Shadow Flame
( A path of Burning Darkness)
Chapter 10: Shadows and Sacrifices
After the concussion of the blast passed all fell silent. The smoke cleared revealing a crater that was left in the ground with rubble surrounding it, the vortex of fire around Celestia remained but the fire tornado around the castle began to fade.
"Sha Shadow?" Whispered Twilight
"I'm sorry Twilight" said Celestia
"Shadow…. is gone now, he sacrificed himself in order to save us."
"But it was in vain!" shouted Nightmare Moon emerging from the rubble, she looked badly damaged, her armor was destroyed and one of her wings was broken. Her left arm was bleeding profusely.
She raised her black rapier,
"I still have enough power to cut each one of you up!"
She slowly started walking towards Celestia with a slight stagger in her step. Just as she reached her she stopped.
"No it would be more painful to watch me cut your pupil up...right?" she smiled and slowly started staggering towards Twilight and her friends.
"Don't bring her into this! Leave Twilight alone!" shouted Celestia
Nightmare Moon reached the barrier Twilight was emitting and simply walked clear through it. The mane six all began to back up slowly but were stopped by the other side of the barrier.
"Got you!" yelled Nightmare Moon as she grabbed Twilight by the neck and dragged her in front of Celestia. When she got in front of her she held the sharp black blade to Twilights throat.
Twilight could do nothing but cry, big tears were falling from her eyes.
Nightmare Moon threw Twilight down and raised her sword high into the air.
"Shadow…… I wish you were her right now…" cried Twilight.
Nightmare moons Blade came down
But…..never hit its target.
Her attack was interrupted by a huge fireball smashing into her side, sending her flying.
Everypony turned to see Shadow Flame standing there undamaged in pristine condition. His fiery wings were smoldering and his horn was glowing red.
"What the Hell! You should be dead!" screamed Nightmare Moon. She was barely able to stand after the attack.
"Never trust what your eyes tell you alone Nightmare Moon, if you wouldn't have been so blind with power and revenge you might have noticed that you were in fact fighting a clone of me this entire time."
Shadow glided to Twilight. He picked her up and wiped the tears from her eyes,
"Are you ok?"
"I am now." she responded.
"Ok good, I need you and the other 5 to do something. Go get the elements of harmony, I know I have deceived you all in the past but you have to trust me on this!"
"I do Shadow, we will all go get our elements."
Twilight ran to her friends and yelled, "Come on girls we need to get our elements!"
She and the other 5 started running into the castle.
"Stop right there!" yelled Nightmare Moon
She attempted to charge at them but it was ineffective because as soon as she did she was met with another fireball, sending her smashing into the ground.
"Damn you!" she yelled, her horn was starting to arc with electricity.
"Well Nightmare Moon if you want to play with magic, allow me to do this!"
Shadows horn was illuminated his body began to glow and then there was flash of energy that mirrored itself. Out of the light 4 perfect looking clones of Shadow Flame emerged.
"I'll just kill all of you!"
Nightmare Moon fired a bolt of magic that arced hitting each one of the shadows, they all fell to the ground as she laughed.
"You forgot to watch your own shadow." whispered Shadow Flames voice
"What-! ARGH", Nightmare Moon shrieked with pain. She looked and had been stabbed in the back; the flaming dagger was still there.
"My magic isn't only limited to fire based magic, I've also learned much much more, Nightmares don't scare me anymore!"
"You should fear me Shadow, My power is Limitless!" screamed Nightmare Moon as she pulled the magical dagger out of her back.
"No Nightmare Moon you should fear me!"
As Shadow said this the ground was transfused with a dark swirling energy, from it dozens of dark black hooves began emerging from the ground grabbing at the air.
The mane six returned with their elements, they were all speechless when they saw what was happening in the courtyard.
"What is this!?" Shrieked Nightmare Moon as the hooves grabbed her and pulled her tight against the ground, holding her with an unyielding grip.
"This going to be your end Nightmare Moon" Said shadows voice laughing. He was nowhere in sight.
"Yes! The trajectory is lined up perfect!" whispered Shadow as he made himself visible to everypony again. He was standing in front of the mane six now.
Shadow used his magic to clear the smoke from the sky. A big bright object was falling at high speeds towards the castle.
Shadow was smiling as he began to speak,
"Nightmare Moon, You said the means to destroy you have been missing for 1000 years? Well here is the thousand year old spell my parents fired at you!"
Shadow made a thick Red flame barrier around Himself, Celestia, and the six.
The comet smashed into the ground cracking and exploding on impact releasing powerful magic everywhere with the loudest concussion Equestria had ever heard.
"NOOOOO!!!! Screamed Nightmare Moon. She was being ripped apart from the force and power of the magic, still she managed to arc another bolt of lightning towards the group.
Shadow saw it aimed at Twilight and quickly ran to move her, he got ahold of her and pushed her aside but the bolt pierced the flame barrier and cut through his shoulder.
"URRGHH! Damn that hurt….I'll bleed out in a matter of seconds if I don't do something……. this is going to hurt like hell."
Shadows horn began to glow…
"AAARRGRGGRHHHHH!"
His shoulder quickly flashed with fire.
"What are you doing?!" shouted Celestia puzzled at what Shadow had just done to himself.
"I had to cauterize the injury…….it hurt very badly…I had to burn off my nerve endings so that I wouldn't faint from the pain."
"You fool! It will never fully heal now! you're going to barely be able to use that arm and that scar will be there forever!" cried Twilight.
"A small price to pay, I deserve to suffer anyway." said Shadow
The comets power was beginning to fade and the shrieks of Nightmare Moon could no longer be heard.
Shadow looked at the mane six and yelled,
"Now use the elements in the hole left by that spell!…..But wait one moment."
He walked over to the crater left in the ground and saw Nightmare Moon lying on her back in a puddle of blood; the puddle was almost as dark as her heart. Her black rapier was broke in half.
"I should just incinerate you myself Nightmare Moon, but that wouldn't be the just thing to do now would it…I'm going to turn over a new leaf and make my ancestors proud."
"Just kill me, avenge yourself you bloodthirsty monster!" said Nightmare Moon choking through blood.
"You don't know it but your basically already dead you creature of hate. Enjoy the afterlife Nightmare Moon as I hope it's a Nightmare everlasting!"
A rainbow beam shot into the air and into the creator hitting Nightmare Moon and burning her away, the beam then arced into a bubble and spread throughout the land, putting out all the fire Shadow caused and bringing a calm soothing feel back to the world.
"I….is it over" asked Applejack
"Yes it is" said shadow as he released Princess Celestia from her fiery prison and bowed to her.
"Princess I am sorry I was fooled to the highest caliber and am fully ready for whatever punishment you are ready to give me."
Celestia ignored him and ran quickly to the crater, looking down to see Princess Luna bruised but alive. She was unconscious .
"How did you save her Shadow?" asked Celestia
"The spell my parents fired all those years ago must have been meant to kill Nightmare Moon, that combined with the elements of Harmony is what brought Luna back, the spell to kill the her and the Elements to restore her to normal."
"That makes since…when we used the elements to restore her the first time all it did was let Luna out while Nightmare Moon was secretly controlling her the entire time."
"Now Shadow you and the others go rest, I request that all of you meet me in my throne room tomorrow afternoon. We will discuss what to do with Shadow then, but for now everypony get some sleep for what is left of the night, it looks like you all need it.
The mane six and Shadow all bowed to Celestia as she walked towards Luna picking her up and teleporting away.
Everypony got up at the same time. All eyes were on Shadow. All he could do was look at the ground and utter the word,
"Sorry…"
Then he teleported away.