.

It was worse than I thought. The claws had dug through the muscle, leaving deep, red gashes in my leg the muscle pulsed and quivered with every heartbeat, spilling out more and more blood. The blood that had already spilled out had left my leg slick with red ooze. I could see something in the gashes. Dirt, rocks or something else. I thought I saw bone.

I suddenly felt nauseous. I was exhausted, sore all over from running and falling out of the sky. My head was swimming. Was everything always this blurry? I thought dimly.

I knew nothing about first aid. I didn’t know how to clean or dress a wound. The thought to do so never even crossed my mind. I just sat there, gawking at the four deep cuts in my leg.

Perfect. Just perfect. If the lion-panther hadn’t done me in, the blood loss or, if by some miracle I survive this, infection from whatever was in my leg would. Perhaps the only thing keeping me alive right then was my burning hatred of my situation and the universe in general. It still didn’t change the fact I was getting weaker by the second.

Tink.

What’s that? I thought dimly.

Tink. Tink.

I looked around, but nothing caught my eye. It wasn’t until I looked up that I realized what was making the noise.

Through the fog of my mind, I understood that there was something moving inside the glass-like orb, tapping on it from the inside. It was a small, shadowy shape, weakly ramming itself against the glass. It was as though it was trying to break its prison, but to no avail. It looked like it was dying.

I don’t know why I took pity on it. Heck, I don’t know why I do lots of the things I do. Maybe it was because we were both dying in that God-forsaken cavern. Maybe it was because the universe seemed to have it out for it as much as it did me.

Whatever the reason, I reached up towards the glass sphere. It was easily within reach, almost as though the pyramid was built by someone much smaller than I. My hand hit the sphere, knocking it off its pedestal. It fell to the ground and shattered, freeing the little thing from its glass cage.

The little blob regarded me with small, white eyes. I made a little shooing motion. “Go on, get outta here. At least one of us can make it out alive,” I muttered bitterly.

I didn’t expect what happened next. It leapt at me, or rather, into my shadow, and completely merged with it. Before I had time to say, “What the-?” my own shadow leapt off the floor in snakelike ribbons, cocooning me. I couldn’t move. Everything was getting darker by the second.

Then I felt it. Something exploded in my head, things and ideas, memories and thoughts that were not my own. It was invading my mind, pounding in my skull feelings and thoughts that I couldn’t begin to comprehend. My mind squirmed away from these foreign thoughts, and I couldn’t even form a coherent thought of my own. I opened my mouth to scream.

“ASDJLKFQRASB”, I commented intelligently.

Then, as suddenly as it started, everything snapped into place. It all made sense, and though I could feel a presence at the back of my mind, I could form my own thoughts again. The thoughts that had made no sense before now seemed like a second language. The cocoon was gone. I could move again.

I lifted my hand and examined it, and nearly screamed. It was as dark as a shadow, and almost looked like it was fading in and out of visibility. I panicked, looking down to see that every part of my body within my range of visibility had turned just as dark and shadowy as my hand. Clothes. My clothes were in the same state as the rest of me, the only thing that hadn't turned black was the necklace, which seemed to be glowing brighter in the moonlight. But I didn't have time to focus on that. What if that thing is making me disappear? To make sure I wasn't vanishing into thin air, I patted myself down, quickly.

Arms. Still had arms. Hair, complete face, ears, and head- check. Chest, still had that. Those are still there, so I’m still a girl. Hips- check. Legs- Oh, hey the right one doesn’t hurt anymore! Huh! Finally, feet… check-er-ooni.

I sat back, letting the craziness of it all sink in. Finally, I spoke up.

“What the F%^* just happened?!”

***********************************************************************************************************

Fluttershy didn’t like going into The Everfree forest, especially since there were all sorts of terrifying creatures lurking within. Even now, she was nervously glancing from side to side, waiting for something to pop out at her. She kept to the path of broken tree branches and partially uprooted trees; it was obvious something had been running very fast.

Why am I here in the d-dark sc-scary forest again?

She remembered nearly instantaneously. She had been feeding her dear, sweet chickens in the yard, when she had heard a loud, angry roar from Everfree forest. She had instantly expected it was poor Mr. Manticore again; the poor dear tended to step on sharp, painful thorns from time to time, and he sometimes scared her sweet little animals when he came looking for her help to remove them. Worried about her poor little animals, she had decided that, this time, she would go find him, and spare her poor little animals.

She had flown over the forest to try and find Mr. Manticore. However, she had soon discovered a long path through the trees that looked like something had been chasing something else. Maybe a poor, innocent little baby bunny was being chased by a mean old hydra, or worse!

She had fluttered gently downward until she landed on the path, and began following it. She knew it was scary, but she couldn’t just leave any baby bunnies to face this mean old whatever it was.

And so, she continued walking, whimpering slightly. She had to be brave, for the bunnies. She had faced a dragon before, after all. How hard could it be…r-right?

As she trod along the path, she heard angry growls from further ahead on the path. She galloped ahead, and came across a clearing, right in front of a rather daunting cliff face. Right next to it though, was a massive furry beast, many times larger than she was. It had a panther-like body, but a large mane, much like a lion, or a manticore. It was swiping at a hole in the cliff face, trying to get at something inside. Fluttershy shrunk back almost on instinct.

She slowly worked up her composure. Okay. It was time to help some baby bunnies. Gathering all the courage she could muster, she stepped forward and took a deep breath.

“Umm, M-mr. L-lion-panther, um, could you please not bother, um, whatever it is that in that hole, please?” Her gaze turned towards the ground, averting her gaze sheepishly. “I-I mean if that’s okay with you…”

The lion-panther’s ears perked up at her voice. It turned to face her, then stopped pawing at the hole reluctantly. Many animals knew that Fluttershy was not a force to be trifled with, especially with her legendary “The Stare,” which was whispered of in hushed, fearful animal tongues. This creature was no exception, and backed off.

She flew up to the Lion-panther and stroked its mane. “There, that’s a good lion-or panther. I’m sorry, did I get it wrong?”

That’s when she noticed the nasty bruise starting to form on its back. She gasped loudly. “Oh you poor little lion-panther!” she took to the air and fluttered over to the large nasty bruise just beginning to form on its back, underneath its massive fur coat. “Who could have done this to you?” The lion-panther’s face looked at her sadly, it’s ears turned downward. “There, there. It’s okay.” Fluttershy carefully rubbed the head of the large lion-panther.

The lion-panther rolled over on its belly and purred, a deep, rumbling purr that made the entire ground vibrate in harmony.

************************************************************

Eventually, after my existential crisis (if it could even be called that), I decided, as much as I disliked having to deal with people, I would probably fare best if I found someone else; a town, perhaps. Heck, I would have settled for a tiny village if they could figure out or explain what had happened to me. Perhaps reverse it, even. Remove the symbiote with a giant gong or whatever. Science has an answer for everything these days, right? Except time travel and eternal life but Hey! Maybe someday! As if…

I don’t know how to explain it, but I just knew I had changed, if that wasn’t already apparent from the fact every visible body part had turned into whatever I was now. I still felt like me, though: the same cynical grouch I’d always been. But somewhere, deep inside, I felt…

Different.

Better. Stronger. Stronger than anything else, surpassing everyone with pure power-

I had stopped and paused, considering that thought for a moment. Nah, I had decided, I’m not really anything that special. I can barely get anyone to so much as listen to me; how could someone like that be considered powerful? I had no idea where that notion had even come from. It made just as much sense as everything else I’d gone through. Must have been stress, I thought.

So, I got on my hands and knees, crawling back out of the cave. The first thing I noticed was that my leg didn’t give me as much trouble as the trip in. Naturally, there was a lot less crying and swearing as well. I chalked it up to whatever voodoo sorcery had happened back at the cave. I still planned to have it checked out by a doctor, though.

