Umbral Storm

Chapters

Smoke and Mirrors
Chaos...
The Precipice of Disaster
Umbral Storm
The Mare in the Storm

Smoke and Mirrors

Shining didn’t know when he woke up. Whether it was the mild hints of the midday sun shining through on his face, the dull uneasiness he felt, or his wife’s crying.

Though his wife crying was a significantly more urgent thing to wake up to.

Flurry had woken up long ago, reassuring them that she had to get started right away. And neither could argue with her about getting more rest.

But Cadance was another issue, one that Shining did not want to ignore.

He rolled over in the bed, taking in the sight of Cadance with her face buried in her pillow as she sobbed quietly. She had clearly been trying to hide it as much as possible, but something had awoken Shining, and he wouldn’t take it for granted.

“Honey…” Shining muttered worriedly as he slowly eased a hoof onto her back and gently rubbed under her withers. He couldn’t ask what was wrong—it was readily apparent—and all he could offer was comfort.

She glanced up through her tears and messy hair, “Shining…” She whined while moving herself until she was eased between his two front legs, his hooves gently caressing her withers and midsection in a loving hug as she buried her face in his neck.

“I know…” Shining sighed sadly.

“I feel so worthless,” she sniffled. “I am worthless.”

“You are not,” Shining admonished her quickly with a nip on her ears.

She shook her head and looked up at him with tears still streaming down her face. “My daughter is doing all the spells; m-my auntie has to run my kingdom for me, a-and… and…” she whimpered. “And all I can do is lay in bed and hope.” She let out a weak sigh and grunted at the same time as a new flood of tears appeared in her eyes. “Worthless…”

Shining let a small laugh escape him. “And what does that make me? I’m just lying here and comforting somepony who feels worthless.”

Cadance felt a small smile on her lips, but Shining’s small quip did not bring her spirits back as it usually did. And Shining quickly felt bad about it, nuzzling the back of her head as he rubbed her back even more. “Everything will work out, Cady.” He muttered softly.

“You don’t have to do anything; you just need to be here when we get Kieran back for you.” Though his words spell confidence, Shining was anything but on the inside. With the unfortunate reality that Cadance didn’t fully understand, she didn’t need to understand. Not yet.

“But I’m not even good at that.” Cadance huffed, “If I had been a worthwhile guardian, a mother, for Kieran… He wouldn’t have felt the need to leave.”

“That’s not true…” Shining countered slowly with a truly worried face. “Kieran’s misgivings were a fear brought about by Flurry, not you. You’re the most loving, kind, and sweet mare that I know. And you only wanted what was best for him.”

“But I-I didn’t give him what was best for him at all!” She countered as she slowly broke away from his embrace to seriously look into his eyes. “I was selfish! I just wanted the feeling of being a mother to another foal. I wanted more. It was all about me!” She cried as she whipped her head back and forth.

“Cady…” Shining muttered sadly.

“I barely knew him,” Cadance remarked with a huff. “What’s his favorite food? Favorite color? What sort of things does he like to do? Can you answer any of those either, Shiny?” She asked as her lips quivered.

Shining was at a loss, and all he could do was hang his head in shame with a deep sigh. “No…”

“How was he supposed to trust us if we couldn’t bother to get to know him? He was just somepony I used to gain the spark of that feeling of love I was yearning for for years.” Cadance admitted with indignation. “I’m not a good mother.” She decided with another whimper.

“But you did love him, did you not?” Shining asked after a short while.

A small smile appeared on her muzzle as she thought to herself, “Of course I did. I loved every little bit about him. His smile when I got to see it, his personality when it would shine through his shyness…”

“Then I think you’re being a bit harsh on yourself.” Shining said with a small laugh as he leaned in and nuzzled her, “With you, love always comes first. You just wanted to make sure that Kieran knew without a doubt that he had a family and ponies that loved him, so learning the intricacies of him and his little quirks could be saved for later. You just wanted to smother him with all the love in the world first. That’s how I think you felt about it.” Shining said with a deep sigh.

“Admittedly, that may have been the wrong way to go about it. But you shouldn’t beat yourself up for trying your hardest. And I know you did. You always do.”

“Now, if you want to be a mother for him, the last thing you need to be thinking about is giving up now, honey. He’ll need you more than ever when we find him. And then you can show him exactly why you love him.” Shining finished by planting a kiss on the edge of her muzzle.

After a few moments, Cadance giggled loudly and returned her head to the crook of his neck. “Are you sure you aren’t the alicorn of love and not me, dear?” She muttered quietly.

Shining chuckled while holding her closer. “I picked a few things up from my favorite mare in the world.”

“Well, isn’t that mare lucky?” Cadance said with another short, teasing giggle as she planted a kiss back on his muzzle.

A few moments later, there was a knock on the door. Shining turned back to Cadance with a reassuring smile before he stretched as he slid out of bed. He made his way over to the door carefully and opened it, and his eyes went wide when he saw both Zenith and Bristle standing in his doorway.

Giving another quick, reassuring glance back to his wife, Shining stepped through the door and closed it. “Y-Yes? What are you both doing here?”

Both his sergeants gave each other a quick worried glance before Bristle cleared his throat. “Sir, we have something to share. And I think both Luna and Flurry do as well.”

They turned and gestured for him to follow, and as Shining quickly rushed to keep up, “W-What? What did I miss? I was asleep for like six hours.” Shining wondered, “Did you find him?” He asked begrudgingly with a held breath.

“Not yet, sir.” Zenith replied shortly.

But they mostly stayed silent, and Shining stopped asking questions as he allowed them to lead him wherever they were going. But he quickly recognized the room as the same one Flurry had been practicing in.

When they entered, Shining could immediately see Luna sitting in front of Flurry in deep thought; a scowl planted itself on her features, though not towards the filly. “Alright, here he is.” Bristle remarked with a gruff sigh as he found another spot to sit.

Shining just continued to look around in confusion as Zenith stepped forward. “Has anything come to mind yet, Flurry?”

“What’s going on?” Shining finally asked as he held his hooves out questionably.

Luna looked up, giving him a deep sigh. “Remember when I said you might be needed at full attention? Well, I wasn’t joking.”

Zenith cleared her throat as she used her loud, commanding voice to draw all attention to herself. “Sir, earlier this morning, it came to mine and Bristle’s attention that Corporal Smoke Strike hadn’t been seen since the disaster. And with a little bit of asking around, we quickly came to the conclusion that he had gone missing...”

“What..?” Shining uttered in disbelief as worry reached his voice. “D-Did we find any trace of him? Are we sure he isn’t buried under some of the academy’s rubble?”

...

Bristle and Zenith gazed at each other again briefly, and Bristle sighed deeply. “It’s not that, Shining. We’re beginning to think he’s been… up to something.”

“And we think it may be related to Kieran going missing, but we haven’t confirmed anything yet.” Zenith quickly followed up.

Shining was in pure disbelief, shaking his head as the continued weight of everything continued to crash down on him. Feeling like the entirety of Equestria was just turning his life into a simple, tragic joke. He laughed slightly. “Let’s not get paranoid, okay?” Shining reasoned with a shake of his head, “Surely you two are just tired, out of your wits.”

Bristle walked over and placed a hoof on his shoulder. “Shining,” he sighed deeply, “we found traces of dark magic in his office. There’s ancient, forbidden sigils on the walls and everything. We aren’t guessing with our eyes closed.”

Shining’s eyes went wide as he took a few steps back away from Bristle. “But… this… this isn’t…” Shining fell backwards onto his haunches and sat with his head between his forelegs as he continued to shake his head.

...

Zenith took a cautious step forward. “Shining?”

Shining laughed solemnly. “The empire is in ruins, Discord’s chaos, Kieran is decaying internally from magic, and… and now you want to tell me the Smoke Strike is somehow part of all this?” Shining glared upward between the gap in his hooves, “I’m just supposed to believe that every single thing in Equestria has decided to play with me and my family’s lives, and for what!?” He shouted angrily. His two sergeants hung their heads low as their ears folded against their heads.

Flurry wilted from the bed. “Daddy…”

Luna walked forward and stood in front of Shining with a cold expression. “I can confirm their suspicions are true, Shining. I saw the sigil myself.” She paused to watch the realization hit him, and she sighed deeply as she looked at him with mild disappointment. “Now’s not the time to give up and act like all is lost.”

Luna’s horn lit up, and she forcefully pulled Shining up from the floor and set him on his hooves. “I suggest you listen to what your daughter has to say.”

Shining looked ashamed as he slowly nodded his head and locked eyes with Flurry. “I’m sorry. Please, what do you know, honey?” He asked her gently.

Everyone gave Flurry their full attention. “Well, I was thinking about the day I summoned Kieran. It was the same day that Bristle and Smoke showed up for… something.” She muttered unsurely.

Bristle nodded. “I do believe I remember the day. Shining, it was when I came to inquire about the upcoming schedule changes for the winter month.”

Shining nodded in acknowledgement. “Was Smoke ever separated from you? Would he have been able to sneak into the library and somehow convince his way into the royalty-only section and research dark magic?”

Zenith huffed a short, disbelieving laugh. “There’s no way Smoke could’ve convinced his way in there. I’ve tried to convince them to let me in multiple times, and your librarian watches you like a hawk if you ask.”

They all looked at her with raised brows, and she rolled her eyes with a sigh. “I wanted to research whether there was some sort of spell I could use to make the courtyard repair itself after sparring. I got tired of filling it with dirt every week.”

Bristle shook his head. “Anyway, no. I believe he’s been practicing this magic for a long time now; this isn’t a recent development.”

Flurry nodded. “Mhm, that day when Bristle and you, Daddy, were talking about stuff. Smoke walked over to me while I was drawing in the living room.” She paused to think for a moment. “He asked me how my training was going with my magic, and when I told him I’d given up on it for the time being, he said something weird.”

They all listened intently, especially Shining, who was barely a hoof away from his daughter. She looked up and sighed. “He said the words, ‘I wouldn’t give up on my dreams so quickly. Why don’t you give it one last shot? Maybe you’ll find things easier with a fresh mindset.’ and then…” Flurry growled, “Then he lit his horn and did some sort of spell on me. I didn’t feel anything when it happened; he just told me it was a good luck charm spell and then laughed it off while teasing me.”

All of the adults went silent as they took in the implications of that. Luna especially had to suppress her magic from flaring too much as her mane and tail decided to flare out larger. She suppressed her rage and calmly asked, “Is that all he did, niece?”

Flurry took a short nod and said, “I don’t know what spell it was. All I know is that night I summoned Kieran somehow…” She shook her head. “Smoke hadn’t seemed off or weird in any way. I didn’t sense anything off about him at all! And I just completely forgot about it!” Flurry reasoned.

“Shh…” Shining said, reaching forward and bringing her into a hug, “It’s not your fault, honey; he manipulated you and your emotions. He knew you were young and impressionable but wanted to use the magic of an alicorn for his own deeds.”

“I’m going to plant him six feet under if we find him.” Zenith growled.

“Before Luna does? I doubt it.” Bristle remarked with a shrug.

Shining gritted his teeth and hissed, “I just can’t believe we ever trusted him…”

Luna hummed, “I vaguely remember Kieran mentioning that Smoke was shady to me long before this all happened. I guess foals really are the best judges of character.”

Shining hung his head, “I should’ve listened better.” He muttered sadly.

Bristle laid a hoof on his back. “He tricked all of us.”

There was a long stretch of silence as everyone thought about all of this. Until eventually Shining clapped his hooves together and said, “Show me these sigils in his office.”

It took the four of them a while to get to the office, with the rubble laying everywhere along the way through the academy. When they got there, Shining was absolutely perplexed when he saw so many of the guards there. Most of the magic division was in the office, crowded around a single wall. Upon noticing his entry, they all swiftly turned and bowed, “Sir.” They said in unison.

Zenith stepped forward, “Everyone out for now.”

They all quickly obliged and stepped out of the office. Shining took a look around. It was a rather normal, unassuming office, the walls were made of darker wood, and the blinds were closed and covered with black-out curtains. On the left side was a large, ornate desk and chair, with filing cabinets behind. On the other side, there was a wall that used to have a bookcase against it but had been thrown to the side. Bristle quickly directed Shining towards the now blank wall.

Upon walking closer and taking a look, he almost immediately turned ghostly white as he stared at the wall. There was a sigil of some kind, with symbols involving magic written inside. But it was written entirely in red, and the sinister nature was immediately apparent to any magic user in the area. The wall itself just felt like malice. There was no other way to put it.

Luna’s feathers on her wing ruffled as she stared at the sigil in disgust and hissed, “This reeks of dark magic beyond the veil of harmony.”

Zenith came up on their side and threw an open book to the ground in front of him. It looked like a dusty old grimoire with a spiky spine—certainly not the most inviting spellbook ever. “Say, Luna… You don’t happen to be missing any important documents either, right? We found this under his desk.” She laughed nervously.

Shining and Luna just shook their heads in disbelief. Shining gritted his teeth, lighting his horn as he brought the scary-looking book closer to read it. Turning it over, the cover was too worn to read, and the pages were so deeply written that they blended together. But no doubt, the sigils were recognizable, and he couldn’t help but compare the one on the page to the one in front of him.

“This was written in the same formatting and hoofwriting as before I was banished to the moon. Old as our language itself.” Luna reiterated with a shake of her head.

Bristle sighed. “Smoke Strike was up to no good. Regardless of what he has been up to here, we don’t know what he has actually done. He could’ve been the culprit for your missing foal, or he could’ve just been practicing dark magic.”

“There’s no way he isn’t involved,” Zenith huffed.

Bristle stepped forward and ran a hoof over the sigil. “But most of our mages can’t figure out the purpose of this sigil, and they’re a little too scared to mess with it in fear of doing something accidentally incriminating.”

“As they should.” Luna said with a nod, “Messing with magic this ancient is just asking for a curse upon your bloodline, or even-”

As she was talking, Shining lit his horn, quickly writing some form of symbol with his horn’s magic before shooting it forward and laying it in an empty spot inside the sigil. The entire sigil quickly glowed and came to life in a deep red color, as the wall in front of them hummed and formed a sort of door or portal that led into what could only be described as a dungeon.

“-worse.” Luna finished with a deep scowl and sigh as she raised a brow at Shining and said, “Thanks for potentially taking one for the team, Shining.”

Zenith huffed a quick laugh. “I always forget he’s Twilight’s brother.”

Bristle’s brow furrowed. “Well… I guess that sorts that out.”

Shining just shook his head. “The symbol was right on this page, and the only one the sigil didn’t have already.” He laughed a bit nervously. "Also, I’m not too scared of using it like everybody else is, not when my foal is missing, especially.”

“How irresponsible.” Zenith quipped with an eye roll.

Shining admonished her as he stepped through the gate, “Coming from you, that’s rich.”

When they stepped through, they came into a dark, dungeon-like interior. The torches on the wall quickly lit themselves one-by-one until the entire room was illuminated. They all gawked in disbelief at the size.

“A room?” Luna inquired to herself in thought, “Be wary; this place was made with ancient dark magic; who knows what sort of traps lie around.” They all nodded at her advice.

Against the far wall were a couple of large bookcases with the dustiest-looking grimoires imaginable. In the center of the room was a desk, with a sacrificial-looking slab right behind it. It had dark stains on it that Shining tried not to think too hard about.

Along the walls were dozens of different sigils that did who knows what. Each one exuded a sinister aura that made him want to turn tail and run for his life.

Shining approached the desk, which was covered in various vials of unknown origin. A large map that was covered in dark manic scribbles. But he quickly took note of the more modern-looking piece sitting among the ancient-looking equipment. A small notebook that he quickly flipped open with his magic. Although the words inside were no less manic and nonsensically strewn about the page than those on the map.

“I don’t suppose this is a secret diary or notebook detailing all of his evil deeds in great detail for our convenience, is it?” Zenith asked with a bit of hope. At Shining’s small shake of his head, she sighed, “It never is…”

Shining skipped towards the end of the notebook, looking for any hint or clue as to what was going on. Surprisingly, the end of the notebook was cleaner, enough to be able to read, with fewer notes and scribbles covering the words.

“I finally managed it. If I am in any way a lucky stallion, this marks the end of my research. Once I am sure that Flurry’s magic works as a catalyst, I can move to phase 2.”

“Phase 2 of what? You creep.” Shining muttered to himself angrily.

“The catalyst was a complete success.

Unfortunately, that little cur has more of a command of her own magic than first expected. I can neither sense where the experiment is nor whether it is still waiting to be activated. If only I could get near it and see for myself.”

Shining felt rage building in his chest as Luna silently read the same words from right behind him. He skipped ahead a few pages.

“Of course, of course! Just fantastic! Not only does Flurry Heart have complete control over the puppet, but she can even make it do her bidding at will!

The stupid thing even got me in trouble today; the last thing I wanted was to have to resort to nabbing it for myself. But clearly, the royal family is far too stupid, as they’ve taken in that thing as if it’s an actual foal. Preposterous!

Yet, it’s no guarantee that her influence would wane, even if I did. Then I’d just be stuck with an annoying puppet that would do no more than pester me.”

A few more passages went by.

“There’s been rumblings recently, from places unbeknownst to me or even the great rulers of Equestria. They can see me; I feel it… They’ve been spying on me since I started my experiments, but they… they’re coming. I can feel it.

Whatever they are is not regular magic; it’s not even from this realm.

This wasn’t supposed to happen! Flurry was supposed to use her magic and give a vessel to a being at my own command! Something I could use to wipe this miserable excuse for an empire out with ease! …Just what in the name of Discord did she bring over? That thing is neither pony, magic, nor the so-called human it claims to be.”

Shining dared to look at his side, at Luna, who was just as perplexed as she was.

“That’s it, the finale.

They’ve found Equestria. The empire has been laid to ruins as well. There is nothing that can stop that tide of darkness anymore; they want what they desire at any and all costs. They appear in my dreams, screaming and begging me for my experiment, which I can no longer give them.

I can run, but they will find me. I can hide, but something… will find me.

I will try, but I am afraid this is my curtain call.”

The writing in the pages became frantic, even manic, for only a few pages. Eventually it stopped, and the last sentence it left could only be described as chilling to Shining Armor.

“To all those who try to run, I pity you. If only you could see things our way, everything is so much better now. We are together again; we are whole.”

Shining hadn’t realized he had all three leaning over his shoulder. So when he finally closed up the book, he practically fell over as Zenith whistled in his ear, “What in Celestia’s name does all that mean?”

Shining held a hoof to his head as he glared back at her, setting the notebook on the desk. “It sounds like he went totally insane.”

“Not exactly,” Luna hummed inquisitively as she held a hoof to her muzzle.

Bristle looked over at Luna with a sheepish sigh. “Could you explain your thoughts, princess?”

Luna nodded. “So clearly, Smoke used Flurry’s magic as a proxy to create some sort of undead puppet that he could use to destroy the Crystal Empire. Things didn’t go to plan, as Flurry had stronger magic than him.” She paused for a second. “I'm not sure if he expected Kieran to inhabit the body, nor Flurry making it in her own image. Then Smoke seemed to decide that foalnapping Kieran was off the table, but at that point his paranoia had started. He speaks as if Kieran is not made of magic, or even a pony or a human."

Luna stopped for a second to roll her eyes. “Which of course he isn’t; he is some odd amalgamation of Flurry’s magic and Smoke’s magic, and he wasn’t human after he died either. I have no doubt he’d be something else otherworldly.”

Luna sighed deeply, with a hint of irritation. “Smoke’s insanity seemed to connect him in his dreams with something. Something that apparently had it out for him. Which is why I must reiterate why we don’t practice dark magic!” Luna said it firmly as she looked around her.

Shining huffed, “So then… what would have happened to Smoke?”

Luna just shrugged, "There's no way of knowing, especially since we have no clue what he unintentionally contacted..." She hummed in thought.

After a while of silence, Zenith stepped forward. “Well, regardless of Smoke, there’s still the problem of Kieran being missing. What if that ‘tide of darkness’ is after him as well?”

Bristle pointed at the map and asked, “Would that have anything to do with it?”

They all laid their gazes on the map again. And after having read the passages in the notebook, the map seemed to make a lot more sense. Dark scribbles encroached from the edges of the map on one side; they had already engulfed most of Equestria, including the Crystal Empire.

Shining walked closer to the map to look closely. The dark scribbles seemed to surround most of Equestria, but there was one single spot on the map that hadn’t been scribbled over. With a bunch of dark arrows pointing directly at it. “Where would that be?” Shining muttered curiously to those around him.

Bristle hummed, "Would it be right about around Appleloosa? Maybe the outskirts, where a bunch of farms are?”

They stayed silent for a minute, as a deep scowl came upon Zenith’s face, and she huffed worriedly, “Say… isn’t that right around where that giant light from the sky was? Where we found a bunch of large luminescent scales?”

Their three faces drained of color as Luna looked around with a raised brow. Shining got on his hind legs, placing his front hooves on the table. “Are you certain, Zenith?” She gave a quick nod of confirmation.

That was enough information for Shining, as he quickly dismounted the table and collected both the map and Smoke’s notebook. He quickly began rushing towards the portal as the rest of them began to follow.

Once they all exited the portal, Luna quickly turned around and cast a spell into the room before smashing the sigil in the wall and causing the entire wall to crumble, including the portal. They all turned and looked at her with wide eyes. “What did you just cast in there?” Zenith wondered nervously.

Luna huffed. “A spell that could level a city.”

They all stopped and waited for a few moments in anticipation, as Shining sighed greatly in relief. “What if it had been under my city?” He asked with a raised brow.

Bristle grumbled, “And how are we supposed to do an investigation on him now..?”

Luna did not answer those questions, and eventually Shining returned to his task at hoof with his two Sergeants following behind him.

When they got back and entered the castle, Shining wasted no time in taking command. Shouting out to those of the guards around that were still in fine condition, “I need my three best flyers and a chariot! Now!”

“Sir!” One of the guards shouted and saluted as he disappeared into the barracks somewhere.

“Shining?” Luna asked curiously.

Her and his sergeants followed behind him in intrigue as he made his way around and gathered a few small saddlebags worth of necessary equipment and rations. “It’s my turn.” Shining said definitively as he began packing everything in with maximum efficiency, “Whether this map is where Kieran is or not, I’m going.”

Luna began to open her mouth, but Shining quickly followed up with his own words: “I need you here, Luna. To look after Cadance and Flurry in case things go wrong.”

“But… Sir-” Zenith began.

“No, I need you both here as well. One pony can’t run all the guards in the empire." He countered.

“Shining-” Luna began with a sigh.

The guard from earlier returned and shouted out to Shining with urgency, “Shining Armor, sir, your arrangements are ready!”

All three of them followed Shining out of the castle again, and sure enough, three pegasus guards were all hooked up to the chariot and ready. But as Shining came closer to the chariot, he grunted in annoyance. It was one of the large, gaudy ones that had space for about six passengers, with a large covering over the top as well.

Shining quickly began to use his magic to dismantle the chariot, tearing off multiple pieces until the thing was quickly becoming a safety hazard. His pegasus guards looked back in shock but maintained their composure as they waited patiently. Bristle raised his brow as Zenith put her muzzle into her hoof with a deep sigh.

After enough tearing and breaking of things, the chariot was nothing more than a single seat with extremely arguable safety precautions in place to keep him from falling out. “Should be light enough to get me around Appleloosa quickly, is it not?” Shining inquired with the guards.

The one in front nodded swiftly and said, “Yes, sir." We should be able to make the trip in about half the time now.”

Shining smiled at hearing those words as he put his first front hoof into the carriage. Luna finally grunted angrily, “Shining.”

“Luna, you can’t stop me!” Shining said back quickly as he turned around, “I have to do this on my own. I know I’m not as powerful as you, or even Zenith, but I have to!” He practically pleaded with the larger alicorn.

She just shook her head with a smirk. “I was trying to get you to stop for a second so I could wish you good luck and tell you not to come back empty hooved.”

Shining’s eyes widened, and he couldn’t help but laugh at that with a short nod. He gave her a confident-filled stare that almost nobody could refute: “I will.”

Zenith came up on his side, casting another warming spell over his body. “You’ll need it.” She commented with a smirk.

Bristle came over and shuffled awkwardly before giving a nod of his head. “Well… Good luck, Shining.”

Shining leaned forward and pulled Bristle into a one-hoofed hug. “Thanks, old friend.” Bristle reciprocated with a smile before stepping back.

Shining finished climbing into the precarious chariot and getting situated before he turned his head. “And please tell Cadance I’m sorry for not coming to say anything to her. But reassure her that I won’t come back empty hooved.”

“I will.” Luna nodded.

Shining smiled before turning forward to his guards, “Ready!” He shouted forward.

The pegasi did their last stretches as they unanimously responded, "Yes, sir! Launch in three… two… one!”

Zenith and Bristle waved at the retreating chariot as Luna crossed her hooves, and they watched it disappear past the barrier and over the horizon.

If Shining had woken up without a single shred of confidence that day, at this point, all of those feelings had been abandoned. Instead, it was replaced by a determination that filled him with more confidence than even the strongest heroes of Equestria. Something that made him feel like at that moment he could take on any hurdle and clear it with ease.

Shining momentarily wondered if this is how his sister felt so many times. And the thought only served to fill him with even more confidence.

Chaos...

I had been getting a good sleep. A great sleep, really.

But regardless of how it had started or how comfy and cozy I’d felt.

I still had a nightmare…

Not just any simple nightmare either. I was stuck in an infinite void, falling forever and ever. All I could hear were the voices of those I’d never met, screaming and crying out in terror. And the sight of deep white and purple shining eyes that seemed infinitely vast and uncaring. Like they would swallow me whole and I would disappear. It was enough to shock me awake.

I came to my senses with deep panicked breaths as one of my hooves pushed against my chest in abject terror.

