Shadows and Sunlight: Shady's Origin

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.