Shadow of my Own

by LightCode

Rating: teen
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Other, Romance, Random, Adventure, Princess Celestia
Length: 5733

One Pegasus to face the ever-lasting battle between light and shadow. Within - and without.

For a wicked reason, there's always some sort of trouble in Equestria. And for the same reason, it's mostly Ponyville that takes the first hit. However, even the most hardened citizens of this little town could not foresee events as global.

Where heroes become villains and villains prove heroism; where the fragile harmony between light and darkness shatters once again and breaks into a shady mess, there will be only one Pegasus with the mysterious ability to turn the tides either way.

Vaguely remembering his recent past, Blaze suddenly finds himself in the middle of something far greater than he has ever dealt with. Only then he'll learn that the shadows he's been hiding so thoroughly will have to be brought to light sooner or later.

Aided by few and trusted by even fewer, will he be able to selflessly push back the unstoppable and return the innocence that has been stolen?

But then again, it's all a matter of perspective.

Published 2012-10-08 10:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-01-20 10:46:52 UTC

A story (un)like all others - The author's word

And just how exactly does one begin such a story? It was indeed a dark and stormy night; but then again, just moments ago, the sun was peacefully setting over the vast lands of Equestria and nothing was promising trouble. Not in that region anyway, so the forecast said.
But wait, why call it trouble in first place? “All’s well that ends well”, isn’t that the line they often say? Since we all know that this story, as countless others, indeed does end well, then there couldn’t have been trouble at all! Haha! Or does it? Or could it?

Boy, I’m messing it all up again…
I guess I’ll start by saying that this story involved a lot of ponies. Purple, orange, pink, blue, brown… Even yellow! Or yellowish, for that matter. And who knew that exactly that –ish would be the cause of so much trouble?
No pony, I tells ya!
But either way, let’s cut the babble and get to the juicy part, I see you’re all excited already.
Did I really just say juicy..? Uhm… scratch that.

Anyway.
It was indeed a dark and stormy night.

Mostly dark, though.
Indeed.

-Passage of lost hope-

~~~

The darkness was overwhelming. Out of all the nights she has seen, this got to be the darkest one.
And one of the coldest, too.
She’s been walking for days. A thin piece of cloth was all that covered her shivering, fatigued body; her empty bag was left hundreds of steps behind, bearing the memories of her very last snack.
The mare could barely see ahead of her, save a white cloud rhythmically appearing in front of her nostrils. She found comfort in that cloud, despite all hopelessness of her situation. Stranded in a vast desert of snow, she knew she was still alive. Walking forward, towards a goal she could neither see, nor imagine.
Carefully turning her head, the mare gently bit the piece of cloth and once again pulled it back over her withers. It kept sliding off and giving the biting frost a brief chance to clench its icy teeth into the mare’s exposed coat, thus reminding her of the unforgiving gravity of the trouble she got herself into.

Yet the cold was of least trouble to her mind at that moment.

The mare halted and took a deep, shaky breath. The crisp chill actually did her quite well.
She hesitated for a moment, then she bit the cloth, this time dragging it off herself.
It will stay behind, she thought. Just like everything else.
Remains of a once glorious outfit lay in the snow as the pony moved on.

Carefully stepping on through the desert of black and white, she closed her eyes and watched the memories. Even with the last possession lying way behind, they were here to follow: Failures, wherever she tried. Baltimare, Filly Delphia, Manehattan. Not a single success. All phantoms of the past.

After another dozen steps, the mare halted again and exhaled. Watching the vapour fade away, she silently confirmed to herself that there was no point in going any further. She was too exhausted and hungry, and not even magic would be there to save her.
Another moment, and the mare’s body sank into the cold bed beneath her, softly and silently, as a single snowflake descends into the endless sea of oblivion.

~~~

First chapter: As if one problem wasn't enough

"Come back here, where do you think you're going?!"

Heavily panting, Torrent was running his second mile already. Despite not being quite fond of surprise athletic performances, he was starting to get used to the fact that it surely wouldn't be the last time he'd have to pull off such a sprint. In fact, it was her third escape in the last week alone.

"Come back here or face... the... consequences! You... THING!"

