"Ugh." I groaned as I removed my hooves from Remedy. "Just what the fuck are you doing?" I muttered and felt the amount of magic I absorbed from him.

Calling it a lot would be an understatement. Just looking at the pure volume of it, not to mention the density of these shadows. They're dark, heavy, more than several times too much to bear for the average Nocturnal. So, just what the hell is Remedy doing to produce this much?

Though, there is still one thing. My core. Basically the manifestation of my entire being in a ball. I broke off a part of it and planted it in Remedy so the magic could work without my input. But it seems to be doing much more than just keep Remedy alive.

Realizing all of this, I get slightly nervous as I stare at Remedy. This fucker, he might lose control if this goes too far.

I sigh and sit down to concentrate. I'll have to quickly absorb all this extra magic, and extract even more from Remedy. Pretty risky though, considering the stress my body is receiving from just holding it inside myself.

"Well, there is one upside to it." I mumbled and released the magic.

My shadow started to grow, stretching on the ground in a perfect circle. It expanded quickly as everything was engulfed in darkness. Lifting a hoof, I waved upwards in a direction. Dust rose as trees were uprooted and destroyed. All replaced by rows upon rows of spikes rising from the ground. Suffice to say, anything standing in the direction I had waved was replaced by magic, that slowly melted away.

I took a deep breath and concentrated on the feeling of the shadows, focusing on everything that my darkness touched. With confirmation, I raised my hoof once more, and slammed it to the ground as spikes shot out of the ground and to my surroundings.

Pained whines rang throughout the camp as all sorts of sounds mixed in. Bleating, growling, heavy and soft footsteps.

I stood up and stretched my body, earning a series of cracks from everywhere.

Slowly looking at every creature that came here, I observed their movements and all their oddities. Eyes glowing a light green. Their muscles being way too dense to be natural. "Alright you soulless bastards. How about I send you back to that fucker?" I spoke out loud and held up the knife.

...

What was I doing?

Where is this again?

It's definitely familiar.

I, killed something. I think? I can't remember. A lot of things happened, that I'm sure of. But I don't know what it was. I was doing something.

Ah, right.

I wrote a letter to Bright. What was it? What did I write to him? I know it was something important.

Bright. Bright. That's the opposite of what's happening right now. Right now, everything is dark. I can't see. I can't hear. I can't even feel anything right now.

This just doesn't feel right. Something is wrong. What time is it? I'm supposed to be doing something. It's routine, I do it every morning. But, what is it?

Questions and questions repeated nonstop. I still don't know what was happening. Time passed. How much? I don't know. But it was long. I think.

Then, something finally happened.

A green light, from above. It was shallow, weak. But it was light, and it was barely penetrating through the darkness.

"Hey, Remedy." I flinched as I heard a voice.

Unknown feelings suddenly rushed in. My mind instantly became unstable as the world started to shake. My judgement was clouded as it was hard to think straight. I was filled with emotions. Needs. I need to kill something. Something needs to die. And I should know exactly what that something is.

"Bright?" I asked and turned around.

He was a colt. Last I saw him was when he was twenty eight.

"Yeah, it's me, you idiot." He said in a joking tone.

"Don't bother me right now." I said back.

"Eesh. When did you go back to being so cold?" He asked and sat down on a chest.

I didn't reply and stared at my surroundings. I was in a room. My old room.

A single bed, too big for one pony. A few tens of sketch books, which I know is filled with ideas on how to generate money. A large whiteboard, filled to the brim with a single plan. Plenty of toys to pass the time. Simple, bright yellow walls, a window with an old curtain covering it. And a wooden door.

"Come on, Remedy. Take a seat. I need to talk to you about our plan." Bright spoke casually as he pulled the whiteboard in front of him.

I nodded without much thought as I looked around the room. The bed, should do fine.

*Creak*

With the frames crying out in pain, I calmly sat on the bed as I stared at the whiteboard.

"Okay so, this was the original plan." Bright started out with a calm smile. "We were to gather as much money as possible, buy training equipment, get absolutely jacked and join the Royal Guards. Then, we get permission and go to the Crystal Empire and take down Sombra, successfully getting your revenge." He explained and kicked the chest he was sitting on, letting out the sound of coins rattling.

"The Empire is no more." I mumbled as I felt like a part of my memories rushed in.

"Focus, brother! We must stay hopeful. Away with the bad emotions!" He exclaimed and wiped the board. "Now!" He said and brought out a marker. "As you said, The Crystal Empire is gone. So, that takes us to the next part of our plan." He was speaking like he was acting in a play as he made amateurish drawings of a few ponies on the board.

