Dimensional Chronicles

Twilight woke up the next morning to the sound of somebody knocking on her door. Spike was still asleep, so she got up to answer it herself, almost knocking one of the masks off her desk in the process. She opened the door, there was nobody there and she was about to close it when the pumpkin, that Gavla had insisted she leave where it was, started to rattle and bounce. This was apparently what Gavla had been waiting for on the couch because her eyes snapped open and before Twilight even knew what was happening, Gavla had slammed her away from the door.

“Come on, come on, mama needs a new set of wings.” Gavla said excitedly; a cracking sound pealed trough the air. Twilight looked up from the pile of books she had landed in and gasped in horror. Gavla had three blue and green, leech-like, creatures attached to her. They fell off and Twilight flung them out the door, slamming it.

Gavla started laughing, her coat turning a darker shade of blue, her mane turned black, keeping the silver streak, she grew fangs and her cutie mark, which had been an indistinct blob, focused into a swirl of darkness. But the most surprising changes were the huge, bat-like wings that sprouted from her back and the blades that slid out from her outstretched hooves. They retracted with a sickening ‘shlic’ noise and she got back down on all fours.

“Finally, how I’ve missed you.” She brought a wing around to her face, nuzzling it affectionately; she looked down at Twilight, whose jaw was hanging slack. She raised a hoof and one of the blades slid out. “So, what do you think?” Twilight tried to compose herself for a reply. “Oh, I forgot.” Gavla's horn swirled with darkness and her mask floated from the desk onto her face, the front closed and it became animated as if it had replaced the real face underneath. Gavla ran it through a series of silly faces, seeming to test it. “Okay, now how do I look? Be honest.” She smiled, an expression made sinister by the fangs of the mask. Twilight looked her over. There was a terrible beauty about her, akin to Nightmare Moon, a dark elegance.

“Terrifying and beautiful.” Twilight said honestly, still a little shell shocked by the transformation.
“Great.” Gavla took a deep breath and let out a bat-like shriek. The room immediately went dark, roiling shadows coated the floor, they were cool like morning mist. A massive stallion rose from the shadows, he was easily as tall as, if not taller than, Celestia and a good deal more muscular. When he rose to his full height the darkness lifted and Twilight got her first good look at Makuta Vamprah, she froze in fear. Gavla flew to him, wrapping her forelimbs around him in a hug; he returned the hug with a massive wing. “I missed you big guy.” Vamprah’s mask floated off the table “And so did your mask.”

“Gavla, I’m so happy you’re safe.” A voice said in their minds, waking Spike, who screamed, bolting up the stairs as fast as his legs could carry him.
“Vamprah, what’s wrong?" Gavla asked with concern. "You only talk with your mind when something’s wrong, come to think of it you only ever talk when something's wrong.”
“I can’t speak anymore.”
“Why not? Did someone do this to you?” The shadows swarmed back, rising with Vamprah’s bristling anger.
“Princess Luna, she took my voice and left me to die in some Mata-nui forsaken forest!” The shadows slumped back down as he hung his head. “She said I have no place here. She crafts the nights and she told me, a creature born of it, that I have no place.” Sorrow hung from these words like stones. “And they’re such beautiful nights, so much more than the nights of Karda Nui, when all was blackness and only the klakk still moved. These nights have such color to them, such life, such majesty, as if she created them to be gazed upon for all eternity.” He said longingly. “But their crafter has rejected me like all the others, based on what I took the fall for. She expects great evil from me, which is exactly what I’m giving her.” He donned the mask, glaring through its already snarling face.

“Then let us show her together.” Gavla swung around onto his spine, sitting upright, blades at the ready, just in front of his wing joints. Vamprah reared and the shadows swallowed them up, disappearing with them. Leaving Twilight wondering what had just happened. She found herself staring out the window. Ponyville was in flames, things were exploding, ponies were attacking each other in the streets, it was chaos.
“Spiiike!” She yelled, scrambling to her feet and up the stairs.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lyra had not left her house, or even opened a window ,since Vamprah’s attack. She simply lay on the floor in front of the couch Bonbon laid on, watching her shuddering form for signs of improvement.

Bonbon started flailing, foaming at the mouth she fell off the couch, hitting the floor with a thud.
“Bonbon!” Lyra shouted, wrapping Bonbon tight in her forelegs. Bonbon continued twitching until her head flew back; her eyes snapped open, flashing a sickly yellow then the color slowly turned back to a sapphire blue. She went limp, eyes still open and glassy.

“Bonbon…” No reply, not even a twitch. “Bonbon please!” She buried her head in Bonbons fur and started sobbing. “Please be okay, please wake up, please.” She cradled Bonbons head next to her own; she stirred, unnoticed by the sobbing Lyra. She blinked, her eyes regaining a living glint; Bonbon looked down Lyra’s shaking back and heard the sobs.

“The last time,” Lyra froze, eyes wide, not daring to believe it, “you held me like this, Aryl had left me at deaths door.” She brought Lyra’s head in front of hers. “What travesty has been committed now?” Lyra kissed her full on the lips, Bonbon went ridged for a second before easing into it. Something crashed through the window, Lyra looked up; it was a Molotov cocktail.
“Bonbon, get down!” Lyra put up a magical barrier as the bottle shattered, showering the room in fire. Lyra stood up, casting a spell to extinguish the flames. “What do you remember from before I got home?” Lyra asked coldly; she was back to business.

“Well,” Bonbon started hesitantly, “I was sitting on the couch when something broke a window upstairs, I went up and all the candles were out, there was this weird clicking sound that would happen every few seconds, sort of sounded like metal on wood, I looked through all the rooms and couldn’t find anything, I turned to go back downstairs and- and.” She shook her head in frustration then her eyes went wide. “I saw him. I screamed and he pounced, he bit into my neck and everything went dark. I woke up in your arms. It was just a nightmare wasn’t it?” Lyra shook her head.

“Whatever you do Bonbon, stay behind the couch and watch.” She ducked down. “Kyōshin, Ōkesutora!” The Lyre flew from the saddlebag near the table and melted over her foreleg. She walked over to the window and yelled at the top of her lungs. “Come get me, you shadow freaks!” Something sped through the window, landing behind Lyra with a crash.
“You called?” A cruel, twisted parody of a familiar voice said mockingly, Lyra turned around and despite the insectoid wings there was no doubt.
“Rarity?”
“The one and only.” She lifted the dragonfly-like wings high in an aggressive display. “Beautiful aren’t they? Not as good as Gavla’s but still pretty damn good.”

“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what? I feel better, more free, than I have in years. Even if Sweetie Belle refuses to join us.”
“This is going to hurt.” Lyra raised her clawed leg, a high pitched shriek filled the air for a second and Rarity was thrown back, she screamed, loud and long, curling up into a ball and shaking uncontrollably. “You can come out now.” Bonbon stepped out from behind the couch. “He made you into one of them.” She pointed at Rarity’s shuddering form. “Don’t worry; she’ll be fine, it just takes a while to cure them properly. Help me move her to the couch.” Lyra lifted Rarity with magic and Bonbon guided her to the furniture. “We’ll hold up here until they move on.”

“But Lyra you could help the-”
“I’m not leaving you two alone; who knows when more might show up.” She changed Ochestura back into a bladed lyre “You hide in the kitchen, I’ll guard the entrances.” Bonbon hesitated, something pounded on the door. “Now!”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
In the middle of town a blue box appeared with a sound like grinding metal. The door opened and a brown furred pony in a vest with an hourglass cutie mark jumped out.
“Oh my, it’s good to be-” He opened his eyes and saw the destruction around him. “Back?” One of the shadow ponies noticed him and screeched; a terrible sound that grated his ears like nails on a chalkboard.
“It’s the doctor.” Another yelled. “Kill him and we’ll be famous.”
“What?” He cocked an eyebrow, the shadow ponies charged him. “What!?” He started scrambling back to the Tardis, only to have his path blocked by several shadow unicorns that unraveled their insect-like wings to intimidate. “Well.” He said sheepishly. “This is new.”

