Chapter 4
As Dark walked through the double doors of his hotel, the receptionist held out his hoof nonchalantly, as if to ask for Dark’s hotel room key to check for legitimacy. Once noticing this motion, Dark reached for his room card and gave it to the stallion. Ignoring the different look of Dark’s body, the stallion checked the room key, and handed it back to Dark. As Dark proceeded to his room on the 10th floor, he tried many times to escape his new form. But before he opened the door to his room, he decided to try one last time.
“Come on…work!” Dark thought to himself as he tried once more to release the tension from his body.
With his last attempt, Dark crumpled to the ground and pain exploded from his head. As his eyes closed, he saw a stallion running towards him, full gallop. Then his vision turned black.
Five hours later…
“Ugh, not again.”, Dark said to himself as he got up in his hospital bed.
As Dark sat up, he saw that a figure was standing near the window to the hospital room. Turning to face this unknown pony, Dark saw a stallion that was close to his own age. The pegasi appeared to have the reverse of Dark’s body colors, instead of a grey coat and black mane, this pegasi has a black coat and a two-tone grey mane.
“Why do I feel like I know him?” Dark thought to himself.
“You’re awake.”, The stallion said with a deep voice.
“Who are you?”, Dark asked.
“The reason you’re not still lying in a hotel hallway.”
“So that’s how I know him.” Dark thought.
“I meant, what is your name.”
“Black Aura.”, said the stallion, “and you’re Dark Shift.”
Ignoring this stallion’s knowledge of his name, Dark asked, “How do you-“Dark motioned to the floor, where the stallion’s shadow should have been.
“Oh you mean my lack of shadow?”, Black said, “Part of my Facultatem.”
“What is this “Facultati”?”
“Facultatem, not Facultati. And that is something you will find out yourself.”
“Well,” Dark said, deciding not to press the matter any further, “I’ll see you around?”
“Watch yourself on the way out.”
“I will?”, Dark said questioningly as he left the room.
Dark walked out of the hospital room and down the hallway, receiving many strange looks from doctors and nurses alike who all knew he hadn’t been released. As he walked, he noticed the world appeared to be turning, but decided to ignore it. He pushed open the hospital’s double doors and as he walked out onto the field beyond the hospital he saw a familiar figure enter his peripheral vision. He turned, expecting to see Black Aura, but was greeted by another familiar figure.
It was Electric Blood.
“Hey!”, Electric called out.
“Hey.”, Black responded.
“Where you been?”, Electric asked with a slight edge entering his voice.
Not realizing the purpose of the question, Dark answered, “A hotel, multiple hospitals, and a house.”
“Who’s house?”, Electric asked suspiciously.
“I don’t know,” Dark answered, “Some gray mare’s.”
“So it was you!”, Electric shouted accusingly.
“What was me?”, Dark asked, completely forgetting who he was talking to.
“I heard that there were some…intimate, let’s say, actions that happened inside a grey mare’s house. One of my informants told me that they suspected that the colt there was you, but I decided to ask you myself.”
“Why did they suspect me?”
“Well”, Electric started, “They didn’t specifically name you. They simply gave me a quite accurate description of you and said it was the colt of that certain description that they had seen in the house.”
“Well, what is your problem with me being inside that house?”
“There are no mares in Diabolorum who have a grey coat and blond mane. And Origio 42 specifically states that there should be no intimate relations between a Diabolorum member and a “normal” pony.
“I know that rule.”, Dark stated, “But I don’t know how I broke it.”
“You nuzzled each other.”
“And?”
Electric facehoofed and said, “Look Dark, you know what the punishment is.”
As he said this, Dark instinctively took a step back.
“Has my death been sanctioned?”, Dark asked.
“Yes, Night Storm sent me out to find you two hours ago. He said to go ahead and punish you if you admitted to these acts.”
“Well, I never specifically admitted to them.”
“Dark, I have full right to punish you now.”
“Why?”
“Because, you-“, Electric started, but was soon cut off by a punch to the stomach.
The first blow was followed by two more, both to the head, but only the first making contact. As Electric moved backwards to dodge second blow, he kicked towards Dark’s leg, missing horribly. As Dark came in for another punch, Electric felt a sharp pain soar up his spine as his vision blurred. Something cold penetrated his back and caused another surge of pain as it hit his the spinal cord. As Electric turned to face his new assailant, Dark’s hoof made contact with the side of his face. The cold left Electric’s body as his vision turned black, and his body fell to the ground.
Dark stood in awe, staring at where Electric had once been. In Electric’s place, Black Aura was standing, a bloodied knife in his right hoof.
“How did you-“, Dark said, recovering for the shock.
“Don’t ask.”
“I could have taken him by myself.”, Dark said defiantly.
“Sure.”, Black said, trying not to laugh.
“How are we supposed to get out of here? The guard will be on their way soon?”
“A cloud.”, Black said, motioning towards the sky.
“Is that seriously how we’re going to get out of here?”
“We’re not leaving.”
“Wh-“, Dark’s question was cut off as the ground around him disappeared in shadow.
Quickly realizing the danger, Dark turned around right as one of the fifty pegasi started in his direction. Without noticing it, Dark’s body quickly turned to its liquid-metal form. What Dark did notice though was that along with his new form, a scythe materialized as if out of thin air and into his hoof. Without asking any questions, Dark instinctively positioned himself in a human-like standing position. In this position he felt comfortable and able to use his scythe.