It took me only a moment to realize where I was and that it wasn’t real; I was safe. And I felt Flitter’s heavy wing draped over me like an extra blanket. Looking to my right, I found her sleeping deeply. At some point she had rolled over onto her stomach but had shifted her wing over me protectively anyway.

I smiled and for a moment thought of reaching out and waking her, but I quickly pulled my hoof back in. I didn’t want her to think that I’m a baby that needs coddling when I have a nightmare. And looking over to the window, it wasn’t even morning yet either. It was still dark; in fact, it was pitch black outside.

However, it had been a full moon when I’d fallen asleep… But now that I was looking at the window again, there was barely a hint of moonlight on the outside.

I tilted my head in curiosity, unable to imagine myself falling back to sleep immediately after such a nightmare anyway. I worked to undo myself from Flitter’s grip. She seemed to be a pretty heavy sleeper. I looked down in amusement after escaping to realize she was still fast asleep; she only mumbled something in her sleep that was unintelligible.

I carefully slid down the bedding and onto the floor clumsily before making my way over to the window. There was a small stool next to the window, which allowed you to climb up into the window nook with its comfy cushion.

Once I managed to pull myself up with one hoof, I finally gazed out.

Disaster finally made itself known, and about twenty negative emotions erupted in my head as my heart sank. The dark clouds that had once been hovering over the valley of Appleloosa were now directly above the house and most of the everfree forest and horizon.

There was no moonlight, and the clouds had completely blocked out the night sky like a blanket. All that was left below it was a dark landscape devoid of light or life. These weren’t just storm clouds; they were… black. Completely devoid of light or color, and it sent a large chill down my spine just looking up at them.

I could make out shadows of the trees in the distance—I could see the edges of the house I was in—it looked like it was teetering on the edge of the abyss.

Was Discord right? What was going to happen now? What if I get Flitter and her family hurt…

…

I stood and unlatched the window lock. To see if this was something real, or if the window was playing tricks on my mind.

My thoughts receded as I jumped out of my skin in surprise.

A large blast of… something... had just shot out of the everfree forest. It lit up the dark sky as if a giant camera with its flash on had just taken a picture. In the shape of what could only be described as a beam, or pillar.

As I shook my head to ensure I wasn’t still sleepy, it happened again. Then again, and again. One after the other, it was lighting the sky up like a beacon or spotlight. Shining light on the dark clouds that would have previously been impossible.

My first thought had been lightning, but with no thunder to accompany the lights, I couldn’t rationalize that it was...

The more concerning thing was probably the giant dark cloud that was lowering itself to the ground like a tornado. I’d seen tornadoes before, but never ones that looked like they were made from pure darkness.

It deformed and stretched more and more as it tried to reach the ground.

The interesting part was that it was aimed at whatever was causing the beams of light in the everfree. And those blasts were keeping the tornado from ever reaching the ground, as it would retreat from the light. That gave me at least a small reprieve from the panic.

I suddenly realized how dire the situation was, and I turned around, intending to go wake up Flitter for guidance.

“H-Hey, Flitter?” I called out meekly from the window. There was a brief pause in her soft snoring before it returned with even more volume.

At that same moment, I heard a large crash downstairs. It sounded like the front door of the house being opened. And yet, Flitter still hadn’t woken up. Well, it was a large crash, but maybe not enough to wake her.

Had something just broken into the house?..

After a few moments of consideration, I felt something touch my back from behind, which caused me to jump out of my skin for the second time. I whipped around on a dime, and curiously, I met with the same wisp that had greeted me on the hill yesterday with Flitter. It seemed to wave back and forth as a wisp of its own body broke off and almost seemed to gesture as if it were waving.

My mind was beginning to draw a blank with everything happening and the myriad of things being presented to me. Like I’d accidentally triggered a dozen different side quests but only had time for one.

The weird wisp was at the window urging me to come closer; there was a dark tornado; something was blasting that dark tornado with light beams; and maybe possibly an intruder in the house? Or maybe just somepony else awake and going through the same chaos as me.

But before I had even finished with those thoughts, I realized I already had approached the wisp and leaned my head out the window.

When I did, it became clear just how windy it was, as I felt the wind whip around me as it pulled in the direction of the dark cloud nearing the ground.

The wisp in front of me seemed to dance happily, unaffected by the wind.

“What are you?” I questioned all of a sudden, “And what’s going on?”

The blue wisp jumped in what looked like fear all of a sudden. A wispy tendril quickly emerged from the small thing and covered my mouth. My eyes immediately narrowed as my brows furrowed. But before I could make any angry advances on it, I heard the door behind me open.

I turned around once again, and immediately my blood ran as cold as ice.

A dark mist of shadows sweeped in, covering the floorboards with the same clouds. And soon after, a dark figure made of those clouds swooped in.

It was the same thing I’d seen in my nightmare only minutes ago. A tall, lanky and vaguely pony-shaped being with large soulless white eyes that shined a purple glow. Eyes as devoid of life and hope as the nearest black hole. Its form was snakeing over the bed, like it was looking for prey. Its maw the size of my entire body with a terrifying grin. Its figure was so imposingly large in comparison to me that I felt like if it wanted to erase my existence at any moment it could. The shadows rolling off its shoulder’s lashed at its sides as dark tendrils that reached around the room and pulled it around.

The head of the shadow eagerly inspected the bed, watching Flitter sleep deeply. I felt intense worry for Flitter; that only got worse when the creature slowly pulled the covers back. But whatever it was looking for wasn’t there, and its eyes swept around the room again, immediately setting eyes towards the window directly where I was cowering.

I immediately thought that it was over for me… That I was done for.

I cowered in place and tried to shrink into the cushion below me, hoping I could somehow get away. I held out my hooves in defiance as my mouth fought to open and scream.

The wisp behind me’s tendril wrapped around my mouth even tighter to keep me from making a sound.

My confusion grew greatly as I watched the shadow continue to look around the room, as if there hadn’t been anything where I should be. It took a terribly long time examining Flitter again as his eyes rolled back and forth in place, seemingly in confusion.

I confusedly glanced down at the tendril around my muzzle, then at my whole body as I realized something incredible…

My body looked to be completely intangible, like that of a ghost. I could see right through my hooves and my chest. There was a light blue hue covering me as I tilted my head in bewilderment.

The shadow continued to waver back and forth in the room, eventually lashing one of his tendrils against the ground in what looked like agitation as he floated out of the room and down the hallway.

The wisp slowly released its tendril from my muzzle, allowing me to breathe, but not too heavily as to alert the thing via sound. I watched as it receded back into the wisp’s body, and as it did, the odd translucent glow of my body also disappeared.

I had been… invisible? Or at least undetectable by whatever that creature was.

…

I sat in stunned silence as my head went between the door and the wisp next to me.

My eyes settled on Flitter, and I immediately tried to take a step towards her. The wisp immediately pulled me back defiantly and was much harsher than I expected. It tightened its grip around my front hoof and kept pulling as I struggled to pull it away. I harshly whispered, “What gives!?”

I relented as I allowed it to pull and guide me out the window and onto the steep roof. Then around the corner, out of sight of the window entirely. I finally forced its tendril off my foreleg and recoiled away from the wisp in distrust as I took a few hoofsteps back. “Okay?” I muttered in confusion, “Then what do you suggest, oh great mighty wisp?” I mocked with an accusatory glare.

The little thing had to be no more than the size of my hoof. With large white eyes that never seemed to blink or morph in any way, therefore I couldn’t see its emotions at all. It wobbled a few times in front of me, hopping up and down excitedly as it wavered back and forth. I didn’t know what to make of it; I simply stared in confusion as I tilted my head.

It seemed to be getting more and more urgent with it’s movements, as it almost seemed to tilt its top half in the direction of the forest incessantly. It almost seemed to be beckoning me in the direction of the light beams that were still being fired.

The everfree was still being flashed with beams every other second. There was a loud hum, accompanied by a sound most comparable to a microwave or even a tesla coil, as the beams were fired. The idea of what was happening over there terrified me.

I immediately shook my head at the wisps suggestion, “I’ll pass…” And tried to move around it to enter the window again and get Flitter.

The wisp almost seemed agitated by my choice, quickly floating in my way and blocking my path. It began pushing me, not with much force, but enough that I could tell the little wisp was putting all of its energy into forcing me in the opposite direction.

I grew agitated at the thing and harshly whispered down at it as I rubbed the equivalent of my temple angrily. “Look, whatever you are, I’m not going out there. Forget about it. Plus, my friends are still inside!”

The wisp materialized two tendrils from its side and crossed them, and I almost felt embarrassed. Who was this wisp to judge me with its arms crossed like that?

After a second, it pointed in the direction of the forest. And I just let my head fall backwards to look up at the sky and sigh deeply. Watching the darkness above us twisting and twirling like a mesmerizing underworld that hung above me like a reaper.

I didn’t know what to do!?

Was I having a nightmare? Was this all just some odd prank being pulled on me!?

…

No, this was the chaos storm Discord warned me about.

…

My eyes gradually fell back down to the wisp, which was shaking with fear. It seemed to be leaning to look inside the room every couple seconds or so, waiting for that… thing to come back. Maybe it was right if I was caught for even a moment… Well, I didn’t want to know what it would do to me.

I silently sighed to myself as my head spin; a decision was imperative right now. I didn't have time to sit idly. And the wisp was adamant that I don’t contact Flitter.

I slowly whispered, “Will I be safe if I follow you?”

The wisp took longer than I'd like for it to answer, but it did eventually float up and down in what I assumed was a yes.

I felt like I would regret it, but I relented. If that thing was searching for me and I could lure it and this entire storm away from the farm, then it would keep Flitter and her family safe. That was all the motivation I needed.

I nodded firmly, “Okay… let’s go.” I whispered urgently. The wisp seemed excited, quickly floating away from me and towards another part of the roof. I did my best to keep up while also staying silent.

While the wisp floated off the house, I had to struggle with climbing down a precarious and very tall stack of firewood. With one hoof… I made it about halfway down when one of my hooves slipped, not causing much sound but making my heart drop as I scrambled to pull myself back up.

Thankfully, that had been the only incident I’d had. And I found myself getting the rest of the way down quick and easily.

The wisp quickly zipped forward towards the Everfree, or more importantly, the cornfields before the Everfree. I’d be lying if I said a chill of terror didn’t go down my spine. Not only at the prospect of the Everfree and whatever the wisp was leading me to, but at entering a corn field. I’d seen a movie or two in my time on earth!

I begrudgingly ran to catch up and took my first few steps into the cornfield. Sure, I was hidden from view if that mattered. But I couldn’t see anything myself. As each moment was another corn stalk trying to force its way into my mouth, eyes, and ears.

The wisp took hold of one of my hooves with its body again and gently guided me forward through the field.

With each crunch of corn husk under my hoof, I grew more and more anxious. And with each blast of light illuminating the sky, my nerves dimmed a little. It didn’t help that my current guide was nothing more than a wisp; maybe it was a magical being from the everfree? Or it could just be something from the chaos storm leading me to my doom.

I lowered my head and kept my eyes on my hooves as I walked. It helped me to not have a panic attack.

“Kieran!?” I heard someone call from behind me.

My head shot up as I looked back. The call had come from the house.

“Pumpkin, come back! It’s okay, honey!” Sage called.

I felt a range of emotions, but mostly horror. Sage was about to get caught up in all of this? How did she even know I left the house?

I panicked as I turned around to go get her. She’d be safe if she came with us.

But just as I turned to do so, the wisp’s grip tightened yet again and yanked me forward. I looked back at it incredulously, and it seemed to shake back in place like it was telling me no.

“I have to!” I harshly whispered.

But the wisp didn’t care; it only kept pulling me and forcing me to oblige with its demand as it led me through the field. I groaned angrily, but continued to follow. Like I told myself earlier, I just had to reassure myself that if I got far enough away, they’d all be left alone.

All was going well otherwise…

…

Well, until I tripped over a bucket that had been left out in one of the field’s paths. And I rolled and tumbled along with it for a few seconds.

The sound had been deafening in the relative silence that we’d been having. I sat in stunned silence as my mind reeled. Had I really just pulled off the most cliche horror movie trope ever while escaping a monster, but in an actual real scenario? I couldn’t help it; I couldn’t have seen it!

The wisp’s body went rigid as its entire body shook in fear. I cringed as I held my breath, hoping that it would be fine as I untangled myself from the object.

Everything seemed fine for a minute still…

I looked up as I heard the beams stop for the first time since I’d been out here. And I could easily see why, as the dark cloud or tornado… whatever it was… shifted in our direction and positioned directly over the corn fields.

I stared upward in true fear and horror for a moment as I saw the eye of the storm. Hovering above me much like the wide and uncaring void from my nightmare. Shadows swirled around the inside like a whirlpool, hundreds of white and purple eyes that all seemed to have their sights set on me right at that moment.

The wisp yanked my hoof to get me to move, but my flank was firmly planted in the ground. Unable to move due to the fear and shock overtaking my body.

It felt like a decade had passed as I stared upward, watching it slowly inch towards me.

This was it…

What else could I do?..

I’m just one pony… No magic, one of my hooves injured…

This was just natural selection, wasn’t it?..

…

"No ya don’t!”

My eyes widened as I felt myself get yanked upward.

But after feeling the feathers and a moment of terror, I was deposited onto Flitter’s back by her wing as she continued to bolt through the fields.

“Flitter!?” I exclaimed in surprise.

She didn’t look back, a determined and furrowed brow on her face as she raced through the fields. “Yep!”

I looked back, my blood running cold as I saw a few of the shadow creatures stalking through the corn fields a ways back. They all had their sights set on Flitter and were navigating the field with ease. “What about Sage?” I asked worriedly.

There was a moment of silence. “That wasn’t Sage,” was all Flitter said back to me.

I stopped for a moment, then shook my head as I turned forward and pointed past her head with my hoof. “Follow the little blue wisp!” I called forward. The wisp was exceptionally fast, faster than anything else around as it sat at the edge of the everfree, hopping up and down excitedly.

“What wisp?” Flitter quickly asked in confusion.

Huh, well… that’s odd…

“Just go where I’m pointing!” I called back.

“Straight into the everfree!?” Flitter replied with a hint of panicked confusion.

It was less a question than a statement, as we barreled past the last set of corn stalks. Behind us, the shadows kept pace with Flitter, almost seeming to gain some ground on her as they didn’t have to deal with being slowed down by physical objects.

The tornado had landed, releasing dozens more of the shadow creatures as they stalked out of it like odd alien-like creatures. The whistling roar of the tornado as it tore through the cornfield was deafening. The looks of the shadow’s hatred and uncaringness were enough to make you feel like there was no hope left.

I decided to stop looking back at them and face forward.

Flitter shot through the last bits of farmland as she took her first gallops into the Everfree. I watched as trees and bushes whizzed past us in the blink of an eye, and Flitter jumped, ducked, and veered out of the way of foliage at an impressively fast speed.

The shadows and tornado disappeared behind all the foliage, but I could still hear them as they rustled through brushes not that far back. Their voices betrayed them as a cacophony of hisses and high-pitched whispers that seemed to surround us echoed through the forest.

The wisp eventually had us take a sharp turn, and Flitter almost became unbalanced as she slid to a stop and had to start running again.

Unfortunately, all the dodging combined with the sharp turn meant that the shadows had gotten closer. Dangerously closer, as they lurked behind us by only a few trees, their shadowy tendrils lashing out at everything in the area as they ripped it apart.

“I hope this is going somewhere!” Flitter called nervously.

“Can’t you fly?” I asked with my own nerves.

“Not with a tornado nearby!” She quickly answered.

Up ahead, the wisp disappeared into a large clearing, and I could no longer see it. It worried me greatly, but I continued to keep Flitter on course as I waited with bated breath. One of the shadows swiped forward at us, managing to cut a few hairs off my tail as I squeaked fearfully. I pulled it in quickly afterward and held it.

Flitter burst through the last bit of brush into the clearing.

“Get down!” A voice called.

Flitter immediately pulled me off her back with her wings and bundled me up against her chest as she slid to the ground. I watched in awe as one of those giant blasts of light immediately passed over us in a loud hum. Instantly vaporizing every shadow that had just been following us. They screamed and growled angrily as they deteriorated, before their shadows slinked away somewhere else.

Flitter took large gasping breaths as her limbs practically gave out, but she held me close to her chest still as she caught her breath. “Thank you, Flitter.” I quickly said, nuzzling into her chest.

She just smiled between breaths, “Anything… for you…” She returned with her own nuzzle.

My eyes quickly widened, and I looked up, pulling myself out of Flitter’s grip gently. The wisp was sitting proudly next to a rock, but what was on that rock was what surprised me like no other.

There was a dragon, or more correctly described, some sort of wyvern or hydra? They were about the same size as me, and their scales were white as snow. They had a yellow underbelly, yellow wings and horns, and even their eyes were yellow. But they almost seemed to glow in the dark, even as a large ball of light hovered above them.

The most surprising part of them was that they had two heads.

“H-Hello?” I said nervously.

The head on the left seemed ecstatic, frighteningly so as they gasped, “You’re an alicorn!” He chirped and giggled immediately afterward. His friendly vibe immediately put me slightly at ease, but I became doubtful of our new protectors as I realized that he had to be young like me, judging by his juvenile voice.

The right head just tilted to the side. “What did they want you for so bad?” He immediately asked with a scrutinizing brow.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Wish I knew… Thanks for saving us…”

The right one gave a small smirk, “It was easy; these things think they’re scary and dangerous until you hit them with a little light.”

The left head wilted. “A little light? But I was using all of mine…” He said it sadly with what almost seemed like puppy dog eyes.

The right one grew flustered. “Well, yeah, we always use all of our light. To show them who’s the boss!” Which brightened the left head up immediately.

Flitter finally got some of her strength back, as she moved up to my side and pulled me in with her wing around me. “Thanks for the save, but I’d like something to understand here. Explanations, introductions—something at all?” She pulled her wing up farther around me protectively as she looked down with scrutiny at the wyvern, “What are you?”

They flipped off of their back and sat down comfortably on their haunches. Even as the right one looked to his left and released a quick beam of light in the direction of an approaching shadow. “Our name is Nai-Xyka.”

“You only have one name?” I asked in confusion.

The left one shook his head, “I’m Nai!”

The right one nodded, “And I’m Xyka. Where we’re from, everyone has a single name, and we each get part of the name.”

Flitter looked at them in surprise. “There’s more of you..?”

“And you all have two heads?” I asked with a tilted head.

Nai nodded excitedly, “Lots! Well, not as much as before… but a lot! And our momma-”

Xyka cut him off, “-It’s not important right now.”

Nai seemed disappointed but nodded in agreement. Xyka pointed with his wing towards the treeline where the dark tornado was making its presence known. The bushes and trees in the area began to bend in its direction as it loomed over the tree line. “The umbral storm is coming; we need to get out of here.”

“The what?” I asked in confusion.

Flitter seemed to agree with them as she pulled me up and onto her back at the same time. “Where do we go?” Flitter asked.

They bounded forward a bit towards the treeline in the opposite direction as Nai looked back at us, “Away from here! Don’t worry, just stay in the light!” He called with a giggle.

Flitter watched wearily as the orb of light above them zipped to catch up, and the shadows from the surrounding forest quickly made advances. She rushed to keep up with the wyvern after seeing their quick approach.

It was exceptionally odd just simply walking through the everfree while being stalked by sentient shadows and a tornado, with an odd wyvern of light guiding you through with no clear route. What has my world come to? I guess it’s a chaos storm for a reason… Or an umbral storm? I don’t know anymore…

Xyka looked back at us and whispered to Flitter, “Can you run still?”

Flitter raised a brow but gave a short nod of confirmation. Xyka nodded back, “Countdown from ten in your head, then follow. Don’t get lost, or we’re leaving you behind.”

Nai looked offended for us as he gave his brother a glare, "No, we aren’t!” He whispered harshly.

I continued to countdown in my own head just to be sure. And sure enough, our leisure walk turned into a full gallop the moment ten seconds had passed.

Flitter lowered herself as she sped up once again, as Nai-Xyka dropped their orb of light on the ground, leaving a temporary barrier in between us and our wannabe stalkers. Soon after, they zipped forward in small bursts of light. They weren’t able to do it for very long each time, but they could do it a lot; it looked as if they were moving at incredibly high speeds. Their small dashes they were doing were keeping up with Flitter, and well ahead of her, actually.

Nai kept looking back wearily at us in between bursts of dashes, “My orb broke!.. They’re going to be chasing now!”

“Make another one and drop it!” Xyka commanded.

“I can’t! I used all my light to make that one!” Nai said with embarrassed tears on the edge of his eyes. Xyka seemed to roll his own eyes at that but stayed silent.

Flitter seemed to run even faster than she had before. Whether it was her final burst of energy or she had simply gained confidence now that we had a form of protection, I wasn’t sure. But I watched as the purple eyes of the shadows seemed to fade into the distance as we grew farther and farther away.

We kept running and running for what felt like ages. Going over and through valleys and canyons, dodging through fields of rocks, and even passing through a small swamp. The dark sky was eventually replaced by what felt like a normal early morning one, but I couldn’t be too sure. The dark clouds still loomed behind us on the horizon, but we had made a considerable distance between us and the clouds. Maybe a few miles.

At some point though, Flitter began to slow; her breaths became ragged as she dared to look back at the same view I’d just had, “Are… we… far enough..?” She coughed out.

Nai-Xyka stopped, and they looked back. Xyka hummed with a shrug, “It’ll take it a while.”

Nai seemed concerned. "Brother, we should find a place to rest.”

“You mean for yourself as well, because you used all your light like a fool.” Xyka mocked with a huff, nipping at the other head’s ear. “I had to do all the heavy lifting for that run!”

Nai growled, “Did not; I kept us from hitting about a hundred different things that you would’ve slammed right into!” They began butting heads with each other quite literally.

“Is there anywhere we can go to be safe for now?” I asked evenly with a sigh, my voice a rather monotone uncaringness as I tried to process everything.

They stopped nearly instantly with their bickering. Nai nodded. “Of course! Well, it’ll be temporary.”

They began walking off ahead of us, and Flitter took another few deep breaths before hoisting herself up again and following after. I was starting to feel really guilty, not only because Flitter had to carry me miles while she ran for her life… But what happened to the farm? Flitter was probably distraught over the thought of her family’s safety as well, right?

“Flitter?” I started worriedly.

Her wings lifted a bit to rub at my sides as she turned her head and smirked at me, “I’ll be fine.”

“Okay…” I replied complacently with a heavy mind.

We trudged through the dark jungle that we’d found ourselves upon. There was a deep eerie feeling to the walk, as not a single bug nor animal could be heard in the surroundings. The jungle felt dead, or empty. And it was probably for their own safety.

Nai turned and pointed with the claw on the end of his wing excitedly, “Oh! I think I see a good spot!” They rushed ahead towards it, examining the outside in intrigue.

Flitter shuddered as we climbed over a bunch of roots and got closer. “That’s a Timberwolf den…”

Xyka shrugged, “I don’t hear or see anything.” He released a short beam of light into the cave, and sure enough it was completely empty. He smirked back at us and gestured with his wing as they practically dove inside the narrow hole.

Flitter sighed deeply, walking over and placing me near the entrance. I quickly crawled past the roots hanging over the entrance as I turned to watch Flitter. She didn’t struggle much, but her legs were clearly giving out on her slightly as her back hoof slipped in the dirt a few times. Eventually she managed to get her entire body inside, as she carefully covered the entrance with a large sheet of moss she must have found.

She walked a bit further inside and practically collapsed into the dirt, releasing a deep sigh as she stretched her limbs. I bounded up to her worriedly and nuzzled her side, “I’m sorry.” I shook my head. “You weren’t supposed to get caught up in this.”

She looked at me tiredly with a curious expression. “You knew about this?”

I opened my mouth to refute the idea but quickly dropped my head in shame as I backed away. Even my wings seemed to droop against my side in a dejected sadness. “I… yes. I didn’t want to believe it, but Discord warned me about something like this yesterday…”

Flitter stayed quiet; in fact, the entire den was quiet as I rubbed my injured hoof with my other sheepishly, my lips quivering, “I-I’m so sorry… I should’ve done something, anything. Instead, I just sat in that bedroom depressed and acted like nobody else could get hurt because of me when I already knew that wasn’t true. I always get other ponies hurt; it’s got to be a curse at this point.”

I heard a sudden disinterested sigh from Flitter as one of her wings pulled around me, forcing me over to her front hooves, where she gave me a large double hug with both her wings and forelegs. “Can you please stop apologizing for other more powerful beings getting you into trouble over and over like it’s their hobby?” I looked up in surprise as she smiled down at me, “I didn’t have to come save you. I did it because I wanted to; I’d be a pretty bad royal guard otherwise. I’d never hear the end of it from Shining and Cadance.”

She leaned in and nuzzled my face incessantly before pulling back and booping my nose. “You’re my responsibility until I get you back home and smiling. Alright?”

“And smiling?” I asked with a smirk.

“Especially smiling.”

…

There was a pause as I took in her fluffy embrace happily. Eventually I looked up, “How’d you know I was in trouble?”

She huffed, and her face darkened a bit. “I heard Sage’s voice calling outside my window. I woke up, realized you were missing, and the window was open. And well… Looking outside was quite the shock when I spotted those creatures. I realized they were looking for something, and when you tripped over something… It was quite obvious it was you.”

I nodded and slowly untangled myself from Flitter. I looked over at the wyvern in the corner. Xyka was seemingly thinking deeply to himself, and Nai was happily examining and poking the little wisp that had followed us the whole way with his wing.

“So, you can see it?” I asked carefully, hoof pointing at the wisp.

Nai looked up and nodded excitedly. “She… She thanked us for saving you both.”

“You can talk to it?”

Nai hummed and tilted his head. “No, but I can feel what it’s trying to say.”

Xyka’s claw finally removed itself from his muzzle, and he looked past his brother’s head and raised a brow at me. “So what’s the deal with you?” He questioned me.