As I went further, Just as I was nearing the exit, finally, I heard a soft, cooing, feminine voice call from just outside the hole. Forgetting I was in a freaking hole in the ground for just a moment, I raised my head to get a look ahead of me, and hit my head against the ceiling. “GAH!” I cried, rubbing my bruised head and swearing loudly.

“Wh-who’s there?”called the small voice from earlier.

I heard a low growl. “Meep,” I squealed, almost like a tiny rodent. I can’t believe that thing is still out there. How persistent is that thing?

I heard hushed whispers in a scolding tone, then: “It’s okay, you can come out now, if that’s okay with you, little mouse.” The voice paused. “Oh! I’m sorry, I just assumed you were a mouse…”

I hesitated. This could very well be a trap, or someone’s idea of a prank. Then again, it could be a person from a city nearby, a town, or something, and besides, who could survive that beast? Besides, if it is a trick, I could always escape back here… I decided it was worth the risk. I scrambled through the last stretch of tunnel and wormed my way out. I stood up, dusting myself off. Plech. I’m filthy.

I looked around the clearing, but then froze. That beast was still there, unmoving, but staring back at me. Stranger still, there, right next to it, was a yellow pegasus with a pink mane and tail. It was short, perhaps only coming up to my waist, but was petting the lion-panther like it was a freaking housecat. That last part was honestly the only thing that fazed me. As strange as it was, I had seen enough strange crap that night to last me a lifetime. I kind of just stood there gawking.

Everything and everyone in the clearing stood perfectly still, for just a moment. I broke the silence: “…Hi?”

The lion-panther, scrambled backwards, then took off into the forest like its tail was on fire. Heh. Not so tough after all. I thought with a wry smile.

The pegasus, whose voice actually matched the voice form before (one mystery down, fifty more to go) shrunk back, looking petrified, before letting out a shrill shriek and fleeing after the literal giant scaredy-cat.

I blinked. Was it something I did?

Chapter 6- Spectacular Stories and Very Vague Plans

Long, long ago-

"In a galaxy far far away," I added. The creature ignored me and went on.

We know not how we were born; only from whence we came: the darkest of shadows in a deep forest. Our days were not spent alone, many Shadowborn, as we called ourselves, danced among the darkness with us. We felt no hunger or fatigue, knew no strife nor hatred. Those were the days of peace.

Then they came. The ponies, with their magic and strength, destroying our home. The great trees we knew so well were felled, gathered, and toted off. Our shadows were slowly disappearing, and they did not notice our suffering. We knew we could not stand by idly. The shadows were our home, and we knew not how to traverse anything else. One of our kind, one of the most brilliant, found a way for us to traverse the land of light. It said it caused great pain for us to leap from the shadows, but that we could use this newfound power to find a new home. A place of safety.

A plan was hatched. These new creatures that invaded our home and cut down our trees would be our salvation rather than our destruction. Though several of our kind were angry at these creatures for destroying our home, the shadowborn had no way of contacting them, no way of fighting back. So, it was decided that our kind would use our newfound ability to jump from the darkness, and latch onto the shadows of the ponies. There was hope they would carry we shadowborn somewhere safe, somewhere we could live in peace.

“Wait, wait, wait, why do you keep rambling on about bad it was about your home being taken away?” I interrupted, rather confused, “I mean, even if the ponies had cut down all the trees, there’s still the darkness of night. Could’ve slipped away during that, found this safe haven you were hoping for.”

Well that’s because-

“There’s also the fact you explicitly mentioned you have to have a host to survive. Or were you just lying to me? And what about those kickass shadowbending powers, hm? Cold have used that, chased them away. Or used the shadow-walking power to just slide into another as a shadow yourself like I was doing back in that pony town for about two hours,” I continued, pointing out fallacy after fallacy.

Well, we- I could feel I was really starting to ruffle its feathers, but I kept talking.

“And furthermore, there’s also the fact that I, as a power granted by you, can jump partially out of the shadows, so you could have tried THAT to get the ponies attention, perhaps they would have listened to you if you told ‘em ‘hey, would you stop destroying our home? We’re kinda getting worried, here!’”

We knew nothing of their language, there was no way to- There was a pause, then a feeling of embarrassment. We suppose… we could have tried that to show them of our existence… that might have been better…

I smirked a little. Clearly these “shadowborn” as it kept calling itself weren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed. I could feel the creature fuming in my head, a mix of anger and embarrassment as it worked for some sort of retort.

Well-! We were kind of panicking-! We didn’t think to-!

I could feel its anger boiling over, like an explosion waiting to happen. I realized I needed to calm it down, as much fun as taunting it a little had been. I wasn’t going to get anywhere if it got angry with me and refused to talk to me.

I held up my hand. “Hey, stop it. If those memories are any indicator, you were either a very young species, or weren’t the most rational. Everything is clearer in retrospect,” I paused, nodding. “It’s actually kind of impressive you guys managed to figure out how to jump into shadows like that. Still, I’d like an explanation about those other things. Was there something preventing you from doing all that?”

My small compliment seemed to not only calm it down, but make its mood do a complete one-eighty. I could feel its pride welling up as it beamed. It seemed not to notice that I had also stealthily added small insults. It was definitely not the brightest creature ever.

Yes, well, of course! Naturally! …And to answer your questions, the host is correct, we knew little of our potentials; we were a young race. We knew only that we lived in the shadows and of the things that lived among us in the forest; we knew not of travelling in the night, we had not tried. It could be possible… however… I felt a wave of sorrow wash over me.…Our only attempts to move outside of our darkness, to “shadow walk,” as you tend to call it into the light without jumping out…

Visions flashed in my mind. Briefly, very briefly, I saw what was like a faded movie clip. In it, a small blob of darkness seeped out along the ground from a shadow into broad daylight. I felt the horror from the past as I watched it begin to smoke and steam, shriveling up until there was nothing left. Images giving a sense of frantic searches, only to turn up in failure, followed quickly after. Then the visions faded. There was a somber silence for about a minute.

“I- I’m sorry for your loss…” I said. The words felt hollow and forced, but they seemed to cheer the creature up a little bit.

…We were there when the first jump into pony shadows occurred. Our kind had gathered at the edge of the tree shadows, where a large divide of light would cut through the shade. This was where the ponies came by every day. We waited, then finally…

I watched the memory play out. A sky blue pony with a white mane and tail trotted by, followed by at least twenty or thirty others, all carrying various equipment designed for chopping down trees. There was a moment of tense hesitation, then one brave, or stupidly reckless, creature jumped out of the shadows, in full view of the ponies. There were shouts of surprise from the ponies as the first shadowborn arced, sizzling in the sunlight, into the shadow of the blue pony.

As though they had gathered their bravery, the trees’ shadows exploded all at once with shadowborn, each jumping into the shadows of the now-frantic ponies. I watched some sizzle and evaporate in the sunlight, some missing their targets and suffering the same fate. But the vast majority made their targets. My viewpoint was of one who made it alone, into the shadow of a tan young pony half the size of the others.

Then, everything started spiraling far out of control. By some unseen consequence, upon entering the shadows of the ponies, the shadowborn underwent a drastic metamorphosis. My viewpoint bore witness to the first transformation halfway through its jump. Without warning, and to the surprise of all involved, the sky blue pony’s shadow shot up from the ground, cocooning him much like mine had. There was a terrified masculine yell before his shadow swallowed him whole. Then the pony began changing. The cocoon tightened around it, like it was becoming a second skin, perhaps merging with the pony. I saw the briefest of glimpses of the Shadow pony’s final form before my viewpoint fell into the young one’s shadow.