On the last word he tried to shake a hoof and almost fell to ground, but managed to catch himself in the last moment. This pony was giving him more hassle than he expected. Just where did he go wrong?

"First, she runs through the entire town; then she drags me all the way to the Everfree Forest," he mumbled. "Where's it going this time, I wonder?"

As a matter of fact, he neither knew nor cared where exactly he was running, so long he kept the purple pony in sight. Well, actually he did care, to a certain extent... And the more trees he dodged, the more anxious he became that this might be the Everfree Forest again.

Not that the evil creatures inhabiting the dark woods scared him in any way, though. Being in company of the TwiBot, it was rather the monsters' well-being he'd have to be worrying about. However, seeing that the aforementioned TwiBot was currently escaping him at drastic speeds, he indeed had a reason to fear for his hooves.

"TwiBot, I order you to come back at once!"

In response, he could catch a faint beeping sound signifying refusal. Through clenched teeth, Torrent let out a silent curse and smiled. After all, she was more or less his invention.

He would never forget the day when a courier pony knocked on his door and asked him to fix and clean up the most wicked construction he had ever seen: a pony-shaped service robot. The purple-dyed body had several lights and buttons on it and a horn of the same colour stood out on the head. The mane and tail were of lighter and darker tones of magenta and indigo and a signature reading "Twi", written in a fine, smooth font, stood in place of a cutie mark - added to its blank stare, the overall sight of the TwiBot could actually infuse some serious terror into unprepared minds. Being of a curious kind, though, Torrent just couldn't refuse the offer. Not that he ever regretted this decision later on.

Through the hours and days that he spent fixing, tweaking and learning the fine mechanics of the truly most incredible creation only a great unicorn mind could come up with, Torrent discovered a trait that was not mentioned to him earlier: the robot was semi-sentient. And before he even knew it, TwiBot had already formed an attachment to her new owner, as it would later turn out. Overcome by fear of Torrent's unusual discovery, the courier pony generously allowed him to keep her and was never heard of again.
Sure, TwiBot had its moments and was quite challenging to maintain, but then again, Torrent taught her how to do fantastic back massages. This alone was worth chasing that silly robot rump for as long as it was necessary. Torrent could bet that she'd owe him a real good one, provided he'd actually...

"...catch... you... back! What are you even doing?! For Celestia's sake, ST-AH- P-ponyfeathers!"

And in the next moment, Torrent gracefully flew in a beautiful arc towards a welcoming pile of leaves. It was expected that he'll trip sooner or later, with the amount of stumps and snags being clearly against his odds. Dazed, he lay on his back, a couple of leaves slowly descending on his face, and muttered something about the gravity of his need for an immediate massage. Attempts to get back on his aching hooves were out of question.

No less confused by her follower's sudden halt, TwiBot hit the emergency breaks and slid on her chassis for another few hooves, finally coming to a stop. She hesitated. Her inner display suggested a

Check on master's well-being Y/N<<

with a clear accent on the last option, but she decided to override the rather predictable algorithm and slowly moved towards the landing site. On squeaking wheels, she approached her master and gave him a penetrating glare.

Torrent, who was still lying on his back with an open mouth and a blank stare pointed upwards, seemed to give no reaction to his runaway's presence.

**meep meep..?**

Slowly, without even turning his head, Torrent looked to the side. Two eyes were staring back at him. Two pink lights on a slightly tilted head radiated so much kindness and innocence that his heart simply began to melt. Sure, any other pony in his place - and in the right mind - would let out a silent scream and run for the hills; yet he knew that no matter how hard he ever tried, he'd always find his little robot pony the most adorable invention ever and forgive her for all her deeds. And this time wasn't an exception either.

Carefully, he made an attempt to stand up.