“Stop!” A twisted, booming and frighteningly familiar, voice yelled from atop a nearby building. He froze and the voice was next to him in under a second. “He’s mine.” He was growing more confused by the moment, not even Rainbow Dash could have covered the distance that fast. He turned to look at his claimer.
“Ditsy!?” Her mane had turned a dark shade of purple, her coat had darkened and she had a horn now but there was no mistaking that wonky yet now malevolent eye.
“Hello Doctor.” She started circling him. “He did say you’d be back soon.” She flicked her tail under his chin, normally a loving gesture, this felt almost like a threat. The others couldn’t seem to back off fast enough, tripping over themselves, seemingly terrified of evoking Ditsy’s wrath.

She caught the Doctor staring at her blade-like horn. “You like it?” She flicked her mane to better show off the bone. “A little gift from Makuta Vamprah; for being his eyes the past four days. I wonder what kind of reward he’ll give me for bringing you to the shadow leeches!” She flared her wings, throwing two of the slimy things that she had apparently been concealing, but the Doctor was just as quick on the draw, reaching into the vest, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and blasting the two things with brief sound bursts, rendering them unconscious. Ditsy was covering her ears, screaming.

“Oh, you guys don’t like supersonics do you?” The Doctor growled around his screwdriver, pocketing it. Ditsy snarled, little puffs of darkness seeping out from between her clenched teeth. “Well.” He turned to the crowd. “Tell this 'Makuta Vamprah' that he has made a grave mistake in changing someone I like; because in doing so he’s made me angry and if he values his continued existence he’ll-” the air around him went cold and something massive landed behind him. He whipped around. Vamprah glared down at him with his sightless eyes and Gavla looked at the Doctor from over Vamprah’s shoulder.

“I’ll what.” She said defiantly.
“I’ll have you know, Vamprah, no matter how big your steed is that you do not intimidate me.” He stood proudly. Gavla laughed cruelly.
“My dear doctor, I am not Makuta Vamprah.”
“I am”
“He is.” Gavla patted the massive bat-stallion she was riding. “I am Gavla and you have no idea what you’re dealing with.”
“I never do.” He said casually. “And how does that work? He thinks something and you say it at the same time; that kind of mental link takes decades to build up, unless you’re completely subduing the other’s mind, and requires quite a lot of trust. Which I do not think a creature evil enough to absorb an entire town like this would have much.”
“He can hear me?”
“Of course I can hear you, which brings me to a more important question. Any being who lets another that completely into his mind is not evil enough to do this to a town. So my question is this; who forced you to?”
“Should I?”
“Go for it big guy.” Vamprah’s entire history poured into the Doctors mind, but with sound it was a tragic history of persecution, betrayal and a violent refusal to let it continue. The stream stopped and the Doctor staggered, the memories of a being even older than himself weighing heavily on his mind.
“You poor thing.” He said, just loudly enough for Vamprah to hear. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Shut up!” Vamprah mentally barked at him. “If Luna wants evil that’s what she’ll get.” He calmed down rather quickly. “That sound frequency you used to neutralize the shadow leeches will release Ditsy Doo from my control. Take her and go.”

“Ditsy you stay here. The rest of you leave.” Gavla commanded, the shadow ponies gladly obliged.
“You know those mood swings can’t be good for your heart”
“We Know.” Vamprah and Gavla looked at each other calmly. “Just do it.”
“Do what my lord?” Ditsy asked nervously.
“This.” The Doctor spoke around his screwdriver, which emitted a burst of sound that hit Ditsy right between the eyes. She wailed briefly and crumpled, shuddering, to the ground. “Ditsy!” The Doctor shouted.
“Don’t worry, it’s normal.”
“So help me, if you’ve made me hurt her-”
“Perish the thought; but your Tardis.” Bars of shadow sprung up around the box. “Is staying with us. Wouldn’t be a very good villain if we didn’t trap the hero. I’d say you have about ten minutes before some of the craftier ones start sending shadow leeches and chasing you; I would leave.” Vamprah flapped his wings and they were out of sight before the Doctor looked up.

“Well, what a little jerk.” He hefted the shuddering Pegasus onto his back and ran as fast as he could eastward, towards the edge of town. But something blocked their way, as it was invisible he ran headfirst into it, knocking the spiny thing flat on its back.

“Ow.” It moaned, rubbing its side with a blade. “The legendary Doctor!” It almost jumped when it realized what had just plowed into it. “I would have loved to meet you on better terms but,” It looked at the shuddering figure on his back, “it seems you’re going to have to trust me at face value when I say that I know where you’ll be safe.” He looked into its ancient, sorrowful eyes and he did trust it.

He nodded. “Good.” The thing flipped first its upper then lower body upright with a sickening crunching noise that made the Doctor wince. “Follow me.” It waved with one of the spine-like blades. He did, looking over his shoulder every few seconds to both check on Ditsy and make sure the shadow ponies were nowhere to be seen. They ran out of town to a little dirt road on the north side, here they slowed down to a walk.
“May I ask your name?” The Doctor asked. “You seem to know mine.”
“If you must.” The thing bowed its head. “I am Makuta Krika.” The Doctor froze in place.
“Makuta, Like Makuta Vamprah.”
“Vamprah is a good being. He just doesn’t take rejection well anymore. You really shouldn’t stop moving before we get back to the boutique.”

“Give me a reason to trust you.” The Doctor planted himself firmly in place.
“She’s not dying you know.” Krika stated, matter of factly. “The near death state is just the point at which the mental walls are at their weakest, letting the light of the air, which is quite heavily saturated in this dimension, be re-absorbed by the subjects mind. Now that I have put your fears concerning Miss Doo to rest.” The Doctor visibly relaxed a bit. “You should trust me because there is a child that I have to get back to and not trusting me is going to make that take longer, which puts her in more and more danger; you and I both can’t stand that thought.” Each word of this sentence was increasingly filled with restrained frustration.

The Doctor nodded. “Thank you; it’s right over this hill. I think you’ll like miss Rarity’s sense of taste, her home is quite-” They reached the top of the hill. Directly on the other side was a building, blackened by the explosion of a forced entrance. “-Oh no.” Krika breathed. “Sweetie Belle!” He ran to the hole where the front door should have been. “Sweetie Belle?” He stepped inside, only to have his mask knocked off by a frying pan.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Krika saw stars, whoever his assailant was; they were very good at ambushes.
“Krika! Oh Celestia I’m sorry.” Krika’s vision cleared; Sweetie Belle was kneeling next to his head. “I thought you were Rarity coming back again and I-” He cut her off by hugging her tight.
“It’s okay, I’m just happy you’re safe.” He held her at arms length. “Now what’s this about your sister?”
“It was the pumpkin, I tried to warn her, it got her and her coat turned black and- and.” She collapsed, sobbing into Krika’s shoulder. He patted the back of her head.
“It’s okay. Shh, it’s okay. We’ll get her back.” He was finding himself getting more and more angry with Vamprah the longer this day went on.

“Krika are you alright? I heard a ba- oh.” Sweetie Belle looked up, saw the shadow pony on the Doctor’s back and picked the frying pan back up with her magic, pointing it threateningly at the two of them. “Krika, I think she’s going to clock me with that.” The Doctor shifted back nervously, not daring to move too quickly, lest he aggravate the weapon toting child.

“Sweetie Belle wait,” Krika hastily explained, “Ditsy is being cured the same way we’re going to cure Rarity, just wait, she won’t wake up until it’s done.” She lowered the weapon. “This is the Doctor, but you can call him Doctor Whooves.”
“I never agreed to that.”
“Oh stuff it; she’ll get confused after a while if we just call you the Doctor.” He lifted his mask off the ground and sent it to Whoof.

“I assume you’re disciplined enough to use a kanohi mask. But I’m also going to assume that you don’t know how; this is the mask of repulsion, you can use it to reject anything from an area around you, just concentrate, I want you to use it to keep Sweetie Belle safe; I’m going to look for more untainted ponies. I can count on you right?”
“Right.”