There was a vague sense of pain and terror connected to the memory for a brief few seconds before the world came into focus again. There was a sense of feeling different. There was a flurry of confusion; ponies ran screaming for their lives while the shadow ponies panicked about what had happened. Then there was a voice, a voice that shook the shadowborn to its very core.

“Who… who are you?” The memory faded.

It took a long time for our kind to understand what had happened. We managed to come to the understanding that, somehow, we had come to possess the ponies whose shadows we had entered, becoming something else entirely in the process. We were lucky; we did not have to share the host with many of the others, while many found themselves crammed in with many others uncomfortably.

We were among those of the mindset that this was a good thing; now that we were in control of these hosts, our kind could seek out a new home unimpeded by the burning light. We would find a new home as quickly as possible, then abandon the hosts in favor of the shadows. None would be harmed.

Yet for others, resentment boiled within. They wanted to make the ponies pay for the destruction of our home. After much debate, we separated: those who sought revenge, and those who simply sought a home. We set out together into the great unknown.

By the time our group reached the first town, the renegade group had attacked a nearby town, using new abilities they had discovered: this “shadowbending” as you call it. They had split up and taken many new hosts, and now each renegade had one of their own, so we heard. This news had reached the other ponies before we did, and they greeted us with fear and hostility. We tried to explain that we were not like the others, that we simply sought a new home, but our words could not soothe the fear of our kind. We collectively fled, while some were captures by the ponies. We made up our minds to avoid the ponies at all costs until we had found our safe haven.

We managed to avoid the ponies for a long time, developing new skills to hide and defend ourselves. But then one day…

A new memory surged. This time it was in a field. The nomadic shadow ponies were staring down a group of unicorns, their horns flaring. One of the unicorns stepped forward, bellowing loudly. “In the name of Princess Celestia,” he barked, lowering his horn menacingly, “We will defeat this scourge upon our land! The evils of the Shadow Ponies!” Many masculine voices roared in loud battle cries.

The shadow ponies huddled together, surrounded by the ponies on all sides. They were all tired, exhausted from running from the ponies so long. They were on their last legs.

Beams shot forth from the horns of the unicorns, blasting the shadow ponies with light. The light peeled away the darkness, expelling the shadowborn from their hosts.

In a desperate attempt to save itself, the shadowborn leapt from is host, aiming for the shadow of a nearby bush. As it arced through the air, it could feel itself burning away. It was shrinking, disappearing. ‘I’m not going to make it-!’ it thought. Suddenly the pain stopped burning quite so intensely, dwindling to almost nothing. It was a moment of relief that turned to panic once it realized it was no longer falling towards its target.

The world slowly began to warp, looking more and more crystallized and distorted, until finally it and the thing surrounding it hit the ground with a solid thunk. Through its distorted vision, it could see that there were several crystalline globes scattered among the grass with dark shapes moving about frantically within.

Somewhere, a muffled voice cheered loudly. “We did it! We stopped them!” The vision faded.

We were scattered. We were trapped in our prison, hidden in the cave atop that pyramid in hopes we would be trapped there. Our prison was not the perfect solace we sought; though we did not burn as quickly as before, we still burned, slowly smoldering in the light. Living in dull pain. We recall anger and resentment building as we slowly faded into oblivion. We asked ourselves over and over why the ponies would do this to us; we, who merely sought a new home. We slowly gave up hope.

But everything will be fine now! The host saved us recognizes us, accepts us! The host has promised to protect us from the ponies! It added excitedly.

I froze. “Woah, woah, WOAH, hold up, when did I agree to that?” I shouted indignantly. I felt a memory being brought up:

There was a long pause. …And in return…You will let us stay? The creature asked hopefully. Protect us?

“Yeah, sure…” The memory faded out.

Oh… right. Crap. Well, there’s nothing I can do about it now… I thought. I wasn’t about to go back on my word.

Nevertheless, at least I had more answers than before. It was an interesting tale to say the least. A lot more descriptive than the vague “shadow ponies are bad and they used their powers to do bad things” tidbit I’d gotten at the library in the pony town.

A thought dawned on me. That book hadn’t been particularly descriptive (though, admittedly, I hadn’t had much of a chance to read very far), but could those ponies from long ago have transcribed the spells that tore away and trapped the shadowborn like the one in my head? For all I know, they probably did, just in case. It could be common knowledge for all I know. Heck for all I know, they could have a way to track me down. I mean, this is magic we’re talking about here. Magic is basically screwing with logic and physics, right?

This thought troubled me. Did I want to be found, after the mistake I’d made back at the library? I don’t think any society would be forgiving to anyone lashing out at one of their princesses… but do I even want to try to reconcile with them?

To be honest, I had no idea what I wanted. The only thing I had going for me right now was the desire for survival and the compulsion to keep the promise I had made to the shadowborn. And that meant eliminating any threats to it, making sure what happened all those years ago didn’t happen again.

I knew what I didn’t want, and what I didn’t care about. I didn’t want to do anything that might get me killed or locked up forever, and right now, ticking off the ponies any more seemed to be one of the easiest ways to do that. I didn’t particularly care if I ever got home or not, nor did I, I decided after some introspection, care about becoming a part of that pony society. I was content with being left alone. And that meant I didn’t want to be found. Which means in order to keep myself hidden, and keep my promise, I’ll have to lay low, avoid direct contact as much as safely possible.

I told the creature what I was thinking. We know. We’ve been listening. it replied, as though it was completely obvious and normal, and not at all like a whole new level of stalkeryness. Yes, that’s a real word… well not really, but I’m making it one right now.

I froze. Okay, this is taking on all new levels of creepy… I thought. “Uh… could you, like not totally invade my privacy, please?” I asked.

I felt a sense of resignation, then: Perhaps, in order to stop the past from repeating, we could destroy all the magic users. it offered.

“Wha-? No!!! Have you been listening to a word I’ve said? I do not want those ponies out for my head to avenge all those unicorns!”

I felt a sense of smugness well up on its end. Technically, you didn’t say it, you thought it-

“Shut, it!” I retorted. Great, now the shadow thing is getting smart with me. Where did it learn that from? I fumed. But as I thought about what it had said, an idea dawned upon me. There was another way to solve this conundrum without bloodshed.

I grinned to myself. Sensing my pleasure, the creature paused. What is the host so happy about? It asked cautiously, slightly concerned about my sudden change of mood.

“I just realized: if we can’t get rid of those who can use magic…” I gave a small chuckle, a small gleam in my eye, making the creature even more nervous, “I just have to make sure the magic can’t be used against us.”

I could feel the creature giving consideration to this idea, then lighting up at the prospect. But how will the host make this possible? it asked, excited.

I frowned. “Okay, first off, that whole ‘host’ thing is getting kind of old. Call me Abyss, and I’ll call you… I dunno, Bob or something.”

Looking back on it, I have little idea where this train of thought came from. Perhaps I was annoyed at mentally referring to the creature as "the creature," and sick of being referred to as "the host," which in all honesty, kind of creeped me out. Perhaps it was the human desire to name everything we come across. Perhaps all this craziness had finally gotten to me and I was breaking down into insanity. Who knows?

…Bob? It repeated, obviously confused by my rapid change of topic.

“Nonono! You call me ‘Abyss,’ and I’ll call you something like Bob,” I corrected. “It’s not that hard to figure out.”

The ho- Abyss… will now call us… Bob? it asked slowly, getting more confused by the minute.

“Meh. It’s a work in progress,” I admitted. I have to think of something cooler to call it, something other than “the shadowborn,” or “the creature”… something like “Noir” or “Shade”…

I held off on that thought, stashing it in the back of my mind; I was getting way off track. “Nevermind that for now. I’ll figure that mess out later. Anyways… the way I see it,” I prattled on, grinning, “There’s only two ways we can make sure those spells aren’t used again without turning entire armies against us.”