I furrowed my brow. “I could ask the same question back..?”

They approached me, and I stood awkwardly as Xyka sniffed all around my body, especially my horns and wings, before he retracted himself with a face of disgust. “You smell like death. Like one of them. No magic either.” I could tell by his look and tone that he didn’t trust me in the slightest. “Dark magic is not something to play with.” There was a low growl under his words.

Nai pushed his brother’s head away from me with his own and scolded him, “Don’t accuse him! He seems nice!”

My eyes widened. “How do you know I’m a male?” I asked incredulously.

Nai beamed at me, “Your soul smells like one! Sorry, did I get it wrong?” His head dipped as he wilted sadly.

I waved my hoof dismissively, “No, no. You were spot on. I’ve actually…” I thought about whether it was a good idea to share, but since we’d be dead without them, I assumed it didn’t matter. “I’ve died before, got brought back as a copy of a pony named Princess Flurry Heart, and my magic has depleted. So… I’m trying to get back to someponies I know who can help…” I sighed, “I really don’t know about any of this that’s going on, shadows, souls… ”

“Umbrum.”

“Sorry, what?” I asked Xyka, who muttered the word with malice.

He looked back up at me with less distrust than he had before. “They’re not shadows. They’re called umbrums.”

I heard Flitter behind me slightly gasp in shock. I turned, and she was staring with wide eyes of horror as she held a hoof to her chest. “No… That can’t be true.” She shook her head vigorously, “I-I… I thought only one had ever escaped their imprisonment? And he was defeated…”

That’s why that word felt so familiar. The umbrum, King Sombra. The history books were quite vague when Cadance taught me, but she had reassured me that they were long since sealed away. That Sombra was their one and only hope of freedom…

But Flitter was right; they should’ve been locked up still…

Flitter shook her head in disbelief. “They’re still locked underneath the frozen wastes! I know it; they disclose that fact to us in our guard training once we graduate from the academy!”

Xyka sighed greatly. “Then you heard wrong… Or maybe your kind found a way to deal with them permanently.” He paused and gritted his teeth with a short growl towards nobody in particular as he stared at the ground. “But whatever amount of umbrum here in your lands is only a small drop in the lake. Our kind has been at war with them for more than a thousand years. Farther back than our history books can even document.”

…

“And… where is that?” I asked after a moment of disbelief.

Nai huffed sadly, sniffling as a few lone tears appeared in his eyes. “We don’t know.” He said with a small whine.

Xyka lowered his head solemnly and nodded in agreement with his brother. “Yeah… We’re lost too.”

“How did you get here then..?” I asked sympathetically.

Nai wiped his tears with his wing. “Our mommas sent us here…” He choked up a little bit. “There was a large umbrum attack on our temple.”

Xyka took over, as he rolled his wing interpretively, “Certain umbrum can be… particularly dangerous. One of the umbrum’s imperators had our mom and us cornered in our quarters.” Xyka’s voice became solemn and distant as he stared vaguely, his brow furrowed in anger. “They turned to us and said their goodbyes. We didn’t even get a chance to bargain or argue with our moms before we were sent away in a flash of light.”

“I’m… sorry,” I sighed sadly. “I know how that can feel…”

Nai and Xyka both gave me a small smile, and Nai quickly chimed in, “It’s fine, our moms are really powerful!”

Xyka nodded. “They’re fine; I’m sure of it.”

“Ah…” Flitter suddenly muttered from behind me, “So that’s what that was…”

I turned curiously to her, and she nodded. “I remember a rumor making the rounds in the guard about some sort of light pillar in the desert outside Appleloosa and Dodge Junction. That was you two then?”

Nai seemed to brighten for a bit. “Oh! Apples! They kept talking about how much better their apples were than the other place.” Suddenly a small disc of light appeared next to Nai, and he reached his wing in and scooped out a bunch of apples out of thin air. He immediately lifted one with his claws to his mouth and took a bite. “They are sho goodsh!” He chirped while eating one.

He finished one and held a bunch up with his wing in offering to us, “Want some?”

Me and Flitter both looked at each other at a loss in that moment, and we both sighed and reached forward. “Sure…”

"Yeah, I could use one right now,” Flitter muttered.

Xyka suddenly bonked his brother on the back of his head with his wing, “Stop using your light. Save it for when we need to run again.”

“Okay…” He mumbled as he dove into the pile of apples he’d pulled out of his magical light pocket. Whatever it was.

…

“Do we have any leads on why they’re after me?” I asked after pausing midway through eating my apple.

The resounding silence answered my question handily as everyone continued to nibble their apples thoughtfully.

…

“Like I said, you smell like death, dark magic.” Xyka eventually admitted. He sighed and narrowed his eyes. “Things shouldn’t exist in this world if they have no magic. You probably seem like the perfect candidate for assimilation.”

“What does that mean?” I asked nervously.

Xyka just sighed and laid on his back, pulling his brother down to the ground with him. “Try not to think about it. It’s not pretty.” He said with a sneer, though it seemed more towards some sort of memory he had.

…

“I didn’t catch your name.” Xyka said, side-eyeing me from the ground.

“Oh, sorry. I’m Kieran.” I said with a short bow of my head.

“Honey Flitter. Just call me Flitter.” She said from behind me, tossing her finished apple core to the side lazily.

Nai chirped again after having ravenously devoured every single apple in the pile, and he waved with his clawed wing. “Hi! Nice to meet you both! I’m Nai!”

Xyka huffed, “They know already.”

I couldn’t help a small smile as I reached my hoof out towards Nai, “It’s nice to meet you, Nai-Xyka.” Nai eagerly took my hoof in his clawed wing and shook vigorously.

Xyka turned his head away from us with a small sigh, “Anyway, get some rest; I don’t know what will happen from here on.” He settled in comfortably with his wing folded over their body. Nai nestled his head right above his and pulled their other wing up as well.

I sighed and looked back, only to release a small giggle at Flitter’s outstretched hooves. I relented and walked over, only to be pulled into another feathery embrace as I nestled against her soft fur. Flitter giggled to herself, “You’re like a stuffed animal.”

I huffed a laugh. “As long as I’m a stress-relieving one, that’s fine with me.”

She sighed long and deeply, “You are the exact opposite.” She muttered playfully.

I didn’t think I could quite fall asleep for a short nap. Not with all the thoughts swirling around in my head like a wildfire out of control. I hadn’t even lifted a hoof all morning to help us through the predicament anyhow; I didn’t deserve to be tired.

I was tired, at least of being at the epicenter of everything.

…

Death, dark magic… Why did my soul smell… corrupted to them? What else was wrong with me?

…

Flitter must’ve noticed my stress as she gently began to stroke my back with her wing. She lowered her head next to mine and began humming a tune.

I didn’t know the tune, of course, but it was soft and soothing. And it put me at ease. When she eventually finished, I felt much more relaxed, still wary but not filled with anxiety.

I watched the wisp from before float to the center of the den before looking at me and shaking a bit, then she zipped up towards the entrance and disappeared.

What was the wisp, anyway?

This is all going to drive me insane once and for all; I can feel it.

The Precipice of Disaster

I had a splitting headache. From the edges of my head to the tip of my ears, and especially atthe base of my horn.

The pain even radiated down my neck and towards my wings, which even further radiated down to my hooves, which felt a numbing sensation as if I’d slept on them badly in a fitful night of rest.

Is there such a thing as a full-body migraine? I’d only been resting for the better part of thirty minutes, and it felt like it was getting worse by the second.

And I don’t know if it was trauma from seeing those terrifying umbrum, a daydream, or if I was actually going insane. I could swear that I heard deep whispers in my head, speaking completely incomprehensible nonsense.

The nonsense filled my mind with restlessness until eventually I grunted in annoyance and opened my eyes to stare at the mud and root ceiling. The voices immediately evaporated from my mind.

Flitter ran her wing over me soothingly, “Everything alright?” Her voice was tired and subdued as she forced a small smile onto her face.

I didn’t want to make Flitter worry even more about me. She had enough to worry about on her plate already, so I simply gave her a wary smile, “All good here.”

She raised a brow but shrugged as her head returned to the dirt like a rock. My eyes scanned the room and noticed a distinct lack of our new… bodyguard. I didn’t know what to think of the two-headed being yet... Xyka seemed pretty adamant on abandoning us if the going got too tough for them to handle. Nai seemed friendly all things considered, though.

“They’re outside.” Flitter muttered, “They said it helps them 'reconvene’ or something.”

I must’ve fallen asleep for a little while without realizing, huh…

I nodded and untangled myself out of her wings. Flitter looked at me scrutinizingly, “Where are you going?”

I dusted my tail and sides off, “Outside.” She gave me an unimpressed glare, and I laughed sheepishly. “I’ll be right outside with Nai-Xyka. It’ll be fine.”

She sighed, “Well, if you have to hide, just make some really loud duck noises or something, and I might save you.”

I giggled, “Huh?”

Flitter just shook her head in amusement and pushed my flank forward. “You heard me. I guess you could try a bird call if you’re feeling brave.”

I made my way towards the exit with a small groan, “I won’t need to make any animal calls. You’re weird.” I said through a laugh.

“Weird is good.” She huffed before closing her eyes again.

I carefully scrambled up the odd collection of roots and vines until I reached the entrance. I quickly took a peek out through the foliage covering me, and things seemed relatively similar. Still no sounds of wildlife, but the surroundings were still bright with the morning glow, which indicated no umbral storm immediately overhead.

I poked my head out, giving another cautionary scan, before fully pulling myself out of the den.

My body was still screaming out to me with every movement, but with everything going on, it was the least of my worries.

Okay, it wasn’t the least of them, but I didn’t have time to worry about it.

I looked to the horizon; the umbral storm was about half the distance away from when we’d found the den initially, which meant that it was making some serious headway as it crossed the valley below. The clouds… or shadows… morphed in the sky quite violently. If I were to make an assessment, I would say that it looked angrier than before.

I glanced around, seeing no signs of the small white wyvern. I did a full turn around, and there was no trace or sign of him anywhere. He wasn’t outside or anywhere in the surrounding area. I looked around in stark confusion before the pit formed in my stomach.

I immediately groaned and sighed greatly and let my head fall in annoyance. Of course he ditched us; we were the cause of all these creatures attacking him; we were dead weight in his eyes.

I shook my head with a growing sense of dread and turned back towards the entrance of the cave. I had to let Flitter know we would be on our own now and that we’d have to get moving.

“Quack!”

I yelped and immediately fell backwards in fear. Once my confusion wore off, my eyes adjusted to see Nai-Xyka simply lazing above me in a tree branch. Nai’s wing hung off the side without a care as he giggled and snorted happily.

Xyka had his wing folded against their side, but he couldn’t help the small smirk on his face even as he rolled his eyes. “That doesn’t sound like a duck at all, Nai.” He admonished.

Nai’s head hung off the branch and gave me an upside-down grin as he giggled mischeiviously, “You should’ve seen your face!”

I groaned and dusted myself off again as I stood, my wings aching from the sudden fall backwards. “You’re going to give me a heart attack, Nai. Is this really the time to be pranking me?”

Nai just waved his claw dismissively, “Hey, that’s better than an umbrum finding you instead!”

Xyka stood, causing Nai to roll his head back up, and they jumped down from the tree with extreme ease. Landing right in front of me like an acrobat, Xyka only tilted his head, and then they both turned away from me.

“I’m surprised you guys can climb and move with so much agility.” I commented as the two passed by me, “Isn’t it hard?”

I watched curiously as the two walked over to a large rock, laying on their back and soaking in the sun as Nai’s giggle fit finally calmed down.

I looked around nervously again at the precariously unhidden spot they decided to relax in. But I eventually shrugged it off and trotted up to the rock they were both on. Xyka shook his head at my question with only a small bit of consideration: “Nope, Nai pretty much lets me move our body.”

“Because it’s annoying arguing with you when we disagree,” Nai said with obvious annoyance.

Xyka continued as if he hadn’t heard him speak, “But if we have to, we both move in sync. It’s just our nature.”

An awkward silence filled the air afterwards as I sort of wobbled left and right on my hooves.

“So…” I had hundreds of questions for them, but I figured most were inappropriately timed right now. “How does your magic work? The light? Those beams?”

“Cool, wasn’t it?” Xyka smirked and waved his wing grandly. “It works the same as it does for you ponies, I’d guess.”

“Except for the charging part!” Nai countered, “We’re like flowers! If we don’t sit in the sunlight to recharge our energy, then we stay magicless until we can.”

That was a great analogy, though Xyka seemed annoyed by the comparison as he groaned deeply, “We’re not flowers.” He cleared his throat. “We are great trees, absorbing the light that splendidly spills upon us so that we may preserve the peace and tranquility of life!” He proclaimed proudly as he puffed their chest out.

“That’s mommas line. You make it sound really dumb.” Nai said unamused.

I took a step forward in intrigue; I couldn’t help excitement from climbing into my voice. “Wait, so you two know what it’s like to be magicless?” They both looked at me curiously, and I continued questioning, “Does it like… hurt you guys if you go for a while without it? Does it put you at risk if you don’t recharge in time?”

The two heads looked at each other with odd expressions. They didn’t say anything as they scuttled off the rock, walking around me in a circle with scrutinizing eyes. I tried to stay relatively still with a look of confusion over my face, until they went behind me and started messing with my wings. “Hey!” I called back to them, “What are you…”

No matter which way I turned, they stayed behind me out of my sight. Nai started ruffling with one of my wings, causing me to wince in pain. He sniffed it a few times. “Yep, you’re completely magicless!” He said candidly.

“I know that!” I pulled away in annoyance as I tried to dislodge my wing away from his claws.

Xyka tapped my horn a few times, causing my eyes to become disoriented as I shook my head to get him to stop and the pain to stop radiating downward. Xyka hummed boredly, “Aren’t alicorns supposed to be these all powerful magical ponies?” His head poked around my left shoulder and into my view as he gave me a raised brow. “Or was that just a big myth?”

I huffed at the devious little gremlin grin on his face. “Like I said, I’m just a copy of somepony else anyway. I’m hardly a real alicorn.”

Nai-Xyka jumped off, casually sauntering in front of me. Xyka pursed his lips. “That’s rough. So this ‘Princess Flurry Heart’ is the one who used dark magic to make you. And you’re some sort of… necromancy? I’m having a hard time grasping what you are.” He deduced with a hum.

I took a defensive step forward. “W-What? No. Flurry would never do dark magic; she’s good at making magical constructs! I don’t know what you’re smelling on me, but it’s not her-”

Xyka leaned dangerously close to my muzzle and tapped his own. “The nose doesn’t lie. Though I’d be really mad if someone made me out of dark magic then lied to me about it.” Xyka interrupted with a smug grin.

I grunted in annoyance, even if I wasn’t quite sure of it myself; to say that Flurry had accidentally invented some sort of dark magic to create me was just too far-fetched. “I hardly know you; for all I know, it could be a lie.”

…

Nai finally spaced into the conversation between us with an amicable point of view: “He’s right, brother, he doesn’t know anything about us, and we don’t know the whole story either. Best not to judge, like momma says.”

Xyka stayed silent as he steeled his expression, and the air between us grew quite a bit of tension. I could tell Xyka wanted to say something back to his brother, but he resisted the urge.

I sighed as I looked a bit impatiently at them. “You never answered my question earlier either.”

Nai looked up in thought before a lightbulb went off in his head, “Oh! Yeah, sorry, we don’t know. We’ve never gone that long without magic. And our magic probably works differently.” He laid his clawed wing against his chin as he hummed, “Though the elders have said it’s painful to be without our light, I’ve never heard stories of anyone going an extended period of time without it. The sun comes out every day after all!”

"Well, that’s just great,” I muttered with barely contained annoyance. “Nobody ever has answers, and I’m always stuck back at square one.”

…

The wind began to pick up quite a bit again, causing me to turn my head towards the looming cloud in the distance. “Have you tried meditation techniques?” Nai questioned with a hint of unsureness.

“Meditation? That’s supposed to help me do magic… how?”

Nai-Xyka’s wings flared out on their sides, and Xyka’s head upturned at the sight of the clouds behind us with a small glare of defiance. His head fell back on me a moment afterward. “Follow me. I wanna show you something cool.”

And without time to question or refute, they immediately turned tail and ran off. “Hey! Wait! We shouldn’t go far from Flitter!” I yelled after him as I struggled to keep up.

I continued to follow them through the lightly forested area as they happily zipped between each and every boulder on their way. By the time they finally stopped, I was slightly out of breath and a bit miffed at having to limp-run my way after them as they perched on top of a rock near a vine-covered cliff face.

“Hey!” I called up to them, “This doesn't seem like a great idea! Whatever… this is!”

Nai smiled, “Just watch!”

My breathing evened as I watched them with a raised brow. With their wings outstretched, at first they just looked like they were posing like a statue, which while majestic didn’t exactly mean anything to me.

Eventually their body seemed to glow dimly at first as their brows furrowed in concentration. Slowly the glow got brighter and brighter, and as it did, a bunch of small orbs of light began racing from every direction towards them. Being absorbed into him like a black hole.

My eyes widened in intrigue, as they only got brighter and brighter. Color began to recede from the area we were in until things started to disappear near them, making me look around in shock and worry.

Only a second later, the bright glow of their body was snuffed out, and my entire vision went black. I could physically feel that I was still there, but it was like I was standing in a completely pitch black void. “H-Hey, are you still there?” I asked with a hint of panic. I could hardly even tell if my right hoof was forward or my left. And I even began to confuse whether left was right.

Immediately afterwards they stopped their odd technique, and both light and color returned to the surroundings, leaving the wyvern panting heavily from on top of the rock. Xyka grabbed his head and groaned, “Brainburn aooww…” He groaned before panting quickly like an overheated dog to cool down.

Nai seemed to shake it off quicker as he looked down at me in excitement, “Cool, right?”

I looked back and forth for a moment and shrugged, “I mean, yeah, you sucked in every ounce of light so much that the color disappeared…” I huffed, “That’s pretty cool, but I fail to see why you’re showing me…”

They jumped off the rock and came up to me. Xyka shook his head. “It was a demonstration. One of our elders likes to do things like this a lot in front of all of us little ones that lack magic understanding. He always tells us that staying stuck in the mindset of magic coming only from within ourselves is a quick excuse to give up.”

I tilted my head greatly as Nai agreed with a nod, “Using magic from the core is convenient, but it’s never the only way to use magic! There is magic all around us; we just have to urge it into our control.”

“That’s great,” I said with a hint of annoyance. “But I can’t exactly just stop caring about regular magic. I sort of need it to live.”

…

“Oh.” They both remarked at the same time.

"Well, that sucks…”

“Sorry about that…”

Xyka and Nai expressed themselves quickly.

…

I couldn’t help but shrug and scoff slightly. "Anyway, what sort of magic is that? Are you some sort of sun whisperer or something? Did you just… tell the light to do things with your mind?”

“Yep, it’s called ambient magic. Magic that comes from the world around us.” Xyka nodded; he nudged my chest with his wings. “Our momma always told us… Sometimes the only thing you need is a small spark of hope deep inside your soul, and it can ignite the passion in everyone into a wildfire.”

Ambient magic? I vaguely remember Cadance going over that with me. Though it was a very short topic in the grander lesson of ponyology.

“But… that just looked like… photosynthesis.” I said with an unsure head tilt.

Xyka just sighed in an annoyed way, “Maybe for someone who’s inexperienced in magic, such as yourself.”

Nai laughed shortly, “It’s a practical application of magic that everyone should be able to do. Is what he’s trying to say. It’s so prevalent in our culture that often young hatchlings learn it first before anything else.”

While his words were interesting, I became lost in my own head.

“Cadance, why can some earth ponies talk to animals but not others? Shouldn’t they all be able to, like how pegasi can all move and shape clouds?”

Cadance gave a mirthful chuckle as she set her hoof on the book in front of us, her wing gently grazing my side. “Well… I’ve not quite figured it out myself, honey. But I’ve heard it described as them hearing the voices of animals carried in the magic that surrounds all of us. Like an enchanting feeling on the wind rather than actual words.”

“Can you talk to the wind?” I asked in wonder.

She giggled and pushed the hair out of my eyes. “Not quite…” She hummed in amusement. “I’ve never been good at that kind of stuff. I like speaking to the heart; the heart is funny.” She finished with a giggle.

Huh, I guess this was the same application of magic…

My eyes widened as Nai’s head popped between us; his eyes shone brightly in excitement. “Sun Whisperer though?! That’s such a cool title!”

Xyka turned them around, and they began walking back where we came with a sigh, “Already taken by Elder Kildra-Moss…”

I clicked my tongue after thinking for a moment about his previous words about how we all could use it. If we all could, then all ponies would be the same, right? I voiced my concern, “I doubt that I have the ability to use that type of magic if I can’t even use regular magic at all.”

Xyka stuck his tongue out at me, “Never know if you never try.”

“Everyone has a soul,” Nai chirped.

“You should know that better than us even! You’ve died, haven’t you?” Xyka questioned. “You must be very aware of the outline of your soul.”

He was right; it never really felt like I was Flurry because I could always feel something deep inside of me telling me this was wrong. That this wasn’t how I was meant to be. That must be my soul, deep down, trying to tell me that it wanted out.

And then there was always that dark coloration and unsure shape of my soul that I’d seen. Always twisting with a color deeper than any void, I didn’t ever like it; I would always shiver at the sight.

What a whimsical concept death and souls are.

“Not really,” I mumbled shortly. “Last time I saw my soul, it couldn’t decide what it wanted; it just turned me into this black shape of messy confusion. That was a dream though, so who knows what it could mean?” My thoughts made me remember Luna, and I felt a hard pang of sadness deep in my chest.

I never did get to say anything to her. But then again, she never contacted me in my dreams since I ran away. Surely it was due to a practical reason, like my lack of magic.

Not her hating me…

After a little walking, Nai interrupted my thoughts by stopping dead in his tracks and pointing with a wing, "Oh, oh! Look at that!”

We all looked in the direction of what looked to be a massive cave opening in the side of the cliff. And of course Nai-Xyka immediately shot forward towards it in excitement, "Hey, we really need to be getting back!” I called out with an outstretched hoof. A deep, unsettling feeling formed in my chest.

Xyka scoffed and called back, “It’ll just be a minute! We’re close to where we left Flitter anyway.” They took their first few steps into the cave. “This place is cool!”

Nai giggled excitedly as he whistled, “Wow!” I could hear his voice echo loudly from super far away. “This is huge!”

They both examined the monstrous entrance to the cave with glee. Acting like they’d never seen something like it before. “It’s just a cave!” I called, “Really not that interesting guys!”

Nai looked back, “For you! We live in the open plains! We’ve never seen caves and mountains and stuff.”

Oh, because they hadn’t seen them before. Well, if we were waiting for Flitter to recharge anyway, then I guess a little bit of sightseeing couldn’t hurt them… I sat my flank down next to a fallen tree stump as I watched them with a mildly amused smirk.

Xyka scuffed his wing on the ground and sniffed the stone. “Why does it smell weird here?”

As they got a bit deeper, Nai formed a small wisp of light above them and began to shine it everywhere around their surroundings. There were large divots in the stone everywhere; they shone their light. I began to grow anxious as the wind picked up even more. Looking over on the horizon, the storm had made considerable progress towards us.

I lifted my hooves around my mouth, “Hurry up, we can’t stay all day!” I called.

Nai-Xyka just walked even further in, even as Xyka turned his head with a smug grin, "Ah, come on! Are you scared!?” He called back to me with a cackling laugh.

They walked further in as Xyka began making mock ghost noises back at me.

They stopped dead still in the cave, causing Xyka to become disoriented as he looked at Nai in annoyance, “Are you scared too?”

Nai just pointed forward with his wing and an expression of horror on his face; slowly, Xyka’s eyes followed his gesture, and they were both staring face down with an extremely angry ursa-minor.

I couldn’t help but laugh nervously as my eyes widened. “You might wanna leave!” I called while hopping over the fallen log and hiding behind it, just barely peeking my eyes over to watch.

As they were taking cautious steps back, Xyka turned his head towards where I was. He was clearly terrified, but he tried to stay overconfident. “No no. You talked about showing off earlier? You haven’t seen anything! Watch this!”

“Brother no…” Nai begged, his eyes turning into pinpricks.

Xyka turned back around and released a blast of light magic directly into the face of the stalking ursa-minor, the blast illuminated the cave as it made contact with the bear’s forehead.

And then it bounced off.

Directly into the sky like a beacon…

…

Nai-Xyka cowered against the floor as Xyka laughed nervously, "Alright, mommas right maybe we’re better at diplomacy-”

They immediately got swatted by the ursa-minor with no regard for their existence. I watched as they flew out of the cave and flew all the way past me behind the log and collided with a tree nearby.

I waited to see if I needed to run away as I watched the cave. The ursa-minor didn’t leave, only standing at its entrance and roaring deafeningly for a few seconds straight, almost causing me to fall over due to the wind pressure. It quickly snorted with pride and turned around to wander back inside.

Maybe it was scared of the storm too.

…

I turned around. “You alive?” I asked while watching the limp body of Nai-Xyka slide off the tree and face plant into the ground unceremoniously.

After a moment, Nai’s head popped up out of the dirt. “I don’t think Kieran or the creature liked your trick, brother. Maybe you should’ve fired something a bit more powerful to impress him…”

The only signs of life that Xyka showed were immediately after those words as he shot up and growled in Nai’s face, “Well, of course, I didn’t use all of my power! I didn’t want to actually hurt the animal! I’m not a monster, jeez.” He scoffed with a bright red face.

“Why are you trying to impress me?” I asked incredulously, with a raised brow.

Nai covered Xyka’s head with his wing as he started ranting angrily, “Oh, don’t worry, he does with everyone.”