“Good.” He said grimly “I’m coming back Sweetie Belle and I may even have your sister this time, I’ll put everything that my brother wronged right. Just don’t stop smiling.” He turned to leave. “You know Whoof, you remind me of a younger me, so eager to help; don’t lose yourself like I did.” He ran from the house down to the chaos of the town, he ran towards his brother with anger in his eyes.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Once he had reached Ponyville, calmed down a considerable amount and given up on the foolish thought of a death match with Vamprah, which his voice of reason told him would end badly because Vamprah had Gavla, giving him control over the senses of other beings. He started his systematic sweep of the town from where he had left off when the Doctor had run into him, right at the corner of Cherry and Clover.

He walked up to the door of a house and knocked, putting a bit more of his weight into it then he meant to. He heard startled shuffling from inside, either he had frightened a colony of rats or there was somebody in there. “Hello?” He tried the door, which surprisingly wasn't locked, and peeked around it, something slashed at his face, opening a gash that ran from behind his eye to his top lip. He screamed, flinging the door open, his vision went red as he pinned his assailant to the ground with a pincer and was about to crush her skull when a mare screamed from a room to his right.

His vision cleared and he eased off of the mint green unicorn that had attacked him, she sprang back up to strike him again and he easily batted her away with his tail. He walked over to the window, consuming light to heal himself.
“I’m sorry about that.” He said once his mouth healed, he turned around. “I am Makuta Krika, I’ve come to help you.”
“Likely story, coming from a thing with the same title as the one who’s sent this town to hell in a hoof basket and just tried to break my skull.” The mint one said stubbornly.

“To be fair, you tried to cut mine in half first and my brother is actually rather pleasant, he just doesn’t take rejection very well.” Krika noticed Rarity shuddering on the couch with half her coat back to normal. “Miss Rarity. Well I do congratulate you on curing exactly the shadow pony I was looking for.” He lifted her onto his back. “But I would enjoy having ponies of your skill to help me protect anybody I come back with; so may I cordially invite you back to the Carousel Boutique.” He spoke politely but honestly had no patience for these two right now; he had to get Rarity back to her sister.

“One second you’re trying to kill my wife, the next you’re inviting us somewhere, now why should we trust you?” The cream colored one stepped forward defiantly.
“Again she tried to kill me first. And because there is a child that is waiting anxiously for me to bring her sister back and your resistance is making this take much longer than it should have after I found her, now can we move before Vamprah becomes aware that I am here and things get ugly?” His pleading impatience showed in his voice.
“Fine.” The mint one relented, giving her wife a nod.

“Thank you.” They turned to leave only to see that the swarm of shadow Pegasus was passing over the house. “When I say run, you run like hell, got it?”
“Got it.” The shadow passed.
“Run!” They bolted out the door, running as fast as they could before the swarm raised the alarm, collectively screeching at the top of their lungs, they ran even faster afterwards, making time that even Rainbow Dash would have been impressed with. Krika looked over his shoulder; they weren’t being followed, and as if this wasn’t odd enough, the mass of shadow ponies was moving to the west, heading for the border facing Canterlot. He decided to write it off as a bit of good luck and they continued running for the northern border and the boutique. “May I have your names?” Krika asked.

“I’m Lyra and this is Bonbon.” Lyra said stiffly. “I really think that we should dispense with the pleasantries, what exactly do you want?”
“I want you safe and I want to get Sweetie Belle back her sister.” Krika nodded at them, giving a shallow bow.
“Why?” Lyra pressed.
“She smiles at me.” Lyra shook her head in disbelief.
“If you’re making fun of us, we can take Rarity back and go home.”
“I’m not making fun of you; before her no one had ever smiled at me before. I just want her to keep smiling at me.” Lyra again shook her head.
“You are one of the most childish things I have ever met.”
“That’s weird, I’m over seven thousand years old.” He laughed as they crested the hill.

“Krika!” Sweetie Belle yelled, racing towards them.
“We found Rarity.” Krika yelled back, slowing down a bit they walked through the door-hole, setting Rarity down next to Ditsy Doo, who was farther along in her relapse.
“When will they wake up?” The Doctor asked.
“In a few more hours, just be patient.” Krika assured the little pony; the Doctor glanced at him skeptically. “Have I lied yet?”
“Not yet.” He said calmly. “Someone told her that I would be back soon.” He gestured towards Ditsy. “Do you know who?”

“I did.” Krika replied.
“Why?”
“Because you appear at the crossroads, when things can either change for the better or worse and my appearance fell right into that category.” Krika’s eyes clouded for a moment.
“You did your homework.” The Doctor gave Krika a sort of half glare.
“No, I just scanned a hair from Miss Doo here or Derpy as some like to call her.” He nudged the smiling Sweetie Belle playfully.

“Then you know-” The Doctor started, looking for all the world like he was about to have a panic attack
“Yes I know about that and rest assured Doctor, your secret is safe with me. Now if I may have the mask back, I can see that it’s already wearing on you.” The Doctor removed the mask, passing it to Krika who put it onto the ground. “Something strange happened as we ran here, the shadow ponies raised an alarm and moved to the west, towards the border facing Canterlot. Can you think of any reason other than that they are getting ready to launch an attack for that? It’s too early for an attack of that scale, it doesn’t fit Vamprah’s style; he enjoys making his prey feed itself to him.”

“Well there’s always the possibility that Celestia has already launched a counterstrike to retake the town,” The Doctor theorized, “but that would mean that she knew the town was taken early this morning at the least, even then they shouldn’t be there until… an hour from now."
“Twilight lives out that way.” Sweetie Belle spoke up.
“Yes.” Krika said thoughtfully. “She would be giving them some trouble. But not enough to warrant sending the entire swarm.”

“Celestia may not know but Luna has known since last night.” Lyra nonchalantly added.
“What?” Krika said slowly. “How would she know?” To say that he had a bad feeling about this was like saying that Pinkie Pie was a sugar addict.
“I gave her my report last night, she had made him mute and left Vamprah in the forest; she thought he’d be eaten but had me search the forest to be sure.” Krika seemed to cloak himself in darkness, the edges of which spread to surround Lyra as his anger grew, The Doctor stood next to him, looking equally appalled.

“You mean to tell me that the ruler of the night stole my brother’s voice and left him, a being born of the night, to die in a forest. Lesser offenses of that nature, committed by lesser beings are exactly what sparked the thousand year war. Do you have any idea. What! She’s! Done!?” His voice started at an enraged mutter and grew louder with each word until the shadow itself seemed to scream in his voice.
“Krika!” Sweetie Belle shouted, backing away from it. Krika then noticed the shadow that threatened to swallow the room; he pulled it in quickly and turned back to Lyra.
“You had better hope that Vamprah is satisfied with her and doesn’t go looking for her agents.” At that moment there was a booming crash from outside.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Earlier that morning.
“Spike Hurry up; I can’t hold these things back for much longer!” Twilight strained with the barrier magic, holding back five shadow unicorns. “What do those leech things do to ponies?”
“Look, I can’t make Celestia answer the Letter any faster!” Spike shouted back, setting up another booby trap by a window.
“We wrote to her half an hour ago. What could be taking her so long?” Twilight patched another break in the seal. Spike belched loudly, signaling the arrival of a reply Spike started reading immediately.
“Twilight Sparkle, I’ve known about this particular problem since about three O’clock this morning and have been on route since five. I should be arriving shortly but I do not suggest that you stay at home, I hate to break this to you but trees are highly flammable.

"Good advice but how do we get out?”
“Like this.” Twilight lifted Spike onto her back and charged through the front door blasting magical energy left and right.
“Are you insane!?” Spike hugged tight to her back. “We’re going to be caught.”
“Not if we barricade ourselves in with Pinkie Pie, I’m pretty sure she let that dragon beat her on purpose.” The shadow ponies seemingly decided she wasn’t worth the trouble and abandoned their attack as she entered the main area of the town. Most of the buildings had holes in them or burn marks, the ground was blackened by battle magic and screams echoed through the air as other ponies either fought or ran for their lives.

Twilight tried to help the normal ponies best she could but in Ponyville proper the shadow ponies swarmed in numbers that could blot out the sun and only Twilight’s barrier magic, which kept out normal ponies as well as shadows, kept her and Spike safe, what she wouldn’t give for Krika’s mask of repulsion right about now.

