A Star Reborn

Chapters

The Storm That Wasn't
Dark Origins
Dark Moon Rising
Return to Canterlot
Remembering the Past

The Storm That Wasn't

The night was bitter cold. The wind hissed sinisterly as it ruffled the pink mane of a small purple filly. She was far from home, cast out by those she called friends. Although she managed to make it close to Canterlot on her wanderings, the moon was waning that night. Soon, it would be too dark to travel safely. The filly stopped on the road abruptly. Could that be a light, there through the trees? A scrub bush, pushed aside, revealed…. A mansion? Here? Way out on the outskirts of Canterlot?

As she approached, it seemed that there wasn’t actually a light. The building was painted in such a way that it echoed the beauty of the night sky. What’s more, it glimmered…. strangely. Magic coated the premises, warding it against every intrusion. From the looks of things, even that of time itself. And yet, the filly felt no pressure, no warning to turn away. This place felt….welcoming. Like a home you’ve never seen before.

A soft blue glow passed from window to window as if tending to the house. The gate held no resistance as the filly pushed against it as if beckoning her to continue on, only to close behind her softly. As she neared the darker toned door it slowly opened, revealing a cat on the other side. At first glance the cat appeared to be wearing a tuxedo, but on closer inspection it was just its fur pattern. The gentle feline turned and gestured for her to follow. Compelled by her curiosity, the filly followed the feline to a door where the same blue glow from earlier could be seen around the cracks.

As the filly entered the room, she saw a spectral pony amongst shelves of books, indicating this was an office or a library. On closer inspection the filly could see that the pony was a dark blue unicorn with a dark shield as a cutie mark. The pony put a book back on the shelf, “So Tux, what did the cat drag in this time?” Tux just looked at his master then at the filly then left. “Thank you Tux,” he said to the kitty before it left then turned to the filly sitting there nervously. The stallion looked down at the filly, “Don’t worry little one, I'm not going to hurt you.” He looked up at the door as Tux came back in, carrying a sandwich on a tray which he brought over to the filly. The stallion shook his head at the cat. “Tux isn't actually a butler, he just enjoys taking care of children.”

The smiling filly petted Tux before taking the sandwich from him. The stallion nodded and went back to organizing the room. “You must be tired, when I finish here I'll put you to bed when you finish eating.”

Yawning, the filly looked up at him “Stowy?”

He smiled. “Sure, I'll tell you a bedtime story.”
Shaking his head, closing and putting the last book away, and turning to look at the filly he noticed her starting to fall asleep. He gently picked the filly and a book of children stories up and carried her to a spare bedroom. Tucking her into bed and sitting next to it, he opened the book and used his magic to highlight the words he read. He began, “Once upon a time in a forest far far away…”
“...The End.” As he finished the story he noticed the filly had fallen asleep and quietly made his way to his secret lab.

He started going over his notes. “Well this complicates things.” He looked at a blank space next to him. “Well I'm going to have to be here to take care of her.” As he started to walk around the room he got to some maps and stops. “Being on the outside might give another perspective of avenues we could use to escape.” He shrugged and leaves the room. “Keep working on your end, we’ll find a way, eventually.” Tux looked up at his master, confused and wondering whom he was talking too. “Hmm, oh, hi Tux, nothing to worry about just talking to myself, since you are incapable of speaking Equestrian.” Ignoring his pouting cat, he stopped and looked at a letter on a desk and read it.

Dear Captain Darkness Shield
We have received your resignation after the most recent incident. We understand the reasoning why you feel you must leave your position. While we wish you would reconsider and stay with us, it is with a heavy heart that we will agree that along with the disbanding of the Moonshadows we will forward your retirement request as well. As a parting gift and a commendation for your service, please keep the armor you were awarded.

Yours truly,

Princess Celestia

Tux nuzzled against Darkness’s leg sensing his master’s distress. “Thanks Tux, you’ve always been a loyal friend.” Darkness headed to his own bedroom to sleep, looking up at the moon before he climbed in bed. “When one job ends, another begins.” He closed his eyes and went to sleep.

As he woke up and got out of bed to wander the house he found Tux already making breakfast for the filly. He went over and petted Tux, “You know if she wants to leave we can’t stop her, it will be her choice, but if she decides to stay, well that’s fine too, I’ll be honest. I always wanted a daughter.” Tux looked up at his master and mimicked a horn on top of his head. “Her horn? Well my only issue with that is do I teach her to use magic internally to reinforce herself or find her some sort of implement she can use to cast her magic? Well, until I can get back and make her a prosthetic horn, that is.”

Unbeknownst to the duo the small filly was at the doorway after smelling the aromas from the kitchen. The duo was pulled out of their conversation as they heard an excited call of “Daddy”, then Darkness getting tackled by the purple blur that was the excited filly.
Darkness looked over at Tux, “Well that answers one question. Hmm, let’s start with internal magic first.” Extracting his new daughter from him, he set her in a chair as Tux brought over the food he was making. “So daughter, do you have a name already or do I need to come up with one?

The little filly looked up from her food. “The owners of the orphanage called me Fizzlepop Berrytwist.”

Darkness shared a look with his cat, then walked over and wiped off her mouth. “Ok Fizzy, any questions for me?”

She looked back at the hallway where a picture could be seen clearly from the doorway. “Who are all those ponies?” She asked, pointing to the picture.

Darkness looked up at the picture. “They are the Moonshadows, and the Dream Wardens.” Fizzy perked up at the chance of hearing one of her father's stories. Seeing this, Darkness chuckled. “Ok, sweety I’ll tell you the story.”