“How am I supposed to-“
Dark’s thoughts were cut off as the first pegasi got within range and started to punch towards him. Dark dodged to the side, swinging his newfound weapon in a horizontal line across the assailant’s neck. Dark barely had time to assess what had just happened before another pegasi came much closer than Dark would have liked. Before he could raise his scythe, a dark figure appeared in his vision, somersaulting over the head of the pegasi, while extending his forelegs to cut two lines through the assailant’s face. Upon landing on the other side, Black quickly jabbed backwards with his right side knife, right through the pegasi’s skull. Without waiting for a cue, the pair ran towards the forty-eight remaining pegasi (who were standing in rows of four), quickly dispatching four of them. As the forth pegasi fell, and another four came up, and Black quickly drew four throwing stars, landing one in a different pegasi’s skull. Before another wave of pegasi could get in range, Dark took the advantage and rushed towards the incoming wave. Quickly killing the two left side pegasi with a double diagonal sweep of his scythe, Dark dodged an incoming blow and decapitated his opponent with a horizontal cut. With his scythe raised, he somersaulted over the head of the last pegasi, cutting the blade through his skull. Frustrated with their losses, four more pegasi joined the next wave, creating an eight pegasi wave. The pair quickly rushed forward to meet the new wave, Black drawing throwing stars while Dark readied his scythe. The throwing stars found their marks as Dark’s scythe glinted in the sunlight, slashing back and forth, changing pattern as he dodged, and finally eviscerating and decapitating four of the pegasi. Enraged, twenty-four of the remaining twenty-eight rushed forward while the others stayed back, cowering in fear. Drawing his last four throwing stars, Black threw with all his strength, hitting four of the pegasi in the head. While he did this, Dark rushed forward, killing four more of the pegasi with a violent spin of his scythe around his body. At this moment a hole opened up in the pegasi and Black decided to take the advantage. He rushed forward spinning his blades around himself, killing six more pegasi before getting punched in the head. Quickly turning to face his assailant, Black drove one of his knives into the pegasi’s heart while throwing his other blade into the nearest pegasi. Seeing that the pegasi were distracted by Black’s show of swordsmanship, Dark ran forward decapitating 2 of the pegasi, before a sword started in his direction. Rolling forward to dodge the blow, Dark regained his balance and eviscerated his assailant and the nearest other pegasi. Seeing another sword coming his way, Dark brought up his scythe, blocking the blow and disarming the pegasi. Not giving time for a counter-attack, Dark swung his scythe forward killing the newest opponent. With only three pegasi left, Dark threw his scythe in a boomerang-like fashion, hitting and killing the remaining pegasi. As the last four pegasi found their courage and rushed forward, Dark and Black readied their weapons one more time. As the pegasi readied their weapons, their hearts pounding, they rushed forward even faster. But before their weapons could reach their marks, the four pegasi’s eyes opened in surprise as each one fell to the ground. Dark’s own eyes opened in surprise, many thoughts racing through his head.
“Impressive?”, Black asked, interrupting Dark’s thoughts.
“How?”, Dark asked.
“I didn’t do it.”, Black said, pointing off into the distance, “She did.”
As Dark turned around, he saw a figure start to walk out of the woods. As she got closer, Dark realized she was wearing a bowtie and appeared to have some kind of instrument case on her back. The mare had a brown coat and grey mane, and was wearing a pink bowtie. Ignoring the two colts, she nonchalantly walked over to the bodies, removed four arrows, put the four arrows into a previously hidden quiver on her back, and started to walk towards Dark and Black again.
“Who are you?”, Dark said, raising his scythe again.
“Relax, she’s my marefriend.”, Black said
“Octavia Philharmonica.”, the mare said with a Canterlot accent.
“She used to be a part of the Canterlot Symphony before they disbanded.”
“Interesting…”, Dark said, “How did you shoot all four of them at once?”
“My cello”, Octavia said, motioning to the case on her back, “Functions as a bow, and has four strings. Therefore I can use my facultatem to shoot four arrows at once.”
“What is this “facultatem” you two keep talking about?”
“Facultatem is a spe-“, the rest of Black’s statement was cut off as Dark tried to get out of his liquid-metal form silently, but expended all of his energy in the attempt and fainted.
“Is he ok?”, Octavia asked, alarmed, as Dark’s body crumpled to the ground.
“He will be, just his facultatem causes him to faint if he doesn’t have a lot of energy and tries to deactivate it.”, Black explained as he picked up Dark’s unconscious body.
“How do you know?”
“I saw him attempt it in a hotel hallway.”
Octavia put a hoof over her mouth as she tried to hide the grin that was spreading across her face at the prospect of a fully grown stallion lying in a hotel hallway, unconscious.
“Where are we going to put him?”, Octavia asked, after regaining her normal formality.
“He can come home with us, if that is ok with you.”
Octavia pondered this matter for a second before replying.
“Fine he can stay with us.”
“Ok, well we sh-“, Black started before he was cut off.
“But he better not break anything.”, Octavia said, forcefully.
“He won’t.”, Black said, knowing he was probably lying.
“Good.”
“But seriously we should get out of here before the guard shows up.”
“Agreed.”
And with this Black and Octavia started their trek back home through the Everfree Forest. Within twenty minutes they reached their destination, Black exhausted from carrying Dark’s unconscious body the whole way. Upon reaching their house, Black put his hoof into the hole on the mountain that opened up the door to their house. After the door had slid open, and Black disabled all the traps on the door, the pair walked in.
“Where should we put him?”, Black asked.
“Anywhere you want.”, Octavia said.
“Just not on our bed.”

Author's Note

Author’s Note:
Yes, I lied about there not being another Author’s Note till the end of the story. Sorry about that just I didn’t expect to have answer questions asked in the reviews when I posted the prologue. Now onto answering said questions:
“Is the contract broken yet?” ~Anonymous
“Why do they fight?” ~Anonymous
Both these questions have the same answer, you will find out in a future chapter.
Enjoy reading!
~Mehiall
P.S. (For my fimfiction readers, these questions were off of Fanfiction.com but I included this author's note in case some of you had similar questions.)