Arcane Shadow (Re-Written)

The next morning, as breakfast rolled around and everyone sat in the mess hall, Twilight was talking with Matt, Natalie, and Lazarus before one of them went off on her training regiment. She had with her the family photo that the aforementioned pony undergoing the training regiment had grimaced in, and was glancing back between her and the photo. "So… I heard about this Somnus fellow… and not many good things about him," Twilight said, before looking at Natalie. "Why didn't you like him?"

Natalie shrank in her seat, just a little. "Every time he was around, I got a bad feeling about him… he tried to get me alone with him a few times, and only managed it once before the photoshoot…" she answered.

"... what did he say?" Twilight pressed.

"He said something about putting me with big stallions that could lead me by my snout if I didn't stop harping on about the cutie mark nonsense… and at the time, I… didn't know what he meant, even though I had hit puberty the week before. That, and… puberty was still making me feel funny, which I didn't really like," Natalie answered, her wings drooping with her reply. "I told Mom and Dad afterwards, but…"

"They didn't believe you," Twilight finished, filling in the blanks. "Or at least, acted like they didn't, since he was around." Natalie glumly nodded.

"Although, the fact that he didn't put his hooves on me might have helped his case," Natalie added, shuddering. "They did sit me and Matt down to have the talk when Somnus left afterwards, and told us what we needed to do in case someone wanted to take advantage of us, and what to do if we found ourselves in… awkward hormonal situations."

"... and what happened, before the colosseum you were dragged in was turned into mulch?" Twilight pressed.

"... a few elderly stallions came to the cage I was sitting in, and told me that if I won that batch of 'games,' they'd make an honest mare out of me," Natalie answered, making a face of disgust. "One of them even called me the prize pig of the lot… and they also said I didn't need to worry about friends or anything like that, if I fell 'under their care.'" She shivered, and stuck her tongue out as she made an elaborate gagging motion.

Twilight turned a little green around the gills hearing that. She forced her protesting stomach to calm down, and then turned to Matt and Lazarus. "And what about you two?" she asked.

Matt sighed. "Told us both that if either of us won, they'd make us join their stupid order of anti-cutie-mark enforcers," he answered. "I bit the hock of the one that reached into my cage when he tried to touch me."

"And I broke that same pony's gaskin, when he tried prodding me," Lazarus added, his gaze distant and unfocused. "It's not my fault he was old and crusty."

Twilight nodded. She turned back to Natalie. "And did the colosseum have any… storage areas for the so-called 'prize pigs' of earlier 'games?'" she asked.

Natalie nodded, a haunted look forming in her eyes. "They took me to see it before that most recent batch of 'games' started, and… they had fillies all the way up to older mares, without legs, vocal chords, eyes, or teeth…" she answered, shuddering again. "Each flank was mutilated, as well as their… unmentionables, and… they were all crying incoherently. Some were pregnant, too…"

Twilight almost retched, but reigned herself in time. "... did you check and see if…"

Natalie nodded. "The next day, I checked to see if… they were still around somehow. They… they came back as flame wraiths," she affirmed. "And… they regained their ability to speak, and to walk… and they had a lot to rant and scream about." Her gaze grew distant. "Their… captors came back as wraiths, too. Seeing them fight, with the mares coming out on top… it wasn't a pretty sight. I ran back to Matt and Laz, and told them what I saw, and we just hauled ass out of there…"

An understandable reaction, Twilight surmised. "Did the captors notice you?" she asked.

Natalie shook her head. "They were too busy getting the shit kicked out of them," she answered. "We didn't stick around long enough to see if the wraiths would come after us next."

Twilight decided to change the subject. "And how did you regard your wings back then?"

Natalie turned to her wings and sighed. "I… didn't have any opinions for, or against them… except that they were really itchy and I didn't know how to preen the damn things to save my life," she answered. "Funnily enough, Matt figured it out first, and showed me how to do it."

"I sneezed my ass off doing that, though," Matt said, a slight grin coming onto his features. "But if I had itches like that, I'd have hated them too." His smile fell a moment later. "And it was a good thing I found that abandoned bear den to hide in with the others; the assholes chasing us did not want to give us a moment's peace."

"And what did you do, when you had a moment's peace and quiet?" Twilight asked.

"Well, after I realized that my shadows could conceal us as long as there were overhangs, underhangs, and everything in between that could cast shadows, we had a real easy time hiding…" Matt blushed, a motion followed by the other two. "Puberty… made things awkward. I'm honestly glad Mom thought to teach us that emergency spell…"

"I'm glad you guys taught me that spell, too," Lazarus muttered, sinking in his seat as he went red to the ears and the tip of his horn.

