//-------------------------------------------------------// A Broken Stallion with a Broken Mind -by The Slending Angel- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// The First Day - Part One //-------------------------------------------------------// The First Day - Part One A stallion walked, flanked by guards on all sides, towards a large castle in the distance. But, this was no ordinary stallion... This, was Living Tombstone. Or, rather, he was right now. He and Fade had been trading places ever since the incident. And this was no exception. He was arguing with Fade, angry for what he had done. Fade was immovable; he thought he had done nothing wrong. Tombstone switched with Fade. "Why are we being arrested? We have done nothing wrong. We SAVED them! We SAVED those ponies! Gave them redemption! We have done nothing wrong! Release us!" Fade and Tombstone switched again. "Fade, shut up. We are being arrested because us KILLED all of those ponies, not saved them. We are in this mess because of US, Fade. No other reason." Again, they switched. "NO! We SAVED them! We REDEEMED them! We saved them from themselves!" Switch. "WE ARE NOT GOD, FADE! WE CANNOT GIVE REDEMPTION!!" Switch. "We can! We can send them to Him! We are His messengers!" Switch. "NO, Fade, we are not. We CANNOT. That is His job, and His alone." Switch. "But yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes..." Switch. "Guards, We are sorry. He tends to do this." The guards sighed audibly in relief. Listening to that conversation, watching the bodies switch between the two, and hearing the insanity coming from the aptly named 'Fade'? Yeah, they were pretty happy, all things considered. Until it started to rain. Switch. "Why is it raining? We have not scheduled rain! Where is our weather team? We DO NOT LIKE RAIN!!" Switch. "Fade, calm down. We don't have a weather team." Switch. "Yes, We specifically remember hiring them before We saved Ponyville. Now, where are they?" Switch. "First, and most importantly, we did not SAVE them. We murdered them. Entirely different. And, secondly, We ARE us, therefore, We would have remembered them. We do not have a weather team." Switch. "Why not?" Switch. Nopony had an answer to his question. It was so stupid, they could not even come up with a dignified response if they tried. Which they did. Celestia was NOT having a good day. First, what looked like a giant... MUSHROOM, of all things, appeared over Ponyville. Then, she got word that her student had not survived the attack... Twilight... Celestia almost shed a tear. After the grave news, a bit of silver lining appeared through her dark and stormy thoughts; they had found the stallion responsible. Though, as she continued reading the letter, the silver lining rusted into nothing. The report told her that the stallion was not... Normal, to begin. He had two entirely different ponies, mushed together into one body that Switched back and forth. Which, by extension, meant one was innocent, and this case would not work well in court. She couldn't kill an innocent; she had made that promise about one millennia ago. But, she couldn't let him go free, either. And this talk about a... God? She was confused. This was something that doesn't just HAPPEN. Yet, how did she not notice what was going on? An explosive device? How could one even build such a thing?! It seemed utterly impossible, yet the charred remains of her beloved student cemented the fact that this was indeed, VERY real. No matter how much she wished it wasn't. This was something she could not do on her own. She needed help, yet the help she needed was not offered at the castle; this help was VERY hard and expensive to come by... If a situation didn't make sense, who do you call to make sense of it? Shining Armor was devastated, to say the least. When he had gotten the news... Let's just say that guard deserves a pay raise. He was so confused. Why did his Little Sister Best Friend Forever... have to go? She broke her promise... Why? You shouldn't break promises; it's the fastest way to destroy your life... A dejected being of pure Darkness twisted and writhed in unbridled fury and hatred towards those... Imbeciles! They had locked her away for trying to bring beauty to the world? For trying to make the world a better place?! Sure, she might have gotten a little out of control, but that was inconse- Wait... That feeling... That beautiful feeling of a broken soul... A PERFECT opportunity... With that, the creature flew off towards a distant place... Third Pony POV After Shining Armor had sank to the floor in his private quarters, something that looked like malleable shadow slithered towards him, and wrapping itself around the pitiful pile of pony. It asked into his ear, What would you do to the one responsible? That got a jolt of the seemingly comatose unicorn. He said, "I would rip him apart! Why do you ask...?" The Shadow twirled and spun, showing Shining... Or what looked like Shining, shooting magic beams at a fleeing earth pony. He is the one responsible... I can give you the power to make him pay... What do you say? The only response was a blinding flash of what looked like black light, and insane cackle... When they switch, they switch bodies, between Fade the unicorn, and Living Tombstone, the earth pony. Their colors change, as well as height, voice pitch and tone, demeanor, and everything else that makes a pony a pony. They say 'we' because they are technically one being of one mind, but not... Veil of Thoughts (https://www.fimfiction.net/story/34351/veil-of-thoughts) is an excellent reference to this. They are two beings, but sharing the same mind. Actually, it is the exact same, save for them not being merged. I didn't get the dialogue idea from there, but it was still a good example. Anyway, this will NOT be a one-shot, so stay tuned. Also, when not at the start of a sentence, a capital 'We' means 'I', while a lowercase 'we' means 'you'. //-------------------------------------------------------// The First Prophecy //-------------------------------------------------------// The First Prophecy Black as Day, White as Night, O heavens hear our plight. Monsters will come and monsters will pillage, all the while within our burning village, the old ones will fall, the new ones stand tall, and things will come into play.