I swiftly detected a few large cracking sounds, and my attention was drawn to the tree they had impacted, which splintered and groaned. I immediately stood and dodged out of the way along with the sore Nai-Xyka. It cracked and splintered all the way up, and finally fell greatly with a large thud that kicked up an entire cloud of dirt.

I coughed as I stumbled out of the cloud, disoriented, with Nai-Xyka not far behind.

There was an air of silence as I felt like we were all just processing what had just happened, which was quickly countered with the wind picking up even more. I felt myself stumble as I caught myself, and we all looked toward the umbral storm. It was clearly growing much bigger and coming our way much faster than it had only moments before.

I felt a searing pain ignite deeply in my mind as I lowered my head and seethed at that feeling.

“Little one…”

…

“Nice going Nai.” Xyka huffed.

“Me!?” Nai growled back. “You shot at it!”

“You led us to the cave!”

“And you got too confident again! You never listen to momma about your ego!”

“They aren’t here right now if you haven’t noticed, Nai!”

I recovered from the pain and turned my head swiftly with a stamp of my hoof at the two, and I groaned angrily as they butted heads, “Not the time!” I pointed towards the storm with my hoof, “We grab Flitter and get out, now!”

Nai seemed to wilt under my tone as their wings hung dejectedly. I started running as best as I could with my injured leg as we made the few hundred yards over to the timberwolf den. Nai-Xyka stopped and allowed me to go down first, as I quickly slid my backside down into the hole.

“Flitter!” I called out to the form laying in the corner.

As I got closer, I noticed that something was immediately wrong, as she was panting in her sleep and there was a very noticeable layer of cold sweat covering her. Her chest was heaving, and she was shuddering in her sleep.

I immediately became worried as I trotted over and began lightly shaking her. “Hey, Flitter. Flitter! We need to get out of here.”

She came back to the waking world with a loud gasp and her eyes opened to me with a pained expression, “O-Oh, of course.” She tried to smile at me, but as she shifted her body, she immediately groaned in pain and winced.

My ears folded on my head as I watched her ragged breaths mixed with the pain. “W-What’s wrong?” The anxiety in my chest at the moment seemed to explode.

She didn’t answer, just looked down at me as she bit her bottom lip.

“Tell me!” I pleaded with her as I nudged her with my hoof.

Her face only showed resignation and sadness as she pointed down with her wings. I quickly moved around her to see as she revealed the problem.

There were multiple lacerations on the back of her legs, so many that it looked like she had been caught inside a storm of glass. They ran all the way from her flank down to the base of her hooves. Some weren’t as severe, but some were bleeding heavily.

My blood ran cold as my mind connected the dots. They’d gotten so close as to cut hairs from my tail, I hadn’t even considered…

…

I didn’t know…

How was I supposed to…

…

Why!?

…

I immediately ran over to the entrance and poked my head out in a panic. Nai-Xyka was waiting patiently as I looked at them desperately. “She’s injured. We need something to wrap her legs with.”

Xyka lifted his brow. “Now both of you are injured?”

Nai nodded his head swiftly with concern. “What do you need?”

I grew flustered and snappy, especially as I watched the dark clouds loom closer. “I don’t know! Like leaves and some vines! Something to cover it! Quick!” Nai saluted, and the two shot off into the foliage right afterward.

As I pulled my head back in, Flitter was trying to move herself up onto her legs, but she immediately seethed with pain and collapsed back into the dirt with a gasp and a loud yelp.

I ran up and laid my hooves on her back, “No no, stay down until Nai-Xyka can find something to help.”

“Just go,” she seethed through gritted teeth. She looked back and gave me a sincere smile. “I’ll be fine, but you need to go, Kieran.”

I immediately shook my head firmly as I felt tears brimming my eyes. “No! I’m not leaving you here!”

“But they’ll catch up…” she huffed, reaching forward a hoof and caressing my cheek, “It’s for your own good!”

“Who cares about my own good!? I already died once, you haven’t! So what if they catch me?” I refuted in anger as I pulled her hoof off me and held it in my own as tears streamed out of my eyes.

“You’re younger than me. It’s fine! And they seem to be after you, not me!” Flitter tried to argue.

“But if they find you, then who knows what they’ll do?”

She huffed, “I’ll figure it out!”

Anger rose in my chest at the idea and I yelled at her, “I’m not leaving you!”

“Just go!” She yelled back.

“If I leave you, then I’m no better than my brother!”

…

Flitter’s lips quivered, and I steeled my expression again and shook my head. “And I’m not him. I’m not him because you told me that I didn’t have to be.”

The air was heavy. “I’m going to figure this out. I promise, Flitter.”

I stayed with her and just sat there as I made sure she didn’t move. It felt like eternity passed in those moments as my anxiety and fear only built until it was an impassable mental wall. It all blanked on me the moment the wyvern finally returned.

“I’m back!” Nai-Xyka called as they zipped down the entrance of the cave.

Nai immediately conjured his little light portal, or subspace, whatever it was. He pulled out these great big leaves and a bunch of vines. He sniffed the leaves as he hoofed them over. “They smell good, like medicine. But I don’t recognize any plants her? So I can really only guess.”

Turning them around on my hooves a few times, I nodded thankfully and quickly moved behind Flitter. I did my best to wrap the leaves around her legs. I was no doctor, and had no medical training, but I figured treating it like gauze would be a good start.

Xyka hummed, “I have an idea. We’ll be outside!” He called as they zipped back out of the entrance.

I continued to wrap leaves tightly and then tie knots around her legs with the vine, even through her wincing whines and grunts of pain. Tying knots with your teeth was exceptionally hard, but something about the urgency of the situation was making me go at a speed I was rather proud of.

I finished one leg and set it down gently as I looked up worriedly. “Is that any better at all?”

She seethed through a huff of pain, “I… I think so. It feels a bit numb now.”

“Did I wrap too tight?” I asked in panic.

“No, no, I think it’s whatever leaves they are. It feels fine.”

I took her word for it and hurried onto the next leg. Thankfully, this one wasn’t nearly as injured as the last, and after having dressed her other leg, I did the other at record speed.

“I can’t believe you didn’t say anything.” I huffed angrily through gritted teeth as I held a vine in them.

Flitter sighed. “Adrenaline is an impressive motivator. I hadn’t really noticed until you fell asleep for a bit.”

“And still you said nothing?” I looked up and asked her with a hurt expression.

“I thought I was overreacting at first.” She replied guiltily.

As I finished tying the last knot, Nai poked his head in. “Are you almost done?”

Xyka’s head followed. “Uh, guys, we need to move very soon.”

After he said that, Flitter tried once again to stand, and she did so shakily. Though her legs wobbled, she managed to support herself against the den wall, as I stared helplessly at her, wishing I could give her a shoulder to lean on.

Once she got to her hooves, she sighed greatly. “It helps, but I don’t think I can run with you.”

“You won’t have to, c’mon!” Nai called down to us as they retreated from the entrance.

I ran up to the entrance as I concernedly watched Flitter make her way up the tangle of roots. She winced with every step, but I could see that she was putting most of her weight on her front two hooves. And with enough effort, she finally got her head to the entrance. I held my hooves out and wrapped my forelegs around one of her front hooves and began using all my strength to pull her out of the small hole.

With enough heaving, we finally managed to get her up and out. But not without her legs flaring in pain as she grunted loudly. She huffed with annoyance as she stumbled against a tree. “I can’t! I won’t be able to walk, let alone run.” She said dejectedly.

“Don’t need to!” Xyka said as they approached with something.

My eyes widened as I realized what they’d done. They had crafted the most ramshackle looking sled imaginable, using an enormous flag and weaving it between a layer of sticks that were tied together with rope and a few large leaves on top.

Both me and Flitter looked at it in surprise. As I circled in intrigue, “Where’d you get the flag?”

Nai hummed, “Well there was this really big and terrifying castle just over that hill over there… but it looked crumbled and abandoned, so I’m sure it’s fine.”

“How did you…” I shook my head. “Right, you’re fast.”

“Xyka tied the wood together, so don’t be surprised when it collapses.” Nai admitted.

Xyka growled at him, “Whatever, get her on already!”

I looked up at Flitter and nodded as she wearily stumbled over, and though it was a tight fit as she lowered herself on, once she curled in on herself a little she fit perfectly fine onto the small sled.

I nearly fell over as a gust of wind made me look upon the looming clouds, now only a valley away from us and hovering over a cliff.

I scrambled quickly up to the front of it, pulling one of the loops on the corners of the flag, which still had a small rope attached to it. I quickly pulled it up and around my chest. Nai-Xyka followed me and grabbed the other corner before looking at me. I nodded thankfully at them.

I closed my eyes as a surging headache came upon my body and I momentarily winced. I heard odd muffled voices swimming about in my head, but as soon as I opened my eyes again, they were gone.

“Where are we headed, anyway?” Xyka asked.

“The nearest town, I think it’s called Ponyville… It should be in the direct opposite direction from the storm.” Xyka nodded affirmatively at me, “Alright, we go!” I commanded over the howling wind.

The first moment of trying to walk was rough as I nearly stumbled a few times and we got into the rhythm of walking together. But after a few moments, we were walking in sync, slowly, but we were still making headway.

…

There was a somber air as nothing but the howling wind whipping around us, and the wooden sled rumbling across the ground beneath us made a grating and unpleasant sound.

Eventually Nai spoke up, a bit lightheartedly, “At least the way forward is pretty much flat.”

But none of us really seemed keen on talking at that moment, as it dropped back to a dull and heavy silence.

…

We’d been hauling Flitter for what felt like ages now. Some parts were simple, and others were exceptionally hard, as we had to maneuver around rocks and other inconveniences. On more than one occasion, me and Xyka had gotten into arguments over how to approach situations, only for Nai to come in and suddenly make decisions for us.

The umbral storm was still following at a steady pace. Every step felt futile as the clouds neither grew more distant, nor did the wind die down.

Each step just felt like a delay of the inevitable. And if I was being perfectly honest, it seemed unavoidable at this point.

My limbs ached beyond belief, my body felt tired, and yet the forest ahead of us felt never-ending. There was no light at the end of the tunnel, only continuous trees, bushes, and rocks that made me feel like I was going insane. Like this was some sort of delayed purgatory after dying on earth.

Nai was certainly holding onto his positivity. “Oh! There’s another owl nest up there! That makes twelve.”

…

“Look at that waterfall over there! That’s number four!”

“Can you stop?” Xyka rolled his eyes.

He wilted as his head dipped to watch the ground as it passed us by.

I slowly sighed as I looked over, “So… on a scale of one to ten, how dangerous is an umbrum, really?”

Nai pulled his head back up. “It depends…”

Xyka nodded. “The average umbrum is limited in mobility. They can only move within the shadows, with dark clouds, or at night. I wouldn’t say they’re any more dangerous than a pony can be. They’re just extremely hateful and resentful. They hold grudges forever and cannot be reasoned or bargained with.”

Nai hummed, “They usually only attack in groups.”

…

“There are exceptions, of course.” Xyka sighed, “Imperators…”

The wind almost seemed to howl even louder at the word as Nai nodded in agreement, “They’re scary.”

Xyka continued to explain with an odd stare forwards, as if he was remembering things. “It’s just what our people call them. It’s the name we give to an umbrum that has a physical body.”

“A physical body?” I questioned.

He nodded, “They can morph into shadows whenever they want, and having a physical form provides them with the ability to use dark magic, or to disguise themself amongst regular beings. Far beyond what a regular umbrum can do. Also, they seem to still have personalities that can think about more than hatred. They’re cunning.”

“Sombra,” I muttered to myself in thought under my breath.

Xyka eyed me before continuing, “They’re dangerous. Umbrum love to torment someone until they are either taken over by another umbrum or turned into one themself. The higher the magic of the victim turned umbrum, the more potent the dark magic the umbrum can use. I’m guessing that whoever ‘Sombra’ is was a powerful pony?”

“Only a unicorn…” I replied under my breath. “And even he was still very powerful…”

…

Xyka’s wing reached out and nudged me, “Hey, if we’re lucky, then they don’t have any imperators in that storm. They are quite rare after all. My people only know of a few.”

“If we’re lucky.” I mumbled…

We crested over the top of a hill and I sighed in relief, my limbs getting a temporary respite from the constant strain.

“Uh… guys?” Nai called over the wind. “I don’t think we are lucky.”

Me and Xyka both raised our heads to see what he meant, and it became instantly clear. Through a set of trees and bushes, the forest seemed to disappear, and once we got closer, we realized why.

We were standing over a cliff face, at least a good hundred feet up. Far below us was the last mile or two of the forest, and in the far distance the town of Ponyville sat.

But that was still far, far away. And down a whole cliff, including jagged outcroppings of rocks that looked like they’d tear your body to shreds.

Xyka growled and stomped his back foot angrily, “You moron! I thought you said it was flat, Nai!”

Nai whined with tears brimming his eyes. “I thought it was! I-I couldn’t see the entire way…”

“Stop…” I told them monotonously as my face darkened. “It’s not worth arguing over.” I muttered coldly.

…

“We go around,” I announced with finality as I turned and waited for Nai-Xyka to join me. They quickly helped turn the sled and began walking with me.

Both of them seemed lost for words, or maybe too scared to speak to me because of my change of mood.

“Is something… wrong..?” Flitter mumbled as she stirred from her cold sweat of a dream and blinked her eyes open.

I turned my head back and gave a wide smile, “It’s alright, go back to sleep. We’re bringing you home.” She yawned with a small smile spreading on her face, and then she slightly moaned in pain before her eyes closed and her head lowered again.

With every step we took along the ridge of the cliff, I watched as that dark looming cloud got closer and closer. Me and Flitter were at the mercy of Nai-Xyka’s light now, and whatever else may roadblock us once again.

I felt a chill crawl down my spine as an actual boom of thunder loomed overhead, and lightning racked about in the clouds overhead. Signaling us like a predator realizing it was finally about to catch its prey.

As we walked along the cliff, it seemed like it would never end, like there was no way down other than rock climbing. With each second, and each step, I felt a little of my composure wash away.

I was tired…

I was in pain…

I was going to bring Flitter home?..

I didn’t even know if I’d ever get there myself…

Umbral Storm

“And then Elders Raze-Bayn were like; ‘Oh, young ones, but if you spend too much time gallivanting the plains, you’ll have no time to become noble warriors!’. And then I said, ‘But if a great warrior can’t catch a bumblebee, then how can he fight an umbrum?’ And then Xyka was all like-”

“Nai.” I started simply with a voice of exhaustion and disinterest, “I don’t need the entire story.”

Xyka nudged him. “He’s telling you to shut up politely.”

…

“Oh…” Nai muttered sheepishly with a defeated tone, “Well anyway, that’s the gist of why momma never lets us climb trees anymore.”

“More like how you get us banned from having any fun,” Xyka complained with a roll of his eyes.

…

It had been a while of simply following the cliff line through the forest, and every step reminded me of how far we were. In the distance, the image of Ponyville only grew more and more distant as the cliff showed no signs of declining in any way that would allow us to descend with our injured companion.

It was irritating; it was… defeating.

Seeing the thing that could save you, but not being able to reach it no matter how hard I tried. It was like one of those bad dreams where you can never stand back up after tripping while running from the monster.

…

Nai-Xyka were resilient, much more so than me. They kept berating each other with brotherly mocking as I felt myself gradually fall deeper into my spiral of despair. I fell behind them on my steps, little by little. Each one of my breaths became more ragged by the second as the anxiety consumed me.

Eventually, my anxiety resulted in a lack of awareness as we passed through a section of the forest that was littered with bushes and trees with far-reaching limbs that felt like they could graze the stars at night if they tried. Where I tripped over a large root protruding from the ground. The rope unraveled from around my chest as I tumbled forward and down a small hill into a large puddle of water and mud. My chest heaving with exhaustion as I fought to pull myself out of the deep mud.

Nai turned around concernedly. “Are you okay?” They dropped the rope and ran down to my side to help me out, with much heaving.

As they used their wings to help pull me up, I couldn’t hold myself back as I groaned angrily. Pushing their wings away from me as I got to my feet and staggered away from them. There was an unfortunate bite to my words as I struggled with my emotions. “You’re pulling too fast.” I seethed through my teeth as I wiped the mud out of my face. “I can’t keep up!”

Nai whined a little, “Sorry…”

“We weren’t trying to. We’re just in a bit of a hurry.” Xyka said with an annoyed look. “I thought you’d feel the same way.”

I huffed angrily, “If you’re in that much of a hurry, you’ll end up having to pull me around too.”

They walked past me back to the sled and as they did, Xyka huffed loudly and exasperatedly at me, “Alright, I get it. We’ll try not to ruffle your feathers anymore, princess.” He mocked while rolling his eyes at me, “The least you could do is thank us for helping at all.”

“Xyka don’t!” Nai admonished angrily.

I felt my spine stiffen as red rage overtook my face with a growl. “Helping is the least you could do after alerting them to exactly where we were because you thought you had something to prove!” I yelled.

“Guys…” Nai tried to interject sadly.

Their tail whipped as Xyka turned back around on me with a loud growl, “We could just leave and you’d be stranded out here without help.” He approached and angrily poked my chest with his wing, “Then you and your deadweight friend could have fun with the umbrum all by yourselves!”

I took a few steps back and held a hoof out towards our surroundings as I glared at him with tears brimming my eyes, “Then why don’t you!? Nothing’s keeping you here! You have no reason to help me or care about what happens to either of us!”

“You’re right, I don’t!” He spat, “Only my ancestors know why they lead us here with you. A stuck up royal brat who hasn’t got a single idea how to fend for themselves! Me and my brother aren’t like your little servants back home!”

…

My head lowered as my expression darkened. “You’re right. My life is all sunshine, rainbows, and fairy tales, isn’t it?” I sneered while glancing back at the growing storm.

I looked back at him with a glare, “And maybe I am a brat… Kinda hard not to be when it feels like the entire universe has it out for you. But I’m just a dumb princess. What would I know?” I said angrily while brushing past him with my head down. “It’s not like I know anything about suffering and separation from family, and whatever else you two got going on. No, not at all!” I remarked quietly.

Xyka’s head retracted backwards in surprise as he began opening his mouth again, though my words seemed to trip him up on his thoughts. Surprisingly, Xyka actually called back after me, though he stumbled on his words, trying to sound brave again, “Y-Yeah. I’m glad you understand it from our perspective, then.” He gave an awkward attempt at a confident laugh afterward.

I found my way back to the cart and pulled the rope around my chest. “Whatever…” I mumbled just loud enough for him to hear.

…

Nai bumped into his brother’s head aggressively as Xyka recoiled downward. “Ow, what was that for?” He whispered harshly at Nai.

Nai seemed to take over, walking over and picking up their side of the rope again as he interjected his head between our arguments and tried to be the amicable middle-ground. “We’re all a little… stressed. Why don’t we calm down and find a place to take a brief rest?” He gave a small hopeful smile as he nearly cowered under both our expressions.

I simply turned my head away from them and sighed harshly. “We don’t have time for a rest.” I said shortly.

My point was only further proven by Flitter’s soft uncomfortable groan from behind us that she released immediately afterward. And once again, I was being spurred on as we continued to follow the cliff line. Trudging my soaking wet and muddy coat around only made things more awful. Though at least the cold water had stifled my growing wish for rest.

…

I mean, who did Xyka really think he was? So what if you were sent here by some flash of light from your mother? Why does he suddenly have to act like I’m the bad guy for asking them to slow down just a tiny bit?

It’s not like I was born with the power to change my path. Or defend myself. Or do anything expected- no, required of me by everyone else.

And that goes for Earth and Equestria.

I wasn’t born with fantastical powers. I wasn’t born with a loving family that accepted me unconditionally. And I certainly wasn’t letting some dumb light wyvern lecture me on treating others.

He talked like I’m the royal brat with no idea how the world works? Maybe he needs to look in a mirror!

…

“Are we going at a fine pace? You feeling okay still?” Nai suddenly asked me in a whisper.

I gave a surprised look up and nodded before turning my head away.

…

Why does Nai have to come in and be so friendly? It’d be so much easier to be angry and not feel guilty if they were just both insufferable to be around.

I shouldn’t feel guilty. Xyka started the insults by mocking me as a princess when he knows I consider myself a male. He did it specifically to make it sting even harder. He could’ve called me prince, or king, or any other royal moniker as a mocking tool. But nope!

So I shouldn’t feel guilty!

…

Why do I keep glancing in his direction? So what if they’re helping me? Protecting me? The only one I trust to protect me right now is Flitter and she’s…

Well, she’s…

…

The booming of looming thunder, and the wind picking up at an increasing pace, only accented my angry trudging through the forest.

It was inevitable with our situation. Eventually, the awful umbral storm caught up to us. Lightning thundered around the forest. As the creatures swirled overhead like an impossibly large void of darkness masking the sky with despair.

No words had to be said between any of us as we understood, and the wordless lighting of Nai’s orb that he’d used this morning was enough explanation needed of the danger we were in.

We were in the thick of it…

…

Immediately, the darkness descended around us, as haunting calls of laughter and whispers echoed in every inch of the forest. The trees to our right turning into a stampede of dark shadows and white eyes. And the edge of the cliff on our left looked as if you could fall endlessly and never reach the bottom.

It was absolutely haunting.

And I almost ended up falling behind with my steps once again as Nai-Xyka seemed to carry on with seemingly no visible reaction to their features. Other than the vaguely smug smirk I nearly detected on Nai’s face, as I could almost imagine him taunting them with extreme prejudice while he gazed up at his orb.

I decided that focusing on the orb was a much more interesting and less terrifying thing to focus on than our current surroundings.

Even as the constant whispers and beckoning from the surrounding umbrum became so incessant and pleading that it nearly gave me a headache. None of their voices would rise above the others, and I couldn’t understand what they were saying. No voice would rise above the others.

Eventually, one of their voices had made it through to me, as a dissonant call that felt off and wrong. “Come here!” I heard Sage’s voice say once again in the most creepy offputting way possible. The voice came from one side of us, then reappearing at another, never staying in one place.

“Come back, p-please?” It tripped over its own words like an odd cat yowling out awful sounds that made vaguely similar phonetics.

I looked up at Nai-Xyka and begrudgingly asked, “What… are they doing?” I asked warily.

Xyka huffed with slight amusement. “Isn’t it obvious? They’re mimicking voices.” He started before saying the last bit with a louder voice, clearly to mock them. “Unfortunately, they're a bit too stupid to realize that their mimicry is awful!”

I continued to look around in confusion as Sage’s voice gave way to mimics of Chaser, Heath, and just about every other one of their family members. “Those aren’t… my actual friends, right? They weren’t hurt, were they? I’m pretty sure they were just after me…”

Nai looked back at me and shook his head as he talked quietly, “They wouldn’t have been able to give chase if they had hurt them all, don’t worry. They likely didn’t mess with any of your actual friends, considering how fast they redirected onto us. They really are after just you.”

“Yeah…” I paused with unease. “Seems that way.”

…

That allowed an enormous weight to release from my chest, though. If Flitter’s family was truly all fine, then it just meant Flitter was the only one in danger. And I really needed to get her to safety more than ever. “Why do they mimic if they’re so bad at it?” I whispered back to Nai questioningly.

“Maybe they practice making it easier for themselves in the future?” Nai suggested with a small shrug of his shoulder.

“They do it to break you. Hearing family members is the number one thing that can break morale.” Xyka followed up with a steeled expression, his voice getting quiet and stiff as he continued. “The only way to turn you into one of them is by breaking you down. First, they take all of your remaining magic away, and then once they’ve broken down your spirit with whatever means they wish, they corrupt you. And then suddenly you’re an umbrum, without a single care or regard for your previous life. The luckier ones get to hold on to a semblance of their previous consciousness, and become imperators.”

Oh great, that meant I was only halfway to being a perfect candidate for an imperator. Along with being an alicorn. No wonder they were so ravenously chasing after me. They likely left Flitter’s entire family alone and confused in the wake of their destruction of the cornfields.

We kept going as every surrounding umbrum tried every single voice from Flitter’s family that they could to try to and slow me down and coax me in. Though it was exceptionally unsettling, I did eventually become numb to it. It helped to imagine the voices I was hearing as a parrot trying to mimic people. If that parrot was heard through a low resolution video that had been repeatedly compressed a couple hundred times.

Everything seemed to be going fine, given the circumstances. It was something I could mentally handle, and Flitter’s constant uncomfortable shifting kept me going with a clear minded goal.

…

“Nai-Xyka, come here, little one!”

…

A chill ran down my spine, and I nearly fell over as my companions stopped moving, which caused my rope to pull me back and choke me a bit. I looked up to them and their faces only spelled horror and they looked forward with newfound fear I hadn’t seen on them yet.

“Nai-Xyka, I’ll be home soon, alright little warrior?”

Nai tilted his head as his voice came out in a small whisper. “Dad?” He muttered sadly.

…

“Yes Nai! Daddy’s over here!” An unfamiliar male voice called, starkly different the the first male voice. It was probably the voice of both of their fathers.

The first voice was deep, rumbling, and gruff. But sounded so kind and loving at the same time. And unlike the voices from before, this one sounded real. I’d never met their father, but there were no hints of dissonance or stuttering.

That fact creeped me out even more. That there was something nearby that was mimicking their fathers perfectly.

Xyka’s disbelief turned to rage, as his face practically boiled red in hatred. He yelled at the top of his lungs, “Shut up! We know that’s not him!”

…

“Why, Xyka? Why don’t we all take a trip to the beaches as a family?”

“Who are you!?” Xyka once again screamed as his voice went hoarse, “And why do you have my father’s voice!?”

…

There was a long pause as every other umbrum’s voice dissipated the area, causing things to become deadly silent.

…

“I just want to see you again, my hatchling.” The lighter male voice called in a hurt and sad tone.

“Our dad is gone!” Xyka screamed with rage as he dropped the rope. Immediately he ran forward, causing Nai to drop the orb next to me in a panic to give me and Flitter a semblance of protection.