"Contraceptive," Natalie mouthed to Twilight. Twilight nodded, and decided to not make the conversation any more awkward.

"And did the ponies chasing you follow you by the smell of your…" Twilight trailed off.

Natalie nodded. "Like clockwork, every time the heat came, until they stopped," she affirmed bitterly. "And the shadows… we found they didn't hide smells that well… we had to…" She pantomimed a series of weird motions with her hooves. "To make them stop following us because of the scent…"

Twilight was now both green and red at the same time. It made for a very weird brown shade on her face. "... and did you have to get creative with your hiding places?" she asked.

Matt nodded, also red to the ears and tip of his horn as he began sinking in his seat. "One time, we hid in a hole attached to a cliff. It had a little crevice we could sleep in," he answered. "Bastards couldn't find us, because they only saw the cliff from the top, not from the bottom."

"It… was kinda fun screwing with the assholes, though, with all the racket we made…" Natalie said, also sinking in her seat as her face went bright cherry red as well. "By the time those idiots figured it out, we were already gone." She shook her head. "And no, we… didn't do anything questionable, just made it sound like we were. The looks on their faces were priceless."

Well, at least these three were responsible when they were in their teenage years. Twilight couldn't imagine the headaches that would have resulted if they hadn't been responsible. "And what did it take for them to stop chasing you? In fact… how did they learn what to look for?" She shook her head. "I mean, I heard about wanted posters and such… but I wanna hear it from you guys."

"Well… the crowd of ponies that were there that night also became wraiths," Natalie answered, sighing and wilting. Her head came dangerously close to colliding with the breakfast table. "We ran into one of them a week after the Royale Catastrophe, and even though the living ponies were lynching him, he managed to tell that town's mayor about us and what we did. That mayor… well, he saw us watching the lynching, and ordered the town patrol on us, so we ran from their village. Next thing we know, word spread faster than we could travel, apparently."

"... so, there's thousands of flame wraiths potentially running loose, and they couldn't keep their mouths shut," Twilight surmised.

"As for what it took for the anti-cutie-mark enforcers to stop chasing us across Fantasia, well… back when it was just the three of us, we found an abandoned, haunted temple," Natalie answered. "In it were skeleton lich-wyrms, which killed our pursuers, but missed us because we hid in the shadows. In the morning, more ponies came, when the lich-wyrms were asleep, and didn't find us, so they just assumed we died in the temple."

"I… figured out how illusions worked," Matt added, looking somewhat proud of himself as his embarrassment faded from his features. "Had those blowhards fooled easily." He shrugged. "And there were plenty of bones to use in that temple, solely for reference's sake."

An unhappy thought hit Twilight at that moment. "And I am assuming… they went back to easier targets," she guessed.

Matt nodded. "Whole lotta good that did them, when the Trials of Attrition rolled around. The gryphons pretty much wiped them out, but not before they killed the mares in the villages they were still holding out in," he affirmed. "But now, I'm pretty certain that the anti-cutie-mark enforcers are extinct. Haven't heard about them since."

"And the flame wraiths?" Twilight pressed.

"We cleared them out after the Trials, but we had to find them first," Matt answered. "All we had to do was follow the forest fires."

"Including the mares who regained their legs and voices?" Twilight asked.

Matt shook his head. "Those ones, we didn't kill. Though we did have to fight a few of them, because they mistook us for their tormentors at first, whom… they've already killed again," he replied. "The oldest of them called herself Peppercorn, and… we wound up helping her to get her cutie mark without burning her tools down." He sighed. "Once she gained her mark alongside the others, they just… kinda died on their own time. Like… their hatred and despair just went away when they got their marks, and they died happy."

That got the gears of Twilight's brain turning again, and she put a hoof to her chin. "The joy of getting cutie marks postmortem…" she muttered, before turning back to Matt. "Tell me, has the pony population of Fantasia been… decimated, for lack of a better term, since the Trials of Attrition?"

Matt shrugged. "I can't tell you exact numbers, but most ponies that had died during the Trials were ones we couldn't get to in time, concentrated in small villages. And… there's only been three villages total that have been wiped off the face of Fantasia during that time," he answered. "However, Fantasia… doesn't have cities like you do in Equestria. The communities never go past one hundred members, in terms of population."

Frightfully worrying, Twilight mused. Where were the rest of the Fantasian ponies, then? Surely they couldn't have all gone into hiding by now. And while the populations of Whitefall, Goldenbrick, and roughly half of Greenwood were accounted for, on top of the foals from Redpine, that still didn't answer her question. But that also meant that, unless an entire continent suddenly resurfaced like the Crystal Empire did back home, the ponies of Fantasia simply didn't have the resources or numbers for such a city, much less a city-state like the Aerie.