I simply tilted my head as I kept staring. A feeling kept invading my head. Something was warning me. Something was going to go horribly wrong if I'm not careful.

"Same thing as last time! We get stronger. Gather allies, and get our revenge on, Nightmare Moon." He was almost ecstatic as he explained that part.

"Oh, right. Yeah. That's something I'm supposed to do." I realized what I was supposed to be doing.

"You already got it." Something whispered to me.

"Huh?" I let out a confused sound and looked around.

"Hey!" Bright yelled and held my head and stared at my eyes. "Focus! You said this was important to you! You need to know who you need to fight!" He felt a lot more aggressive than usual.

"Alright." I agreed and continued to stare forward.

"Now, the next step. This is definitely the hardest one. Discord. The spirit of chaos and disharmony. Basically omnipotent." He explained in that same unserious tone.

"You don't even know him." That same voice whispered to me again.

"What?" I spoke up on reflex.

"What is it?" Bright asked.

"Why do we need to fight him?" I asked as I felt chills running up my spine.

Something was wrong. Something was incredibly wrong. But, just what is it? Just what is it that's so wrong right now?

"Why? Isn't it obvious? He's you biggest enemy. He's the entire reason you're like this. He's why you're stuck in the forest. Unable to leave until you get strong enough." Bright said as if it was the most obvious thing.

I stared at him as I instinctively felt something wrong.

In an instant, I stood up and rushed to the window. Yanking the curtain away, I saw the outside world. A void as far as the eye can see, yet a light was shining down from the sky. The sky was slowly getting broken, shattered as the light invaded this world.

"HEY!" Bright shouted.

I knew what was wrong.

"How the hell are you gonna take revenge, if you're not gonna listen to my plans? What about all this rage huh? You said you were pissed off, right? You know who your enemies are. So, sit, and we'll continue to discuss or plans." Bright said sternly as I felt the mistakes.

He doesn't know how to kill. So, he shouldn't be emitting this killing intent. He has yellow eyes, so they shouldn't be glowing a light green color.

"You know exactly who your enemy is." The voice whispered to me once again.

This time, I heard it clearly as I glared back at Bright. No, the impostor as I simply walked through the door.

"Don't you dare walk out. Are you really gonna let Mom and Dad's deaths go unavenged?" The fake Bright asked with an intense glare.

"I already made sure Nightmare Moon stayed trapped on that moon for the full thousand years. I don't have to do much else." I told him and opened the door.

Though, I was almost immediately stopped as a bell rolled to my feet. A full green, ancient looking thing. It had a glow that was fading away as I looked forwards.

"Hello, Canis." I muttered and walked towards the, now magicless dog.

"Don't be fooled." The voice whispered once more as the surrounding shattered.

"I know." I replied and stood in front of Canis. "I'm sorry." I spoke softly and gave it a pat.

Canis, although growling, made no attacks as he laid down.

The shattered surroundings slowly disappeared. A new layer was formed as fire spread over everything. Building burned down as screams of agony and fear filled my ears.

"FLORAL!" Bright, the real one that I remember, shouted over everything.

I looked back, and stared at my brother for a few seconds. He's dead, that I know. But, I know he lived peacefully, even after all that happened.

"Rest easy." I said my last words to him as I walked away.

The sounds fading away as reality started to burn down. Finally, I stood in front of the two ponies that had been the root of all this.

"Sombra, Nightmare Moon." I addressed them calmly.

The two instantly turned shadow-like as both crystals and shadows aimed to kill me. I, however, simply stood there as they both went through me, only to disappear.

Taking a deep breath, I concentrated. Focusing on reality, I slowly unlocked all my memories as the illusions disappeared one by one. Everything, all that is not real, dissolved into nothingness as I gain full sobriety.

"And there it is." I muttered as I stood in a dark world.

Seemingly no differences than before, but the light was now under my control. Commanding it to stay where it was, I looked down. Through the ground, I saw a reflection of myself. Knowing it was fake, I stomped once as the mirror shattered to reveal what the culprit of this situation was.

A black orb. Barely the size of a pebble, surrounded by a tornado of three colors. Brown, blue and white. Now, with the barrier separating it broken, light green was slowly getting pulled in to the mix.

Floating through everything, I could feel it all. It was so, vivid, like I had just grown another limb. So, intense, and it was powerful. As mesmerizing as it was, I was struck again by the feeling of something going wrong. Staring towards the sky, I saw that the light green color was slowly weakening.

The darkness is getting more powerful. Too powerful.

"Hey, that's too much!" I yelled out and tried to control it.