They bounded forward into the forest as Xyka was shooting off light beam after light beam at everything that moved. The umbrum began to cackle and laugh together in a cacophony like a pack of hyenas as they swirled around them in a predatory circle.

I could only watch from my spot next to the orb with fear and anxiety in my chest.

“Stop… Using… His… Voice!” Xyka demanded between his large blasts coming from his maw.

“Brother, stop wasting all of your light!” Nai pleaded down at his feral expression’d brother. He glared at the surrounding shadows with disdain. “It’s not worth it.”

Xyka's head whipped on his brother. “It was there! Nai! Whoever has his voice was there! Are you stupid!? Don’t you care!?” He yelled angrily.

…

Nai’s hurt expression caused Xyka to pause in his rampage. As he opened his mouth in shock at his own words, “N-Nai… I…”

The voice was actually of their fathers. And… their father was dead? So had an umbrum been around to witness their father’s death to mimic his voice? The whole idea sent chilling blood through my veins.

I saw one of the umbrum creeping up on their backs in the middle of their stupor.

I opened my voice to call out, but realized I didn’t have the words or time to do so.

So I did the next best thing, and without thinking, I ran. I forced the miniscule amount of energy I had into my legs as adrenaline took over and I bolted into the forest after them in panic.

The shadow loomed just within their blind spot as it reached for them.

“Watch out!” I called as I lunged forward, slamming my body into the two wyverns and pulling them to the ground with me. They came to their senses immediately as Xyka turned and blasted the shadow lurking after us while heaving breaths overtook him.

The voice of his father hauntingly crept in from right next to all of us. “Your days are numbered, cursed little whelp.”

Nai-Xyka immediately whipped around toward the voice with another light blast, but the shadow merely drifted away from us with a loud and feminine chuckle. Nai whispered a few things in his brother’s ears as his defeated head hung low. And slowly, they stood up as Nai made his orb pulse with an even larger light that even reached up towards us while we made our way back to the cart with Flitter.

We were all heavy breathing, with the two brothers sitting with haunted expressions and fear in their eyes. I looked back out into the darkness, just waiting to hear the odd feminine unfamiliar voice again, but I didn’t I turned back around with a million questions, “Who… what was that?” I panted out.

Xyka’s head stayed steady, looking firmly at the ground. As Nai slowly looked up at me with the saddest expression I’d seen on him since I met him, “We’re going to find a place to rest, if that’s alright with you.”

I couldn’t bring myself to refute him, as I simply nodded and shortly whispered, “Lead the way.”

The forest was surprisingly rather quiet after that. They weren’t trying to mimic the voice of anyone I knew, nor did they try to mimic his father.

They just followed, silently. Like a vulture hovering above its nearly dead prey, just waiting to swoop in after our last moments.

It was almost more nerve-wracking than the mimicry…

Eventually, Nai spotted a cave sitting precariously next to a small river and next to a waterfall. Even though our track record with caves so far had been… less than adequate… This one had a super small entrance that we only just barely pushed Flitter’s sled through.

Once we entered, Nai dropped his orb at the entrance and reduced it in size. I assume to save his magic. Almost immediately afterward, Xyka took control of their body and they disappeared into the back shadows of the rather small cave.

Though I was skeptical if the small orb at the entrance could keep them all out, I trusted it regardless. Pulling Flitter slightly farther in to get away from the whispers and prying eyes of the lurking umbrum outside.

When I was satisfied with our distance from the opening, I practically fell to the ground in exhaustion. If ponies could have blisters on the bottom of their feet, I’m sure I would have had plenty. The feeling of soreness radiated from my entire body, the aching of my magic-less limbs hardly mattered anymore. Even breathing was painful.

But I still pushed myself across the ground and around the front so I could check on Flitter. When I got to her side, she was still sleeping in a cold sweat. One hoof against her forehead immediately confirmed that she had some sort of fever, a bad one at that.

Closing my eyes, I sighed deeply as I felt well and truly helpless. I didn’t know how exactly I expected to get us all down and away to safety. I was in over my head. At first I’d thought that Nai-Xyka were these all powerful convenient allies that would lead me and Flitter through this storm, but after what happened with the voice…

Their father’s voice…

I didn’t want to assume too much, but I could certainly catch the pain in Xyka’s voice as he said he was gone. Which was enough to make me feel a deep pang of guilt over everything.

I think they were in over their heads just as much as me… And yet they had stayed with me and put on brave faces while I denounced them mentally and tried to stay reclusive.

I gazed at them in the back of the cave. Nai was clearly whispering to Xyka comfortingly as he rested his head over his depressed brother’s head. The sight was rather sad and made me appreciate Nai’s kindness to me all the more. He had to be feeling just as distraught by the voice as well.

And yet Nai had still tried earlier to be nice to me, even though I hadn’t been able to do anything except to suggest that their lives were better than mine…

I sighed and turned away and watched as Flitter struggled through another bout of uncomforted slumber. I quickly had an idea and looked between the sled and the entrance of the cave a few times. And with a nod, I leaned forward and ripped a portion of the flag’s cloth off.

Then I carefully made my way to the entrance, and through the hundreds of soulless and waiting eyes, I walked just barely to the outer ridge of Nai’s light and soaked the cloth in the waterfall’s cold water.

I turned from the eyes with an angry swish of my tail, hurriedly rushing over to Flitter and laying the bundled cloth against her forehead. Almost immediately, an expression of mild relief washed over her face as her breaths became slightly less ragged.

I couldn’t help but lay myself against her side as a few tears made their way down my face. “You were supposed to be the one taking me home, not the other way around.” I said in depressed amusement, almost as if I was hoping she’d release a small chuckle in response. But when she didn’t, I buried my face in her shoulder, “What am I supposed to do, Flitter?”

The lack of response only caused me to continue to cry in response, “I’m weak, and… and I don’t know if I can do it. I already feel like giving up.” I admitted both to her and myself at the same time.

“But I can’t, because of you.” I muttered sadly, “Because you wouldn’t just let me lay there and waste away.”

…

“Please, say something, Flitter…”

My head fell dejectedly as I felt a few sobs wrack my body.

Who was I kidding? I was still that same weak kid that I’d always been. Who was I to think I could deal with this in her stead? I was weak, and that was all I was ever going to be…

…

Which is why I need to rely on others… Is it really such a bad thing to be weak?

I slowly held my weak, tired, and exhausted head up to gaze back into the depths of the cave and Nai-Xyka. I gave myself one more inward sigh of sadness and acceptance as I closed my eyes momentarily. Then I got back onto my hooves and slowly approached them.

As I shuffled closer, I felt more and more anxiety. The last thing I wanted was for Xyka to explode with rage on me. But I had to do something about all of this. Because after all, I was partially to blame for the umbrum problem…

As I got closer, it became apparent that Xyka was… crying.

My heart sank as I stopped a few feet from them, unsure of what to say. “U-Uhm…” I shuffled my front hooves awkwardly as I sat down as Xyka’s crying audibly halted. “I’m… listen, Nai, Xyka… I-”

“We’ll get back to traveling soon.” Xyka replied coldly, with a monotone voice devoid of emotion.

I sighed loudly, “No, no, I… I came over to tell you that… I’m sorry.” I said while shying my eyes away.

Xyka stayed silent, but Nai turned his head and gave me a curious look of sympathy as I continued. “I would be… completely done for without you two… And I don’t want to let that fact go unappreciated. So… thank you.”

There was a long bout of silence, as Nai smiled, but continued to look at his brother for any signs of life. The silence between us expanded, and with another brief sigh, I started turning my body away to leave them be. Of course, I couldn’t just fix things with a couple of words. And yet… I heard shuffling behind me and spun back to see Xyka pushing their body up from the floor. Even Nai seemed surprised.

“No… You shouldn’t be sorry.” Xyka said with a hoarse voice that raised barely above a whisper.

Tilting my head at him, he turned to look at me with only one eye, which was obscured by the darkness, yet I could still see the sorrow in it. “I tried to show off and got us in trouble. I insulted you for being injured, called you a brat princess and I… I couldn’t even follow my own advice of not letting their voices get to me.”

He huffed at his own words as his head hung lower. “I’m really just pathetic.”

…

It was at that moment that I could instantly see myself in Xyka, and it was truly eye opening.

And not just one or two pieces of myself, I almost felt like I was looking directly in a mirror.

I couldn’t even immediately realize how ironic it was at that moment. But I was staring straight at myself. A wyvern, yet all the same, he had a lot of the same issues going on as me. Both of them did. But… Xyka had power, and yet it wasn’t a sudden fix for all his problems. It didn’t make him feel better about himself or the situation.

He still felt worthless.

And what about Nai? Was his air of happiness and friendliness just a mask to hide his true feelings of self-resentment?

That was something else I could sympathize with. I had done it for far too long back on earth.

…

Before I could even say anything, Xyka had continued with a hint of anger in his tone. “What happened earlier, it… It just…” He growled under his breath, “It just isn’t right.”

Nai waited to see if he would continue, and when he didn’t, he explained the situation to me. “That was our father’s voice that the umbrum was mimicking before he… turned. Our actual father is an imperator now.” Nai said with an enormous sigh as his voice wavered.

My jaw dropped, and my eyes widened. “W-What?” So their father wasn’t dead, just an umbrum? Well, I could see how they would consider him dead at that point. He’s probably a completely different being now.

Nai nodded. “They were… our hero. The greatest wyvern we’ve ever known.” The melancholy smile on his face turned downcast, “They still thought that the umbrum could be reasoned with, they didn’t know how low they’d go to prove a point…” Nai began to choke up on his words as I sat there feeling helpless to comfort them.

Xyka took over with a voice of rage and hatred. “They agreed to meet with them. They ambushed them. They imprisoned them. And then… then they turned them! Into a filthy umbrum!” He yelled as his clawed wing scraped against the ground heavily, “I hate umbrum!” Xyka seethed through his teeth.

I sat in silence as I let the story play out in my mind, the whole idea making me feel sick. Nai, after a long bout of silence, spoke up, “We don’t know who they are, or why they know what our fathers voices sounded like. But they shouldn’t be able to, not unless they can read our memories, or have been able to hear their voices in the past.”

“So it’s not your… actual father..? As an imperator chasing us?” I asked carefully.

Nai shook his head, “Doubtful. When our father became one of them, he became intensely violent. That umbrum out there… was playing with us, mocking, like they caught us right in their spider web.” Nai’s wing traced aimless lines on the dirty cave floor. “It’s not him.”

Xyka sigh deeply, “so it might’ve been an imperator… I mean, really, how often do all the other umbrum go completely silent as they allow one of them to mimic with perfect accuracy? It’s all so unnerving.”

“We’ve never dealt with something like this,” Xyka remarked sadly. “How are we supposed to know what to do?” He questioned towards the wall he was glaring daggers at as his head fell.

…

He was just like me…

I shook my head and stood, taking a few steps forward until I was right in front of them, “Hey, Xyka… You’re not pathetic like you said earlier… Both of you saved me and Flitter, you helped me find a way to carry her with us, and you even tried to help me with my magic… sorta.”

Nai let loose a small smile at that. But Xyka kept his head low and looked at me through one eye. “Why are you trying to cheer us up?”

I sighed and gave a quick shrug. “Because it’s what Flitter showed me how to do. I’m sorta bad at it honestly…” I rubbed one hoof over the other, “But I figured it was the least I could do after snapping at you like I did before.”

Nai hummed and shook his head. “Well, let's not forget that my brother entirely provoked you with his own words while you were down.” He admonished with a raised brow towards his brother.

Xyka’s face went red as he shied his head further away. “Yeah, we’re fine now. I-I… wasn’t being the best either… I’d say we’re even.”

I sighed, “I don’t want to be even. I want us all to trust each other. We’re stuck in this together.” I said with a downcast look.

Nai tilted his head and looked at me sympathetically. “The way you spoke before… It sounded like you knew how we felt? Unless I… misunderstood…”

“No, you didn’t, actually.” I reassured as I brushed my hair away from my face with a hoof and uttered a sigh as the silence continued to take over. I thought about whether it was worth saying all of this, but quickly made my decision and spoke as much from the heart as possible. “When I died in my world, I was abandoned by the only person I’d ever trusted in my entire life.”

Both of them looked at me with curious expressions.

I gave a small huff of a laugh as my eyes gazed at the ground. “He was my brother. He found me one day. I was just a small little skeleton of a kid… He found me under a box that I’d found after running away from an orphanage. I’d been there for a week. I didn’t know what food or warmth was…”

“Then he took me with him… He didn’t reply when I asked why, just guided me by hand to where he’d been staying. A completely different home for orphans on the other side of town.”

I shook my head. “I remember thinking, ‘this is it!’ that I was finally going to feel like I belonged somewhere. For a couple of years, I tricked my mind into believing that it was true.”

Nai reached a wing out and laid it on my hoof. I smiled appreciatively at him, “Then one day, my brother got in trouble… I took a very, very damaging blow for him. And while I was on the ground dying, he just… he left me.” Nai-Xyka’s eyes widened.

“I remember being livid, thinking ‘is this a joke?’ In my dying breaths, I was cursing the universe, the world, for letting something so cruel happen to somebody who didn’t deserve it. I remember, even after death, I could still feel my feelings of hatred toward everything and everyone. They only got worse and worse until I eventually found myself here in Equestria…”

Both of them were now staring at me in a mix of shock and sympathy.

I sighed again. “The rest isn’t important to you. And I know that it’s not quite the same as your fathers being taken from you by an umbrum…” I stopped to gather my thoughts a bit more. “But I know how it feels when someone you trusted and thought of as a hero is suddenly taken from you. How betrayed by the world you feel, how awful that sinking feeling in your gut is when you think of them. Every single time.”

Nai leaned them forward a bit to pull his wing around me, “It really really hurts, doesn’t it?” Nai muttered sadly, with tears in his eyes.

I hadn’t expected the sudden hug, but coming from Nai, maybe I should have. Slowly, I reciprocated with a hoof. “Yeah, it’s… rough, but we pull through it.”

…

Xyka mumbled something to himself before sighing before raising his head to meet mine reluctantly as he still acted shy and with a slightly red face, “Our story is bad but… You got left with nothing.” He lifted his wing and rubbed the back of his head with a great sigh, “I… Kieran, I’m sorry too. Please forgive me.” He said sadly, with a voice of sincerity.

I smiled up at him. “For sure!” I laughed mildly. “I wasn’t trying to guilt trip you into apologizing, Xyka. I just felt like you deserved to know.”

His face went bright red again. “I knew that! I just…” A small smirk raised on his face as he finally met my eyes, “I guess we all just feel a little worthless around here.”

Nai glared at his brother. But I couldn’t help but release a small laugh and a nod. “We really just have so much in common, don’t we?” I said jokingly.

Xyka’s smile raised even higher. “Hooray for being left behind.”

Nai rolled his eyes slightly with a giggle. “If it’s any consolation… our problem happened a couple years ago.” He sniffed me again like he could smell the past or something. “Your wound is still fresh, is it not?”

I waved it off with my free hoof. “It’s not a competition anyhow.”

Xyka finally sighed, pulling his wing up and around my body suddenly, and causing my eyes to widen as I was now cocooned between their wings. I really didn’t expect Xyka to warm up to me at all, let alone this quickly.

“I’m sorry again Kieran…” Xyka admitted, “Calling you princess and calling Flitter dead weight and all that…” He had an embarrassed face of shame.

I smiled widely at him, “No harm done… I forgive you, Xyka.”

He was giving me a friendly, sincere smile back. “I’m really glad now that the soul of an ancestor brought us to you,” Xyka said with a nod.

Nai nuzzled his head against me as Xyka continued to look down at me with a smirk, his wing reaching up and ruffling my hair as I shied away with a small laugh.

I took a deep breath and relaxed against their soft scales and accepted the embrace. “I don’t really have any grand wise advice about our situation… And I also still don’t know how we’re getting out of this… But I just thought it would be nice if we got to know each other before things go bad. ”

They released me from the hug and fell back onto their haunches as Nai nodded happily, “Agreed!”

Xyka’s head raised proudly, “Of course. Let’s start over.”

“Well…” I began with a small smirk, “My name’s Kieran.”

Nai pulled one of my hooves up with his wing and shook it excitedly. “I’m Nai!”

Xyka took my other hoof in his wing. “And I’m Xyka.”

“It’s nice to meet you both.” I said with a large smile. They nodded largely with welcoming smiles.

…

My head tilted. “What did you mean when you said ‘the soul brought us to you’ a second ago?” I asked.

Nai’s eyes gleamed with sudden excitement. “Oh, oh! Our people believe in souls, or spirits, like yours! After all, that’s why you’re here in Equestria as well, isn’t it? Spirits, or souls, are our ancestors. Sometimes they linger around and they guide us.”

I eyed him with curiosity as he continued, “When we got transported to that desert, we really had no clue where we were or what to do. We were just sort of wandering aimlessly and sleeping in small caves. And then one night, this little blue spirit looking thing floats up to us, one like we’d never seen before.” Nai began gesturing with his wing in a performative way. My eyes widened as I looked up at him with full attention.

Xyka nodded and took over. “Not only did that spirit lead us up into the forests, but into the path of that umbral storm. And then not long after, it zipped away and brought you to us. Pretty lucky, eh?”

Nai couldn’t help but look at me cheerfully. “I don’t think I need to tell you it couldn’t have possibly been a coincidence! We were guided there to help you and Flitter for a reason or another.”

“Yep.” Xyka confirmed his words with a large nod as his wing folded against his chest, “To disrespect the wishes of what we perceive to be a spirit in our lands is a great dishonor. So if you’re wondering why we so eagerly helped you at first… uh… that would be why.”

Nai chirped, “But now we will help you no matter what, so don’t worry, friend!”

“That’s really nice of you.” I said with a smile, wondering just what that spirit that guided both of us could’ve been.

I suspected that there was more to it than simply being an ancestor spirit from Nai-Xyka’s homeland. Since it wouldn’t make too much sense for one of them to be here. But what could it have been? I had no clue.

Xyka smirked at the look on my face. “Look, I think all of this is weird, too. But we’d be a bit stupid to back off and abandon you two now, right? The least we could do is see where all this ends. Which includes helping you escape those dusty old heartless kj-.”

Nai pulled his wing over Xyka’s face before he could finish his word. “Language…” He admonished with a growl as he warned his brother.

Xyka just rolled his eyes as he pulled Nai’s wing off him. “Either way, I’ve got your back.”

Nai smiled brightly at his brother, then looked at me again, “Exactly! We’re in this together now! You’re our friend!”

I felt Nai’s wing wrap around me again and I couldn’t help but laugh a bit as he pulled me towards him and laid his head on mine. Xyka seemed a bit surprised by the sudden second hug, but he slowly pulled around me with his own wing and looked in the opposite direction with a bright red face.

I allowed Nai his brief hug before I backed off. “Okay, okay… Now you’re just getting mud all over yourself.” I said while gesturing to my mud covered fur.

I heard another moan of discomfort from Flitter and quickly rushed back over. There wasn’t any other way to help her, so I checked her damp cloth, realizing it had already burned up all the cold water. I quickly grabbed it and rushed towards the entrance and the waterfall again. All the while, Nai-Xyka watched me with curiosity.

As I got back and laid it across Flitter’s head, she released another contented sigh as my body relaxed a bit.

Nai looked up at Xyka with his eyes dazzling. “That’s how we can fix our brain burn!”

Xyka batted the back of Nai’s head with his wing. “That’s not how it works.”

“Oh.”

Nai-Xyka wandered to the entrance and sat. Following right behind to join them at the entrance, laying my whole body down with a groan of pain, I couldn’t help but look out uneasily in the forest.

“They must be hiding or something…” I said quietly, regarding our stalkers.

“Yeah… They’re out there still, I assure you.” Xyka said with a sigh.

…

Another crackle of lightning and a boom of thunder reminded me of the storm overhead, and I looked curiously up at the two. “I didn’t think an umbral storm was an actual… storm.” I said with mild amusement.

Nai hummed, “That’s because umbrum can only move during the day by using a storm. The storm clouds are just dark enough for them to hide in their shadows.”

My eyes gravitated towards the little ball of light that had managed holding back the entire umbral storm while we sat in the cave. It glowed and pulsated with a warm, golden gleam.

“Say… Nai… what is this orb, anyway?”

He looked down and tilted his head before his ears perked up. “Oh! That’s my light! I accidentally figured out how to make it when I was young and scared of going to sleep in the dark. Even though the temple was lit up outside and they couldn’t possibly get in our room.”

“It was annoying,” Xyka muttered with a roll of his eyes.

“Is not! Momma says it’s a very special magic technique! Every wyvern develops a special technique that they master throughout their life! My specialty in the future could be a royal escort for nobles or-”

“Or a lamppost.” Xyka said with a smirk. Nai looked up with exhaustion at his brother, who only snickered.

I smiled at Nai as I spoke genuinely. “I think it’s a really cool special power. Especially since you made it all on your own.”

Nai’s face brightened at the praise as he blushed, “Thank you.”

I looked up at Xyka, “If his power is so dumb, then what’s yours?” I accused Xyka with a grin.

He smirked. “Only the coolest, most useful magic technique ever.”

…

“It’s our little magic space where we store things.” Nai said, opening it and pulling another apple out of the confusingly large subspace.

I couldn’t help but release a small laugh as Xyka withered in embarrassment. I held a hoof over my mouth to stifle my laugh, “I thought that was Nai’s power as well. Xyka’s always shooting light beams everywhere.”

Nai smirked as he finally had the upper claw on his brother in a situation. “He’s so embarrassed by it he lets people think it’s also my power. He’s convinced that he has another one that he’ll develop one day.” Nai hummed and giggled with a mischievous grin, “Even I can shoot light beams brother~” He taunted Xyka who was looking away from us with a bright red face.

“Mine are more powerful.” Xyka huffed angrily with a quiet voice.

“Whatever you say, brother.” Nai laughed loudly.

Now that was some irony I didn’t see coming. Nai had the more combative special power out of the two, while Xyka had the more supportive ability.

Even though the two acted in the complete opposite way.

I couldn’t help but begin laughing loudly with Nai.

“Ha…Ha.” Xyka mocked us as his head swayed back and forth. “At least we have a special power.”

Nai looked at him in complete shock and admonishment, expecting me to take it the wrong way.

But all I did was begin bursting out in laughter once again, as I rolled onto my back and held my stomach.

“If I ever get my own body to learn how to do magic, or a cooler power than yours, I’ll never let you hear the end of it, Xyka.” I said out loud. “You deserve it for that little comment just now!” I warned him.

He smirked and craned his neck over my body as I looked up at him. “If that happens, I deserve it and give you full permission.” He said with a dejected blush.

Eventually he shook his head and tried to change subjects off of his own powers. “What sort of power do you want?” He asked me while laying down, resting his head over his wing and gazing at me intently.

I rolled onto my stomach, “Uh… I don’t know. I’m sorta over the whole giant magic beam of energy thing… I’ve had too much of an issue with it before.” A deep shudder wracked through my body. “Maybe something simple, fun, and less destructive, like the power of… no friction or something.”

“The world would just be a slip and slide!” Nai said with a giggle. “And you’d never be able to slow down.” He giggled even more at the idea as he covered his face with his wing.

Xyka huffed with a small laugh. “Plus, don’t ponies get to learn all kinds of magic? And if you’re an alicorn, don’t you get to rule over something like the sun or moon?”

“All the questions I’ve asked myself a million times.” I muttered with a sigh. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m just fine with being a pegasus. I think flying would be cool.”

“Oh, you’d love it!” Nai chirped excitedly. “Momma always takes us on these flights between temples and-”

I listened to Nai tell me stories about flying for a while, with my complete attention focused on him. But eventually his voice drowned out amongst the silence and an uneasy feeling grew in the middle of my chest. And I suddenly felt like I was being watched.

…

“Little one…”

I heard a faint whisper in the darkness that made my ear twitch. My head swiveling in the direction instinctively as Nai-Xyka were left wondering what my sudden shift in expression meant.

“Little one~...”

The faint whisper wasn’t a voice I knew. But it carried a certain tone and hum that absolutely demanded my attention. Making my vision tunneled as I gazed curiously into the darkness of the forest outside.

My head hurt, especially my horn, as I slightly groaned in pain. But no matter what I was feeling, I couldn’t take my eyes off the darkness.

“What’s wrong?”

“We wish not to hurt you, child. Come out, we very much wish to meet you.”

The voice was so alluring, like a beautifully hummed and vocalized tune you’d hear fluttering about a town square, yet no matter how much you search around, you can’t find the source.

My head tilted in intrigue as I lifted my hoof, placing it just slightly outside the bounds of the cave.

“Hey.”

…

“Hey, snap out of it!”

I felt my body suddenly violently shake as I found Xyka’s wing tightly blocking my path as he pulled me back farther in.

Once they did, I gave them both a surprised look, my eyes widening as I shook the sudden feeling of disorientation from my head, and I looked up.

“Are you okay?” Nai asked first.

I nodded shortly, “I… heard a voice. In the forest.” I felt my mind blank as I struggled to describe the feelings I just went through. “It sounded… nice. I couldn’t stop listening to it…”

Xyka put his clawed wing under my chin, “No, bad pony! Don’t listen to the voices.” To emphasize his point, he began violently shaking my maw back and forth, making my head spin as he disoriented me. “No listening to shadow creatures.”

He only stopped because Nai pulled his wing away from me. “He’s right. Whatever they were saying isn’t real. Don’t let them get to you.”

Xyka offered out his wing to help me stand, and I obliged, pulling myself up onto my hooves. He then led me to the entrance of the cave where he gazed out on the forest with his chest puffed and that overly full-of-himself pride. “Were you trying to lure my friend out so you could take him!? Well ha! Try again you useless good-for-nothing ghouls!” Xyka yelled childishly into the dark.

