Nuzlocke: Hearts of Gold and Souls of Silver

“There is no coming back from the road that you are taking. And yet you think that it is the right one?”

Morning had come. The bed I was sleeping was so comfy that I didn't want to get up and continue our adventure. But I didn't want to waste any time, so I tried to get up as fast as I could. And by that I meant waiting fifteen minutes before having my legs to work again.

“Up up and away we go!”

I looked over to Blackburn, who was enjoying the bed ten times more than me. I bet that if I don't get him out of that bed, he will never get off it, and so I worked on getting he right up.

“Come on you lazy pegasus, we need to move out.”

“Just... five minutes...” He replied with what he had, unfortunately for him, that was not enough to convince me that we could continue with this.

My levitation skill wasn't one of the best, but I did prove that I could levitate a pony and throw it meters away, but I was moved by the power of my rage, which wasn't with me in this moment, but I think I can do it by myself. With that said I attempted to levitate Blackburn out of his comfort zone.

Levitating somepony was as hard as I though. I had to concentrate enough that I believe I was using energy I didn't have, proving it that I started to feel that my eyes were going red. But before I would stop, I had already levitated Blackburn.

“Whoa there buddy!” Blackburn let out a surprised scream. “I'm up! I'm up!”

I then dropped my friend back in his bed. I was sure he wouldn't go back to sleep, this was a big jumpscare to him that he would be able to do something useful.

His jumpscare also gave me something to think about. Did he feared me for what I had done to Sam? Did he think I would throw him out of the window of the place we stayed for the night?

“An he is right to fear you, after all, you are the worst best of both of you! ” The evil me played. “But he should not, he is your friend, and being the best is not what matters here, it's who you are as a pony.” The good part of me replied, and I decided to stop the two before they started a discussion. I have to remember to take control of both of them. I think I might be diagnosed with a mental disorder or something, but I always had them with me and nothing problematic happened before yesterday. I need to take control of my inner demons and angels.

“So where now?” I asked, I wanted to know if we were having breakfast or already moving to the next route.

“Well, now we go to the market to check if we have everything on us, and then we move on to route 32”

“Can we go to the ruins? Maybe we can find some treasure!” I asked excited for a new thing to do other than battling and walking around.

Blackburn looked over me with one his eyebrows up like if he was asking if I was serious about treasure hunting.

“Aw come on,” I started begging. “It can't be all that bad!”

“Alright!” He gave up. “But I still want to beat the second gym today, so we got to be fast about this.”

And so we fed our pokemon and organized our saddlebags and started to move on. The place where we stayed for the night was a small inn located next to the pokecenter. Out in the streets, we started going to the market, where I was going to look for something that could replace the GUI since it did bother me a little.

Walking in the streets I started to take a look at my surroundings. Everything seemed in place, and there were a few groups in the streets probably planning their next place to go.

“Hey Atlas. Thanks for the song yesterday, I would say you did pretty well for someone without the habit of singing.” Blackburn commented, probably to start a conversation just for the moment or while we walked.

“That was nothing, and I hope you liked it, because it's not going to be happening in a while.”

“I'm happy with it, and I think I know someone that is happy with it as well...” He continued, I think I knew where this was going, and he wasn't keeping up with our agreement.

“Shut up already,” I stopped him before he could tried something else. “Come on, the market is just ahead.”

We now found ourselves in the market located in the center of the town. We already had all of our supplies, so being here was somewhat optional, but still, I was in need for something that would take the function of my interface, but would be something for me to look at, having all the logs and warnings always in my vision bothered me.

Taking a walk around and looking at the merchandise, I found a arm band that had the functions I wanted. It could be used as a clock, map, compass, inventory organizer, and could substitute the user's interface in-battle, and would also receive the warnings and logs all the time, basically what I was looking for, with a bunch of extra attributes that would be very useful.

“You ain't gonna buy that up,” Blackburn, who was by my side, brought up his point. “It's way too expensive!”

Looking a closer look, I saw that it's price was three thousand bits. “Celestia banish me to the moon! This is too expensive!” I though to myself. Me and Blackburn had a little more than the double of it's price.

“Look here Black,” I tried to argument back. “I need this so I can see things without warnings in my face. We can buy two of them and one goes to you.”

“We will have almost no money after it, what are you planning?”

“Well, first, we'll go treasure hunting one way or another, who knows, we may end up finding a Nugget!”

Nuggets were little gold balls that were very rare and were scattered all across the region. They didn't do anything special, like boost one type of attack, but they had an value of around five thousand bits.

“Hm... Interesting, but I'm still not convinced.” He replied back. “What is your second point?”

“Since you're pretty much stuck in the ground with me, we will have to battle a few players here and there, and so earning some money back.” I gave him my second point, and I decide to add more to it. “And if we end up beating the second gym right away, we will have all of our money back!”

Blackburn then went back to his mind, to think about it a little. I decided to take a look around while he was lost in his thoughts.

Near us I located a bunch of flowers lying in the ground, and between then I found a rose. “Hm... a rose, just lying here. Well, if Blackburn isn't going with our agreement, I'm not going as well.” And so I opened my saddlebag and rapidly levitated the flower into it. I was going to keep it for a future plan I had. “I just hope she isn't eliminated already.”

A few minutes later, Blackburn came back to our world and had came to a decision. “Fine, we'll buy one for you, I'm sticking with the actual GUI, I have got used to it by now”

I them grabbed the band and with the help of Blackburn, we paid for it. It was barely more expensive than a Full Restore, but we couldn't buy one either, since it wasn't unlocked. All we could buy were potions and at a maximum some great balls.

“I hope you enjoy it and don't break it in a few seconds.” He gave it back to me like it was a birthday present. “Consider it as a reward for your singing.”

He just wanted to do make up that last phrase so I couldn't get something back from him for making me sing for him. But there wasn't anything I could ask back considering his special talent was to deal with guns and shoot things, so unless I asked him if we could go hunting after all this, I don't think there was much left.

I opened it up so I could attach it to me, It had a small spike that with connect to one of my veins to take information from me, it even had a small warning "it will only sting for a moment!" referring to the small I would feel for a moment. I them attached it to right front hoof and felt the sting. “Ouch!”

I shaked my hoof in the arm for a few second to make it stop the small but bothering pain, even if shaking it didn't make any sense. I turned back to Blackburn, who was giving a small laugh at me. I stared back at him, and he stopped, and tried to seem like he wasn't laughing. I facehoofed and finally decided that it was time for us to move, and me with my own copy of a digital Pip-Buck created for this place.

And so, me and Blackburn went to the ruins located near the town

Upon arriving at the Ruins, I got a quick notification on my still not named clock,inventory organizer, thing. Apparently the place was called Ruins of Alph, according to my map. I showed a little more information when I tapped it with my hoof.

