Slamming the door behind him, Swift Blade was met with the barrel of a gun, aimed at his face. If the shooter pulled the trigger, it would blow a hole right through his head.

''Who the hell are you! Dusky! What the buck do you think your doing leading these strange ponies into our base!'' A gruff male voice yelled. Swift peeked around the barrel of the gun aimed at his face, to see a unicorn stallion holding it with his magic. He was black, and his mane was a dark blue color. His eyes were a dark shade of crimson, and his cutie mark was a dark looking star.

''Dusk Star! Calm down! These ponies just helped us get out of a bucking death trap!'' Nights yelled, narrowing his eyes at the unicorn.

''They might just be using you! And now their in here! Good Job you fools! This is why I should have led the scouting mission!'' The angry unicorn pushed the barrel of the gun closer to Swift's face, and stared at him angrily.

''You would just botch the whole thing!'' Trickshot shouted, approaching Dusk from the side and glaring at him.

''Hey y'all! Just calm the hell down!'' Apple Jack exclaimed, drawing the attention of Dusk Star, who aimed the gun at the farmer.

''Shut it earth pony! Or you might end up with a hole in your head!''

''Hey, lower the damn gun or get it out of her face!'' Swift demanded, taking a few steps forward.

''This isn't very nice you know.'' Pinkie added.

Dusk returned the guns barrel to Swift, growling at him, ''Do you really think your in the place to make demands!?''

''Dusk, please just calm down, they aren't bad ponies!'' Dusky Novel pleaded, the green Alicorn tried to place a hoof on the angry unicorn's back, but he shrugged her off.

''Hey, get that thing out of Swift's face!'' Vinyl interjected.

''Why you-'' Dusk was cut off when Nights and Trickshot grabbed hold of the gun floating in the unicorn's magical grip, and began wrestling for control of it.

''Here we go again...'' A new voice muttered from behind the struggling ponies. The speaker stepped out from behind the fighting three to reveal herself as a Pegasus. She was black, with a yellow mane and tail, with green streaks through them. Her cutie mark was a crescent moon with three stars surrounding it, and she had a pony handgun strapped to her side.

''Hey Shimmer, good to see you.'' Dusky waved, giving the young Pegasus a warm smile.

''Hey Dusky, are these the ponies you guys saw in the telescope?''

''Yes, although Dusk Star isn't taking their arrival well.''

''I can see that.'' Shimmer nodded, before turning away, ''Let me know when its over okay?'' And with that she was gone.

Swift watched, realizing they may have a chance to have a somewhat normal life here, but first he had to do something about Dusk...

''Hey, is there anything we can do?'' Scootaloo nudged Swift.

''I don't think so, not until they settle their spat.''

A wild shot from the gun almost hit Pinkie, who managed to avoid the bullet without a scratch. ''Hey! careful with that!'' She scolded.

''Hey! Knock it off before you get somepony hurt!'' Vinyl advanced on the three fighters.

Dusk Star suddenly threw off the two earth ponies wrestling him with a powerful blast of magic, and pointed the gun at Vinyl, who halted. ''Just try to touch me, I may only have one shot left, but my magic is more powerful then any others, I am unmatched!'' He snarled.

''Get that shotgun out of my marefriend's face, before I break every bone in your body...'' Swift suddenly growled, and began to march towards the other stallion, as the room almost seemed to darken.

''What the...'' Dusk Star had never seen an earth pony do something like this, and the rage he could sense coming from the blue pony...it was unnatural, almost as if it wasn't just one pony's rage, but two.

In that moment, the unicorn saw the evil deep inside Swift Blade, an ancient evil that had existed since the beginning of time, that took new hosts every time its previous perished. The end bringer.

He almost let out a whimper, when suddenly it vanished, the rage was gone, just like that. He realized he had unknowingly lowered the double barreled shotgun in his telekinesis.

''Ah, maybe you aren't so bad after all.'' Swift grinned, extending a hoof.

Dusk stared at the swordstallion, trying to process what had just happened, before gingerly shaking the other stallions hoof.

''Whoa, that's the first time I've ever seen Dusk back down.'' Nights commented, watching with interest.

''Aye, its remarkable.'' The gunner pony beside him chuckled.

The ponies were lead into a large room that had once been a dining room, now used as base of operations, and were told to take a seat. Swift's group did as they were told, and were soon greeted with a slightly larger group of ponies sitting on the other side of the large table.

