A Shadow of My Former Self

I hovered outside the window, Gage on the opposite side of my window, watching the scene unfold before us. The Mane 6 were using the Elements of Harmony against Nightmare Moon. When the rainbow beam hit the figure of darkness, I saw the original host of the body emerge when the light stopped it's onslaught of friendship.

Luna had returned.

But, as with the plan we discussed, we were not to show ourselves. Instead, we followed whatever came from Luna. Which was, disturbingly, a purple shadow. Growling, I flew after it, and Gage followed suit when he saw me. It finally stopped at a ruined garden. "Come on out, Nightmare. We just want to meet you… face to face." I whispered in a menacing tone. I may be weird and creepy, but never that creepy. The Nightmare appeared before me after some hesitation, an alicorn of pure darkness.

"What do you want?!" It hissed. Clearly it was outraged at it's recent defeat. I finally couldn't stand it. Seeing how this thing ruined another ponies life. I started changing. My coat became the darkest black, my mane a bloodred, my eyes became red slits, and, for the cherry on top, my voice became distorted.

"YOUR DEATH!" I roared before charging it. It was taken by surprise as I pummelled it with hooves of darkness, and then flipped forwards while in the air, bringing by forelegs to it's skull. With a sickening crack, it exploded into light, enveloping us in that light. What followed was the most painful thing I had ever experienced. I felt like I was being melt down in lava, cooled in a mishapen way, and pounded on until a familiar but alien form came to me. From the screams of agony, I could tell that Gage were experiencing the same thing. The last thing I remember hearing was…

'Perfect...'

Later, at an unknown location…

"Rainbow, I think you hit it too hard." ??? scolded.

"No, I didn't. See? it's waking up!" ??? stated.

'Wha…'

The events from earlier come rushing back to me.

"GAGE!" I scream, worried for my friend. I try to move, only to discover that I can't move. Well, not for long anyways. metal chains were holding me, but I was too strong.

"How did it break those chains?!" ??? exclaims in shock.

'I gotta get outta here… but how?' Then, the voice from earlier speaks.

'Chaos Control, you fool!'

I didn't know who or what was in my head, but I didn't care. Instead, I said those wonderful words I knew all too well. Smirking, I yelled…

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

I felt a moment of lightness, then ground, and all my senses came rushing back to me. I was in a hallway, lit with torches.

'Alright, you got me out of here. Now what?'

'Cells 115 id where your friend is. Hurry up fool!"

Complying, I started running, before realizing I was hovering, but not with wings. Taking a quick moment to examine myself, I noticed something awesome and disturbing at the same time.

'Holy FUCK, I'M SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG!'

Unfortuantely, the guards were nearly on top of me when I stopped daydreaming. Trying to make use of his abilities, I shouted once more.

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

When I landed, I looked to see where I was.

'Cell 115. Perfect.'

A few minutes later, I found out that Gage had turned into Espio the Chameleon, but being red instead of pink, while his shoes were a dark red. The rest of the coloration was the same. We ran around, searching for an exit. I didn't use  Chaos Control because it tired me out. Eventually, the guards had us surrounded. I knew what I had to do before long.

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

I teleported us out to the streets of… Canterlot? Huh. Neat. I saw three sheets of conveniently placed metal. Grabbing one and tossing another to Gage, I leapt on, while my friend got the idea and did the same.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHm2b2jd1Ts

I saw a ramp, and jumped off yelling "WOOHOO!" while doing a flip. The guards were chasing us, so I gave them incentive to stop. Namely, a few Chaos Spears. Unfortunately, it only made them more persistent. Probably at the display of my dangerous abilities. It reminded me of the scene in Sonic Generations where you were running away from that huge-ass truck. But instead of that truck, it was an army of pegasi, earth ponies, and unicorns. I decided to make them slow down. Well, make everything stop. Utilizing another Chaos Control ability, I froze time for everything except me, and Gage, who were trying to speed up. While the time stop was active, I jumped off my board, twisted, and threw a barrage of Chaos Spears at my enemies. Damn, Shadow was badass. Unfortunately, when the time stop wore off, I saw a familiar cyan pegasus hauling ass towards me. She was about to do the Sonic Rainboom, which I knew couldn't happen. It was the first season! As far as I could remember, it wasn't even mentioned! So, to prevent that from happening, I once again jumped off my board to homing attack her. It was the only solution I could think of. She fell out of the air, and did something reminiscent of a spin dash. Finally, I saw the cliff approaching. Much to my displeasure, I had to morph into my pegasus form, which, somehow, I knew how to. The pain wasn't as much this time, but it still hurt like a bitch.  I jumped off the cliff, flying VERY fast. Not sonic-fast, but fast nonetheless. I motioned for my friend to do the same, and did so, with Gage casting the spell that gave you wings. You know, the one where the wings melted like with Icarus, except with Rairty as Icarus? Yeah, apparently we knew lots of things we didn't know we knew. Eventually, we were flying into the last place we should be.

The Everfree Forest.