"The Ruins of Alph were the former HQ for a cult that based themselves on the pokemon Unown, and many of the legendary mythological pokemon

Unown is a flat, thin pokemon shaped like an eye with appendages that make it resemble a letter or a punctuation mark. It is entirely black, except for its white sclera. For now it's know that only twenty-eight are discover, being all the letters in the alphabet and two punctuation marks: the exclamation "!" and the interrogation "?" marks. It is believed that they can still be found in the caves below the ruins, although the pokemon does not have a good stats to be recommended to be used in battle.

Little is know about the original cult, and all that was left was this ruins and the painted images of Unowns and the legendary. For unknown reasons, the cult also left puzzles scattered all across the ruins."

“Legendary, hum?” I commented. “That there is a word I haven't heard in ages, I don't even believe that legendaries like Ho-oh or Lugia can be found in this tournament, that would be so overpowered.”

“I haven't seen anypony around with one in all of our competitions, but I guess if you try hard enough, you can get something special, maybe a shiny pokemon.” Blackburn gave his opinion.

“But if you farm around an area for ages until a shiny appears, what do you do with it? I mean, if it is not the first to appear around, you are just going to have to defeat it or run for it, you can't capture it unless it's the first to appear in an area.”

“Guess that is true, I think you'd have to be very lucky.” He got the point. “And when it comes to legendary or rare pokemon, like a Dialga or, for example, a Moltres, I suppose you would have to do something different, I mean, normally we would have to prove something and that we are worth being their trainer, but I don't know if it works the same way here.”

That got me thinking. If it were for someone to be a trainer for one of those special creatures, they would have to prove they're worth,  and here is the catch. What exactly would one have to prove to show that one is worth? And is it even possible to obtain one here?

So many questions I would have to search for the answers, and we didn't exactly have the time for it, so I decided to put those questions in a highlight for me to later discover, and for now, we had an ruin to explore.

“So, since we are treasure hunting, why not get help from our pokemon?” I ended the old conversation and started with we really had came here for. “Not only will we finish this faster, but they will also have some fun, rather being either on a pokeball all the time or walking with us to places.”

Blackburn didn't even took time to think about it, I had got him with the "we will spend less time here" thing. He opened his saddle bag and shoved his wings in it, making the five pokeballs went flying until they hit the ground. Out of them, his whole team was out: His Charmander, Ratata, Hoothoot, Geodude and Bellsprout (Oh, how do I hate these things).

I then got my whole the as well: Pulse, Scout, Widowmaker and Seed out. This had just become a searching party.

“So, I think we are ready to begin this up,” I was set to begin. “Let's get to business!”

Right after I said that, our group got separated, Blackburn and his Charmander going to a way, while the other four separated in two groups and went in two different directions. Me and my team went with a different strategy, we would all stick together, since this place was filled with puzzles, what a better way to easily beat them than with a group of friends?

Blackburn's team was covering the top half of the ruins, while me and my team were left with the other half, which was composed of only three houses for me to search for something. I also didn't consider the fact that other ponies (and also gryphons and zebras) may have been around in search of loot for themselves.

We moved into one of the houses, inside it was a panel in the middle with a scrambled image, and the walls were painted with the symbols that the Unown were known in. On the opposite wall from the entrance, there was a big painting of a lion in brown fur and a big white mane on it's back. I immediately assimilated the creature with one of the legendary beasts, Entei.

Entei was one beasts that composed the legendary trio of the region of Johto. Alongside him were Raikou and Suicune. There were only two legendary trios in my knowledge, being the Johto and Kanto ones, Kanto having three birds: Moltres, Articuno and Zapdos.

I walked to the front of the panel just to see that it was the image of a pokemon I hadn't seen before, maybe it was from a new discovered species, which I didn't think so since this place is hundreds years old, or a very old pokemon. With the help of my team, we had re-constructed the whole image in a few minutes, just to discover it was kind of a dinosaur bird. I didn't knew what color it was painted, since the image itself was very old.

Suddenly, the image started glowing, and getting brighter as time went past. I had covered my eyes since it was too bright for me to see. While I was protecting myself from the light, the plate I was standing collapsed.

“Whoa!” I screamed as I fell into the whole, and I presume my pokemon had fallen with me. Wherever I had fell, it was very dusty, and my fell made it all go into the air.

After a few moments, the dust had cleared, just for me to find myself in a hole with a few items in it, and my pokemon were nowhere to be found.

“Hum... let's see what we have here.” I talked to myself while checking the items. “A gold nugget, this could be useful; a Great ball, and a rock...?”

Different than any other rock in the room, this one was white, and shattered. It seemed to be a piece of cobblestone, put was too gathered in one to be possible. I decided to check it up in my inventory and see what is know about it.

"Moonstone

The moonstone is a fallen rock that came from the moon centuries ago when a meteor had hit the moon and the explosion launched a few of those stones over the world. The moon stone is often used to evolve a few specific pokemon."

I didn't have any pokemon that could be used with the stone at the moment, so I decided to kept it in case I get one pokemon that is capable of doing so.

After that, I looked around to see if any of my companions had fell here with me. Apparently, they all had stayed on the original floor. After that, Scout flew down the hole and found me.

“Master! I'm so glad you are alright!” The bird flew happily across the room, happy to find out I was ok. “We all got worried, and I decided to check out, while everyone stayed up there.”

“It's good to know that all of you are okay.” I looked around in search of an exit. “Now we just need to find a way out of this god forsaken place. ”

Scout moved ahead a hall we had found, trying to find an exit to the place, while I stayed behind to catch everyone from falling. Scout was finally putting his name to good use. Minutes later, he had returned telling us that he had found a rope that went to the house next to this one, but he warned me that this place could have traps laying around, or at least a few holes for us fall into. The hallway was very dark, so we had to at least find a out to get light, or be very careful.

“Nothing to worry Atlas,” Pulse went ahead leading the way. “Did you forget I glow in the dark?”

If we got out by the other house, we would only had left only one place left for us to search. We were eliminating two options with one choice.

Walking the hallway, I could see where Scout had though this could have traps, there were a few circular holes around the walls, possibly to make arrows shoot from them, activated by a pressure plate or something.

“If this place really have any traps,” I commented. “How cliché would it be?”

In my youth, I had read books, like Daring Doo, or watched adventure movies that had traps like that. It had came to a point that it was so obvious.

We continued moving, and turns out that those holes didn't mean anything, we basically occupied the whole hall, and so covering any step possible. Unless that trap was activated by another thing, or was broken, it wasn't really a trap. We had finally reached the stairs that went up, and so, we climbed it. this room it was just like the other house, with it's wall painted with the creatures they praised, and it's hoof broken due to time. Besides that, the place didn't contain anything else, no items or anything.

Getting out in the house, I found Blackburn teaming up with his companions, they apparently did loot everything, and were regrouping.

“What did you so long? I was going to check that house now if you didn't show up.”

“Wait, did you searching in the other houses?” I asked.