“This is insanity!” The shadow ponies suddenly lifted, seeming to flee from a figure walking through the smoke. The normal ponies looked over to their savoir with cautious optimism, there were a few of the shadow ponies that could cause the same reaction. It was Pinkie Pie, except her coat was darkened and her hair was flat. Twilight panicked for a second, worried that Pinkie had been converted, but once Pinkie locked eyes on Twilight her mane puffed back up and she somehow shot through the barrier.

“Oh, Twilight, I was so worried; they got Applejack and Fluttershy and even Dashie, I don’t know what happened to Rarity, but it can’t have been good, I was beginning to lose my laugh, I mean, they even got Mr. and Mrs. Cake, but not me, I fought them off and now their all scared to death of me. So how‘s your day been?” Twilight couldn’t believe it; it had taken five seconds for Pinkie to relate her entire morning.

“Well my tree was sieged, other than that there’s not much. But the Princess is coming to take back the town.”
“Really, oh how can I make a thank you party when I already had to use all my supplies to fend off shadows? And every time I laugh at them they just laugh back and keep coming.”

“We don’t have time to plan a party right now; I think they’re coming back.” Twilight eyed the skies and sure enough there was an armada of shadow pegasi coming fast from the south, Twilight strengthened the barrier magic, anticipating a dive bomb attack, she spread it out as far as she could make it, hoping to cover at least most of the other normals.

Instead of dive bombing like Twilight anticipated, it practically started raining shadow leeches, covering the barrier of light and quickly eating through; Twilight tried to blast all that came through but it was a flood, she could only keep Spike and Pinkie safe as she heard the others scream in pain and fear. The cries soon turned to cruel laughter as they were converted, a grey alicorn landed directly in front of Twilight, who started her teleportation spell, finishing it just before Pinkie would have been vaporized by dark magic.

They all came out slightly singed from the teleportation but otherwise unharmed.
“I thought I told you to warn me next time.” Spike groaned. “Thanks though.”
“There was no time, if I had waited to warn you Pinkie would have died.”
“That was Ditsy.” Pinkie spoke softly, which worried Twilight. “They even got Ditsy Doo…” She sat down on her rump, slumping for a moment before seeming to force herself to perk back up. “Where are we anyway?”
“I took us to the western border; we need to meet up with Celestia and Luna before they get here.” They ran west only to be blocked by a frighteningly familiar face.
“Applejack?” Twilight yelled, cringing away from her friend’s newly malicious gaze.
“I see ya’ll ‘er tryin ta get away.” She smiled wickedly “Can’t have that, now can we?”

She seemed to move faster than they could see, knocking Spike off Twilight’s back and pinning her down.
“Applejack; think about what you’re doing.”
“Ah’m repayin a favor. Vamprah made me strong, ah’m just payin ‘im back.” Pinkie Pie kicked Applejack in the ribs, knocking her off of Twilight and into the dirt.
“What use is being strong if you forget who your real friends are?” Pinkie screamed at her.

“Well… Shut up; I can have anythin' I want now.” Applejack got back up and charged Pinkie, but was stopped dead in her tracks by a wall of magic, which unfolded into a box, trapping her. “What in tarnation? Twilight you sneaky witch! This won’t hold me.” She turned and kicked it but instead of breaking the box reverberated, loosing a sound that made Applejack scream and everyone else in the area cringe.

“Oops, I didn’t mean to make it that loud.” Twilight winced.
“Well.” Applejack spoke shakily. “Nice try but wrong sound. Ah will admit that hurt.”
“Hey Jacks!” Another familiar voice sounded from above. “You owe me fifty bits.”
“Ah never agreed ta that bet.” Applejack scowled at the sky.
“Not for that, for this.” The wind rushed and the box shattered. “Where‘s my money?” The voice seemed to emanate from everywhere at once.

“Rainbow Dash, where are you?” Twilight asked, searching the skies.
“Oh, I’m here,” the voice came from behind Pinkie, “and there.” The voice came from behind Twilight, who whirled around just in time to be beamed in the face with an unconscious Spike. Twilight fell to the ground and someone put a hoof onto her neck, she looked up and there was Rainbow Dash, the colors of her mane had been inverted and a pair of bat wings had sprouted behind her normal feathered ones but it was easy enough to see that it was her. Twilight reached for her magic only for Dash to press down on her windpipe, forcing her to lose hold of it. Twilight tried again and Dash laughed, pushing on her again. “Keep trying, I could do this all day. Hey Jacks, you almost done with Pinkie?”

“She’s trussed up like a turkey, sugarcube.” Dash slid something over Twilight’s horn.
“Good get this one next.” Dash backed off and Twilight was tied up before she could even say anything. She tried to reach for her magic but instead got a painful shock from whatever was on her horn, Applejack laughed cruelly.
“What ‘er we gonna do ‘bout the dragon?”
“His name is Sp-” Rainbow dash shoved a length of rope into Twilight’s mouth.
“Stow it! He wasn’t part of the orders; I say we leave him.” Dash shrugged.

“No wait ah got a better idea.” Applejack was developing a very uncharacteristic sly glint in her eyes. “We wouldn’t want ‘im running off and warnin’ the princess about us would we?”
“No I guess we wouldn’t. What’s your point?”
“Drop ‘im.”
“Ooh you’re despicable; I love it.” Dash grabbed Spike’s tail in her mouth and flew straight up.
“Yer gonna want ta watch this.” Applejack forced Twilights head to the side, forcing her to watch Dash take Spike higher and higher until she finally dropped him.
“NNMMM SPNNN SPNN!” Twilight screamed around the gag, straining to get free. She watched Spike’s tumbling figure until he landed in a heap on a nearby hill. “NNMM SPNN NNMM!” Twilight sobbed, tears streaming from her eyes as Rainbow Dash and Applejack laughed.

They dragged Pinkie and Twilight, who was still sobbing, through town, surrounded by screams and evil laughter. Twilight didn’t dare open her eyes, even though when they were closed all she could see was Spike’s broken body on the hill.
“Hey Flutts; we got ‘em, let us in.” Twilight’s curiosity got the better of her, in a morbid sort of way she actually had been wondering what effect the leeches would have on Fluttershy. They were directly outside the building in the middle of town. A small slab of wood placed at about eye level on the door slid away.

“Nice, you really got them. Not bad for a pair of imbeciles.” It sounded like the shadow leeches had taken everything that made Futtershy herself and turned it on its head. Where her voice had been soft and gentle this shadow’s voice was hard and callous, where Fluttershy’s voice had been kind this voice was cruel. “Where’s the dragon?” The horrible voice asked flatly, as if it was expecting Spike to just hop out from behind their captors.

“I dropped him.” Rainbow proclaimed proudly.
“Do you realize how stupid that was?” Rainbow Dash went stiff as a board. “I was looking forward to enhancing that little thing.”
“It was Applejack’s idea.” Dash pointed accusingly at her orange companion.
“Ey, ya’ll er’ the one who did it.” Applejack shoved the accusing hoof down.
“But you talked me into it.”
“If ya’ll er’ goin’ ta accuse me a’ somthin’ at least make it somethin’ ya didn’t do happily.”
“Hey morons, shut it.”

The two bickering shadows stood stiffly at attention, terror in their eyes. “Since you dunderheads couldn’t even bring me the purple dragon alive you can just slip them in here and go get its corpse, I could still have some fun removing his skeleton for reconstruction I guess.” The door opened, Pinkie Pie and Twilight were tossed unceremoniously through.

Twilight looked up from the floor; Fluttershy was turned so that her hair hid her face from the two bound ponies. Twilight tried to bite through the rope in her mouth and was lifted into the air by magic, she looked around frantically but the only pony besides Pinkie and herself in this room was Fluttershy, and last time Twilight checked pegasi couldn’t use magic. “Now, now Twilight, you’ll get plenty of time to speak, or moan, once I get you strapped in.”

Fluttershy turned around and Twilight managed to gasp around the rope-gag. Fluttershy had gained a horn, other than that she looked exactly the same. She looked at Twilight with a calm smile, the kind that under normal circumstances was reserved for when she was working with her animals, yet the normally comforting smile had eyes lit with madness directly above it. “You know.” Fluttershy spoke as she magically fastened Twilight and Pinkie, who had been silent for the longest period since she had lived on the rock farm; to a pair of hospital beds. “I really had hoped to get Spike alive, especially after the success I had with Angel. Here boy.”