**meep meep!**

Smiling, Torrent grabbed the stretched out purple hoof of help.

~~~

Leaning on a tree, Torrent sat next to his metal companion and scanned her for any scratches or damage.

"TwiBot, care to explain why you ran away again?"

By that time, the robot's eyes had returned to their regular purple colour. As soon as she processed the question, though, the lights jumped and wildly flickered yellow and orange.

**Status report: Danger close. Danger close.**

Torrent sighed.

"You've been saying that for a week already, Twi. You ran away twice to 'save the day', but nothing actually happened. Ever."

The robot kept glaring at him with a troubled look. Just what was wrong with her, the young stallion pondered. Maybe he should attempt to re-program her again?

They were still in the forest as the evening lay its first touches on the many treetops. The sun stretched its rays and held to the leaves in a long, golden grasp; slowly, it kept descending beyond the horizon, letting go very unwillingly. The night demanded its rightful reign and mercilessly pushed the sunlight away, gradually dying the forest in its shady tones. The moon was still hiding, though, taking the time for a graceful appearance. After all, she wished to be just as beautiful as her sister.

The world dived into a soft tranquility, yet something sinister was lurking in the air. Torrent scratched his head and blamed himself for letting the time slip away like that. Having managed to somehow calm TwiBot down, he thought he'd take a brief rest before they'd head back home - and fell asleep. He actually enjoyed sitting back on a tree stem like that and listening to the forest sounds, and since he hasn't done it for quite a while, he let himself completely drift away with the whispering rustle of the leaves.

"Oh boy, we need to get going. It's dusk already, we don't want to be stuck for the ni-"

**-BEEP BEEP- DANGER CLOSE!**

TwiBot, who was also hibernating, jumped up as she seemed to remember her concerns. Rotating the head wildly and scanning the forest, she eventually fixed her eyes on her master and blinked with a red light.

And for all he knew, red lights meant trouble. Always. Green, purple, pink, yellow and orange were TwiBot's eyes' status lights, which ranged from overjoyed to anxious, but they would never, under no circumstances, go red without a reason. Be it an internal malfunction or some predicted hazard, the red lights were to be taken seriously, and Torrent was quite aware of that. After all, it did save him from quite an amount of reckless accidents.

Her current state puzzled him, though. He looked around: Countless trees stretching to both horizons; some still in the evening light, some already in the nocturnal dark. Apart of TwiBot's constant beeping, the night was to be a rather quiet one. The seemed to be the only creatures in a wide radius. Nothing promised trouble.

**Status report: Danger close. Must move. Assistance required. Will engage.**

Assistance? What was she even talking about? Torrent was barely able to think it through as TwiBot suddenly lit up all her body lights and acceleration towards a goal known only to her.

And what was he left to do rather than follow those lights into the forest's dark?

~~~

This run didn't last too long. After a while, TwiBot and Torrent stepped out on a clearing. The robot stopped and turned around, waiting for her master to catch up. Panting, Torrent trotted the last two steps and gave his torturer a bewildered look: TwiBot was calm again and eyed him up with a soft, purple hue.

Before he could rain anger on her, though, she looked up and said in a calm, robotic voice:

**Sit down, master. It is about to happen.**

Baffled, Torrent let his jaw drop wide open. TwiBot... speaking in that manner? If he could describe her acting earlier the day as weird, then this here was way out of his entire spectrum of what-the-ponyfeathers-was-that.

**The sky, master.**

Torrent gulped and sat down, pointing his eyes to the celestial ceiling above. He was ready for any kind of surprise now. At least so he thought.

The clear night sky was strewn with countless stars, bright and dull, in a tight group or shyly distanced from each other. Once in a while, a star would start moving, rapidly flying across the sky as it burned out on its way, leaving a bright trail that would slowly fade away. Beautiful and sad at the same time, Torrent thought. To shine so brightly, yet to be destined to burn out on one unexpected day. Quite sad indeed.
Another star left the sky, followed by another, and another... One of them seemed so bright that Torrent could have sworn he had never imagined a light as intense. He decided for it to be the last star for tonight, then he'd try to reason with TwiBot and head back home.
Smoothly, the star flickered as it flew in its arc. That would take a long time to burn out, Torrent bet. It must be quite a star, seeing how brightly yellowish the trail-

Wait a second.

Torrent squinted. The yellow star kept flying on its course, going out and lighting up again, but never fully burning out. In fact, it kept growing with every second, its trajectory pointing exactly at...