“I did in all of them but the one you came out, in one them, there were a few Rare Candy laying around, and in the other had a dark hole in the middle. You had taken sometime, and we really have to leave this place before lunch.” He answered. “But seriously, what did you so long?”

I sighed, seeing that he would laugh over my answer “I had fallen in the hole, and we took some time to found a way out.”

As expected, Blackburn fell in the ground and started laughing and rolling. He had laughed so hard that tears were coming out of his eyes. He couldn't stop laughing after minutes, that I had to make he stop.

“Are you done with that?” I asked.

“Just... A... Second...” He started talking, taking a few breaks to get some air. “Yeah, I think I'm done.”

Finally, we decided to stay with our pokemon out, and start to move ahead to Route 32.

Just when we entered Route 32, I had found a Growlithe, a Fire type pokemon.

It was a female, canine based pokemon, that had an orange fur and a few black stripes along with it's legs and back's fur, while it's chest, muzzle and tail fur was cream colored. It didn't seem very aggressive towards me, and had a playful personality, I myself had found her pretty fun, and decided to invite her join my team, but before I explained all the risks.

She had took some time to think, but even if our adventure was very dangerous, She had decided to openly join me along side my pokemon. I decided to name her Phoenix.

Meanwhile, Blackburn hadn't captured anything, but was walking with his evolved Charmander, that was now a Charmeleon he had accidentally knocked-off the Nidoran. he had fought, and even he said that he didn't mean to kill the thing, he didn't really want Poison Type.

His Charmeleon was just like his Charmander, but this time around two times bigger and had grew a horn on the back of it's head.

“So, we got our starters both evolved now?” I asked.

“Well, yours won't grow more, but mine will become a big Charizard one day” He replied. “We'll fly along side each other around all of Johto!”

After that, we continued going down the road that lead across the route. After that we would have to go across a cave and then through Route 33, which is just a small road, and finally arrive at Azalea Town.

This route wasn't really filled up with trainers, but the ones we met wasn't really trouble. Well, that was until I was challenged by another competitor middle way through the route, while Blackburn was already battling someone.

The pony who challenged me didn't talked much, but was very confident, but wasn't that experienced, and hadn't probably take time to see how others were doing, he had a team composed of only two pokemon, both Rock Type: A Graveler and a Onix.

He had started up with the Onix, a giant snake made out of rocks that became smaller towards it's tail, and it had a horn in it's head, while I had Seed go for this one. I was in type advantage, since Rock was weak to Grass. The Onix easily went down by a few slashes from the leaves of Seed, leaving my opponent with only his Graveler left. It was a big four armed boulder, an evolution for Geodude.

“Hey, you know you wouldn't last very much with only two pokemon, specially of the same type,right?”

My opponent didn't answer, instead he just ordered his Graveler to shoot a big boulder into Seed. Seed was right in front of me of me, and was quick to act, rapidly dodging the boulder middle way of it's trajectory.

If I hadn't cleared my doubts about getting hurt here could really affect me, I was answered now. Since Seed had dodged it, It went flying right on me. I tried to turn and run in another direction, but it didn't go that well.

Smash!

It had hit me on my side, and probably breaking a few ribs of mine. Meanwhile, Seed had done the same that he did to the Onix, bringing the rock down with a super effective hit, and eliminating my nameless opponent.

“Ugh... I hadn't expect for this!” I commented over the heavy pain in my chest.

“There you go, some karma!” The evil me played back. “That was for shooting a guy out a building.”

“Ah.. Don't you begin with this, you were the one in control of me when I did that, so it was your fault!” I hadn't realized it, but I spoke out loud with my inner self.

Blackburn had finished his battle and ran in my direction, he had probably seen or at least heard the sound of the rock hitting my body.

“Shit!” Blackburn said, his voice filled with worry. “Are you okay? What should we do? Can you walk?”

“I don't know, I don't know and probably not like I did before.” I answered all his questions. “Man, I know the hole thing about we being in this world rather than just playing with a Game Colt is for realism and all, but come on, even death is probably possible in here!” I was laying in the ground, swearing at the realism of this place.

“Come on, I'm gonna take you out of here!” Blackburn said while he used all the force and energy he had to put me in his back. After that, I got all my pokemon into their pokeballs, as he tried to fly, but end up it was too much weight for his wings to handle, so he decided to continue by walking.

I had found myself in a situation I didn't know how to get out. The Graveler had broken at least two ribs of mine, and I don't recall seeing any hospitals from the three cites we had been so far, and I believe that pokecenters only offer care for pokemon. As Blackburn walked, I hadn't much left to do, so I decided to lay asleep so I could regain some energy, or get used to the pain.

“Hey... Atlas, wake up” I heard Blackburn's voice as I tried to open my eyes. When I got finished, I gave my friend a "What is it?" kind of look. “It's her... You know who. Look, she is walking alone just here, and I see it as a chance for me to get started with something, ya know?”

“I see, but I though she would have arrived Azalea Town by now.” I questioned what I had been told. “But anyways, what did you need me for?”

“You were the one who spoke with her last time,” He continued. “Do you remember her name?”

“Her name?” I searched every spot in my mind in search of her name, but didn't find anything. “Nope. I didn't ask for it, but she does know ours.”

“Well, I see I'll be having to face it myself,” He finished. I saw where this was going. “Well,wish me luck! Also, you don't mind if I leave you here for a few moments, do you?”

“Well, not much, I can barely move anyways. Also, if you are going to declare your love for her, get this...” I said as I used my magic to open my saddle bags and give my friend the flower. “Have this Rose, at least it will a bit more romantic. Now if you excuse me, I will be back to look at my surroundings, and my slow death. Now go, and be the most romantic stallion you had ever seen!”

Blackburn then grabbed the flower with his wing, and hid it under it, and walked to the purple mare's direction, which didn't seem to notice us. While I gave my friend his first love a chance, I took a look around. The place wasn't that different from other routes, filled with trees and tall grass, but there was a small lake with some fisher pony fishing on it, some of them would be trainers, and at least one of them, with a team full of harmless Magikarp. We were in the middle of the afternoon, and I could see it had been some time, since we entered this place in the morning, and the sun still burning at it's best. I had a feeling this was a few momets after lunch time, and that I probably lost it.

“So, if you have anything that could help him, I would love to know” I realized that Blackburn was with the mare, just by side, talking about me.

“I do actually have this natural herb I bought in Violet City, it recovers the pokemon's health to complete and removes status problems, and since pokemon are creature just like us, I believe it's worth a try.”

I looked over them and both of them were staring at me. It was very awkward, so I decided to break that.

“So what are you waiting for? I'm dying here!” I hurried them up.

Them opened her saddle bags and used her mouth to bring a herb over me. “Now, just eat this, and you should be feeling okay in a few hours,” She said, handing me over the plant. “But I'm not sure if it would have any collateral effect or anything. Besides, the name is Violet.” The nameless mare finally introduced herself to us.

