Shifting light

"Chris, open the door!?" I yelled for the....well I've been here for an hour. But he still refused the open the door for me, despite the fact he knew I could warp through it thanks to Loki's strange 'Taken Sword'. I groaned again as I tried to explain the situation to him. "Its just a wedding, how bad can it be?"

"Fuck off!" He yelled from the other side of the door. "I can do whatever I please, and right now, I want to do nothing, and I will continue to do nothing until such a time requires me to do something other than nothing."

I just rolled my eyes at this point. To be honest, it didn't bother me as much now, this whole argument would have been more annoying months ago, but now, Chris gave me a better life, fixed my old one, and even gave me something more than 'just a maid'. I actually felt confident in myself again, I wasn't going to let that go, not again.

"Fine....if you act as a guard for their wedding....I'll tell you something. Something I....really should have told you months ago." It was my only option, no doubt Ruin would be here and if things go out of hand, I atleast want Chris to be there, even if he doesn't want to.

"You can stop staring at my door now." I jumped a little at Chris' sudden appearance beside me, his face looking crossed between irritation and boredom. Then he sighed. "Its not just the fact that I have to do this, but timelines have been fucked more than a girl from Fallout: Equestria."

"What?" Once again with his references

"I really need to show you Dragon Ball Z Abridged if we're to ever have a good conversation." Chris muttered, before be turn to walk away. "When's this wedding?"

"Tomorrow. Need to be there for 11:30 am." I explained for him whist I read to the letter, so he just nodded and left me to my own devices. When he left my eye-sight I slumped against the wall, sighing at my stupid decision to reveal my connection to Ruin. "In the words of Chris. Fuck me."

"What am I going to do~?" I asked no one in particular as I walked around my room, my face scrunched up in concentration as I tried to decipher a way out of this mess of mine. But I doubt lasers and Taken minions are going to be much help. "What would 'I' do in this situation. Come on, Swift, think!"

"Don't try too hard, you might hurt yourself."

"GAH!" I yelled as my hand quickly grabbed the hilt of my Void Walker, but I froze at the being sitting on my bed, his tail smoking like it was dunked in magma. "R-Ruin? What happened?"

"Oh you know, just met an old adversary, turns out he's reeeealy strong too." Ruin chuckled darkly, waving his tail back and forth, then it pointed to me. "You've been really naughty, Swifty. Making a deal like that."

"How did-" I then realized it. "-Our minds are linked too, you never said anything about that!"

"I never said it wasn't a possibility, but I guess we learn something new everyday. Now-Now, lets get back to the important reason I'm here. You see, the wedding coming it is going to be a big event, I knowing how Chris blindly listens to you after only a simple deal, its no surprise my plans might go top-side." Ruin explained, before he pointed his finger at me.

"But 'you' will be my ticket. All I need you to do is take Chris to the tallest spire in the castle, I've already set some enchantments to weaken his abilities, and that's it, no other strings attached." Ruin finished with a wave of his arms, but I continued to stare at him intensely, then I spoke

"No." I spoke firmly, my hand carefully gripping the hilt of my blade as he turned to stare back at me, his eyes still wide as usual

"What did you just say, 'cause i swore you said 'No'?" Ruin asked me, but before he could make his move, he watched the blade-tip point dangerously close to his throat, my glare hardened into an icy stare. I was done being his puppet, what could he do to me now? "Well this is unexpected."

"Take your plan. Take your self. And Go. To. Hell." I worded carefully for him. "I'm not your pawn, because you're nothing without me, but I'm something without you."

"Hehehehehahahaha!" He was laughing again, but I didn't move an inch, but he did, as my blade followed him into a standing position. He was even clapping. "I have to admit, seeing that fire in your eyes is certainly new and scary to behold. But you're not a fighter, not yet."

"But you also seem to forget something, Swifty. Nightmares can sense emotions ever well, and from the looks of things, my last visit only seemed to solidify my thought." What did he mean by that? Does he....? "Oh? Did your tiny mind finally think for itself?"

