"Ugh, fuck." I cussed as I was awoken by pain covering my entire body.

Slowly opening my eyes, I saw the grey sky starting to turn darker.

"Agh." Suddenly feeling more pain coming from my core, I was reminded of what I just did. "Shit." I cursed and forced my aching body to stand up.

Almost falling down again a few times, I stood over Remedy. His chest was fully black. I put a hoof over his nose and felt the tiniest amount of air escaping.

"Oh. Hah! YES! Fuck, it worked." I was laughing a bit as a smile grew on my face.

*Cough*

I roughly spat on the ground. It was green.

Shit. I'm ill.

I grabbed the knife off the ground in my mouth and put Remedy on my back.

"Ugh. Why the fuck are you so heavy?" I mumbled and walked towards the camp.

This'll be a long day.

Sitting in front of a lit fire, I patiently waited for the soup to boil whilst rubbing my head. I used too much magic. It's a miracle I didn't break my body forcing it like that.

Focusing inside of me, a sphere slowly floated out of my chest. There was a tiny chink on it with a black substance leaking out slightly. Starting to feel the pain coming back again, I tried and commanded the sphere to shrink, causing it to cover up the hole enough not to leak anymore.

Panting from the action, I pulled it back inside myself and spat out some blood.

I hope I don't fall from blood loss.

What the fuck happened back there? Why didn't Remedy revive like usual? What was up with that fucking rhino?

That river, and the eyes from before. I think I can safely put Discord away from the equation.

Letting out a weary sigh, I grabbed some salt into the soup and gave it a stir.

"Gakh." I jumped and turned to Remedy as he started to cough.

Running to him, I held him up and guided his mouth to the ground. There was a trail of blackish blood flowing out.

Fuck. The Nocturnal magic is starting to infect him. A creature without connections to the shadows can't handle it. As he soon started to breath normally again, I let out a relieved breath and laid him back down.

"You're fucking high maintenance aren't you?" I muttered and sat down again.

Ugh, I'm getting a headache.

When the fuck is Celestia coming, or at least Flutters and her friends. I don't know shit about all this.

Seeing the pot start to boil over the top, I took it off the fire and poured a bowl for myself.

Staring at the bowl of soup, I was stuck in thought. I didn't know what I should do. There were so many plans and actions that I could think of, but I didn't know what to do.

Fucking hell. Remedy, you better get up. Or, I don't know what to do.

*Drip*

I was startled as something fell into the bowl and caused some of it to splash onto me.

"Rain." I mumbled and put a lid over the pot of soup.

Placing the bowl on the ground, I brought out out two blankets and placed it over Remedy. Lifting his head slightly, I put a pillow under it and sighed one more time. With a groan to lift him up, I laid him under the incomplete treehouse to shield from the rain.

I grabbed the bowl of soup and sat next to Remedy. Forcing myself to eat despite my lack of appetite, I almost puked.

"This fucking sucks." I complained loudly and continued to eat the soup that tasted much, much worse than usual.

I sat up slightly as I heard some thuds coming into the camp.

"Uh, Moon?" Celestia asked in a confused tone.

"Celestia! For fuck's sake, come here and check on Remedy." I haphazardly threw away the bowl of soup and dragged her to Remedy.

"Woah, easy. What happened?" She asked.

"This, happened." I said and dragged her to Remedy. "Healing spells, do you know any?"

"I-what happened? How did he get like this?" She was starting to freak out a bit as she inspected Remedy's injury.

"Shit happened. Now do you know any spells that can heal this fucking hole in his chest?" I said a bit frantically.

"Uh, it's, black. What is this?"

"It's pretty much condensed shadow. I can remove it, but it'll just make him bleed out without anything to heal him." I explained as calmly as I can.

"This. How big was is the hole?"

"Like, twice as big as a hoof?" I took a guess.

"That big?" She muttered as an apologetic look took over her eyes.

"No." I didn't want to believe it.

"I'm sorry, I. There isn't a spell to fill in a gap like that. At least none that I know of."

"Oh fuck. Fuck." I was feeling frustrated. "No, no. You gotta know something. You're fucking thousands of years old. You have to know something that could help!"

"I-I don't, I. I can't do much more for him than you already did." She explained.

I was starting to breath heavy from holding myself back. "AGH! You're useless!" I yelled and punched the ground.

FUCK! This can't be how it ends. He can't just die, not like this. And if I just keep him like that, the Nocturnal magic is gonna slowly kill him before he recovers.

"I, apologize." Celestia said and sat down, watching over Remedy.

"Fuck." I cursed once more and sat down again.

"How long has it been?" Celestia asked.

"It's, I don't know. I lost consciousness, so it might have been days even." I replied.

"What caused this?"

"It was a rhino. It was huge, and didn't die the first time."

"What?"

"The rhino. Remedy split its head open and stabbed the brain. Then it rose up again and attacked."

Celestia was silent as she was thinking about something. Then she sighed.

"I'm afraid I'm not familiar with such magic."

"I figured. It's probably related to this fucking barrier."

"I suppose. I'll have to see how much progress the research team has made."

"Yeah, be on your-" I was silenced by a sound coming from inside me.

"I-um, brought some ingredients from the griffins and a traveling minotaur group. It's in a brown bag, just boil it all in some water." She explained simply before standing up with a smile.

"Alright, thanks." I replied and watched her leave.

I sighed wearily once more and got up. I need to have something that doesn't taste shitty anyway.

*Thud*

Mindlessly doing work, I managed to make a pillar and connected it with the floor of the treehouse. About nine more left.

