Elements of Treachery

After a bright flash of light Shadow, Pinkie, and Spike appeared in what seemed to be the center plaza of Ponyville, that is, if Ponyville was normally filled with propaganda posters.

"What in the hay is this stuff," Pinkie asked.

Shadow looked at the poster that Pinkie had been looking at.

"Looks like propaganda," Shadow answered.

Spike looked at him quizzically, "Propaganda?"
Shadow nodded, "Yeah, its used to promote things, however, this looks like its trying to promote having ponies obey somepony or be thrown in prison."

"Who would put these up," Spike asked. Shadow looked at the poster once more and found the Royal Seal and the seal of the holders of the Elements of Harmony.

"You don't wanna know," Shadow finally answered.

Spike looked at the seals that Shadow was looking at and went wide eyed.

"Is this some kind of joke," Spike asked.

"It's no joke young one," came the answer from a stranger.

Shadow turned to look at the cloak wearing stranger.

"Who are you," he asked.

The stranger took off her hood.

"I am Smooth Melody but call me Melody," she answered, "and who are you?"

"I'm Shadow Volt, these are my friends Spike and Pinkie Pie," he replied.

Melody took a defensive stance, "Did you say Pinkie Pie?!"

Shadow looked at her bemused.

"Yeah, is there something wrong," Shadow asked before he froze, "Does it have something to do with those posters?"

"You're kidding right," Melody asked, "She's one of the Mane 6 that serve under Empress Celestia, they've caused more pain and suffering than anypony, and Pinkie there is one of them."

Melody pointed her hoof at Pinkie just before Shadow moved in between the two of them.

Melody called for some of her friends from the nearby buildings and soon Shadow and the group found themselves surrounded.

"You're making a mistake, Melody, she's not who you think she is," Shadow yelled.

Melody wasn't listening and ordered for everypony to attack.

"Damn it, gotta try taking these ponies out without hurting them too much," Shadow thought as he readied himself.

Several ponies lunged at the group before Shadow took each of them out with a single hit to the head and knocking them unconcious.

A few more went straight for Shadow but his combat experience and skill were too much for them and they fell just as fast.

After a while Shadow had managed to knock all the attackers out except for Melody.

"Melody," Shadow yelled, "listen to what I'm trying to tell you!"

Melody shook her head and lunged at him.

Shadow grabbed her in his magic and pinned her to the ground.

"Melody, we are not from this world, we came here on our quest to find a way home," Shadow pleaded.

Melody was wanted to be skeptical but knew by the sound of his voice that Shadow was being completely honest.

"I believe you," Melody replied, "its hard to believe such a tall tale, however, you sound completely honest, not to mention that Ponyville has always been the center of such strange things."

Shadow released her from his magic and helped her up.

"You wouldn't believe half of the stuff I've been through and then there was earlier today before dimension hopping here," Shadow replied, "though most of this morning was good though."

Pinkie blushed slightly and giggled.

Melody looked at them for a moment, "Wait, are you two?"

Shadow nodded, "Yes, atleast I hope so."

Pinkie giggled, "Of coarse we are silly."

Melody laughed, "You're pretty strong, follow me, there's somepony I want you to meet."

The group left the still unconcious ponies and soon arrived at a building that looked abandoned, however, once inside Melody lead them to a secret entrance.

Melody spoke as they decended into the secret hideout.

"I really hope we can trust you," she said.

"Yes you can, unless of coarse you turn out to be evil, then no you can't," Shadow joked.

Melody laughed, "I pretty sure we aren't evil, we fight for the freedom of Equestria."

Shadow nodded, "So what in the hell is with all those posters? Why do they have both Celestia's and the seal of the wielders of the Elements of Harmony?"

"Well," Melody began, "up until a year ago Princess Celestia was a king and benevolent ruler loved throughout Equestria, then one day she declared that all must obey her or suffer imprisonment for she was now Empress Celestia, all of the Mane 6, except Rainbow Dash joined her we thought, that is until a few weeks ago when we found out that she had been working with them the entire time she was with us. I'll let you look over the files we made on them later. It's this way, follow me."

