Shadows and Sunlight: Shady's Origin

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.”