Author's Note

This is my first attempt at writing a story, so sorry if chapters take so long to come up, thank you for understanding, and feedback is appreciated

Dark Origins

As Darkness was about to begin, he suppressed a chuckle seeing how Fizzy had grabbed Tux and was holding him like a stuffed animal. Darkness leaned back against his chair. “It was a long time ago.”

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Darkness looked into his mirror at his new armor and clasped on his cloak. “Who would have thought I would make it this far, a Moonshadow, and the first unicorn Dreamwarden?” He collected himself and headed to the training ground for his first day of training in a new unit.

Upon his arrival at the training ground he only noticed one other pony on the field, their armor more decorated, indicating an officer. He came to attention in front of them “New Moon Darkness Shield, reporting for duty.” Now that he was closer he could tell that the officer before him was a mare.

The mare looked at him then at a clipboard, “Here you are, Darkness Shield, and according to the report you were given the nickname, The Black Death during a raid on the Crimson Hive, care to explain that?”

Darkness leaned his head down to collect his thoughts. “We went in with six squads, prior to leaving base I had charmed everypony's armor with an emergency shield that would activate if the pony was knocked unconscious.”

The mare stopped him, “The reports we have state all of that, and then say you got separated from the squads, pick it up there.”

He nodded, “I was working my way back to them and I felt an emergency shield activate so I started to pick up my pace, then my blood ran cold as I felt all of the emergency shields activate one after another in quick succession.” Darkness took a deep breath to calm himself. “When I finally caught up, the changelings were waiting for the shields to deactivate before setting them up to harvest.” The mare sees him take another deep breath understanding how bad the situation was. “After coming upon the scene, my vision went red and the changelings backed away from me, and it was then that I gave into my rage and the massacre begun.” the mare looked at him and mumbles something about a blood moon.

“Ok new blood, you were one pony against an entire hive, and the reports say you wiped it out and got everypony back to base.”

Darkness nodded “As you might know, my squad was referred to as the Black Wall, I have yet to find an attack that could get past my shields, and during that operation I learned to utilize them in different ways, as a weapon, or platforms to carry back the wounded.” Summoning up a shield shaped like a star, he started spinning it at high speeds and launched it at a training dummy embedding it. “That was not the first time we cleared a hive, but it was the first time I had to finish an operation alone.” Finished with his personal report, he stood at attention waiting for the mare.

The mare nodded and put the clipboard away “Okay that answers all my questions. I am Midnight Wave, I will be your handler for the first few years of training with the Moonshadows.” She turned around and started walking towards the training grounds motioning for him to follow which he promptly followed. From there she proceeded to teach him about the more advanced gear they will be using and the skills he will be needing. Midnight laughed as he finished up a covert ops test. “I may have been wrong in which branch you belong in, maybe you belong in the Blue Moon branch with stealth like that.”

Darkness shook his head. “Not a wise decision ma’am, yes I can do it when necessary but throughout that entire op, I was feeling myself getting more and more antsy, which at points delayed my responses to certain events.”

Midnight nodded “Well you know your weaknesses better then anypony else, that’s all for today. Try to get some sleep but I doubt that will be happening for a long while, Dreamwarden.”

Darkness saluted, looked at the time and then headed off to meet his Dreamwarden trainer.

*********************************************************************************************

Headed to the room he was told to and going inside, he stumbled as he saw who was waiting for him. “Lady Luna, I arrived as instructed, are you here to introduce me to my instructor?”

She gave a slight smirk. “That is correct, I am here to introduce your instructor yes.”

As the appointed time came and went, he looked over at Luna, “Shall we get to training then?”

Luna pouted, “Thou aren't fun,” but nodded and lead him to an office. “How did you know I was your trainer though?”

Darkness smirked, “The rest of the dreamwardens, as I have been told, are thestrals, with me being the first unicorn, so they wouldn’t know the exact entricties of how a unicorn's magic works, and you have a habit of dramatic reveals Princess.”

Luna gasped, “Well I never, Thou presumes too much by accusing us of being dramatic.”

Darkness rolled his eyes, “As you say Princess,” eliciting a giggle from Luna.

Luna smiled and gestured to a runic circle. “First things first, we must attune you to the dream realm, then ...”

==========================================================================================

As Darkness finished his story he looked down at his starry-eyed daughter, “No more stories for today sweety, maybe another time”

Fizzy nodded and hugged Tux tight. “Thank you Daddy.”

Darkness called, “Now to start your magic training, come along daughter,” as he headed into another room.

Fizzy and Tux quickly followed after him.

Author's Note

I do plan on making a story about her training, eventually

Dark Moon Rising

A young mare opens the front door and it creaks open, “We really need to oil this door. Hey, Dad I’m home.” She notices Tux walking over to her with a note, “What that’s Tux?”

Tux unrolls the letter for her to read.

Hey Fizzy,
Something’s come up and I need to take care of it. Tux has learned that Celestia is holding the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville, and with what I’ve heard about the Royal Guard these days, I think it might be best if you head down there to get some practical experience. Even if you are just still a recruit.

Sincerely,

Dad

Fizzy pets Tux as she finishes reading the letter, “Guess I need to start packing, just in case this turns into one of Dad’s… long term missions.” She heads to her room to pack up whatever she needs before heading to the train.

Fizzy arrives at the train station and looks around Ponyville, noticing ponies giving her odd looks, something that she has grown used to seeing. That may have been true until a bright pink, friendly-looking pony comes up to her, ”Hello there.” The pink pony gasps and runs off leaving Fizzy confused. She looks at over at a pony who watched the exchange and the pony just shrugs, “And Dad thought ponies would think I’m weird.”