''Alright then, now we should properly introduce ourselves.'' Dusky Novel stated, moving a hoof around to show all the ponies. ''My name is Dusky Novel, Alicorn story teller. You've already met Trickshot and Nights, our resident masters of combat.''

She pointed to Dusk Star and the ponies to her other side. ''Dusk Star, former prince and master of dark magic, also my special somepony. And the Pegasus is Shimmer, the youngest of our group.''

''So are ya the leader here?'' Apple Jack questioned, gesturing at the green Alicorn.

''Oh no, no. Our leader is another, but she's in bed right now...She got sick a while ago and can't leave her bed.'' Nights interrupted.

''Oh...'' Apple Jack lowered her head shamefully.

''What are your names, we never did learn them.'' Shimmer asked.

''I'm Pinkie Pie! Nice to meet all of you!'' The pink mare bounced in her chair, smiling.

''Yep, she's Pinkie, and I'm Apple Jack.'' The orange farm pony grinned.

''I'm Scootaloo'' The filly raised a foreleg to the gathered ponies could see her better.

''Call me Vinyl.'' The DJ nodded.

''And I'm Swift Blade.'' Swift smiled.

''Now with that out of the way, I have to ask...who is your leader?'' Dusk Star leaned forward in his chair, sneering.

''We kind of just work-'' Swift was cut off by Scootaloo, who pointed at him with a small grin.

''He is.''

''Wait, what?'' Swift exclaimed, confused.

Pinkie Pie, Vinyl, even Apple Jack all nodded their heads.

''Yep, he's the boss.'' Vinyl grinned, turning to her coltfriend to give another grin.

''When did we decide I was leader, I'm not leader material.'' The swordstallion lowered his head.

''Ya may not have realized it, but we've been following you, you've always been the one giving us hope, that's what a good leader does.'' Apple Jack smiled.

''Yeah, your a great leader, even if you don't realize it Swift.'' Vinyl grinned again.

Lowering his ears in embarrassment, Swift grinned sheepishly, ''Well...''

''Alright, that's settled, now on to business.'' Nights interrupted. ''We knew about you coming here, why? Because we were watching through our scope.''

''We had nothing better to do.'' Trickshot added.

''And we spotted you guys, so, we decided to intercept you to see if you needed help, or give you a warning.'' Nights continued. ''So we want to know-''

''Why are you here?'' Shimmer cut in suddenly.

''Well, we came here in search of something that Swift here had been searching for ever since this started.'' Apple Jack paused, ''A cure.''

''What! That's crazy!'' Trickshot exclaimed. ''There's no bloody way, the only cure, is blasting those bastards through the head!''

''Trickshot, there is a possibility of a cure.'' Dusky glared at him, ''The only problem is, where do you intend to look? We've searched the whole capital, and we haven't seen any sign of a cure, and the few places we haven't checked are either overrun or guarded by other ponies.''

''Whatever, it just seems like a wild goose chase, sorry.'' Trickshot muttered.

''You mean there's others, your not the only ones left in Canterlot?'' Swift asked.

''Yeah, but they like to think their great and more powerful then me.'' Dusk Star grumbled.

''We all know your much more powerful then any of those ponies.'' Dusky smiled at her coltfriend, before returning to the topic at hoof. ''Yes, there is others, but they seem to have gone slightly crazy, and now they just kill whatever they see.''

''Sort of like the undead.'' Vinyl noted.

''Yeah, but these guys have weapons, and their slightly smarter.'' Nights added.

''Well so do we sugar cube.'' Apple Jack grinned.

''Why are we talking about possibly attacking them?'' Pinkie's ears drooped, and she made a pouty face. ''If we just leave them alone they wont bug us.''

''No no Pinkie, we aren't talkin bout attacking anypony. We're just learning about them so we could avoid them.'' Apple Jack soothed.

''Hmm...'' Swift stroked his chin with a hoof, thinking intensely, he had an idea, but he wasn't sure if it would work, his thoughts were interrupted by Vinyl however, who suddenly spoke up.

''Hey...I recognize you now, Nights, you were the guy Tavi was into...'' The mare trailed off and looked like she would begin to cry.

''Vinyl! It is you!'' Nights exclaimed, but then sighed, ''My memory's not the best...wait...'' He trailed off, his pupils shrinking. ''Vinyl, where is Octavia? Why wasn't she with you!?''

