New World

One day later...

Twilight was going back to Ponyville. She had managed to convince her brother and Princess Celestia she felt fine, although she didn't. Ever since the nightmare, Twilight felt a bit... Different. Every time there was a place she couldn't quite see properly because of some shadows, she felt like she was being watched. And occasionally, she would see a pair of purple eyes, similair to those she had seen after levitating that orb, digging into hers. But before she could see to who, or what, the eyes belonged, they dissapeared. And there was nothing that could prove that somepony, or something, was there. She also got tired more easily. The doctors had said that that, and her nightmare, were just side-effects of the poison. But she knew better.

'Something was angry at me for using magic on that orb. And I think it still is,' she thought, looking at one of the villages she was flying over. 'I wonder why that creature was so defensive about it's so called powers. And that reminds me, what's an Enderman?'

"Miss Sparkle?" One of the guards said, snapping Twilight out of her thoughts.

"Yes?"

"We've almost reached Ponyville." the guard said in a strict, but not unfriendly tone. "We're about to land."

"Understood." 'I really hope the girls and Spike haven't gotten into too much trouble. I have more than enough problems on my own.'

Bringing the wounded creature into her cottage had been a real chore. Especially because she had to find Mister Bear first and then she had to wait untill night, because the sun seemed to hurt it. After it had been placed on her couch she had closed all the curtains so the sun couldn't hurt it.

It really was an odd creature. Three meters tall, extremely skinny, a skin that was practicly stretched over it's bones and in a very dark shade of purple (almost black), purple glowing eyes, three long claws at the end of each front leg and not a single hair. It also faintly glowed with a purple aura. She had never heard of or seen such a creature before. The closest thing to it that she knew of were primates. Was it some kind of advanced primate? Or was it an entirely new species on it's own? Either way, she treated it's wounds as best as she could. The worst wound it had was in its left eye. Even though she had removed the arrow, the eye didn't glow like the other one. The creature was probably permanently half-blind.

'If only angel would leave it alone.' She thought, giving the bunny in question a dissaproving look. He just glared back, making motions with it's paws. It was almost as if he was trying to say: "Get that thing of the couch!"

"I know that that's your spot, but can't you see that creature is badly hurt?" she said sternly. "Besides, it needs it's rest and you're not really helping." Angel just shrugged and continuedto try to push the creature off the couch. But the creature was way to big and heavy for the small bunny. In fact, the creature didn't even fit on the couch. It's hind legs were sticking out over the edge, laying on the floor.

"If you're going to keep acting like that, you won't get any desserts this week." That seemed to get Angels attention. He sighed in defeat and hopped of the couch, walking over to a cushion.

"Now that's a good bunny. Now behave while I replace its bandages." She trotted over to the creature, carrying her first aid kit. She clicked it open and picked up the scissors, cutting loose the bandages. The wounds had healed quicker then she had expected. They were still open and infected, but they were clearly less swollen and had started to close already. Just as she had removed the last bandages, the creature began to stir. It's eyes shot open and it suddenly sat up straight. It immediatly collapsed again, making a noise similar to the screeching of a crayon on a blackboard and clutching it's upper body in pain.

"Eep!" she said, hiding underneath her table in fear.

He heard a strange noise after he had collapsed on the couch and looked around for it's source. Underneath a piece of odly shaped wood was one of those sheep. It looked odly familiar but he couldn't quite put his claw on it. One thing was for sure, the sheep was afraid of him. Finally, some respect! But why was he in this house? Had the frightened sheep helped him? He tried to get up, but his wounds felt like they were on fire, making him moan in pain.

"Oh my. Do you need help?" the sheep said, getting out of, judging by it's voice it was a she, her hiding spot and walking over to him. Help him? If any of his brethern had been here at the moment she had said that, he would have been the laughing stock of his species. The Endermen were proud creatures and never needed help. Until today, that had been true.

"So, umm, need help?" She said after getting no reaction at first, her voice soft and gentle. He hestitantly nodded, going against his pride. He took a look at the sheep while she carefully applied bandages to his wounds. Her coat was a light shade of yellow and her mane and tail were a soft pink. Her eyes were blue and had a soft and caring look in them. The only thing that actually confused him was the mark on her flanks. Did they mean something?

While she applied the bandages she noticed it took a good look at her, but not in a bad way. Quite a few stallions outside of Ponyville had taken a good look at her, but they often had that scary look in their eyes. Their eyes would look in a... seductive way at her. But, fortunately, none of the stallions in Ponyville were like that. And apparently, neither was the creature. It looked curious, squinting it's good eye when it's eye stopped at her flank.

She finished applying the bandages, backing up to give it some space. It lifted it's left front leg and pointed at her flank and then shrugging.

"That's my cutie mark. It represents my special talent." she explained. It seemed content with the answer. It then pointed at her and shrugged. "Oh! I completely forgot about introducing myself! I'm Fluttershy. Do you have a name?" It shook it's head. "Oh... That's too bad. Can I give you one?" It seemed to think about the idea, and then nodded, but slowly.

"Your skin is very dark and you don't like the sun, so how about... Shade?" Nod. Just as she wanted to ask more things about the creature, somepony knocked on the door.

Fluttershy made for the door while Shade hoped the one at the door wasn't about to come in. The past two days had proven that the sheep are easily scared by his appearance, and he really wanted to avoid being seen in his current condition. He couldn't hear what the conversation was about, but the visitor sounded a bit excited. He heard the door close a few moments later, but Fluttershy didn't come back. Having nothing else to do, he decided to just lie down, hope that no one else comes inside the house and wait for Fluttershy to return.

"Are you okay Pinkie?" Fluttershy asked Pinkie. She knew she was less energetic and cheery then normal, but she really didn't want to tell Fluttershy about IT.

"I'm fine! Just a bit tired. I didn't sleep too well the last two days." It wasn't a complete lie. She really had some trouble with sleeping these last two days. The first was because of IT, and the second was because she was too scared to sleep at all. "But don't worry about silly old me, we need to hurry up! Twilight's comming back, remember?" Pinkie said, walking faster and putting up a fake smile.

"I know, it's just... the last few days have been kind of... strange." the yellow pegasus said uneasily.

'You have no idea how right you are,' Pinkie thought. In a few moments they reached the library, already seeing the rest of their friends. They all looked a bit uneasy. 'Looks like I'm not the only who had it rough these days.' Even Spike, now almost a head taller then she was, looked a bit uneasy.* 'Can't blame him.'

The guards started descending when the carriage was only a hundred meters away from Ponyville. The first odd thing she noticed was that Rainbow Dash wasn't already flying next to the carriage. The second thing was that Pinkie Pie wasn't busy bouncing and waving at Twilight. The third thing was the way Spike moved. He kept looking from her to her friends, as if he had the feeling he was missing something. When the carriage landed, she noticed why Spike was looking around nervously. Pinkie's mane was a bit dull and straighter then normal and she was missing her trademark grin. Fluttershy kept glancing at the road to her cottage. Rarity seemed lost in thought, but in a bad way and her mane was out of shape. Applejack looked pale and seemed about to fall over. Rainbow's left wing had a bandages around it, her left hind leg was swollen and her back looked a bit misshaped. Spike had walked over to her, occasionally glancing at one of her friends.

"Twilight," he whispered, his voice worried. "Something's up. And I don't like it." She walked over to her friends and stopped in front of them.

"Get in the library, and tell me everything that I missed." she said, her voice making it clear that she wouldn't take no for an answer. When everypony, including Spike, had gotten inside, she sighed. "This is going to be one of those days, isn't it?"