As Fizzy explores the town she notices a shadow from overhead. Looking up and noticing a chariot pulled by two pegasi, she comments, “It appears the princess’s personal student has shown up as well to oversee the proceedings for the event.” Fizzy looks around and decides to go find some food while she thought of what to do next. As she sits down and orders her food she notices that the stares she got went from curious to concerned, she smiles to herself that she was able to find a place that was actually friendly to her. As her food arrives and she begins to eat she notices a cloaked pony speaking to a mare and her colt before parting ways, “That’s odd why would anypony wear a cloak in the middle of a sunny day?”

With a swooshing sound and a smell of frosting, the scenery suddenly changes. Fizzy blinks as she takes in account what had just happened to her. One moment she was just wandering around town. Then the next moment there was a pink blur and she’s now at a party in the town library. Fizzy looks down at the drink in her hoof, “I don’t think there is an alcohol strong enough to make sense of what just happened.” She notices a group gathering around the concession table, one of which is the pink pony that brought her here and another being Miss Sparkle. Then she notices that Miss Sparkle’s face turns red and starts breathing fire after taking a drink then heading upstairs to the building’s bedroom. As she walks over, Fizzy notices Sparkle’s assistant pick up a bottle of hot sauce that the party pony proceeds to pour on a cupcake and eat it, claiming it tastes good. “Not everyone can handle hot sauce miss.” The group startles not having noticed her approach.

Fizzy looks at the little dragon. “So is everything in order Spike?” she inquires waiting patiently for his response

The little dragon puffs out his chest proudly, “Yep everything is prepared and ready for the celebration.” Then he stops and looks at her, “Wait how did you know my name, I don’t believe we have met before.”

Fizzy just smirks, “Not every recruit of the Royal Guard is oblivious to important figures.” She gestures to him then at where twilight went. She smiles, “Well enjoy the rest of the party.” Fizzy goes off and mingles with the rest of the crowd for the rest of the party leaving the small group of ponies slightly confused.

A cloaked figure observes the central building of the town, “How long has it been since I could experience the Summer Sun Celebration.” They smirk and shake their head before raising it as they hear a commotion and ducking behind a tree. The figure sees six mares and a dragon run towards the library and the rest of the town starting to panic, “She made her move I see, I should set out as well.” He steps out from his spot and notices another mare with a broken horn coming out with a sense of duty in her eyes. The figure smirks, then catches her attention and motions for her to quell the panicking citizens while they deal with whatever else is happening. At first the mare hesitates then returns into the building to help maintain order and the figure leaves to follow the others.

As the figure heads in the direction of the library they duck behind another house seeing a small blue cloud and grind their teeth, “I failed once before, I will not do so again.” The cloud flies past them quickly knocking their hood off revealing Darkness, who quickly pulls his hood back up and teleports away before he’s seen by her. He sees the six mares head to the forest and he follows after them, keeping some distance to not be seen but keeping his shield spell ready just in case it’s needed.

Darkness picks up his pace as he hears the telltale signs of an avalanche. He sees the sheared off cliff face, “Okay, this could be problematic if she’s starting off this serious.” He subtly casts his emergency shield spell on the mares. He nods as his spell goes off, “I hope I don’t have to act past that, there’s potential in the lot of them.” He notices the group start to move on and quickly follows after, shortening the distance between them.

After awhile he stops and turns around tapping a pink mare on the nose, “Tell none of them I’m here, I want my reveal to be a surprise.” The pink earth pony blinks, surprised, then nods smiling. Any further discussion is interrupted by a roar. “Get going, the others need you.” The pink pony nods and jumps through a hole in the ground prompting Darkness to look through it then back away slowly. “Nope, not going to deal with that.” The hole closes as he leaves.

As Darkness catches up to the six mares he sees them fighting a manticore and starts reaching for a pair of swords, one black the other white, debating which would be better in a situation like this. He starts lowering his hoof as he notices that the mares have it well in hoof. He watches the fight, “That cowpony and cyan pegasus have sure potential if they wanted to join the guard, also I wonder if the pegasus is related to Prysm.” His musings are cut off when the yellow pegasus shouted at everyone and approaches the manticore. He starts to move in to intercept her when he is surprised by the manticore opening its palm to show a thorn in it which prompts him to facehoof. “Seriously a thorn, okay maybe she’s not as big of a threat as I thought she would be.” He notices the mares passing the manticore and the manticore heading its own direction before he decides to follow.

He catches up just in time to hear screaming. He notices them screaming at enchanted trees. His eye twitches then starts banigng his head against a tree. After the fifth hit, the tree topples over, scaring the mares even more and a blue mist notices him and floats over to him.

The mist coalesces into the Mare of Nightmares smiling at Darkness, “Oh Captain, my Captain, it’s so wonderful to see my most trusted soldier again.”

He raises an eyebrow at her, “Oh really? I don’t remember swearing fealty to you Nightmare.”

Nightmare walks around him, smiling and running her tail under his muzzle teasingly, “Well it was my other half at the time, and we are one soooo...we also remember your confession, we thought it was foolish for our other half to turn away somepony so strong, powerful, and handsome.”

Darkness smirks, “Well I thank you for the complement Nightmare.” He notices the mares are on the move again, “but isn’t there something you should be trying to do?”

Nightmare notices the missing mares and frowns, “Wait for me, my Captain.” She turns to mist again and departs.