I raised my index finger. “Number one: we prevent their magic from being effective against us. Not sure how easy that will be, but maybe there’s an artifact of doom somewhere or ancient forbidden enchantment that acts as a magic shield or magic sponge or something, preferably whatever we use will also prevent us from being tracked. Either way, it’s worth looking into.”

I held out my middle finger as well, so that now there were two fingers being held up (in case, I dunno, that wasn’t blatantly obvious). “Idea Neumero Dos: We destroy or at least make completely unavailable to ponies ANY information pertaining to the removal and capture of shadow ponies. I don’t know how viable that one is, because for all I know, that kind of info could be everywhere; but if the book back at the tree-library is any indication, and I really hope it is, because that would make my life so much easier, then that means that that kind of knowledge is considered outdated in usefulness and that it would only be found in a select few places. Maybe just one place, but I’m not counting on that. There’s also the possibility of creating a counterspell, because from what I’ve learned about this place in the past twenty-four hours, that is exactly the kind of bullcrap logic this place runs on.”

“Now, the problem with both of these ideas, obviously, is that we, or at least I, don’t know done-diddly-SQUAT about any of it. I don’t know about magic, and I only learned about this world today, and I’m still kinda trying to process it all. In other words, if we want to know anything I want to know right now, we have to go find it somewhere.”

I tried standing up, bracing myself against the wall. I was stiff, and my movement was sluggish and shaky, but I managed to take a few tentative steps forward.

“So, we need to get out of here,” I declared, grinning, feeling the creature’s approval, “And go find out what we can.”

I dusted myself off, a wide, sharp-toothed smile upon my lips, gazing upwards into the darkness, “We’ve been in here a while. I’d say it’s about night time by now. All those ponies should all be nestled in their beds, sound asleep. Perfect time to go visit the local library, wouldn’t you say?”

My stomach gurgled, aching from emptiness, doing a couple of backflips for good measure. “…After I go snatch something to eat!” I added, clutching my protesting belly.

I began sinking into the shadows again. Suddenly, halfway in, I snapped my fingers, “I got it!” I exclaimed in delight. …What, you thought I couldn’t be happy?

The creature regarded me, questioningly. I pointed at my head. “Nocturne!” I declared proudly.

You wish us to call Abyss Nocturne now? It asked, confused again.

“No! That’s what I’ll call you! Nocturne!”

Nocturne considered the name I had given it. After a brief pause, I could feel its approval. Nocturne. We are Nocturne. it thought trying out its new name.

I shadow-walked to one of the exits of the mine. I found one that opened up a more than a few dozen meters away from Canterlot. A bit of a trek, but I didn’t mind; it just meant they were less likely to find the entrance to the mine.

I rose up and stepped out into the crisp night air. The moon hung silvery in the sky, the stars illuminating the sky unlike anything back home. Crickets chirped it the grass, and the air was pleasantly warm. The city before me shone, but was darker now as the city slept peacefully, blissfully unaware of my presence. I took a deep gulp of the night air before shadow-walking as fast as I could towards the city.

Little did they know Abyss and Nocturne were coming for a visit.

Chapter 10- Situational irony prevails throughout the land.

The next morning (or night… whatever. I can never tell the time in this cave), my eyes shot open, greeted by pure darkness. I lied in bed for a few minutes, in that moment when you’re too awake to go back to sleep, but too lazy to get out of bed. I stared at the ceiling, my mind wandering.

My hand felt its way to the cords around my neck, running down along their length before touching something cool and metallic. The keyring. So that wasn’t something I’d dreamed up. Figures. A mixed blend of emotions welled up within me. Part of me wondered which ones were mine and which parts were Nocturne’s. Part of me didn’t care. And another, much more dominant part of me, acknowledged that they were there, a confusing jumble that had to be dealt with.

When there’s a little bit of time, I’ve found that self-reflection can be a useful tool. The thing about the female mind, as I had learned in psychology, was that it wasn’t, by definition, organized. Boys’ minds are like waffles: compartmentalized; they think in one subject at a time, switching to other ‘boxes’ as necessary. Girls’ minds, on the other hand, are more like a bowl of noodles. Our thoughts weave about through many different subjects and it’s not always clear what the connections are; sometimes we talk about more than one thing at a time and get tangled up in other ideas. Sometimes we suddenly stop talking about something and switch to a different or previous topic without warning. In other words, a ‘train of thought’ train wreck waiting to happen.

I’ve always thought that rationality is easier when you reflect upon that noodle-like mess. It’s better to know yourself and your situation than to simply go about like the past doesn’t affect you. I had to rationalize and analyze, or I’d end up making the same stupid mistakes over and over again. Organize myself and my feelings, something I’d been putting off. And so I gathered up my jumbled mess of thoughts, emotions, and memories, and started to sort through them, picking them apart and analyzing them with scrutiny.

I closed my eyes. Solaire. The dealings concerning Solaire stood out the most. There was a lot to go through under that pile. Better to deal with that now. But first… I felt around through my mind, poking around and looking for Nocturne. Somewhere in my head, I felt the familiar presence of the little Shadowborn. Carefully, slowly, I poked him. I reeled back, startled, when I heard a sleepy mumble echo in my head and a distinct yet bizarre feeling of him doing what was like… rolling over in his sleep. I never knew he could be sleeping while I was awake. Satisfied that there was no chance he would be listening in, I sifted though the various memories concerning Solaire.

I figured the keyring gift was a good place to start. I rubbed the keyring between my fingers. I at least have a little bit of defense now. In retrospect, I should have considered further the possibilities of a different spell, or the reconfiguration of the spell to bypass the enchantment on this thing. A critical error in my judgment that must be rectified. I’m supposed to consider possibilities like that. Why didn’t I do that then? I sifted through my memories, trying to focus on the matter at hand. Earlier… before the meeting with Solaire, I was rather high strung, I realized.

A fleeting flash of me acting like a fool, thinking he was a demon and my ever so graceful outburst crossed my mind. I winced internally. I probably offended him. My first encounter with another guy, another human, and I acted like that. Stupid, stupid! I thought, feeling embarrassed and twinge-y inside.

I mentally shook myself and forced myself to cast those thoughts aside. Focus. That’s irrelevant. He seemed to be a nice enough guy; he probably didn’t think much of it. Hopefully.

I reviewed my memories. The deal with Luna crossed my mind, calling up memories of my fear, my uncertainty. My panic when I realized how badly I might have actually botched it. My emotions amplified as I came down from my adrenal rush. Doubt, regret, confusion: it all came back at that moment and swirled about my mind. I took a deep breath, centering myself, before sorting through my emotions. I couldn’t let them overwhelm me. I… did have my doubts as to how thoroughly defended I was by the pact. Or whether, I suppose, I would be viewed as a big enough threat. There’s also Nocturne’s emotional influence to consider, amplifying my own panic and desire for a quick and final solution. I… We were pretty unnerved at the revelation of what the light spell does. I suppose that explains why I jumped upon the first opportunity at immunity. I went over it again, counting up the factors before giving a quick mental nod of affirmation. I would have to be wary of these factors in the future. I turned to other thoughts.

There was the soapstone. Solaire had said, if I recalled correctly, “Use it to write your name in times of need. All nearby may see and come to aid you.” My mind reeled at the possibilities. Allies from beyond this reality, people who could help me if I needed it. I could feel excitement welling up inside me. I paused, uncertainty creeping up inside me. Did I want that, though?

I thought of the entire meeting with Solaire. He was an amicable guy, at least. I had had a nice time talking with him, despite myself, and despite the rather hollow vibe I had gotten from the conversation. But the moment I got what I had wanted… there was something there I wasn’t admitting to myself. A feeling I had gotten amidst the contentment. I dug deeper into myself, searching for a name to the elusive bit of discontentment mixed in with the memory.