Nai smirked and giggled, “Yeah! He’s under our protection! Just try to trick him you… you… rude shadows!”

I think Nai knew he’d failed the insults as he looked at me and Xyka’s deadpan faces with a sheepish grin.

Xyka rolled his eyes as he whispered while holding his wing up to block the view, “Leave it to me, Nai. I’ve got this.”

Xyka cleared his throat as he puffed his chest back out, “You really thought we’d fall for such petty tricks as-” He looked over at me suddenly and whispered, “-wait, what did you hear them say?”

“They said they didn’t want to hurt me.” I whispered back.

He nodded shortly and glared back outwards, “The good old ‘we won’t hurt you’ trick! Oldest one in the book! Man, you guys really are stupid, haha!” Xyka mocked.

“If you really want us so bad, then you can come kiss it!” He turned his back towards the outside and shook their rump mockingly as Nai sighed and buried his face in his wing.

I couldn’t help but bury my muzzle in my hoof as I stifled my laugh as best I could. Especially as Xyka kept looking back and smirking with his mischievous grin.

When Xyka was finally done, he walked forward, back into the cave with a strut of pride.

Though I doubt the creatures of pure resentment and hatred really cared about his petty act, I guess it couldn’t hurt if it made him feel better.

“Is provoking them such a great idea?” I wondered aloud.

Xyka huffed, “It is when it’s so fun.”

I slowly made my way back into the cave where Flitter was. “I think it’s time we move again. You certainly seem lively enough to continue.” I said with a smirk.

Nai-Xyka quickly rushed over and picked up their side of the rope as I did the same. Taking our first agonizing steps towards the outside.

At least now I was traveling with two friends, instead of begrudging bodyguards.

Maybe this wouldn’t go so badly after all.

There really had been some sort of unnerving and significant mood shift in the way the umbrum acted. Overhead, the storm clouds continued to follow, but the overwhelming presence of the umbrum from before had all but disappeared from around us.

I’d be lying to admit it wasn’t peaceful.

Nai was even telling me stories about their elders from their childhood. And I listened with full interest, as it was a pleasant distraction from the aching in my bones and the futile feeling of our journey.

Turns out that wyvern society was rather interesting. By his description, it was rather the same as Equestrian land, though they had a king ruling their people at present, and most of them lived in these fortified and brightly lit stone monoliths they called temples.

Nai and Xyka were both quick to answer any question I had as they told me about how their people handled their umbrum problem. With the way they were describing it, the umbrum sounded more like a pest that just wouldn’t die for good rather than a consistent threat.

But then there was the story of what had happened that caused them to be transported…

Apparently, a single guard one night forgot to close the door to one of their storage rooms. Which allowed an imperator to rush through and extinguish all of their lights in the lower levels. And the umbrum swiftly took advantage of the sudden disaster. Basically causing mass panic and hysteria amongst the wyverns.

They stopped relaying the story when it got to them being trapped in a room with their mothers right before they got transported here. But I understood wholeheartedly.

“So… what are ponies like?” Xyka asked, “What have you noticed from being here for such a short time?”

“Ponies are incredibly, overbearingly, nonsensically, the kindest people… err… beings that I’ve met.” I said with amusement.

“Princess Cadance especially,” I quickly sighed. “I’m still not even sure if I believe everything nice she has told me. That’s how nice she is.”

“What sorta nice things?” Xyka asked.

“Oh, nothing really,” I said with a short, sheepish laugh. “Just her and Prince Shining Armor adopting me for a day or two. Nothing big at all.”

…

“Wow. Really?” Xyka remarked genuinely with a hum.

“Mhm…” I mumbled, “But I have a hard time trusting people and some other things happened and I… ran away.”

Nai sat in silence for a minute before he tilted his head. “Well, did she say it from the heart?”

“I hope so… How would I know the difference?” I asked with genuine curiosity.

Xyka pursed his lips. “When others lie, they make it very obvious with body language, facial expressions… When they speak from the heart, there’s just a specific warmth and sincerity that accompanies their words.”

I thought back on a lot of things Cadance had told me in our time together. And I thought of the things that the two wyverns had told me in the cave and smiled, “I think I know what that feels like then.”

“She’s also the alicorn of love.” I admitted.

…

I looked back at my companions as they’d stopped moving. And both were giving me the most deadpan look of ‘really?’ that they could muster.

Xyka just raised a brow. “You’re dumb.”

I almost choked on my breath, “Y-Yeah… maybe…”

Nai looked disapprovingly at his brother's insult as they started moving with me again. “Maybe all you need to do is talk to her again. If she really didn’t care, she’d probably give up by now.”

I sighed, “Thanks… I think you’re right Nai.”

“But you’re still dumb.” Nai chirped with a giggle.

“Yep!” I remarked back.

The missing presence of the bulk of the storm, and the umbrum themselves, was making me very nervous, yet hopeful. Maybe they had given up on us, considering I had great protection? Or maybe they were waiting for us to screw something up. Something akin to leaving a door open, like in Nai-Xyka’s story.

Regardless, the sun was slowly beginning to set now as it crested the horizon. I gazed out over the cliff and into the distance at the retreating light, with a pit forming in my stomach.

Suddenly, the brothers bumped into me, causing me to stumble with a small huff of laughter. Xyka looked down at me with a raised brow and a mischievous smirk. “You don’t need that ancient old thing in the sky, anyway. You’ve got us!” He remarked boisterously.

Nai nodded and looked up at his brother eagerly, then back to me, “We can be your light!” He said eagerly. “Wait! Xyka! We can-”

Nai stopped himself from finishing, and there was a small gap of silence as the two brothers seemed to realize something together, and they both looked at each other silently before looking back at me in intrigue, much to my confusion as I tilted my head.

Suddenly, they stepped forward.

“I’ll be your radiant shine!” Nai Chirped.

“And I’ll be your lustrous light.” Xyka accompanied him.

Then they both spoke unanimously, “And no evil shall descend tonight, or a hundred more.”

They ended the saying with a stream of giggles between each other.

I smiled as they both laughed like they’d just told the best joke, “Okay, what’s all that mean?”

Nai chirped excitedly. “It’s an ancient oath of protection! I think…”

Xyka nodded, “To our people, to fail an oath, there is no greater shame.”

My eyes widened, and I waved my hooves wildly in panic, “Wh-Why would you promise something that important to me?”

Xyka waved his wing dismissively. “Because you’re our friend! And it doesn’t matter. Our fathers used to always make that same promise to our mommas multiple times a day.”

I tilted my head slightly with an unsure expression. I don’t want bad things to happen to the two of them if something happened to me. It just seems unfair…

I didn’t have time to dwell on that though as Nai placed his claw on my left hoof comfortingly, the one that was bandaged. “We’ll be fine.” He said with a reassuring smile in front of my face.

…

Suddenly, a golden, blinding glow erupted between the two of us. I immediately turned my head away to cover my eyes in sudden confusion. I felt an intense searing feeling of pain in my left hoof that immediately made me release a yelp.

The light lasted for a very long time. All the while, my injured hoof felt like it was being burned from the inside out with the intensity comparable to sticking your hoof above a campfire. It was uncomfortable, and far too hot.

Eventually the pain gave way, and I felt a great sense of relief as the warmth turned comforting, making my hoof feel better than it had for a long time now.

As the blinding light died down, I turned my head back to see that Nai-Xyka had been caught off guard by the glow just as much as me. Xyka immediately came closer as he got worried, “Uh oh… Nai, what did you do? You hurt him!” He admonished.

Eventually, all our eyes ended up on my once injured hoof. The bandage covering my entire leg had reduced to ashes as it practically disintegrated off my arm. As I shook the ashes off, and two things became very apparent.

My injury had healed completely, leaving no trace of a scar.

And there was now some sort of glowing yellow symbol engraved into my leg just above my hoof. Xyka gently pulled my leg up as we all got an even closer look.

It was a rather large symbol that wrapped around my leg and conjoined into a golden heart, where two heads in the shape of dragons defended on both sides. That was the most I could make out of it, as the rest looked like a bunch of runes.

Are ponies able to get cutie marks on their hooves..?

I looked up and suddenly noticed that the two brothers had a very similar symbol engraved on the top of their chest. I pointed at it, “You guys have one too…”

Both brothers looked at the base of their necks with intrigue.

“I… I uh…” Nai began silently, “I don’t remember the oaths doing that.”

“I don’t think it’s supposed to?” Xyka commented unsurely.

“Oh…” Nai said shortly.

Rather amusingly, the two brothers had yet again done something completely unexpected just when I thought things had just started making sense.

The Mare in the Storm

“I guess I can’t complain…” I said slowly, flexing my hoof over and over in different ways as I also examined the symbol engraved. “You healed it, after all.”

Nai looked up at his brother in confusion. “I only see that symbol on elders. They always say they’ll tell us about it when we become warriors.” Nai whined in confusion.

Xyka looked frustrated as he buried his head in his wing. “Okay, but you can’t just blame me this time! It was both of our big mouths.”

I lifted my now healed hoof and placed it on their back and smiled. “Hey! It doesn’t bother me. Having a cool golden tattoo instead of a scar is fine with me.”

Xyka smiled as Nai tilted his head. “What’s a tat-ooo?”

I huffed, “Nevermind that, let’s keep going.”

With nothing more to add to the recent development, we sort of shrugged it off and took hold of the ropes again. I was now pulling Flitter with the vigor of an old dog given new legs. In a sense, the now brand new feeling limb was giving me the confidence to feel like we could make it all the way.

Walking on my hoof was easy. I no longer had a limp. Now the only thing plaguing me was the exhaustion and constant pain from my ever decreasing pool of magic. But hey, silver lining, alright?

As we strutted through the forest, I couldn’t help but keep looking down at my leg. Which glowed with a faint yellow light in the darkness, as if I had one of those glow stick bracelets. Having a weird glowy leg was hardly even on the table for my concerns at the moment, and if I was being honest, it made me feel happy.

Like a weird friendship bracelet.

Now that it was growing darker, it became much harder to figure out where we were supposed to go. Following the cliff so closely was dangerous in the descending darkness, and wandering aimlessly into the forest was a bad idea.

It wasn’t much longer before we began running into those same issues.

“I think I’ve seen that rock before.” Nai said with a sigh.

Xyka continued on with a raised brow, “It’s a rock. They’re all the same color. How would you recognize one?” He said in annoyance.

“Because! I remember it having like a pointy bit at the top and another small rock next to it.”

“There’s probably a hundred other rocks that look the exact same way!”

“That’d be a crazy coincidence, wouldn’t it?”

“Yeah it would!”

Their mildly worthless debate got interrupted as a sudden thwacking sound appeared off in the distance, a confusing one that made us stop in our tracks and listen intently.

We both looked at each other in confusion. Every other second was a singular and striking sound, reverberating through the surrounding trees, and echoing so that we could never pinpoint the direction of the sound as it bounced between tree and rock. It became consistent, and louder, growing more irritating by the second.

I sort of backed myself against Nai-Xyka as we all looked forward in confusion. Nai pulled his orb forward and ignited it to be even larger and illuminating farther as he held it up far above our heads. “Whatever you’re doing, stop!” Nai commanded.

We caught just the smallest glimpse of an umbrum behind a tree.

And we got a very visceral feeling of fear as the tree creaked back and forth. Moaning and groaning with the sound of splintering wood as it cracked underneath its own weight.

Then it toppled forward directly towards us.

“Look out!” Xyka called as he practically pushed me forward as we used all our strength to pull Flitter out of the way, just as the tree crashed where we were standing only a moment ago.

I didn’t even have time to look back and think about our situation as Xyka began yanking forward on the rope. “We need to get going now!” Xyka ordered hastily. Considering I could feel that I wasn’t contributing much to the frantic pulling, I suspected that Nai-Xyka were doing most of the heavy lifting...

We began moving at as fast of a pace as possible through the rough terrain.

It was as if the entire umbral storm had returned to us in full force again. As we saw hundreds of shadows appear amongst the treeline, exceeding our pace as they ran ahead of us.

Then it suddenly clicked in my brain as I saw the umbrum up ahead of us. “Turn! Now!” I yelled to my companions.

They trusted me, and we made a sharp turn farther into the forest. Only a moment later, a few dozen trees toppled over in the direction we were running initially.

“Nice!” Xyka called.

Nai was looking all around us in quite the panic. “Guys, they’re everywhere. Running a different way won’t save us!”

I wish Nai had been joking.

In an instant, it became nearly impossible to tell which direction the umbrum were cutting trees in. There were a few falling down every second, going whichever way the tree pleased. We didn’t have time to chart a course or redirect our path. We were being forced in whichever direction didn’t result in being pancaked.

They were going to corner us if we didn’t figure something out quickly.

“What do we do!?” I asked in terrified panic as I glanced back at Flitter.

Considering for a moment that Flitter hadn’t even woken up for an event this drastic also put an enormous burden of fear on my back, as I wondered what could be wrong with her.

We dodged and ducked every single tree that was nearby. But the umbrum were getting much more precise with their cutting and the tree started falling dangerously close, too close for comfort.

There was echoing laughter now in the trees surrounding us as the umbrum were finding some sort of malicious glee out of trying to stop us, or worse.

“Look!” Xyka yelled while pointing his wing forward.

All three of us looked up, our eyes widening as the minute promise of respite entered our heads. Up ahead, the small blue wisp that had brought us together was floating, waving back and forth as if to beckon us in its direction.

“Follow it!” I called.

Once we were near enough to the wisp, it shot off in another direction. The odd zig-zag pattern the wisp was taking us along was unpredictable, and it showed as the trees would fall so far away from us that not even the branches would come close.

“Woohoo!” Xyka whooped in excitement. “Try again filthy umbrum!”

Xyka’s adrenaline was going to get us in trouble with his insults soon enough, I felt.

The umbrum scrambled and struggled to adapt their plan to the completely unpredictable escape plan that the wisp was directing us in. They got close to flattening us a few times afterwards, but nothing was nearly as close as before.

Up ahead, I could make out a clearing where the trees gave way, and I picked up speed in anticipation of reaching it. The wisp stopped up ahead within the clearing, and we were so close to being safe within its tree-less respite.

“Just up ahead! We’ll make it!” I called through struggling breaths.

But as the treeline got closer and closer and we put our stamina to the ultimate test, our view of our wisp companion became obstructed as an umbrum stood in front of us, blocking our path. Of course, we were confident that they would move out of the way of Nai’s light, so we continued.

But as we got closer and closer, the umbrum wasn’t moving… The approaching light did not phase them whatsoever as their shadowy figure stood still, completely unbothered and seeming to smile slowly.

My eyes widened in fear. Was the umbrum going to sacrifice itself to stop us before we reached the treeline?

I quickly glanced over. “We need to go around it. Quick!”

We did just that, taking a sharp right turn to go around the umbrum, but with no guidance forward at that moment, we ran right into the path of a falling tree.

I quickly dug my hooves into the dirt as we came to a screeching halt, the tree only missing us by a few feet.

We redirected ourselves in a different direction, but before we could gain speed, another tree fell in our path, and this happened again and again.

Until one minor mistake.

Just the smallest slip up.

I stumbled and fell forward into the dirt, rolling quite a few feet away from the cart and Nai-Xyka.

My wyvern companion immediately rushed over to help me up. “Kieran!” Nai called in concern.

Once they got to me and helped me up to my struggling hooves, my eyes widened in panic as I looked back towards the cart. “Flitter, we need-” My teeth seethed in pain as I took a few steps forward. “To help her…”

At that moment, a tree fell right in our path between Flitter.

“NO!” I yelled angrily while running towards the downed tree and scrambling over it. Nai-Xyka quickly followed at my side.

When we hauled ourselves over the downed tree, I glimpsed Flitter and the cart for only a moment before the shadowy tendril of an umbrum grabbed hold of the entire cart. Pulling Flitter with it as it disappeared into the darkness beyond my vision.

“Give her back!” I screamed.

Nai-Xyka looked shocked. The umbrum had pulled her away so fast they couldn’t have possibly blasted it away with their light.

I forced myself the rest of the way over the log and started running. I know I was running into the forest with them… but I had to! They had taken Flitter!

“Kieran, wait!” Xyka called after me in a panic.

“She is not yours!” I yelled loudly with rage as I continued to run forward.

“Kieran!!!” Nai yelled even louder than Xyka. I heard the crash of another tree behind me and heard a very loud cry of pain.

The desperation in the cry was enough to make me glance back, and what I saw filled me with chills and made my blood run ice cold.

Nai’s wing got trapped beneath the weight of one of the fallen tree’s branches. And Nai was howling in pain as Xyka seethed through his teeth.

I froze at that moment.

Nai-Xyka needed my help, but… Flitter…

Nai looked up at me with pain, trying to mask it for a second, even though the pain was still plainly evident on his face. His eyes went wide, and Nai did something I really didn’t expect.

He tossed his light orb in my direction. Immediately, the sound of hissing umbrum screeched in my ears. I turned my head swiftly to see about a dozen umbrum slinking away from the light that had suddenly surrounded me like a protective barrier.

“Nai! Xyka!” I yelled as I looked back at them in a panic, only to realize that they weren’t there anymore.

As if they were a ghost, they had just… disappeared…

The umbrum had taken Nai-Xyka too…

I looked all around me as I screamed in panic. What was I supposed to do? They were both gone! All I could hope to do is to find help and try to get them both back, but how do I do that now!?

I lowered my hoof to Nai’s orb, and surprisingly, found that it had a physical form that I could pick up. I gingerly picked up the orb, holding it against my chest in one hoof as my mind reeled in panic.

My breathing quickened, and my vision blurring at my headache of a situation.

What do I do?

What do I do??

What am I supposed to do!??

…

His orb is still here, that meant he was still fine, right!?

And Flitter? Would they use her against me?

…

I heard more trees cracking around me as I tried to stifle the panic attack coming upon me. Quickly deciding to run into the clearing from before, which I did swiftly without the weight of Flitter behind me.

The moment I entered the large open field, the umbral storm descended on me at full force. As a deep darkness surrounded me and swirled around me in a circle. Hundreds of eyes looking at me from just beyond the reaches of the orb as I heard laughter. They sounded happy.

They were enjoying this.

No matter where I walked, the thick fog of darkness and umbrum would follow. There was no escaping them. I could run forever and never escape from the prison of shadows surrounding me. They had my friends and…

Discord was right. This was exactly what he’d shown to me, and it was all my fault. I ignored his warning. I brought my friend into this. And Nai-Xyka felt the need to stay behind and help me as well.

“Fine, then!” I looked all around me with a look of panic and acceptance. “Take me!”

Tears brimmed my eyes as I stopped trying to run around, my legs and hooves giving out underneath me as they wobbled. “Just give them back! You can have me. Do whatever you want with me, I give up!” I sobbed through a stream of tears.

“Let my friends go.” I begged, pleaded, as my face made its way into the dirt.

They could have me, if they were going to hurt my friends. If I didn’t surrender, then I would.

“Just give them back…” I sobbed into the ground, “They’re all I have…”

Nai’s orb next to me flickered like a candle about to be blown out, and I continued to hold on to it as tears streamed down my face. Releasing a whimper of heartache as the light of the orb finally went out as it withered and died between my hoof and chest.

…

And everything was silent.

…

Why had the umbrum not attacked me yet..?

“Little one,”

It was that voice, the same one from earlier.

A touch came upon my back, a gentle touch. But I flinched and recoiled at the feeling all the same. I felt a hoof lower itself beneath my chin and gently prod at me to raise it. Though I was terrified, I allowed it. My shivering form only grew more confused as I allowed my head to be lifted with the carefulness of a mother comforting her charge.

“Open your eyes, my child.” It cooed softly.

I opened my eyes slowly.

There was a mare standing in front of me now, a gray unicorn with a mane that flowed like shadows, black and purple mixing into a smoke that swept down her form like a dress. Her eyes were a bright yet soft green, purple smoke emanating from their sides. With bright red and piercing eyes. She wore silver armor across her chest and hooves adorned with red gems that reminded me of how the princesses would adorn themselves.

She was terrifyingly beautiful.

At first, I looked at her in confusion. Was she here to save me? Was I going to be safe after all?

But something about her bright green eyes with the shadows emanating out of them immediately raised alarms in my head as I jerked myself away from her in a squeal of sudden panic.

She smiled in amusement. “There’s no reason to be frightened, my child.” She muttered .

“No!” I recoiled from her and shook my head vigorously, “No, no, no, you’re an imperator!”

She tilted her head and pursed her lips. “I can’t say I’ve heard that title before, little one.”

“An umbrum then!” I shook violently as my breathing intensified. “You’re an umbrum!”

She hummed, taking a few steps towards me, “And why is that such an awful thing, dear?” She asked with a mirthful yet quiet laugh, as if I was a child misbehaving. Her voice was smooth as silk and felt just as deadly as a spider’s web.

When she got closer, I held up my hooves defensively to cover myself. “What do you want!?”

She sighed, a smile still covering her face. “I came to thank you.”

My mind reeled as I slowly lowered my hooves and looked at her in bewilderment. Just what did I do that would make the hateful and resent filled umbrum look at me with thanks? What awful atrocity had I committed for an umbrum to show me respect? What could she possibly want?

“You did what my son could not accomplish.” She said eagerly, as if it was obvious.

“What…” I shuddered, “What do you mean..?”

She titered, “You my child! You freed us from our imprisonment!” She said happily, a relieved and gleeful expression crossing her face. “It’s all thanks to you and that brilliant release of magic you had!”

I shook my head in denial, “N-No, I… I didn’t… I wasn’t trying to!” I yelled in protest.

“There’s no need to scream at me, little one.” She said, getting even closer, “Is that any way to speak to your queen?”

“Q-Queen?” I muttered in a tiny voice as my panic grew by the second.

“What a loyal little one you are. Freeing your queen from her imprisonment by fooling with that awful royal family long enough for their daughter to unleash your magic for you to use. Brilliant.” She leaned downward as she cooed, “It must’ve been so awful being stuck with them, was it not?”

“W-Whatever I did to free you was an accident. Umbrum are bad…” I countered with shaky breaths, “You’re not my queen.”

She frowned at that, as she almost seemed sadden by my reaction. “My child, I gave you life again, and you still think I’m not on your side?”

“W-What..?” I said in complete shock as I tried to move backwards even farther, but she moved forward after me before I could get away from her, placing a gentle hoof on my back.

“Forgive me for not introducing myself.” She hummed, “I am Queen Rabia. Queen of the umbrum. And your new mother.”

I pushed myself away from her. “What? No, you’re not!”

“And why not?” Rabia asked in genuine confusion, “You’ve accomplished what neither I nor my failure of a son could achieve in hundreds of years! You freed us from our imprisonment with your immense magic! And I gave you life, my dear!”

“Stop saying that!” I yelled.

“It’s true!” She raised her voice above mine. She released a reluctant sigh and turned towards her side. “Bring him out.”

I wondered what she was saying, as the storm of umbrum parted and gave passage to another new umbrum, who bowed immediately in her presence.

“Hello, Smoke Strike.” Rabia said.

Smoke… Strike..?

The umbrum nodded in reply. It looked indistinguishable from any of the other umbrum at that moment. Had Smoke always been one of them?

Rabia hummed, “He was… a fair bit weaker than I anticipated. So he didn’t seem to become a… what did you call me again? Oh yes, an imperator. But Smoke here has fully embraced himself as an umbrum.”

She huffed a laugh. “He helped me infest that little whelp of a princess with a seed of my magic. A sort of… parasite.” Rabia began pacing around me. “With her magic, I connected myself with the afterlife, searching for my perfect little soul to burrow. Someone filled with hatred, resentment, and everything else that those wretched ponies have made us umbrum feel for a thousand years.”

My eyes reduced to the size of pinpricks as I quivered in fear.

“You see…” she began, pacing back and forth as if she were my teacher. “When somepony dies in a way that scars their very soul, it can have certain benefits. All of that rage, hatred, resentment, jealousy—it all builds upon itself.” She approached me and loomed over me like a hungry spider, “And creates this perfect little consciousness of hatred. And oh do they ever stick out! Like a beacon of despair within the afterlife.”

“All of that brought me to you!” She said happily, “My perfect little foal, full of so much hatred and malice! And so much more capable of releasing the umbrum, and much smarter and more cunning than my failure son, Sombra. Your soul was so dark! Oh my, it was just splendid to see. I had to settle on you when I saw it!” She cooed with a happy sigh.

“No, no, no! I am not your… your new weapon!” I yelled in protest.

She tilted her head. “Oh, but your job is already complete, my little shadow. You’ve used the princess’s visage perfectly. I couldn’t possibly ask for more!” She giggled happily as she reached a hoof forward and caressed my cheek. “I would have you do nothing else for me! I came to collect you and just you, my little umbrum. Mother is finally here for you. I know it’s been a long wait.”

My eyes widened even more, and Rabia placed her other hoof to her chin in curiosity as she sat down, “Judging by your expression, you don’t seem to realize you’ve been an umbrum this whole time?”

“W-What?… B-But… I…”

“Yes, it is true…” Rabia said with a nod. “You’re still trapped within the body of that little princess, imprisoned by the residual vestiges of her magic. But on the inside of your soul, below this little facade… you… are just a little umbrum. Waiting for mommy to come and pull you out. Don’t worry, I’m here now, my child.” The way she said it made a chill wrack my spine.

Wait, was that why my horn had always rejected my magic? Is that why all I could do was blow myself up with smoke bombs..?

The smoke did always look rather odd… so dark…

Oh no…

She reached her hoof out towards me, and I jerked backwards immediately. “You’re not my mother! You’re not my friend, you’re not my queen, and I’m definitely never helping an umbrum!”

My words had the opposite effect, as Rabia seemed spurred on more by my words. “Oh, your hatred is just so adorable!” She cooed, “But it’s directed at the wrong ones, my dear.”

Rabia’s form faded away into the shadows that surrounded me as she disappeared. Her shadows swirled around me like its own mini tornado as I heard her voice around me. It was everywhere, yet I could feel the voice in my head at the same time.