Darkness waits till she is out of sight before shaking his head, “If only she weren’t so misguided, then that may have worked.” He decides to take a different route he recalls to the old castle. He sighs as he looks up at the moon, “I hope they succeed where I did not.” After awhile he arrives at the castle and teleports up to one of the parapets to look across the forest and notices the mares arriving. “The final confrontation is at hoof, will these six purify the princess, or will I be forced to take drastic measures?” He shifts the two swords on his back and heads inside.

He walks through the ruined castle looking around and remembering the incident that brought it to this state. He stops in front of a statue that is wearing armor of the Moon Shadows thinking about his past. Darkness is brought out of his musings as he sees a light in the tallest tower then dives behind a fallen pillar as he hears the mares running by. He pulls up his hood and face mask and follows behind them quietly. He arrives in time to see the Elements activate and circle around the startled Nightmare. He smiles and notices that Nightmare has been purified from Lady Luna and noticed a bright light as Celestia appears. “Okay, she needs to lay off the cake, and I should write up an exercise regime for her, now if she would only actually follow it though.” He notices the sisters make up and hug each other, “That’s my cue.”

He triggers the enchantment on his face mask to alter his voice and makes his eyes glow red, “Well well well, isn’t this cute, the sisters have finally made up, and I’d like to say resolved their issues as well.”

Seven of the eight mares are startled, with five of them standing in front of the princesses in defense and the cyan pegasus lunging for him immediately.

Darkness catches the pegasus mid-flight, “You know it’s rude to interrupt somepony when they are talking.” He spins catching the pegasus in the side with his other hoof and chucking her at the farm pony knocking her over. He gives the pink pony a look asking if they are okay to which she subtly nods yes.

He notices the purple unicorn has charged up a beam attack and launched it at him. He Rolls his eyes and puts up a forty-five degree shield that causes the beam to split in two directions leaving him unharmed. “A thousand years too young to beat me in a magic duel child, also don’t bother with those Elements, I’m pretty sure you lot don’t know how they work well enough to use them again.”

Celestia steps forward, “Get behind me my little ponies, I’ll deal with this being.”

Darkness raises an eyebrow, “Really the alicorn that has done nothing but sit on her plot and eat cake for the last century or so is going to fight me?” He chuckles, “I’m so afraid.”

This causes one unicorn to gasp, another to smirk, and three other ponies to giggle. Then everyone hears a gasp of realization, “DARKNESS.” Luna runs forward and tackle hugs Darkness, knocking his hood off and disabling the illusory effect on his eyes.

He disables his voice enchantment and returns the hug, “Good to see you too, Lady Luna.”

Celestia pouts, “Me damnit Darkness, you gave me a heart attack.” Everypony looks at Celestia surprised.

Darkness chuckles, “Are you sure it was me, and not all those cakes you’ve been eating?” A round of giggles circles the room again.

Celestia grins and looks at her old friend and sister, smiles, and wipes away a tear, “Where have you been Darkness?”

He separates from Luna, “I’ll explain once we’re back at Canterlot, we should probably head back to Ponyville for now, everypony there is worried about you Princess.” Everypony nods with him. Darkness looks over at the pink pony, “We have two ponies returning from being lost, do you know what this calls for?”

The pink pony gasps and goes wide-eyed, “It calls for...” They all somehow get transported back to ponyville, “A PARTY!!!”

Darkness smiles, still standing next to a stupefied Luna, “You know, I didn’t actually expect that to work.” Luna giggles to his statement. They both notice a unicorn mare with a broken horn coming towards them.

Fizzy tackles Darkness, “Dad!” The outburst makes his companions look at him.

Darkness smiles and hugs his daughter, “As I said, I will explain back at Canterlot, let’s just enjoy the party for now.” Darkness resumes his duty as Luna’s guard during her time at the party but not forgetting to spend some time with his daughter.

Celestia looks over at Darkness, “About those comments at the castle.”

Darkness just looks at her with a deadpan expression, “You are going on a diet, and when Day Court is not in session, you will be doing an exercise regime of my creation.” Giggles are heard from Luna, “That goes for you too Missy, you were on the moon for a thousand years, we don’t know if your muscles atrophied up there or not.” The giggles stop, but she gives a nod of understanding.

Return to Canterlot

As the party starts to wind down, Darkness escorts the diarchs to their chariot. As they arrive Darkness nods to the guards, “I’ll see you two back in Canterlot, Your Highness.” He bows and starts making his way towards the train station, already having had a discussion with Fizzy about her staying here for a while to make sure Twilight is situated before heading back.

Celestia shakes her head, “Come with us Darkness. It’s been awhile and we should get caught up.”

Darkness just raises an eyebrow at her, “Celestia as much as I would enjoy doing that, as far as your guards are aware I’m just part of some sort of militia group, I doubt they would approve of me riding with you.”

Celestia looks over at the guards and they recoil, “I don’t think they will be a problem.” A hint of seriousness enters her voice, “Besides, there is something I wish to show you.”

Darkness pulls up his hood again and rolls his eyes, “If you say so, your highness.” He gets onto the chariot after the princesses.

As Darkness looks over at the view from the side of the chariot he hears Luna call out, “Sister, what caused that crater over there?” Darkness looks over in the direction Luna points out then clutches his head and the side of the chariot as a flash of light pops into his vision

Luna notices and rushes over to support Darkness as much as she can with her smaller frame, “Sister what’s happening?”

As Celestia is about to say something, Darkness lets go of his head, “That was an unpleasant experience living that again, wasn’t pleasant the first time.” He notices luna by him and gives her a gentle hug, “I’m fine now Lady Luna, just reliving what should have been my death.”

Both sisters look at each other, then at him, and Celestia speaks up first, “What do you mean Darkness?”