In a burst of epiphany, I had it at last. I was… disappointed. I realized. It felt almost too easy. Dissatisfying. I sighed internally. I should have realized it sooner. This was something I’d been struggling with for a long time: my pride, my desire to handle my own problems, figure things out on my own. I didn’t want help, and it was infuriating to have to admit I needed any, much less actually have to ask for it. For some reason, that was different in Nocturne’s case, though. For whatever reason, I hadn’t minded his help. I fleetingly wondered why. No, summoning allies isn’t going to work out for me, I thought with finality. I won’t ask for help. I don’t need it. I’ll handle my own problems.

My mind wandered to the talk of inter-dimensional travel. Something was bugging me about it, like an itch that had to be scratched. He spoke of it quite a bit, and I recalled him mentioning wanting to go home. It hadn’t taken me long to realize that it wasn’t impossible, something, I realized, I felt prideful of. I like it when I can sort out details on the spot. If I recall, I also took a book on that from the library- wait. I realized with a start, No, no, no, DAMNIT! I could have asked more about inter-dimensional travel, maybe have opened up an opportunity to get home if I needed to! I cursed in my head.

A mountain of regret, uncertainty, and rage weighed down on me, threatening to crush my entire existence. I winced, fighting back against the sudden tide of raw emotion, to no avail.

That’s what I get for not thinking things through; I just wasted an opportunity. Hatred of myself burned within me.

I should have done more. I should have, but didn’t.

What rationality I had left quickly realized the threat of my emotion, and boxed it all away, shoving it all into the back of my mind, where it festered and boiled, looming.

I ignored it and forced myself to continue thinking, pushing through and beating back my feelings. Not now. Not now. Can’t think about it now. I can figure it out, find a way later.

I took a deep breath, clearing my mind, enveloping myself in a wall of cold, calculating apathy. Onward through the reflection.

On to the other deal. The one with Luna. I had glanced over the matter earlier, but there was still more to root through. Calmly, this time. Rationally.

I knew that I was completely serious about keeping my end of the bargain; all the way down to the spirit of the law rather than the letter of it. Best case scenario, the pony sisters would, in turn, honor the agreement and wouldn’t take any action against me. Perhaps they’d even be willing to help me out a bit. Worst case scenario, they would decide, due to my actions and words, that I was indeed a threat and would take action, or would carefully obey only the letter of the agreement. I was willing to admit I had a rational level of concern about the sisters, considering their power.

I felt a twinge of regret that grew the more I lied there. I felt bad about manipulating someone else like that, even though it was Nocturne who used that power. My conscience screamed at me further, listing off my wrongs: the way I lashed out at the ponies, the fact I was the one who’d played puppeteer with the ponies…

I lashed out at my emotions once again, stuffing them all away. No. This isn’t a problem, I told myself, It was born out of necessity. I had to do the things I did. I had to take the things I took. I lashed out because I did not like their treatment of me. I still don’t like the way they trivialized their mistrust of me. And there was unlikely to be a better opportunity to strike a deal with the sisters than that exact situation. That power is limited anyways, so I may not use it often. I can rely on other powers.

I stopped, then throwing out a few more statements as afterthoughts, Besides, I wasn’t planning to use it or that humanity thing except in emergencies.

But… whined my conscience.

Everything about mind control just seemed inherently wrong. Somewhere inside, I acknowledged that there was a moral line I had crossed somewhere. I ignored it. There were more important things to think about that how far into villain territory I was.

I was already on a thin ice by moral standards, as well as situational standards. Very thin ice. I knew I had to keep my promise. I had several causes for concern. I didn’t like it, didn’t like the ball of stress rising in my throat. I forced it down. Nonono, stop this right now, Gotta stay rational; gotta stay in control…

There was a brief moment before everything I had bottled up, every emotion I had locked away threatened to explode outward all at once.

I hated it, I didn’t want this happening. Not now.

Not now. Not here. Calm down. Just calm down.

Calm. Down.

I could feel my calm demeanor eroding, ready to shatter completely. Almost instinctively, I shot up out of bed, startling Nocturne awake. I had to move, had to get up and do something instead of sit there and wallow in my thoughts.

“All right!” I said aloud, strutting over to a lantern and turning it on. “Welp, I’m ready to start the day. We’ve got a lot to do if we want to try and save your friends, Nocturne. Lotta planning and supplies-getting. Road trip and all, probably gonna need several weeks worth.”

Nocturne shook himself awake. In moments, he was alert and ready. Supplies. Right. We suppose we could steal some from the local vendors. Though that may cause problems…

“Hmm, true,” I agreed, most thoughts of my near emotional breakdown cleared from my mind, “In truth, getting food alone may be much more difficult now, plus there’s the factor of the treaty and how stealing from ponies would be a technical violation of it, in my book.”

So we need to find a way to acquire- what supplies do you suppose the two of us shall need? Food, of course; that is a given.

I chimed in, rambling off a few essentials. “Yeah, plus something to sleep or rest in like a sleeping bag or a tent, though I might be able to substitute with a couple of waterproof blankets, some stakes, and a hammer. Maybe a little money, plenty of water… hmm, some cooking utensils would be nice, couple of matches, a decent pocketknife at the least… Maybe a water purifier… a compass…” I stopped suddenly, sensing a disturbance of some sort.

A noise. An unfamiliar, muffled noise echoed though the empty halls of my cave. I strained my ears, listening. Where was it coming from?

I slipped through the darkness, heading towards the source of the noise with an uncanny sense of direction borne of those who can sense the way the darkness twisted around the mountain. The noise grew louder and louder the further I pushed outward, growing from faint muffled noises to childlike sobs.

Nocturne was the first to say it: There’s a child down here! I felt it before I saw it, My eyes able to pick up on shape and form even in the pitch- black of the cave. A small, tiny, curled-up mass sitting alone in the darkness. Four little hooves and a dirtied mane from lying on the floor weeping.

A pony. It was a little pony kid. A little foal, a pegasus colt, crying to itself in the absolute darkness, and clinging to a dying flashlight like it was his last comfort in the world. Deep within the mountain but not deep enough to find my little hideout, yet still deep enough to be utterly and completely lost.

Nocturne’s rage welled up at the sight, then, suddenly, subsided. Pity took its place. Who knew he had a soft spot for kids?

I knew I did. “No, no, noooooooo.” I moaned almost inaudibly to myself. Why did it have to be a kid? Why did it have to be those big, weeping eyes that would pull on even the coldest of heartstrings? Why? I already said I wanted to have as little as possible to do with the ponies! Why must you taunt me with this?

I saw the pony’s ears flick upward. I gasped and clamped my hand over my mouth. The colt sat up, looking around, alert. “Wh-Who’s there?” he choked out, his voice trembling, his little wings flared up to make himself seem bigger and trying oh so hard to put on a brave face.

I’d been caught. “Damn me and my bleeding heart,” I hissed under my breath. The colt’s ears flicked towards me. I hid in the shadows and cleared my voice. “I believe it is, rather, my right to ask who you are, and what precisely you are doing in here, kid.” As I spoke, my words echoed about the corridors, seeming to come from everywhere yet nowhere at once. The colt looked confused and terrified as he shined his flashlight frantically all about the cavern.