I ate the plant and was hoping for the best, but wasn't that confident, anything could happen.

“Well, at least it's good to quit the debt you had with me for revenging my friend,” She then closed her saddle bags and was set to leave. “Now, if that was all, I will be leaving. Bye Blackburn and Atlas.” and so, the pegasus mare started walking away.

I looked over to my friend, who appeared to have done something very wrong over his first meeting. “Hey, I see you didn't really do anything rather helping me, now let me help you.” I started talking. “Keep the flower for now. Violet had lost her friend in the start, and now she is alone, why don't you go ahead and invite her to join us before your love flies away?”

Blackburn then opened his eyes wide, and ran to the mare, calling her name. I could see that he was talking to her, and I was hoping that my friend was doing everything right, even if this was his first time in love, but I myself didn't really know what to do, I hadn't got one myself. “You are forgetting Luna!” my inner me spoke. I had shut it down again before it could try anything else. But it did brought a point that I was doubting myself in: Did I really had a crush on her and was aiming too high for a start?

I then closed the last though before I ended up thinking in something I would regret. I went back to looking at the two love birds together, but this time I was trying to use my telekinesis to try and levitate me, so I didn't have to depend on my friend all the time, but each time was the same, I would go to a point that I would exhaust myself too much that my vision would start to become unfocused.

Back to my friend, I could see he didn't really follow my advice about keeping the flower, he had already given it too her, and she gave him a smile, so I could see that this was going ok. The two then started walking back to me, side by side.

“She is coming with us.” Blackburn had given me the news. “Violet, you can go ahead, while I will get Atlas, and we'll be right behind you.”

She nodded, and started walking down the road, while Blackburn stayed behind to get me, and so I decided to ask him a few questions.

“So, are you two now, like, dating or something?”

“Actually, no, but she did know by the way I looked at her the first time,” He answered. as he positioned me on his back. “So I decided to give her the flower, that is all, but I will try to win her heart over time, you'll see.”

Well, it seemed that this would be a long road, and a big afternoon ahead of me, specially with Blackburn losing himself over the mare all the time.

Near an Hour later, I was walking in four hooves again, but very slowly, since I was still feeling the pain. My clock told me it was still four in the afternoon, so we still had time to arrive in Azalea Town and defeat the bug gym, I heard it was a Bug Type gym, so as long as I used Phoenix or Scout, I should have the advantage.

I was battling a pony who was using a Hoppip, which was a pink round pokemon, just like a ball, with a two long leaves on it's head that would spin around it's center and cause it to float. I decided to go with Scout against it, since it was a Grass and Flying Type.

I had decided to let Scout use his own strategy against the thing. He though fast and charged into the flying pink ball, I bet it didn't see that coming.

Slash! Slash! It's Super effective!

Scout used it's wings to launch two big air blades into my foe's pokemon, and it fell in the ground, fainted.

The battle hadn't been that exciting, but I was being more careful myself so I didn't break anything else. Scout was flying, happy for winning one more battle. He was glowing, just like Pulse did before before evolving, so I though he was evolving. Turns out I was right, Scout's shape was changing, and he was getting bigger and growing a few other characteristics. He had became the same pokemon Falkner had used against me and Blackburn: A Pidgeotto.

“Well, I guess I have two evolved pokemon now.” I commented, Blackburn was by side and gave a "yeah, whatever" look, and told me to keep moving. Violet, me and Blackburn were heading to the cave, which wasn't that away from here, so all that was left was the cave and a very short route. I guessed we would be arriving the next city by six or later.

We turned to our right, the way we had to follow, and turns out there was a poke center there. “A pokecenter? here?” I asked out loud.

“You see, Atlas, the route we are in is a very long way to go, it take hours to go through and it's filled with more experienced trainers,” Violet answered my question as she showed the length of the route on the map of my gadget. “So they put it here for us to take a break and recover our pokemon's energy.”

“So,” Blackburn continued. “Do you guys want to take a break here?”

I though a bit, but Violet answered first: “I think it's a good idea, since Atlas need more time to recover, and we can give some time for us to recover, don't you think?”

I nodded and so did Blackburn. We would spend at least an hour there, so I extended the time of arrival of my guess by an hour as well.

Upon entering the poke center, there was other ponies chatting, as well as some gryphons and zebras as well, but there was one pony in special that I hadn't seen before, it was like a normal pegasus, but it's wings were bat wings. I asked my friends, and they answered me that bat ponies did live normally around Equestria, but only went out during night time, since they were more adapted for it. They did also tell me that only bat ponies were part of the Luna's Personal Royal Guards.

For me it was strange to see a Pony with big bat wings, a Snake-like eye and Bat-like ears, but it didn't bother me that much, I  even liked the style and imagined how coll it would be to be one, but my glorious vision were blocked when Blackburn told me to go to a bathroom and wash my face, since I was still covered in dust since the Ruins of Alph.

Slowly walking to the bathroom, I could see that Blackburn and Violet had taken themselves a seat and started chatting. “I really do need to learn teleportation these days, it's too hard to walk like this” I though to myself, while the other me stayed in silence, for my surprise, it did not want to chat, or even make jokes of my situation, and I wanted it to stay like that.

I entered the bathroom, and started the water flow to fill the sink using my telekinesis. I was walking very slowly around the bathroom, since I was very tired of all of this, it had been a full day and I had been injured. If I really though deeply about all of this, I could see that this whole thing was very dark in general. Deaths happening in all places, ponies battling everywhere. There was only a few around that were here to reach some kind of inner understanding, or to prove somethings to themselves, but in general, mostly everyone was here because of a selfish will.

With the sink full of water, I dove right in with my head. “Ponies like us are turning all of this place in a kind of wasteland.” I though to myself. Getting out of the water I looked at the mirror, and what I had saw made me jump a few hoofs backwards.

In the mirror I was seeing myself, but not really, my light grey coat was covered in blood, if it was mine or of something else I didn't knew. I was staring into myself. My eye's dark blue pupil had turned into snake-like one of the same color. My dark blue hair was very messy, and it's dark red stripe was scrambled everywhere. my teeth had grew fangs and my horn was bigger then before. While it's vision was locked in me, me, I mean, he gave an malicious smile. The figure in the mirror did not follow my movements.

“Hello, Atlas.” It talked to me. “It's been a while.”

“What are you?” I asked, trembling in fear of myself. “You can't be me, whose blood is that? Who are you?”

It's smile faded. He was looking at me even more serious this time.