In an instant, I was hit with one of the worst headaches I've ever felt. My body suddenly felt sluggish, and robust as I felt like I was about to pass out.

Come on, think! There's gotta be something you can do. What is it? There's all these weird shit inside you and you don't know what it is? Impossible.

Some clues, something I could use. What sort of characteristics do these things have?

"Wait." I remembered.

If the fake Bright came out when the light first appeared, then that means that darkness is the opposite of it. Then, the beings that fake Bright wanted me to kill. Evil, unstable, chaotic. Chaotic. Then that means that the light is orderly.

I need to somehow find a balance that's unfair.

But, how the fuck would I-Ah. Those other lights.

Does it work? Only one way to find out.

Focusing on the other lights, I slowly form everything into a ball. I can't control the dark part, but I can control everything else. So, make it so that the dark equals to everything else combined.

Slowly opening my eyes, I was sat in a lotus position.

Looking around, I saw the camp. A fire burning not too brightly as a steaming pot of tea was bubbling over it. There was a light drizzle of rain as the winds gave a fresh breeze. The incomplete treehouse gave me the perfect shelter.

And right in front of me, was a ball.

Shaped into a perfect sphere, half of it was purely dark. The other half was mostly white, with four different colors swirling around inside of it. It was perfect. The darkness had no problems as it was stronger than any of the others. The light held no issues as it knew it could always reign the darkness in. Chaotic, yet fair. Orderly, yet imbalanced.

Looking at it, I simply tapped it.

This resulted in the ball suddenly flying into my chest.

"...ok." I had no words.

I accepted it easily as I stared forward.

"I hope Moon isn't having too much trouble while I'm out." I mumbled as I felt my body starting to heat up.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. This is getting harder and harder every second.

I turned around and gave a wide slash. All I did was destroy a wall of stone as a bear made of fire came out from behind it. As the bear tried to catch me in a hug, I turned to a shadow as several tendrils came and shredded through the bear. Without much time to rest, I looked back and slashed again, creating a wave a of shadow that cut through a cheetah and any other unfortunate beasts.

At this point, I was panting. I don't know what else to do. I've been fighting for hours at this point. I can't even move from this spot since Remedy is right behind me.

ABOVE!

Spikes shoot out from underneath me and pierce through an ape that tried to swoop down. With barely even a chance to confirm whether it was dead or not, a lion pounced on me. Trying to hold it back, the leftover beasts all took the chance and started to approach.

"Ugh, come on." I was struggling as I tried to push the lion away.

My body was weak. Muscles were strained as I couldn't even breath properly. I felt like puking.

As the shadows on the knife slowly start dissolve, turning it short once again, I knew I was losing strength. As the shadow very slowly started to disappear, it finally snapped once it became thin enough.

Reality seemed to slow down as I stared at the lion's maw. Those fangs coming dangerously close as only a single thought came to my mind.

Ah, I'm gonna die.

*BOOM*

Ah, I'm not dead?

My breathing suddenly came back. I felt a slight pain in my chest and my ears were ringing a little.

Before I could process everything, I felt myself being lifted.

"Seems like you're in quite a lot of trouble huh?" I was instantly relieved as I heard that voice.

"REMEDY!" I yelled out loud.

There the idiot was, holding me in his hooves.

"You're alive!" I was, relieved.

I didn't know what else to say.

"Yeah, I had to do a lot of shit. But I'm alive." He replied casually and laid me against the tree.

"Careful. Those guys aren't normal." I warned him.

As much as I should be worried, I wasn't. I don't know what it was, but Remedy was dependable.

"I can see." He replied and cracked his neck.

Then he truly surprised me. "Holy shit."

"Yeah, I think I got this from you." He said and got into a stance.

I let out a few chuckles as I stared at him. His shadow was growing. Climbing up his body as I felt Nocturnal magic fill his body.

This psycho. What the hell did you do?

Without any warning, he slammed into the ground. A dust cloud rose as my vision was blocked, and the cries of beast rang out loud. I couldn't see what was happening, but it was obvious. Remedy, he was killing every last one of those beasts. At a complete bullshit rate at that.

As I was resting while watching, I heard a growl right next to me. Right as I was about to call out for Remedy, I heard a slam and the beast was dragged away.

"Woah." I was impressed.

Suddenly, clearing all the dust away, a glacier of ice rose. There was Remedy, having rolled in the air to evade the attack, getting a grip on the glacier before launching himself downward. With a slam, he instantly broke the neck of a deer with blue horns.

"Ooh, ouch." I winced as I stared at the way he handled the monsters.