Darkness gestures to the approaching crater, “Luna, what caused that crater was a dark magic user that caused Celestia to gather all active forces, and even asked the one-eighty-first to come back to active duty and help.” He sighs after they landed and notices something in the crater and starts walking towards it, “Everything was going fine, until they decided if they could not win they would take us all out with it.” He turns around to the sisters that are following him, “I decided to enclose myself and that dark caster in a dome made of twenty-five layers of shielding, the next thing I knew there was a flash which I presume was the explosion then just an empty plane with nothing but a tower, and two annoying spirits.” He stops in front of a statue of himself that was placed on a magical platform in the middle of the crater.

Luna steps up next to him and looks at the statue then Darkness and back, “Huh, sis did you provide an illusory image for them to get this accurate?”

Celestia was about to comment when Darkness burst out, “What in Discord’s name made you think to put that on the epitaph!?”

Luna blinks at Darkness using the Chaos spirit’s name to call out her sister and looks at the epitaph.

Lord Darkness Shield

Lieutenant, Commander, Guardian

Confidant, Friend, Brother

Gave his life To protect others

70 SR - 100 SR

Luna then notices a pattern of stars underneath the first epitaph and she realizes it’s a code in Moonscript.

Prince Consort of Princess Luna

Luna finishes reading and her face starts glowing bright red then hides behind her wings.

Darkness just looks at Celestia, his eyes twitching with a hint of red to them, “Neither one of us were around to agree to that, so I can’t wait to hear your explanation for this.”

Celestia taps her hooves together nervously avoiding the gaze of her brother-in-law, “Well, I spent the first few years thinking neither of you would return, and you two were obviously in love with each other even though Luna turned you down.” Celestia and Darkness look at the embarrassed Luna, “So I decided with my powers I would have you two married post-mortem.”

Luna, still red-faced, goes over to berate her sister while Darkness rubs at his temples

Darkness sighs as he hears a voice speak to him, “You seem to be in a pretty interesting situation.”

Darkness looks around seeing that the sisters are still “talking” to each other and the guards are watching them not noticing the new voice. Darkness directs his conversation inward, “It seems that way, are you here to cause trouble or just to watch?”

Darkness could almost see the voice grin, “Oh, I’m just here to watch your progress, many ponies have been in your position before, only to be consumed by what they sought.” The voice starts to quiet down, “I will leave you with one warning, beware your metaphorical shadow.”

Darkness blinks and sighs, “Another headache, for another day.” Darkness makes his way over to the sisters, “Luna are you opposed to the idea?”

Luna stops berating her sister calming down to look at darkness, “Not really no, but I wish she would have asked us beforehoof.” Then she taps her hooves together shyly, “and I kinda wanted a formal wedding.”

Darkness grins then looks at Celestia, “Well, can we leave it to you to set up a formal wedding to make up for this?”

Luna notices Darkness’s grin then turns towards her sister giving her puppy dog eyes.

Celestia blinks and smiles nodding to them both, “Well it will have to wait until after Luna gets her powers back.” She leans down to nuzzle her little sister.

Darkness nods, “I guess I can help by finding some pony to officiate the wedding, because Luna would probably want you to be her mare of honor.”

Luna looks at Darkness and blinks, “Darkness, wilt thou please stay out of our head!”

Darkness chuckles as he makes his way back to the chariot, “I spent enough time with you Luna, I should be able to guess what you would say.”

Celestia climbs into the chariot then turns to look at Darkness, “Why did she turn you down again?”

Darkness grins, “She turned me down because I wasn’t immortal and would leave her eventually, and apparently it was eating her up inside after that response.”

Celestia rolls her eyes as the chariot takes off towards Canterlot, “You can say that again, I think she started writing poetry as a way of trying to get your attention to try again afterwards.”

Luna pouts at the two as they laugh, then eeps as Darkness pulls her in for a hug which she quickly returns.

After a time and some failed attempts to embarrass Darkness on Luna’s part they begin to land in Canterlot. Darkness looks down and takes on a more serious air to represent himself as a recruit for the guard and not somepony so familiar with the princesses. As he was in the back of the chariot Darkness marched off first and stood by the side as the princesses stepped down and the other guards took the chariot away. Celestia nods to Darkness to keep up with them and he quickly falls in line.

“Princess Celestia!” a white-coated mare with a dark brown-mane and tail run up with a squad of guards behind her. The mare stops in front of the three, “We were about to mobilize some units to search for you, Your Highness.” Then she notices Luna, “Princess Luna!” The mare quickly bows, “I am glad to see you returned to us.” Before she can say anymore more she hears a gasp and what sounds like a spear falling to the ground which prompted everyone to look at the soldiers, then at Darkness, the mare’s eyes going wide.

The guardsman spoke up, “Lord Darkness?” The pony rubs his eyes, just to see a chuckling Darkness step up beside Luna, “but how?”

Darkness smiles and shakes his head, “Seems there are some ponies that actually do know about me in this era, as for the how, I don’t know myself, still trying to figure it out.” He looks at the mare, “I’m more curious about you Raven, all I know about me was, I ended up displaced in time and space, and what have you been doing to keep yourself looking like that?”

Raven tilts her head, “Like what sir?”

Darkness smirks, “Like you’re not a year over twenty.” He motions his hoof to keep her from saying anything, “Doesn’t matter right now, we can discuss it later, but I do think we should get things in order for Luna to get reacquainted with society.” He notices the nod from Raven then looks at the guard that knew who he was, “What’s your name soldier?”