And an entire continent suddenly resurfacing, while possible, was beyond improbable at this rate, simply for the fact that it would require absurdly strong and forbidden magic to manage the feat—like what King Sombra had access to. It also failed to answer the question of where the Fantasian crystal ponies had gone, considering the fact that the only two individuals she had met of that particular tribe were sitting before her, still looking embarrassed over their teenage antics.

And now that Twilight looked closely at Natalie and Lazarus, she noticed that they held quite a few similar features… the same lithe build, the same length of horn, the same muzzle shape with a few minor differences, the same slender cheeks… even the same eyes. Granted, Natalie was a little taller, being an alicorn and all, but still—it did not detract from their similarities at all. Perhaps it was just coincidence, but now something about this revelation bugged the fire out of Twilight. She turned to Lazarus. "Were you also adopted?" she asked.

Lazarus nodded. "When I was five, my birth mother took me to a thick forest, and I wandered for a bit before finding Midnight Hollow," he answered. "Before that, she kicked me in the back of the head to knock me out, and she took off running. I… don't have many memories of before then, I'm afraid."

"Do you remember what she looked like?" Twilight asked.

Lazarus nodded. "Bits and pieces; I remember that she was tall, and in seamstress' garb. As for where we came from, I remember that we skipped quite a lot of villages, and she was rambling on and on about destiny or some shit," he answered. "I couldn't tell you much about my toddler years, but at one point I did hear her say she regretted getting pregnant at all, and that she hated her second pregnancy especially."

Twilight nodded. "Did she tell you what happened to that second pregnancy?" she asked.

Lazarus nodded yet again. "She had punted the baby in a forest somewhere, and said something about hellfire in her vision," he answered. "Can't exactly remember what, though. She just told me that she hated everything before I was kicked—her life, her job, me, my birth father… and that she just wanted to end it all. Why she took me away from all of that, especially after having the second baby, I couldn't tell you."

Twilight sighed, hoping the confession didn't mean what she thought it did. "You and Natalie… you may need to run some bloodwork," she said, an edge to her voice that wasn't there before.

Lazarus raised a brow. "Why do you say that?" he asked.

"... you two might be blood related," Twilight said bluntly. That… caused the pair of crystal ponies to trade glances, eyes widening as her words hit them like an airship.

"She's saying we might be…" Natalie trailed off, paling at the implications.

"And… we did… oh fuck…" Lazarus muttered, looking equally as anemic.

Matt sighed and willed forth his shadows. "I'll take them to get the bloodwork done…" he grumbled, shaking his head. "Hopefully they aren't..." With that, he whisked the pale pair away to sort the matter out, passing along a telepathic message to Spitfire as he departed from the mess hall so that she would know that something had come up.

The morning would drag a little bit longer for Spitfire, before she would hear back from Natalie.

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Spitfire and her Wonderbolts had gathered on the steel ring again alongside the soldiers sans Natalie, and her eyebrows had tabled as she looked at Anna, whose head had briefly flashed with a blue aura before she snapped back to awareness. "Alright, who sent you the telepathic message?" Spitfire asked.

Anna sighed. "Natalie, and… she's relieved," she answered. "Relieved, but also disgusted."

"Why's that?" Misty Fly asked.

"Well… she found out she and Lazarus really are related," Anna answered, frowning. "Blood siblings, to be exact."

Spitfire's brow rose. "And how is this…"

"She… engaged in…" Anna summoned forth her wooden wings, then made a series of motions with them which looked weird at first, but promptly clicked in the Wonderbolts' heads when they realized what she was pantomiming with the things. "When they were teenagers."

Spitfire's eyes widened. "... so, she's having to get the puke bucket," she surmised.

Anna nodded, and tucked her wooden wings at her sides. "Pretty much," she answered. "Her and Lazarus both." That made the Wonderbolts collectively gag. "And yes, they had access to a contraceptive spell," Anna added, making their tutors sag in relief at that.

"Will she be able to make it to the training?" Spitfire asked, forcing herself to regain a neutral expression, lest she give her amazed disgust away.

"She'll be heading over here in a bit, once the dry heaving is over," Anna confirmed with a nod. "And given that she ascended and Lazarus hadn't… she's dragging him into the training, too."

Spitfire's brow rose even higher. "She thinks he might have the potential to ascend?"

Anna nodded again. "If she ascended, then yeah… and, it would make sense, anyway," she agreed. "If she can do it, he might be able to as well."