A bull made of gems tried to ram into him. Remedy punched it into the ground. A giant praying mantis tried to slice him. He dodged twice before dragging it down to his level and squished its head between his hooves. A gorilla made of rocks tried to punch him. He dodged, then pushed the arm away as the gorilla lost its footing. Remedy used the chance and punched the gorilla, lifting it to the air before dragging it back down to the ground with a slam. Stomping on its head one more time, he killed the gorilla and moved onto a tiger made of bones.

Witnessing all of this, I didn't have much to say. Though, one worry did come up for a slight bit.

"Isn't he, way too strong now?" I nervously asked the air as I kept staring.

He has to have to done something. Nocturnal magic doesn't enhance the body, it just can't. So, he has to have done something else to survive. And I know he didn't make his own earth pony magic stronger either. He'd have to let it absorb something else, and Nocturnal magic is too volatile to let itself be absorbed. If he tried to let something else absorb the Nocturnal magic, it would straight up self destruct and destroy the host.

As I observed the fight, I noticed that Remedy wasn't actually using Nocturnal magic. This somehow pissed me off.

"Hey, Remedy! Come on! Extend the shadow! It's like an extra leg! Shape it!" I started to shout out instructions on how he should use it.

This, somehow felt really exciting.

*Sigh*

"Finally." Celestia spoke softly as she wrote a signature on a paper. "The last document of, today? It's still today right?"

*Knock, knock*

"Come in." She spoke as calmly as she could.

"Um, princess?" The noble walked in with a box.

"Oh! Fancy Pants, what brings you here today?" She asked and moved all her paperwork to the side.

"Oh, nothing much." He said in a slightly nervous tone. "I was just wondering, when the sun would come up. And I brought cake, as a, gift of sorts since I was visiting." He explained and set the box on the table.

"Ah, I appreciate the gesture." She thanked him for the cake.

There was an awkward silence between them as his words slowly started to register in her tired mind.

"THE SUN!" She shouted in realization and quickly ran to her balcony.

"Wha?! What's happening?" Raven sat up quickly as she knocked over a few stacks of documents.

"Seriously. How could I let myself forget about the sun!" Celestia talked to herself and pushed through the curtains.

Acting quickly, She raised the sun in an instant. Though much ruder than the easy and relaxing morning than usual, it'll have to do for now.

"Ugh, what time is it?" Raven asked groggily.

"It's eight AM." Fancy Pants answered calmly.

"WHAT!" Raven sobered up in an instant.

"Ugh." Celestia instantly felt a migraine coming.

"Oh no! There's gonna be that meeting with the city representatives, then the Yakyakistan dignitaries will be coming to visit!" Raven mumbled and paced around with a tense face, clearly forming a plan. "PRINCESS!" She suddenly yelled.

"Yes?" She replied.

"You go freshen up, I'll go and get the servants to set up the early meeting. Hurry, hurry! We don't have much time!" She kept shouting as she started to push Celestia out.

"Okay, okay. I'm walking, take it easy." Celestia tried to calm her down as she walked towards the direction of the bathroom.

"Mister Fancy Pants! As you can see, we're a bit busy today. So, please see yourself out when you leave!" Raven instructed before sprinting down the hallway as a clipboard floated behind her.

"Uh." Fancy Pants was a bit perplexed as he stared around the room.

Quickly starting to feel uncomfortable as he realized he was checking out the room of a mare. No matter how high or low the mare's status may be, it still bugged a gentlecolt such as him.

"Hmm?" Though, it quickly disappeared as he happened to come across one of the documents that Raven knocked over. "I haven't heard of a 'Cremo'. Green Garden, Bright, Bright Idea!" He recognized the name. "And Floral Green!"

"Sir?" A guard suddenly peered into the room.

"Oh, uh. Please inform Princess Celestia that I'd like to meet her if a time becomes available. Preferably, as soon as possible. This may be quite important." He told the guard and walked out of the room with a slightly disturbed expression.

"Understood, sir. I'll relay the message." The guard gave a slight bow before continuing to guard the door.

Author's Note

Chapter out! Let's go!

Now, some of you may be thinking that I probably resolved this way too fast, and you're mainly right. I do have a reason though. If I did decide to stretch it out, I would've bitten off more than I could chew. I don't really know how to write things like, slowly getting more and more depressed or something.

I like to think I can write tense moments. Where every line is super important, or something. And I also think I just can't really write good emotional scenes.

Anyways, you can just ignore my rant.

As every chapter, my deepest gratitude to thou for taking thine time to bask upon mine own simple tale.