"Uhm, Twi... I'm starting to feel a bit uneasy about this star up there, see it?"

The robot remained silent, still looking up. What terrified him most, though, is that her eyes remained purple, as if there was no problem at all with a giant celestial object squashing them any second.

"Twi, I guess we better get going, don't you... think..."

Yup, it was flying right into them alright, but there was nothing Torrent could do right now. He was petrified. His mind engulfed in the radiance of the approaching light, he decided that even if it was an end, then it was the most beautiful end ever. After all, you don't get hit by a star every day, do you? Oh boy, this will be heard in all of Equestria!

The star was already close enough to shine as bright as Torrent's questionable excitement. His face gradually lit up and TwiBot's eyes turned green as they were witnessing the last glorious moments before an inevitable impact.

This was it.

One more second.

This was i-

Gone.

"Gone?! Where'd it... what?"

Torrent blankly stared at TwiBot, who, in her turn, was hectically flashing with all the possible colour combinations she could come up with, signifying no less of a confusion. The star had vanished, seconds before it would've hit the ground.

And then it happened.

zzzzZZIP - BOOM!

A bright flash, a dozen of hooves away, lit up the entire environment, followed by a loud explosion that tossed Torrent back with an enormous shock wave.

Then everything went quiet again.

Temporarily deafened and blinded, Torrent lay on the ground, barely conscious. Slowly, his senses came back to him, as he attempted to rise to his hooves. All bones seemed in their places, that was good news so far. He looked around: A blurry silhouette of TwiBot was sitting not too far away from him, seemingly unaffected by the blast at all. He decided to check on her and staggered her way.

"You... alright?"

**Status report: All systems working. Daddy alright?**

Torrent smiled and confirmed he's feeling fine. He loved it when she called him like that.

"What was that... What just happened?" Torrent asked the sky more than anyone else.

Looking ahead, he searched the area for the answer. And he was sure to find it. In the approximate vicinity of the explosion, something was faintly glowing.

Torrent and TwiBot exchanged looks and he silently nodded. They had to find out.

On careful steps, both approached the crash site. What they saw crowned every single thing they had experienced through the course of the entire day.

An orange Pegasus was mildly shining bright, pleasant hues.

