Shadows and Sunlight: Shady's Origin

Chapters

2 - Purification
3 - Confrontation
4 - A New Face in Ponyville
5 - Judgement in Canterlot
6 - Emotional Darkness Arises
7 - Resonance in the Dark Magic Wing
8 - The Return Journey
1 - Ammy's Blessing

2 - Purification

This Tuesday afternoon was a bit special, since Shady had invited his partner over for a long overdue lunch date. Together, he and Lionclaw whipped up a wonderful beef stroganoff, each adding their own unique touches to the dish. The two of them sat across from each other and discussed current events in each other’s lives and reminisced on life’s brighter things.

After finishing, excitedly, Shady stood up from the table and lingered well within the blue lion’s personal space, his excitement undeniable.

“Oh! Babe! I have to show you something. You will NOT BELIEVE what I was given as a gift from Ammy awhile back. I could’ve just sent you a message about it, but it simply wouldn’t do it justice.”

Before a response could be perpetuated, the purple canine had rushed into his bedroom, and came back within seconds. His arms were behind his back, clearly holding something to reveal in a dramatic fashion. He could barely contain the excitement, but was apparently waiting to be asked what it was. Lion finally got the hint and chuckled, holding a hand out to the side.

“Well, are you going to show me? You’re obviously super excited, and that excitement is pretty contagious, hun.”

With an overly dramatic twirl, Shady brought out the item he sought to show off: the custom mega stone that Ammy had gifted him for proving himself to be above the darkness. He held it in his right hand, the stone itself sitting in his palm, while the necklace dangled gently off the side. His partner got closer and stared at it in disbelief, eventually looking back up at his face, filled with so many questions and eyes wide.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that a mega stone? I thought your species didn’t have its own stone? Definitely doesn’t look like any that I’ve ever seen.”

Shady continued holding it out in front of him, a warm smile and a gleam in his eyes.

“Your observation is correct. It’s a mega stone, but most certainly not a traditional one. Normally, I cannot evolve with a fire stone due to the darkness I carry, and mega stones generally require that the user be fully evolved. As she demonstrated for me, it doesn’t follow the rules.”

Lion’s interest was piqued considerably, and Shady answered his next question without it being asked. He slipped the necklace over his head and the stone rested on his chest fluff. Once he let go of the necklace, Lion had to step back because of the multi-colored orb of light that had engulfed Shady, the light practically blinding. It expanded slightly before imploding, forcing the feline to shield his eyes with an arm. Following the light’s disappearance, beautiful cherry blossom leaves and flowers were falling around the dog, swaying and spinning in their descents. Not to mention that they smelled wonderfully.

Shady stood there, his body buffer, red markings under his eyes, hair woven into three dreads with a black tip on each. His stripes were more curvy, the swirly things that don’t have a name in the game on Ammy’s shoulders now showed on him. A second tail appeared from his backside, and perhaps the least explained attribute was the orange ribbon that loosely wrapped around his neck and flowed out behind him. The air about him, although more divine than before, seemed off to Lionclaw. He stayed back, analyzing his body language.

His unease proved to be realistic as the dark aura reared its ugly head, surrounding the canine rapidly. Shady’s once calm and giddy demeanor festered with anger and rage. A vicious snarl escaped his mouth and his eyes shot open in haste, revealing they were the same neon yellow as Ammy’s. As his head slowly turned to face the cat, the expression on Shady’s face chilled Lionclaw’s blood. He felt like the usually peaceful and docile Growlithe was now staring directly into his soul, with a plan to rip it from his chest.

“H-hun? Are you...alright? Don’t look at me like that, you’re starting to scare me!”

He gave no response to the inquiry, the gaze was cutting edge and it was clear that he didn’t recognize his own boyfriend. Lion had not seen this side of him, and wasn’t sure if it even existed until now. Out of nowhere, the canine released particularly strong fire blasts and flamethrowers, destroying anything in sight. Whatever was happening was clearly not something under his control. The feline ducked for cover beside the fridge, terrified of what was unfolding right in front of him, but couldn’t help but peek around the corner. Nothing was left untouched in Shady’s rampage, and the senseless destruction made Lion’s eyes well up. He finally had the courage to say something, and daringly stuck his head out from behind the no longer functional appliance.

“SHADY! STOP THIS!! WHAT’S GOING ON WITH YOU!!?”

Something triggered in the canine’s brain. The callout must’ve gotten through to him, the dark aura vanishing instantly, and clarity creeping back into his retinas. You could tell the exact moment that he began to actually see everything around him. His gaze looked around the room in a panic, noting all the flames and scorched interior, broken windows, and a shattered vase full of colored hexagonal gemstones that a certain adventurer might be after. The air itself reeked of ash and soot.

It was more than clear in his body language: he couldn’t believe that he did this.

“Oh my god... what the hell just happened?! I don’t recall doing any of this! Why would I destroy my own home?! Lion, are you alright?!”

The only acknowledgement given was a slow nodding from his head, his eyes still shrunk down to the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Shady remained in the same spot, tears coming down his face.

“I’m so sorry, Lion! I promise to make this right!!”

Without another word from either of them, Shady vanished into a cloud of mist from his brush. He had to go get help, and knew the exact canine to seek out. Once the mist appeared at his destination, Shady dropped from it and stumbled slightly, making a hefty sprint for the cherry blossom tree ahead. He had gone to the Celestial Plain. Bent over in front of the tree and watering the flowers was Ammy. In his scurry, he called out to her in a very distressed voice.

“MOM! You’ve gotta help me!!”

The callout from behind had her head turn to face the source and respond back to him. In typical fashion, she was still nude. Pretty sure it’s her thing.

“Hm? Shady? What’re you doing here?”

He needn’t utter a single word. The expression he carried along with the abundant tears from his eyes said quite enough. She hastily dropped what she was doing and rushed over to him, gently grasping his face in her hands, concern all over her face.

“Hey! Hey! Shhhhh... Calm down, babe. What happened?”

His gaze was shifted downward, not looking her straight in the eyes. Through the sniffles and trembling hands, he detailed what had happened mere moments ago.

“I...I don’t know what happened... I showed off the mega stone to Lionclaw and mega evolved exactly how I always do... but then t-the rest is blurry... When he got through to me and I came to my senses, the whole house was leveled... everything was scorched... He was almost white with fear...”

By the end of his explanation, he was back into full tears, eyes slammed shut and teeth gritted. She gave his forehead a warming kiss, before stepping back and sighing. She crossed her arms and put one hand under her chin.

“...I was afraid of this, but hoped it wouldn’t be a problem. However, it seems like the gut feeling I had was correct.”

Her arms returned to the crossed pose, and she looked at him directly with a sharp and serious expression.

“Given what I know about Shadow Pokemon and how the darkness makes them ruthless and emotionless killing machines, you seem to have a very high amount of control over that darkness. Aside from a few times, you’ve handled it as if it wasn’t present at all. However...”

Her gaze ceased being stern and she held the mega stone in one hand, looking at it, then locked back onto his eyes.

“When I created this stone for you all those years ago, I hadn’t considered that the release of mega energy loosens that high level of control over the darkness. At the moment of transformation, it’s possible for it to overtake you, albeit briefly.”

In a fit of panic, Shady latched both hands onto his mom’s shoulders and fixed his gaze on her with an upset look stretched across his face.

“You have to get this out of me! It’s causing destruction and I’d rather not have it harm those I care about! Please, mom! PLEASE!”

She lowered his arms and held them together in her own hands, giving him a confidently reassuring smile. That alone seemed to calm him a decent amount.

“No need to worry, honey. I have a solution for this. Follow me.”

The mother and son duo made a long trek up a mostly secluded path, holding hands, surrounded on all sides by a beautiful bamboo grove with occasional cherry blossom trees filling in the gaps. The sides of the path were made from bamboo walls of some kind, and the path itself chilly cobblestone. The warm air of the path gave Shady hope, and it smelled pretty darn good. It’s a wonder that I haven’t gotten a cherry blossom air freshener for my car yet.

A couple minutes went by before they reached the end of the cobblestone pathway, opening up to a larger area containing a medium-sized pool in the center. While it was filled with a substance of some kind, it did not look like water. It was pale bluish in color, and sparkled goldenrod. It was translucent enough to see the bottom, and a shimmering sound inexplicably emitted from it. He looked at the open area in the grove and was blown away by the beauty of the atmosphere it gave off.

“What is this place? I’ve known about the various locations up here for years, but you’ve never shown me this one.”

Shady inquired with her, confusion evident in his tone of voice, glancing down at her since he’s about a foot taller.

“This here is what’s known as the Pool of the Heavens. It acts as a safe space against creatures of pure malice, hence why it was utilized back when the Emperor of Eternal Darkness invaded.”

He nodded in acknowledgement, adjusting his gaze from her down to the pool, putting his other hand under his chin and furrowing a brow. At the bottom was an oddly shaped engraving, but he couldn’t conclude what it was due to the refraction of the liquid moving back and forth.

“So, what’s in this pool, exactly? I’ve never seen anything like this. Surely this isn’t water...”

Ammy shook her head and gestured her other arm outward in a V shape, glancing at him and then to the pool.

“You’d be right. This is definitely not water. That alone wouldn’t do anything to protect me or the other brush gods from malice creatures, oh no no no! The substance you’re looking at is pure stardust. No impure creature can touch it without disintegrating. However, it has the fluidity of water.”

That description caught him firmly off-guard, but he stayed composed.

“...that adds up. Since we’re here, what do you want me to do?”

In a calm voice and neutral expression, she looked up at him.

“I need you to step into the pool and drink some of the stardust. That’s the first step.”

Shady ripped his hand out from her grasp and took a step back in the panic, completely unsure of that course of action based on her description of the stardust.

“YOU WANT TO DO WHAT!!??”

Immediately upon seeing and hearing his reaction, Ammy dawned an annoyed expression. Her gaze locked right with his eyes and she spoke sternly.

“You’re a fire and dark type, and you came out of my womb! You’re as divine as I am in this form, Shady. Would I knowingly steer you wrong?”

He wanted to correct her about the typing being fire and fairy while in this form, but just let it go, nodding gently to himself that she did have a point. Without further hesitation, he stripped his shorts and got into the pool filled with stardust, Ammy following him. Once in the pool, he paused for a moment to take in the feeling of the stardust against his fur. It gave off a sort of tingling sensation, and the good kind. Shady cupped his hands together and drank down a couple handfuls of the stardust, shivering as it slid down his throat. She stood across from him.

“See? I told you it wouldn’t hurt.”

His eyes were shut, and her face turned sinister. That’s when she made her move.

“This might, though~”

The goddess appended, whispering quietly. She cupped her hands together and sunk them below the surface, raising them up rapidly to send a tidal wave of stardust on top of him, soaking the upper half of his body and sending shockwaves all throughout. His body tensed up out of pure instinct. Once the stardust settled, Shady shook his head and spit multiple times to get it out of his mouth, clearly not expecting that.

“BLECH!! WHAT IN ARCEUS’ NAME WAS THAT FOR!?”

She giggled lightly with a hand over her mouth, obviously amused at her stunt.

“While you could’ve just dipped under the stardust to soak yourself with it, I thought this was funnier~”

He did not deter from his own annoyed expression, seeing as how his entire body was drenched in the liquid. This of course made her giggling continue, as she thought it was hilarious.

“Oh, don’t be such a grumpy puppy! You and I both know that splashing others in a pool might as well be law.”

The purple canine only angrily sighed, which removed all the fun she was having.

“Geez, Shady... It was only a joke...”

She left that behind and got back on track, using her brush to draw a sort of tribal-like circle with spokes around his belly button with red ink. After she did so, the traditional seal marking vanished from his stomach entirely.

“I drew this sun marking on your belly with my brush. Until this process is done, it replaces the seal marking you normally have on your stomach. Now, just stand still and breathe normally. The rest is up to me.”

He nodded in acknowledgement, before she placed both hands on his stomach and channeled a high amount of energy into him. Around them both appeared a starburst of light. The shock of the energy changed his expression and pose, almost like an automatic response. She grunted loudly like a war cry as this happened. The surge of energy caused his vision to go blurry.

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

Shady slowly came to, his vision returning and hearing becoming less and less low passed. Apparently she had been trying to get him to wake back up.

“Shady! Are you alright!? You passed out for almost twenty minutes! I was getting worried!”

From his laying down position, he quickly analyzed the feelings he felt, nerves sending signals again. It was clear that she must’ve pulled him out onto the edge of the pool following his blackout.

“I-I’m fine, I think. Nothing feels broken that I can tell...”

She looked down at him once again, worry still spread across her face.

“Does the door to your heart feel any different?”

Standing himself back up, he took a deep look at both his hands and realized that the feeling of the dark aura was ever present. Her method of clearing it from his body proved fruitless.

“I don’t think it worked... There’s a particular feeling that the door being shut gives me, and i-it's still there...”

Ammy’s face sunk into depression in the blink of an eye. In the entire time since she had Shady, she had never looked this upset.

“If my own magic can’t undo the door to your heart, then your father has truly done something worse than force himself onto me. He’ll get his just desserts...”

She stepped over to him and they both grabbed each other in a hug. It was when Shady began to lightly cry that her hug became tighter on him. This was a big deal for him. He expected it to work out since she’s a goddess and all, but I guess even they’re limited on what they can do.

“Hey, it’s okay, sweetheart... Darkness or not, I still love you for who you are. That will never change.”

Their hug went on for a good duration, and a particular feeling had caught Shady’s attention while in the middle of it. Certain that he knew what it was, he boldly brought it up since he was unable to keep himself from ogling her midsection.

“So... mom... I don’t want to sound rude when I ask this, but, are you... pregnant? Because you weren’t before I blacked out...”

3 - Confrontation

Ammy sought out Kai in an ominous, unwelcoming snowy location somewhere beneath the Celestial Plain. The area emitted nothing but bad vibes, the unnatural calm paired well with the chilling air and softly packed powder snow. The shiny Kantonian Arcanine had to be nearby.

She called out for him, knowing he must be there. Given their relationship and history, it’s not hard to see why she didn’t speak politely. Her voice was sharper than a freshly forged knife.

"Kai, I know you're here. Stop hiding like a coward and face me."

Atop a snow covered embankment behind the desecrated shrine to Ammy herself, the aforementioned shiny Arcanine poked his head out into view. His response was frigid, much like their location.

"And what in Arceus' name do YOU want? Come to extend my eternal suffering with more of your magic?"

Ammy scoffed, unamused with his wordplay and already losing her patience with him.

"The spells I cast on you to confine you here and always leave you hungry were all I needed to use. However, that's not why I took the time to seek you out in this frigid wilderness."

He took notice of her front side, which prompted a particularly tasteless comment on his part.

"Ooooooh, pregnant again? Man, you ARE insatiable! Let me guess, you came all this way for me to cool you off?"

The goddess held onto at least one scrap of restraint, but it broke apart at the mention of her bodily state. She hurled her reflector as hard as she could, landing a bullseye on the Arcanine’s chest. It knocked the wind out of him and he tumbled all the way down from the hilltop, landing on his stomach with a thud, making powder snow scatter into a cloud. Her face was hell-bent with rage, not something that you see very often.

"YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT TO TALK ABOUT MY LAST PREGNANCY! YOU FORCED YOURSELF ONTO ME, YOU BASTARD!!"

The level of anger only seemed to increase following her explosion in his face; it could almost kill on its own. Kai failed to stand up, the snow giving way under his weight. He barked back at her snidely.

"Hmph. The only bastard is that purple furred twerp that you birthed out. And me putting him inside you was a favor. You looked so desperate for attention while disguised as that Alolan Ninetales~"

That didn't go well for him, since Ammy’s temper flared to new heights once more. She pounced, instantly pinning him down with her claws poking against his throat, ready to draw blood, or worse. Insults were one thing, but talking down about her or Shady was a suicide mission, especially in his position. She could strike at any moment, breathing hard and eyes burning. For once he actually dropped the tough guy act and was genuinely fearful.

"SO THAT WAS A FAVOR?! DO I NEED TO REMIND YOU THAT THE PURPLE FURRED TWERP ABSOLUTELY WRECKED YOU WITH ONE ATTACK?! OH I OUGHTA SLICE YOUR NECK WIDE OPEN AND WATCH YOU DROWN IN YOUR OWN BLOOD!!"

However, after a few moments of intense breathing from the adrenaline surging through her body, she stood back up, releasing his throat from her claws, and recomposed herself.

"...but I can't. If I did kill you, I would never know what your motives were or why in hell you were sent after me in the first place. I won’t stoop to your level, not after you trapped the spirit of an Incineroar inside Shady in hopes that he'd die."

Kai took the opportunity to get a word in, and the first thing that vocalized was an insult.

"Aren’t goddesses supposed to be more dignified than this?"

He paid for those words with the light sentence; a deep scratch across his face. The blow left behind a mark on his cheek that would likely scar, blood trailing down and turning the white snow a deep red hue where it landed. She furiously barked at him again.

"DIGNITY?! IT HAS NO PLACE HERE. CHOOSE YOUR NEXT WORDS VERY WISELY, LEST YOUR LIFE ENDS AS ABRUPTLY AS IT BEGAN!"

They stared at each other dead in the eyes, each panting for a solid minute without a word between them. Ammy broke the silence, staring down at him sternly and unyieldingly.

"So tell me then. What were your motives? Why were you sent after me? Why did any of this have to happen??"

Kai began to nonchalantly explain himself and the whole situation. At this point, he had nothing else to lose other than his life.

"I was a member of Cipher, an organization based in the Orre region. But I already told you that over twenty years ago. I was one of the highest ranked Pokemon, my skill to bring victim Pokemon back to the Key Lair so that they can have the doors to their hearts shut had a miniscule failure rate. Not to mention my ALMOST perfect IVs."

Ammy chimed in, not sheathing her claws.

"That explains who you really are. Go on. What's their goal? Not like you'll be going back there anytime soon to say you told an outsider~"

He rolled his eyes, annoyed by her statement but figuring the only option was to continue to comply.

"The ultimate goal is to figure out how to create a truly unpurifiable shadow Pokemon, to use an army of them to take control of the world. We thought we figured it out with shadow Lugia, known internally as XD001, but were proven wrong after he was snagged by a human and purified."

She stepped in once more, wanting to get as much information out of him as she could. He kept her in the dark for far too long.

"Alright, but what about me? How do I fit into all of this?"

Kai's face lit up, almost in an evil kind of way.

"You see, being disguised as an Alolan Ninetales made you a perfect candidate to try and shut the door to your heart. At that point, an Alolan Ninetales would’ve been our first foothold in Alola, but we didn't know that underneath the fake fur was really a goddess. That's why none of our practices worked on you. But rumors were going around from other Pokemon and from a few admins, notably Ein, that a new method was proposed: breeding.”

“What if you bred two shadow Pokemon together? Or a shadow and normal? What would happen? This was right before you decided to flee. Since an Arcanine and a Ninetales are compatible in egg groups, they sent me after you, not wanting the mysterious specimen to get away. And now that Shady is around, he's living - and admittedly I hate that he lives - proof that breeding works. But like you said, I just lack a way to inform them that it works…"

Ammy rolled her eyes and put her claws back against his throat.

“Well congratulations, Kai, because not only did you breed a shadow Pokemon, I cannot remove it! So I dear hope you’re satisfied with yourself. You’ve flat out ruined his life!”

Kai smirked hardcore.

“Heh~ Now I KNOW that it works. The girl that birthed him can’t even open the door to his heart! The next time that twerp comes to see you, let him know that he’s a wanted Pokemon across all regions where we have a base of operations. Even now, Cipher is still aware of the power level he possesses. If he returns, he WILL be hunted down. He’s the true XD002.”

Kai kept his smirk following the end of his monologue, though it became much worse. As it became worse, Ammy could feel some kind of power building inside his body, as well as a dark aura emanating from his eyes. She pressed down on him harder, but that was mere moments before he became cloaked in a veil of shadow energy. The expansion of the darkness sent her flying away, and she skidded to a halt on her side, minorly injured.

"Is this some kind of… secret evolution? It's not mega… There’s no way it could be…" She thought to herself while gazing upon the sphere of darkness before her.

The veil eventually faded and what stood before her was an Arcanine that hasn't been since the Sinnoh region was called Hisui. Kai had transformed from a Kantonian Arcanine into a Hisuian Arcanine, making the size difference between them even greater. Ammy normally stands around five-sixths of Kai's height when she's anthro, but this form change made him more than three times her size, roughly eighteen feet (six meters for you international peeps) high.

Ammy laid there bewildered and at a temporary loss for words, unaware that he was capable of such a feat. The sheer size difference struck genuine fear into her heart like a thunderbolt. It intensified further with the appearance of the dark aura around him. The new appearance had her scooting away from his general direction, unable to find her footing. Her whole body shook.

"H-How long have you been able to do that?? WHY can you do that??? I was around when Sinnoh was known as Hisui, but nothing about you screamed Hisuian!"

He got a cocky smile and gladly explained the trick he performed.

"My dear Amaterasu… I've been able to do this since I had the door to my heart shut. I didn't want to have that done at first, in fact the process is quite painful, I must admit. But once I felt the immense power that the darkness gave me… I learned that I was a close ancestor to Arcanines that were raised in Hisui, and I could use the darkness to become one! I'm more powerful than you've ever seen me!!"

He slowly stepped his way toward her whilst spouting the explanation. Ammy finally found her footing and hastily stood back up and held her ground, but the panic she felt did not dissipate. The amount of energy flowing from his body was greater than her own!

"You may be more powerful, but surely you're still no match for the power of an actual god!"

She drew a straight line across his body using the Celestial Brush and attacked him with the sharpest Power Slash she could muster. It left a giant, deep cut down his side, but it didn't phase him. Kai looked down at the cut and then back to her, very much amused.

"A papercut? Come on, Ammy. You're better than that. Do some DAMAGE to me."

He continued closing the gap in convenient slow fashion. Even as powerful as he is, electrocuting him would work, right? She resorted to Thunder, which is a stroke drawn in a bolt shape. It was a direct hit! The electrocution from the attack lasted much longer than Ammy was expecting, which was when the dark aura came out in the middle of it. In the aftermath of it, Kai was glowing yellow and white. Ammy’s divine lightning had inadvertently frenzied the Arcanine.

Each step he took made the snow melt instantly, and the sight of Kai in such a destructive state of power terrified Ammy more than she’d ever been in over 200 years at the very least. Every survival instinct she had was screaming at her to run, but she was frozen in place. Her face had turned grave. With the gap between them three-fourths closed, Kai started monologuing in traditional villain fashion. As he neared, her feet fumbled from an escape attempt and she fell flat on her rump.

“It’s a shame, really. You’re a very, VERY sexy girl, Ammy, especially with that belly. But you’re the one canine preventing me from leaving this world, and I finally have the chance to break this spell!! I’M NOT WAITING ANOTHER 25 YEARS!!!”

Kai opened wide and charged up a Hyper Beam. Ammy could do nothing but stare up at the energy ball that built in his mouth, tears pouring down her face as she was at a loss for words. The sphere was blindingly white, but she simply couldn’t look away from what was about to disintegrate her to dust.