“What have they ever done for you? Hmm?” Rabia tilted her head and fixed me with a pitying look.

“The little princess who brought you here. Too naïve to realize that her actions and words have consequences. She used you to play the role of a big sister and threw you out like trash when you wouldn’t be a little doll for her.” Rabia rolled her eyes dramatically.

She began mimicking Flurry’s voice.

“I wanted to fix everything that was still wrong…”

“I didn’t make you do anything!” Flurry’s voice shouted.

Rabia’s voice came back, “She pretends like she was perfect! That nothing that happened could’ve possibly have been her fault. Do you know what the little brat has been saying since you’ve run away?”

Without missing a beat, she switched back to Flurry’s voice with harsh fitfulness befitting a foal complaining. “Even if he never came back, nobody would care.”

“Momma, can you stop trying to find him? It’s not worth the trouble.”

“He’s probably living in the sewers like the annoying mistake he was.”

No… Flurry wouldn’t have said those things about me. I shook my head, “She wouldn’t… she couldn’t be talking like that about me…”

“Oh, but she could, my child.” Rabia interrupted my thoughts. “And that perfect mother of hers? That wretched princess of love that does nothing but spout false promises and exude fake love? Do you know how little she cared for you?”

I looked down at the ground as tears started brimming my eyes again, not wanting to accept the words coming out of her mouth as I held in a sob. “No…”

Cadence’s voice assaulted my ears angrily, as if she was ranting to one of her servants, “That little! Urgh!” she grunted in annoyance. “Why couldn’t he just wait for me to get home and calm him down? Then I wouldn’t have to have an Equestria wide search party for the little brat.”

“No, no, I don’t care if he was heartbroken by you, Flurry. You chased our little puppet off and now we have to start over again!”

No, she wouldn’t… This couldn’t be real…

“No, Bristle, I do not care if you find him anymore. If you do, he'll just get thrown in the dungeons anyway.”

“I’m glad he’s gone. His constant complaints about his gender were so unbelievably exhausting.” Cadance said with a frustrated sigh.

I started sobbing into my hooves as I wanted to cover my ears and drown her out. “Please stop…”

“Of course, my little shadow…” Rabia cooed as she materialized back into her own form again, laying on the ground next to me and pulling me against her barrel. “But now you see, when you arrived, you were already so perfect, my child. They were all disgusted by you, continuing to hope you’d stop seeing them with deserved hatred.”

She leaned in and whispered in my ear, my head swimming with a heavy fog of confusion, “Mommy will get you a new body more befitting of my perfect little prince. And then mommy will show those ponies not to mess with her little shadow, hmm? How does that sound, Kieran?” She said my name extra softly with the smoothness of silk.

“B-But… Nai-Xyka and Flitter… you took them!” I said, remembering my friends that were injured by her umbrum. “You hurt them!”

Rabia sighed, a hint of annoyance on her face as she looked out towards the surrounding storm of umbrum around us. “I can release them, and promise to leave them be for now. If it would satisfy you.” She waved one of her hooves towards the wall of shadows and umbrum.

Another gap opened in the umbral storm, and I could see Flitter lying untouched on the ground. And a few feet away was Nai-Xyka, who was kicking and struggling against the shadowy tendrils wrapped around their limbs and muzzles.

“Wait, let them go!” I stood up, debating running toward them or not.

Rabia sighed and waved her hoof yet again, and the umbrum holding Nai-Xyka dropped him to the ground. They picked themselves up with a moan of pain as they looked over at me. “Kieran..?” Nai asked carefully.

…

“What are you doing with an imperator?” Xyka growled dangerously, “Get away from our friend!” He shouted.

Rabia laughed mockingly. “I will not be getting away from my foal, little whelp.”

It was then that I realized the voice that we’d heard earlier that was mimicking his father had been Rabia. The way she put the same tone into the way she regarded him was far too similar.

Nai-Xyka both looked shell-shocked as they looked at me with wide eyes. They must’ve noticed that I was currently being coddled by the queen of the umbrum herself, against my own wishes. I could see the hint of betrayal cross over Xyka’s face as he put two and two together. “You’re… an umbrum.” He said darkly, “that’s what we’d been smelling this whole time. I knew it smelled familiar… Like darkness…” He chuckled darkly as his head fell to look at the ground.

I struggled out of Rabia’s grasp as I stood up in a panic, “N-No! Xyka I… I’m not… I’m still your friend!”

I looked at Nai, and he looked away from me, too. “I don’t know…” Nai’s face was full of worry and guilt.

“No, no!” I said desperately. “They don’t control me! I’m still me! She isn’t my-”

“What he’s hesitating to say is that your worries are misplaced. Umbrum aren’t that bad, little wyvern, and if that should be a problem then I have no worry of denying you of being friends with my little shadow.” Rabia interrupted me as I looked up at her in annoyance.

Xyka’s mouth formed a growl, but stopped himself and turned their back on me. “Should’ve known,” Xyka scoffed sadly as his head fell farther.

…

“Just go die or something, you filthy umbrum.”

…

I held my hoof out in shock as a fresh wave of tears overtook my eyes. The umbral storm closed off before I could say anything else as they once again disappeared into the wall of shadows.

Rabia’s muzzle came upon my side again and nuzzled me. “Aww… I’m so sorry that you scared them off, little one. It looks like the ones you thought were friends really hated you as well, deep down. But it’s okay, mommy is still right here. Mommy still loves and cares for you.” She cooed.

“Nai… Xyka..?” I huffed sadly, still sitting there in disbelief. I shouldn’t feel surprised by his words, but the coldness that Xyka had regarded me with had really stung deeply.

“I will still release them, dear, but it seems they will want nothing to do with you.” Rabia said soothingly, rubbing my back, “A shame… This is the reality for us umbrum, always hated, always outcast. But not by our own, no no, we stand by each other, my little prince.”

I choked on my tears as I struggled to come to terms with what she was saying and what was happening. “If you say you care, why should I believe you over everyone else?” I asked.

Rabia clicked her tongue, “When your magic shockwave broke us out of our prison, we were elated to come find you, my dear. We could’ve taken over the crystal empire right then and there while they recover from their destruction. We came to collect our own instead, to ensure your safety, and you’ve made quite the journey.” She giggled as she caressed my cheek. “But it’s over now. You don’t have to worry anymore.”

I pushed myself back and away from her. “No…”

…

“No, this is wrong…” I said while shaking my head. “Umbrum are hateful, evil beings. They hurt others for fun, others that never deserve it. Sombra enslaved an entire kingdom of innocent ponies!” I protested loudly as I glared up at Rabia.

She began pacing back and forth, eyeing me with scrutiny. “I find it adorable you speak of revenge as if it’s evil, my little one. When you arrived in Equestria, you were just as resentful as us all! Those little pranks of yours didn’t go unnoticed!”

“And how do you know about that?” I asked slowly, with a quiet tone. “If you were imprisoned, then how would you know?”

She scoffed. “You think I would allow you to just run free after I give you life?”

“You were watching me?” I said with mild surprise, though it was becoming more of a blanket of acceptance of this crazy situation.

…

I shook my head and stomped my hoof, “If being an umbrum is like that, then I want nothing to do with it!”

Rabia’s face fell into a stoic expression that was unreadable to me. But I’d be lying to say it didn’t frighten me. She gestured up and around us with her hooves. “And what, you’d rather pretend to be a fake pony princess than be with us? Your own kind? Where are those precious pony princesses that they all worship right now, little one? Don’t you think they’d have found you by now? That they cared about their newest ‘family’ member missing?” She scoffed in admonishment. “They gave up on you! Don’t you see that? They want nothing to do with your dark little heart!” She said with a short growl at the end.

Immediately afterward, she composed herself and cleared her throat. “I think you are just struggling to face your reality. Left alone in darkness, and reborn in it all the same. And those who still praise the light, harmony and ponies? They will never love you, and they do not suit you at all.”

I sobbed sadly, “I don’t want to be a dark creature hated by everyone. I want to be in the light…” I cried to myself softly.

Suddenly an epiphany suddenly overtook the queen of shadows. “Perhaps… you’ve just forgotten where you came from? That must be it.”

She disappeared into the shadows again, leaving me to grapple with what that meant.

I suddenly heard a voice, a familiar one.

And one that I never wanted to hear again, not since I got here…

“They don’t care about you.”

No…

No, no, no… why could she use his voice?

…

Why?...

…

“Or are you really so pathetic you’d rather pretend and be naïve?” The voice of Damon met my ears again. Making my body quiver as my mind tried to close itself off to deal with the shock.

“Nobody ever cares about us, Kieran. Nobody accepts street rats like us. All we do is get in their way.”

My body fell into the dirt as I covered my head. “Stop it!” I yelled.

Damon’s voice laughed. “What? You think the truth will change just because you screamed and cried about it enough?”

The voice sneered as it got even closer to me. “I left you to die because you’re weak. You got in my way. You mean nothing to me. And now you think these ponies are going to think differently?”

“NO! NO! STOP TALKING!” I covered my ears as I tried to drown the voice out.

“Though I have to thank you for taking that shot for me. It saved me a lot of pain. Can’t say I didn’t feel some remorse running from your body. But hey, it’s a jungle out there, kiddo.”

“STOP!” I yelled, standing to my hooves and growling with intense anger and hatred.

Rabia’s voice appeared next to me, “Perfect. Wonderful. Hold on to that feeling right now, Kieran. Let it consume you, let your hatred fill every limb of your body until nothing remains but shadows.” She laughed.

She appeared on my side, letting her mane envelop me as she looked down at me eagerly. “Only mommy loves you. Nobody else will accept you ever again, sweetie.”

Her words were like a dark, thick haze, one that enveloped my mind. Making painful aches wrack through my head as I kept hearing his words and reliving old memories.

For a few moments, I tried to resist the growing urge of emotion. But it soon gave way to her suggestions, to let it all flow through me. The memories of my past life invaded my head, only making me get angrier and more resentful by the second. It felt like I had no choice, like I had to remember. The anger came so easily with it.

It felt so incredibly easy to hate…

Maybe everyone deserved what they had coming to them? Maybe it would feel good to stand with the umbrum as their prince and look down on the pitiful ponies with resentment and hatred?

I could stand at the top! With an infinite amount of power, I’d have a mother that’s proud of me for doing what I’m best at and making everyone else miserable! How bad could it possibly be? I would be a king one day!

Maybe everyone else just needed to know what it felt like to be hated! To have no family left and be alone!

Maybe I…

I…

I felt tears running down my cheek and quickly wiped them away.

How dare those awful ponies make me cry? Who did they think they were treating me like I’m some sort of toy for their disposal? How dare they think they can keep me from figuring out just how important I am!?

…

NO!..

No…

…

I shook my head

…

No.

How dare I even think of believing a word this umbrum had to say?

…

The umbrum tore apart Nai-Xyka’s family.

Flitter was in a critically injured state because the umbrum wanted me so badly.

The umbrum enslaved the crystal ponies for hundreds of years.

…

This is exactly what the umbrum wants. They want me to give into hatred and become their little puppet to use against everyone else. They want to use me more than anyone, more than any lie that I told myself in the past about Cadance and Flurry.

No matter what she says, Rabia is not above using me. Not above faking words to win me over herself.

I could now see the extent of where my path with her would take me. The dark and dangerous, the uncaring, the lonely path of hatred and solitude of deciding to give up on everything and simply hate just because it made me feel slightly better at the moment. And it disgusted me.

The umbrum are darkness, evil, and death.

I don’t want to be any of those things anymore!

I will NOT be a puppet!

…

I had so much to return to now…

Cadence was proud of me… for just being me, and nothing else.

Shining was proud of my bravery…

And Flurry was proud of my resilience.

…

Luna appreciated my honesty.

Sage appreciated my innocence.

Flitter appreciated my naivety.

Nai-Xyka… appreciated just having someone around who understands their feelings when they’re going through their darkest moments.

The darkest moments that were forced upon them by the umbrum and their vile acts.

By Rabia.

…

Rabia is darkness and evil.

And I am not.

…

I am not hers.

…

I stood up, steeled my expression, and turned around to meet Rabia’s gaze again.

She stared at me in anticipation as I raised my head to look at her. I released a long sigh with a small laugh of acceptance at the end. Rabia’s face crept with a smile that struck me as particularly evil, as if she thought she’d convinced me of her ways.

I scoffed at her, and spoke low, “I’m never going to be one of you. And you’re insane if you think I’d ever consider you my mother.”

…

Rabia’s expression immediately deflated into a rising anger that she couldn’t contain within her anymore. Her expression darkening as her mane flared with shadows, and her eyes billowed with purple smoke. Her hatred was as plain on her face as the mask she’d been wearing had thoroughly failed her.

“You sniveling little brat.” Rabia spat venomously.

It was then that I remembered I was still… well…

Facing down a literal queen of the umbrum…

She stomped a hoof forward as she loomed over me. “I offer you everything! Power, family, a new life, and you deny me!?” she said in disbelief, as if I had attacked her.

I simply nodded. “I’d rather be hated and abandoned by everyone than be evil and try to exact revenge. It just sounds so tiring, y’know? And it’s just… not right…” I said with a quick sigh.

I tilted my head back to look up at her looming over my comparatively small stature. “And I know you aren’t telling me the whole truth. You fully intend on using my alicorn body to rule over Equestria, don’t you? You’re probably not strong enough to even take over the crystal empire or any other kingdom unless you ‘corrupt’ me. Is that right?”

Rabia grunted and closed her eyes momentarily as she began shouting, “You had the perfect life set out for you. All that I asked of you is to be my good little foal, but no! Apparently that’s too hard!”

I suddenly found myself within her magic aura, gripping tightly around my neck as she choked me and lifted my body into the air. I pulled at my neck in desperation as I struggled to get any air, but it was magic that was far too strong for simple hooves to pull at, and I was completely helpless in her grasp.

“I have no qualms with throwing out that disgusting excuse for a soul inside of you and replacing it with one of my loyal shadows! You are NOTHING!” She screamed at me. “You’re just as much a failure as my son, Sombra! Thinking that you can rise above your maker like the hero of your own story book! Both of you are pathetic! Neither of you have, and ever will, mean anything to me! You’re just pawns that don’t understand your place!”

Gasping as I continued to struggle to breathe, gasping for breaths as my lungs screamed, I finally gave up on trying to fight back as my limbs went slack. I stared up at her with a tired expression and smiled as wide as possible, “Y-You’re… right.” I choked out, “But a-at least I-I’m… happy.” My vision began blurring because of the lack of oxygen.

Deciding to accept whatever my fate may be and closing my eyes so that I didn’t need to see anymore. Whatever she was about to do to me, I couldn’t stop. But I can make peace with knowing I never gave in, and tried my hardest at every step.

Well, you know… After the part where I figured out that I was wrong about everyone…

…

Nai-Xyka… I’m sorry that you’re going to fail your oath.

Flitter, I’m sorry I didn’t get you home.

Cadence, Shining, I’m sorry I never understood your words even though I needed them the most…

And Flurry… I’ll never call you big sister. But… I believe you, finally.

You never meant for any of this to happen, did you?

It’s okay, I forgive you.

…

Please don’t cry when I’m gone

…

Don’t… Don’t cry…

…

It’ll be over soon.

…

“Get away from my son!” I heard a voice shout.

I felt myself suddenly hit the ground as Rabia screeched in pain. I took large gasping breaths as I heaved and coughed. My eyes opened slightly just in time as I watched the fading light of a large beam of energy fading away. And Rabia stumbling backwards. She looked up with hatred and malice towards somebody new in the area.

It was only a few seconds later when I saw white legs in my vision, standing above me in a protective stance.

I looked up through blurred eyes, “Sh-Shining?” I said in complete disbelief, releasing a fit of coughing immediately afterward.

He took his eyes off her for only a single second to smile at me, before he lowered his stance even more. His horn alighted with an overwhelming surge of unicorn energy. He bared his teeth and glared dangerously. “Don’t you dare touch him, shadow.” Shining reiterated with a spiteful voice.

Rabia grunted, before scoffing and beginning to pace back and forth a few feet away. “The lustrous prince of the crystal kingdom,” she spat with hatred. “What brings you all the way out here? Did you get bored of playing prince in that ruined castle of yours?”

“I think the answer should be glaringly obvious.” Shining replied simply. “Or were you locked up for so long your mind wandered away from you?”

Rabia laughed, a loud mocking laughter as she fixed him with a fiery glare of judgement. “So you can collect your puppet for yourself? Is that what this is?” She laughed even more. “And what makes you think he wants anything from you, hmm?”

I immediately raised my hoof above my head, “I uh, do actually…”

“Quiet child,” Rabia hissed at me before looking at Shining with a smirk, “You really think you can win against me?”

“I don’t think I can win.” Shining sneered back, “I have to win.”

Without even giving her another second to monologue more, Shining’s horn erupted with a large and bright light that immediately illuminated the battlefield. Causing every umbrum to hiss and retreat in pain except for queen Rabia. Who just growled and rolled her eyes. “That won’t work.”

“Well, it does its job!” Shining replied swiftly, casting another spell that immediately confused Rabia as nothing happened for a second. Suddenly, the ground underneath her cracked and levitated before being hurled. The boulder of rock and pony sailed backwards into the forest with the force of a small meteor impact.

Shining immediately bent down and bit down on my scruff, pulling me up in his grasp as his head swiveled, looking for an immediate escape route. My eyes widened as I caught sight of both Flitter and Nai-Xyka who were barely recovering from being released from the shadows. “Shining! My friends!” I called out with a pointed hoof.

“On it.” He mumbled out the side of his mouth.

He galloped forward towards them. Nai-Xyka saw our approach as Nai head-butted Xyka, “I told you he wasn’t on their side!”

“But he was getting a big hug from her!”

“Have you ever heard of self preservation tactics!? He was probably about to attack her or something! Read between the lines, jeez.”

As we grew closer to them, Shining slowed down. “Hop on!” He commanded them.

Xyka saluted immediately. “Yes sir!”

The wyvern immediately grabbed hold of his side and hoisted themselves onto Shining’s back, where they perched like a bird. Shining quickly reached full speed again. I briefly wondered in panic what we were going to do with Flitter. Since she was the same size as Shining…

Shining proved my worries irrelevant as he just lifted her entire body with his magic aura and continued galloping at full speed without missing a beat. Which certainly works…

It wasn’t long before we heard a scream of absolute anger from behind us, and immediately the umbrum recovered and chased after us, lurking right behind us and at our sides as Shining pushed himself to move even faster.

The shadows chasing us now were darker and thicker than any fog that we’d seen yet.

“Nai-Xyka, any light left?” I called out to them.

Nai replied, “None!”

Xyka huffed, “A little!”

“If any of them get too close, blast them away!” I said.

“Okay!”

I waited in anticipation as I watched the umbrum follow at our same pace, only barely was Shining ahead of them. “Do you have a plan?” I asked upward towards Shining..

His determined and focused expression faltered for a second. “Mmmmm….” Shining hummed nervously, “I didn’t think this far.” He mumbled through clenched teeth.

Can’t fault him, honestly.

I was still in disbelief that he was here, and that he’d actually saved all of us. My eyes shined with excitement as I looked up at him. He was a hero!

Suddenly we came to a large drop, not quite a cliff face, but an extremely steep hill. “Hold on!” Shining said mostly for Nai-Xyka, as he carefully slid down the large gravel hill with a couple of rocks firmly attached to his hooves with magic.

Nai-Xyka giggled and cheered in excitement as I simply prayed that Shining didn’t fall face first and flatten me.

When we reached the bottom, Shining entered another dead sprint into the forest. He had gained a bit of distance in the shadows since the speed of sliding down the cliff awarded him so much distance on our pursuers, and he and fully planned on using it to his full advantage.

What he didn’t expect was for them to cut him off up ahead.

Shining came to a screeching halt as the wall of shadows approached from in front and behind. With little clue of how to run past them with all of his current cargo.

He looked in both directions. On one side was more forest and in front and behind us were dozens of umbrum steadily approaching. But to our left, a small cliff, and at the bottom, was a large swamp that seemed to stretch for a few miles.

Shining made his decision quickly.

Looking to our left, Shining only gave us one small warning of his idea. “Hold your breath!”

I did as commanded and took a large breath, and immediately afterward Shining dived into the swamp’s murky water on our left.

I immediately closed my eyes as I trusted Shining in his idea. Surely they couldn’t follow into the water if they were made of tangible shadows? Sort of like a smoke? I think Shining was hoping for the same thing.

I kept holding my breath, not sure if I’d ever get to resurface for another one. But Shining’s firm grasp on my scruff had me confident that he was fine, and by extension, I would be too. Just when holding my breath was becoming too much, and my body screamed at me to take another, we emerged with a large splash. I immediately took a large gasping breath, and by the sounds of it, so was everybody else. I coughed out water and breathed deeply over and over.

Suddenly the area became illuminated with the faint purple glow of Shining’s light. We were in a small bit of land that was underneath an overhang of roots and dirt that sprawled above the swamp and formed a small cave. Shining quickly lowered me to the ground as he laid down to collect his breath.

Nai-Xyka jumped off him and shook their bodies free of water.

Seeing Shining laying there, and all my friends here and safe.

…

I couldn’t help it. I moved forward between Shining’s hooves as he parted them preemptively for me, and I immediately buried my head in his chest. “Sh-Shining…” I whined with tears in my eyes.

Immediately, his front legs embraced me as he pulled me closer. “I’ve got you, I’m here.” I cried into his chest for a long time as he simply continued to stroke my mane and back soothingly.

I pulled back from sobbing into his already wet fur as I looked up at him, “H-How did you know?”

He hummed as he thought to himself, “A long story.” There was a pause as he scanned the room a bit. “Though by the looks of your friends… I’d say you probably have a similar answer.” He chuckled deeply, the feeling of which sent a wave of warmth and comfort straight through me. It almost made the freezing damp cave not feel so bad.

He leaned in and nuzzled the side of my face again. “I’m so glad to see you’re alright. I thought I was about to lose you to her.” He said softly and comfortingly, his voice almost breaking at his own words. Even just the feeling of his slightly unkempt beard brushing against my face made me feel warm and safe after so much horror.

“I’m still here.” I muttered quietly. “She… she… tried to change me.”

“But she didn’t. She didn’t break you,” Shining said as he pulled back and looked into my eyes. “You were too much for her to control with words.” He smiled widely. “I’m so proud of you.”

The entire dam broke inside my eyes as I shoved my head back into his chest and bawled like a baby. But I really didn’t care. I’m a foal, right? I’m allowed to bawl my eyes out.

Especially if my… dad… was saying those words to me.

“I-I missed you.” I sobbed.

“So did all of us back home, buddy.” Shining remarked, continuing to hold his hooves around me in a comforting hug. “It’ll all be alright now,” he promised me.

We stayed like that for a while, as I cried my eyes out into his chest. All the while, he held me close and rubbed my back while nuzzling my head. It was such a comforting and warming embrace I had to question how I ever thought this could be fake? This was who I belonged with, not those shadows.

Our embrace only broke off when Shining released the tightness in his hold. I looked up at him to wonder why, but he gestured with his head for me to look behind me. And when I did, I saw Nai-Xyka standing there, looking ashamed of themselves and on the verge of tears.

“Nai? Xyka?” My head fell sadly, and I looked at them with sympathy.

They stepped forward immediately, and Xyka bowed his head so close it almost touched the dirt. “I’m so sorry!”

Nai’s head followed. “We’re both sorry.”

I opened my mouth to say something but Xyka immediately looked up with regret and sadness, “I… I was so scared thinking you were an umbrum that we didn’t even second guess it.”

“Well…” I rubbed my hooves nervously. “It’s not a lie. I don’t think she was lying, anyway. I… I think I really am part umbrum.” My eyes found there way to the floor again.

…

I sighed sadly, “If you still h-hate me, I… I understand.”

The silence followed swiftly by Shining nuzzling me again from behind. “But you’re not like them,” he reminded me soothingly. “You're so much better than them.”

Nai sighed, “If… if you really are, then so what!” He finally said, putting his clawed wing to his chest.

I looked at him in surprise, even as Xyka immediately nodded with a puffed out chest. “You didn’t ask to be part umbrum. You actively dislike them, therefore you’re still our friend!”

I began tearing up again. “Thank you…” my voice broke slightly.

I again couldn’t help but lean backwards into Shining’s chest and soak up his affection once more. Shining chuckled and nuzzled me more. “You’ve had quite the change of heart I feel, Kieran.” He smiled widely down at me.

I looked up and couldn’t help but smile back, “I don’t know… I think I just needed friends.” I said before looking between Nai-Xyka and Flitter, who was still unconscious. Which was now worrying me more than ever as my wing folded sadly.

Shining followed my gaze, leaning in and inspecting the leaves wrapped around her leg and sniffing. He released a hearty chuckle afterward. “Well, she’ll be out for a while.”

“Huh?” I asked swiftly, whipping my head upward to him.

He nodded, “This plant you used… While it is a very good antiseptic preventer, it has a few… drawbacks.” He tried to contain a bit of his laughter. “It’s both a hallucinogenic and also has anesthetic properties. But most importantly… if it gets in the bloodstream, it can knock someone out for a couple of days.”

“How’d you know all that?” I titled my head while looking wide eyed.

He ruffled the top of my mane. “Part of being a guard is knowing how to be outdoorsy, kiddo.” My eyes glanced back over at her with a mixture of relief and worry still.

He huffed and nudged me with his muzzle. “She’ll be fine. She’s just having a really, really long and confusing nap.” He explained easily to me.

“Oh… okay.” I said unsurely, but feeling much better about how she’d seemed completely out cold like a rock for a few hours now. “Nice going sniffing it out, Nai.” Nai huffed with amusement.