A hulking brute that seemed to be a cross between a gorilla and a rabbit fell from the ceiling, sniffing at the two helpless mares before it, mouth dripping saliva; it gathered itself to pounce, fangs showing behind its curled lips. “Down!” Fluttershy commanded it, magically grabbing a slice of flesh from who knows what off a hook on the other side of the room, luring the beast away from her new test subjects. “If I can do that with a rabbit, think what I could’ve done with a baby dragon, much less a full grown one. So Miss Sparkle” Fluttershy removed the gag with a small ripple of energy. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s barbaric and heinous and evil, that’s what I think of your little experiments and this entire stinking situation!” Fluttershy chuckled evilly, lifting a small, rattling, case out from underneath the table.
“As much as I loved hearing that little rant and seeing the inexhaustible Pinkie Pie in such a tuckered out, defeated position as this, I really do.” She cast Twilight and Pinkie both sultry glances. “As much as I would love to just have my way with you.” She paused, seemingly wallowing in whatever horrific thoughts had entered her warped mind. “Those weren’t the orders and I have a debt to pay, so I’m just going to skip straight to the finale. If I had my way you both wouldn’t even be able to feel anything but pleasure by the time this happened.” She opened the case and four of the sluggish shadow leeches oozed out and started their path towards their victim’s faces as Fluttershy looked on with an insane glee lighting her eyes.

“Fluttershy, you don’t have to do this. You can still help us.”
“Oh,” Fluttershy started, sarcasm already dripping from her voice, “you would rather I had My way with you first.” She leaned in, panting over the side of Twilight’s face, which was otherwise occupied in trying to stay away from both the insane alicorn and the leech inching its way towards her. Somepony knocked on the door, rousing Fluttershadow from her attempted molestation, Twilight thanked all that was good in the universe for that. Fluttershadow growled in anger at being distracted from her prize but nonetheless walked over to the door, sliding the wooden bar away. “What! What is it? I’m busy! Oh it’s you two, come to drop off the dragon corpse, have you.” This was obviously more command than question.

“W-Well.” Rainbow started. “You tell her.”
“Ey, I was on the ground, ya’ll were directly above it, if anyone’s takin’ the fall fer this it’s you.”
“He wasn’t dead yet was he?” Fluttershadow spoke with a voice drenched with rage, which was somehow much less frightening than the tones she had been using with Twilight and Pinkie.
“We can’t really tell.”
“You don’t have him, do you?”
“Well no but the weird part is that there’s no trail leading from where I dropped him to anywhere else, it’s like he just disappeared or something.” This statement brightened Twilight’s day considerably and she would have shouted for joy, if the shadow leech had not taken that exact moment to bite down into her neck.

“Nooooo!” She yelled, expecting her mind to warp, being drained of all goodness and light, but instead it was just a small pinprick, there and gone in less than a second. She looked down; the leech had turned into a shriveled black husk, devoid of all life, as if she had drained it. She heard Pinkie chuckle in the bed next to hers; looking over she saw three bloated yellow shadow leeches and a very not changed, and giggling, Pinkie Pie.
“That tickled.”

“What the hell?” Fluttershadow was obviously flustered by this development. “I expected this exact reaction from Pinkie but come on; immunity, that makes three now. Jackie, Dash; fetch Ditsy for me, your punishment can wait.”
“Yes ma’am; thank you ma’am.” They both quickly babbled before taking off as fast as their limbs could carry them.
“Immunity.” She spat. “Angel!” The grotesque thing looked up from the bone it was gnawing on and shot up next to its master. “Take Miss Sparkle to the room with the other immunes. I’m going to let out some nerves by playing with our soon to be Inky Pinkie.”

The monster rabbit grabbed the bed and hoisted it over his shoulder, jumping up through a hole in the ceiling into another room in which there were two other beds, each with a small filly, one of whom she recognized.
“Hey Twilight, you too huh?” Scootaloo nodded at Twilight from her bed
“Welcome to the club.” The other said welcomingly “my name is Dinky”
“Very nice to meet you, but I don’t think now is the best time for pleasantries.” Twilight strained against her bonds.
“Than what is it a good time for? We’ve been here since this morning and you can’t really do anything else.” Scootaloo tugged at the straps, cementing the fact in Twilight’s mind that they were all trapped and at the mercy of a psychotic horny alicorn. (No pun intended.) Angel put her down and went back downstairs to gnaw on his bone; might as well get comfortable.

“So… Anypony heard any good jokes lately?”
“Ooh, ooh me.” Scootaloo said enthusiastically. “So there are these two school colts-” The joke was silenced by a series of shrill cries from the room below them that reached a crescendo after a disturbingly long time, Twilight tried desperately not to think about what the twisted version of her friend was doing. A couple moments after; the door to the room they were in opened, letting in Fluttershadow, whose mane was significantly mussed.
“Woo; never knew Pinkie was a screamer.” She licked her lips, locking eyes on Twilight. “Your turn.” Twilight tried to scoot backwards only to be restrained by the straps that she guessed since she wouldn’t be turning into one of them anytime soon, weren't going to be undone. “You’re going to be so...” She licked her lips again. “Yummy.”

“Now Fluttershy,” Twilight pleadingly tried to reason with Fluttershadow as she got much too close for comfort to the point where the alicorn’s breath was stirring Twilight’s fur, “not in front of the children.”
“Oh let them watch; I haven’t tried unicorn, yet, and call me by my chosen name. Fluttershadow.” Fluttershadow licked up Twilight’s horn; just then the alarm sounded, screeches filling the air. Fluttershadow looked up, looking more pissed than anything had a right to be, Twilight heaved a sigh of relief at the fact that the insane creature had been turned away again. “All right, what the buck is it now? I mean really, what good is having an attractive prisoner if I can’t even rape her properly?” Fluttershadow turned back around to Twilight. “Don’t get your hopes up, I will have you, children in the room or none. Although I do enjoy an audience.” The wall behind Twilight blew open in a blaze of green fire.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Spike woke up slowly; the first thing he was aware of was a dull ache all over his body, the next thing he was aware of was that he was in a tent with the Celestial Sisterhood banner sown into the side and the third thing he noticed before he started having a panic attack was that Twilight wasn’t there and he knew why.
“Oh Buck No!” He screamed at the top of his lungs, almost getting out of bed before he noticed that Celestia herself was sitting right next to the bed, he blushed, utterly embarrassed. "Please don't tell Twilight I swore."

“Don't worry; I was just waiting for you to wake up.” She stood, waving a wing towards the entrance. “Coming?”
“You’d better believe it.” He jumped out of the bed, running to get out of the tent and to the front lines as soon as possible. He was gonna save Twilight if it killed him. “You’re going to need this.” Celestia cast a spell that made Spike feel like something had been shoved halfway down his throat. “These shadows can only be cured by a specific frequency sound, all you have to do is scream at them.”

Celestia uncloaked the army, charging the shadow infested town. An alarm immediately sounded, a massive shadow cloaking the area as the shadow pegusi blotted out the sun. Spike charged ahead, following Celestia and trusting her to know where Twilight was. Celestia charged the town hall, jumping to an upper level with spike hanging from her tail. Spike let go of her tail, using the upward movement to launch himself against a wall, using a tactic that all wingless dragons instinctively knew. He curled up into a ball, somersaulting and breathing fire, effectively turning himself into a flying ball of flame, he impacted the wall, bursting through in a blaze of green and landing with precision that he didn’t know he had. He looked up into the familiar yet hostile eyes of Fluttershadow.