All hope was lost. She saw no possible way out of this situation. That is, until the impending Hyper Beam stopped in its tracks. Kai was sideswiped with a large shadowy blast from left field, interrupting his attack and directing his attention to the source. Shady was there, and Ammy was never happier to see him. He was full of vigor and overflowing with mega energy. From a distance, he called out to Kai.

“HEY!! STAY AWAY FROM MY MOM AND PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE, KAI!!”

Kai snarled at Shady in response, quickly taking notice of his more divine appearance and dialing into the necklace around his neck.

“Wait, you have a MEGA EVOLUTION?? I can only BEGIN to guess who gave that to you and when, but it doesn’t matter! You’re still way out of your league, Inktail! LOOK WHAT YOU NEED TO MIMIC FIVE PERCENT OF MY POWER!!”

Shady snorted, amused by his attempt at intimidation.

“You can’t be serious… if THIS is what it takes for you to withstand more than one hit from me, then honest to Arceus that’s pathetic! What was that whole spiel about having excellent stats and almost perfect IVs?”

While Kai’s intimidation failed completely, Shady got under his skin and he attacked in response, enveloping himself in flames and charging at him full speed. Shady was able to nimbly roll dodge out of harm’s way in the nick of time, the flames melting off a couple of hairs from his body. He quickly regained his footing and fired an Ice Beam that was infused with shadow magic, known as Shadow Chill. Being the after-product of a powerful shadow Pokemon and a goddess somehow gave him the ability to use any shadow move at any point, rather than being limited to four moves. How this works is a mystery even to me. The concentrated ice attack smacked the Arcanine dead in the face, inflicting frostbite and briefly stunning him.

This was a long enough window to rush in on all fours, covering himself in his shadowy aura. Generally speaking, it was near impossible for the aura to show itself while in his mega evolution. Flower trails followed behind him as he ran, and if that doesn’t scream that he’s the son of Ammy, then I don’t know what will. With the speed he gathered and the density of the aura, it looked like he was going for Shadow End. A reckless ram attack that damages the opponent and the user heavily.

He made contact with Kai’s face with a badass kick, causing a ripple in his cheek and vastly changing his expression in response. Shady bounced back quite a distance, stuck the landing and skidded to a halt, but fell onto one knee. He was out of breath and panted hard. While his attack did a considerable amount of damage, it also cost him over half his HP. The frenzied Arcanine was able to stand back up and shook his head to gather his bearings.

Shadow attacks only do half damage to other shadow Pokemon. Shady knew that, but wanted to send the message that he was not the Growlithe to mess with. While he kneeled, Kai got within fifteen feet of him, surrounded by a fiery vortex. He charged up another Hyper Beam, but aimed for the purple dog instead. He stared at the Arcanine dead in his eyes, and Ammy, still unable to move due to her injuries, could only watch in horror as he was about to be disintegrated into dust.

The Hyper Beam fired off, and Shady closed his eyes, bending his head downward. Ammy screamed at the top of her lungs.

“SHADY NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The elongated attack was a direct hit. As it faded, there was a circle of cherry blossoms where Shady kneeled. It seemed that some kind of divine power had somewhat shielded him from the attack. It was obvious that he wasn’t unharmed, since he was much more worn out than before the blast was shot. Since that was the Hyper Beam that Kai managed to get out, it wore him down considerably as well. His legs gave way and he fell to the ground, unable to keep battling. The frostbite effect was also getting worse, chilling him to the core.

He limped his way over to Ammy, picked her up, and mist warped both of them out of there. They arrived back on the Celestial Plain, inside the cottage that Ammy lives in. He laid her on the bed and attempted to catch his own breath, the cuts and bruises combined from the ram attack and Kai’s hyper beam slowing him down. He did his best to calm her down with a constant, elongated hug, making sure his face was touching hers. His main goal was to ensure that she didn’t go into labor from all the shock she just went through. She couldn’t stop sobbing, despite that they were both okay.

“Mom! Mom. P-Please calm down! You’re going to be okay! I’m okay too!”

He spoke softly before giving her a giant kiss on the forehead and standing back up, feeling over her belly with both hands, a greenish kind of glow emanating from them.

“...good. The baby is still okay, too. No abnormal heartbeat or signs of oxygen deprivation. Surprising, given what we just went through. But I’m not complaining.”

She began to finally lighten up on the waterworks, and was able to look at him straight in the eyes.

“S-Shady… you… you saved my life…I was certain you were a goner!”

He looked at her while bandaging up one of her legs that was severely cut, aiming to tend to her other cuts, bruises, and remaining emotional damage after that.

“What kind of a son would I be if I didn’t help my mom when she needs me the most? It would take more than that to keep me down, but... his power definitely threw me a curve ball. He’s not to be taken lightly.”

She looked flustered and blushed, but not in a sexual way.

“Shady… I know I’ve said it before, but you’re the star example of what a son should be… and I love you so incredibly much… From the bottom of my heart, I sincerely apologize for ever thinking you were remotely similar to the bastard that helped make you. You two are polar opposites, and I’m glad you’re the good half. Heaven forbid what it would be like if HE was the good one…”

Shady chuckled a bit, before getting back to serious business.

“I forgave you for that a long time ago. It's not your fault. But… mom. Why on earth were you trying to take him on all by yourself? For one, he’s an immensely powerful Pokemon. For two, he can do THAT. And three, YOU HAVE A BABY INSIDE YOU FOR ARCEUS’ SAKE!”

Ammy’s ears drooped and she explained her thought process.

“Well, being totally honest with you, hun, I didn’t have much of a plan going in, and that’s not like me. I was so miffed from not being able to remove the darkness from inside you that I wanted to go straight to the source of the problem and nip the bud. Or spray the overgrown plant with a flamethrower, rather. I was ready to do it, too! I had my claws at his throat and even drew blood from him! But the idea that killing him would prevent me from knowing why this all happened stopped me cold turkey.”

Shady gave her a reassuring look in the eyes and cupped her right hand in his grasp.

“Let’s not worry about that right now, okay? We both need to rest up and recover. Needless to say that we’ll need to approach this differently if we hope to defeat Kai for good.”

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

An ethereal shield covered the entirety of the Celestial Plain, its strength tested by the immense weight of an even larger Hisuian Arcanine, who was trying his damnedest to break through. Ammy stood on the balcony of her home, constantly injecting her magic into it to push back against him. The sky was a red-orange hue, with fire-red flames cascading down from the sky. It appears that even if Kai couldn’t get in, his attacks could. Her face was an emotional mess, combining rage, frustration, and genuine heart-stopping fear. She turned her head back to stare sternly at Shady, who had been assisting her in keeping the shield up, and screamed. Tears plummeted from her eyes.

“SHADY!!! GO GET HELP!!!!!”

An oval shaped collection of cherry blossom leaves and flowers appeared behind him, the pathway inside seemingly endless. Without any hesitation or considering where it might take him, he jumped through, and it closed behind him.

4 - A New Face in Ponyville

A portal of cherry blossoms opened up and Shady tumbled out of it. He landed in the downward dog position, wincing from the pain of landing suddenly on a dirt path. He stood himself back up and shook his head to gather his bearings. Looking around, the scenery was a sharp contrast to the battle-torn Celestial Plain that he just came from. The air was pleasant with a warm breeze. His gaze shifted to the tree that he was next to, as it was shaking rather unusually.

He looked up and couldn’t believe his eyes. A yellow pony with a pink mane was clamped to the branch that stuck out for dear life, very distraught by his sudden appearance. Recognizing who it was, his expression changed to shock in the blink of an eye and he fell back onto his rump.

“NO WAY! F-FLUTTERSHY?! H-HOW IN THE NAME OF- BUT EQUESTRIA DOESN’T-”

He continued mumbling what seemed to be gibberish and incomplete sentences. Seeing as he appeared way more distraught by her than her of him, she slowly came down from the tree branch and gave him a good look over, ears drooped down. Given his color palette and bodily features, the yellow mare was cautiously curious about who he was.

“A-Are you alright…? I hope I didn’t scare you. I don’t think we’ve met, either…”

She kept her distance, raising a hoof slightly off the ground while keeping the worried expression on her face. No response to her inquiry was given based on the amount of shock that Shady happened to be in. He simply stared back at her, mouth agape and eyes shrunken to the size of pencil erasers. She slowly reached forward and touched his nose with a hoof.

Finally, he snapped back to reality and shook his head again, which made the mare retract her hoof in record time. He reached out with his front legs and grabbed her face, showing her the third most fearful expression you’ve probably ever seen.

“FLUTTERSHY, I KNOW YOU DON’T KNOW ME, BUT PLEASE HEAR ME OUT. MY NAME IS SHADY. I’M KIND OF IN AN EMERGENCY SITUATION BACK WHERE I’M FROM, AND DESPERATELY NEED THE HELP OF PRINCESS TWILIGHT! WOULD YOU BE SO KIND AS TO DIRECT ME TOWARD CANTERLOT??”

Fluttershy playfully chuckled a bit. She was laughing with him, not at him. Shady had dropped his legs from her face and looked at her with a calmer, yet lost expression.

“It would be quite silly to travel all the way to Canterlot for that. Twilight is actually visiting Ponyville right now!”

Shady looked around the area, trying to get a sense of direction. From the looks of it, they happened to be on a hilltop that overlooks Ponyville off in the distance.

“Could you perhaps… take me there? I’m not from here, in case my appearance doesn’t already give that away. I’d feel better if someone went with me.”

The shy pony’s face lit up, and she did a quick little happy trot in place before collecting herself.

“I would love to! There’s just something that’s been bugging me…you say you aren’t from here. Are you... sure?”

He had to process that for several seconds before being able to formulate a response.

“What? Of course I’m sure! I’m a canine.”

Fluttershy only needed to raise an eyebrow at him before he got the hint. He looked behind himself and noticed his tail was more made from hair, with what appeared to be a symbol on his hind legs. Across his midsection were a pair of pristine, snow white wings. The color was sharply different compared to his coat. Their collapsed shape kind of resemble Ammy’s swirls. Returning to freak out mode, he rushed over to the small puddle that happened to be close to the tree that Fluttershy was hanging on earlier. His reflection told no lies. Quickly trying to check out his entire body, he made one last look straight on and gripped his head in his hooves, letting out a rather obnoxiously loud scream.

“I’M A HORRRRRRRRRRRSE!!!!!”

He backed himself away from the puddle and got into the downward dog- or, well, pony, pose and held his head again, hyperventilating. Fluttershy didn’t know how to respond, so she simply stayed put and looked in his direction with a worried expression and folded back ears.

“ALL MY THINGS ARE HORSE THINGS!!!!”

The mare’s eyes darted back and forth quickly before stammering a sentence.

“I-I mean... yes? They s-should be?”

Shady moved his hooves away from his face and looked back at her, confusion and panic bleeding out of his eyes.

“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!! I WAS NOT LIKE THIS TEN MINUTES AGO!! BEFORE I DROPPED OUT OF THE PORTAL!!”

He continued to sob, clearly afraid of what had happened to him. Fluttershy finally moved next to him, putting a hoof under his chin, speaking softly.

“Hey now... shhhhh... you’re going to be okay! I’m not sure what’s gotten into you, but I think a visit to Twilight wouldn’t hurt. She’ll know what to do! Come on, up you go.”

Shady was noticeably calmer and had stopped sobbing. He let her help him back on his feet. She patted his back with a hoof and smiled at him warmly. They began their casual-pace trek down the hillside to Ponyville. Along their twenty minute walk, they opened up to each other, bickering back and forth as if they’d known each other since they were foals. The sun was shining, the temperature was pleasant, and the air was filled with giggles and laughter.

Once at the limits of Ponyville, the destination was on the horizon: Twilight’s castle on the other side of town. As a pony, Shady really fit in with the populous. A few stallions and mares gave awkward glances, but he barely paid any mind to them. Fluttershy gazed all around her, noting all the ponies flying about, fillies playing, and other creatures just going about their day to day lives. Such harmony filled her with peace.

“You know, it’s been quite peaceful here in Ponyville since Twilight conquered those three baddies. Even more so after her coronation as next ruler of Equestria.”

He looked around as well, slightly smiling at the surroundings.

“It’s pretty nice here. I do have to pity Twilight, though. It must be stressful, being ruler of an entire kingdom- no, practically the whole continent. There’s no way she’s not tied up with something when we get there. Kind of don’t want to disturb her...”

His ears folded back and he lowered his head a bit, being a bit nervous about the whole situation.

The mare chuckled, looking at him with her continued warm gaze.

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry that much about it. She’s busy, sure, but she’s always ready to help a friend in need.”

Both of them happened to not be watching straight ahead. A white mare with a lavishly beautiful purple curly mane was rushing out of a clothing shop in quite a hurry, with a rolling clothes rack in tow, pulled by magic. Fluttershy saw it coming and stopped in her tracks, swiftly jumping up and flying in place. Before she could warn him, Shady had collided with the white mare’s clothes rack, toppling him onto his side and the clothes flung off the rack. They were caught with magic before hitting the ground, and quickly reattached to their hangers. He groaned a little bit from the resulting impact, and the unicorn went over to him, worried.

“Goodness! Are you alright, darling? I do apologize about that, I was in a hurry. Looks like we both weren’t watching where we were going, heh...”

She took a second look at him after helping him up, cocking her head to the side in slight confusion.

“...I don’t believe we’ve met! Are you a friend of Fluttershy’s?”

He prepared to answer, until Fluttershy stepped in and covered for him without missing a beat.

“This is Drop Shadow! I don’t believe I’ve mentioned him to anypony before. He’s a childhood friend of mine from the flight academy, just like Rainbow Dash. Shadow, meet Rarity!”

Drop Shadow simply goes along with it, and he responds very formally to the white mare.

“Well now! It’s a pleasure to meet you, lady Rarity. Aside from the coat rack bruising me on the side, of course, heh.”

The white mare’s face lit up and she blushed a bit. No one had addressed her like that in a long time. Spike doesn’t count because she essentially friendzoned him years ago. Just don’t go reading any of Spike’s fanfics, because you know they exist. They’re at home. Under his mattress.

“Ohohohoo stop it you~ Not to be a party pooper, but I’m closing in on the deadline for a new line of coats and I’ve ‘conveniently’ run out of the gem that Spike likes the most… but we should definitely have tea or go to the spa sometime, handsome~”

She went on her way and the two reached the castle shortly thereafter. On the way up the stairs, the two were halted rather abruptly by a teal-blue griffon in soldier armor.

“Halt! Who goes there? This is the castle of Princess Twilight Sparkle. What business do you have?”

The mare was thrown completely off guard and began to stammer, stepping back once or twice.

“Oh! Gallus- I- well- really nothing... I’ll just be g-going now...”

The griffon cackled and lowered the tension, tilting his head and raising a paw.

“Come on, Fluttershy! I’m only kidding. You’re free to go in. Who’s your friend here? Don’t believe I’ve seen him before.”

Shadow stood up for himself this time. Putting on the same story that Fluttershy gave to Rarity.

“The name is Drop Shadow. I’m a pegasus from Cloudsdale that’s known Fluttershy since we were in the flight academy.”

Gallus looked him over once and shrugged.

“Good enough for me. Anypony who’s a friend of Fluttershy is a friend of mine. Princess Twilight is upstairs in the library. Heard she was looking for a particular book, but that couldn’t be hard for a bookworm like her, right?”

He stepped aside and let the two pass. Both walked into the castle and headed straight for the library room. On the inside, princess Twilight, rather than having her face deep into another book like a true egghead, was making a house of cards. She stood on top of a comically wobbling tower of books, tongue out of the side of her mouth in concentration. On the floor lay an assortment of countless other books. A goldenrod colored unicorn with a two toned mane was also there, helping stack some of the cards using magic. She greeted the yellow pegasus upon entry, while Twilight herself stayed silent. She was too focused on getting another card on top of the impressive stack. There had to be at least five decks of cards already on display.

“Fluttershy! How are you? Twilight and I were looking through her library for a certain book... and got sidetracked by making a house of cards...”

A small series of black sparks around Twilight’s horn interrupted the alicorn’s concentration. She lost her balance, sending herself plummeting to the floor and landing with a thud, the book tower coming down around her. The two-toned unicorn didn’t react fast enough to save the cards, which made her ears droop.

Upon shaking her head to gather her bearings, Twilight gave him a puzzled look. She idly gazed around the room, looking for the reason that black sparks showed up. No one else in the room made a move. She stood herself up and looked directly at the goldenrod mare.

“That’s odd... black sparks only manifest if extreme levels of darkness show up... right, Sunset?”

Sunset raised a hoof and looked right back at the princess.

“Generally speaking, yeah. Though I’ve only ever seen it happen with you, Twi.”

She turned her head to look at their guests, and Twilight followed suit.

“Nopony in this room could have that much darkness. I definitely know Fluttershy doesn’t, but quite frankly... I’ve never seen that stallion before...”

Without hesitation or a response from Sunset, Twilight walked up to Drop Shadow and got up in his face. This made him pull his head back and lean a little bit in surprise. She was optically looking him over. Just being this close to a pony of high importance was nervous enough, but he was unsure if this part was necessary.

“Pardon me, uh, P-Princess Twilight, but can we skip to introductions...? I’m kind of in an emergency and need your help...”

Following his statement, the black sparks appeared around her horn in mass quantities, making her head hurt. She took a few steps back before removing the hoof from her head, mostly in awe but also confusion.

“Wha? Are YOU the one with the darkness??”

She stopped being confused and switched gears to self-defense. Without casting any particular spell, her horn became enveloped in magic, ready to be shot if need be. She approached him slowly, a serious look spread across her equine face. As she got close to him, his fight or flight response activated, and he began backing up in time with her.

“Whoa whoa whoa!! Hey! Twilight! Can we talk about this?? H-Hold on a second!”

The princess did not falter. Her advances did not stop for anyone. Drop Shadow looked over to Fluttershy, hoping she’d lend a hoof. She attempted to get between the two, but the alicorn pushed her aside using magic, stopping her own advancement toward the stallion and looking right at the yellow pegasi.

“Fluttershy, I’d like to ask you just one thing: why the HAY would you bring him here?? Do you realize how much darkness he carries in his body?!”

She had gotten right up in her face in the second half, prompting Fluttershy to push back and defend him.

“Darkness? That’s no way to treat a friend!! He expressed a sincere need to get your help when we met! Could you just listen to him?”

Without providing a response, the princess turned away from the pegasi, grunting in frustration. She went back over to Drop Shadow and got as close as she physically could, booping her nose against his but not romantically.

“I’m not sure what you’re playing at or what you’ve put Fluttershy up to, but black sparks don’t just appear for no reason. If it turns out you- whoaaaa!”

Twilight was abruptly cut off by being dragged away from him by Sunset’s magic. She had heard enough.

“Twilight, that’s enough!! Don’t you think you’re overreacting just a little bit?? Fluttershy brought him directly to us. That should be evidence enough. I insist that you at least listen to what he has to say. I mean, look at him! He was downright terrified when he walked in the door!”

Sunset was staring sternly at the princess, agitated at her idea of jumping to conclusions. Twilight did not say anything, only staring back before giving a heavy sigh and looking toward the ground, the tension having left her body.

“Precisely. I do see where you’re coming from, but surely you must remember that both of us know two different Fluttershys? Neither of them would deliberately steer you wrong.”

The alicorn knew what to do without another word. She turned to face the stallion, raising a hoof.

“I sincerely apologize for all that. We’ve been so peaceful ever since those three were taken down a few years ago, that seeing black sparks had me on edge. Please explain what’s going on. What’s the situation?”

Drop Shadow stepped forward, getting about halfway across the room, making a kind of triangle between himself and the two unicorns.

“No hard feelings, Princess Twilight. Considering what I had gone through a couple hours ago... I’ll take it. Getting on track, my appearance may not look it, but I’m not actually from Equestria. Not Cloudsdale, not Canterlot, not even a remote place like Saddle Arabia. I already told Fluttershy this on the way here, but she seemed a bit skeptical and suggested we come to you.”

Twilight raised a hoof, getting a far fetched idea.

“That doesn’t leave a lot of options. I’m going to assume you aren’t from the other side of the mirror, either? I would’ve probably seen you. But then again, I never saw another Sunset while in that world. But now you’ve got me confused... What exactly is the issue?”

“My world has been compromised by the biggest threat it has faced in many centuries. A canine creature by the name of Kai, who’s about six times my size, is much stronger than we expected. He has ties to both me and my own mother, and neither of us could even put a scratch on him in this second battle. Not sure if I was meant to end up here, but it’s better than nothing.”

The alicorn was visibly pondering a response. That was a lot to take in at once. It took awhile for her to open her mouth again, which had Sunset looking at her.

“That’s... definitely not good. Don’t get me wrong, the rest of the girls and I have defeated formidable foes in the past. It’s just that... all of these were in THIS world. How am I supposed to help with something outside of Equestria or the other world?”

The stallion’s ears dropped down. He felt defeated. If Twilight couldn’t do anything, and he was stuck here, it was indeed hopeless. Fluttershy noticed his change in mood and came over to hug him warmly. There was a prolonged period of silence, with Twilight staring at the mirror to the other world. She turned back around to face the other ponies, a serious expression stretched across her face.

“Alright. We’re going to Canterlot. All of us. We need to see Princess Celestia about this. This is out of my hooves. I won’t sugarcoat it: I’m not sure if any of us can help, but if anypony knows a more direct answer, it would be her and Princess Luna.”

Drop Shadow raised an eyebrow and lifted a hoof off the ground.

“Wait. There seems to be a hole in your statement, Twilight. Aren’t you the ruler of Equestria? Why would either of them be there? They’re retired in Silver Shoals, right?”

The alicorn chuckled slightly, with a hint of nervousness in her voice.

“Pffffft, of COURSE they retired! Don’t be silly! I totally don’t ask them for advice from time to time, what on earth would make you think that?? Eh heheh…”

What followed was an episode of Twilight internally panicking over yet another reminder that she was ruler of all of Equestria. Despite being in a serious situation, Drop Shadow tried to hold back a snicker. Seeing her go into ‘Twilighting’ mode, Sunset got next to him and whispered in his ear.

“Between you and me, even though it’s been over a year since her coronation and transfer of power, she still hasn’t gotten over the fact that Equestrian decisions are in her hooves. Her so-called ‘Twilighting’ moments make me giggle a bit.”

Shady finally snickered in response, which made Twilight snap out of her internal panic. Her expression returned to being non-aggressively serious.

“Ahem... Anyway... Getting back on track, catch the next train to Canterlot and meet me there.”

Sunset turned and looked at her.

“Aren’t you going to just come with us to the station?”

Twilight looked to the side, before gazing back at Miss Shimmer.

“I still have a couple things to do before I head out. Go with them, Sunset.”

The goldenrod pony nodded that she understood, and walked with the other two out the door and out the front entrance. On their way out, Twilight could be heard telling Spike to take a letter.

Fluttershy led the other two down to the station with her, and to her surprise, there was only one other pony waiting at all. A pink unicorn with a purple mane highlighting a seafoam green accent, and a cutie mark resembling a two toned ribbon with a four pointed star. She appeared to have her head deep in some kind of book, appearing like a spell tome of some sort. It had an exact replica of her own cutie mark on the cover. The mare was sitting on her plot, holding the book up with magic. Upon noticing movement in her peripheral vision, her head turned to face the visitors, and it lit up. She closed the book and put it back in her saddle bag before conversing with them.