Shadow nodded and followed Melody with Pinkie and Spike next to him, after a couple minutes of walking, Melody led them into a large room with quite a few ponies standing around looking at them, well more like glaring at Pinkie, Shadow felt the glares they were giving Pinkie and moved in front of her and blocking their line of sight.

A large black Alicorn mare walked up to them.

"What is the meaning of bringing her here Melody," she asked, "And who are these outsiders who look like they would defend this monster?"

Melody was about to answer when Shadow cut her off.

"Monster? Coming from you of all ponies makes me laugh, Princess Luna, or should I say Nightmare Moon? I'll say this once so listen up," Shadow said moving closer with fire in his eyes, "this Pinkie is not from this dimension and neither am I, I will not let you hurt her and don't think for a moment that you can hurt her."

Luna looked at him bemused, "Not from this dimension?"

Shadow nodded, "That is correct, we're trying to find out way to my home dimension and that is why we are here. By the way, why are you speaking normally instead of your royal way?"

Luna was still a bit confused, "Too many ponies didn't know what I was saying some of the time so I stopped. Now back to the matter with Pinkie, I think we sho-"

Luna was cut off by another pony running into the room.

"What is it," Luna asked.

The pony came to a stop without noticing Shadow and the others.

"Pinkie and Fluttershy were just seen arresting some ponies in the Southwestern part of town, some of those ponies were our members," he answered.

"How long ago was this," Luna asked.

"Just now, they are still there, we have several ponies keeping an eye on them," he answered.

Luna looked back at Shadow and the others.

"Looks like you were telling the truth," Luna said turning from Shadow to Pinkie, "please accept my apologies, though we do need a way to tell you two apart just in case."

Shadow thought for a moment, "I have an idea."

Shadow turned to Pinkie and used his magic on her, after a few seconds Pinkie's mane was no longer its fluffy, messy self, it was now brushed and slightly styled.

"How's that Pinkie," Shadow asked, "I made it where your hair can't return back to its fluffy state that way we can tell you apart."

Pinkie pulled out a mirror and looked at her mane for a moment.

"I like it, it's kinda cute actually," she answered.

Shadow nodded, "So what now Princess?"

Luna smiled, "Well that depends, do you wish to join our cause?"

Shadow looked at Pinkie who nodded.

"Yes we will, on one condition," he answered.

"And that is," Luna asked.

"I'll help out, but I need to be given free range to go about it in my own way, I don't do well following orders and I do a lot better when I do it my way, and I'll still do what needs to be done. Also do you have a training room here," Shadow replied.

Luna thought for a moment, "I accept your condition and yes we do, its the last door on the left down the hall. Why do you ask?"

"Cause your members need better combat training, I'll take over that for a while," he answered.

Luna gave a puzzled look.

"Before we came here, Melody ordered a large group to attack us and they didn't seem to have any combat training at all," Shadow said.

"Do you have any combat training," Luna asked.

Shadow nodded, "Yeah, I've been trained in several martial arts, I've mastered close quarters combat, and I've mastered most sword arts."

"Thats impressive, I'm sure our members will greatly improve under your training. Is there anything you need to get started," Luna asked.

Shadow nodded, "I need all your files on Celestia and the Mane 6, I wanna know what I'm dealing with since they aren't the same ponies I know, I let you know about the training supplies, and we also need a place to stay while we're in this dimension."

Luna nodded and instructed a pony that looked like her assistant to gather up the files, before turning back to Shadow and the others.

"We have a room available with two beds if two of you don't mind sharing one," she said.

"That'll be perfect," Pinkie replied.

Shadow looked at Pinkie and back to Luna.

Luna's assistant finally returned with the files.

"Thanks," Shadow said taking them in his magic, "I'll go over these tonight and I'll being training the other members tomorrow morning."

