The circle of fire grew again, and Twilight stopped screaming as soon as she was no longer engulfed in flames. She had lost count of how often she had gone through being burned alive, or how long she was burned this time.

“So,” Daybreaker said from the entrance of the town hall, “did you reconsider your answer?”

Twilight collected her thoughts. I can’t let this happen to the others! And I can’t beat her. There’s only one way to save them… “Yes.” She looked at Daybreaker. “If you promise to spare my friends from this, I will pledge to serve you.”

“Wonderful!” Daybreaker clapped her hooves and laughed gleefully. “You know what to do, just finish the spell! And don’t worry, you won’t even think about turning back, or as seeing it as betraying your friends.”

Twilight looked down on the book, all the letters still burning except for those in the last paragraph.

“My heart and soul I'll open now.”

The next line caught fire.

“So before evil I shall never bow.”

The fire closed in on Twilight again, but this time, it wasn’t painful. The flames, they… they feel… good…

“Armed with the power of your radiant light…”

The moment of truth. I’ll sell my soul to save my friends. But it’s not like I’d have a choice. Nothing can stop her…

Daybreaker’s patience was nearing its end. “Hurry up!”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Twilight said. Why did I call her… But it’s fitting. Just one more line, and I’ll truly be her servant, anyway. She took a deep breath, expecting the heat to fill her lungs and burn away her last doubts, but the air was ice cold. She tried to say something, ask what was happening, but the words froze in her throat. The fire around her turned blue and colder than anything Twilight had ever felt before.

“NO!” Daybreaker yelled. She jumped down the stairs of the city hall, standing in front of Twilight, and looking every which way. “What do you think you will accomplish with this? Do you think saving her will change anything? That it will make a difference? I will get out! All you did was buy this rotten world another year, at best!”

She waited for a response, but didn’t get one. “Show yourself! I know you’re here! Do you really think I would believe that she is strong enough to resist me? Just end this charade!”

A stream of blue fire from somewhere behind Twilight hit Daybreaker in the chest and threw her off her hooves.

Shaded appeared in front of her. “Here I am,” she said with cold rage.

Daybreaker attacked her with her firebreath, but Shaded just deflected it with her wings. “Do you really think you could hurt me?” She summoned her scythe. “You’re just a tiny fragment of the real Daybreaker. You can’t hope to defeat me while your true self is still locked away.”

“But soon, I’ll be completely free, and then it will be over for you! You just got lucky last time we fought each other, Si—”

Shaded swung her scythe at Daybreaker before she could finish her sentence. When the blade touched her hide, it didn’t cut through it. Daybreaker just dissolved, and the blade absorbed her essence. After she was gone, the fires consuming Ponyville died down, the clouds of smoke cleared up, and the book disappeared.

Shaded turned to Twilight. As soon as Shaded undid her ice spell, Twilight collapsed, shaking and sobbing. Shaded walked up to her, and gently lifted her face to look her in the eyes. “Twilight,” she said with warmth in her voice, “I’m sorry that I wasn’t here sooner. This is something you should have never had to experience. If you want, I can take it from you. You just have to nod, and the pain will be gone.”

Twilight nodded, and Shaded charged her horn, collecting her magic in a small sphere at the end. A string came out of the sphere, connecting to Twilight’s horn, her breathing calmed down more and more the longer the two were connected, until Shaded eventually cut the string. She offered Twilight a hoof to help her up, which Twilight gladly took.

“Incredible,” she said, “I can remember that it happened, but the pain, the trauma… it's gone. You just made it disappear.”

“Sadly, no—” Shaded shook her head “—Even I can’t make something like that just disappear, just like Starlight couldn’t just hex away her anger.”

“So, how—” Her eyes widened. “You transferred it to yourself, didn’t you?”

“I did. It was the only way to help you. Things like this… they are going to leave lasting scars, and I’d much rather have those scars myself than have you suffer from them.”

“How are you still so calm?”

“I’ve been through worse… But now I suggest we return to the waking world.”

Twilight opened her eyes, and found herself lying on the floor of her bedroom in the middle of a purple rune circle.

“A containment seal,” Shaded explained, standing in front of her, “In case the fragment of Daybreaker had tried to make a run for it like the last one.”