“Hey, Sunset, Fluttershy! What’s up? And who’s your friend here? I don’t believe I’ve seen him before.”

Sunset Shimmer was the one to respond to her inquiry.

“We’re on our way to Canterlot to discuss an important matter with princess Twilight and the two sisters. I’m assuming you were already heading that way, Starlight?”

Starlight stood up and outstretched a hoof, looking a bit confused.

“You’d be correct. My plan was to do some research with Sunburst in the Canterlot Library, but now I guess I’m seeing Twilight. Her letter wrote itself in the back page of my book, before promptly erasing itself. The letter was quite... vague, so I’m not sure of the severity. Regardless, good thing I was already heading that way.”

Before any of them could fathom a response, Starlight put her hoof back down.

“Oh! Sorry, kind of rambled on there. Who’s this?”

Once again, Sunset filled in for him and gave the introduction.

“Right! Whoops. This is Drop Shadow. According to Fluttershy, he’s known her ever since they were in the Cloudsdale Flight Academy as foals. Though, oddly, she’s never mentioned him prior.”

He stepped forward and outstretched his hoof. She took it and they shook.

“Pleasure to meet you! You’re a close friend of Twilight, I assume?”

The hoofshake was dropped appropriately and the pink unicorn properly introduced herself.

“Sunset already mentioned it, but I’m Starlight Glimmer. I’m the former protege of princess Twilight and currently run the School of Friendship as Headmare. Likewise, it’s great to meet you!”

The two continued conversing lightly before the train showed up, everypony in a good mood. Upon boarding, they took their seats. Drop Shadow sat himself by the window, and Sunset sat next to him. Fluttershy and Starlight sat opposite. After settling in for a long train ride, Starlight broke the silence.

“While we’re here, do any of you have more info on why Twilight wants to meet us in Canterlot? Like I said, the letter was rather vague...”

The stallion quenched her inquiry, raising a hoof from the seat.

“You see... I’m in need of some help from where I’m from. My home is under attack from a ginormous threat. After I spilled the details to princess Twilight, she suggested we head to Canterlot and discuss it with both Celestia and Luna. She also thinks I’m... full of dark magic...”

That prompted a confused look from the pink mare, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

“What do you mean by that? I thought you came from Cloudsdale like Sunset said? That you’ve known Fluttershy since the flight academy?”

He threw his head back at the seat and sighed in frustration, before bringing it back forward.

“Well, yes, but actually no. I may appear like a pegasi, but I’m not from Equestria. I’m from another world entirely. This is how I appeared after getting here earlier this morning.”

It took a few moments, but a lightbulb went off in Starlight’s head.

“Wait, is this something like how Sunset came here from another world beyond the mirror in Twilight’s castle?”

Sunset had to interject, as it was a common misconception among a handful of ponies.

“Actually, I was born in Equestria and went to the other world on my-”

She was cut off by Shadow, responding to Starlight’s question. It made her roll her eyes a bit.

“I guess you could say that? I arrived here through a portal made from cherry blossoms.”

Starlight’s eyes darted around a few times before gathering the correct sentence.

“Well, that certainly clarifies things, a bit. I think...”

She looked around hastily, before getting close to his face. You could tell what she was going to ask was something that made her positively giddy.

“...What kind of magic do they have over where you’re from? Could you demonstrate?”

Drop Shadow was taken back by her quick acceptance of his story. It’s just like her to get excited over magic. He took a deep breath before explaining.

“From what I’ve seen, most of my own abilities have been nullified. Normally, I would be able to do a handful of things like spew toxic liquid, harden my own tail to the level of steel, and even breathe fire. All of which I have not been able to do. I don’t know if it’s a limitation of being a pony, but I would prefer to have those abilities should I need them.”

Fluttershy was the one to truly react to that, placing a hoof over her mouth.

“All of those things sound super dangerous... who would need powers like that?”

The stallion casually carried on, answering her but trying to be informative and not disregard her feelings about it.

“Where I’m from, Fluttershy, everyone gets four of these abilities from when they’re born. As they grow, these powers can change, but they can only hold onto four at once. In the wilderness, they prove very useful in staving off attackers.”

The shy pony nodded in understanding, letting Sunset have the spotlight. Admittedly, she had been curious about both his tail and the necklace he wore ever since he showed up at the castle. She kind of awkwardly dipped her hooves in the water.

“That leaves me, I guess. Drop Shadow, allow me to ask... what’s up with your tail? And that necklace you wear? Personally I’ve never seen a pony with a tail that had an accent only on the end, and that orb just screams like it’s an artifact.”

He first took the orb under his hoof and showed it to the other three, without detaching it from the holder.

“This... this would take time to explain. I don’t feel comfortable explaining it here, and I’m not even sure it works in Equestria. I’ll show it to you all once we get some time to ourselves.”

Letting it back down, he then looked over his shoulder and at his flank. His red and teal-green cutie mark sort of resembled a weapon that he’s seen Ammy use, but his focus was on his tail.

“The black tip on my tail isn’t just something for show. It’s part of a power I inherited from my mom, who happens to be the one who’s in trouble at home... With it, I can perform a hand- or rather, hoof-full of her environment manipulating abilities. Honestly, I’ve rarely ever used it, thinking about it.”

That certainly piqued Starlight’s interest, as she leaned in closer to him without uttering a word. Shadow got the hint.

“Alright, alright. Please turn your attention to the sunny daytime sky. I hope this works...”

The mares all turned their heads out to the sky. A clear, bright, warm, and sunny day was on display. A swish and flick of Shadow’s tail caused a kanji to appear in the sky, and the dark night time sky as well as the moon quickly replaced the sun. Not only were the three of them with their jaws to the floor, metaphorically, the rest of the train started looking at the sky from their seats, wondering how the sun just set on its own and why it did so quickly. Realizing the commotion that arose, he kind of dipped low in the seat, burying his head under his hooves.

“You can control the sun and moon?! I know for a fact that Princess Celestia and Luna would LOVE to meet you!!”

Starlight excitedly exclaimed while also keeping her voice low. Drop Shadow, on the other hoof, hurriedly tried to correct the magic, but found he was unable to cast another brush technique, likely due to anxiety.

“That’s great, Starlight, but I’m trying to turn the sky back to daytime, but I can’t use more of the magic. For some reason my body just can’t do it. Apparently they aren’t stopping the train because of it, so let's just lay low until we get to Canterlot...”

Her ears drooped, upset at herself a little bit.

“That’s not a bad idea... sorry about that, Shadow...”

He patted her shoulder, before deciding to fall asleep. He curled up like a pony traditionally would. The rest of them followed suit, given that they had many hours before arriving in Canterlot. Sunset fell asleep while still sitting up, which was not uncommon among Equestria’s inhabitants. What she didn’t know was that she must’ve fallen over while unconscious, resulting in her laying on top of Shadow.

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

“Luna, are you aware of what time it is? You seem to have brought the moon up...”

A soothing yet commanding voice called out, looking behind themselves as they did so. A slow and steady trot was heading in the direction of the call.

“Whatever do you mean, dear si-”

The other princess started a response but cut herself off as soon as she saw what Celestia was getting at.

“...this was not my doing. Wait, do you see that? Along with the moon! There's kanji! Is this what I think it is?”

Celestia’s eyes squinted in typical cinematic fashion.

“If that’s what is happening, then we have to prepare to help her in any way we can. Tell the royal guard to go on watch around the castle.”

Luna looked at her, raising a hoof off the ground.

“But we’re not the rulers of Equestria any longer, Tia. The royal guard will only listen to Twilight!”

The white alicorn turned away from the window.

“Then we’ll just have to wait until she gets here.”

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

5 - Judgement in Canterlot

The train made its final stop at Canterlot station. The last jerk of the train’s brakes woke up Shadow and Sunset, which he had to make a witty comment on their positions.

“Well then... good morning, sleepyhead. Hey, uh, not to be rude but you’re kind of crushing me.”

Sunset’s eyes fully opened and she pushed herself back up, getting back into the sitting position in a rush. Her face was blushed from embarrassment and she looked slightly away from him.

“Ah!! S-sorry, Drop Shadow... I must’ve fallen over after I fell asleep.”

He chuckled in response, clearly not upset about the situation. The other two did as well. Starlight raised a hoof upright and spoke to her.

“I’m not sure how long you were out, but you looked mighty comfortable, Sunset~”

The goldenrod pony pouted, crossing her front hooves. Drop Shadow put a hoof on her shoulder and looked at her warmly.

“Sunset, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Ponies fall asleep on each other all the time. No one here is mad about it. They’re about to call for us to get off. Let’s forget about it and get to the castle, alright?”

She looked back toward him, hooves back on the seat, and nodded solemnly. The intercom called for those getting off at Canterlot Station to grab their belongings and head out, and the four made their way onto the platform. Heading through the station building and to the street, Canterlot stood before them. To the three mares, it was nothing new, but to Shadow, it was majestic. The four of them stood side by side, looking at the city, Drop Shadow’s jaw metaphorically at the floor.

“Sweet Celestia! Canterlot is THIS big?? Nothing compares to this back home!”

The pink mare looked at him and smiled.

“It’s incredible how large it really is. You could find just about anything you’d ever want here. After we go see Twilight, remind me to show you around!”

They proceeded to walk the streets of Canterlot at night, even though it was barely dusk according to the clock. The town was bustling with ponies going about their days. They traveled forwards, backwards, long ways, slant ways and any other ways you could think of. Shadow was simply taking in the sights of the wondrous city. He decided to break the silence toward Starlight.

“Hey, Starlight, tell me something. Back at the Ponyville station, you had your face deep in a book. I noticed it has your own cutie mark on the cover. What is it?”

That made her stop and pull the book out of her saddle bag with magic. She held it up with the cover facing all of them.

“Oh, this? It’s my own personal journal of sorts. A lot of times I’ll keep records of stuff that happened on a particular day here, but back at the station, I was trying to make some minor refinements to a spell I’m working on. That, among other things, was the reason I sought to see Sunburst today.”

Naturally, that piqued Shadow’s interest.

“What kind of spell are you tweaking? What’s the intended effect?”

She put the book back in her saddle bag and raised a hoof upward, being kind of cheeky.

“It’s not ready yet, as I said, so you’ll just have to wait and see~”

The stallion chuckled and played along with her unwillingness to reveal it. They all kept moving straight toward the castle. Not too many steps later, the entrance to the castle opened in the distance. Out of it stormed a whole squadron of royal guard ponies, consisting of all varieties.

“Why are guards surrounding the castle? Everypony, I think it's in our best interest to hurry! Something might be wrong!”

Sunset exclaimed with a slight nervousness in her voice, before building up to a complete gallop. The other three followed suit, trailing right behind her.

It took them a couple minutes to reach the castle, but once they did, they were aggressively stopped by two royal guards holding spears. Three of them took a step back, while Fluttershy cowered a bit behind Shadow.

“Come on guys! Let us through! We’re supposed to see princess Twilight!”

The pink mare demanded, though it didn’t look like they were taking anything from her. They stood their ground and held the spears in their faces. One of them spoke out loud.

“No creature is allowed in the castle per the instruction of Princess Twilight Sparkle! It does not matter to me if you’re her former protege, a friend of hers, a former star student of Princess Celestia, or some common pegasi, you aren’t getting in. Do I make myself clear?”

All of them were taken back by the guard’s words. Goldenrod pony stepped in front of the other three.

“Why wouldn’t she want us in?? She specifically told us to meet her in the castle before she left Ponyville!”

The guard did not move a muscle from his current position.

“When she made the order, she said no creatures, and did not specify any exceptions. I don’t question her words, I simply follow them. Now I suggest you four back off before this is considered assault on a guard...”

Starlight’s emotions began getting to her. Her horn started glowing with red magic, and she stepped forward towards the guards. She was done playing around. The two guards saw this as an attack, and lunged forward with their spears. In quick thinking, Sunset Shimmer got in front of the others and powered up magic. They disappeared faster than you could blink an eye. They ended up in a wet, broken down, unmaintained underground area. Sunset took a moment to catch her breath before glaring at Starlight.

“Starlight, you stupid foal!! I understand your frustration over not being let in, but was it worth almost attacking a guard?! You’re lucky I was able to teleport us out of harm’s way! Now we probably have who knows how many of them searching for us!”

She turned around to face her accuser, walking up to her with anger seething from her body.

“They were going to attack us regardless of what we did! I had hoped they would see the reason in that WE know Princess Twilight directly, and let us in! So yes, I believe my actions were justified, Sunset!”

The goldenrod pony stood her ground, scoffing at her.

“At least one of us knows how to control her emotions in times of stress. Seems all that mentoring Twilight did with you didn’t go anywhere.”

Starlight scrunched up her muzzle, raising her voice and red magic coming from her horn again.

“I’ve learned plenty of things from Princess Twilight!! Don’t you dare belittle her!!”

Sunset got into an offensive pose, clearly thinking that fighting was the only way out of this.

“I’m not belittling HER at all!! I’m calling YOU out, Starlight!”

The two rushed at each other, magic armed. Before reaching each other, a giant slash was created in the ground, causing them to skid to a halt. Both of them looked up in surprise as Drop Shadow flew in place with his front hooves crossed. His expression read out agitation.

“Would you two just knock it off?? Sure, Starlight made a mistake. The guards were also being jerks! We’re all fine, nopony is hurt, let's go before one of them finds us down here, okay??”

The two mares sighed and agreed. Shadow stayed in the air without moving because of a crucial fact.

“Uhhh... that being said, where are we, exactly?”

Sunset looked around somewhat, gathering their exact location.

“I took us into the catacombs below the castle. Starlight and I have been here on multiple occasions, for different reasons. Given the room we’re in, I should know the way up to the main floor-”

Her voice was cut off by the sound of slow trotting coming from another nearby corridor.

“I think some guards are coming. Everyone follow me!”

She headed up the set of stairs next to her, and the others followed her. Within less than ten minutes, they found themselves below a grate that was accompanied by a ladder. Fluttershy, of all ponies, looked up through the grate to scout their surroundings. A little ways down the hall was the door to the throne room.

“It looks clear, I think.”

She moved the grate open and they all climbed out, only to be pounced on by one guard for each of them. The commotion caused the doors to open, and a familiar alicorn to walk out. No, it was not clear.

“Hey! Stand down! These are my friends! You’re all dismissed!”

Without a word from any of them, the guards released their captives, stood in file, and walked off. Shadow stood up with the rest of them, understandably irritated.

“Not to be rude, but what was that about, Twilight?! I thought you wanted us to see you here?! The guards refused us entry at the front, and tackled us here!”

The alicorn was understandably worried about that. Her expression changed to concern in a flash.

“I did tell them to not let anypony in, however, they should’ve known better when it came to you all. I’m terribly sorry about that.”

Even after hearing that, he was still incredibly irritated. He looked around sporadically, breathing heavily.

“Oh, they should have, should they?? Twilight, who’s the captain of the royal guard?? I’m gonna go give them a piece of my mind!!”

The shy pony put a hoof on his shoulder, to which he snapped his head around to her.

“Drop Shadow, please calm down... it’s already over... I’m sure it was a misunderstanding...”

Her hoof being on his shoulder seemed to calm him, rational thinking slowly returning.

“Yeah... Lets... Let's just go. We have a meeting to attend.”

Surprisingly, Twilight did not proceed to head into the throne room immediately. She stood her ground, the concerned expression sticking around in addition to dropped ears.

“About that... I do have to warn you that Princess Celestia did have a couple moments of black sparks from her horn since I arrived. Considering that I told her they appeared for me when you showed up back in my old library... She's heavily convinced that you’re the cause. Since you came directly to me, she’s willing to give you a fair evaluation. I know you have dark magic in you, but I firmly believe you aren’t a bad pony. We’ll try to lend you a hoof where we can.”

All of that was a lot to process for him. Seems like almost everywhere he goes in Equestria, somepony thinks he’s another bad guy. He took a deep breath and walked through the door, Twilight opening it with magic. As the view revealed Celestia and her sister Luna, the confidence he had immediately went out the window. He lowered his head and a nervous expression found itself on his face. His heart rate sped up. Upon seeing him, Celestia’s wings unfolded and she scowled.

“Twilight, I assume this is the stallion you were referring to? The one that made your horn glow black with same-color sparks?”

Her voice was absolute-zero cold and unyielding. Despite what she agreed to, it might be obvious what her plan of action was. Twilight stepped up next to him and took center stage, hoping to defuse the tension as much as she could.

“Yes, Princess Celestia. This is the stallion I was talking about. I do have to confess that I’m not sure that he's the reason the black glow and sparks appeared... Wouldn’t they still be present if he was? He’s well within range of you - and me for that matter - for them to appear.”

At the conclusion of her sentence, she paused to gauge the former princess’ reaction. Her expression did not change, but her wings folded back up.

“That is a valid point. However, you mentioned that he does contain dark magic, did you not?”

At this time, the rest of the Mane 8 arrived. They came through the doors calmly, conversing amongst themselves. The sky blue pegasi could be heard bickering to the orange earth pony after loosely evaluating the scene. All heads turned to the group presently arriving.

“A trial?? Oh come on! I missed the Daring Do figure signing by AK Yearling for a trial?? This is a load of hay, Applejack...”

The earth pony rolled her eyes and formally bowed to the former princesses before responding to the pegasi.

“Hush, Rainbow. You know that Twilight wouldn’t ask us to come here if it wasn’t import-”

Applejack cut herself off as she noticed every other pony was looking at her and Rainbow Dash bickering in the middle of the makeshift courtroom.

“Uh... yeah. We’ll just be watching from here. Do go on y’all.”

It took a few seconds for Celestia to stop staring at them. Her gaze instantly snapped back to Twilight, as she previously held the floor.

“Ahem... anyway... uh, yes, I did say that he has some dark magic, as I could feel it. But just like with you, the sparks did not stick around. He even has Fluttershy’s good word. It’s possible that there’s another source?”

The gears in the white alicorn’s head were turning. She took a step forward and looked at Drop Shadow sternly.

“Very well, since you’re so sure, let's have him explain himself. I’m aware of what you told me when you got here, Twilight, but I’d rather hear it come from his mouth. For consistency. I’m sure you understand.”

The purple alicorn nodded solemnly and took a single step back to let Shadow have the spotlight. He made a hard nervous swallow, regaining composure with a set of deep breaths.

“Princess Celestia, I appreciate you letting me explain myself. You see, the entire reason I’m even in Equestria isn’t exactly clear. That being said, I’m not exactly an inhabitant of Equestria. I’m not from here at all. When I first got here about sixteen hours ago after a rough landing from a cherry blossom portal, I found myself in this form.”

He briefly paused to gauge her expression and also Twilight’s. Nothing had appeared to change on Celestia’s face. Nevertheless, he cleared his throat and kept going.

“All I know is that my mother sent me through that portal to seek help in facing a giant threat back home. A ginormous canine creature, who happens to be my father in his own alternative form, is trying to kill her, with me as collateral. I know I contain dark magic, but you can blame him for that. If he didn’t do horrible things to my mom that resulted in me, I may not be in this mess. She was trying to hold him off when I was sent on my way. It’s anypony’s guess how long she has.”

He paused once more to check her expression, and it softened slightly. At that point, Sunset stepped up on the other side of him, with Fluttershy beside her, and Starlight with her.

“So I kindly ask you, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, look past the mention of dark magic for a moment. I need a helping hand- er, hoof. I have nowhere else to turn. I would not have come to Twilight, and she wouldn’t have gone to you while in retirement if it wasn’t something serious. So... please...”

He got into the downward pony position with his face against the floor. Another spectator joined him, the earth pony with the hat. She spoke softly to him, looking down at his head against the floor.

“Sugarcube, I believe what you’re saying. Being down on your luck is something I completely understand. Good to meet ya. Name’s Applejack.”

He maintained the pose but looked up at her.

“Likewise. Drop Shadow...”

The remaining mares moved out from the background to stand beside him. All eyes were on the two sisters, particularly Celestia. Out of left field, Princess Luna stepped forward instead, taking the spotlight away from her sister. Shadow noticed the movement out of his peripheral vision and held his pose, trembling with tears of fear not visible to anyone but him. Rather than be rash and cold-hearted, she spoke calmly to him.

“Drop Shadow, you said you aren’t from Equestria, and you got here through a cherry blossom portal, is that correct? You can look at me, I am not going to harm you. I only want clarification.”

Still holding his pose, he lifted his head from the floor and looked at the alicorn of the night, tears going down his face.

“Y-yes ma’am, both of those things a-are correct...”

She got down onto his level and put his head under a hoof, looking at him warmly.

“By that logic, this must not be what you actually look like, right? Don’t move, this won’t hurt.”

She stood herself back up, and his eyes followed her movement. Luna’s horn began glowing, and Shadow was enveloped in a veil of light. His face once again faced the floor. Once it fell onto itself and faded, he still maintained his downward pose. He felt different, but dared not move. The mares that stood beside him continued to look concerned. He was beyond terrified.

“Drop Shadow, stand up. This looks like you, doesn’t it?”

In response to her exclamation, he got up on all fours. Immediately, he noticed he could see his own muzzle again, and it had a white accent. Quickly he lifted a leg, and saw that it was no longer a hoof at the end, but a familiar paw. The wings he had were gone, and his stripes were back.

“I... I’m... BACK TO NORMAL!!”

He exclaimed excitedly, doing a little happy dance like a dog normally would. A few of the mares jumped into the conversation unexpectedly, considering they were quiet the whole way. Rarity raised a hoof up by her mouth.

“Goodness! He’s not a pony after all!”

Pinkie flat out lost it, screaming out loud.

“HE’S AN IMPOSTER!!!!!”

In the background, one of the guards standing watch in the corner could be heard saying the infamously shortened word. Following that, Rainbow Dash got extremely excited about what she just witnessed, grabbing her face with her front hooves as she flew in place.

“He’s normally a canine?? That is so awesome!!”

Luna then continued what she was going to say.

“When a non-native creature enters Equestria, they are transformed into a pony that most fits them. It’s how the mirror in princess Twilight’s library works, that our own Sunset Shimmer is all too familiar with.”

In response to that claim, Sunset rubbed at the floor with a hoof, kind of embarrassed. She had spent plenty of time on the other side, after all.

“The thing you said about a cherry blossom portal, and what Twilight told us before your arrival, made me want to ask: Does that moon shape and symbol out the window mean anything to you, Drop Shadow?”

He walked over to the window and checked out what she was talking about. He turned his head back around to look at her.

“Of course I recognize it. That’s Crescent, an ability I inherited from my mom. I performed that on the train ride here. I attempted to correct it after noticing the commotion it caused, but my body simply wouldn't let me.”

Luna put a hoof under her chin as she processed that.

“I see. It’s one thing to claim that you have access to her Brush, but another to prove it. Show us another ability, if you would.”

He did as she asked without question. His tail raised up as it drew two adjacent dashes. Without warning, the entire room was filled with a thick mist that came from nowhere. Everypony in the room felt like they were moving in slow motion for a solid ten seconds. When the mist cleared up, everyone returned to normal speed, and he was back in front of Princess Luna. Her gaze went toward his backside, locking onto his tail.