"You..." I was beginning to shake again, but I couldn't help it, I felt like he was snaring me in chains again

"Yep, I was right. The reason for your sudden rebellious nature, your lack of faith in your monarchs, and most importantly, your trust in 'that' acolyte of Loki." Ruin responded with a grin, but before I could react, he kicked the sword from my hand, before his claw reached out and pinned me to the wall, cutting my air-flow. "Don't screw with me, girl!"

"You either do this task for me, or you, your family, your new-found friends, I'll strip them all away before I leave you in the White Dimension itself!" Ruin yelled with a chaotic glare. "Mark my words, Swift Feather. You step out of line again, and I won't hesitate to kill you. I mean, I'll give you some credit, under all that feminine anger, there's a real fighter, somewhere..."

"A-And behind all that u-unbearable ego is a dead m-man!" I choked up, trying to saver my breath as dots appeared in my vision. But the last thing I saw before I fell unconscious was his sharp grin and emerald eyes, the anger and lust for bloodshed was leaking off them both

"Girl. You couldn't fathom the amount of dead men behind me."

*Chris' POV*

"Soooooo....you gunna talk?" I drawled in my own fit of boredom, watching mountains turn into bigger mountains had grown tiresome and I was limited in my abilities of entertainment. No fun to be had, so I guess chatting would suffice. Now looking at me from my response, Swift had an aura of uneasiness, sure, I was creepy, but she was used to that, but this was different. "You seem....not normal, please explain?"

"Huh-what, no i'm fine, I just have...alot of concerns as of late." Swift lied, but I played along as she looked towards the slowly growing city. "Like I said before, the whole reason you're here is for protection, especially if....Ruin appears, but also something else."

"Go on..." I motioned, but my mind had already guessed what, due to the timing of events changing, it didn't mean the outcomes were different, so, Changelings

"Changelings-" Called it. "-Had been growing more deadly since the badlands' biggest contender....the 'Caribou'? Their camps littered the sands, but someone has recently cleared the last of them, most being from what remained of the capital. Due to this, the queen decided to expand her army, and the Princesses fear they could endanger the wedding."

"So I'm here to kill if things get more than decent?" One nod from her was proof enough, but I then rolled my eyes. "I don't understand something about this whole situtation, so explain this to me?"

"What is it?" Swift blinked, almost like a subtle tint of fear dropped on her, but I continued, pointing at her directly

"Why weren't you assigned to do the same? You have power to do your own protecting, since royal guards tend to be very fucking useless in every source of media I know, or they are there for plot convenience. So why not you or my comic brother, Spike?" I asked simply, though Spike was understandable, Swift wasn't, and it bothers me to see wasted power go to the sidelines over certain roles

"I guess....its due to my background. When you think about it, I'm still contracted under my previous job, despite my improvements, it doesn't make me anymore than a maid. Which seams pointless, considering the amount of walls you break." Swift both explained and insulted my way of entry

"Then fucking quit." I bluntly stated, not needing any explanation. "We have other maids....I mean, ones a Changeling-but that's besides the point!"

"Huh. I...never thought about that, I guess with everything going on I never-wait, one of them is a Changeling?" Swift finally caught on to what I said, then she groaned. "Are you kidding me?"

"No, because that is an emotion I lack." I responded, before I watched the sword embed itself beside my head. "Point taken."

Is if funny that I know half of the guards are changelings? No? Ok then. When I noticed the eyes of every guard on me and Swift, a whole wave of uneasiness, fear, and I think I smelt something weird. That's when something caught my attention, more importantly, what I could see 200 yards ahead of me.

"Cadence....Cadance? Which fucking way is it-nevermind. Queen Cry-Cyrs-Queen....Mephiles." I worded to myself, even with Swift looking at me like I completely lost my sanity, but we were already in-front of both her, and Shining.....Armour. I tried not to laugh. "Oh Loki....the fucking puns...."

"What?" Said joke replied, before Swift kicked my shin and spoke for me

"Nothing! It's a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance, Captain Armour, Princess Cadence." Swift bowed

"Isn't the Empire after the wedding...?" I continued to ponder out-loud, but no one heard me, again

"I heard of you too, Swift Feather. You helped a few refugees in the Badlands near Dodge, some of which are my men, so you have my respect." Armour bowed in his own turn, making Swift turn red from embarrassment. Before she could thank him Chris opened his mouth and unsurprisingly ruined the mood.