“I-I-I-I…” He gulped, trembling. “I’m A-Ardent V-V-Voice… I-I’m lost d-down here.” He started sniveling again, cringing. “P-Please d-don’t eat me, Miss monster, m-ma’am…”

I laughed, my laughter coming from the walls themselves, startling the little colt, making him shrink, trembling in fear. “Eat you? Why would I want to do that? Ponies don’t look all too appetizing, if you ask me.” I reached out of the shadows and poked him on his back, causing him to give out a little squeak of surprise. I was back in the shadows before his flashlight beam washed over me. “Though a monster, am I?” I made a little ‘hmm’ noise. “Well, I suppose that’s not entirely untrue. I can be pretty scary. But there are far worse monsters than me. Kinda the reason I like it here; it’s safe since it’s nearly impossible to find your way in or out.”

The kid broke down and started crying again. Immediately my heart sank in regret. Damn. Looks like I said exactly the wrong thing. I didn’t mean to make him cry again. “Hey, be quiet- shut up!” I yelled in frustration, trying to get him to quit crying. “I never said it was impossible, did I? Or are you just crying to make me mad?”

He immediately clamped his hooves over his mouth, shaking his head quickly from side to side. Apparently making me mad was scarier to him that being lost forever. Who’d have guessed?

“Now… There are actually plenty of ways out of this cave, and I know every last one of them.” I continued, “As a matter of fact, I was just headed outside…” I trailed off, lying. That got his attention.

“C-can you take me with you?” he asked, wiping his eyes and standing up. “Pretty please?” He looked around with those pleading puppy-dog eyes that every kid has when they want something. Oh good lord, if they were any bigger, I think my heart would explode.

Okay, honestly, I was I was offering to help this Ardent Voice kid out in my own roundabout and indirect way. If anyone had asked me at that point, I would have denied that I was helping him just because. I would have written it off as any number of reasons: trying to score brownie points with the princesses, it would stink the place up if he died in here and I’d have to deal with his crying in the meantime, or even that I didn’t want him in here and was just shooing him away.

But that wouldn’t be the whole truth. That wasn’t even on my mind at the time. What really got me was, well, he was a kid. A helpless kid in way over his head, and some part of me longed to help him out. Pitied and sympathized with him, wanted to make those tears dry up. Even if he was a completely different species.

He almost reminded me of the elementary-age children I used to work with in an after-school program as part of my required volunteering back in high school. I know. Me working with a bunch of loud, rowdy, hyperactive kids? Most people who knew me would say that was a recipe for disaster, but it actually worked out surprisingly well. For whatever reason, I had a lot more patience with kids, for the most part.

I made another ‘hmm’ noise and paused, pretending to be thinking. “Well… You did ask so very nicely…” I said, drawing it out as long as I could, “I suppose I could take you to one of the entrances…” Despite the fact I had already decided to get this kid out, I hadn’t quite figured out all of the details as to how, and was trying to buy time while my mind worked in a frenzy. If I just grabbed Ardent’s hand- hoof, I mean, stupid species differences- he’d most likely shine his little flashlight on me, which could cause a whole host of problems. Problems including, but not limited to: Ardent somehow recognizing me or telling someone about how I looked to someone who had seen me, thus leading to him revealing my little hiding place, him being unable to keep up with me due to not being able to see, or him taking one look at my face and deciding to scream and run away. I had serious doubts as to whether I was making a huge mistake or not.

“However…” I continued, “You’re going to have to turn off that flashlight of yours first.”

Ardent glanced at his flashlight, hesitation crossing his face. “But… I need it to see. And I don’t like it in the dark.”

I half expected this, and had prepared for it. Kind of. I had at least a vague idea of what to say. “Well, it makes it a lot harder for me to see,” I half-lied. True, the less shadow there was, the less I was able to sense the way it folded about the cavern, but what I really wanted was to make sure he didn’t see me. “And since I’m the one who has to navigate, it’s more important for me to be able to see, right?”

“But… What if there’s something scary in here? What if I get lost, what if I can’t find you?” He asked, on the verge of tears. Oh jeez, please don’t cry again.

My mind whirred. “What if…” I said, “I carried you to the exit after you turn it off? That way you wouldn’t get lost. And if we do run into something bad, I’ll fight it for you. I promise.”

He stared at his dying flashlight, weighing his options. Then, finally he nodded, and put his hoof against the switch. The dull, yellowish beam vanished in an instant, and the shadow rushed forth to fill the void it left behind. He stuffed the flashlight in his mouth. Immediately, I leapt out of the shadows. As an afterthought, I tucked my sun and moon pendant, keyring and all, under my t-shirt. If that “humanity” thing actually worked, I didn’t want to take my chances with accidentally turning Ardent human.

I strode over to him and knelt down, my arms behind me and my back towards the colt. “I’m right in front of you. Climb up on my back, okay?” I instructed, my voice gentle.

Ardent stuck his hoof out, blindly feeling about the space before him. His hoof brushed against my back, a look of relief crossing his face as it did. He felt around for a hoofhold until his hooves found my neck, and his forelegs wrapped around it, clinging tightly. I supported his legs with my arms. I glanced back. “Ready?” I asked. Oh jeez, what if he’s heavy? What if he’s really heavy? Crap, I didn’t think about that.

“M-hmph,” he replied, his voice muffled through the flashlight. He stuck his hoof to the flashlight, removing it from his mouth before draping it back around my neck. “Ready.”

I pushed against the floor and stood up, surprised to find he was lighter than I expected. His wings flared up in surprise at the sudden change in altitude, beating a little to maintain balance. “And we’re off,” I announced, beginning my trek, “You live in Canterlot, right?”

“Yeah,” he replied. He was kind of quiet, unusually so.

I walked on, the silence between us bothering me more and more, until I decided to speak up again. “Hey, you like stories? I know a few stories.”

Ardent’s ears perked up in curiosity. “Like what?” he asked, interested.

I smiled. I had told a bunch of stories to the elementary-grade kids back in high school. A lot of times I would just read to them, but there were other, special times when a particularly interesting idea would come into my head. There were times when I would make up stories with cool heroes, which the kids loved, because they could help progress the story with their ideas. One of my personal favorites was…

“Well, how about I tell you one about the super-heroine known only as… The Mockingbird!” I announced with dramatic emphasis, “…And her super-sidekick Drama Queen!” I smirked. “Or ‘Drama’ to her friends.”

Ah, the Mockingbird. Of all the stories those kids and I made up, those were by far the coolest. I loved all the crazy shenanigans they would get into, which were always completely ridiculous and off-the wall stories that always made me grin.

Ardent giggled. I smiled. “I’ll take that as a ‘Yes!’ Okay then. I call this one: The Mockingbird: When Walter Walrus Would play Waltz! (And other musical genres)” I began with unusual cheerfulness. “This story begins in a town known as Drolesville, the place where the Mockingbird lived. It all started when a silly, sluggish walrus, (whose name was Walter, by the way) found himself a saxophone. But what no one expected was that it was an enchanted saxophone.”

Ardent giggled. “What did it do?” he asked.

“Well, that’s just what I was about to tell you. Now, you have to understand, walruses didn’t normally talk there, so bear that in mind. So! Walter picked up the saxophone and started to play it. Because it was enchanted, he was able to play it rather remarkably well, though I’m willing to bet he was already pretty talented to begin with. He was very talented with that magic saxophone.”

“Did he show everypony his talent? He should take it and show it to everypony!” Ardent cut in. He seemed to be getting into the story already.

I smiled. “Ah, but he did!” My voice dropped menacingly, but not too menacingly. “But little did he realize that the enchantment did more than make him super good at playing it. There was a curse on it! A curse that made everybo- everypony get hypnotized when they listened to it!”

Ardent gasped. “Oh no!”

“Poor Walter. He didn’t know; he just wanted to make ponies happy with his music.”

“Somepony must have put it there!” Ardent added, “Somepony must have known and used Walter for their own evil scheme.”

I nodded. That was a good idea. “That’s right. You’re pretty sharp. There was somepony, waiting in their lair for enough of the ponies to be hypnotized by Walter the Walrus’s musical might. Luckily, there was someone else watching over the city. As Walter paraded down the streets, someone was listening without hearing, someone who figured out the true nature of the saxophone.”