“Get away from her you thing!” He yelled hard, blasting the alicorn away, screaming. Twilight craned her head back. “Oh yeah; I’m awesome!”
“Spike, Celestia; thank goodness you’re here.”
“What’s ‘rape’?” Scootaloo asked absentmindedly. “I mean I’m real happy for the rescue and everything but seriously, what was Fluttershadow about to do to Twilight?” Celestia winced. “It wasn’t anything like she did to Angel was it?” At that moment the monstrous creature leaped through the floorboards, landing directly in front of Spike, who growled at it, readying his claws. Celestia lifted the poor creature into the air, transmuting it back into a harmless rabbit.
“Is this Angel?” She asked.
“Yes.” Scootaloo answered.
“Then no, rape is nothing like what happened to angel. You should ask your parents when they’re cured.” Celestia spoke hurriedly, obviously trying to avoid the question. “Spike, release these three and make your way out of town until the fighting is over.”

“Yes ma’am.” Celestia flew out
“Spike, you have no idea how glad I am to see you.”
“I know.” Spike said as he took the ring off Twilight’s horn and moved on to Dinky while Twilight undid herself.
“What did you do to her?” Twilight poked the shuddering Fluttershy, whose horn fell off, leaving a bloody hole and clattering on the floor, Fluttershy moaned. Twilight yelped jumping back.
“Some “frequency sound”, it apparently cures them. Makes my ears ring.” Spike shook his head for a second before undoing the last strap. Dinky hopped out of her bounds, jumping around and stretching her legs.
“Fascinating, I’m going to have to duplicate it if we want to get out of this place.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
On the western border the battle raged fiercely, the royal guards, unused to this kind of battle, were grievously outmatched and outnumbered; the only things keeping them from being useless were the spells that Celestia and Luna had placed on each of them, turning their vocal cords into weapons, and the princess’s own power, making them almost unstoppable. Princess Luna was a force to be reckoned with, blasting shadow ponies left, right, above and below, she obviously needed to be dealt with by someone harder to defeat. Vamprah grinned; time to break out his favorite move. He blasted the Pegasus guards away from him.

“Gavla take her sight, leave her voice and hearing, I want her to hear our anger.”
“Got it.” Gavla cut down a guard before turning to Luna, her eyes narrowed as darkness enveloped them, turning them into a dark meteor careening towards the princess, who had no more time to react than if it had been a real one. She was knocked from the sky and into a building; the darkness billowed away, filling the room they landed in like water, Luna, being the demigod of darkness, could still see until her sight was stolen by Gavla.

“How does it feel to be blind in a place of which you have no knowledge, unable to navigate?” Vamprah taunted Luna, who was obviously panicking, lashing out at anything within a five foot radius. “You don’t like it do you? You’re scared aren’t you? Well that’s how I felt!” Vamprah stomped a wing, taking a breath to calm himself. “Calm down, we’re not going to attack you like this, although I have plenty reason to.” Luna stopped attacking, breathing heavily. “Now that you understand, we can end this-”

“No, you cannot kill me; I have more power than you can possibly imagine.” Luna’s head swung wildly as she tried to pinpoint Vamprah’s voice.
“Don’t interrupt me! I have no plans to kill you, yet.” He took a step forward. “We can end this; I can release all of those affected by the shadow leeches if you simply do three things. Take back what you said in the forest, give me back my voice and give me a place in this world; it can be as a guard for all I care.”
“Never, you’re a monster; I’ve seen it all everything you did, all those you hunted like mice, everything you’ve destroyed, you don’t deserve a second chance.”

“Fine then. We’ll force you to!”
“Gavla release her sight. I want her to look at us when we take off her wings.” Gavla opened Luna’s eyes as Vamprah charged, knocking Luna back into the air and jumping after her, he sent two black orbs flying towards her with a flap of his wings, she flew higher, barely avoiding them, they hit a guard flying behind her and exploded with force felt all throughout the battlefield. Shadows and normal ponies alike stopped, looking towards the creature that had unleashed such power in awe and fear.

Luna looked down at what remained of the guard, nothing but a tattered wing; the rest was reduced to dust. She had to get Vamprah somewhere that he would cause as little collateral damage as possible. She flew north, leading him away from the battle. Vamprah flew with astonishing speed, catching her just shy of the border, wrapping her in his wings, he bit into the back of her neck and sucked out one gulp before the flow was cut, as they fell he opened his wings, drawing back from the wound.

“Black blood?”

The sound of his own voice startled him into dropping the struggling alicorn, who sped back off north. Vamprah, giddy with his recovery, started laughing, a sincere hearty laugh that filled the air. “But black blood can only mean one thing; ooh I’m going to love this.” He flew after his prey, grinning like a madman; he found her flying above a once beautiful building blackened by explosion. “Cover your ears Gavla.” He screeched, squaring Luna directly between the wings, which shrunk into her back, her horn sank into her forehead, her forward motion turned to downward causing her to crash with great impact into the dirt behind the Carousel Boutique. Vamprah laughed loudly, landing directly beside her.
“What have you done to me?” Luna asked, staring at her diminished body.

“I’ve taken your power with a single blast of sound. Just look at you, you’re not even a very strong earth pony; you’re absolutely defenseless.” He picked her up with a thumb claw. “And you’re so cute. So about my request, it is now a demand, you take back what you said, give me a place and not only will I release the shadow ponies, I will give you back your power. So, what do you say?” He cradled her gently with his wing as he looked at her hopefully through Gavla's eyes, praying that she took the deal so he could abandon this foolishness.

“Never.” Luna spat on his mask, Vamprah went ridged.
“What?! What!?” He wrapped his wing painfully tight around her in a leathery fist. “I have your power, I am offering you it back and peace, I am offering you an ally and you still refuse me. I am the Shadow of Odina, master of Rahkshi armies, I held an entire continent in fear before the shadow leeches even existed and you are now defenseless. What gall, what foolish pride makes you drive me to continue this madness, what moronic stubbornness forces you to hurt me so?!” He flung her to the ground, standing over her snarling and sobbing at the same time.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Krika looked outside, scurrying around to the side of the Carousel Boutique to see Vamprah standing over somepony.
“Vamprah!” He yelled, anger raising its head like a monster.
“Brother, hello; glad to see you, perhaps you can talk some sense into this stubborn princess.” Vamprah kicked the bruised and crippled form of Princess Luna towards Krika, she stared up at him with an angry determination, as if to say ‘do your worst’. Sweetie Belle, who Krika hadn’t noticed was there, turned back towards the door, crying as she ran. Krika stared on in shock that grew to a boiling rage.

“Vamprah you bastard!” He charged his brother, jumping at him with claws set to shred. Vamprah instinctively reared up to meet his attacker. They collided, clawing and biting at each other, Vamprah threw Krika onto his back down in the dirt.
“What is wrong with you?” Vamprah wiped his lip with a wing. “This ‘princess’ is the one you should bring your anger to bear on. She would have us both sent back to a world that hates us. Am I not justified in my fight?” Krika flipped his upper then lower body upright.
“This world is not ready for what you have done; you have engineered a place that will hate us as the last one did. And no deal forced out of their leaders will change that!”

He spat an orb of shadow at Vamprah, squaring him in the chest and sending the bat-like creature careening through the air. Vamprah quickly righted himself and replied with bolts of darkness that impacted the ground when their target dodged, sending up plumes of smoke and dust which blew away in an orb as Krika rejected the area around him, flying up after his brother, who blocked with crossed wings as Krika took them higher and higher, Gavla bashed Krika across the mask, forcing him to turn away. They broke the cloud layer and looped around, shooting bolts of shadow at each other and clashing blades with monstrous force that blew holes in the clouds beneath them, they collided, two blades on one, the air tense with their conflicting anger.

Krika scored a hit on Vamprah’s mask, causing him to go momentarily limp and forcing him down, giving Krika the high ground and the upper hand. He blasted himself towards Vamprah, clamping a pincer onto his neck. “If you strike me I break it.” He told Gavla sternly. He drove Vamprah down through the air into the dirt of the crater made by Kenpachi, sending up a massive cloud of dust and debris. Once it cleared Krika bore down on the back of his brother’s neck. “Now you listen to me you little punk, you are going to march back there, release the shadow ponies and give Luna back her power. They can decide what to do with us afterwards.”
“But Krika,” Vamprah pleaded, “they’ll send us back.”