Spitfire nodded. "Alright, we'll wait for the primadonnas to stop having their hissyfit, and then we can move on with today's training," she said. "A unicorn… training for weather practice? This'll be an interesting tale to regale to the cadets back home…" she thought. "Maybe I'll have to let him use his horn, since he doesn't have wings…"

It took a few moments, but a burst of light came from the front row. Rhinoc now stood next to Lance, with the pair of crystal ponies flanking him. "I brought these two numbnuts," he said, shaking his head.

"Do you hold the, uh…" Soarin asked, before trailing off.

Rhinoc shook his head again. "No, I do not, and nor do the other changelings of the Aerie. They simply didn't know at the time, and they were careful about it, so no harm, no foul," he answered. "Just make sure they don't give each other grief." With that, he teleported away to do other things in the Aerie.

Lance sighed, and shook his head. He tactfully chose to not comment on everything he had heard through the grapevine that morning. Instead, he turned to Spitfire. "So, is Lazarus allowed to use his horn?" he asked.

Spitfire nodded. "Unless he somehow ascends, yes," she answered. "But for the purposes of this training, we will try to limit horn usage."

Lance nodded in understanding. "Fair enough," he replied.

"Are horns unfair in weather?" Maria asked, ruffling her wings.

Spitfire turned to Maria and paused. "Well… it's not so much unfair in weather training and usage as it is almost completely unheard of," she answered. "We… don't have many unicorns, if at all, who can say they can manipulate weather in Equestria. Naturally, I would assume Fantasia has the same conundrum on that front."

"And what happens to those who can?" Maria pressed, her youthful curiosity causing her to look Spitfire dead in the eyes as she asked her question.

Spitfire sighed. "... they don't really have a chance to show off their workings, in spell or weather format," she answered. "And cross-tribal magic is so rare, there's only been three documented cases in all of Equestria's history—cases which are long dead by now." She shook her head. "And back then, cross-tribal magic was… heavily shunned."

"Why was it shunned?" Maria continued.

"Well… there were lots of bad ponies at the time, who said that hippogryphs couldn't be born because they hated gryphons, and silly things like that," Spitfire answered, starting to grow uncomfortable with the needling. "They also said that unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies shouldn't marry each other, which… Celestia did her best to stamp out."

Maria glowered. "Sounds like a bunch of idiots," she hissed. "Sounds like they'd say that mommy and daddy can't be together."

Spitfire turned to Lance, wordlessly asking with her gaze who the other parent was. Lance pointed at Anna with a wing and said, "We're technically co-parenting, without all the fuss of marriage. Basically, we're doing the hassle of legal adoption."

Spitfire nodded. "Fair enough," she said, before clearing her throat and picking up the megaphone again. "Now then, this next exercise will require some coordination with your weather. Conjure a cloud before you," she ordered. Everyone did as they were told, except for Lazarus, who kept quiet and lit his horn to try and conjure a cloud. He instead conjured a burst of fire, causing Spitfire to nudge Rainbow in his direction.

Rainbow trotted over and offered Lazarus a weak smile. "Just not that focused today, are you?" she asked. At his mute nod, she patted his back with a hoof. "It's okay, champ, these things happen from time to time. Take a deep breath and imagine what a cloud looks like." He nodded, took a deep breath, and focused his magic, and conjured a cloud after a bit of sputtering effort. It crackled like it was unstable, but otherwise held. She punched it to get it to discharge a bit of lightning, but that was solely to stabilize it. "Sorry; I figured your hoof would've gone right through it, and shocked you," she said. Lazarus nodded again, and Rainbow made to trot back to Spitfire when she received a look from her Captain that told her to stay with the sorry bastard.

Once the clouds were conjured, and stable, Spitfire ordered the next part of their training. "Now then, gather all of the clouds into the airspace behind me and my Wonderbolts. Cram them together into a bigger cloud, and start flying around it in unison. We want to go clockwise for this exercise; those who cannot fly, or have to self-levitate to do so, stand on top of the big cloud once it's formed and watch where the wind blows," she instructed. That got everyone to trade glances, but once more, her orders were understood and heeded accordingly. Maria went first, eager to spearhead this formation, but having recently discovered the wonders of flight only yesterday, she was… unstable in the air.

In fact, once she got herself airborne, mana pulsing across her wings with her movements, she screamed and almost came crashing back down before Soarin raced over to grab her to prevent a future dental appointment. "Easy there, kiddo," Soarin said, smiling. "You gotta take flying slowly—it's hard to master, and you've only gotten the barest grip on the basics."