The guardpony snaps to attention with a salute startling some of his companions, “Prince Blueblood sir.” He goes into a more eased position, “Aunt Celestia told me stories of your achievements, sir, and they inspired me to prove myself as a noble in her eyes.”

Darkness raises an eyebrow at Blueblood, “If you’re using me as a standard for success then I will be personally watching over you to see how you do, are you the Captain of the Guard?”

Blueblood gulps at the first part then shakes his head, “No sir the Captain of the Guard is Shining Armor.”

Darkness nods then looks at Celestia after stepping back, “I think after today we should all get some rest.”

Celestia nods, “You are right Darkness.” Celestia turns to Raven, “Please guide Darkness to that room.”

Raven blinks then shivers, “Yes Ma’am.”

Darkness follows Raven as the guards fall in line behind Celestia and Luna to escort them to their chambers, “If this room is cursed, I will make her training harder,” he mutters, earning a stifled giggle from Raven.

Raven stops in front of an onyx black door, “Here we are, this used to be a guest room the ambassadors and embassy workers, we sealed it off because of some disturbing incidents.”

Darkness’s eyes glow as he enters the room and blinks as he looks around, “Uh, did the incidents happen to be a red spirit popping out of the walls and threatening said workers?”

Raven nods, “That is correct Darkness, do you know a way of getting rid of it?”

Darkness just looks at the desk in the room, “I can already say it won’t be a problem anymore, as that spirit was me when I was trapped.” He goes over to the desk and cleans it off, “I had learned that when it was something I had a strong connection to was involved I could project myself.” He looks over at Raven, “and rage was a good amplifier to go after ponies that decided to pick on my daughter.”

Raven nods and turns to leave, “I’ll let Celestia know that the situation has been resolved.”

Darkness looks around the empty darkly colored room, “Also let her know to add training to the guards to differentiate between guardian spirits and ghosts.” He shudders at recalling a memory, “That was not fun when the guards came after me.”

Raven nods and heads out closing the door behind her.

Darkness smiles and looks through one of the other doors in the room that leads to a bedroom and sighs, “Of course there would be a bed that big.” He goes to check the other door in the front room revealing a closet, “Hmm, I can work with this as long as I can keep the set up quiet.” Darkness yawns, “Well time for me to head to bed, even though I won’t be acting as a prince until the official wedding, I’m now a noble apparently.” He heads to bed turning off all the lights. Darkness climbs into bed, “I need to go see Tux tomorrow.” He closes his eyes and goes to sleep.

Author's Note

still have not gotten used to paragraphing system on this site

Remembering the Past

Darkness wakes up, feeling a slight pressure on his side. His eyes open to a messy light blue mane. He smiles and wraps his hooves around his fiance. He pulls her close, getting a content sigh from her, and smiles, closing his eyes again. Darkness opens his eyes after a few more minutes. He replaces himself with his pillow getting free of Luna’s grip and puts on a more formal uniform, “Today is the first noble meeting I will be in.” He straightens his cloak clasp with his coat of arms on it and heads to the meeting room.

As Darkness makes his way down the hallway he notices two ponies other than the guards standing at attention walking towards him. He notes that one looks to be wearing the uniform of the captain of the royal guard. “He must be Shining Armor,” he thinks to himself then looks at the pony next to him and blinks, “Since when was there another alicorn?” As he gets close to the two of them and their escort a jolt of electricity courses through his brain as his magic triggers, making him drop to the ground holding his head as he starts hearing voices.

“It can‘t be.”

“How is he here?”

“Quick, inform the queen.”

When Darkness is able to open his eyes he notices the guards and another alicorn encircling him. He starts to slowly get up a guard coming over to help, “That was something I haven’t experienced in awhile.” He takes a deep breath to calm his magic as the guards turn to look at him, “Don’t bother with a doctor, they’re not going to be able to find out what happened, a friend and I made sure the spell that did that could never be replicated.”

The captain steps forward staring at Darkness concerned, “What spell would that be?”

All the guards can feel the sorrow in Darkness’s voice and start to look worried. “A spell that was created and used only once during the changeling wars a thousand years ago.” He shakes his head to clear his thoughts, “I hope none of you have to experience times like that.”

Darkness starts walking away and the guards start talking.

“Who was that?”

Shining pipes in, “I don’t know who that pony was.”

A one eyed pegasus mare starts backing away from Darkness, “Oh Celestia, I thought he was only a legend told to intimidate troops into working hard, I didn’t know he was real.”

The other guards and alicorn stop talking and look at her and one of them asks, “Wind Strike, who was that?”

The mare slowly turns to see Darkness go around a corner, “He was Darkness Shield, a Guardian, and the infamous Black Death.”

All the other guards make this realization as well and start backing away from Shining who just gulps as he realizes he may have sounded accusing towards a living legend.

Seeing no guards around, Darkness lets out a sigh as his last memory of the past leaves him for now. “I honestly hope they never have to experience that level of violence.” He composes himself before entering the meeting room and sees only Raven and Celestia, “Good morning, Your Highness,” Darkness bows.

Celestia looks up from her papers and smiles, “Good morning Lord Darkness.” Celestia smirks and gestures to the seat to her left, “Come have a seat.”

Darkness comes over to the gestured seat and sits down, “So what should I know about the noble that is going to throw a hissy fit for me being in their seat?”

Celestia nods as Raven brings Darkness over a folder containing information on the nobles that will be present, “He’s as bad as they come, pompous, arrogant, you name it. We suspect him of having back-alley deals with certain underhooved organizations, and he inherited his title of noble instead of earning it.”

Darkness pulls a file out of the folder, “This one?” Celestia nods and he sighs, “Looks like the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” He looks over at Celestia, “Do you remember the Darkborne family?”