“I thought Celestia forced the last one out of Starlight’s dream?”

“What she did was more like catapulting Daybreaker out. Daybreaker felt me approaching, used it to get away. And afterwards, I had to hunt her for weeks through the dreams of everypony in Equestria.”

Twilight looked over to her bed. “Where’s Derpy?”

“Waiting outside, same with Dinky, Starlight, and Spike. I woke them up when I noticed that something was going wrong in your dream, so that Daybreaker couldn’t just jump over to them while I set up the runes. I did the same for the other elements, and I sent a message to Luna to come as well, in case something goes wrong.”

“Makes sense.” Twilight tried to step out of the seal, but was stopped by its forcefield. “So… could you please undo the seal?”

Shaded hesitated a moment. “There’s something else I want to address before I do. Daybreaker lied when she said the seal broke again. While it’s true that she’s building up more power, we were able to reinforce it enough to prevent that for a while, although I’m sure you’ll understand that I don’t see that as a reason to relax just yet. But she didn’t lie about having placed the seeds for this years ago. I wasn’t sure until now, but now its certain. A tiny piece of her magic is embedded in you.

“I can place a spell on you that would prevent it from affecting you again. It’s a dark magical rune I would have to place in your left eye. Now, I know Equestria’s stance on dark magic, and that you had some bad encounters with it in the past, but I want to assure you that—”

“I know,” Twilight said, “It’s not as bad as its made out to be, and with enough caution, it wouldn’t negatively affect me, right?

Shaded was taken aback by that. “Yes, but I’m surprised that you’re so accepting of the idea.”

“Look,” Twilight said, “I used dark magic myself in the past. Celestia even taught me a bit. And I spent months sorting and organizing the library of Castle Everfree, and there were a lot of books about the dark magic in there.”

A small smile stole itself on Shaded’s face. “And you read them?”

“Curiosity got the better of me, yes. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that using it can be extremely dangerous, but just learning about it can’t do any harm, right? It’s just magic, after all. So, will the rune be very noticable?”

“Only if you use magic, then it will glow depending on how much you use. But otherwise, it will be only visible if somepony gets extremely close to you, and even then just barely. And you really trust me enough to let me cast a spell on you?”

“Of course.”

Shaded nodded, charged her horn and stepped forward. “I’ll have to place my hoof over your eye. It will sting a little bit, but it is important that you stay absolutely still while I cast the spell.”

Twilight took a deep breath. “I’m ready.”

Shaded raised her hoof, purple mist gathering around it. Twilight’s body tensed up when the magic flowed into her eye, but managed to stay still, even when the door was kicked open by Celestia.

“Get away from her!” she shouted. When Shaded ignored her, Celestia shoved her away.

Shaded stumbled back a few steps before saying, “We really have to stop meeting like this.”

Celestia charged her horn. “What are you doing to her?”

Before Shaded could answer, Luna walked into the room.

“Would you stop threatening her?” she asked annoyed, “You promised to give her a chance, remember?”

“I didn’t immediately blast her away for trapping Twilight. That’s her chance,” Celestia said to Luna. Then she turned back to Shaded. “Now tell me what you did to her! And I swear to Epona, if you harmed her, so help me—”

“Princess Celestia, I’m okay” —Twilight rubbed her eye— “Thanks to Shaded. Without her, Daybreaker would have gotten me.”

“And the dark magic she used on you?”

“Just a seal to prevent another incident like that,” Shaded said. She lit her horn, and the rune circle around Twilight disappeared. “And fortunately, I finished it before you so rudely interrupted me. Aborting a spell like this in the middle of casting it can have dire consequences.”

Celestia didn’t shift her gaze from Shaded when she said, “Luna, could you take a look at it? Dark magic was always more your thing.”

Luna sighed. “Sure, Sister.” She walked up to Twilight, gestruting her to show it to her. “It’s hard to see…”

Right, she said it’s not going to be clearly visible, except when I use magic, Twilight thought. She charged her horn, causing the rune to glow.