“You don't seem to recall who I am, do you?” He asked. “Well, I suppose it was something to expect of you, since you haven't seen me in a visual version for ages now. I believe you call me your "inner demon", but I also would love if you started calling me Atlas.” He introduced himself, or myself in this case, to me. It's horn started glowing and then brought up to my vision a dead body of a pony. “Well, answering your question about the blood, I could say that it's from this pony here, but don't worry, you doesn't know him.” He dropped the body back to the floor, out of my vision. “Well, you don't need to be scared, I'm just part of you anyway.” He looked to the wall on his side, and gave a smile, not malicious this time, it was natural. He wasn't staring at anything in particular, maybe just lost in thoughts, my thoughts. I was unsure of the situation, the pony in my vision was myself, but the part of me who did mean harm to the ones that I hated or considered a threat, I was in fear and anger at myself, both at the same time.

“You can't be me,” I told him. “I would never cover myself in gore just like you now. I wouldn't dare to harm others!” I screamed at myself.

The other me stood staring at the wall in silence. A few moments later, the silence was broken.

“You and Luna do share something in common, both of you contain a more "aggressive" versions of yourself” He said, still looking at the wall. Finally he turned to me. “The difference is that her's was an influence by dark forces from the moon,” He then locked his vision to me. “But yours is just natural.” He then focused his vision back to me and had put on his malicious smile back, making me walk a few hoofs backward once again. He then levitated body on his side of the mirror, and concentrated the telekinesis field around it's head. “You don't need to fear yourself, Atlas, I want you to know that I'm here to just help you!”

Bam! A big pop the head of it's victim made. The left side of his face was now covered in blood and parts of the now headless body's head. The body dropped, and vanished of my vision, back in the ground again.

The anger inside me was getting bigger every moment, and it had come to a point where I couldn't contain it anymore. “I don't need you!” I screamed. My horn was glowing, but this time, it had a second layer of glow with it, enhancing even more my magic. I concentrated on the mirror, were myself was still standing in, and broke it with my magic, making a loud sound in the bathroom.

“You can't destroy me, I'm you, you fool.” The voice came back to my head. “I'm going to always be with you, and I will help you to kill Freddie, and cover yourself in his interiors! Just like you want! This is what you wished! Because you are a monster hero!” The voice kept playing. I had fallen to the ground and was holding my hoofs in my ears, trying not to hear the voice, and was forcing my vision closed just not to see my other self in case it was out there.

“Shut up!” I got up and gave another big scream. and so making my glow even more, creating a third tier of magic, and so breaking any mirror left in the bathroom.

Second later, Blackburn came running into the bathroom to check on me.

“Atlas! Atlas!” He called me while I was back in the ground, holding myself in both fear and anger. “Calm down! I don't know what it's happening but I'm here, just calm down!” He tried to help me. I was feeling the comfort of having a friend back with me, and so the magic had stopped, and I started to cry. I didn't know what happened or how my magic got strong like that, but I didn't want it anymore, and I was just laying in the ground, helpless from the inside. “Come on, get up, we're going back to the table with us, everything was going to be okay.”

Blackburn then grabbed me by the hoof and got me up. I stood there looking at him, and after realizing how grateful I was to have him to help me in such moments, I gave a poor smile, and hugged him. That just made me cry even more, but this time, I was grateful for the things I had.

“Come on, we need to go before anyone sees the mess you made!” He hurried me, pushing me back and holding my hoof and forcing me to move.

We then moved back to the entrance room, where, fortunately, only a few ponies noticed all the sound I made, or didn't care enough. I went back to the table with Blackburn, where Violet was sitting, waiting for us.

“What the hell happened in there?” She asked.

“I don't know, and if I tried to explain it, you maybe wouldn't believe it.” I replied. I was still trying to analyze the situation, and the pain in my chest wasn't helping.

“You got out of control, that is it!” Blackburn replied. “I just hope nobody goes checking what you had done in there.” He was focused on me with an angry look in his eyes.

What? My friend was supposing I got out of control? I can't say that is a lie, because I did indeed got out of control of my magic, but I was not crazy. At least that was what I thought.

“This is enough for me, since you really want to know, I'll tell both of you!” I stomped at the table, I couldn't accept what they thought of me. “Since the start of this competition, and a little before, I have been hearing my own voice in my head, but this time it had a different personality. This one had a more aggressive feeling.” They were looking at me, with completely focused in my explanation. “It appears to have taken one more step towards trying to communicate with me.”

They stood looking at me, with no expression at all, in silence. Well, that was until Blackburn broke the silence.

“Okay, you have gone crazy, one hundred per cent now!”

Violet looked at him, kind of confused by Blackburn's reaction. “You realize that this is a serious matter, do you?” She asked him, with a look in her eyes of doubt. “He may have a identity disorder, you know?”

“A what now?” I asked, this time, I had even more doubts than before.

“A dissociative identity disorder, to be more specific. It is when a creature have multiple identities, and can change depending of the pony's behavior or emotional state.” She explained. “It appears that your mind is split in different personalities. Tell me, before that happened, what were you thinking of?”

I took some time to remember what was happening before, and was trying to understand what she had told us. After some thinking I had remembered what I was thinking of. “I was asking myself why I was here, and what were the reasons for that, and why are other ponies also here. I was analyzing how selfish the wish of some were, while only a few were doing this for another reason, and I was asking myself in what group I would be. But how do you know this much?”

She looked at me for a few seconds before coming to a more concrete resolution of this. “So, you were in doubt, am I right?” She asked. I nodded and she then continued. “I have studied psychology, but quitted it after a while, so there may be a chance that I'm wrong about this. Doubt leaves one mind unsure, while depending of another, it may try to take control to come to an answer, or may be left in doubt as well. The thing is, if it gets succeed in taking control, it can eliminate the other side, and so destroying a whole personality.”

I looked deep inside myself, and felt my stomach getting frozen, just like when I fear something that hasn't happened. “Is there treatment for it?” I asked in fear.

She looked at me, apparently with no answer. “Well, there is clinical treatment, but it had shown to fail in most cases.” She started to share the same feeling I had. “But we aren't even sure if you have it, I'm no doctor, this isn't even what I do best!” She tried to calm me down. “I just learned a little about it, but I quitted it after a while” She tried to find an explanation to leave me calmer, but that only left me in even more fear.

I could be battling against myself to conquer myself.

“Well, we can take a better look at this, but later, we have been here for a while now, and our pokemon had rested already. I think we can move out.” Blackburn hurried up.

Violet gave him a look of anger, like if he wasn't taking this serious, but I told her to calm down and agreed with my friend. We had taken some time to rest, or in my case, drown in fear, and we needed to get to the next city, we still had a cave to go through.

“Phoenix, use Ember!” As I gave the command, my pokemon shot a fire ball directly into the enemy.

Vroosh!

The flame ball gave the sound confirming it's hit. And so, Phoenix had taken down another of countless Zubats we had met in our way through the cave. By my side, Blackburn was battling a hiker pony for Violet, who was just watching.

“Parker, use Metal Claw!” He gave the command. His Charmeleon jumped in the air, and then, before striking, it's claws turned to a metallic color, and it stroke right in the Onix's head. the giant snake was easily put down by a pokemon of the disadvantage type.“I told you battling isn't all about type advantage, but about moves as well.” He directed the comment to me. I rolled my eyes around.