-Passage of doubt-

~~~

In a place far away, a divine alicorn cast her celestial spell.

The sun obeyed. Preparing itself to kindly ask the moon to pass her reign, it disappointedly realised that someone has been quite lazy: The night before has been dark, cold and moonless. Eager to finally shed some light on the world below, it was even more disappointed to learn that the lands to first see the morning’s gold were vastly empty as well. “What a waste!” the sun sighed and resumed its magical cycle.

The world, however, wasn’t as innocent as it pretended to be. In fact, it did hide a little secret even from the sun itself: Cloaked in a snowy veil and kept away from anypony’s view, a mare was resting in what seemed to be an eternal slumber.

Somewhere deep inside, her little heart was faintly beating. Yes, she was still alive, and probably the only living creature for miles around.

Crawling through the thin layer of snow, the sunrays finally reached the mare’s eyelids and gently stroked them.

She woke up.

Wearily blinking, she stared in the whiteness shrouding her view. It took her a moment to gasp and rise sharply, shaking the snow off herself.

If anypony was to see her at this very moment, they’d probably mistake her for the mysterious snow princess herself.

Astoundingly beautiful she sat there, her gorgeous mane leaving a trail of thousand glitters as she gracefully looked around. Her horn emitted a faint colour as the last patches of snow were cleaned away with a gentle magical touch, exposing her bright coat to the mildly warming sun above. There was no doubt she was a pony of high class, not destined for such oblivion. Yet there she was, lost and out of her place, just like most of her striving life. And just like always, she would have to overcome her anxiety, swallow her pride and rise up again, strong and ready to fight for a way out.

Or wouldn’t she?

Sadly, not even she could answer that anymore. Right now, she tried to keep a cool head, which, ironically enough, was quite an effort despite the chill circumstances; yet one single fact threatened to shatter her calmness once and for all. It was neither the unexplainable fact that she was still alive, nor the question of any further survival; neither the merciless cold, nor the lack of ideas for any source of food or water. All this was of secondary importance compared to what the mare had discovered, inferior in both size and significance.

As she heavily breathed, her pupils slowly followed each step of a gigantic rising stairway into the inner of the biggest mountain she's ever seen, a mountain that appeared out of nowhere and would lead her right there.

The mare gulped nervously as her hoof hovered above the first step of hundreds, maybe thousands above.

Second chapter: Where two and two won't add up

“Close the door, Twi, quick. No one can see us, not even by accident.”

The wooden door creaked as it firmly shut.

“Great, now let me help. Careful, Twi…”

Torrent gently lifted the pony with his front hooves off TwiBot’s back and put him on the cushions. On quiet wheels, Twi followed him and peered at the orange stallion as he was safely placed to rest.
Not letting their eyes off of him for a break of a second, Torrent and TwiBot simultaneously sat in front of the sofa and gazed at the miracle they’ve found.

And what a miracle it was! Torrent, a dreamer with a broad horizon and a curious nature, believed in all kinds of wonders, but even this seemed beyond any kind of fiction he’s ever read or heard about. Yet it was true, and no matter how often he whispered to TwiBot to pinch him, he’d still be seeing the very same picture: an orange Pegasus, a star fallen from the skies. Minutes passed as he kept staring at the phenomenon lying right before his hooves, able to neither look away nor handle. There was this wicked, hypnotising thing going on, which puzzled him most: now the Pegasus was orange; a second later he would turn yellowish, amber, then orange again. This glowing cycle mildly reflected on his black mane and tail, which were occasionally fluttering in the sudden gusts of an evening breeze blowing in from the open window. The latter showed a yellow stripe across its middle, which seemed to be unaffected by the mysterious glow. The Pegasus’ wings were partly unfolded and revealed a white stripe along their margin, which oddly enough seemed most unnatural to Torrent.

“Who can this be, Twi?”

TwiBot replied with a look signifying that her guess was as good as his.

“A Pegasus, true, but he fell from such an altitude and didn’t break a bone. And this explosion…” –Torrent studied the pony as he spoke- “…couldn’t have been caused by him. Otherwise, how is he alive? And this weird glowing of his coat and the white tips of his wings and… hold on, what’s this?”

Carefully shoving the hoof aside, Torrent revealed the pony’s cutie mark. He wasn’t much surprised to add another mystery to the bag: a lightning with two tips, a white and a black one, as simple and senseless as that. What could the talent even be? Electrocuting ponies till their colours dropped out?

Torrent innerly raised an eyebrow at the ridicule in his own thoughts. He was tired, and his mind wasn’t in its best shape to think adequately, not after what it had experienced that night. He scanned the mildly glowing enigma one last time and sighed. Just what did he get himself into?

“Twi, let’s leave him now and see what the morning brings. You must be tired, too, aren’t you?”

The robot nodded, interpreting ‘tired’ as ‘in serious need of power regeneration’, which indeed was the case.

“So it’s set then.”

Torrent stood back up on his hooves and yawned. He then halted, let out a silent “Oh, right”, grabbed an empty can and briefly went out to fill it with some water from the nearby river. Not five minutes later he was trotting back to place it on the drawer beside the sofa.

“That’ll do, just in case”, he murmured as he dragged out a spare mattress, thinking it’d be safer to spend the night next to the unconscious Pegasus. Who knows what could happen? Torrent softened the mattress with his hoof a few times and finally lay down. Nopony would ever feel the same wave of relaxation that flowed through his body right now; neither would they know of all the things storming through his sleepy mind, now as vivid as a lucid dream. Pictures of the forest, the field, the stars, the pony who fell from the sky. The walk back. Oh boy, the walk back; creepy as ever. That’d be a story to tell.

As he dozed off to the sound of his streaming thoughts, he felt TwiBot lying down next to him, as silently as she could. After a few creeks and squeaks he finally heard a

***Goodnight, Daddy***

as she proceeded to hibernate. He smiled, letting the hurricane in his head calm down by the feeling of being home again, in his own little harmony.

And just like that, he slipped into the deep realms of the nocturnal princess; where light and dark served the sole peaceful purpose of providing all ponies with colourful dreams.

Not a mere half an hour later Torrent was woken up by a ferocious scream of shrilling pain.