After a moment, I felt Shining lift my left hoof up with his own. His expression was a mix of confusion, but with a wary smile. “Now, would you mind telling me why your arm is glowing golden…” He muttered questioningly, “And has two dragons and a heart on it?”

I giggled and looked down at it. “I don’t know. Ask the two culprits over there.” Shining shot a scrutinizing gaze up at the wyvern pair.

Xyka immediately stood their body at attention as he brought his wing up in a salute, “Um, it is a sacred… uh… oath of protection, we think… sir.”

“You think?” Shining repeated his words with his eyes squinting even harsher than before.

Nai stammered, “I-I-It is! An oath! We promise!”

“At ease soldier,” Shining said with a small huff of laughter, “Can’t say I know anything about you, your people, or your special form of… magic.” He said, while giving the symbol on my arm another glance.

“But as long as it isn’t anything that’s going to hurt my foal, then I’m okay with it for now.”

Nai nodded and bowed his head thankfully. “We wouldn’t think of hurting Kieran, sir!”

“Not even like… ten minutes ago when you thought I was evil?” I asked with folded hooves and a mischievous grin.

“Not fair.” Xyka immediately defended with a pout, and then withered under my gaze and pointed at Nai. “It was all his plan, I swear!”

“Was not, you were all like ‘grr, go die umbrum!’ and I was still on the fence.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Yah-huh.”

…

There was silence between me and Shining as we simply sat embraced while listening to the two brothers bicker for a little.

Surprisingly, after a little while, the small blue wisp from before floated into the small wet cave we were in. Immediately, all our heads turned on it.

“Hey… you again…” Shining said in surprise.

Me and Nai-Xyka looked up at him in shock, “Again?”

He nodded. “Yep, it led me to you.”

I looked back at the wisp and squinted my eyes. I was now growing very suspicious of what exactly the little blue wisp was. Even though I honestly had no clue whatsoever. The wisp started gesturing for us to follow it yet again.

Shining released a deep huff as he looked at us with a shine of confidence in his eyes. “Ready to get out of this forest?”

“Yes, please.” I groaned.

“Let’s try it.” Xyka said, following Nai, nodding his head.

Nai-Xyka began stretching their limbs as Xyka laughed, “Don’t worry about carrying us anymore. We can keep up, and then some.”

“I’m sure you can.” Shining said with a nod and a smile.

“What about Nai’s broken wing?” I suddenly remembered.

Nai shook his head. “It’ll be fine. It didn’t break, but that tree branch hurt really, really badly.”

I sighed in relief and nodded with a smile. Shining stood, he bent over, nuzzling my face harshly as I laughed, “It’s the last stretch. Let’s go home, shall we?”

Home… I would actually get to go home. For the first time in what felt like my entire life, I had somewhere I could go to and call home, and nobody would lie or pull the rug out from underneath me. I nodded as he grabbed my scruff and lit his horn. Making sure Flitter was securely within his magic’s grasp.

He commanded us to take another deep breath, and we did as he brought us up and out of the water and onto shore. It took the wandering umbrum in the area too long to react before Shining had already started another gallop, following closely behind the blue wisp again.

It had seemed like we were in the clear for now, even though a few umbrum noticed us. They were so far behind Shining that it would be a joke to outrun them now.

The only thing that remained was the storm overhead, thundering and flashing in its foreboding eminence as it harbored the shadows nearby. It was no wonder that the umbrum rode the storm around to get to places, along with its darkness. It made for very theatrical entrances for villainy.

Regardless of what felt like a free escape. The wisp was still leading us in a rather roundabout way. And so far, it seemed we were all in agreement that the wisp hadn’t led us astray yet. Even if the odd sharp turns were a bit jarring.

Though I wondered if the flashes of light from Nai-Xyka zipping around would draw any extra attention onto us.

Familiar wisps that could only entertain a description of city lights dawned on the horizon, through a gap in the treeline. Glimmering like a beacon of hope in the middle of chaos and terror that surrounded us. I pointed up eagerly, “We’re almost out!” I nearly felt like cheering.

Though was wondering how things would pan out… Were we just bringing an umbrum invasion into Ponyville instead?

Each time Nai-Xyka zipped up, I could see their eyes twinkle a little more at our prospective salvation.

“Oh!-”

“We’re really-”

“Close!” Nai said between each zip.

But something still felt odd.

Where was Rabia? She’s an ancient unicorn who knows dark magic with countless spells under her disposal. Surely she could keep up with Shining..?

We cleared the treeline out of the Everfree. Xyka whooped and hollered in excitement as the few umbrum who had been chasing us stopped. Not passing the border over the Everfree as they stared after us.

“Yeahaha! Take that, you dumb piles of smoke!” Xyka mocked loudly.

I looked back and couldn’t help but feel uneasy. Why were the umbrum not chasing? It was nighttime. Why did they not look upset about missing out on their prey? They just sat at the treeline with a cold and calculated look of anticipation.

There was booming thunder above us as my hair stood on end. A chill wracked my spine without reason, the smell of ozone heavy in the air around us as my mind practically screamed at me something was wrong.

My head spiked with pain again as I heard the same deep whispers. After a second, something in my mind clicked, but I didn’t quite know what.

“Sh…Shining? I think there’s something-”

My eyesight went completely white as the sound of an explosion rang out. Immediately it sent Shining to the ground. He had the instinct to grab hold of me with his front legs as he cushioned me from the impact of hitting the ground.

My mind went fuzzy, my brain blanked.

My ears rang loudly.

I smelled something burning, it smelled organic.

…

I first tried to open my eyes, focusing on trying to force two images into a single image. My hearing slowly recovered, and all I could hear was somebody shouting desperately.

Had we gotten struck by lightning?

I shook my head with confusion, trying to move my body as I realized that Shining’s grip around me had almost entirely given.

I stumbled to my legs, immediately falling into the grass before attempting to pick myself up again.

The first sight my eyes got was one that immediately made me gasp in horror. Shining was laying there, convulsing with static as he groaned in pain. “Shining!” I yelled desperately, as I almost laid a hoof on his side before thinking otherwise, “Shining! Are you-” What use was there in asking if he was okay? He clearly wasn’t!

I felt panic overtake my chest again as I breathed deeply and exhaled with far too much speed. What do I do? How do I help him?

Flitter’s body laid next to him in much the same situation.

Who else would find themselves injured because of me?

“K-Kieran!” I heard a choking gasp of desperation.

I immediately whipped my head in Nai’s direction. And my blood completely froze over as I felt a tightness grip my chest. Rabia was standing there, with a few dozen umbrum behind her. And she was holding Nai-Xyka in her magic and choking him tightly. She made it very clear how tightly she was doing it as Xyka clawed so desperately at his throat that he was making marks on his scales.

“Stop!” I yelled desperately.

Rabia only raised a brow and tilted her head as she continued to walk toward me at a leisurely pace. “And why would I do that? This little wyvern has put a dent in just about every single one of my plans.” She squeezed even tighter for a moment as she seethed through her teeth.

“Just a little light that needs to be snuffed out, just like their father.” She hissed.

My panic reaching a newfound height, I could do nothing but stomp my hoof desperately as I started crying, “Why are you hurting them? They haven’t done anything to you!”

Rabia rolled her eyes. “I just told you. And now, I’ll show you if you want to see for yourself so desperately.”

She stopped for a second to levitate Nai-Xyka in front of herself. Both wyverns cried desperately as their faces were turning bright blue and purple. “If I get rid of these two, then half my problems go away, don’t they? And maybe you’ll understand the futility of your actions.”

I saw the magic intensifying in her horn as both wyvern’s heads became rigid. She was choking the life out of them, and I couldn’t stand the sight.

“Stop that!” I screamed, before suddenly throwing myself forward and running towards her.

Was this Rabia’s last desperate attempt to fill me with hatred? To make me hate this world? If so, it was an awful choice. All it was doing was making me resent her with every fiber of my being.

She laughed. “And what are you going to do?” She mocked me cheerfully.

I don’t know what was filling me with this amount of energy. How I’d even scrounged up enough inside of my tiny worn out body to even stand on my own two hooves. Let alone blitz towards her at my maximum running speed as I released a tiny war cry full of all of my rage and resentment and desperation in that moment.

But I had somehow found it.

And I had to make it count in any way I could.

I had no plan, not even a vague inkling of understanding of if there was something else I could do. But to sit and watch her take one of my friend’s lives was not on the table. If I was going down, it was with her going with me.

As I got closer, Rabia only looked at me with more and more amusement as she cooed mockingly, “Aww, is my little shadow angry at mommy?” She scoffed and held Nai-Xyka above her head, “Well, just know you could’ve avoided ALL of this with a simple agreement!”

When I got near her, I felt something in my mind telling me to jump. I didn’t really know what it was, but I figured that pony instincts could take over for something at the very least.

So when I got near her, I crouched abruptly, putting as much strength into my back legs as I could muster, and pushed off. I must’ve broken the young foal's distance jumping world record. I jumped so hard that my legs almost immediately felt like they turned to jello at the moment.

This wasn’t just an issue of hurting my friends. She had manipulated me from the shadows from the very moment my hooves made landfall in Equestria. If anybody had been puppeteering me on strings, it was Rabia. And I had recently grown a fond hatred for the idea of being controlled..

Something about my perpetual feeling of inadequacy I’d developed in my time on Equestrian soil had changed. It made me grow more appreciative of those who choose to extend a helping hand to anyone they could, Cadance and Shining. Sage and Heath. Then Flitter and Nai-Xyka. They were all so incredibly nice, even patient in light of my inadequacy.

“Let. Them. Go!” I yelled as I sailed through the air towards her.

Suddenly, the small sigil on my left hoof lit up with a brilliant glow of light. The heart in the center and the two dragon heads burning as bright as one of Xyka’s light beams.

“What?” Rabia said with a dumbfounded expression.

Suddenly my two front hooves made an impact with Rabia’s chest, and though it had no effect on her physically, the magic around her horn almost immediately dimmed out of her horn until it was nothing but a flickering wisp of purple light. Struggling against her desperate attempt to light it up again as I fell ungracefully into the dirt in front of her. Nai-Xyka’s body fell directly next to mine as I panted heavily with confusion.

What was that? What did I just do?

Rabia must’ve been wondering the same thing as she grunted in rage, her horn flickering with light and then snuffing itself out over and over. “What did you do!?” she screeched at me, stumbling backwards in panic, as if the act of being near me was affecting her magic itself.

“Give it back!” She screamed at me. “I’ll stomp you and your pathetic light wyvern into the ground right now unless you give it back!”

Now her umbrum were surrounding me with similar expressions of anger. I had hurt their queen, and they were not pleased. Rabia stomped back towards me, as her horn flickered to life again, finally. And she made a hesitant expression of relief as her creepy smile crept back onto her muzzle. “It’s time to go, little shadow!” She said with impatience and anger as she flicked her hair back with a hoof. “Mommy’s got places to conquer, after we replace that soul inside you!”

Rabia’s horn lit up as she neared, only to get hit rather harshly by another beam of magic. My tired, wilted body looked up to see Shining sprint towards us in a haze of protective dad rage. His horn alighted with a brilliant display of just how much magic he had.

He first lit another burst of light, making her umbrum shriek and retreat again. And then cast another beam of concentrated magic in her direction. This time, though, Rabia simply blocked it and forced it in a different direction as her horn flared with dark magic.

Rabia’s mane flowed with darkness as she readied her own horn, her eyes turning crazy as her eye twitched at the sight of Shining. “You got hit by a lightning bolt, yet you still squirm like an insect!” She screamed as she readied about as much magic as she could muster. About four rings or sigils of magic appeared over her horn as she pointed in our direction, and my eyes widened in fear.

Shining slid to a halt over me and Nai-Xyka’s battered bodies and immediately lit his horn with another spell. Just as Rabia released a beam of dark looking magic that looked as if it could topple an entire army.

But Shining’s magic had erected a bubble around us, a barrier of magic that was heavily accentuated by the giant magic shield that was right in front of Shining’s horn. Her beam connected with his shield and immediately sent a brilliant clashing of dark red and purples in all directions as Shining grit his teeth and dug his hooves into the ground below us.

Shining grunted with stress as the beam continued to berate his shield intensely. All the while Rabia couldn’t help but begin chuckling and then grandly laughing as if she was enjoying his struggle. “Pathetic! All of you ponies are so pathetic. It makes me sick! Don’t you feel it, Kieran? Don’t you understand how much stronger hatred is? How much more free you feel!?”

Shining didn’t have any words to say. He couldn’t even if he desired to. He was too busy gritting his teeth, his face blanketed with an expression of struggle and concentration as his hooves ever so slowly began getting pushed through the dirt beneath us. Yet he stood as still and sturdy as a rock.

I couldn’t so much as move my body at that moment. All I could feel was Nai-Xyka at my side slowly stirring from having momentarily blacked out from their lack of breath. The first thing they did was gaze up in wonder at the ensuing battle before leaning down over me. They laid their body over my back protectively. I don’t know if it was an attempt to shield me from the potential attack, or if they just thought my body would be a soft pillow.

Either way, their warmth and protection made me tear up as I watched my father struggling against all odds to lay this nightmare of mine to rest. And all of it was to protect me… And maybe it was just because Cadance and Luna back home were distraught, if everyponies words were to be trusted.

“You can do it…” I said meekly, looking at Shining’s struggling face and expression. Even as the howling cackle of Rabia’s laughter and the sound of her beam attempted to drag away all the attention.

…

It didn’t matter who I used to be anymore. It didn’t matter if I was never a pony. It didn’t even matter if Shining was doing this to protect Equestria more than any motivation involving finding me.

He still needed me to believe in him, something I had sorely lacked since we met.

“You can… do it!” I attempted a bit more to rise above the clashing battle, as my voice barely failed to rise above the noise. My entire body burned and my throat screamed at me in protest for straining so hard.

Shining’s shield rippled with cracks all over, the shield in front of him breaking as I noticed his horn beginning to give. The barrier crackling and rippling more and more and threatening to shatter.

Rabia’s beam only continued to strengthen as she leaned her head forward in anticipation. Shining gritted his teeth as his shield began to splinter and dissipate back into magic particles while it disintegrated, his horn wavering in its glow like a flickering candlelight in a summer breeze.

I shook my head desperately as my heart pounded in my chest. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if Shining failed here. And Shining wouldn’t be able to move on, thinking he could’ve done more if Rabia managed to fulfill her wishes. I had to do something, anything. Anything at all!

“Sometimes the only thing you need is a small spark of hope deep inside your soul, and it can ignite the passion in everyone into a wildfire.”

“It’s a funny feeling, like an enchanting feeling on the wind rather than actual words.”

“Never know if you never try.”

I begged and pleaded to anything around me, to help him, to save him. I forced my two front hooves under me and looked up at Shining desperately. An abundance of particles of all colors combined and swirled into Shining’s barrier from just about every direction like a tidal wave of magic dust, and they all swarmed around me like a storm of magic fireflies, reaching up to my horn and lighting it up with a brilliant golden glow. At that moment, the symbol on my left hoof lit up again, and a burning ignited in my chest. I shouted from deep within my soul.

“Dad! You can do it! I believe in you!”

…

Shining immediately dug his hooves into the dirt harder, his expression of concentration and desperation turning into a determination as he glared forward deeply, his eyes sparkling with a newfound inspiration.

A set of brilliant golden wings flared out of Shining’s back, and his barrier thickened ten times stronger than it had been before.

The strength of the shield immediately absorbed Rabia’s attack as her eyes widened in horror. “What? NO!” Shining’s barrier fortified itself with the most overbearing and ludicrously extravagant shield possible. Which completely seemed to nullify Rabia’s attack as if it was being sucked into a black hole of magic energy.

When Rabia briefly stopped her barrage in confusion, Shining released a cry of rage in retaliation as his barrier formed a beam that looked exactly like Rabia’s, and shot it back at her with more than double the strength and size. It immediately enveloped the shadow queen as she released a scream and cry of pain.

For a few long and arduous moments, Shining redirected her attack at her with full force. Until her cries of pain had faded and all the magic his shield had absorbed had depleted.

I looked up in wonder at Shining. He was standing there gloriously with his horn lit with what seemed to be a tremendous boost in magic power. And it was easy to see why as the golden set of wings on his back continued to glitter and shimmer as they flared on his back.

Had I… done that?

Or had Shining ascended?

What was going on?

…

When Shining finished his retaliatory attack, his shield and bubble immediately disappeared and shattered around us, and his horn flickered into silence after the constant strain. Shining panted heavily as the golden wings on his back turned to dust and got swept away in the wind.

When the dust had settled after a few moments, Rabia was thrashing about, screaming and grunting with anger and malice. The horn on her head was gone, as most of it lay in the dirt in front of her. She grasped at it desperately in her hooves as she released a cry of anguish. “You… you!” She screamed, looking up at all of us with the last of her hatred.

Suddenly, the facade that she had been wearing this whole time gave way. No longer attempting to look like a unicorn queen, instead she looked like the grotesque, horrific monster that umbrum truly were. Her ghostly form and ghastly teeth forming a terrifying maw of anguish and now pure hatred as her form expanded and grew to form a monster of terrifying scale.

“I despise you all!” She announced, “Get them!” She commanded her surrounding umbrum with desperation.

Rabia’s magic was gone, and now that Shining’s magic had depleted, we were also in just as much trouble.

Shining, through all his panting and struggling to stand, still took a defensive stance over us as he readied himself to fight back.

“I will end you all!” Rabia spat.

…

“I think you’ve had more than enough chances.”

Everyone was confused, Rabia, Shining, Nai-Xyka, especially me.

Suddenly, the sun crested over the horizon, with very little regard to the unfortunate night and moon, who only moments before were resting comfortably in the sky. The sun didn’t care for things such as the morning being interrupted, as the natural order of the world had to be forced into a stasis.

Every single umbrum around Rabia screeched in pain as Rabia’s eyes turned to pinpricks of fear. Rabia’s limbs lit up with a bright cyan, almost white. As she was restrained by magic chains and held up in the air.

A shadow soared over our heads, right underneath the newly erected midday sun, as the very visage of Princess Celestia landed in front of us in all of her brilliant, splendid glory.

My jaw immediately went slack in surprise and wonder, as Celestia turned her head slightly and gave us all a very caring and mirthful smile. “Hello, my little ponies, and wyverns.”

Nai-Xyka, similar to the rest of us, sat enamored. And Xyka’s head tilted in complete mesmerized wonder, “P-P-P…. Princess Celestia.” He stated shakily as if he was meeting his favorite celebrity.

Well, he probably was.

Celestia giggled a bit, before turning her head and taking a few steps towards Rabia while giving her a sharp glare. “You won’t be doing anything more, witch!”

Suddenly, a rainbow streak shot across the sky, going from cloud to cloud and evaporating as much of the clouds overhead as possible. Another yellow pegasus joining her up above and gently nudging clouds away much slower than her companion.

Another set of three ponies came rushing in from behind us. An earth pony who looked western, an earth pony jittering with excitement but with a glare on her face, and a unicorn who looked dressed for the completely wrong occasion.

I didn’t really need to question it twice. These were the heroes of Equestria, Twilight’s friends.

We were safe.

“Lookin’ a little worse fer ware there, aren’t ya Shinin’?” Applejack said as she came up on our side.

Shining smiled in relief and nodded. “I can still move. Mind helping Flitter over there?”

Applejack tipped her hat. “Sure thing!” She looked down at me and Nai-Xyka and gave a wink before walking over to Flitter and hoofing her onto her back easily before trotting back into the town with a clear path in mind.

“Oh, darling, are you all alright?” Rarity asked, especially as she looked down at me and Nai-Xyka.

Pinkie gasped, “Oh my gosh! You guys look like you just hauled your friend miles through the Everfree forest while being chased by umbrum and a really really mean queen who is extremely obsessed with acquiring Kieran’s body and corrupting him so that they could take over Equestria and bring an end to love and friendship as we know it!”

Nai and Xyka both looked at her in wonder as Xyka turned his head towards me, “Man she’s good!” He suddenly whispered.

“I refuse!”

Everyone turned to see Rabia screeching and thrashing in her binds as much as possible, as she struggled against Celestia’s immense magic. “You can't KILL ME! I'm a shadow! I'll ALWAYS return!”

She suddenly looked in my direction as she glared harshly, “And you'll even let this traitorous BRAT live amongst you!?” She screamed in my direction.

"Silence."

...

Celestia said the word coldly, as her voice rang through the area loudly like she had yelled it. But she hadn't done so much as speak…

“Your deeds against Equestria have gone long enough without punishment. This most recent attempt has been nothing but a clambering desperation of naivety that only an evil soul could justify the worth of. You had nothing but a rudimentary plan of corrupting Kieran.” Celestia scoffed with disdain.

Celestia then held her head high and gazed down on Rabia with a deep scowl. “But you’ve underestimated your target. You were too weak to do anything yourself, so instead you attempted to use my nephew as one of your pawns.” Celestia’s eyes glowed with a terrifying and cold, yet bright golden gleam.

“Your nephew?” Rabia spat in a crazed laugh, “He wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t FOR ME!” she screamed in protest. “I MADE HIM!”

Celestia smiled sweetly. “And I thank you for that. It will go down as your one and only accomplishment in your… What was it again? Three attempts at taking over Equestria now?”

Cold Celestia, cold.

“And I would have succeeded if-”

“But you didn’t,” Celestia interrupted harshly, her voice now raising until Rabia’s words sounded like little more than the sniveling attempts of a foal trying to counter their mother’s argument. “You have not, and will never, succeed. It has become clear that a simple imprisonment will no longer work for someone so full of hatred as you.” Celestia’s horn glowed with pure white energy as her expression steeled with a choice already made within her mind.

“No! You can’t!” Rabia screamed more, thrashing in her binds.

“You have been judged. A heart full of darkness and hatred. I understand you and the umbrum now. I could lend another thousand years and you would never possibly see reason. There isn’t anything I could possibly do to rid you of the corruption in your emotions. It’s over, Rabia.” Celestia announced as her wings flared outward and her horn’s magic shot upward into the sky in a brilliant display of power.

“NO! NO-”

Rabia’s screams drowned out as a giant beam of light coming directly from the sky descended upon Rabia and her remaining withering umbrum like a judgment of the celestial body itself. Rabia’s voice could not reach us for long afterwards before fading away into the light.

Nai-Xyka shot up in excitement, as Xyka pumped his wing upwards in victory and whooped with joy. “WOO! Yeah! Taste the sunlight, kjøtir!”

Nai hit the back of his head, “You know momma hates that language.” He interrupted him with a growl.

Nai and Xyka almost immediately afterwards collapsed into the ground, their body making a thudding noise as I looked down with worry, though I could not move my body other than the most simple motor functions. “Nai-Xyka…” I rasped out worriedly as I nuzzled my head against their back.

Shining just chuckled, before getting to his feet with a struggle as Rarity and Pinkie both joined at his sides to support him. Shortly after, Shining gently collected me with his magic and pulled me up into one of his front hooves. “Kieran… that was you a minute ago wasn’t it?”

I looked up and gave a slight shrug and a smile. Shining just shook his head in slight disbelief, a small chuckle escaping his lips as he leaned forward and set his head against mine. Looking into my eyes with pride and love, “I’m so incredibly proud of you Kieran.”

I giggled unsurely. “I don’t even know what I did!” I replied.

Shining smirked at me. “You saved my life is what you did. And… probably Nai-Xyka, Flitter, yourself… It’s something that not many can claim to have accomplished. Be proud of yourself Kieran.” His expression shined with an overbearing amount of pride as I really let his words sink in. “At least as proud of yourself as I am of you.”

My face must’ve turned bright red as I pulled myself closer to him to hide it. “Thank you…” I muttered, my head a mess of exhaustion and relief.

I watched suddenly as Nai-Xyka’s body below us was enveloped in Celestia’s magic and then felt my struggling body get wrapped in it all the same. Shining gently let go of me and looked on in confusion. She brought us both over to her and onto her back before giving Shining a brief smile of reassurance.

I immediately sank into her ultra soft fur. Reminded me of Cadance…

“You shouldn’t bear the extra weight, Shining. You’ve already expended more magic than most ponies should in such a short time.” She explained with a smile as she came up on his side.

“I think you might be right,” He said with a sudden sigh, as he reached his hoof up towards me and stroked my mane gently. “You can rest now Kieran, you’re in safe hooves.”

“Okay… dad…” I replied quietly, getting another beaming smile of happiness from Shining as he gave me a succinct last nuzzle.

Shining nodded towards his companions, as Pinkie and Rarity recovered from daw-ing at the interaction before helping him to walk at Celestia’s side. Soon enough, Rainbow and Fluttershy swooped down to hover above the princess.

“We saw a few of the umbrum escape through the trees, Princess. Should we go after them?” Rainbow asked with unease.

Celestia continued to trot onward. “Worry not. The umbrum without a queen will be no issue. We will send patrols over the Everfree to search for their remaining.” Rainbow saluted and sped forward, as Fluttershy hovered next to her friends and examined Shining with curiosity. Especially as she kept looking between his back and her own wings in concern, as if Shining had temporarily stolen them from her.

“I wouldn’t be so hasty to write them off, Princess…” Xyka coughed quietly, “Without a queen or not… the umbrum are… resilient. Their hatred has no end.” Xyka finished with a loud sigh.

Celestia stayed silent for a minute, before humming curiously, “I would inquire, young wyvern. But please, rest. You have played your role in helping my nephew exceptionally.” Celestia said sympathetically, “Your troubles are over now, little ones. Rest now.” She reassured us while shining a smile back at us. My eyes met hers and I could feel a great calmness wash over me.

I could tell Xyka had passed out like his brother had not very long ago, as his head slumped against her fur, and I couldn’t help it as my vision began blurring. I slowly ended up lowering my head until I fell next to Nai and Xyka’s with a great feeling of relief washing around inside my chest.

And now that the adrenaline was wearing off…

I realized just how awful I felt.

And quickly passed out.