“That says everything I needed to know. I should’ve seen it from the moment I saw your tail. You must be her heir, Drop Shadow. You’re the son of our ally, Amaterasu. Please forgive my sister’s initial skepticism.”

Celestia rolled her eyes and shook her head. However, he had to correct her.

“Despite being her son, I do not know all of her techniques. Only a pawful. Also, since I’m not a pony anymore, the name is Shady- wait. Did you say... ally, Princess Luna?”

Rightfully so, he was a bit lost. That part didn’t really make sense, given what he knows.

“I did, yes. We’ve known her long before we even ruled Equestria over a millenia ago. You do know she’s that old, right?”

Shady raised a paw up and struggled to find the right words to say.

“I do, it’s just- I always thought that this place- arrrrgh, nevermind. Continue, your majesty.”

She looked at him dearly, before ruffling his head fluff with a hoof.

“Amaterasu has never been one to come to anyone or anypony for help, but something must be seriously wrong if she sent her son to us. We’ll be glad to help you in any way that we can.”

Luna planned on continuing her speech, that is, until Twilight jumped into the conversation abruptly.

“I just have a question. A few, actually. Both of you have mentioned this Amaterasu, but... who is she, exactly? Why is she so important? And why have you nor Princess Celestia ever told us about her?”

Celestia gathered a worried look over her face, finally jumping back into the conversation.

“There’s no easy way to put this, but Amaterasu is a divine deity. She’s a sun goddess reincarnated into the shape of a canine. She’s helped us on numerous occasions, most recently being the Great Equestrian War. It pitted ancient armies of ponies of all kinds against forces conjured and recruited by Grogar himself. We might not have been successful had it not been for her physical and magical prowess.”

“This was many millennia ago, mind you, but strangely none of the books in the Canterlot library seem to detail this war... As for why we never mentioned her to any of you, we honestly... forgot. So much has happened in the last thousand years, and the fact that she has not once reached out to us in any way since that war... it slipped our minds.”

Figuratively speaking, smoke was coming out of Twilight’s ears. That was an all-you-can-eat buffet of information that was just given to her. Understandably, she was left with more questions than answers.

“BUT HOW CAN TWO CREATURES HAVE CONTROL OVER A SINGLE ASTRONOMICAL BODY?! THAT LACKS ANY SENSE AT ALL!!”

The alicorn burst out suddenly, confirming that she was indeed confused about what came from Celestia’s mouth. A response came from beside her instead of from one of the sisters.

“Twi, surely you must’ve read in one of your many books that Star Swirl the Bearded was able to raise the sun, right? He was the one who taught Princess Celestia and Luna how to do so themselves, and they got their cutie marks from it. Star Swirl is here in present-day Equestria. Multiple ponies are alive right now that can do that.”

Sunset had looked over at her from her position next to Fluttershy and Starlight.

“Yes, of course I read that. It’s just... I don’t know why I didn’t think of it... Bringing up things like this should be just another Tuesday at this point...”

The alicorn’s face lost the energy it had, and she looked quite down. That didn’t stop Sunset from continuing on. In fact, she was snickering, like she couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“Come on Twilight, you’re supposed to be the egghead!”

At that point, she fell onto her back laughing at the joke she cracked up, while Rainbow Dash gave her a hoofbump. She was clearly the one that put her up to it. Twilight simply rolled her eyes and the conversation continued on without a hitch.

“As aforementioned, it’s very significant to us that Amaterasu’s son is here in Canterlot. Starting tomorrow, we’re planning out our course of action. But for now, I think it’s best if you all get some shut eye. There’s a spare bedroom upstairs that you’re free to use tonight, we’ll take you there.”

Celestia concluded the conversation, and the Mane 8 plus Shady followed both sisters up to the aptly named spare bedroom. The door was opened and both sisters were taken back by the sight inside.

“Oh! It’s... tidy! Twilight, did you do this in preparation? It was admittedly not well maintained before we passed the torch to you.”

Luna asked of her, to which Twilight grinned smugly.

“Nope! I try to make sure all the rooms are maintained on a routine basis. As I once told my friends, sweeping can be fun too.”

She trotted into the room, with AJ and Rainbow not far behind. They whispered to each other and chuckled, hoof bumping.

“The song still wasn’t catchy.”

“Nope.”

The rest followed suit, while Shady lingered behind a little bit. He wasn’t hesitant to enter the room, something else was bothering him. You could see it in his face, as well as his general body language.

“Drop Sha- er, Shady, is something wrong? You look like you’ve got a lot on your mind.”

He turned to face her, and quickly grasped her in a hug. She was surprised, but held onto him genuinely.

“You don’t even need to say a word, little one. I understand what you’re feeling, and I promise you that my sister and I will do everything we can to help you and your mom out. You also have the support of the eight greatest friends I’ve ever seen. Everything is going to be alright.”

He continued holding onto her for another minute before letting go and looking up at her. Her expression was warm and open-hearted.

“Y-yes ma’am. Thank you for that. Also... thank you for letting me explain myself and letting us all stay here tonight. I did not choose to be born with the dark magic that I have. If you were able to contact her, she’d tell you the same thing, I swear on it.”

She ruffled the hair on his fuzzy little head and giggled a bit.

“I know she would. Don’t worry about the other stuff right now. In my eyes, it’s what you do with your power that determines who you are. In my day, I’ve seen plenty of unicorns turned into alicorns that abused power. My eyes also see that you’re tired. Go on and get some sleep. We’ll discuss more in the morning, okay? Goodnight, Shady.”

He nodded his head and watched them both head toward their own quarters. Into the bedroom he went, where the rest of the girls had already picked their sleeping places and who they were laying with. There only happened to be one bed, but a plethora of pillows and covers so nopony would be uncomfortable. Starlight was fluffing a pillow next to Twilight in an attempt to get cozy.

“Twilight, are you sure you didn’t plan for something like this? This is an awful lot of pillows and blankets for a so-called spare bedroom.”

The princess let out a single grunt, followed up by a light chuckle as a response to the pink mare.

“...alright, you got me. Sometime during a lull of royal princess duties, I had planned on having a sleepover with you girls. I just didn’t expect it to be tonight, or under these circumstances.”

Rarity giggled a bit, sitting up from her position on the floor and glancing at the two of them.

“Twilight, dear, this is the best way I could imagine having a sleepover! We have an honorary guest! I don’t think I could sleep without getting to know him more.”

The earth pony with the hat - although her hat was hanging from a post at the head of the bed - sat up as well, gazing down back at her and then toward Shady. Looks like she wasn’t quite ready to fall asleep either.

“Right! I mean, who knew that we’d be visited by the son of a deity? I understand it’s not just a casual stop-by-and-say-hello kind of deal, but it certainly does make things more interestin’!”

The covers next to AJ rustled a bit. Rainbow Dash got out from underneath them and started flying in place, looking down at him with a puzzled look stretched over her equine face.

“I’m still confused, Drop Shadow. Is this what you normally look like? Or is the pegasi what you really are? ...actually come to think of it, I don’t think I ever saw you in the flight academy like Fluttershy said...”

Shady chuckled from his sitting position on the floor, gazing back up at the sky blue pegasus with a paw right side up.

“No, Dash. This is what I actually look like. I’m a canine by birth, but not a canine like you’re probably used to, in case it wasn’t already obvious by the events that unfolded earlier. Drop Shadow is the pony name, Shady is the canine name. Though I’ll respond to both.”

That got Sunset interested, since she - like clockwork - sat up from her spot on the floor, which was next to Starlight. She tilted her head to the side.

“You’re probably expecting this kind of question, but... you mentioned back on the train that you had four unique abilities but found yourself unable to use them as a pony. Could you go into more detail? You said something like... breathing fire?”

He got up from sitting and stood on all fours, holding a paw out. A deep breath was inhaled and let out before he began his explanation.

“Yeah. Much like other creatures back home, I have four abilities that I can use at any time. In that world, they’re referred to as moves. In particular, I can breathe a stream of smoldering fire, called flamethrower, spew a blob of poisonous liquid that is guaranteed to badly infect anyone it touches, called toxic, harden my tail to match the molecular makeup of solid steel and smack enemies with it, called iron tail, and rarely conjure a protective shield around my body which is impregnable to any form of attack, called protect. It’s a lot, but sometimes it's not enough to win your battles.”

He made a short and controlled demonstration of each move between each description, and the girls’ eyes widened in awe.

The fashionista took a turn, looking at Shady from across the room with a troubled expression.

“You didn’t even need to demonstrate those, darling. They look spectacular, but undoubtedly dangerous! I don’t suppose they’re meant for contests... right?”

Shady was about to follow up, but Pinkie, for the first time in the whole night aside from yelling out during the interrogation, made a whole run on sentence about her theory on what they are.

“He mostly uses those abilities in battles against other creatures from his home in order to fend them off or use in controlled combat with another creature commanded by some kind of bi-pedal hairless monkey in order for the monkey to obtain certifications and become the best battling hairless monkey in the world but Shady doesn’t use just those because the aforementioned dark magic he has grants him other unique abilities that he also inherited from his dad despite his mom being a divided diet tea or whatever. Buuuuuuuut that’s just a wild guess.”

Everypony looked at her with a blank expression until Sunset retorted, annoyance lingering in her voice.

“Oh come on, Pinkie! That can’t possibly be right!”

The canine stood his ground and looked directly into her eyes, then up to Pinkie.

“...actually, no. That’s pretty spot on, Pinkie. It’s actually... a bit scary how accurate you were. But yes: the dark magic I contain does grant me a plethora of additional abilities that most others would not have. Instead of being powered by the strength one has gained by battling, these are powered by pure hatred and resentment. Sometimes it even scares me that I have access to them. And it's a divine deity, not diet tea. I swear I’ll get revenge on him for putting Ammy and I into this mess...”

He began to start building up anger. Applejack’s voice snapped him out of it, and good thing.

“I got the basics from what y’all were sayin’ back in the throne room, but would you mind explaining the whole situation with your dad, sugarcube? From all that plus what you just told us, it sounds bigger than a small dispute between mom and pa.”

Shady decided to lay down, trying to look at the girls but simply couldn’t make eye contact.

“Okay. So... and I’ll try to simplify it so nopony is lost, but my dad is a canine creature like me. In fact, we’re classified as the same species. He is in the more powerful form, while I myself am the base form. With creatures like me, a lot of them take on a newer, more powerful form after certain amounts of combat experience or through use of certain magical items.”

“From what Ammy has told me over the years, he has had unrelenting resentment for her - and for me by association - pretty much since they met. I won’t go into detail this one time, but long short, the only reason I’m here at all is because she was forced upon by him.”

That made all the mares gasp and put a hoof up to their mouths.

“Oh, sugarcube... that’s horrible...”

“Goodness, that’s just not right!”

“O-oh... my...”

“Are you serious?? What a scummy guy!”

He sighed and continued on, not letting it stop him from getting it off his chest.

“Those have always been my thoughts exactly. I’m glad we’re all on the same team here. That aside, he’s never really been one to actually try anything. Up until now, he’s been relatively quiet. Of course that likely comes from how he’s magically bound to the frozen world below the Celestial Plain, a curse that my mom put on him over twenty years ago.”

“This really began after she tried to use her own magic to remove the darkness I carry. However, it seems that my dad’s ultimate goal was a success: to create a creature that could not have the dark magic removed. Frustrated in her failure to help me, she sought him out in the frozen land below, unbeknownst to me. She’s not one to kill, as she believes in fates worse than death, but from what she described, she was ready to toss that aside and end his life.”

“He explained the plan created for him, and how with the knowledge of me being stuck with the darkness, how it ended up being a success after all. That’s when she became enraged and actually made a slice in his face with her claws, threatening that the next would be across his neck. She was done and out for blood. It didn’t go farther than that, because he tapped into some kind of hidden power and transformed himself into an ancient version of our species, towering over her at three times his original size. I didn’t even know that was possible!”

“It was at that point when he thought he had won. He prepped a powerful beam of energy to vaporize her with, but I had shown up before it came from his mouth, smashing the side of his face with a blast of my own, powered by the... dark magic. I used a couple more of those attacks and weakened him, but barely. After escorting her back home, he attacked the Plain at an even bigger size. That’s when she told me to go get help with tears in her eyes. And so... n-now I’m here...”

A yellow hoof found itself on his shoulder as the tears came down. His sobbing was mostly just sniffling, but his paws were soaked.

“Hey... shhhhh... It’s alright. If I knew it was this bad when we met up on the hilltop, I would’ve taken you straight to Twilight instead of casually strolling through Ponyville... I-i’m sorry...”

He lifted his face up and saw that Fluttershy was looking at him with a down look on her face. She came down to his level and gave him a giant hug. He responded to her with sniffles still coming through.

“Thanks, Fluttershy. It’s not your fault... you didn’t know. I was a pony that came from seemingly nowhere and told you an old’s mare tale, for all you would’ve known. But... you showed me the greatest kindness I’ve ever seen, and I’m eternally grateful for you not just brushing it off as nothing.”

They released each other from the hug and looked at each other warmly, the shy pony flying in place mere inches off the ground. A goldenrod unicorn left her sleeping place next to Twilight and Starlight, giving him a hug as well.

“Come here, you. We got this, together. No matter what happens, we have your back, and we’re going to help you take down that jerk of a dog you call your father. We’ll show him what happens when he messes with you, Shady, don’t worry about a thing.”

She let go of him and had the most genuine, loving smile you could possibly visualize in your head, before sitting down on the floor across from him. The rest of the girls followed her lead, making their way to the floor as well. They had all made themselves into a sort of round-robin circle. The result made Shady chuckle into his paw.

“I guess we can throw sleeping out the window, huh?”

Everyone in the room laughed at that, the mood having finally lightened up and Shady feeling much better. Following the laughter, Twilight couldn’t resist any longer. She’d been trying to get a decent look at his necklace ever since he arrived in her library back in Ponyville. Something about it piqued her interest.

“I’ve had my eyes on that necklace of yours ever since you showed up at my library back in Ponyville. Would it be alright if I took a look at the orb it holds?”

He looked down at it and held it out in his paw so everypony could see.

“Oh, this? Certainly. Just be careful with it, it’s sensitive.”

He popped the mega stone out of the socket and she grabbed onto it lightly using magic. She began studying it visually, eyes squinted and tongue out partially like a blep. You could figuratively hear the gears turning in her head.

“The symbol embedded within its center... does it have a particular meaning? It has to be magical in some way. While faint, I can feel a special kind of energy flowing from it.”

He held a paw up in the air and explained the stone’s power to her.

“The orb you hold is what’s known back home as a Mega Stone. By tapping into the power it holds, I and I alone can undergo a special transformation known as a Mega Evolution.”

“...a mega who-what now?”

The alicorn replied with her head tilted to the side and eyes barely open as she looked at him. Twilight didn’t possibly know what any of that meant. Shady blushed in embarrassment and scratched the back of his head.

“Right right... I said that as if you’ve heard those terms all your life... my bad. Ahem... Essentially, a mega evolution is a special kind of transformation that can occur when the bond between you and your partner is especially strong. Generally speaking, the one who undergoes the transformation is more powerful from it, and each species can only use their own stone. My species in particular doesn’t have one, so even if another one like me would get a hold of this thing, they would not benefit from it.”

The pink unicorn dropped into their conversation, noting the hole in his story.

“Hold on a second. You said your species doesn’t have their own? So then why and how do you have this?”

Shady’s ears dropped, and he let out another sigh.

“You see, the battle I had with my dad was not the only one. And it won’t be the last. Many years ago, believe it or not, Ammy actually resented me pretty coldly. Not nearly as much as she hated him, but she tried to make it clear that the dark magic I carried was the main reason why she ignored me in the normal world. She made it clear every time she decided to come around.”

Sunset spoke up once more.

“So this last fight was the second? What happened during the first battle?”

He looked to the side and downward slightly, not exactly wanting to recall the events.

“The very last time I had called out to her to see me, she actually showed up, immediately spraying that she would rather smite me for the dark magic, but was finally willing to give me a chance to prove myself. You know, nineteen or so years into my life. I had retorted by saying that the dark magic was not my fault, but continued listening. She informed me that if I were to head to frozen lands below her home and essentially beat the ever living crud out of my dad, but not kill him, she would make it worth my while.”

“So I headed through the portal she provided, and confronted him. Following a rather pathetic fight by him, only consisting of him launching me into a nearby rock with considerable force followed by a blast of dark energy to him, I had done enough damage according to her. As for making it worth my while, she had created this custom, fully exclusive mega stone that would allow me to undergo mega evolution, ignoring the requirement of being in the more powerful form and having the dark magic in the first place.”

Twilight continued holding onto it, and looked at him with sorrowful eyes.

“I had no idea something this small had such a troubling backstory. I’m sorry to hear all that, Shady.”

He nodded solemnly, raising a paw off the ground once again.

“It’s in the past now. I’m just glad she realized I’m much better than he is regarding personality and morals, and has actually started being the mom I wish she was when I was still a puppy. Like I said though, once she couldn’t remove the dark magic, she tried fighting him. It went south, and now he’s attacking the barrier she set up around the Plain.”

The blue pony with the rainbow colored mane crossed her forehooves and scrunched her nose up in disgust.

“Like I said, he sounds like a real scummy guy to me. I’ll lend a hoof any way I can if it means taking him down and teaching him a lesson or two!”

During that whole conversation, Twilight, Starlight, and Sunset were examining the mega stone carefully, pondering about how it works. After some time, miss bacon mane finally asked the million bit question.

“I’ve seen plenty of weird Equestrian artifacts while over in the other world, but your stone just takes the cake. Give me a hint, Shady. How in the world do you get this thing to work?”

Shady gestured by tapping his forepaw on his chest fluff.

“Never really thought about it too much since it's second nature for me, but essentially all I do is focus on the mega stone and tap on it. Seconds later, I’m transformed into my mega evolution. It changes not only my physical size, but greatly increases my strength and resilience.”

Twilight garnered a cheeky expression while looking at the stone that she held magically. A thought was processing in her head.

“Hmm, I wonder if there might be other ways to get it to activate, such as with unicorn magic…”

The dog looked at her sternly and held a forepaw out to the side.

“I would heavily advise against doing that. Mega Stones are extremely sensitive objects that aren’t to be taken lightly.”

She waved a hoof at him playfully, completely disregarding the expert’s advice on the matter.

“Oh don’t be such an uptight filly! You can’t just show up in our world with a mysterious and foreign artifact and expect me to NOT be curious!”

Rarity, who had been laying on her side next to Fluttershy and Pinkie for some time, vocalized her concerns about it.

“I have to agree with Shady on this one, dear. He’s the expert on it, after all. There’s a fine line between curiosity and intruding on somepony else’s belongings- oh for goodness sake!”

Her hoof smacked against her forehead in annoyance. All three unicorns were channeling magic into the Mega Stone. They did this for a short duration until the stone began to vibrate and glow with the colors it was composed of, wherein it levitated out of Twilight’s magical hold. Everyone watched attentively until the vibration became worse, which prompted Shady to quickly snatch it from where it hung midair.

“GIRLS!! WHAT DID I JUST TELL YOU ABOUT ZAPPING IT WITH MAGIC?? IT’S SENSITIVE!!”

Following his outburst, he popped it back into the socket on his necklace. As soon as he heard the click, the mega evolution veil appeared around him, and he was infused with mega energy without his own consent. After it dissipated into the explosion of cherry blossom leaves that it's known for, he was bare witness to a shockwave that had it's epicenter on him. The explosion was patterned very similarly to a sonic rainboom, and covered the mares with veils of light. They appeared to closely resemble the same veil that he gets covered in, but he couldn’t be sure. He was too busy being in shock.

After the light vanished, cherry blossoms fell from where they stood. He was left agasp due to the mares being transformed as well. Their manes were wilder and more vibrantly colored, with their respective cutie marks spread across their bodies. Oddly enough, Starlight and Sunset were included in this. The pink unicorn looked over herself and thought she knew what this was, but was more confused than anything else. She looked directly at Shady, turning a hoof upward.

“Well, this certainly wasn’t expected. Though it... doesn’t make much sense. The Elements of Harmony were destroyed years ago... And there were only six of them back then. Yet Sunset and I are powered up, too...”

The other mares were pretty much in as much surprise as Starlight, though without the calm demeanor. Shady shrugged with a concerned expression stretching across his face. It made no sense to him either.

“I-I’m not sure how or WHY that my transformation caused you all to transform as well, especially since the elements were needed for it before. The only thing I could tie it to was the fact that THREE PARTICULAR UNICORNS zapped it with magic, so it might’ve been responding to that as a stimulant...”

Pinkie leapt up from her floor-based sleeping position, bouncing around like her usual, giddy self.

“THIS IS TOTALLY AWESOME!!”

It was about time for another million bit question, so thought the purple canine. He crossed his forepaws and looked at all of them to gain their attention.

“If I remember correctly from the Friendship Journal, the energy from that locked chest made you girls more powerful, right?”

The orange pony sat up, sticking a hoof out.

“Gosh, it’s been so long since we used that to defeat Tirek, but it did make us significantly stronger in terms of physical strength, and enabled those of us with horns or wings to use them even after he’d swallowed all of Equestria’s magic.”

You couldn’t see it since it was imaginary, but a lightbulb went off above Fluttershy’s head. She finally had something else to add to the conversation.

“Wait! What if we used this to combat Shady’s father? Surely the power of eight power ponies, a goddess’ descendant, and a goddess would be able to outmatch him?”

He had never heard such an idea in his life. Shady grabbed Fluttershy’s cheeks and booped their noses together.

“By the gods, Fluttershy! That’s absolutely genius!”

She definitely blushed after receiving such a compliment. It’d been awhile since anyone had taken a liking to one of her suggestions. Following the outburst from Shady, there was a haphazard knocking on the door to their room. Everyone froze in place and turned their attention to said door. Luna’s voice followed.

“For the love of Equestria, is everything alright in there? I can hear you mares and stallions from across the castle!”

Dash spoke up in response, once again flying in place.

“We’re alright, princess! Just got excited over a uh… game of Ogres and Ogliettes that we’re playing! We’ll try to keep it down, sorry!”

They waited briefly after she responded to the princess, but everyone could still feel her presence outside the door, despite Rainbow’s strat to send her away.

“Can you all come out here? There’s something we need to talk about. It’s... rather important.”

Everyone exchanged glances and Fluttershy opened the door, slamming it shut just as quickly. She fell out of flight and landed on her plot with her back against her door, hyperventilating.

AJ got up and ran over to her in a heartbeat, trying to calm her down.

“Fluttershy!! Calm down, sugarcube! What’s out there??”

She heard what Applejack was saying, but could not muster a response. Her heart was still struck with fear. At this time, Celestia could also be heard behind the door. She sounded a bit concerned, considering the door just got slammed in her face.

“For pete’s sake, what’s going on in there?? Fine. We’ve respected your privacy by knocking, but assert our authority as former rulers of Equestria by coming in anyway. I assure you that there’s nothing to be afraid about. We aren’t mad.”

The door was opened from the outside very gently, and everyone in the room was huddled together against the back wall. They all managed to exclaim the same thing at once, so each of them owes everyone else a Diet Coke, or whatever the Equestrian equivalent is.

“N-N-NIGHTMARE M-M-M-M-MOON?!?!”