“Thanks,” Luna said, “Let’s see… three crescent moons connected to a circle with their backs, with a triangle formed between the points where the moons touch the circle… relatively bright for dark magic… It doesn’t look like any curse mark I know, and I can’t feel any malice in it.” Luna stepped back and looked at Celestia.

“Could you now please stop preparing to kill me already?” Shaded asked, “Twilight went through enough tonight already. There’s no need to add witnessing a murder to the list.”

“Fine,” Celestia scoffed. She dropped the charge in her horn. “I guess fearing to lose my student to you just like I had already lost Luna in the past made me overreact, but it's not like you could ever understand the pain from having to banish your sister to the moon for one thousand years.”

“Tia,” Luna said, trying to calm her down, “I know its hard for you, but please try to—”

“Excuse me?!” All three princesses turned to Shaded. Her eyes turned a slightly darker colour. “What do I not understand? The pain of banishing one’s sister?” She walked towards Celestia, who in turn stepped back. “Oh, what a difficult decision that must have been for you. So difficult that it took you a whole two minutes to make it! You didn’t even try anything else! No wonder the elements lost their power afterwards. You betrayed everything they stand for! And then, instead of, oh, I don’t know, mourning her or admitting that you failed, you made a national holiday out of our defeat! You think you lost Luna to my influence back then? I saved her when you didn’t care about her! She spent years ignored by everypony, even by you, who was supposed to be there for her, to the point where she was so eaten up by jealousy and hatred and guilt for feeling that way, that she tried to erase her emotions altogether with a black crystal when I found her!

“But I could have seen past all of that for the sake of diplomacy, but I will not stand for you saying that I don’t know anything about your pain. Because guess what, I may be the only one in the entire world who can understand that.” Shaded had forced Celestia so far back that she was now cowering before the wall, Shaded looking down on her. “You think the pain and guilt of banishing your sister for one thousand years is bad? Try having to kill your own sister, then we can talk about guilt!”

Nopony said a word, all paralyzed from shock.

After a few moments, Shaded silently counted to ten before taking a step back. “I suppose it is time to tell you all the whole story about Daybreaker. I'll be waiting in the library. If you think the other Elements should hear it too, bring them along. It’s not a story I’m going to repeat anytime soon.”

After the Elements, Starlight, Celestia and Luna had arrived, Shaded asked, “Would that be everypony, or do we have to wait for somepony else?”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, we’re all here.”

“Good.” Shaded took a deep breath. “So, I’ll address the biggest thing first. Yes, Daybreaker was my sister.”

“What do yer mean, ‘was’?” Applejack asked.

Shaded sighed. “My sister Aurora Star and I were on a mission. That was back when I was a mercenary in the service of our king, Saminus. We had to protect a small group of merchants on their travels through the borderlands of our realm, Umbracala. It was supposed to be an easy assignment, with both of us thinking that our talents were wasted out there, and we only took the job because of the pay.

“But we were wrong. On our way back, two days away from the capitol, we discovered that a new cult of solar and fire mages calling themselves ‘Sunpriests’ had settled in the area. We were ambushed by a few of them. We defeated them, but they had called in reinforcements, and it was clear that we wouldn’t be able to get to the nearest fortress before being caught, so Star stayed back to buy us enough time to escape. We had sworn an oath to put our mission before anything else, and she was set on keeping it. Thanks to her, the merchants and I reached the fortress an hour later.”

Shaded paused for a moment that Rainbow used to ask a question. “So you went back and tried to save her, right?”

“I wanted to, of course. But my sense of duty told me to first finish my mission, so even after we were back in safe territory, I escorted the merchants back to the capitol. I asked Saminus to be allowed to take my unit and go back to search for her, either to rescue her or, more likely, to at least recover her corpse for a proper burial, but he denied my request. So I deserted and went back for her by myself.”

“Tracking their base down didn’t take as long as I had feared, but I was too late. The Sunpriests had ripped her souls apart, and stitched them back together with a Firio, turning her into the monster we know as Daybreaker, just before I had found her.”

Shaded gave everything a moment to settle in. The only sound she could hear was Pinkie’s mane deflating.

“You—” Celestia hesitated for a moment before asking “—you killed her that day, right?”

