The Return of Shadow Blaze
Black Gold 2: The Return of the Shadow Blaze
(Another Nightmare Night Special)
By Golden Flare
Today is the day before Nightmare Night, a night where the things that are the most scary are the most fun, and everypony in Ponyville—and the rest of Equestria, but that goes without saying—are preparing for it. Ponies decorating their houses, buying candy for the colts and fillies, and even some creating haunted houses inside their own homes. There isn't one pony who isn't getting ready for this joyous holiday!
...Well, I stand corrected.
Deep within his humble home, our usual protagonist, Golden Flare is moping on his couch, staring at his fireplace alit remembering all the horrible thing he did as Shadow Blaze, Equestria's most dangerous prankster, and he regrets every last bit of it. He swore—Pinkie Pie swore—that he would never celebrate Nightmare Night again, lest the demon within him be released once more.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Golden perked when he somepony knocking on his door, he got up and opened it to reveal his girlfriend, Pinkie Pie, who was dressed up as a hen, more than likely for Nightmare Night.
"Hi Goldie!" She greeted.
"Hey, Pinks," Golden greeted back, trying to sound less melancholy than truly is, "wait, didn't you dress up as chicken a few years ago?"
"Goldie, you silly filly—"
"I'm a stallion."
"—I'm not a chicken, I'm a hen! There's a HUGE difference!"
"Oh, right...guess I didn't notice."
Pinkie heard the sadness in his tone, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, no reason to be worried."
"Now, Goldie, you know I know when somepony's upset."
"...I do, but...it's not something I want to talk about."
Pinkie hesitated; she hated seeing another pony sad, especially her boyfriend. But she reluctantly agreed, "...Okay, Goldie. But you know you can talk to me about anything, right?"
Golden managed to force a smile, "Of course I can, I'm just not ready to talk about it right now."
Pinkie managed to do the same, "Alright. Well, I gotta get back to Sugarcube Corner, the Cakes need me to prepare some Nightmare Night treats. I'll see you later!"
"See ya, Pinks." Golden said, then closed his door and returned to his couch.
Later that night...
Golden had trouble going to sleep, last year's Nightmare Night and his talk with Pinkie still fresh in his mind. He didn't even bother to hoof out candy this year, depression gripping his fragile heart. Eventually, he was able to fall asleep...
...And find himself in the center of Ponyville. No, wait. It wasn't Ponyville, but at the same time, it was; the cloudless sky was a dark purple and the buildings, even the ground itself, was jet black. His eyes shrunk to pinpricks as he remembered this color combination.
"Well, well...if it ain't Goodie Four-hooves."
His spun around to see his dark half standing before him with sadistic smile on his muzzle; same black coat, same dark purple, windblown mane, and his goggles were sitting upon his forehead, revealing his creepy blood red eyes.
"My name is GOLDEN FLARE." He retorted.
"Same difference. So...didja forget about me yet, like you've been trying to do?"
"How could I? You're the monster I became when I wanted revenge against Dash for that embarrassing prank!"
"And did you get it?"
"...Yes."
"See, there ya go. THAT'S the optimism I've been waiting to see—"
"—But at what cost?"
"...What."
"All my actions that day have done was cause trouble for everypony around me, if I continued what I was doing, I could've had the townsfolk riot hard enough to run the town into the ground!"
"Psssh! Who cares if some pansy ponies get hurt!? All that matters is having fun by creating some DEADLY mischief! After all..." his creepy grin grew wider, "...it's good to be bad. Crazy bad. PSYCHOTICALLY BAD."
"No. It's not."
Shadow Blaze was taken aback by Golden's words, which encouraged him to continue.
"It may seem good at first, but when the reality of it sinks in, it makes ponies feel terrible about what they did. Look at me; I regret what I did every day since that night, and I can't confide in anyone about it, because if I did, I'd be arrested by the Royal Guard. All you are is a monster that I created from my lust for revenge; a mistake, nothing more." Golden turned and walked away, "I'm through with you."