"Agh fuck. My back hurts." I stretched and got a few pops from my back before walking down the stairs and checking up on Remedy.

The gaping hole was slowly closing up, but the Nocturnal magic was slowly spreading in a web like matter.

"Alright, you can do this. Just like you've been doing." I mumbled to myself and started to concentrate.

As I slowly connected to my Nocturnal side, I placed my hooves on his chest and my consciousness went in.

Following the trail of Nocturnal magic to the most severe parts, I blocked it off before pulling it back. It all slowly traveled back to his chest. I grunted as some of it got pulled in to the direction of his heart and was absorbed. It doesn't matter how good I am with Nocturnal magic, even just that tiny piece of my core is already much more concentrated and more powerful than the magic that's pulling it back.

Starting to feel the strain, I barely pulled my hooves back as shadows whisk through the air and disappear. My hooves themselves in a thick coating as I slowly absorb it.

At least this situation is helping me get stronger.

Slowly opening eyes as I take a deep breath, I push the magic out of my hooves as two blades shoot out.

"Alright, it works." I muttered and pulled it back in.

Sitting back down next to Remedy, I think about the time that passed. It's been three weeks, and I'm not sure how, but Remedy was still alive. Though I've managed to hold the magic back this whole time, keeping Remedy alive shouldn't be possible.

It's like, replacing somepony's blood with nothing but water. Both magic, but completely different. Remedy's Equestrian magic should've been slowly transformed to pure Nocturnal magic, but somehow he's still surviving normally.

In the dead of the night, I sat in the church. Every mistake of my life transformed this dark world, slowly trying to crumble me down. My emotions were heightened to a ridiculous degree as I felt pure rage with a coating of wrath and hopelessness.

Even in this moment right now, my thoughts keep getting changed to what I should be doing. No, what I had already done.

"Please, this village is innocent! Don't you get it!? These ponies aren't controlled! They're just looking for something divine to look up to! Something they could believe in! Please! I don't know of what prophecies or rituals you speak of! This church is nothing but a glimpse of hope for the unfortunate!" I saw the last priest screaming as loud as he could with a stab wound in his gut.

Blood spilled over the church hall as corpses of others wearing a blue robe stars on them, lay dead, hanging from chairs and walls.

The priest kept screaming with desperation as I looked on with a cold gaze.

"You don't understand how much suffering she brought on. What she did to my family, I can't forgive a single creature that dared to do that." My mouth moved without my input, yet it felt like I had done it myself.

Slowly raising my green hoof, coated in the blood of others, I let a burning torch fall to the ground as fire rose through the building. Flames coated everything as ashes fell to the ground.

"YOU'RE A DEMON! A MONSTER! A BEAST! YOU CLAIM TO KNOW OF SUFFERING, YET YOU BRING SUCH DESPAIR TO OTHERS! YOU ARE NOT PURSUING JUSTICE OR PEACE! YOU'RE BLINDED BY RAGE AS YOU BRING OTHERS DOWN FOR YOUR OWN EMOTIONS! REMEMBER THIS MOMENT, YOU MONSTER! ETCH THIS MEMORY OF YOU BRINGING SUCH PAIN AND DESPAIR TO INNOCENTS, DEEP IN YOUR SOUL!" The priest shouted at me as he slowly melted away.

I couldn't move my body as I simply stood there.

The fire slowly took over everything as the scenery changed. My body felt different, weaker as the fire now spread over buildings. The village was dead as I suddenly felt exhausted.

"FLORAL! CHECK THAT PILE!" I heard Bright yell at me through the chaos as screams rang through the village.

Witnessing all this once more, I could only concentrate and not let whatever this is, affect my mentality.

Time slowly passed. During the time, lots of guests arrived and stuff. The purple also didn't know any useful spells. Some zebra came and spoke in riddles before disappearing through the woods. Didn't really understand her, nor was I interested in really talking to her. Anyways, all of their reactions were pretty much the same. Nopony knows how to help Remedy.

And right now, I was sitting next to Remedy. A few minutes to rest after I clear the magic infecting him.

"What exactly is this knife?" I mumbled and held it up.

The pristine edge was covered with shadows as the blade now extended into a sword. My magic, it went through with no problems whatsoever. It means the material in this thing isn't your average metal. It doesn't matter how everything in Equestria as magic, Nocturnal magic shouldn't be able to just pass through it.

I didn't even have to wrap it in shadows. It just went in, no resistance, no having to force anything. It just accepted my magic, which shouldn't be possible with normal materials.

Swinging it through the air, it didn't feel heavier or anything. But the swishing sound it made, made it clear that it was just as sharp.

Pulling my magic back, the blade slowly disappeared. With a breath to concentrate, I swung it towards the big tree as it barely went in. The depth, was small. The outer parts of it were normal, allowing things like nails to go in, but after that layer, everything is too hard to go in.

Extending the knife again, I stabbed into the tree. This time, it went in, although it was still hard.

"This tree is definitely a bigger deal than just being overgrown." I commented and sat down again.

As a few silent minutes pass, I ate few fruits to pass the time. But as those minutes slowly started to feel longer, I found myself stuck in place with my thoughts and concerns.

"Ugh, fuck it." I eventually got too annoyed with them.

With the knife in hoof, I started to build the tree house again.

Author's Note

Yo! This chapter is out.

Sorry it feels a bit short. I don't really have much of an excuse. It's just that my little cousin (7 btw) is visiting for the week. And as the guy who's only activities for the day involve going to the gym, going to driving lessons and spending the rest sitting on my ass, I'm the only one who has time apparently.

Anyways, as always, thanks for reading!