Maria nodded, wings still flapping as Soarin lifted her into the air with his hooves, keeping her balanced alongside her cloud. Once she got a sense of balance, she parted from his hooves by ascending a little, grinning as she took her cloud to the airspace behind the Wonderbolts. Soarin flew over to keep tabs on her, in case her magic gave out. Lance went next, putting effort into his powerful wingbeats, each burst of energy ruffling Spitfire's mane as he struggled to take off.

Spitfire watched him go, and when he finally got into the air, he tumbled a little before stabilizing. It seemed someone wasn't used to flying all that much. "When was your last major flying session?" she asked.

"Back when things were going to shit in Greenwood, just days ago," Lance answered, holding his cloud in his hooves as he angled his body to effectively get himself heading towards the airspace. "And that was not fun." He glided towards the airspace as instructed, and smashed his cloud with Maria's to make them into one entity.

Spitfire nodded, and opted to take his word for it. Anna, Natalie, and Lazarus went next, all of them having to self-levitate to bring their clouds into the mix. Once formed into a big enough cloud for three ponies, the mares plonked their butts down on it… only for Lazarus to teleport away from the thing and reappear on the steel ring.

Lazarus shook his head rapidly. "Nope, not getting dizzy… already puked once today," he said, looking green at the prospect. Spitfire nodded, willing to cut him some slack.

She turned to check the cloud; it hadn't diminished, probably because Lazarus hadn't poked it beyond the necessary amount. Sarah sighed, rolled her eyes, and went to add her cloud to the growing mass, fluffing it up a little when she thought the masses hadn't merged properly. Katie also added her own, then darted back to the ring and plonked her butt down on the steel. Spitfire cut her some slack as well; she'd have her wings shredded if she even tried to participate in the tornado. As soon as her cloud had been added, the gryphons began to take off in an orderly fashion, adding their clouds in a series of single-file lines to grow their little bout of madness, which began to crackle as more and more clouds were piled on.

By the time the pile was finished, it looked more like a cumulus fortress than anything else. Many gryphons had a burst of inspiration, and had taken turns to forge the thing into windows, balconies, spiraling towers and rooftops, at the height of which sat Natalie and Anna. Spitfire whistled at the sight. "Wow… these guys are good at cloud sculpting," she said, impressed.

Maria smiled at the sight. "Can I sit with mommy in the cloud fortress?" she asked. Spitfire considered the question, realizing that practically all of the adults would fly her wings off and cause her to tumble headlong down below, and then nodded. With a happy squeal the young gryph flew up to sit with her mother at the height of the fortress.

Spitfire nodded and lifted the megaphone again. "Now then, as you fly, try to control the wind itself using your magic," she ordered. "We want even currents, and a visible tornado. The tornado will dissipate once it hits the surrounding mountains, so don't worry too much about property damage." She turned to Anna and Natalie and added, "You three up there, watch for ectoplasms. Kill them as necessary if they bother to try and hijack the fortress." Once she got two flashes of light from a pair of horns to signal their owners' understanding of the command, the gryphons started flying clockwise around the fortress.

Lance and Sarah followed, keeping distance from a few of the gryphons as they worked their own wings into overdrive. Sarah channeled her magic into her wings, willing forth the first gale of wind of the exercise, though her superior did not do likewise, instead waiting for the other soldiers to take the cue. Gryphons of every rank and file summoned forth wind as they swirled around the cloud fortress, which didn't move at first before the air began to revolve around its space, causing it to revolve in turn. It wasn't long before the wind currents became visible to the naked eye, as the cloud began an elegant pirouette in the air, slowly being dragged away from the Aerie all the while.

Spitfire watched hawkishly, her mane wafting in the wind as more and more swirled about the massive cloud. Gradually, the tornado formed, and slowly it revolved faster and faster, until the soldiers making up its mass were blurs of movement and feathers. The cloud fortress crackled ominously, building its charge as the soldiers parted from it to let it spin away into the mountain ranges.

At the same time, Anna teleported herself and the other two off of the top of the fortress, and reappeared on the steel ring, all eyes spinning in their sockets. "Too faaaast…" Anna groaned, sitting on her haunches in the hopes that she could stop the twirling of her eyes.

"Air's spiiiinny…" Maria whined, flopping on her stomach as her world rotated.

"You're telling meeee…" Natalie agreed, swaying in place.

Spitfire watched as the tornado and cloud fortress collided into a mountain, dissipating into thin air with the crash. The mountain was fine, and as it dissipated, the cloud fortress released its discharge, scorching another spot in the plains below, without setting much on fire. She smiled at the sight; perhaps she could whip up the weather patrol on Fantasia faster than she thought, if progress was this fast already.

Although, she couldn't help but wonder… why were the ectoplasms sitting idle now? And what could possibly be running through their little heads up there in the sky?