From a puff of black smoke, Shadow appeared in front of Golden, "Well, I'm just getting started with YOU." Darkness began surrounding the two of them as he sneered, "Hope you mind if I...borrow your body for a while."
"What!? No! Go away!"
"Too late! YOU'RE MINE NOW!!"
The darkness began to engulf everything around Golden's dreamscape, all he could hear was his inner demon's deathly cackle.
"AH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!!!!!!"
Back in his room, Golden(?) slowly rose up from his bed with his eyes closed, ominously. When he opened them, an all-too-familiar blood red replaced his ocean blue iris's. With a sinister grin, he spoke in voice that came from Tartarus itself.
"There. That should keep him busy for a while. Now then..." he began to chuckle, "...Let's go cause some chaos."
Recommended Listening:
All around Ponyville, colts and fillies were rushing from house to house to get delicious free candy. Especially one pink pony.
"Caaaandy!~ Caaaandy!~" Pinkie singsonged.
Little did anyone know, the Pegasus-possessed-by-a-monster donned his costume from last year and looked upon the foals with his creepy smile.
"Alright...let's get this party started, psycho style." Shadow Blaze said, before he chuckled darkly.
Pinkie, along with a group of kids, came up to one of the houses and knocked on the door. But before the door opened, they heard multiple sounds of cawing, like a large group of crows, instinctively, they all looked to the sky and instantly wished they didn't.
"BACK FROM THE DEAD, LITTLE FOALS!!!" Shadow proudly declared as an army of crows followed behind him and swooped down into Ponyville, causing all the townsfolk to run and scream in a panic.
Pinkie instantly recognized who the pony was that was causing this, "Shadow Blaze! He's back! I gotta warn the girls!" She turned tail and ran towards where she last saw her friends while listening to Shadow's crazed laughing echo through the area.
Shadow broke away from the flock and flew towards a nearby thundercloud he planted ahead of time, with both hooves, he pushed it through town and gave it a punch, causing lightning to burst from it and striking the ground, barely hitting any of the ponies below. He continued this process as every time he punched, the cloud moved a certain amount of distance away from him, making him fly to it again and sometime turning different directions, as if he was trying to blast all of Ponyville with lightning, which was what he did, trees were blown to bits, houses were lit on fire, and ponies narrowly dodged the deadly electric attacks, saying, "How bout a little fire, scarecrow?" and "Take it like a stallion, snowflake!" all the while. And now what he considered to be the final part of his plan: scare the living manure out of a group of fillies named the "Cutie Mark Crusaders".
Speak of the little devils, they're standing in the middle of the street, frozen with fear. With a sneer, Shadow left the cloud behind and smash his hooves into the ground as he landed, scaring the fillies even more.
"Hello there, kiddies, ya havin' fun?" He asked.
"N-No." Apple Bloom answered, shakily.
"Good. Cuz it's about to get worse," he opened his left wing and revealed a small knife that was hidden among his feathers, "farewell, crusaders—"
SLAM!
Something large landed on top of Shadow, nearly knocking him out. Before he lost consciousness, he saw a mass of dark blue fur; Princess Luna.
Within his mind, Golden began to wake up and found himself in the same street where Shadow and him talked.
"All according to plan."
Golden whipped his head to see the monster himself, that sneer gracing his face once more, but this time, it seems a little triumphant...
"What are you talking about?" Golden demanded.
"I simply assumed your old persona, myself, of course, and wreaked a TON of havoc, not only that, I purposely let my guard down so somepony would attack me and send me back into your subconscious."
"All that for nothing, I guess." Golden countered with a sneer of his own.
"Yes, but I'm not the one on the chopping block, figuratively AND literally."
"What do you mean?"
"You do realize that both our crimes combined are punishable by death, right?"
Golden went pale at that revelation, especially when this monster regarded so casually.
"HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!! Do you get now? If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me."
"No. No! NO!"
"YES! YES! YES! Face it, kid, the world's against you now, and you are on. Your. OWN!"