“No, I was unprepared and barely got out of there alive. Afterwards, with their new monster, the Sunpriests attacked more and more viciously, not just in Umbracala, but also in the realms of the vampires and werewolves. In reaction, the three nocturnal tribes reacted similarly to the three pony tribes during the Windigo Winter. And just like with your ancestors, Saminus, the werewolf king Lycaon and the vampire queen Sanguiane were to stubborn to form an alliance against Daybreaker.

“But I was good friends with the werewolf Princess Lupa and the heir to the vampire throne Sanguis. We all realized that we would all be lost if we don’t band together, and decided to take matters into our own hooves. The night after the failed conference, we each usurped our respective rulers, became the First Majesties of Noctris, and chose the trimoon symbol as our banner.

“What followed… I’ll spare you the details and will just give you a broad overview. The sunpriests had the support of a neighboring realm, so we had to fight not only against Daybreaker, but also lead our armies in an all-out war that lasted months. In the last fight against Daybreaker, I tried everything to save my sister. Every counterspell I could find, every anti-curse, every method to imprison her, but nothing worked.

“She managed to knock me to the ground, was about give me the killing blow. But because she stopped to gloat, I managed to get hold of my sister’s sword and stabbed it right through Daybreaker’s heart. My sister died, Daybreaker’s soul was sealed her away in the sword, and then, because of the danger it poses, we locked it away in a fortress deep in the mountains of the Frozen North, so that nopony could ever free Daybreaker from it.”

“If it’s so dangerous,” Rainbow asked, “Why didn’t you destroy the sword?”

“It’s often not that simple,” Celestia said before Shaded could, “Any attempt at destroying it could have also released Daybreaker. It’s often better to hide or protect artifacts like that instead of risking to unleash their magic on the world.”

“Precisely,” Shaded said, “and since we never had any issues with it in the six thousand years since, it would have been foolish to take that risk.”

Twilight needed a moment to process that. “Six… six thousand?”

Shaded nodded. “I’m a little bit over six thousand years old.” She turned to Celestia. “I hope you can understand my reaction from earlier now.”

“Yes. Yes, of course. And I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that you could never understand it,” Celestia said.

Shaded took a deep breath. “Apology accepted, but there’s more important matters we have to focus on. Tonight proved that the threat Daybreaker poses is real. And we will only be able to stop her if we stand together as friends. Daybreaker’s fire is strong, but with a bit of luck, the Fire of Friendship will be stronger, maybe even strong enough to prevent her from escaping in the first place.”

Celestia looked at Shaded for a moment before turning to Luna. “Since you are the one who leads this, I will accept your decision. If you consider Noctris to be a friend of Equestria, I will as well.”

“If we’re being honest, our realms are already friends here in Ponyville, and all it will take is a bit more time for it to be like that everywhere. But it’s a problem that we only know you—” Luna turned to Shaded “—You are of course a valued friend, but we can’t form a friendship with a realm consisting of three kingdoms if we only ever talk to one. I need to meet the other majesties, before Castle Everfree is completed.”

Shaded responded, “The success in Ponyville changed a lot of minds in Noctris, so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem. But I’m afraid that we have to discuss the final touches of that another time. Right now I just need to know if you are in principle in favour of it so I can get everything underway. I will contact you as soon as possible.”

“Makes sense,” Luna said. Then she looked at the elements. “I asked you months ago to help me make this decision. So, what do you say?”

“Of course I’m in favour of it,” Twilight said, “I’m always happy about making new friends. And without Shaded, I would be serving Daybreaker now.”

“Same here,” Dash said, “I mean, I joined the Shadowbolts. Would be kinda weird if I would be against it.”

“If she’s in favour of it, y’all can count me in, too,” Applejack added.

“Oh, that would be fantastique,” Rarity said, “I support it as well.”

Pinkie’s mane blopped into shape again. “Me too! I mean, my sister is a nocturnal now, so of course I would never be against it. And I already have made so many new friends with the noctrals that moved to Ponyville. And I learned so many new cake recipes! And reasons for parties I never even heard about before!”

All eyes turned to Fluttershy. “Um… I’m dating Shaded’s brother, so…”

Author's Note

As a reminder since it was revealed half a year ago, Discord is Shaded's brother.