“The Mockingbird?”

“Close, but no. It was actually someone named Mainframe, a part of the super-secret technology called the Cerberus network that helped send Superheroes off to the places that needed them. Mainframe analyzed the music and discovered its hypno-harmonic frequencies, and rushed to deliver the news to the Mockingbird before it was too late…"

And so I mashed together a story as I navigated through the tunnels, Ardent adding in his own bits here and there. The more I talked, the more relaxed Ardent seemed to become. I had just finished the story when I took notice of a light in the distance marking the exit. It wasn’t the usual exit I took to Canterlot, mind you, since that would be a dumb thing to do, but it was relatively close to it and not all too hard to find your way to the city. Especially since Ardent was a Pegasus.

I set Ardent down on the cave floor. I was still deep enough in the cave that someone would have to strain to be able to see me, and I wasn’t going to take my chances by going any farther. “You see that light all the way over there?” I asked. Ardent squinted into the distance before nodding vigorously, relief crossing his face.

“Okay, just follow that light and you’ll be out of here. This is where we’re going to have to part ways. I have… stuff to do elsewhere.” He nodded in enthusiasm and began to trot towards the exit.

As I watched, sinking into the shadows once more, a thought crossed my mind, the slightest flash of a notion. Heeding it, I shot my hand out of the shadows, firmly clenching one of the young colt’s rear hooves. He yelped in surprise, his wings flaring up again.

“Wait,” I commanded. He gulped and nodded.

“I’m afraid… I don’t do favors, kid. I led you out and told you a story to boot, and I’m going to expect something in return.” What? I’m not stupid; I was going to take advantage of whatever opportunities I could get.

Ardent whimpered. Meanwhile, I was frantically racking my brain for the right thing to ask for. Something about equal, something a kid could manage to do or give away. Food? Money? Nocturne, help me, please, I need ideas here!

Nocturne’s mind spun with ideas as well. Uhhh… well, I think it would be good to try to put in a good word with the princesses.

No, they might ask where he found me. If I were in a more physical state, I would have been tapping my foot on the floor. Ah… we were talking about how we needed something before, I remember… what was it, what was it..?

I felt a sensation almost like someone snapping their fingers in my brain. Supplies! For travel! Ask for that! Ask for that! He said excitedly, before stopping short. No, it must be something a child would be able to grant us. Still, such things must be acquired somehow. There must be some way this child can help us do so.

Right, right, right. Uhh… It’s not like we can ask him to steal them… Uhh… Thinkthinkthink… uhhh… ask friends? No. Borrow them? Who would have all that survival/camping equipment?

Maybe he was from a rich family. I needed to check. “Hey, kid, By any chance does your family or anyone you know have a bunch of camping supplies?”

“N-No…” Ardent replied uncertainly.

Damn. Didn’t think so.

Wait! Back to the princesses thing! Nocturne exclaimed.

I already said, that would be a waste of a favor, and we need those supplies more badly than a good word!

No, no, hear us out, hear us out! The princesses are loaded. Ask the kid to write a message to the princesses asking for supplies…

…and have the kid deliver the message somehow! Nocturne you’re brilliant! I exclaimed with enthusiasm and excitement. Nocturne settled back, absolutely radiating a sense of prideful smugness. I could hear fanfare going off in my head. I had a sinking feeling he was gonna milk this for all it was worth and then some later on.

Meanwhile, I was abuzz with consideration of his idea.This could work. Or would it? What if they refused? I could try writing it off as diplomatic reasons… Maybe if I…

It was then that I noticed Ardent was looking freaked out again. “Relax, kid, It’s not like I’m going to ask you to do anything wrong. I just need a message delivered to a couple of ponies, is all, plus a small package. You can do that much for me, right?” He looked relaxed and relieved at that, and I took the opportunity to release his hoof.

Ardent got this uncomfortable look on his face as I released his hoof, glancing at the exit like he was briefly considering making a break for it. Thankfully, he gave a accepting sigh, deciding against trying to bolt.

“Okay, good. Pay attention, ‘cause when you get outta here, you’re gonna have to remember all of this, ‘kay?" Ardent nodded fully attentive.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A bluish magic aura engulfed the quill pen, expertly dipping it in an inkwell before inscribing more words on the parchment. The pen moved gracefully, in swooping lines that formed elegant letterings, befitting of the pen's wielder. Finally, after much work, Luna set the pen down, reviewing the final letter to the former element bearers.

The thing about reviewing something you’ve written is that you almost always find something wrong with what you’ve put on the page. Sometimes a spelling or grammatical error, something you should have said but did not, or something that was best left out. Yet, as Luna looked over the page, she found no errors to speak of, yet the entire page seemed to be off. Wrong somehow. She looked over it again. No, the grammar, structure, and spelling were all perfect. What was wrong, then?

The message itself, she realized. The message itself, the act of writing it and the plan behind it was what felt wrong. She was having doubts as to whether or not she should actually send them at all. She had a sinking feeling nothing good would come of them at all.

It was about then that her sister Celestia walked in. “You look troubled, Luna. What’s wrong?”

“I…” Luna started, trying to find the words. “I do not believe that we should send these letters to the former element bearers to draw Discord’s attention upon Abyss,” she stated with finality.

Celestia regarded her with a look of curiosity, waiting for her to continue. And continue she did, “This… show of mistrust we have devised. Call it what you may, but I cannot help but see a reflection of my past within it. How I and my night were spurned for their dark nature. And how, were others more accepting of my night, things might have been… different.” She looked straight into Celestia’s eyes, deep uncertainty and conflicted emotions within her own. “Might it be better to attempt to make her a further ally rather than draw her ire?”

Celestia glossed over the letters on the desk with a small hum. “While I did originally come up with this plan in response to your doubts at Abyss’ trustworthiness, it is we, together, who decide what must be done. If you believe that we must continue with this plan, so be it, but if you believe we should wait, if you believe that you may have a better idea, I will listen. Remember, Luna, we rule over Equestria together, and I trust your ability to handle things, to see ways to resolve problems that I cannot. Just as you have trust in me,” she said with a smile.

Luna glanced between the letters and her sister, conflicted. She sighed in defeat. “Even after all this time since my release, I still find myself deferring to your judgment in fear of what mine own will bring,” she said, gazing into the distance, her head hung low, “In fear I shall fail you and our ponies when it matters most.”

Celestia draped her wing over Luna’s shoulder. “It is natural to feel uncertain at times, especially with such a weight as we bear. But you have faced your own mistakes and learned from them. You, in such a short time, have adapted to the changes in society during your absence, and I have had the pleasure of watching you grow as a pony and as a ruler. No matter what, I will always be proud to call you my wonderful little sister,” she said, gently lifting Luna’s head with her wingtip.

Luna glanced about before her eyes hardened with certainty. “I do not believe these letters are the best course of action. I… believe it would be best to stay our hooves and see what may come. She has not caused any truly major disturbances, and has already come to us seeking peaceful resolution,” Luna scowled a little, “…albeit in a rather perplexing and crass manner.”

Celestia nodded. “Very well. I trust your judgment.” She turned and made her way to the door, turning to look at her sister expectantly. “Shall we be off? I believe the chef has prepared your favorite dish tonight.”

Luna hurried after, leaving the letters sitting on the desk, intending to dispose of them later. They were long gone from the room when a servant made her way into the room, intending to clean up any messes left behind. Imagine her surprise when she found five letters marked as semi-urgent sitting on the desk, completed and ready for sending. This wouldn’t do at all, such important letters just left sitting there.