Starlight made a second horrified exclamation, given that she’s the only one to have seen the other pony before.

“WAIT! NO! YOU AREN’T REAL!! DAYBREAKER ISN’T REAL! YOU ONLY EXISTED IN MY DREAMS!! THIS ISN’T POSSIBLE!!!”

Fluttershy had fainted already, the poor girl. The rest of them held onto each other for dear life, shivering as if they were in the middle of Yakyakistan. Meanwhile, the two sisters exchanged the same confused expression, looking at each other and then back to the group. Daybreaker raised a hoof.

“Girls, please listen to me! I know what it looks like, but-”

Applejack cut her off mid-sentence, trying to recompose herself but not getting anywhere. She was not falling for any trickery.

“W-What did you two do with the real Celestia and Luna?? This isn’t funny!! Let them go!”

Nightmare Moon slapped a hoof across her face. She was a bit annoyed, just the tiniest bit, with how everypony was reacting.

“I understand that this looks bad... but I assure you that it IS the REAL us!! Celestia and Luna!! This is actually what we came downstairs to discuss with you. We’re puzzled by this appearance change ourselves. Quite frankly I had forgotten about the Nightmare Moon regression I once was…”

Everyone seemed to lose their rush of adrenaline and chillaxed a bit. Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker are usually more hostile than this. The group let each other go and stood back up, looking mostly fine.

“As much as I’d love to stand here in the hallway and talk about it, how about we head up to our bedroom, upstairs? It’s a lot roomier compared to this spare one.”

The group nodded in agreement, and Daybreaker gestured for them to follow her. Up the stairs, around the corner and down the hall was the royal master bedroom. Not the same one that Twilight would use, since this one has two beds. The sisters laid down on their respective old beds, while the girls and Shady did the same on the floor. It was late at night, after all. Daybreaker started the discussion.

“In case it wasn’t obvious already, something has caused all of us to undergo a drastic change in appearance. My sister and I have visually changed into our evil alter-egos, while you fillies have been affected by the Elements... Though that shouldn’t be possible...”

The dark alter-egoed sister filled in for the remainder of the statement.

“And as for Shady… well I’m not quite sure what he changed into, but he’s certainly got an even more charming air about him! ...The question is, why? It happened completely out of the blue and wasn’t something either of us triggered, that’s for sure.”

Rainbow Dash raised a hoof and explained what happened with the girls while in the other room.

“Well, we were in the spare bedroom and Miss Egghead over here got curious about the orb that Shady had on his necklace. Her, Starlight, and Sunset zapped it with some weird magic even after we told them not to, and when Shady put it back in his necklace, he was covered in some kind of light!”

The purple alicorn rolled her eyes at Dash’s statement, having her hooves crossed in a sort of pout. Applejack picked up the end of the statement.

“Mere seconds after he appeared in his new form, all eight of us got covered in that same light. It vanished as quickly as it appeared and now we look like this! This shouldn’t be possible, right? The Elements have been gone for years!”

The explanation of events got the sisters thinking. Gears in their heads moved. Nightmare Moon exchanged glances with her sister.

“That would seem to line up with what we experienced. Out of nowhere, we were covered in a light as well. It was also brief, and we couldn’t believe our eyes once it vanished.”

Shady sat there, now with his eyes shut. It did indeed add up. Without opening them, he made his claim to everypony in the room.

“The stone I have on my necklace was the cause of this. I explained what it does to the girls, so I’ll give a simplified synopsis. It’s called a Mega Stone, gifted to me by Ammy. Certain creatures where I’m from can use one to temporarily transform into a more powerful form. Normally, my species does not have one of their own, hence why she created this one for me.”

“I think when Twi, Starlight, and Sunset zapped it, that must’ve caused a chain reaction and overloaded it, ignoring the requirement of me being the one to activate it. Though I didn’t expect it to spread that far out, or for this to happen or even be possible, to be fair. Okay, that wasn’t exactly brief, but nevertheless I’m certain I’m responsible.”

Daybreaker raised a hoof and looked directly at Shady.

“As far as my sister and I could tell, we do have the additional powers granted to use from these alter-egos. Perhaps we could use them to combat your father, Shady?”

His ears drooped and he let out a heavy sigh.

“Your majesty, I would normally never say no to additional help in a situation like this. Believe me, I think you and your sister would be excellent allies, but I’m taking these mares with me. Who’ll rule over Equestria if you two are also gone?”

She thought for a second, and looked back at him with an expression blooming with confidence.

“Oh don’t worry about that. Luna and I will figure something out.”

He nodded in response, feeling even better with the knowledge of two more being on his side. It was great and all, but Rarity brought up an important note about the transformation.

“Now it’s great to feel this powerful and look this vibrant again, but how do we change back? Surely this doesn’t last forever, right? It’s gotta be on some kind of timer.”

Shady scratched the back of his head with a paw, realizing that he never explained how that part of it works. Of course this was different, since he caused ten additional transformations following his own. He knew how his devolution worked, but the others were another question.

“Oh! Right… For me personally, I can hold the transformation pretty much indefinitely. I’m more commonly seen in this form compared to normal form. But to change back, I simply think to myself that I want to do so, and it happens. Or if I lose enough energy, it’ll drop from me being unable to maintain it. So why don’t you girls try thinking about going back?”

Everypony else in the room shut their eyes and presumably started thinking about their normal selves. It took a few moments, but they all exited their transformations.

“Hey! It really IS that easy! Now how do we transform again??”

Miss Dash was exceptionally ecstatic to attain the Rainbow Energy form again, but Shady wasn’t sure how to go about doing that twice. It wasn’t even his doing the first time, after all.

“If I’m being completely honest with you, Rainbow, I’m not sure how to pull it off for all ten of you a second time. Maybe if you all had a mega stone of your own, but I can’t even communicate with Ammy from here, let alone physically visit her. For now, I guess we’ll have to rely on Twilight, Starlight or Sunset infusing it with their magic, assuming it wasn’t a one-off thing.”

Almost as if on cue, Rarity let out a gargantuan yawn, starting the infamous chain of contagious yawns. It was another sign of how late it was, given that the moon was high in the sky outside the bedroom window.

“I think that settles everything, right? Considering that everypony in the room just yawned, I think it’s safe to call it here… Let’s all head back to bed.”

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement and the sisters got themselves settled under their covers once more. The mane group headed back to the spare bedroom. They all settled down back into their original places. Applejack and Rainbow Dash cuddled each other on the single bed. Apparently they all drew straws before the commotion happened, and that’s why they’re the ones sleeping on it.

Starlight laid with Twilight, and Sunset cuddled Twilight. Pinkie and Fluttershy were softly cuddling, with Rarity’s back to Fluttershy. Shady changed back to his standard form and decided to just lay where he stood, since they all looked so comfy together. He got curled up and almost dozed off when a voice from above jerked him back awake.

“Now what’re you doing down there? While I do live on a farm, I know the floor is a very uncomfortable place to sleep. Come on, hop on up here and lay with Rainbow and I, sugarcube.”

Shady smiled warmly and hopped up, sliding in between them so that AJ was spooning him. His paws were wrapped around Dash, and AJ wrapped her hooves around him. Maybe Equestria wasn’t quite so bad, once everything gets cleared up and no one thinks you’re a criminal? He thought to himself.

6 - Emotional Darkness Arises

Sunshine beaming through the window marked that the next day had arrived. Shady awoke to being nose to nose with AJ. He must’ve somehow turned over in his sleep. The sudden jolt he got from noticing this made her wake as well. Seeing that their noses were touching gave them quite a blush. Awkwardly they exchanged ‘good morning’ and got up, gently nudging the other girls to get them to wake up as well. They had a long day ahead of them. Once awake, the group of eight headed back downstairs to the throne room, where the two sisters were waiting for them in the center of the rather unnecessarily large and empty room.

“Why good morning, everyone. Looks like we got some sleep after all!”

Celestia began, chuckling and looking rather refreshed along with Luna. The group bowed formally.

“Good morning, your highnesses. I do want to apologize about the whole incident from last night, it was not intended to happen and we did not want to make that kind of ruckus.”

Shady exclaimed, feeling a bit embarrassed for that being part of his first impression. The white alicorn chuckled again, not looking disturbed by the referenced event.

“Don’t worry about it, Shady. I think we all learned that the power you exemplified can be used as a powerful tool, and speaking of… we should go over what we’re doing in regards to assisting you outside of Equestria.”

Her sister nodded in agreement. Despite that she actually slept during the night, her one yawn made it obvious that she wasn’t entirely awake yet. Shady stepped forward, halfway closing the gap between him and the sisters, but Celestia started off.

“You mentioned late last night that you wanted to take Twilight and her friends back to the Celestial Plain, correct? Is that still what you plan to do?”

He looked at her with a serious but not angry expression, staring directly into her eyes.

“Yes ma’am, that still holds true. I wholeheartedly believe that the best shot I have - that Ammy and I have - of taking down my father is through the use of these girls and their abilities, perseverance, and will power. After all, he would be outnumbered ten to one.”

She exchanged a glance with her sister, and both nodded in sync with each other. The still somewhat tired but fully functional ruler of the night took over.

“Both my sister and I are on board with your request. We do owe Amaterasu a great debt for lending us a hoof time and time again. There’s only one other thing that needs to be considered: are you girls on board with the plan? Keep in mind that this mission may be worse than any other you’ve ever been faced with.”

One by one, Twilight and her friends stepped up beside Shady, a confident and determined smile stretching across all of their faces. All eight of them spoke in unison.

“We’re on board, princess!”

Sunset in particular got Shady’s attention and talked to him one on one.

“Hey, no matter what happens, we’re in this together. Okay? We have your back.”

The white and tall alicorn stepped forward and gave direct instruction.

“Alright, that settles it then. While you could definitely go back there as is, the chances of success are much greater if you prepare. I highly advise you all head home and make any preparations you may need, bring anything you might-”

She was interrupted by Princess Luna breathing heavily, unable to stand up straight. Something suddenly felt off. The black magical glow and sparks appeared around her horn.

“Luna, are you... alright? You’re breathing rather hard.”

Luna’s bloodshot eyes opened with haste and she was sweating, an expression of panic spread across her whole face.

“Do you not see the black sparks, Tia?! Do you not feel that?? It’s a cesspool of darkness…”

The older sister looked at Luna with an annoyed face, not amused by the prank she was playing.

“I understand that Shady has some darkness in him, but we went over this yesterday. He’s not our enemy. Stop acting like a filly and stalling!”

Luna then outburst at Celestia, who only then realized how much stress it put her under.

“This isn’t about the dog!!! This is something much greater!! Whatever it is, it has more power than he does! IT'S APPROACHING FAST.”

Celestia put a hoof on Luna’s shoulder in an attempt to calm her down, while the group looked quite concerned. In the moments that followed, an earth shattering explosion could be heard coming from the wall behind the thrones. The tremor was violent enough to make the entire castle shake and everyone in it to lose their balance.

“WHAT IN ARCEUS’ NAME WAS THAT?!”

Shady exclaimed with some fear and genuine confusion. Fluttershy ducked for cover behind him, while the rest of the group stood their ground, ready to defend themselves and each other.

There was a brief moment of silence without another explosion. Shady gestured for everyone to stay back, but Rainbow ignored him and walked her way up beside him closer to the wall. He could hear a distinct ‘booyoing’ followed by a hissing.

“EVERYPONY GET BACK!! THERE’S AN EXPLOSIVE!!!!”

The two of them ran as fast as their legs could carry them, but they didn’t get too far before the second explosion happened, causing the back wall to implode and sending everyone flying back. A silhouette came through the smoke, bipedal in form and canis looking. Making itself visible, the bipedal creature was an Arcanine, holding two cherry bombs in her hands. Her palette was white with red accents, with a black tip on her tail. Twilight commented on the less important matter at hoof.

“OH COME ON! WE JUST FIXED THAT WALL SIX MOONS AGO!”

The Arcanine juggled the cherry bombs in her hands, bolsting a smug look on her face.

“Ah, there you are, Inktail! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY PLACES I’VE BEEN IN SEARCH OF YOU??”

Clearly she meant business and was not here for a refresher on Twilight’s friendship lessons. In the midst of the threatening situation, Shady mega evolved himself into his anthro form. The fact that he now stood bipedal made everypony in the room go agasp.

“Who are you and why in Amaterasu’s name can you summon cherry bombs?? If you’ve hurt her, I swear it’ll be the last mistake you’ll EVER MAKE!!”

The white dog put both cherry bombs under one of her feet and crossed her arms across her chest, not letting go of the sung expression.

“Relax you dimwit, your precious ‘Ammy’ is fine for now. Though there’s no telling how long she can hold off Kai. The quicker she gives in, the better for me.”

Shady had no verbal response other than a rather vicious looking snarl that showed his sharp fangs.

“Ooooooo, aren’t you a scary puppy? Oh, for Arceus’ sake where are my manners? The name is Cyra. I’m here to finish what your pathetic excuse of a dad started over twenty years ago. Now if you just stay still, I promise to make this as painless as possible... for me, that is. I could care less how much pain you end up in~.”

Her expression had turned from smug to vicious and bloodthirsty by the end of the sentence, which put everyone in the room a little on the edge. Twilight, of all ponies, teleported herself between Cyra and Shady, hoping she could somehow deter the snow white canine from advancing on her new friend. Her wings were spread out.

“Back yourself up, sister!! If you want to get to Shady, YOU’LL HAVE TO GO THROUGH ME FIRST! I am NOT a pony that you want to mess with!!”

Seeing Twilight act this way in his defense made him a bit more shocked than it probably should have. She did believe him about not being a bad guy, but any doubts he had about her loyalty were scrubbed out at that moment. He continued to stand his ground to see how the events played out. Cyra began advancing toward both of them, leaving the cherry bombs behind. The purple alicorn tensed up as she got face to face with the dog, preparing herself mentally for the worst. The white Arcanine kneeled down on one knee and lifted Twilights chin with one hand, not phased by her attempt at intimidation.

“Oh you cute thing… Do you really think you’re threatening, my little pony? You’re hardly a pebble underneath my feet! In fact, you’re so insignificant that you aren’t even worth wasting my moves on. I’ll let you live, for now~”

Cyra almost got her hand away from Twilight when she was blasted with a particularly powerful burst of alicorn magic. The burst hit her with enough force to knock her off her feet and ground her on her backside. After Cyra recovered from the hit, Twilight had just enough time to go to an ‘oh shit’ face before getting smacked senseless with a well-aimed Shadow Ball, chucked at her with the force of a baseball pitcher. The attack knocked her onto her side, momentarily downing her.

“THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FOR TRYING TO MESS WITH SOMEONE OUT OF YOUR LEAGUE!!”

She smack-talked the alicorn, getting back on her feet. Shady was infuriated by seeing someone hurt Twilight, and his emotions got the better of him. This fueled a reckless charge at Cyra, which sparked a shadowy aura to appear around him.

“NOW YOU’VE STARTED A WAR YOU CAN’T WIN!! SHADOW BREAK!!”

The white Arcanine stood her ground, grinning as she crossed her arms again, the same shadowy aura around her as well.

“You think that’s gonna work? Honey, you’re as predictable as I expected. Shadow Hold!”

A gleam had appeared in her eyes as Shady reached her, where she threw her arms out and grabbed him tightly. The power of her aura prevented him from wriggling his way free. Her hands wouldn’t budge no matter how hard he pulled with his own.

“Foolish boy, shouldn’t you of all canines remember that shadow-type moves are only half effective against other shadow Pokemon? You practically delivered yourself to me. You’re pathetic!”

The two sisters attempted a flanking attack from both sides, shooting sun and moon magic at Cyra. The white canine simply stepped back and the attacks flat out missed her entirely, instead causing friendly fire. Both alicorns flew backward from the explosions that followed, severely injuring themselves.

Meanwhile, Applejack attempts a jumping strike on the Arcanine, aiming right for her head. In the charge up to her, Cyra was able to harden her tail like steel. As the orange pony descended upon her with hooves outstretched, AJ was met with the equivalent of a flying steel pipe to her midsection, throwing her to the other side of the room.

“AJ!!!!”

Shady screamed out as he looked back toward where she landed, tears cascading down his face. It was after this that Cyra dropped Shady, but maintained her grip on him telekinetically. He was unable to get out of a kneeling position. Auras had appeared around the ponies as well, restricting their movement as well. She grinned smugly and looked at Shady dead in the eyes with claws against his throat.

“Show’s over, pup. You lose~”

Shady was able to speak after his emotions evened out a bit, his expression still one of angry tears.

“Just… who the hell ARE YOU?! Why are you here?! How do you know me and WHY are you doing this?!”

The white Arcanine laughed evilly and stood back up, announcing to the room her motives since that’s what villains do at the most cliche moments.

“Was it not obvious to you? I’m a fighting machine just like you and your father! I’m a shadow Pokemon! Or more specifically, the highest ranked member of Cipher. After your father went MIA over twenty years ago, someone had to step up to take his place.”

”I’m only here because I was contracted to take you out. Kai instructed me to do so with whatever means necessary, since he failed to do it twice. He gave me the means of absorbing your abilities and making them my own.”

In between terrified sniffles, Shady brought up the hole in her story.

“If you can absorb abilities, is that how you have the power to conjure cherry bombs?? YOU STOLE AMMY’S POWERS!! IF I COULD MOVE RIGHT NOW, YOU’D BE A BLOODY CORPSE ON THE FLOOR!!”

She chuckled once more, enjoying seeing his reactions unfold right in front of her.

“Ding ding! We have a winner! I managed to corner her not that long ago and stole them just by grabbing her like I did you. It was almost too easy given that she’s pregnant again. Let's hope the baby turns out better than you did…”

The last part made Shady furious, letting out the most vicious-looking, fang baring snarl you’d ever seen. He practically looked feral in his rage. From off to the side, everyone heard an elegant voice followed by a bolt of magic being shot.

“Engarde!”

It was Rarity, who apparently was not held down by Cyra’s shadow aura. It came as quite a shock to the Arcanine, who was enraged.

“H-How are you not trapped?! I targ-”

The magic bolt went right past Cyra’s body and reflected off one of the intact windows.

“Are you actually serious? You call that a shot? I’m over HERE!”

Rarity grinned without changing her stance.

“Wasn’t aiming for ya!”

By the time her exclamation was out, the magic bolt had perfectly aligned with both cherry bombs that the Arcanine dropped earlier, lighting their fuses. Before she could turn around and comprehend what was happening, the cherry bombs exploded, releasing her grip on Shady and the ponies. Cyra flew into the air and landed on her stomach hard.

After the short daze, her attention was drawn to the pink pony with the crazy mane. Pinkie, who was not seen with her party cannon until just now, loaded herself into it with malicious intent. Cyra was confused enough that she forgot to try and get back on her feet. The cannon fired and the mare was flung into the air, aimed with considerable height above the white canine.

“TAKE THIS YOU BIG OL’ MEANIE!!!!”

She screamed out while flying high over her target. You would think she messed up her trajectory, but this is Pinkie we’re talking about. Being the physics defying mare that she is, she stopped her horizontal movement on a dime and performed a butt stomp similar to the one from the popular New Super Pony Bros U. She fell with more velocity than she was launched with, colliding with Cyra’s back hard enough that you could hear a crack. If you looked close enough, you could see a pop up for two thousand points.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy had managed to break away from the fight and went over to where AJ was laying after being struck with Iron Tail. She would eventually be fine, but her pain was immense.

“APPLEJACK!! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!”

The orange mare lifts her head slightly, opening only one eye to stare at Fluttershy while still having her hooves over her stomach.

“I don’t know what that was, but I was struck with the equivalent to a FLYING STEEL ROD, FLUTTERSHY! NO, I AM NOT ALRIGHT!!”

The yellow pony leans in with a concerned expression, only for her face to light up with a brilliant idea. She dug into the satchel she had brought with her, pulling out a very familiar fruit. AJ lifted her head completely and stared at the fruit in Fluttershy’s grasp, in awe but not having time to ask questions.

“No way! How in the hay do you have a completely ripe Zap Apple this far out of season?! Actually, I’ll ask later. Gimme that!”

Fluttershy gladly handed the apple off to Applejack, who greedily devoured it bite by bite. Finishing that in a matter of a minute, she flopped her head back down. Her body already seemed less tense from pain.

“Thanks, Fluttershy. I feel loads better already, but give me a few. I’ll give that canine a good smackin’ around. You should too. Show her how it makes you feel.”

She nodded at AJ and flew up high into the air, the rage building inside her tiny body. Once above the entire room, her face bled it; the same kind of rage from the Gala. At the top of her lungs she made a battle cry.

“CREATURES OF EVERFREE FOREST, COME FORTH!!!”

Not even four seconds later, a stampede of bears and other woodland critters storms through the throne room doors, heading right toward Cyra. This of course confused the two sisters.

“Huh?? How did they get here so fast?!”

Exclaimed the moon princess, who was still recovering from the earlier attack.

The creatures ran full speed at the Arcanine, trampling her and not stopping even for the hole in the back wall. They all ran right out, little balloons inflating on their backs so they could make a safe landing.

“NO ONE HURTS APPLEJACK AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!!!!!”

The shy pony yelled out, still in her rage state with no sign of leaving it. Following the trampling, Cyra slowly managed to get up with difficulty, her back aching and her body screaming from being stepped on countless times by filthy animals. She struggled to keep her balance.

Having fully recovered using the zap apple, Applejack ran at the Arcanine at full speed and gave a mighty leap, performing multiple front flips before she towered over the dog. She stuck out a back hoof during her descent and landed it square on her head with a striking amount of force.

“TRY THIS ONE ON FOR SIZE! APPLE BUCKIN’ AXE KICK!!”

The kick left the dog gripping her head and stumbling backwards. AJ had never used an axe kick more than once when bucking apples from a particularly stubborn tree. Who knew it would come in handy outside of work?

The stumbling Arcanine was unable to see the blue blur coming toward her. At the speed of sound, Rainbow Dash swirled around her like she was a pesky cloud that needed to be cleared from the sky. She gave a final push in speed and unleashed a sonic rainboom. Everyone in the room received some knockback from the explosion, but the dog was in a terminal velocity spin that she couldn’t stop.

“Did someone order an extra sonic spin-cycle??”

During the twirling, Starlight stepped up to the plate, and she was furious. Using her magic, she took a piece of the broken wall and split it into countless pointed shards, and fired them all at the Arcanine. Not a single one stuck to her flesh, but most of them left tiny, yet deep lacerations. A small, brief sprinkler of blood splatters was the result of the collision.

“TAKE THAT, YOU WRETCHED WITCH!! YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY, PAIN IS MAGIC! I HAVE THE MAGIC, AND CAN DELIVER LOADS OF PAIN!!”

After so long that a hypothetical old narrator would get tired of waiting and a new one would have to be hired, Cyra ran out of momentum and ceased spinning. She gathered her breath and tightly gripped an arm. In her weakened state, she could only sigh in annoyance as the unicorn with the bacon mane shot a beam of magic at her. Taking a note from Shady, Sunset looked practically feral. She let out a grunt as the beam fired.

“RRRRRAGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

The Arcanine took the beam and slid back considerably but did not fall over, much to everyone’s surprise. She stood there and panted heavily, blood coming out of multiple cuts and her fur all ruffled and messed up. She stomped her feet in frustration, which looked rather childish.

“CONFOUND YOU AND YOUR FRICKING PONY FRIENDS, INKTAIL!! FRIENDSHIP AND FLOWERS AND PONIES AND BLEGH!! LETS SEE YOU SURVIVE SHADOW STORM!!”

Surrounded by a thick, shadowy aura, she conjured a ginormous twister that’s infused with the same energy. It covers the width and height of the room, and moves with incredible pacing. Everything in front of it was getting sucked into the vortex, and the group was no exception. Before Shady could get swept off his feet, Sunset made a heroic move and threw up a radiant flaming shield in the shape of her cutie mark.

Shady used the time to rainbowify the ponies by tapping his stone once more. The radiant shield from Sunset, now enhanced further due to the magic from being rainbowified, completely disabled the twister. Cyra’s expression switched from furious to shocked faster than your heart could beat once. If you could see them, huge exclamation marks appeared above her head. Shady stood at the front of the group.

“I specifically recall you calling my Shadow Break quite pathetic. Given that we’re standing tall and proud while you stoop and pant, I would like you to try and call this next attack pathetic. SHADOW BLAST!!”

Shady inhaled deeply and let loose the most maliciously intended Shadow Blast he had ever done. Without being asked, every pony with a horn shot magic into his attack and enhanced its strength. The resulting blast attack was enough to match the Hyper Beam that Twilight used against Tirek. Cyra covered her face with her arms, hoping to lessen the blow. She quickly slid backwards toward the hole in the wall, unable to best it.

The white arcanine had reached the gap and ran out of floor to stand on, stopping right before falling off the edge. The hyper beam ceased fire, and the group bomb rushed over to where she stood, still a lot of fight left in them. She stood there, panting, blood leaking out of multiple places on her body, and her fur mangled and torn.

“I...I see why your pathetic excuse of a father couldn’t defeat you, Inktail. However... this is NOT over! Do you hear me?! I’ll end your life yet!! I’ll regroup with him and next time it shall be YOU who’s the bloody corpse on the ground!! With Amaterasu next!!”

He had heard quite enough from her mouth. Shady went in recklessly, charging at her head on with intent of socking her in her shit eating grin. It was a fruitless endeavor, however. She had already jumped up and backwards, creating an X pattern with the brush. Her movement appeared to slow down to a crawl as a small, controlled veil of mist conjured around her.

“Hmm, I don’t think so~ Au revoir, twerp!”

She finished with a stereotypical, evil, villainous laugh, and completely faded out of view. The mist had cleared seconds after, leaving no trace of her behind. Where she went is anyone’s guess. Shady had already stopped halfway to the spot where she once stood.

Following the bye-gone sentence, Shady was absolutely fuming, more than he’d ever been in an extremely long time, and more so than when he destroyed the household and sought out Ammy’s help. Despite being mega evolved, the shadow aura was strong around him, and growing thicker. Rarity approached him cautiously and attempted to touch his arm with a hoof.

“Now darling, try to remain c-calm. What she said will never happen since we’ve got your back. We’ll be by your side the whole time!”

He showed no acknowledgement that he even heard her voice. The only thing that came from his mouth was an unrelenting series of heavy breaths that oozed anger, and his eyes had shadow energy seeping from them, something that had not been seen with him before.

“S-Shady...?”

The anger festered within him in a way that had never occurred before. He was letting his emotions get the better of him, and it came out with a sudden explosion of rage from Shady’s mouth. The anger was so far up there that the aura around him shifted to a red-violet hue and he non-consentingly devolved back to a non-mega feral.

He ran himself toward the hole in the wall and jumped, spreading his wings and flying around the backside of the castle. Out one of the currently still intact windows, he was seen flying upward toward a magnificent formation of clouds in the sky that featured rainbows cascading downward. It immediately caught Dash’s attention.

“He’s heading for Cloudsdale! We need to get up there and stop him from harming anypony or himself!!”

She had attempted to fly back toward the castle entrance, but stopped on a dime with her tail being yanked on by Applejack. She fell back to the ground and landed on her backside.

“Sorry about that, sugarcube. I completely understand the urgency at hoof, but half of us wouldn’t be able to stand on those clouds of yours. He needs all of us right now.”

The princess broke into their bickering with a confident and smug grin.

“Don’t worry about that. Remember when we all cheered on Rainbow Dash in the Best Young Flyer competition? I used a spell that allowed anypony to walk on clouds for three days. Leave that part of it to me.”

With no time to hitch a ride in a hot-air balloon, the group made the trip up to the city in the sky with improvised piggyback rides. Each pony with wings carried one single passenger. Fluttershy struggled the most with carrying the extra weight, but she pulled through. Given what Starlight was capable of during her time travel shenanigans with Twilight, she flew alongside them using magic. Approaching the city, things still happened to look normal. The sky above was a lovely shade of blue.

“Everypony, remember that we have an infuriated canine on the loose up here. No matter how things are, we stick together. Got it?”

Dash called out, the so-called leader of the group at the moment. She put on a brave face, but even she knew that things were uncertain from here forward.

A soft landing on clouds faced them with their destination: Cloudsdale. The initial survey of the area showed minor destruction damage and a few buildings with the beginnings of spreading fire. Off in the distance was the one they happened to be looking for. He shot another flamethrower and screamed out in feral rage before his maw glowed with a neon purple color. His body shifted skyward and a purple blast shot out, ascending with unfathomable speed toward the clouds.

The clouds gathered quicker than expected, turning a serious slate color, with the sky shifting to a deep purplish hue. Thunder boomed loudly in everyone’s ears, and the group began approaching him despite the imminent danger. Not too many steps were taken before an onslaught of rain fell from the storm clouds. It stopped them all in their tracks, not because they disliked getting wet, but because the raindrops burnt.

“AGH!! What in the hay is this rain?!”

The sky-blue pegasi yelled out, immobilized by the burning sensation that came with each drop.

“Everypony under our wings! It seems the rain isn’t affecting my sister and I.”

All the mares scurried underneath both Daybreaker’s and Nightmare Moon’s wings. Unable to progress forward, they all stood their ground.

“How are we going to get to him from here?? This putrid rain won’t let up!”

Exclaimed Rarity, who was in the downward pony position while cowering. In mere seconds, an idea struck her.

“Wait! I’m not usually one to use magic in terms of spells but I do know a temporary shield spell! It should last long enough to at least get Shady to calm down!”

The rest of them nodded in agreement, and the white horse casted the spell. All ten of them were covered in a white glowing outline that faded after a brief moment. Pinkie tested the waters by sticking a hoof out from under the safety net.

“The icky rain doesn’t hurt anymore! Let’s move, ladies!”

All ten mares collectively galloped up close to Shady, who was high up in the air, flying in place, blasting everything in sight with immense amounts of fire from his mouth.

“Shady! I know that Cyra threatened you and your mom, and that her escape upset you, but you need to calm down, sugarcube!! If not for us, do it for her!!”

A very distraught AJ called out to him. The sound of her voice finally made him turn his attention to something other than the destruction of Cloudsdale. He bled lividity in his face, and stared back as if he didn’t even recognize her. His gaze burned with a rage that knew no bounds. The aura around him was thick and red-violet, and the darkness seeping from his eyes remained. Before he even responded to her, he shot yet another flamethrower at a remaining cloud pillar, turning it to ashes instantly.

“SHE GOT AWAY, APPLEJACK!! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SAVE MOM IF I COULDN’T DEFEAT HER?! I’M A FAILURE OF A SON!!”

AJ stood there with her ears down, sympathetic for his emotions but not with his attitude.

“I understand that, I do! But is that a good reason for all this senseless destruction?! This is only happening because you’re angry at the moment! Just come on down here and we’ll figure out a solution, okay?”

His down expression and dropped ears made it clear that he knew that it was the right thing to do, but defied her demands anyway, yelling at her.

“I don’t want a solution right now, AJ, I want to be MAD!!”

The earth pony no longer tried to reason with him, expression switching to pure annoyance. Twilight stood next to her, looking up at the situation with a worried face. Applejack narrowed her eyes, the tears still coming down.

“Twilight, get my rope.”

The alicorn got the rope out of AJ’s bag without asking any questions, and handed it over. The earth pony gave it the hardest toss she could muster, managing to wrap the loop around Shady’s body. Disregarding his safety, she yanked backward, causing the dog to lose control of his flight and sail uncontrollably toward the ground. At ample height, she galloped forward and lunged forward to catch him. The two landed in a tumbling roll that went quite the distance, ending with her pinning him down for his own good. Her face was soaked with tears and they kept coming. You could see that his face was no longer stemming with fury, which implied that he was more surprised that he’d been grounded than anything.

“PLEASE STOP THIS, SUGARCUBE!! I KNOW THAT YOU’RE UPSET BUT YOU’RE TAKING IT TOO FAR! PLEASE!!”

Without waiting for a response, she grasped hold of him as tight as she could and hugged him, actively sobbing as she did so. The rest of the Mane 8 all had tears going down their faces in addition to Applejack, but not nearly to the same extent. She did not let go of him, not even for a second. Eventually, Shady recovered from his shock and grabbed hold of her too, the aura around him returning to purple and thinning out before dissipating completely.

“...I’m sorry, Applejack. The whole situation means a lot to me and I let the key to a lot of answers slip away. On top of that, instead of learning from my mistakes I simply let my own failure tear me apart. Sure, we technically won that battle, but at what cost?”

Despite the fact that she had tears going down her face, Dash felt the need to fire a joke in their direction.

“Wow, AJ. I didn’t know you had such a soft side~!”

The orange pony didn’t even look in her direction, but she kind of giggled in response.

“Hush your mouth there, Rainbow.”

Shady laughed a bit too, and AJ let him get back up onto his own paws. His face turned grave the moment that he saw Daybreaker approach him, and she did not look happy. He didn’t even need to ask what the reasoning was. He knew.

“I’m glad that Applejack was able to get you to come to your senses, but something must be done about that anger of yours. I understand the feeling you had after how Cyra threatened you, but causing destruction in this manner does not solve anything, and other ponies could get hurt in the process.”

Shady looked up at her with a face full of remorse and regret for the actions he had done.

“After she slipped out from under my grasp, I felt so... so powerless. I didn’t know what to do, but I had to do something! I realized it was wrong long before getting up here, but the wheels were already in motion... I’ve been mad before, but never to that degree...”

“Little one, I know it's hard sometimes, but a lot of the time it's best to discuss how you’re feeling with your friends. Just as we’ve told you many times over these last two days, you are not alone in this endeavor. We all have your back.”

She placed a hoof on his shoulder in an attempt to offer him comfort, before gazing over to the rest of the mares, who all nodded in agreement. They came over to him and gave him a giant group hug.

The group broke apart and Daybreaker looked down at Shady, before gesturing with her hoof to the tattered town of Cloudsdale behind her.

“Now I would normally have you be the sole one responsible for fixing all that you’ve destroyed this afternoon, but it would be a much quicker process if we all work at it together. Your mistake was a genuinely misguided one, and I understand that. Lets hop to it! With all of our magic combined, we should have this done in no time.”

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

The group got right on task, utilizing their various talents and strengths in order to repair the damaged buildings, clear away remaining debris, and get Cloudsdale back to working order. It was not a fast action, taking the remainder of the afternoon and well into the evening, but it was quicker than if he were sentenced to do it himself!

With their construction project completed, the group had returned to their normal appearances, and went with the safe option of going back to Canterlot: calling for an air balloon. Even all these years later, it seemed that the same pony was operating the air space. Once they all boarded and took off, the pilot made note of the odd request.

“It’s not every day that you get a call from Cloudsdale, you know, the city of ponies that can fly! To what do I owe the honor of carrying you around, Princess Celestia?”

The princess waved a hoof at her and chuckled lightly.

“Oh, well it wasn’t exactly my plan to do this, but we had a small incident with this one down here, and it’s too late in the evening for anything else to come and get us, so... yeah!”

She gestured at Shady with a wing, before the pilot looked down at him from where she hung her hooves over the edge of the basket.

“I heard that Cloudsdale got destroyed today. You all weren’t caught in it, were you? Can’t say I’ve ever seen him before. He’s definitely not a pony, either. Where’s he from?”

That made Celestia’s heart skip a beat. That wasn’t on the list of questions she was expecting to have to answer. She barely gave it any thought and just blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“Exchange student!”

Her face was full of nervousness and the pilot pony raised an eyebrow, understandably confused at her demeanor.

“Yeah, he’s an exchange student from way beyond Equestria... his studies with Princess Twilight started today and he got separated from us on our trip to Cloudsdale. Glad to say that we were able to take cover when the commotion broke out, though.”

“I see! Hope his studies go well. He looks promising! Glad to hear none of you were harmed, Princess.”

That appeared to have satisfied the need for information for the mare, since she turned her gaze back to where they were going and had a smile across her face. Celestia breathed a quiet sigh of relief, wiping her forehead with a hoof.

It took awhile, but the balloon ride was a relaxing way to head back down to Canterlot. The pilot descended and landed at the front steps that lead up to the castle. She was about to open the door for them to step out, when the former princess looked at her with a disapproving look. Understandably, the pilot was confused about what she did wrong.

“Princess Celestia? Is everything alright?”

The alicorn waved a hoof at the ground, gesturing to their location.

“You do know that hot-air balloons are not allowed to park directly on castle grounds, right? That goes against Canterlot legislation. I can have you fined for that.”

The pink earth pony began stammering, her eyes shrunk down.

“W-wait a second, Princess! You were the one w-who-”

Her external panic was interrupted by snickering and the white horse trying to hold in laughter. She let it out and put a hoof on her shoulder.

“I’m only kidding, Cherry. There’s no such thing. You’re completely fine, dear.”

Only then did the pink mare start laughing. The group got off the balloon and gathered around both older princesses.

“Man, you really had me there! Thanks for the laughter, I needed that. Have a good evening, everypony!”

The balloon rose back up to the sky and sailed wherever she was needed next. Meanwhile, the sisters headed opposite of the castle, which left Twilight in a state of confusion.

“Uh, Princess Celestia, Luna? The castle is over this way?”

Her former mentor looked over her shoulder without halting her pace, a kind of gleam in her eyes.

“I’m quite aware of that, Twilight. We’re going to the Canterlot Library.”

7 - Resonance in the Dark Magic Wing

The group followed her lead, making the short trip down the street to the spacious book emporium. While the two of them kept going forward up the steps, the rest halted in their tracks.

“Pardon me, Princess. I understand that Twilight is usually the bookworm here, but ain’t the library already closed for the day?”

The younger sister responded to Applejack’s valid inquiry, manifesting an ethereal key made from magic and turning it into the lock.

“Astute observation, Applejack. Normally, this would be the end of the road for anypony wishing to access the library. However, being a former ruler of Equestria does have an advantage or two.”

The latch clicked and the door opened. Both walked in and the rest of the younger ponies followed suit. Twilight went in with a bit of worry. A bit of her goody goody two-horseshoes nature kicked in from accessing a place of business outside of operating hours, but she swallowed her thoughts. The room before them was only lit up by the magic emitted from the two sisters’ horns. Despite the low light, those two seemed to know where they were going.

“As thrilling as this trip through the library in the dark is... why are we here, exactly, Princess Celestia? Couldn’t this have waited until the daytime?”

Sunset had asked the alicorn, with an obvious nervousness in her tone.

“There’s a particular book that was written by Star Swirl the Bearded in this section that we can use to get all of you and Shady back to his home. The sooner we get it, the higher the chances of Amaterasu surviving.”

Celestia said out loud, not turning her head to see the mare.

“I just hope it's still here after all these years...”

She followed up her statement, but only to herself. The group continued to trail the sisters, unsure of where they were heading. Starlight whispered over to Rarity, who was next to her.

“This is exciting! It feels like some kind of secret stealthy adventure!”

The snow-white unicorn looked back over at her with a content grin.

“Absolutely, darling! Not to mention that Princess Celestia and Luna leading the way adds extra thrill to it.”

In the moments that followed, both sisters made a sudden and sharp turn down another row of books. Following the change in direction, the presence in the air shifted dramatically. Something about the area they were in gave off a more sinister presence, at least to Sunset. Everypony else seemed fine.

They stopped on a dime, turning their gaze to the right side of the aisle of books. There was a doorway leading to another comically large room of books. How the hay does anypony find anything in Canterlot Library?

Celestia’s eyes narrowed as she stared into the junctioning room, before looking down at the Mane 8 and Shady.

“It’s in here. I’m not sure why we even passed a law to have the books in the library audited every moon, since they’re never in the correct places.”

Everypony entered the room, and Sunset made a slight right turn, trying to make out the names of the books by their spines.

“Princess Celestia, can you just tell us what the name is? -huh? What did that spine- OOF!”

In her infinite wisdom as a former star pupil of Princess Celestia, the goldenrod unicorn walked right into the ending of another shelf. The force of the impact caused a book to fall down, landing on the front cover. Without examining it, she picked it up with magic and skimmed the contents, her eyes widening as she did so. Regardless, she pressed on, her heart racing until her flight response forced her to release the book. In her system shock, Sunset was hyperventilating, slumped down with her back against the shelf. Long forgotten memories played out in her head, which brought tears down her face.

“NO! NONO! I’M PAST THAT! PRINCESS CELESTIA, I’M SORRY!!”

“Sunset! Are you alright?? What’s wrong??”

A quick gallop from Twilight had her over to Sunset in a moment’s notice, the rest of the group right behind her. Celestia heavily sighed in the background, her head dropping and ears folding back. Luna only gazed in their direction, mimicking the expression that Twilight wore.

She couldn’t say anything. Her senses were clouded by the trauma revived in her by the book. The rest of them only exchanged the same worried look, for once unsure how to help. Her head fell into her front hooves. The white alicorn headed over to her former pupil, which Sunset saw from her peripheral vision.

“Sunset... I...”

Her mouth stayed open as if she wanted to say more, but nothing else came out. As any good friend would, Starlight put a hoof on her shoulder and spoke softly.

“Hey, Sunset? Listen to me for a sec, okay? I’m not sure exactly what’s going on, but it would probably help if we all talked about it, right? Let's go to the table over there.”

She helped the bacon maned unicorn off the floor and over to the table, where all eleven of them got situated. Shady sat himself next to her, putting a front paw on her shoulder. Starlight sat opposite, with a hoof on her other shoulder.

“I’m sorry... I thought I had forgotten about that day... I thought I was strong enough...”

The snow-white princess sighed once more, lifting a hoof upside-down.

“From the moment we entered the library, I knew there was a good chance that this would happen. I was hoping you weren’t the one to find the book, Sunset.”

“What is it exactly that’s got you all sappy? Does the hero die at the end of that book or something?”

A flying in place Rainbow asked, before getting her tail yanked on once again by Applejack.

“Now’s not the time, Rainbow Dash.”

Celestia intended on explaining, but Sunset brought it up first. She lifted her head from her hooves and closed her eyes.

“Nothing like that, Dash. That’s... that’s the book that I was caught reading by Princess Celestia as a young mare, while I was still her student. Long before Princess Twilight took my place as her pupil... the book that I sought out and gave up my studies to read... It’s how I learned about the powers of the mirror in the first place...”

She briefly paused to levitate the book over to the table with magic, setting it down in the center with the front cover exposed.

“Canterlot Castle: A History Volume 2.”

Everyone stared at the book briefly before exchanging glances with one another and focusing on Celestia. She had a worried look across her face, and looked back at her former pupil.

“I understand that we made up years ago when Twilight convinced you to seek out my help with your friends’ memories, but... I see the day still bothers you.”

The alicorn’s face depressed further, and her body language followed suit. She considered that this might be the best time to get some things off her chest. Her former pupil outburst in a wallowing sob, looking at her mentor with the second most upset expression you’ve ever seen.

“I’ve lost sleep over this!! It comes to mind no less than twice every week!! Not a second goes by where I wish I could undo all of it!!”

Her face landed back into her crossed hooves on the table and her sobbing continued. Shady leaned in and gave her a warm hug, not letting her go, while Fluttershy flew across the table and did the same.

“We’re always here if you want to talk about that stuff. Remember that, okay? It does no good to bottle up emotions like that. Take it from me: I did that once and the end result had Trixie wanting to skin me alive.”

Starlight reassured her while keeping a hoof on her shoulder.

“Starlight’s right, Sunset. My question is: why didn’t you say something sooner? You’ve been back to Equestria multiple times since I went after you, and now you live here permanently. Both of the princesses were just a small trip away to Silver Shoals.”

Twilight asked confusedly, putting a hoof upside down.

“I didn’t have the courage, Twilight. Even though we made up, I didn’t want to risk bringing it up with her.”

Her face was no longer buried in her crossed hooves, but now resting on top of it with sniffles and a wet face. The white alicorn couldn’t hold it back any longer. Her eyes closed and her head tilted downward ever so slightly.

“I’ve wanted to tell you this ever since I removed you from your studies: I’m sorry, Sunset Shimmer. From the moment you mentioned it would be the worst mistake of my life... I knew you were right. I was rash and should’ve been more open to the idea of informing you about the mirror, rather than shoving it under the rug.”

“Just from your constant magical prowess alone, you were more than ready to know. Though I suppose you got more experience than I could’ve possibly taught you.”

“Hours after the confrontation, I ran over to your room in the nearby tower, hoping to apologize. That’s when I found out you had barged through the guards and jumped through the mirror... I was heartbroken... You meant so much to me and I... I ruined it by getting mad at you for studying magic...”

It was then that the emotions began to show through the otherwise calm and collected white princess horse.

“The following day, I asked the guards to help me move the mirror into the throne room. They asked me why not some place hidden, and my thought process was that it was meant to be a reminder of what I had done... and for my hope that you might come back on your own someday...”

Sunset, water dripping down her equine face, got up from her position at the table and galloped over to the princess and jump-hugged her, front hooves wrapped around her waist.

“Princess Celestia... I’m so sorry... I’m glad I came back...”

Everyone else around the table looked at the two of them warmly, appreciating how it turned from a tension filled library quest into a wholesome one. The silence between them was broken by the only creature in the room who wasn’t a pony.

“That does beg the question... WHY did you do the things that dominoed into being removed from your studies?”

She looked down for a moment before re-establishing eye contact with the dog.

“Well, you’ve probably heard a similar story about Princess Twilight. As her star pupil, Princess Celestia wanted me to not only learn magic, but also make friends. As a young mare with the high of being the top of the class at magic school, I thought magic was the only way to attain success as a unicorn, and that friends were a waste of time. Of course, this attitude made me a bit of a bully if somepony didn’t agree with me...”

“Then came the day when she first introduced me to the mirror. Told her that I saw myself as a powerful alicorn... and a... human? She quickly told me that it was meant for high level unicorns. That I wasn’t ready. As a young mare I didn’t agree with it. I demanded that she make me a princess. After being denied my hot-headed wish, I tried being smooth every time I asked about the mirror, which ended in me being barred from using the library until I made friends.”

Her expression went from neutral to down in record time.

“So I snuck into this very part of the library... and... you know the rest... For a short version, I was insatiable for knowledge and made the horrible mistake of crossing my mentor... But considering that Twilight came after me and showed me the error of my ways, plus the friends I made over there and now you guys and girls... I guess it's true: friendship is magic.”