The DJ remained silent, tears slowly forming in her eyes. ''She...She...'' Vinyl lowered her head and began to sob.

''She sacrificed herself to save Vinyl...'' Swift spoke softly, moving over to Vinyl, and hugging her.

''No...'' The gray earth pony muttered, tears beginning to fall from his eyes, ''No no no no nononononono...'' He stood up from his chair, kicking it away from him, and he stormed off, heading into a hallway and out of sight.

''Nights!'' Dusky called, raising a hoof to try and reach for the gone stallion, but lowered it in defeat and sighed. ''I'm sorry for the loss of your friend, I know how that feels, I lost a friend too, long before this...''

(See The Story of Dusky Novel for details - https://www.fimfiction.net/story/331652/the-story-of-dusky-novel)

''We've all felt the pain of loss, but Nights is going to lose it. He always had a temper problem, and now that the love of his life is dead, who knows what could happen...'' Trickshot grumbled, a hint of fear in his voice.

''I could throw him a party, maybe cheer him up somehow.'' Pinkie smiled, raising a hoof like it was a class and she was asking a question.

Swift smiled warmly at the pink party pony, ''Pinkie, for now he needs some alone time, but maybe you can throw us all a party tomorrow, cheer us all up.''

''Okiee dokiee lokiee!'' Pinkie sang.

''You guys must be tired, heh.'' Dusk Star sneered, ''You should go take a nap in the rooms upstairs.''

''That sounds good, thanks.'' Swift Blade grinned back, knowing that he had just shut the jerky unicorn stallion up. Dusk growled, and slid off his seat, heading for another hallway.

''I'll show you to your rooms.'' Shimmer said, the quiet Pegasus headed for a flight of stairs down another hallway, stopping and waiting for the others to catch up.

''Come on y'all, lets hit the hay.'' Apple Jack announced, following Shimmer with Scootaloo close behind.

Vinyl raised her head and stared at Swift, smiling at him. ''C'mon, lets go.'' She smiled a little.

Nodding his head, the blue stallion started to follow her, but was stopped by Pinkie.

The pink mare got close to his left ear and whispered in an almost worried voice, ''Hey, my Pinkie sense had been going crazy, something bad is going to happen soon!'' She hissed in his ear.

Swift nodded, ''Keep an eye out, I'll do the same.''

The party pony saluted, ''I'll keep both eyes out!'' The she bounced after the others.

Although worried, Swift kept Pinkie's warning to himself, and followed the others, ready for a good rest in a real bed. Swift was placed in a room by himself, with Vinyl and Pinkie sleeping in the next room over. Apple Jack and Scootaloo were placed in a room right across the hall.

Swift pulled the blankets over his body, nestling into the soft bed, his mind at ease. there was a lot to worry about, but he would deal with them when the time came, for now, he was happy that him and his group were safe, and in good company. With that warm thought, he rolled over and closed his eyes, allowing sleep to claim him.

His eyes cracked open, and he slowly rose from his bed, stretching his limbs out. The swordstallion felt wrong, although he must have slept for a good long while, he still felt tired. In fact, he felt worse. Swift headed for a small bathroom located to the right of his bed, and swung the door open.

He turned the sink on, and splashed some cold water onto his face with his hooves. He grabbed a towel and wiped his wet face, looking into the mirror. He dropped the towel. Swift Blade stared back at his reflection, horror surging through his body.

He had no eyes, just black holes where they should have been. Black goop he could only assume was blood was running down his cheeks, coming from his eye holes. Two red dots where his pupils should have been stared back at him, the evil rage burning in them. The thing that scared him the most though, was that his reflection...

Was smiling at him. It was the most twisted smile he had ever seen, and it terrified him to the core.

Voices began dancing across the room, assaulting him from all directions at once, taunting him, and bringing the swordstallion to his knees.

''It was you...''

''Kill...''

''Destroy...''

''Tear them to pieces...''

''Monster...''

''Kill! Kill! Kill!''

''NOOOOOOO!'' Swift screamed, swinging a hoof into the glass, shattering the image of him, and the world shattered around him.

He awoke in a cold sweat, gasping for breath. He panted slowly, trying to calm down. It was just a dream, no... a nightmare. Just a nightmare, it couldn't hurt him, and none of it was real.

Was it?

Author's Note

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!