"You're marrying a bug, that's hilarious." I stated out of the blue while chuckling at the ridiculous concept, what I didn't realize, was that I said it out-loud

"What?"

"Did you?"

"SAY!?" Swift yelled at me, her eyes glaring daggers at me whist flying in front of me. Then she grabbed my head, shaking it like a rabid child. "Are you trying to start a war?" She whispered-screamed at me

"Well...no, just stating how she's giving off magic that is clearly not normal, even for a human, if she was one." I shrugged, before pointing to her. "When Swifty is done strangling me, I'm going to eat you."

"I-Love, I have no clue what this....monster is saying." Even when she pulled him away to whisper something, I could still hear it, even over Swift shaking my skull. "I think Ruin was right about not trusting ourselves around him."

"And if what rumors ive heard, attacking him may cause more trouble for both the Empire and Canterlot than we wish." Armour murmured, but that was brought to a close, due to a Taken Timberwolf dragging my body down the next hall, along with Swift

"Oh come on, its not my fault you're kind is dense!" I ranted, shoving the wolf off my leg, before I pealed Swift off my neck. "What? I could have killed her, saved us alot of unnecessary chapters, and gone to bed?"

"The 'problem', is that I can sense it too, that magic wasn't human, and from how Shining Armour reacted, I think she's hexed him, if i'm right, than we'll just cause more chaos than intended." Swift pointed out, whist we continued to walk down the halls of the fortress

"Well, since I have zero tolerance for bullshit, what's the plan?" I decided to play along for the time being, knowing she had more patience than I did

"I....have an idea. There's a tower near the back of the castle....its the tallest tower, being th observation wing, it has lookout points spanning across the whole kingdom." Good plan....but something was off, she was lying...or she was getting rid of me. "Maybe you'll quit trying to kill people too..."

"Hey! guns don't kill people, bullets do!" Then I fired a round from Jackel, watching as the bullet ricochet off every vase in the hallway, before shattering a large, stain-glass window of Luna's moon, leaving a hole through the moon. Swift's jaw was ajar, her eye now twitching. "Well...its accurate now."

So....many....stairs. When we 'finally' arrived at the top of the observatory, Swift was lying on my back, whist I crawled up the last steps on my hands and knees, my feet bleeding as I dropped at the last step. When we arrived, I shoved the door open, and Swift fell to my side, whist I cried.

"I...could have....flown." Grabbing my hindsight and kicking it in the teeth, I moved to my feet and noticed how papers, books, and a shit ton of old candles laid wasted on the floor. Observation of observatory indicates a lab or research room of some-kind. "Now then....where to start?"

"Right here." Oh mother fu-

Before I had a chance to say anything, the door slammed shut behind me and Swift, whist I blinked at the sudden appearance of the Nightmare. Ruin grinned wickedly, whist my eye traveled to my right, before it landed on a thread of blacklight strangling the last lacrima in the room, nullifying the whole trap Ruin set, though Swift was somehow involved, gunna need to talk about that later.

"I'm so glad you could make it! Ive been waiting hours for you to arrive, though, not without company." He then pointed to Swift, said girl hiding behind me as his grin widened. "Now then, I believe I said something about you either leaving or you die, now I don't think my words were unheard, due to your enheightened hearing, correct?"

"But enough with the details, letting you live when we first met was 'my' mistake, to which I plan to correct now." Ruin then moved closer to me and Swift, whist I stood motionless at his cocky attitude. "This whole room was hexed, you've probably noticed, due to your power dropping since you entered the runes effect range?"

"Now with you more or less as weak as a human. First, I'm going to kick you like a orphaned child. Second, I'll breakdown your atoms to the point that your blacklight dies out one-by-one. Last, I'll make everyone watch at I-"

*SMASH*

Ruin's body flew faster than his words to my left, as his body flew through the wall from my backhand, leaving a Ruin shaped hole in the wall, whist I titled my head to see his body fly through several towers and through the mountain. Only his screams were heard from this distance.

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"Did you mother fucking bitch-slap me!?"