Both the mentor and her former pupil looked each other in the eyes and hugged once more. Upon letting go, she returned to her spot on the opposite side of the table next to Shady and Starlight. Sunset took a deep breath, wiping away remaining tears and composing herself. The group shifted their focus onto the book that started the whole scene.

“I had been avoiding the library as a whole because I knew it would bring back the memories of that day. But having you all here and understanding Princess Celestia’s side of things gives me the confidence to put it behind me.”

She gave an openly warm expression, which made everyone, including herself, chuckle lightly. Past issues were resolved. With the tension relieved, Twilight picked up the book and flipped it open to the very first page.

“We shouldn’t forget why we came here in the first place. We need to find the spell that was written by the princesses and Shady’s mother. You said it’s in this book, right Princess Celestia?”

The aforementioned former ruler looked at the pages that laid before her.

“Correct. If memory serves me right - which can become blurry over a millennia or two - the incantations were written close to the back. Although skimming the whole book wouldn’t hurt.”

They all gathered around the edges of the table, attentively looking for anything that appeared to be related. Being magic users themselves, Twilight, Starlight and Rarity all studied over any paragraphs that mentioned spells, while the rest gave insight whenever fitting.

Minutes went by and the majority of the book had proven to not really serve much use. It contained a plethora of spells used in ancient Equestria, but nothing related to what they had been after. That is, until the last ten pages of the book began to talk about the crystal mirror. That aspect alone had gotten the attention of both Celestia and Twilight.

“Yes! Just as I had hoped. The spell is still legible.”

The white alicorn called out suddenly, Twilight’s attention drawn to the runes on the parchment. Shady gazed over at the pages as well, maw agape.

“That looks exactly like Ammy’s penmanship! ...I have no idea what this says.”

Twilight chuckled lightly at his reaction.

“It’s in old pony language. As someone who’s not from Equestria, I wouldn’t expect you to be able to read it, silly. Although... you say it’s in her writing. If that’s the case, why is it in Old Ponish? And why is it mentioning the crystal mirror? I thought it only led to the other world?”

The other sister filled in the missing details.

“While the intended destination for the mirror is that other world, it can be temporarily changed to some place else through use of this particular spell, and a lot of magic. As previously mentioned, this spell was written in ancient Equestria. The old style of language is no longer used in modern times, so it can’t easily fall into the wrong hooves.”

“That being said, the well-known Star Swirl the Bearded played his part in the creation of the spell. He was the one to create the crystal mirror in the first place, as a means of banishing the Sirens.”

The goldenrod pony’s ears flicked at the mention of that name, but she didn’t say anything regarding it. Another voice did, though.

“If that mirror can be told to take you to Shady’s home, then where does it end up?”

A very shy pony that sat at the end of the table, asked. Celestia flipped a hoof upside down and responded to her inquiry.

“Not to be a bearer of bad news, but... we don’t know where it ends up. We’ve never actually been over there through the use of the mirror. She’s teleported us directly with her mist warp ability, but - and I don’t mean to be rude when I say this - I doubt Shady here has that kind of capability.”

He looked at her with both front paws on the table, bolstering a middle of the road expression.

“No no, you aren’t wrong. I can easily take myself and only myself, but taking ten others with me with one brush stroke is more complicated. However, I can’t use it in Equestria, not even in this form. Not sure what’s up with that.”

While acknowledging what he said, Celestia sat back, letting the spotlight fall onto whoever was going to be next. An imaginary lightbulb once again popped up over one of the ponies heads. This time, it was AJ.

“It should be a given that I’m a mite unfamiliar with all this magic stuff and all, but wouldn’t it be wise to copy the spell down onto something, like a journal? The original book should be kept here.”

Her statement made Starlight’s face light up as she opened her saddle bag with magic and pulled out her book, along with a quill, setting them both onto the table next to the other one.

“Aha! I had a hunch that bringing this with me would come in handy! This is my own personal journal, but we could copy her spell into it.”

The two sisters gave her the okay in the form of a nod, and the pink unicorn went straight to work. Before long, the entire section on the spell and inner workings of the crystal mirror were duplicated word for word and diagram for diagram.

“Yes! We finally have it! The spell that will allow us to help Shady and Amaterasu!”

She exclaimed ecstatically at the very moment the book closed. It was stowed away into her bag once more, and almost as if on cue, both princesses stood back up and headed in the direction of the door. Shady himself let out a smile, something that really hadn’t been seen since he arrived.

“Now that we have what we need, the next step is to head over to Ponyville and actually go through. Everyone, gather close to us. It may be a bit jarring for those not accustomed to teleportation.”

Both her and Princess Luna began casting magic, only for Celestia to stop halfway and grab the history book.

“Whoops! Wouldn’t want that to be out of place when the librarian comes in tomorrow morning.”

She mentioned as the book flew back into its proper place on the shelf through use of magic, before casting the unified magic with Luna once more. Everyone gathered around the two of them and after placing a hoof or paw onto either princess’ body, the eleven members whisked away in poof of unicorn magic. Within seconds, the group reappeared in the street of Ponyville, a moment’s walk from Twilight’s castle.

Still standing guard at the entrance was Gallus, who was surprised to see this many creatures in the same group as Princess Twilight. He bowed formally in the presence of both sisters.

“Goodness! Princess Celestia, Luna, and Twilight! It was just a few of you leaving here yesterday. Looks like you’ve got enough ponies for a party!”

The white alicorn chuckled at his inquiry.

“We sure do! Although we’re here on official, non-party business. If you wouldn’t mind, I would prefer that you disallow entry to anycreature other than us for the remainder of the evening.”

He nodded in understanding and gave a traditional salute with a front leg.

“Yes ma’am, you got it.”

The griffon stepped aside and let them pass, which prompted Pinkie to speak up in disappointment.

“Oh come on, Princess Celestia! How’d you know about my super secret surprise party for Gallus next week? Now it's not a surprise anymore...”

8 - The Return Journey

Everyone made their way into the foyer of the castle, where Princess Luna stepped aside with Shady.

“The rest of them are going to head to the library room and begin setting up the mirror. I need to speak to you for a moment.”

He looked back at the others as they continued onward, then walked with her without question. They stopped in the middle of the foyer.

“Do you remember when you first arrived in Canterlot and we interrogated you in the throne room? That I used a spell to return you to this form?”

Shady nodded in agreement, though he tilted his head to the side in confusion.

“I do remember that, yes, but I’m a bit lost as to why you’re bringing this up right before I’m about to embark on the journey back home.”

She got closer to him, which prompted him to sit on his rear end.

“Like we mentioned that night, non-native creatures are transformed into a pony that most suits them physically. That is, unless they possess the power to resist it. It happens without anypony doing anything about it. It’s a unique quirk of Equestria that scholars still do not understand.”

He stretched a paw out upside down, feeding more questions into her.

“Then why was I turned into a pegasi when I can perform magical feats that are alien to this world? Why were you able to undo it so easily?”

Luna got down to his level and magic glowed around her horn.

“Apparently your ability to fly with the wings you can manifest at your own disposal was considered more impressive. I’m not entirely sure of the factors that our kingdom weighs in the decision. As for me returning you to your normal appearance, I cast magic on you that made you resistant to the magic, and thus you resumed the form you’re using now.”

The glow around her horn intensified, and a beam of magic shot out next to him. In the absence of the magic explosion, he couldn’t believe that he saw Drop Shadow standing there. Though it appeared to be only an illusion, since the pegasus pony mimicked every movement he made down to his own breathing. Even when he spoke, the clone’s mouth moved in sync, but no vocalizations came from it. He did not turn his attention back to her, but she kept on talking to him.

“My goal was to teach you the spell that would allow you to take on the shape of Drop Shadow at any point. I remember clearly - right before I was banished to the moon - that Amaterasu could make use of abilities she referred to as karmic transformers that let her take on other shapes. I’m unsure how I could adapt the spell for use with her brush, though...”

A realization did come to him, which made his body turn to face her, along with the apparated Drop Shadow.

“Well, I use the mega stone on my necklace to make the transition between this form and mega form, as well as any shifts in stance. It was exposed to unicorn magic back when Twilight, Starlight and Sunset all hit it with magic against my word. It was the reason I transformed as well as all of you.”

The princess’ face brightened at the mention of that night. She placed a hoof under her chin. The apparition of Drop Shadow vanished as well.

“That’s right! I remember now. Tell me: have you attempted transforming into Drop Shadow since that night? Since it reacted to their magic in that way, perhaps it could be the catalyst that lets you become him? It already lets you change into that larger canine form, and you said you simply need to think about it and tap the stone to do so.”

In turn, Shady put a paw under his own chin.

“Actually, no. I haven’t considered it. I’ve been more concerned about trying to gather everypony and get back home to help Ammy.”

She stood back up straight and recomposed herself, looking at him with a serious, non-angry expression.

“Give it a try. Think about turning into Drop Shadow and touch the stone.”

Shady shut his eyes and concentrated on the shape of the pegasus pony that he became upon entering Equestria, and gently tapped on the mega stone with his paw. A veil of light covered him. Upon the dissolution of the veil, he found himself still standing there as a canine.

“I don’t think it worked. Although while smothered with the light, I did feel like my body was turned into an equine shape, albeit briefly. I know the connection is there. However, I don’t think the magic is quite there. What if... and hear me out... What if you channeled more magic into it? Sure, Twilight is an alicorn, and the other two are unicorns, but you’re a fully developed and wonderfully aged alicorn. Perhaps it needs your input?”

Luna narrowed her eyes slightly at him.

“You were trying to hint at my age. I’ll let that one slide since the recovery was smooth. However, are you absolutely sure it needs more? You mentioned that it began behaving erratically from their magic.”

Her expression had lightened up during the latter half of her question.

“I’m pretty sure. It took your magic to remove the transformation in the first place. I imagine that if the girls were able to do it when they fired magic at my stone, I would’ve transformed into a pony rather than the mega form. That’s a part of me, while the pegasus pony is something completely different.”

The princess had to think over it for several seconds before finally submitting to his demand, still a bit nervous about giving the stone more magic.

“Alright, if you’re certain that’s what it needs, I’ll do it. Just know that I bear no responsibility for any ill side effects. You did say it behaved oddly before. Step closer.”

The dog took a few steps closer to the horse, and she tilted her head downward so that her horn was within a few inches of his necklace. Magic began emanating from her horn and was infusing into the mega stone. Throughout the minute-long process, the spike in energy was having an effect on Shady’s body, lifting him slightly above the ground and sending shockwaves through his tail and hair, making them flow like the wind.

She gradually ramped up the intensity until it glowed with the color of her magic, letting off abruptly. Shady landed back on his feet and had to shake his head to gather his bearings. He looked down and noticed the glowing.

“Well, it's glowing. It’s not vibrating erratically like before, so I guess that’s a good sign, right?”

The princess shrugged, not giving any clear motions afterward. With the slightest bit of hesitation and anxiety, he shut his eyes again and gave immense concentration. The stone was touched by his paw, and the veil of light appeared once more. Unlike the prior attempt, the ending dissolution of the light revealed a much more equine version of himself. He had successfully turned himself back into the pony he came here as! Given the surprise and dopamine from it working out, he fluffed his wings out and did a cute little happy trot in place. The princess seemed happy for him as well, a genuine smile across her face.

“I guess you were right! The amount of magic given by the girls must not have been enough. Glad to see it worked out!”

He trotted over to her and gave her a hug, to which she initially recoiled slightly.

“Thank you, Princess Luna! You didn’t have to do this, but I’m so happy you did.”

They both exited the hug and she lowered her face down to his own, speaking softer.

“Absolutely, young one. Now let's head up to her library. You have a mission to complete, Drop Shadow.”

He smiled as they made their way up the stairs and around the bend. The library was a straight shot from the stairway, the first room on the second floor. The commotion could be heard from the outside, and it didn’t sound pleasant. Opening the two doors, things appeared to be in minor disarray. Starlight was downright lost, with both Sunset and Twilight skimming through any and all books they could find in search of any clues or secrets they might’ve missed. Celestia, too, was not quite in a good mood about it either. She turned her head to see the newcomers, and gazed at them with folded back ears.

“Dear sister, perhaps you could possibly provide some insight. We seem to be... stuck, for lack of a better, more profane word.”

The mention of newcomers drew Sunset’s attention away from the book she was frantically skimming through. Her mouth opened slightly. If you looked really, and I mean really close, you could see that there was a slight blush behind those cheeks.

“Shad- wait, Drop Shadow?? But how did you turn back into a pony??”

He gestured to the mega stone hanging from the necklace, then gazing up at Luna as he made his response.

“With Princess Luna’s generous help, she infused the stone with developed alicorn magic, which now grants me the ability to become Drop Shadow as easily as the mega form, should I ever need it.”

Before he could notice the happy trot she did, he watched as Luna made her way over to the mirror. Her gaze was locked onto it before focusing on Starlight.

“This may sound rather silly, but it’s the first step in problem solving: are you absolutely sure you’re performing the spell correctly? Even one wrong incantation will make sure nothing happens.”

The pink unicorn scoffed at her to show her annoyance, holding the spell book up with magic.

“Yes! I went over the wording and details multiple times before you and Drop Shadow entered the room! I’m casting it to a T and nothing is happening!”

The princess acknowledged what the mare was saying with a mumble, and took the book into her grasp. She read over the pages that Starlight had written, finding nothing seemingly out of place or that she had been missing. The book was returned to her.

“Let me give it a try. Perhaps it needs a more focused mind in order to work correctly.”

She lowered her head down and the familiar glow appeared around her horn. A magical beam shot out and struck the symbol of a horse on the top of the mirror like a bullseye. The magic was held for several seconds before she let off, giving it a moment to see what would happen. Unsurprisingly, nothing did.

“...This is quite peculiar. You and I both performed the spell as it was written.”

Luna continued to stare up at the horse symbol on the mirror, and did not stop. Being bored at the lack of anything interesting happening, Rainbow flew down to the journal and picked it up herself. She went through the pages that were duplicated by Starlight, eyes widening slightly.

“Uh, guys? You know I’m not one to normally know much about magic, but beyond the last page is another whole paragraph of instructions.”

In surprise, Starlight jumped up from the ground and snatched the journal from Dash’s hooves.

“What?! Gimme that!”

Looking through the book again, she, too, noticed the additional page.

“I... didn’t see this portion when I copied the text. There’s no way it was in the original book.”

“You’re right, darling! I don’t recall seeing that either! Where in the world did that come from?”

Rarity had to chime in as well, gasping lightly. She tried making sense of the new page, but ultimately came up blank.

“Shadow, dear, perhaps you can make sense of it? I may be a unicorn and all, but not even I have the slightest clue what those markings mean. They look downright alien!”

The stallion grabbed the book and held it open, reading through the last page as he flew in place slightly above the floor. Things were making sense, you could figuratively see the gears turning in his head.

“...and that looks like Sunrise... but wait... oh, yeah... my word... okay that’s pretty clever...”

He had been thinking aloud, and that’s when the last piece of the puzzle finally clicked into place.

“It all makes sense now! Assuming I’m reading this correctly, the mirror can take you to other destinations, but only if you can include part of that world’s magic in the spell you cast! I have to perform one of Ammy’s brush techniques when one of you casts the spell!”

His statement had everypony shocked, though Celestia was a bit worried, admittedly.

“That’s a great observation, Drop Shadow, but I don’t recall that being a part of the spell we wrote over a millennia ago. That’s something I would expect to remember...”

He got in her face and grabbed it with his front hooves, an ecstatic expression almost breaking free.

“Who cares?! This has to work!”

On cue, Sunset stepped forward and stood confidently. Twilight, Starlight, and Rarity took their places next to and behind her, horns pointed through the horse symbol.

“Ready, girls?”

Shimmer called out in a leading tone of voice. All together, they announced such, and the goldenrod pony charged up magic.

“Alright, follow my lead!”

She fired magic at the symbol, with the other three doing so a split second afterward. The combined strength of their magic made the horse symbol on top of the mirror glow a sky blue color. With the glow achieved, the stallion made his move, drawing a circle of ink around the symbol with his tail. The ink transmuted into a red circle, which exhibited rays of light from the outer edge. The room was filled with bright light, and everypony shielded their eyes. Once the light levels normalized, the room was filled with pony jaws on the floor. Twilight bounced up and down happily, quite similarly to how Pinkie would. The crystal mirror was active, and the portal was seemingly textured from cherry blossom leaves. They had done it.

“We did it! We opened the portal to Shady’s home!”

The princess of friendship exclaimed with the bounce in her step. The celebrations were cut off short with the sudden opening of the doors to the library. Everypony snapped around to see who could’ve possibly slipped past Gallus. It happened to be a pegasus pony, gray in color with quite the curly mane. One eye was green and the other blood red. And his wings... well they were something else entirely. Very mystical, if there had to be a descriptor for them. He didn’t look friendly, which was unfortunate.

“Stop right there!! I cannot allow you to pass through the mirror!”

Drop Shadow stood his ground, getting between the intruder and the other mares.

“And just who do you think you are? This is the private business of Princess Twilight and her friends! I highly suggest you leave before I make you leave!!”

The gray pegasi flew up into the air and held his position.

“My identity is of no concern to you. I come from a place that removes the impurities from creatures such as yourself so that the world can live in harmony!”

Shadow rolled his eyes in annoyance and made an outburst.

“Oh for the love of- how many ponies are going to tell me I have THAT much darkness in- screw it, ENGARDE!”

He flew up to match the height of the mysterious foe, and the gray pony sped toward him almost as fast as Rainbow Dash. Almost. The purple stallion reacted with a quick flick of his tail in a straight, horizontal line. The end result was the highest level of Power Slash, which somehow became imbued with fire. It landed a direct hit on his target, which exploded in a cloud of smoke. A scream very much like a certain conspiracy theorist smoker from a Texas anime emitted from the spot where he had been. Everypony left in the smoke coughed their lungs out, until the cloud vanished not long after.

“What in the hay was that all about?! And why did he just explode into smoke?? That scream didn’t quite sound like him either...”

Applejack asked out of confusion, still going through a couple coughs.

“I haven’t the slightest clue who or what that was, AJ, but I think it’s best we go on in before he comes back.”

“As much as we want to follow along and help out, somepony has to watch over Equestria in Twilight’s absence. We’ll be staying behind and providing any support that we can.”

“Why can’t someone like, oh, Spike do it? Or even maybe Gallus? We could really use you two over there.”

Fluttershy asked both sisters, trying her hardest to have as many ponies on board with going. The current ruler herself answered that one.

“Not that I don’t trust Spike as my advisor and loyal assistant, but the last time he took the matter of royal decisions into his claws, my own reputation was nearly tarnished... I’d rather not go through that if possible. As for Gallus, he’s very much capable of standing up for himself, but ruling all of Equestria? He is NOT conditioned for that.”

The shy pony’s ears went back and she looked mighty disappointed.

“We won’t have Princess Celestia or Luna over there to help us, but we have a total of nine of us! If you then include Amaterasu once we get there, that’s five times the firepower compared to before!”

Despite her analysis being mathematically correct and it giving everypony a bit more hope, they would all be lying if they said that they weren’t nervous. Celestia placed a hoof onto Twilight’s shoulder and smiled warmly, while Luna did the same for Drop Shadow. He turned his head over his shoulder to look at them.

“We’re going to get through this. Do you trust me?”

The eight mares nodded in unison, signaling their trust in his plan.

“Alright! We jump in on three! ... ONE TWO THREE!!”

He leapt into the mirror, with the rest of the mares following a few seconds after. Both princesses stood there, looking at the mirror’s open vortex.

“Best of luck to you, little one. Please make sure Twilight and her friends make it back in one piece...”

Celestia spoke quietly, anxious about the whole endeavor having been kicked off. Inside the vortex, everything appeared to be vibrantly rainbow in color. Everypony was being visibly stretched out as they swirled toward the center, much like a black hole, but without the horrible agonizing death. The only words uttered were screams as they proceeded toward the singularity.

At the center of the vortex, the colors ended as quickly as they appeared, and their bodies were overloaded with the sensation of suddenly being underwater. The pressure hit them, and they all scrambled to swim upward. This was unlike your standard traditional water. The fluidity said it was water, however the clarity left much to be desired.

The feeling of this liquid felt somewhat familiar to Shadow. Following what felt like the longest swim of their lives, everypony breached the surface and gasped for air while treading water. Still not entirely aware of his surroundings, he paddled over to the stone lip and held on to catch his breath.

“Sweet Celestia... is... is everypony alright?”

All the girls had paddled their way over to the lip as well, doing the exact thing he was.

“I’ve been through... the mirror many times before... but... this was a new experience...”

Sunset mentioned, her mane flopping over one eye from being soaked with water.

“A swimming trip was the last thing on my mind for today... my mane is... is ruined...”

Everypony rolled their eyes at Rarity’s comment, and lightly chuckled.

“What was that... even about?? Something was holding us... back! The pool isn’t even deep!”

A soaked Rainbow Dash outburst, agitated at the length they felt like they swam. In reality, the water was only up to their abdomens. Drop Shadow then looked down at the liquid they were currently standing in, and his face lit up.

“Wait... stardust?!”

He reached in and picked some up with a hoof, before erratically checking the surrounding area. Surrounding the pool was a grove of bamboo, with a nice fountain leading water into it. The path ahead was lined with carved bamboo stalks and a cobblestone pathway, paper lanterns lighting it up. Above, the sky was gray and grim, thunder coming in periodic bursts. No lightning as of yet. His head turned back to face the mares.

“We’re in the Pool of the Heavens... That means we’re on the Celestial Plain. But... Why did it spit us out here? Ammy never mentioned this place having that kind of significance.”

He continued staring out from the pool, while a voice broke his concentration from behind.

“As good as this here stuff feels on my body, what even is this, sugarcube? It may be normal to you, but from everything I’ve seen in my life, this ain’t natural. I’m going to assume it’s safe since you ain’t panicking, but...”

Applejack looked over his way, her hat resting on the edge of the pool. Her expression was confusion and worry.

“The stuff we’re currently wading in is pure stardust. It has the fluidity and feel of water, but is most certainly not. According to her, if any impure creature, such as the demons she’s fought in the past, were to make contact with it, it would burn them past the point of the third degree. To us, it’s harmless.”

That gave her some reassurance. Her face released the tension it held. Just as she did so, Pinkie sprang up from below the surface, blowing stardust out of her mouth and loathing the taste it left behind.

“BLEGH!! This stuff looks like cotton candy, but don’t try to eat it!!”

Every one of them laughed a bit before Shadow made his way out of the pool, the mares following his lead. Twilight looked at him, then back to the pool and then to the surrounding area.

“Under better circumstances, this would be the perfect opportunity to study the physical laws of an adjacent dimension...”

The goldenrod pony came up behind her and put a hoof on her shoulder.

“Come on, Twi. We’ll have plenty of time to write all sorts of reports about this AFTER we help Shadow’s mom.”

She nodded in response to Celestia’s former student. The stallion stood facing the path with the wind ruffling his mane. He spoke without turning his head, and began going forward.

“Everypony, follow me. Ammy’s cottage isn’t far from here. I’d show you the sights, but time isn’t on our side.”