~~~

“You… I never thought you’d betray me like that…”
“I didn’t, I swear! Please listen-“
“I am NOT willing to listen! You’ve been hiding this from me all this time?!”
“Please, please give me a chance to explain..!”
“I’m sorry, but I have no choice. I’ll do what I have to.”

“Oh no… Please DON’T-“

He tore his eyes wide open and shot up, leaning his back on his hooves as he breathed heavily, his face wet and his entire body shaking like a leaf on an autumn tree. Bewildered, he looked around and tried to get a grasp on reality. First things first: he was on a sofa. Okay. Next to him was a little, neat drawer with a can of… water? How caring, he thought and reached a hoof for a drink. He was thirsty beyond imagination, and the little refreshment was consumed in one gulp. That did well, definitely.

With a steadier breath, the Pegasus let his eyes wander across the strange room he was in: a moderately sized living room with all kinds of paintings and little drawings on the walls, few pieces of furniture here and there, a staircase leading upstairs, to the bedroom maybe. The pony failed to create a decent description for himself, as panicking as his mind was; but if he was to judge his first impression, then it was sure a nice and comfortable one. But where was he? And moreover: how did he even land here? He tried to recall the most recent events, yet the concussion of last night wouldn’t really let him. What did happen anyway?

Confused and driven by curiosity, he took a deep breath, waved his front hooves for some side momentum and jumped up from the sofa on his hind ones – and immediately tripped on the carpet below. Alright, so his body wasn’t ready for stunts yet, lesson learned. Rolling to his sides from the unfortunate body part he landed on, which could just be referred to as his face, he took a new, slower approach and got up on his four. Carefully stretching one wing after another, he dropped an accidental look at a nearby mirror and eyed himself up. Tired amber eyes, ruffled mane and messed up wings which could definitely need some preening – that’s a sight he was used to lately and was most glad to see. He raised an eyebrow, smiled and took an important poise. My, oh my! What a stallion! He then started pulling different faces and generally enjoyed himself to the point when he eventually lost it and broke out into a hearty laugh. Yup, as far as he knew, he was still his old self, and this gave him comfort and confidence.

The Pegasus giggled for another few seconds and stretched, finally pulling himself together and taking another deep breath. The process of self-reconnaissance went well and he indeed felt better. Now it was time to find out more about this place and ultimately see who the actual owner was. With a braver heart, the pony looked up and set his first hoof towards the exit - just to have his heart crash down into his coronets the very same instant.

And that’s exactly when Torrent got pretty much busted.

Petrified, Torrent stared at the shocked Pegasus, who stared right back at him. It was a long silence with a slight tinge of awkward in it, since both well knew who was secretly watching the other one in the past few moments. Seconds stretched themselves to minutes, gladly supporting the tension in the room, and eventually Torrent had no choice but to take leadership in the situation and claim the initiative to break the silence. Preparing himself for an explanatory speech, he opened his mouth – and dropped the bucket of water, splashing all over the place.

That was enough of a trigger to make both ponies break out in hysterical laughter that well lasted a few minutes, since it was the least expected cherry on top of such a tense situation – but sure the sweetest one. Wiping the tears off his eyes, Torrent finally pulled himself together and approached the Pegasus who was still having slight trouble with that. The pony was sure easy to amuse, Torrent thought and stretched out a hoof.

“Name’s Torrent. Sorry for the rather unusual way to meet, hehe.”

The Pegasus snickered and replied to the hoofshake.

“Hehe, and I’m sorry for the unusual bucket loss. Nice to meet you, too, Torrent! My name would be Blaze.”