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take.” Vamprah stared up at his brother through Gavla’s concerned eyes; Krika removed his mask, easing off Vamprah’s neck. “Have faith in them brother. Not all of them are as stubborn as Luna, in fact I know one who I will suggest that they council before the decision is made.” Vamprah looked back at his brother with both pairs of eyes, searching his face for doubt; he found none and slowly nodded. “Good.” Krika helped them back up. “We can walk if you wish to.” Vamprah nodded again.

They started the trek back across the town; Vamprah did as he had said and released the Shadow ponies, who were now milling about in various stages of confusion, ranging from a slightly drunk look to complete panic, most had no idea what had happened at any point after they had opened their doors that morning or the previous night and those that did only had jumbled flashes.

Krika strode, proud and tall, taking up old habits from his time as regent of the northern continent, Vamprah on the other hand was trying to make himself as small and unnoticeable as possible, which is hard when you’re two times the size of the creature next to you and anyone else in the area, Gavla was walking on Vamprah’s other side, whispering words of comfort as a small child does when they see one of their parents in a depressed state, although it was having nowhere near as profound an effect. They received a few puzzled looks but beyond that they weren’t bothered.

“Krika,” Gavla spoke up on her own, “do you really think that they’ll spare us?”
“I don’t know little one but don’t worry too much, I’ll have the best stallion I know on the job. He’s got a degree in everything.” Krika chuckled to himself.
“You know the doctor?”
“Yes and I hope to have him vouch for us.” ‘Hope’ it was a small word but it carried dreams with it and now it would be carrying one more burden. It was an odd thought but one that crossed his mind none the less.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Princess Luna was faced with several problems in her tent the most important of which was ‘what was she going to do if the white Makuta won?’ No doubt he was going to be just as big of a problem as his brother despite the small white filly's protest. Second what was she going to do about her new form and how was she going to get her old one back? And thirdly, this one was starting to rival the first in terms of importance. How was she going to make this small unicorn shut up so she could take a report from Lyra.

“Mr. Krika is nice really, he just gets a bit angry with things that involve his brother, I don’t think they got along very well as foals. Please don’t send him back, he told me-”
“Please be quiet little one, I need to take testimony from my agent.” Luna turned back to Lyra. “Now as you were saying."
“He is undoubtedly the most childish thing I have ever met, despite his claim of being over seven thousand years old but other than that I only know that he is quick to anger when struck, beyond that my testimony mirrors Sweetie Belle’s.” Luna cocked an eyebrow and turned to the brown stallion who simply nodded his consent with the others.
“So we managed to just be caught in the middle of an ancient sibling rivalry?”

“I’m afraid not Lulu.” Luna locked up, turning back to the brown stallion with a look of disbelieving astonishment, only one creature on the planet called her that; what right did this colt have to call her by her sisters pet name. “We were caught in a feud that you sparked by leaving Vamprah in the Everfree, making a snap decision based on too little knowledge.”
“Who are you?” The stallion grinned, playful madness twinkling in his eyes.
“I’m The Doctor.”
“I’m pretty sure calling yourself by a profession is some kind of psychosis.”
“Well you can call me Doctor Whooves, I’ve grown quite fond of that nomenclature. It just fits.” His smile dropped. “But in all seriousness I say that you let them think you’re sending them home for twenty four hours and if you find no reason to let them stay in that time then by all means send a suffering being back into the place that causes it to suffer. I can no more influence the final decision than this child, can I?” Luna Glared at The Doctor in acceptance of his challenge.
“Fine, but just you wait Mr. Whooves these Makuta are more trouble than they’re worth. Monsters the both of them.”
“We’ll see.” Luna cast him one more venomous look and exited the tent only to be confronted with the ‘monsters’ themselves. Krika bowed low.

“Greetings Princess Luna, I am Krika, and you already know my brother.” Vamprah was holding his head close to the ground, looking up at her with an apologetic, shamed, look that mirrored a small foal caught stealing from a cookie jar. “Now if you would be so kind as to bare your neck.” Luna readied herself to defend from the attack she knew was coming. Krika read her posture “Now, now Princess we have no intention of attacking you, but if you want to remain powerless than by all means turn us away.” She removed herself from the defensive position.
“What do you mean?”

“The only way to recover your power is to allow Vamprah to restore it. Your power came from a lack of physical light which Vamprah undid; in order to restore the darkness Vamprah must use his abilities to drain your body of the forced light and he needs you to bare your neck to do that.” Luna hesitantly lifted her chin; Vamprah struck, clamping onto her neck with decisive force and wrapping his wings about her, Luna briefly struggled before a pleasant sensation spread through her body, forcing her to go limp as the light she hadn’t known had been paining her was drained, “there’s the anesthesia.” Krika mused. Her horn and wings sprouted back out. She gasped once Vamprah removed his fangs, her coat regaining its dark sheen. She then took a moment to recover her composure.

“Well –cough- I need twenty four hours to ready the spell and you three will be sent back to your own world.” Krika’s face became unreadable as he glanced beyond Luna, back towards the tent. Vamprah started to bristle, gathering himself to strike but Krika stopped him with a pincer placed on his shoulder. Vamprah looked up at him through Gavla, his own face still trained on Luna, Krika shook his head and Vamprah slumped, following Krika away from the base camp.
“I hope you’re happy.” Gavla muttered shooting a look that would make the sun go cold at Luna before she turned to follow them.
"That bite was a bit dramatic brother."
"I'm angry with her; sue me."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Krika broke off from Vamprah and Gavla, heading up to the hill in front of the Carousel Boutique, where he could overlook the town and watch the sun set.
“Krika!” He looked up to see Twilight Sparkle running towards him through the ruined town. “I heard that Luna’s sending you home, is it true?”
“Yes it is true.” He looked past her to all the ruined buildings as they walked, places that would most likely never be the same. “It wasn’t always like this you know.”
“Of course it wasn’t.”
“No, we weren’t always like this.”
“Come again?”

“We were once a noble people, we Makuta. We would never in our darkest nightmares have caused the kind of destruction Vamprah did. We were good and just… but that’s all gone now; even our once great home of Destral has become a curse, a name spoken only out of anger, a place where demons lay in wait to wreak evil on the universe. But it wasn’t always like that. I wish I could say we were admired but that was never to be. When we go just remember this; we aren’t evil, no we were never evil, misguided yes but never evil." They reached the hill and Krika sat to watch the sky turn to night. His Gaze was drawn back to Ponyville, smoldering in the fading light. It took him back to when he had realized what he had been becoming, when he had first met the monster on the hill; he felt his resolve slipping and he decided to let it.

“Krika.” Twilight spoke, rousing him from memories he would rather not have had.
“Yes.”
“Why did you turn out like you did? Why did your people turn out the way they did?” Krika sat and thought for a few minutes, trying to think of a way to explain the years of chaos and rejection to a being whose life had been relatively peaceful and always accepted; he decided to answer one question with more.

“What would you do Twilight?” Sadness making his voice crack. “If everything and everyone in this world told you that being a unicorn was evil, and earth ponies and pegasi were seen as heroes for being unable to use magic?”
“I-” Twilight began to speak but found herself unable to think of an answer.
“What would you do if just being who and what you are was a sin redeemable only by death? Would you not seek the power to change this?” Tears started falling from his eyes but he didn’t care. “Would you not crush anything that told you this? Would you not hate them? Would you not hate yourself for it? Would you not... believe them?” He kneeled in the dirt, fighting against sobs. “Wouldn’t you want to change who and what you were? Even if you know you can’t.” He gave in to the sobs and curled up into the fetal position. In this moment Twilight could see the tortured child he really was, a creature that no matter what he did was shunned by even his own mother. She kneeled down next to him, nuzzling him comfortingly.
“I wouldn’t believe them.” Krika sniffed, recovering from his sobs.