The rest followed his lead, matching his pacing and taking mental notes of the place they were now inhabiting. As they approached the cottage, in front of it stood Amaterasu’s giant guardian sapling: withered to nothing but the branches. The cherry blossom leaves all sat on the ground at the roots, doing nothing but being moved around by the gradually increasing wind. Drop Shadow looked up at the tree and touched the trunk with a hoof, a tear coming to his eye as he did so.

“This is not good, girls. This tree only withers if something awful has happened. We need to get in there NOW.”

The sudden raise in his voice made all the girls flinch, but they followed him without question, even at a gallop. On the way over, a voice shouted to him.

“She’s going to be okay, Shadow! We’ve got your back!”

It was Sunset who attempted the reassuring words. Though he heard them, he didn’t say anything back. The conclusion of her sentence made her aware that the dark aura had manifested around him, despite being a pony.

At the door, he threw it open and shut it behind all the mares, catching his breath from the lengthy gallop. It was then that she spoke up about it.

“Hey... Drop Shadow? I hope you don’t feel like I’m intruding, but do you know that your-”

She was interrupted by his voice, which rang out coldly.

“Yes, Sunset Shimmer. I’m aware that it’s showing. My emotions aren’t under control right now, and that’s my least concern. I’m still thinking rationally. But thanks for noticing.”

Her face went into a panic, but it quickly tapered off, showing how she was down.

“I’m sorry. You know I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just... on edge. It’s a bit too quiet for my liking. I want you all to stay here. I’m going to search the house to see if she’s here.”

It was then that he touched the mega stone with a hoof and then stood in front of them as an anthropomorphic canine mega evolution, cherry blossoms falling to the floor.

“Or anyone else.”

He added on, the dark aura intensifying suddenly. With deep breath, he braced himself for the worst, heading through the curtain to the adjacent room. Cautiously he went from room to room with shadow energy covering his entire body, extremely alert to anything in the immediate vicinity. He was not finding anything suspicious or seemingly out of place. Nothing upstairs, nor the basement, or even the kitchen.

The last place he hadn’t checked was the backside balcony. His heart was starting to race at this point, but he sucked it up and forced the bamboo-wood doors open to find Ammy on her back, pregnant belly sticking up high, fur tattered and messy, and a few cuts and bruises scattered across her body. Shady’s eyes shrunk and his hair stood on end until he realized that she was indeed still breathing. Immediately he kneeled down and grabbed one of her hands, shaking it vigorously.

“Mom! MOM!! MOM WAKE UP!! IT’S ME, SHADY!! PLEASE!!”

It took several seconds but her ears twitched from registering a sound and her eyes slowly opened to see him.

“S…Shady…? Is that you…? Oh thank heavens you’re alright…”

He was still gripping her hand tightly, with tears now in his eyes.

“I’M SORRY I WASN’T THERE TO HELP YOU! I TRIED COMING BACK AS SOON AS I COULD BECAUSE I KNEW YOU WERE IN DANGER AND I DON’T WANT ANYTHING TO HAPPEN T-T-T-”

She managed to stand up on her own, albeit slowly, just in time for him to fall forward and hug her tightly. He was crying like never before. Even the tough guys have their breaking points, and that’s okay.

“It’s alright, honey. Take your time. I’m sure you’ve been through quite the same amount of hell that I’ve been through in the last few days.”

She took the two of them back into the house, navigating the dark, unlit rooms until they reached the main room where the mares were. They had heard some of the noise coming from the balcony and were admittedly curious. By then, Shady was essentially finished with his waterworks. They entered the room and the ponies had a surprised/worried look on their faces. Ammy was unphased, laying herself down on the bed while Shady sat down next to her, still gripping a hand. Rainbow Dash was the only one who remained on the bed, and she sat on her plot. The whole room was quiet for an uncomfortably long time, with all eyes focused on Ammy.

“So this is Amaterasu? She looks… way different than I imagined. Definitely, uh, rounder… too…”

Twilight pulled a hoof back in confusion and uncomfort at the sight of her body, you could see it in her eyes: she wasn’t prepared for something like this. Rainbow looked at Shady with her ears drooped down and genuine concern in her expression.

“Is she going to be alright? She looks like she barely survived an Ursa Minor attack!”

He looked back over at her with the same look she gave him.

“I’m pretty sure she’ll be fine, Rainbow. Though, I’ve never seen her so battered and bruised, so I really can’t say… It was no doubt the toilings of my dad...”

In the following hour, it was apparent that she must’ve fallen asleep, since her body was relaxed and chest was rising and falling normally. Dash proceeded to go around Shady and approached the goddess with both caution and curiosity. She slowly stretched a hoof out in an attempt to touch the belly, but her focus was broken by a distraught AJ, who tried to yell but also keep her voice down at the same time.

“Rainbow Dash!! You don’t touch someone’s stomach without permission!! That’s rude!”

She quickly retracted her hoof and stepped back, looking down at the country girl with an annoyed face.

“Come on, AJ! I just wanted to know what it felt like!”

Shady got between both of them and became the quiet, dominant voice.

“GIRLS! Please keep it down, would ya?? She’s trying to sleep after a hard fought fight!”

The goddess began to stir, eventually waking up from the ruckus. Guess Shady needed to be quiet too. She sat up, rubbing her eyes and getting accustomed to the light in the room. Looking around, she quickly noticed Shady sitting on the bed, along with eight not so familiar faces. They all said fright in their expressions. From her perspective, a blue pony was poking out from behind Shady, along with the other seven sitting on their plots, a bit of fright in their copy-paste expressions. Rather than be upset with being woken up, seeing them all there brought a smile to her face.

“Oh! My apologies for simply collapsing on the bed earlier and not noticing you girls. I was so exhausted from the encounter with his father that I could hardly move... Looks like Celestia finally came through and lent me a hand.”

Shady’s face immediately switched to surprise. Things were starting to make sense. He didn’t utter a word, letting her continue.

“Over the course of the last millennium, I’ve given her and her kingdom aid when they needed it, but not once have I actually needed it in return. Everything up until this point wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle on my own. Once I knew that Kai was proving to be a real threat - more so once he turned into Hisuian form - I sent a letter in desperation, hoping to finally get some back.”

She looked over at her son, with a hand on her belly.

“Without getting a response back, I sent Shady through my cherry blossom portal. And given that you mares are here, I assume he actually made it there.”

Twilight decided to speak up following the goddess’ exposition on the matter.

“Yes, your… royalness? Uh, divineness? Um… yes ma’am, he made it to Canterlot and spoke to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Although it didn’t go as smoothly as anypony would’ve liked. You see, I was initially skeptical of him, given that black magic stemmed from my horn upon his arrival in my library. That’s generally a sign of incoming dark magic...”

Ammy was thrown a curveball. She did not expect to hear that was their reaction.

“I should know better than anyone else that he carries darkness. Though compared to things I’ve fought off in the past, it's rather minute. Are you quite sure it was from him? That doesn’t sound right.”

She added onto her last statement, not quite finished with her dreary explanation.

“They did not return after the initial burst, no. He had the better word of Fluttershy here at the time, so I suggested that we meet with both the princesses in Canterlot to get their opinion on the matter. From there, he gave us proof that he was indeed your son. From there... It was an interesting night. I should probably let him explain the rest.”

The goddess changed her sitting position slightly, letting him take the spotlight.

“We spent the rest of that evening in Canterlot Castle, recalling the events of the day while I went over the backstory behind all of this that’s going on. Princess Twilight, Sunset Shimmer, and Starlight Glimmer all got curious about the mega stone you made for me. They took a look at it up close, and despite what I told them, infused it with magic.”

“Ughhhh! I told them not to mess with it, darling! But they didn’t listen.”

The fashionista-mare outburst suddenly, Twilight giving her a glaring gaze before refocusing on Shady and Ammy. The mention of it being exposed to new magic definitely got her attention.

“It glowed brightly and vibrated uncomfortably. I put it back onto the necklace, and I mega evolved without my own consent. A chain reaction occurred, causing all eight of these ponies - and Celestia and Luna, who were on the other side of the castle - to rainbowify. Normally, that could only be done with the Elements...”

“It was so awesome!! I never thought I’d feel that powerful again!”

An ecstatic Rainbow Dash exclaimed, putting her front hooves onto her face. It finally made Ammy spit a question towards them.

“How peculiar... Even with my limited knowledge of mega evolution stones, the one concrete fact is that they only change a specific type of user. Yours should only change you or Kea. Allowing the ponies to change forms is a unique discovery. Was this a one-off thing, or were you able to replicate it?”

The former protege of Twilight took over, having the most detailed record of the day that followed.

“The day that followed was the most hectic. We were going over the plan to help Shady while here, when the black magic appeared around Princess Luna’s horn. She was under an awful amount of stress, and before we knew it, a hole in the backside of the throne room was blown open, shaking the entire building. Out of the smoke came a snow-white canine creature like him, with markings similar to yours, Amaterasu. She said that she stole your abilities, and proved to almost send Shady to the pony upstairs... Nevertheless, he did pull us through by transforming us again.”

Starlight’s voice had trailed off toward the end, not wanting to recall the events due to the traumatic experience it gave them all. Ammy’s eyes shut with a sigh, before demonstrating that she couldn’t even perform a simple Sunrise, which is her own specialty technique.

“...You met her, then. Cyra was her name. As you saw from my inability to even perform Sunrise, she took my celestial brush powers from me, and now uses them for her own misdeeds. I have no clue where she came from, but I know she’s tangled up with Shady’s father, Kai. That much she told me. I’m only here right now because I was able to send her skyward with one last Whirlwind technique before the powers fully left me.”

Shady leaned in and gave her a ginormous hug. That’s when the goldenrod unicorn stepped in to cover more details.

“I may be able to shed more light on who she is. This only comes from what she explained on her own volition, but she mentioned being “the same kind of creature that Shady is, a ruthless killing machine, who stepped up to take his dad’s place when he went missing over twenty years ago.” The phrase just gives me the chills... who would be proud of being a killer?! She even exhibited the same dark aura that Shady himself can...”

The rotund goddess crossed her arms.

“That part, I guessed immediately. Anyone who mingles with Kai is usually one of those Pokemon... Plus the dark aura wasn’t hiding anything. Through defiance of his hardcoded nature, Shady proved that you can control that.”

It was once again Shady’s turn with the imaginary talking stick. His ears rolled back and he grabbed her face lightly with both hands.

“The catching up is great to do and all, but... Why. Isn’t. Kai. Here?? WHERE IS HE?! Aren’t we supposed to be in the middle of a harsh battle right now?? Isn’t that why you sent me to find these fillies?? I swear to Arceus if this was all for not…!”

Flames grew in his slightly agape snarling mouth. She put his arms down and looked back, unamused and annoyed.

“Hun, please. I may not have my abilities right now, but I’ve endured far worse than your flamethrower. You aren’t intimidating anyone. Now if you don’t mind, I’ll explain why everything’s calm around here.”

He let the flames die off and she calmly explained what had happened before he arrived back on the Plain.

“So yes, I was fighting off Kai for the last two days, in case my cuts and bruises weren’t enough evidence of that already. He proved to be too much for me to handle. My power isn’t at its peak since I’m pregnant, you know. He only managed to break the barrier I conjured at the very end, but strangely… he left after shattering it. I was already winded at that point and understandably confused. But of course, him leaving immediately was probably just so that Cyra could get in.”

Though she had finished speaking, she had not been sly about peeking at his mega stone. It looked a bit different compared to when she gave it to Shady. The outside of it looked like the shape of a prancing pegasi pony was etched into it. Not really noticeable unless you looked close. Not even Shady noticed it. Being cheeky and sticking a hand out, she gripped the stone and watched her son get covered in a veil of light. After it diminished, the familiar Drop Shadow appeared, sitting on his plot on the bed next to her. Looking at himself, he wasn’t happy about being transformed without his consent. Seeing the new, smaller shape he took on made her positively giddy. She put her hands onto her own face, a wide eyed smile almost breaking off.

“OH MY GOD YOU’RE ADORABLE AS A PONY, HUN!!”

She grabbed him and held him much like a cat, reveling in his undeniable cuteness. He outburst at her due to sheer embarrassment.

“MOM! THIS IS NOT THE TIME!! Not in front of Sunset...”

The aforementioned bacon unicorn laughed along with the rest of the mares. Drop Shadow was the only one not having a good time. He was pouting considerably. She got mostly serious.

“We’ll need to form a plan of counter-attack. Possibly scope out their base of operations and flank them from there. It’s our only hope.”

The tone shifted as Rainbow Dash fell out of flight and crashed on the bed next to Ammy, who had released her son. He once again sat on his plot, with all eyes on the blue pegasi.

“That’s definitely on the todo list, but we seem to have some downtime... I think some chillaxing is in order.”

“Agreed. After the kind of few days we’ve all had, I could definitely go do some chillaxing, Rainbow, dear.”

Rarity responded, laying down on the bed on her stomach, looking like she had already mastered the art of it.

“Sounds good to me!”

Little miss pink earth pony made some noise finally, laying back against a pillow that was on the floor.

“I could go for a nap...”

Sunset exclaimed, curling up on the bed.

“Way ahead of you, Sunset.”

He curled up on the bed next to her, her hooves cuddling him. He just felt... so calm around her. Not to mention that they had fallen asleep on each other on the train, so what’s the harm? Everyone else chuckled as they got into relaxing positions. The entire room was silent for a while, before Starlight broke it. She looked up from her position and gazed at everypony in the room.

“No, seriously. How long do we chillax for?”

“At this point, Starlight, as long as we need to. We could use it.”

Her former teacher told her, looking up at her before shutting her eyes once again. Not a single peep came from any of them following that moment. The weather outside had begun to worsen, with the lightning finally coming through the clouds and moderate rain soaking the environment outside. For now, it wasn’t anypony’s problem.

1 - Ammy's Blessing

A pleasant midday breeze was sweeping across the entirety of Kamiki Village. That wind rustled through the leaves of all the bloomed cherry blossom trees, making leaves fall gracefully to the ground. Up close to the Konohana was the all too familiar shrine dedicated to the great Amaterasu, and her predecessor before her. It had a curious visitor, a feral purple Growlithe with white accents, black stripes, an inky tipped tail, and neon orange eyes. He was placing typical offerings at the basket, though oddly enough it was quite full, as if it hadn’t been touched in many weeks. He dropped his offering of fruit, sat on his rump, and gazed upward at the ginormous cherry blossom tree. The cobblestone path was cold to the touch and minorly uncomfortable to sit on. A sigh left his mouth, a moderate amount of frustration released in the process.

“How much do I need to offer to you?! Most of the peaches and oranges here have rotted because you won’t show yourself! Are you avoiding me?? I’m your son for pete’s sake!! I haven’t done anything wrong!!”

He called out loudly, yelling toward the heavens. All the fruit in the basket, including the rotted ones, were all his doing. They were all at different stages of decay, some still fresh, others partially or completely inedible. Though Amaterasu generally takes these offerings whenever they are presented by the local townsfolk, she had been ignoring them outright.

The Growlithe gave it another few minutes and nothing had happened, just like the other countless attempts, the anger and hatred for the deity only increasing with each passing moment. He had the thought of cutting his losses and leaving, trying again another day, but a pick up of the wind caught his attention. Directly in front of the memorial statue, a marvelous amount of cherry blossoms swirled into a funnel-like shape, making an opaque oblong sphere of nothing but them. The shape expanded slightly and exploded, revealing a white anthro canine with red markings, inky tail, and gorgeous neon yellow eyes. It was Amaterasu herself, the one that the Growlithe had sought after for weeks or more. Given that she was nude, everything was on display. As she stood in front of him, her arms crossed, and her face bled annoyance and irritability. The goddess finally making an appearance made his jaw drop metaphorically to the floor. He hadn’t quite expected it to work out.

“Do you have any idea how much strength it's taking me to not smite you where you sit?? You carry the same darkness that your father carries, Shady!! I want nothing to do with you!”

She barked out, a scrunched up snarl accompanying the not so nice greeting. Her overall body seemed full of tension, adding up to the anger presented in her words. Shady continued to sit there, gesturing outward with a paw as he did so.

“The darkness I carry is not my fault, and you know that! If you would simply give me a chance, I could prove I’m not a horrible person!”

This gave Ammy a bright idea. You couldn’t see it, but an imaginary lightbulb went off over her head. Her arms shifted to being placed on her hips, and one gestured out to the side in a V shape.

“Hmm, tell you what. I’ll give you that chance. In the short time that I actually tolerated your existence, I told you about how I despise your father. You know the jist of the details: he followed me back to this world, cornered me, and then forced himself upon me in my sleep. Before I knew it, you occupied my womb, and I kicked you off the Plain after birth.”

The conclusion had Shady stand back up on all fours, gazing up at her sternly.

“I remember that, yes. I do agree that it wasn’t right for him to do that, but what do you expect me to do to prove myself to you? Apparently, offering you everything under the sun isn’t enough for you.”

The goddess drew a filled circle of ink in the air with her brush, and the ink dissipated to reveal a portal made from cherry blossoms. Her gaze went back to Shady, gesturing toward it with the other arm.

“Since I know I would absolutely slaughter that dog if I were to go there myself, I want you to defeat him in combat by any means necessary. The only rule that you must follow is that he needs to remain ALIVE. Him being trapped in the unexplored northern lands is worse than death, in my opinion. This portal shall take you to his relative location. If you successfully do this, I shall look the other way about the darkness, and you will earn my blessing.”

He hesitated momentarily, looking at the vortex she had created and the shimmering light it emitted. After a deep breath, he made his way over to the oval and jumped through it. The interior of the wormhole he went through was a vibrant hue shifting palette resembling a rainbow. The exit came abruptly with no warning, since he fell out of the hole and landed on his stomach with a thud, causing the powder snow below to fly everywhere. He groaned and got himself up slowly, looking around him.

“She wasn’t kidding when she said this place was unexplored. Not to mention it's colder than her heart...”

The landscape was various hills and valleys covered in nothing but powder snow, blowing around seldomly. An occasional tree dotted the area, making it seem at least a little less boring to the eye. His hair and tail swayed gently in the chilling air, the temperature made more evident with the light snowfall.

Off in the distance, and thankfully not too far from his location, was one of the many guardian sapling trees. Though it's odd that one would be down here. It wasn’t the tree that caught his eye the most, however. Pacing around the trunk of the tree was another canine: a shiny Arcanine with the same neon orange eyes. It was the one guy that made all of this happen in the first place. Kai, his father.

To keep a low profile, Shady ducked behind a rock big enough to hide him from view. The Arcanine did not appear to be aware of his presence, since the minor wind gust was not in his favor. He waited for the dog to turn his back, and went for it. With a short dash and leap, he landed on top of the bigger dog and rolled with them in a tumble, with Shady being on top, the Arcanine facing him. His face bled rage and anger, while the Arcanine’s was composed of shock and surprise.

“HEY, REMEMBER ME?? I’M STILL ALIVE, FUCKER!!”

If he was any angrier, he may start foaming at the mouth. Simply being in contact with the larger canine nearly made him lose focus of the goal. Had he not retained this small scrap of restraint, Shady might’ve gone right for the kill. The Arcanine looked up at him with an annoyed expression, snarling lightly.

“YOU’RE STILL ALIVE?! That Incineroar should’ve ripped your insides out!! ...no matter, I’ll make sure you stay dead this time.”

He achieved a smug grin on his face, but was not expecting an immediate swipe of Shady’s claws into his muzzle. The slash was deep enough to draw a moderate amount of blood, and Kai winced in pain. In retaliation, he drew back his hind legs and shoved Shady off of him with as much force as he could muster, sending the younger dog hurling into a rock behind him, his back making a not great sounding noise upon impact. Upon falling to the ground on his face, it appeared that the impact had given him a nosebleed. He slowly got back up, wiping the blood from his muzzle and limping lightly.

“If he couldn’t end my life, what makes you think that would? Give me something to cry about!”

The purple Growlithe counter-attacked with the most powerful move he knew, Shadow Blast. With a deep breath, the dark energy welled up in his chest, before being let out in a powerful aero stream. He seemed to understand the rage that his mom has regarding this guy. The blast struck the Arcanine directly on the face like a bullseye, with even more force than the leg shove, sending him cascading into the guardian sapling and losing all the wind in him. From that one attack, he was downed, unable to keep fighting. His own muzzle was bleeding, and his body was too weak to stand up. Shady approached him, breathing heavily, holding back the urge to do more, his own injuries showing their teeth.

“I may be the bastard child that you made, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t put you in your place. I’m more powerful than you think I am, and I honestly expected more out of you. Next time I may not resist the urge.”

Before turning, he sank his claws into Kai’s muzzle once more, digging in deeper and deliberately drawing more blood. As he lifted it back up, he held it airborne, the blood soaking the once white claws and most of his toes. The rage he expressed could only be described as feral, with his own muzzle scrunched up and fangs shown. He turned around and walked the opposite direction, back toward the portal that Ammy had created. The limp had worsened, making his movement that much slower. He did not look back toward the Arcanine as he entered once more and was warped back to the original place where she waited.

On the other side, a slightly smiling Ammy stood before him, holding some kind of trinket in her hand as she looked over in his direction.

“Well well, it seems you made it back in one piece. I was monitoring you from here, and I have to admit that I didn’t expect him to go down so easily. You did wonderfully. One day I’ll deal with him fully, but that day is not today. But a promise is a promise. Take this, It’s a mega stone of my own creation.”

She lowered her arm down, showing it off to him and expecting him to take it. The stone was purple in color, with the symbol in the center resembling the colors of a cherry blossom. However, he did not take it from her grasp. Instead he looked back up at her, puzzled.

“While I appreciate that, there’s one issue... I can’t use a mega stone. My species does not have a known one. Not to mention that I’m not fully evolved, and the darkness prevents me from evolving as well. It wouldn’t work on me.”

This caused her to chuckle lightly, ruffling the hair on his adorable head.

“Oh, this isn’t a normal one. It doesn’t follow the rules. I call it, “Inktailite.” It’s made with you specifically in mind, dear.”

She demonstrated by putting the necklace band around his neck, a perfect fit. A few seconds after letting it go, Shady was swallowed in a veil that was not unlike other Pokemon when they underwent mega evolution. The bubble exploded and a shower of cherry blossoms fell to the ground in slow fashion. The end result was a giant purple Growlithe, redesigned and now towering over her.

The black stripes were wilder across his body, their shapes curvier to represent the cherry blossoms. The hair on his head was now spread into three dreads, each having its own black tip like his tail. Red markings, not unlike Ammy's, appeared under his eyes. Her own swirls that were on her shoulders, were on his. The neon orange eyes he once had were now neon yellow to match her. And to top it all off, he received a secondary tail!

The drastic change filled him with a buffet of emotions. He leaned in and gave her the most genuine hug he had ever given to anyone in his life, choking up and struggling to say words without stammering. He was euphoric. This was Amaterasu’s appreciation for him on full display, and he was all for it. Too long had he waited for the day that his own mother would love him.

“T-This is unbelievable! Thank you, mom! I love you...”

She leaned in and hugged him in the same genuine manner, eyes shut but smiling. She was glad how things turned out.

“I love you too, Shady. Very much. I always have. I’m sorry for ever doubting you...”