Celestia's POV

4 weeks later

The rate of death on Equis had rapidly grown since the Worldquake happened. Nopony knows the true reasons behind these startling numbers either, but my suspicions say that something happened magically in the air. Strangely enough, this entire planet doesn't feel like the planet I've grown up on anymore. Which only unnerved me even more than I already was.

The only relatively good news that was recently reported was by the Element's themselves. They said that Shadow had successfully defeated Lord Hades once and for all. It should be happy times and tranquillity throughout the lands: a solid victory, yet it doesn't feel like a victory at all. All the death of innocent lives Lord Hades destroyed made the planet even more unstable with the mysterious magic. Even in death, Hades' damn corpse had been the cause of this outbreak of new magic.

I recently hired a few scientists from all over Equestria to calculate our survival rate, and to say that we would make it out alive would be a lie.

"And to think this all started because of that damn unicorn stallion."

He just came from the Everfree forest and immediately was ready for action. I often wondered why he simply didn't just end the world all together with the magic he had already. I slammed a fist firmly down on a desk that was currently almost filled to the brim with paper work.

Normally, this amount of papers would be nothing to sweat about, but they are all quite important which made my role even harder for me.

I thought previously why I thought recruiting Shadow would benefit my sister and I, especially in combat situations. Unfortunately, Shadow being unpredictable, however, made him as trustworthy as Discord on his best days. Not to mention his magic does the craziest things when being used. From what I gathered, he has a tendacy for his magic to blow up half of the time or throw him stories high into the air.

I sighed heavily composing myself again. "No matter, I'll just have to get rid of Shadow now. If I can't nudge him into the direction I set out, then he sure as Tartarus doesn't deserve to be here; not while the world is at stake."

It took me centuries to finally create the perfect utopia for all ponies to live under the rule of me. I even managed to subdue Luna and her counterpart, Nightmare Moon, to trust in me. Twilight and her friends are with me as well because my little ponies would not question me, not even for a second. All I needed was just Shadow to trust me fully too for this to work. Yet, it was all blown out of proportion as soon as he started meddling with my actual plans.

Maybe he already knew of your intentions.

"Perhaps."

That wouldn't explain why he willingly followed my orders.... I shook my thoughts away as I focused back on the paper work in front of me again. I needed to do something first.

My horn lit up in a golden aura before teleporting to a different area.

My vision returned to me a split second later. I ended up at the enterence of the General Ponyvile Hospital. I smiled gently, mostly to myself, remembering the hard work it took to complete this building. It made my chest swell in pride thinking about how far my little ponies have come from three bickering tribes at each other's throats.

Unfortunately, I was not here to admire the hospital. My neutral expression returned to my face walking in. I first noticed the help desk walking up to it. The clerk mare's eyes widen seeing my presence. She almost immediately bowed respectfully to me. I giggled at how eagered she was to meet me, but I eventually told her to rise from her bow.

"Of course, Princess. What brings you here to our humble hospital?" she asked.

"I'm here to check on a patient you have currently. He goes by the name: Shadow Faze?" I asked.

She nods her head confirming my response. "Yes, we do have him currently in the room. He is in room 134." The clerk mare said.

I brought a fake smile to my lips. I appreciate the help....Bright Whistle." I replied briefly looking at her name tag pinned to her uniform.

"You're welcome Princess!"

With that out of the way, I hustled casually to his room. Many scenarios went through my head on how to approach this, but ultimately it was all just speculation on how to....silently deal with Shadow.

I made it to the door finally looking at the door number on there. Taking an almost silent deep breath, I opened the door shutting it behind me quickly. I turned around to face Shadow to be slightly taken aback at what I saw. Shadow looked to be in intense care. Judging by the amount of bandages that wrapped his entire body. He just laid there in the bed, almost peacefully stoic. The steady sound of the heart monitor beeped on.

Never in my long life have I witnessed a pony so at peace in his sleep. It didn't last long as my subconscious reminded me off my presence being here.

My horn lit up casting a sound proof spell before I walked up to the comatose Shadow. A golden curved knife appeared in my hands seconds later. I looked at Shadow one more time obvserving his still form carefully.

At least he won't be in too much pain for long. Let's get this over with.

I took in a long deep breath before bringing the knife down at him. It would have made its mark if it wasn't for a black barrier that made contact with it instead. My knife hovered five inches above his chest. My eyes widened in shock.

"Is....Is this his magic?!"

Well, then thrust harder!

I tried again this time using more force. The same result happened again only making me more frustrated. Why was this stallion so damn powerful in magic?!

My magic should be stronger than his ever could be! He shouldn't be capable of blocking MY magic!

A bit of that frustration escaped from my muzzle growling in anger briefly. My thoughts lead elsewhere as I heard hoofsteps. I dispelled the sound proof barrier and the knife quickly putting on my usual stoic attitude. A nurse walked in the room to check up on Shadow.

She had white fur, pink mane in a bun and blue eyes. Obviously, she wore a nurse outfit That made me slightly blush at how well it fit her figure. Thankfully, she couldn't see my brief blush through my white fur. That's all I got to register in appearance before she noticed me. She gave a brief bow before smiling at me.

"I didn't expect to meet a Princess today." She commented.

I smiled at her breaking my stoic appearance. "Indeed. I just came by to give my friend my blessings to get well." I said.

The nurse stared at me for a moment before breaking eye contact with me and examines the patient. To my surprise, the nurse was able to touch the stallion effortlessly.

That barrier came up when I attacked, but it didn't deflect the nurse in any way? He is mocking my magical power! Why that little-

I decided not to show my confusion, nor the anger that wield up inside me. The nurse brought her attention back on me.

"How is he?"

"It appears Shadow is still in critical condition, and is still comatosed, unfortunately."

I nodded. "I understand. Thank you for giving me your time."

She slightly smiled at my comment like it made her day entirely better. "Anything for the princess,"

That's good to hear.

"I better get going. I have other patients to check up on." she said with haste walking past me carefully.

"Of course." I said as she left through the doorway.

I looked back at Shadow feeling my tamed anger rise. When I walked out of the room my anger turned into shock and confusion for my actions. Why did I feel so angry?

Author's Note

And an end to the first book of the series is done! Just wanted to explain a few others things in this chapter for why Celestia is behaving a bit strangely. I heavily enjoyed writing this part of the series, but more so for commenting from all of you reading my story. Don't worry, fellow readers as I said in the later chapter, I will continue to the next book. I'll post it on my blog when I finished the first chapter of the second book.

And to those that just didn't like what I put up; I appreciate you for giving my story a chance to grow and develop before you continued on with your day.

PS: My apologies for this chapter being so short.

Hopefully, I'll see you all in the sequel.

Link to next book here.