Shadow sent a wave of darkness toward Golden and pushed to a certain of his mind for him regain control of his body.
"GO, GOLDEN FLARE! FACE YOUR PUNISHMENT! FACE OUR PUNISHMENT!! AH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!"
When Golden came to, despite his vision being slightly blurry, noticed it was sunrise, he felt his forehooves were bound together and his head locked in a wooden board.
"So, you have finally awoken."
Golden instantly stiffened at the familiar harsh voice, it was then his vision returned to normal and saw Princess Luna standing next to him with a death glare and Twilight and her friends beside her. He went pale when he figured out where he was locked up in...
A guillotine.
"CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE!" Luna bellowed, "WE HAVE GATHERED YOU HERE TODAY, THE DAY AFTER NIGHTMARE NIGHT, TO PRESENT TO YOU THE TRUE IDENTITY OF THE FIEND SHADOW BLAZE...GOLDEN FLARE!" Murmurs of disbelief came from the crowd, even the bearers of the Elements, "FOR THE CRIMES OF ENDANGERMENT OF OUR SUBJECTS, DESTRUCTION PRIVATE AND PUBLIC PROPERTY, EVEN THE CRIMES HE HAS COMMITED LAST YEAR, THE PENALTY...IS DEATH!"
Shocked gasps came from the entire town, even Twilight and the others. Golden closed his eyes as he saw the futility of his situation, I guess this is it...it's time for me to atone for my sins...
Twilight closed her own eyes and allowed a stray tear to glide down her face.
Help me.
She snapped her eyes opened from your voice, but it came from inside her mind, as if he was calling out to her. When she viewed her surroundings, she found herself not in Ponyville, but something deathly similar.
"All according to plan..." a familiar deep voice chuckled, "All according to plan."
Twilight looked up and saw a window to the real Ponyville, but through Golden's eyes as he stared everypony's fearful expressions.
"How did YOU get here?"
She quickly turned to the inner demon before her and glared at him.
"No matter. It's game over for your friend, anyway."
"Friend? You mean..." she gasped loudly, "It was YOU! YOU did this! Not Golden!"
He cackled, "Of course I did! And you're supposed to be the smart one of the six. How disappointing you took this long to figure it out." Twilight growled at Golden's inner demon, "But this year was all I did, it was Golden who did the damage last year; I'm the byproduct of his psyche that all but broke when he realized what he was doing to his friends. And now, he'll face the ultimate punishment for both our crimes...and for shutting me away for an entire year."
"Oh, yeah? Not if I have anything to say about it!" Twilight lit her horn and forced herself out of Golden's mind.
Once she returned to the real world, she rushed to Princess Luna before she dropped the blade.
"Princess Luna! You can't execute Golden!" Twilight implored.
"Why not!? He has brought nothing but harm to our subjects!"
"But it wasn't his fault! I saw inside his mind, his psyche is completely damaged!"
"What...?"
"What he did last year...he's regretted it all this time, that's why he never wanted to celebrate Nightmare Night anymore."
Pinkie's eyes went wide when she heard this, "I get it now..."
"But this year, he was possessed by his inner demons and forced him to do all of this; Shadow Blaze, within Golden's mind, has tricked us all from the very beginning. For those who know Golden, truly know him, do you really think he would do all of this willingly and not feel guilty about it?" Everypony looked at one another with sympathetic looks, "Golden is our friend, and he needs our help once again, to help him through this terrible time."
Before Twilight could continue, the sound of splintering wood and snapping rope forced her to turn around and see Golden broke out of his bindings with sheer force and a furious gaze adorning his glowing red eyes.
"You just couldn't go back to your prissy little castle and leave well enough alone!"
"That voice..." Pinkie inquired.
"You're not Golden!" Rainbow shouted.
"How perceptive." He seethed through gritted teeth, then spread his wings to reveal several knives on all of his wing tips, "But this little friendship has met it's end; somepony's dying today, be it Golden..." he charged towards Twilight, bladed wings at the ready, "...OR YOU!!!"