And that’s how the acquaintanceship was made.

~~~

“Sho you really remember noshing of what happened yeshterday?”

Torrent suggested taking a walk to the river for another bit of water. He sure was curious to ask some questions, but the bucket in his mouth wasn’t quite helping.

“Yeah, I don’t. I rather wanted to ask you how and where you found me… you know.”

Blaze gave Torrent a helpless look, then turned away and kept walking, consumed by his thoughts. They were near the river now, so Torrent filled the bucket and offered to sit down and have a chat. He began telling about his adventures of last night, and Blaze listened with peaked interest.

“So we had no choice but to pick you up and drag you all the way back here. I really thought we wouldn’t make it, since the forest…” Torrent exhaled briefly. “The forest was out of its mind. We were followed by weird noises and flashes of light here and there, shadows crossing right in front of our hooves. It was creepy, if I may say so. But it all stopped once we went past the forest line. It got to be the most wicked thing I’ve been through… well, before we brought you inside, of course.”

Blaze’s ear twitched as he tried to graphically reproduce Torrent’s tale in his head.

“What happened then? And who is the companion you keep mentioning?” he eventually asked.

Torrent took a sip from the bucket. He’d rather show him TwiBot than shock him even more with the fact that she’s a pony robot.

“I’ll introduce you to her as soon as we get back. Now, back to the story. So we put you on the sofa and… watched you for a while.”

Blaze raised an eyebrow as Torrent hastily proceeded.

“Well, you were glowing! I mean, literally glowing. Your whole body was shining a bit, you know. By the current looks on your face you have no idea either, right?”

The Pegasus nodded. Falling down from the sky, exploding and now glowing in the night – quite a bunch of undiscovered attributes to learn about one’s self in one single chat, wasn’t it?

“But that’s not all of it. There comes the weirdest part: as we went to sleep, you suddenly started to yell and twitch all over your body, and -”

Torrent paused, intimidated by the frozen stare in his interlocutor’s eyes.

“Go on.”

“Yeah, well. Your whole body was covered in black spots all over it, along with the glowing ones. They sort of flowed into one another and… It was quite spectacular, but looked pretty painful as well. Speaking of which, you do feel fine now, don’t you?”

Blaze raised a hoof and stared at it in silence. What in tarnation was happening to him? And how did it come to that? He sure wasn’t taking a night flight and fell on his head, did he?

“Hey, Blaze.” The pony looked up at Torrent’s call. “Listen, mate, don’t you worry. We’ll figure something out, you just get back in shape and then we’ll both see what we can do about you. You can stay at my place so far.”

The orange pony smiled. Torrent’s concern and kindness gave him hope to shed some light on the mystery surrounding him, and that’s all he needed right now.

“Thank you, I appreciate it.”

“Don’t mention it, mate! Now, let’s get back to the house, shall we?”

“Sure, but this time I’m carrying the bucket. Who knows what else will startle you today, Torrent!”

Giggling, Blaze grabbed the bucket in his mouth and both ponies gladly trotted back.

~~~

The stroll wasn’t a long one, but it sure distracted him from the enormous load he just received. Blaze closed the eyes and let the morning sun shine warmth on his eyelids. He was inhaling generously, treating himself with the fresh smell of the nearby meadows. The place was simply magical, and innerly he was more than glad having landed here and not somewhere in a snowy desert.

Torrent’s voice was another melody among the pleasant sounds of the morning, as he was singing to him about this companion of his.

“She’s extremely nice! You may find her a bit unusual at the beginning –all ponies do have their crazy side, can’t argue with that- but once you get to know her, you’ll realise that she’s an absolute wonder! Helpful, kind and a total cutie, hehe. Here’s the house, by the way. Let me call her to take the bucket from you.”

Blaze gave an approving “Mhhm” and halted. Torrent must really appreciate that pony, he thought and snickered on the inside.

“Twi, come meet our guest!”

*clonk*

The sound of falling metal, accompanied by a silent splash, made Torrent’s excitement go slightly dimmer. He looked at Blaze and scowled.

The Pegasus was stunned, mouth wide open, as he slowly turned towards Torrent and asked him in a terrified, shaky voice.

“H-how did you just… c-call her?”

There was no room for question and answer, since right in the instance, TwiBot literally flew out of the house, joyful pink lights in her eyes, and stormed towards Blaze.

Torrent cackled.

“Ah, she’s happy to see you. Don’t worry, she’s not dangerou- Mate?!”

By the side of the bucket, Blaze was lying without consciousness.