Luna nodded as Shadow, Pinkie, and Spike left the room and followed Luna's assistant to their room, they made themselves at home and Shadow cracked open Twilight Sparkle's file.

"I have to take her down, she may be my cousin in my dimension, but here she is a serious threat that must be stopped," Shadow thought to himself.

"Shadow, this is gonna be difficult, even if they aren't strong enough to beat you physically, they'll still be difficult to beat due to your emotional connection to your friends," Nightshade replied.

"Yeah," Shadow thought, "these ponies aren't my friends, they have to be stopped."

"Are you okay," Pinkie asked.

"Yeah," Shadow answered nuzzling her, "just deep in thought."

Pinkie nodded and laid back down on the bed while Shadow continued going over each file.

"Okay so they no long hold the Elements of Harmony, instead they've corrupted the Elements into the Elements of Treachery, seems fitting, Twilight is Treachery and Celestia's right hand mare, Rainbow Dash is Betrayal and used to spy for Celestia, Applejack is Deception and sells false imformation while giving Celestia correct information to Celestia, Fluttershy is Torture and tortures anypony unlucky enough to wind up in Celestia's dungeons, Pinkie Pie is Insanity and also runs the dungeons with Fluttershy but spends most of her time killing and mutilating her torture victims, and Rarity is Thievery and spends her time stealing rare items. That is some pretty gruesome information," Shadow said to himself.

Shadow layed next to Pinkie deep in thought before turning to look at her now sleeping body.

"She's not gonna like my plan," Shadow said with a small gulp, "I don't even like my plan."

Shadow snuggled up to Pinkie and quickly fell asleep, the next morning he trained the other members intensily before training Pinkie personally, after training was complete he went and met with Luna.

"I've got a plan," Shadow began, "mind you, its a fairly horrible plan that puts me in extreme danger, but we need to free everypony from Celestia's dungeons."

Luna nodded in agreement, "So what's you plan?"

Shadow took a deep breathe and made sure Pinkie didn't have anything to hit him with.

"I need to be captured and taken to Celestia's dungeons, from there I'll break out everypony and escape," he answered.

Saying this got him hit in the back of the head by a flying object that was thrown by Pinkie.

"They'll have you binded by chains and they'll place an anti-magic collar on your, there won't be anyway for you to escape," Luna replied.

"The standard anti-magic collar only resticts the magic of a unicorn it cannot, however, restrict the magic of an Alicorn correct," Shadow asked.

"That's correct but I'm the only Alicorn here, and I am not allowed to take such a risk," Luna replied.

Shadow smirk before removing his vest and spreading his wings.

"I'm afraid you aren't the only Alicorn here Princess, as long as I wear this vest they won't know until its too late," he said putting his vest back on.

Luna snapped out of her stupor and nodded.

After going over several details about the plan Luna gave her approval.

"We'll be waiting with the carriages when you get out with everypony," Luna said.

"Alright, let's get started," Shadow replied preparing to leave and be captured.

Pinkie stood in front of him and kept him from leaving just yet.

"Be careful," she said before giving him a small kiss.

Shadow smiled and nodded before leaving.

Shadow walked around Ponyville until he saw a group of Celestia's guards, Shadow walked by them before using his magic to shatter several windows, which successfully got him captured.

Shadow soon found himself bound to a wall by shackles with an anti-magic collar fastened to his neck, he decided to wait until the guards were mostly gone so it would be easier to free the other prisoners.

After waiting all day the dungeon had gone silent, indicating that most of the guards had gone to perform other duties, Shadow built up his magic until it burst through and blasted the collar off his neck, as soon as he was free of the collar he used his magic to shatter the restraints and freed himself.

Shadow ran from room to room freeing all of the ponies that were still alive and healing those injured, he knocked out any guard unlucky enough to get in his way.

There was only one room left and when Shadow opened the door, he was face to face with somepony he thought he'd never see again, somepony he thought was dead.