She took the liberty of binding up the letters and sending them off to their respective recipients. After all, it was part of her job to try and make the princesses’ lives a little easier, wasn’t it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“… And sign it as: ‘Abyss, Official Ambassador of Humans and Shadowborn.’ Think you can remember all that?” I asked.

Ardent appeared to list off the basics of the message in his head before nodding in affirmation. “Yeah, I think I can. Who do you want to send this message to, again?” he asked sincerely.

“Princess Luna and Princess Celestia,” I deadpanned.

“The Princesses?” he exclaimed in shock, taken utterly aback. “How do you know the Princesses?”

“Doesn’t everybody around here?” I retorted. Ardent looked like he was about to say something, but stopped. He didn’t have an answer for that.

I cleared my throat. “Anyways, I just need you to write what I said down and deliver it to them.”

“How?” asked Ardent.

That was a good question. Hm. “I… don’t really care. Deliver it in whatever way you think will work. Without getting you into trouble, of course. And don’t forget to keep your mouth shut about where I am, okay?”

With that, he nodded, turned, and made for the cave exit. Then, he stopped, and looked back in my general direction, and smiled. “Thank you.” he said, before turning and galloping out of the cave.

Damn. I think my heart melted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ardent Voice had just finished up the letter, writing it to the closest he could remember. He looked over it again to make sure he got everything. Yep, it was all there.

Ardent had taken a long while to make sure he got everything, as well as make everything eloquent enough to be a letter to a princess. It was pretty well-written, if he did say so himself. This was a favor for the creature that had saved him from the caves after all…

Oh, man, had his mother freaked out when she found out he had been playing in the mines, and he'd been lectured thoroughly. He hadn’t told her how he’d gotten lost, or by extension, how he’d gotten out. He had promised, after all.

He glanced out the window. Now how was he going to deliver the letter and the package, he wondered..?

He couldn’t just hand it to the princesses, he thought, his eyes falling on a guardspony, stoic and unyielding. The guards would never let him past the gates. And they probably wouldn’t deliver the message for him either. They never reacted to anything. They never moved, at least not when he'd been watching. He bet you could tar and feather them and they still wouldn’t move.

A piece of paper flew through the streets, carried by the wind, smacking the guard in the face and catching on his snout. Ardent giggled softly, watching the guard stand unmoving as the wayward piece of paper fluttered in his face. As he watched, an idea began to form in his head. His face broke into a wide, mischievous grin befitting of a colt his age. He jumped to his hooves, scrambling through the window. Spreading his wings wide, he leapt from the windowsill, gliding safely down to the streets below. The instant his hooves touched the ground, he took off galloping, his mind bursting with ideas. He was going to need a bunch of help to pull this off, and a lot of paper.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometimes, being a princess is hard when you’re expected to keep up decorum. Especially since that means that, unless you are in private, you’re normally expected to take things with a degree of seriousness. Ergo, a princess must restrain her laughter when doing so would most likely insult somepony or someone else, or would be otherwise inappropriate. Which was hard, very, very hard at times.

Like at that very moment, when Celestia and Luna were met with the very bizarre sight of every guardspony whose shifts had ended coming back from their stations in the city and on the outskirts of the castle. Every last one of them had a… well, they were pieces of paper, it seemed, plastered on nearly every inch of every guardspony, making them each look like monochrome piñatas. Many were seated, picking off the pieces of paper off one by one and muttering to themselves.

One guard strode up to the princesses, still visibly wet with glue. Celestia had to look away and put her hoof to her muzzle, lest her laughter overcome her, and a strained look crossed Luna’s face. “Please, Your Highnesses, you don’t have to restrain yourselves on our behalves. We are all fully aware of how ridiculous this may seem,” he remarked.

Luna was the first to burst out laughing. Celestia chuckled softly to herself. The guard dumped a large stack of papers in front of the princesses, and looked at them expectantly. “I believe these are meant for the two of you.”

Celestia and Luna levitated the pages before their faces, reading the childish scrawl upon it and realizing they were, in fact, messages addressed to them:

Dear Your Royal Highnesses,

How are the two of you? I hope you are well.
Now that that’s out of the way, I’m going away for a while, an excursion if you will, and need a few things if you’d be so generous. Consider it a charitable donation to the “Get Me Out of Your Hair fund.” Among the things I need are survival/camping necessities. They include:

Something to sleep in: a tent and/or sleeping bag perhaps, though I can make do with a few waterproof, flame-resistant blankets, some stakes, extendable poles and a hammer.

Plenty of water, of course, as well as food, about a month’s worth. A water purifier would be nice.

A compass. Don’t want to get lost.

A decent pocket knife. I assure you, I have little intention to use it for weaponry purposes.

Some fire-starting tool(s).

And some money and cooking utensils would be appreciated, if you can spare them.

If you can, I would like them delivered at the train station. At night. Make no mistake, these are requests, not demands, and I don’t have anything to offer you beyond some information that you might find pretty useful. You probably recall the books and trinkets I borrowed, one of which was the soapstone which I return to you now. I was able to discover the function behind it: it acts as an anchor for inter-planar travel, as well as a way to summon help or allies if you need it. Just write your name with it, apparently, maybe outright saying you need help might help. Poof, instant ally.

I think you were worried about defense? Someone was. Well here ya go. Might come in handy for you; I know I don’t really want it. Heaven knows, you might need it more than I will.

Regards,

Abyss, Official Ambassador

of Humans and Shadowborn.

At the bottom there was another line scrawled in: “I’d like it if you could help her, she seems really nice since she helped me and all,” a message written in a childish hoofwriting. Celestia looked up from the note, while Luna stifled a giggle.

“Am I to presume that this entire stunt was pulled off by a foal?” Luna asked with a bemused smile as the guard handed her a package.

“Actually, if the others are to be believed, this was pulled off by a group of kids in a number of ways. No pony had the heart to fuss at them, since it was just a harmless prank at first. Until we read the papers.” The guard replied as Luna unwrapped the package, revealing the soapstone within. Celestia smiled. This might prove useful.

“And with that, I will take my leave. There’s a dozen more of Paper-Mache ponies who need help peeling the paper off their fur,” he stated, turning and leaving.

“All right. Take care,” Celestia replied, turning to retire to her own chambers with Luna following close behind.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Luna gave an excited whisper, “You see? Waiting seems to have been the perfect course of action; she is becoming an ally already! She has given us a further means of defense, rather than keep it for her own.”

“Yes, but we were the ones who owned it in the first place. Recall, she stole it from us,” Celestia reminded her.

“True… But she returned it as soon as she learned how to use it, something we were never able to discover ourselves,” She bounced happily, and then grew serious. “We must deal with this matter of supplying her, however. I truly want to believe she means no ill. Do we have the means to do so?”

“I believe we can arrange to accommodate her,” Celestia replied, turning the corner into the room where Luna had been working earlier. “It should not be much trouble. But first, we must deal with those letters…”

Celestia grew suddenly silent, her gaze fixated on something. Luna followed her gaze to the desk she had been working on earlier, where she had left all of the letters. It was surprisingly devoid of letters.

Silence pervaded the entire room.

“Didn’t you leave those letters right there?” asked Celestia.

“I did,” replied Luna, “They should still be there. Unless…”

“What?”

“I might have marked them as semi-urgent, and somepony might have gotten the wrong idea…”

Silence.

“…Well, buck,” said Celestia.

Author's Note

Alternative title: Waltzing Walruses and Paper Mache Ponies.

Glue can actually be made, by the way, without the use of animal parts. So no "Le Gasp! The glue is made out of ponies!"
Finally, to be honest, I've always seen Celestia's approach to things as slightly Socratic in nature. Make of that what you will. I also find her pseudo-cursing to be humorous.
And so, we are now ready to dive into real conflict. I have such plans for these characters...