I had found the exit of the cave, still away from our position. It was very dark, but I had a small flashlight on my gadget, not only that but Pulse was with me, since it glowed in the dark, while Blackburn had his Charmeleon's burning flame on it's tail.

I had battled the first pokemon I had encountered in the cave, and captured it, but when I gave it the choice of to go with me. So far, all the pokemon I explained the situation had chosen to stick with me, no matter what. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The Geodude I had capture chose to go back to it's home.

After we were able to move again, since everyone was out of battle state, we could walk about half way through the cave with no problem. That was until we were approached from behind by a very interesting group. two gryphons and a zebra. They were attracted to us by our light. The cave was very dark and difficult to see, so I suppose that was it.

“What y'all say about a battle?” One of the gryphons challenged. “Three against three.”

It wasn't up for me to decide, I told Blackburn to decide what we were going to do, and I couldn't say about Violet. Blackburn had his own decision, but he probably didn't want to upset Violet, so he asked first if she was up.

“What kind of question is that? I'm always up for a challenge.” She jumped in the spirit of battling. Since she joined up, I hadn't seen her battle or even saw one of her pokemon.

The gryphons and the zebra had five pokemons each, and so did me and Blackburn, and I supposed that Violet as well.  The black furred one threw in a Swellow,a Flying and Normal type, dark blue bird, with face and breasts red colored, while it's chest was white colored. The zebra used a Mightyena, a dark type, which the fur of it's back, as well as the paws, where black colored, while the majority of it's body, like it's chest, belly and head, were white colored. The last Gryphon used a Skarmory, a big grey and metallic bird with a pair of wings, both composed out of four big feathers, one of them grey while the other three were red, it's wings were sharp like blades, powerful enough to cut a pony open and leave it rotting in the ground helpless; It's head had a big horn while it's mouth contained countless sharp teeth.

Since I was battling a Metal type pokemon, I decided to start with Phoenix, while Blackburn had picked his Geodude to go against the flying type, but not really a good choice against Metal. He didn't care though, he just gave me the sing to take care of the metal bird before anything else. Lastly, I saw one of the few pokemon Violet had with her, she threw in a Riolu, a blue wolf-like pokemon which walked in only two of it's paws, it was considered Fighting type, and I was sure and unsure of her decision, since she had advantage against Normal, Dark and Metal, but was weak against Flying.

With everything set, the battle had started, I decided to go with Fire Wheel against the Skarmory, it was the best fire attack I had at the moment, and I needed to take the metal bird down for my friends, otherwise, we would be in trouble. This was all a team effort, so if one fails, it get worse for others. I was unsure if Phoenix was fast enough to hit the metal bird in time.

And so the battle started, beginning with Phoenix running, and starting to breath fire out of it's lungs, and covering itself in fire, and so turning into a wheel mad of fire. The Skamory did the wrong move by start charging it's move, aiming for the Geodude. In the same moment, the Swellow flew like a bullet into the Riolu, which stood with it's eyes closed, like it was focusing in something. The Geodude tried something to save the small fighting wolf, and started shooting various rocks in the bird.

Froosh! Froosh! Froosh!

All the rocks it had threw in it missed, and giving the Swellow a chace to strike the Riolu down.

In the meantime, Phoenix had reached the metal bird, who didn't saw the hit coming.

Bam!

Phoenix gave a powerful flaming tackle in the deadly bird, which bursted into flames and fainted in the ground. I haven't seen the Mightyena make a move, but when I took another look, it was going after the Riolu as well, right behind the Swellow. The bird was about to hit it, when suddenly...

“Now Aura!” Violet screamed. The Riolu jumped in the air, over the Swellow's head. The Mightyena saw it and jumped right at it, but the Riolu was faster to act.

Pow! It's super effective!

The Riolu spun and around, and gave the animal a powerful kick in it's face, making the pokemon drop dead in the ground. The Swellow decided to give a return run in the wolf.

Vroosh!

The Riolu had seen it coming, and created a small blue glowing sphere, and had hit it right in the face, the bird few meters away, but it didn't faint. The Geodude fastly took care of that.

Smaaaaash! It's super effective!

The floating boulder smashed a rock in the bird's head, and like that we had eliminated three out of fifteen of their pokemon. There was still a lot towards us.

My team and me were winning the battle for our strategy. Our foes were left with only 3 pokemons left, one for each. I had Widowmaker out, and he was badly injured, but I could use a turn to heal up. Violet had her a Kirlia out, the evolution of a Ralts and was a Psych type. Kirlia had a green hair that covered most of it's face, leaving only it's eyes out, she also had two red horns in her head. Itself appears to be wearing a white dress over it's body, while leaving it's legs exposed, which were green colored. Blackburn was using his Charmeleon once again, which was injured as well, but not as much as Widowmaker.

Our foes' last pokemons were a Raticate, the evolution of Ratata, but this time it had grown bigger, and it's fur turned brown; A Golbat, the evolution of a Zubat, but it now had eyes, and it's mouth was even wider open, not counting that it had grew a lot bigger as well; And a Linoone, a slender-bodied pokemon, which had white fur and long brown stripe on it's back that would go to it's head and end with an arrow pointing down.

“Two Normal types and a Poison and Flying? Is that the best you've got?” Violet Taunted.

We had the advantage. The only one of our team that could take a super effective hit was Widowmaker, and that only if the Golbat get to attack, since it would go down easily by the Kirlia's psychic hits. The other two would be easily taken down by Widowmaker and Blackburn's Charmeleon.

I took the turn to heal Widowmaker up, meanwhile, Violet's Kirlia used psych type attacks against the Golbat. The bat went down without even making a sound. Kirlia probably messed it from the inside.

Blackburn's Charmeleon ran into the foe's Linoone, preparing it's sharp claws to strike. The mole-like pokemon that was Linoone tried to avoid the attacks but didn't succeed very well.

Slaaash! Slaaash!

The foe's pokemon fainted, and so only leaving the Raticate, that charged in Widowmaker's direction.

“CheeseChaser, use Hyper Fang!” The brown colored gryphon ordered the rat. I froze, I though it was only a quick tackle, which Widowmaker could easily, but I wasn't expecting an Hyper Fang. This attack could take something down easily, since the Raticate would bite the prey with it's giant fangs.

“Widowmaker, get out of there!” I screamed. I could see that Widowmaker was in confusion of what to do, or was too nervous, so it tried evade.

Cruuuunch! Widowmaker Fainted.

I stood there looking, since there was nothing I could have done to change this fate.The Raticate was now chewing on what it had not hit before. I wanted to go and buck the rat out of my friend's body, but Blackburn's Charmeleon took care of that for me.

Slaaassh!

The rat was hit right in the belly, the claws penetrating it's interior. For a moment I thought that Parker, as Blackburn called him, had felt the same pain as I. He then threw the rats body meters away and the battle was won, but unfortunately, not without losses.