Celestia nods, then takes the file and looks over it.

Darkness continues, “Well the patriarch’s two sons went down two different paths, one keeping the Darkborne name and the other taking on Lightborne.” Darkness rolls his eyes, “The Darkborne side has followed the old patriarch’s ways which is anything underhooved, while the Lightborne have actually been productive members of society.”

Raven chimes in, “How do you know all this?”

Darkness looks over at her, “Three guesses to guess which Moon Shadow got assigned to look into it, and the first two don’t count.”

Raven nods as Celestia speaks up, “I see, I’ll have the intelligence division look into both families just in case.”

Darkness casts a spell to make him unnoticeable and closes the file on nobles he was reading as nobles start coming in for the meeting. As he notices the noble they were just talking about he drops his spell and has a mischievous smile on his face. Celestia notices the smile and has to contain a smirk herself knowing full well what he is planning.

=====================================================================

Wind Strike is still deep in thought from her groups previous interaction with Darkness. She looks over at her Captain, "Sir, permission to ask a question."

Shining snaps out of his daze and looks back at her, "Go ahead soldier."

Wind Strike nodes, "Sir, what exactly are Guardians, I know they did something big, but that's all I was informed of."

Shining nods, "That's as much as we expect ponies to know." He turns his head forward as they continue walking, "Guardians are those ponies that gave their lives either in a big way or after they did something big." Shining looks back as if expecting Darkness to be there, "Whether he knows it or not, Darkness Shield was involved in two big events."

Wind Strike takes a moment to process all before asking, “What were those two big events?”

Shining leads the group towards a picture of Celestia shaking hooves with what appears to be a Changeling Queen, “Darkness’s, assaults, for lack of a better word, was paramount to the signing of the Darkness Concordant, the peace treaty that brought an end to the changeling wars. Though it’s said he was not happy about the name.” Shining moved over to a window that pointed in the direction of the crater but can’t see it, “The other event was what is recorded as making him MIA instead of KIA, apparently.” He leads the squad towards the meeting room as the meeting should be wrapping up soon, “Celestia had called for all forces to take down an evil dark magic user, and like the cliche villain they were, they decided if they couldn’t win they would take everypony with them.” Shining smiles, “Hearing of Darkness’s tale, of what happened that day was what inspired me to become a shield specialist.”

As the guards get into position around the door a fuming noble comes storming out the door and down the hallway. The rest of the nobles leave and go their own ways then Darkness comes out followed by Celestia and Raven, the latter heading off to file some papers away. Darkness chuckles, “I forgot how much fun it was to mess with stuck up nobles.” He sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose a slight red glow to his eyes, “The fact that some of them thought they could have passed bills to decrease the funding towards the military, big mistake.”

Celestia smiles and nods, “I’m glad to have you back Darkness.” Celestia begins to lead the guards and Darkness towards the throne room, “Do you still have your place at the bottom of the mountain?”

Darkness blinks and nods, “Yes I do, and no it has not changed...oh, talk to Raven and then we can see if you and Luna can get some sisterly bonding time.”

Celestia smiles and chuckles, “Do you think you could help out with the intelligence department?”

Darkness motions over his shoulder, “You mean the group that has been following me for the past while thinking they were sneaky?” Darkness turns around, “First lesson, don’t use any bathing supplies that have a smell.”

Celestia blinks and looks back to see an intelligence agent grumble and walk off, “I forgot how well-trained Luna made your forces.”

Darkness chuckles prompting Celestia to look at him, “I just realized Raven may agree to it, as long as she can join.” He sees Raven up ahead waiting by the throne room, “If she has been working for you for so long, she deserves the break.” Celestia chuckles and nods as they meet Raven at the door then go their separate ways as Darkness heads towards the library to catch up on present day events and laws.

After awhile Darkness closes the book he was reading and leans back stretching. "Seven, eight, nine, ten," He makes a mental note of the intelligence agents who tried to spy on him then looks at the clock, "I should go meet up with the princesses, but first." He casts a spell and teleports all ten of the agents to himself, some landing on the floor, others in chairs, and on the desk, and binds them, "We were also trained in counterespionage, have fun getting out of those bindings." He leaves the agents in the middle of the library and heads for the throne room coming across a tired Luna in the process and smirks.

Darkness walks up to Luna and she bumps into him as she tries to walk straight while tired. Luna blushes and goes to apologize to whoever she bumped then sees it's Darkness and leans into him more, cuddling him.

As they continue to walk like that they see Raven and Celestia explaining paperwork to Philomena and Darkness speaks up, "You realize she’s going to burn anything stupid, right?"

Raven looks over at them and smiles, "That's what I'm hoping for," earning a chuckle out of everypony.

Darkness smiles, “By the fact you are teaching Philomena how to do paperwork, I presume Raven agreed to it?” Both Celestia and Raven nodded, “For the sake of appearance, let's take a chariot down then.” Everypony nods and Raven leads the way as Darkness is still being used as a support for a sleepy Night Princess.

They soon arrive at the chariot, Raven climbing on first followed by Celestia. Darkness notices Luna has no intention of leaving his side and levitates her into the chariot before climbing on himself. Luna finally wakes up completely as they take off but still insists on leaning on Darkness.

Darkness looks out at the city as the sisters start talking. Darkness’s head snaps up and in the direction of his house startling everypony in the chariot. Before anyone can say anything Darkness speaks up, "Celestia please send a message to have guards bring a prison carriage to my house." Celestia nods and does so, everypony including the guards pulling the chariot hearing the urgency in his voice.