Twilight stood her ground and prepared to blast the friend-turned-monster, until Luna stepped in between them and lowered her horn to his head.
"Sleep." She whispered as he slowly lost consciousness.
Shadow finds himself once again within Golden's subconscious, but the difference is everything looks exactly like the real Ponyville with both the sun and moon in the sky. He turns around to see Princess Luna with Golden unconscious on her back.
"Shadow Blaze, your crimes against Equestria has made you beyond forgiveness, especially since you possessed an innocent storywriter for your own benefit."
"Oh no, how can I POSSIBLY live with myself?" Shadow asks, sarcastically.
"And for those crimes, I have no choice but to bestow upon you your punishment: banishment."
"To the moon? Ha! I'm part of a pony's fractured psyche, how can you banish me?"
"To the rift in-between."
Shadow's black coat became a pale grey, "No...no, no, no, please, anything but that!!"
Luna's horn glows brightly as she cast her dream-banishment spell; a tear opens behind Shadow as she lifts him into the air.
"No! NO!"
With all her magical might, she tossed him into the tear, banishing Shadow from Golden's mind forever.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Beep...Beep...Beep...
Golden slowly regained consciousness yet again, but this time he found himself in a hospital bed with his hoof hooked up to a heart monitor. He tried to sit up, but was pushed back down by a gentle hoof of a certain princess of the night.
"Be still, young stallion, you have yet to fully recover."
"What...What happened?" Golden rasped out, "Where's...Shadow Blaze?"
"Hey, yeah! What happened to the creep?" A familiar tomboyish voice spoke.
Golden looked around to see that Twilight and her friends, including Spike, were present along with Luna.
"Do not worry, I have dealt with him personally; I merely banished him into the rift between dreams and nightmares forever. He will never bother anypony again."
Golden looked down as the weight of his actions finally caught up with him, "Girls, I...I..."
"It's okay, Golden," Twilight said, "you weren't yourself this year."
"But what about last year? Everything I did as Shadow Blaze nearly hurt many ponies that night, and I've regretted it ever since."
"Argh! This is all my fault!" Rainbow groaned, "If I hadn't pranked you a couple years back, none of this would've happened!"
"This wasn't your fault, Rainbow. Don't ever think that this was your fault, I could've taken that prank the same way as the others; it was my choice to do what I did."
"He's right, Rainbow Dash," Applejack voiced, "you shouldn't beat yerself up about this, at least it's all over now."
"And hey, maybe you can go Nightmare Night-ing with us again!" Spike said as he climbed up the side of Golden's bed.
"Maybe, but it's gonna be a while before I can enjoy Nightmare Night again."
"Oh, I don't like Nightmare Night either," Fluttershy said, "everything is way too scary."
"Well, allow me to be the first to wish you a full recovery, Golden, darling." Rarity said.
"Hey girls..." Everyone turned to Pinkie, "Could you leave me with Golden for a while?"
"Sure, Pinkie," Twilight complied, "alright, everypony, let's leave these two alone. Besides, we've still got to explain the situation to the rest of Ponyville."
Everyone, but Pinkie, said their good-byes and left the room. Pinkie walked over next to Golden and climbed into his bed with him.
"Pinkie, I—"
Pinkie put a hoof on his muzzle, "Shhh, it's okay, I understand."
"Y-You do?"
"Yeah, if I did something like that, I wouldn't tell anypony either."
"So...you're not mad?"
"Nope-a-roonie! But promise me you'll be more honest from now on."
"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" Golden chanted as he made the appropriate hoof signals.
Pinkie giggled as she and Golden lapsed into sweet silence, slowly falling asleep in each other's comforting embrace. Wonder how Golden's going to deal with Nightmare Night again? Oh well, that'll have to wait until next year.
THE END
Author's Note
HAPPY NIGHTMARE NIGHT!!!!! 
In case nobody caught that bit in the final battle with Shadow and Luna, Golden (A.K.A. me) favors both the light and the darkness.