Our challengers were sent back to Equestria, and I decided to go check out the chewed body of Widowmaker. As I came near it, more tears were dropping from my eyes, because I could see that it was taken pretty hard. Blood was leaking from the holes left by the rat's fangs, and part of it's body was broken from the impact. I had arrived at it and could hold myself from feeling sad. I started holding my tear inside me. “I need to be strong about all of this. Remember about what Luna showed you about self control.” Even though I told myself those things, I could not hold a few gasps or very small tears from coming out, but at least I reacted much better than from Sonar's death.

I decided to bury Widowmaker's body on the same cave. We were near the exit, and with the help of Blackburn's Geodude, we made a small grave for my spider friend. At time of burial I had my other pokemon out to deliver the news. Of all of them, I felt that Phoenix was the most emotional, as a newcomer, she hadn't experienced this before, but with help of Pulse, Scout and Seed, they calmed her down, and I decided to asked if she was still for this. Even after this, she decided to stick around, a decision that brought more hope into all of us.

Out of the cave, Me, Violet and Blackburn could already see Azalea Town in the distance, in our way there was only one trainer and a path of tall grass so I could maybe capture someone to already substitute Widowmaker, but by thinking this way, I felt bad, I felt like I had told myself Widowmaker had made no difference at all. I didn't got to battle very much with him, but he did make a difference. He had helped me up after I had been down.

“Come on, Atlas, You need to be brave for Widowmaker. He and Sonar would not want you giving up so soon for nothing.” I cheered me up despite the fact that I was feeling empty inside.

Blackburn offered himself to take care of the hiker for us, and I decided to go in the tall grass in search for a new companion. Walking around I found a Nidoran, male version. It was a purple bunny with poisonous spikes on its back, and he had a horn on it's forehead. The male Nidoran is mostly known for their poisonous attacks. I battled the creature, keeping my distance, and using ranged attacks rather physical hits.

After a while I captured it and again explained everything, and asked if he would like to come with me in my adventure.

“Yeah, sounds fun, why not?” He confirmed his stay with us with an answer I wouldn't expect from any pokemon put in the situation I have mine in. This was a death matter and he took like a fun ride. Well, at least I got someone new to the team, which also made me sad to be so fast in replacing both Sonar and Widowmaker like that, in the very next route. “Well, why bother? they are all gonna die anyway.” I heard the voice I refuse to follow, and tried imagining other things.

On my thoughts I had gone through one of my first Nuzlocke Tournament. It was one of the final battles, I had a pretty good team, but I didn't cared enough for them like I do for this one.sure I would be sad for ones death, but would not cry over it and have trouble replacing them. For a moment I wished to be back like that, but I didn't even want to, I was selfish, only looking forward to victory.

“I was analyzing how selfish the wish of some were, while only a few were doing this for another reason, and I was asking myself in what group I would be.” The thought that generated doubt in my mind flashed once again.

I am very different from the pony I once were. I wasn't as selfish as before, but that didn't mean I wasn't selfish still. I wasn't doing this for Luna, or Blackburn, for Freddie or even for Violet, in the end, I would have done this for me, and for me only.

But on another side, I had now with me friends who I cared for, and would give up everything for. I was sure if I had to choose victory or the well of my friends, I would choose my friends. I have never enjoyed victory as great as happiness, and it was for the best.

“Okay, he is done. We are free to go.” Blackburn finished his battle with the trainer, and opened a clear way for us to go. Azalea town wasn't far from us, and it was getting darker. I didn't want to go in search for wood again, so I told Blackburn we would be staying in a inn today.

Arriving Azalea town was a very small city, probably made out of just two streets. Entering the town I already saw the pokecenter and pokemart, as well as the big dome that was the gym. We had our pokemons very injured from the exhausting battle we had in the cave, so I decided to ask Blackburn if he was still up for the gym or if he wanted to call it for a day.

“Well, we still could battle the gym, but I'm not sure if I'm open for it. And I hadn't planned finding Violet in the middle of Route 32.” He gave a small pause. “We can still battle it tomorrow, it's not like it is going to disappear, is it?” He joked, but I could indeed happen. I have seen enough for a day that I could believe in the most obvious of lies.

Today I had seen: A cult of long dead ponies that believed in legendary beasts, my bones get broken by a big four armed boulder, my friend in love, my demon self and my companion get chewed up. It was a hell of a day for me, and I wanted to sleep, not counting the pain I still struggled with.

“What do you think Violet?” I directed my question to the purple pegasus. “Should we battle the gym or call it a day?”

She looked me with a "are you serious?" look. She had all her hair messed up, and her pokemon was hurt. For me it was obvious that she didn't want to continue.

Blackburn then turned and headed to the house that had a big sing written "Inn" on it. I followed behind, and Violet by my side. Blackburn was meters away from us, so I decided to ask something to Violet.

“So...” I tried to start a conversation. “What did you and Blackburn talked about while I was dieing on the ground on today's afternoon?”

She looked at me and gave a small smile, she had found my question funny. “Well, after I gave you the medicine, he went back to ask if I didn't want to stick around. The thing is, Blackburn made it obvious enough to see he was interested in me. Middle way through our chat, he would take a pause and get lost in his mind, and when he did not, he would get his words all messed up.” She then had a small giggle. “He is kind of funny, and cute.”

By the way she talked, I could see that they were very well, with a friendly relationship, but I didn't think she had found interest in him. As she said before, at Violet City, stallions did always get messed up with their conversations, or loss in their minds, around her. I didn't really had that feeling towards her, but I would say that she is a beautiful mare.

“Do you like him?” I asked. “Ahem, sorry, as a friend I mean.”

“Both of you seen like very nice guys, although I could see that you two, specially you, are trouble makers.”  She replied. I felt sorry for a moment, because I never meant to destroy a bunch of mirrors or launch a pony out of a building.

“Well, changing the subjects, could I ask you why did you chose to sing up for this?” I decided to ask something else, and to see if her wishes were selfish or different.

She started thinking of the answer while we walked behind Blackburn, who led the way. “Well, firstly, had came here with a friend, but as you already know, she had been defeated right in the beginning. Both of us had came here looking for a fun thing to do during our vacation, and maybe win something.” She started telling her story. “We both knew that in the end there would only be one winner, but we knew that were dedicated ponies to this, so we didn't think we would get to see the end. Well, I'm still here now, so I still have a chance.” She gave a poor smile, which faded seconds later. “When I left you two in Violet city, I followed the road to here, but, with my friend out of the game, I asked myself if it was still worth going on, trying to reach victory. I decided to camp for the night there rather continuing to reach here, and when I was starting to go on, you two reappeared.” She then looked with shame at herself. “When you told me that you were thinking if you were being selfish or trying to reach different objectives, I felt bad, for aiming for the obvious goal, and not take something out of this. I don't think that victory is the best one could take away from this, anymore at least.” She then looked at me. “Have you already discovered if your reason is selfish or different?”