As the chariot begins to land, Darkness lets out a sigh of relief. Everypony looks at him and he speaks up, "I forgot about the guard cat." Confused, everypony follows him around a corner to see a pile of groaning ponies with a cat sitting on top of it. Darkness looks at the cat, “I take it the leader is in this pile somewhere Tux?"

Tux meows then dives into the pile and drags out a pony. Darkness sighs, "I see the apple didn't fall far from the tree." Everypony can see the pony is Lord Darkborne. The air takes on a chill as Darkness walks towards Darkborne, “I’ve seen you met my familiar, I can tell you this, he’s one HELL of a cat.” Tux gives off a demonic sounding meow startling everypony. Darkness smirks, "Now when you wake up in your cell, you are going to confess to everything, or so help me, nightmares will be the least of your worries." As if on cue Darkborne passes out from the magical pressure directed at him. With a quick nod to Tux the air returns to normal and Tux tosses the pony back on the pile and goes back to his spot on top of it.

Darkness turns back to his companions after calming himself down, “I believe the guards should stay here with Tux until their comrades arrive to help handle this lot.” The guards, too stunned by the cat to object, go over and stand to either side of the pile. Darkness sighs then leads the Princesses and Raven inside and down a set of stairs to a door that he opens for them to reveal a hot spring inside. He chuckles at Raven and Luna's faces, “I found a natural hot spring while I was setting up my house here.”

The mares enter and Darkness goes to leave, letting them enjoy their time. They look back at him and Luna speaks, almost sadly, “Aren’t you going to join us?”

Darkness blinks and looks at them, “I figured you all would want some time to yourselves just to relax.” He suddenly finds himself being levitated by the sisters and taken into the room as well, “I’ll take that as a no then.”

As they get closer to the spring Darkness turns into an inky black mist and floats over to the edge startling everyone. He reforms and holds his head, “Okay, mental note, never do that in a fight.”

Raven floats a scroll over to Darkness, "This is your family tree, thought you would be interested to see if you had any living relatives." Luna goes over to him as well and pokes him, making sure he is real, and receiving a kiss on the forehead, before getting in.

Darkness smiles and nods taking the scroll, "Thank you." He unrolls the scroll and starts reading it as the mares start talking amongst themselves as they relax. He blinks as he notices a name and follows it back down the line, "Huh, they're part of the main house, interesting."

Luna looks over at Darkness, "What did you find?"

Darkness looks up noticing all of them staring at him, "I found that Twilight is a direct descendent of my brother." He rubs his chin, "Meaning I'm her great times ten Uncle, and I need to go see how well my nephew trains the Royal Guard." He rolls up the scroll, sets it aside along with his swords, and decides to climb in next to Luna and nuzzle his fiancée.

Celestia smiles at the two, repressing the knowledge Darkness may not be around forever but he will make her sister happy while he is. She then takes on a thoughtful expression, “Darkness?” Getting a response from him, she continues with her question, “What happened to you for those thousand years?”

Darkness leans his head back as Luna looks at him, concerned, “I don’t know where it was exactly other then a different dimension.” Feeling all them looking at him, he continues, “It was solid grey and the only feature that was there was a solitary tower.” He blinks and looks at his swords, “Then there was those two.”

Luna pouts at him, “Let me guess it was a pair of mares and that’s where that mare that called you father came from.”

Darkness looks at her, “No, they were a pair of souls. Two arch-mage stallions, they were always bickering and were of no help to me.”

Celestia looks slightly concerned from her sisters reaction and hoping to move the conversation to something else, “Did you ever see what was inside that tower?”

Darkness kisses Luna on the nose then looks over at Celestia, “It was the history of this planet from what I learned.” He raises his hand before a particular question was asked, “No I did not read anything but spellbooks looking for a way to get out of there.”

Darkness hears the voice in his head again, “Oh you learned about more than just how to get out of there.”

Darkness’s closes his eyes as if trying to remember more but is actually responding to the voice, “I already know you enjoy messing with me, so do you have anything to add to the conversation that you want me to convey?”

Darkness hears a distorted laughter, “Nope, just thought I would throw my two bits in and bug you.”

Darkness feels a prodding at his side and he opens his eyes to a concerned Luna, “Sorry about that, had to organize my thoughts.” He hears the distorted chuckle again, “As for that mare you saw, her name is Fizzypop, I believe there are some guard reports of a filly summoning some sort of spirit.” He glares at Celestia who slowly sinks into the hotspring out of embarrassment, “You really need to teach those guards the difference between a ghost and a guardian spirit.”

Luna chuckles seeing her sister getting knocked off her pedestal, “Still doesn’t explain where she came from.”

Darkness boops Luna causing her nose to scrunch up and getting a giggle from everyone in the spring,”All I ever got from her and cared to get was, she ran away from an orphanage when she was six, and Tux and I decided to take her in.”

Raven gives Darkness an Aww, “He does have a heart.” She promptly yelps as Darkness splashes her.

Darkness shakes his head, “You know I do Raven.” He returns his attention to the sisters, “I did eventually find a way to use Nightmare Moon’s return as a way for me to make a portal out of that dimension.” He hugs Luna, “And here we are now.”

Celestia looks perks up at an idea, “Do you think you can make a portal to that dimension again?”

Darkness shakes his head, “Yes I can, but no I won’t.” He notices Celestia giving him a stupefied look, “That dimension almost drove me insane, and I had training to keep myself sane.”

Darkness gets up and out of the spring, “We spent enough time here, it’s time we headed back to the castle. You have to work on restructuring the governmental system and I have to find someone to marry us and schedule a day to meet my descendants.”