Author's Note

This will be a longer chapter than normal, due to me including one of my original roleplay characters.

Chapter Five: An Unexpected Friendship

Bane traveled for a whole day and a half, finally on the last leg of his travels through this damned desert, and he stumbled upon a man on the ground. Flashbacks of Tender Step finding him raced through his mind, and he nodded, knowing he HAD to help. He lifted the man with his magic, and placed him onto his back, and carried on, using a barrier spell to shield them from the harsh heat. A few hours into the walk, the man woke up, and fell off of Bane's back. He seemed panicked.

Bane stood calmly, but ready for a fight if the man wanted to get aggressive. Bane had never seen any humanoid creatures before, and the man grumbled. "What the hell am I seeing right now?" He asked, but Bane did not understand him. Bane walked very calmly up to the man, and his horn lit up. The man reached for his weapon on his back, and Bane stopped, smiling in a friendly manner. This seemed to calm the humanoid being down, and Bane continued. He tapped the horn to the mans head, and spoke. "Can you understand me?" He asked, and the man nodded, speaking as well. "Yes, but how can a horse talk?"

Bane huffed and couldn't understand him, so he adjusted the spell and tried again. "Try again? I couldn't understand you." He said and the man repeated himself.

"Ah, good, the spell worked. Now we can understand each other! My name is Bane Blade, I found you passed out in the desert back there. Not too long ago I was in your horseshoes myself."

The man blinked a few times. "Uhhh, ok? My name is Durunga..." He introduced himself, and Bane nodded. "Nice to meet you Durunga. I've never met a creature like yourself before. What race are you? I'm a Unicorn!" He said with a smile. The man blinked in confusion and sighed. "I'm a Shadow Walker. Not likely a race you've ever heard of before." He explained and Bane nodded. "Yea, never heard of one of those before."

Durunga laughed some, and noticed the red magic field covering them, and keeping them in shade. "A magic user huh? Interesting. " Durunga said and Bane chuckled. "Yes, all Unicorns can use magic, all ponies in my land have their own way of using magic infact, but Unicorns can use magic much more freely." Bane said and sat down. "So, why are you out here?" He asked, and Durunga sighed. "I goofed up a Shadow Jump, and ended up here, in a place where the only shadow around is the ONE shadow I CAN'T use to Shadow Jump...."

Bane blinked at the term. "Shadow Jump?" He asked with curiosity.

Durunga nodded. "Yes, my kind can use any shadow except our own to essentially teleport from one place to anywhere we want to go, no matter the distance. We can even use shadows to teleport into a different dimension. The realm I'm from, is called The Shadow Realm. It's the polar opposite of this Realm, which is called The Light Realm." Durunga explained.

Drew blinked in shock at hearing that there are more worlds than just this one. "Hold on....there are more worlds than this?!" He asked. "Celestia needs to know of this!" He exclaimed, and nods. "I have to go back! Can you come with me!?" He asked of the stranger. Durunga blinked.

"Why should I?! What's in it for me?" Durunga asked.

"How about being the one to help ponies make groundbreaking discoveries? You'd be famous here! We can even pay you if your information checks out!" Bane said, gambling on that promise.

Durunga perked up at the offer of payment, and thinks, nodding. He looked around for a moment. "Where are we going, and how are we getting there? I need a stable shadow to Shadow Jump, and I can't use yours if you're coming with me."

Bane nods and looked further South. "There's a town a few more miles from here. There's other shadows there." Bane said as Durunga nodded.

Bane started walking again as he was deep in thought about what to do next. Whike walking, he started to write a letter to Celestia to advise her that he was going to soon arrive with a strange new visitor.

After the letter was finished, he lit it ablaze with a green flame from his horn and it turned to smoke and headed North. He watched it fly away as he smiled to himself with hope.

Durunga blinked. "What the hell was that about?" Durunga asked curiously.

"Sent a letter to Celestia to give her a heads up about your arrival. Now she'll make ateps to prepare, rather than having you randomly show up with me" Bane explained as Durunga shrugs.

"Eh, whatever I guess..." Durunga said nonchalantly.

Bane nods as they walked along. They went a while without speaking as they arrived at the town. It looked like like a ghost town,void of all signs of recent life.

Durunga was first to notice this abnormality. "Strange, isn't a town supposed to have people living in it?" He asked as Bane shrugs.

"Maybe they're shy, or cautious of strangers?"

Bane sighed some, and Durunga stopped him. "Something isn't right here! The magic here is incredibly dark..." Durunga said with a serious tone.

Bane blinked and his horn lit up, sensing the local energy and his fur stood on end. "You're right, something really really bad happened here recently....I can sense the fear and horror..."

Durunga looked around a bit,drawing two swords from his back that didn't appear to be there at first glance. They were soecial blades, one created to deal massive and directed physical damage, red in color woth a black edge and slightly curved half way to the tip. The other was more broadsword-like, black on color with a red edge, and double sided. The black edged blade pulsed, indicating a presence of Black Magic.

"There's a Black Mage around here, I can sebse it and so can Armageddon." He stated as Bane looked around, carefully seeking out details about what happened here but couldn't spot anything out of place. He glanced to his left just in time to see a black orb flying at them.

Bane pushed Durunga aside with his levitation magic and used a barrier soell to deflect tge orb. His horn lit up as he'd hear a maniacal laughter. "Hahahahahahaaaaa, foolish intruders, you should have never came to this damned village. Their souls are mine now, and so will yours be!" The voice said, but Durunga couldn't hear it.

Durunga blinks as he watched Bane growl while looking around and saw the attack, turning to face that direction.

A black and blue bolt of lightning went for Bane right after the barrier went down, tined for tge cooldown for the spell as Durunga rushed between it and Bane. He used Armageddon to block the magic, and watched the blade feed off of the Black Magic.

Durungs grins to himself as he held Apocalypse out, the red esged blade. He pointed it to where the black lightning came from. "Come out coward!!" Durunga exclaimed as he watched a. Blue coated and very dark yellow maned stallion walk out of the darkness between buildings.

(To Be Continued)