We arrived the inn, I stopped in the door before entering. I though of what to say, but I still had fog covering my answer. I decided to go with what I had.

“I'm don't know yet.”

I was standing in a field. there was nothing in it besides grass, and a tree, meters behind me. it was night time and the stars were sparkling as much as they wanted, along with the moon, which was full and high in the sky, shining enough to bring light so I could take a look around my surroundings.

“What a night.” I commented, having a small sigh come out of my mouth, as a signal that I could finally relax after my long day.

Then, I could see a alicorn shaped figure come out of the moon, and fly towards me. I wasn't expecting Luna to visit me, so I could say that I got surprised by the moment.

“Hello Atlas, it has been a while since I seen you.” Luna spoke, making us start ourselves a little conversation.

“I'm dreaming, ain't I?” I asked, she then nodded and continued with what she had came here for.

“Atlas,” She then gave a small period of time before continuing. “I have seen what you've done...”

“Luna, I'm sorry for that, I never meant to act like that,” I interrupted her in the middle of her sentence, because I already knew what she was going to tell me. “It wasn't me, I swear, I didn't have control of myself in the moment.”

She then looked at me, with no such expression in her face. “I know that it wasn't you.” She restarted her sentence. I froze, because I wasn't expecting that her to already know what happened. “I have been observing thy struggles, the one you had earlier this day, and the one from yesterday's morning.”

“Do you know what happened?” I asked.

“Your friend, Violet, may had told you had an kind of mental disorder that could be the cause for such event. I would like to say that you aren't diagnosed with such thing.”

I then had found comfort once again, knowing that I wasn't in danger of being dominated by another me.

“You see, Atlas, everypony in Equestria is born with dark intetions.” She continued. “Some doesn't do anything at all, some need to be ignited by other facts, like I was, and some...” She then stopped, and gave a little of time to think. “Some are developed on their own, like King Sombra was. And I have reasons to believe yours is just like his.”

My comfort was instantly lost in the moment. My mind started to panic. I was told that Sombra was taken by dark magic, and when he tried to domain Equestria, he was battled by the princesses. With his defeat he had taken the Crystal Empire with him.

“When I saw you on that bathroom, you were talking to a mirror, but there wasn't nothing there but you. but sometimes the tone of your voice would change. And your eyes. when your voice changed to a more fearsome one, your eyes would turn into a beasts eye. Just like mine were when I was in Nightmare Moon form.”

I was now frozen in place, in fear that I would become the next biggest threat to Equestria if my other me were developing dark magic with it. “So what do I do?” I asked.

“Unfortunately, I don't know what could be a cure for this. As I said before, I just believe that you may have your mind growing and trying to overcome you. Do you recall when you started hearing such voice in your head?”

I started searching through my head, thinking when was the first time I had heard such voice. I couldn't remember moments before the first decision I had to make here, about helping some ponies that were in danger, right out of the start. Actually I do remember one moment.

“When I was a little colt, I studied in a school in Canterlot...”

One day I was walking through the streets of Canterlot, I had left school a little late than normal, so the streets were more desert than they would. I was still a child, and had no cutie mark yet.

Suddenly a ball had been thrown at me, hitting my horn, and making it pop, as well as get me dizzy for a small moment. When I recovered, standing in front of me was the orange earth pony  with a red mane, that would pick on me for years after that. That was the first moment I had met with Freddie and his dark green colored unicorn, with a black mane, Poison Strike, both little colts like me, but at least they had their cutie marks.

“Hey, the blank flank popped our ball!” Freddie started to get angry over me, while Poison Strike gave me a scary look. they both studied in the same school as me, but I never went near them, the two, along with two more pegasi, would  pick on everyone a little, but they sometimes chose one to pick on the most.

“You messed with the wrong ponies, kid!” Poison Strike threatened, I, trying to turn smaller so I could run out of there without being seen. “You're now on our top priority! Look at you, hiding in fear, you are just perfect for that.”

“I bet he doesn't even know how to use his horn!” Freddie taunted, even if he was an earth pony.

Freddie was the leader of a small gang he and his other three friends made. They would call themselves the Starsaws. Freddie was also the best student in the school, and though he had the right to tease everyone else.

The two left me laughing at me, for being a blank flank, and supposedly not knowing how to use magic. I was crying in fear of them, still in the ground, and the two went back to play their game of hoofball with another ball they had. I suspected they made me pop the last one on purpose. That didn't really matter, they just wanted an excuse to tease me for the next ten years from there.

“They are nothing compared to you! When you have the chance, crush them with their bones, and make they drink their own blood!” A voice talked in my head, and it continued with ideas to torture the two bullies, and I stopped crying, and creating anger towards the two. The voice with evil intentions wanted me to destroy them.

“Are you okay?” Another voice talked on my side. It was a blue pegasus, with a flame-like black hair. he introduced himself to me as Blackburn. “Did they tease you too?” He asked.

The voices in my head stopped, and I had stopped listening to them even if they still talked. I nodded as an answer to Blackburn.

“Don't worry, they do that to everyone. It would be very unlucky of you to be one of the chosen by them to be the most teased, because they do that with me” He then helped me up. Blackburn studied in the same school as us, but he never talked to anyone, and had no friends like me, but he was one of the most played by the Starsaws. “Come on, let's go something, maybe we could play some Pokémon on my Game Colt!”

On that day I had made enemies, friends and a inner evil self.

“... After that, I haven't heard it anymore,” I continued telling my story to Luna. “Well, that is, until my first decision I had to make here.”

“They stopped when you were close to a friend?” She asked.

“I stopped listening to them when I met Blackburn.”

“It makes sense...” I wanted to follow her line of though, but I didn't quite catch what she was focusing on.

“What?”

“It only acted on moments where you were alone, with no close friends. Apparently it goes to a low profile once you are feeling secure, with a friend. It stopped once Blackburn had seen what you had done in the tower, and when Blackburn found you in the bathroom.”

“Are you saying that my friends keep it away?” I was catching her point, but it didn't make much of a sense for me.

“Possibly, friendship was used against me when I was Nightmare Moon, and that turned me back. It is possible that the feeling of safety you have when with your friends keeps it inactive.”

“So I should keep with my friends, other wise it could happen again, right?”

“No...” She then stopped, for some seconds, I was feeling that being with my friends would keep me okay. “I would recommend that you stick with your friends, but that you tried to feel safer when away from them. It may seem that I'm asking you to do something that doesn't make sense, but you learn to keep it locked while you are alone. I think that with my training before this, made the dark forces felt contained, and reacted.”

I started understanding what she meant. When I'm with friends, I'm secure, but alone I feel unsafe. She wants me to learn to take care of myself, otherwise I would leave a open passage for them to take control. Luna wants me to...

To learn to be best I can.