“That’s what happened to us, we refused to believe them, but some part of us did. We decided morality was below us, that it was only needed by lesser beings, who couldn’t do what we did.”
“What did you do?”
“We killed. We were soldiers, born and raised. We fought for the matoran with the same three virtues as the toa; Unity, Duty, Destiny. The toa were sworn to defend, but never to kill and they were worshipped as heroes for it; they repelled attacks and we made sure they never happened again. We were shunned, seen as ‘something people don’t talk about.’ And for thousands of years we didn’t care; as long as the matoran were safe we could deal with the abuse. But how we wished they would accept us like the toa, so much that over time we grew to resent them. The toa, who had never asked for it were given all the love we begged for and more. We never truly hated them, no we wanted to be them. Did they think killing was easy? There were Makuta driven to suicide by it. We simply endured, for thousands of years. Until He came, Teridax, with the notion that we didn’t need them, we needed to rule supreme, give them the monsters they had feared for so long and become gods, create things that would accept us, and we believed him. We needed someone to tell us that they were wrong, that we weren’t really monsters, but they deserved them.

"We declared war, to take the power to justify our existence. The toa and matoran had hated us and had been prepared. The Thousand year war began and it was looking over a city just like this one is now, burnt and ruined. That I caught myself laughing, I stopped myself, horrified by what I was feeling, that city had been my home, there should have been grim satisfaction but not the psychotic mirth I was experiencing. It was then that I realized that our purpose was starting to mirror Teridax’s true desire; to obtain power for power’s sake. So many of us went insane, forced to take enjoyment from the fear and pain of the matoran.

"My home had been a place of beauty, of music and dancing, of life and friendship, of art and joy and laughter. And I had destroyed it, in pursuit of power that would be useless once I had it; I no longer deserved what I had wanted so desperately, there was no justification for me anymore. I had driven away the matoran, the ones that had given that land its beauty, the ones whose acceptance I had begged for and I realized that my people and I were too far down the road to turn back. We had never wanted to be the monsters they were right to fear, but that’s what we became. And we were forced to learn an important lesson through all this. ‘All beings not born of the dark fear it.’

"What would you have done, if after thousands of years of unearned exile you were given a chance to be truly free, to have your life made a good thing? Would you not believe him? No matter how evil he was.” The dams broke and he wailed in sorrow and regret, it was a mournful howl that rang loud and clear through the night air and made anyone who heard it want to cry out as well.

“Hush, hush. It wasn’t your fault.” She patted his back as he let out millennia of loneliness and rejection into the night air. “If you show me one thing that says it wouldn’t believe him I’ll show you a liar. No one should have to go through what you did. Nothing should have to justify its own birth.” The cries were joined by a voice in the east, both voices howled for what seemed like hours before Krika regained enough self control to speak again.

“When my home was beautiful I used to wander the streets, hiding in the shadows to avoid disrupting the celebrations that took place every night. I would see matoran smiling at one another and pretend that they were smiling at me. That’s all I ever really wanted, I wanted someone to smile at me, simply because they were happy to see me, not out of pity or masked fear, but true childish happiness. Here I’ve found someone who does that; there I’ll be hunted down like an escaped animal. Here I have a second chance at life; something that I’ve wanted since I caught myself laughing on that hill. Please don’t let them send me back please, please, please, please, please!” His barely patched composure shattered again and he again began the howls ringing through the moonlit land.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Luna was standing on the eastern border, waiting for Celestia to lower the sun so she could raise the moon. Something started clicking behind her and she turned to see Vamprah, without Gavla, walking towards her, head bowed in both respect and shame. He was using his newly regained voice to imitate echolocation.
“Hello Vamprah.” Luna tried to shove as much contempt into the two words as possible. “Out and about without your little hayseed I see.” Vamprah’s head shot up from the ground.
“Don’t talk about Gavla like that!” He closed his eyes, it was obvious that he was shoving down anger, he sighed. “I actually came here to ask something for her.”

“Huh?” Luna was almost as surprised that he hadn’t attacked her as that he was asking on another’s behalf.
“Please don’t send her back.” Luna glared at him, he looked back with pleading sightless eyes, he was slightly off target, his face pointed more towards her left than at hers.
“Why?”
“I know I probably deserve whatever I get, but she doesn’t deserve what the rest of her kind will do if they find out about her.”
“And what exactly will they do?”

“They will take her away and then if she doesn’t denounce me after their ‘purification’ they’ll hunt me down and lock me behind a protodermis wall while she watches and then if she still doesn’t they’ll put her in there with me. Both suspended in time for all eternity, never waking up, never truly sleeping. I can’t bring her back to that. So I ask you, no I beg you, please don’t send her back. I couldn’t bear to know that I had dragged her to such a fate with me.” When he stopped this time he was actually looking about four feet to her right. He let out a series of clicks and corrected his position, this time seeming to stare strait at her. The sun went down.

“Give me a moment.” She lifted into the air, calling out the moon and the stars.
“I can feel what you’re doing.” Vamprah said below her. “I just wish I could see it.” Luna waited until she was done painting the sky to be surprised. “Your nights are much nicer than the ones where I’ve been for the past thousand years.”
“You like them?”
“Who wouldn’t? It’s part of why being rejected by you hurt like it did. I am a being born of darkness, imagine if your mother told you that she hated you.”
“I don’t have a mother and if I did I never knew her.”
“I just never had a mother.” Luna stared at him.

Normally her darksight would have kicked in by now, showing the creature in front of her as what it really was in the deepest part of its heart. But it hadn’t, she could see faintly in the north, the form of a teacher and another she couldn’t quite read. It was always like this with the beings closest to her creation, if something belonged to the dark they were likely to bury themselves in order to fit in. She exerted a little effort and a layer peeled away, revealing nothing but a hazy outline, she tried harder and harder, each layer revealing very little if any detail until the last layer faded away and she saw the monster…

As a blue pegasus colt, horribly mutilated with only one eye and scowling weakly in a fierce determination to keep going, to not let those who had hurt it break it. This was not the soul of a monster, this belonged to a tortured foal, there was only one unscarred mark on his hide, right over his heart, but a line was slowly being made across that and it only took one guess to tell who was causing it; she would be causing the last unhurt part of this creatures soul to be devoured if she said no, she looked at his wings, all of the feathers looked like they had been pulled out not two hours ago, around the same time she had refused his offer of peace, ‘twice’.

She looked at his mane and tail, both had also been pulled out around the same time as the feathers, possibly when she had told him that she would be sending them all home, this creature had suffered almost as much by her words as by anything that had happened to him before, only the eye was worse and just by looking at it she could tell it was the mark left when your closest friend betrays you, she had seen it often on those befriended by griffins or had spouses that had left them. She could stand no more and looked to the north.

Only to be confronted with the image that she knew belonged to Makuta Krika. He was a small, white, earth colt, battered, bruised and scarred almost beyond recognition as a pony; but wait, there was a circular scar on his forehead. He wasn’t an earth colt, he was a unicorn foal that had lost its horn. But still it wore a shaky smile; the kind you give to a worried friend when your entire family has died before your very eyes, because of something you did, and you lie, telling them that it’s going to be alright, that you’ll be fine when you know you’ll never be able to look at yourself the same way again. There was a soft sobbing on the wind and the foal’s legs, which looked recently healed, snapped, bending at unnatural angles. The white foal forced himself back up.

Luna was crying now, not sobbing, just quietly letting tears flow through her fur. She wanted to turn off her sight, look away from the two tortured souls before her; but the knowledge that she was causing it made it impossible to look away. It was as if her power was looking down its nose and angrily demanding of her, “are you happy now?” The white foal’s legs gave out completely, letting him fall into the dirt, and this time all it did was struggle to lift its head. A mournful howl ripped through the air and after a few moments Vamprah joined the cries, finally snapping her at least halfway out of her darksight.

“What are you doing?”
“Offering what I can to my brother.” Howl “It’s not much and it won’t heal anything, but it’s all I can give.” That settled it in Luna’s mind.
“I can’t- I won’t do it.” She muttered; Vamprah managed to at least seem like he was paying attention while still howling. “To any of you.” The howls to the north stopped, as did Vamprah’s, he trained his sightless eyes perfectly on Luna. “You will stay here. You will all stay here. This is your new home.” The mark that had been snaking its way across his chest disappeared, his mane started filling back in and so did his wings. But the eye didn't change; in a slightly twisted way she was happy with this, it meant that the betrayal wasn't her fault. Vamprah sat flat on his rump, obviously at a loss for words for several minutes until the howling started again and Luna joined the mournful song with them. A song that lasted through the night.